Mindszenty Likely To Be Released

Press, Volume C, Issue 29690, 7 December 1961, Page 17

Mindszenty Likely To Be Released

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 6. The release of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, the Roman Catholic Primate of Hungary, and other political prisoners involved in the 1956 Hungarian uprising has become a virtual certainty, according to the “New York Herald Tribune.”

Cardinal Mindszenty is at present sheltering in the United States Legation in Budapest. The newspaper based its belief of the prisoners’ release on the disclosure last night that the acting United Nations Secretary-General (U Thant) would visit Budapest soon at the invitation of the Hungarian Communist Government headed by Mr Janos Kadar. The newspaper said the head of- the Hungarian United Nations delegation (Mr Peter Mod) had extended the invitation to U Thant yesterday afternoon. No official announcement was made but Hungarian sources said U Thant has accepted the invitation.

The Secretary-General was expected to leave for Budapest soon after the General Assembly adjourned about December 20. the newspaper said. The newspaper said the Hungarian Government was believed to be hoping to:— 1. Obtain diplomatic recognition by the United States, perhaps by using U Thant as an intermediary 2. Remove the perennial “Question of Hungary" from the General Assembly's agenda, where Soviet occupation of foreign territory in defiance of the United Nations Charter was regularly brought before world opinion. In exchange for these "concergions” the Kadar regime

was evidently prepared to release a number of political prisoners and pardon the Cardinal The Cardinal had been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of “anti-state” activity. The New Zealand diplomat, Sir Leslie Munro, special United Nations representative on Hungary, has been repeatedly denied permission to Hungary.