American personnel in Rumania, has the honor to inform him as follows:

Effective immediately, members of the Rumanian diplomatic representation in the United States and the Rumanian employees of that Mission, as well as their dependents, may not travel outside of a designated area except by special permission. The limits of the area under reference are fixed at a distance of thirty-five miles from the boundaries of the District of Columbia.

Permission to go beyond the area so described shall be requested in advance of the Department of State according to a prescribed form, of which a facsimile is enclosed herewith. Copies of this form may be obtained from the Department upon request. Travel outside of the designated area should not be undertaken prior to receipt by the Legation of authorization from the Department of State.

58. REDUCTION OF UNITED STATES REPRESENTATION IN RUMANIA: Statement by the Acting Secretary of State,2 May 26, 1950 3

The United States Minister to Rumania, Rudolf E. Schoenfeld, delivered to the Rumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mme. Ana Pauker, on May 22 a note in reply to the Rumanian Government's demand of May 13 that the staff of our Legation at Bucharest be reduced to 10 persons.

The United States note refused to admit the propriety of a receiving state (like Rumania) attempting to determine arbitrarily and unilaterally the composition of the diplomatic mission of a state with which it maintains relations. Our reply flatly rejected the pretexts on which the Rumanian Government based its demand. However, taking into account the Rumanian Government's evident lack of disposition to further the interests of the two countries in the maintenance of normal diplomatic relations, we indicated our intention to reduce the official personnel of our Legation to conform to the situation created by the arbitrary attitude of the Rumanian Government. On the occasion of delivering our reply to the Rumanian demand for the reduction of our Legation staff at Bucharest, the United States Minister informed the Rumanian Minister for Foreign Affairs that, in view of the severe travel restrictions imposed by the Rumanian authorities upon official American personnel in Rumania, the United States Government has decided to apply similar restrictions to official Rumanian personnel in the United States. The Rumanian Foreign Minister was told that, in the application of these restrictions, the United States Government would take account of the current treatment of American officials in Rumania.

1 Not printed here.

2 James E. Webb.

Department of State Bulletin, June 5, 1950, p. 921.

• Not printed.

5 Not printed.

A note has been delivered to the Rumanian Minister in Washington informing him of the limitations on travel in the United States by personnel of the Rumanian Legation and of the procedure for obtaining authorization to travel.1

59. RUMANIAN CHARGES REGARDING ALLEGED SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES: Note From the American Legation at Bucharest to the Rumanian Foreign Ministry, June 20, 1950 2

The Government of the United States has taken note of the manner in which the Rumanian Government has misrepresented an action. on the part of certain members of the American Legation relating to the disposal of some obsolete small arms ammunition. The United States Government has also noted the Rumanian Government's demand in this connection for the recall of Captain Herschel Hutsinpiller, Assistant United States Army Attaché at Bucharest.

It is illustrative of the conduct of diplomatic relations by the Rumanian Government that, through its organs of propaganda, it should have launched a new virulent attack against the American Legation and the United States Government on the basis of an artificially exaggerated and distorted incident, without so much as first seeking an explanation through the American diplomatic representatives in Rumania.

It is also characteristic that, after stating on June 9 that the Rumanian Government "would leave it up to the United States Government to decide what to do about Captain Hutsinpiller" and without awaiting the transmission of a reply from the Government_of_the United States, the Rumanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 14 should have peremptorily demanded the recall of Captain Hutsinpiller. The quantity of the ammunition in question was negligible. was disposed of in an open manner which belies assertions that this action had a clandestine or secretive character. The false construction placed by the Rumanian Government-controlled press on the intentions of the United States Government and its representatives in connection with this insignificant incident is patent on its face.

It

The United States Government is withdrawing Captain Hutsinpiller. At the same time, it repudiates the alleged justification for the Ministry's demand. The use which the Rumanian authorities have made of this episode and the abuse, on this as on former occasions, of the right to declare a foreign official unacceptable can only lead to the conclusion that the Rumanian Government's action is

1 Supra.

2 Department of State Bulletin, July 3, 1950, pp. 29-30.

Members of the Legation had openly disposed of a small quantity of outdated ammunition left over from the supplies of the U.S. military representation on the Allied Control Commission, whereupon the Rumanian press interpreted the incident as showing that the Legation was hiding arms to be supplied to Rumanian dissidents. See statement of June 21, 1950 by the Department of State; ibid., p. 30.

not really based upon the incident or upon the conduct of Captain Hutsinpiller but is part of a deliberate and centrally directed policy, being carried out throughout Eastern Europe, to interrupt the normal conduct of diplomatic relations between the United States and the states of that area.

60. RUMANIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS: Statement by the Secretary of State, June 23, 1950 1

Over the past 3 years, the Rumanian Government has subjected our diplomatic representation at Bucharest to progressively severe restrictions, impediments, and discourtesies. These not only drastically curtail the performance by our mission of its normal diplomatic and consular functions, but they also violate the existing consular agreement with Rumania 2 and effectively deprive our chief of mission of rights and privileges to which he is entitled by his special responsibilities under the Treaty of Peace with Rumania.3

For a year now, there have been in effect in Rumania travel restrictions which, as administered by the Rumanian authorities virtually confine our representatives to Bucharest and its immediate environs. Theoretically, these restrictions are imposed on all diplomatic personnel. Theoretically also, our people may travel to a few designated places by special permission. This is of little value since the Rumanians as a rule delay unduly or fail to issue travel permits. At the time the travel restrictions were imposed, we were given informal assurance that we had only to ask and we would be permitted to travel to Constanza in connection with incoming shipments for the Legation. This, like many other such assurances, has proved hollow.

