". . . (Karolyi) thought that he was going to assure a better armistice for the new, pro-Allied Hungary, so he went, probably following Czech advice, to Belgrade, to receive what he thought more generous terms from General Franchet d’Esperey. . . Their humiliation, indeed, was complete…When a socialist member of the delegation was introduced to the French commander, the latter exclaimed, "Etes-vous tombes Si bas?" (Have you sunk to such depths?). . ." (From "History of the Hungarian Nation" S. B. Vardy, Danubian Press, Astor Park, 1969).

On March 20, 1919, Karolyi addressed the following proclamation to the people of Hungary:

"To the people of Hungary!

The government has resigned. Those who had been governing by the will of the people with the support of the Hungarian proletariat, have now realised that the compelling force of circumstances demands new directions. . . The Paris peace Conference has decided to place almost the entire territory of the country under military occupation. . . The aim of the military occupation is to use Hungary as the operational and supply area against the Russian Soviet army, which is now fighting on the Soviet-Rumanian border. The territories taken from us are to be the reward given to the Rumanian and Czech troops to be used against the Russian-Soviet army.

As the provisional President of the Hungarian People’s Republic I turn to the proletariat of the world for justice and assistance against this decision of the Conference of Paris. I resign and hand the power to the proletariat of the peoples of Hungary.

In his "Memoirs", published in 1956 (J. Cape, London), Karolyi asserts that he never signed this proclamation, and that in fact he was removed from office by a "coup d’etat" staged by the Social Democrats and instigated by the Entente (!). (Pp. 156-157). He fails to explain, however, why his regime was replaced by Kun’s Communists, not the Social Democrats who had – allegedly – ousted him, why he remained in Budapest during the Kun regime (in the fashionable Svabhegy district), on very friendly terms with the "usurpers" (Communist Kun and Socialist Kunfi), and why he left Hungary in a hurry a few days before the downfall of the Kun regime (July, 1919). He also fails to explain why he had to wait until 1956 to repudiate the famous (and fatuous) proclamation.

After a counter-revolutionary uprising in Budapest, the Kun government issued a proclamation urging the Communists to "retaliate by the Red Terror of the proletariat. .

(Hungarian text quoted in "Magyarorszag Tortenete Kepekben", Gondolat publ. Budapest, 1971).

General H. H. Bandholtz, U.S.A. member of the Inter-Allied Military Mission in Budapest wired to Paris on August 16, 1919: ". . . the Rumanians were doing their utmost to delay matters in order to complete the loot of Hungary. . . (after having carted away locomotives, railroad cars, machine tools and other equipment) they proceeded also to clean the country out of private automobiles, farm implements, cattle, horses, clothing, sugar, coal, salt and, in fact, everything of value. . . dismantled telephones even in private residences." Another member of the U.S.A. Mission reports that the "total amount of rolling stock taken by them (Rumanians) from the Hungarian State Railways was 1,302 locomotives and 34,160 railroad cars." The Rumanian occupation caused damage, as it was officially estimated, of almost three billions of gold crowns (equivalent. to the same amount in US dollars).

In another telegram, addressed to the Supreme Allied Council in Paris (October 13), General Bandholz states that "in all towns occupied by the Rumanians we found an oppression so great as to make life unbearable. Murder is common: youths and women are flogged, imprisoned without trial, and arrested without reason. . ." (Quoted in S. B. Vardy: "History of the Hungarian Nation" pp.214-215. Ed. Danubian Press. Astor Park, 1969.) (Cf. also: H. H. Bandholtz, "An Undiplomatic Diary", ed. by F. K. Kruger, New York, 1933).

