(b) Note from United States Representative on Allied Control Commission for Hungary to Soviet Acting Chairman, June 11, 1947 1 On instructions from my Government, I addressed you two communications, on March 5 2 and March 173, regarding developments in Hungary, including the arrest on February 25 by the Soviet occupation forces of Béla Kovács, a parliamentary deputy of the majority Smallholders Party and a former Secretary General of that party. On both occasions I proposed the establishment of a commission, composed of representatives of the three powers on the Allied Control Commission, to investigate the situation created by that action and by the large-scale apprehension, by the Hungarian police, of other representatives of the majority party on charges of complicity in a conspiracy against the authority of the Hungarian state. My Government considered and continues to consider the effect of these actions as threatening the continuance of democratic processes in Hungary. In reply you stated that the arrest of Kovács was the exclusive concern of the Soviet occupation forces because he was charged with crimes against those forces. Hence, you contended, his arrest could not be regarded "as an intervention on the part of the Soviet occupation authorities in the internal affairs of Hungary". You argued further that a three-power investigation of the arrests of other members of the Smallholders Party by the Communist-controlled Ministry of Interior would be an interference with the internal affairs of Hungary and therefore was refused. Thus, it appeareed that to investigate the arrest of alleged Smallholder Party members charged with conspiracy against the state would interfere with Hungarian affairs, while for the occupation forces to arrest one of the most important alleged plotters was not such interference by the simple process of charging him with another offense. It now develops, however, that his offense was the same conspiracy which could not be investigated by three powers but which has in fact been investigated by one and which has led to a most flagrant interference in Hungarian affairs. Information relating to Hungarian political affairs, alleged to have been elicited from Béla Kovács during his detention incommunicado by the Soviet occupation forces, has been furnished by the Soviet authorities to the Communist Party Prime Minister of the Hungarian Government in such circumstances as to force the resignation of the Hungarian Prime Minister and other important leaders of the majority Smallholders Party and to bring about the reorganization of the Hungarian Government. The United States and United Kingdom members of the Allied Control Commission have been kept in ignorance of this information in clear violation of paragraph 6 (c) of the statutes of the Allied Control Commission which provides that the United States and United Kingdom representatives on the Allied Control Commission shall have the right "to receive copies of all communications, reports and other documents which may interest the governments of the United States and United Kingdom". My Government has taken note that this action has resulted in the realignment of political authority in Hungary so that a minority which obtained 17 percent 1 Department of State Bulletin of June 22, 1947, pp. 1215-1216. Department of State Bulletin of March 16, 1947, p. 495. Department of State Bulletin of March 30, 1947, p. 583. of popular support in the last free election has nullified the expressed will of the majority of the Hungarian people, a situation which has apparently been admitted by the leader of the Communist minority, Rákosi, who is reported to have taken public satisfaction that his "iron-fisted" party, "conscious of its aims", has thus been able to take over control of Hungary. My Government protests this unilateral action in violation of the Yalta agreements and this Soviet interference in Hungarian political affairs in derogation of the continued exercise of democratic rights in that country and of the freely expressed will of the Hungarian people and again requests, as a member of the Allied Control Commission, the expeditious establishment of a three-power commission to examine the situation as a matter of urgency. Unless this or some equally effective action to bring about adequate investigation is agreed upon, my Government, conscious of its obligations under the Yalta declaration, as a signatory of the armistice with Hungary, and as a member of the United Nations, will consider such further action as may be appropriate in the circumstances. (c) Statement by the Department of State, August 17, 1947 1 The United States Government, a member of the Allied Control Commission for Hungary, is seriously concerned by reports from Budapest of widespread abuses of the already restrictive provisions of the new Hungarian electoral law, under which national elections will be held on August 31. The United States Government, which has taken note of the assurances of free elections voiced publicly by the Hungarian Prime Minister and other Hungarian officials, is prompted in this matter by its desire that freedoms guaranteed by the treaty of peace with Hungary, already ratified by both the United States and Hungary, shall not be denied the Hungarian people. Aside from the unwarranted interference of the