Evening star., 1946-07-08
Russia in Austria

In reaching out for all former
German property in Eastern Aus
tria the Russians have made an
other of those characteristically
abrupt and high-handed moves that
seem deliberately calculated to af-
front and antagonize the rest of the
world. Taken without any consul
tation with the Allied Council, the
action, besides threatening a grave
blow to the Austrian economy, can
hardly fail to create additional bad
feeling between Moscow and the
Western powers at a time when
nothing is needed so much as a
little more good will.
Under the Potsdam agreement, of
course, the Soviet Union is entitled
to a large part of defeated Ger
many's external assets. But a great
deal of the property acquired by
the Nazis in Austria was acquired
under heavy pressure after the an
nexation in 1888. According to re-
ports from Vienna, however, the
Russians apparently have no inten-
ton of letting this fact limit the
extent of their projected grab, their
view being that they have a right
to claim anything once owned by
the Germans in the Red Army zone,
even though that ownership may
have been forcibly wrested from the
Austrians and others after Hitler
marched into the country.
But the United States, together
presumably with Britain, interprets
the Potsdam agreement quite diff
ferently, maintaining that holdings
acquired by the Nazis through direct
or indirect duress in Austria or
elsewhere cannot properly be placed.
in the category of external assets to
be claimed as reparations. AS COM
mander of the American zone Gen.
eral Clark has made this clear to
the Russian commander in a letter
warning against indiscriminate
seizure. He has made clear, too to
the Austrian government that it
Will be wholly within its rights to
refuse to surrender to Soviet agents
anything not reasonably classifable
as German property.
In effect, General Clark thus has
counSeled the Austrians to oppose
a Soviet commando remarkable
step, likely to have important reper-
cusslons. But equally remarkable is
the fact that the government of
Austria, quite independently of our
American advice, has arrived at a
unanimous cabinet decision no
Communist member dissenting-to
ignore the unilateral Russian de-
mand and be governed in the matter
only by written orders from the
Allied Council as whole. In addi-
ton, announcing full interparty
agreement on the view that pre-
annexation Austrian property must
still be regarded as Austrian, it has
called an extraordinary session of
Parliament to deal with the situa-
ton.
1t remains to be seen what the
outcome of all this will be. But
certainly, in view of estimates that
the Soviet claim would deprive the
country of control of rs per cent of
its industrial capacity, Austria's
reaction seems wholly in keeping
with the law of f-preservation
On its face, unless its scope and
intent have been exaggerated in
the somewhat confused first reports
from Vienna, the proposed grab
coupled with orders evicting over
$4,000 Germans" from the Red
Army zone-is so palpably inde-
fensible as to make one wonder
whether Moscow, for some queer
and mysterious reasons of it's own,
may not be purposefully seeking to
lose friends around the world Just
as fast as it possibly can.