File No. 763.72119/2536
The Swedish Minister ( Ekengren ) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: By order of my Government I have the honor confidentially to transmit herewith to you the following communication of the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary to the President of the United States of America:
The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which has waged war always and solely as a defensive war and repeatedly given documentary evidence of its readiness to stop the shedding of blood and arrive at a just and honorable peace, hereby addresses itself to his Lordship (Monseigneur) the President of the United States of America and offers to conclude with him and his allies an armistice on every front, on land, at sea, and in the air, and to enter immediately upon negotiations for a peace for which the fourteen points in the message of President Wilson to Congress of January 8, 1918, and the four points contained in President Wilson’s address of February 12 [11], 1918, should serve as a foundation, and in which the viewpoints declared by President Wilson in his address of September 27, 1918, will also be taken into account.1
Be pleased to accept [etc.]