224. Editorial Note
When the United Nations General Assembly resumed deliberations on January 9, it had before it a draft resolution sponsored by the United States and 23 other nations (in final form A/3487/Rev.1). It bore a close resemblance to the text suggested by the Department of State in Gadel 81 to USUN, December 29. (Department of State, Central Files, 764.00/12–256) Over the course of four meetings on January 9 and 10, the Assembly debated the proposal, which was opposed by the Soviet Union. Resolution 1132(XI) was adopted at the 636th meeting by a vote of 59 to 8, with 10 abstentions. In the resolution, the General Assembly resolved to establish a Special Committee, composed of representatives of Australia, Ceylon, Denmark, Tunisia, and Uruguay, “to investigate, and to establish and maintain direct observation in Hungary and elsewhere.” The Committee’s findings would be reported to the General Assembly at its 11th session. The Soviet Union and Hungary were also called upon to cooperate with the Committee and to allow it to enter Hungarian territory and travel freely within.
On January 11, the Permanent Mission of Hungary addressed a note verbale to Hammarskjöld transmitting a statement of the Government of Hungary dated January 10. In very strong terms, the Kádár government denounced Resolution 1132(XI) as “unprecedented gross interference” and indicated that it considered “suchlike resolutions” inadmissible violations of Hungarian sovereignty. The note continued:
“The Hungarian Government considers it highly regrettable that certain western Powers, which have continuously given active support to Hungarian counter-revolutionary forces at home and abroad, and cause serious harm through the irresponsible incitation of ‘Radio Free Europe’ and ‘The Voice of America, as well as through their other activity, infringing the most elementary rules of international law, are still not satisfied with these attempts at interference, being indifferent to the immeasurable suffering caused to the Hungarian people and to the fact that their counter-revolutionary machinations are irrevocably driving the country into poverty.”
In conclusion, it rejected the idea that a “committee of any kind has the right to conduct investigations into the Hungarian question by collecting testimony from unauthorized and biased persons and to establish observation in Hungary in order to obtain information.” It demanded that the “so-called Hungarian question” be deleted from the General Assembly agenda. (A/3493)