[Communicated to the Council and the Members Official No. : C . 5 1 8 . M . 2 3 4 .1934- VII. of the League.]

Geneva, November 30th, 1934.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

REQUEST BY THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT

under Article 11, Paragraph 2, of the Covenant.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT

Note by the Secretary-General : The Secretary-General has the honour to circulate to the Council and Members of the League of Nations the following communication, which he received from the Yugoslav Government on November 28th, 1934.

Series of League of Nations Publications VII. POLITICAL 1934. VII. 14. [T ranslation]

COMMUNICATION FROM THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT TO THE COUNCIL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE RESPONSIBILITY INCURRED BY THE HUNGARIAN AUTHORI­ TIES IN CONNECTION WITH TERRORIST ACTIVITIES DIRECTED AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA.

Geneva, November 1934.

I. THE BEGINNINGS OF TERRORIST ACTION IN HUNGARIAN TERRITORY.

The influx of Yugoslav émigrés who settled in Hungary cannot alone be held responsible for the terrorist action directed from Hungarian territory against the security of the Yugoslav State. Before the arrival of a sufficient number of émigrés and their leaders belonging to the " UstaSa ”, a terrorist organisation, these activities were directed by certain Hungarian officers, who got into personal contact with the terrorists and gave them the necessary instructions for carrying out their missions. The first émigrés were housed by the Hungarian authorities in barracks and other public buildings. More­ over, certain Hungarian associations (such as the “ Nemzeti Munkavedelmi Tartalek ” association and the secret society “ Arpad Fiai ”, with its terrorist section, the “ Ifiu Garda ”, etc.) were already engaged in illegal activities directed against the neighbouring States, with the object of overthrowing the existing state of affairs. The relations between the various Hungarian associa­ tions and official organs working for the revision of the frontiers by every possible means and the terrorist organisations are set out in detail in the state­ ment of Vinco Mihalus, a Slovak émigré, made before the Examining Magistrate of the Czechoslovak Court at Bratislava in the proceedings brought against the Slovak terrorists Ljudevid Koren and associates (see Annex 6 to this document). When the leaders of Yugoslav terrorist émigrés came to look for suitable head­ quarters from which to organise their systematic action, they found the ground prepared for them in Hungary. They entered into the cadre of an already existing organisation, of which they merely became one of the organs of execu­ tion. These terrorists and their activities thus became a weapon in the hands of Hungarian revisionists. Long before the establishment, therefore, of the " UstaSa ” organisation in Hungarian territory, there existed a terrorist organisation directed from that territory against Yugoslavia. In proof of these activities directed by certain Hungarian officers, we may quote the case of Stanko Matkovic, a former lieutenant of the Austro-Hungarian army, arrested at the beginning of May 1922 and tried by the Zagreb District Court on November 20th of the same year. During the proceedings, Matkovic revealed the following facts. Immediately after the war he had become a Yugoslav official at Zagreb. Being fearful of the consequences of a criminal act committed in Yugoslavia, he took refuge in Hungary. He was shortly afterwards engaged in the Hungarian Secret Service and was placed under the orders of Captain Balenovic, an individual who later on played an important part in a number of acts directed againt the Yugoslav State. At that time—i.e., at the beginning of

S.d.N. 1.555 (F.) 1.180 (A.) 12/34. Im p. Kundig. — 4 — iç 2 i—a special committee was formed by a Hungarian association known as “ Hungarians, awake ! ” to deal with the “ liberation of Croatia A number of Hungarian officers took a very active part in the work of this Committee. Matkovic gave the names of the following officers : Metzger, Petrasz, Balenovic, Lukas, Duric, etc. In April 1922, Matkovic was summoned to one of the offices of the “ Hun­ garians, awake ! ” association, where Geza Adorjan, a lieutenant in the Hun­ garian army, in the presence of two other Hungarian officers, Ili Laszlo and Sesevic, told him that he must proceed to Yugoslavia to make an attempt on the life of King Alexander during the celebration of that monarch’s marriage. Arrested immediately on his arrival in Yugoslavia, he was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment by the Zagreb District Court. It should also be mentioned that one of the terrorists’ future leaders, Gustav Percec, maintained contact with the Hungarian officers, in particular with Major Klàr, whose name will often appear in connection with terrorist action against the safety of the Yugoslav State before the organisation of the “ UstaSa ” on Hungarian territory. In the judgment of the Zagreb District Court (No. 7446/1929, of June 30th, 1931) it was noted that one Antun Herceg had been sent to Pécs, in Hungary, to the printer Janos Berta as bearer of a letter from Percec, then still residing at Zagreb, to Major Klàr. Herceg stayed a few days with the printer Berta, who was Major Klàr’s liaison agent ; after which the Hungarian officer gave him a letter which he was to take to Percec. Another case of the direct instruction of terrorists by Hungarian officers is that of the Yugoslav deserter Stefan Fehervari, arrested in Yugoslavia after his clandestine return from Hungary. He stated to the Yugoslav authorities that, after his flight to Hungary, he had been sent by certain agents to Janos Berta, the Pécs printer mentioned above. In the latter’s house he met Major Klàr, who gave him instructions to mine the bridge over the Save, between Belgrade and Zemun. The proceedings against the terrorist Andrija Tilman and his two com­ panions, arrested in August 1930 and sentenced by the Belgrade Tribunal for the Protection of the State on May 23rd, 1931, again revealed Major Klàr’s participation in the preparation of outrages. Tilman and his associates stated to the Tribunal that they also had been sent to Major Klàr’s right-hand man, the said Janos Berta, where Major Klàr had given them instruction in handling explosives. On another occasion, at Janos Berta’s house, Tilman was introduced to Dr. Pavelic, the supreme head (Poglavnik) of the “ UstaSa ”.

II. ORGANISATION OF THE TERRORIST MOVEMENT IN HUNGARIAN TERRITORY WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF YUGOSLAV ÉMIGRÉS.

The first Yugoslav émigrés arriving in Hungarian territory had been housed and fed in Hungarian barracks. Even as recently as the beginning of 1931, the terrorists Mijo Seletkovic, Zvonimir PospiSil and Mijo Babic, refugees from Yugoslavia, were still housed at the Frigyes barracks at Pécs. This system had many drawbacks, particularly from the point of view of the training of Yugoslav émigrés in terrorist methods. Moreover, for the purposes of secret activities, direct contact between the criminals and the Hungarian authorities involved too great a risk of publicity, as was revealed chiefly during the proceedings against Tilman and his associates. As terrorist action was to take an ever-greater extension, it was felt that it would be better to concentrate all the bandits in a few main centres in order that they might receive systematic instruction and be subject to more rigorous discipline. Thus, Gustav Percec, one of the terrorist leaders, advised by Hungarian officers, conceived the idea of renting the Janka Puszta farm, in order to establish a terrorist camp there. Assuming the false name of Emil Horvath, he rented this farm at the beginning of the autumn of 1931. With regard to this farm, which subsequently became notorious in the annals of international terrorism, there is nothing to add to the description given in the Yugoslav communication to the Council of the League of Nations dated June 4th, 1934. The statements made by the terrorists arrested in France confirm the communication from the Yugoslav Government in every detail. The terrorists were there subjected to severe discipline, and were methodically trained for the commission of acts of terrorism. It should be added, however, that Janka Puszta was by no means the only camp of Yugoslav terrorists established in Hungarian territory. As the number of émigrés continued to increase owing to the generous assistance afforded them, steps had to be taken to find other camps wherein to lodge them. According to information in the possession of the Yugoslav authorities, there were, or are still, Yugoslav terrorists and émigrés in the following localities : (1) Ana Majur, at 2 kilometres from the village of Becséhely, Zala district; (2) Bagola Puszta, at 2 kilometres from Nagy Kanizsa; (3) Belcsa Puszta, near Bares ; (4) the village of Gelse in the Nagy Kanizsa district; (5) a group of émigrés was housed at Kaposvar, Main Street No. 26 (this group was subsequently transferred to Rabamolnari, in the district of Vasvar) ; (6) a group of terrorists was transferred in April from Janka Puszta to the neighbouring town of Nagy Kanizsa and was housed at No. 23, Horti Miklos- utca (according to the statement of Mijo Kralj, one of the Marseilles regicides, this was the house in which lots were drawn to decide who should be the three assassins who were to make an attempt on the life of His Majesty King Alexander) ; (7) the village of Rabamolnari, Vasvar district (in this village lives a group of émigrés who had stayed for some time at Kaposvar) ; (8) Szurda Puszta, 2 kilometres to the south of the village of Becshély. It should be carefully borne in mind that none of these places is more than 20 kilometres distant from the Yugoslav frontier. The manner in which the émigrés were recruited and sent to terrorist camps shows the extent of the assistance which certain Hungarian civil and military authorities lent to the organisation of terrorist operations in their territory. On this point, the Yugoslav Government possesses a large mass of evidence, all absolutely concordant, supplied by the depositions of terrorists who voluntarily returned to Yugoslavia or were arrested by the Yugoslav authorities when engaged in their criminal activities. We cannot possibly reproduce here all the statements made either to the police or in the courts, so we must content ourselves with mentioning the most typical cases. We therefore give the depositions of Dragutin Sikirica, Ivan Mraz, Marjan Madjeric, Ivan Micek, Stepan Petrovie and Andrija Gredicek, made at diverse times before various authorities. These five individuals were the victims of the machinations of recruiting agents of Pavelic and Gustav Percec, who promised them handsome pay and a pleasant life in Hungarian territory. Thus tempted, they illegally crossed the Yugoslav-Hungarian frontier and were arrested on their arrival in Hungary by the Hungarian authorities. They were taken to Czurgo, chief town of the district near the frontier, where the authorities subjected them to a very severe interrogation. From Czurgo they were sent to Budapest, where they spent a few days in a prison (Tolonhaz). From there they were taken to official premises, where they were brought before Gustav Percec, a Hungarian officer who, as they subsequently learnt, was Major Klàr, and a third person whose identity was unknown to them. Percec told them on this occasion that he was the leader of the Croat émigrés in Hungary and invited them — 6 —

to come to Janza Puszta, where they would have to take an oath of fidelity to the terrorist organisation. Not knowing what to do and feeling that they were already compromised, they agreed. They were kept for a few days in the prison and, on leaving, were taken by a police officer to the small Budapest station, where Gustav Percec was awaiting them. The police officer left them and they proceeded with Percec to Nagy Kanizsa, the nearest station to Janka Puszta. During the journey, Percec provided his new recruits with false names ; Ivan Mraz was to be known as Ivan Jakovac; Marj an Mad j eric as Mar j an Josifovic; Stepan Petrovic as Draganic, etc. On arriving at Janka Puszta, they obtained from the sub-prefect of Czurgo identity cards made out in their new assumed names. The presence and stay of these individuals in Hungarian territory, and at Janka Puszta in particular, has recently been admitted in the Hungarian Government's note No. 3873, of November 21st, 1934, to the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest (see Annex No. 48). A “ List of Yugoslav subjects from the former Croatia-Slavonia who, having immigrated into Hungary, left that country during the years 1931-1934 ” is appended to this note. No. 33 in this list is Andrea Gredicek, of no occupation, with a note to the effect that the date of his arrival is unknown, but that he left Janka Puszta in March 1934. No. 52 is Marjan Madjeric, with a note to the effect that he stayed at Janka Puszta from the end of 1931 till January 1934. Ivan Micek, No. 57, without occupation, stayed at Janka Puszta, according to the Hunga­ rian authorities, until the end of 1933. Dragutin (Dragee) Sekirica appears as No. 80 on this list, with a statement that he remained at Janka Puszta from the end of 1931 until May 1932. Stjepan (Istvan) Petrovic, no occu­ pation, appears as No. 67, with the statement that he stayed at Janka Puszta from 1931 until April 1934. All this information supplied by the Hungarian authorities only a few days ago agrees, in the main, with the statements made by these individuals regarding their stay at the Janka Puszta farm and their departure from that farm. It should, however, be noted that, under the heading “ left for ”, the Hungarian authorities merely say “ disappeared ”, “ abroad ” or “ left for an unknown destination Now, these “ departures for an unknown destination ”, etc., coincide either with the crossing of the Yugoslav frontier by these individuals for the purpose of committing acts of terrorism or with their escape from the Janka Puszta camp. The Marseilles criminals are also mentioned in this list and are reported as having " disappeared ” from Hungary on the eve of the Marseilles outrage. It would be possible to quote a whole series of similar cases, but this would not seem to be necessary, as the methods followed have always been the same. The individuals were arrested on crossing the frontier by the Hungarian authorities and questioned. After being kept in custody for a few days either by the police or by the military authorities in order to give the head of the terrorist organisation time to check up their identity, antecedents and their purpose in coming to Hungary, they were placed at the disposal of the head of the terrorist organisation, who thus became the absolute master of their destinies. Mention should also be made of another form of assistance afforded to terrorists during their passage from Hungary to Yugoslavia in order to carry out the missions entrusted to them by the leaders of the terrorist organisation. In this connection, the trial before the State tribunal, which ended in the passing of a sentence, dated May 23rd, 1931, on the terrorist Tilman and associates, for attempted outrages, smuggling arms and explosives and recruiting other terrorists, is very characteristic. Tilman, after having entered Hungary and got into touch with the head of the terrorist organisation, was provided with a large quantity of explosives and arms and was sent to a gendarmerie frontier post at Berement. Tilman and his associates lunched — 7 — and slept at the gendarmerie outpost and, on the orders of the commandant, were conducted to the Yugoslav frontier by two gendarmes. This operation was several times repeated, invariably through the Berement gendarmerie post, until Tilman and his accomplices were arrested. At the time of his arrest, the terrorist Tilman was found to be in possession of a quantity of explosives bearing the mark of the Royal Hungarian factory at Peremarton. A description of these marks was communicated to the Hungarian Government by the Royal Yugoslav Legation in Budapest with a view to obtaining some explanation regarding their provenance. The following is the reply given by the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, No. R.P. 184, of March 3rd, 1931, which we reproduce without comment : “ Since there are certain regulations restricting the sale of these products (explosives), it is obvious that the person in question obtained the packet by theft or by giving false information to the seller. As a year has now elapsed since the product was purchased, it is no longer possible to ascertain the exact facts.”

