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

191,000 (13.5%) Slavs would have become the ruling nationality. It would have
meant that the other 85%, 917,000 Hungarians (64.9%) and 305,000 Germans
(21.6%), would have come under Czechoslovak and South-Slav occupation and
into minority status.
The need bring to life the plan was vociferously repeated by Beneš and the
Czech-Slovak representatives at the Paris Peace Conference in January-
February of 1919. On February 5, the Czechoslovak delegates were invited to
state their claims before the Supreme Council. Beneš mentioned the Slav
corridor, among other territorial claims, but by this time he had somewhat
modified the memorandum with regard to the corridor. He claimed that,
according to his calculations, there were now 200,000 Slavs living in Moson,
Sopron, Vas and Zala counties, giving him a basis for claiming the northern
part of the corridor, Moson and Sopron counties, while the South-Slav kingdom
should have Vas and Zala counties.
Following the example of Beneš, Belgrade also put together a plan which
was even more grasping, not being satisfied with the previously detailed
territory but laying claim to a huge swath of southern Trans-Danubia for the
South Slav state. 99 This southern Hungarian territory area, a zone 5-20 km.
North of the demarcation line along the railway line from Barcs–Szigetvár–
Pécs–Bátaszék–Baja–Bácsalmás–Szeged, then from the Maros River to Arad,
Serbia intended to seize permanently. This vast swath was thoughtlessly and
myopically signed away by the Károlyi government as part of the Belgrade
Military Convention (truce treaty), with disastrous consequences. Between
November 7 and 19, the Serb army was able to secure it by simply marching
in. 100 According to the new Serb plan, areas to the West and South of the
Barcs–Nagykanizsa–Szentgotthárd line was to come under the control of the
South Slav country. North of it, anything West of the straight line linking
Nagykanizsa and Győr, was to go to Czechoslovakia.
As a matter of interest, the claimed corridor’s central and eastern thirds were
inhabited by a substantial majority of Hungarians. Croatians lived in dispersed
settlement in Moson, Sopron and Vas counties, but in the majority in Muraköz
(Međimurje), in southwest Zala County. The Vends/Slovenes lived in the
southeast corner of Vas County and in neighboring Zala County along the Mura
River. In the four counties intended for expropriation for the corridor, the only
sizeable cities were Sopron, Szombathely and Nagykanizsa (with populations
from 34,000 down to 27,000). Only in Sopron did the Germans-speakers have a
minimal 51% majority, while the other two had Hungarian majorities of 94%
and 95%. 101
99 Ormos, Mária: Civitas fidelissima. Népszavazás Sopronban 1921 [Most loyal city.
Plebiscite in Sopron 1921]. Győr, 1990, pp. 22–27; Romsics, Ignác: A trianoni
békeszerződés [The peace treaty of Trianon]. Budapest, 2001, pp. 45, 124.
100 Botlik, József – Csorba, Béla – Dudás, Károly: Eltévedt mezsgyekövek. Adalékok a
délvidéki magyarság történetéhez 1918–1993 [Lost boundary markers. Addenda to the
history of the Hungarians of the souther territory 1918-1993]. Budapest, 1994, p. 39.
101 Magyarország Közigazgatási Atlasza 1914 [Hungarian public administration atlas
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