rapidly, we were preparing a currency reform, but all our plans were frustrated by the fact that hitherto not even our provisional frontiers had been defined. It was therefore, I said, unconditionally necessary to confirm, at least for the time being, our historical frontiers, since upon this depended the peace and order around us in Central Europe. The step taken by the Austrian Government provided a good opportunity of doing this.
M. Pichon agreed that my argument was right and promised to reply to the Austrian Government in this sense. Then on December 21st M. Berthelot gave me, as an official reply to my communication, the copy of a note which M. Pichon, as a result of our intervention, had handed the Swiss Legation in Paris for transmission to the Government at Vienna. This note is so important, both from a juridical and a political point of view, that I reproduce it here in extenso:
The Swiss Legation kindly handed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs two notes from the Government of German Austria on December 13th and 16th respectively.
The first of these notes protests against the intention of the Allied Powers to embody the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia within the Czechoslovak State. It declares that these Germans desire to separate from the Czechoslovak State, and proposes an immediate plebiscite for the purpose of settling the whole situation. The second note demands that the question concerning the frontiers of German Austria with Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia respectively should be submitted to decision by arbitration.
These demands cannot be accepted by us.
The questions of the frontiers here at issue cannot be settled otherwise than by the Peace Conference, and for this purpose must be investigated by the Allied Governments at a very early date.
The French Government, however, takes the view that the Czechoslovak State, in accordance with the recognition granted to it by the Allied Governments, must have as its frontiers, until the decision of the Peace Conference, the existing frontiers of the historical provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia.
As regards Slovakia, its frontiers must be established thus: The Danube from the present western frontier of Hungary to the river Ipola, thence along the course of the river Ipola to the town of Rimavská Sobota, then in a straight line from west to east as far as the river Už, and thence along the course of the river Už to the frontier of Galicia.
General Franchet d’Esperey called upon the Hungarian Government to withdraw its troops beyond these frontiers. This notification has been complied with. These frontiers have thus, in reality, been already respected.
