12. After a negative vote in the Referendum it is thus clear that speed will be an
essential factor, i.e. it will be more useful to arrive quickly at a provisional solution
which will lower the political temperature than to try and go straight to a radical
solution which will inevitably take time to find.
Views of the Three Major Powers
13. Before considering possible types of solution it will be useful to recapitulate the
position of the three major powers.
14. In the period after the war, H.M.G.23 supported the French view that the Saar
should be politically detached from Germany and economically linked with France,
subject always to the final peace settlement. H.M.G. did however avoid giving any
very directly binding and formal commitment in this sense and could perhaps use
the principle of rebus sic stantibus to argue that, since our general assurances of
support were given in the years immediately after the war, there were new factors
to be taken into account, most notably the necessity, recognised in the Saar Statute
itself, to consider the wishes of the Saar population (paper on this subject is at
CW1081/348 Flag A). This principle has also been emphasised in statements by
H.M.G. (notably Sir Anthony Eden’s reply to a P.Q.24 on March 9 WG1082/98
Flag B).25
15. In recent years we have also emphasised that the Saar is a matter for settlement
between France and Germany and have confined our representations to urging both
sides to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.
16. The attitude of the U.S. Government has been similar to that of H.M.G., except
that they have gone one degree further in their commitments to the French. The
U.S. Embassy in Paris stated in a Note to the French Government in January 1950
that: „The United States supports and will support at the time of the Peace Settlement
the French claim that the Saar should be politically detached from Germany
and financially and economically integrated with France.“
17. The Soviet Government have avoided taking any position on the Saar question.
They have not overtly supported the Saar Communist party, which is campaigning
actively against the Statute. For the Russians the Saar problem is an awkward one.
Other things being equal, their present inclination would probably be to court the
Germans rather than the French, as being both more effective and for the moment
at least more accessible to their influence. The return of the Saar to Germany however
would raise awkward problems about German territories under Polish and
Soviet sovereignty in the East, and would raise difficulties with the Polish
: ’ Her Majesty’s Government.
24 Previous Question.
’ Bezugsdokumente hier nicht abgedruckt.
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