Paris Peace Conf. 840.014/1

Mr. Allen W. Dulles to the Assistant Secretary of the Commission to Negotiate Peace ( Harrison )

Subject: Statement regarding use of force to realize territorial ambitions.

With reference to the memoranda you left with me yesterday,19 I quote below the text of a possible statement in regard to the use of force to secure an immediate realization of territorial ambitions.

“It has come to the attention of the American Commission to Negociate Peace that force is still being resorted to for the purpose [Page 325] of securing an immediate realization of territorial ambitions. This has often caused needless bloodshed and the interruption of ways of communication necessary to the welfare of the peoples concerned. The American Commission desires, therefore, to make clear that the employment of force to create a ‘fait accompli’ may tend to raise rather than dispel doubts as to the justice of the territorial claims involved.”

In my opinion, it would be preferable that any such statement should be a joint declaration of the Allies or included in a speech of the President’s rather than be made “ex cathedra” by the American Commission alone.

The French military authorities in Budapest have recently indicated to the Hungarians the boundaries which should be considered as a temporary line to separate them from the Czecho-Slovaks. In case it is feasible to draw such temporary lines of division in all disputed territories in connection with the above statement, the force of the statement would be greatly increased.

Allen W. Dulles
  1. Not printed.