HUNGARIAN RULE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25085, 26 December 1944, Page 5

HUNGARIAN RULE

LIBEBATED TEEBITOEY PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT DEMOCRATIC PROMISES (Reed. 8.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 25 An Hungarian provisional Cov-i eminent was formed in. Debreczen,' in liberated Hungary, on Saturday, says tiie Moscow radio. It has called on Hungarians to break with Hitler and join the United Nations. An appeal which the provisional Government issued said: — "We do not want to see the labours of a whole generation in Hungary frustrated through a criminal war.. We must not stand inactive while the Red Army alone , is liberating our country from the German yoke. Hungary has no Parliament and no leader. Szalasi and his henchmen are usurpers whom the Germans foisted on us. War of Liberation Against Germany "The National Assembly therefore proclaims a war of liberation against the Germans and calls on Hungarians to rally. We want; a democratic Hungary. We guarantee the inviolability of private property. A new chapter is opening in Hungarian history." The Moscow radio says the Hungarian provisional Government in a statement of policy asserts that the Government consists of representatives of military circles, democratic parties and also nonparty public men and scholars. After stating that Hungary, as the sole remaining satellite of Hitler, is detested throughout the world, the proclamation says that the patriots who form the Government aro forthwith severing the aliiaticfl with Germany apd endeavouring to establish an armistice and good relations with Russia and the other United Nations. Compensation for War Damage The Government promises to make compensation lor the war damage inflicted by Hungarians and considers that its "most important task will be the mobilisation of all Hungarian resources against the Germans, thus partly redeeming Hungary's guilt. The proclamation adds that the democratisation of Hungary is the essential condition for the liberation of the Hungarian p.ople. . "The Government renounces all antinational laws, including the barbaric anti-Jewish decrees, guarantees democratic rights, freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly and of religion, also universal secret suffrage. The Government will disband the Arrow Cross organisation, purge the Administration and bring traitors to book. Agrarian Reform Promised

Agrarian reform will be introduced, under which thousands of landless peasants will become owners of the land to be confiscated from traitors. Private enterprise, which the new Government savs it regards as the basis of Hungary's economy, will be encouraged. It finally promises to introduce a, progressive taxation., system, ensuring a just incidence of taxes. The proclamation specially appeals to Hungarian troops to join in the destruction "of the German Armv. Tracing the origin of the Hungarian provisional National Assembly, the Moscow radio savs that between December 13 and 20. under democratic methods, the inhabitants of the towns and village* of liberated Hungary elected 230 delegates to the Assembly under the presidency of Bela-Szehni. a professor at the Miskolcz Legal Academy. , „ The British United Press, correspondent in Moscow says that LieutenantGeneral Bela Miklosz. the Prime Minis ter of the new Government, commanded the Hungarian First Army and was the first Hungarian general to go over t<j the Russians. , ... .