Evening star., 1925-02-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Shall Count Michael Karolyi, the
first President of the Republic Of
Hungary after the revolution depos-
ing the Hapsburg King Charles, be
permitted to discuss Hungarian pol
itics within the United States?
Senator Hiram Johnson of Cali
fornia, the doughty irreconcilable
opponent of the United States en-
tering the League of Nations lest we
became involved in the tanglefoot
politics of the respective members of
the worlds supergovernment, de-
nounces the restrictions put by our
State Department against free
speech" and demands that the pad
lock be taken off the lips of the rev.
olutionist Karolyi. The Senator be-
lieves that we are not altogether
hospitable so long as we tell our Wis
itor to keep his own national troubles
to himself, or return to where those
troubles belong. Yet the Californian
is not an internationalist.
Karolyi is admitted under special
conditions. His wife, the Countess
Karolyi, lies very i'll with typhoid
fever IN a New York hospital, and
all considerations of humane instincts
move our Government to relax its
rules against admitting potential
disturbing elements in the person of
Count Karolyi. Thousands of Hun
garians and their former allies, the
Austrians, are divided in fierce par
tisanism against each other and any
discussion of Hungarian politics
might lead to dangerous possibilities.
Some idea of the Hungarian spirit
may be inferred from a response al
legged to have been made by the
Countess Karolyi-she who now lies
i'll in New York-when in the height
of the Karolyi power, a former in
innate friend appealed to her for in
formation as to what they should
expect in the future program. The
friend was of the aristocrats, as was
indeed the Countess Karolyi before
the days Of the Karolyi revolution.
This was the countess answer to her
former intimate, according to E.
Ashm ad-Bartlett, the British his
torian:
'In a few days we shall set up
guilIotine and execute you all"
X x X X
The former aristocrat, Michael Kar-
olyi of the wealthiest family in
Hungary, and one of the wealthiest
in all Europe, was then the dictator
of Hungary. The Emperor had been
deposed and Hungary was separated
from Austria. The proletariat were
in power, the President Karolyi
though welding absolute power, to
all outward appearances, was sur
rounded by direct representatives of
Soviet Russia, so that he could not,
If he would, undertake to do aught
contrary to the will of Lenin. kar-
olyi therefore, always suspected of
aristocratic leanings because of his
own wealth and his former connec-
+,ons hecame an ultra -radical-a boil
shevist of the bolshevists-and his
countess seemed but to express his
own spirit of extreme radicalism
when she dared threaten a return
of the French reign of terror with
the guillotine whereon they would
execute all aristocraoy. Never for
one moment did Karolyi receive a
caller without the presence OF an
agent of bolshevism at his side, to
prompt or to spy. Yet he is man
of strong character, not plant tool.
He has been characterized as the
Kerensky of Hungary.
X X X X
Karolyi's administration was short
lived. 1t lasted less than five months,
ending in April, 1919, and at no time
had it the slightest semblance of. a
republic. 1t was a revolutionary die
tatorship-a form of government pos
sible only because the country was
broken by the tragedy of the World
War and torn by jealousies of fac
tion and class. OF Hungary's 10000
600 population before the war she
had lost a million, and when her
peace" came, it turned loose her
army of million men, unorganized
for industry, unorganized for peace,
unrestrained under the doWnfau Of