Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Eastern Europe, The Soviet Union, Volume VI

740.00119 Control (Hungary)/10–2446: Telegram

The Minister in Hungary (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State

secret
us urgent

Budapest, October 24, 1946—10 a.m.
[Received 11:35 a.m.]

2004. Redeptel 924, September 9; despatch 1942, September 16; Deptel 952, September 14 and mytel 1750, September 18.⁸⁵ In ACC meeting October 17 Acting Chairman Sviridov made oral reply to General Weems’ letter of September 11 re procedure of Legation in obtaining economic and financial information from Hungarian Govt.

He stated that regulations of ACC are such that should American Legation correspond directly with Hungarian Govt all replies would have to be made through Chairman ACC even though direct reply requested, adding that he could not order Legation to desist from sending letters directly to the Hungarian Govt, but that latter will always forward replies through ACC. He stated that Legation should forward list of questions to US representative ACC for transmission to Chairman who would pass them on to Hungarian Govt and that reply must be made via same channels.

General Weems protested procedure is in contravention of armistice agreement and statutes of ACC and reminded Chairman that the US has recognized the Hungarian Govt.

Chairman reiterated position and requested Weems to inform the Legation and the US Govt of his position, adding that the Hungarian Govt is directly under control of ACC and that requests for information of any type originating from any foreign representative must pass through ACC.

Weems requested written reply to his letter of September 11. Sviridov agreed.⁸⁶

This is wholly unacceptable to me and will doubtless be so to Dept.

Repeated Moscow as 288, London as 280, Bucharest as 68 and Sofia as 19.

Schoenfeld

85. None printed; they were all concerned with the preparation and delivery of General Weems’ letter of September 11 to General Sviridov, p. 333.
86. In telegram 2025, October 28, from Budapest it was reported that Sviridov’s written reply to Weems had merely indicated that the Acting Chairman’s position had been fully stated at the ACC meeting of October 17. At Schoenfeld’s suggestion, Weems on October 26 sent another letter to Sviridov transmitting excerpts from the notes of the meeting of October 17 and requesting confirmation as to their accuracy. (740.00119 Control (Hungary)/10–2846)