864.00/6–1547
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
Confirming receipt of your letter of 11 June this year,2 I have honor to inform you that I cannot agree with the evaluation of the political situation in Hungary given in your letter. Your assertion of some change in the political power in Hungary, the nullification of the will of the majority of the Hungarian people and also of establishment of some kind of control over Hungary by the minority appears to be unfounded fiction.
It is known to all that the governmental crisis in Hungary was caused by the refusal of former Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy to return to the country notwithstanding the suggestion of Hungarian Govt and leadership of the independent Smallholders Party, and his voluntary resignation which followed later.
This crisis was solved through efforts of all parties of coalition govt in strict conformity with constitutional standards.
The new Hungarian Govt headed by Prime Minister Lajos Dinnyés retained the previous distribution of portfolios among the coalition parties and remained basically the same as in the previous body. Towards this govt was expressed the confidence of the overwhelming majority of the Hungarian people, which fact is attested by the declaration of national committee, signed by President of the Republic and leaders of all coalition parties, as well as unanimous decision of confidence and granting of authority to the govt by Hungarian Parliament.
All these facts have been widely publicized and undoubtedly are known to you; therefore after I had acquainted myself with your letter I could not help but notice in it attempts, under the disguise of defense of Hungarian democracy, to render support to separate individuals who have entangled themselves with conspirators, fled abroad from their people.
As far as concerns your statement of violation by me of paragraph 6 c of the statutes of the ACC, in connection with turning over depositions in case of Béla Kovács to Hungarian Govt, in conformity with request of Ferenc Nagy, this statement is based on a [Page 321] misunderstanding since these documents, as I have already notified you in my letter of 9 June,3 have no relation whatsoever to the activities of the Allied Control Commission.
Based on the foregoing I decline your protest as completely baseless since I cannot, from my point of view, see any unilateral actions which violate the Yalta Agreement; and also consider, as fiction, the statement of Soviet interference in Hungarian political affairs.
Taking the above into consideration I cannot agree with your proposal to establish a three-power commission to investigate the situation in Hungary, since I do not see any necessity for it and consider that this would be a rude interference in Hungarian internal affairs, which is not permissible.
- The source text was transmitted to the Department in telegram 1019, June 15, from Budapest, not printed.↩
- For the text of the communication delivered by General Weems on June 11, see telegram 617, June 10, p. 317.↩
- In a letter dated June 4, General Weems requested from General Sviridov copies of testimony in the Béla Kovács case. General Weems explained that as a member of the Allied Control Commission he was entitled to receive such information from Soviet authorities. In a reply dated June 9, General Sviridov rejected General Weems’ request and denied that the Kovács case had anything to do with the Allied Control Commission. Neither of the letters is printed.↩