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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 20, No. 12. August 15, 1957

Most Hungarians Stayed Indoors — —Says Wellington Man returned from Hungary

Most Hungarians Stayed Indoors

—Says Wellington Man returned from Hungary

"The overwhelming majority of Hungarians I spoke to seemed a little confused about what happened last October. Most people seem to have stayed indoors."

This statement way made to a "Salient" reporter by Mr. Ian Mitchell, of Wellington, executive functionary of the Modern Film Society (an extensive importer of films from East Europe), who has recently returned from a world lour which included a fortnight in Budapest.

Our reporter interviewed Mr. Mitchell in a pub—not that he is a drinking man. Like many political zealots, he tends to spurn delights and live laborious days. Of middle height, lean, fair-haired, and bespectacled, Mr. Mitchell spoke fluently at a pace which enabled us to take down every word.

"I was in Hungary 14 days in April—arriving two days after the anniversary of the 1848 uprising had been celebrated, and leaving two days before the celebration of the liberation of the country from Germany by the Red Army.

"People were busy restoring Russian war memorials for the latter occasion.

"I talked to a lot of people—waiters at my hotel, a waitress" (he leered), "people working on repairing the hotel, shop assistants, a taxi driver. . . .

"Sometimes I had an interpreter. I was, on the whole, disappointed at not having one enough of the time. But most people I talked to seemed to speak some English."

We asked: "What was the popular view of what occurred last October?"

Mr. Mitchell paused: "Well, it is all opinion, of course. Most seemed confused—they seem to have stayed indoors. Everyone (except one person) claimed that the chief cause of whatever happened was the bureaucracy and bad leadership of the Rakosi-Gero clique. The one person said it was caused by 'liberalisation' after the Moscow Congress last year—which is true to a certain extent, as the 'liberalisation' policy made it possible to [unclear: cort] the Rakosi policies.

"Most people seem to have had misgivings about Rakosi for some time. [unclear: Kada's] [unclear: pers] popularity seemed to be high—his Government, I should say, had the support, though not the enthusiastic support, of the people.

"No one wants to go back to capitalism—their only memories of capitalism are in fact ot fascism. Many people seem to be adopting a 'wait-and-see' attitude."

We asked: "What was the attitude to Nagy?"

"I did not hear anything favourable about Nagy," said Mr. Mitchell. "Some people spoke of treason in high 'places' m October, but they may not have meant Nagy was involved. It seems that olficcrs often failed to order troops to fue on counter-revolutionaries when they should have, with the result that the troops were surrounded and disarmed."

"You say 'counter-revolutionaries.'" we interrupted. "Isn't that term a little unreal?"

"Well," he smiled. 'The demonstrations of 23rd October were certainly part of a popular movement demanding just reforms. But the firing, the incident at the radio station—who was responsible for sparking the whole thing off? I can only give your hearsay.

"A student told me he had taken refuge in his flat throughout the disturbances. and kept in touch with events by radio. The radio version changed from day to day. Mindzcnty's speech was really the clearest indication of how things were. He spoke vaguely, but his reference to restoration of land to its owners meant 70 per cent, of agricultural land going back to the Church. It looked as if reaction was back in the saddle.

"Also officials told me that many of those lynched in Budapest were good heretical Communists gaoled by Rakosi and the Stalinists, recently released. Some had been sent into the A.V.H. to clean it up. There was one bloke—Imre Meso, an International Brigadesman in Spain, imprisoned in 1952, released in 1956, who was secretary of the Budapest Communist Party Committee. He was lynched, together with a lot of basically good blokes like him. The real crooks—Rakosf, Gero and company—fled. I was told they were in Mongolia, which is likely. Magyars are descended from the Mongols, and Rakosi's wife is Mongolian.

"I did notice, among slogans written around the place, one which read: Lock out. Jew!' or something like that. It didn't sound too good."

Mr. Mitchell ended by giving general impressions of Budapest, which was drab, and still scarred, not only from the uprising but from the last war. People were well dressed compared with the rest of East Europe, and food seemed to be plentiful, though it was hard to judge.

He added two interesting comments:

"None of the peasants look part in the uprising as far as I could sec. They were a privileged section under Rakosi." And smiling, "By the way, everyone in Budapest accepts the story that Rakosi had Kadar castrated in prison."