740.00119 Council/4–2047: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State
urgent
1483. Delsec 1452. For the President, Vandenberg, Connally and Acheson from Marshall. Thirty-seventh CFM meeting April 20, Marshall [Page 367] presiding, concluded the preliminary discussion of the draft treaty for Austria.99 The Council approved: (1) the creation of a conciliation commission to settle disputes arising from the implementation of several of the clauses; (2) navigation on the Danube River free and open for the nationals, vessels of commerce, and goods of all states on a footing of equality; (3) authorization for the heads of diplomatic missions of the US, UK, USSR, and France in concert to deal with the Austrian Government for 18 months on the execution and interpretation of the treaty; (4) the procedure for the interpretation and ratification of the treaty as well as accession to it by other states. Of the ten annexes covering military, legal, and economic questions, eight were approved.
The Council then reviewed all unagreed articles. The preamble was approved after the UK, US, and French delegates accepted the Soviet clause stating that Austria cannot avoid certain “responsibility” arising from participation in the war. The 21 clauses on which there is as yet no agreement will be studied again by the Deputies for Austria and the drafting committee and a report submitted before 4 p.m. tomorrow.
The Council adjourned after deciding to consider the report of the Financial Commission on Trieste tomorrow morning and to seek again to reconcile all outstanding differences on the Austrian treaty in the afternoon.
Department please repeat to Vienna as 51, to Rome as 43, and to Paris as 162.
Sent Department as 1483, repeated London 175, Berlin 308.
- For the articles considered and the decisions thereon by the Council at this meeting, see the Record of Decisions, supra.↩