Editorial Note

In a note delivered to the Romanian Legation in Washington on May 25 and released to the press the following day, Acting Secretary of State Webb informed the Romanian Minister that, effective immediately, members of the Romanian Legation in the United States and their dependents would no longer be permitted to travel, except by special permission, outside a designated area extending 35 miles from the District of Columbia. At the time of the issuance to the press of the note of May 25, Acting Secretary of State Webb also issued a statement briefly reviewing the contents of the note delivered to Romanian Foreign Minister Pauker by Minister Schoenfeld on May 22 and Schoenfeld’s oral advisement of the imminent institution of travel restrictions on Romanian Legation personnel in the United States (see telegram 375, May 22, from Bucharest, supra). For the texts of the Acting Secretary’s note of May 25 and his statement of May 26, see Department of State Bulletin, June 5, 1950, page 92 or American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, volume II, pages 2148–2150.

On June 19 the Romanian Minister delivered a note to the Secretary of State protesting against the regulations instituted on May 25 with [Page 1068] respect to travel by Romanian Legation personnel. Secretary of State Acheson took public cognizance of the protest in a statement issued to the press on June 23. The Secretary reviewed the progressively more severe restrictions, impediments, and discourtesies imposed upon members of the American Legation in Bucharest over a 3-year period. He observed that the restrictions and harassments to which the American Legation had been subjected by the Romanian Government were more comprehensively severe than those of any other country. The Secretary insisted that the institution of travel restrictions on Romanian Legation personnel involved reciprocity of diplomatic comity and would be carried out with a view to the current treatment of American representatives in Romania. The Secretary formally rejected the substance of the Romanian protest of June 19 in a note delivered to the Romanian Legation on July 3. The reply stated that the restrictions upon travel by Romanian Legation personnel would not be altered until the Romanian Government removed those restrictions it had placed upon travel within Romania by American Legation personnel. For the texts of the Secretary of State’s statement of June 23 and his note of July 3 to the Romanian Minister, see Department of State Bulletin, July 3, 1950, page 30 and ibid., July 17, 1950, page 117, or American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, volume II, pages 2151–2153.

Throughout the remainder of 1950, discussions continued between the Legation in Bucharest and the Romanian Foreign Ministry in an effort to find a mutually satisfactory adjustment of travel restrictions on American diplomatic personnel in Romania and Romanian diplomatic personnel in the United States. Documentation on these discussions is included in files 124.66 and 601.6611.