The "White Terror" myth was born in the imagination of Karolyi and his emigre friends in Paris and London The ex-president substantiated his accusations by grossly misstating the date of Horthy’s entry into Budapest. In his "Memoirs" he writes: "On August 12th Admiral Horthy, having waited for the departure of the looting Rumanian troops, made his entry into the city (Budapest). . . and started his punitive White Terror". (Karolyi: Memoirs, J. Cape, London, 1956, p. 174). It is a historic fact that Horthy entered Budapest on November 16th (1919), by which time the worst of the lawless acts of individual revenge against Kun’s henchmen was over. During the months of the "legal vacuum" (August-November, 1919), Horthy and his collegues of the Counter-Revolutionary Government (Bethlen, Teleki etc.) lived under the watchful (and some-what suspicious) eyes of the Allied (French) commander in Szeged and had therefore neither the authority nor the opportunity to commit (or to stop) "atrocities."

Thus Horthy and the Hungarian governments of two decades (and, indirectly, the entire Hungarian nation) were branded "fascists", "white terrorists" (and worse) because of the blatant distortion of facts by a confused ex-politician trying to excuse his own blunders.

Regrettably, most foreign historians (and politicians) repeated uncritically these accusations without bothering to check their dates or to read the reports of the members of the Allied Military Mission in Budapest, who were closely observing Horthy’s actions in 1919 and 1920 (while Karolyi and his friends collected their "evidence" in Paris and London). Thus the British High Commissioner P. B. Hohler, the leader of the Inter-Allied Military Mission, Brig. Gen. R. N. Gorton, and Admiral Sir E. Troubridge stated in their reports of February and March 1920: "There is nothing in the nature of terror in Hungary. . . life is as secure here as in England. . (Quoted by Karolyi in his "Memoirs", p.377). Similarly, the U.S. observer, Col. Horwitz (himself Jewish) attested:

"Horthy’s forces had done everything within reason to prevent such persecutions (of the Jews and Communists). . . as to there being a real "White Terror", there was nothing of the kind. . "(Quoted in Vardy: History of the Hungarian Nation, p.215).

The 10th of the "Fourteen Points" of President Wilson states that: ". . . the peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. . ." The Hungarians were one of the "peoples" of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Historic Hungary – including Croatia – had, in 1910, an area of 325,000 sq. km. and a population of 21.800.000. An area of 232.500 sq. km. (71.4%) and a population of 13.280.000 (63.5%) were transferred to the succession states by the Trianon Treaty. Counting Hungary proper –without Croatia – the 1910 area of the country was 283.000 sq. km. with a total population of 18,300,000. The following detailed statistics refer to Hungary proper – without Croatia-.

Total losses by the Trianon Treaty:

Population: 10709.000 (58%) Left to Hungary after 1920:

Gains by the succession states:

The number of Magyars transferred to each succession state was about 1/3 of the population of each detached territory, i.e.: to Rumania 1,700,000;

to Czechoslovakia: 1,100,000;

to Yugoslavia 550,000.

Each detached area had also a large population of non-Magyar tongue who were alien to the nation to which the area was transferred (e.g. Germans) Thus the area annexed by Rumania had a Rumanian population of 55% only, the Czechoslovak area a Slovak population of 60%, the Yugoslav area a South-Slav population of about 33%.

For comparison, here are the data of the last Hungarian census before Trianon – the census of 1910.: These data refer to Hungary proper (without Croatia):

Other South Slavs: 150,000 (1.1%)

The proportion of foreign nationalities in the newly created succession states was very similar to the Hungarian situation in 1910. Thus the Trianon Treaty created three new states with similar minority problems.

Though the Wilsonian "Fourteen Points" guaranteed "self-determination" and "autonomous development" to "the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy", only one act of "self-determination" was allowed in connection with the Trianon Treaty: the western Hungarian town Sopron, claimed by Austria, was retained by Hungary after a plebiscite in 1921. No plebiscite and no "autonomous development" was granted to any Magyar-speaking region in the territories occupied by the victorious succession states, though large Magyar-speaking areas were contiguous to the Trianon frontier.

(E. Ady: "The White-Lady":)

(Transl. by C. W. Horne).

("Autumn came to Paris")

Gliding in silence down Rue Saint-Michel;

Here in the dog-days, soft beneath the leaves

She met and hail’d me well.

Deep in my heart burn’d little twigs of song:

Smoky and strange and sad and purple-hued;

I knew for death they yearned.

