Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/41½
Professor A. C. Coolidge to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received February 3.]
Sirs: I have the honor to report that I was called upon this afternoon by Baron Podmonincky of the Hungarian Foreign Office of whom I recently saw much in Budapest. In the course of the conversation he spoke of the declaration of the Supreme War Council against the forcible occupation of disputed territories before the terms of peace are settled.76 He declared that the Hungarian people were greatly pleased with it. I asked him if he thought it would strengthen the government of Count Karolyi. He answered emphatically that it would very much. He said that Count Karolyi had been all along preaching and practicing the doctrine of non-resistance to the recent invasions of Hungarian territory, maintaining that occupation of this sort would not prejudge the final decision arrived at by the Peace Conference in Paris. He had been much criticised for this, but now the announcement of the Supreme War Council would greatly strengthen his position.
I have [etc.]