Office of the Historian

740.0011 Moscow/10–1943

Amended Draft on Austria

undated

Conference Document No. 21

(British Proposal)

Having taken counsel together in the spirit of the Atlantic Charter, the Governments of the United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R. and the United States are agreed that Austria, the first free country to fall a victim to Nazi aggression, shall be liberated from German domination.

They regard the union imposed upon Austria by Germany on March 15th 19386 as null and void. They consider themselves as in no way bound by any changes effected in Austria since that date. They declare that they wish to see reestablished a free and independent Austria, and thereby to open the way for the Austrian people themselves to find in association with those neighbouring States which will be faced with similar problems, that political and economic security which is the only basis for lasting peace.

The Austrian people must however remember that they have a responsibility which they cannot evade, and that in the final settlement account will inevitably be taken of their own contribution to the liberation of their country.

  1. For correspondence on the annexation of Austria by Germany, see Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. i, pp. 384 ff.↩