It is shown that latent paramagnetism can occur in a lattice having a hexag
onal arrangement of magnetic spins. This state is characterized by the fact
that the effective exchange interaction on the two sublattices vanishes an
d the corresponding ions become paramagnetic. The appearance of such a stat
e explains the nonequidistant spacing of the jumps in the magnetization in
CsFeCl3. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7834(99)01704-9].