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RV 92

The representatives of the nationalities wholly or partly subject to the domination of Austria-Hungary—Italians, Poles, Roumanians, Czechoslovaks, Jugoslavs—have united in affirming as follows the principles by which their common action shall be guided:

1. Each of these peoples proclaims its right to establish its own nationality and state unity, to complete this unity, and to attain full political and economic independence.

2. Each of these peoples recognizes in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy the instrument of Germanic domination and the fundamental obstacle to the realization of its aspirations and its rights.

3. The assembly recognizes the necessity for a common struggle against the common oppressors, and in order that each people may attain its complete liberation and national unity as a single free state.

In view of the objectives fixed by the congress, the pronouncement of the Secretary of State was certainly clear and far -reaching enough. Nevertheless, certain pro-German and pro-Austrian elements, and even some Italian newspapers, claimed that the aims so expressed were not incompatible with the preservation of the Hapsburg monarchy, and for this reason a supplementary declaration, also from the pen of Dr. Putney, was published, this time on June 28, 1918, and worded as follows:

Since the issuance by this government on May 29th of the statement regarding the nationalistic