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

Law XLVII on November 6, 1921. 483 Thus, legally, the 400-year reign of the
House of Habsburg came to an end in Hungary. Against those active in the
attempted royal coup, the National Assembly began proceedings to strip their
parliamentary immunity or started court proceedings. The immunity
committee’s report of November 22, 1921 (Report #379 484 ) in the cases of
Count Gyula Andrássy, István Rakovszky, Count Antal Sigray and
representative Ödön Beniczky was heard by Parliament on December 16. The
submission proposed to the House that “having noted with concurrence the
government steps taken in this matter and granting the lifting of immunity for
the government’s action in regard to the same, the National Assembly ratify it”;
the four representatives’ “right to immunity was not impaired by their arrest,
and furthermore recommends to the National Assembly that the parliamentary
immunity of representatives Andrássy, Rakovszky, Sigray and Beniczky be
lifted in regard to this matter.” 485 Governor Horthy, however, had already
granted an amnesty to the participants of the royal coup attempt on November
3, and to the organizers on December 31, 1921.
While these events were unfolding, the Entente generals headquartered in
Sopron notified Austria on November 10, 1921 of the evacuation of the
territory and called on it to take control of Western Hungary. The occupation
intentionally proceeded slowly because the Austrian government did not really
believe the rebel pullback. The slow progress was also an attempt to draw
attention to their dissatisfaction with the Venice Protocol and that they did not
deem it as final. Austria primarily wanted to compel the withdrawal of
Hungarian troops from Sopron for the duration of the plebiscite. In the end, the
Austrian occupation of Western Hungary took three phases. The military units
of Austria took an unjustified, draw-out 23 days to take control of the western
area of Vas, Sopron and Moson counties awarded to them by the Trianon
Decree. The Entente Military Mission scheduled two days in August for its
accomplishment. The obvious reason for the Austrian behavior, the intentional
impediment to the terms of the Venice Protocol, to wit, the holding of the
plebiscite eight days after the occupation. Three units of the Bundesheer, each
with 100 gendarme administrators attached, occupied the area around Lake
Fertő on November 13 (Nezsider, Kismarton and Nagymarton). A similar sized
detachment marched into the central portion of the Borderland on November 25
(Felsőőr, Németújvár és Gyanafalva). 486 The population of the northern
483 In: IV. Károly visszatérési kísérletei. II. füzet. A trónfosztással kapcsolatos
külpolitikai anyag ismertetése 1921. október 22-től november 13-ig. Kiadja: Magyar
Kir. Minisztérium. Budapest, 1921. Budapesti Hírlap nyomdája, p. 32.
484 Nemzetgyűlés Irományai. XII. kötet. 1922, pp. 109–120.
485 Ibid, pp. 119–120. The immunity committee’s vote was a narrow 9:8. A minority
opinion was filed to report #379 by representative István Somogyi. In it, he
recommended that the four representatives “had their immunity infringed and the
National Assembly order their immediate release from arrest.” Ibid, p. 121. It was
rejected.
486 Jelentés a soproni népszavazásról és a magyar–osztrák határ megállapításáról
188