Paris Peace Conf. 184.011102/72
Mr. Albert
Halstead to the Commission to
Negotiate Peace
No. 311
Vienna, June 29, 1919.
[Received July
1.]
Subject: Food for home-coming prisoners of war.
Sirs: I have the honor to refer to my
telegram No. 506 of June 28th5 with regard to prisoners of war who it is
understood are about to be released by Italy, and to enclose a copy
of a letter with translation from Under Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs von Pflügl. Mr. Pflügl when lunching with me the
other day told me that he had been informed from Tyrol that about
400,000 prisoners of war would very shortly be released by the
Italians and that the first 80,000 would come through Tyrol within
the next fortnight. Of the 400,000 he stated perhaps 200,000 were
German-Austrians, and spoke of the refusal of the Czechs to assist
and stated that the other countries had not answered. His letter to
me being written officially is more cautiously worded and gives no
total number of prisoners but only mentions the first 80,000. He
does not emphasize, as he did to me personally, the danger to be
expected from these returning prisoners of war, but that is so
self-evident as to require no italics.
Perhaps I should have referred the matter to Captain Gregory the head
of the Food Administration here, but I have had no instructions as
to cooperation with his work, so I take the obvious course of
forwarding it to the Commission to Negotiate Peace with the
respectful
[Page 535]
suggestion that
the matter should be brought to the attention of the Food
Administration.6 I shall, however, forward a copy of this dispatch and
a copy of the letter to Captain Gregory for his information.
I have [etc.]
The Austrian Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs (Pflügl) to Mr.
Albert
Halstead
No. 664
Vienna, June 28, 1919.
Food supplies for returning prisoners of
war.
With reference to our conversation of yesterday, I have the honor
to inform you that within the next few weeks the first group of
Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, to the number of about
80,000, held in Italy will be freed and sent home by way of
Tyrol. These men are principally German-Austrians, but there
will be among them men belonging to the other national states
formed out of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The provisioning of
such a large number of men will be all the more difficult owing
to the fact that Tyrol is hardly able to support its own
population. In view of this the other national states were asked
for assistance, but only the Hungarian government agreed to take
part in caring for these men.
The situation as it is, therefore, is not only dangerous to Tyrol
but to all German-Austria. It is therefore of the utmost
importance that the prisoners should be fed. If this cannot be
done there is danger that these men, who are embittered by their
long imprisonment, privations and sufferings, could not be kept
under control. This would make it easier for the Bolshevik
agitators to win these men over and thus strengthen their
ranks.
At the request of the Tyrolean Relief Committee for prisoners of
war in Italy, as representative for Tyrol in the Vienna
government, I have the honor to request that you intervene to
the end that these men be provisioned so that the danger
described above may be averted. The food supplies necessary are
four carloads of flour, 5,000 kilos of sugar, 1½ carloads of
fat, 500 kilos of cocoa and chocolate, and 50 kilos of tea, and
it is suggested that these articles be supplied by the United
States or the Entente states as a whole.
I would, be greatly obliged if you would inform me of the result
of your action in this matter.
