CFM files, lot M 88, box 161
Meeting with the Benelux Foreign Ministers
It was reported that a message had been received from Mr. Van Zeeland requesting another meeting between the Benelux Foreign Ministers and the three Foreign Ministers on the subject of the German financial contribution to defense. It was agreed to meet with the Benelux Foreign Ministers the following morning, February 26th, at 10:00 a.m.,2 and to continue with the tripartite meeting at 11:00 a.m.
German Financial Contribution to Defense
Background: On February 24, the members of the Rapporteur Group of the High Commission,3 which was negotiating with the Germans regarding the German financial contribution to defense, came to Lisbon to report to the Foreign Ministers on the discussions which had taken place regarding the total contribution. The group submitted [Page 160] drafts which had been prepared by the German negotiators, the texts of which were contained in Bonn’s telegrams numbered 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681 dated February 23rd.4 The group reported that while the High Commissioners did not recommend acceptance of the German proposals as a satisfactory response by the Federal Government to the Foreign Ministers’ request that the Federal Government accept the recommendation of the members of the Executive Bureau of the TCC on the total contribution, in the opinion of the High Commissioners, the German proposals were the best which the Commissioners felt they could obtain.
The U.S. Delegation concluded, after study of these documents, that while the essential features of the German proposal were acceptable, the documents were not satisfactory as a basis for agreement. The U.S. Delegation prepared redrafts of the documents for the consideration of the Foreign Ministers.5 These were considered at an official level tripartite meeting on the evening of February 24th.6 The British Delegation indicated its willingness to accept the American re-drafts. The French Delegation, however, was unwilling to agree to accept the documents, since they did not contain an explicit statement that the Germans accepted the finding of the members of the Executive Bureau that an expenditure of DM 11.2 billion would be within Germany’s economic capacity and would be comparable to the defense burdens of other principal Western countries.
A further official level meeting was held on the afternoon of February 25th6 at which time the French Delegation stated that it was not in a position to accept the essential feature of the German proposal, namely a total contribution of DM 850 million per month beginning with the entry into force of the contractual arrangements and the EDC Treaty. The French Delegation stated that acceptance of this proposal would mean, in the event the entry into force of the agreements were delayed beyond July 1, 1952, that the German defense burden would be correspondingly reduced below the level of the French defense burden. The French Delegation proposed that the Germans should undertake to make a total contribution of DM 11.2 billion during the NATO fiscal year 1952–53, regardless of the date on which the agreements entered into force.
In view of the inability of the Delegations to reach agreement, the issues involved were referred to the Foreign Ministers.
- The information set forth above is derived from the source text, entitled “Notes on a Meeting,” which bears no indication of authorship, but which was probably drafted by Reinstein. No other American record of this meeting has been found, nor has a documentary source been found for the account of this meeting set forth in Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 625–626. According to that account, the meeting was given over to reports by the High Commission group and an apparently argumentative discussion thereon. The meeting appears to have eventuated in an agreement on the tripartite message to Adenauer transmitted in telegram 19 to Bonn (repeated to Washington as Secto 82), Feb. 26, p. 258.↩
- For a record of that meeting, see the Reinstein minutes, p. 161.↩
- Membership of the Rapporteur Group referred to here has not been determined, but the American element was presumably headed by Byroade.↩
- Telegrams 1678, 1679, and 1680 are not printed; for text of telegram 1681, see p. 256.↩
- The American “redrafts” referred to here have not been found, but presumably the final approved versions of such papers are those transmitted in telegrams 19, 22, and 23 to Bonn. Feb. 26, pp. 258, 260, and 261, respectively.↩
- No record of the meeting under reference here has been found.↩
- No record of the meeting under reference here has been found.↩