The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-06-01 / 6. szám
This Month In Hungarian History WHEN THE BELLS TOLLED FOR HUNGARY-by-Paul Pulitzer It was June 4,1920. All the church bells in Hungary tolled a message of sadness, and the Hungarian people responded with mourning. For, on this day, one of the most infamous treaties in diplomatic history was dictatorially imposed upon Hungary by the victorious Allies at the Grand Trianon Palace in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris. An adjunct of the Treaty of Versailles, which followed the end of World Warr I, this incredible demonstration of man’s inhumanity to man was the “Treaty of Trianon’’. It not only dismembered Hungary and stripped her of almost all of her resources, but also planted more seeds for the bloody harvest of World War II and its destructive aftermath. The origin of the Treaty of Trianon is traceable back to June 28, 1914, when Crown Prince Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburgian monarchy of Austria Hungary, and his consort were assassinated in Sarajevo by a member of a Serbian secret society. This same cabal of ruthless killers was responsible for the murder of the pro-Austriafi King of Serbia and his wife in 1903. Prodded by Count Berchtold, the Austrian Foreign Minister, and Army Chief-of-Staff Conrad, the Emperor Francis Joseph, assured of the support and military intervention of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, decided to declare weir on Serbia. AWARE OF THE INTENTION OF THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT TO “TEACH SERBIA A LESSON”, COUNT STEPHEN TISZA, THE PREMIER OF HUNGARY, DISPATCHED A MEMORANDUM TO VIENNA IN WHICH HE URGED AGAINST GOING TO WAR AND URGED EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH NOT TO COMMIT SUCH A “FATAL ERROR’’. His plea for sanity was ignored. Nevertheless, Count Tisza continued his opposition right up to the outbreak of hostilities. “In my heart, every war means misery, devastation, and the suffering of innocent women and children,” he wrote. “It embitters my life that I have tasks in the management of such a monstrous conflict. My conscience is clear, however. Already the noose, with which they would have strangled us at a favorable moment, Page 2 unless we cut it now, had been thrown around our neck. We could not do otherwise. But it agonized me that we had to do as we did.” In a war Hungary did not want and did not start, and triggered by the assassination of an Austrian Crown Prince who hated the Magyars with a passion, a Hungarian army of about 3,800,000 men suffered a casualty rate of 56%, with 17% (661,000) dead; 20% (743,000) wounded; and 19% (734,000) taken prisoner! Moreover, most of these casualties were suffered fighting against the Russians, who lured Rumania into the Allied camp with promises of acquiring Transylvania, the Province of Banat, and a big slice of the Central Hungarian Lowlands. This deal, in fact, was concluded on August 17, 1916. The rest is history. The Allies won the war and Hungary, who did not want to get into it at all, was forced to pay the highest price of all for being forced into it. In his address to Congress on December 4, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson said: “We do not wish in any way to impair or rearrange the Austro- Hungarian Empire. We only desire to see that their affairs Eire left in their own hands in all matters, great or small.” Moreover, in Section 10 of his famous “Fourteen Points”, he advocated that “the peoples of Austria-Hungary, who place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development.” These humanitarian sentiments, however, disappeared into thin air by the time a “Republic of Czechoslovakia” was declared in Prague (October 28,1918) and the brand new country of Yugoslavia at Zagreb (October 29, 1918). Meanwhile Michael Karolyi took over Hungary and Count Stephen Tisza was murdered. The stage was set for the “Grand Finale” at the Grand Trianon Palace in which nitwitted “statesmen”, screwball “diplomats”, assorted lobbyists for all kinds of causes, and self-anointed “presidents” of newly formed “Republics” were to play stellar roles. The Hungarian Delegation to the “Peace Conference”, led by Count Albert Apponyi, arrived in Paris on January 7, 1920, and were kept isolated in a thirdrate hotel for almost six months. They were not allowed to state their case or to participate in the decision-making process, while the Czechs, Rumanians, Serbians, Croatians, and other nationalities had a field day promoting their own best interests. They were simply told to sign and shut up. What they were forced to sign, was a document (Treaty of Trianon) giving away 71.4% of Historic Hungary (89,700 square miles of territory); 63.5% of her population; 61.4% of her arable land; 88% of her timber; 62.1% of her railroads; 64.5% of her hardsurfaced roads; 83.1% of her pig-iron production; 55.7% of her industrial plants; 67% of her credit and banking institutions; and 100% of her gold, silver, copper, and salt resources. The beneficiaries of this largest were Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Austria, the country which started the war in the first place! Incredible as it may seem in retrospect, those, who cut Hungary to pieces, really believed that “the Hungarians were born oppressors, who always mistreated the nationalities, while the Czechs, Rumanians, and Serbs would represent humanity and democracy, and idealistic and decent rule.” They also believed that Czechoslovakia would become the benevolent “Switzerland” of East Central Europe and that, because they signed agreements to that effect, the rights of all minorities in Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Yugoslavia would be protected! How little worthy of respect is the man who roams about hither and tither without the anchor of national ideal and love of fatherland; how dull is the friendship that rests merely upon personal similarities in disposition and tendencies, and not upon the feeling of a greater common unity for whose sake one can offer up one’s life; how the greatest source of pride is lost by the woman that cannot feel that she also bore children for her fatherland and brought them up for it, that her house and all the petty things that fill up most of her time belong to a greater whole and take their place in the union of her people! —Friedrich Schleiermacher Eighth Hungarian Tribe
