Paris Peace Conf. 184.011102/15
Mr. Albert Halstead to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received June 16.]
Sirs: I have the honor to forward herewith a copy in French of an address3 delivered on the seventh of June to the National Assembly of Austria upon the treaty of peace which was made by Dr. Bauer, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. This speech was handed to me by Dr. Bauer with whom I had an agreeable interview in which he spoke of the peace treaty and its effect upon Austria and manifested a real appreciation of the efforts of the United States to be just, but he stated the belief that the real situation could not have been understood at the Peace Conference. The treaty involved not only the bankruptcy of the state but that of the banks, the insurance companies and of the middle classes. In the speech herewith forwarded he discusses the financial conditions. As an illustration he said to me that under the terms of the treaty if an Austrian desired to pay a debt of one hundred thousand crowns in Czecho-Slovakia he would have to pay two hundred thousand because he was compelled to buy Swiss francs at a very high rate and change them into Czech money which at the break-up of the empire was the same as Austrian money. He stated that to buy money at this rate would actually double the debt. He admitted the right of the Allied Powers and United States to take German-Austrian property, but indicated that the terms imposed upon Austria as [Page 532] regards Czeeho-Slovakia, Poland and the Jugo-Slav State were in a different category and that utter ruin of this country would be their result. For instance, he declared that most of the interests in Czechoslovakia were financed from Vienna, that here were the offices, there the factories and that the treaty permitted the seizure of these Czecho-Slovakian factories.
It may be of interest to say that I have succeeded in establishing relations with Dr. Bauer which will, I believe, be very useful in obtaining information for the Commission.
It seems proper to say further that Dr. Bauer spoke very highly of Professor Coolidge and the attitude he maintained while here, stating that Professor Coolidge was a friend of German-Austria.
I have [etc.]
- Not attached to file copy of this document.↩