49. Lieut.-Colonel ARTHUR MURRAYasked the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been drawn to statements concerning the terroristic situation alleged to be existing in Hungary; and whether His Majesty's Government have made any inquiries of their representative in Budapest as to the accuracy of these allegations?
Mr. HARMSWORTHThe answer to both parts of the question is in the affirmative. As soon as reports were received as to excesses against certain elements of the Hungarian population, Mr. Hohler, the representative of His Majesty's Government at Budapest, was asked to make inquiries. The reports which he has supplied, after personal investigation and consultation with his colleagues among the Allies, show that though in the first weeks after the fall of the Bolshevik Government there were many reprisals against sympathisers with the Bolshevik regimé, the Hungarian Government was in no way concerned in these. It is, in fact, doing everything it can do to repress disorders of all kinds, and its efforts seem to be meeting with considerable success, despite the desperate economic situation of the country. The number of murders committed since the first reprisals is estimated as something less than thirty. The Hungarian Government have declared their willingness to give every facility for an international inquiry into the matter. At Mr. Hohler's request an official of the Red Cross has already inspected certain of the chief prisons, and has reported that he found them in perfect order. The question whether effect can be given to a more extensive investigation is now under the consideration of His Majesty's Government.