740.00119 Control (Hungary)/12–3146: Telegram
The Minister in Hungary (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 3, 1947—7:55 a.m.]
2384. Re Deptel 1242, November 22, and my Desp 2326, December 5.16 Following is translation supplied by General Weems of letter No. 2863 dated December 25 from General Sviridov to Weems.
“Replying to your letter of 29 November, 1946 concerning the receipt of economic and financial information by US Minister Schoenfeld from the Hungarian Govt, I have the honor to inform you once more that it is the prerogative of the ACC to obtain information from the Hungarian Govt on questions concerning Hungarian economic situation and also on other basic questions concerning the internal life of the country. The Hungarian Govt may submit similar information to a foreign mission only after having received the approval to do so from the chairman of ACC or his deputy.
If the Hungarian Govt will not fulfill this condition and will start sending such information to the diplomatic missions directly by-passing the ACC, it would thus violate the established procedure of control and would place the ACC in a situation in which it would be unable to control thoroughly the fulfillment of the armistice agreement.
Consequently, the ACC cannot permit the Hungarian Govt to submit information to any diplomatic mission concerning the economic and financial situation of the country by-passing the Chairman of the ACC or his deputy. In order to prove the correctness of my opinion I refer to paragraph 6 of the ACC statutes according to which even your representation and the UK representation on the ACC may obtain the information necessary to them from the Hungarian Govt only through the Chairman of ACC or his deputy.”
Assumed that reference to ACC statutes is to sub-paragraph F of paragraph 6 which reads “to communicate with the organs of the Hungarian Govt through the Chairman of the Commission, the deputy of the Chairman or the chief of the corresponding Department.”17
Repeated Moscow 309.
- Latter not printed; it transmitted the text of General Weems’ letter of November 29 to General Sviridov which had been sent in pursuance of the instructions in telegram 1242, November 22, to Budapest, p. 346.↩
- For text of the statutes of the Allied Control Commission for Hungary, see the letter of January 20, 1945 from Foreign Commissar Molotov to Ambassador Harriman, Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. iv, p. 802. Telegram 24, January 9, 1947, ‘to Budapest, stated that in view of Sviridov’s letter of December 25 and the scheduled early conclusion of the Hungarian peace treaty, the Department felt that a prolongation of the interchange with Soviet authorities over the procedure for obtaining Hungarian economic and financial information would serve no useful purpose. The Department did request General Weems to address a final reply to General Sviridov denying the Soviet contention that the statutes of the Allied Control Commission required the American Legation to obtain information through the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Control Commission. Weems was to maintain that the statutes clearly had reference only to the American and British representatives on the Control Commission. The United States maintained the right of its diplomatic representative to request and receive economic, financial or other information directly from the Hungarian Government. (740.00119 Control (Hungary)/12–3146)↩