Fraternity-Testvériség, 1970 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1970-07-01 / 7-9. szám
DR. ZOLTÁN BEKY: FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF TRIANON At the request of many of our second generation members we publish the excerpts of the address of Dr. Zoltán Beky, given in Pittsburgh on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Peace of Trianon — as appeared in the Pittsburgh “Magyarság” translated by Francis H. Szécskay. This is a day of historic import. This day, June fourth, 1970, marks precisely the fiftieth anniversary of the forcible imposition of the "peace” of Trianon on Hungary. And our protest finds its greatest emphasis precisely here, in Pittsburgh; for it was here, on May thirtieth, 1918, that the notorious Part of Pittsburgh was ratified, and the dismemberment of our dear homeland begun. We are here, in Pittsburgh, where a "new state” was fabricated. We are here, we Hungarians, at the place where a nation of a thousand years’ standing was dismembered. This day is the anniversary of the mournful day of Trianon; and we have met, we Hungarians of Pittsburgh, in remembrance of that day. A people was condemned to death on that day — a people that had defended with its blood the so-termed "civilized West” over the reach of a thousand years. On that day masses of the population in the order of millions were torn from the body of the nation. They were consigned to enslavement among alien peoples. That day is the most grievous, most tragic day of Hungary’s long history! JUNE THE FOURTH. I remember, from my student-days in Sárospatak, what profound mournfulness and melancholy fell on the dismembered nation on that day. Throughout the land there was a tolling of bells; pain ached in every heart; stillness reigned everywhere; we brooded on the great tragedy! The people of the tiny, amputated nation sobbed in their mere survival! On that day the nation was plundered of all its natural wealth, of its mines, of its hills and mountains, of its woodlands. It was left there beside the way, beggarly — the Hungarian homeland, the maimed homeland, utterly humiliated by the monstrous "peace” of Trianon. I do not know how it rests with you; as for me, the remembrance rends my soul; and I know that wherever Hungarians may Éve, a pain beyond expression pervades their spirit. Wherever we may be, wherever or how far fate has taken us, a compulsion makes us feel that WE MUST DO SOMETHING! We Hungarians who live in a free land have a task to perform. It is our sacred obligation to own no tranquil moment until the injustice of Trianon is redressed, until the people are freed from oppression, until the thousand-year boundaries are restored in the integrity that God created in the Carpathian basin. Until those conditions are restored we can have no tranquility of spirit! My brothers and sisters! It is our holy obligation to make our voices heard! For the Hungarian community in the homeland are sentenced to silence. They are not permitted to lament even on this sad day. They are required to celebrate the "liberation” on this day! They are made to mock at the thousandth anniversary of Saint Stephen’s birth; to hold up for scorn the ideas of Saint Stephen — the ideas that held the homeland secure for one thousand years. The Hungarian Federation of America strives with all its strength to enlighten our leaders and politicians. On this day of tragic anniversary I went with officers of the Federation to the Congress of the United States. We were successful in winning twelve or thirteen Senators and Representatives to give speeches of reminder regarding Trianon; and their remarks were duly entered into the Congressional Record. We submitted a separate representation to the President of the United States, calling to his attention the nature of what happened to Hungary fifty years ago. We noted that, if the Western Powers wanted peace at Trianon, they wrought the contrary: they killed there the angel of peace! I do not say that the multitudinous inscriptions of protest which reach Washington in these days, or that the efforts we ourselves make in the Capital, will yield significant results. But I do believe this: that the time will surely come when the whole world will realize with shock that the seed of the Second World War was sown at Trianon. This world, which apparently finds it "not convenient” now TO TAKE UP THE HUNGARIAN QUESTION, will realize with a jolt, when the two Satanic Powers conflict, that Trianon caused the second world-conflagration; and then will come the time when THE HUNGARIAN QUESTION WILL 18
