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

Appendix III. Parliamentary debates

945 forces may we gain hope and only our faith in them will strengthen us for the future. They will so strengthen our faith that the cross-currents of everyday politics cannot shake it. (Approval.) When I speak of everyday foreign policy, some curiosity may perhaps arise as to our orientation. (Hear ! Hear !) I have heard this question raised frequently and to this too I can only say that it cannot be settled by invididual or incidental statements. The issue goes very deep indeed and our orientation cannot be hastily or incidentally decided upon at a time when the whole of Europe is reorientating itself. We are passing through a period of transition when nations are seeking new directions and new friends. Perhaps we too shall find new allies, new friends and new sympathies on the basis of those forces and tendencies which are also prevalent in the internal policies of other nations. We cannot pursue the course of selecting a policy of our own, constructing it within our own four walls and then of emerging with it onto the international scene. This to my mind would be a mistake. We must know how to adapt ourselves in these days. I should like to illustrate with an example which perhaps will better explain this problem. I beg you not to wonder at the triviality of the example. Each one of us who was tossed here and there during the World War and the upheavals that followed it was compelled to eat in restaurants, torn away from our homes, torn away from our habitual ways of living and buffeted about. Even so were nations tossed about and are even to-day. I do not mean to imply by all this that I, as Foreign Minister for Hungary, will sit down, to await the proverbial roasted pigeon to fly into my mouth. I shall only watch for this pigeon to be roasted and shall endeavour to serve it when it is palatable on our table. But those who were for years dependent on restaurant cuisine should refrain from being too particular about the cook who prepares it. Our concern should be to find that understanding which will make it possible for us to accommodate ourselves into the future conditions in Europe. In this connection, the states of Europe may be divided into several groups. As far as the major powers are concerned, I discovered during my service as a peace delegate that we shall find some understanding. It goes to the extent that they understand our position, they begin to realize the problems of Central Europe and to see that the future of this part of our continent cannot be solved without Hungary. We have again become 60