HUNGARY’S ATTITUDE TO-DAY
The hostile attitude of Hungary towards the new States and her
determination to seek revision of the Treaty of Trianon, are
demonstrated by methods other than those of propaganda. It is
unfortunately true that in present-day Hungary exists a State whose
rulers and the majority of whose people have abandoned all attempts
to organise the Magyar territory which remains to them into a stable
modern State, in favour of a policy of self-seeking and aggression. The
traditional Hungarian policy of refusing all share in the government
of the country to all but a privileged class was followed by a natural
corollary after the War. The tenets of Bolshevism found a fruitful
soil in the “unitary Magyar State.” The attractions held out by its
exponents were bound to appeal to a proletariat which had for ever
been excluded from any semblance of power. The Soviet Republic was the
result, which lasted until the people had discovered that they had
only exchanged one tyranny for another. Then came the reaction, which
was no less disastrous to Hungary’s prosperity and good name than
the revolution had been. And through the whole of this sequence can
be traced their primal cause, the incapacity of the Magyar spirit to
accommodate itself to modern democratic ideas.
Hungary, under the rule of Horthy, is no more worthy of sympathy than
she has ever been in her history of oppression and crime. That this is
so can be proved out of the mouths of patriotic Magyars, themselves
not guiltless of the sins committed in the past by Hungary’s rulers,
but now exiled because they have shown symptoms of relaxation of the
principles of Magyar oligarchy. These men are Michael Karolyi, the
President of the Hungarian Republic established in October 1918, John
Hock, who was President of the National Council, and three of the
Ministers of their Government, Oskar Jaszi, the first Minister of
Racial Minorities, Bela Linder and Paul Szende. On the occasion of the
meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference at Vienna in August 1922,
this “group of Hungarian Democratic and Republican _Émigrés_,” issued
a pamphlet entitled “On the sham Parliamentary Government instituted
by a Military Dictatorship in Hungary and on the need of replacing it
by true Parliamentarianism.” Extracts from this pamphlet follow. It
must be explained that the pamphlet is addressed to the members of the
Conference.
“It is our duty to lay before you sincerely the real condition of
Hungary and to leave nothing undone to impress you with the truth, that
the actual situation in Hungary is not only disastrous to the Hungarian
people, but that it is also a formidable obstacle and impediment to
European consolidation.”
“Hungary is at present the only member of the former Central Powers on
the territory of which the _ancien régime_ is still in full swing. Nay,
it is flourishing more strongly than ever.
“Except for a short interruption, _Hungarian feudalism has never
ceased to live and assert itself_. Before the collapse of the old
order of things through the October Revolution of 1918, Hungarian
Parliamentarianism had never been more than a democratic screen,
behind which feudal nobility continued its reign. An excessive
property qualification and open voting were essential to the Hungarian
Constitution. Electoral districts were artificially arranged in such
a way that the urban wards, including several thousand voters, were
counterbalanced by small country divisions numbering only a few
hundred voters. Bayonets, alcoholic drinks and bribes: such were the
traditional means by which the Government fought out its electoral
battles in Hungary.
“The alliance of the great landowners, the Hungarian governing class,
with the dynasty set up a barrier against democratic reformist
movements. The Hungarian ruling class provided for the military needs
of the dynasty, in return for which the dynasty left the privileges of
Hungarian feudalism untouched. By these means Hungarian aristocracy
and nobility, in common with the plutocracy of finance, were able
to maintain their rule over the Hungarian people and the non-Magyar
nationalities of Hungary, even up to the beginning of the twentieth
century. Hungary continued to be the stronghold of Central European
feudalism.
“As the result of Magyar pseudo-democracy illiteracy was excessively
widespread, the masses were decimated by diseases, especially by
consumption; great bodies of workers had to emigrate to America and
to other countries, while the welfare and general culture of Hungary
remained on the very lowest level.
“_It was only the October Revolution of 1918, following on the military
collapse of the Dual Monarchy, which raised Hungary for a short time to
a higher level. A democratic Republic was established, with universal
suffrage, secret ballot and proportional representation; the freedom of
meetings, coalitions and of the Press, was proclaimed, the equality of
racial minorities guaranteed; the social conditions of the workers was
improved on Western lines._”
“Counter-revolution began by erecting a Military Dictatorship in
Hungary.... The Military Dictatorship had to create _a parliamentary
screen_. Universal suffrage and secret ballot were actually given,
but the elections were placed under the control of the military
_détachements_. Moreover, the Hungarian Fascisti, the so-called
_Awakened Magyars_, helped to suppress the meetings of the opposition,
kidnapping, imprisoning, whipping and torturing the recalcitrant
voters. The very moderate Social Democratic Party of Hungary was forced
to quit the field, and to boycott the elections.”
