Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria, Volume II

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 60: USDel Minutes

United States Delegation Minutes, Council of Foreign Ministers, Eleventh Meeting, Moscow, Aviation Industry House, March 21, 1947, 4 p.m.

March 24, 1947, 10:00 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.

secret
USDel (47) (M) 11th Meeting

	Present
	France
	M. Bidault (Chairman)
	M. Couve de Murville
	General Catroux
	M. Alphand
	M. Paris
U.S.		U.K.
Secretary Marshall		Mr. Bevin
Ambassador Smith		Sir William Strang
Mr. Cohen		Lord Hood
Mr. Dulles		Sir Maurice Peterson
General Clark		Mr. Hall-Patch
Mr. Bohlen
	U.S.S.R.
	M. Molotov
	M. Vyshinski
	M. Gousev
	M. Smirnov
	Marshal Sokolovsky

Report of the Deputies for Austria

General Clark (The text of General Clark’s oral report follows:)

At the meeting of the Austrian Deputies this morning, we discussed the form in which the Progress Report which the Ministers called for yesterday should be presented this afternoon. It was unanimously agreed that it would be done by a brief written report⁴¹ followed by a verbal presentation of important points of issue.

There has been circulated a statistical report of the progress accomplished to date on the various Articles of the Austrian treaty, broken down under appropriate headings such as Political, Military, Economic, and Final Clauses. This report shows the number of Articles under each category which have been agreed to, those which have been discussed and not agreed to, and those which have not been discussed. In connection with the undiscussed Articles, although they have not been discussed by the Deputies, practically all have been under consideration of subordinate committees and many are now ready for detailed study by us.

The Deputies decided this morning that in the verbal report this afternoon I should give a brief discussion of the various Articles which have not been agreed to which contain issues sufficiently important to be brought to your attention. There are 17 of these. In that discussion I will present the major points of difference involved under each Article, without attempting to give the positions of the various Delegations.

If it is the desire of the Council of Foreign Ministers to receive a written report of this verbal presentation this afternoon, it can be available sometime tomorrow.

I will now proceed to the discussion of these disagreed Articles, commencing first with the Preamble, followed by Political, Military, Economic, and Final Clauses.

Preamble. The Preamble is almost entirely agreed to with the exception of two points, which I will now discuss.

The Political Clauses have been gone over thoroughly both in London and in Moscow. There are 16 Articles involved, of which 8 are agreed, 7 disagreed. Six we consider major disagreements which I will now present to you, and one on Displaced Persons which, although it has not been discussed by us, is mentioned briefly.

The Military Articles have been thoroughly examined, both in London and in Moscow. There are 19 Articles involved, of which 7 are completely agreed, 11 disagreed. Five contain important disagreements and will now be discussed. One Article, on Commission of Military Experts, has not been discussed by the Deputies, but will be touched upon briefly.

Progress on the Economic Clauses has not advanced nearly as far as the Political and Military and Final Clauses. The reason for this is due to the fact that little progress was made on these subjects at London. Several Delegations had not tabled their various viewpoints in writing, hence serious discussion really commenced in Moscow. There are 25 Articles involved, of which 1 is agreed, 9 disagreed, and 15 undiscussed by the Deputies. The Deputies this morning felt that there were only 3 major points of issue which should be brought to the attention of the Ministers at this time. They are as follows.

Final Clauses. There are only 4 involved in this category, of which 2 are agreed, 2 contain minor disagreement of insufficient importance to be brought to your attention at this time.

preamble

There are two issues:

(a) Whether the Four Powers and Austria are to be the only states designated as signatories or whether the invited states are to be named along with the Four Powers and Austria in the Preamble or elsewhere in the treaty as states entitled to sign;

(b) Whether Austria is to be charged with the responsibility for participation in the war or whether the consequences of such participation are to be noted.

political clauses

Article 2—Preservation of Austria’s Independence

Issue: Whether it is necessary to include clauses in the treaty providing for obligations on the part of the Allied and Associated Powers and on the part of Austria to preserve Austria’s independence and territorial integrity.

