IF THIS IS true, I should have thought that the
case against him was exceptionally weak. For his soldier's oath was taken to serve the President and Government of Hungary. Certainly President Dobi could not have considered that Maleter had broken his oath, for it was after the defence of the Killian Barracks that he appointed him to office as a Minister. The trial is supposed to be taking place at the notorious AVH Police Prison at Kohida; and as there are twenty-six other accused it may take some time. If so, I hope there will be a stream of protests from the West, for the trial is a shameful breach of the amnesty which Kadar himself granted on November 4, 1956. Even if it is too late to help Maleter, the effect of public anger in the free world may prevent Kadar from sentencing an even more notable inmate of the Kohida Prison, Imre Nagy himself, and it may perhaps help to bring to an end the present series of Hungarian trials in which large numbers of young Hungarian workers have been sentenced to death.
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