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

Appendix III. Parliamentary debates

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9 tern Hungary ; Messrs. Jenő Czettler and Miklós Forgács in the name of several deputies opposed to ratification.] The Speaker : The Prime Minister wishes to address the House. Count Paul Teleki, Prime Minister : In this fateful moment of our fatherland, I should like to speak frankly for I feel that the circumstances and the honour of the nation require that I should for the last time address the Hon. House from this place. When the fronts collapsed, the Hungarian nation followed, even in those times, its traditional honesty and believed in the honesty of others. It was due to this belief in other people's honesty that we laid down our arms ; in the belief that we would be treated with the same decency as we would have treated others, had their fate been given into our hands. We expected justice ; instead we got a peace treaty which is the least sincere of all the peace treaties, which is the negation of sincerity and of the principles of justice so loudly proclaimed. There was a period when we worked hard. I know all the details of this work because I have had a part in them from the day the Bulgarian front collapsed. We collected all the data we could to support our effort to convince the world of the justice of our claims . . . When the Peace Delegation went to Neuilly, we did not expect to find understanding. While I was engaged in the preparatory work for the peace negotiations, I never thought that we would find any real understanding. I was convinced that we were preparing our arguments for the judgment of history and not of those who lacked all the attributes of the judicial function. Occasionally, we saw a slight ray of hope, — some appreciation by people whose interests were not directly involved and who had opportunity to observe closely the proceedings of the Peace Conference, of the fact that matters were not being decided in conformity with the proclaimed principles ; that the future of Europe is being slowly undermined. We stood there completely defenceless and no longer expecting anything. We did not even expect justice any more ; we realized that the Hungarian peace is a small and unimportant part of a much larger structure. We realized that any change in this small and unimportant part might necessitate changes in the larger structure which was directed against Germany. While we did not expect any justice, we did expect decency — the same decency which we showed to Allied nationals who