§ 97. Mr. Edelmanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that, by the recent suppression and dissolution of the Hungarian Independent Party, which won 48 out of 411 seats in the Hungarian elections last August, nearly 700,000 citizens of that country have been deprived of Parliamentary representation; and what action he proposes to take in view of this and similar acts of suppression in Roumania and Bulgaria which are in conflict with the guarantees of the human rights articles of the Peace Treaties with those countries.
Mr. McNeilYes. I have learnt with deep misgiving that some 13 per cent. of the Hungarian electorate have been disfranchised by the dissolution of the Independent Party, particularly as Hungary has hitherto had a democratically elected Parliament. My right hon. Friend has already made clear his increasing disquiet at the progressive loss in South-Eastern Europe of the fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Peace Treaties. His Majesty's Representatives in Bulgaria and Roumania, as well as in Hungary, have repeatedly notified the Governments of those countries that they are bound by the Treaties to ensure to their peoples the basic democratic right of political association and representation.