763.72119/2900
The Swedish Minister ( Ekengren ) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: By order of my Government I have the honor to ask Your Excellency kindly to communicate to the President of the United States the following telegram from the Swedish Minister in Vienna to the Foreign Office in Stockholm.12
“Have just received the following note from the Department of Foreign Affairs of German Austria:
“‘Vienna, November 26, 1918.
“‘The Department of Foreign Affairs of German Austria has the honor to draw the attention of the diplomatic missions of the neutral states to a series of attempts committed lately by the troops of the Czecho-Slovak state on the integrity of the national territory and on the life and property of the purely German-born population.
The southern parts of Bohemia and Moravia were mainly subjected to armed raids by the Czecho-Slovaks. Without the slightest regard for the situation, precarious as it is already, of the population, sorely tried by famine, the raiders did not hesitate either to lay hand on what remained of food and the necessaries of life, or to stop the shipment to Vienna of the merchandise indispensable to the needs of that capital. Public officers have been assaulted, constrained by oath to take allegiance to the Czecho-Slovak State, and threatened, if they refused, with prosecution on the charge of high treason. Many have been kidnapped, among whom was Monsieur Soukup, a member of the legislative body; finally, the acts of violence in which the Czechoslovak troops indulged, resulted in the death of several sentries and even that of a public officer, killed while he was discharging his duties In this way, the Czecho-Slovak troops are introducing the scourge of civil war in peaceable regions, spreading horror and misery and still renewing the warlike acts which henceforth are hateful to the whole civilized world. The German Austrian State, of course, did not fail to take, repeatedly, appropriate and urgent steps with the diplomatic representative of the Czecho-Slovak Republic at Vienna, with a view [Page 198] to stopping those aggressions. But notwithstanding its representations and protests repeatedly made and supported by official and detailed statements, the above-mentioned facts continue to occur day after day. Now German Austria, earnestly wishing the return of peace and asking for nothing better than to live in harmony with all its neighbors, abhors any territorial dispute between any free and sovereign nations. It fully adopts the principles of world-wide alliance of the civilized peoples and would have the end of disputed territories determined either by the peace conference or the free and independent vote of the people. It believes, nevertheless, that whatever differences of that character can be amicably settled, neighboring states should give reciprocal evidence of fairness and maintain a peaceful attitude by avoiding all acts of violence on their respective borders. As for itself German Austria, while energetically protesting against the attempts committed by the Czecho-Slovaks on the integrity of their territory and the vital interests of its citizens, confines itself to appeal to the intervention of all the free and civilized peoples to the end that the Czecho-Slovak Republic be asked to refrain from any encroachment and to respect its neighbor’s inalienable rights of humanity and national sovereignty that it justly invokes for its own sake.
The Department of Foreign Affairs begs the diplomatic missions of the neutral states kindly to make the foregoing known to the Governments represented by them. The Department of Foreign Affairs takes the liberty of making, particularly to the representatives of the powers which, during the war, kindly assumed the protection of Austro-Hungarian interests in the enemy states, the special request that they will kindly forward without delay, this communication to the President of the United States of America, and to the several Governments of the Entente.’”
Accept [etc.]
- The following is a translation of the French text quoted by the Minister; the file translation has been revised.↩