740.00119 EW/2–1246: Telegram
The Minister in Hungary (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 12—8:10 p.m.]
299. Following is official translation of note dated February 9 from Hungarian Prime Minister22 addressed to me:
“The Hungarian Government has submited a plea through the agency of the Allied Control Commission to the Government of the United States asking for the restitution of Hungarian goods taken away by the Germans and the Hungarian Fascist ‘Arrowcross’ Party and being at present in the United States occupied zones.
Your Excellency will allow me to ask in the name of my Government your benevolent cooperation and the immediate support of your [my] plea with Your Excellency’s Government.
For Your Excellency, who may have observed for some time already the destruction and misery caused by the war, and the privations and suffering following in their wake, I need not stress the fact that the exertions of the Hungarian Government will remain almost fruitless until we do get back all those goods of primary importance, medical supplies, means of transport, gold, live stock, mechanical installations and other values which were robbed from private persons as well as [Page 258] from public institutions and carried beyond our frontiers. The restitution of these properties would be more urgent even than any help or relief from abroad.
My Government is making superhuman effort in the interest of the Country’s reveal [relief?] and rehabilitation. The peasant and the working classes together with the intelligentsia, who are almost literally in want of their everyday bread, are sacrificing, so to speak, their last strength to ensure the future of the country, but we feel that all our sacrifices are in vain if the Government of the United States does not grant us its help by fulfilling our request.
Expressing my full confidence in the good will of your Government, allow me to beg once more Your Excellency’s efficacious support. I remain.”
Sent Dept; repeated to London as No. 82; to Moscow as No. 74; to Vienna as No. 45.
[In telegram 415, February 28, 1946, from Budapest, Schoenfeld reaffirmed his recommendation that positive steps be taken to safeguard Hungarian property in the American zone of occupation in Germany pending a decision as to its ultimate disposition, and further, that some of the Hungarian property, including medical and sanitary supplies, certain transport, and hospital and fire fighting equipment be restored if it would be helpful in facilitating Hungarian rehabilitation. Schoenfeld pointed out, however, that the unconditional return of Hungarian properties might be regarded as an endorsement of Soviet economic policy in Hungary. (740.00119 EW/2–2846)]
- Ferenc Nagy.↩