“Such were the antecedents of the meeting of the first National
Assembly under the Military Dictatorship. Yet even then _the
détachement of Ostenburg had to occupy the Parliament House, in order
to secure the election of Vice-Admiral Horthy, the chief of the
military clique, to the Governorship of Hungary_. The election of
the National Assembly had been achieved by him with the help of the
bayonets of his _détachements_; his election to the Governorship was
due to the assistance of his officers. In spite of pretended democracy
and mock elections, the first Assembly of the counter-revolution
represented no more than a puppet-show in the hands of a military
clique.
“With the exception of a very few honest and brave men, this Assembly
as a whole had not a word of protest against the murders committed by
Horthy’s officers. It was left unmoved by the hecatombs of Orgovany,
by the cruelties with which the White Terror butchered the social
democratic editors Somogyi and Bacso, together with Cservenka, the
Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, and many others.”
These references are to the orgy of revenge which followed the
establishment of the counter-revolution. After the suppression of
Bolshevism in August 1919, vengeance for the excesses committed by Bela
Kun and his bloodthirsty lieutenant Szamueli was, with the connivance
of the Government, undertaken by two Societies, known respectively as
the __M.O.V.E. (Magyar orszagos vedo egyesulet, League for Hungarian
Integrity) and the _Awakening Magyars_. These societies used as their
physical arm the _Physical Force Formations_ and the _Détachements_,
which were in effect organised bands of ex-officers and soldiers, and
whose chief occupation was the murder of so-called Communists, in fact
of anyone whom they suspected a sympathy with the Bolsheviks.[51] There
was a certain rough and ready justice about their original formation,
for it was an undisputed fact that the Bolsheviks had shed large
quantities of innocent blood. But they very soon abandoned any pretence
of justice for the more lucrative employment of assassinating anybody
who became obnoxious to the counter-revolution, or from whose murder
any loot might be derived. In the massacres of Orgovany and Kecskemet
it is estimated that 170 victims were murdered, and the guilt for these
crimes was fixed upon the leader of one of the bands, by name Hejjas.
The bodies of the three men referred to above, Somogyi, Bacso and
Cservenka, the two former of which were responsible for the Socialist
newspaper _Nepszava_, were found in the Danube, and this crime also was
brought home to Hejjas and his band. The Memorandum of Karolyi and his
associates goes on to describe the further adventures of this man.
“The methods employed by the military dictatorship were thrown into
sharp light by a recent trial. Ivan Hejjas, an officer very influential
with Horthy, was falsely informed by a confidential agent that three
merchants in the country had offered to pay a million and a half crowns
to the Rumanians as the price of their staying three weeks longer in
the district as an army of occupation. Although no inquiry whatever
was made by him, Hejjas nonetheless gave orders that these citizens
be executed instantly. In his written evidence sent to the court, he
expressed himself in the following manner: ‘_My patriotic feelings
having been shocked by what I heard, I ordered Zbona and Danics to
kidnap the three Jews and to put them to death._’”
“Ivan Hejjas, this ‘best officer’ of the Governor (as he was called by
Horthy when addressing the British Labour Delegation led by Colonel
Wedgwood, M.P.), when pardoned for his numberless murders and other
crimes, flung back this amnesty to the Court of Justice with the
following words: ‘Concerning the mercy granted to me, I declare that I
do not need it and refuse to accept it most emphatically. I have not
implored anybody’s mercy and do not expect mercy from anybody.’ This
declaration of Hejjas remained as unpunished as did his greater crimes.
According to the statement of a Government paper, political balance
in Hungary depends on Hejjas. And, indeed, the man by whose mercy the
present system is living little needs any mercy from this system.”[52]
“The ruling clique, being in their own opinion identical with the
Hungarian State and the Hungarian Nation, everybody lessening the
authority or impairing the credit of the Military Dictatorship or using
an abusive expression against the _détachements_ is prosecuted under
Statute III of 1921 (which punishes such an offence by five years’
penal servitude). The Parliament of Military Dictatorship does not,
of course, regard its own actions as high treason against a people
deserving a better fate. But it regards as treasonable any description
of its own barbarous system of government, and any attempt to draw the
attention of Europe to these extreme abuses.”
