740.5/4–2354: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Dillon) to the Department of State 1
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4026. For Acting Secretary. The following joint Bruce Mission–Embassy analysis of present prospects for Socialist Congress to fix party position on EDC has been given Secretary and advisers.
Begin text: “The regular weekly meeting of the directing committee of the SFIO on April 21 does not appear to have been as disastrous to the convocation of the Socialist Congress as was first thought.
“We have discussed the matter with Mollet and Daniel Mayer. We will continue to see the Socialists today, but all discussions so far indicate the following:
“Mollet was not ‘beaten’ (battu) on April 21. Rather he was convinced by his enemies and friends for that matter that the ‘communiqué’ attributed to a government spokesman (and not put out as a government position) was insufficient for the committee’s purposes and could not be presented to the congress as the answer to the Socialist demands. (Mollet states he never indicated satisfaction with the one sentence ‘communiqué’.) Mollet then retreated from the position he had intended to take in the committee and accepted its view that a congress will be held but only after some formal action by the French Government has been taken to meet Socialist demands.
“It would therefore appear that what is now required is:
“1. To obtain formal statement of the French Government that it supports the policy of a democratically elected common assembly [Page 947] to which the EDC Commissariat will be responsible and proposes the adoption of this policy by other EDC countries. Such a statement would meet Mollet’s requirements in that he has stated that the Socialists believe that the other five countries have accepted this principle and that the French Government is the only stumbling block.
“This could either be done unilaterally by the French Government, or in the form of a statement by the six Foreign Ministers. Spaak’s presence in Paris this afternoon and Hallstein’s possible arrival here tomorrow could permit the latter since the other Foreign Ministers are here for the NAC”. End text.
It was accordingly recommended that:
- 1.
- Mr. Spaak be approached to assist in the foregoing.
- 2.
- The Secretary speak to Laniel or Bidault in an effort to persuade them formally to issue the required statement without of course going into any details of substance which would be worked out between government and Socialists.
Secretary seeing Spaak this afternoon after NAC meeting and MacArthur is lunching with Laniel.
Overall joint analysis EDC situation follows.2