Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume XII
Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/173
Professor A. C. Coolidge to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received March 5.]
Sirs: I have the honor to inclose herewith further material on the subject of the movement for the annexation to Austria of the German speaking territory of Western Hungary. I have already discussed this subject in my report No. 9014 to which I respectfully refer. I asked Major Martin, who is an expert professional geographer, to make an investigation of the question from a geographical point of view. I enclose his results without necessarily accepting all his recommendations. The question of Pressburg is a distinct one from that of the territory to the south of it. Major Martin’s suggestion as to immediate relief in the food crisis here hardly appears to me practicable under the existing circumstances.
It should be remembered in connection with the question of the Germans in Western Hungary that this is perhaps the sole case in this part of the world where both parties are bound by their declarations in favor of the principle of self-determination. In theory it could be easily applied were it not that neither of the two contestants can be trusted to control its operation.
Yesterday a meeting on this subject was held in Vienna. A hall whose capacity is said to be two thousand was filled and there was an overflow of about a thousand people outside. The meeting was enthusiastic. The speeches were principally on the nationality side of the question and were greeted with much applause. They urged again and again that if the principle of self-determination was to be generally applied it could not be refused in this instance. They touched but lightly on economic points. I enclose certain pamphlets that were distributed and some newspaper articles bearing on the subject.15
I have [etc.]
Major Lawrence Martin to Professor A. C. Coolidge
Subject: Tentative recommendation regarding final Hungarian-Austrian boundary, with a suggestion of immediate relief for the food-crisis in Vienna.
1. In accordance with your direction, I submit the following discussion of the geographical, economic, and ethnic factors affecting Heinzenland, [Page 265] or German West Hungary, and the boundary between the Hungarian Republic and the Republic of Deutschösterreich. It affects 22,000 square miles, populated by 389,400 persons, and involves a boundary 256 kilometers long.
2. This recommendation is based upon a study of maps and documents, but has not been preceded by a visit to the area affected. I append a number of maps and exhibits,16 and refer to several others which I know to be available in the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, in Paris.
3. This tentative recommendation I take to be chiefly for your information and that of our commissioners in Paris; I do not need to say that our experience in drawing the Line of Demarcation in Carin-thia, where we found many Slovenes who wished to be governed by the Austrians rather than the Jugoslavs, affects my judgment to such an extent that I should feel a great mistake were being made if the wishes of the Deutsch-Westungarn people were not carefully canvassed by a neutral commission before a final boundary is determined. The Heinzisch language is not pure German but somewhat dialectic (see Exhibit B, accompanying). I do not feel sure to what extent they have been Magyarized.
4. The economic factor is likewise a tremendously important one, as it appears to involve the victualling of the city of Vienna to a notable extent.
5. This memorandum brings up the Slav Corridor scheme between the Republica Československa and the S. H. S.17 Kingdom, as the area includes the Sprachenarchipelago of Serbo-Croats upon which the Bohemians and Jugoslavs place so much stress.
6. Heinzenland, the district in western Hungary here discussed, is shown upon the two small maps on this page. [Here follow two maps which have not been reproduced.] One of these (Map 1) indicates the physical features and shows in red the tentative Hungarian-Austrian boundary which I recommend. The other map (Map 2) roughly indicates the German-Magyar ethnic distribution, but willfully omits the Sprachenarchipelago of Serbo-Croats. The latter, however, are shown upon other maps of Austrian compilation herewith (Maps 8 and 10) and the Hungarian Map 9, as well as on the 4 sheets of the 200,000 scale map appended, upon which the boundary recommended is shown in detail (Map 11).
7. The region involved is divided between two larger geographical districts: (a) the Alpine foothills, including (1) Leitha Gebirge, a narrow ridge connecting the Alps at Semmering Pass with the Carpathians north of Pressburg, and (2) the eastern extension of the [Page 266] Grazhügel; (b) the western extension of the plain of Hungary—KL Ungarisehe Tiefebene—lying between the Bokony Wald and the Alpine foothills. Part of this is the Hansag, a swampy plain. The Little Hungarian Plain has an altitude of 130 to 150 meters, while the Alpine foothills rise to 476–883 meters above sea-level, or 800 to 2300 feet above the plain.
8. The mineral resources of the district involved include three basins of lignite or brown coal, two pyrite mines, and one antimony deposit.
