Krónika, 1950 (7. évfolyam, 4-12. szám)
1950-07-15 / 7. szám
4-IK OLDAL “KRÓNIK A” 1950 julius. A Letter to the President Honorable Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, The White House, Washington, D. C. My dear President Truman: The present Communist government of Hungary offered to release Mr. Robert A. Vogeler, a citizen of the U. S., now serving a term of 15 years of inprisonment for espionage, in exchange for the Holy Crown of St. Stephen in possession of U. S. Military Authorities in Germany. The people of the U. S. A. learned about this offer from news dispatches of the Associated Press. Our own State Department elected to remain silent up to day for reasons best known to them. From the many telegrams you received during the past few days from Hungarian societies and individuals you can form your own conclusions how this immoral offer of Hungary’s government was received by the Hungarians of the U. S. A. Telegrams are usually short. Therefore I beg of you to devote a few minutes of your time to the reading of this letter in order to be fully acquainted with the facts. The people of the U. S. A. as well as the peoples of the free World view the case of Mr. Vogeler as an outrage committed by the Government of Hungary against the United States. A political move, against which the U. S. did not retaliate. Sentiments were reserved for the U. S., while Hungary’s Communist government was denounced. The exchange of the soviet spy Gubicsev for the innocent Vogeler would have placed the American businessman in the class of the Soviet spy. I, for one, am proud that my government deported the Russian and did not bargain with the Soviet. National prestige was and is always paramount. their many crimes. As long as the Holy Crown is safe, the hope of the Hungarians lives on. Even the present republican form of government of Hungary is a fraud. Always a kingdom Hungary was forced to accept the republican form of government in 1946. Its president was appointed by the Parliament, later on removed by the government, to be followed by an other and still another president, appointed and removed by the govern-ment of Rákosi, the Communist Conpare this situation with those of Abbesinia, Italy, Belgium, etc. where the constitutional Monarch was allowed'to return or where the people had the right to choose between old and new forms of government. In Hungary this right was denied to the people. The Hungarian people believe that their king rules by the grace of God. When this belief is shared by the king himself, no neighboring state has to dread aggression. The kings of Hungary never waged wars to subjugate adjacent countries, but led their people against the aggressors from the West, East and South, when Germans, Mongolians, Turks and Russians invaded the Danubian Kingdom. While European nations colonized other continents, even little Portugal and Belgium, Hungary though a maritime nation remained within her God-given boundaries, the mountains, rivers, which also divided that part of Europe into the western Christian democracies and Eastern Orthodox tyrranies. While the people of Hungary without good decent leaders are helpless to bring about a change, we Americans can not afford to abandon them to their fate. We must preserve this religious, cultural and political treasure . . . the Holy Crown . . . until the day when the people of Hungary will decide that is should again be worn by the right person. And at this time I wish to tell you that by all rights that are sacred that person is Archduke OTTO, first Paying for the release of Mr. Vogeler by the method suggested from Budapest is contrary to not only the moral Jaw, but to the criminal law as well, because our Mr. Vogeler is innocent, we all believe him to be innocent and to obtain his release by the payment of a ransom is an act of crime. For I do not have to remind you, Mr. President, that since the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and the futile payment of the ransom, the demand for ransom and the payment of the same are acts of crime. Our government can not and I am positive, will not commit this crime. Does the present Government of Hungary have the right to the Holy Crown? My answer is NO! Hungary’s government is not legally constituted. It is maintained by force and strengthened by the Soviet’s army of occupation. The Hungarian Government has only one purpose to fulfill after it obtains the Crown ... to destroy it completely. It has no respect for it, nor for the things the Crown represents. Throughout the centuries the Crown was the symbol of an independent, Christian and humane sovereignity. When democracy was in its infancy and while the New World was yet undiscovered the Crown of St. Stephen exercised an irresistable benevolent influence upon its wearers. No one unless crowned with this Holy Crown, a gift of Pope Sylvester of the year 1001, had the right to rule Hungary . . . this belief is still firm in the hearts of millions of Hungarians in and out of Hungary who also maintain that the present Government of Hungary is nothing but a band of usurpers who some day will have to answer for born son of the late Charles IV. King of HUNGARY, who never abdicated but was forced into exile by the shortsighter politicans of the first world-war period. One of the reasons and the main reason why Cardinal Mindszenti was arrested, tried and sentenced was his belief that the return of Archduke Otto as King of Hungary meant salvation for the people of Hungary. There was no conspiracy, no treason in holding to this belief, because if there were, than the whole Hungarian nation is guilty of the same crime. Mr. President. We believe in the Truman doctrine. We are glad to share the burden that the Marshall plan places on us to retard the spreading of communism. We know that this gigantic work will partly be undone by returning St. Stephen’s crown to the Communists in Hungary. We hope that if you think you can not afford to create a new crisis in the future by holding the Crown, return it to the Holy Father in Rome, whose predecessor gave it to King St. Stephen of Hungary with the understanding that he and his successors will wear it with the humility befitting the servant of God and the servant of the people. To hasten the release of Mr. Vogeler I suggest that the Hungarian Ambassador should be given his passport and our own Embassy be recalled at once and all these facts be given to the Hungarian nation by the Voice of America broadcasts and other means. Diplomatic connections with the Western world are still essential to the Communist governments in Hungary and other Soviet satellite
