Paris Peace Conf. 180.03401/60
CF–60
Notes of a Meeting Held at President Wilson’s House in the Place des
Etats-Unis, Paris, on Wednesday, June 11, 1919, at 5:45 p.m.
Paris, June 11, 1919, 5:45 p.m.
- Present
- United States of America
- British Empire
- The Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George, M. P.
- France
- Italy
| Sir Maurice Hankey, K. C. B. |
} |
Secretaries |
| Count Aldrovandi |
| Prof. P. J. Mantoux.—Interpreter. |
1. The Council had before them the Report of the Committee on the Eastern
Frontiers of Germany, dated June 10th, 1919.1
President Wilson drew attention to the map
accompanying the report and pointed out that just as some Germans had
been transferred to Germany, so some Poles had been transferred to
Poland, as compared with the original scheme. Eastern
Frontiers of Germany: Report of the Committee
Mr. Lloyd George said he had no objection to
this, as it was in accordance with the instructions of the
Committee.
2. President Wilson proposed that the Council
should accept the plebiscite on the one to two years basis. Dr. Lord had
told him upstairs that just before coming to the meeting he had seen an
American just back from Upper Silesia, who had reported that all classes
of the population were in favour of and eager for a plebiscite. Although
Dr. Lord was himself opposed to the plebiscite, he had hastened to
communicate this. The Plebiscite
M. Clemenceau said that he regretted the
plebiscite and considered that, from a political point of view, it was
not good. Henceforth, we must expect great trouble on the eastern
frontiers of Germany. Nevertheless, he would not oppose his colleagues
in this.
(It was agreed to accept the plebiscite on the one to two years
basis.)
3. President Wilson said that Dr. Lord had also
suggested to him that Mr. Headlam-Morley’s proposals for the powers of
the Commission, put forward in his alternative article 5, although
originally drawn for an immediate plebiscite, were much better suited to
the delayed plebiscite than article 5 of the majority report. Powers of the Commission
[Page 317]
(After both articles had been read, it was agreed to substitute Mr.
Headlam-Morley’s draft of Article 5 for the first two paras of Article 5
of the majority report.)
4. President Wilson drew attention to Article 4
and pointed out that it was hardly necessary to invite the Japanese, who
had no concern in the matter, to nominate a representative to the
International Commission. Composition of the
Commission
(It was agreed to alter the first sentence of Article 4 in the following
sense:—
“Upper Silesia should be immediately placed under the authority
of an International Commission of four
members, to be designated by the following Powers:—
- United States of America,
- Great Britain,
- France and
- Italy.)
5. President Wilson drew attention to Article 3
and the proposal for the removal of higher officials “in the
accompanying list.” He pointed out that no list accompanied the
report.
Mr. Lloyd George suggested that it would be
better to leave this to the International Commission. Removal of Officials
(It was agreed to amend the first sentence of Article 3 in the following
sense:—
“Within 15 days of the coming into force of the present Treaty,
all German troops and such officials as may be designated by the
Commission to be set up under the provisions of Article 4, shall
evacuate Upper Silesia.”)
6. President Wilson drew attention to the last
page of the second report of the Commission on Eastern Frontiers, dated
11th June, 1919,1a in which they enclosed a draft reply
to the German Application memorandum and summarised concessions which it
was proposed to make in reply to the German proposals. Application of Financial Recommendations to the Whole
of Poland
The first of these concessions related to the financial clauses which, it
was agreed, should be applied to the German proprietors not only in
Upper Silesia but also in all the territories transferred from German to
Polish sovereignty.
(This was agreed to.)
7. President Wilson pointed out that the second
recommendation was that if the plebiscite was applied to Upper Silesia
was adopted [sic], it would be difficult to avoid
applying it also to the part of Upper Silesia granted to
Czecho-Slovakia, namely, the district of Ratibor. District of Ratibor
[Page 318]
M. Ciemenceau said that, as Ratibor had been
granted to Czechoslovakia, it could not be taken back.
(It was agreed to take no action in regard to this.)
8. M. Clemenceau raised the question of the
occupation.
Mr. Lloyd George said that, if necessary, all
the Allies would have to contribute troops, but the British Government
would prefer that the United States should undertake it. Occupation by Allied Troops
President Wilson undertook to consult his
military authorities.
