File No. 763.72/2580
The Consul General at Budapest (Coffin) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 18.]
Sir: I have the honor to report certain information concerning the relations of Great Britain, France, and Germany just prior to the war, which has been communicated to me by Mr. S. S. McClure and which was obtained by him since his arrival in Europe with the party of Mr. Henry Ford.
Mr. McClure, who is now editor in chief of the Evening Mail of New York, has a wide European acquaintance and is well known in Germany. After leaving the Ford party he went to Germany where he talked with many men prominent in political and professional circles. He went through Belgium under German auspices and visited the German front in Russia. He arrived in Budapest on March 20, on his way from Constantinople to Berlin. Here he is interviewing Count Tisza and Count Albert Apponyi.
Mr. McClure’s connections in Germany seem to have procured him special facilities for observation, and his views on the situation in Belgium, Germany, and Turkey are extremely interesting and, coming from a man of his ability, important. Although the editorial head of a paper which is disposed to favor the cause of the Central powers, Mr. McClure is unmistakably pro-Ally. He states that he has been particularly interested in tracing the explanation of what he terms the unexplained hitch in the diplomatic negotiations of the great powers immediately before the outbreak of the war and in [Page 26] testing the sentiments of prominent men in the Central powers towards peace negotiations.
Mr. McClure said nothing to me which indicated any success in tracing the aforesaid “unexplained hitch,” but he did make two statements which, even if they have no more important significance, are worth reporting to the Department as interesting rumors.
Mr. McClure states that in the month of June 1914, England, France, and Germany had arrived at an agreement which practically settled their political differences. This agreement, which had been approved by the respective foreign offices, and may or may not have been put into treaty form for signature, contained the following provisions:
- (1)
- Germany was to have complete control of the Bagdad Railway, with the exception that its Persian Gulf terminus, the town of Basra, was to be under the joint control of Great Britain and Germany.
- (2)
- Great Britain was to control Koweit.
- (3)
- The interests of France in the Bagdad Railway were to be purchased by Germany.
- (4)
- The navigation of the Euphrates was to be given to a company composed of 60 per cent British and 40 per cent German capital.
- (5)
- Great Britain was to have a certain share in the development of the resources of Asia Minor.
- (6)
- Syria was to be given to France.
- (7)
- Germany and Great Britain were to share the economic development of the Portuguese colonies in Africa.
Mr. McClure states that he was told of the existence of this agreement by Doctor Jaeckh, former secretary of the late Prime Minister Kiderlen-Waechter and by Count Metternich, the present German Ambassador at Constantinople. Both Count Metternich and Doctor Jaeckh spoke of the agreement as if they considered its existence and its provisions to be known to Germans interested in public affairs. Neither gave Mr. McClure the impression that they were revealing anything confidential.
Mr. McClure was also told that Russia, having learned of the existence of this agreement, which would isolate her, took immediate steps to force an issue and, by intrigues in the Balkans, produced a situation which got beyond the control of Germany, France, and England.
Mr. McClure spoke also with Herr Zimmermann of the Berlin Foreign Office and with Dr. Siegfried Heckscher, one of the spokesmen of the Wilhelmstrasse in the Reichstag. Both of these gentlemen, although they did not specifically mention the agreement above described, did dwell particularly upon the fact that just prior to the outbreak of the war the relations of Germany and England had greatly improved and their political differences were on the point of being settled.
Mr. McClure traveled from Berlin to Constantinople with Doctor Jaeckh, who said that his knowledge of the agreement was first hand, as he had assisted in drafting it.
[Page 27]Doctor Jaeckh also informed Mr. McClure that in the year 1912 Russia and Bulgaria had made a secret treaty by which Bulgaria, after organizing a league of the Balkan states, was, with Russia, to attack Austria-Hungary. This was prevented by the outbreak of the Balkan war, which took a different direction from that anticipated and desired by Russia.
Mr. McClure states that he hopes to be able to obtain copies of both agreements and intends, if possible, to verify in France and England the existence of the agreement between those countries and Germany. He of course contemplates the publication of this material in the United States provided he can secure sufficient evidence of its authenticity.
The foregoing is transmitted for the information of the Department as Mr. McClure’s activities in European political circles may not have been reported to it from other sources.
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