FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1946 VOLUME VI



740.00119 Control (Hungary)/7-746: Telegram
The Chief of the U'nited States Representation on the Allied Control
    Commission for Hungary (Ieems) to the War Department 35

SECRET                               BUDAPEST, July 7, 1946-9 a. in.
                                               [Received 2: 55 p. m.]
  Attention SSU of USFA. Weems ACC Hungary in Warcos for
JCS, WDOCD and OPD, info MTOUSA, USFET, USFA, OMGUS,
ACC Rumania, MA Yugoslavia, MAt Poland and MA France.
  Ref No. Z-3316. War please pass to all. Please deliver this mes-
sage to Warcos.
  Interference by Russians in Hungarian national politics has now
reached point where Government crisis may result shortly.
  General Sviridov, Acting head of ACC, is reported by several reli-
able sources to have handed a note to Ferenc. Nagy, Prime Minister,
demanding:
  (a) The dissolution of the Boy Scouts, the Kalot (Catholic youth
organization) and the Christian youth organization.
  (b) The elimination of Count Gyula Dessewify and Bola Parraghi
from all public and press activities and the reorganization of the press
in general and that Antal Balla, Minister of Information, be removed
from office.36
  (c) The immediate ouster of Undersecretary of Justice, Istvan
[Zoltan] Pfeiffer.37
  (d) That strong measures be taken against the Catholic Church.
  (e) The immediate arrest of Smallholder Deputies Gyulay and Fil-
ler regardless of Parliamentary immunity and their trial on political
charges.38  The note was not signed as Chairman of ACC but as
"representative" of the Soviet High Command although Sviridov
is known to have only one position, that of ACC Acting Chairman.
The note reportedly stated that failure by Hungarian Government
to act would compel Sviridov to take action. The following informa-
tion has been received from source Carrick:

  35 The source text was transmitted through Department of State channels.
Brigadier General Weems succeeded Major General Key in June.
  N Parraghi and Balla were members of the Smallholders Party and Dessewffy
had been a member until he was expelled in the spring of 1946. Balla and
Dessewffy were editors of the Smallholders Party newspaper Kis Ujsag, and
Parraghi was editor of the non-party newspaper Magyar Nemzet which was anti-
Communist in orientation. Telegram Z-3317, July 7, 1946 from Weems in
Budapest, reported that President Tildy dismissed Balla as Minister of Informa-
tion on July 3 (740.00119 Control (Hungary) /7-746).
  37 Pfeiffer was a member of the Smallholders Party.
  38 Sviridov's letter recommended that the Hungarian Government "call
to ac-
count" Smallholders Party Deputies Laszlo Gyulai, Istvan Rdicz, and
Laiszl6
Filler. Telegram Z-3317, July 7, 1946, from Weems in Budapest, reported that
the Hungarian National Assembly had previously rejected the State Attorney's
request to suspend Filler's parliamentary immunity in connection with charges
that he was implicated in anti-Communist disorders in a provincial district.
Weems' telegram further reported that a party of Russian officers had arrested
Filler at his home on the night of July 2 (740.00119 Control (Hungary)/7-746).



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