Then the soldiers marched to the offices of the Soldiers’ Council and Pogány addressed them in words full of vainglory:
“This demonstration has shown that there are enough soldiers, and that the troops are in the hands of the confidential men. It has shown,” he shouted in rapture, “that discipline can be maintained, but only when it is the troops themselves who maintain it....”
“Long live Pogány, the Minister of War ...” rose the cry under the red flag. And he, red with the effort of shouting, roared the following threats: “We won’t allow Budapest’s social-democratic army to be disbanded, just because it is social-democratic! We won’t tolerate the formation of independent peasants’ detachments!”
“Long live the socialist army! Down with the peasants’ detachments!” came the shout back from the square.
This morning something else was lost up there in the castle. Only a desperate effort made by secret organisation can help us now. The army of Hungary has passed entirely into the hands of Pogány-Schwarz, and the soldiers, drunk with joy, are shooting in the streets.
December 13th-15th.
The die was cast yesterday in the Castle, and the red flag was hoisted.
It is now impossible to patch up the country’s misfortune. It is the Government which has patched itself up. Albert Bartha, the patriotic Hungarian soldier, has left, and so has Batthyány. The socialists had intended the Ministry of the Interior for the communist Eugene Landler, but they did not succeed in that. All the same, the victory of the socialists is complete—they have got the War Office! For the present Károlyi is temporary Minister of War, but it is obvious that a little Jewish electrician, the social-democrat, William Böhm, stands behind him, though not so long ago he was repairing the typewriters and electric installations of the office.