9. The main occupation of the district is agricultural, and 60% to 70% of the land is arable; the soil is good; and the climate favorable (July temperature 20°-21°, January temperature 2°–l°; rainfall 500–700 mm.) This is a very productive part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire. It has an average population of 40 to 80 persons to the square kilometer, rising above 120 per square kilometer near Odenburg (Sopron). The foodstuffs produced in the northern half of the district are largely consumed in Vienna under normal conditions. Professor Bruckner of the University of Vienna asserts that statistics support the estimate that 35 to 42 percent of the necessary food import of Niederosterreich, including Vienna, was brought from the German-inhabited strip of West-Hungary before the war.
10. Manufacturing is not an important industry in any part of the area. Transportation relationships are shown upon the appended maps and will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs.
11. This district includes parts of four Hungarian Komitats, but I shall disregard their boundaries, as only the western portion of each one is involved, and discuss the tentative boundary recommended under four geographical divisions, (a) from Hill 404 (see recommendation of Permanent Boundary in Carinthia and Styria, Feb. 12, 1919) to the valley of the River Raab near Szentgotthard (St. Gotthard); (b) from St. Gotthard to Ferto Tava (Neusiedler See); from Neu-siedler See to Pozsony (Pressburg); (d) north of Pressburg.
12. The southern area, which is very small, may be dismissed with the statement that I am not familiar with the terrain and its population and resources, from personal observation, but I feel that the permanent boundary should be drawn in relation to ethnic distribution and minor divides, somewhat as shown in red on Szombathely sheet, 1:200,000, appended (Map 11), after an impartial field investigation has determined the wishes of the German, Croatian, and Magyar peoples in this hilly region. Szentgotthard I give to the Hungarians, as it is overwhelmingly Magyar. Its north and west hinterland will be German; its southwest hinterland Slovene; but what else could one do with a city close to the Jugoslav-Hungarian-Deutschösterreich frontier corner?
[Page 267]13. For the district from the River Raab at St. Gotthard to Neusiedler See there appears to be a simple situation. The ethnic boundary is generally parallel to the base of the foothills at the edge of the upland forest (see accompanying Wien and Szombathely sheets, 1:200,000, Map 11); if the Germans west of this line really wish to belong to Austria rather than Hungary, I think a permanent boundary could be drawn along some such line as I have indicated on the detailed map, without any complications or hardships, other than those involved in relation to railways and town markets at the base of the upland. The railway line between Kormend, Szombathely (Steinamanger) and Zinkenfeld (southeast of Odenburg) would lie wholly within Hungarian territory, so that part of the products from the rolling country inhabited by the Germans might have to be shipped to market through territory controlled by the Hungarians. I see no way to avoid this. This does not involve any hardship for trunk-line railway transportation between Vienna and Agram, or Vienna and Belgrade. Of the foothill cities, Koszeg (Guns) is most perplexing. Its population is mixed, but with 2 Magyars for 1 German, besides a handful of Slovenes and Serbo-Croats. It lies in a valley under the forested ridge of Trött Kö and Karlshöhe, the best bit of military strategic frontier in western Hungary. I believe we shall have to give the city to the Hungarians, unless field investigation shows that its minority of Germans are the merchants and that they, as well as the Croat farmers on the north and German farmers on the west prefer that it belong to Deutschösterreich; this, however, would involve hardship for the Magyar farmers to the east where there is more level land and less forest. Szombathely (Steinamanger) and Kormend are overwhelmingly Magyar and must be Hungarian, though this may temporarily inconvenience the German and Croat farmers on the upland to the west.
14. In this district we face squarely the relationship of the Serbo-Croat Sprachenarchipelago to the Corridor scheme (see Jugoslav map, #5, herewith). No one of the ethnic-linguistic maps attached to this memorandum appears to me to represent the distribution of the small number of scattered Serbo-Croats adequately. The number of islands of these people isolated in the midst of the German population is best seen upon sheets 9, 10, 19, and 20 of the Carte Ethnographique de la Hongrie, scale 1:200,000, prepared under the direction of Count Paul Teleki, and transmitted by me in package No. 15, January 20, 1919. Count Teleki’s 1:1,000,000-scale map, appended, indicates the density of population as well as actual distribution; but, as it omits the factor of topography in relation to the transportation line which the Czechoslovaks and Jugoslavs propose to build, if they obtain their Corridor, I have roughly indicated the distribution of the centers of Serbo-Croat [Page 268] settlement, (in blue spots and circles, without boundaries), on the four sheets (Wien, Pressburg, Szombathely, and Papa; General-karte von Mitteleuropa, K. K. Militargeographisches Institut, 1:200,000) on which I have drawn the boundary which I recommend, and which accompanies this memorandum as Map 11.
