Down there in the Gulf of Cattaro the fleet had mutinied. Michael Horthy, the hero of the Novarro, suppressed the rising and saved the fleet for the Monarchy. But in the embers of the extinguished fire the army command found curious footprints. It was alleged that two telegrams of the mutineers were intercepted. One was addressed to Trotski, the other to Michael Károlyi.
And again, nothing was done! Political consideration.... Great names are involved.... The King won’t have it.... The time is not propitious....
It was about this time that I reminded Count Stephen Tisza of a letter which I had received through Switzerland in the autumn of 1914, and which I had shown him at the time. The letter arrived approximately at the same time as Michael Károlyi, whom mobilisation had found on French soil. According to this letter the French had good reasons for sending Károlyi home. He was to be well rewarded if he did his work well ... he might even become the President of the Hungarian Republic. Stephen Tisza only shook his head: “You see phantoms. It would be a pity to make a martyr of him.”
It was a long time ago. Much has become blurred since then, but I still feel the bitterness of that moment.
And all the other politicians thought as Tisza did. They did not take Michael Károlyi seriously, because they did not see those who were behind him. The attention of public opinion was absorbed by other things. Every day life became more difficult, and far away in Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations were going on. The delegates of the Russians dragged out the negotiations cunningly, and the German command, losing patience, rattled its sword at the council table. Meanwhile Bronstein-Trotski, the Foreign Commissioner of the Soviet, addressed inciting speeches over the heads of our delegates—to our soldiers, our workmen.
At home these speeches created a curious stir. As if they had been a signal the Jewish press of Hungary began to attack our German allies. The “dispersed” Circle of Galilee organised a demonstration in front of the German Consulate and broke its windows. The co-religionists of the Trotskis, Radeks and Joffes organised strikes by means of the trade union headquarters, which they had under their control. Thus did they support the interests of their Russian friends and weaken the position of our delegates.
During the strike Michael Károlyi, walking one day with his wife in the city, met one of their relations who lived in the suburbs and asked him anxiously, “Are the people rising out there?” The negative answer depressed them. “It does not matter.... The day has not yet come.... But we shall not escape revolution.”
Louder and louder came the whispers out of the darkness: we had come to a phase when words could do the work. And words began to agitate: “Only a separate peace can save us from the revolution.... We must leave the Germans to their fate.... They are the cause of everything.... The war goes on because of them.... Alsace Lorraine....” Invisible lips uttered these things with persistent consistency. Unknown voices spoke to those who repeated their sayings. And far away from the fields of battle, in the country’s capital, in the workshops and the barracks, quietly, secretly, the earth began to quake.
And yet the front was never stronger than at this period of the war. After the Ukrainian and Russian peace, these were perhaps the last moments which permitted us to hope for a possible peace, if only we showed unity and resolution. But in these fateful days some mischievous magic lantern flashed the picture of a weakening alliance with Germany, of internal discord and risings, towards our adversaries, and these pictures inspired them with new zeal. At home it became more and more clear that we harboured men who ate the bread of our soil under the protection of Hungarian soldiers, who drank the water of our wells and slept peacefully, whilst putting forth every possible effort to make us lose the war.
If I remember rightly it was at this time that Károlyi’s political camp began to spread the rumour that he had come into touch with leaders of the Entente. Poincaré had once been the lawyer of the Károlyi family.... Stories circulated. Others again knew that he had connections with Trotski and that he had organised secret military councils in the smaller towns round the capital.