AUSTRIAN PEACE TREATY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26124, 29 May 1950, Page 7

AUSTRIAN PEACE TREATY

RUSSIA BLAMED FOR DELAYS 66 ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT” (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON. May 26. The, Under-Secretary of State (Mr James Webb) to-day criticised Russia for preventing the conclusion of the Austrian peace treaty. He said that the Russians had shown no inclination to get on with the drafting of the treaty, but, instead, again had raised the irrelevant issue of Trieste. He thought it important that people everywhere should recognise the situation for what it was—another attempt to change the subject. “The Governments of the United States, Britain and France, for four years, have endeavoured, by every means, to facilitate the conclusion of the treaty so that the occupation might be ended, and the troops withdrawn. This was necessary to fulfil the pledge made at Moscow in 1943. For four years the Soviet Union has resisted that effort, step by step. “There now remain, out of approximately 50 articles, only five on which) there is disagreement, and all of these the United States. Britain, and France have offered to settle immediately. If these could be settled the occupation troops could be withdrawn, and Austria would be free to mend its economy and assume its proper place in the family of nations. The Soviet Union’s refusal to conclude the treaty is the sole obstacle in the way. That is why the Soviet Union seeks to change the subject.”