WHITE TERROR IN HUNGARY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 193, 11 May 1920, Page 7

WHITE TERROR IN HUNGARY

__4 ' A MURDEROUS CAMPAIGN DIRECTED AGAINST JEWS . An aiticlo oil tho White Terror in Hungaiy appeared in a recent issue of the "Manchester Guardian." It was written by oue of tho People's Commissaries in tho Bola Kim Government and describe!) the terroristic activities of tho present administration and of the share which falls to tho newly elected Regent of Hungary, Admiral Horthy. Incidentally, the trutlj about the Bed terror is established on the basis of documentary evidence prepared by the Whites. Sinco the events or the "Woody week," and perhaps ths fall of the Soviets in Finland, no people has undergono sufferings like those endured by the Hungarian proletariat ufter August, 1918 (says tho writer). And in'this cas9 "proletariat" does not mean only industrial workers, but all the classes and social groups who have ever opposed feudalism in Hungary. During the rule of the Soviets an army was organised by the Hungarian Admiral Horthy at Ezeged. The town was then occupied by the French.. They did not aid, but neither did they impede, the formation of that army, composed mainly of detachments of officers. Two "death battalions", were created at, the samo time, their members taking an oath to devote themselves to revenge. After the collapse oi' the Beds on iho Theiss that army wanted to march on Budapest together with tho Rumanians and the French, but it was not allowed to do so. Admiral Horthy thereupon took his troops across the Danube, and (having established his headquarters at Siofok, on the lake Balaton, befjan to "cloar" the country. In .Transdanubia most of the land was owned by great proprietors and various institutions. The province there, fore contained a numerous rural proletariat. During the Soviet regime these peasants, having taken possession of the .estates of fugitive bishops, barons, and rich farmers, transformed these properties into agricultural co-operative societies and established in each village Peasants' Councils, thus laying', with amazing swiftness tho foundations of a new system of proletarian administration. The army of Horthy set itself the task to destroy theso village Soviets and restore tho old system of property and authority. Incidentally they also used the opportunity to annihilate the Jewish, population. Their way of procedure was to send into the villages a patrol who arrested all the suspected individuals, and informed.the inhabitants that a unit of the National army would enter the village on the following day. Should it firid a Communist or a Jew alive, then the whole village was doomed to destruction* In that way came about in certain villages the 60-called "people's judgments," as a result of which, in addition to the Jews, several thousand peasants, teachers, etc., vrho had been members of the local Soviets were massacred in Transdanubia. The White Army's Campaign. What .happened at Siofok is described by one of the guards of the prison, Stephen Hayden,. a sergeant-major iu the National army, who fled, not being able to stand the spectacle any longer. His statements appeared in the paper "Pesti Elet." In the 'first days of August forty-seven persons nvere brought to Siofok from Vcszprem and Babtonfured. On the night of their arrival certain officers, followed by a number of gendarmes and several cabs, ontered the prison- and had the prisoners brought into the yard. The first to come out was a barrister from Vcbzprem. Dr. Edward Saghy, who had lost a leg at tho war. The officers pounced upon the crippled man, shouting, "Hero you are," you dirty Jew," and hit him with lashes provided with little lead balls till the man fell dead . on tho ground. Following this example, the gendarmes mt about the other prisoners. Those who dropped were thrown into a cab, which moved off at once, while the others were made to follow on foot. On the way a bank clerk from Siofok, Baldsay, begged his torturers that they should rather make an end of him. He was hanged on the first tree they met. In a small wood the \prcccssion halted, and. there at the break of dawn forty-one of the prisoners were bayoneted and V/ere buried in a oommon grave.. Sergeant-major Hayden offered to show the (spot. But no inquiry took place. Seven I hundred Communists wero confine! in the prison' at Papa. On September 26, 91 of them were taken to Devecser to appear, it was said, before a military tribunal. Twenty-four of these men were deliverod. without any inquhy whatsoever, to the .scldiery of Devecser. They were taken outside tho little town, tho soldiers soon afterwards returning with the empty chains. The Minister of the Interior was at once informed of the matter. But the heaa of the Police Section of tho Ministry replied that an inquiry could only take place upon presentation of a formal and written request to that effect. Similar- occurrences took plan? in other towns. At Kecskemet, for instance, about 100 Communists, Socialists, and Jews were cruelly murdered by a troop of soldiors. The Truth About the Red Terror. It can bo safely asserted that the leading spirits of theso punishing expeditions have alwara been officers of the White army; and that the criminals, though perfectly Veil known, were in no case punished. But let us look, in n more general way, at tho Red Terror, and then at what might bo called the legal White terror, as the Hungariar reactionaries view them. On tho occasion of the first trial oi the Red terrorists, at which sentence of death was passed upon fourteen oi them, the official prosecutor, basing his case upon authentic documentary material, presented a detailed description ol the Red terror. According to his state mentg the number of persons killed ii Hungary in the period of Soviet rule were 224. Of these, ten to fifteen wer< the innocent victims of subordinate offi cials, Red soldiers, etc. Twenty to 2! wero sentenced to death by the revolu tionary tribunals, some of them for coun ter-revolutionarj; activities, most of then for ordinary crimes, But tho bulk o: the persons who lost their lives wen armed countor-revolutionaries, who fel in open fighting and with arms in tliei: hands. The official prosecutor classifiei thorn as "murdered," and their soldier adversaries as "murderers," while tin revolutionary authorities who formall; ordered tho fighting, were branded a: "instigators to murder." In tho tota number of victims are included, for in 6tanoe, sjxty-two townsmen and peasant who fell near Dunapataj in a bnttlo in stigntcd by a band of about 3000 peafi ants, armed with v-annons, machine ' guns, and sfles, who first besieged am . occupied tho town of ICalesca. but! wer ! then Tepulsed and beaten by Sovie ti^ops. To mention anofther case. On Juno 2< • 1919, a group_of armed counter-revolt , tionaries (*"icceeded in occ.upviny the cer l tral telephonic exchange in Biulapesl I Soviet troons were sent ngainst them, an a Tegular battle ensued, with losses o both* sides. The nine White soldiei I who fell in this skirmish now appea . in the official statistics n "murdered" nnfl as an evidence of th s Red terror, I The Whito "Legal" Terror, 3 That is the principle adopted by tl 3 counter-revolutionary tribunals as tl r basis of their activities. In their eyi • tho proletarian Revolution was an ordii - ary crime, or rather a complex of o £ dinary crimes, and not a political actioi , As a consequence sorao 15,000 pcrsoi r have beon imprisoned, and a few ii stances of the way in which they ai • being dealt with will illustrate tho coi 0 ceptions held by tho new masters 1 Hungary. 1 Tho revolutionary tribunal had so t tencod to death a barrister of tho nan of Stengel, and a polico official, Ni K s lcnvi. for having attempted to cause t r armed revolt. Tho Judges who compo r oil that revolutionary tribunal have be< il hanged as guilty of instigation to mti d der. and tho soldiors who executed tl o sentence as guilty of murder. Durii ;- their trial ono of the oounsel for tl s defence proposed to read the rogulatioi concerning tbo organisation o{ tho roy

