864.4061 Motion Pictures/71

The Minister in Hungary (Montgomery) to the Secretary of State

No. 1465

Sir: I have the honor to report that in accordance with the Department’s Telegram No. 40, March 15, 8 p.m., this Legation has informally notified the appropriate Hungarian Foreign Office officials that the United States Government is of the opinion that the refusal to allow Jewish managers of American film companies operating in Hungary to become members of the Hungarian Film Chamber constitutes discrimination against American producers, and has expressed the hope that such managers will be admitted to the Chamber on the same basis as Jewish managers of local producing companies.

Translations of the Statutes of the Film Chamber and its regulations, as given in Decrees No. 6090 and No. 6095 of 1938 are enclosed.2 As the nationality qualifications for membership are, according to these statutes, to be governed by Paragraph 4 of Law No. 15 of May 28, 1938 (The “Jew Law”) which is still under revision, it is understood that new applications for membership received from Jews are not being acted on. As stated in my telegram No. 26, February 13, 4 p.m., the Hungarian Government reserves the right to refuse membership to any Hungarian national. As far as the membership of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer manager is concerned, it is understood that in addition to his racial difficulty he is persona non grata with the Hungarian Government and is consequently not likely to be approved for membership in the Chamber.

Respectfully yours,

For the Minister:
Howard K. Travers

Secretary of Legation
  1. Not printed.