File No. 763.72119/1830
The Serbian Minister ( Michailovitch) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 31.]
Your Excellency: In consequence of the news that Bulgaria intends to enter into certain peace negotiations with the Entente Powers or with the United States, I have the honor to enclose herewith [Page 295] a memorandum1 on the Serbian Government’s views concerning this step of the Bulgarian Government.
The purpose of this memorandum is to help by our experiences to avoid faults which could have disastrous effects. The alliance of Bulgaria with the Central Powers and her participation in this war on their side had terrible consequences, not only for Serbia, but also for all the Slav element which is enduring the German-Hungarian yoke. In the Croatian Diet, as well as in the Budapest and Vienna Parliaments, the Jugo-Slav members are openly protesting against the unheard of ill-treatment of our element in the systematic destruction of which Bulgaria is playing the foremost role.
If the salvage of our element is one of the war aims of the Entente Powers and of the United States, then our enemies are also necessarily the enemies of our protectors. I, therefore, take the liberty to express the hope that there will be no negotiations made with our enemies which would concern our future,—without our participation in them;—not that we claim it as a right of ours, but because we feel that our participation would contribute greatly to the just and proper solution of the problems in question.
I beg to renew [etc.]
- Not printed.↩