Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎232v] (472/978)

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the United States Secretary of State ” and
once more gave assurances that the door
was wide open for the absentees. The
conference itself, so promptly convened,
wms he said the clearest disproof of the
allegation that what they had in mind to
do was a menace to the nations sovereignty
and independence. The purpose was quite
simply to establish a special temporary
organisation which could draw up the
balance sheet of the resources and needs
of Europe. The united effort of the nations
represented would make it possible to limit
American assistance to strict necessities.
Speed was of the essence of the problem.
M. Bidault was at pains to refute the
charge that their unavowed aim was to
rebuild Germany first. In the name of the
French Delegation he desired to state that
that was a crass distortion of their object.
The formula he offered was “ the resources
of Germany should be utilized for Europe,
including Germany.” And finally, the
conference had the right to speak in the
name of, and to act for, Europe as a whole.
Mr. Bevin took up this theme, declaring
that the speech of Mr. Marshall had been
rightly regarded as a challenge to Europe
to put her own house in order with all
speed. He would emphasize, he said, the
voluntary nature of the arrangements now
being undertaken and also that the con
ference was economic and not political in
its conception or intention. Count Sforza,
the chief Italian delegate, was the only
other speaker. He made an eloquent
appeal for the people of Italy—“46,000,000
men and women living in the centre of
Europe .... they have understood that
everything would be in vain failing Euro
pean coordination on a large scale. We
must be selfish enough to suppress our
selfishness.”
At the meeting of the Working Com
mittee there was a general disposition to
accept in principle the Anglo-French pro
posals for a main committee of coopera
tion to direct the work of stocktaking and
four technical committees, dealing respec
tively with food and agriculture, fuel and
power, iron and steel, and transport. Cer
tain changes were suggested, however, in
matters of detail :—
(1) that the Cooperation Committee
should be enlarged to include all
members of the Conference and
should have power to bring in the
representatives of countries that
might later wish to join,
(2) that a smaller executive committee
should be established to help the
main committee in the detailed dr^
to day work,
(3) that the main committee should have
power to make changes in the
machinery of organization as and
when required.
The Netherlands delegate speaking for
the Benelux group of countries placed on
record their view that the four-year period
of the proposed survey would present cer
tain difficulties—his own Government, for
instance, were committed to planning for
a shorter period.
A number of delegations favoured the
creation straightaway of additional
technical committees, but in the end agreed
not to press their points on the under
standing that such committees could be set
up as and when necessary. M. Hammers-
skjold (Sweden) expressed the anxieties of
the Scandinavian countries about the
possible effects of the work of the
committees of the conference on inter-
European trade arrangements. Finally,
at the instance of the Swedish delegate a
form of words was devised to bring out
more clearly the need to keep in close
touch with United Nations organisations,
its specialised agencies and the existing
inter-governmental economic organisations.
The draft plan of organisation was in the
end approved unanimously by the Working
Committee. It is stipulated that the
report concerning European availabilities
and requirements shall be submitted to the
U.S.A. before 1st September, 1947.
A third plenary session on Tuesday
afternoon, 15th July, approved the
Working Committee's recommendations
for the membership of the technical
committees. The United Kingdom and
France are represented on each one, and
every country has a representative on one
or other of them. Members of the small
executive committee are the United
Kingdom, France, Italy, Norway and the
Netherlands.
(See also under “ Italy ”).
ML