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

international news media and focused attention on the unresolved western
Hungarian situation. Naturally, the Hungarian government took immediate
steps to shed light on the events. Prime Minister Bethlen instructed Sigray by
telegram on September 6 to ask the Entente generals in Sopron to: please send
immediately an Entente officer to the scene, accompanied by one or two
Hungarian officers. “The Kirchschlag event was blown up by the Austrians,
trumpeted to the world that, from the Hungarian side, a regular [army] unit of
2,000 men took part, it is in our great interest to have the Entente commission
carry out a determination on-site. (…) I ask to have it definitely pointed out
that, after the population looked on the Austrians as unwelcome foreigners,
they defend themselves, meaning they side with Hungary and attack the
Austrians. The Austrians are doing everything to give the world the impression
of the event, as if it was not the population, as if it was not people from the
population who organized the defense, as it happened, but that the Hungarian
army and the Hungarian government are directing the armed resistance. Thus,
as a result, we demand that the impartial commission of the Entente determine
and investigate these events. I also ask you to draw their attention to the fact
that, along the entire line from the Danube down to the Mura, we do not have
2,000 gendarmes, never mind that so many men would be available in the
evacuated area. Even the rebels, according to the officers themselves in Felsőőr,
cannot field more than 400 – 500.” 356
Italian General Carlo Ferrario of the Entente Mission in Sopron immediately
left for Kirchschlag by car to assess the events, where he forbade the Austrian
forces to cross the border. In fact, he ordered them to break off hostilities and
pull back. He also did not agree to let the Austrian Republic’s forces, the
Bundesheer, occupy the militarily important high grounds in Western Hungary.
Then, he turned to exploring the reasons for the clash. He determined that the
firefight was carried out, on one side, by rebels in civilian clothes, numbering
perhaps a few hundred, reports of 2,000 men are an Austrian exaggeration –
reported Sigray to PM Bethlen in his 19:45 telegram. The previous facts he got
from Gen. Ferrario, who authorized him to share them with Bethlen. After the
assessment, on his way back to Sopron, Gen. Ferrario stopped in Hungarianpopulated
Felsőpulya (Oberpullendorf), where the Austrian gendarmes were in
the process of withdrawing. They had received word that rebels were
approaching from the North. The Italian general gave orders to the Austrian
commander, a major, not to get into a pitched battle, but rather to avoid
confrontations. 357 Subsequently, the Austrian gendarmes voluntarily gave up
the villages of Felsőpulya, Csáva (Stoob) and Lakompak (Lackenbach), as well
as the surrounding area.
Count Sigray’s relationship with the Entente Mission, due to his previously
mentioned negative behavior, also needed to be clarified. Also noted before that
his deputy, Baron Villani, signed the previous day’s report as ‘foreign
356 Ibid, pp. 377–378.
357 Ibid, p. 381.
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