luticmary tribunal in order to establish whether' its Judges acted in conformity with the laws then ruling. But the President of the Court cut him'short with the TeraaTk that ho might as well offer to read at a trial for murder the oath by which the responsible brigands may have' tied themsolvea. to one another. , , _ The People's Commissary and Commander of Budapest, Hnnbrich, had.,ordered the proclamation of a state, of 6iege. He is in conseqnonco now being impeached for instigation to murder, '■ and will no doubt be sentenced to death. On June 21 counter-revolutionary monitors bombarded Budapest. Ono of their crew having been killed in the scrap the officer then in charge of a Eed monitor, Stephen Mere, is now being tried for ' murder. ! All the person? who have had a share ; in the nationalisation of some institution or enterprise, a&d whom it wag pos- ' sible to arrest, stand nov accused of ' rant. Such is the fate of Bela Eeinitz, ' a well-known composer, an artist of great ' merit, nnd an idealist. He had been ' appointed Commissary for the natiqnaliea- ; tion of theatres, and as such had the 1 funds of the theatres transferred to tho J Treasury. For that action he is now ' to be tried for plunder. And fince tho life and activities of the proletarian ' revolution .were carried on on the basis " of'decrees issued by tho Pooplo's Com- ' missnries, they are now with j murder, rapine, money forging, etc. and on these grounds their surrender is.de--1 manded ?rom the Austrian Republic * The Communists whom it was not posr siblo to catch even in this very wido s legal net have been confined as enemies 8 of the sooial order in tho internment camp at Hajmasker, cannblo of receiving 12,000 persons, where cold, hunger, disease, and the brutnliW of their guards will gradu--0 ally put tFcm to death. 0 , A sad fact about this terrible situation 3 is that tho Hungarian Social Democratic '' Party had a share in the misdeeds of ■'" the counter-revolution. Tho Allied • Powers insisted on their entering a 8 Coalition Government, which they did, '' without, first takng tho precaution 1,0 0 secure guarantees for the cessation of |f tho White Terror. Afterwards any suggestion on their part that they would ! leavo tho Government was mot with a the threat that, shouli iVy do so, the ~ terror would bo increased, and all the n prisoners massaorcd. Tho way in which j. tho recent i elections were corrupted by n torrori,em them at last to with' r- draw from the Government. But their e action andtheir protest havo not reg strained the fury of tho present rulers o of Hungary, nor docs it appear to have is in any way disturbed the amarinc equa. >- njmtfer of the Allied. Govonaaam