THE AUSTRIAN TREATY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 4

THE AUSTRIAN TREATY

As the result of the decision of the Conference of Foreign Ministers in London to place the Austrian Treaty first on the agenda, the world should soon know whether any possibility of agreement exists in the major issues that are to be discussed. The problems involved in the Austrian treaty are complex enough, but compared with what might be expected when the German question is raised, the issues are comparatively straightforward ones, and if any spirit of goodwill or compromise enters into the London discussions the task of shaping the outlines of the treaty could be completed without delay. It was agreed at earlier meetings of the Big Four that Austria —th 6 first victim of German aggression—should be treated as a liberated, not a conquered country, and arrangements were made for elections in which the Austrian people could select their own form of Government under Allied control. But the same jealousies and suspicions that exist among the Four Powers in Germany are present in the occupation zones of Austria and throughout the country there is an atmosphere of pessimism and stagnation that will be dispelled only when the Austrians are left to shape their own future, and cease to be pawns in the great game of power politics that is being played on the European chequerboard. The Austrian case has already been stated by the Foreign Minister, Dr Gruber, at conferences in Paris, London and Moscow. He has asked that Austria should be clearly separated from Germany; that the national economy should not be burdened with reparations; that the impudent Yugoslav claim to the province of Carinthia be rejected; and that Allied troops should be withdrawn. Nothing in these claims can be regarded as inconsistent or incompatible with the spirit of the Potsdam declaration, but differences of' interpretation have led to conflicts in opinion and policy almost as bitter as those that have arisen in Germany. The crucial question is that of the interpretation of clauses in the Potsdam agreement

relating to German external assets. By these clauses the United Kingdom and the United States renounced their claims to, shares of German assets in Eastern Europe, “including Eastern Austria,” while the Soviet similarly surrendered its claims to shares of German assets in the west. Since then, however, the Russians have declared that these clauses have given them exclusive title to all German-owned assets in their zones of occupation. The Nazis, before and during the war, obtained by force title to practically all the important companies and resources in Austria and the other Danubian countries, and were the Western Allies to concede that these holdings represented legitimate German assets, the Soviet would obtain a dominating influence in the economy of Austria. ' The recent seizures of the Danube Navigation Company and the Lobau oil refineries are only two examples of the manner in which the Russians are interpreting the agreement. The future political independence of Austria will be possible only when its economic independence is certain, and the restoration of its resources which have passed from Nazi into Russian hands will be a prerequisite to acquiescence by Great Britain and the United States on the terms of the peace treaty.