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

Editors' forewod

EDITORS' FOREWORD. The following remarks are in explanation of the methods followed by the Editors in the collection, organization and annotation of che materials included in this volume. The diplomatic correspondence and other documents hereafter printed, including the Diary of the Hungarian Peace Delegation printed in Appendix I, were collected from the archives of the Royal Hungarian Mir. istry for Foreign Affairs in Budapest

. The fact that this Ministry was organized and began to function in the turbulent times following the armistice and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was an initial difficulty in that the state of the archives and the indexing of the documents bore in every respect the imprints of this troubled period. The general confusion which reigned in international relations in the era immediately following the World War is reflected in the multiplicity of agencies through which Hungary's foreign relations were conducted. Besides the newly established Foreign Office, the Inter-Ministerial Armistice Commission, the Peace Delegation, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of National Defence, corresponded not directly with foreign Governments but with innumerable agencies of the Allied Powers in Paris or with their representatives in Hungary acting not individually but collectively. The archives of the various agencies which played a part in the conduct of Hungary's international relations during this period have been merged with the archives of various government departments. To trace these documents outside the Ministry for Foreign Affairs would have unduly delayed publication of this volume and the Editors have therefore had to confine themselves to a careful, piece by piece examination of the contents of every dossier in the Foreign Office archives. Therein, however, were found copies of many, if not all, of the documents pertaining to the activities of such agencies. While it is conceivable that under the conditions then existing copies of some papers may not have been transmitted to the Foreign Office, or may have been mislaid or lost, the Editors believe that no important