Realizing that I make the statement without adequate discussion, I cannot resist stating that the distribution of the scattered islands of this Serbo-Croat Sprachenarchipelago, on a highland with transverse railway lines but no possibility of longitudinal railway construction, because of deep valleys, strengthens my opposition to the Corridor scheme, even if there were not strategic, economic, and other objectionable features.
I do not feel that the presence of these detached areas of Serbo-Croats raises an objection to the drawing of a new frontier which shall unite the Germans of West Hungary with those of Austria. I do not believe that the Serbo-Croats in the area under consideration should be united with the Hungarians rather than with the Germans; either is an antagonistic race; a Viennese book-dealer characterized the Croats and Magyars to me today as “Feuer und Wasser”. The Croats near the proposed Hungarian border should not, in my mind, form Alien-halbinseln projecting from the Hungarian state into the new Austrian republic; these Slavs, even in the areas north of Guns (Koszeg) and west of Steinamanger (Szombathely), are so situated that their market-relationships can be equally as good with the Germans of the surrounding upland as with the Hungarians of the plain to the east. For the Serbo-Croats north of Koszeg this point is debatable.
One feature of the pamphlet by Dr. Richard von Pfaundler, Die Zukwift der Deutschen in Westungarn (appended as Exhibit A), is a discussion of what shall be done with these Serbo-Croats. He says, in effect, that the percentage of Croatian population will not exceed 1/7 of the total, no matter which way these Slavs are handled. As 306 of the communities have a majority of Germans, and 297 communities constitute an undivided language-district it appears to him that the Serbo-Croats would be equally as happy and comfortable under a German as under an Hungarian administration. Dr. Pfaundler states that a large proportion of these people speak one language beside their own and that they are friendly to the Germans.
If a field investigation should demonstrate that these Serbo-Croats speak German as their second language, which seems natural in view of their market-relationships, I should have no question of the wisdom of giving them to Deutschösterreich, provided, of course, the Corridor scheme is, as I hope, to be laid on the table.
With regard to the isolated areas of Hungarians living within German West-Hungary there appears to be no way of attaching them to [Page 269] the Republic of Hungary, and they can doubtless continue their business relations equally well with the Germans of the surrounding country if German West-Hungary becomes part of Austria.
The new boundary recommended in the district between the Raab River and the Neusiedler See (Fertö Tava) is not as satisfactory a geographical-strategic line of demarcation in some respects as the old one, since it is nearer the foothills than the old Hungarian-Austrian frontier on the upland (blue-shaded line on appended 1:200,000-scale maps). Nevertheless, as the ethno-linguistic boundary coincides fairly well with the base of the foothills, lying everywhere in the foothill slope, I have drawn my suggested line as fully as possible in relation to the minor topography and forests. I regard this proposed new international boundary as satisfactory in its combination of an ethnic-linguistic frontier, a geographical line of demarcation, a good military frontier, and a line which does not transgress any great laws in relation to economic factors.
15. The proposed boundary from Neusiedler See (Fertö Tava) to Pressburg goes through the swampy plain of the Hansag north of the Rabnitz River, and then turns northward to the Kleiner Donau. It avoids complication with the Rinser Canal, leading from Neusiedler See to the Danube. It terminates on the Danube just west of Pressburg at the mouth of the River March (Morva), forming as good an international boundary as one can possibly make along a series of rivers and uninhabited swamps. The proposed new frontier would be vastly inferior to the old ridge-frontier of the Leitha Gebirge-Pressburg Carpathians, overlooking the plains on either side, from a military point of view if we still used bows, arrows, and catapults, instead of modern artillery and airplanes. Nevertheless the Final Frontier here proposed is excellent, for it traverses an almost uninhabited area, the Hansag (see white area, Count Teleki’s 1:1,000,000-scale map, Map 9, appended), for many miles, and then follows a small stream, partly-canalized, to the Danube.
The district thus set off, although a plain, is much less populous than the rolling country southwest of Neusiedler See, having a maximum of only 40 to 50 persons to the square kilometer, while the upland has 70 to 80 to the square kilometer. This is because the region is swampy, but possibly sand, malaria, and other factors are involved. The large estate of Archduke Friedrich is here also. It is a district of mixed population, however, containing a minority of Hungarians and a few Serbo-Croatians in the midst of a German population. The extent to which its products go to Pressburg rather than Vienna as a market is not clear without further investigation.