III. THE CHARACTER AND PAST HISTORY OF THE TERRORISTS ESTABLISHED IN HUNGARY. It is interesting from many points of view to glance at the character and past history of the individuals composing the terrorist bands established in Hungary and to see the class of persons among whom they were recruited. From the standpoint of their origin, the terrorists may be classified in five categories. 1. Former officers of the Austro-Hungary army who had been completely denationalised and who, after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, never returned to their new fatherland, or left it immediately for various reasons. These persons were émigrés even before the new Yugoslav State had taken definite shape. Their campaign against the Yugoslav State dates from the year 1919. Of these, we should mention, in particular, General Sarkotic, who opted for Austrian nationality and was granted an Austrian war pension : Colonel Ivan Percevic (one of the organisers of the Marsailles outrage) ; Lieut-.Colonel Stevo Dujic (who opted for Austrian nationality) ; Major Stipetic; Major Josip Metzger (one of the supposed organisers of the Marseilles outrage) ; Captain Balenovic (who entered Hungarian service as head of the secret service in the Bares sector) ; Captain Emil Lahovsky, instructor at Janka Puszta, etc. These officers, who could not reconcile themselves to the regime of the new States, formed the cadre which directed the terrorist move­ ment. Probably M. Tibor Eckhardt, the Hungarian representative accredited to the League of Nations, was not thinking of these persons when, in the speech he made on November 5th this year to the Foreign Press Association at Budapest, he spoke of unfortunate persons, who fled naked, worn-out and without any papers of identity, across the Hungarian frontier to seek refuge in Hungarian territory. 2. A large number of terrorists have a very bad record and have long been engaged in crime. Josip Balenovic was a former officer, accused of embezzlement ; Emil Lahovsky, who took service in the Yugoslav army immediately after the war, fled to Hungary after embezzlement committed in the course of his duties. Mijo Seletkovic, one of the most notorious terrorists, emigrated to Hungary after having been dismissed his post as police commis­ sioner at Djakovo on account of serious irregularities committed by him in the course of his official duties. Pospisil, one of the accomplices in the Marseilles outrage and the principal manufacturer of infernal machines at Janka Puszta, had, before he came to Hungary, been condemned to death for murder. The terrorist Krobot had been condemned for assault and violence. Another Janka Puszta terrorist, Hadan Huëkic, had been sentenced by a Belgian court and had been expelled from that country after serving his sentence. Vlado Georgijev-Cernozemski (whose real name is Velicko Kerin and who is of Bulgarian nationality, born at Kamenica in Bulgaria), the murderer of His Majesty King Alexander and of M. Barthou, and an instructor in the terrorist camps, was one of the greatest criminals known. At Sofia, he assassinated the Bulgarian deputy Dimov, was condemned to death for this crime and was then reprieved. Later he was again sentenced to hard labour for life for the murder of Naum Tomalevski, the dissenting representative of the Macedonian Committee, his sentence was again remitted, etc. 3. The third category of terrorists was recruited in colonies of working­ men who had emigrated to North and South America, Belgium, etc. The agents of the " UstaSa ” organisation, Branimir Jelic and Stjepan Peric, who are also implicated in the Marseilles outrage, often visited these colonies in order to recruit adherents. They were aided in their sinister work by the economic depression, which left many Yugoslav working-men abroad unem­ ployed and destitute. These working-men were attracted by promises of remunerative labour and an easier life. One of the accomplices in the Marseilles outrage, Ivan Rajic, was enrolled in 1931 in Brazil and taken to the Janka Puszta camp. This was also the case wirh the terrorist Krobot, who was killed by the explosion of bombs and infernal machines which he was hiding in his home. According to the state­ ments of the arrested terrorists, there were at Janka Puszta some ten persons, emigrants from South America. Others had come from Belgium : for instance, Josip Zarko (who committed suicide at Janka Puszta), Hadan HuSkic, etc., after having been expelled from Belgium. The Yugoslav Legation in Brussels has collected a large number of statements made by Yugoslav workmen in Belgium, to whom “ UstaSa " agents made very alluring proposals in order to attract them to the terrorist camps. These same agents resorted to threats against Yugoslav émigrés who were not attracted by their promises. 4. The fourth category consists of workmen, poor unemployed peasants, living in districts near the Hungarian frontier. These were attracted by promises of certain and easy work in Hungary. These simple, credulous people were soon disappointed when they arrived in the terrorist camps, but, being now compromised, they had no chance of escaping from their new masters. Having no money and no identity papers, and being watched by the chiefs and instructors of the camp on the one hand, and by the police on the other, they could not attempt to escape without risking their lives. Despite this, several of them were unable to bear the treatment inflicted on them at Janka Puszta and, at the risk of their lives, returned voluntarily to Yugoslavia and gave themselves up to the authorities. This was the case, for example, of Dragutin Sikirica, who returned on May 9th, 1932; Ivan Mraz, who returned on December 4th, 1932; Marjan Madjeric, who returned on December 13th, 1932; etc. 5. Lastly, we may place in the fifth category of bandits established in Hungary the members of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation (“ VMRO” or “ ORIM ”). A pact of mutual assistance was concluded in April 1929 between Pavelic and Percec, the chiefs of the “ UstaSa ”, and the represent­ atives of the Macedonian organisation, when the two former visited Sofia. The chief purpose of this pact was to provide the “ UstaSa " with the necessary instructors to initiate its members into terrorist methods. Indeed, to found an advanced school of terrorism, no better masters could have been imagined than the bandits of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation, who had given striking proof of their skill in this sphere. This alliance between the “ UstaSa ” and the Macedonian organisation was an open secret. In the speeches delivered during their visit to Sofia on — 9 —

April 21st, 1929, by Pavelic and Percec, the chiefs of the “UstaSa”, and no behalf of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation by Dr. StaniSev, from the balcony of an hotel and at a public banquet, a joint illegal campaign against Yugoslavia was advocated. In December 1933, the Yugoslav Legation in Sofia was obliged to protest to the Bulgarian Government, in its Note No. 1629, against the activities of Marko DoSen, an agent of the “ UstaSa”, who recruited terrorists for the “ UstaSa ” camps on the premises of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation. Among the terrorists sent by the Macedonian organisation to the “ UstaSa ” camps in Hungary may be mentioned: Dimitri Avramov, delegate of the Macedonian revolutionary organisation (VMRO), replaced later by Kiril Drangov, who played a prominent part in the organisation of the “ UstaSa ” ; Gligor Milcinov ; and the regicide Vlado Georgiev (who seems to have stayed in Hungary under the assumed neme of Bonev). As regards the last-named, the Bulgarian police, in their letter of November 3rd, 1934, mention that all track of him has been lost in Bulgaria since July 15th, 1932—i.e., since the date when, for the second time, his sentence was remitted, and that, according to their information, he was sent by the VMRO as an instructor to the Croatian terrorists at their request.

IV. PROOF THAT THE HUNGARIAN AUTHORITIES WERE ACQUAINTED WITH THE METHODS AND AIMS OF THE TERRORIST ACTION ORGANISED IN THEIR TERRITORY.

It cannot be maintained that the Hungarian authorities were ignorant of the aims or methods of work of the terrorist émigrés who had settled in their territory. The Hungarian Foreign Minister publicly recognised this in his Note No. 1211/Pol., dated April 26th, 1934, to the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest, in which he says: “ The Ministry does not question that incidents may have occurred from time to time which were in reality due to the fact that the Hungarian Government agents against whom the conduct referred to is alleged, were merely the dupes of the different malefactors in question— which is not surprising having regard to the well-known nefarious practices of the latter”. It is therefore difficult to understand the statement of M. Tibor Eckhardt, Hungarian representative accredited to the League of Nations, who, in his above-mentioned speech delivered on November 5th to the Foreign Press Association in Budapest, went so far as to say that “ at Janka Puszta there were merely a few Croatian peasants who, protected by the right of asylum, gained a precarious livelihood by their toil ”. It would be interesting to know how these “ malefactors whose nefarious practices are well known ” have become, since the Marseilles outrage, peaceful tillers of the soil, living upon the produce of their labours. But this official admission by the Hungarian Government was not necess­ ary. Patent facts which cannot be disguised prove that the Hungarian authori­ ties could entertain no doubt upon the subject. In the first place, all the terrorists established in Janka Puszta were affi­ liated to a terrorist society, the “ UstaSa ”, which made no secret of its existence, its aims, or its methods of action. This society had its official Press organs, Gric (edited by Ivan Percevic), Ustasa, and Nezavisna Hrvatska Drzava (The Independent Croat State). The terrorists were instructed to introduce large numbers of copies of Gric and Ustasa into the Yugoslav-Hungarian frontier zone, and they did so under the eyes and with the knowledge of the Hungarian authorities. Every number of the journals mentioned and of other propaganda tracts was nothing but one long incitement to the murder of His Majesty King — 10 ------

Alexander and the members of the Belgrade Government, couched in the most violent and disgraceful terms.

In the second place, the members of the “ UstaSa ” wore a uniform of a military type, as prescribed by their regulations. A certain number of terrorists who fled into Yugoslav territory from the Janka Puszta camp were wearing them at the time of their escape. A photograph of “ UstaSis ” in uniform is attached to this communication (see Annex i—A). This uniform was worn by the terrorists especially during the military drills in which they engaged in the Janka Puszta camp. The Hungarian authorities could not possibly have believed that ordinary agricultural labourers put on military uniforms simply to work in the fields.

Furthermore, the “ UstaSa ” organisation, in order to strike the imagination of its supporters and produce a psychological effect on simple and credulous persons, had its own coinage, which circulated among its members. These coins, which bear on one side the inscription " For the Independent Croat State ” and on the other side the monogram of the “ UstaSa ” organisation with a hand-grenade in the middle, are struck, in the opinion of Yugoslav experts, based on technical characteristics, at the Hungarian State Mint in Budapest. A specimen of this money accompanies the present communication (see Annex No. i—-B).

Again, it is obvious that a group of individuals which engages in the open air, according to the unanimous testimony of all the terrorists before both foreign and Yugoslav authorities, in military exercises with fire-arms, bombs, etc., could not remain unknown to the authorities of an organised country, especially when, as will be shown below, their attention had already been drawn to the point by the Yugoslav authorities. But the attitude of the Hungarian authorities was not confined to passive tolerance. They did not hesitate, on occasion, to lend active assistance. This assistance did not stop at the recruitment of terrorists by the methods described above. The Hungarian gendarmes watched the approaches to the camp in order to stop undesirable persons from coming nearer. The foreign newspaper corres­ pondents who came to visit the Janka Puszta camp after the Marseilles crime found that the neighbouring population was in a terrorised condition and had been coached by the authorities as regarded the events that had occurred at the camp.

Lastly, in December 1931, a serious rising of the inmates of Janka Puszta broke out against Percec, on the ground that he lived an extravagant and dissolute life, when they were subject to strict discipline. Captain Seletkovic, one of the instructors at the camp, thereupon rang up Major Klàr and asked him to come to Janka Puszta to pacify the terrorists and restore order. He came at once, but his intervention proved useless. Colonel Ivan Percevic, brought in from Vienna on December 18th, 1931, was also unable to restore peace. The police then intervened to expel the malcontents, and several gendarmes were stationed at Janka Puszta for a few days to guard the chief Percec against the rebellious terrorists. A section of the malcontents were sent abroad with Hungarian passports; others were sent to Debreczen, where they were kept in the guardroom until January 6th, 1932. After that date, these terrorists were engaged as domestic servants at Debreczen, one by Colonel Tekess Vitéz Gyula (No. 9, Peter Foja Street), a second by Captain Huszar Vitéz Endre (No. 53, Etves Street), and a third by Ignac Domitrovic, one of the terrorists living in Hungary. — II —

V. QUESTION OF THE HUNGARIAN PASSPORTS ISSUED TO TERRORISTS.

The number of passports issued by the Hungarian authorities to terrorists and suspect Yugoslav nationals is very large; this is explained by the fact that the terrorists and their chiefs had to make frequent journeys abroad in the performance of their missions. We cannot enumerate all the cases in which Hungarian passports were illegally delivered; we shall merely mention certain of them which concern the best-known names. 1. The two Yugoslav emigrants Dimitrije Salev and Gligorije Atanasov received in 1930, in agreement with the Macedonian revolutionary association, two Hungarian “ identity and travel papers ” enabling them to travel abroad, where they conducted an anti-Yugoslav campaign. The first was issued by the Budapest Chief of Police on November 20th, 1930, and bore the number 003827/1411-31. Atanasov carried a similar document, No. 003719/1402-230 issued at Budapest on November 17th, 1930, by the same authority. 2. Dr. Branimir Jelic, a Yugoslav national and one of the principal agents of the Pavelic gang, who made frequent journeys to Belgium and South America for the purpose of recruiting terrorists and who also appears to have played an important part in the preparation of the Marseilles crime, is the holder of “ identity and travel paper ” No. 003869/1452, issued to him under his real name by the Budapest police. This passport is signed by M. Gemery, at that time head of the Passport Department at the Ministry of the Interior. A photograph of this document is attached to the present communication (see Annex 3). According to information supplied by Mr. S. B. Sig woodson, Emigration Commissioner at Chicago, Jelic travelled in North America with Hungarian passport No. 308/731, issued by the Hungarian Legation in Berlin. 3. Stjepan Peric, barrister, one of the most prominent members of the “ UstaSa ”, who also made frequent journeys with a view to subversive propaganda and the recruitment of terrorists, when arrested on October 18th, 1934, at Liège by the Belgian police, was in possession of a Hungarian passport in his own name, No. A.400768/83720, issued by the Budapest police on June 23rd, 1934. A photograph of the passport is also attached to the present application (see Annex 4). 4. Andrija Artukovic, a Yugoslav national and a notorious terrorist, sentenced in default by the Yugoslav courts, and organiser of an attack upon a gendarmerie post at Lika, had a Hungarian passport under the name of Ivan Arnault, which was seized by the Vienna police at the beginning of this year. He was found later to be carrying a passport No. A.404509/314546, issued by the Budapest police authorities on February 5th, 1934, which was seized at his lodging by the French police when they arrested him (see Annex 5). 5. Josif Milj ko vie, a Yugoslav national, a member of the terrorist orga­ nisation, holder of passport No. A.308732/67834, issued in August 1932 by the Budapest police. It may be added that the terrorist Petar Oreb, coming from abroad, whose mission it was to assassinate His Majesty King Alexander in December 1933 at Zagreb, but who was arrested in time, carried a Hungarian passport under the false name of Benedikt Emil. His accomplice Ivan Herencic carried a Hungarian passport made out in the false name of Kren Janos. The terrorist An tun Crvic travelled in Germany in the summer of 1933 with Hungarian passport No. 238566, made out in the false name of Alfred Klein, born in Budapest on December 27th, 1887. Gustav Percec had also several passports in various assumed names, such as Emil Horvath, Jozef Steiner, Groom Illès, etc. Lastly, as will be seen below, the Marseilles murderers were also provided with Hungarian passports. — 12 —

VI. QUESTION OF THE FINANCIAL AID AND MATERIAL SUPPORT GIVEN TO THE TERRORIST ACTION.

A question which naturally arises in the impartial mind is that of the source of the material support and financial assistance without which terrorism on this scale would be inconceivable. It has already been suggested on the Hungarian side that the terrorists received help from the workers’ colonies in South and North America, Belgium, etc., and that, apart from that, they lived on their own earnings. All this will not bear serious examination. Even supposing that a few colonies of Yugoslav emigrants abroad were prepared to give material help to terrorist activities, which is far from having been proved, it is quite impossible that such assitance could have been given on a large scale. The unemployment which prevails in every country in the world has severely affected the Yugoslav emigrants. According to the infor­ mation in the Yugoslav Government’s possession, which can easily be verified, a very large number of Yugoslav workmen abroad are living in a state of absolute destitution. Indeed, it is owing to the precarious economic position of the Yugoslav emigrants abroad that some of them have consented to become members of the “ UstaSa ”, which at least provided them with clothing, food and adequate shelter. Moreover, the maintenance of terrorist activities on such a large scale, and the feeding, clothing and arming of all these groups of bandits for over five years, calls for very considerable funds, which at the present time no private organisation, however powerful, can provide. In the first place, the members of the " UstaSa ” receive a monthly allowance (see Annex 2, which reproduces two original receipts signed by members of the " UstaSa ”). The very frequent journeys made by the terrorists and their chiefs required considerable sums. Moreover, the liberal scale of living adopted by a large number of the principal terrorists, although they had no visible means of support, seems to indicate abundant resources. Lastly, the organisation of the Marseilles crime was conducted in an atmosphere of luxury which is rarely met with in enterprises of this kind. The Marseilles criminals were dressed in new clothes, lodged and fed in first-class hotels, and provided with conveyances everywhere; each of them possessed sums of money varying between two and three thousand French francs. All this could not have been done without financial help greatly exceeding the resources of a purely private organisation. The evidence of the Slovak emigrant Vinco Mihalus before the Examining Magistrate at Bratislava (see Annex 6) affords some very interesting hints as to the financial assistance given in Hungary to illegal activities directed against that country’s neighbours. Some day, this point will be more fully cleared up. For the moment, the Yugoslav Government is content to raise one of the most disturbing questions in the whole of this serious business. Nor is this the only question that has to be raised. In the course of the numerous outrages perpetrated on Yugoslav territory, the terrorists used, or the authorities seized, such astonishing quantities of arms, ammunition, bombs, infernal machines and explosives, that they could not have been bought through ordinary trade channels without exciting suspicion. And yet it is well known that in every country there are certain restrictions on the manufacture and sale of arms and explosives for private use. The ease with which the terrorists procured arms and the fact that in their camps they possessed regular arsenals of ammunition and explosives make it difficult to believe that Governmental authorities were not implicated. — 13 —

VII. THE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT'S REPRESENTATIONS TO THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT TO PUT AN END TO THE TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.

