Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Austria)/11–2845

The British Ambassador (Halifax) to the Secretary of State

His Majesty’s Ambassador presents his compliments to the Secretary of State and has the honour to communicate, on the instructions of His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the following proposal for the reduction of the forces of occupation in Austria.

2.
Good progress has now been made in a number of respects towards the re-establishment of a free and independent Austria, The Provisional Government has been reconstituted with agreement of representatives from all the provinces, its authority has been agreed to cover the whole country, and elections have now taken place. In the view of His Majesty’s Government the time has now come to consider reducing armies of occupation, whose present numbers constitute a grievous burden on Austrian economy. That this is very much in the mind of Dr. Renner himself is clear from his recent speeches.
3.
His Majesty’s Government accordingly suggest the four occupying powers should now agree in principle to reduce forces of occupation in such a manner that each force would, after a period of months be reduced to some equal figure to be determined. If the United States Government agree in principle to this proposal, His Majesty’s Government suggest that the Allied Council should be instructed to work out a detailed scheme which each power would then put into execution.
4.
In deciding the numbers required for each force of occupation, account would have to be taken not only of questions relating to internal security but of possible threats from outside. His Majesty’s Government therefore suggest that, in order to avoid delaying reduction of their forces on this account, the Four Powers should issue a public announcement to the effect that, pending final definition of Austrian frontiers, they recognise and will maintain the frontiers of Austria which were in force in 1937 and they confidently expect that [Page 667] these frontiers will be similarly recognised and respected by all other States.
5.
A similar communication has been addressed to the Soviet and French Governments.
Washington , November 28, 1945.