*SlhC<t)fy COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONSULTATIVE ASSEMBLY FIFTH ORDINARY SESSION COMMITTEE ON GENERAL AFFAIRS PACECOM005866 Fourth Session THE FUTURE POSITION OF THE SAAR Parf One Some Historical, Legal and Economic Aspects of the Soar Problem REPORT submitted by M. van der Goes van Maters, Rapporteur. Strasbourg 20th August, 1953. Restricted AS/AG (5) 17 r^f>~h i R02PF//T THE FUTURE POSITION OF THE SAAR Part One Some Historical, Legal and Economic Aspects of the Soar Problem REPORT submitted by M. van der Goes van Naters, Rapporteur. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE SOME HISTORICAL, LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OP THE SAAR PROBLEM Page Preface by the Rapporteur 1 A. HISTORICAL ASPECT I. Introduction 6 II. From the Celtic Period until 1552 8 III. Henry II and the conquest of the Three Bishoprics 12 IV. Louis XIV's Rhine Policy 13 V. The Saar during the 18th Century 16 VI. The Revolution and the First Empire in the Saar — The Treaties of 1814 and 1815 18 VII. The Saar 1815—1918 27 VIII. The Saar settlement at Versailles 30 IX. The International Regime and the Plebiscite 35 X. The Saar 1935—1945 45 XI. Post-war developments 49 Appendix: The elections of 1947 and 1952 59 Maps : 1. The Franco-German frontiers in the area of the Saar in 1790, 1814 and 1815.. .. 26 2. The Saar frontiers, 1920—1952 47 B. LEGAL ASPECT A. — Legal Aspects of the International Regime in the Saar Basin, 1920—1935 I. Creation of the International Regime 63 1. Cession of the mines to France 63 2. Institution of a special political system 64 3. The provisions for the plebiscite 65 II. Analysis of the legal system established under the Versailles Treaty 66 1. Legal status of the Saar basin 66 2. The Governing Commission 66 3. Local autonomy 67 4. The judicial system 69 5. Saar citizenship 70 6. International personality of the Saar Basin 70-71 Page B. — The Legal Status of the Soar since 1946 I. The provisional nature of the present Saar Statute 73 1. Legal basis of the Statute 73 2. Legal implications of the Statute • 74 II. The Franco-Saar Conventions 76 1. The Conventions of 20th May, 1963 76 2. The earlier Conventions : (i) Those signed 3rd March, 1960 81 (ii) Those signed in the years 1948—1949 86 III. The international personality of the Saar 90 1. Whether the Saar is a State 90 2. The Saar as a contracting party to international agreements 91 3. Saar membership of European organizations 91 C. ECONOMIC ASPECT I. Main periods in the economic history of the Saar during the last hundred years 97 II. General Survey 98 III. Coalmining 106 IV. Iron and Steel 114 V. Transport Problems 120 VI. Agriculture 127 VII. Trade and Monetary Problems under the International Regime 130 VIII. Problems arising from the re-integration with the German Economy after 1935 134 IX. The Franco-Saar Economic Union 138 X. Conclusion 152 Maps showing : 1. The Saar Economy 99 2. Existing and projected waterways and railways 123 3. The Saar as part of a single economic area 157 NOTE ON THE TABLES INCLUDED IN THIS PUBLICATION The following signs have been used in the statistical tables included in this publication : (,) separates figures when there are more than two. (.) indicates a decimal point. (-) indicates that the figure is zero. (. .) indicate that the figures are not known or not available. (o) is used to indicate a round figure estimate. The units used are those of the metric system unless there is a mention otherwise. PREFACE This Report has its origin in two Motions tabled in the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe by the German and Saar delegations in Sep- tember, 1952, and in a request for inclusion in the Agenda of the question of "future position of the Saar", signed by 30 Representatives from eleven Member States. These were referred to the Committee on General Affairs by the Assembly on 17th September, 1952. During the past year, the work of preparing this Report has steadily gone forward. It has not been easy; and your Rapporteur owes his thanks to the Secretariat-General for the help afforded him in preparing Part One of the Report. For the Second and Third Parts — as indeed for the Report as a whole — the Rapporteur alone is responsible. The Rapporteur would also like to thank all -those in the different countries which he visited while preparing the Report for the help and advice they gave him. A summary of the discussion of the Report in Committee and the text of the draft Resolution are to be found at the end of Part Three. During its next session, it will be for the Assembly to pass its verdict on the proposals made by the Committee on General Affairs. But, whatever may be the nature of the conclusion it reaches — whether near or far from the Committee's text — it is certain that in the Saar problem the Assembly is facing the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity of its history. For, if it succeeds in finding a formula acceptable to the three parties principally concerned, if they agree to the convening of the Conference envisaged in the Committee's proposals, then the Council of Europe will have laid the corner-stone of the European Community. M. van der Goes van Naters, The Hague, 27th July, 1953. A HISTORICAL ASPECT OF THE SAAR PROBLEM I. — INTRODUCTION 1. General remarks concerning the validity of this study. 