864.413 Bandholtz/3: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Hungary (Montgomery)
7. The Rumanian Minister1 has informed the Department that his Government is considerably disturbed over the proposed erection in Budapest by American donors of a statue of General Bandholtz2 commemorating the General’s activities in connection with the alleged intention of the Rumanians to loot the Royal Hungarian Museum during the occupation of Budapest by their troops. The Rumanian Government is particularly disturbed by the report that the statue is to be placed before the entrance to the Museum and that it will depict the General in a defiant attitude brandishing a riding whip.
The Department is most anxious that the matter of participation by the Legation in the unveiling ceremony, which is said to be planned for July 4, be handled in such a way as to avoid giving offense either to the Hungarian or to the Rumanian Government. The Department considers that if the ceremony is being arranged as an unofficial affair you should avoid being present or represented. If, however, the Hungarian Government gives an official character to the unveiling and invites you officially to be present, you should find some excuse to be absent from Budapest and represented by a member of your staff. Any representative of the Legation should be careful not to take an active part in the ceremony and under no circumstances should he make any remarks.
Please keep Department informed of developments by telegraph.
- Charles A. Davila.↩
- Harry Hill Bandholtz, American Commissioner on the Interallied Military Mission in Hungary, 1919–20. For reports of the Bandholtz Mission to Hungary, see Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. xii, pp. 635 ff.↩