The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14. 1948. The Austrian Treaty

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25677, 14 December 1948, Page 4

The Press TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14. 1948. The Austrian Treaty

The request of the Austrian Government that the countries represented in the Council of Foreign Ministers should reopen negotiations for a treaty on Austria has now been answered favourably by the United States, France, and Great Britain; and a reply from Russia is awaited. Because the Austrian treaty—it is not a peace treaty, the Allies having declared that Austria did not wage war against them of its own volition and therefore is not an enemy country—is a testing ground for the possibilities of future CoOperation between East and West, the new negotiations in prospect have high significance. On this question it should be easier for the Big Four to reach agreement than on any other of those that divide them. Much progress has, indeed, been made, Russia having been unusually conciliatory in the earlier stages of the discussions by the Foreign Ministers’ deputies from February to May this year. It is true that the effect of the Russian concessions, as one observer put it, was to scale down her demands on the Austrian economy from the “ obviously impossible to the distinctly “ unreasonable ”; but since the Western Powers, as the guarantors of the Austrian economy, were also prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of agreement, there seemed a real hope that the two sides might eventually come to terms. Previous negotiations had broken down on Russian claims, based on clauses in the Potsdam agreement, to “ Ger- “ man external assets ” in Eastern Austria. This year Russia scaled down her lump-sum demand, representing the value of the German properties to which she laid claim, from 200,000,000 dollars to 150,000,000 dollars, and proposed that her claifn on Austrian oil resources should be met by vesting in her for 30 years all rights in properties representing 60 per cent, of the country’s total oil production. The latter was agreed to in principle by the deputies; but only tentative progress was made toward agreement on the lump-sum payment question. The Western Powers a year earlier had set 100,000,000 dollars as their limit; but France was willing to advance to 115,000,000 dollars, and it seemed likely that the gap would have been greatly reduced, if the discussions had not broken down on another question altogether. This was raised by Jugoslavia’s claims on Austria for territory in Southern Carinthia along the Drau Valley and for 150,000,000 dollars as “ reparations ”. As the Western Poivers would not compromise on their stand that Austria must regain her pre-Ansch-luss frontiers and must not pay reparations, the Soviet deputy’s support for the Jugoslav claims left no alternative but to end the conference.

There are two sources ;for the hope that the negotiations may now be successfully resumed. First, Russia’s earlier concessions suggest that she is ’nOt averse to seeing the Austrian question settled; second, relations between Russia and Jugoslavia have changed. The Austrian Government seems to have been greatly encouraged by this development, feeling that Russia may not now so firmly support the extravagant Jugoslav claims. Gordon Shepherd, special correspondent of the “ Daily Telegraph ”, in a dispatch from- Vienna, recorded a little piece of circumstantial evidence that points in this direction. On the first day of the Danube Conference at Belgrade, he wrote, the Western Powers advocated Austria’s right to vote as a full member on the ground that the State Treaty to establish her independence was “ as good as completed, apart from “ a few reparations questions of “ minor importance ”. Mr Vyshinsky, replying to this somewhat surprising argument, pointed out that the Soviet was still primarily concerned about the German assets problem in Eastern Austria. If the Western Powers thought this was the only unsolved question, he added, then the State Treaty could soon be signed. There was not a word from either side about the Jugoslav claims. The debit side of the ledger is heavily inscribed. The continued occupation of Austria may seem more important to Russia now that the breach with Jugoslavia threatens to open a gap in the protecting ring of satellite States to the south. Russia can have no illusions about the feelings of the Austrian people, the great majority of whom are anti-Communist and anti-Russian, and take no trouble to hide their opinions, even in the Soviet zone. A free Austria, securely sandwiched between Communist Czechoslovakia and Communist Jugoslavia, might have seemed to the Russians a reasonable risk to take. A free Austria, integrated in the West European system, and buttressed by a Jugoslavia that may turn more positively toward the West, is something very different.