711.63119/16
The Commissioner at Vienna (Frazier) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 20.]
Sir: In confirmation of my telegram No. 155 dated August 24th, 1 p.m.,3 with regard to the signing of the Peace Treaty between the United States and Austria, I have the honor to report that in the [Page 272] first draft which was signed on the 24th ultimo and mailed to the Department on the same day, the telegraphic text of the Porter-Knox Resolution was checked by a copy of Public Resolution No. 8—67: Congress which had come into possession of the Foreign Office. As I did not at the time see why reference should be made to Germany in a treaty with Austria such reference was replaced in the text of the resolution by asterisks. I am sorry to say that the phrase “Who, having communicated their full powers, found to be in good and due form” was omitted. As both the Foreign Office officials and I agreed that such omission might be considered a legal defect, the Chancellor and I decided to sign another draft. After this decision it seemed best to make the new draft correspond accurately with the mailed copy enclosed in the Department’s instruction No. 359 of August 16, 1921, (File No. 711.63110/–)7 and the reference to Germany was therefore incorporated in the new draft.
I have the further honor to report that the Federal Chancellor signed both copies of the Treaty, the copy mailed to the Department and the copy retained in the Austrian Foreign Office in the English language. As no one suggested that one copy should be signed in German I did not think it was for me to make any objection, especially as I am mindful of the advantage of having only one text to interpret. I am, however, aware that this practice is unusual.
In terminating this despatch it is a pleasure to inform the Department that in my experience with Foreign Offices I have never found greater courtesy nor a more conciliatory and reasonable spirit than was displayed by the Federal Chancellor in his preliminary conversations regarding the Treaty.
I have [etc.]