§ LORD WINSTERasked her Majesty's Government if it is the case that:
(1) in accordance with Article 7 of the Convention of May 26, 1952, entered into between Britain, America and France on the one hand and the German Federal Republic on the other, coupled with the declarations of the Foreign Secretaries of the former three Powers at the recent Berlin Conference, a unified Germany will be free (a) to remain in or withdraw from the European Defence Community; (b) to set up national armaments of all descriptions;
(2) following the recent Berlin Conference, Russia declared that she reserves, in respect of Eastern Germany and presumably of a future unified Germany, all the rights which Germany yielded to her on capitulation and in the Potsdam Agreement while, by the Bonn Treaty, Britain and America agreed to restore to a unified Germany full sovereignty in her external and internal affairs.
THE MARQUESS OF READINGThe answers to the noble Lord's questions are as follows:
(1) (a) Yes.
(b) This will depend on the decision taken by a unified Germany in accordance with (1) (a) above. If 421WA Germany decides to join the E.D.C., her armaments will be in accordance with the provisions of the E.D.C. Treaty. If she decides not to join E.D.C., the question of the armaments of a reunified Germany will be one far the Peace Treaty or any settlement pending the Peace Treaty.
(2) According to a statement by the Soviet Government published on March 26, the Soviet Government claim to have entered into the same relations with the "German Democratic Republic'' as with other sovereign states. The "German Democratic Republic'' is to have freedom of decision in internal and external affairs. The Soviet Union retains, however, within the Soviet Zone of Germany, "the functions connected with the safeguarding of security which result from the obligations which the U.S.S.R. has assumed from the four-power agreements'' It is not known whether the Soviet Government would seek to retain these functions in respect of a unified Germany.
Under the Bonn Convention on Relations between the Three Powers and the German Federal Republic, the Three Powers will retain their rights relating to the stationing of armed forces in Germany and the protection of their security, Berlin, and Germany 422WA as a whole, including the unification of Germany and a peace settlement. They agree in the Convention that an essential aim of their common policy is a peace settlement for the whole of Germany, freely negotiated between Germany and her former enemies.