Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/15
Professor A. C. Coolidge to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received January 24.]
Sirs: I have the honor to report that our party reached here yesterday morning and we were almost at once taken to the President who talked with us for the greater part of an hour. I inclose a report of his conversation by Lieutenant Goodwin.70 Ever since I have been through a series of interviews only interrupted by intervals for food [Page 373] and sleep. I have already seen most of the ministers and several other important men and with difficulty have secured time for this short despatch before the pouch closes. All I can do is to try to recapitulate here the chief points which have been taken up by my various interlocutors.
I. The Hungarians feel that they have a great and legitimate grievance. They accepted an armistice on certain definite terms a copy of which armistice is inclosed herewith.71 These terms they claim have been violated in several respects. Under the armistice a certain territory in the southern part of the country was to be occupied by the Allies, but no acts of sovereignty were to be performed in it until its legitimate fate had been decided by the Peace Conference. Since the conclusion of the Armistice and after the dissolution of the Hungarian army other large tracts have been occupied by the Czechs, the Serbs and the Rumanians and Ukrainians, and the Hungarians were formally notified by the French Commanding General that they were not to oppose these advances. Also in all the above territories the invaders have deposed officials, changed the language of signs and in other ways acted as if they had every intention of remaining there and of forcing the inhabitants to adopt their nationality. There have been numerous tales of outrages, particularly on the part of the Rumanians, but the conduct of the Serbs is praised. There has also been received a notification from Lt. Col. Vix72 saying that the Allied Powers and the United States have authorized the Czechs to act in full sovereignty in the territories occupied by them. I enclose a copy of the notification.73
The Hungarians say that all this is in violation of the terms of the armistice, and that even if the notification from Lt. Col. Vix is in accordance with instructions from the Allied Powers and the United States, and of this they have had no confirmation, it does not apply to the regions occupied by the Serbs and the Rumanians and is in violation of the armistice terms. I am to see people on this subject this afternoon and shall enclose any documents they give me, but shall probably not have time to report further owing to the departure of the courier.
II. All the territory thus occupied is immediately cut off from Hungary. This has meant a dislocation of the economic life of the whole country. On the one hand it is impossible for the government to send money for pensions to the invalids, orphans, etc. in the occupied regions. On the other hand what is left of Hungary has suddenly been deprived of many of its most valuable resources, for instance, [Page 374] four fifths of the Hungarian coal mines have been seized and the country is suffering most acutely from the lack of coal. If this shortage continues unabated, the laming of all industries with the consequent lack of employment of the working classes means a great danger of Bolshevist revolution against a government which has no armed forces with which to meet it.
III. The one great political question in the minds of all apart from the maintenance of order and the economic situation is the danger that menaces the unity of the state. Some men even yet can hardly realize their territory which a thousand years ago had much the same limits as at the present time is now seriously threatened with dismemberment. Others do so with a feeling of despair at what seems to them an enormity. Croatian Slavonia they abandon without too much regret, but for the rest they plead passionately. Their chief arguments are:
- 1.
- The geographical and economic unity which is confirmed by the long historical one.
- 2.
- The impossibility of a division which shall not leave great masses of people under alien rule and the certainty of fresh troubles in the future.
- 3.
- Their willingness to give equal rights to all nationalities and to institute some sort of a government like that of Switzerland with cantonal independence.
- 4.
- Their readiness to put the question to the vote of the populations interested if only this can be done under fair conditions. They declare they have confidence in the result of such a vote and are willing to abide by it. When pressed they admit there are certain regions they are less confident than in others, for instance they do not feel confident of the Rumanians, but declare that they do of the Slovaks.
Finally they rest their whole appeal on the Fourteen Points of President Wilson and say that their only hope is in the sense of justice of the United States and its leader.
I have [etc.]
By
Captain of Infantry, U. S. Army
- Not printed.↩
- For text of the military convention between the Allies and Hungary, November 13, 1918, see vol. ii, p. 183.↩
- Allied Military Representative in Hungary.↩
- Not printed.↩