M. Clemenceau asked who would defray the
cost.
M. Orlando said that it had been proposed that
the nation which retained the sovereignty after the plebiscite should
bear the cost.
Mr. Lloyd George suggested that, Upper Silesia,
being a wealthy district, ought to pay the cost.
(This was agreed, and it was further agreed that that last paragraph of
Article 8 should be altered in the following sense:—
“The cost of the army of occupation and expenditure by the
Commission, whether in discharge of its own functions or in the
administration of the territory, will be a charge on the
district.”)
(Subject to the above alterations, the Report of the Committee on the
Eastern Frontiers of Germany was approved, and Sir Maurice Hankey was
instructed to prepare a re-draft of the Articles to be initialled by the
four Heads of States and to set in motion the other action to give
effect to the decisions of the Council.)
9. With reference to C. F. 56, Minute 1,2 the Council had before them a report of the
Council of Foreign Ministers on their interview Military with the
representatives of Roumania and of the situation in Czecho-Slovak State
on June 11th, at 10 a.m. (Appendix I.) Military
Situatuon in Hungary
(After some discussion, Sir Maurice Hankey was instructed to write to the
Secretary-General, pointing out that there were certain points in
connection with the report on which the Council required further
information, namely:—
- 1.
- As to why the frontiers between Roumania and Hungary were
never communicated to the representatives of the States
concerned.
- 2.
- As to whether M. Bratiano had given any indication as to
whether the proposed frontiers were acceptable or whether he had
offered any criticisms.
- 3.
- The recommendations of the Council of Foreign Ministers as to
the alterations in the frontiers asked for by the Czecho-Slovak
Delegation.
- 4.
- The recommendations of the Council of Foreign Ministers on the
proposals of General Pellé, in regard to which the Council of
Foreign Ministers were, of course, at liberty to obtain any
military or other expert advice if desired,
[Page 319]
Sir Maurice Hankey was further asked to invite the Secretary-General to
arrange for an immediate further meeting of the Council of Foreign
Ministers on the subject.)
10. President Wilson read the reply from
Admiral Koltchak which had been repeated and was now practically
complete. (Appendix II.)
It was particularly noted that Admiral Koltchak had given satisfactory
assurances that there would be no return to the regime which existed in
February, 1917. Russia: The Reply From Admiral
Koltchak
(It was agreed that, subject to the consent of the Japanese Delegation,
the telegram to Admiral Koltchak and the reply should be published. Sir
Maurice Hankey was directed to communicate a copy to the Japanese
Delegation.
Note. Sir Maurice Hankey handed a copy to M.
Saburi, the Secretary of the Japanese Delegation, at the Villa Majestic
immediately after the meeting.)
11. Sir Maurice Hankey said that he had been
asked by the Secretary-General to enquire whether the telegram to Bela
Kun and his reply should be published. Correspondence
With Bela Kun
(It was agreed that the telegrams should not be published until a
cessation of the fighting had been secured.)
12. Sir Maurice Hankey reminded the Council
that the question of references to the League of Nations was still
unsettled. He had received a communication from Mr. Headlam-Morley,
stating that the Committee could not complete its work until it received
this information, which was urgently required. He understood that Mr.
Lloyd George was awaiting a communication from Mr. Paderewski on the
subject. Report of the Committee on Minorities:
References to the League of Nations
Mr. Lloyd George said that he had not yet
received the promised letter.
M. Clemenceau said that he had received a
letter from M. Paderewski, but had not brought it with him.
13. Sir Maurice Hankey drew attention to
several letters which had been received from M. Vesnitch on the subject
of Klagenfurt. Klagenfurt.
(It was agreed that M. Vesnitch’s letters should be referred to the
Commission on this subject.)
14. (It was agreed that on the following day, the Council should discuss
the following questions:—
The occupation of the Rhine Provinces. Agenda
for the Next Meeting
The draft replies to the German Note prepared by the
Commissions.
The draft covering note prepared by Mr. Philip Kerr.
[Page 320]
Sir Maurice Hankey was instructed to invite a Japanese
Representative.)
Villa Majestic,
Paris
, 11 June,
1919.
