TERROR IN HUNGARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 7

TERROR IN HUNGARY

MILITARY SECRET MAFIA. —; / The author of the following article, which appears in the New York Tribune, is Emery Dery, the American correspondent of Az Ebt, tho largest daily newspaper in Budapest. Since last Easter, when Charles the Sudden attempted his first coup d’etat, Budapest, his formdf’ capital, was expecting the second rehearsal of tho tragiy-comody. Behind closed doors tho possibilities of Hapslyurg restoration, the balance of power between the contending factions, were discussed. The forces that have determined tho course of events in Hungary for tho lost two years worked in the dark. In foreign capitals very littlo is known about them. The press censorship at Budapest is ruthless. Letters are opened, telephone conversations listened in upon, and! tho city is flooded by a host of spies, stool pigeons, and agents provocateurs, lis very seldom that reliable inside accounts find their way abroad. Beyond the frontiers of the' country only those events are noted that transpire publicly on. the surface. But Charles’s coup and Horthy’s betrayal of his victory over tho supporters of the ex-King are the results of forces that do not work on the surface. Hungary to-day is in tho grip of a military secret mafia, that operates with all .the bloody and terrible devices of the Dark Ages, and in tho hands of which tho visible widders of power are mere pitiful puppets. MURDER TAKES ITS PLACE AS A FIELD SPORT. The official name for this mafia, or rather its branches, ’is "detachments.” When Bolshevism collapsed and Admiral Horthy, the first menu.ted admiral in history, rodo into Budapest in the saddle of his white charger, a few determined! military adventurers, former officers in the Hapsburg army, organised these 60 -cal led detachments with the avowed purpose of persecuting Communifits. Tho personnel of these detachment© was chiefly recruited from among former officers and non-commissioned officers. In the Balkans before the war they would have been called “bands.” ' One of these detachments was headed by a high-bom but not wealthy aristocrat, wlw regarded - murder as a fine art or a field sport. Hia chief pleasure was to bang men with his own hands. Another detachment, commanded by a former cavalry officer, discharged, from service because of various m regularities, included a number of thieves, burglars, murderers, and other notorious criminals with police records of long, standing. Another detachment was organised m a large provincial town, Kecskemet. Th-s detachment specialised in exterminating Jewish wine merchants. It must net be thought for a 1 moment that these dstacnmenta restricted their activities to the P ersecuion of Communists, whose supply soon gave out. They concentrated, their efforts on the Jews. GOVERNMENT HELPLESS. , Tho real purpose and economic jnstifi<»tion of these detachments was to provide jobless officers with means of livelihood. Those officers, who never learned any useful trade or profession, found now blackmail, torture, and murder easier than honest work. At the time when tho Hungarian Govern- ■ ment struggled with a deficit running into billions and the population of the capital was on the verge of starvation, when the exchange of the Hungarian kronen was rapidly sinking to zero, the gasoline and tyre expenses alone of these detachments amounted to i 5,000,000 kronen—not a year, but a month. The country groans powerless and desperate under the heels of these military bandits. In Pall lament ’there was only one Deputy who had the courage to denounce' the terror, Mr Ruppert. Afterward he was attacked and beaten up on the street and for months hia .life was in jeopardy. Regent Horthy oould net have checked the, terrorism of tho officers oven if' he had desired - to do so, for which there is no evidence. Hia power was, entirely baaed on the support of those military gangs, and hod ho raised his voice against them they would have made short shrift of him, FARCICAL “ARREST.” . A few months ago a certain change became apparent in tho situation. Opposition in Parliament became more aggressive and the newspapers began to print articles and. reports on the Hungarian terror. Count Albert Apponyi was told in Paris and Geneva that there is no way of helping ■ Hungary and consolidating Hungarian finances as long as domestic conditions -do not improve. l Something had to bo done with the detachments, or at least appearance of something being done had to be created. It was a farce. The officers of one detachment were sent to tho Hotel Britannia to “arrest” the officers of the other.gang. A good time was had by all. THE LESSER OP TWO EVILS. Then came the scandal centring areurid the death of Adolph Landau. This .could not be kept secret any longer. A notoriously bad character, one Dobs, owed some money to Mr Landau, a Jewish millionaire, and respected member of the community. Do bo refused to pay, and when Landau threatened with action in court, Dob© mobilised his friend, Colonel Pronay, who had the millionaire abrested under the pretext that he had committed high treason. Thereupon the officers extorted millions of kronen from the family by way of insuring good treatment of the prisoner. The family retained a prominent lawyer and member of Parliament, who denounced the case in open session. An older to ’ free Landau was issued by the Minister of Defence, bpt by the time this order was delivered at the barracks of tho Pronay detachment Landau was murdered. Soon afterwords the body of a prominent Budapest business man, president ,of • one of the greatest furniture manufacturing concerns, was found in a bathing resort near Budapest. Tho police soon found that tho man hod been assassinated by officers of tho so-cailcd “T" detachment, with headquarters at tho Hotel Budapest. Tho murderers, however, were not prosecuted; some mysterious power protected Item. The people of Budapest wore maddened with rage and despair, but nothing could be done. It is duo partly to tho reign of terror of these detachments that the movement in favour of ex-King Charles began to gain ground. Not that tho Hungarian public was ovc r-c nt! iuai as tic for Die ex-monarch, whoso weakness of character arid lack of statesmanlike ability were generally recognised, but people were driven by despair into tho belief that under the Hapsburg ruler the reign of terror would cease, and law and order would bo restored. The agitation in behalf of Charles had to bo conducted! mostly under cover, for the proHortliy terrorists would have made a quickfinish with those who dared to raise their voices in tho open. Dig business secretly favoured Charles, but this feeling was not whole-hearted, for the captains of commerce and finance realised that Hapsburg restoration-, though it would probably have brought internal consolidation, might have resulted in war with the Littlo Entente. NO CHANCE FOR PEACE WHILE TERRORISTS CONTROL Thus the contest between Horthyiste and Legitimists may bo viewed as a struggle for survival by the blackmailing, extorting, and murdering officers’ gangs, and, although Hapsburg restoration would certainly have been a calamity lot Hungary, it cannot be denied that- the frustration of Charles's coup greatly strengthened the power and prestige of the terror detachments. Tli truth about what the Hungarian newspapers call the “king question” is that the Matryvw people, although its majority is probably monarchist in sentiment, is not so much interested in the person of its next ruler as in tho speediest possible termination of the officers’ terror. Tho interests of tho Magyar people demand that tho army of terrorists should bo demobilised! and disarmed as quickly oa possible. This demobilisation should have taken place a, year ago under the Treaty of Trianon, but for some strange reason or other the Allies failed to enforce it. As long as the military terrorists are at large work of peaceful reconstruction in Hungary has no chance to begin.