Monday, Apr. 30, 1951

Just Claims

The Communist Hungarian government announced last week that it would release Robert Vogeler, an American who has served 14 months of a 15-year sentence on a charge of spying. The U.S. Government, said Budapest, had "declared themselves to be ready to accede to various just Hungarian claims."

Nathaniel Davis, U.S. Minister to Hungary, added: "All I can say is that the announcement ... is correct and that I am very pleased."

Robert Vogeler, 39-year-old assistant vice president of the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., and its representative for Eastern Europe, was arrested by the Hungarian Communists in November 1949. Arrested and tried with him were Edgar Sanders, a Briton, and five Hungarians. All confessed to being spies, the Communists said.

Mrs. Vogeler cabled President Truman for aid. When the Communists refused U.S. representatives access to Vogeler in prison, the U.S. closed Hungarian consulates in New York and Cleveland. In February 1950, Vogeler appeared before the People's Court in Budapest, said that he had been instructed by the U.S. Army intelligence headquarters in Vienna to get special information about radar production, rockets, uranium and oil deposits in Hungary and to help atomic scientists to flee the country. He was sentenced to 15 years. Two of the Hungarians were executed. Sanders got 13 years.

Last June, following a meeting between Vogeler's handsome, Belgian-born wife and Secretary of State Acheson, news leaked that the U.S. was negotiating for Vogeler's release. A press association correspondent reported that the Hungarians were demanding the return of the 1,000-year-old crown of St. Stephen as ransom for Vogeler. The crown, a religious relic and symbol of. Hungarian sovereignty, was stolen by the Nazis, recovered by the U.S. Army. Roman Catholic dignitaries, including New York's Cardinal Spellman, protested against the return of the crown.

Another report was that the Hungarians were more interested in exchanging Vogeler for $82 million worth of Hungarian assets, mainly machine tools, copper wire and other items looted by the Nazis, and now stored in the U.S. zone in Germany.

At week's end the State Department, still waiting for Vogeler to appear, was silent on what "just Hungarian claims" might mean.

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