763.72119/2676

The Swedish Minister ( Ekengren ) to the Secretary of State

No. 5582

Excellency: I have the honor to request Your Excellency to kindly transmit the following message of the Austrian Government, which 1 have received today through my Government, to the President of the United States:7

“Mr. President: The Provisional National Assembly of German Austria on November 12, 1918, unanimously resolved to constitute German Austria into a democratic Republic which is to form part [Page 190] of the Great German Republic. The German people of Austria, in the exercise of their right of self-determination, have thus made it known that they will not henceforth be subjected to any executive power other than that set up by themselves and that they want to restore the close political connection with Germany which, fifty-two years ago, was rent asunder by the sword. We hope, Mr. President, that you will give your support to these endeavors of the German people of Austria, in accordance with the principles so often proclaimed by you. You, Mr. President, have championed the right of the Poles, Italians and Jugo-Slavs who hitherto belonged to the Austrian State to unite with their National States outside of Austria. We are convinced that you will also concede the same right to the German people of Austria. We beg you, Mr. President, to offer us the earliest opportunity to enter upon preliminary peace negotiations. The Council of State of the German Austrian Republic is exclusively empowered to conduct those negotiations in our name; the powers of the former Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have expired. The Austro-Hungarian Missions abroad are provisionally empowered to represent the Council of State until the German Austrian Republic organizes a representative corps of its own. We have read with special attention the warning given by you, Mr. President, to the liberated peoples of Austria to be firm and cautious.8 Our Government, which consists of representatives of all the parties in German Austria, has thus far fully succeeded in its efforts to maintain order and liberty in our land. These efforts however are at present hampered by the severe lack of food which prevails in our country. The continuance of the blockade threatens the German people of Austria with a danger all the more serious as the Slav National States which grew out of the soil of Austria also lock out the German Austrian Republic and refuse to deliver to the German Austrian industrials the surplus of their agricultural products. Under those circumstances a hunger catastrophe hangs over the German Austrian Republic. We therefore take note with the greatest satisfaction of your willingness, Mr. President, to come to the relief of German Austria by sending food products and beg you kindly to afford that relief with the utmost dispatch. Accept, Mr. President, the expression of our most distinguished consideration.

The Foreign Office of the German Austrian Republic. Dr. Bauer”

Accept [etc.]

W. A. F. Ekengren
  1. The following is a translation of the German text quoted by the Minister; the file translation has been revised. A translation of this note was sent to Colonel House in Department’s telegram No. 83, Nov. 27, 1918, 4 p.m.
  2. See telegram No. 3275, Nov. 5, 1918, 4 p.m., to the Minister in Switzerland, Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. i, p. 470.