740.00119 EAC/4–545: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
2741. The Department will consider with interest any proposals for machinery for use in the interim period in Austria that may be advanced by any delegation in EAC in line with your 3455 April 5, 4 p.m. (Cornea 207).
Your requests for comment on this subject in your 1138 February 1, 8 p.m. (Cornea 169) were transmitted immediately to the military authorities in Washington but no official views have been formulated here, mainly for mechanical reasons. The Department of State members of the subcommittee at the working level proposed at that time that comment on interim arrangements be included in the views of this Government being formulated on control machinery for Austria as follows:
“Interim arrangements are difficult to formulate in view of the uncertainties about the actual conditions in which they might operate. However, we offer the following comment: As the armies enter Austria they should proclaim the intention to establish inter-Allied military government in Austria as already proposed in connection with the proclamations for Austria now before CCS.16 As a next step, consultation should be established among the Allied commanders, who would retain complete freedom of command over their own troops but would inform and consult each other in order to concert and coordinate their efforts in so far as possible towards maintaining uniformity of action preparatory to the establishment of inter-Allied military government. Liaison officers might be exchanged for this purpose. Consultation might also be carried on through an inter-Allied committee sitting continuously in, say, Vienna. In any case, we consider it desirable to gather together in one place as soon as possible the nucleus groups of all the participating countries, and also to activate the Allied Commission for Austria for planning purposes as soon as the governments are in a position to name their principal members. Finally, we consider it desirable to place the complete protocol on machinery into operation at as early a date as may be warranted by conditions in Austria.”
We hope to get to you shortly the formal US views on control machinery, but they will not deal with interim arrangements.
- Combined Chiefs of Staff.↩