File No. 763.72119/1603
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Rumania ( Vopicka)
191. You are instructed to inform the Minister of Foreign Affairs and your diplomatic colleagues of the following:
It has come to the knowledge of the Government of the United States that a rumor is in circulation in Roumania, which is received in some quarters with credence, that this Government has given [Page 771] assurances to the Austro-Hungarian Government that the latter will be given a free hand in the Balkans in the adjustment of the territorial and political sovereignty of the nations which claim priority in that region.
This rumor which has become current is utterly false and without foundation. The Government of the United States has not and will not commit itself to a policy which denies the rights of small nations and recognizes in Austria-Hungary a supremacy which it does not and ought not to possess. The United States entered this war in opposition to this idea of the primacy of the strong over the weak, and it will never relinquish its purpose to maintain the full sovereignty of small nations which the great nations seek to subordinate and control.
You may give such publicity to the foregoing as you deem proper.