740.00119 Council/2–2047

Archduke Otto of Hapsburg-Lorraine to the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)

Dear Mr. Acheson: I have sent today a message to both the President37 as well as the Secretary of State on the following matter:

On February 19th a despatch was published in the newspapers according to which the Russian Delegate Mr. Fedor Gusev had demanded re-inclusion of a clause in the earlier American draft, by which the four power deputy ministers council agreed to write into the Austrian treaty a permanent veto against any Habsburg restoration in Austria. In addition this clause permanently exiles members of the Habsburg family from their own country and confiscates all their private property.38

This is an unprecedented step against individual rights:

1.
–It violates the Atlantic Charter. The Charter states: “They respect the rights of all people to choose the form of Government under which they live.”
2.
–It violates the Moscow declaration of November 1, 1943 by depriving individual Austrians of their democratic right to speak and act for any orderly form of Government they may desire.
3.
–It promotes injustice by unwarranted interference in the domestic [Page 176] affairs of Austria, a non-enemy country. Similar conditions are not even imposed upon enemy nations and it can not be ignored that:
a.
–The Habsburgs and their followers were always pro-allied and anti-nazi prior to and during the German occupation of Austria; I myself and my brothers worked actively on the side of the Allies; Three of my brothers served as volunteers in the American army; The Monarchist leaders in Austria were without exception either imprisoned or killed by the Germans.
b.
–The Austrian Monarchists stand for genuine democracy and all they ask is that the Austrian people be permitted to choose their form of Government in free and unfettered elections.
4.
–There is an apparent contradiction of principles in this punitive act of disfranchisement, exile and confiscation for pro-allied Austrian Monarchists and the stand taken by the U.S. Delegation in upholding political rights in former Austrian pronazi Pan-German groups on the ground of interference with “Human Rights.”
5.
–Also this act may well open the door to permanent Soviet intervention into Austrian domestic affairs under the pretense that all non-communist movements are “Monarchists”.

With this in mind may I ask you, dear Mr. Acheson, to use your great influence in order to prevent this injustice and violation of the human rights and to safeguard the basic rights of the individual.

Believe me [etc.]

Otto
of Austria
  1. Archduke Otto’s letter of February 20 to President Truman, which was very nearly identical to the letter printed here, was forwarded to the White House by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Frank Murphy on March 15, 1947, with the suggestion that an appropriate acknowledgement be prepared but that the President not be “bothered” about it.
  2. On January 27, 1947, Archduke Felix called at the Department of State to discuss Austrian developments and to protest against the treaty clause referred to here.