PROFESSOR ISTVAN BIBO, who formerly served in the League of
Nations Secretariat and in a Nazi prison, is one of the most striking leaders thrown up by the Hungarian Revolution last October (when, rightly or wrongly, he did much to prevent an indiscriminate massacre of Communists). He gave an interview in the last hours, still at his Ministerial post in the Parliament Building as Soviet troops moved in; and the incisive clarity with which he then criticised the Western position was the more telling for the statesmanlike modera- tion with which it was phrased. He is now reported to have smuggled out from his prison in Budapest a clearly thought-out political plan for Hungary. Pointing out that the Kadar regime is useless to Russia he urges a modus vivendi, with something like a Gomulka solution for the country. As he says, this would require guaran- tees from both West and East; and one of the prerequisites is that this country should have worked out the relevant European policy. As the 'Spectator pointed out frequently in the months following the crisis, our Government appeared to have made no attempt to do so. Alas, that is still the case.
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