740.0011 European War 1939/12377: Telegram
The Minister in Hungary (Pell) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 23—5:15 p.m.]
379. The Permanent Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs told me this morning that whereas partial mobilization has been ordered, Hungary will not participate in the Russo-German war. He stated Germany to be well able to defeat Russia, and German troops have orders to push forward to the Ural mountains; that Siberia will be retained by the Russians while the remaining portion of Russia will be divided into several small states under German hegemony.
Some German troops are passing through Hungary towards Rumania and complete blackouts started in Hungary last evening.
Hungarians as a general rule are very anti-Soviet for they will never forget the days of communism in Hungary87 but at the same time the feeling of the Lodzia was expressed to me this morning by a prominent Hungarian who hoped that Germany would defeat Russia but would become so exhausted that Germany itself would become easy prey to the British.
- For reports on conditions in Hungary in 1919 under the Bela Kun Communist regime, see Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, vol. xii, pp. 606 ff.↩