The Assembly,
With reference to the fact that Signor de Gasperi, the Italian Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, in his address to the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe on September 16th, has stated emphatically that the solution of the question of the Saar is a matter of common concern to the nations of Europe;
Considering that the Members of the Council of Europe, in the Preamble to the Statute, have reaffirmed their devotion to the principle of political liberty and the rule of law as the basis of all genuine democracy, and that it has been laid down in Article 1 of the Statute that the organs of the Council shall pursue the aims of the Council by discussion of questions of common concern;
Considering that the question of the Saar is one of these questions of common concern to the nations of Europe;
Considering that one of the reasons given by the Committee of Ministers for its decision on the question of the entry the Saar into the Council of Europe was the desirability that,
“Pending a final definition of the status of the Saar in a Treaty of Peace, the population of the Saar should be afforded the opportunity, in conformity with the aims and objects of the Statute of the Council of Europe, of being represented on the Council. ”
Considering that, to this end, throughout the Saar territory freedom of action of all parties based on democratic order, and which reaffirm their devotion to the principles of the Council of Europe, as well as freedom of the press must be guaranteed;
Expresses the desire that at elections to representative Assemblies in the Saar territory such conditions may obtain as shall enable all members of the Council of Europe to regard the results as embodying the free expression of the will of the population.