Levéltári Közlemények, 39. (1968)

Levéltári Közlemények, 39. (1968) 1. - FORRÁSKÖZLÉS - Karsai Elek: Brit diplomáciai iratok az 1921. évi húsvéti királypuccs történetéhez / 105–139. o.

Brit diplomáciai iratok az 1921. évi húsvéti királypuccs történetéhez 113 5. Budapest, 1920. november 17. Mr. Johnson jelentése Earl Curzon-nak. a békeszerződés ratifikációjáról, József főherceg trónigényéről. — Az 1920. november 13-i táviratban közöltek részletes kifejtése. CONFIDENTIAL No. 803. My Lord, It is with some hesitation that I venture to write an appreciation of my conversation with his Royal Highness the Archduke Joseph, reported in my telegram No. 560 of the 15th instant, and of the present situation in Hungary with regard to the monarchic question. I have to confess that during the last week my sense of proportion is outraged at every step. Nothing can be more typical of Hungary to-day than the story of a great Hungarian nobleman, who, dressed in a garb of woe, delivered himself of an impassioned harangue in the Chamber against the ratification of the Peace Treaty, sang the National Anthem in the lobby with tears in his eyes during the ratification, and then straightway made his way to the Hotel Hungária to lunch with a charming lady, whose virtue can only be said to be in adverse ratio to her beauty. He concluded what presumably must have been a somewhat epochmaking day for a Hungarian patriot by gambling at the Nemzeti Club up to 3 in the morning, and winning something like a million crowns. With such examples before my eyes it is with no little reserve that I accept the truth of the Archduke Joseph's report of his conversation with the Governor. Nevertheless, certain concrete facts stand out; there have been murders in the city, fighting in the suburbs, Maxim guns and strong patrols in the town, and positive evidence of some -kind of plot to upset the present régime last Sunday, but this does not carry one very far with regard to the part, if any, played by the Archduke in the recent events. In my conversation with his Royal Highness I could discover no logical sequence of thought or of mind, beyond the very obvious view that he considered himself the most suitable man to be King of Hungary, and that if he did not hurry up some one else would step in and take his place at this game of monarchie musical chairs. His Royal Highness made great professions of his love of England, of his determination to frame his future conduct on that of His Majesty the King, that he would be a liberal monarch, and a constitutional ruler, &c, but how this was to be done, except by a kind of swopping of palaces by mutual consent with the Governor, I failed to understand. I fear I was somewhat ruthless in my shattering of these castles in the air, for, sympathetic as the Archduke may be as an individual, I am aware that he may prove a danger by reason of his being made the puppet of the plotters, who, I am told

t throng his backstairs. I confess I cannot see clearly into the immediate future of Hungary, and I can but suggest that his Highness the Governor be supported in every possible way, pending some kind of solution of the question of the future King of Hungary which may be congenial both to the Hungarians and to the Entente Powers. For, unless Admiral von Horthy can be induced to throw himself into the Liberal camp, and temperamentally I do not thing him capable of so doing, I believe his rule cannot be reasonably considered as other than a short interregnum between the old régime and the future "unknown one. From what I can gather from the most sober-minded Hungarians whose acquaintance I possess, I think that this interference of the Entente Powers, with regard to the Habsburg question, is most bitterly resented. With all his volatile qualities, the Hungarian retains a curious juridical mind, and the fact that the ex-Emperor Karl is de jure King of Hungary weighs in a fashion that must not be forgotten in Great Britain. "Whenever I have ventured to speak of the kingship, and it is a question I am prone to avoid, I have found that to suggest a prince from a foreign State only consolidates the varying opinions as to which Habsburg shall be king on to the fact that it must be a Habsburg; and it was only yesterday that in the course of conversation I threw a fly at Count Csáky with reference to the interview your Lordship accorded to M. Take Jomescu, and in which that Minister stated he had been approached by „an unofficial but authoritative agent of the Hungarian Government" with regard to the uniting of the crowns of Hungary and Roumania. (Your Lordship's despatch No. 468 of the 1st November to Sir Herbert Dering.) He replied that any such „rumour" 8 Levéltári Közlemények