Coal

Abstract

Invasion and long occupation took a considerable toll on France and, unavoidably, the effects on political and economic life persisted after the Liberation. In addition to physical damage to industrial plant and transport infrastructure the country lingered for a period in political limbo as first one, then another Constituent Assembly strove to arrive at a constitution. As 1946 drew to a close, however, the road ahead became clearer with the acceptance of the constitution of the Fourth Republic in October, followed by the publication of the Monnet Plan in November. When, in December, Léon Blum took office at the head of a Socialist caretaker government pending the election of a President, the moment was ripe for the British Labour government to take stock of the situation. Returning from six weeks in New York at the Council of Foreign Ministers and the United Nations, Ernest Bevin summoned the French Ambassador and said that, to his mind, the rehabilitation of France was the fundamental problem in Europe. Accordingly he had always sought closer ties between Britain and France, perhaps not through grand gestures but rather by a pragmatic, methodical approach to everyday matters affecting both countries.1 The Ambassador said that in this regard there were three main issues: French recovery, the German level of industry, and Anglo-French relations. He argued that these were in fact one question and that the deciding factor was coal.2 KeywordsForeign MinisterGerman IndustryCoal SupplyInternal ConsumptionBritish PolicyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.