Papers and Documents relating to the Foreign Relations of Hungary, Volume 2, 1921 (Budapest, 1946)

Editor's foreword In English

XVII to diplomatic historians, jurists and politicians all the documents of the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs which may be interesting from their point of view, and above all from the point of view of judging the diplomatic activities of Hungary. The enormous amount of material available has naturally rendered a certain selection necessary, but there has never been any intention of concealing anything whatever from the public eye. In this respect it must be stated that there were certain omissions in the first volume. The editors were namely unaware of the existence of dossiers which were at one time reserved for the Minister's private office, so that the most confidential documents of 1919 and 1920, which were under the personal control of the Minister, could not be obtained and consequently published. In the course however of searches connected with the compilation of the second volume, the editor discovered the existence of these files, and a large number of documents from the material found there are now published as well in the second and third volumes. The reference "M. Kjres." on certain documents implies that they are taken from the personal secret dossiers of the Minister. Those bearing the reference "res. pol." and "pol." are from the material of the political section of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, while documents from other sections show the reference of their origin. Of the code-telegram material, a large number of telegrams carry the reference "OOOIpol", which means that the document in question was not registered and dealt with by the political section, but the publication is made from a copy bearing no number in its files. It is for the present still uncertain when and how the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be able to continue the publication of this series after the third volume, since the material in the archives of the Ministry suffered considerable damage during the war. Part of it was removed from Budapest, and some of it may even have been lost, while what remained in Budapest was damaged by fire and water. The archives will have to be carefully re-arranged, sorted and listed before it will be possible to see whether publication can be continued in the present form. Should it be possible to carry on the series, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will in any case see to it also that the omissions in the first volume already mentioned are made good by some means.