Dennis Wheatley - Traitors' Gate

Gregory expected the Count to shrug and shake his head; but instead, changing to English which he spoke as fluently as he did French, he said, 'This is most interesting. Nothing would please myself and most people of my class than to break with that horrible man Hitler, if it could be done with reliable safeguards for Hungary's future. Please tell me your proposals.'

For a moment Gregory remained silent. It would not do to show his surprise, or the sudden excitement which rose in him at the thought that, after all, he might succeed in sticking a knife in Hitler's back and reducing the pressure on the Russian front by a dozen divisions. Leaning a little forward he said earnestly:

'Your Excellency will appreciate that I am not authorised to enter into negotiations. I am here only on behalf of Sir Pellinore to explore possibilities. But, as you may know, Sir Pellinore is very close to His Majesty's Government; so you may take it that his ideas, as brought to you by me, would certainly receive very serious consideration and, probably, official endorsement. His suggestion is that Hungary should enter into a separate peace with the Allies and withdraw her Army from Russia. In return Russia, Britain and the United States would jointly guarantee Hungary's frontiers after the collapse of Hitler and thus she would save herself from occupation and imposition of a heavy war indemnity.'

'You speak with great confidence of the collapse of Hitler; but in all three years the war has lasted, he has never been in a stronger position, and the territory he controls is still increasing every day.'

'His new gains might well be compared to a swollen stomach,' Gregory smiled. 'It is my belief that the chunks of Russia that he is swallowing will give him a frightful bellyache before he is through.'

'Perhaps; but if he succeeds in biting the heart out of Russia it is she who must collapse.'

'That would not save him. He would have to leave half his army to occupy the vast areas of enemy territory, and he would still have Britain and America building up to leap upon his back. The Allied Air Forces are already pounding hell out of the German cities; and airpower is the dominant factor in modern war. As the months go by we shall be putting two, three, five, seven, ten aircraft into the air for every one of his. When the time is ripe the Allied armies will land in Europe and, with German industry in ruins, the Nazis will no longer be able to maintain their army in the field. That is why Hitler must ultimately be beaten.'

Zapolya nodded thoughtfully. 'Personally, I believe that with regard to the final outcome you are right; but Hitler is a very long way from being beaten yet. Germany might exact an extremely heavy penalty from Hungary should she attempt to insure her future with the Allies in the way you suggest.'

'That is a risk which must be run if Hungary is to sit among the victor nations at the Peace Table. She would find no seat there if she waited to act until Germany was on her last legs. Now is the time when Hungary's help would be of real value to the Allied cause, and so worth their agreeing to pay for in solemn undertakings which would ensure her future wellbeing.'

'You implied only that she would not be treated as a defeated enemy. That is not enough. You may recall what happened in the First World War, when Rumania decided to throw in her lot with the Allies. General Von Mackensen and his Germans overran her in a few weeks. The same thing might happen here.'

Gregory countered that suggestion with the arguments he had used to Levianski, but the Count waved a slender hand in a gesture of rebuttal. It is true that the Germans are heavily engaged in Russia, but they still have several armoured divisions in the West. I can hardly imagine that sufficient trained American troops have yet arrived in Britain for the Allies to be contemplating an assault on the Continent; so those armoured divisions could be used to subdue Hungary. Our people are brave and most of them hate the Germans, but nearly the whole of our army has been sent to the Russian front. It could not get back in time to defend our cities, and their garrisons of reservists would be practically helpless in the face of several hundred German tanks.'

After a moment's thought, Gregory said, 'Even if the Allies are not yet ready to attempt the liberation of the Continent, I think they are quite capable of making a landing in force strong enough to pin down the German armour in the West., Again, I speak only as a private individual; but Mr. Churchill has always used large maps. I think it quite possible that he would press the Americans to agree to such an Allied landing, if Hungary definitely undertook to break with Hitler, as Italy might then follow suit, and that would bring a complete Allied victory within measurable distance.'

'It would.' Zapolya drew slowly on his fine Havana. 'And if such a landing succeeded Hungary would have little to fear. But what if it failed? What if the Germans drove the Allies back into the sea? Their Panzers would then face about and come dashing across Europe to destroy us.'

'I have already agreed that some risk must be taken if Hungary is not to suffer the fate of a vanquished nation when the Allies finally defeat Hitler.'

'And I have already said that merely to be guaranteed her present frontiers is not enough. If she is to risk being overrun and forcibly held down, perhaps for several years, while many of her leading citizens are murdered by the Gestapo or thrown into concentration camps, her people must have something more than that to look forward to.'

'You mean a revision of the Treaty of Trianon?'

'Yes. By that iniquitous settlement forced on us after the last war, Hungary was robbed of over half her population and nearly two thirds of her ancient territories. The Allies would have to give a solemn undertaking to repair permanently this monstrous injustice.'

Gregory had known that if he could get any Hungarian to enter on a serious discussion of his mission that demand would be made, but he had deliberately refrained from leading off with any proposal smacking of bribery. Now he smiled, and said:

'Sir Pellinore raised that matter with me. Few English people realized the way in which Hungary was torn to pieces by the Allied statesmen who dictated the Peace Treaty; and those of us who have since considered the facts feel that she was greatly wronged. Proposals for revision would, Sir Pellinore assured me, be most sympathetically considered by His Majesty's Government if informal talks such as we are having now develop into actual negotiations. I think, too, we can look even further than that. Quite apart from the question of old wrongs being righted, there is another side to it. A few minutes ago you referred to Rumania's having been overrun in the First World War because she sided with the Allies. It was largely to compensate her for her sufferings in the Allied cause that she was given Transylvania at Hungary's expense. In this case the position would be reversed. General Antonescu brought Rumania in on the side of the Germans, so the Allies owe her nothing; whereas, if Hungary now exposes herself to the possibility of repression by the Nazis, she would be able to put forward claims at the Peace Conference which could not decently be rejected.'

'You are right! Yes; you are right,' Count Zapolya nodded, vigorously. 'But we should need an undertaking signed by Churchill, the President and Stalin, so that we could proclaim it to the people. Given that I believe that the Hungarian nation to a man would favour defying the Nazis.'

This enthusiastic declaration swept away the last traces of the pessimism that had weighed on Gregory's spirits since his talk with Levianski. In fact, to arouse a united Hungary against Germany was far more than he had hoped to do when leaving London. Striving to suppress the excitement that had risen in him at the entirely unexpected change in his prospects of succeeding in his mission, he asked as calmly as he could: