Paris Peace Conf. 184.00101/142
Minutes of Meeting of Commissioners and Technical Advisers, American Commission to Negotiate Peace, Hotel Crillon, Paris, August 20, 1919, 2 p.m.
- Present:
- Mr. Polk
- Admiral Knapp
- Colonel Grant
- Mr. Nielsen
- Dr. Lord
- Prof. Coolidge
- Dr. Buckler
- Mr. Dresel
- Capt. Hornbeck
- Mr. Harrison
- Mr. A. W. Dulles
- Mr. Shaw
- Capt. Chapin
- Mr. Russell
Mr. Polk: Admiral, have you anything?
Admiral Knapp: Nothing in particular, sir. Nothing except what I sent to you.
Mr. Polk: There is nothing further on that question of the distribution of ships?
[Page 391]Admiral Knapp: I telegraphed some days ago to the department, and inquired whether the War and Navy Departments could get together and settle on some scheme. I wanted to know in particular about the air craft.
Mr. Polk: There is no question about the submarines at all? It is perfectly clear that they are to be destroyed?
Admiral Knapp: Not all have agreed to that.
Mr. Polk: Didn’t they all agree to the destruction of the submarines?
Admiral Knapp: No.
Mr. Polk: The British did not?
Admiral Knapp: Yes, the British agreed to the destruction. The only people holding out are the French. And there is that unfortunate misunderstanding about the Scapa Flow incident.
I telegraphed Washington for a little more definite information about the aircraft, whether we are permitted to leave what we don’t want in the pool, or whether the message applied to aircraft too. It was so written that apparently it only applied to ships.
Mr. Polk: In connection with the blockade question which we discussed yesterday, is it your understanding that they are going to make any announcement on that?
Admiral Knapp: From here?
Mr. Polk: Yes.
Admiral Knapp: No, I shouldn’t think we could do that until the governments have been approached. The whole thing is just a matter of beating the devil around the stump. By the time anything can be done it will be too late. So I think the proper thing will be to get together and look wise, but I don’t anticipate there is going to be any great result from it.
Mr. Polk: Does anyone know how Scott and Morley are getting along with the draft?
Prof. Coolidge: The Coordinating Committee met yesterday morning. They met this morning, and meet again this afternoon.
Mr. Polk: All the other committees are through?
Mr. Nielsen: With the reply to Austria, yes.
Mr. A. W. Dulles: The Nationality Clauses are still outstanding. Drafts have been prepared by the Drafting Committee, but they have to go to the Supreme Council for approval before the reply is given the Austrians. They cannot reply on the basis of these clauses until they are passed upon by the Supreme Council.
Mr. Nielsen: What did the Council decide on that, Mr. Harrison?
Mr. Harrison: It was agreed yesterday that everything was to go to the Coordinating Committee.
Mr. Polk: Who sits on the Drafting Committee for us?
Mr. Harrison: James Brown Scott.
[Page 392]Mr. Polk: Doesn’t Dr. Scott sit on the Coordinating Committee?
Mr. Harrison: No.
Mr. Nielsen: The Coordinating Committee will get a report from us which consists of the work being done by the Drafting Committee.
Mr. Polk: Have you anything? (Addressing Mr. Dresel.)
Mr. Dresel: No, sir.
Dr. Lord: I may as well report progress on one or two questions in regard to Teschen. The members that have been sitting on that commission reached a unanimous decision yesterday, which will go to the Supreme Council at once. That part of the mining region where the Polish majority is so overwhelming, and the feeling of the population so intense against the Czechs, it seems rather unwise to recommend that that go to Czecho-Slovakia. It will leave about sixty percent of the coal produced in Teschen on the Czech side.
Mr. Polk: How about the railroad?
Dr. Lord: It will be cut into in several places, although it will leave to the Czechs the possibility—by building a small line of about twelve kilometers—of getting a double track line from the mining district, through the Jablunitza Pass to the frontier. It will take in to Poland about ten thousand Czechs living in that territory, and would give about three-fourths of the Poles that live in Teschen to Poland. In case the Supreme Council accepts this frontier, it is proposed that it then authorize the Commission to negotiate with the Czechs and Poles about economic arrangements which may be made and put into the Treaty to ensure the interests of the Czechs in regard to railway communications and coal. It seemed to the Commission that when it came to a question of comparing the rights of the people with the question of coal, that the people came first.
Mr. Polk: Have you anything, Colonel Grant?
Colonel Grant: No, sir, excepting several things that are a little bit in suspense about Thrace. I think the Ports and Waterways Clauses will have to be changed a little bit.
Mr. Polk: I see one French paper yesterday favored our solution. Have you anything else? (Addressing Mr. Harrison.)
Mr. Harrison: No, sir.
Mr. Polk: When do you think the Austrian Treaty is going to be ready?
Mr. Harrison: It depends on what the Coordinating Committee does with the proceedings of yesterday. If the French draft goes through, they might be ready by Friday or Saturday. If there are too many annexes, and if Mr. Balfour brings it up in the Supreme Council, it will take three months.
Mr. Polk: I think you are reasonably safe in eliminating that last proposition; Mr. Balfour leaves on the 30th.
[Page 393]Colonel Grant: One other little thing, and that is this matter of shipments of material from other countries into Serbo-Croatia. The present arrangement is that shipments are temporarily suspended until a decision is reached as to how much should be shipped and how much should not; and that awaits a decision as to whether anything is to be done definitely about a limitation of armaments in those countries. And in the meantime shipments have stopped, and of course the Italians have by that means gotten just exactly what they started out to get; prevented shipments from going in.
Mr. Polk: They will do everything they can to prevent the shipment of railroad material.
Colonel Grant: We are interested on account of that railroad material, and things of that kind.
Mr. Harrison: Mr. Tittoni wanted that put off the agenda until M. Clemenceau gets here. He is supposed to be here tomorrow.
Prof. Coolidge: After the Austrians are given the Treaty they will have to take it back to Vienna, and that alone would take five days. It has got to be approved by the Austrian Assembly, and the Orient Express takes at least two and one-half days each way, so the fact that they have to take it to Vienna will mean an additional 5 days.
Mr. Harrison: They will ask for an extension.
Mr. A. W. Dulles: The Committee on New States has four treaties in advanced state of preparation. The Czecho-Slovak treaty has already been presented to the Supreme Council. It is proposed that it be signed at the same time as the Austrian Treaty is signed, inasmuch as the Polish Treaty was signed at the same time as was the German Treaty. The Rumanians have made no observations. They object to clauses relative to the Protection of Minorities in the Austrian Treaty. And then there are also the treaties for the Serb-Croat-Slovene State. The last two are not quite ready, but the Czech Treaty is practically completed.
Mr. Harrison: In connection with the Rumanian attitude just mentioned, Mr. Dulles sent me a dispatch from our Chargé d’Affaires at Bucharest, reporting a conversation with Mr. Bratiano. Mr. Bratiano in that conversation said that Rumania would refuse to accept the boundary line with Hungary assigned to her by the Conference. They would insist upon the boundary line of August 1916.
Mr. A. W. Dulles: In the Treaty with Austria they are obligated to sign a provision for the Protection of Minorities. Rumania objects most strenuously.
Mr. Nielsen spoke of the treaty of 1839 between Belgium and Holland; that he had no instructions whatever as to what position to take in connection with the negotiations.
Meeting adjourned at 2:55 p.m.