862.6362/7–2447
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Western European Affairs (Willis)
| Participants: | The French Ambassador, Mr. Bonnet |
| A–A—Mr. Armour | |
| WE—Frances E. Willis |
The French Ambassador called at his request and, among other things, discussed the French proposal that the coal distributing organizations of the Saar be integrated into the French economy, beginning October 1, 1947.56 He stated that he had approached the Department with this proposal approximately two weeks ago and had many conversations on the subject, especially with Mr. Thorp, who is at present away; that the British had agreed, but that he had received no acceptance from us of the French suggestion. He stated that this morning he had received further instructions from his Government to press for United States approval.
The French Ambassador outlined briefly the history of the French Saar proposals. He pointed out that the French proposal to incorporate [Page 1085] the Saar into the French economy had been proposed at Moscow and that Mr. Bevin and Mr. Marshall had agreed but that Mr. Bidault had been unable to obtain Mr. Molotov’s approval. In view of the absence of quadripartite agreement, Mr. Bonnet pointed out that France was now proposing that Great Britain and the United States approve the integration in so far as the coal distributing organizations are concerned. He indicated that France wished to make the transition gradual and was therefore proposing an arrangement whereby the loss to the ECO in October would be only 60,000 tons, in November 120,000 tons, and in December 180,000 tons. He pointed out that had Molotov given his consent in Moscow the French would have begun to take all of the Saar coal in May or June of this year and that the loss to the other countries would have been much greater. He urged on the basis of the reasonableness of the French proposal that we give our approval.
The Ambassador also said that he could not believe that we would want “to hide behind the Russians’ skirts”. We had committed ourselves to support of the French request in Moscow and he hoped that the fact that Mr. Molotov did not agree would not cause us to change our position.
The French Ambassador added that we had advanced many objections of a technical nature but that there had been only two of real weight: (1) the loss of dollars to the bizonal area, and (2) the reduction in the amounts of German coal available for the bizonal area and for export. He said that if production in the Ruhr were increased both of these objections would be overcome. He emphasized the importance of this question to the French and expressed the hope that we would be able to agree to the French proposal at an early date.
Mr. Armour assured M. Bonnet that we would look into the question immediately and try to let him have something on the subject as soon as possible.
- The proposal under reference was contained in a French Embassy aide-mémoire dated July 11, 1947, not printed. A follow-up French Embassy aide-mémoire, delivered to the Department of State on July 17, not printed, proposed a meeting of American, British and French coal experts in Paris on July 22 in order to reach agreement on certain aspects of the Saar coal matter. The French proposals were reviewed and renewed in a note from the French Embassy to the Department of State, dated August 11, 1947, not printed (840.6362/8–1947).↩