AT THE "COURT" OF BELA KUN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 5

AT THE "COURT" OF BELA KUN

"COMRADE COUNTESS" AND HER MANSION

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The chief members of the Hungarian. Soviet Government hold receptions twice weekly—on Tuesday and Saturday—in tho former palace of tho Kings and Queens of Hungary, now the Ministerial buildings, writes Mr. J. C. Segrue-in the London "Daily News." " ' Few spectacles of their kind could bo more unique than the reoeptions held by llie Peoples' Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Bela Kun, the so-called Hungarian Lenin. The pink and white reception room at tho Foreign Office is. invariably crowded when, as the clock chimes twelve, Bela Kun, closely followed by his secretaries, comes out of his private cabinet, and, like a Roman senator, confronts his numerous clients. Men and women of all races and all classes eagerly strive to get the ear of Bela Kun. All 6orts of curious requests are made by the petitioners and duly noted for future reference by one of the secretaries.

A Complainant Countess. A countess, still wearing rich furs in spite of the mild weather, comes to complain that the Housing Commission in requisitioning the family mansion (in which as I learned later, she entertained last summer the ex-King Charles), have only allotted two rooms for the use of herself and lior family. I joined the crowd who had collected around the protesting countess. "I do not complain because sixteen families of the proletariat' have been quartered in my house, aad that there are daily quarrels in the common kitchen," she exclaimed, "but I. do maintain that the Government should, properly carry out it§ own regulations'. The law says every family has the right to three rooms. Why has the Housing Committee only left nie two " _"Make a note of this case," said Bola Kun to the accompanying secretary. "Comrade," he continued, turning to the countess, "this matter shall be investigated, and if the complaint is justified a remedy will bo found." "Thank you, comrade," ' replied the countess, and, having bowed her acknowledgments, 6he swept out of the"room. Housing grievances form the basis of most of the complaints. An elderly woman tells - the Minister that she is anxious to remove with her family into an apartment in Count palace, which she understands has just been requisitioned. "People who have lived all their lives in the slums should have first choice of palace apartments," sho explains. "Comrade," replies the People's Commissioner, "free choico of apartments would result in chaos. • You must' Wake your request in the usual way to the Housing Commission." The woman seems somewhat aggrieved fit the answer, but the People's Commissioner has passed on, and is listening to a bearded, cool-eyed • Russian.

To Convert Europe. This man, it seems, is eager to convert the Western world to Bolshevism," and has a plan worked out to the smallest details. Bela Kun listens with a bored air to the man's outburst of passionate oratory. "You must take your proposals to the Propaganda Office," he .says to the eager missionary. Bela Kun, like almost everyone else in Hungary,. began life .public career as a journalist. At the beginning of tho war he served on the Russian front, was taken prisoner and interned at Tomsk, where ho met various Russian comrades of earlier days. Even before the Empiro collapsed Kun took an active part in the Bolshevik agitation, and organised a private printing press for tho publication of propaganda literature. He removed later to Petrograd, where he edited a revolutionary newspaper, copies> of which were distributed in large numbers among Russian and Hungarian . troops. Hn carried on an extremely active Bolshevik campaign among the Hungarian soldiers interned in Russia, a propaganda which facilitated the recer.: establishment of the Soviet regime in Hungary. After tho peace of Brest-Litovsk Kun joined the international Red Army, It seems that Lenin regards Bela' Kun as the apostle who is likely to propagate Bolshevism over Western Europe. Kun, on his part, displays a fanatical devotion io Lenin, and wireless conversations between Moscow and Budapest, in which the two men exchange points of view, hike place almost daily.

The oak at Great Yeldham, Essex, which is said to be "the old ont." referred to in Womesdny Book, and is thought to be over a thousand years old, is falling to pieces. Only Ihe shell remains, and the two remaining branches are held together with iron bands and rods. Attempts are being made to preserve it. The First Commissioner of Works-(Bri-tain) has just issued a report on the.'cultivntion of cortnin areas in tho,...Royal Parks during 1!!1S. Tho profits in the aggregate amount to .£I7G9. from which has to be deducted .£l3O loss on Richmond Park, thus leaving a net profit of \f 1^.13,

Daring the war the birthrate in. Germany decreased 4,093,000, and 2,555,000 In Prussia.