763.72119/3265

The Swedish Legation to the Department of State

Memorandum

The Government of the Hungarian Republic has requested the Swedish Government that the following message, which has also been sent to the Governments of the Allies, be communicated to the Government of the United States:18

“The Government of the Hungarian Republic applies to all the Governments of the Allied Powers and begs to be given the opportunity to renew the direct relations that were broken up by the war through the sending of special missions to the said governments. There are two reasons why the sending of such missions is, in our opinion, not only to the interests of the Republic of the Hungarian [Page 205] people but also, in part, to those of the Allied Powers. The Hungarian Government so far has succeeded in holding the young Republic of the people within the bounds of democratic order which was at all times proclaimed by the Allied Powers to be one of their foremost war aims. But the state of utter confusion and disorder in the districts invaded by the Czecho-Slovak troops and in those regions brought under the influence of the Roumanian national council, as well as the parts recently occupied by the Serbs, constitutes a danger to the ways of communication and an orderly distribution of food. In addition, the disastrous lack of coal which threatens an early destruction of economic life not only in Budapest but throughout the land, makes it more and more difficult for us to maintain the new democratic order. In order to ward off the peril of anarchy about to swoop upon the Republic of the Hungarian people, the urgent need is to put our Government in position directly to confer in the very near future with the Allied Governments about the means of averting or at least provisionally alleviating the impending difficulties. In support of its request the Hungarian Government further points to the fact that the armistice concluded with the Commander of the Allied forces expires on December 4 next and that it would be desirable to confer upon certain points before that date and thus assist us in maintaining order in the Republic of the Hungarian people. Taking into account the sympathies which the members of the present Hungarian Government always bore to the Allied Powers during the war and that have grown deeper and broader since the fall of the former regime, the Government of the Republic of the Hungarian people feels justified in hoping that the Governments of the Allied Powers will assent to a very early sending of special missions.

“In the name of the Hungarian Government:
Michel Károlyi, President of the Council.”

The foregoing communication has been cabled by the Foreign Office in Stockholm to the Swedish Legation under date of November 25, 1918, but has never reached its destination. A copy of said cable has now been received by the Swedish Legation through the mail from the Foreign Office in Stockholm.

No. 6277

  1. The following is a translation of the French text quoted in the Swedish memorandum; the file translation has been revised. A translation of the message was sent to the Commission to Negotiate Peace as the Department’s telegram No. 299, Jan. 18, 1919, 6 p.m., with the statement that the “Department has merely acknowledged receipt of the note adding that this question has been brought to the attention of the Mission.”