In reply to the Austro-Hungarian proposal for an armistice of October 7,
1918, Mr. Robert Lansing addressed the following communication from
President Wilson to the Austrian Government through the medium of the
Swedish Legation in Washington on October 18, 1918:
"The President deems it his duty to say to the Austro-Hungarian
Government that he cannot entertain the present suggestion of that
government because of certain events of the utmost importance which,
occurring since the delivery of his address of January 8 last, have
necessarily altered the attitude and responsibility of the Government
of the United States.
"Among the fourteen terms of peace which the President formulated at
that time occurred the following:
"'The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we
wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest
opportunity of autonomous development.'
"Since that sentence was written and uttered to the Congress of the
United States, the Government of the United States has recognised that
a state of belligerency exists between the Czecho-Slovaks and the
German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and that the Czecho-Slovak
National Council is a _de facto_ belligerent government, clothed with
proper authority to direct the military and political affairs of the
Czecho-Slovaks.
"It has also recognised in the fullest manner the justice of the
nationalistic aspirations of the Yugo-Slavs for freedom.
"The President therefore is no longer at liberty to accept a mere
'autonomy' of these peoples as a basis of peace, but is obliged to
insist that they, and not he, shall be the judges of what action on the
part of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations
and their conception of their rights and destiny as members of the
family of nations."