Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/117
Mr. C. M. Storey to Professor A. C. Coolidge82
Subject: Political parties of the present day in Hungary.
Before attempting to catalogue, describe and estimate the political parties in Hungary today it is well to begin with a few introductory remarks.
In the first place I am told on every hand that the Parliament lately dissolved, had through longevity long ceased to be representative of the political complexion of the Hungarian Kingdom. For instance the leading party was held together by the personality of the late Count Tisza. After his resignation as Prime-Minister the party fell apart and Wekerle who was the Prime-Minister up to a few days before the Revolution was compelled to maintain a majority by a coalition difficult to bring under control.
Therefore when peace and the Revolution came coupled with the dissolution of Parliament the old parties instantly crumbled and disappeared.
There were left only two, the party of Karolyi, called the Independent Party or more accurately the Party for Hungarian Independence, which had perhaps 40 members in Parliament, and the Social-Democratic party, which had no representation at all. This latter party was made up of the different Trade-Unions and though small was compact and vigorous.
In the new Cabinet of Karolyi were one or two really independent persons, and one or two of the radical party, but the great majority were drawn from the Independent party and the Social-Democratic party. Karolyi himself said to me, that any Cabinet which attempted to carry on the Government without the aid of the Social-Democrats today in Hungary would be foredoomed to failure. He is to my mind quite correct.
In the two months between the Revolution and the beginning of the year the Trade Unions all went in for expansion to a tremendous degree, some of them adding at least 50% to their membership. As membership in a Trades Union carries with it automatically membership in the social-democratic party, the growth of this party was very rapid. Furthermore it was a time of groping and of apathy, and while the Social-Democratic party was organizing, the other parties were stationary and the great majority of the people unaffiliated.
Recently, however, there has been a decided shift in the political complexion. Owing to the growth of the social-democratic party [Page 390] Karolyi felt that he had to give them greater representation in his Cabinet, so at the expense of the Independents a reorganization was put through about January 20th and Jaszy, a Radical, and Count Festetics, an Independent, were displaced in favor of Social-Democrats. Not long after, and probably induced by this act, the Independent party under the leadership of one of Karolyi’s lieutenants, one Lovaszy, broke with the Government and with the exception of a small minority who were office holders and preferred to stay in the Cabinet, went frankly into opposition.
It is possible to assign many causes for this defection, but I think that the real basis was an ill-defined feeling—though strong throughout the party—that the Government was getting entirely too far to the left and was becoming dangerous. On the other hand it might not be wrong to ascribe the clash to the personal ambition of Lovaszy. If one comes to study the platform of Lovaszy and compare it with that of the Cabinet, I think that differences of purpose would be difficult to find, and that the main distinction would be only differences in degree of radicalism and in methods for carrying out common purposes. At about the time of the Cabinet-reorganization other parties to the right of the Government began to make head. The Christian Socialists re-appeared somewhat divided amongst themselves, being a Catholic and Protestant party, somewhat monarchistic in instinct, opposed to all land reform except in the abstract, quite conservative in everything else. Though not altered in personnel this party is considerably liberalized and chastened by misfortune and the course things have taken.
Allied to it is the party of the small farmers led by some of the large landowners, and bitterly opposed to the land-reform proposed by Karolyi. It is still a small party, and though it professes to be a complement to the citizens party next to be described, is in reality quite in sympathy with all but the most conservative branch of the Christian Socialists. I do not anticipate any future for this party and foresee its absorption before long. It is noteworthy in neither numbers nor organisation and is not led by men either vigorous or particularly intelligent.
The Citizens party is distinctly a bourgeois party. In it are many of the more intelligent professional men, intermixed with a fair sprinkling of literary men and professors. To it will rally many of the leading Jewish business and banking interests.
Mr. Alpar, the leading architect of Budapest, who has built all the great public buildings within the last twenty years, has taken great interest in this Burgerpartei. He is a tremendous man, physically [Page 391] speaking, with a hearty and popular way of speaking. In a conversation with him, he expressed great confidence in the future of this party, and said that they were very well supplied with money, that their propaganda was increasing from week to week, and that they hoped to make an organized propaganda in the country districts also. This has already been started with considerable success. The daily papers announce the district meetings of this party in Budapest every day or so, and until the present moment it has had no opposition from the Social Democrats to be compared with the opposition toward the Clerical and Agrarian parties.
In discussing the possibility of a coalition between the Citizens’ party and Lovaszy and his adherents, Mr. Alpar, one of the leaders of the former, told me it would be impossible on account of Lovaszy himself. Lovaszy expressed sympathy for the Entente in 1917 in the middle of the war, and this he felt was treason to the country. Personal reasons, however, seem to have more real weight in keeping Lovaszy and other bourgeois elements apart.
The above form the only large political groups. There remain the Radicals and the two extremes—Communists and Capitalists. The Radicals represent a group next to the Social Democrats, and chiefly differing from them in that they believe in the right of property. They have no representative in the Cabinet, but are neither well organized nor very numerous.
The Communists form a small group expelled from the Social Democrats on February 9th. They have no money for a campaign, and their members are not increasing much at present.
The Capitalist Group are not a party, but an element composed of Jewish bankers and aristocrats with great estates. These people have money and are only waiting their chance to turn the course of the Government towards the old established order of things, as much as it is possible to do after so much change in people’s ideas. They are not organized, but they are working indirectly against the Government.
Respectfully yours,
Per
1st Lt., U. S. [A.]
P. S. The formation of a new party, called the National Party, has just been communicated to me by Count Teleki and Betteleu. This party is to represent the Hungarian integrity idea, and will naturally find its chief support in the country. However, it is hoped not to limit it to any class or type, and to unite as many people as possible with the old Independence idea of 1848 adapted to the ideas of 1919.
- Transmitted to the Commission by Professor Coolidge under covering letter No. 91, February 19; received February 22.↩