Instructions from Seán MacBride to all heads of mission concerning the imprisonment of Cardinal Mindszenty

As you already know, I sent a telegram on the 31st December to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Budapest,¹ requesting facilities to enable a representative designated by the Irish Government to visit His Eminence Cardinal Mindszenty. No reply having been received by me to this telegram by the 6th inst., the Secretary of the Department sent a telegram on that date to the Chef du Protocole in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Budapest enquiring whether my telegram had been received and when a reply might be expected.² In the meantime, however, acknowledgement of the receipt of the telegram of the 31st December was conveyed to the High Commissioner in London by the Hungarian Minister there, but no reply has so far reached me. In these circumstances, I sent a further telegram to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Budapest, on the 16th inst.

The texts of my two telegrams to Budapest have been included in the attached draft of an aide-mémoire which I wish you to leave with the Foreign Minister of the country to which you are accredited.³ You should seek a personal interview with him and, in addition to informing him of the action taken by me on behalf of the Irish Government, impress upon him the anxiety which is felt in Ireland not only because of the arrest of the Cardinal but especially because no reply has been received to my request for facilities to enable a representative designated by the Irish Government to visit His Eminence.

You should, during the course of the interview, point out that the Irish Government feel that the Cardinal's arrest, which has shocked the conscience of the civilised world, should not be allowed to pass in an attitude of passive indifference on the part of freedom-loving nations.