minority Communist Party with the right of other parties to prepare freely their own lists of candidates, abuses of the Hungarian electoral law center in the wholesale disfranchisement of voters by the Communist-controlled electoral organs on flimsy and illegal pretexts. According to the nonCommunist Hungarian press, exclusion from the electorate has now reached 70 percent in some districts. Some estimates indicate that 20 percent of the electorate, or roughly one million Hungarian citizens, have already been deprived of their right to vote. The overwhelming majority of Hungarian citizens thus far disfranchised are non-Communists. The charges on which potential voters have lost their suffrage rights border on the grotesque: citizens of the Jewish faith have been disqualified on the accusation of having been members of Nazi organizations; old women, of being prostitutes; factory workers, of belonging to the former landed nobility. Thousands of persons have arbitrarily been classified as mentally deranged. Appeals against disfranchisement are permitted by law, but the burden of proof rests upon the citizens and the right of review is in the hands of the Communist-controlled political police. Moreover, only eight days are allowed for the review of all appeals-a period clearly inade 1 Department of State Bulletin of August 24, 1947, pp. 392-393. 1 quate, in view of the large number of cases, for judicious consideration of the evidence. The Communist arrangement of supervising the lists of candidates prepared by other political parties, obtained through pressure, is obviously intended to assure the Communist Party and its collaborators control of the new legislature regardless of the outcome of the balloting. In as much as the Hungarian Government, under article 2 of the treaty of peace, has assumed the obligation of securing to all persons under Hungarian jurisdiction the enjoyment of human rights and the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of political opinion, the United States Government has instructed the American Minister in Budapest to seek an interview with the Hungarian Prime Minister and to urge him to take all necessary steps on behalf of his Government to correct the prevailing electoral abuses. It is understood that the British Government is similarly instructing its Minister in Budapest. 271. TRIAL OF JOZSEF CARDINAL MINDSZENTY BY HUNGARY 1 (a) Statement by Secretary Acheson, February 9, 1949 The trial of Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty, upon whom the Hungarian Government has now imposed a sentence of life imprisonment, confirms the Government and people of the United States in the views expressed by the Acting Secretary of State on December 29, 1948.2 By this conscienceless attack upon religious and personal freedom, as well as by the persecution of Lutheran Bishop Lajos Ordass and other respected Church leaders, the Soviet-controlled Hungarian authorities seek to discredit and coerce religious leadership in Hungary in order to remove this source of moral resistance to Communism. In their conduct of the case of Cardinal Mindszenty, the Hungarian authorities do not appear to have omitted any of the usual methods practiced by a police state. Such proceedings constitute not the administration of justice but wanton persecution. They have evoked universal condemnation, and the Hungarian Government must bear full responsibility for its action. The cases of Cardinal Mindszenty and other Hungarian Church leaders are not isolated developments. During the past two years, with governmental power entirely in the hands of the minority Communist party, the people of Hungary have been increasingly denied the exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms. Parliamentary opposition, an element indispensable to the democratic process, has been ruthlessly eliminated, the totalitarian controls of state and party have been laid like a deadening hand upon every phase of daily personal existence, and the Hungarian people have been divested of any real independence. Department of State Bulletin of February 20, 1949, pp. 230-231. In a press conference on December 29, 1948, Acting Secretary Lovett denounced as a sickening sham the arrest of Jozsef Cardinal Mindszenty by the Hungarian Government on espionage charges. Mr. Lovett declared the action as obviously based on false charges and culminated a long series of oppressive actions in Hungary against personal freedom-and now religious freedom. He commented at the press conference that such behavior was one of the things that makes achievement of a peace a hope rather than a reality. He commented that this action is all that is needed to indicate the attitude of the Hungarian Government toward the liberties to which the rest of the world attaches the greatest importance. The people of the United States, and, without question, peoples of other freedom-loving nations, are sickened and horrified by these developments and fully comprehend the threat they constitute to free institutions everywhere. (b) Statement by the Department of State, February 12, 1949, on Recall of United States Minister to Hungary The Hungarian Government on February 12 formally requested the recall of the United States Minister to Hungary, Selden Chapin, stating that he is no longer agreeable to the Government of