711.632/51a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Austria (Washburn)
3. 1. On February 11 the Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty of friendship, commerce and consular rights with Austria, subject to a reservation “to be set forth in an exchange of notes between the High Contracting Parties so as to make it plain that this condition is understood and accepted by each of them: That the sixth paragraph of Article VII shall remain in force for 12 months from the date of exchange of ratification, and, if not then terminated on 90 days’ previous notice, shall remain in force until either of the high contracting parties shall enact legislation inconsistent therewith, when the same shall automatically lapse at the end of 60 days from such enactment, and on such lapse each high contracting party shall enjoy all the rights which it would have possessed had such paragraph not been embraced in this treaty.”
2. The effect of this reservation is to limit the term of the sixth paragraph of Article 7 in a manner similar to that of the reservation to the commercial treaty with Germany.2
3. This reservation was made notwithstanding the fact that the Secretary of State appeared before the Committee on Foreign Relations and asked that the treaty be approved as signed.
4. Awaiting more definite instructions you may informally inform the Austrian Government of the foregoing.
- Signed December 8, 1923, ibid., 1923, vol. ii, p. 29.↩