"NOBLE FORGERS"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 107, 6 May 1926, Page 3

"NOBLE FORGERS"

POSITION OF HUNGARY

AN UPROAR IN EUROPE

STORY OF A "PATRIOTIC" CRIME.

To favour the under-dog ia rather a British characteristic, quite apart from the actual merits of the case; and even when it has been ascertained that any particular specimen is not specially meritorious, there is apt still to be felt for it a certain sympathy, writes Bobert Machray in "Overseas." What is called on the Continent "The Affair of the Noble Forgers," is a striking instance of this kind of thing, a very considerable proportion of our newspapers and commentators on foreign affairs having taken a line that is scarcely consonant with the facts. • They do not, of course, justify the crime, but they find a. considerable number of ex,tenuating circumstances in the position of Hungary vis-a-vis the Little Entente. It was about the middle of- December last that a sensational development first attracted general attention to the affair. This was the arrest in Amsterdam of three Hungarian noblemen charged with passing forged thousandfranc notes of th,e' Bank of . France. They belonged to the highest society of Budapest, and it certainly was very remarkable that people of such standing should be involved in any way in such a crime; it was possible, but hardly seemed probable. Surely there was some explanation, some excuse at leastf It was forthcoming. Colonel Jankovies, one of the throe, made the plea to the Butch police that the bank notes had been forged, and put into circulation from "patriotic" motives, a statement that threw into an uproar almost at once the whole of Central Europe. , That it was no small hole-and-corner business was in fact soon apparent. To start with, there were found in the possession of the three noblemen who had been arrested, no fewer than 10,000 forged thousand-franc French notes, a fact which immediately interested the French police, who forthwith.began, an investigation. Among other things, they discovered clues indicating that the forgeries had been executed at the Hungarian State Geographical Institute, which alone, besides the Hungarian State printing works, had a printing press capable of manufacturing Buch notes. Next there followed some still more sensational arrests. These included Prince Windischgraetz, an intimate of the late Emperor Charles, and M. Nadossy, the Chief of the Hungarian Police, not'only in Budapest, but throughout all Hungary, his position approximating to that of a Minister. In all, more than 20 persons and personages have been imprisoned, in connection with the affair, and await their trial at this time of writing. A FAST EPISODE. At this point it will' be well to "go back a little—to 1921, when another' forged bank-note case created great excitement. In this instance the forgeries were of Czecho-Slovak 500-crown notes produced by a gang of Hungar.ians who. had their quarters in Vienna, and who, it was found out, had manufactured such notes to the value of 100 million crowns, On attempting to put some of these into circulation, one of the gang was caught, and after a short time the Viennese police laid the rest by the heels. It was proved that the notes were, and were to be, used in political work in. Slovakia, against |he Czechs —what Colonel Jankovics would no doubt assert was "patriotic" work. When the gang was being tried the Hungarian Legation intervened, and the forgers wore handed oyer to the Hungarian Government, the final result being their release. All this did not tend to promote good relations between the Czechs and the Magyars. The truth in that these forged Ciecho-Slovak notes were forerunners of the forged French notes, their origin and purpose being essentially the same. It is necessary to glance briefly at the situation as between Hungary and the Little Entente. The latter consists of Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, and virtually they surround Hungary. The boundaries in common of these States were settled by the Treaty of Trianon and the great object of the Little Entente is to sec that the existing frontiers, as relimited under that Treaty, remain unchanged. That Treaty may be a good, a bad, or an indifferent treaty, but there it is; 'and in present circumstances, as well as for a long time to come, it is impossible to expect any real alteration in the position—which," however, most Hungarians in their hearts, and many of them with their lips, do not accept. They point to the Magyar Minorities in Slovakia, in Transylvania,: and in Croatia, and talk of Hungaria liridenta, just as the Italians used to talk of Italia Irridcnta, though with much better reason. Further, Hungary is in the anomalous condition of being a kingdom' without a king; it is ruled by a Begent, a term which in itself suggests a sovereign. There are two claimants to the vacant throne—Prince Otto, the son of the late Emperor Charles, and the Archduke Albroehf. It. is generally supposed that the Legitimists, who support Otto, had nothing to do with the forgeries, but there is less certainty regarding the non-participation of Albrecht's partisans. Albrecht repudiates any connection with Prince Windischgraetz, but he has undoubtedly been mixed up with the. Magyar irredentist organisations, such as the "Protection of the Bace" movement and the "Awakening Magyars." It is these and similar political associations of societies, whether identified with the claimants to the crown or not, that continually stir up strife among their fellow countrymen, and those of their race in other countries, against the Little Entente. REACTIONARY ARISTOCRATS. This is not a new thing, for it has been going on ever since Hungary emerged from the period, first, of Bela Kun and the Beds, and then of the occupation by the Rumanian Army;' indeed, to some extent it went on during that very period. Hungary is dominated by a caste of high-placed Magyar aristocrats who, while they know very well how to make themselves agreeable to the outside world by a judicious mixture of bonhomie and good manners, have always been thorough reactionaries in their own country, and their rule was, and is, most oppressive and even tyrannical. Their motto respecting the Treaty of Trianon is found in a phrase which means "Never, Never," the name of one of their intransigent organisations. Almost from the very start they instituted a subversive propaganda against the provisions of that Treaty. Necessarily then- propaganda was largely subterranean in Czccho-Slova.-Ida, Rumania, and Yugoslavia, but part of their energies found expression in the fomenting of "border incidents," which were clever.lv designed to keep alive the idea in the parts of these States that had formerly been under their sway that the fixation of the frontiers was not to be regarded as permanent, but, on the contrary, would soon be set aside. They took quick and eager

