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

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favorable trade agreement in return. Renner quickly replied to the Hungarian<br />

note in the negative. He replied that he does not consent to a plebiscite because<br />

the Treaty <strong>of</strong> Saint-Germain, signed on September 10, 1919, considered it as<br />

res judicata, i.e. a closed matter and a final decision. <strong>The</strong> territory in question,<br />

in his view, is legally an integral part <strong>of</strong> Austria, notwithstanding that it is still<br />

under Hungarian control. Subsequently, the Austrian delegates arrived in<br />

Sopron on March 4, 1920 where Hungarians demonstrated against them in front<br />

<strong>of</strong> the railway station and pelted them with rotten eggs. <strong>The</strong> Entente Mission in<br />

Budapest reported to the Council <strong>of</strong> Ambassadors in Paris that the population <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Western</strong> <strong>Hungary</strong> is opposed to the annexation and demands a plebiscite<br />

regarding it. 188 Later, at the request <strong>of</strong> Count Albert Apponyi, the head <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Hungarian peace delegation, the Budapest government was able to name two<br />

delegates alongside the Austrians, in the persons <strong>of</strong> Baron Frigyes Villani,<br />

Foreign Ministry counsel and the mayor <strong>of</strong> Sopron, Mihály Thurner. 189<br />

Meantime, Albert Apponyi handed his comments on the peace terms to Paris<br />

on February 12, 1920, in which he suggested amendments to section II, article<br />

27, and asked for plebiscites in every territory marked for annexation. 190 On the<br />

same day, he filed his response memorandum regarding the new borders <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Hungary</strong>, in which he briefly summarized the Hungarian counter-arguments <strong>of</strong><br />

the new Austria-<strong>Hungary</strong> border. In it, he pointed out that the Hungarian peace<br />

delegation has earlier handed over a separate, detailed memorandum on the<br />

topic. He again drew attention to the following: “<strong>The</strong> Austrians themselves<br />

have not demanded the annexation <strong>of</strong> this territory without a plebiscite, the<br />

population also wishes a plebiscite in which it wishes to verify that it wants to<br />

stay with <strong>Hungary</strong> <strong>of</strong> its own volition. <strong>The</strong> Supreme Peace Conference, if it<br />

wishes to retain the belief <strong>of</strong> the world which it set for itself, and remains true<br />

to those principles, cannot act without arranging a plebiscite for this territory,<br />

too.” 191 All the more so because the territory <strong>of</strong> western <strong>Hungary</strong> marked for<br />

separation from <strong>Hungary</strong> cannot have only the ethnographic principle taken<br />

into consideration, which would seem to give German Austria the benefit <strong>of</strong><br />

legitimacy – repeated Apponyi in the appendix to his memorandum on the new<br />

borders, the geographic units <strong>of</strong> <strong>Hungary</strong>. “<strong>The</strong> people’s feelings must also be<br />

consulted, not only language. <strong>The</strong> German-speaking people along the western<br />

border do not consider themselves as Austrians in the same manner that the<br />

Swiss Germans do not consider themselves as belonging to Germany. Kindly<br />

ask them, the Germans <strong>of</strong> western <strong>Hungary</strong>. <strong>The</strong>re already have been several<br />

manifestations <strong>of</strong> their feelings.” 192<br />

<strong>The</strong> planned new Austrian-Hungarian border did not take into any<br />

188<br />

Fogarassy, 1971, op. cit., p. 298.<br />

189<br />

MOL. K 26. 1240. csomó. 1920–XLII–1945. szám, 6. old.<br />

190<br />

XXII. jegyzék. Magyarország határairól [Of <strong>Hungary</strong>’s borders]. In: A magyar<br />

béketárgyalások. Vol. II, <strong>1921</strong>, p. 26.<br />

191<br />

Ibid, p. 24.<br />

192<br />

XXII. jegyzék. 1. melléklet. Magyarország földrajzi egysége. Ibid, p. 61. (Bolding<br />

mine–J.B.)<br />

82

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