740.0011 EW Peace/2–1048: Telegram
The High Commissioner in Austria (Keyes) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
P–1258. From USFA Sgd Keyes Action to JCS to DA and State. Repeat to MA London for USDel. In event of Austrian treaty the question of Austrian armed forces will be most urgent. In a conference between Austrian Foreign Minister and a representative of the British High Commissioner’s office the following is the gist of the statement given to the British representative:
Dr. Gruber indicated that he was under the impression that the Soviets realized that their proposals in Article 17, clause four, of the draft treaty were impracticable and in consequence at Moscow they had proposed clause four of Article 26 which would permit the Austrians to use German equipment remaining in Austria after the war. He asked whether such arms and equipment would be available from this source. Dr. Gruber was certain that the Soviets would never agree to the western powers providing arms and equipment for the Austrian armed forces. For their part the Austrian Government did not wish the Soviet or one of her satellites to provide arms and equipment and he felt that the western powers should not agree to this either. He felt that the best solution would obviously be for Austria to be free to purchase the arms and equipment where she wished. He hoped that the western powers would try hard to find this solution but also felt that Soviet agreement would be unlikely.
He was forced to consider whether each of the occupying powers could provide arms and equipment and asked whether each of the occupying powers can leave behind them specified amount of their arms and equipment when they withdrew. Dr. Gruber pointed out that if each occupying power provided the complete amount of each type of arms and equipment it would still be essential that the Soviets should not be placed in such a position that they would be able to hamstring the creation of Austrian warmed forces by deliberate failure to honor their obligations or at a later date not make difficulties by failing to [Page 1357] provide ammunition and spare parts. Dr. Gruber assumed that the initial strength of the land army would be approximately 35,000 designed for internal security and what he described as “partisan” warfare only. The army would be largely infantry and consequently the requirements would be principally for infantry use. A small amount of artillery, a few tanks and some engineer equipment would also be wanted later.
The British representative indicated that he considered the only practical way in which the arms and equipment of the Austrian Army could be furnished by all four occupying powers would be for one power to supply the whole requirement for each particular type of equipment. For example, one power supply all small arms and small arms ammunition, another power all artillery, still another mortars and hand grenades. The British representative has forwarded to the British Foreign Office the above statement and recommendations with a request that the War Office be asked to ascertain the availability of pistols, machine carbines, rifles, light machine guns, hand grenades and mortars, artillery, engineer and signal equipment, fighting and gun carrying vehicles and web equipment. The above proposals will undoubtedly be presented to the American delegation in London.