Austria

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24959, 21 August 1946, Page 6

Austria

The Austrian application having been approved by 15 votes against the six of the Soviet-led block, Austria will be heard on the South Tyrol question when the Peace Conference considers the Italian treaty drafted by the Foreign Ministers. There will, too, undoubtedly be some among the 15 nations to swell her protest against a decision which, by leaving the AustrianItalian frontier unaltered, perpetuates the error of 1919. For it is a

decision that runs counter, as 150 Labour and Conservative members of the House of Commons recently emphasised, to the Atlantic Charter Even the arrival in the South Tyrol within the last year of 50,000 Italians has not changed the native Austrian population into a minority. Nor does the decision conflict only with the principles of the Atlantic Charter. In seeking to solve the Trieste issue, in part, on an ethnic basis, the Foreign Ministers approved a principle they ignored when they turned from Italy’s eastern border to her northern. But if it may firmly be assumed that Austria’s will not be the only critical voice, it cannot be thought that these protests will be effective. Though Britain sponsored Austria’s application, Mr Alexander assured Mr Vyshinsky that his Government stands by the Foreign Ministers’ decision. For the United States, Mr Cohen gave a similar assurance. The Great Powers’ vote, supported by that of the nations within Russia’s orbit, is enough to ensure that the South Tyrol will remain with Italy. And if that guarantee were not enough, there would be another in the stipulation, laid down by the three Powers last December, that the treaties emerging from the Peace Conference must go back to them for approval. The Austrian application to be heard on the Tyrol would hardly seem an occasion, then, for Russia to lodge an “ emphatic ” objection, or any objection at all. There may be something to explain the Soviet attitude in Mr Vyshinsky’s observation that Austria had remained on the side of Germany to the last moment. The Austrian resistance movement certainly was very small. But, curiously, the Russians have not always held this against Austria. Indeed, it was the Soviet Government which, in April of last yeaY, was first among the Big Three to recognise as the provisional Government of the second Austrian Republic the coalition which the Social Democrat leader, Dr. Renner, gathered round him—first by six months. It has been a different story, however, since the general election of November gave the Catholic People’s Party a small majority over the Social Democrats, and each of them an overwhelming majority over the Communist Party. Since then it has usually been the Western Powers who have said “ Yes ” and the Russians who have said “ No Most

damagingly of all, they have said “ No ” to the proposals of the Western Powers for a peace treaty for Austria. If Austria, along with Italy, has a' peace treaty [said Mr Bevin in his June review of the first Paris conference of the Foreign Ministers] there is no need at all for lines of communication or troops of any Allied power in the whole of the Danubian basin and in the north of Italy as well. That is, the whole of the troops in Austria, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Rumania can be taken out and the whole of those Danubian States can again begin to lead a normal life. It was for that reason that I regarded it as imperative that Austria should be ; settled and so, as it were, with one clean sweep to limit your liabilities in; Europe really to Germany itself. It; narrows the area of the problems which you are left to settle. However, ‘ the Soviet Union argued that, they | were not ready to discuss it.

The hope Mr Bevin then expressed —that the Soviet Union would come to the second Paris conference of the Foreign Ministers ready and; willing to settle the Austrian prob- . lem—was not realised. A few days ; before Mr Bevin reviewed the first I Paris conference, the Vienna corres- ' pondent of “ The Times ” thought i it worth while to report “ the sug- j “ gestion, sometimes made, that the “ Russians are developing their ob- “ jections into an elaborate case for “ remaining in Austria; that they “want to turn the Russian zone in “Austria into an Austrian zone in “ Russia The comment offered by “ The Times ” correspondent was cautious. All that could be said with confidence, he wrote, was that, as Austria represents a small platform overlooking the east, the Russians “ intend to make sure it shall

“ not be used against them Back from the second Paris conference and about to leave for the Peace Conference, Mr Bevin was somewhat less reserved on this point. “ The Austrian situation ”, he said, “ is very delicate, and one does not “ know whether eastern Austria “may even be cut off. The trend of “ things makes one wonder what “the ultimate fait accompli will be “in Austria Russia’s latest “No ”, on a trivial issue, will not persuade Mr Bevin that the Austrian situation is any less anxious. And the Austrians themselves, of course, will not cease wondering what the Allies meant, three years ago, when they spoke of their “ wish to stee re- “ established a free and independent “ Austria