Editorial Note
On May 31 United States Legation notes were delivered to the Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Romanian Governments rejecting as unsatisfactory the replies of those governments to the earlier Legation notes of April 2 which had protested the violation or non-fulfillment of the human rights clauses of the treaties of peace (see editorial note, page 241). The May 31 Legation notes went on to invoke those clauses of the peace treaties which provided procedures for the settlement of disputes. Also on May 31 the United States Chiefs of Mission in Sofia, Budapest, and Bucharest presented letters to their British and Soviet colleagues reviewing the recent exchange of notes between the Legation and the government to which it was accredited and requesting that the three allied Chiefs of Mission meet to consider the disputes in accordance with the appropriate articles of the treaties of peace. In releasing the texts of the new American notes of May 31 to the press together with the texts of the Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Romanian communications to which they responded, Under Secretary of State James Webb issued a statement reviewing the recent exchanges of notes and serving notice of the American intention to press for resolution of the disputes arising from the violations of treaty obligations and the denial of peoples of their fundamental freedoms. For the texts of the Legation notes of May 31 and the Under Secretary of State’s statement, see Department of State Bulletin, June 12, 1949, pages 756, 758, and 759–760. The texts of the letters of May 31 to the Soviet and British Chiefs of Mission were included as annexes 10–15 to U.N. Doc. A/985/Res.1 (see the editorial note, page 260).
[Page 248]Parallel notes and letters were also delivered by the British representatives in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania on May 31, and the Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian Governments associated themselves with the British actions.