871.00/6–646: Telegram
The Representative in Rumania (Berry) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 8—10:10 a.m.]
578. Reourtel 577, June 6.87 Following is text of Foreign Minister’s note:
“Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note dated June 188 and to request you to take cognizance of the Rumanian Government’s reply.
From statements and information received from the authorities of the general security police of the state it follows that Monsieur Alexander Stanescu has not been arrested but Mile. Elvira Olteanu was taken in custody on May 27.
The account of the general Security Police specifies that ‘the arrest has been necessary, as the above named is a member of subversive organization directed against the security of the state’.
The Rumanian Government deeply regret that the US Government have ascribed an offending intention to an act performed by responsible agents within the bounds of the Rumanian laws. The quality of clerk in the service of a foreign mission carries no privilege and so much the less any other immunity that quality does not protect against sanctions provided by the laws of the country any citizen who commits an offense.
With regard to the request for the release of Mlle. Olteanu the Rumanian Government regret to be unable to take this demand into consideration on principle.
Rumania is a free and sovereign state and cannot permit the immixtion [Page 602] [sic] on the part of other states, even though they are friendly, in the internal order of the country and in the application of the national laws. Her position as country under an armistice only commits her to certain obligations ensuing from the armistice agreement. Towards the fulfillment of such obligations the Government can receive orders and instructions from the ACC only.
The Rumanian Government avail themselves of this opportunity to point out an occurrence, the gravity of which will no doubt be taken into consideration by the US representative in Rumania.
[Here follows a complaint that members of the United States Army intervened to prevent the arrest by Rumanian security agents of Teodor Manicatide.]
The Rumanian Government trust that this regrettable act has happened without the knowledge of the superior authorities of the US Military Mission. It has been brought to the attention of the ACC for investigation and settlement.
At the same time the Rumanian Government beg to inform you that they will supply you in due course with further information and with the results of the investigations that are being made with regard to the Rumanian clerks in the service of the United States Mission in order to strengthen thus the feelings of trust and friendship on which they wish mutual relations between our countries to rest.
I have the honor, Sir, to request you to accept the expression of my highest consideration.”
- Not printed; it drew particular attention to the concluding paragraph of the note quoted below which was interpreted to mean that there would be further arrests of Rumanian employees. The telegram concluded as follows: “This will deal such a heavy blow to their morale that for practical purposes our Rumanian employees will be little more than observers within Mission for the Rumanian and Russian secret political police.” (871.00/6–646)↩
- The American note of June 1, not printed, was sent in pursuance of the instructions contained in telegram 358, May 30, to Bucharest, p. 596.↩