The dissatisfaction and the alarm amongst us were increased daily by the events which began to develop in Slovakia about November 15th. Károlyi, who had taken charge of the Government in Hungary, realized that it would be possible to make an attempt to preserve the integral character of Hungary only on the basis of certain assumptions. He conscientiously did everything in his power, perhaps somewhat more skilfully than it would have been done by Tisza, Apponyi, Andrássy, or Weckerle. In this respect the Magyars did a serious injustice to this politician and his associates who, amid the welter of revolution, were desperately endeavouring to save for Hungary what at that time nobody else could certainly have saved. With this end in view Károlyi promptly decided upon a policy of racial justice. He contemplated special ministries for the Ruthenians, Slovaks, and Rumanians, he contemplated also administrative reforms on the lines of regional racial autonomy, he had already made practical experiments in this respect, and had announced to the world that future Hungary would for evermore abandon the impossible Chauvinistic policy of former Hungary. This was the programme of his revolutionary National Council, which was publicly proclaimed as early as October 25, 1918.
His second good tactical step consisted of his negotiations with the Allies. Seeing the inevitable advance of the Allied army from the south, and fearing a Serbian invasion of Hungary, he began promptly to negotiate with General Franchet d’Esperey, the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Allied Army, his purpose being to secure Allied influence for preventing Serbian troops from entering Hungary proper. In this he was successful, as the Allies soon caused the Serbians to withdrawn from the Banat beyond the Danube. Then began the Allied negotiations with Károlyi for the maintenance of order in Hungary.
Thus, between November 7th and the 12th, discussions took place between Károlyi and Franchet d’Esperey, the result of which was the arrangement of a special Armistice signed at Belgrade on November 13th. These proceedings were somewhat irregular, as the Armistice terms for Austria-Hungary had been arranged at Versailles between October 31st and November 4th, and they had been duly signed on the Italian front in the name of the whole Empire on November 3rd. These terms applied in their full extent to Hungary also, and the revolution which had broken out there made no change in this respect.
