Papers and Documents relating to the Foreign Relations of Hungary, Volume 2, 1921 (Budapest, 1946)

Documents

6 1921 I pointed out furthermore that the willingness to negotiate, repeatedly expressed by the Chancellor, had little practical importance so long as it was conditional upon Allied mediation. Hungary sought to induce the Allies to undertake this mediation, but without success. The willingness of Austria to negotiate would only be taken seriously if that willingness were also manifested when negotiations were proposed by Hungary alone or if Austria joined Hungary in seeking Allied mediation. In the course of the conversation, Chancellor Mayr raised the question of the evacuation of the Burgenland. I stated that in my opinion the Hungarian Government would attempt to fulfil loyally the obligations imposed on it by the Peace Treaty, but that I was not certain that the Government would have the power to enforce its decision in Western Hungary. Chancellor Mayr expressed the belief that the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors would not remain secret and inquired whether the Hungarian Government intended to publish it. I replied that I had no information on this point, but as long as there was hope for negotiations, I should consider that publication would be a mistake. Finally, Chancellor Mayr said that in view of the new factors which had emerged during this discussion — e. g., the Hungarian attitude toward ratification of the commercial agreement — he deemed it necessary to re-examine the question of suggested negotiations with his political leaders. In a few days he will inform me as to the results of his conferences.

1 On December 31 I addressed a private letter to Chancellor Mayr, a copy of which is enclosed herewith,

2 in which I once more urged on him the importance of this issue. To my great surprise, I saw on the same afternoon that the newspapers published the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors, allegedly from French sources, though there cannot be any doubt that they received the information from the Austrian Government. The Christian-Socialist Press intimated that the credit for this decision was due to Chancellor Mayr. On account of the holidays I was unable to get in contact with Your Excellency, but I believe I acted according to your intentions when I immediately issued a statement to the Press 1 Cf. infra, Doc. No. 8. 2 Vol. I, Doc. No. 894.