the text - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

of friendship for the Poles, their humane treatment by the official
authorities, their willingness to help them escape. While at the
beginning of September, 1939 they only sent "warnings" to the
Hungarians about their attitude, by the second half of September the
protests became constant; in fact, on October, 14, 1939 the German
ambassador handed a sharply-worded memorandum from his
government to Foreign Minister Csaky*68. Some excerpts from this:
..." it is a violation of the law of neutrality that in some camps the
Polish officers were allowed to keep their weapons; - that there is
open fraternization between Polish and Hungarian officers; - that the
Hungarian govermnent tolerates the continued functioning of the
Polish Legation; - that there is open recruitment in some military
camps and that the Polish Legation opened a special office to
organize and facilitate the escapes toward France."
From the protest of October 27, 1939: "the local Polish
Consulate issues passports already stamped with French visas, as
well as letters of recommendations addressed to the Yugoslav
legation and travel papers to the Italian authorities to all refugees
who ask for them. According to reliable reports, the French
Legation gives, in some cases, false French passports to the
refugees although the French minister denied this to our Foreign
Minister. On the basis of this new incriminating evidence, we issue
our strong protest to the Foreign Minister for these new violations of
the law of neutrality. ."*69
The German press also attacked this Hungarian friendship for
the Poles. From the October 27, 1939 of the Neue Tageblatt: ". . .
we shall no longer tolerate the care that the Hungarians give to this
demoralized Polish rabble!!!" Berliner Borzezeitung, October 28,
1939: "... the irrational Hungarian sentimentality towards the Poles
must be ended once and for all."
At that time, Neurath, then German Foreign Minister, told the
Hungarian consul in Prague: "In Berlin it is viewed with displeasure
that the Polish officers were not interned in Hungary, thus making it
likely that they will escape to the Polish forces in France. As far as
Berlin knows the Hungarian military circles maintained the correct
attitude but the behaviour of others, non-military people, can hardly
be squared with international norms."*70
Because of the German protests and "warnings", the otherwise
pro-Pole Minister of Defense, Karoly Bartha, issued on October 2,
1939, a circular letter addressed to all army corps commanders. In
it, he draws his commanders' attention to the following: "...despite
the instructions given about the internment and care of the members
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