Article 4—Prohibition of Anschluss

There are two issues:

(a) The inclusion of a requirement that Austria shall not impair her territorial integrity;

(b) The prohibition of Pan-German propaganda in any form whatsoever.

Article 5—Frontiers of Austria

Issue: Whether the frontiers of Austria shall be those of January 1, 1938, or whether the Yugoslav claims to territory in Southern Carinthia and Styria should be recognized.

Article 6—Naturalization and Residence of Germans in Austria

Issue: Whether to include a clause disqualifying all Germans or certain categories of politically undesirable from naturalization by Austria and residence in Austria.

Article 11—War Criminals

Issue: Whether Austria shall be obliged for an indefinite period to surrender to United Nations Governments upon their request without presentation of satisfactory evidence, persons designated as war criminals and collaborators by United Nations Governments.

Article 16—Displaced Persons

Issue: The issue to date is to obtain a basis for discussion of this subject which has so far been deferred pending the submission of a paper promised by the Soviet Delegation.

military clauses

Article 17—Limitation of Austrian Armed Forces

Issue: Whether Austria shall be prohibited from arming her authorized military and air forces with weapons and equipment of other than Austrian manufacture. This issue is raised in both paragraph 3 of this article and paragraph 4 of Article 26.

Articles 22, 23 and 29—Prohibitions on Certain Research, Experimentation and Manufacture and on the Possession and Stock-piling of Certain Materials and Equipment.

Issue: Whether, in an effort to prevent the rearmament of Germany on Austrian territory, Austria shall have imposed upon her a much greater number of prohibitions and limitations than were imposed upon the satellite states. These prohibitions and limitations would be in the fields of research, experimentation, production, possession and stock-piling in relation to certain products equipment and raw materials which might be used in the manufacture of war materials in excess of Austria’s authorized requirements.

Article 24—Reduction of Military Potential of Austria

Issue: Whether Austria will be able to meet the requirements for the local defense of her frontiers, a military task which is authorized under Article 17, if she is prohibited from building any new permanent fortifications and other military installations along her frontier and is, at the same time, prohibited from re-establishing fortifications and military installations destroyed in accordance with instructions from the Allied Commission for Austria.

Article 32—Commission of Military Experts

Issue: Whether the competency of the Heads of Mission shall be extended to provide for a long-term control, by a Commission of Military Experts acting under the Heads of Mission, of the execution of the military clauses of the Treaty.

Article 33—Withdrawal of Armed Forces

Issue: Whether the Allied Commission for Austria should terminate on the entry of the treaty into force or at such time thereafter as the Allied Forces are withdrawn.

economic clauses

Article 35—German Assets in Austria

The main issues are: The determination of what assets are to be transferred as reparations and of what procedure is to be followed in making the transfers. The difficulty at present confronting the Deputies arises over the question of whether or not legal title to the assets has already been transferred.

Article 36—Restitution by Austria

Issue: Whether Austria shall be required to restore “in good order” United Nations property which was looted by the Axis Powers and which is found in Austria. This question involves considerations similar to those which arise in connection with the article I discuss next on United Nations property in Austria.

Article 42—United Nations Property in Austria

Issue: Whether Austria shall be required to pay compensation, and if so, how much, for United Nations property in Austria which was damaged, dissipated or destroyed as a result of the war. (See CFM (47) (M) 42) (End of General Clark’s report.)

[For the summary of the remainder of this meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, see infra.]

41. The Report of the Deputies for Austria, circulated to the Council as document CFM (47) (M) 42, March 21, 1947, is not printed. The Report merely indicated which articles of the draft Austrian treaty had been agreed upon by the Deputies, which articles had been discussed but not fully agreed, and which articles had not yet been discussed. For the text of the draft Austrian treaty subsequently referred to the Council by the Deputies for Austria, see document CFM (47) (M) 82, March 29, 1947, p. 516.