Editorial Note
On instruction of the Department of State, United States Legation notes were delivered to the Hungarian and Romanian Governments on April 2 and to the Bulgarian Government on April 4 (having been delayed due to Legation communications difficulties). The notes reviewed in general terms the many acts committed by the governments of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria in contravention of the human rights clauses of the treaties of peace. The notes called upon the governments to adopt prompt remedial measures and requested them to specify the steps which they were prepared to take in implementing fully the terms of the treaties. Similar British notes were also delivered to the three governments on April 2. At the request of the Canadian Government, the Hungarian and Romanian Governments were informed that Canada associated itself with the contents of the American and British notes. In notes of April 1 and 5, respectively, the Australian and New Zealand Embassies informed the Department of State of the intention of their governments to associate themselves with the American-British action. The American and British notes were released to the press on April 2. For the texts of the American notes and the brief explanatory statement issued to the press by the Department of State, see Department of State Bulletin, April 10, 1949, pages 450–453.
In notes delivered to the respective American Legations on April 8, April 19, and April 22, the Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian Governments rejected the American notes of March 29, Nearly identical replies were also delivered to the British Legations at the same time. For unofficial translations of the texts of the Hungarian, [Page 242] Romanian, and Bulgarian notes, as issued to the press by the Department of State on June 1, see Department of State Bulletin, June 12, 1949, pages 757–758, 758–759, and 755–756, respectively.
At his press and radio news conference on May 4, Secretary of State Acheson reviewed the replies of Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania to the United States notes of April 2 (and 4). The Secretary announced that the Department of State was consulting interested treaty signatory governments with a view to proceeding under the appropriate treaty provisions for the settlement of disputes concerning the execution and interpretation of the treaties. For the text of the Secretary’s statement, see ibid., May 15, 1949, page 611.