The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-18
NOTES OF AN INTERNATIONALLY.
The Bank-Note Counterfeiting Affair and
Governmental Crisis in Hungary
BY JOHN PEPPER.

ticipant in the counterfeiting of the
notes. The honorable police minister
had conducted the investigation
against the counterfeiters and at the
end of the investigation it developed
that he himself was one Of the organ
| izers of the band. He himself had
taken the general staff colonel who
was the bands agent in The Hague,
to the Hungarian foreign ministery.
He himself had applied for the diplo-
matte pass, he himself had had the
suitcase filled with counterfeit bank
notes stamped and sealed as courier
baggage.
But even with this the story is not
yet ended. 1t developed that the fake
banknotes were fabricated in the
state institute for the making of mil
itary maps and that the director of
this institute, an officer of the general
staff in the Hungarian army is also
guilty. Evidence piled up against
Count Csaky, the minister of war, and
he fed with his wife. And still no
end! Documents and confessions
showed that Zadrvetz, the Bishop of
the Hungarian army, the confidential
agent of Horthy and the Pope, is also
involved in the counterfeiting affair
and now the civil courts and military
courts are squabbling as to which has
jurisdiction over the examination of
this holy" bishop. This is not vet
the end of the thread. At the end of
the whole affair there stands the Hum
garian fascist party, there stands AL
brecht, the fascist grand duke of the
House of Hapsburg, there stands
Horthy, the Hungarian regent. The
arrested men state definitely that they
undertook the counterfeiting and pas
sing of the banknotes not for profit
but for political reasons. They want.
ed to organize large scale putsch in
order to put the fascist royal candi-
date, the Grand Duke Albrecht, on the
throne. To organize this new king
dom they needed enormous sums of
money and the counterfeiting was to
furnish the sinews of war for this
campaign.
Horthy was in agreement with this
fascist putsch. His present position
cannot be maintained and he wanted
to assure his retirement with honors
and riches. The exposure Of the bank
note counterfeiting had catastrophe
effect upon the whole fascist con.
spiracy. The legitimists, who advocate
the son of the deceased Kaiser Karl
as the future king OF Hungary and
who was supported by powerful ele.
ments Of the big landowners and big
bourgeoisie, are utilizing this deadly
embarrassment OF the fascist Horthv
band for powerful advance. AT the
same time however there Is develop-
ing an unparalleled ferment among
the worker and petty bourgeois mas.
ses OF the whole country. Count
Bethlen, Horthy's minister president
Is now trying to go over to the leeit.
lmists and at the same time TO mako
an alliance with the social.democrata
Nepsava, the central organ OF the
Hungarian social-democratic party ad.
mits that "all Budapest is in uproarv
but nevertheless the social.democrata
instead OF organizing the mass nm.
rising OF the workers, are placing their
trust In the STRONG hand" OF Horthv,s
minister president. II Horthy "a NOT
overthrow, or II the Hapsburg biz
landowners SUI liant his rule, the 80.
cial-democracy viii be responsible.