740.00119 Control (Germany)/7–1045
No. 272
The British
Embassy to the Department of
State
1
Extract From Political Directive Sent to General McCreery in His Dual Capacity as British Commander-in-Chief in Austria and British Representative on the Prospective Allied Council for Austria
The views of His Majesty’s Government on the question of the establishment of self-government in Austria were set out in a memorandum circulated to European Advisory Commission on December 14th, 1944 as European Advisory Commission (44) 45.2 However, developments in Austria since her liberation make it desirable that you should receive fresh guidance in dealing with the situation.
It remains the policy of His Majesty’s Government to secure the restoration of a free and independent Austrian State. In furtherance of this aim and with a view to lightening the burden of the Military Government it is considered essential that responsibility for the administration of Austria should be placed at as early a date as possible on the shoulders of the Austrians themselves under Allied control and guidance. In order to attain this objective the early establishment of a provisional Austrian Government which would be genuinely representative of Austria both politically and territorially and which could receive recognition of the four occupying powers, is of first importance.
One of your first tasks will be to secure, in agreement with your Soviet, United States and French colleagues, an early transition from the Renner Government to a fully representative Austrian Government which it will be possible for the four controlling powers to recognize.
With a view to bringing this about you should take the following line in discussion with your colleagues. While admitting that the Renner Government may have fulfilled a useful purpose at a time when only a limited part of Austria had been liberated, you should assume that there can be no question of that Government, recruited on so narrow a territorial basis, continuing to survive once Austria is placed as a whole under Allied control. Allied forces have now moved into their allotted zones and provincial Governments or committees have been formed in all or most of these. It is essential that the provinces should have a substantial say in the formation [Page 342] of any Government which claims to call itself Austrian. You should accordingly propose that delegates of the various provincial administrations should assemble in Vienna at an early date and submit to the Allied Council recommendations for the composition of a provisional Austrian Government. The numbers of delegates from the Provinces might be as follows: three from Vienna; two each from Styria[,] Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, the Tyrol and Salzburg; and one each from Vorarlberg and the Burgenland. A body so constituted should be capable of nominating a representative Austrian Government which would be recognised as such by the Four Powers and would hold office until free elections could be held. The above plan represents the general lines on which His Majesty’s Government consider that an Austrian Provisional Government might most satisfactorily be formed in the absence of elections.