662A.00/6–952 Telegram
No. 109
The Ambassador in France (Dunn) to the Department of State1
7679. Re Embtel 7678.2 Following is French draft reply:
Begin verbatim text.
The French Govt regrets to note that the various questions which it put to Sov Govt in its note of May 11, with a view to facilitating conversations between the four govts on subj of the formation of the free unified Ger Govt which could participate in the negotiation of a peace treaty with US, Great Britain, USSR and France, were not answered in Sov note of May 24.
The French Govt proposed that consideration be given, as an alternative to UN comm which it prefers, to any specific and practical suggestion by the Sov Govt with respect to an impartial commission of inquiry. The Sov Govt ignores this proposal and continues [Page 262] to maintain purely and simply its initial position relative to the establishment of a comm composed of reps of the four powers, a comm which it has already been demonstrated would have difficulty in producing concrete results.
The French Govt also proposed a meeting of reps of the Amer, Brit, Sov and French Govts to discuss arrangements for holding free elections throughout Ger at an early date. It maintains that proposal. The Sov Govt nevertheless replies that the French Govt refuses to agree that the four powers should proceed without further delay to examine this question.
The French Govt has emphasized necessity of studying at the same meeting the status of a unified Ger, establishing the nec guarantees of freedom which an all-Ger Govt, resulting from free elections, should enjoy during the period prior to the conclusion of peace. The Sov Govt replies that such a govt must be guided by the Potsdam provisions relative to the initial period of Allied control. It appears to the French Govt that the only concrete proposal envisaged by the Sov Govt is the re-establishment of the system of quadripartite control which has been shown to be impracticable. It is furthermore clear that a Ger Govt subj to such control would not enjoy in practice any freedom in its relations with the four powers and would not be in a position to participate freely with those four govts in the negot of a draft peace treaty.
The French Govt also notes, with regret, that while the Sov Govt in its note repeatedly reaffirms its desire for the unification of Ger, it has just adopted without plausible motive a series of measures in the Sov Zone which tend to prevent all contact between Gers and to aggravate the arbitrary division of Ger despite its insupportable character for the Gers. The French Govt considers that it must emphasize that the agmts recently signed with Federal Republic, far from compromising the unification of Ger, tend toward the peaceful re-establishment of Ger unity and expressly reserve the competence of the four powers with a view to establishing a peace treaty freely negotiated between them and the Ger Govt.
The French Govt, while accordingly renewing its previous proposals, is no less prepared to contemplate an immediate meeting of reps of the four powers for the purpose of discussing the problem presented by the unification of Ger and the peace treaty. It hopes that the Sov Govt will agree and thus permit the prompt establishment of a rep all-Ger Govt.3
End verbatim text.
- Repeated to London, Moscow, Bonn, and Berlin.↩
- Supra.↩
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On June 11 the Embassy in Paris reported that Eden had accepted the first five paragraphs of this draft, but proposed the following text for the sixth and seventh:
“The French Govt have already pointed out that the terms of the eventual peace treaty cannot form the subject of negots between the four powers before an all Ger Govt has been formed which can take part in the negots. The Sov Govt themselves recognized in their note of March 10 that peace treaty must be drafted with direct participation of an all German Govt. Programme proposed in French Govt’s note of May 13 was designed to enable four powers to reach early agreement on formation of such a govt so that a peace treaty could then be negotiated and concluded. In order to avoid further delay, French Govt, in concert with Her Majesty’s Govt and US Govt, now invite Sov Govt to take part in early meeting of reps of four govts. This meeting would discuss: (1) How to set up an impartial commission to investigate conditions to enable free elections to be held throughout Germany; (2) The rest of the programme for the formation of an all German Govt contained in final para of French Govt’s note of May 13.
“Since the Sov Govt have repeatedly expressed their desire for an early meeting in preference to continued exchanges of notes, the French Govt trust that present proposal will commend itself to them. As soon as Sov Govt signify their acceptance of it arrangements can be made for the place, date and precise form of the meeting.” (Telegram 7738, 662A.00/6–1152)
The same day the Embassy reported further that the French had approved this revision. (Telegram 7740, 662A.00/6–1152)
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