This is a reference to the conditions under which the Press works in
Hungary. By a law of December 1920 statements appearing in the Press
which were deemed likely to impair Hungary’s good name abroad were made
punishable offences, and the penalties were fixed according to the
gravity of the offence. Fines up to 100,000 crowns, imprisonment for
life, or expulsion from Hungary could be awarded. So-called freedom
of the Press was restored in December 1921, but it was limited to the
conditions obtaining during the War. The value of this freedom is shown
by the fact that newspapers are not allowed to print verbatim reports
of debates in the Assembly.
“Not even this National Assembly was, however, inclined to restrict
the franchise by which it was elected. The Government omitted to
submit the draft of a Constitutional Bill to the Parliament, spending
its whole time in framing the specifically Hungarian institution of
a kingdom without a king. In the very last week of the two years’
session, Parliament was suddenly taken unawares by a Bill for the
regulation of elections. When the National Assembly attempted to resist
this unexpected attack, the Government restricted the franchise by a
_ukase_. By the new ‘law’ some million and a half citizens lost their
right to vote.”
Under this law the suffrage was restricted as follows:
Men. Over twenty-four years of age, who have been citizens of the
Magyar State for ten years, have resided for two years in the same
district, and have passed through four classes of an elementary school.
Women. Over thirty years of age, the same national and residential
qualifications as men, and in addition must
(_a_) Be lawfully married and have at least two children.
(_b_) Support themselves from their own property or earnings.
(_c_) Have passed through eight classes of a secondary school or be
married to a man of equivalent educational standing.
“Not only the poorer classes, but also ‘politically unreliable
persons’ were excluded from the franchise. Electoral qualification and
eligibility are denied to those who are under the charge of a political
offence. The franchise is denied also to those _who gave utterance
privately or in the Press to their sympathy with the enemy during the
War_.... Disfranchised are, further, all public officials discharged by
arbitrary decree on account of their political attitude, whereby the
flower of Hungarian _intelligentsia_ is robbed of its political rights.
“The darkest blot of all on this reactionary electoral law is the
paragraph supplanting ballot by open vote.[53] With the exception
of the larger urban wards, in more than two-thirds of the country
divisions the electoral decree ordains open voting. This is practically
identical in Hungary with the dominance of the gendarmerie, the
publican and the local bankers at the polls. The repeal of secret
ballot means, therefore, the utter moral self-condemnation of the
existing system. It means an open confession that the present regime in
Hungary can only maintain itself with the help of military pressure and
corruption.”
“The electioneering campaign was aptly opened by the bombing attempt
against the Democratic Club in the Elisabeth district of Budapest.
At this place a banquet was to be held in honour of Charles Rassay,
ex-M.P., the leader of the liberal opposition. The chief leaders of
the parliamentary Liberal Party were also to be in attendance on this
occasion. More than three hundred persons were present. The politicians
were happily some minutes late, when a terrific explosion rent the
walls of the building. An infernal machine had exploded and laid
everything in the hall in ruins. Eight persons were killed, more than
thirty severely wounded. A series of attempts by bombs followed. These
murderous attempts were committed by the _Awakened Magyars_, who went
so far as to cheer the criminals responsible before the club-house of
the Democratic Party, at the moment when the infernal machine exploded.
Detective-Inspector Kovacsevics saw some ill-famed _Awakened Magyars_
leaving the critical spot immediately after the explosion had taken
place. Other reliable witnesses could give authentic evidence on
utterances of conspicuous _Awakened Magyars_ regarding the attempt. The
editor of the official paper of the _Awakened Magyars_ gave evidence
in connection with another bombing affair, that he had himself given
some hand-grenades to an _Awakened_ in the official premises of the
_Awakened Magyars_. A proclamation posted by the _Awakened_ states
that ‘the Home Secretary has in three instances implored the chiefs
of the _Awakened_ to ask for an investigation against themselves,’
which they, however, haughtily refused to do. Under the pressure of
public opinion the Home Secretary had finally to instruct the police to
search one of the rooms in the premises of the _Awakened_. Although the
Society of the _Awakened Magyars_ had ample leisure to remove anything
it thought fit, yet several bombs were found in the course of this
very superficial investigation. After this the search slackened, the
_Awakened_ who happened to have been detained were again released and
publicly honoured by their comrades. At a banquet given in honour of
one of the released chiefs of the _Awakened_, Julius Gömbös, formerly
captain on the Staff, and at that time head of the electioneering
machine of the Government Party invested with dictatorial powers, did
not fail to appear. Count Albert Apponyi is reported by the papers
to have made the following statement on this affair: ‘Regarding the
antecedents and circumstances of the case it is not too much to say
that the good name of the country as well as the safety of the citizens
depends on a positive result of the investigations.’ It scarcely needs
to be said that the investigations led to no positive result at all.”
