Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Germany and Austria, Volume II

CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 113: CFM (D)(L)(48)1

Proposal by the Soviet Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers on German Assets

secret

London, January 24, 1948.

The Soviet Union shall receive:

1. (a) Oil Extraction
Concession rights to oil production areas equivalent to two thirds of the current production of oil in Austria, as well as property rights to all buildings, plant, equipment and other property forming part of these production areas, in accordance with the lists and the map annexed to the Treaty.
(b) Oil Prospecting
Concession rights to two thirds of all undeveloped areas in Eastern Austria that are German assets to which the Soviet Union is entitled in conformity with the Potsdam Agreement and which are in its possession at the present time, in accordance with the list of concessions and the maps annexed to the Treaty.

2. The period of validity of the concessions defined in paragraph 1 for prospecting and for the extraction of oil shall be fifty years.

3. The Soviet Union Shall receive oil refineries having a total annual production capacity of four hundred and fifty thousand tons of crude oil, in accordance with the list annexed to the Treaty.

4. The Soviet Union shall receive those undertakings concerned in the distribution of oil products which are at present at its disposal, in accordance with the list annexed to the Treaty.

5. In respect of D.D.S.G. (Danube Shipping Co.), the Soviet Union shall receive the assets, including ships, located in Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania, and likewise a share (25%) of the assets of D.D.S.G. which are located in Austria itself.

6. The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and France cede to Austria their property rights to all former German assets in Austria, with the exception of those assets which are specified in paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the present proposal, and Austria, on her part, undertakes to pay the Soviet Union within two years two hundred million American dollars in freely convertible currency, and to pay to the United Kingdom, the United States of America and to France —— million American dollars within —— years.

7. All former German assets which have come into the possession of the U.S.S.R. shall not be subject to alienation without the consent of the U.S.S.R.
Undertakings covered by the definition of assets abovementioned shall operate in accordance with Austrian legislation, on condition that Austria shall not raise any difficulties in regard to the export of the profits or other income in the form of output or freely convertible currency.
The foregoing German assets shall be transferred to the U.S.S.R. free from any obligations which have accrued up to the date of the actual transfer of the said assets to the U.S.S.R.

8. Any disputes which may arise in connexion with the application of the provisions of the Article covering German assets in Austria shall be settled by means of bilateral negotiation between the interested parties.