The Hungarian Government’s responsibility is singularly aggravated by the fact that the Yugoslav Government persistently complained of the activi­ ties of terrorists established in Hungarian territory, which led to a long series of outrages in Yugoslav territory before culminating in the Marseilles crime, and continually demanded that steps should be taken to put an end to them. A brief analysis must be made of the diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments, since nothing will better illustrate the reception given by the Hungarian Government to the Yugoslav Government’s representations. The first intervention of the Yugoslav Government dates from early October 1930. Its occasion was the arrest of two terrorists who were in posses­ sion of a quantity of explosives of Hungarian manufacture. The cross- examination of the arrested terrorists having revealed, among other things, that certain Hungarian officers (Major Klàr) were implicated in the preparation of the outrages and in the instructions given to the terrorists, the Yugoslav Minister in Budapest made personal representations to the Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister, Count Kuen Hedervari (see Annex 7). These representations having elicited no response, the Yugoslav Minister, on fresh instructions from his Government, was obliged to renew them on February 24th, 1931 (see Annex 8). At length, on March 3rd, 1931—five months after the first inter­ vention—a reply arrived from the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, No. R.P. 184/1931 (see Annex 9). This note relates exclusively to the question of the explosives introduced from Hungary, but says not a word about the accusa­ tion made against the Hungarian authorities as regards the preparation of the crime, or about the terrorists who conveyed the explosives into Yugo­ slav territory. Several outrages having been committed on the Yugoslav railways during 1931 by persons, and with explosives, coming from Hungary, the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest made fresh representations in its note No. 695/31, dated October 1st, 1931, in order to draw the Hungarian Government’s atten­ tion to the fact that the persons suspected of having taken part in the outrages had assembled in Hungarian territory. After giving the names of certain of these individuals, the Yugoslav Legation requested the Hungarian Govern­ ment to take steps to prevent these criminal activities (see Annex 10). In its reply of October 6th, 1931, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry says that “ the Government is therefore aware of the matter, and, that being so, the Royal Ministry hopes that none of these persons will escape the vigilance of the competent authorities ” (see Annex 11). This intervention having produced no practical result—we have now arrived at the period of the full development of terrorism, marked by the foundation of Janka Puszta—the Yugoslav Legation made new representations in its note No. 738, dated October 20th, 1931. In this note, the Yugoslav Legation gives the names of the terrorists who were to form the first Janka Puszta team: Gustav Percec, Ignjac Domitrovic, and Mijo Seletkovic. The names of the Macedonian terrorists who had come from Bulgaria were also mentioned. The Yugoslav Legation further stated that, according to its information, terrorist action on a large scale was in preparation on Hungarian territory. No reply was vouchsafed by the Hungarian Government to these very clear and definite statements (see Annex 12). '<

— 14 —

The Hungarian Government brought itself to reply on November 28th, by its note No. 4955, to a fourth application by the Yugoslav Government in the form of an aide-mémoire from the Yugoslav Chargé d’affaires, No. 811/31, dated November 14th, 1931. The former note provides a typical example of the Hungarian Government’s attitude to all the Yugoslav Government’s representations in connection with terrorist activities: careful enquiries had been made by the Hungarian authorities, but they had had absolutely no result. The persons mentioned were unknown to the Hungarian authorities. Consequently, nothing could be done (see Annexes 13 and 14). After this scarcely-disguised rebuff, the Yugoslav Government began to feel some doubt as to the utility of its interventions. Nevertheless, two indi­ viduals heavily armed with revolvers and bombs having been arrested coming from Hungary, in the act of attempting to cross the frontier surreptitiously, the Yugoslav Government again addressed to the Hungarian Government a note, No. 642/32, dated November 7th, 1932 (see Annex 15). No reply was received from the Hungarian Government. A further intervention by the Yugoslav Government in connection with a fresh incident, contained in aide- mémoire No. 566/31, dated July 10th, 1933, was couched in stronger terms. The conclusion of this aide-mémoire deserves to be quoted, since it directly raises the question of the attitude of the Hungarian authorities : " The Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour, acting on its Government’s instructions, to request the [Hungarian] Ministry [for Foreign Affairs] to take adequate steps to put an end to activities conducted in Hungarian territory against the safety of the Yugoslav State and, in particular, to prevent those responsible for the acts described above, and their accomplices and other terrorists, from crossing our frontier at their pleasure and engaging with impunity in activities directed against the integrity of the Yugoslav State, especially since it is not to be supposed that the Hungarian authorities are unaware of the character and proceedings of the persons in question in close proximity to the frontier ” (see Annex 16). The Hungarian Government maintained its silence and was not even stung to reply to the accusations concerning the Hungarian authorities. As the Yugoslav Legation had returned to the charge in its aide-mémoire No. 566, of July 10th, 1933, in connection with the conviction by the Yugoslav courts of two terrorists who had come from Hungary (Stephen Koprek and Michael Sigecan), the Hungarian Government at last replied in a note No. 591/7, dated November 15th, 1933. It carefully refrained from contesting the accuracy of the facts alleged by the Yugoslav Government, but reproached the Yugoslav authorities—incredible as it may seem—with badly guarding their frontier and provoking clandestine crossings (see Annex 17). In its note No. 1101, of December 21st, 1933, the Yugoslav Government notified the Hungarian Government of the contents of the booklet by Jelka Pogorelec, the former mistress of Percec, one of the leaders of the terrorists, revealing the Janka Puszta scandal in all its details. All the facts contained in this booklet, which mentions the names of several Hungarian officers who helped Percec in his enterprise, have been subsequently confirmed (see Annex 18). Nevertheless, the Hungarian Government kept complete silence. In its note of April 26th, 1934, the Hungarian Government merely said that the assertions of the woman Pogorelec were " imaginative ”, but did not deny them in any way. In the same note, however, the Hungarian Government admitted that there were terrorists at Janka Puszta and that certain of its officials were implicated (see Annex 30). We now come to the Koprivnica outrage, which was organised on Hungarian territory by the terrorists of Janka Puszta and was carried out by two of them, Mijo Kralj and Edward Premec. This question will be dealt with separately, and for the moment we merely refer to the diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments (see Annexes 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27). i5 — During the whole of this period, the terrorist activities originating in Hungarian territory—it must be emphasised that the terrorist outrages were committed in Yugoslav territory in the vicinity of the Hungarian frontier, which clearly shows the centre from which these activities proceeded— continued undiminished, and crimes involving the death of several Yugoslav citizens and officials, as well as great material damage, grew more and more numerous. The Yugoslav Government lost patience, and decided to try one more energetic intervention. On March 13th, 1934, it sent a note (also repro­ duced in its communication to the Council, dated June 4th, 1934) in which it ruthlessly exposed the implication of the Hungarian authorities and theii connivance with criminal acts directed against the safety of +he Yugoslav State and the lives of its citizens (see Annex 28). The Hungarian Government replied six weeks later by its note of April 26th, No. 1211/P0I./1934. This note led the Yugoslav Government to hope that the Hungarian Government had come round to a better understanding of its international duties. This attitude was, moreover, to be explained by the difficulties which the Hungarian inhabitants of the frontier zone were beginning to encounter owing to the situation created by the terrorist activities in that area, and the measures of self-defence taken by the Yugoslav authorities. In the Yugoslav Government’s communication to the Council dated June 4th, 1934, this note was analysed with all the care which it deserved. The Hungarian Government admitted that its officials had compromised themselves in their relations with the terrorists, but asserted that they had acted in good faith. It acknowledged the existence of Janka Puszta and stated that, long before the Yugoslav Government’s note of March 13th, it had taken all necessary steps to break up the terrorist camps. Lastly, it promised once again that the Yugoslav émigrés would remain subject to surveillance of the Hungarian authorities (see Annex 30). Finally, mention must be made of an intervention by the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest in note verbale No. 1132, dated October 28th, 1934— i.e., after the Marseilles crime. In this note, the Yugoslav Legation, after reminding the Hungarian Foreign Ministry of the promise given in the Hungarian note of April 26th, that “ the Yugoslav émigrés still in Hungary will remain subject to the surveillance of the authorities ”, asked it for information as to the residence of those émigrés in Hungary. The Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs replied by note No. 3726 of November 2nd, in which it asked for definition of the term “ Croat émigrés ” employed in the Legation’s note (see Annex 46). This reply of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s sufficiently shows the reluctance of the Hungarian authorities to supply information as to the residence of terrorists in Hungary. After several years of diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments concerning the terrorist émigrés resident in Hungary, the Hungarian Government still asks for a definition of the term “ Croat émigrés ”, whom it has promised to keep under surveillance, on the pretext that this expression was not actually employed in its note of April 26th. The Yugoslav Legation immediately answered, in its note No. 1176 of November 8th, that it referred to “ all those Yugoslav émigrés in Hungary known to the Royal Hungarian authorities on account of their separatist and terrorist activities directed against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia ” (see Annex 47). The Hungarian Foreign Ministry replied by a note No. 3873/Pol., dated November 21st (see Annex 48), accompanied by two lists, the first of which contained the names of “ Yugoslav subjects from the former Croatia-Slavonia, who, having immigrated into Hungary, left that country during the years 1931-1934 ”> and the second those of “ Yugoslav subjects from the former Croatia-Slavonia who have immigrated into Hungary since 1919 It states that “ the Royal Ministry is convinced that all the Yugoslav émigrés who might answer to this definition are at present outside Hungary. It is therefore not possible to draw up a list of persons now resident in Hungary and known to the Hungarian Government on account of their separatist and terrorist activities. “ With regard, on the other hand, to the separatist and terrorist émigrés who formerly resided in Hungary but are now abroad, it was the Royal Legation itself that was good enough to call the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to their activities while they were resident in Hungary. For that reason, the Royal Ministry does not think that a list containing only the names of such persons could be of any value to the Royal Legation.” In the first list " of Yugoslav subjects . . . who left Hungary during the years 1931-1934 ”, one finds the names of practically all the Yugoslav terrorists who have been arrested during the last few years on Yugoslav territory. One finds in it also the names of the three Marseilles criminals: Zvonimir PospiSil, Ivan Rajic and Mijo Kralj. As regards the first two, the Hungarian authorities admit that they stayed at Janka Puszta and that they “ disap­ peared ” in September 1934—that is to say, a few days before the Marseilles crime. As regards the third, Mijo Kralj, these same authorities allege that he “ disappeared ” during the month of July 1933 from Janka Puszta. Kralj himself, however, declares that he left Nagykanizsa (Hungary) at the same time as the other two criminals. It is clear, then, from the diplomatic correspondence quoted above that the Yugoslav Government’s representations often received no answer. Sometimes there was a mere acknowledgment with a promise of a reply, which was slow in coming or which never came at all. Lastly, on certain occasions on which the Hungarian Government showed itself particularly kindly disposed, its reply expressed surprise and regret that the facts of which the Yugoslav Government complained should have occurred. The notes concluded with the stereotyped phrase—which is found also in the communiqué of November 12th of this year, in which the Hungarian Government saw fit to declare its " investigations ” relating to the Marseilles crime concluded— “ that the Yugoslav émigrés will remain subject to the strict surveillance of the Hungarian authorities In repeating this phrase, the Hungarian Govern­ ment was, indeed, speaking the strict truth. In point of fact, the émigrés were actually kept under surveillance by the Hungarian authorities, but with what object is abundantly clear. Notwithstanding, during the course of this long correspondence, which continued for close on four years (1931-1934), the Hungarian Government never discovered the guilty persons whose names, together with the places at which they were staying, were communicated to it by the Yugoslav Govern­ ment, except for one terrorist of the name of Premec, who was declared, immediately after his arrest, to be a Hungarian national and was tried under the conditions which will be described hereunder. Before, as after the Marseilles crime, there was invariably a systematic denial and persistent refusal to co-operate in the search for the criminals who had been given asylum on Hungarian territory. On that point, the Hungarian Government has no excuse to proffer in its favour. Even supposing that it was indeed granting asylum to political émigrés not engaged in any criminal activity, it was an international duty recognised in the practice of all States not to permit them to reside in the immediate vicinity of the frontier. All the camps of émigrés were, however, situated, as it were, a few steps from the Yugoslav- Hungarian frontier, along which a zone had been established offering special facilities for frontier traffic. — 17 —

VIII. THE KOPRIVNICA OUTRAGE AND THE JUDGMENT OF THE HUNGARIAN TRIBUNAL AT KAPOSVAR.

The Hungarian Government, in order to exculpate itself from the grave charges brought by the Yugoslav Government and to show that on one occasion at least it has taken strong measures on its territory against the terrorists, always quotes the judgment of the Kaposvar Tribunal against a certain Premec, sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment for having sent to Yugoslavia an infernal machine the explosion of which caused the death of one Yugoslav police officer and seriously wounded two others. This judgment has invariably been referred to every time the question of the Hungarian Government’s responsibility for terrorist action has arisen. In view, however, of the circumstances in which the Premec trial was held, it would be better not to refer to it too often. The infernal machine, made to look like a book, according to the depo­ sitions of Mijo Kralj, one of the accomplices in the Marseilles crime arrested at Fontainebleau, was constructed at the Janka Puszta camp by another Marseilles accomplice arrested at Annemasse, Zvonimir PospiSil. The aforesaid Premec, a peasant of limited intelligence, engaged in basket-making and living on smuggling in the frontier zone, appears to have been simply a tool who was supposed, according to the instruction of the said Mijo Kralj and the leaders of the “ UstaSa ”, to pass the machine on to a Yugoslav railwayman. The latter, fearing lest the commission entrusted to him might be illegal, instead of posting the packet, as had been agreed, so that it should be delivered at the address of Dr. Bubanj, President of the Zagreb Court, took it to the police commissariat at Koprivnica, where it exploded. During the trial at Kaposvar (Hungary) Premec’s counsel said himself that Premec had acted simply in execution of the orders received from his organisation. The Yugoslav railwayman gave the names of the immediate culprits who alone were known to him, and the Yugoslav Government applied to the Hungarian Government for their arrest and extradition. In response to this application of the Yugoslav Government, the Hunga­ rian Government adopted the following attitude: it declared that Mijo Kralj could not be discovered on Hungarian territory, though his presence had been reported to it on several occasions by the Yugoslav authorities (see the notes of the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest annexed to the present communication under Nos. 19-27). The said Kralj, however, declared after his arrest that, during the “ investigations ” of the Hungarian police, he was living quietly at Janka Puszta and at other farms inhabited by the terrorists without being disturbed by anyone. This is explained by the fact that the said Kralj, a dangerous terrorist, was being kept in reserve for other exploits which still awaited him. But Premec, a simple peasant, could quite well be sacrificed in order to justify a political trial the principal object of which was to bring up questions of Yugoslav internal politics and to create an alibi for the Hungarian Government. Premec had become, in virtue of the Treaties of Peace, a Yugoslav subject and has always been regarded as such by the Yugoslav authorities, seeing that he has never applied for or obtained a permit of expatriation. As grounds for refusing his extradition, the Hungarian authorities alleged the fact that he had become a Hungarian national in 1927. That explicit statement of the Hungarian authorities had to be accepted, though the change of nationality of that simple peasant, whose family had all retained Yugoslav nationality, is inexplicable from many points of view. The trial was carefully organised. Premec was thoroughly coached in his rôle as a martyr to the Croat cause. The members of the “ UstaSa ” organisation and the other émigrés were present in full force at the hearings — i8 —

of the trial. Foremost among them was Ivo Frank, a Yugoslav emigrant of 1919, who was to act as chief witness at the trial, Dr. Artukovic, who took advantage of the opportunity to glorify the terrorist exploits of the " UstaSi ” in the well-known Hungarian newspaper Az Est of March 17th, 1934, together with the persons living at Janka Puszta, etc. The tribunal, notwithstanding its sympathy for the cause which these individuals were defending, had felt it its duty to take certain measures of precaution in view of their presence in the court. It ordered that all persons who wished to be present when judgment was delivered should be searched on entering the court-room. In this connec­ tion, Premec’s counsel, the Hungarian advocate Dr. Hegyi, confided to the correspondent of the Avala Agency in Budapest the following facts, which were confirmed by the said correspondent on oath. On the day before the proceed­ ings at which judgment was delivered, at eleven o’clock at night, the terrorists who were to be present when judgment was passed telephoned to Dr. Hegyi that the Hungarian police had directed their attention to the fact that they could not enter the court-room with the arms which they were carrying on them. Consequently, they would be in an awkward situation because, as they were to be searched when they entered the hall, they would not know what to do with their arms. Dr. Hegyi then proposed to them that they should bring their arms to his residence. There, some thirty revolvers were soon lying on the table and a sufficient quantity of ammunition according to Dr. Hegyi’s statement to wage a regular battle. During the proceedings before the Court, the reporting judge sketched a very dark picture of the political situation in Yugoslavia. The chief witness, one of the leaders of the émigrés, Ivo Frank, enlarged upon that theme. This evidence was given wide publicity in all the Hungarian newspapers. As regards the actual subject of the judgment and the circumstances attaching to the outrage, the tribunal remained singularly reticent. All that the accused said as to the reasons which led him to commit his crime was admitted as true without investigation. The tribunal was satisfied with his explanation that the explosive and the order to commit the crime had been given him in the name of the " UstaSi ” by a person whose name he did not know or did not wish to disclose. It even admitted that that simple peasant was capable himself of constructing the complicated mechanism of an infernal machine. This case came finally in the last instance before the Budapest Court of Cassation at the proceedings on October 9th, 1934. In order to illustrate the spirit in which the trial was conducted, reference should be made also to the Public Prosecutor’s speech before the Court of Cassation: " It is not necessary ”, he declared, “ to enlighten public opinion in this country as to the way in which the Croat people is tyrannised over in its own country. The violent methods of the Serbs are very generally known and it is idle to interpret the psychological motives which led Premec to perpetrate his deed. The acts of violence committed by the Serbs towards members of his family have reduced him to such a mental state that his indignation is perfectly excusable and may be taken into consideration.”

