Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/469
Professor A. C. Coolidge to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received May 14.]
Sirs: I have the honor to report that the Chancellor, Mr. Renner, told me today that he would be greatly obliged to me if I would forward to the members of the American Mission certain facts in connection with the present situation of the Germans in West Hungary and ask for their immediate consideration. I have already taken up this question in my reports No. 49 of January 29th, No. 90 of February 17th, No. 122 of March 3d, No. 151 of March 16th and No. 168 of March 20th.34 At the present moment the region is on the verge of civil war. Many of the Hungarian troops supposed to be posted there have simply scattered and are living off the people. The peasantry are not likely to stand this much longer, and may rise in revolt at anytime—in which case Austria will have to intervene.
As has already been pointed out in my previous reports this region is inhabited by a German population who in spite of the political boundary line have always been more closely connected to Vienna than to Budapest, and it is a territory on which Vienna is particularly dependent for food. Chancellor Renner says that the Austrians cannot now sit by and abandon it to the horrors of civil war, but that they have consistently followed in the last few months the policy of not interfering anywhere beyond the boundaries they at present hold. In this instance they are very desirous of acting, not on their own account but with a mandate from the Allied Powers. The question is immediate, for an outbreak may occur any day, and for this reason the Chancellor asked me to prepare the way for him in the hope that he may be able to take up the matter in some way soon after his arrival at St. Germain instead of waiting until in the official order of things the question of West Hungary should happen to come up of itself. He declared that what Austria desired ultimately was a plebiscite, under Allied supervision if necessary, which should enable the inhabitants to express freely their desires. He pointed out that the important manufacturing city of Wiener-Neustadt is on the very frontier, and that if Red troops came flowing in a retreat from Budapest it will be hard to hold them back unless the Austrians can advance a certain distance from the city to protect it. He had previously asked me if I were familiar with the situation in Wiener-Neustadt, and by this last remark he unquestionably meant to indicate that there were a good many Communists in Wiener-Neustadt who would be likely to take the side of the Red Guard.
[Page 311]The impression left upon me by the above conversation is that under certain circumstances the Austrians intend to advance into the immediate territory of West Hungary with the hope of retaining it permanently. It would naturally be a great advantage to them to do this as mandatories of the Powers instead of appearing to attack an unoffending neighbor. This fact, however, does not affect the advisability of listening to the Austrian request. If it is desirable, as I believe it is, that this German speaking strip should belong in future to Austria rather than to Hungary, there is something to be said in favor of giving Austria mandatory powers at once.
I have [etc.]