763.72/12517: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to Colonel E. M. House
163. The Swedish Legation at Washington in a Note dated December 7th15 has transmitted following communication to Department from Austro-German Government:
“Austro-German Government advises that the situation in Carinthia is growing more and more acute. The Jugo-Slavs are assuming a threatening attitude toward German cities and threaten to occupy Klagenfurt and Villach. As the result of conflicts with Jugo-Slav troops, the Railway and Postal employees have quit work and traffic is entirely stopped. The only way to avert bloody conflicts between Germans and Jugo-Slavs will be to have Klagenfurt and Villach occupied by an American or English half company each. Occupation by Italian troops would not be desirable and would greatly stir up the people. Klagenfurt and Villach are the only places where there is a purely local need of such occupation, and it would be neither necessary nor desirable to occupy territory beyond those two cities.”
- Not printed.↩