The Rumanian Government has deprived our personnel of premises for which they had rental contracts at destinations where they might be permitted to go. When no other accommodations are available, it is of little use for them to travel there.

Altogether the restrictions and harassments to which our mission in Rumania has been subjected by the Rumanian Government are more comprehensively severe than those of any other country. We do not accept the thesis that we must conduct our relations toward one state and its representatives, regardless of its behavior toward us and our representatives, in the same way as we would toward other states.

The institution on May 25 of the travel-procedure applicable to personnel of the Rumanian Legation here involves reciprocity of diplomatic comity, a principle which the Rumanians have emphasized to

1 Department of State Bulletin, July 3, 1950, p. 30.

2 Convention of June 17, 1881; William M. Malloy, ed., Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols, and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776-1909 (Washington, 1910), vol. II, pp. 1505-1510. Treaty of Feb. 10, 1947; TIAS 1649 (61 Stat., pt. 2, p. 1757).

an extreme degree. As the Rumanian Government was informed, our administration of the travel procedure will be carried out with a view to the current treatment of our representatives in Rumania.

It is interesting to note that the Rumanian protest recognizes that the imposition of travel restrictions by a receiving country upon the official personnel of a sending country constitutes a limitation on the normal activity of a diplomatic mission. When the Rumanian Government is disposed to remove the restrictions which it has placed on the travel of our representatives in Rumania, we will be ready to alter appropriately the restrictions which are presently applicable to personnel of the Rumanian Legation here.

61. RUMANIAN PROTEST AGAINST TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: Note From the Secretary of State to the Rumanian Minister at Washington, 2 July 3, 1950 3

4

The Secretary of State presents his compliments to the Honorable the Minister of Rumania and, with reference to his note No. 2421 of June 19, 1950, has the honor to respond to the Rumanian Government's protest against regulations which the United States Government has instituted in respect of travel by personnel of the Rumanian Legation at Washington.

It is of interest to note the Rumanian Government's explicit acknowledgment that the imposition of travel restrictions by a receiving government upon the official personnel of a sending government constitutes a limitation of the normal activity of a diplomatic Mission. With this view, the United States Government readily agrees.

Restrictions of movement, like restrictions upon the free flow of information and cultural exchange as imposed by the Rumanian Government, are basically distasteful to the American people and its Government. Travel regulations applicable to personnel of the Rumanian Legation at Washington have been instituted merely as a reciprocal limitation of diplomatic privilege in view of the nature and effect of travel restrictions as applied by Rumanian authorities to members of the American Legation at Bucharest.

On the one hand, the Rumanian Government complains that restrictions on the travel of its Legation personnel tend to prevent its diplomatic Mission from carrying on its normal activity. On the other hand, the Government of Rumania alleges that its own travel restrictions are applied without discrimination to all diplomatic Missions in Rumania. The inescapable deduction from this argument, if taken at face value, would be that the Rumanian Government

1 See the U.S. note of May 25, 1950, and statement of May 26, 1950, by Acting Secretary Webb; supra, docs. 57 and 58.

2 Mihai Magheru.

3 Department of State Bulletin, July 17, 1950, p. 117.

4 See statement of June 23, 1950, by the Secretary of State; supra. The June 19, 1950, note is not printed.

is applying measures which tend to prevent the performance of normal activities by all diplomatic Missions in Rumania.

Without debating the artificial contention of the Rumanian Government that its travel restrictions are nondiscriminatory, it may be said that the United States Government rejects the thesis that, no matter how obstructive and abnormal the behavior of a particular state toward American interests and official American representatives, the conduct of United States relations with that state must correspond uniformly with the conduct of United States relations with other states. At such time as the Rumanian Government may be disposed to remove the restrictions which it has placed upon the travel within Rumania of American Legation personnel, especially in performance of the normal functions of a diplomatic Mission, the United States Government will be prepared to alter accordingly the restrictions which presently apply to travel by personnel of the Rumanian Legation within the United States. Meanwhile, as the Rumanian Government has been informed, the travel procedure will be administered with a view to the current treatment in this regard by Rumanian authorities of the United States representatives in Rumania.

62. PLOESTI TRIAL OF FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE ROMANO-AMERICANA OIL COMPANY: Note From the American Legation at Bucharest to the Rumanian Foreign Ministry, February 20, 19531

The Legation of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Rumanian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and under instructions from its Government has the honor to call the Ministry's attention to the "trial" at Ploesti from February 9 to 12, 1953, of various Rumanian citizens, some of whom are former employees of the Romano-Americana Oil Company. Since, in the proceedings in the courtroom during the trial and in the commentaries published in the Rumanian press and broadcast over the official radio, various unfounded allegations and statements were made concerning the American oil companies and former American officials, the following facts are brought to the Rumanian Government's attention.

The Romano-Americana Oil Company was largely owned by citizens of the United States of America who had invested huge sums at great risk in the development of Rumanian petroleum resources. This was one of the important factors which enabled Rumania to attain the substantial production of 8,600,000 metric tons of crude oil in 1936. During the state of active war which existed between Rumania and the United States (1941-44) this company was sequestered by the Rumanian Government and administered as enemy property over which the United States owners had no control.

In these circumstances, it was axiomatic that as soon as Rumania

1 Department of State Bulletin, Mar. 2, 1953, pp. 333–335.