Office of the Historian

396.1 LO/2–2852: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Austria 1
secret
priority
niact
Washington, February 27, 1952—4:31 p.m.

2153. Fol is our understanding text of statement Aust treaty agreed [Page 279] by FonMins (Secto 92 Feb 262). Word “independence” has been substituted for “sovereignty” in first sentence para two to conform with Moscow declaration3 as agreed by FonMins.

“The govts of Fr, the UK and the US of Amer are concerned that arrangements which had been made for discussion by the deputies for the Aust treaty to take place on the 21st Jan, for the purpose of concluding the treaty, were frustrated owing to the failure of the Sov Dep to attend.

The three govts recall that Aust, the first country to be occupied by Hitler, was promised her independence4 in a declaration made in Moscow in the name of the govts of the UK, the US of Amer and the USSR in 1943. France associated herself with this declaration on the 16th Nov 1943.5 The govts then6 announced their determination that Austria shld be liberated from Ger domination and re-established as a free and independent country. Yet 8 years afterwards and despite 258 mtgs of the Deputies to conclude the treaty, Austria has not yet regained her full independence. Her laws are submitted to a foreign body before being passed, her communications are controlled and censored, and all her territory is divided into zones occupied by fon troops with all the econ and moral hardship on the Aust people that this implies.

The Austs ardently desire to see terminated a state of affairs which shld rightly have ended long ago. The three govts fully share this aspiration and consider that renewed efforts shld be made to solve a problem with which the world ought not longer to be confronted. They are, therefore, urgently examining new proposals so that the four powers may be enabled to fulfill their pledge made in the Moscow declaration to restore to Austria her full freedom and independence.”

Statement will be released 10:30 am Washington time Feb 28. As stated Tosec 39 Feb 257 Dept will emphasize at time announcement issued that no consideration is being given to conclusion of separate treaty for Austria without Sov participation. Aust Emb Wash informed.

Other phases abbreviated text program referred to in Secto 92 will be considered in separate msg.

Webb
  1. This telegram, which was drafted by Allen (WE) and which Bonbright (EUR) signed for the Acting Secretary, was also sent to London, Paris, Moscow, and Bonn.↩
  2. Not printed. It was a summary account of the Acheson–Eden–Schuman meeting of Feb. 26, 11 a.m.; for the Reinstein–Laukhuff minutes of that meeting, see p. 163.↩
  3. The reference here is to the Tripartite Declaration on Austria of Nov. 1, 1943; for the text, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, p. 761.↩
  4. In the draft text of the statement on Austria agreed upon by the three Foreign Ministers on Feb. 22 (see telegram Secto 45, supra), the word “sovereignty” appeared here instead of the word “independence.”↩
  5. In the draft text of the statement on Austria of Feb. 22, this sentence reads as follows: “The French Committee of National Liberation made a similar declaration on the 16th November 1943.”↩
  6. In the draft text of this statement on Austria of Feb. 22, this sentence begins with the phrase “In this declaration they…”.↩
  7. Not printed.↩