The elections took place during May and June 1922. The policy of the
Government was to disallow public meetings during as many days of the
campaign as they dared, on all sorts of ridiculous pretexts.
“During the short time when meetings were permitted, those of the
opposition were usually prohibited by special order of the local
authorities or simply broken up by the _Awakened_. Special decrees were
issued with respect to the agenda of meetings, in general forbidding
any debate on the question of land reform, excluding thereby the main
problem of actual Hungarian politics from discussion. No wonder that
opposition voters were sent to the internment camps, were arrested,
kidnapped, stabbed, beaten (women not being spared), that nomination
papers were stolen and torn up, that voters were imprisoned under the
sole charge of attempting to present to the authorities the nomination
paper of an opposition candidate, as happened in the case of the
Liberal leader Ladislaus Fenyes. No wonder that even the candidates
themselves, such as Buza Barna, Ladislaus Fenyes, Ernest Nagy, and
Louis Szilagyi were arrested, nearly all candidates of the opposition
having been threatened with death! Candidates were forbidden to
express their policy, as it happened with Imre Veer in Szentes, the
motive given being that the candidate was known to hold republican
views. The head of the gendarmerie in the district of Sajo-Szentpeter
called the candidate, Rudolph Krupa, a ‘swinish scoundrel.’ Krupa,
having asked for a proof of his identity, the gendarmerie official
whipped out his revolver and apostrophised the candidate thus: ‘_There
is my proof of identity, and if you don’t shut up, I will let it into
you swiftly enough._’
“On the election day military terror was at its height. Three days were
appointed for the voting, the official reason given being that the
military force of the Government was not sufficient to complete the
elections in one day. In spite of open terror, the Government could
only succeed _in the districts where voting was open, only 18 per cent.
of votes being gained by the Government Party in wards with secret
ballot, whilst in districts with open vote 67·2 per cent. of votes
were gained by the Government_. That is why the Government abolished
the ballot and re-established in Hungary the shameful practice of open
voting.
“Although some five and twenty Socialists and a dozen Liberals
succeeded in getting seats (mostly in wards with secret ballot), the
National Assembly only represents the interests of the great landed
estates. The peasantry is far more inadequately represented than it
was in the first Assembly. The great majority of the Assembly are
under the direct influence of the great landowners. The territory of
Hungary covers 7,404,383 hectares (about 18 million acres), of which
3,339,174 hectares (about 9 million acres) belong to 1,500 landlords,
each of them owning more than 575·5 hectares (about 1,400 acres). These
1,500 great landowners are the masters of the National Assembly by
permission of the Military Dictatorship. In this Parliament there is
restored the system of Tisza which was one of the primary factors of
war.”
I must impress upon my readers that this is no highly coloured
report derived from anti-Magyar sources, but the actual wording of
a considered statement drawn up by five leading Magyars, and that
it describes, not an exceptional state of affairs under transitory
conditions, but the Hungarian elections of 1922 under the actual regime
which prevails at this moment in Hungary, the country, according to its
apologists, “whose ideals have so nearly approximated to our own for
centuries past.”
The conclusions reached by the authors of the Memorandum are equally
interesting.
“Military Dictatorship in Hungary is the obstacle to all real
parliamentarianism. That Parliament which was elected by the force of a
terrorist suffrage does nothing but _strengthen military dictatorship_.
And as long as this Military Dictatorship, as long as the Governor’s
_détachements_ are in power, all Central Europe has reason to fear
that the peace of this hopelessly storm-tossed Europe will be utterly
broken by the Hungarian military gangs. The safety of Europe must not
depend on that same Ivan Hejjas, who, according to a recently published
record, made the following statement: ‘I have been watching events in
Austria for a long time. I have noticed that Austria is proceeding on
her downward path of ruin, so that the proclamation of Proletarian
Dictatorship will be inevitable.... _For some length of time I have
been systematically recruiting soldiers in all parts of the country in
order to form a body of insurgent troops.... I have organised these
bands with the single aim of being able to operate with them in a
more independent and uncontrolled fashion in the dismembered parts of
Hungary, as I cannot use the regular troops for some of my actions
which are prompted by patriotism._’”
“But not only the peace of Central Europe is threatened at every moment
by Hungarian Reaction. As in Hungary civil war is not yet ended, as,
in defiance of the explicit agreement in the Treaty of Trianon, the
ruling classes are continually attacking the workers, the outbreak of
revolution in Hungary may be expected at any minute. This revolution
would certainly not leave untouched the European balance. Is it
imaginable that there should be no revolutionary tension in a country
where, for instance, the Sheriff at Vac breaks up a public meeting
dealing with economic measures with the declaration that ‘owing to the
recent elections the mood of the people is not such as to justify the
permission to hold public meetings’? Where the Home Secretary by Order
44, 126/1922, confers the power to allow or forbid the establishment of
Local Groups of Trade Unions on the local administrative authorities,
who may forbid them if they are pleased to think that the establishment
of the Local Group is ‘not sufficiently justified by public interest?’”
