740.00119 Council/4–2147: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State
urgent
1488. Delsec 1455. For the President, Vandenberg, Connally and Acheson from Marshall. Thirty-ninth CFM meeting, April 21, [4] p.m., Bevin presiding, heard the report of the Deputies for Austria on the unagreed clauses of the draft treaty which had been referred to it.9 The Deputies agreed on several important clauses but could not reconcile basic differences over the treaty.
[Page 374]The Council again failed to reach agreement on Austria’s frontiers when Molotov continued to insist on the territorial claims of Yugoslavia which are rejected by the US, UK and France.
A compromise proposed by Molotov on the displaced persons clause which would delete from the treaty any mention of a date when the DP’s would be removed from Austria was accepted in principle and was referred to the Deputies who will redraft the clause. The removal of the time limit for the transfer from Austria of persons of German origin made possible an agreement on this problem.
The Council reached agreement on the clause providing for the withdrawal of Allied Forces from Austria within 90 days after the coming into effect of the treaty.
The clause on the restitution of property in Austria which was removed from any of the United Nations was agreed upon except for one point which was referred to the Deputies. The clause providing for the renunciation by Austria of claims against the allies was agreed.
No agreement was reached on the disposition of Austrian property in United Nations states because the question of whether or not Yugoslavia would be paid reparations by Austria has not been decided.
Bidault blocked agreement on the clause covering Austria’s debts but agreement was reached on all the annexes.
The Council then considered the unagreed clauses which had not been referred to the Deputies. After Molotov refused to accept the clause pledging the allied and associated powers to respect Austria’s independence, Marshall asked the Ministers if they wished to go into a restricted session. The Council continued its discussion of the remaining unagreed clauses in restricted session.
Dept please pass to Vienna as 52, Rome as 45 and Paris as 164.
Repeated London 176, Berlin 312.
- At their 55th Meeting, April 20, 4:30 p.m. and their 56th Meeting, April 21, 10 a.m., the Deputies for Austria had reviewed the following articles of the draft treaty for Austria in compliance with the instructions of the Council: Article 5, Austrian frontiers; Article 11, War Criminals; Article 16, Displaced Persons; Article 16 bis, Reichsdeutsche and Volksdeutsche; Article 33, Allied Troops in Austria; Article 36 and 36 bis, Restitution; Article 39 (paragraph 4), Military Currency; Article 45, Austrian Property in Allied Territory; Article 48 (paragraph 2), Interest Payments on Certain Debts; Annex viii, Industrial Property. For the disposition of these and other articles by the Council at this meeting, see the Record of Decisions, supra.↩