Office of the Historian

C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2079: CFM Documents

Decisions of the Council of Foreign Ministers Respecting Its Next Session3

secret
CFM(46) (NY)74
New York, December 12, 1946.

The Council of Foreign Ministers has decided:

I
To convene its next meeting for consideration of German and Austrian problems at Moscow on March 10, 1947.
II
To approve the following agenda:
1.
Consideration of a Report to be supplied by the Allied Control Council for Germany, which shall deal with the following subjects:
a.
Work of the Control Council since its creation on the following points: demilitarization, denazification, democratization, economic principles, reparations;
b.
The establishment of central administrations and other problems connected with the political, economic and financial situation of Germany under quadripartite government;
c.
Liquidation of Prussia.
2.
Consideration of the form and scope of the provisional political organization of Germany.
3.
Preparation of a Peace Treaty with Germany:
a.
Report of the Deputies for Germany on the views of the Allied States mentioned in the instructions to the Deputies, as well as proposals on questions of procedure;
b.
Basic directives including questions of boundaries, questions of the Ruhr and the Rhineland, and others.
4.
United States draft disarmament and demilitarization treaty and other measures for political, economic and military control of Germany.
5.
Consideration of the report already submitted by the Committee of Coal Experts.
6.
Report of the Deputies on the Austrian Treaty.
III
To instruct the Allied Control Council in Germany as follows:

The Allied Control Council is instructed to submit to the Council of Foreign Ministers by February 25, 1947 the report called for in [Page 1558] paragraph 1 of the agenda for the next meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

IV
To instruct the Deputies appointed for Germany, who will meet in London on January 14, 1947, as follows:
The Deputies for Germany are instructed to:
a.
hear the views of Governments of neighbouring Allied States, and of other allied states which participated with their armed forces in the common struggle against Germany, which wish to present their views on the German problem.
b.
consider questions of procedure with regard to the preparation of a Peace Treaty for Germany.
c.
submit a report on the above matters to the Council of Foreign Ministers by February 25, 1947.
V
To instruct the Deputies appointed for Austria who will meet in London on January 14, 1947, as follows:
The Deputies for Austria are instructed to:
a.
proceed with the preparation of a Treaty recognizing the independence of Austria, taking into consideration the proposals already submitted by the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom as well as any further proposals which may be submitted by any member of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
b.
hear the views of the Governments of neighbouring Allied States, and of other allied states which participated with their armed forces in the common struggle against Germany, which wish to present their views on the Austrian problem.
c.
submit proposals on the above matters to the Council of Foreign Ministers by February 25, 1947.

  1. This text was prepared by the Committee on German Questions and was approved by the Council of Foreign Ministers at its 23rd Meeting, December 12, 1946; see the Record of Decisions of that meeting, item XIX, p. 1555. This paper was subsequently reissued as CFM (46) (NY) 74 (Rev.), December 13, 1946, with a minor grammatical correction already included in the text printed here.↩