Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72119/1747

The Secretary of State to the Serbian Minister ( Michailovitch)

No. 72
Washington, June 24, 1918.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of June 14, enclosing a copy of a letter sent by you to the Ambassadors of France, Great Britain, and Italy, concerning the Allied declaration at the Versailles conference on the fate of the oppressed nationalities of Austria-Hungary.

In this connection, in order that there may be no misunderstanding concerning the meaning of the statement issued by the Department on May 29 to the effect that the nationalistic aspirations for freedom of the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs have the earnest sympathy of the United States Government, I beg to state that the position of [Page 816] the United States Government is that all branches of the Slav race should be completely freed from German and Austrian rule.1

Accept [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. The second paragraph was repeated to the Ambassador in Italy in telegram No. 1496, June 27, answering his No. 1707, June 7, ante, p. 810.↩