740.00119 Control (Hungary)/4–3046: Telegram

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

restricted
us urgent

808. Moscow’s 1302, April 23 to Dept repeated to Paris for Secretary as 102. Comments received from General Key on last two paragraphs of Vyshinski’s reply of April 21 to Kennan’s letter of March 2 follow.92

“The chairman of the ACC has in general terms informed the US representative on the ACC of the fulfillment of reparation obligations but has not informed me of the economic or financial conditions of Hungary.

On 28 December, 1945, at a formal meeting of the ACC, I raised the question as to the plans the Hungarian Govt was making to improve the general economic conditions and requested a prompt report of economic conditions, with a view to having the situation studied by a committee of the ACC. The chairman received the proposal, stating he would ask the Hungarian Govt to furnish the desired information.

No formal meeting of the ACC was held until April 23, 1946, but the question was placed on the agenda of informal special meetings, on 8 January, 1946, 26 January, 1946 and 6 March, 1946,93 and also on the formal meeting of 23 April, 1946. No satisfactory reply was made to any of these questions on the agenda and at the last meeting we were informed that all of the economic plans had been printed in the newspapers.

As a general comment, I would like to say that the chairman—Soviet—, ACC for Hungary, has not systematically informed the US and British representatives concerning Hungarian economic and financial difficulties.”

Repeated Moscow No. 187, and Paris No. 113 for Secretary.

Schoenfeld
  1. In telegram 810, April 30, 1946, from Budapest, Minister Schoenfeld set forth detailed information recently obtained confidentially from Hungarian officials regarding Soviet exploitation of and interference in the Hungarian economy. Schoenfeld stated that “Vyshinski’s reply to Kennan’s letter re Hungarian economic situation scarcely contains a single truth. This could be readily demonstrated from information compiled by Hungarian public officials, if they had the courage to make information officially available in face of strict Soviet prohibitions in supplying economic data to representatives of foreign governments.” (864.60/4–3046)
  2. Telegram 477, March 7, 1946, from Budapest, reported that at the informal meeting with American and British representatives on March 6, Voroshilov told General Key that in view of the American credit of 10 million dollars to Hungary, the United States could not be seriously concerned about repayment and consequently could not consider the Hungarian economic situation excessively grave. At this meeting, Voroshilov definitely declined to appoint an economic investigative committee of the Allied Control Commission as recommended by the American and British representatives. (864.50/3–746)