CFM Files: Lot M–88: Box 143: USDel Working Paper Series
Memorandum by the Soviet Delegation at the Council of Foreign Ministers1
[Consultations on Germany and the Austrian Treaty]
The Delegation of the USSR, in connection with the discussion of the proposals concerning Germany and Austria in the closed sittings of the Council of Foreign Ministers of June 15 and 16 of this year and also taking into account the memorandum of Mr. Schuman dated June 17 [12?]2 with respect to the Austrian Treaty, communicates the following:
1. Re: The German Question.
The Delegation of the USSR maintains its proposals on paragraph 3 (a) (ii) in the wording as presented earlier, that is: “There must exist an equilibrium in the movement of essential goods and in the movement of not-so-essential goods between the Western Zones on one hand and the Eastern Zone and Berlin on the other hand”.
As to the paragraph 5 of the draft of Mr. Acheson of June 15,3 the Delegation of the USSR has no objections to the wording of this paragraph, provided a reference is included in this paragraph as to transit.
In accordance with the above, the final wording of paragraph 5 will be as follows: “To achieve the objective stated in the preceding paragraphs and in order to improve and supplement the agreements with respect to communications between the Eastern Zone and the Western Zones and between the Zones and Berlin, and likewise with respect to transit, the Occupation Authorities, each in their respective zones, shall take measures to assure the normal functioning of rail, water and road transport, and, of the postal, telephone and telegraph communications”.
2. Re: The Austrian Treaty.
The draft of the agreement of the Four Ministers is attached. In this draft, the Delegation of the USSR has taken into consideration the exchange of views which took place in the closed sittings of the Four Ministers and also proposals contained in the memorandum of the three Delegations of June 17, 1949.
[Page 1061]The Delegation of the USSR also takes notice of the declaration of the three Delegations in the memorandum of June 17 regarding their agreement with the proposal of the USSR that the former German assets which are to be transferred to the Soviet Union are not subject to any alienation without the consent of the USSR. As to the reservation contained in paragraph 2 of the memorandum of the three Delegations of June 17, the Delegation of the USSR cannot agree that the docks are not former German property and for that reason cannot accept the reservation referred to above.
The Delegation of the USSR likewise considers it necessary to insist on its proposals as to the export of profits and as to the order of settlement of disputes as has been stated in paragraph 7“b” and paragraph 8 of the Soviet proposals of January 24, 1948.4
- Copies of this memorandum in Russian were delivered to the Western Delegations June 19. The source text is a translation by the United States Delegation. In the records of the United States Delegation this translation was given the designation USDel Working Paper/46.↩
- Ante, p. 1053.↩
- The reference here is to USDel Working Paper/32 Rev. 6, June 15, p. 1055.↩
- Under reference here is CFM(D) (L) (48) (A)1, the Soviet proposal on German Assets. The text of this proposal is printed in Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. ii, p. 1448.↩