711.64119/8: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Commissioner at Budapest (Grant-Smith)
315. Commission’s telegram number 311, August 12, 3 p.m. Inasmuch as the Hungarian National Assembly has passed resolution agreeing to grant the United States rights, advantages, and interests under the Trianon Treaty in accordance with the peace resolution, and has authorized the Government to enter into peace negotiations, Department is cabling text of proposed treaty between the United States and Hungary and your full power and authority to sign on behalf of the Government of the United States.4 I regard it as inadvisable to stipulate in this instrument either the specific rights, advantages, and privileges which the United States claims, or the rights, limitations, or conditions in Hungary’s favor. Such a procedure would amount to an attempt to place in the instrument a commentary on the Trianon Treaty. That is not the intention of this Government. All that is required, I believe, is a simple agreement, stating in effect that the United States is granted those rights which are set forth in the peace resolution, with particular reference to those parts of the Trianon Treaty which through the instrument now under consideration the United States is willing to accept.
You are instructed to check carefully, for possible errors, the sections of the Trianon Treaty to which reference is made in article 2, paragraph 1, of the proposed treaty. If there appears to be any error in enumeration, you will immediately advise Department. You are instructed to insert sections 3 and 4 of the peace resolution as they appear in the Congressional Record, Friday, July 1, 1921, pp. 3454–3455.5 You will observe that sections 1, 2, and 6 are omitted.
Until the treaty is signed the Department considers it inadvisable to issue any statement for publication with reference either to the previous correspondence or to the text of the treaty itself. Prior publication would only provoke harmful discussions, and it is the aim of the United States to arrive as soon as possible at a stage where diplomatic relations can be resumed. Having this in mind you should deliver the treaty to the Minister for Foreign Affairs as soon as possible. The treaty as proposed has been drafted carefully with the object of meeting present exigencies, and the Foreign Office should view it in that light. When the treaty is signed, it [Page 255] can be presented for ratification, and on its coming into force there can be a resumption of diplomatic relations. Thereafter other negotiations, if deemed advisable, can be entered upon.
The text of the proposed treaty and the authorization of the President empowering you to sign on behalf of the United States were mailed to you via the American Embassy at Paris on August 16.
A similar treaty has been forwarded to Germany. Consequent upon representations from the Government of Germany certain minor alterations of the text were made, which alterations, according to that Government, rendered the treaty more acceptable. These alterations have been incorporated in the proposed treaty with Hungary.