RECENT EVENTS IN HUNGARY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25207, 11 June 1947, Page 7

RECENT EVENTS IN HUNGARY

Britain’s Request For Documents STATEMENT IN COMMONS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.> LONDON, June 9. The Minister of State <Mr H. McNeil). making a statement in the House of Commons on the recent developments in Hungary, said that neither the Russian nor the Hungarian authorities had at any time consulted Britain in spite of the fact that Britain. as one of the three Powers entrusted with the enforcement of the armistice, had a right to be consulted in such matters. He had. therefore, asked for the documents concerned. So far, they had not been provided. He had also instructed the British Ambassador in Moscow (Sir Maurice Peterson)-to discuss the whole question with the Russian Government with a view to obtaining elucidation of what had occurred in Hungary and clarification of Russian policy in Hungary. Britain hoped that the changes in the Hungarian Government would not lead to any departure from the principles of parliamentary democracy. Such developments would have serious repercussions on British-Hungar-ian relations. At present it was premature to pass judgment. The correspondent of the Associated Press in Budapest says that the Russian. Lieutenant-General Sviridov, as acting-chairman of the Allied Control Commission, has replied to the American request for the documents on recent events in Hungary by saying that the Control Commission had nothing to do with the documents and therefore could not produce them. Brigadier George Weems, commander of the American military mission in Hungary, made the request. Lieutenant-General Sviridov said that the Russian occupation forces—as differentiated from the Russian element in the Control Commission — held all the information. The correspondent adds that when the British asked Lieutenant-General Sviridov for the documents on June 6, he said that they had been handed to the Hungarian Government and he could not. therefore, produce them. The United States protest on the Hungarian situation has not yet been handed to the Russian authorities. The American and British Governments are keeping in closest touch over the situation. The Social Democrat Vice-Premier cf Hungary. Mr A. Szakasits, announced that he would confer this week with the Prime Minister of France. Mr Ramadier, on the Hungarian situation.