864.00/27: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland ( Stovall ) to the Secretary of State

5849. Following is translation of telegram for the President handed to me by former member of Austro-Hungarian Legation in Berne at present special representative of Count Karolyi of Hungary.

“Mr. President: It is with profound emotion and with a heart full of gratitude that the National Hungarian Council and Hungarian Government have learned of message which Your Excellency addressed to those people who until now formed a part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and which was transmitted to the people of Hungary.9 This message freed our souls and justified our moral consciences, since it proved peremptorily that of which we were always convinced, namely that the peoples of Hungary could count on the generosity of the western democracy from the moment in which it threw off the yoke of feudal regime and joined with all its forces the movement which wishes to regulate the internal and international life of peoples on the foundation of moral justice and integral equality. The victorious revolution of the Hungarian people has abolished the institutions which falsified and corrupted its own wishes. It has eliminated at the same time all the culpable politicians who oppress the people and [Page 194] who directly or indirectly declared, sustained and continued the most nefarious of wars. Finally it has intrusted the power to men [who] have for a long time been the pioneers of democracy in Hungary and who will do their best to justify this confidence. These men Mr. President, have adhered from the first moment without reserve and with enthusiasm and gratitude to the principles which Your Excellency proclaimed to civilized humanity and which constitute the only possible and fertile foundation of international life. These fourteen articles are the only solid and just foundation of an equitable and rational political condition for the government of Hungary, the only solution of the internal problems which have existed for such a long time in our country.

Your Excellency will certain[ly] permit men who have had such a past to address themselves to you with full confidence, Mr. President, and through [your] person to the civilized world and to bring to your attention the very serious condition in which our country, our nation and our young Hungarian democracy finds itself. This war declared without any scruples and prolonged with most culpable thoughtlessness has destroyed the economic life of Hungary and is pushing its social organization towards an abyss. The victorious revolution has put an end to the war and has thanks to an exemplary discipline been able to preserve order in the greater part of the country and above all in the capital. Nevertheless the new democratic regime perceives itself exposed to imminent dangers. On one side our frontiers are seriously menaced by armed troops who making pretexts of the known pretensions of their respective states but evidently without authority are preparing to invade a certain region of Hungary and to occupy a series of boroughs and communities. The population of these regions ignorant of the circumstances and lacking besides democratic discipline are turning the entire district into a disastrous and terrible anarchy. On the other hand an economic catastrophe is likewise menacing our country. Unless we have the possibility of importing coal from the exterior our factories will stop, and our railroads which will have been deteriorated by the long war will be forced to suspend their service. It is then that famine will spread over all of Hungary. Such is our situation. We bring it to your attention Mr. President in all sincerity and we add that our only hope, our only confidence, lies in that solidarity of civilized peoples in which we have always had faith even in the darkest days of the war.

Mr. President we appeal to your feeling and through your person to all the civilized nations of the world. Come to the assistance of the young Hungarian democracy. Supported [Support it?] in its efforts to restore and to rebuild the internal and external situation of Hungary on the basis of right and justice. Help us in this severe struggle against dissolution and against the menace of anarchy. If there is no other means allowed to our country a provisional peace while waiting for the final peace. We have full confidence and an absolute trust in the eternal solidarity of democracy. The only wish of the Hungarian nation is to avoid, to prevent and to render impossible the anarchy which threatens to engulf us, and at the same time to become a peaceful sincere and loyal member of the league of nations. We beg all civilized peoples and most particularly Your Excellency to listen to the appeal of the Hungarian nation which having broken the chains of tyranny is now working for its renaissance.

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Accept Mr. President the expression of our very high esteem and our very sincere confidence. Signed Count Michael Karolyi, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, countersigned Bauer.”

Stovall
  1. See telegram No. 3275, Nov. 5, 1918, 4 p.m., to the Minister in Switzerland, Foreign Relations, 1918, supp. 1, vol. i, p. 470.