File No. 763.72/2712

The Ambassador in Austria-Hungary ( Penfield ) to the Secretary of State

No. 1538

Sir: Believing it a duty always to work for harmony and peace, I have the honor to advise you that yesterday I had an interview with the Austro-Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs on an appointment made several days previously for the transaction of routine Embassy matters. It was my judgment that the occasion was propitious for performing certain “missionary work” looking to imparting a reasonable amount of helpful information to the Minister on the subject of the current American-German crisis as viewed from our standpoint.

Among other things I wished to secure Baron Burian’s promise to instruct Austro-Hungarian consuls in Bulgaria and Roumania to visa the passports of American citizens wishing to traverse this Monarchy on the return journey to the United States. Impulsively I mentioned that if “we were to leave Austria” it would be a hardship to Americans in the Balkan states to find themselves indefinitely shut in. My remark was quickly parried by the Minister who said, with obvious seriousness, “But we don’t want you to leave Austria, decidedly not.”

This opening of the question gave me the opportunity to explain our great desire to have no interruption of relations. I did not hesitate to remark that President Wilson was acting in humanity’s name for neutrals the world over, and judging from advices I had received he had a vast majority of the American people with him in the stand taken in the note to Germany. I emphatically stated that a break with Berlin was certain if German officials could find no way of bringing their submarine warfare within the limits of international law and humanity.

Baron Burian being a Hungarian of acknowledged cleverness as an economist, I believed it politic to discover if he was aware of the enormous sum remitted annually by Hungarians in America to their [Page 270] kindred in Hungary. Statesmen in Hungary are keenly conscious of this influx of American money, for which Hungary toils not nor sends anything to market, and the matter is always considered in budget-framing in the Hungarian Kingdom. I explained that the sum must be as much as $50,000,000. The Minister quickly corrected me by insisting that my estimate was much too low, for in years when business in America was good the remittances ran as high as $150,000,000, and even in normal years were $100,000,000.

It was unnecessary to probe further for judging what Hungary’s attitude would be in the prospect of a development of relations having the seriousness of war—Hungary could not want such estrangement, for it would vitally touch the pocketbook nerve of the nation with a vengeance, and Baron Burian is as astute as any official claiming Hungarian birth.

After reiterating that I hoped he would use his potent influence in Berlin to prevent a break with America, I took my leave, with Baron Burian repeating the hope that nothing might happen to interrupt our agreeable official and personal relations. It was satisfying to discover that this shrewd Hungarian was acutely awake to the prodigious flow of money from our country to his own.

I think it not inopportune to advise you that in my opinion Baron Burian’s heart is still chilled against our nation because he failed to induce us to cease supplying arms and ammunition to such European countries as might purchase them, and is not in love with a Government that compelled him to “recall” an obnoxious Ambassador rather than have the official “withdrawn for consultation.” Whatever his feelings for the United States, I am certain that he wants no rupture and that he is working at Berlin for a satisfactory arrangement of Germany’s submarine policy. Only four months ago his own Government was confronted with a situation nearly as serious, in connection with the torpedoing of the Ancona, when it “climbed down” in a manner causing no loss of national prestige.

At yesterday’s interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs it was my belief that he was downcast and saddened by the current situation, almost to the extent of making his condition appear pathetic.

Since the American note has been on the tapis as the absorbing topic of conversation, scores of Austrians have said to me that their country wanted no trouble with America and should not be involved with Germany in a matter so foreign to their nature and wish. These people avow no sympathy with a submarine program that kills non-combatant persons on unarmed ships. It would be imprudent to give the names and rank of Vienna people whom I have heard decry the submarine crimes of their ally, for some stand very high in the official and social world. I have reason to believe that the Emperor himself is no friend of the submarine as a death-dealing instrument.

Oddly enough certain local journals of influence to-day print a list with tonnage of Austro-Hungarian ships that have interned in United States harbors since the war began.

I have [etc.]

Frederic C. Penfield