Evening star., 1949-09-24
Hungary
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Hungary
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| fessions Of the others were no
less abject.
The prosecution had no trouble
whatever. Even the defense law
yers eagerly chimed in with ad-
missions of their clients guilt,
offering in mitigation only the
suggestion that the men were
tools" of the Americans and the
Yugoslavs.
Rajk piled confession on con-
fession. AS far back as II years
ago, he told the four -man Peoples
Court, he had duped the Commu-
nists by working against them.
He received his first direct orders
to spy for the United States in
1945, he said, from a member of
the American Military Mission sent
to Hungary after the Germans had
been driven out by the Red Army.
Confessed for Four Hours.
For four hours on the witness
stand poker-faced Rajk exposed
his guilt. proclaiming that he had
plotted with Americans and others
to smash Hungary's government
in what he termed an anti-Soviet
crusade led by Marshal Tito.
The former Communist police
chief described this part of a.
sweeping plan by Tito to lead
and organize an anti-Soviet move
ment in every peoples democracy
(Russian satellite).
He declared Tito planned a
military invasion Of Hungary, the
Indictment Of border strife with
Bulgaria. the liquidation of Greek
Communist guerrilla forces and
the Interpretation of Albania .intd
Yugoslavia.
He named a former American
Minister to Hungary. Seldom Cha
pin. and two other Americans in
the plot. He accused by name
Yugoslav ofncials and other de
PENDANTS on trial with him as,
British and French spies. b..
The defendant portrayed him
self as a police informer against
Communists in prewar Hungary.
for anti-Communists during the
Civil War in Spain. for the French
secret police in a French prison
camp and for the Gestapo during
the German occupation Of Hun
gary.
Trials in Eastern Europe are
unlike those in most Western
nations. The pattern of this
trial was similar to that of the
convicted Catholic Primate,
Josef Cardinal Mindzenty. The
burden of proof rests with
the accused, and not with the
prosecution, as in western
countries.
CAS- in the Mindzenty trial,
the confession" were ready in
advance. How or why the de-
PENDANTS in this case confessed
remains one of the mysteries
hidden by the Iron Curtain. It
was a similar mystery in the
case OF the cardinal, just as it
was in the case of the Bulgar-
ian Protestant ministers who
openly proclaimed their guilt.
(Yugoslavia has called the
confessions lies and forgeries
designed to abet the Soviet
propaganda war gainst Tito's
regime. In New York, Yugoslav
Foreign Minister Edward Kar-
deli said the trial was timed to
coincide with the start of the
United Nations Assembly ses-
sion.)
Paunchy Gen. Palffy, second
defendant to testify, not only con-
fessed to spying. but declared that
as chief inspector of Hungary's
Army he functioned as chief of
spies"
Glibly the former commander
told the court he had maneuvered
Hungarian Army affairs in an
effort to further q Yugoslav-
backed revolt plot he hoped would
replace the Red regime with "a
Western-type capitalistic democ-
racy."
The third defendant-Brankov
had pleaded only partly guilty,
but his confession was like the
others.
He gave lurid details of plans
for night of terror in which
Hungarian and Yugoslav plotters
were to kill key Communists and
seize the Hungarian government,
Supporting the governments
charge that Britain and the Unit
ed States were involved, Brankov
said all the secret information OBJ
tained by Yugoslavia's Hungarian
agents was turned over to the
American legation in Budapest
and that leading Yugoslavs also
exchanged information with their
British counterparts.
He charged that Allen w. Dulles,
wartime head of the Office of
strategic Services ,(OSS) in Eu-
rope during the World War H.,
was linked with the purported
plot to overthrow the Hungarian
regime.
He said Winston Churchill,
Britain's wartime Prime Minister
sought early in the war to promote
British American influence In
Yugoslavia and Hungary through
spying.
The remaining i've defendants