Hungary. On February 10 the Hungarian Minister inquired of Assistant Secretary Rusk concerning "the intentions of this Government with respect to Minister Chapin in view of the fact that the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty had shown that Mr. Chapin had been involved in that case." The Minister was informed at that time that this Government had full confidence in Minister Chapin and considered the allegations against him completely without foundation. It was pointed out to the Hungarian Minister that the Hungarian Government had not acceded to Minister Chapin's request that a representative of the Legation be allowed to be present at the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty despite press reports alleging that the United States Legation was involved. The Hungarian Minister was also informed that Minister Chapin had requested a transcript of the official record of the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty but that, so far as the Department was aware, this had not been furnished. Assistant Secretary Rusk further informed the Hungarian Minister that the United States Government's view of the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty had already been expressed by the President and the Secretary of State, and the Hungarian Minister was therefore well aware that the Government and the people of the United States had been dismayed and revolted by the conduct of this trial. As for the alleged involvement of Minister Chapin, the Secretary of State had described such accusations as false and outrageous. Upon presentation by the Hungarian Minister on February 12 of the request for the recall of Minister Chapin, the Hungarian Minister was informed that Minister Chapin would be ordered to Washington for consultation but that the United States Government reserved its position in the matter. (c) Resolution of the United States Senate, April 11, 19491 Whereas the persecution of Cardinal Mindszenty and Bishop Ordass in Hungary, of Archbishop Stepinac in Yugoslavia, and of Protestant clergymen in Bulgaria, evidences the abridgement and violation of fundamental human freedoms guaranteed in the treaties of peace and reaffirmed in the United Nations Charter: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that these actions should be strongly protested in the United Nations or by whatever other means may be appropriate. 1 S. Res. 102, 81st Cong. 1st sess. 272. UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD POLAND1 Statement by Secretary Stettinius, December 18, 1944 The United States Government's position as regards Poland has been steadfastly guided by full understanding and sympathy for the interests of the Polish people. This position has been communicated on previous occasions to the interested governments, including the Government of Poland. It may be summarized as follows: 1. The United States Government stands unequivocally for a strong, free, and independent Polish state with the untrammeled right of the Polish people to order their internal existence as they see fit. 2. It has been the consistently held policy of the United States Government that questions relating to boundaries should be left in abeyance until the termination of hostilities. As Secretary Hull stated in his address of April 9, 1944, "This does not mean that certain questions may not and should not in the meantime be settled by friendly conference and agreement." In the case of the future frontiers of Poland, if a mutual agreement is reached by the United Nations directly concerned, this Government would have no objection to such an agreement which could make an essential contribution to the prosecution of the war against the common enemy. If, as a result of such agreement, the Government and people of Poland decide that it would be in the interests of the Polish state to transfer national groups, the United States Government in cooperation with other governments will assist Poland, in so far as practicable, in such transfers. The United States Government continues to adhere to its traditional policy of declining to give guarantees for any specific frontiers. The United States Government is working for the establishment of a world security organization through which the United States together with other member states would assume responsibility for the preservation of general security. 3. It is the announced aim of the United States Government, subject to legislative authority, to assist the countries liberated from the enemy in repairing the devastation of war and thus to bring to their peoples the opportunity to join as full partners in the task of building a more prosperous and secure life for all men and women. This applies to Poland as well as the other United Nations. The policy of the United States Government regarding Poland outlined above has as its objective the attainment of the announced basic principles of United States foreign policy. 273. UNITED STATES POSITION ON THE CONDUCT OF POLISH ELECTIONS (a) Note to the Polish Provisional Government, August 19, 1946 2 I have been instructed by my Government to inform you that it has been glad to learn of the announcement that the Polish Provisional Government intends to promulgate electoral laws during the month Department of State Bulletin of December of 24, 1944, p. 836. |