Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/2½
Professor A. C. Coolidge to the Commission to Negotiate Peace
[Received January 3, 1919.]
Sirs: I have the honor to report that I had an interview yesterday with Count Sigray who has been sent to Switzerland to get in touch as far as possible with the Americans.
His arguments were the familiar ones. Perhaps the most notable statement that he made and which he declared represented the official opinion of his government was that Hungary would be willing to submit the question of the future of the disputed territories—the Slovak region, the Banat, Transylvania,—to a plebiscite of the inhabitants provided the vote were taken under impartial supervision, that is to say American or British or perhaps American and Italian, but not French or that of any of the claimants directly interested. He said that Hungary had abandoned all claims to Croatia but needed to have a port. He is anxious that Hungary should have some chance of presenting her case in Paris. He complained that the armistice was not being carried out in Hungary in the spirit in which it had been made and declared that a statement on the part of the Allies that the settlement there would be made in accordance with justice rather than on the base of present military occupation would do much to tranquilize public opinion and maintain order in Hungary.
I have [etc.]