Miklós Bánffy - They Were Found Wanting

At this time the government had enough troubles without risking anything new or controversial. The debate on the schools proposals and the controversy about the minorities problems had hardly died down in the capital (though echoes of protest still rippled through public meetings in the country towns) when a new and more serious storm threatened.

Everything that Zsigmond Boros had predicted the previous November now came to pass. The discussions about Apponyi’s increasingly chauvinistic schools proposals had barely come to an end when Ferenc Kossuth dropped a new bombshell with a motion proposing that employees of the State Railways should henceforth be subject to specially stringent conditions of employment as theirs was a service of national importance. The object of the proposed reforms was to prevent any possible repetition of the recent rail strike which, though it had only lasted a few days, had caused general consternation. The trouble lay in the fact that the motion did not only contain disciplinary measures but also laid down new rules about the official language to be used. The State Railway company, M.A.V. — Margyar-Allami-Vasut — was to be instructed to employ only Hungarian-speaking workers.

Since the national railway network also operated in Croatia, this new law would apply to Croatian employees and, according to them, it would be in direct contravention of the Hungarian-Croatian compact which had permitted the use of national languages. Naturally, for them, the national language was Croatian and even though the proposals specified that anyone in contact with the public on Croatian soil must have a knowledge of the Croatian language, the Serbo-Croatian Coalition which had risen to power with the help of Kossuth, immediately turned against him. Accordingly, when the debate on the motion got under way on June 5th all the Serbo-Croat members exercised their long-neglected right to make their speeches in their own language, thus producing a new method of obstructing the business of the House. As there were now more than forty Croatian members of Parliament the situation became much more serious than in the previous debates on the national minorities. Ironically enough the Hungarians now found being used against them all the tools of obstruction whose use they themselves had formerly brought to such a fine art.

These tactics were bitterly resented, especially by the Independence Party which, two years previously, had backed the Serbo-Croatian Coalition at the time of the common law debates on the Personal Union issue and on the question of the Fiume Resolution, and who had considered the Serbo-Croats their allies. Now, they cried out angrily, what traitors these allies were proving themselves to be!

Needless to say, there was hardly anyone among the Hungarian legislators who even attempted to listen to the lengthy speeches in Croatian since only two or three of them understood the language. Instead they filed out into the corridors of the House and stood about in groups — sometimes all day long if their presence was required for a vote — grumbling and quarrelling with each other. This went on for days, and the days lengthened into weeks. Accordingly it was a great relief if some former leader took it into his head to visit Parliament and then a sort of pseudo-debate would be arranged in his honour.

The day that Samuel Barra put in an appearance he was immediately surrounded by a crowd of admirers. Without delay Bela Varju started off with a provocative remark designed to bring out Barra’s talent for invective. More members joined the group knowing the spectacle would be worthwhile — or, at the very least, would serve to pass the time.

‘It’s my view,’ said Varju, ‘that we’re all fools to put up with this nonsense. We’ve sat here for two weeks and those louts are still drivelling on in their absurd language! If I were the government of Hungary I’d soon crush that lot!’

The great Barra opened his mouth, which was so huge that it seemed to be wider even than his face as if it had been stretched by all the speeches made by its owner during his life in politics, that mouth which seemed to have a life of its own between the sweeping moustaches and the heavy chin.

‘What do you mean — “crush”? If you’re suggesting that the government should act against the Rules of the House, I’d fight you all the way! I’ve fought for the sanctity of our House Rules all down the years, even against the bum-bailiffs of the Camarilla. Oh, yes! I was the first to see what they were up to, as you must know — and the time may well come again when the freedom and independence of our country will be saved by the citadel of those very Rules. Let me tell you: the Rules of the House are sacred!’

Old Bartokfay lifted a finger in agreement and then, speaking as always in the strongly accented dialect of the Maros country in Transylvania, said, ‘That we could never allow. Not to Ferenc Kossuth, nor even to Lajos Kossuth himself. Never! Never!’. And he stuck his hand majestically behind the lapel of his old-fashioned Hungarian dress, just as he had done back in the sixties some forty years before, to show that even then he had been a person of importance.

‘Indeed, we must never infringe the House Rules, even if they try to use them against us,’ fluttered some young member eager to keep in well with Barra.

‘That is not so!’ interrupted the great leader, who dearly loved an argument. ‘Remember that we represent the country’s will, the country’s good faith and liberty; that is why we use all the weapons we can lay our hands on! But think where we’d be if the whole thing goes too far! Just ask yourselves that! Parliamentarianism would be finished, our age-old constitution a dead duck! What we have to do, my dear Sir, is to find some way by which the only obstruction possible remains in the hands of the party, our party, which truly represents our national ideals!’

‘But you’ve just said,’ stammered the young member. ‘At least, I understood …’

‘You understood wrong; but I said it right! The Rules of the House are sacred. Nevertheless our national and moral aims — and those alone — give us a moral right …’ and he went into a flood of high-sounding phrases to expound a theory which sounded magnificent but which no one understood. More and more people clustered round, and Abady, hearing Barra’s voice booming away from some distance off, joined them too.

Balint was in high good humour for his plans all seemed to be bearing fruit. While the surging tide of Croatian oratory stopped all business in Parliament and gave an opportunity for the general run of members of the three principal parties to indulge in their own disputes, the government had time for other things. Balint’s appointment as chairman of the co-operative project had already been decided, and all that was now needed was for the Economics Minister to have an opportunity to announce the details in Parliament.

Abady joined the group round Barra just as one of his listeners had made some obsequious remark about Ferenc Kossuth, saying how wise he was, what a great statesman, etc. Barra did not like this, since he had been on bad terms with the Minister ever since they had been adversaries in debate.

‘He a statesman? Of course! Ministers have to be statesmen, do they not? It goes without saying!’ shouted Barra, his mouth wide with ironical laughter. ‘But we should ask ourselves this: was it wise — statesmanlike, if you wish — to bring in this controversial language decree at this moment? Remember this, and what answer do you get? Our poor government has so few friends that it seems a pity to have offended their only allies.’

Balint intervened. ‘That, surely, must depend on the value of the alliance — and of its sincerity. Personally I’m convinced that the Serb Coalition never supported the Fiume Resolution out of love for us, but only because they were ordered to do so by Belgrade. Very cleverly they’ll give their support to anything that tends to the break-up of the Dual Monarchy. Perhaps Kossuth put in the language conditions expressly so as to find a way of breaking with his Serbian friends!’