Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Austria)/1–245: Telegram

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

London, January 2, 1945—11 p.m.
[Received January 2—8:56 p.m.]

60. Department’s 10719, December 26, 8 p.m.2 While awaiting my general instructions on the question of a zone of occupation in Austria I have had Mosely3 present to Gousev4 and his assistant, Ivanov,5 the American viewpoint in favor of taking the present Gau6 boundaries of Vienna rather than the pre-1938 limits and of dividing Innere Stadt7 district among the occupying powers.

Our viewpoint has been presented forcefully and in detail but it is too early to discover whether the Soviet insistence on the pre-1938 boundaries has been modified.

At tonight’s meeting of the European Advisory Commission Massigli8 explained that the French Government would want to station a token contingent in Vienna but not take a zone in the rest of Austria in view of its hope that a large part of the available French forces would be committed to the occupation of a zone in Germany. Please furnish paraphrase to Generals Hilldring9 and Strong.10

Winant
  1. ibid., p. 483.↩
  2. Philip E. Mosely, Political Adviser to the United States Delegation to the European Advisory Commission.↩
  3. Fedor Tarasovich Gousev, Soviet Ambassador in the United Kingdom and Representative on the European Advisory Commission.↩
  4. Nikolai V. Ivanov, member of the Soviet Delegation to the European Advisory Commission.↩
  5. Political district.↩
  6. Inner City.↩
  7. René Massigli, French Ambassador in the United Kingdom and Representative on the European Advisory Commission.↩
  8. Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring, Director of the Civil Affairs Division of the War Department.↩
  9. Maj. Gen. George V. Strong, senior Army representative on the Joint Post-War Committee.↩