Fraternity-Testvériség, 1951 (29. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1951-07-01 / 7. szám

4

TESTVÉRISÉG

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I IN PLAIN AMERICAN |

A monthly page conducted by Edmund Vasvary =

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When I am writing these lines I am still here in the sweltering heat of Washington. In a couple of days I will enjoy the similarly sweltering climates of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and finally Cuba. This is going to be my first prolonged vacation since 1928 when I spent 5 weeks in Hungary, after 14 years of absence. As befits people with flat pocket-books, I visit the hot climate during the summertime, but in spite of the heat I expect to enjoy the long drives and long vistas of unkown lands. On the 8th, 15th and 22nd of July I am going to conduct divine services in our Miami, Florida Church, the pastor of which is my old friend the Reverend Anthony Peter, who will be absent collecting funds for the future church buildng.

The main inducement which lured me to undertake this adventure was twofold: first, I want to see the spot where our Hungarian hero in the Revolutionary War Colonel Michael Ko- wats fell and was buried in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 11, 1779. The spot was over grown by the spreading city as long as a hundred years ago, but Dr. Joseph Johnson, a native son of the city, in his book designated the exact spot at the crossing of two streets. I am hoping that the streets still have the same name. If I find the spot, I am going to take snapshots of it.

The second reason for this long trip and the extra excursion is that this summer is the one hundredth anniversary of the third and final attempt of Narciso Lopez to liberate Cuba from Spanish tyranny. In his nondescript “army” of about 400 men who left New Orleans in a small dangerously overcrowded ship, there were about 14 or 15 Hungarians, mostly former members of the Hungarian “honvéd” army of 1848-49. Second in commad was the former Hungarian Colonel, John Prágay, close friend of General Klapka the heroic defender of the fortress of Komárom. They landed in Cuba during the night of August 11, 1851 at a secluded bay named Bahia Honda, about 60 miles from Havana. The Spanish authorities having about 20,000 well equipped soldiers on the island evidently were not bothered unduly about this ridiculously small horde of inyaders. There could be only one result: on the 13th day of August the Spanish army dispersed the invading force. In the first skirmish Prágay was seriously wounded and to prevent his capture by the Spaniards he cut his

throat and died. The day was the second anniversary of the surrender of the Hungarian Army at Világos to the overwhelming force of the invading Russians. Lopez with some of his officers (among them two Hungarians) were executed on the main square of Havana, on the same spot where now Lopez’s bronze statue stands, and the rest, were taken to Spanish Morocco as prisoners to be liberated years later.

I want to go to Bahia Honda and take pictures f the same spot where these admirable lunatics landed. I believe it will be appropriate if at least one lone Hungarian will stand on the spot of their landing one whole century later and remembering them and the words spoken by Edmund Randolph at the aniversary of California’s admission into the Union September 12, 1860:

“Some have fallen beneath their country’s flag; and longings still unsatisfied have led some to renew their adventurous career upon foreign soils. Combating for strangers whose quarrels they espoused, they fell amid the jungle of the tropice and fatted the rank soil there, with right precious blood.”

♦

The following news item needs no further comment. Let's hope that both members and non members of the I.W. O. will understand what it means:

INSURANCE SOCIETY BANNED FOR RED LINK

New York, June 25., AP — The International Workers Order, Inc., 162,000 member fraternal insurance organization, was odered dissolved today on the ground that it is "Communist dominated."

State Supreme Court Justice Henry Clay Greenberg said he would grant a stay of dissolution on condition that the IWO diligently prosecute an appeal."

He ordered all books and papers on the organization turned over to the State superintendent of insurance. Artist Rockwell Kent is president of the organization.

During the three-month trial on the State insurance superintendent's position, IWO officers denied it was Communist directed or influenced. However, State witnesses said Communists infiltrated the order and one witness called it a "Commu-