740.00119 Control (Hungary)/3–145: Telegram

Mr. Alexander C. Kirk, Political Adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, to the Secretary of State

763. In a message dated February 28 from Debrecen General Key26 reported on a conference held on February 27 with Major General Levushkin,27 executive officer of ACC in absence of Marshal Voroshilov.

Levushkin stated that the Russian component of the ACC has arrived only recently and it is not sufficiently staffed to do its work nor is it completely organized. The date for the first meeting of the commission has not yet been determined.

He stated that so far the Hungarian Government has done little to fulfill the armistice conditions with the exception of negotiations in process regarding the activation of Hungarian military units and POWs. The Hungarian Government’s offer to furnish experts on Hungarian economy has been accepted by the Russians and their reports are to be studied before schedules of reparations payments are considered. These can not be fixed now without jeopardizing Hungarian economy.

Levushkin’s statement regarding non payment of reparations thus far is at odds with reports given by the Hungarians to Squires to the effect that delivery this year of goods and supplies amounting to 60 million dollars has already been demanded by the Russians.28 The [Page 807] probable explanation of this is that these demands in Russian opinion apply to article XI of armistice agreement on war materials and not article XII on reparations. The unofficial estimate of the number of Russian troops in Hungary is 2 million.

General Levushkin continued that so long as military operations continued in or near Hungarian territory military considerations must necessarily come before the work of the ACC. He stated that General Key might go direct to the Hungarian Government or its agencies for information and that Russian part of the Commission would give him all available information. With exception of front line area where clearance by military command would be required General Key and his group would be free to go anywhere in Hungary without permission. He said that additional personnel needed by the American group would be approved in Debrecen but that any civilian or military personnel not directly connected with the ACC would have to have approval come from Moscow.

Kirk

[The Department’s expectations to see the full implementation of the Crimea Declaration on Liberated Europe with regard to the former Axis satellite countries, and the Department’s views on the attitude to be taken with regard to this agreement by the American representatives in the Allied Control Commissions for Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary, are set forth in telegram 55, March 3, 6 p.m. to Sofia, sent also to Moscow, Bucharest, and Caserta, printed on page 169.]

  1. Maj. Gen. Key arrived in Debrecen on February 18, 1945.
  2. Maj. Gen. 1.1. Levushkin, member of the Soviet Element on the Allied Control Commission for Hungary.
  3. Article XII of the armistice agreement provided that Hungary would pay reparations to the Soviet Union in the form of commodities worth $200 million over a 6–year period. Telegram 951, March 12. from Caserta, which was No. 14 from Squires in Debrecen, reported that the Soviet authorities had given the Hungarian Provisional Government a preliminary enumeration of the Soviet reparation demands for 1945; however, General Levushkin had assured American representatives on the Allied Control Commission that the Soviet authorities realized that the Hungarians could not then pay reparations and still maintain a workable internal economy, and no reparations discussions had yet gotten underway (740.00119 Control (Hungary)/3–1245). Telegram 773, March 2, 2 p.m., from Caserta, which was No. 8 from Debrecen, reported that Prime Minister Miklos had told Squires that the Russians had already demanded goods and equipment valued at more than $66 million; it reported further that this figure was probably explained by the fact that the Hungarian Government tended to combine the cost of War materials requisitioned by the Soviets under article XI of the armistice agreement with the cost of reparations (740.00119 Control (Hungary)/3–245).