863.01/4–3045: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:52 p.m.]
4376. In a talk we had with Warner88 today, Warner said that the Foreign Office not at all pleased with the way the Russians had handled the setting up of the Provisional Government in Austria headed by Karl Renner. He added that the views of the Foreign Office had been made known to the Department through the British Embassy at Washington, and that instructions to the British and American Embassies in Moscow are being worked out in Washington between the Department and the British Embassy.
The Foreign Office, Warner continued, found it particularly disturbing that the Russians, as the British Embassy in Moscow had been told only a few days ago, had been in touch with Renner ever since Russian troops entered Austria. The Russians, he went on to say, must not be left in doubt about the unfortunate impression made by their secretive and unilateral action in setting up and recognizing this Government in Austria.
Renner, Warner said he believed, was selected merely to give the Government an air of respectability. A man of his age could not be expected to take an active part in the Government. The real work, Warner concluded, would be done by young, active Communists.
Repeated to Moscow as 151.
- Christopher F. A. Warner, Under Secretary of State in charge of the Northern European Affairs Department of the British Foreign Office.↩