Nr. 86b: Telegramm des britischen Botschafters in Paris Hubert Miles 
Jebb an das britische Außenministerium, immediate and confidential.’ 
24.10.1955 
National Archives - Foreign Office, FO 371/118292/WG 1082/570. 
My immediately preceding telegram. The Saar. 
M. Massigli told me this morning that M. Hoffman [sic] would resign in the im¬ 
mediate future if he has not already done so. A caretaker government would then 
be instituted under some other chief consisting of civil servants and non-political 
figures, and arrangements would be made to hold new Landtag elections in 
December. In the meantime, the communiqué published this morning had been 
designed to give a preliminary indication of the French Government’s intentions 
and they would also shortly publish an exchange of telegrams between the 
Chancellor and M. Faure designed to lower the temperature and to express con¬ 
tinued belief in the European ideal. 
2. M. Massigli said that the result of the plebiscite had been a greater shock to M. 
Hoffman [sic] and his friends than to the French Government. But he hoped that 
the situation could be held by the means he had outlined, at any rate until 
Christmas. He had already had some indication that the C.D.U. party in the Saar 
would under these circumstances be willing to try and arrange for a suitable Euro¬ 
pean substitute for the Statute to be negotiated by the Government issuing from the 
new elections. 
3. M. Massigli said that he did not think there would be any use in W.E.U. 
discussing the matter at the present time, nor did he think any international police 
force would be necessary. The Commission would certainly stay on for a short 
while in the Saar, but he did not appear to think they should be called upon to 
supervise the new elections. 
4. Finally, in his opinion, there was likely to be, for political purposes, some outcry 
by certain French parliamentary figures but he thought that this could probably be 
disregarded. 
5. Texts of communiqué and exchange of telegrams and detailed records of both 
conversations follow by tonight’s bag. 
3 Das Telegramm wurde außerdem weitergeleitet an die britischen Vertretungen in Bonn, 
Washington, Straßburg, Brüssel, Den Haag, Rom und Luxemburg. 
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