711.6412Anti-War/23
The Minister in Hungary (Wright) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 23.]
Sir: With reference to my telegram No. 29 of October 8, 2 p.m.,86 in which I transmitted verbatim the principal portions of the English translation furnished by the Hungarian Foreign Office accompanying the note in French of the Minister for Foreign Affairs dated October 6 and received on October 8, notifying me of the adherence of the Hungarian Government to the Treaty for the Renunciation of War, I have the honor to transmit herewith copies of the signed French text as well as of the aforesaid English translation furnished by the Foreign Office.
As reported in my aforesaid telegram the English translation, with the exception of the phrases to which I called attention in my telegram, is a fair translation of the French text, although its text evidences, perhaps, unfamiliarity with the finer expressions of English phraseology: I have deemed it wiser, however, not to amend or alter the translation except for the two insertions in the ante-penultimate paragraph.
As reported in my telegram No. 28 of October 6, 9 a.m.,86 Dir. Walkó, Minister for Foreign Affairs, requested several days ago that I call upon him on the afternoon of October 5 in order that he might speak to me before the meeting of the Council of Ministers to be held later on that day. It transpired at that time that the subject of the conversation was the treaty. He began by stating that he desired to apologize for the delay that had ensued in replying to my note of August 27th last, inviting Hungary’s adherence to the Multilateral Treaty for the Renunciation of War which he said was due—as he had implied in our conversation on August 25th last—to his prolonged absence in Geneva and the absence from Budapest of the Regent, the Prime Minister, and many of the Cabinet. He then stated that the text of a note communicating to me Hungary’s adherence to the Pact had been prepared, had been approved by the Regent and would be [Page 218] discussed at the Council of Ministers that afternoon; that he desired informally to advise me of the general tenor of that note and offered to read me that text which he said was both in French and English. I stated that I would much prefer to avoid the possible embarrassment of reading a note which might be slightly changed by the Council—an attitude which he appeared to appreciate—and he thereupon informed me as follows:
The Hungarian Government was entirely in sympathy with this great accomplishment of the Secretary of State in procuring an official statement of the desire of all signatory nations to renounce war; he emphasized the point that the Government of Hungary had no thought of war but that they were constrained to assume that the principle of the disavowal of war would be followed by the signatory Powers in the fullest conception of the principle. He observed that the present situation in this portion of Europe, however, was such as to render it incumbent upon the Hungarian Government to make “certain observations” concerning events and conditions which vitally affect Hungary and which, if the present “unbearable” conditions continue, cannot but lead to increased friction. He particularly emphasized the fact, however, that the Hungarian Government was not thinking of war, nor did these “observations” amount to “reservations”: in fact he clearly intimated that the Government was making every effort to avoid either a tone of belligerency or an inference of reservations in its observations concerning a situation which it deemed unbearable.
He stated that the note would hardly be ready for signature before late on Saturday—a semi-holiday—and it was therefore determined that it would be delivered to me on the morning of Monday, October 8th, and that if agreeable to me the text thereof would be given to the Hungarian press for publication on the morning of Tuesday, October 9th.
I inquired whether I might at once inform my Government that the note expressing Hungary’s adherence would be forthcoming on that date, with the understanding that announcement of Hungary’s adherence would not be made by us before that time. He said that I was quite at liberty to do so, and my telegram of October 6 was based upon this conversation.
In order that the Department may be in possession of these texts at the earliest possible moment I transmit them immediately by open mail. The press comments upon this note, the text of which appeared in all Hungarian papers this morning, according to the arrangement, will be transmitted in due course.
I have [etc.]