740.00119 Control (Austria)/4–2345
The Counselor of the British Embassy (Makins) to the Director of the Office of European Affairs (Matthews)
My Dear Doc: I enclose herewith a paraphrase63 of a telegram which the Foreign Office sent to Mr. Macmillan64 at Caserta on April 22nd reporting a further move by the Soviet representative at the European Advisory Commission on April 20th [21st] about Austria. You probably have received a similar account from Mr. Winant.65
As you will see, Monsieur Gousev appeared to be making a move towards reaching a settlement in the European Advisory Commission itself on the questions regarding Vienna which, at Marshal Stalin’s suggestion, it was proposed should be dealt with on the spot by American, British, French and Russian representatives.
In spite of this latest development at the European Advisory Commission, the Foreign Office are anxious that the American, British and French representatives should proceed to Vienna as proposed. They think these matters can probably be settled better on the spot, especially if added authority is given to the Allied representatives by the presence of Field Marshal Alexander. They feel also that once the Allied representatives are in Vienna they may be able to discuss other matters besides arrangements for dividing up the City and in fact establish the interim Allied Commission for which we have long been pressing at the E.A.C. At the worst the representatives would be able to report something of what is now happening in Vienna.
The Foreign Office hope that the State Department will share this view and agree that we should both do our utmost to get our representatives to Vienna notwithstanding this latest development.
Yours ever,