Washington Concerned At Moves In Hungary

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28255, 17 April 1957, Page 10

Washington Concerned At Moves In Hungary

[By

PAUL. L. FORD]

WASHINGTON, April s<Washington is deeply concerned over developments in Hungary—developments which the Department of State views as further steps toward the complete supr pression of human rights and liberties in Hungary. That there is sound basis for concern is admitted, in effect, by Mr Janos Kadar, the Soviet-in-stalled Premier of Hungary. Mr Kadar. visiting in Russia, has announced his intention to take punitive action against all who oppose his regime. He has hinted broadly that this action will be directed in part against Mr Imre Nagy and those who supported him as Premier in last year’s revolution. Mr Nagy, now reported on an enforced “vacation” in ’Rumania, has been accused of treason by Mr Kadar. Moreover, Mr Kadar announced his determination to purge the Hungarian Communist Party of a considerable number of hostile elements. Mr Kadars statements, endorsed as they have been by the Soviet Premier, Marshal Bulganin, are of course being studied in other capitals besides Washington. An early reaction has come from Belgrade. There, Mr Vlako Begovic, Director of the Jugoslav Institute for International Affairs and Economy, has noted the possibility that Mr Kadar may be planning a Stalinist-type “show trial” for Mr Nagy. Should such a trial occur, Mr Begovic notes, Mr Nagy could be expected to be presented as having confessed that, as an agent of the imperialists and of Jugoslavia, he helped organise the October revolution.

Marshal Bulganin has already accused Mr Nagy of openly attempting to destroy the very foundation of Communist Hungary in collaboration with “imperialists” and “with practical support from Jugoslav leaders.” This has to be put in context with the facts. The Hungarian uprising was a spontaneous affair, as testified to by the thousands of Hungarians who joined the fight for freedom, then sought refuge abroad when Moscow poured troops and tanks into Hungary. In these circumstances, as the State Department asserts, “the continued presence of Soviet forces in Hungary and the systematic repression of the Hungarian people constitute an open confession by the Kadar regime that it does not have the confidence of the people and cannot exist without the protection of Soviet troops.” Mr Kadar’s tactics, the State Department feels, “mark a reversion to some of the worst practices of the Stalinist terror.” His Sovietsupported regime has, in the Department’s words, “vengefully sought to identify, seize and punish those who took any part in the uprising. Among other things, it has also reinstituted the cruel practice of banishment, ordered every Hungarian to submit to police checks, and announced that Soviet troops will remain in

Hungary indefinitely to protect the regime. The blame does not, of course, fall only on Mr Kadar, for he is acting as Moscow’s agent. This fact in itself gives rise to a most important question. Because of the developments in Hungary, has Moscow determined on a renewal of its hard policy elsewhere? As yet, this question cannot be answered with any certainty. But Mr Robert Murphy, Deputy Under Secretary of State, has cited some straws in the wind. One of the straws, according to Mr Murphy, is the Soviet threat of atomic retaliation against such nations as Britain, Norway and Denmark. Another is the angry admonitions issued to Sweden and Finland on how they must behave if they expect to avoid Soviet enmity. i A third is Moscow’s denunciation of the theory of “many roads to socialism.” More and more it is being insisted in Moscow that there is no such thing as “national communism.” Jugoslavia, Mr Murphy says, again appears to be on the verge of ostracism as a heretic. These developments, taken together, are cogent reminders of the continuing threat which Soviet communism represents in the world today. (U.S. Information Service). ....