“The dangers of a _coup d’état_ abroad and revolution at home will not
disappear in Hungary until Military Dictatorship disguised by a mock
Parliament is replaced by real democracy, real parliamentarianism.
Therefore, we are prompted by true patriotism (which is never opposed
to the interests of international civilisation), to beg all friends of
democracy, all true European citizens, to work for the transformation
of that state of mind which has allowed the restoration of feudalism
in Hungary, into one capable of restoring the ideas of the democratic
October Revolution of 1918, i.e. of Hungarian Democracy in the European
sense of the word.
“_Finally, we desire to state that we are ready to prove all facts
mentioned in this Memorandum, as well as many points connected
with them, before the League of Nations or any other responsible
international institution by means of sworn testimony and documents._”
The Memorandum is signed by its five authors.
No more damning evidence of the rottenness of Hungary and Hungarian
institutions could be adduced. Karolyi and his associates, however
much they may be maligned by the military clique in Hungary for their
actions in the fateful days of October 1918, at least attempted to
reorganise the Hungarian nation on modern democratic lines. That they
failed does not alter their intentions or deprive their criticism of
the present state of affairs of its value.[54]
FOOTNOTES:
[51] “This paroxysm of fury died down gradually, but still I have
witnessed scenes like the following: It is evening in a Budapest café.
One of those cafés which are always full, in which a large part of the
life of the citizens is passed. Suddenly men are heard running in the
street outside; carriages drive up at full speed; at the door appear
various uniforms, belonging to the various officers’ _détachements_,
and behind them about a hundred adherents of the anti-Semitic League
of Awakening Magyars or __Awakened Magyars. A panic ensues in the
café. Customers are to be seen crawling under the billiard table and
the sofas, some run to the closets, others to the telephone. But an
Awakened Magyar stops the latter with the words: ‘It’s no good trying
to warn the police, all the wires are cut!’ Meanwhile the officers pass
from table to table politely asking everyone to justify themselves,
as they call it, that is to say, to show their identity papers. A Jew
is recognised merely by the way in which he gets up before anything
is even asked of him. He is immediately seized and passed from hand
to hand, and by a magical process he has not reached the door before
he has been relieved on the way of his pocket-book, purse, watch and
cigar-case. Then he is thrown to the crowd, which receives him with
howls and execrations, of which I remember this one: ‘Knock him on the
head, in case he gets crippled!’ The café having been purged, the band
of inquisitors salutes the remaining customers politely and goes on
elsewhere to repeat its not over heroic exploit.
“One day, in the course of one of these affrays, a Jew urged in
his defence that he had been baptized, and forthwith produced his
certificate of baptism.
“‘All right,’ replied the officer. ‘Say the Lord’s Prayer.’
“‘Our Father, Who art in heaven----’
“The recent Christian knew no more. He was incontinently bundled into
the street ‘to learn the rest.’”--(J. and J. Thiraud, _Quand Israel est
Roi_.)
[52] In a “manifesto” published during the winter of 1921-1922, Hejjas
and his fellow-ruffian Baron Pronay speak of the work of the National
Assembly as “Two years of cockcrowing” in which “traitors and perjurers
have talked the loudest.” The Manifesto goes on to say: “Till now we
have watched with clenched fist the game of the National Assembly,
though anger has choked us. Yet amid the sighs of our starving
frost-pinched women and half-naked children we have proved that we too
desire order--the Christian order. But we have waited long enough. We
mean now to enter on paths of deeds.”
[53] See page 145.
[54] At the time of going to press the Budapest Parliament is about to
consider two Bills introduced by the Government. The first deals with
Public Order, and, among other things, provides for the internment in
“Labour Institutes” of any person who by his political tendencies may
prove obnoxious to the authorities. The second deals with Military
Taxation, and ordains that every male Hungarian subject between the
ages of 20 and 31 shall be liable to a poll-tax, unless he enrols
himself in the army, the gendarmerie, the police or the customs or
forestry services. This Bill is thus a thinly veiled measure of
conscription, and is in any case contrary to the provisions of the
Treaty of Trianon.