Office of the Historian

863.01/5–245: Telegram

The Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Patterson) to the Secretary of State

Belgrade, May 2, 1945.
[Received May 2—1:35 p.m.]

61. Have forwarded by pouch an envelope addressed to the United States Government in care of Secretary Stettinius, which was handed to our military mission by a Soviet officer. It contains a typewritten “notification” bearing the same address, dated Vienna April 28 and signed by Dr. Karl Renner as State Chancellor.16 Following is our translation from the German:

“Due to the victorious advance of the Red Army by which the capital city of Vienna and a considerable portion of Austria has been liberated from the armies of the German Reich, we have again come into the possession of our full political self determination and relying on the decisions of the Crimean Conference17 and Moscow Conference of October 1943,18 the representatives of all political parties of the country have decided to establish the Austrian Republic as an autonomous and independent state, to form a temporary government, which has started its activities today, under Dr. Karl Renner, Premier, formerly State Chancellor of the Republic (1918–1920) Chairman of [Page 566] the peace delegation for St. Germain (1919) and last President of a democratic representation (1928–1934).19

The Government notifies you herewith of the above asking for the recognition of the resurrected state and hoping that you will give your support to it, in the fulfillment of the hard task.”

Patterson
  1. The “notification”, not printed, was received in the Department on May 11. For documentation on the formation of the Renner government, see pp. 94–116, passim.↩
  2. For decisions regarding Austria made at the Crimea Conference, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 999, entries in index under Austria.↩
  3. For text of the Declaration on Austria issued by the Tripartite Conference of Foreign Ministers held at Moscow, October 18–November 1, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, p. 761.↩
  4. Dr. Renner was President of the Nationalrat, the lower house of the Austrian Parliament.↩