IX. RESULTS OF THE TERRORIST ACTION BEFORE THE MARSEILLES CRIME.

On page 8 of its communication to the Council of June 4th, the Yugoslav Government drew up a summary statement of the terrorist activities carried on from Hungarian territory in the shape of a series of outrages and assassi­ nations on Yugoslav territory. Seeing that the Hungarian request related only to the period 1932-1934, the Yugoslav Government confined its statement to the results of the terrorist action during that period. - IQ —

In order to give a more complete survey of the terrorist acts committed on Yugoslav territory and prepared or instigated in Hungarian territory, it will be necessary to enumerate all the outrages and murders perpetrated during the period 1929-1934. We shall then proceed to enumerate the judg­ ments of the Yugoslav Tribunal for the Defence of the State, giving the sentences passed on the terrorists and a statement of the circumstances in which the outrages and murders were carried out.

A. Terrorist Acts. In 1929. 1. On March 22nd, murder of M. Toni Siegel, director of the Novosti, a daily paper, at Zagreb. 2. On August 5th, explosion caused by two kilogrammes of ecrasite in the barracks of the gendarmerie regiment at Zagreb. 3. On August 30th, murder of Josip Kec, a police officer, and attempted murder of Josip Ban, a police officer, who was seriously wounded. 4. The same day, murder of Matija Tremski, a police officer, and attempt­ ed murder of Fran jo Blagovic, police officer.

In 1930. 5. In the night of April 2ist-22nd, attempted outrage by placing on the Striiivoj na-Vrpolj e-Mihanovci line an infernal machine, which was to have exploded on the passing of the train conveying a deputation of peasants to Belgrade. 6. In July, attempted outrage by the terrorist Tilman and associates, arrested at Valpovo.

In 1931. 7. On January 3rd, explosion of an infernal machine in the building of the Banovina of the Save at Zagreb. 8. On February 3rd, assassination of M. Andrija Beric, Mayor of the Commune of Nova GradiSka.

In 1932. 9. On July 17th, explosion of an infernal machine at Osijek station. 10. On August 15th, explosion of an infernal machine in a second-class carriage on the Osijek-Vinkovci line. 11. In the night of September 8th~9th, explosion of an infernal machine on the line from Belgrade to Zagreb between the stations of Mihanovci and Ivankovo. 12. On December 1st, explosion of an infernal machine in front of the Orthodox Church in Zagreb and another in the yard of the barracks of the 32nd Infantry Regiment in Zagreb.

In 1933. 13. On July 20th, at about midnight, a number of individuals endea­ voured to cross the River Drave, which forms part of the frontier between Yugoslavia and Hungary, near Djelekovac, with the object of introducing a large quantity of arms and explosive materials into Yugoslav territory. The — 20 —

Yugoslav frontier guards caught sight of them, and a fusillade ensued, in the course of which the Yugoslav frontier guard, Marko Djuric, was seriously wounded. 14. On July 30th, explosion of an infernal machine at the police headquarters at Koprivnica, killing one police officer and seriously wounding two others. 15. On August 24th, the former Minister and Member of Parliament Mirko Najdorfer was assassinated on his estate at Zlatar. The assassin, one Joseph Krobot, had spent several months in Hungary at Janka Puszta, after which he secretly crossed the frontier into Yugoslavia. He frequently went back to Hungary to provide himself with arms and explosives, which he conveyed into Yugoslavia. Krobot met his death on October n th , 1933, in a terrible explosion that completely wrecked his house, which had become a regular arsenal for arms and infernal machines imported from Hungary. 16. On September 14th, explosion of an infernal machine at Gola. 17. On September 29th, two infernal machines were placed in the neighbourhood of Rajhenburg station, but their explosion was prevented in time. 18. On October 8th, explosion of two infernal machines near the station of ZapreSic. 19. On December 9th, two terrorists named Petrovic and Gredicek, coming from the camp at Janka Puszta, were discovered by Yugoslav gen­ darmes on the road between Ludbreg and Koprivnica. They had succeeded in crossing the frontier from Hungary into Yugoslavia illegally and were carrying a number of infernal machines and hand grenades. They immediately opened fire on the gendarmes and seriously wounded the gendarme Zivko Grozdanic.

In 1934. 20. On March 15th, explosion of an infernal machine in the left-luggage office at Zagreb station.

B. Judgments of the Yugoslav Tribunal for the Defence of the State and Facts relating thereto.

1. By a judgment of May 23rd, 1931, D.S. No. 185/30, the terrorist Andrija Tilman was sentenced to death, the sentence being subsequently commuted to hard labour, the terrorists Anton Herban and Ivan Ruskaj to eighteen years’ hard labour, and Alexander Gros to fifteen years' hard labour. Further, the terrorist Mijo Seletkovic was sentenced to death by default. The Tribunal found, as regards Tilman : that he was a member of a terrorist organisation; that he had on several occasions entered Hungary illegally in order to convey from that country explosives and arms, with the object of committing terrorist acts on Yugoslav territory ; that he had also conveyed teriorist newspapers and pamphlets ; that he had taken with him, for the same purpose, into Hungarian territory Anton Herman and Alexander Gros. The Tribunal found, as regards Mijo Seletkovic, a refugee on Hungarian territory : that he was a member of a terrorist association ; that he had placed an infernal machine on the Strizivoj na-Vrpolj e-Mihanovci railway line (in Yugoslavia); that he had procured during their stay in Hungary for Andrija Tilman, Antun Herman, Alexander Gros and Ivan Ruskaj, arms, explosives and propaganda tracts with a view to terrorist action. — 21 —

As regards Antun Herman, Ivan Ruskaj and Alexander Gros, the Tribunal found that they had served as agents of the terrorist organisation established in Hungary for the illegal conveyance of weapons, explosives, ammunition and propaganda tracts from that country into Yugoslavia. 2. By its judgment, dated July 23rd, 1931, No. 12/31, the Tribunal for the Defence of the State sentenced the terrorists Ivan Rosie and Ivan Ljevakovic on the following grounds : that the said Ljevakovic had entered Hungary and subsequently proceeded to Vienna, where he had got into touch with the terrorist leaders, Ivan Percevic and Gustav Percec in order to receive instructions concerning terrorist action and espionage in Yugoslavia; that he had been given training at Sopron (Hungary) by a certain Percec in the handling of explosives and infernal machines; that, in accordance with instruc­ tions received from the terrorist organisation, he had incited a certain Ivan Rosie to murder Karlo Kovacevic, Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, and Andrija Beric, Mayor of the Commune of Nova GradiSka; that the said Rosie had murdered the said Andrija Beric at the instigation of the said Ivan Ljevakovic. 3. The same Tribunal, by its judgment of December 5th, 1931, No. 14/31, sentenced Josip MiklauSic for having, in complicity with Josip Poropat, placed in the building of the Banovina of the Save at Zagreb an infernal machine, which exploded on January 3rd, 1931. In the statement of the grounds for the judgment, it is noted that the infernal machines and other explosives were sent on two occasions to Josip MiklauSic by Percec and his agent Domitrovic, both established in Hungary. The first time, the delivery of explosives by Percec took place ar Kadrakut (Hungary) and the second time at Nagy Kanizsa (Hungary). 4. By the judgment of the same Tribunal, dated March 14th, 1932, No. 85/32, sentence of death by default was passed on Mijo Babic and Zvonimir PospiSil, the first for the murder of M. Toni Siegel, owner and director of a big newspaper at Zagreb, and Josip Kec, a police officer, and for the attempted murder of Josip Ban, and both the terrorists together for having caused, by means of two kilogrammes of ecrasite, an explosion in the barracks of the gendarmerie regiment at Zagreb, and for having murdered Matija Tremski, police officer, and seriously wounded Fran jo Blagovic, a police officer. In the statement of the grounds for the judgment of the Tribunal, it is said that the above-mentioned criminals had had several meetings abroad with the leader of the Percec band and that, during their stay at Pécs (Hungary) they had received instruction in the handling of explosives. 5. By the judgment of May 3rd, 1933, No. 50/32, the same Tribunal sentenced Stjepan Koprek to death by default, and Mihajlo Sigecan, a Hun­ garian national, to twelve years’ hard labour. In the statement of the grounds for the judgment, it is said that the said Koprek, established in Hungary, entered Yugoslavia on August 15th, 1932, with the object of placing infernal machines in two separate railway-carriages on the Osijek-Vinkovci line; that one of the infernal machines exploded and that one railway carriage was destroyed by the fire thus caused ; that the same individual again entered Yugoslav territory on September 8th of the same year, and that he placed on the Belgrade-Zagreb line, near the station of Mihanovci, an infernal machine, which exploded on the passing of the express train; that the said Sigecan, having illegally crossed the Yugoslav-Hungarian frontier, was found to be in possession of two revolvers with one hundred cartridges, a hand grenade and terrorist newspapers. 6. The judgment of the State Tribunal No. 53/33, of March 21st, 1934, sentenced Fran jo Zrinski to death, Tomo Keleman to hard labour for life — 22 — and Stjepan Pizeta, a refugee in Hungary, to death by default. The fourth accused party, Josip Krobot, was killed by an explosion which he caused in his own home when handling infernal machines, before the judgment of the Tribunal. The three accused were sentenced for the following crimes:

(a) Assassination of the Deputy and former Minister Mirko Naj- dorfer, on August 24th, 1933; (b) Placing of two infernal machines during the night of September 29th, 1933, near the station of Rajhenburg, on the Zagreb-Ljubljana line, before the passing of the train in which the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Roumania and Czechoslovakia were travelling on their way to the meeting of the Council of the Little Entente at Zagreb ; (c) Placing two infernal machines near the station of ZapreSic on the same line.

From the confessions of the accused and the statements of other witnesses, it appears that Josip Krobot on several occasions entered Hungary, where he was brought, through the intermediary of the Hungarian authorities, into direct touch with Pavelic and Percec. Returning to Yugoslavia, he always succeeded, thanks to the Hungarian authorities, in crossing the frontier clandestinely, carrying a large quantity of explosives. 7. The judgment of the same Tribunal of August 2nd, 1932, No. 19/34, sentenced two terrorists of Janka Puszta—namely, Stjepan Petrovic to hard labour and Andrija Gredicek to death, by default. In the preamble to the judgment, the following facts are stated: that the said Petrovic and Gredicek received at Janka Puszta, towards the end of November 1933, from Dr. Pavelic and from Percec, an order to commit an outrage against the Ban of the Save ; that the said Percec and his agent Zvoni- mir PospiSil delivered to them, with that object, eight hand-grenades, four revolvers, ammunition and certain sums of money; that they came to Zagreb, but that at the last moment they had not the courage to commit the outrage as ordered, and that they returned to Janka Puszta ; that, on returning to Janka Puszta, they were sentenced to death by the leaders of the “ UstaSi ” for not having carried out the orders given ; that, during their transfer to the place where they were to be executed, they succeeded in escaping. Further, a large number of details on the life at Janka Puszta are given in this judgment, which confirm all the previous information on the subject. By the same judgment, a certain number of individuals were sentenced for the illegal conveyance of arms and ammunition from Hungarian territory into Yugoslavia.

X. RESPONSIBILITY INCURRED FOR THE MARSEILLES CRIME.

This responsibility is proved by the following three facts:

(1) The choice of the criminals was made on Hungarian territory from among terrorists long and carefully trained in special camps for the perpetration of acts of this nature ; (2) The criminals left Hungarian territory freely, in possession of Hungarian passports ; (3) The Marseilles crime thus appears as the culmination of the terrorist action inspired and abetted for years on Hungarian territory. — 23 —

By a series of diplomatic representations, the Yugoslav Government directed the Hungarian Government’s attention to the activities of the terrorists established on its territory. It never ceased to demand that that Government should break up their camps and take the necessary measures to put an end to their criminal activities. The Yugoslav Government repeated its declarations before the Council of the League of Nations in June of this year, laying them down as a condition for the settlement of the questions pending between Yugoslavia and Hungary. But what was the Hungarian Government’s attitude in this question ? To begin with, it confined itself for a long time simply to ignoring the Yugoslav Government’s representations. Not only were no effective measures taken against the terrorists during the period 1930-1934, but there was actually during that time a persistent recrudescence of terrorist activity which expressed itself in a series of outrages on Yugoslav territory. It was only in April 1934 that the Hungarian Govern­ ment decided to make partial admissions as to the existence of terrorists on Hungarian territory and their " nefarious practices”. Only then were certain terrorists transferred from the camp at Junka Puszta. But that by no means implied the cessation of the terrorists’ activities. They were merely transferred elsewhere and continued to enjoy the same protection as heretofore. Thanks to this prolonged tolerance of the terrorist movement on Hungarian territory, a band of trained assassins was formed from which the organisers of the Marseilles outrage picked their men. There is only once conclusion to be drawn from this attitude of the Hungarian Government. It was solely on account of its tolerance and the assistance afforded by certain of its authorities that a band of trained and drilled assassins and terrorists was able to be organised in what was a veritable school for criminals established on its territory. It was to this nursery for terrorists that the organisers of the assassination of His Majesty the King of Yugoslavia came to seek and select the men who were to perpetrate their abominable crime. Moreover, as the terrorists arrested have confessed, this outrage was always represented to them as the supreme aim in view. For this reason, they practised shooting at Janka Puszta, with the portrait of His Majesty King Alexander as a target. As long ago as December 1933, a member of the “ UstaSa ”, Petar Oreb, was sent to kill the King, but failed owing to his detection by the Yugoslav authorities. The list communicated by the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest on November 21st this year includes the name of one Emil Benedikt, with the statement that he has resided at Janka Puszta from an unknown date until the end of 1933. Now, the man Oreb stated before the Yugoslav courts that he had travelled abroad, before his arrival in Yugoslavia, with a Hungarian passport, under the name of Emil Benedikt. According to the confession of one of the accomplices of the Marseilles regicide, Mijo Kralj, it was at Nagy Kanisza, whither some fifteen terrorists were transferred from Janka Puszta, that lots were drawn in the presence of Colonel Percevic for the selection of the three men who were to perpetrate the atrocity. The three criminals chosen, Mijo Kralj, Zvonimir PospiSil and Ivan Rajic, were formerly inmates of the camp at Janka Puszta, where they were known by the assumed names of “ Silni ”, “ Gyôrgy ” and “ Grga ”. These three individuals left Nagy Kanisza, with Hungarian passports, under the assumed names of Sever Joseph, Ingar 1st van and Bombaj Janos, as was ascertained by the Lausanne police and confirmed by the culprits’ statements to the French authorities. The order to leave for France with Hungarian passports, the railway tickets and the necessary funds were sent by the heads — 24 — of the organisation living in Budapest and brought to the assassins by the terrorist, Mijo Bzik. The Hungarian Government has repeatedly given a solemn promise that the émigrés still in Hungary would remain subject to the close surveillance of the Hungarian authorities ; that, indeed, was only its elementary duty. Can it be seriously claimed that any watch whatsoever was kept over the terrorists, when such goings and comings of suspected per­ sons, who had been transferred from Janka Puszta on account of their terrorist activities, were possible ? The Hungarian Government’s responsibility is, however, particularly aggravated by the fact that, although the presence of the assassin Mijo Kralj on Hungarian territory was reported to it and his extradition applied for, the Hungarian Government obstinately refused to arrest him. In reply to the request for particulars from the French Sûreté nationale, the Budapest police, in its radiogram 1422-206-27-19-28, stated (actual words used) : " It is possible that Kralj Michel, the alleged accomplice of Edward Premec, may have stayed at Janka Puszta during his flight, but he was unknown to anyone there and on this account no proof was obtainable ”. This radiogram reveals once again the premeditated reticence of the Hungarian authorities. As a matter of fact, all the inhabitants of Janka Puszta who fell into the hands of the Yugoslav or foreign police stated that they knew Kralj as an outstanding figure at Janka Puszta, where he went under the name of Silni (The Strong). Besides, in Note No. 916/6, of December 14th, 1933, it is stated that " according to information from the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice, it has not hitherto been possible to arrest Michel Kralj on Hungarian territory; it has been ascertained that he was residing in Hungary during the period February to April 1933; but his place of residence since that date is not known to the Hungarian authorities ”. No comment is needed upon discrepancies such as these (see Annex 26).

