Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Austria)/5–145: Telegram

The British Prime Minister (Churchill) to President Truman

No. 25
[London,] April 30, 1945.

I am much concerned about the way things are going in Austria. The announcement of formation of a Provisional Austrian Government, together with refusal of permission to our Missions to fly into Vienna, makes me fear that the Russians are deliberately exploiting their arrival first into Austria to “organise” the country before we get there.

It seems to me that unless we both take a strong stand now we shall find it very difficult to exercise any influence in Austria during the period of her liberation from the Nazis. Would you be willing to join me in sending Stalin a message in terms of my immediately following telegram?89

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