No. 553

Editorial Note

The question of the Austrian Treaty was discussed at the fifth meeting of the Foreign Ministers on the afternoon of September 13. Schuman and Morrison agreed with Acheson’s recommendations that a meeting of the Deputies for Austria be called in which the United States would offer the abbreviated treaty for consideration.

At the conclusion of the Foreign Ministers meetings, a communiqué was issued on September 14 which stated, in part: “The three Foreign Ministers were unanimous in stating that in the view of their Governments there is no justification for any further delay in the conclusion of a treaty for the re-establishment of a free and independent Austria. This has been the constant aim since the conclusion of hostilities. They will not desist in their efforts to bring the Soviet Government to the same view and to that end they have decided to make a new and resolute effort in the meetings of the Austrian Treaty Deputies to fulfill the long overdue pledge to the Austrian people.” (CFM files, lot M–88, Communiqué and declaration)

For the report of the fifth meeting of the Foreign Ministers in Washington and the text of the entire communiqué, see volume III, Part 1, pages 1279 and 1306.

Following these meetings, the three Foreign Ministers traveled to Ottawa to attend the Seventh Session of the North Atlantic Council, September 15–20. Assistant Secretary of State Perkins noted in a memorandum to Williamson of September 21 that “there wasn’t any chance to take up your Austrian Treaty points with Morrison and Schuman at Ottawa. The tripartite meetings that we had were all hopelessly involved with Greece–Turkey problems and lasted too long anyway.” (Austrian Desk files, lot 56D294, Policy on Austrian Treaty—1951). For documentation concerning [Page 1131] the Seventh Session of the North Atlantic Council, see ibid., pages 616 ff.