864.00/3–947
The Acting Chairman of the Allied Control Commission for Hungary (Sviridov) to the Chief of the United States Representation on the Allied Control Commission (Weems)1
In reply to your letter of March 5 of this year2 in which you put forth the point of view of your government in regards to the latest political events in Hungary, I have the honor to inform you of the following:
The democratic regime and the Hungarian Government were threatened by an anti-constitutional and anti-republican conspiracy and not by the minority parties, there being no basis for the accusation that they strive to deprive the Smallholder Party of their legal power and to establish a dictatorship of the minority because they stand on the basis of the Hungarian Constitution.
The existence of an anti-constitutional plot and the threat that it represented the young Hungarian democracy is not denied even by the Smallholder Party itself. Concerning this they have made announcements many times in press as well as in many appearances of their leader Ferenc Nagy. The fact that among the plotters were to be found many representatives of the Smallholder Party and among the Smallholder members of the Parliament is not the fault of the police or the parties of the leftist bloc. The Smallholder Party itself admitted the guilt of these plotters, members of this party, has voluntarily agreed to deprive them of their Parliamentary immunity and to turn them over to the Government. Therefore, your statement, Mr. General, that the minority parties attempted to involve representatives of the Smallholder Party in the plot appears to be without proof and without foundation.
The investigations on the subject of the plot, as is known, have already been completed by the Hungarian authorities and the case of the plotters is at present being investigated by the Independent Democratic Court of the Hungarian Republic. On this basis I cannot agree to your proposal for a mutual investigation of the present situation and the plot because this would appear to be an open intervention into the internal affairs of the Hungarian Republic and a rude violation of the legal rights of the Hungarian Peoples Court.
[Page 278]Your intervention in the case of Béla Kovács I cannot regard otherwise than as an attempt to infringe on the legal rights of the Soviet occupation authorities to defend their armed forces located on Hungarian territory and I, therefore, cannot agree to such intervention on the part of the Government of the USA.
The arrest of Béla Kovács for crimes directed against the Soviet occupation armies cannot be regarded as an intervention on the part of the Soviet occupation authorities into the internal affairs of Hungary.
I am sending this letter simultaneously to the Chief of the British Mission on the ACC for Hungary General Edgecumbe.