840.4016/12–2145: Telegram
The Representative in Hungary (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 23—4:30 p.m.]
1136. ForMin told me today latest reports suggest improvement in treatment being accorded Hungarians in Slovakia. He said deportations had stopped, that property confiscation decrees not being applied to Hungarians and that in some cases Hungarians who had been removed from their real property had been returned.
Gyöngyösi said he was desirous of resuming conversations with Czech Government regarding limited exchange of population as agreed during Praha Conference. When I emphasized point that Hungarian Government was hardly in position to press Czech Government for invalidation of decrees affecting all minorities including Germans as well as Hungarians as prerequisite to settlement Gyöngyösi readily agreed and said Hungarian Government had no intention of insisting on any procedure involving Czech prestige. They would be satisfied if Czechs merely refrained from enforcing decrees against Hungarians during negotiations. Basic settlement, however, he still believed was practicable only under international auspices. I reiterate earnest belief direct settlement between the two Governments was by all odds most desirable solution.
Czech representative Krno told me yesterday that if this controversy is not settled to his Government’s satisfaction there would be no [Page 952] alternative to revival of pre-war policy of Little Entente:68 Reports have later been received here of campaign in Yugoslav press against alleged Hungarian chauvinism and irregularities involving schools for Yugoslavs in southern Hungary. Yugoslav representative Cicmill has stated this should be construed here as “warning”.
Sent Department repeated London as 77, Moscow as 146, Praha as 39 and Belgrade as 30.
- The formulation of the “Little Entente” was completed in 1921, with Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania as members. A convention was signed at Geneva, February 16, 1933, transforming the “Little Entente” into a permanent organization. For text, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cxxxix, p. 233.↩