Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Council of Foreign Ministers; Germany and Austria, Volume III

740.00119 Council/12–1349: Telegram

The United States Deputy for Austria at the Council of Foreign Ministers (Reber) to the Secretary of State

secret

New York, December 13, 1949—12:41 p.m.

Delau 376. From Reber. I discussed future procedure with Berthelot and Mallet both last night and this morning following Deputies Meeting. Despite Soviet suggestion made December 8 to postpone session for four or five days (see Delau 375¹) no progress is being made in Vienna talks and communication received by Deputies from Austrians today states that up to last night Soviet reply Austrian proposals of November 24 has not been received. This situation may last indefinitely and Zarubin’s attitude indicates present pressure is not serving to expedite Soviet reply. In these circumstances, British and French desirous of suspending talks not later than December 16 and of resuming in London January 18, as suggested in Delau 374,¹ or earlier if Department considers this desirable. Such suspension however, should only be for a fixed date and it is important to obtain prior agreement to resume in January in order to give Zarubin opportunity to obtain the necessary instructions. Proposal for suspension might be made at tomorrow’s meeting provided in meantime there is no news from Vienna to justify continued meetings here at this time. It will be necessary to give Zarubin at least 48 hours to obtain his government’s consent to date for resumption and it would therefore be undesirable to wait until last minute before suggesting Christmas recess. British and French not only anxious to return on December 16 but believe this suspension will be useful as giving time to prepare program to take care of situation created by Soviet paragraph five, article 16 and to ascertain from Austrians their real desires in connection with 48 bis. British and French Legations Vienna have reported there are indications that Austrians now hesitant to settle 48 bis through direct negotiations preferring that terms be imposed by treaty. This course seems undesirable because Austrians should accept responsibility of deciding whether to buy treaty on Soviet terms for article 48 bis.²

Department please relay London as USUN 107; Paris as USUN No. 79; Moscow as USUN No. 85; Vienna as USUN No. 60.

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Reber

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1. Not printed.
1. Not printed.
2. Following the receipt of this cable the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Perkins, telephoned Reber and told him that the Department of State was averse to taking the responsibility for adjourning the talks, but if there was no indication of progress by December 16 the meetings could be adjourned until January. Memorandum of telephone conversation, December 13, not printed (740.0011 EW (Peace)/12–1349). No further progress was made and the Deputies agreed to adjourn their discussions until January 9 when the meetings would resume in London.