Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control Austria/2–2445: Telegram

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

London, February 24, 1945—2 p.m.
[Received February 24—1:20 p.m.]

1921. From Gray. I have heard that within recent weeks there have been discussions in Washington concerning the preparation of an overall directive for Austria based in large part on the original JCS 106760 (which was designed to apply to Germany) and pointing generally toward independent administration of the several zones. In view of the fact that we have the basic PWC documents 217a and 218 on Austria61 and later material approved by the Department, it is planned here as a matter of high priority to prepare a set of Austrian directives incorporating in them the accepted general policies contained in the above documents for Austria. We also have available the 16 [15?] approved German directives,62 which can be used for guidance in preparing the Austrian directives.

I would appreciate being kept informed by telegram of the status of any discussions in Washington on the matter of Austrian directives. [Gray.]

Winant
  1. Directive to SCAEF (Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force) Regarding the Military Government of Germany in the Period Immediately Following the Cessation of Organized Resistance (Post Defeat), dated September 22, 1944, which was circulated as a Joint Chiefs of Staff document designated J.C.S. 1067 dated September 24, 1944. For text of the draft directive, see Conferences at Malta and Yalta, p. 143.↩
  2. For texts, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. i, pp. 447 and 438, respectively.↩
  3. See memorandum on p. 399 and especially footnote 87, p. 402.↩