1. The most widely accepted view of the Saar to-day is that it is, both historically and ethnically, "ein deutsches Land". Thus M. Bidault stated in 1947: "We realise that the 800,000 Saarlanders are Germans" I. This fact, however, has been held to leave unprejudiced the need for special arrangements in view of France's legitimate economic interests. More recently it has been held to be subor- dinate to the overriding claims of a European solution of the problem which will prevent it further hindering the construction of a United Europe. 2. If there is a general consensus of opinion concerning the nature of the Saar, but one which agrees notwithstanding that some special solution satisfactory to both parties must be found, then it is certainly inopportune to increase the area of disagreement by reviving long-resolved controversies. But it would be historically untrue to accept the bald statement that the Saar is historic German territory, without making certain reservations. These reservations are not, however, intended to serve as a basis for further controversy or partial quotation. 3. A yet more important caveat must be entered concerning the "lessons" to be drawn by either side from this historical survey. The conclusion reached in this study is that the Saar problem is only an instance of the age-old dispute over the Rhine frontier ; that the historic German claim outweighs that of France, but that the French claim to influence in the Saar also has some historic validity ; and that in consequence the only lesson that can be drawn from the history of the Saar is that no absolute lesson can be drawn. Indeed, the historian must go further and say that in this problem no valid "appeal to history" can be made at all. By implication, the interested parties can negotiate to-day only on the basis of what each regards as the minimum terms dictated by present circumstances. The only lesson that can be drawn from the history of the Saar is that, in formulating these minimum terms, neither side would be justified in placing great reliance on its historical claims. For these claims speak with an uncertain sound. 2. Difficulties of source material. 4. Some German writers have claimed that as the "Saar problem" dates only from 1919, a history thereof before that date cannot be written 2. This is to beg the question. A history of the Saar problem in the light of the Versailles Treaty can obviously be written only for the period since 1920. But sub specie aeter- nitatis the question cannot be divorced from the age-old dispute over the Rhine frontier. Of this dispute it provides a classic example. This means, however, that any study of the problem at once enters the realm of acute historical controversy. (*) Interview given to the New York Times, 12th January, 1947. Quoted in Materialien ztir Soar- frage, Vol. Ill, p. 18 (Stuttgart, 1949): cf. M. Abel Verdier's Memorandum on France and the Saar, Part II (Paris, 1947) quoted in the Journal of Modern History, University of Chicago, December, 1951, p. 369 : "The Saarlanders are Germanic by race, language and custom ". (*) e.g. Dr. Eberhard Menzel, The Saar Question. (Hiiro Bonner Berichte, 1952), p. 3. "It must first be noted that there is no 'historical' Saar problem. The Saar is in no way a 'second Alsace-Lorraine'. The reality is quite otherwise. Whereas Alsace and Lorraine have changed hands frequently in the course of their history, and have truly undergone the fate of a frontier region, the Saar INTRODUCTION 5. French historians regard their country as the lineal sucsessor of Rome, holding the limes against the barbarian hordes. Frankish Australia is considered to have been "la France rhenane romanisee"2, and the imprescriptible claims of France are held to extend to the whole of the regnum Francorum of Clovis, fondateur de la monarchic franqaise. German historians, on the other hand, regard the German national State of the 19th and 20th Centuries as the heir of the Holy Roman Empire, and therefore of the same Lotharingian territory.