Council of Foreign Ministers Files: Lot M–88: CFM London Documents
Memorandum by the United Kingdom Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers
C.F.M.(45) 42
London, 22 September,
1945.
Austrian Food Supplies
[Here follow recommendations of the Allied Control Council for Austria quoted in telegram PV 7519, September 18, 1945, from the U.S. Military Commissioner for Austria to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, volume III, page 598, and a discussion of the food situation in Austria.]
To sum up, His Majesty’s Government propose that:
- (1)
- The present Conference should agree in principle on the desirability of Austrian supplies being drawn from the normal sources viz. the Danubian area.
- (2)
- The Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Soviet Union and France should forthwith appoint a joint Commission, with terms of reference as suggested in Annex IV, to report to them on the present position as regards food production in Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and on the best means of increasing production and distribution so as to meet the requirements not only of those countries themselves [Page 324] but also of other parts of Europe. The Governments of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia should be invited to give their consent and all possible assistance to the proposed Commission, and the Allied Control authorities in the other countries mentioned should be instructed to give it all possible assistance.
- (3)
- Pending the report of the proposed Commission, 75% of Austria’s approved food imports should be drawn from other countries in the Danubian area and 25% from the Western hemisphere.
- (4)
- A technical sub-committee should immediately be set up in London and instructed to report to the Council of Foreign Ministers before the end of their present session regarding the standard of consumption to be aimed at in Austria.
- (5)
- Food imports should, so far as possible, be financed in acceptable currencies from the proceeds of Austrian exports, both past and future, exception being made of German assets exported by the Soviet Government from Eastern Austria in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. Payment should similarly be made, to the extent necessary to cover the cost of imports, for material (other than weapons of war and purely military equipment) seized by the Allied armies in the initial stages of the occupation and removed from Austria.
- (6)
- Imports which cannot be paid for in these ways and which come from countries in which U.N.R.R.A. can procure should be financed by U.N.R.R.A. from the date of their assumption of financial responsibility for supplies to Austria.
- (7)
- The Conference should take note of the Allied Council’s recommendations and in particular of their recommendation that the early establishment of a central Austrian governmental authority will aid the long-range food situation but not by any means solve it.