Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Council of Foreign Ministers, Volume II

C.F.M. Files: Lot M–88: Box 2061: CFM Documents

Proposal by the Soviet Delegation to the Council of Foreign Ministers⁷¹

secret
C.F.M. (46) 230

Paris, 12 July, 1946.

Austria

1. The Council of Foreign Ministers notes that the new control agreement signed by the Allied Council for Austria on 28th June, 1946 considerably extends the competence of the Austrian Government, promoting the acceleration of the liquidation of the remnants of Hitlerism and the final severance of Austria from Germany and also the further strengthening of democracy in Austria.

2. At the same time the Council of Foreign Ministers has observed the concentration in the western zones of Austria of 437,000 foreign nationals, so called displaced persons, comprising Yugoslav chetniks and ustashes, Hungarian “Szalasis”,⁷² Fascist soldiers of the Anders army, Russian and Ukrainian White Guards, traitors of the Vlasov⁷³ following, who fought for Hitlerite Germany against the Allies. These constitute not only a serious menace to the internal security of democratic Austria; they are a danger also to the neighbouring democratic States. The immediate evacuation of these aliens from Austria is, therefore, imperative and urgent.

3. The Council of Foreign Ministers considers that the successful achievement of the above objectives will afford the necessary prerequisites which will make it possible to effect the transfer to the Austrian Government of full plenary authority and the restoration of the complete independence of Austria, which is the basic aim of the Allied Powers in Austria.

4. The Council of Foreign Ministers instructs the Deputies, after completing the work of framing the treaties with the former satellites of Germany, to proceed forthwith to prepare a treaty with Austria.

[On July 15, 1946, following his return to Washington from Paris, the Secretary of State made a nationwide radio address in which he reported on the results of the Second Part of the Paris Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers. For the text of that address, see Department of State Bulletin, July 28, 1946, page 167.]

71. This proposal was read by Foreign Minister Molotov to the Council of Foreign Ministers at its 41st Meeting, July 12, 1946, and was discussed by the Council at its 42nd Meeting, July 12; for the United States Delegation Records of the meetings under reference, see pp. 907 and 918.
72. Ferenc Szalasi was head of the German puppet government in Hungary from October 1944 until his flight from Hungary in February 1945. He was executed by the Hungarian Government in 1946 for war crimes.
73. Soviet Lt. Gen. Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was taken captive by German forces in 1942 and subsequently became Chairman of the German-sponsored Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Vlasov was turned over to Soviet military authorities in May 1945 following his capture in Czechoslovakia. Vlasov was executed, apparently at the beginning of August 1946.