advantage of any opportunity "that of-. fered of throwing dust into the political machinery of the States that were concerned. ..-.'.. •• Thus it was while the Czechs were trying hard to stabilise their currency, and finding it none too easy, that the forged Czecho-Slovak-500-crown notes were put into circulation, the aim of the Magyars being to toake that operation impossible; but in this they did not succeed, for that particular plot was laid bare far too soon, for them. Of course there was a financial as well as a political side to the forgeries of the Czech notes; propaganda ■ costs money, and it had been intended that the forged notes should supply the necessary funds. . • ' . Then, as now, the apologists of Hungary urged that the forgeries were to be placed in the category of "common crime," and had nothing to do" with. politics, but the evidence against this plea was much too strong. Yet th« Hungarian Government of that day simply burked inquiry. Even the criminal charge was allowed to drop, the prisoners were set free; and the matter appeared to be closed. But it was not forgotten by the Czechs, who' had 3d million crowns of these forged notes left on, their hands. Now that Count Bethlen, the Hungarian Premier,' is alleging that the present case is criminal, not political iv its nature, the Czechs, not unnaturally, have reminded. ' the world of the earlier forgeries, and the curious way in which they were covered up. Still, it is noteworthy that the Czecho-Slovak Government has done nothing at all about the Noble Forgers; it is leaving the probing of the affair entirely in the hands of the French Government, as the forged note* purported to be issued by the Bank of Franco. That Government is demanding that its own police shall.take the fullest possible share in the investigation which the Hungarian Government is instituting. It should be said, on the other hand, that the Czecho-Slovak Press, boiling over with indignation at the outset of this second affair, and deeply resentful respecting the first affair, went rather too far in. their strictures of leading Hungarians—too far, at any-rate, for the British sense of, fair play and evenhanded justice. This has given some colour to the statement that' the uzeehs are full of the bitterest hate of tho Magyars, the truth being much the other way about, as any one acquainted with the ordinary tone of their respective newspapers is well aware. ■ The outburst of the Czech Press over the Noble Forgers has produced in this country a certain reaction, which is really more friendly to the Magyars, as against the Czecho-Slovaks, than it ought to be. The Czechs are suffering from trop de zelc—a great mistake in tactics. It is to be hoped, in the best interests of Hungary, that 'the, investigation will bring all the facts of the ease s to light, for that is the only way in which suspicions will be allayed and the prospect of genuinely : better relations in Central Europe be enhanced.