AFnewsJune 4, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon by the victorious Allied Powers in the First World War and Hungary, as the successor state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We have an honorable duty to publish a series of scientific studies on this topic in order to counter media manipulation.
Restitutions
ACAD. CAMIL MUREȘANU: THE TREATY OF TRIANON – VOLUNTARY AMNESIA (II)
Unexpected provisions
In addition to guarantees of rights for minorities of all kinds, this separate treaty had also contained provisions for so-called „optants” (inhabitants who, after 1918, had moved to Hungary; sovereignty of another state). In a few years, they will entail, in front of the League of Nations and the Court of Justice in The Hague, the famous dispute between Romania and Hungary, during which the great oratorical, diplomatic and legal talent of Nicolae Titulescu was illustrated, face to face with the experience and the prestige of the old Count Ápponyi.
The dispute was complicated by the fact that, in the meantime, Romania had applied the agrarian reform law, which the optants, based on the above treaty and the Trianon treaty, with their interests supported by the Hungarian state, considered that they could challenge, as far as they were concerned.
The same third part of the treaty includes Romania’s commitment to take over, in proportion to the extent of the territories under its sovereignty, the financial tasks of the former Hungarian state, up to 1918.
That clause is repeated for all states and territories that, in terms of transfers of sovereignty, concerned Hungary. A special article deals with the port of Rijeka, annexed by Italy through a unilateral action, eventually recognized by the Powers.
Also in this part there are a series of somewhat unexpected provisions for the uninformed reader.
Thus: the independence of Hungary (proclaimed by itself in November 1918) and the prohibition of any future union with another state are sanctioned. It is an allusion to the eventuality of an „Anschluss” with Austria, which the House of Habsburg was then trying to bring back to the present, through its last representatives.
Hungary’s independence clause gave work to the commissions that drafted the treaty. In its new situation of international law, Hungary had to be made to recognize or, as the case may be, not to recognize treaties concluded a long time ago, when it was part of Austria or Austria-Hungary. Although the status of party to such treaties had only been implicit, but now, in 1920, it had to be expressly stated that those treaties were not binding on independent Hungary.
It will no longer surprise anyone that, by the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary declared – in its respect – the nullity of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, of March 3, 1918, between Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Bolshevik government.
It is also noted that, by means of Article 69, Hungary recognizes the Treaty of 30 December 1864, under which Denmark had ceded the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein to the German Confederation. Or that, among other articles, it recognizes the treaties between Austria and Austria-Hungary, respectively, and Italy, from Zurich (1859), Vienna (1866) and Florence (1888).
Hungary also cancels its treaties with its former allies before or during World War II.
Part IV contains the regulation of Hungary’s interests outside Europe: in Morocco, Egypt, Siam and China. It is about liquidating investments and commercial capital.
Part V of the treaty, which includes military clauses, is again more delicate, given the nature of the problems it solves in relations between Hungary and other countries.
Nor does it have as its exclusive object the bilateral relations with Romania and nothing indicates any special interposition of our country or others in the area, in order to obtain a certain fixation of the future military status of Hungary.
Detailed disputes
Everything provided in this chapter is similar to the conditions imposed, in that respect, on other defeated states. Therefore, some general principles that had been introduced in all peace treaties are applied.
Thus: the demobilization of the Hungarian army, the abolition of compulsory military service, the limitation of future armed forces to a maximum of 35,000 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers are stipulated.
Several articles specify the types of weapons allowed to remain in the endowment of the Hungarian army and provide in detail the composition, in numbers and in combat technique, of its large units – divisions, brigades.
Articles 120-132 dealt with the fate of warships belonging to the Hungarian navy and some aeronautical issues, which at the time had a small share, compared to later times.
The responsibilities of the Inter-Allied Control Commissions for each of the above military areas, obligations in relation to prisoners of war, with the record of those who died and were buried on the territory of Hungary, are then specified.
Articles 177-178 will create numerous disputes in the future. They provided for the reciprocal restitution – between Hungary and the states in favor of which land transfers had taken place – which had been under the sovereignty of the Hungarian state until 1918 – of the current archives for the last 20 years (hence since 1900) and of the historical archives concerning those territories.
It will be an extremely difficult issue to resolve, as the archives had many funds and documents that presented inextricable interference of content between the territories that became adjacent in terms of the Treaty of Trianon.
Long, detailed, tiring, likely to arouse the admiration for the documentation and patience of the experts who had prepared the treaty, are the financial-economic clauses, extended to no less than 58 articles.
They specify the ban on Hungary from exporting gold until 1 May 1921; the provision was intended to prevent the depletion of its precious metal reserves so that they could be used to pay for war reparations that were to be imposed on it.
Immediate action – the obligation to bear the maintenance of the occupying armies on its territory, starting with November 3, 1918 (the date of the armistice at Villa Giusti, with the Entente), as well as the obligations of the states to which the former territories of Hungary had joined part of its state debt, proportional to the area of the respective territories.
In the final part, the Treaty of Trianon establishes – for disputes arising in its application – the establishment of joint arbitration tribunals, consisting of one representative of the parties concerned and a third, co-opted by them by consensus.
It stipulates, in line with the separate treaty of December 9, 1919, the regime of the properties of the inhabitants who had been transferred under another state sovereignty or had opted for one, being applied in principle the provision of their retention of ownership over their real estate, of any nature.
Articles 260-300 deal with air and river navigation, the Danube regime, land communications, telegraphic and telephone communications. Article 302 decides that, since on the Romanian territory there is no direct railway connection between Salonta and Arad, for 10 years the Romanian train would be able to run between the two cities on the Hungarian territory, through Bekescsaba. During this time, the Romanian state had to build on its territory a railway between Salonta and Arad, which would be achieved.
The last part of the treaty consists of a document on the organization of work, i.e. the international convention adopted in parallel with the peace treaties. It included the minimum conditions for carrying out the work process and regulations for interpersonal relations within it.
The assumption worked that, being included in the peace treaties, the signatory states adhered „ipso facto” to this document and undertook to implement it, through their national legislation. It is the same idea that had led to the inclusion in the treaty of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
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