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DOCUMENTS ON GERMANY, 1944-59                 161
Note From the American Embassy to the Soviet Foreign Ministry,
on the Soviet-GDR Agreements, October 27, 19551
The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compli-
ments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and, with reference to the
Ministry's note of October 18, 1955, concerning the agreements con-
cluded on September 20, 1955, between Marshal Bulganin and Mr.
Grotewohl, has the honor to state the following views of the Govern-
ment of the United States.
As the Government of the, United States has already made clear in
its note of October 3, 1955, these agreements can in no way be re-
garded as releasing the Soviet Government from its obligations! under
existing Four-Power Agreements, and in particular its responsibility
for ensuring the normal functioning of communications between
the different parts of Germany, including Berlin.
For its part, the United States Government cannot accept the al-
legation contained in the Ministry's note that, in treaties it has con-
cluded with the Federal Government of Germany, it has violated the
obligations it had assumed under quadripartite agreements.
Western Proposal on German Reunification and European
Security, October 27, 1955 2
REUNIFICATION OF GERMANY AND SECURITY
At the Geneva Conference, the Heads of Government recognized,
in their Directive to the Foreign Ministers, the common responsibility
of the Four Powers for the reunification of Germany by means of free
elections in conformity with the national interests of the German
people and the interests of European security.
France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America
have striven unceasingly for the reunification of Germany in freedom
in order to promote real stability in Europe. Last year they put for-
ward, in the Eden Plan, proposals which offer the German nation the
means to recover its unity in accordance with the rights of peoples
and liberty of the individual. They renew these proposals in the
paper attached hereto.
Free elections leading to the formation of a single Government for
the whole of Gerniany are the right way of ensuring full participation
of the German people in the solution of the German problem, which
the Soviet Government says it also desires. If agreement in principle
is reached during the present Conference, it should be possible to settle
without delay questions concerning the electoral law and the supervi-
sion of the elections, which could take place as early as 1956.
Without German unity, any system of European security would
be an illusion. The division of Germany can only perpetuate friction
and insecurity as well as grave injustice. France, the United Kingdom
l Ibid. November 7, 1955, p. 734.
2 The Geneva Meeting of Foreign Ministers, October 27-November 16, 1955 (Department
of State publication 6156), pp. 27-28,. The proposal was submitted on October
27 by
Foreign Minister Pinay on behalf of the American, British, and French delegations,
but
the discussion of it began on October 28, when the proposal was read out
by Foreign Secre-
tary Macmillan. The draft treaty of assurance (Mira) and the Bden plan of
January 29,
1954 (supra) were attached to the proposal.