Appendix I
[Report of the Council of Foreign
Ministers]
In accordance with instructions given by the Council of the Heads of
Governments, the Council of Foreign Ministers have called before
them the representatives of Roumania and of the Czecho-Slovak State
on June 11th, at 10 a.m.
1. The Council have communicated to Mr. Bratiano and Mr.
Vaida-Voevod3 the boundaries between Roumania and Hungary
which have been agreed on by the Supreme Council of the Allies.
Mr. Bratiano remarked that the line was for the first time brought to
his notice. He declared that under these conditions he could not
assume the responsibility of stating his opinion without consulting
the Royal Government. He asked that he might be allowed to postpone
his final answer for ten or twelve days, this delay being necessary
for a messenger to go to Bucarest and return.
2. The Council communicated to Mr. Kramarcz and Mr. Benes the
boundaries between the Czecho-Slovak State and Hungary, which had
been agreed on by the Supreme Council of the Allies.
Mr. Kramarcz declared that the Czecho-Slovak delegation accepted on
the whole these decisions, but he requested that the kind attention
of the Supreme Council might be called to two alterations, which in
his opinion both involved but a slight change in the frontier; the
first of which being of primary importance for the Czechoslovak
State.
A—The present frontier assigns to the Czecho-Slovak State both ends,
and to Hungary the Central portion of the railroad
Czata-Kalonda-Losoncz, which ensures direct communication from west
to east to southern Slovakia.
Thus the frontier leaves in Hungarian territory the junction of this
line with the Korpona branch-line which is almost entirely included
in the Czecho-Slovak territory.
The Czecho-Slovak delegation pointed out that in spite of the
international guarantees which might be given with regard to the
working of the said line, the vital economic interests of southern
Slovakia and more especially of the Korpona district might be
subject to suffer from the unamicable feelings of the Hungarian
authorities.
[Page 321]
Therefore they requested that the frontier might be shifted a few
kilometers to the south so as to include in the Czecho-Slovak
territory the whole of the Csata–Kalonda–Lozoncz railroad.
B. The Czecho-Slovak delegation requested that a portion of territory
on the southern bank of the Danube opposite Pressburg might be
assigned to the Czecho-Slovak State, so as to remedy the
inconvenience which would result from the close proximity of the
town to the frontier line.
3. The Council of the Foreign Ministers have examined the telegram
sent to the Ministère de la Guerre by General Pellé, suggesting that
the Hungarian troops should be withdrawn to a line to be
subsequently determined south of the localities of Tisza-Lucz,
Miskolcz, Vacz, thence to the West of this latter town and as far as
the Austrian frontier, to a line running 25 kilometers south of the
Danube.
The Council of the Foreign Ministers agreed that it would be
undesirable from a political standpoint to fix a military line of
demarcation divergent from the frontier laid down by the Supreme
Council and accepted by the Czecho-Slovak delegation.
They were of opinion that the Supreme Council only was in a position
to decide on the military considerations which might support the
solution suggested by General Pellé.
Appendix II to CF–60
(Translation from French as finally amended in the
light of a repetition of the telegram)
Telegram From Mr. de Martel, French
Chargé d’Affaires at Omsk, to French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs
| Despatched Omsk, |
4th June |
} |
1919 |
| Received Paris, |
5th June |
Most Urgent
Admiral Koltchak, to whom I handed at the station of Tiumen the
telegram of Mr. Clemenceau4 requests me to
communicate the following reply to Mr. Clemenceau:
“The Government over which I preside has been happy to learn
that the policy of the Allied and Associated Powers in
regard to Russia is in perfect accord with the task which
the Russian Government itself has undertaken, that
Government being anxious above all things to re-establish
peace in the country and to assure to the Russian people the
right to decide their own destiny in freedom by means of a
Constituent Assembly. I appreciate highly the interest shown
by the Powers as regards the national movement and consider
their wish to make certain of the political convictions with
which we are inspired as legitimate; I am therefore ready to
confirm once more my previous declarations which I have
always regarded as irrevocable.
