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

previous evening, the entire territory of Western Hungary earmarked for
annexation was again under Hungarian administration.
A few days earlier, on September 9, PM Bethlen gave an account of his
inspection tour of Western Hungary to the Cabinet. He told of the general calm
in the Hungarian controlled zone ‘B’, while chaos reigned in zone ‘A’. The
rebels, who look upon their activities as a freedom fight, are joined by many of
the local population. The situation is aggravated by the Serbs concentrating
forces in the South, while the Czechoslovak authorities are expelling masses of
Hungarians out of the areas they have occupied. The ambassadors of the
Entente Powers have called on him, demanding that the Hungarian government
put an end to the actions of the volunteer rebel forces. In response, he made two
suggestions: the officers of the Entente Mission in Sopron, accompanied by
Hungarian officers, travel to zone ‘A’ and try to ‘convince’ the rebels to disarm.
The second: the Entente agree to have the Hungarian gendarmes move up to the
historical border line, when the Hungarian government can offer assurance of
the rebels disarming. The ambassadors rejected the second proposition because
they felt that, with the advance of the Hungarian gendarmes to the former
boundary, the Hungarian government would not evacuate Western Hungary. In
the end, the ambassadors accepted the prime minister’s first proposal.
The Cabinet then turned to a discussion of the response to be given to the
Entente’s September 6 memorandum. According to Bethlen, it must be stressed
that we will evacuate the affected Western Hungary area but, in the meantime –
and this is possible – we must gain time to restart negotiations with Austria. To
that end, we should try to hand the area in question to the Entente, administered
by the Hungarian government and our gendarmes would be stationed there. The
Cabinet then decided on the text of the responding memorandum. The gist:
stress the interests of both the region’s population, as well as of Austria and
Hungary that the evacuation can not endanger the peaceful population by
having “communist bands” devastate their lives. At the same time, the
Hungarian government restate that it is ready to hand over the territory,
however, citing the changed circumstances from the first plan, a new
evacuation plan should be created with the inclusion of the Hungarian and
Austrian governments. 373 The Hungarian government sent this reply
memorandum to the Entente Powers on September 11.
On the morning of the previous day, Maj. Gyula Ostenburg had the
casualties of the Ágfalva battle buried “with the greatest military pomp” in
Sopron. The three Hungarian casualties – Elemér Szechányi, Gyula Machatsek
and Ferenc Pehm – and the Austrian gendarme, Arnold Mosch, lay in state in
the courtyard of the ’48 Barracks. The assembled lined up, Ostenburg’s
gendarmes formed an honor guard, attended by the entire teaching staff of the
academy, with the students in uniform. At the request of the next of kin, the
body of Ferenc Pehm was taken to Szombathely after the ceremony to be
buried there. Antal Sigray was present in the funeral procession, as well as
373 MOL. K 27. Minisztertanácsi jegyzőkönyv, 1921. szeptember 9.
142