Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 60 D 627, CF 197

No. 522
Proposal of the Soviet Delegation1

confidential
FPM(54)67
Berlin, February 14, 1954.

Item 3 of the Agenda:

the austrian state treaty

Article 35 (clause 6)

6. The Soviet Government will hand over to Austria property, rights and interests withheld or claimed as German assets together with available installations and will also hand over war-industry enterprises, together with their available equipment, residential houses and other real estate, including landed property situated in Austria which is withheld or claimed as war booty, excepting the assets indicated in clauses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the present Article. Austria on the other hand undertakes to pay the Soviet Union 150 million U.S.A. dollars in the form of deliveries of goods over six years in equal yearly parts.

The designation and quantity of goods to be delivered, together with the exact dates and conditions of delivery, will be specified by supplementary agreement between the Governments of the U.S.S.R. and Austria and will enter into force simultaneously with the present agreement.

The prices for the goods delivered by Austria will be fixed according to world prices.

[Page 1203]

The U.S.A. dollar, calculated on its gold parity on January 1, 1954, i.e. 25 U.S.A. dollars for one ounce of gold, will serve as basis for the transactions provided for in the present Article.

In order to ensure timely deliveries of goods due to the U.S.S.R., the Austrian National Bank will issue promissory notes to the U.S.S.R. State Bank within a fortnight from the date of the entry into force of the present agreement, for the total sum of 150 million U.S.A. dollars payable in installments of 25 million dollars every 1st January for the six years during which the deliveries of goods will be effected.

The promissory notes issued by Austria will be interest free. The U.S.S.R. State Bank has no intention of discounting the promissory notes if the Austrian Government and the Austrain National Bank duly fulfill their obligations at the periods fixed.

  1. This proposal was introduced at the seventeenth plenary on Feb. 14. For a record of that meeting, see Sectos 144 and 145, Documents 479 and 480.↩