Papers and Documents relating to the Foreign Relations of Hungary, Volume 1, 1919–1920 (Budapest, 1939)

Appendix III. Parliamentary debates

944 That's right !) Not people but events, rather not events but forces, basic forces, controlled this whole period and we must examine these forces if we wish to appraise the situation in which we are. The struggle of these basic forces must be viewed in the light of the philosophy of history and according to the degree in which we ourselves possess these basic forces are we able to estimate the possibility of realization of the hopes we may entertain. Very pertinently did my esteemed fellow deputy, Sigray, say that hasty statements have often been published about the peace treaty. Inasmuch as the declarations of some statesmen and comments upon them have appeared both in the foreign press and in our own papers, our press as well as the general public has often attached far greater significance to such statements than their importance actually warranted. Often we have committed the mistake of considering events only from the Hungarian point of view and we have not always taken into account the fact that even when our own problem, the Hungarian question, was being deliberated, we were not always the focal point, nor even the primary consideration. Very often the Hungarian question was discussed together with other questions but the public here attempted to give these developments a favourable or unfavourable interpretation or drew conclusions from statements relating to the strategy of procedure. In the future, I should like to urge that public opinion not follow this course. Perhaps it would be just as well if, in considering our international relations, the general public at least — not Parliament which indeed is entitled to deal with the present — but the general public which is not sufficiently educated in matters of foreign policy . .. confined itself rather to the historic aspects of foreign affairs, from which more profound conclusions can be derived, than to the present and to the interpretation of present events from which only superficial conclusions can be drawn. If therefore we wish to adapt ourselves to the present world situation, we must consider only those basic forces which are to be found within ourselves, as the fertility of our soil, our position in world politics —- I mean by this our geographic position — the strength of our people, our political ability and our culture, the strongest and greatest of those in Eastern Europe. For we were the standard-bearers of Western culture in these outposts and, for a long time, its defenders as well. These are the basic forces from which we may draw. The ephemeral phenomena of everyday politics can well be ignored for our future will not be decided by them. Only from these basic