[Sailor Steve]

December 1, 1918


British, French and American forces move into Germany in accord with terms laid out in the Armistice of November 11. British troops have moved so quickly that they have outrun their supply trains, and are forced to halt for three days until the food can catch up. American troops report being shocked at the contrast between war-torn France and the "carefully cultivated fields and prosperous villages" of Germany, whose inhabitants are convinced that they were winning the war when their leaders sold them out to a bad treaty.

Vienna, capital of the now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire, is subject to widespread hunger. Former Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to London Graf (Count) Albert von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein (a cousin of King George V) goes to Berne to ask Sir Horace Rumbold for help.

"If someone had said to me five years ago or less that Count Mensdorff would come one day to my room and implore me to get food sent to Vienna, I would have said that person was a proper inmate for a lunatic asylum."
-Sir Horace Rumbold, letter to Lord Stamfordham, Private Secretary to King George V

A political union is proclaimed between Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Alexander Karađorđević, prince regent of the Kingdom of Serbia, declares the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

This will eventually lead to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The National Assembly of Romania passes an agreement allowing Transylvania, Banat, and the Satumare and Maramureş regions to unite with Romania. The Union of Alba Iulia is announced.

The Kars Republic was established in northeastern Turkey. In six months it will be abolished by the British High Commissioner.

Pope Benedict XV released the encyclical Quod iam diu (That which has long been), requesting all Catholics everywhere in the world, no matter which side they were on, to pray for a lasting peace and for those who are entrusted to make it during the upcoming peace negotiations in France.

In the United States the second annual Pulitzer Prizes are awarded.

The Farm Workers Union is founded in Uppland, Sweden.

Born Today:

Shunpei Uto, Japanese swimmer, silver and bronze medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympics, in Kakegawa, Shizuoka, Japan.

Died Today: Margit Kaffka, Hungarian poet, first major female Hungarian writer, member of the Nyugat literary group (born 1880).

Peter Hume Brown, Scottish historian, proponent of Scottish history as a discipline, member of the Privy Council of Scotland (born 1849).