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

On September 12, the prime minister again instructs Count Sigray and
Lt.Gen. Hegedűs that he has received a short note from the Parisian Council of
Ambassadors, through chargé d’affaires Iván Praznovszky, which “again
places all responsibility on the Hungarian government.” Moreover, it called
upon him to evacuate Western Hungary because “otherwise, it would be forced
to take forcible measures.” Bethlen also informed that he called together the
Budapest ambassadors of the Entente and explained to them that the Hungarian
government received this most recent Paris note without them being aware of
the contents of the previous Hungarian response memorandum. That is to say,
in that we did not refuse the evacuation of zone ‘A’. The ambassadors were
willing to accept that Hungarian public administration return to zone ‘A’, after
Hungarian forces have restored order, but only if the battalions of Ostenburg
and Ranzenberger have had no part in the restoration of order. This means that
the two units must be withdrawn from the area awarded to Austria. The PM
then instructed Count Sigray and Lt.Gen. Hegedűs to make the necessary
preparations in this regard. Finally, he asked Sigray, appealing to his
‘patriotism,’ to continue in his post, within the new area of responsibility. 380 In
the evening, Maj. Ostenburg also reported by telegram to the prime minister.
Among other things, he informed that “all day we have been receiving urgent
requests for gendarme squads from the evacuated villages, such as
Nagyhőflány, Lajtaszentgyörgy, Szárazvám, Kishőflány, Felsőkismartonhegy
and Kismartonváralja, as well as Királyhida and Parndorfból [Pándorfalu] (…)
[because] Communists bands are entering and threatening the population with
looting and robbery, who are without any form of protection under the current
order to withdraw.” 381
After the complete reoccupation of zone ‘A’, the creation of an integrated
command over the rebel forces became more urgent. Citing ‘higher orders,’
Gyula Gömbös had made several attempts at taking over command of all the
volunteer free-forces but was rebuffed by them, holding Hussar Lt.Col. Baron
Pál Prónay as suitable. The reason was that it was he who organized the armed
resistance in the central and southern areas of the western Hungarian territory
earmarked for annexation, and it was there that his rebel forces were active. The
situation was rectified by having Prónay officially released from the Hungarian
National Army on August 28, “at his own request,” for his already mentioned
actions. 382 In the evening of September 6, Prónay arrived by train in Sopron
from Budapest as a retired, non-serving lieutenant-colonel, meaning that he was
independent of the government. There he held talks with Count Sigray and Maj.
Ostenburg, where they agreed that Maj. Ostenburg would be in command of the
rebels in the Nagymarton-Kismarton sector, while Prónay would command the
free-troops in the rest of the territory. 383
380 Ibid, pp. 470–471.
381 Ibid, p. 468.
382 Honvédelem, year III, issue 36, 1921, September 4.
383 Prónay, 1986, op. cit., pp. 31–32.
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