XI. ATTITUDE OF THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT AFTER THE MARSEILLES CRIME.

From Hungary’s attitude, it is quite apparent to any impartial observer that it was not to Hungary’s advantage, nor had she any desire, that the facts preceding and accompanying the crime should be brought to light. Whereas all the foreign police have, either on their own initiative or at the request of the French and Yugoslav police, undertaken exhaustive enquiries and verified in detail the passage through and residence of criminals and their actual or presumed accomplices in their respective territories, the Hungarian police has preserved complete silence, the real significance of which will deceive no one. In face of the international enquiry, the Hungarian Government has adopted the same policy of systematic negation which it has followed for years past towards every Yugosalv intervention. The best proof of this is afforded by radiogram No. 1422-206-27-19-28, sent by the Budapest Prefecture of Police (see Annex 37). A brief analysis of this document shows that it is full of reticences and evasions that are quite intolerable in international relations. In reply to the question put by the French police concerning Gustav Percec, the Budapest Prefecture refers to him by his alias, Joseph Neumann, journalist, and states that it has been unable to find any trace of the residence of Percec under that name in Budapest. It is only too clear, however, that this is merely a hurriedly thought-out subterfuge. The Prefecture was not asked to ascertain whether a real or imaginary individual bearing the name of Joseph Neumann had resided in Budapest, but whether Gustav Percec, one of the chief terrorists, had been living in Hungary under no matter what name. The — 25 —

Hungarian police did not dare to admit the fact, and it is not hard to guess the reason why. All the same, are not the Hungarian authorities anxious to give the impression that this individual is unknown to them and has never stayed in Hungary ? Later on, the Hungarian authorities stated that the farm at Janka Puszta was rented by a man named Emil Horvath. Have not the Hungarian authori­ ties yet succeeded in establishing, since 1931, or, at any rate, since Janka Puszta became an international scandal, the identity of the person hiding himself under that name ? Or do they still assert, after admitting in Note No. 1211, of April 26th, 1934, that the Yugoslav political refugees and émigrés had rented Janka Puszta, that the said Emil Horvath is a person existing in flesh and blood and quite distinct from Gustav Percec ? In the list attached to Note No. 3873, of November 21st, 1934 (Annex 48), it will be seen that the Hungarian authorities officially recognise the identity of Percec with Emil Horvath. But, even in this ultimate admission, the Hungarian authorities have not told the whole truth. They state that Percec “ disappeared " from Budapest at the end of 1933. The Yugoslav authorities, however, possess the original of a receipt from Percec, signed in one of his assumed names, “ Zdenko ” (Annex 2), and dated by him in Budapest on July 24th, 1934. The Yugoslav authorities also possess the original of a letter from the terrorist Vjekoslav Servaci, written from Budapest about the same time to another member of the “ UstaSa ” organisation. In this letter, Servaci states that Gustav Percec has rented a new flat in Budapest, Baross Utza 129, third floor, left. In the same letter, Servaci also states that- Percec’s belongings were removed on a lorry under the escort of a Hungarian police officer. As regards Mijo Kralj, one of the criminals sent from Hungary to France, the radiogram quoted above admits that he may possibly have stayed at Janka Puszta, but says that this could not be proved. However, on this point also the Budapest police was contradicted shortly afterwards by the other Hunga­ rian authorities. In the list attached to the above-mentioned Note No. 3873 from the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (see Annex 48), it was admitted that Mijo Kralj had lived at Janka Puszta from February to July 1933 and had then disappeared. This information is at variance with the previous note from the same Ministry, in which it is stated that Kralj resided in Hungary only from February to April 1933. But this last version of the Hungarian authorities does not appear to be any more correct, since Kralj, like his accom­ plices, stated that they all left Nagy Kanisza (Hungary) together, but not until about the end of September 1934. The case of the terrorist Vjekoslav Servaci, also mentioned in the radio­ gram, deserved special attention. The Hungarian police admits that he lived in Budapest under the assumed name of Janos Szendrey, but disappeared on October 13th of this year with his wife, without leaving any trace (see Annexes 38, 39, 40 and 41). Apart from this very strange disappearance, we must draw attention to certain disquieting occurrences which preceded it. On the evening of October 23rd, the head of the Budapest Police Press Bureau informed the journalists that the individual whose arrest was applied for by the Yugoslav Government in connection with the Marseilles crime had been arrested by the Hungarian authorities. This person could only be Servaci, as he was the only one of the criminals whose arrest had been formally requested by the Yugoslav Government. This news was published in the foreign newspapers, and the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest reported in its telephoned telegram of October 23rd, 1934, No. P.m o/34, communicated from Budapest at 10.30 p.m., that Servaci had been arrested (see Annex 42). This report, however, was contradicted next day, October 24th (see Annexes 43 and 44). It would ------26 be interesting to know what happened in the meantime and what has become of Servaci, who was first arrested and then dissappeared and could not be traced. We must also dwell for a moment on the Hungarian Government’s communiqué of November 12th, in which the Hungarian police stated that their investigations relating to the Marseilles crime had been concluded (see Annex 45). The communiqué mentions the arrest of twenty-one indivi­ duals, who were questioned, and states that none of them could be connected in any way with the Marseilles crime. The communiqué concludes with the statement that, although nothing to their discredit has been revealed by the enquiry, the Yugoslav émigrés will remain subject to police supervision. This communiqué, of laconic brevity, discloses neither the names of the individuals questioned nor the statements which they made. Neither does it say whether the enquiry covered the residence in and departure from Hungary of the accomplices in the Marseilles crime who were arrested by the French police. In face of this fact, it is hard to see what was the object of the enquiry and why the twenty-one individuals who were Yugoslav émigrés were arrested. In conclusion, we would draw attention to a discrepancy between the successive statements made by the Hungarian Government regarding the breaking up of the camp at Janka Puszta. In its note of April 26th, the Hungarian Government stated (actual words) : “ The Royal Ministry has the honour to inform the Royal Legation that some considerable time before the receipt of the note verbale from the Legation [i.e., the note of March 13th, 1934), the Hungarian Government had taken the necessary steps for the evacuation by the Yugoslav political refugees of Janka Puszta ”. On the other hand, in the communiqués issued by the Hungarian Legations abroad after the Marseilles crime, the Hungarian Government stated that the camp at Janka Puszta had been broken up in April this year. This fact is confirmed by two of the criminals arrested by the French police. The third, the man known as Rajic, stated that, in company with several comrades, he had remained at Janka Puszta until September this year.

CONCLUSION.

The Yugoslav Government has felt it incumbent upon it to lay before the Council of the League of Nations the extremely grave problems with which the community of States and world public opinion are confronted as a result of the Marseilles crime, which has robbed Yugoslavia of a great king and France of a great statesman, because it considers that this crime cannot be regarded as an isolated, individual act committed by criminal anarchists, examples of which can be found in history. The Marseilles crime is the logical outcome of a conspiracy against Yugoslavia, long organised and fostered abroad. The authorities of a single State are powerless to protect themselves effectively against terrorist activities like these and, without a minimum of loyalty, if not of international co-operation, it is impossible to contend against this particularly dangerous form of international crime. The Yugoslav Government has resisted terrorist activities centred outside its national territory with all the means in its power. It has made repeated but vain appeals for the co-operation of the Hungarian Government. Far from affording it assistance in the suppression of the terrorist plots, which have already cost Yugoslavia so many lives, the Hungarian authorities have en­ couraged these activities. The Hungarian Government, for whose help the Yugoslav Government has appealed time after time with a view to preventing these machinations, has refused to take any effective action. It is owing to the Hungarian Government’s attitude that the terrorist campaign against — 27 —

Yugoslavia, prepared so long ago, has culminated in the Marseilles crime. The Hungarian Government has thus incurred a heavy responsibility, which the Yugoslav Government regards as its primary international duty to expose before the supreme organ of the community of nations. The Yugoslav Government fully realises the gravity of this step, which it has taken only on the basis of facts, the truth of which it has been careful to verify.

/ — 29 —

Annex 1.

Members of the “ Ustasa " organisation in uniform

Coin struck for the “ Ustasa

Observe : “ 5 kuna ” and monogram of the Reverse: “ For the Independent Croat State ” organisation with a hand-grenade in the — 3o — A nnex 2.

O r i g in a l R e c e i p t s s i g n e d b y M e m b e r s o f t h e “ U s t a s a ” O rganisation .

USTASA—hr*vatska rcvolucionama organizacija (U H-R O-)

Nantira-

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lika:

Translation.] I’STASA — Croat Revolutionary Organisation (VHRO). Receipt. 450 (four hundred and fifty) pengô received by me from the Ustasa Headquarters in settlement for the month . of the year ...... For expenses, July 15th to August 15th, 1934. Budapest, July 24th, 1934-

Signature of Treasurer. Z d e n k o . (Initials of the terrorist Vjekoslav Servaci). (Signature of Percec unde ne of his aliases.)

USTA&A—hrvatska revolucionama organizacija (U H R O-)

Namira-

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Translation.] USTASA — Croat Revolutionary Organisation (UHRO). Receipt. 30 (thirty) pengô received by me from the Ustasa Headquarters in settlement for the m onth of the year For expenses for subsistence. Nyergesujfalu, August 20th, 1934. Signature of the Treasurer : Signed :

Stjepan R e z e k . — 3i — A nnex 3.

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Annex 6.

M i n u t e s o f t h e D e p o s i t i o n s o f W i t n e s s e s

Drawn up November igth, 1934, by the District Court of Bratislava (Pressburg) in the suit against Ljudovid Korenj and other persons hitherto unknown for crimes punishable under the Law for the Protection of the Republic. Present : Jesef Grim, Examining Magistrate; Kahova, Clerk of the Court.

The attention of the witness was drawn to Articles 208 and 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code. He replied to the questions put to him as follow's :

1. General Questions: Name : Vinco Mihalus. Age: 44. Place of birth: Svedernik. Domicile: Bratislava, ul. Sliezska, 579. Civil status: Married. Religion: Catholic. Profession : Clerk. Relations between the witness and the accused and the other parties concerned in the case: None.

After attention of the witness wras draw'n to the contents of his deposition, which evidently relates to the activities of Ljudevid Korenj during his residence in exile and to his relations with the Hungarian irredentists and the Croat émigrés, he said: Before making my deposition with regard to Ljudevid Korenj, I think it is necessary, for the better understanding of what is to follow, to give a brief description of my residence amongst the émigrés and of the activity and relations of the Hungarian irre­ dentists with the Croat émigrés according to my personal observations made wrhen I was myself concerned in them.

Since the assumption of power by the Gômbôs Government, the relations between the associations have been still further simplified and co-ordinated. Under the Bethlen Government and that of his successor, Count Kârolyi, the military and civilian associa­ tions retained a certain independence. Gômbôs alone kept a firm hold on his armed sections grouped together in the “ Move " association, which he rounded off by the Union of Turanian Sportsmen called “ Turani Vadaszok ”. The associations frequently had differences between themselves. For this reason, Gômbôs, when he became Premier, co-ordinated the activities of the terrorists organisations, military as well as civilian, in various ways, placing them under the official supervision of one of the Departments of the Ministry of War. The direction of this Department is entrusted to Colonel Kelemen wrho is assisted by a large number of officers. Until the Gômbôs Government came into powrer, the civilian organisations of irredentists concerned with Slovakia were always directed by an important individual, a member of the “ Federation of Blood ”, appointed by the Government. Count Paul Teleki w7as appointed Director of all activities connected with Slovakia immediately after the establishment of the Horthy regime, and continued to act in this capacity dow’n to 1922, when he was made Director of the Boy Scout movement. The direction of the movement was then temporarily taken over by Szinyey- Merse, a former Lord Lieutenant in Slovakia, as the principal delegate of the “ Nemzeti Szôvetseg ” Association. After him, the direction wras entrusted at the beginning of 1923 to General Siményfalvi, who continued to hold the post until his death at the beginning of 1929. From 1925 onwards, Ernest Moser, formerly a captain in the army on the active list, acted as his aide-de-camp, and, w'hile so acting, took a degree as Doctor of Economics, became a Member of Parliament and a Chief Counsellor of State, acquired a respectable fortune and a good social position as Curator of the Treasury of the Knights of Malta. On the death of Siményfalvi, he succeeded in acquiring the records and insignia of the movement, and thus became one of the best informed personages connected with Slovak irredentism : Siményfalvi himself had never kept the records in order. Accordingly, at the beginning of April 1929, Moser was made Director of the w'hole movement, and was at the same time appointed a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He held — 35 — this position until the fall of the Bethlen Government, when he lost his seat in Parliament. His successor was Professor Nyredy, who remained head of the irredentist movement until January 1932, when Gômbôs entrusted the sole direction of the movement to Colonel Kelemen. Special experts on Slovak questions were attached to him in the persons of Chief Counsellor of Police Dr. Alexander Nagy and Police Counsellor Dr. Petar Hain of the Political Service. Nagy and Hain w-ere at the head of the civilian and political movement, and they were entrusted with the supervision of the individuals belonging to the movement. They had a highly developed organisation. They worked with the aid of the railway official Jânos Borza and Dr. Karl Jàger. I do not know if they had other associates. I only know that their activities included the enlistment of individuals from Slovakia who were prepared to join hands with the political émigrés. The emissaries of Nagy also enlisted Ljudevid Korenj. At the present time, this civilian supervision and direction is no longer a decisive factor, since its place has been taken by the purely military direction under Kelemen. It is accordingly no longer the practice to form groups partly for politics and partly for espionage : instead, there has been created a single organisation of a military and secret character, which is at the same time a branch of the secret organisation known as the “ Federation of Blood ”. This organisation recruits men mainly for their military value. It divides them into two groups, those capable of carrying arms (the fighting group) and those who collect information (the information group). I do not know the heads of these groups. I only know that this secret society is called “ The Sons of Arpad ” (in Hungarian, “ Arpad Fiai ”, or, for short, “ Arpadosok ”). This is a secret organisation on Hungarian territory. It was founded at the same time as the “ Federation of Blood ” for young combatants, which explains the name “ Sons of Arpad ”, and is directed by the “ Federation of Blood ”. Its chief public organisations are known as “ Mefhosz ”, “ Emhe ” and “ Fo ”. After the establishment of the Horthy regime, the “ Leventa ” became the official organisation of the “ Sons of Arpad ” for Hungarian nationals. Its official object is the pre-military training of the young, which is compulsory under the law. After the accession of the Gômbôs Government, when Colonel Kelemen took over the direction of the whole irredentist movement, a central public organisation of “ Sons of Arpad ” was created in Hungary for the territories of the Succession States under the name of “ Young Guard ” (in Hungarian, “ Ifiü Garda ”)_ The organisation despatches sections into the territory of the Succession States or affiliates itself to similar military irredentist organisations already in existence (such as the " Dobrovoljci ” or the “ Ustasa ”). The dominant element in the “ Ifm Garda ” is the engineer Szillagyi. I also was expected to organise the “ Ifiü Garda ” in Slovakia, and they tried to compel me to do so by expelling me from Austria to Hungary. I do not know who is the head of the movement in Czechoslovakia. I know only that there are three principal cities in which the legions of insurgents to act against Slovakia are concentrated—viz., in Debrecin (a detachment), Sâtoraljanjhely (a camp), and also Miskolcz (a detachment), Salgôtarjân (a camp), and, lastly, Raab (a detachment) and Komârno (a camp). There was formerly in Slovakia an organisation of “ Sons of Arpad ” called Rodobrana ", After the collapse of this organisation, the Hungarian irredentist elements in Budapest endeavoured to create another public organisation of “ Sons of Arpad ” in Slovakia under the auspices of the Hungarian political parties. From conversations I have had with Borza and Nagy and also with Captain Mervert, I know that the association of “ Sons of Arpad ” in Slovakia had already been founded in Vienna at the beginning )f 1932, not later than two months after the World Congress of Minorities which was held at the beginning of 1932 in that city. I had been told even earlier in Budapest that the creation of this organisation in Slovakia was meeting with opposition on the part of the then President of the Hungarian Christian Socialist Party, Dr. Geza Sziillo, and that he vas accordingly to be deprived of the presidency of the party and replaced by a man prepared to obey the orders received from Budapest. I gathered that Count Janos Eszterhâzy was regarded as the very man for the post ; and this was confirmed to me at the Congress of Minorities in Vienna by Dr. Flachbart and Dr. Podhradski. In fulfilment of these projects, Count Eszterhâzy did in fact later become president of the Hungarian Christian National Party in Slovakia, and it was after his arrival on the scene that the open activities of the “ Sons of Arpad ” began in Slovakia. I have given further details on this question in the case against Dr. Cotteli and associates. I learned these details with regard to the Hungarian irredentist organisations through my relations with the principal officials of these organisations and with the official Hungarian elements who are in close relations with the irredentists. I have been in close touch with these elements from October 1918 to the end of 1933. In the first place, I had relations with elements in the three most important irredentist associations concerned with Slovakia—viz., the Revisionist League, the “ Nemzeti Szôvetseg ” and the “ Felvidéki Egyesületek Szôvetseg ”, and, more recently, since the accession of the Gômbôs Government, also with the officials of the “ Tesz ”. In the Revisionist League, I knew the late Viktor Rakos and his successor as President Ferencz — 36 —

Herczeg, the President of the Association Dr. Tibor Eckhardt, Director Dr. Andija Fal, and the Secretary for Slovakia, Janos Maraki. Dr. Eckhardt was at one time head of the Prime Minister’s Press Bureau under the Bethlen Government. In the case of the “ Nemzeti Szôvetseg ", I had relations with the President Baron Perenyi, the President who directed the activities of the association, Dr. Josif Ajtay, Ministerial Counsellor Director Dr. Majoros, of the Minorities Section in the Prime Minister’s office, the Secretary, Bela Lipthay, and Dr. Olvôdy, whose aim it was to establish relations between Slovakia and the Bulgar-Macedonian irredentists under the auspices of the association. In the association “ Felvidéki Egyesületek Szôvetseg ”, I knew the President who directed the activities of the association. Dr. Elemer Kalmar, and the Secretary, Dr. Gyôrgy Podhradski. In virtue of my relations with the associations, I also came into contact with official elements of the Minorities Section of the Prime Minister’s office—viz., with the ex-Minister Dr. Bernolak, with Ministerial Counsellor Dr. Adolf Pechanyi, Government Commissioner for Questions relating to the Slovak Minority, and with Ministerial Counsellors Dr. Jânos Janovecz and Dr. Szvizseny. With the latter, I have had relations ever since 1919.