I have attached to this memorandum Exhibit D, prepared by the Magistrate of Vienna to show the food relationship of this region and of the Odenburg district west of Neusiedler See to the city of Vienna. [Page 270] He says several hundred dealers in 50 small places in the Hungarian Comitats regularly supplied the daily and weekly markets in Vienna. In 1913 the Vienna Great Market-Hall and the Central Cattle Market St. Marx received 139,000 cattle, 635,000 pigs, 118,000 calves, lambs, and young slaughter animals, etc., etc. (see Exhibit D). Obviously much of this came from parts of Hungary farther east than Hein-zenland, as did the flour from Hungarian corn; but the daily milk supply, amounting to 100,000 to 150,000 liters, sold in Vienna, and imported from Hungary, did come from German West Hungary or Heinzenland. This also applies to green vegetables, 327,000 q. (meter zentner or 100 kilos) in the year 1913, and to fruits, 107,000 q., and some of the 28,464,000 eggs.
The great complication that immediately arises, however, is involved with the trebly complex question as to who is to control the city of Pressburg (Pozsony). (a) It is at present in the hands of the Czechoslovaks; (b) the Hungarian census gives it a majority of Germans; (c) the Hungarians are likewise anxious to retain it for themselves. As it lies on the north side of the Danube, however, its trade-relationships are more with the Hungarians on the east and the Czechoslovaks on the north than with the mixed German-Croatian-Hungarian population in the area under discussion on the south. I know of no plot of land in Central Europe, however, whose future more urgently demands an impartial field study than this particular district. The study of this district will bear upon the final disposition of Pressburg. I very much hope that the wishes of the local population may be freely consulted by Americans or other neutrals before a determination is made. At the time of writing this memorandum, however, one thing is clear: Since Pressburg is in the hands of the Czechoslovaks, and since Vienna needs food-products from the upland between Neusiedler See and the Danube more urgently than any Hungarian city does, especially as the suffering among the poor of Vienna is intense, I recommend without reservation that the whole district between Neusiedler See and the Danube, as indicated on my map appended, be considered as more likely to go to Austria than to remain a part of Hungary. The present trade of Pressburg with the region to the southwest will naturally be diverted either to Vienna or to a new German river-port opposite Pressburg, but it would never go to a Hungarian city.
16. The area north of the city of Pressburg where Germans live is ridiculously small, compared with what is shown upon the two Austrian ethnic maps accompanying this memorandum. The Atlas of Hungary alluded to before (1:200,000) shows this distribution more fairly than any other map I know. I do not feel that it is within my province to discuss the future of Pressburg. I can only state that although, according to the Hungarian census, which was independent of [Page 271] Austrian control or direction, it has a majority of Germans, I can see many economic reasons for giving the Czechoslovaks this river-port; I feel that if the Germans in Pressburg do not desire to continue to live there, in case the Peace Conference gives Pressburg to the Czechoslovaks, it would be very easy to build a rival German town directly across the Danube at Engerau, and that this would take care of the marketing facilities of the German population in the plain (Haid-boden) and on the hills (Leitha Gebirge).
17. I earnestly recommend for consideration, as an immediate measure of relief for the Viennese, the establishment of a tentative boundary along the line indicated on the four attached sheets of Map 11, scale 1:200,000, giving the Germans of West Hungary to the Austrian Republic for temporary administration, pending the establishment of a final boundary by the Peace Conference. If it be true that anywhere near a third or a half of the food of Lower Austria normally comes from German West Hungary, we have a weighty argument in favor of this emergency measure. At least I am convinced of the truth of the Austrian claim that the district in Hungary southeast of Vienna, inhabited by Germans, is an important part of the hinterland of Vienna for the supply of local food. None of this now gets to Vienna except by Sehleiehhandel. If we could reduce the number of sick in the Viennese hospitals who are dying daily of starvation, and the number of poor in Vienna who are suffering acutely from malnutrition, if we can bring to babies in Vienna a few thousand liters of milk, out of the 150,000 liters of milk that came daily to Vienna from the southeast before the war, by immediately shifting the Hungarian-Austrian frontier from the ante-bellum boundary to the one here recommended, we should be performing a service for humanity. I am not inclined to think that neither the poor in Pressburg nor the poor in Raab or Budapest would suffer if this emergency measure were investigated immediately and then put at once into effect. This appears to be a case where a tentative demarcation line is almost certain to coincide with the permanent boundary determined after the principle of Selbstbestimmung has been applied to the local population.