[Page 322]
1. On November 18, 1918, I assumed power and I shall not
retain that power one day longer than is required by the
interest of the country; my first thought at the moment when
the Bolsheviks are definitely crushed will be to fix the
date for the elections of the Constituent Assembly. A
Commission is now at work on direct preparation for them on
the basis of universal suffrage. Considering myself as
responsible before that Constituent Assembly I shall hand
over to it all my powers in order that it may freely
determine the system of Government; I have moreover, taken
the oath to do this before the Supreme Russian Tribunal, the
guardian of legality. All my efforts are aimed at concluding
the civil war as soon as possible by crushing Bolshevism in
order to put the Russian people effectively in a position to
express its free will. Any prolongation of this struggle
would only postpone that moment: the Government, however,
does not consider itself authorised to substitute for the
inalienable right of free and legal elections the mere
re-establishment of the Assembly of 1917, which was elected
under a régime of Bolshevik violence and the majority of
whose members are now in the Sovietist ranks. It is to the
legally elected Constituent Assembly alone, which my
Government will do its utmost to convoke promptly, that
there will belong the sovereign rights of deciding the
problems of the Russian State both in the internal and
external affairs of the Country.
2. We gladly consent to discuss at once with the Powers all
international questions, and in doing so shall aim at the
free and peaceful development of peoples, the limitation of
armaments, and the measures calculated to prevent new wars,
of which the League of Nations is the highest
expression.
The Russian Government thinks, however, that it should recall
the fact that the final sanction of the decisions which may
be taken in the name of Russia, will belong to the
Constituent Assembly. Russia cannot now and cannot in future
ever be anything but a democratic State where all questions
involving modifications of the territorial frontiers and of
external relations must be ratified by a representative body
which is the natural expression of the people’s
sovereignty.
3. Considering the creation of a unified Polish State to be
one of the chief of the normal and just consequences of the
world war, the Government thinks itself justified in
confirming the independence of Poland, proclaimed by the
Provisional Russian Government of 1917, all the pledges and
decrees of which we have accepted. The final solution of the
question of delimiting the frontiers between Russia and
Poland must, however, in conformity with the principles set
forth above, be postponed till the meeting of the
Constituent Assembly. We are disposed at once to recognise
the de facto Government of Finland,
but the final solution of the Finnish question must belong
to the Constituent Assembly.
4. We are fully disposed at once to prepare for the solution
of the questions concerning the fate of the national groups
in Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and of the Caucasian and
Transcaspian countries, and we have every reason to believe
that a prompt settlement will be made, seeing that the
Government is assuring as from the present time, the
autonomy of the various nationalities. It goes without
saying that the limits and conditions of these autonomous
institutions will be settled separately as regards each of
the nationalities concerned.
[Page 323]
And even in case difficulties should arise in regard to the
solution of these various questions, the Government is ready
to have recourse to the collaboration and good offices of
the League of Nations with a view to arriving at a
satisfactory settlement.
5. The above principle, implying the ratification of the
agreements by the Constituent Assembly should obviously be
applied to the question of Bessarabia.
6. The Russian Government once more repeats its declaration
of the 27th November, 1918, by which it accepted the burden
of the national debt of Russia.
7. As regards the question of internal politics which can
only interest the Powers in so far as they reflect the
political tendencies of the Russian Government, I make a
point of repeating that there cannot be a return to the
régime which existed in Russia before February 1917. The
provisional solution which my Government has adopted in
regard to the agrarian question aims at satisfying the
interests of the great mass of the population and is
inspired by the conviction that Russia can only be
flourishing and strong when the millions of Russian peasants
receive all guarantees for the possession of the land.
Similarly as regards the régime to be applied to the
liberated territories, the Government, far from placing
obstacles in the way of the free election of local
assemblies, municipalities and zemstvos, regards the
activities of these bodies and also the development of the
principle of self-government as the necessary conditions for
the reconstruction of the country, and is (already) actually
giving them its support and help by all the means (at its)
disposal.
8. Having set ourselves the task of re-establishing order and
justice and of ensuring individual security to the
persecuted population, which is tired of trials and
exactions, the Government affirms the equality before the
law of all classes and all citizens without any special
privilege . . . . . all shall receive, without distinction
of origin or of religion, the protection of the State and of
the Law.
The Government whose Head I am is concentrating all the
forces and all the resources at its disposal in order to
accomplish the task which it has set itself; at this
decisive hour I speak in the name of all National Russia. I
am confident that, Bolshevism once crushed, satisfactory
solutions will be found for all questions which equally
concern all those populations whose existence is bound up
with that of Russia.[”]
