Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 370
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Following the Signing of the Final Act, M. Mendes-France took Mr. Eden and me apart and said that there was one matter he wanted to mention to us—that was the Saar. He said that he felt that it was indispensable that the Saar agreement should be completed and part of the final package which would go to his Parliament, He said he had not wanted to discuss this matter here in London, but that we should not forget that it was part of the problem. He said that he had spoken to Adenauer about this, and Adenauer had said that he did not want to agitate [advert] to the Saar matter for a few days until the situation was calm following the discussion of the London Conference. Mendes-France said he understood this viewpoint, but that there could not be long delay.
Mr. Eden said that he understood that the Saar matter should be discussed, but that he could not agree that its completion should be a condition precedent. He doubted very much that it would be possible to complete a Saar agreement with all its details at any early date.
I said that I was inclined to agree with Mr. Eden, that I did not know much about the details of the Saar matter, but I felt it was highly complicated and that probably agreement in principle was all that could be obtained within the next two or three weeks.
Mendes-France reaffirmed with some petulance his position that a completed Saar arrangement must be part of the package that went to the French Parliament.
At this point I spoke privately to Chancellor Adenauer, asking [Page 1332] him when he would be prepared to discuss the Saar with Mendes-France. He said he would be prepared to do so on October 20.
I then returned to M. Mendes-France and Mr. Eden and reported what Mr. Adenauer had told me. M. Mendes-France said the 20th was rather late; that he would have to submit the matter to his Parliament about November 1, and he knew that Mr. Adenauer would be absent during the last week of October.
At this point Mr. Spaak joined our group. He expressed the view that two days should be sufficient to settle the Saar matter. He thought in essence it was a problem of substituting the Brussels Organization for the Council of Europe.