9. With the progress of recovery in the Federal Republic and the growing interest
of the Western powers in securing the firm integration of Germany into the
Western European system, the continuance of French support for a regime, so
uncertain of itself as the Saar Government, carries with it dangers for the future.
That the crises which 1 have described were successfully weathered is no indication
that trouble will be so easily avoided in future. The impending negotiations for the
conclusion of contractual arrangements with the Federal Government will render it
more than ever necessary for all causes of avoidable tension between the Federal
Government and the opposition to be removed, if the contracts are to be ratified.
10. I submit therefore that the time has come for His Majesty’s Government, in
conjunction if possible with the United States Government, to consider giving
friendly advice to the French about the course that events in the Saar are taking.
We should not hesitate to let the French know that we view with increasing
concern the growth of the Saar issue to the status of a problem calculated to prevent
the attachment of Germany to the West and to undermine the policy to which the
three governments are committed in Western Europe. If this policy is to be successful
the causes of tension between France and Germany must be removed, and the
greatest single issue between the two countries is the attempt to develop and maintain
the political separation of the Saar from Germany. We would not wish to
deprive France of the economic advantages which she at present enjoys, or indeed
of the position which she has succeeded in acquiring in respect of the Saar mines.
We may indeed hope that these advantages, which have aroused German resentment
in the past, would lose much of their offence in the wider framework of the
Schuman plan machinery now being established. On the other hand, the political
separation of the territory, sustained, as events suggest, by the suspension of the
elementary rights of self expression and freedom of speech is something to which
His Majesty’s Government have never consented and cannot easily subscribe. It is
moreover something which, in the manner both of its inception and of its
maintenance, has aroused criticism in Germany based not only on nationalist
feelings, which we certainly deprecate, but also on democratic feelings to which we
cannot be indifferent.
11. In these circumstances, the French Government might be asked, how it
envisages the future course of developments in the Saar. It must be as evident to
them as it is to us that the device of stating that all will be settled in a peace treaty
will not carry conviction for long and it might be added that we have noticed with
interest M. Schuman’s reference in his recent letter to Dr. Adenauer to „an arrangement
of the nature of a peace treaty“, and would be interested to know what he may
have had in mind. Was he thinking of some special arrangement for the Saar, or of
some more general arrangement? And what should the contents of such an arrangement
be?
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