Editorial Note

In the course of a short automobile trip on September 4, 1950, Lieutenant Colonel Franklin G. Rothwell, Army Attaché in Romania, and Gordon Mason, Attaché of the Legation in Romania, were detained [Page 1073] by the Romanian militia at the small town of Urziceni, 50 kilometers from Bucharest but not in an area prohibited for travel by American diplomatic personnel. Rothwell and Mason were held under guard for six hours, were questioned, and were not allowed to communicate with the Legation. The detention was the subject of a series of protests by the Legation to the Romanian Foreign Ministry. In a statement issued to the press on October 19, the Department of State reviewed the incident and the subsequent American protests. The statement concluded: “The present incident is one of many which illustrate the deliberate policy of the existing Rumanian regime to insult and harass American official representatives in that country.” For the text of the statement, see Department of State Bulletin, October 30, 1950, page 695.