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

manifestation, any encouraging word from the National Assembly, while we,
from there in Western Hungary, saw with bitterness that here, the honored
Assembly calmly debated the asset crisis proposal and for weeks nobody had a
word to say on behalf of Western Hungary when a people, a quite large part of
Hungary, looked towards Budapest, crying and sobbing, wondering if it was
going to receive any help or not.” 274
The representative finally addressed the following three questions to the
Assembly: “Is the government willing to make public the information regarding
the negotiations in the matter of Western Hungary? Is the government willing,
in the case Austria insists upon the handing over of Western Hungary, to resort
to retaliation against Austria and break off diplomatic relations? Is the
government willing to keep parliament in session until the question is
resolved?” The president of the House passed the three questions to the Prime
Minister. Next, Foreign Minister Bánffy took the floor and in his answer
alluded to the meeting of the Foreign Committee and communicated
developments with regard to the issue. The gist was that the Austrian Foreign
Committee did not enter into direct talks with Hungary on the question after
August 13. At the end, Bánffy noted: “I am confined to be able to say that this
direction that the Western Hungary question has taken is extremely painful for
Hungary.” Albin Lingauer did not accept the essentially evasive answer of the
Foreign Minister but, with the majority vote of the governing party, the
National Assembly officially took note of it. 275
The third motion was raised by Gábor Benkő, representative of the Tiszalök
riding, who analyzed at length, linked to the approaching annexation of
Western Hungary, the centuries of Austrian wrongdoings against Hungarians.
Among them, that in 1848, it was the Austrian government that provoked the
minorities (Serbs, Romanians, Slovaks) against the Hungarian revolt, that in
1919, it gave refuge to Béla Kun and his associates. “There is the historical file
of József Diener-Dénes, in which Renner admits that they were ready to
proclaim Communism at any minute but that they wanted to try it out first with
us, to see if it does not turn out badly.” 276
In the following days, the streets of Sopron were crowded with wagons. We
again quote Ernő Träger: “Offices and schools were being moved. The Vice-
Constable’s offices were relocated to Kapuvár, the county orphanage bureau to
Csorna, with it the audit bureau and the pay office. The Sopron district reeve
was moved to Pinnye; the gendarmerie headquarters, the Royal Courts, the
county courts and finance bureau went to Győr. The Evangelical Theological
Academy of Sopron was relocated to Kőszeg, the Evangelical Academy to
Győr, and the Evangelical teacher’s college to Bonyhád. The Trade and
Manufacturing Chamber of Commerce was busy relocating its offices to
Szombathely. Even the police received their withdrawal order, which began the
274
Nemzetgyűlési Napló, XII. kötet. 1921. 625–626. old
275
Ibid, pp. 626–627.
276
Ibid, pp. 639–644. The quote on page 639.
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