Stamp Story No. 92 Ruled By Admiral With No Fleet

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29952, 13 October 1962, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 92 Ruled By Admiral With No Fleet

[By KEN ANTHONY!

UUNGARY is remembered today, mainly for the unsuccessful but gallant rising against the Russian-dominated Communist Government in 1956. This uninspiring little stamp recalls the fate of another Communist Government in Hungary—the shortlived regime which came to power after the First World War.

Unlike its modern successor, it lasted for no more than a few months, but while it survived it was responsible for the world’s first stamp portrait of Karl Marx. The stamp Illustrated here was issued on November 26. 1919—one of a set of five overprinted to mark the entry into Budapest of the National Army, which expelled the Oortun unists.

This army was led by Admiral Nicholas Horthy. whose naval rank dated from the days of the AustroHungarian Empire. Horthy became Regent, and for another 25 years Hungary was in the curious position of a monarchy without a king, ruled by an idmiral without a fleet.

Horthy was finally ousted by the Germans in October. 1944— tw0 years after his son, Stephen, who had been created Vice-Regent, died in an air crash on the Eastern Front. A particularly poignant stamp issued shortly after his death showed Stephen's widow in mourning dress After the war. Admiral Horthy lived in exile in Portugal until 1957. In December, 1959. Greece marked the third anniversary of the execution of Imre Nagy, the Hungarian Prime Minister who led the 1956 anti-Communist rebellion, by issuing two stamps showing hts portrait. These stamps, which were withdrawn after only a week, were apparently designed as retaliation for a Russian stamp portraying an imprisoned Greek Communist! It was a sad contrast to

the stamps of 1919 which remain today as reminders of Hungary’s earlier triumph over a Communist regime.— (Centra! Press Features. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)