File No. 763.72119/2392
The Swedish Minister ( Ekengren) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 29, 4.20 p.m.]
Excellency: By order of my Government, I have the honor to beg you to submit to the President the following communication from, the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary:
In reply to the note of President Wilson to the Austro-Hungarian Government dated October 18 [19]1 of this year, with regard to the decision of the President to take up with Austria-Hungary separately the question of armistice and peace, the Austro-Hungarian Government has the honor to declare that it adheres both to the previous declarations of the President and his opinion of the rights of the peoples of Austria-Hungary, notably those of the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs, contained in his last note. Austria-Hungary having thereby accepted all the conditions which the President had put upon entering into negotiations on the subject of armistice and peace, nothing, in the opinion of the Austro-Hungarian Government, longer stands in the way of beginning those negotiations. The Austro-Hungarian Government therefore declares itself ready to enter, without waiting for the outcome of other negotiations, into [Page 405] negotiations for a peace between Austria-Hungary and the Entente states and for an immediate armistice on all the Austro-Hungarian fronts and begs President Wilson to take the necessary measures to that effect.
Be pleased to accept [etc.]