The financing of the revisionist associations and of their activities was effected either out of sums regularly provided in the State budget or from special charges imposed by the Ministry of the Interior on the communes, districts and counties, as also by sales of objects and voluntary collections. At the time of the discussion, with regard to the financing of a Slovak émigré newspaper to appear in Vienna, I had occasion once, in 1931, to see the budgets of the “ Tesz ” and “ Nemzeti Szôvetseg ” associations. I remember that the “ Tesz ” budget included a subsidy from the State of 2 million pengô. The charges levied on the communes, districts and counties totalled 1 million pengô, and voluntary donations 800,000 pengô. The total income including extraordinary sources of income amounted to some 5 million pengô.

I have already stated that, between 1922 and 1924, I received from the Ministry of Minorities in Budapest Kc 50,000, and later, through the agency of Tuka and von Wiesner, Kc. 300,000 in round figures for my services. Further, for the elections in the district of Trnava alone in 1929, I received, through Dr. Jehlicska, Kc 12,000. At the same time, as I have already stated, Dr. Jehlicska was paid 300,000 pengô for the publication of the newspaper Samostatnost, the editing of which was then transferred from Warsaw to America. A part of this sum went to Dr. Josif Pazurik, brother of his wife, an official in the Ministry of the Interior in Budapest : the rest was paid direct to Dr. Jehlicska at the Hungarian Legation in Vienna. I know these details from Dr. Jehlicska and the brother of his wife, Dr. Pazurik. At one moment, in 1930, when questions of my own financial position were under discussion, Moser, Milotay and Ajtay told me that financial resources had been made available in Budapest for the " Rodobrana ” association, and they mentioned large sums. The political émigrés told me that, when they arrived in Budapest, they were sent by the Commissioner of Police to the Ministry of Public Instruction, Section of Secretary of State Dr. Szillyi, who gave them each 500 pengô with which to begin life in Budapest, describing these payments as “ study scholarships ”.

In 1932, or rather towards the end of 1931, after the fall of the Bethlen Government, the émigrés were in financial difficulties, and so was I myself. The Kârolyi Government had come into pow-er with the watchword of economy, and the payments hitherto made to the groups of émigrés wTere suspended or cut down to such a point that any serious activities became impossible. In September 1931, my monthly payment, which had been fixed at 1,200 schillings (equivalent to about 1,000 pengô) was cut down to 700 pengô on the grounds—so I was told by Wiesner—that the position was now difficult, and that the salaries of Government officials in Budapest had been cut by 20 per cent, and I must also be content with the smaller amount. I remember that after this I drew my pay in pengô, which Wiesner explained by saying that the Hungarians were sending pengô out of Budapest because of the financial situation, and that he did not care to change the money himself, but I could arrange that for myself.

In 1932, or rather, toward the end of 1931, after the fall of the Bethlen Government, the groups of émigrés were in financial difficulties, the effects of which I also experienced . . . That was not a situation calculated to please the elements belonging to the “ Federation of Blood ”, since it was not in accordance with what was known as the “ Szegedin spirit ”, which was then, and still is, glorified in Hungary. Accordingly, after the fall of the Bethlen Government, when Gômbôs had kept in his hands the direction of the Ministry — 37 — of War, and his confidential agent, Fischer Keresztes (a member of the “ Federation of Blood ” and up to that time Lord Lieutenant of the County of Somogy), had become Minister of the Interior, a beginning was made with the reorganisation of the irredentists and of the émigré groups in relation with them, and the whole movement was placed under the direction of the Ministry of War—viz., branches X and XII—the heads of which were, at that time, Ruszkay, Kelemen and Tombor. After the assumption of power by the Gômbôs Government, the military character of the activities of the irredentists and émigré groups became evident. It was, moreover, at this time that the so-called frontier activities were organised, which were to consist in the organisation on Hungarian soil in the neighbourhood of each of the Succession States of detachments called legions or brigades. These detachments were to be recruited from the ranks of the émigrés, and, in particular, deserters or persons living on Hungarian territory who were not of Hungarian nationality (Slovaks and the like) in the neighbourhood of Croatia. I myself was expected to direct these activities. As the superme supervision and direction of these irregular formations in connection with Slovakia was entrusted to Janos Borza, I was introduced to him some time in 1932 by Moser and Bajza.

Janos Borza, domiciled at No. 5, Raday-utca, is a retired major and holds a high position in the Hungarian State Railways. He told me that at the time of Tuka’s movement, action on the lines of the secret association " Arpadosok ” was set on foot in Slovakia by the “ Rodobrana ”—that is to say, the latter was a branch of the secret * Arpadosok ” organisation. It had a fighthing section and an espionage section. The fighting formations were not armed, but only received military training. The espionage sections, on the other hand, in addition to the necessary training and instructions, had been provided with small arms, such as revolvers, bombs, etc. When the “ Rodobrana ” was dissolved in Slovakia, together with all the other similar formations in the other occupied regions, it was decided that the branch of the “ Arpadosok ” in Slovakia should be revived and co-ordinated with the irregular organisations forming on Hungarian territory. Its spiritual home was to be transferred from the occupied territory and centralised in the hands of the heads of the “ Arpadosok ” in Budapest. Borza is a member of the central organisation, and it was he who was entrusted with the reorganisation of the whole movement in Slovakia—that is to say, the organisation of irregular formations on Hungarian territory. He told me that there were still some remnants of the former “ Rodobrana ” with which he was in relation, and that he was also in touch with certain members of the Hungarian population of Slovakia. Their activities, he said, must be co-ordinated and renovated. The work of reorganisation was to be entrusted to me; and, if and when I undertook the work, I should be brought into touch with a person who would carry out the reorganisation in Slovakia in an effective manner. All corre­ spondence relating to there organisation would, however, be centralised in Budapest. I replied that I must think the matter over, and I did not give Borza any direct answer as to whether I was or was not prepared to undertake the work. I gave as my reason the fact that I was not familiar with the movement, and, in particular, had no experience of military organisations. Borza, in reply, said I must study the movement, and that he would introduce me for the purpose to Captain Drangov, who is the Director of the Yugoslav branch of the “ Arpadosok ” under the name of “ Dobrovoljci ”. After my conversation with Borza, I reported on the matter to Wiesner, as I was not prepared to decide for myself. At the beginning of February 1932, Wiesner sent me to Budapest to presen* myself at the “ Move On arrival, I was sent to Colonel Ruszkay, Head of the Intelligence Section. The latter, I was told and learnt later from Borza, Mervert and Pazurik, has been replaced in the Intelligence Section by Major Kern. He himself has now an office at the Hadik Barracks in the Horthy-ut as Chief of Military Police. I was given the telephone number of the barracks, and when I called up Ruszkay, he answered, giving me an appointment at the Café Balaton. He came to the appointment with Borza, who was to introduce me. Both proposed to place me in close touch with the group of Percec-Drangov, in Hungary. As we had agreed, Borza brought me some days later, by arrangement to Bajza’s flat, where Drangov was to the introduced to me. He told me that Drangov was a Serb from Macedonia, and that he had been entrusted with the direction and organisation of the Croat military association, which is known in Hungary—i.e., outside Yugoslavia, as “ Ustasa

In Bajza’s flat, I found Percec and Drangov. The latter was introduced to me. There was also a third person present, whom I knew as Bonev; but he left the flat immediately. Drangov initiated me into the fighting section of the organisation, which was in his charge. He told me that Hungarian officers gave him all requisite instructions and had been attached to him on the understanding that he was not required to go into details and had only to obey orders. That being so, he said, I also need not apprehend any difficulties from my ignorance of the movement, since"the only things I should be called upon to do would already have been prepared by others. My duty would therefore consist solely in taking - 3 8 - orders and adapting them to Slovak conditions. Percec told me that he entlisted Serbs, Croats and Wends on the Yugoslav-Hungarian frontier with a few individual Bosnians still living in Hungary. He conducted spoken and written propaganda among them, and the deserters from Yugoslavia were under his political direction. He assured me that he had 5,000 men politically organised who were living on Hungarian territory; and that their number was increasing each day, since every day there was at least one fully equipped deserter from Yugoslavia who joined their ranks. He was, he explained, a kind of political leader of the whole movement, whereas Captain Drangov was the organiser of the military side. Purely military matters, moreover, and training were reserved to the Hungarian military specialists. He himself directed the Intelligence Section of the “ Ustasa He too told me what the other had said—namely, that I should only receive instructions in regard to the movement, on which I should have to furnish information and find the personnel necessary for the work to be done, so that, again, I need not have any hesitation in this matter either. The most important point was that I should enlist personnel for the military specialists to distribute later. He told me that he received arms in fairly large numbers, in spite of those presumptuous persons who called themselves the League of Nations. He proposed to transport the arms by car from Austria to Hungary. I should add that I do not know whether Drangov was really a captain. He was introduced to me as such, and Borza said he had served as a captain in the Austro-Hungarian army during the world war. I have already referred to the transport of arms into Hungary by the officer Becker. I may add that I learned from these people that the arms were distributed to the members of the “ Ustasa ” by a Hungarian officer, Captain Lyalovsky, who is said to be of Yugoslav origin and speaks Croat well.

In the course o f. subsequent visits, Borza continually reverted to the question whether I would undertake the reorganisation of the Slovak branch of the “ Sons of Arpad ”. At the same time, he gave me new details, referring throughout to the example of the “ Ustasa ”. What Drangov was doing in the south, I was to do in the north— that is to say, rally the deserters, political émigrés capable of bearing arms and Slovaks from Hungary, who would be sent to me by the Hungarian military organisations. With these, I was to organise military formations on the territory of present Hungary, as Drangov had done in the south. These military formations would be trained by Hungarian officers and non-commissioned officers. They would only constitute a cadre to be completed in the event of an invasion of Slovakia by military organisations set up in Slovakia. I was also to direct these military formations in Slovakia, but indirectly through persons to be introduced to me, if I was prepared to accept the work. The military detachments, Borza said, were made up of young men capable of bearing arms and, so far as possible, of soldiers who had done military service. They were to be given military training, but without arms—that is to say, they were to do night marches, be trained in technical work and map reading. This training in Slovakia would be carried out under the guise of excursions, trips of societies and pilgrimages. The military organisation would be built up on the cell system so as to make it impossible for the whole movement again to be discovered. Somewhere towards the end of May 1932,1 categorically refused to accept any such post. It then occurred to Borza that I might take over the Slovak espionage branch of the “ Arpadosok He added that, at that very moment, there was a meeting in Czechoslovakia of Sokols which the Hungarians regarded as a practice mobilisation. He said I should have to mark down the points on the railways at which the Sokols were to concentrate, and to note the time and number of the transport trains, the number of persons transported and their place of destination and supply in Prague.

If I accepted this work, he said, he would refrain from pressing me to undertake the direction of the military formation, and would arrange to give me the espionage section. As I imagined that the information on the Sokol meeting would be published in various papers, I accepted Borza’s proposal and promised to give him the necessary information. Borza accordingly took me to the premises of the " Sons of Arpad ” in the Eszterhâzy-üt, where he introduced me to the engineer Szillagyi, the head of the espionage section of the “ Arpadosok ”, known as the “ Ifiu Garda ”. The “ Ifiu Garda ” is an organisation for both espionage and terrorism—that is to say, its purpose is to obtain military information from the occupied territories and forward it to Hungary, from which it receives orders as to the information to be supplied. At the same time, as Szillagyi and Borza explained to me, it entlists individuals ready and capable of executing, in case of necessity, attempts on persons or material objects.

Borza was only nominally an official in the State Railways Direction. In fact he had no work to do there, and confined himself to work entrusted to him by the Ministry of War. This was to make it easier for him in his civilian capacity—i.e., as a railway official—to establish contact between the émigrés and the other civilian irredentists. — 39 —

As I had promised to give the information required with regard to the Sokol meeting, Borza again brought me into touch with Colonel Ruszkay, who introduced to me the officers of his section, Major Osvàth and Captain Janos Mervert, to whom I had been specially recommended with a view to subsequent relations with Ruszkay’s section. At the same time, Borza took me to see Lieutenant-Colonel Ferencsi, to whom he had already introduced me in March 1932. Ferencsi is a lieutenant-colonel on the unattached list, and has two undertakings under his charge—a propaganda office known as the " Rapid ” and a private-detective office known as the “ Novum The “ Rapid ” dealt only with irredentist propaganda, distribution of tracts, pamphlets, etc., while the " Novum ” only carried on espionage for the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior. Ferencsi introduced me to Oszwald, who called himself a lieutenant-colonel. Oszwald visited me in the summer of 1932 at my flat in Baden and introduced me in Vienna to Captain Schmidt, who at present uses the Magyarised name Sârkâny, as also to the military attaché in the Hungarian Legation in Vienna, who was introduced to me as Janos Arany. I learnt from the above officers that the Percec group had begun work some months before, and that it was desirable for me to do the same. The Percec group of émigrés and a group of Croat émigrés concentrated in the neighbourhood of Szeged and Pécs was under the military direction of the Ministry of War. Percec had published information drawn up by himself in 1932 and 1933 under the pseudonym of “ Nauta ” in the Magyarorsdg and under the pseudonym of " Zara ” in the Nemzeti Ujsag—so Bajza told me. Percec was in direct touch with the head of the so-called Civilian Section of the Ministry of War, Dr. Gejza Sztankay, as I learned from Borza. I do not know Sztankay. In our conversations concerning the military strength of Hungary, Borza told me that the number of officers was not as small as appeared from the official figures, but much higher. A large number of professional officers had been camouflaged by being attached to the different irredentist associations and formations, as well as to civilian services such as the railways, posts, motor, river and frontier services. A large number were also maintained outside the official cadres and posted to private undertakings which bore their name but where they were in reality in the service of the Ministry of War.

During one of my visits to Budapest in July 1932, I again tried to see Josip Bajza. He told me that Hungarian Government circles had directed their attention mainly to the Croat émigrés and primarily to the group under Pavelic and Percec : this, he said, was done at the direct request of Italy. The irrendentist and revisionist movement of Slovakia and Transylvania would be reorganised, he told me, in this way; until the reorganisation in the central associations was complete in Budapest, Hungarian official circles were concentrating mainly on the situation in Yugoslavia, which was approaching the culminating point of revolution. Bajza said he was not himself in favour of violent methods, which he knew were senseless. He did not therefore approve the actions of Jakov Rukavina and Devdic, who had done their work at the instigation of Percec ; but at the moment, in view of the rapprochement between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, he was ready to shut his eyes even to acts of terrorism of that kind. Bajza was afraid that the social and commercial rapprochement between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia might affect injuriously the position of the Coats. Accordingly, where the vital interests of Hungary and Croatia were at stake, he was prepared to approve any attempt to create an upheaval or disturbances through the activities of Pavelié and Percec. I know from my relations with Captain Schmidt, to whom I have already referred, and with Janos Arany, who was employed in a Hungarian military office in Vienna, that the Croats maintained touch with them in Vienna by means of a secret telephone number R. 27-9-33 or R. 29-9-90, and have myself tested the accuracy of this information. In Budapest, the Croats, in particular Percec, were in relation with Ruszkay, Kelemen, Tombor and Osvàth, through the intermediary of the Intelligence Section of the Ministry of War, 5-7, Falk Miksa-üt, Tenth Section, telephone 160-0-9, Branch II (Chief of Section Julius Kern, Press Agent for the Ministry of War), or alternatively by direct telephonic communication with the Ministry of War, Branch No. 334. I have myself tested the accuracy of these telephone numbers. As regards the relations of Percec with the officers above mentioned, I have my information from Captain Mervert.

