864.00/6–647: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Legation in Hungary
urgent niact
617. Comments AmEmbassy Moscow (Embtel 2070 June 71) and Leg Budapest (Legtel 961 June 6) re proposed note on Hung situation, as well as Brit FonOff observations received through Brit Emb Washington,2 have been considered and Leg is requested ask Gen Weems communicate immediately to Soviet Acting Chairman ACC Hung note of which text has been revised accordingly to read as follows:
“On instructions from my Government, I addressed you two communications, on March 5 and March 17, regarding developments in Hungary, including the arrest on February 25 by the Soviet occupation forces of Béla Kovács, a parliamentary deputy of the majority Smallholders [Page 318] party and a former Secretary General of that party. On both occasions I proposed the establishment of a commission, composed of representatives of the three powers on the Allied Control Commission, to investigate the situation created by that action and by the large-scale apprehension by the Hungarian police, of other representatives of the majority party on charges of complicity in a conspiracy against the authority of the Hungarian state. My Government considered and continues to consider the effect of these actions as threatening the continuance of democratic processes in Hungary.
In reply you stated that the arrest of Kovács was the exclusive concern of the Soviet occupation forces because he was charged with crimes against those forces. Hence, you contended, his arrest could not be regarded ‘as an intervention on the part of the Soviet occupation authorities in the internal affairs of Hungary’. You argued further that a three-power investigation of the arrests of other members of the Smallholders party by the Communist controlled Ministry of Interior would be an interference with the internal affairs of Hungary and therefore was refused. Thus, it appeared that to investigate the arrest of alleged Smallholder party members charged with conspiracy against the state would interfere with Hungarian affairs, while for the occupation forces to arrest one of the most important alleged plotters was not such interference by the simple process of charging him with another offense.
It now develops, however, that his offense was the same conspiracy which could not be investigated by three powers but which has in fact been investigated by one and which has led to a most flagrant interference in Hungarian affairs. Information relating to Hungarian political affairs, alleged to have been elicited from Béla Kovács during his detention incommunicado by the Soviet occupation forces, has been furnished by the Soviet authorities to the Communist Deputy Prime Minister of the Hungarian Government in such circumstances as to force the resignation of the Hungarian Prime Minister and other important leaders of the majority Smallholders party and to bring about the reorganization of the Hungarian Government. The US and UK members of the Allied Control Commission have been kept in ignorance of this information in clear violation of paragraph 6(c) of the statutes of the Allied Control Commission which provides that the US and UK representatives on the Allied Control Commission shall have the right ‘to receive copies of all communications, reports and other documents which may interest the governments of the US and UK’. My Government has taken note that this action has resulted in the realignment of political authority in Hungary so that a minority which obtained 17 percent of popular support in the last free election has nullified the expressed will of the majority of the Hungarian people, a situation which has apparently been admitted by the leader of the Communist minority, Rákosi, who is reported to have taken public satisfaction that his ‘iron-fisted’ party, ‘conscious of its aims’, has thus been able to take over control of Hungary.
My Government protests this unilateral action in violation of the Yalta agreements and this Soviet interference in Hungarian political affairs in derogation of the continued exercise of democratic rights in [Page 319] that country and of the freely expressed will of the Hungarian people and again requests as a member of the Allied Control Commission, the expeditious establishment of a three-power commission to examine the situation as a matter of urgency. Unless this or some equally effective action to bring about adequate investigation is agreed upon my Government, conscious of its obligations under the Yalta Declaration, as a signatory of the Armistice with Hungary, and as a member of the UnitedNations, will consider such further action as may be appropriate in the circumstances.”3
Copies text note should also be transmitted to Hung, UK and Soviet Govts by Leg Budapest and Embs London, and Moscow. On assumption note will be delivered Budapest June 11 text will be made public here 12 noon June 12 and may be released Budapest simultaneously.
Sent Budapest, rptd London, Paris and Moscow.