Editorial Note
Acting under instructions contained in telegrams 715 and 716, December 19, to Budapest, neither printed, Minister Davis delivered to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry on December 20 a note denouncing the arrest and detention incommunicado of Robert Vogeler as a flagrant outrage against international law and comity and an “arbitrary, inhumane, and clear denial of justice”. The charges of espionage and sabotage against Vogeler were dismissed as “wholly false” and brought about by ulterior motives on the part of the Hungarian Government. The note accused the Hungarian Government of “inaction, evasions, and bad faith” in connection with the efforts of the Legation to gain knowledge of and access to Vogeler, and it warned that the absence of a satisfactory settlement of the matter would inevitably affect other aspects of United States-Hungarian relations. The note concluded by stating that the United States Government was taking steps to prohibit travel by private citizens in Hungary until further notice in view of the evidence that Americans were no longer free to travel or transact business “without suffering surveillance, arbitrary arrest, and other intolerable molestations at the hands of Hungarian authorities and other infringements of their rights”. For the text of the note, see Department of State Bulletin, January 2, 1950, pages 21–22, or Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Documents, pages 157–161. For the text of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s note of reply of December 24, see ibid., pages 162–163, or Department of State Bulletin, January 16, 1950, page 96.