Towards the end of 1932, I called on Dr. Bajza together with Janos Borza. Bajza then told me that Drangov’s name was Kiril, and that he was connected with Percec only in so far as Percec carried out the preparatory measures of organisation for him. Both were under the Ministry of War; but, while Drangov was directly subordinate to the Ministry of War, Percec was directly under Ministerial Counsellor Boor of the Ministry of the Interior, through the intermediary mainly of the “ Move

Boor is head of the Section of Internal Security in the Ministry of the Interior. This Section deals with the entire male population capable of labour (Munkavedelni Orszâg) — 40 — and with pre-military instruction (Leventa). Borza told me on this occasion that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs does not wish to have anything to do formally with the activities of Drangov—that is to say, the head of the Government, Gômbôs, had expressly forbidden the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to negotiate directly with Drangov, but that these negotiations were to be conducted with Percec. Drangov is thus in direct touch with the Ministry of War and Percec in direct touch with the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerial Counsellor Boor) and with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Minister Plenipotentiary Count Kuen Hedervary, or Chief of Section Baron Apor) on the one hand, while Dr. Joseph Bajza, Professor at the University, was in direct relations, in his capacity as an expert on the Croat question, with the Prime Minister’s Office (Secretary of State Barczi, or Daranyi). In this way, the Croat émigrés have direct and very close relations with the Hungarian administrative departments, civil and military, of the highest grade. The Slovak émigrés have similar relations with the same persons, as I know from my own experience as well as from that of Dr. Jehlicska, Viktor Dvortch and Dr. Josip Pazurik. The latter, like myself, was expected to make monthly reports and receive instructions from the administrative departments referred to. I must, however, admit that the Slovak émigrés had not, down to the end of 1933, the same relations with the Ministry of War as the Croat émigrés had through Drangov. At the request of the Hungarian official elements, I was compelled to undertake the joint direction of an organisation on the lines of that of the Croat émigrés directed against the integrity of the Czechoslovak Republic, and to enter into the same relations with the Ministry of War as those which Kiril Drangov maintained with the latter on behalf of the Croats. In November 1933, I learnt in Vienna from Ljudevid Korenj that the activities which I had been unwilling to undertake would be entrusted to him. Accordingly, the north had not yet been organised, though the organisation in the south was already complete. In the east, so far as I know, the organisation was in the hands of Madersbach. In the north, I myself was intended to be the organiser, as I heard in every quarter and as Eckhardt also told me expressly. On this ground, and in virtue of my relations with the Ministry of War, I was invited by Janos Mervert, Captain in Branch III of the Ministry of War, to a joint conference on April 8th, 1933, in the premises of the " Tesz ” at 1-3, Falk Miksa-ut. The agenda of the meeting dealt with the creation of an illegal movement and the formation of irregular units. The following were present : the Presidents of the “ Tesz " and the “ Move ”, the President of the “ Nemzeti Szôvetseg ” (Baron Perényi, Warden of the Crown), the President of the “ Mefhosz ” (Dr. Szilly), the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Public Instruction and head of the Gômbôs F. 0. (“ Fegyveres Osztag ”) organisations, the head of the Press Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office (Dr. Antal), the President of the Turanian movement (Count Takâch-Tolvay), the President of the Boy Scouts (Count Teleki), Major Adorjan, representing the Ministry of War, the Presidents of the “ Sasa " and the “ Turul Szôvetzeg ”, the Member of Parliament Stranyavszky, representing the Croat terrorist organisation “ Ustasa ”, Captain Drangov, representing the Croat political organisation—i.e., the " Delvidéki Szôvetseg ”—Professor Dr. Josip Bajza, representing the paramilitary formations of University students, Dr. Eszterhâs, Secretary of the “ Tesz ”, Police Counsellor Dr. Alexander Nagy, representing the State Security Control Section, the former Major Janos Borza, representing the Civilian Section of the Ministry of War, and Captain Janos Mervert, representing Branch XII of the Ministry of War. No one else was present. I already knew by sight Dr. Szontagh, Dr. Szilly, Count Takâch-Tolvay, Count Teleki, Major Adorjan and Sztranyavszky, and their names were given to me in the course of the meeting by Mervert, Bajza and Borza. Professor Szontagh opened the meeting and made a brief statement upon the importance of the situation. He spoke of the coming revision of the treaties, against which the neighbouring States would undoubtedly oppose armed resistance, and added that it would be necessary accordingly to prepare and organise a very detailed plan of action to cope with this contingency. The civilian and military action should proceed pari passu ; and that was why civilians and military were both present at that meeting. The initiative must, however, remain in the hands of the illegal formations and of persons in the associations, independent of the public authorities and, pro tanto, irresponsible. Accordingly, a statement would be made, not by an official or by a military individual, but by Dr. Eszterhas, the Secretary of the “ Tesz ”, who was well acquainted with the question and was accustomed to working hand in hand with the civilian and military authorities alike. Dr. Eszterhâs, a former officer, then gave an account of his programme, which he said fell under five headings:

1. Method of organising irregular formations. 2. Guarantees of their loyalty. 3. Preparation of points of attack and positions on the ground for the offensive. 4. Manner of securing poinxs of invasion and positions on the ground for attack. 5. Finance. — 4i —

He began by saying that, in the south, where Croat irregular formations were being organised, difficulties were beginning to arise from the insufficient knowledge on the part of the officers and instructors of the language of the men composing the formations. It was essential accordingly that this form of activity should be organised along the whole of the frontier in uniform manner with due regard to nationality, so as to ensure that the men have instructors with a perfect knowledge of the language of their nationality. The officers might still in future be of Hungarian nationality, but the N.C.O. instructors must have the same nationality as that of the irregular formation. That was already the case on the southern frontier, where the instructors of the men were Croats, Wends and Bunjevci (Serbs of Catholic religion). Political delegates should be attached to these officers, as was already done on the southern frontier, with the object of keeping up the moral of the troops and assisting the enlistment of new members. The political delegates would be subject to the central military command. On the other hand, the use of national instructors gave rise to the apprehension that the military formations organised with Hungarian money might turn at the decisive moment against Hungary and come down on the side of their national cause. It was necessary accordingly to make sure of their loyalty and reliability through Hungarian officers with political delegates attached, as was already done on the southern frontier. Captain Drangov, there present, spoke German well in addition to his mother tongue, and was already beginning to express himself fluently in Hungarian. Bajza, representing the absent Percec, was a tried patriot, so that the cause in so far as the country in the south was concerned might be said to be in good hands. They could also count on Italy and on Pavelié now resident in Italy. That afforded a basis of security and unquestioned loyalty for the whole movement. The arrangement with the Croats was such as to secure great advantages both for the Croats and for the Hungarians, while at the same time making possible the permanent maintenance of the integrity of the Crown of St. Stephen. On the north and on the east, arrangements similar to that concluded with the Croats should be made in advance so as to satisfy both parties. The methods and the forms of organisation of all movements were already drawn up in detail, and both Major Adorjan and Captain Mervert were already in possession of complete programmes. Dr. Eszterhâs then dealt at length with the manner of securing points of invasion and positions on the ground for attack, with special reference to properties situated on the frontier or on both sides of the frontier. With reference to attacking positions, he mentioned the desirability of securing the co-operation of the population and enlisting spies, and gave details of all points requiring attention. He also referred to certain points of invasion and certain attacking positions in the case of each of the Succession States ; but, as I was not interested at that time in the southern frontier, I no longer remember the points he mentioned. As regards finance, he said that, in addition to the sums legally allocated and the sudsidies given by the irredentists’ associations, reliance could be p'aced on the exceptional abilities of Professor Meszaros.

Read and approved. Concluded and signed. In faith where of the witness has taken the oath : (Signed) J .Grimm.p. ; (Signed) Cahova m.p.; (Signed) Mihalus m.p.

A nn ex 7.

The Yugoslav Minister in Budapest to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Belgrade. P. No. 600. Budapest, October 7th, 1930. Monsieur le Ministre, In reply to your letter, P. No. 17176, dated August 30th of this year, I have the honour to inform you that I have drawn the attention of the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count Khuen Hedérvâry, to the result of the enquiry regarding the terrorists arrested at Valpovo, and to the assistance afforded by the Hungarian official organs to these terrorist elements among Croat émigrés. I also drew his attention to the harmful consequences from the point of view of neighbourly relations which might ensue were this state of affaiis to continue. He informed me that he knew nothing about the incident, that he deeply regretted that such a thing should have occurred, and promised me that he would lay the whole matter before the Ministers concerned. (Signed) Lukovic. m.p. Despatched on October 9th, 1930. — 42 —

A nn ex 8.

Telegram from the Yugoslav Minister at Budapest to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Belgrade.

With reference to your letter P. No. 3482: This afternoon I called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and made representations to him in view of the result of the enquiry into the outrages, communicated to me in the above-mentioned letter. I earnestly drew his attention to the harmful consequences from the point of view of our friendly relations which would ensue were the organisation of attacks against our State on Hungarian territory and the complicity of certain Govern­ ment organs in this matter to continue to be tolerated in future. I further informed him that we hoped that the Hungarian Government would put a stop to them. The Minister replied that the Hungarian Government had certainly never counten­ anced these proceedings and regretted their occurrence, if they had actually taken place, a point the Hungarian authorities had so far been unable to establish. He stated that the strictest orders had been given to the Government organs to prevent the possibility of any terrorist action by Croat émigrés on Hungarian territory. In conclusion, he added that it would be unfortunate if this incident were allowed to disturb the friendly relations between our two countries. (Signed) Lukovic m.p. 11524.II.1931. Despatched on February 24th, 1931.

A nn ex 9. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. R.P.184-1931. Note Verbale. With reference to the interview which His Excellency the Yugoslav Minister had a few days ago with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Ministry has the honour to communicate the following information to the Royal Legation: The Peremârton factory is engaged exclusively in the production of explosives intended for general use in the various industries of the country. Any member of the population requiring explosives, whether for mining or forestry operations, etc., or for legitimate trade, obtains them from this factory. Since there are certain regulations restricting the sale of these products, it is obvious that the person in question obtained the packet by theft or by giving false information to the seller. As a year has now elapsed since the product was purchased, it is no longer possible to ascertain the exact facts. This Ministry will not, however, fail to draw the attention of all those concerned to this incident, and will see that the competent authorities are instructed to exercise stricter supervision over the trade in question. Budapest, March 3rd, 1931. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, [Seal.'] Budapest.

A nnex 10. No. 695/31. Note Verbale.

The Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour, under instructions from its Govern­ ment, to make the following communication to the Royal Hungarian Government : According to information which has reached the Royal Yugoslav Government, it appears that a number of terrorists, persons suspected of having been concerned in the outrages recently committed on the Yugoslav railways, have lately been concentrating on Hungarian territory. They have taken the Hungarian frontier town of Sopron as a — 43 — base from which to organise terrorist activities with a view to committing further outrages and crimes in Yugoslavia. It seems that these terrorists are already in Sopron, and others are understood to be on the way. Among them, special mention should be made of one Ljubomir Kremzir, and of Franja Simunovic, both of whom are suspected, with good reason, of having been concerned in outrages on the Yugoslav railways. Without drawing up a complete list, we might also add the name of August Künstler. The presence of these terrorists on Hungarian territory is naturally causing serious anxiety to the Royal Yugoslav Government. There is all the more reason for anxiety in view of information received from various sources, which would seem to confirm that they are gathering together for the purpose of considering the measures to be taken and the methods to be adopted in perpetrating further terrorist crimes. The Royal Yugoslav Government feels bound to draw the special attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to these facts, and to request it to take appropriate steps to check the criminal activities of these terrorists, which have already brought about fatal results that are viewed with indignation in every civilised country. Budapest, October ist, 1931. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nn ex 11.

4200/P0I. 1931. Note Verbale.

The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to acknowledge receipt of Note Verbale No. 695/31 of October ist, 1931, and to inform the Royal Yugoslav Legation that it has promptly drawn the attention of the competent authorities to Ljubomir Kremzir, Franja Simunovic, and August Künstler, who, in the opinion of the Legation, are suspected persons. The Government is therefore aware of the matter, and, that being so, the Royal Ministry hopes that none of these persons will escape the vigilance of the competent authorities. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs also ventures to request the Yugoslav Legation to communicate to it any information which it may obtain with regard to this matter, as it is in both our interests to put an effective stop to all terrorist activities. Budapest, October 6th, 1931. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A nn ex 12. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 738. Note Verbale. Under instructions from its Government, the Royal Legation had the honour, in Note No. 695 of October ist, 1931, to draw the Royal Ministry’s attention to the fact that, according to information in the possession of the Royal Yugoslav Government, certain terrorists were assembling on Hungarian territory with the intention of organising and subsequently perpetrating fresh outrages and crimes directed against the safety of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Royal Ministry was good enough, in Note No. 4200 of October 6th, 1931, to acknowledge receipt of the Royal Legation’s Note, at the same time stating that its contents had been brought to the notice of the Royal Hungarian Government and of the Hungarian authorities. The Royal Legation desires sincerely to thank the Royal Ministry for taking this step. — 44 —

With reference to the above-mentioned Note, the Royal Legation has the honour, under instructions from its Government, to send the Royal Ministry further information with regard to the preparations against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which these terrorists are making in Hungarian territory. According to information which has reached the Royal Government of Yugoslavia from several quarters, Gligor Milcinov, a Bulgarian citizen from Plovdiv, left for Hungary, with others, several days ago. Until lately, he represented himself as a student of philosophy at Berlin, but he is known to be a prominent member of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation. All the information available shows that Milcinov left for Hungary with the intention of planning outrages to be committed in Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the Royal Yugoslav Government has information from a reliable source that, towards the end of 1930 and at the beginning of 1931, Milcinov frequently met George Stipcevic, Mileta-Tase Gruev, of Bitol, Ljubomir Niksié, and others, for the purpose of forming groups to go to Yugoslavia and there to perpetrate acts of terrorism. According to other reports, Milcinov, with the assistance of another terrorist, trained and prepared twenty persons for terrorist activities. Subsequent reports submitted to the Royal Yugoslav Government show that terrorists are concentrated, not only at Sopron, as the Royal Ministry has already been informed, but also at Bolhô, near Bares. Thus, in addition to Ljubomir Kremzir and Franja Simunovic, who have already been mentioned, Michael Seletkovic, Ignace Domitrovié and Gustav Percec are at the same place, and Josip Zarko, deported from Belgium for making an attack upon the Yugoslav Minister, is also expected. At the same time, it has again been stated that the persons assembled at this spot are preparing to send a large quantity of propaganda material to Yugoslavia, as well as persons with instructions to perpetrate outrages both against isolated individuals and various material objects, and against groups of persons, such as meetings. All the reports from different sources and quarters say that plans are being made, on Hungarian territory, for grave terrorist attacks on the safety of Yugoslavia. In bringing the above facts to the notice of the Royal Ministry, the Royal Legation has the honour, under instructions from its Government, once more to draw the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to the preparations for terrorist action against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which are being made on Hungarian territory. The Royal Yugoslav Government is entitled to expect the Royal Hungarian Government to take all necessary steps to prevent the planning, on its territory, of an attack upon the Kingdom of Yugo­ slavia. It is convinced that the Royal Hungarian Government will consent to afford it the necessary co-operation in combating the terrorists. It is also convinced that the Royal Hungarian Government will agree that freedom to prepare for and arrange outrages would open to the terrorists a field of activity in all European States, which would do the greatest damage both to the common interests and to the special interests of each country, including Hungary.

Budapest, October 20th, 1931. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

[Seal.]

A nnex 13. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia in Hungary. No. 811/31. Aide-Mémoire.

