740.00116 EW/4–3045: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Representative in Rumania (Berry)83
268. Department has desired to avoid taking any position on trials in former Axis satellite states of their respective nationals charged with offenses falling roughly under the heading of “collaboration with the Germans” or “responsibility for the disaster to the country”. In the Department’s view such trials are the domestic affair of the government concerned, and no intervention on the part of Allied governments is called for either under the terms of the armistice agreements or on any other basis, unless it should appear that the responsibilities assumed by the Allied governments under the Crimea Declaration on Liberated Europe are involved in any particular trial or series of trials.
The Department would prefer that you make no representation to the Rumanian Government on this subject. If, however, you become convinced that trials under new decree law of April 21 (your despatch no. 273, April 3084) are being used by the Groza Government as a means of discrediting or eliminating on trumped-up charges of “fascist” tendencies or affiliations opposition leaders whose past record has been consistently anti-Nazi, pro-Allied and democratic, you should report relevant facts to Department requesting instructions. Pending receipt of such instructions there would be no objection to your letting it be known in Rumanian circles that it would be disturbing to this Government and to American public opinion if the present Rumanian authorities should make a mockery of the judicial process for the purpose of liquidating political opponents and establishing the regime more firmly in power.
The British Government has informed the Department of its concern over the possibility that political trials in Rumania and Hungary might be characterized by excesses such as have occurred in Bulgaria85 and might facilitate attempts to establish single-party dictatorial regimes. The British Government is of the opinion, however, that it would be difficult to justify intervention to limit or deny the right of a government to try its own citizens for political offenses, particularly [Page 547] before any excesses or obvious miscarriages of justice take place, and that the best course would seem to be that which the British Representative in Bulgaria followed, namely “to deal with each case as it arises, and as soon as there are indications that excesses are impending to intervene with good advice to the local government.”
In reply to British request for the Department’s views on this subject, the substance of the present telegram is being transmitted to the British Embassy here.
Trials of persons charged with specific criminal acts committed on United Nations territory or against United Nations nationals, or persons otherwise named as war criminals by United Nations governments or agencies are a matter for action by the United Nations in accordance with Moscow Declaration of November 1, 194386 and other general procedures already agreed upon or still to be determined. Rumania must of course carry out its obligation under Article 14 of the Armistice to cooperate with the Soviet High Command in the apprehension and trial of such war criminals.87
- Repeated to Sofia as 142, and to Budapest as 49.↩
- Not printed; it reported the internal governmental negotiations which culminated in the issuance of a new government decree regarding the trial and punishment of war criminals and it transmitted a copy of the new decree as published in the Monitor Oficial of April 23, 1945 (740.00116 EW/4–3045). For a brief discussion regarding the preparation of this decree, see telegram 295, April 22, 11 p.m., from Bucharest, p. 536.↩
- Regarding the Bulgarian war crimes trials, see telegrams 66, February 1, 1945; 78, February 10, 1945; 183, April 5, 1945 from Sofia, vol. iv, pp. 154, 156, and 181, respectively.↩
- For text of the Declaration on German Atrocities, signed by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Marshal Stalin, and released to the press at the conclusion of the Tripartite Conference of Foreign Ministers at Moscow. November 1, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, p. 768.↩
- The Mission in Bucharest reported in some detail upon the nine Rumanian war crimes trials held between May and August 1945. Telegram 379, June 2, noon, from Bucharest, reported that the death sentences handed down at the first trial were commuted to life imprisonment by the King after approval for such commutation was obtained by the Rumanian Government from Soviet authorities (740.00116 EW/6–245). No death sentences were handed down after this first commutation for any of the 160 war criminals brought to trial between May and August 1945.↩