Rue Saint-Michel grew tremulous and grey;

The jesting leaves cried out along the street

And flutter’d in dismay.

One moment: then the Summer shone again,

And laughing Autumn left on tripping toe;

And I alone beneath these whispering leaves,

Beheld her come and go.

(Trans. by J.C.W. Home).

(Transl. by R. Bonnerjea. From: "Hungarian Poetry").

(Transl.. by J. C. W. Home)

(Transl. by R. Bonnerjea).

(From: "Detestable, lovable nation"):

(Transl. by R. Bonnerjea. From: "Hungarian Poetry").

Our weeping is more bitter,

More piercing torments try us.

Are Hungary’s Messiahs.

A thousandfold they perish,

(From: "Gog and Magog"):

Through Verecke’s immortal pass came I.

(Transl.. by R. Bonnerjea).

("In Elijah’s Chariot"):

(Transl. by R. Bonnerjea).

To clear my human path has marched before.

I hear His footsteps walking in my soul

And His sad query: "Adam, where art thou?"

My breath replies in throbbing past control,

I have already found Him in my heart,

I’ve found Him and have clasped Him in my arms,

ln death we’ll be united, ne’er to part.

(Transl. by W. Kirkconnell).

(Transl.. by E. F. Kunz. From: "Hungarian Poetry").

Just common hunger, common fever, faint

Confusion stammering, – and beyond that crew

In our own hearts, my dear, song’s word is rife.

Kiss me! For song is dead, and grieving life

Takes refuge where two hearts own single sway.

Once men were truly men; but now, a herd

Of tired beasts that chew the cud of care.

Be thou an island till the fens that gird

Thee round grow red with sunrise! Learn to con

Cocoons that breed bright moths! Who need despair?

The old gods pass and go, but man lives on.

(Transl.. by W. Kirkconnell. From: "Hungarian Poetry.").

I have forgot the fairness of her hair;

But this I know, that when the flaming grain

A cross the rippling fields makes summer fair,

Within its gold I feel her grace again.

I have forgot the blueness of her eyes;

But when Septembers lay their tired haze

In sweet farewell across the azure skies,

l dream once more the sapphire of her gaze.

I have forgot the softness of her voice;

But when the spring breathes out its softest sigh,

Then l can hear her speak the tender joys

That bless’d the springtime of a day gone by.

The yellowed fields are withering, trees of Ulloi-ut

and kilts the past spring’s root.

trees of Ulloi-ut

(Transl.. by Paul Desney).

(From: "Ars Poetica"):

Jesus, Jesus, God greet you, God greet you!

Three kings are we well and true.

Flaming star stood round our place,

so we came on foot in haste.

Lord Saviour, God bless you, God bless you!

Far and warm lands crossed we through.

All our bread and cheese is gone,

all our shining boots are worn,

but we brought you gold a lot,

incense in an iron pot.

Blushes, blushes Mary red, Mary red,

happy mother bends her head.

Through the tears, which fill her eyes

scarcely sees her Jesus Christ.

All around the shepherds sing. –

Time to feed the little thing.

Dearest three Kings, kind and true,

(Transl.. by L. Halapy. From: "Hungarian Short Stories").

"Krasznoje Ohm, February 1, 1943. The Roy. Hungarian IlIrd Army Corps, having been separated after the Uryv breakthrough (13 January) from the Roy. Hungarian 2nd Army, was p]aced under the orders of the German Group Siebert. In this position, the Corps has been protecing the withdrawal of the German 2nd Army for the last 12 During this time, the Hungarian soldiers had to suffer the of the Russian winter nights outdoors, without food, without cover in the open snowfields. . . Today I received order to lead you in an attack to break through the Russian lines. . . through the Russian army which even the well equipped and armed German troops were unable to stop. . I not pass this order to you, as it would be senseless to the half-starved, half-frozen Hungarians to go to their defeat by the thousands. . . After this I must allow everybody look after himself as well as possible. . . God be with Hungarian soldiers!"