860h.01/26: Telegram

The Commission to Negotiate Peace to the Acting Secretary of State

622. The Secretary of State will give out on February 7th the following statement in regard to the union of the Jugo Slav peoples, which you may give out to the press immediately:

“On May 29, 1918, the Government of the United States expressed its sympathy for the nationalistic aspirations of the Jugo Slav race and on June 28 declared that all branches of the Slavish race should be completely freed from German and Austrian rule.3 After having achieved their freedom from foreign oppression the Jugo Slav[s] formerly under Austro–Hungarian rule on various occasions expressed the desire to unite with the Kingdom of Servia. The Servian Government on its part has publicly and officially accepted the union of the Serb, Croat and Slovene peoples. The Government of the United States, therefore, welcomes the union while recognizing that the final settlement of territorial frontiers must be left to the Peace Conference for determination according to desires of the peoples concerned.”

All this statement has been transmitted Mr. Trumbitch and telegraphed to Dodge at Belgrade.

Am[erican] Mission