740.00119 Control (Austria)/12–2644: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom ( Winant )

10719. For your informal preliminary information, we are actively working with our military authorities on the Soviet zone proposals and hope to give you formal advice shortly.

In our informal discussions it has seemed very desirable to both State and War Department officials that the Vienna administration extend to the whole Vienna Gau rather than to the narrow limits of the city itself and that it would be desirable for all three zones to converge inside the Innere Stadt.17 It is noted that the former question was raised at the last EAC meeting on Austria and left open for further discussion.

With reference to the Vienna zoning, the Soviet proposal could probably meet our desires with slight changes. These would include having the three zones fan out from a central point within the Innere Stadt such as the principal church, with boundary lines running from there to the nearest junction of each pair of adjacent zones as they already appear in the Soviet proposal. We consider this important as a means of facilitating access by all three forces to the Innere Stadt where most of the hotels, government buildings and centers of interest are located.

Stettinius
  1. The Inner City of Vienna.