Editorial Note
The Deputies for Austria met informally at Paris four times from May 30 to June 1 to prepare their report as requested by the Ministers on May 23 at the first session of the Council. At the first of these meetings the three Western Deputies circulated a tripartite draft of the Deputies’ report and the texts of the various unagreed articles were discussed. On May 31 the Deputies met twice with the Soviet Deputy. Zarubin agreed to use the tripartite draft provided article 35 (German Assets) was arranged in a tabular form based on the Soviet proposal of January 24, 1948, and provided the Western conditions affecting this article were set forth not in the body of the text, but as footnotes. Zarubin insisted that if this were not done, then the Deputies would have to submit separate reports to their Ministers and not to the Council. At the final meeting on June 1, the Soviet Deputy maintained his position. This was unacceptable to the Western Deputies, and two separate reports were presented; a Soviet one to Vyshinsky and a tripartite report to the Council.
The minutes of the four informal meetings of the Deputies for Austria are in CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 113: Informal Meetings of the Deputies. A copy of the tripartite report including earlier United States and United Kingdom drafts is in CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 140. Copies of the two reports were circulated at the Council as CFM/P/49/8 (Tripartite) and CFM/P/49/9 (Soviet) and are included in the documents of the Sixth Session in CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 142: Documents. The text of the Soviet proposal of January 24, 1948, is printed in Foreign Relations, 1948, Volume II, Chapter VIII.