Paris Peace Conf. 184.011102/174
Mr. Albert Halstead to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received July 22.]
Subject: Coal situation.
Sirs: I have the honor to again bring the grave danger that threatens German-Austria for the want of coal to the attention of the Commission. I realise that Professor Coolidge has in the past pointed out this danger, but the matter has become so acute that I feel constrained to refer to it again.
The greatest apprehension exists for the winter. At the present moment there is not sufficient coal for present needs. As a result the railway service and the street car service are curtailed, and factories that might be employing workers are idle. This absence of work for want of fuel adds to the unrest that naturally prevails after such a shock as came with the overthrow of the old Empire. Raw materials are naturally required, but certain industries can be employed without those raw materials.
If in warm weather, when no coal is needed for heating purposes and the quantity of fuel required for lighting is reduced because of longer days, there is a scarcity of coal, the situation that will exist during the bitter and long winter can readily be imagined.
German-Austria is able to mine about ten percent, of her needs of coal. In the past the coal supply has come from Czecho-Slovakia and Poland as well as from Ruhr and Upper Silesian parts of Germany. The Czecho-Slovaks do not encourage the export of coal to German-Austria and the German coal is very short in quantity, and Upper Silesia, because of the uncertainty as to its final status, is not a sure source of supply. German-Austria had contracted for 7,500 metric tons of coal per day with the German Government, but by reason of the disorganization of labor but forty-five percent, of this amount has been received.
The Czecho-Slovak Government is providing only coal for household use as well as for electric and gas works, but the quantity delivered for these purposes by no means reaches the amount required. There is some hope of securing about 50,000 tons of coal from Poland, [Page 551] but this comes slowly. The suggestion has been made that by reason of the long voyage from America to Triest and the costly haul from Triest to Vienna, which would be complicated as well by the Italian and Jugo-Slav regulations, American coal might be exported to Hamburg or Bremen and German coal in equal quantities, in addition to that already contracted for, shipped to German-Austria. Practical difficulties might arise in this connection, but the suggestion is worthy of consideration.
In closing I would emphasise the real necessity of the earliest possible solution of the coal problem. In normal times there would be daily arrivals of coal throughout the summer for winter purposes. At this late date, even if shipments in large quantities were to come regularly, the winter would still be particularly trying.
I have [etc.]