232. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, April 3, 19571
SUBJECT
- Flotation of CSC Loan on American market; Euratom and Common Market Treaties
PARTICIPANTS
- M. Rene Mayer, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community
- The Secretary of State
- Mr. John Wesley Jones, EUR
M. Mayer, the President of the European Coal and Steel Community, called on the Secretary this morning during his two-day Washington visit.2 He is in the United States to conclude negotiations [Page 545] for the flotation by the High Authority of its first loan on the American market. In response to a question from the Secretary, M. Mayer said that the CSC loan totalling $35 million was being underwritten by Kuhn, Loeb, First Boston and Lazard Freres, and that he was very pleased, after a week in New York, to see how efficiently they had prepared the ground. He felt that one of the advantages of floating a loan on the American market was the publicity which the CSC would receive in American financial circles. The Secretary agreed that this education of American banking circles regarding the CSC was an important by-product of the loan itself. Mayer expressed optimism with respect to the success of the loan here, noting that the present outstanding loan obligations of the CSC amounted to some $125 million. Even with full subscription of the $35 million loan, being floated in New York this month, the total loan obligations would not amount to more than approximately $160 million.
Turning to the two new European community treaties which had recently been signed at Rome, the Secretary said that he was somewhat disappointed in the lukewarm attitude of the British toward the Common Market. M. Mayer replied that he was not surprised at British reluctance to see a true Common Market of the Six, plus their African colonies, come into being.
What did surprise him was the British were surprised that the African territories of France and Belgium should have been included. He went on to say that it should have been obvious from the beginning that any Western European Common Market would naturally have to include the pertinent African colonies. He added that undoubtedly the British realized that should the Common Market and Euratom, over a period of the next few years, become a reality they would have created a “second Commonwealth”.
In response to the Secretary’s question, M. Mayer replied that he had good hope for French ratification of the two new Community treaties before the summer recess. He said some very flattering things about the present French Premier, his ability to get things done and his greatly increased stature in French politics over the past few years. In further support of his optimism regarding ratification he added with a smile that, as an old hand at French politics he was aware that there were certain elements in the present government, hostile to Mollet but favorable to the two treaties, who would press for their early ratification in order to get on with the more serious business of bringing down Mollet himself. Finally, he cited the support of the French peasants for the Common Market, because of the increased market it will provide for agricultural products, as a favorable and entirely new element in support of a European community treaty.
[Page 546]M. Mayer reported to the Secretary on a recent decision by the CSC to undertake a study of all conventional fuels (not only coal) within the Community of Six. He said that this had passed by majority vote and over the opposition of the Germans who did not seem to like the High Authority looking into their private enterprises and fuel arrangements. He said that between Euratom, when it is finally established, and the Coal and Steel Community under its new authorization, it would be possible to prepare a comprehensive picture of European fuels both conventional and atomic which would provide a very useful projection of the community’s needs for the years immediately ahead. He would hope to draw Austria and Switzerland, as the “water fortresses” of Europe, eventually into this cooperative effort.