WEALTHY PRINCE AS DOLLAR BLACKMARKETEER

Chronicle (Levin), 5 February 1949, Page 5

WEALTHY PRINCE AS DOLLAR BLACKMARKETEER

BUDAPEST, Feb. 4. Prince Paul Eszterhazy, head of Hungary 's richest and noblest prewar family, pleaded guilty today be'ore the Feople's Court to charges oi blackmarketing dollars for the benefit of Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty. Eszterhazv said lie knew Cardinal Mindszenty was a royalist. He himself was a royalist and he had bought dollars at blackmarket prices from the Cardinal in order to give financial support to the monarehist movement. Eszterhazy said that he had engaged in blackmarket deals in order to provide a living for hiniself and his wife, a famoua ballerina whom the prince married shortly after the war. The president of the Court (Dr. Vil-. mos Olti) pointed out that Eszterlvazy had inherited a fortune of aboHit £55,000 and eommented: ''No one in this court besides you could dream of having that amount. " Eszterhazv said he had paid for dollars a price higher thajr the current blackmarket rates. Replying to further questions about his property, Eszterhazv said in 1945 he had 200,000 acres in Hungary whieh were distributed among peasants during Ihe land reform. His 100,000 acres in Austria and 1200 acres in Bavaria belonged to him still but were not administered by the Soviet and Ameriean occupJlion forces. He also had houses in Budapest and in the eonntry. Cardinal Mindszenty interrupted the ff osecution's questioning of Eszterhazy *to ask: "Did I or anyone in my name ever ask you for money for royalist purposes?" Eszterhazy replied: No. I have not met you since the liberation. " Eszterhazy admitted specifically having cashed a dollar cheque worth £2000 at even higher than the blackmarket rate on behalf of Cardinal Mindszenty. Dr. Miklos Nagy, secretary of the Hungarian Catholic Organisation, was the next defendant'to be called. He denied that he had comniitted treason but pleaded guilty to charges of dollar currency speculation. He said he had helped to smuggle Zigmund Mihalovics, Director-General of Catholic Action, across the frontier to Austria. Mihalovics is alleged by the Court to be the igent for the Ameriean Intelligence. Nagy said he had received a request from Mihalovics in Austria to supply him with information for the Ameriean Counter-Intelligence Corps, but he had not fulfilled this request.