The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

sources that Gömbös and Lehár did not get along, hence their collaboration was
out of the question. Thus, resistance in Western Hungary took a totally different
route, not relying on Col. Lehár who, as noted, was active in other politicalmilitary
action plans in late April. Those, it seems, were completely discarded.
The Etelköz Association began to organize between May and June but we have
no known details of it. The reason for it is the documents of the Association
have not turned up and also that it was such a secretive organization that public
perception knew almost nothing of it. Thus, it was not by accident that, in the
summer of 1921, as noted earlier, the Sopron delegation led by Mihály Thurner
did not seek out the Association but went to Prónay to, at least, try to save the
city [Sopron] from Austrian occupation. Nor that, after the outbreak of Western
Hungary resistance, Gömbös, as president of the Magyar Országos Véderő
Egyesület /MOVE/ [Alliance of Hungarian National Defense Force] sent an
“urgent written message” to Prónay asking him to come to Budapest. In front of
his headquarter staff, he offered Prónay command of the southern forces of the
insurrection. 248
To return to the events of May: after the dust settled following the attempted
royal coup, Hungarian-Austrian dialogue resumed regarding the matter of
Western Hungary. Both parties continued to refer to the so-called Millerand
letter and its vague promises. At the May 25 session, led by Chancellor Mayr
who announced that, until the clarification of his new position, the dialogue is
suspended. After the fall of the Vienna government, a new chancellor assumed
the post on June 1 in the person of Johannes Schober, former chief of police of
Vienna, who later showed a willingness to continue the dialogue.
The following day, on June 2, the Hungarian government received the May
31 memorandum of the Council of Ambassadors, which advised the Hungarian
leadership that, in accordance with the terms of Part II, article 27 of the Trianon
Treaty – containing the detailed description of the new borders of Hungary –
Western Hungary is to be ceded to Austria. 249
The Pan-German agitation in Western Hungary, tied to the annexation to
Austria and propaganda of Anschluss, gained steam in June of 1921. The
movement was active in Moson County, where the area between Lake Fertő
and the Danube was publicized as the ‘Austrian-German’ bridgehead. Linked to
incarceration, he left for Vienna, where he took part in organizing the Anti-Bolshevik
Committee /ABC/. In April, he travelled to Szeged and served as the Secretary of State
for War in the first and second counter-revolutionary government (May 30-Aug. 12),
alongside Miklós Horthy and became part of his inner circle. He had a significant role
in the organization of the Hungarian National Army. With Count Bethlen, he was a
founder of the strong governing party, Egységes Párt (Unified Party); from 1920,
national, then parliamentary, representative, and eventually prime minister (1932-
1936). Died in Munich in 1936.
248 Prónay, 1986, op. cit., pp. 29–31.
249 MOL. K 26. 1388. csomó. 1922–„H” tétel, p. 49-52. See also, Gagyi, Jenő: Nyugat-
Magyarország átadása [The handing over of Western Hungary]. In: Új Magyar Szemle,
September 1921, vol. III, issue 3, pp. 280–283. old.
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