871.00/3–1547
The President of the National Peasant Party (Maniu), the President of the National Liberal Party (Bratianu), and the President of the Independent Social Democratic Party (Petrescu) to the Secretary of State 1
In spite of repeated interventions with the Rumanian Government to respect the provisions of the Potsdam, Yalta, and Moscow Agreements, [Page 478] and to reestablish public liberties, the rights of man and the security of property and persons, a new wave of terror and oppression has fallen upon Rumania.
The democratic parties, National Peasant, National Liberal and Independent Social Democratic, fully conscious of the grave situation created by the famine and the consequences of the economic disaster, provoked by the incapacity of the regime in power, had imposed an absolute restraint on themselves, which the Minister of the Interior was himself recently obliged to recognize. They had abstained voluntarily from yielding to the indignation of public opinion, still under the impression of abuses and shameless falsifications of the elections of November 19, 1946. They had observed a restraint which was dictated to them by the tragic situation of starving regions and the patriotic care of not augmenting by new interventions the actual difficulties.
It is then without any worthwhile reason and without the shadow even of a pretext that the Government for a week has been proceeding to mass arrests in all the country of notable members of the three democratic parties of the opposition. Their number increases from day to day and from hour to hour; in all districts some heads of organization, vice presidents and secretaries general of the three parties, among whom is the Assistant Secretary General of the National Peasant Party, who is at the same time the president of the workers section of the party, workers, intellectuals and university professors, are carried off from their homes, hauled in trucks, imprisoned or sent into concentration camps, recently created for this purpose.
It goes without saying that there is left to them no chance to appeal to justice and to defend themselves against accusations of which they are ignorant.
The Government acts in this illegal and abusive way against the democratic parties of the opposition not only with the purpose of maintaining in power the actual regime, unrepresentative and dictatorial, but also for aims which we do not foresee at the moment.
The National Peasant, National Liberal and Independent Social Democratic Parties ask your Excellency to act with the briefest delay to put an end to an intolerable situation, which no dictatorial regime [Page 479] has yet exceeded in Rumania, and which constitutes a flagrant violation of the Potsdam, Yalta and Moscow Agreements, as well as the spirit of the recently signed peace treaty.
Juliu Maniu
The President of the National Liberal Party
C. I. C. Bratianu
The President of the Independent Social Democratic Party
Constantine Titel Petrescu
-
The source text was transmitted to the Department as an enclosure to despatch 1434, March 15, from Bucharest, not printed. Copies of this communication were sent by Representative Berry to the Embassy in Moscow. At this time, the Secretary of State was in Moscow for the Fourth Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers, March 10–April 24. This communication was also sent by the three opposition parties to the other members of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
Separate documents were prepared by the National Peasant Party (dated March 10) and by the National Liberal Party (undated) which reviewed in detail the repressive measures by the Rumanian Government against the opposition parties. These documents, addressed to the Secretary of State, were transmitted to the Department of State as enclosures to despatches 1438, March 17, from Bucharest, and 1446, March 18, from Bucharest, respectively, neither printed (871.00/3–1747, 3–1847). Copies of the communications were also sent to the Embassy in Moscow.
None of these requests and appeals was taken up by the Council of Foreign Ministers. For the records of the Council’s session, see vol. ii, pp. 139 ff.
↩