5. Although recent events have served only to reveal the incompatibility of the
French and German positions, there has been so far no open breach such as to prevent
the Chancellor from reassuring the Coalition Parties before the defence debate
in the Bundestag on 7th and 8th February that at least the door was open for negotiation
with the French of a settlement of the Saar prior to a Peace Treaty. I
reported the Chancellor’s remarks on this subject in the defence debate in
paragraph 4 of my telegram No. 153 of 7th February''. The Coalition Party resolution
on the Saar adopted by the Bundestag was certainly less categorical than
might otherwise have been the case. In particular, it did not, as the Free Democratic
Party had announced its intention of doing a few days previously, make a satisfactory
settlement in the Saar a condition of German willingness to contribute to
Western defence. Nevertheless, the Chancellor can not have been under any illusion
that the terms offered by the French unofficially to the Federal Government
for a „European“ solution of the Saar problem [...], afforded a promising basis for
negotiation. Believing, no doubt, that the French position remained unchanged
neither the Federal Government nor the press reacted to reports of Herr Hoffmann’s
statement in the Saar Parliament on 28th February to the effect that his Government
were ready if called upon to do so, to put forward concrete proposals for a
„European“ solution of the Saar question. The German press has however reacted
sharply to the statement reported to have been put out by the Quai d’Orsay on 27th
February to the effect that any solution of the Saar question must preserve the
economic union of the Saar with France and leave it politically independent of
Germany as of France. The German press has indeed, since the London meeting of
the Foreign Ministers, lost no opportunity to keep this question on the boil, and it is
clear that the Federal Government is at present making no effort to clamp down
polemics. German press reactions to the statement by an official of the Quai
d'Orsay on 5th March, to the effect that German policy towards the population of
the Saar was based on intimidation, threats and corruption, have been particularly
sharp.
6. It seems clear that the Federal Government’s main aim in pleading Germany’s
case before the Council of Europe is to lift the Saar question on to a broader international
plane than that restricted by the bounds of the Federal Republic’s present
relationship to the Occupying Powers. By so doing they hope no doubt to bring
moral pressure to bear on the French. Certain German and Saar personalities and
organisations are at present trying to stimulate such moral pressure. Herr Richard
Becker, the leader of the banned Democratic Party of the Saar, who is also associated
with a German organisation called „Der Deutsche Saarbund“, returned recently
from a visit to the United Kingdom where he claims to have won much
sympathy for his cause and to have excited much interest in present political
6 Hier nicht abgedruckt.
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