File No. 763.72119/1395
The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10 p.m.]
3259. Joint telegram from the Allied ministers at Jassy dated February 26:
[Page 760]General Avereseo returned this morning from Bucharest where, after a preliminary interview, the negotiations were postponed, Kühlmann and Czernin having left suddenly for Brest-Litovsk.
The principal part on the side of the representatives of the Central Powers was played by the Austrian Minister which agrees with the statements made to the Parliaments of Vienna and Berlin. The remaining delegates were struck with the violence of the language of Count Czernin which spread broadcast recriminations concerning the attitude of the Roumanian Government during the period of neutrality and the treatment which he received at the time of his departure from Bucharest.
The essential points of the different questions were not touched. Regarding the Dobroudja the Ministers of the Central Empires confined themselves to contesting in principle the rights of Roumania to this region, whether from a geographical point of view or from an historical and juridical point of view, the Dobroudja having been ceded in compensation for part of Bessarabia and the Governments of Vienna and Berlin having made no objections, so their representatives declared, to the Roumanian aspirations to this latter region. As regards the economic conditions, Von Kühlmann indicated that [they] might be an obstacle to the conclusion of peace and that they particularly [affected] the supplies of wheat and petroleum.
The attitude of the representatives of the Central Powers, their hurried departure for Brest, postponing the negotiations, have appeared to indicate the feeling with them that the events in Russia, where the Austro-German troops are advancing aided by the railroads without any difficulty, will soon put Roumania at their mercy.