FOREIGN OFFICE FILES FOR POST-WAR EUROPE
Series One: The Schuman Plan and the European Coal and Steel Community
Part 1: 1950-1953
Part 2: 1954-1955
Part 3: 1956-1957
Sample Extracts from Documents
Memorandum on French proposal to establish Franco-German coal and steel authority, May 1950 [FO 371/85841]:
“It is easier to understand the motives and timing of the French proposal than to estimate its value.
French efforts since the war to establish a control of Ruhr industry have been progressively frustrated. They have realised for three years that an extra-territorial status for the Ruhr was not practical politics. Subsequent attempts to establish international ownership were equally unsuccessful. In 1947 M Bidault made the following statement at the Conference of Foreign Ministers in London:
‘France is not opposed, and never has been opposed to the revival of a peaceful German economy, nor to the establishment of a normal standard of living for the German people. She merely asks that Germany's resources shall in no event be used for the preparation of aggression and , on the other hand, that the restoration of Germany shall not have priority over that of the Allied countries.
In order to comply with those requirements of security, it is necessary firstly to ensure that a special regime be applied to the Ruhr, principle centre of German mining and metal resources’...”
Report of a meeting held in the Home Secretary’s room in the House of Commons on 21 November, 1951 [FO 371/94356]
“The meeting was called by Mr Nutting to consider the attitude of His Majesty’s Government towards the Council of Europe and to decide whether any general statement of policy should be made in the consultative Assembly by the leader of the United Kingdom Delegation. It was generally agreed that a statement was desirable and that it should be as positive as possible.
Mr Foster hoped that we might be able to make a definite statement on our relationship with the Schuman community and the European Army. Lord Hood pointed out that the two schemes were in very different stages of development and that it would be impossible to treat them together.
It was, however, agreed that some statement on our position in relation to the Schuman Plan would be both possible and politically desirable. Mr Nutting suggested that the proposed statement might declare that His Majesty’s Government intended, once the Schuman treaty is ratified, to establish a permanent mission at the seat of the High Authority to enter into relations and to transact business. Such a statement would, it was felt, be most warmly welcomed at Strasbourg and in Europe as a whole. The Home Secretary agreed to consult the cabinet and seek its approval.”
Note from a telegram concerning Euratom and the Common Market, October 1956 [FO 371/122037]
“German Foreign Ministry have given us an account of the meeting which broadly agrees with the description in the telegram under reference.
According to this German account, this breakdown had occurred over the deadlock on harmonisation of social charges. The French maintained that their high social charges were already a burden on their exports and that they could not expect the French Assembly to ratify any treaty which did not equalise the burden all round. The Germans, who had rigid instructions on the point, had maintained that they for their part had not the power to impose by law weekly working hours over which overtime at fixed rates would be payable; this sort of thing was fixed by free bargaining. Moreover, any such provisions would make overtime in certain German industries no longer worthwhile and thus reduce the national product and national income. The other countries represented had tended to support the German view, but unlike them had been prepared to compromise with the French. The official to whom we spoke, while not committing the Federal Government, expressed the personal view that Germany would have to make some move towards a compromise...”
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