The Royal Legation had the honour, in Notes No. 695 of October ist and No. 738 of October 20th last, to draw the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to the activities of certain persons who were assembling in Hungary and to the plans that were being made on Hungarian territory for terrorist action against the safety of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. At the same time, the Royal Legation requested the Royal Hungarian Government to take appropriate steps to prevent the organisation, on its territory, of any undertaking of that kind, which assistance the Royal Government of Yugoslavia felt it was entitled to expect, particularly as it is in the common interest of all States, including Hungary herself, to combat terrorist activities. — 45 —

The Royal Legation has as yet received no reply as to the results of the measures which the Royal Government of Hungary has been good enough to take in this connection. With regard to the terrorist acts which are being planned on Hungarian territory, the Royal Government of Yugoslavia has been further informed that two persons who are now at Kadarkut, a village between Bares and Kaposvâr, are ready to go to Yugoslavia to perpetrate outrages against persons in high authority and to commit other terrorist acts. The first of these is Ignace Domitrovié, a Croatian émigré (who goes under the assumed name of August Leiter), aged 32, fair, beard and moustache shaved, snub-nosed, reddish complexion. He is accompanied by the locksmith Horvât, dark, aged 26 to 30. Both are armed with revolvers. Budapest, November 14th, 1931.

A nn ex 14. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. 4955/Pol. 1931. Note Verbale.

With reference to notes verbales No. 695, of October ist, and No. 738, of October 20th, 1931, and to an aide-mémoire dated November 14th, 1931, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Yugoslav Legation that the competent authorities have made careful enquiries—on the basis of the information furnished by the Legation— with regard to the terrorist acts, plans for which were reported in the above-mentioned communications. The investigation has revealed no evidence that Gligor Milëinoff, of Plovdiv, is in Hungary. The names of Milcinoff and his companions, George Stipcevic, Mileta-Tase Gruev, and Ljubomir Niksic, are quite unknown to the Hungarian authorities. Conse­ quently, it would appear to be extremely unlikely that Miléinoff is organising terrorist acts against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Hungarian territory. The enquiries made at Sopron have had absolutely no result. There is nothing to show that any suspected persons whatever have concentrated or are concentrating in that town, as was suggested in note verbale No. 695. The names of Franja Simunovic and Ljubomir Kremzir do not appear in the records of the competent authorities. No trace of their having been at Sopron was found during the investigation. As to August Künstler, the Hungarian authorities have reason to suppose that he is at present in Vienna. After a careful search at Bolhô, it was ascertained that, about eighteen months ago, three persons from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia arrived in that commune for the purpose of earning a living there. They were employed on the estate of Count Somssich. These persons, whose names we have been unable to ascertain, left a long time ago for an unknown destination. Michael Seletkovié, Ignace Domitrovié, Gustav Percec, and Josip Zarko could not be found at Bolhô, and no notification that they are anywhere in Hungary has been received. The name of Michael Seletkovié, moreover, is quite unknown. The whereabouts of Ignace Domitrovié, whose name is familiar to the Hungarian authorities, is not known. In any event, neither he nor a person called Horvât is at present at Kadarküt. The name of August Leiter is not known. The Ministry ventures to point out in this connection, however, that one Ivan Domitrovié, a Hungarian subject and a landowner, is domiciled at Vizvâr. He has, however, never been suspected of any political, still less of any terrorist, activities. In view of the above-mentioned results of the very careful investigation that has been made, the Royal Ministry feels that it can assure the Legation that no terrorist acts against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia are in preparation or about to occur in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. Budapest, November 28th, 1931. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest. [Seal.] — 46 —

A nn ex 15. No. 642/32. A ide-Mémoire.

On the night of October 5th-6th last, the frontier-guards arrested, on Yugoslav territory, one Michel Sigecan (Szigecsan), bom in 1899 at Martinci (Drava Szentmarton- Felsôszentmarton ?), who was armed with two revolvers and a bomb. He also had 300 cartridges on him, together with a large number of anti-Yugoslav political leaflets. Sigecan, son of Lucas Sigecan and Rose, born Szabo, and married to Eve, bom Greguri, is a Yugoslav citizen, but, since deserting from the Yugoslav army twelve years ago, has been living at Martinci, in the district of Bares, in Hungary, where he was bom. Sigecan crossed the frontier near boundary-marks Nos. 101 and 102. On October 9th last, the guards arrested, at the same place, one Mihail Bogdan (Bogdy ?), also an inhabitant of Drava Szentmarton, who had come to the Yugoslav bank of the Drave with a boat to take Sigecan over to Hungary. On the same day, a Hungarian officer, accompanied by four soldiers, a score of peasants, and one woman, went to the Hungarian bank of the Drave and the woman showed him where Sigecan and Bogdan had crossed the frontier. Taking a rifle from one of the soldiers with him, the officer fired four shots in the direction of Yugoslav territory. On October 10th last, a person—possibly Stephen Koprek—accompanied by fifteen peasants, appeared at the same spot and shouted to the Yugoslav frontier-guards : “ Soldiers, give us back our two companions, who have been arrested or killed, or you will pay for them with a hundred of yours ”. The above-mentioned Stephen Koprek comes from Knjeginac, district of Varazdin. He lives in Hungary. According to Sigecan’s depositions, he often went to see him and also one Paul Hideg, and offered to find men who would be willing to convey arms and ammunition into Yugoslav territory. He intimated that these men would be paid wages of 60 pengô a month. He also said that, before crossing the frontier, they would be trained by an officer in the handling of arms. Stephen Koprek himself assisted, on several occasions, in conveying arms and ammunition into Yugoslavia, and it is not impossible that he was responsible for the outrage of September 9th last on the railway-line near the village of Mikanovac. The Royal Legation has the honour to draw the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to these facts, and to request it, in the interests of good neighbourly relations between the two countries, to take the necessary steps to prevent conspirators from crossing the frontier, and to stop the conveyances of arms and ammunition into Yugoslavia, in the future.

Budapest, November 7th, 1932. To the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nnex 16. No. 566/33. Aide-Mémoire.

On May 3rd last, the Belgrade Court for the Defence of the State sentenced Stephen Koprek, Yugoslav national, bom in Donji Kneginjac, now residing at Dravaszentmarton, Michael Szigecsan, Hungarian national, resident at Dravaszentmarton (Bares district), both of whom were arrested in Yugoslavia, and their accomplices, for criminal acts against the safety of the State and public safety, outrages against the railways in August and September 1932, on the Osijek-Belgrade line. Stephen Koprek, on his return from Brazil, settled in Hungary, and there formed (at Dravaszentmarton) the association “ Gradanska vojska ”, with headquarters in Hungary, its aim being to dismember the Yugoslav State by means of outrages upon objects of public utility and by verbal and written propaganda. On August 15th, 1932, Koprek and Szigecsan crossed the Yugoslav frontier with arms, bombs and ammunition. An infernal machine was placed in second-class carriage No. 12220, and another in second-class carriage No. 20052; the latter exploded in Osijek station, causing a violent outbreak of fire and material damage. On September 9th, 1932, Koprek placed a third infernal — 47 —

machine on the railway, which damaged the track and the engine of express train No. 3, Zagreb-Belgrade. After these incidents, Koprek took refuge in Hungary, returning with two bombs, two revolvers and propaganda material (copies of the subversive organs Gric and Ustasa, and endeavoured to recruit for his organisation among the people of the villages of Nasicki Marcovac, Saptinovac, Cepin, etc. He was followed by the Hungarian national Szigecsan who was also provided with arms, ammunition and propaganda material. Before leaving, Szigecsan arranged that another Hungarian national, Michael Bogdi, of Dravakeresztur, should take him across in his boat to the Hungarian bank of the Drave after his work was completed. Both were arrested, however. Bogdi alleged that he had been forced to help Szigecsan by two persons unknown to him who had threatened him with revolvers in Hungarian territory. He was shown several photographs, and in those of Gustav Percec and Stephen Koprek he recognised his interlocutors, who had forced him to take his boat to meet Szigecsan. Bogdi was released by the Yugoslav authorities. In bringing the foregoing facts to the notice of the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour, acting on its Government’s instructions, to request the Ministry to take adequate steps to put an end to activities conducted in Hungarian territory against the safety of the Yugoslav State, and, in particular, to prevent those responsible for the acts described above, and their accomplices and other terrorists, from crossing our frontier at their pleasure and engaging with impunity in activities directed against the integrity of the Yugoslav State, especially since it is not to be supposed that the Hungarian authorities are unaware of the character and proceedings of the persons in question in close proximity to the frontier. Budapest, July 10th, 1933.

A n n ex 17. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 591/33 7- Aide-Mémoire.

In reply to aide-mémoire No. 566, which was handed in on July 13th last by His Excellency Monsieur J. Ducié, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. The Royal Hungarian Government is doing its utmost to exercise close supervision over the State frontiers and by every possible means to prevent the unlawful crossing of the frontiers. Its efforts are, however, sometimes hampered by the attitude of the Yugoslav frontier-guards—the attitude adopted, for example, in the case of the Hungarian national Bogdan—that is to say, when the Yugoslav frontier-guards, instead of co-operating with the Hungarian frontier authorities and trying to prevent the clandestine crossing of the frontier, endeavour, on the contrary, to provoke it. The enquiry made by the Hungarian authorities in this particular case established the fact that the Yugoslav guards themselves, hidden behind bushes on the bank of the Drave, called to Michael Bogdan, on October 8th, 1932, between 6 and 7 o’clock in the evening, by signs and whistling, to cross the river with his boat. We cannot understand on what grounds the Royal Yugoslav Legation assumes that the Hungarian authorities are aware of the proceedings of Szigecsan, although he crossed the frontier clandestinely. Moreover, as is shown by the deposition of Michael Bogdan, who has since returned to Hungary, and was able to prove it for himself when he was in Yugoslavia, Szigecsan crossed the frontier without bombs, ammunition or propaganda papers of any kind, being armed only with a revolver, which he always carried on him for his own protection. In the case of Szigecsan, Bogdan was unable to say when and how the ammunition and propaganda material could have reached Yugoslav territory. It may be mentioned that, on his return to Hungary, Bogdan was arrested by the Gyékényes police and sentenced to four days’ imprisonment for unlawfully crossing the frontier. Budapest, November 15th, 1933. - 48 -

A nn ex 18. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. i i o i . Note Verbale. The Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to forward to the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs herewith a copy of a pamphlet published in Croat by one Jelka Podgorelec, a Yugoslav national, secretary of the well-known terrorist Gustav Percec, whose residence in Hungary had previously been reported to the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The woman Podgorelec, though of Yugoslav nationality, was in possession of a Hungarian passport issued by police headquarters in Budapest bearing the number A.305915-6330 and the date May 25th, 1932. The Royal Yugoslav Legation directs the most earnest attention of the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the seriousness of the facts quoted in the pamphlet in question, and at the same time encloses a brief account in French of the contents of the pamphlet. Budapest, December 21st, 1933. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

Contents of the Pamphlet by Jelka Podgorelec. A series of articles was published in a Zagreb daily paper, the Novosti, between October 5th and 14th last, the author of which is a Yugoslav national, Jelka Podgorelec, of Sveti Ilija (in the district of Cakovec), a distant cousin and for a long time the secretary and mistress of a former Croat journalist who is the head of a band of well-known terrorists that have found refuge in Hungary, by name Gustav Percec. These confessions of'Jelka Podgorelec have recently been published in pamphles form with the title “ Secrets of the Emigré Criminals ”, Perusal of the pamphlet gives the impression that certain individuals, including Dr. Ante Pavelic, Gustav Percec, Branimir Jelic, Ignatius Domitrovic, Dr. Crvic, etc., all Yugoslav nationals, who have made their way to foreign countries as political émigrés, are in reality simply terrorists who are organising ordinary crimes (outrages on public utility undertakings and attempts on the lives of their own fellow-citizens) in foreign territory and arranging for their execution by their agents. Pavelic, Percec and their accomplices, not being rich men or earning their living by any reputable occupation exercised in the foreign countries in which they live—their sole occupation is the organisation of terrorist bands and outrages—have been compelled, it would seem, to take pay from foreign countries for whose benefit they carry on their terrorist activities against the sovereignty of the Yugoslav State. It is sufficient to quote the more characteristic of the actions brought to light in the pamphlet in question to show clearly the true nature of their criminal activities in foreign countries. In spite of the assurances frequently given by the Royal Hungarian Government, it appears from the facts cited by Podgorelec that the terrorist Gustav Percec and his accomplices have found refuge in Hungary, where Percec, in order better to disguise his terrorist activities and those of his companions, has rented in the assumed name of Emil Horvât (in which name the Hungarian authorities issued a passport to him) a property near the Yugoslav frontier between Belezna and Nagy Kanisza, close to the railway station of Murakeresztur called Janka Puszta. At Janka Puszta, regular practice in shooting and in the loading and throwing of bombs, etc., has taken place under the control of trained instructors formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian army, in which the collected émigrés have taken part. From Janka Puszta, they send their emissaries to Yugoslavia as well as to other European countries, and even to South America, and to Yugoslavia in particular they send agents bearing arms, ammunition, infernal machines and other similar objects, together with tracts and leaflets of a subversive character. The series of outrages on railway trains in Yugoslavia committed by these agents is too well known now from the reports of Yugoslav and foreign newspapers to require further mention. The pamphlet by Podgorelec contains edifying details. These outrages have caused considerable material damage as well as the loss of human lives, and no one has been punished for these crimes—and that for very good reasons. Hungarian territory was not the first choice of the terrorists as the starting-point for their activities. They began their work from Austria. They placed infernal machines in trains made up in Austria going to Yugoslavia, so contrived as to explode on Yugoslav territory. After a series of outrages thus prepared on Austrian territory, the Austrian Government put an end to their activities by expelling them from Austrian territory in 1931. The terrorists then thought they could continue their work more safely on Hungarian territory; and their hopes were not disappointed. Personally, or through his agents, Percec has frequently succeeded, on false pretexts or by holding out hopes impossible of realisation, in attracting to his organisation Yugoslav — 49 —

workers who till then were engaged on peaceful occupations in Belgium or South America. On their arrival in Hungary, these people were treated almost like slaves. They worked on the land at Janka Puszta for their “ chief ” : they were employed in the manufacture of infernal machines; and they were subjected to training in the use of arms under the supervision of the officers referred to above, as a preliminary to being sent on subversive or terrorist missions in Yugoslavia. In the long run, they got tired of it, and Jelka Podgorelec tells the story of the repeated mutinies in the ranks, and the revolt even of the assistant heads of the organisation—all of which were repressed with extreme severity, in some cases by the local Hungarian authorities. After the repression of one such revolt, a group of malcontents, including Domitrovic and Huskic, were interned at Szeged, while others (Seletkovic, Crvic and Kremzir) were sent to Italy to the camp of Dr. Pavelic near Brescia. A previous attempt to get rid of one of the most dangerous of the malcontents, Seletkovic, failed, three shots fired at him from an ambush having miscarried. The life of these unfortunate workmen, enrolled under false promises and forced to become criminals, became more and more intolerable, so that some of them made their escape at the risk of their lives. Others—for example, one Joseph Zarko—committed suicide; another who had incurred the suspicion of Percec was killed outright by the latter with a shot from his revolver. Percec was neither tried nor sentenced for this murder. The death certificate of his victim never reached the Yugoslav Legation in Budapest, and for good reasons. Podgorelec relates amongst other things how, on being expelled from Austrian terri­ tory, she went to Sofia, where she found employment. Later, desiring to have her with him, Percec advised her to apply to the Hungarian Legation in Sofia, where no difficulty was made about giving her a visa for Hungary. The Hungarian police authorities issued passports to all this terrorist band. A fascimile of the Hungarian passport A.305915-6330 issued in Budapest to Jelka (Ilona) Podgorelec is included in the pamphlet. She appears in this as being a native of Budapest and a Hungarian subject, though she was born in Yugoslavia and has retained her Yugoslav nationality. Percec lives, according to circumstances, in Janka Puszta or Budapest, in which latter place he first bore the assumed name of Emil Horvât and later that of Joseph Steiner or Groom Illès. His address at Budapest was first IV Bécsi-utca, 5; but he afterwards prudently changed it, at the advice of the authorities, for a flat at 12/III-8, Jozsef-ter, where he lived alone. In the Bécsi-utca he had his mistress and secretary living with him. Podgorelec, in her pamphlet, even gives the names of official personages in Budapest who maintained relations with Percec—viz., Staff Captain Valère Stefan, Colonel George Petricsevics, professor at the Military Academy, and Captain Marton. Mention is also made of Percec’s relations with the Macedonian revolutionary organisation of Bulgaria, the VMRO, and with certain individuals, mainly of Italian nationality, well known in journalistic and military circles. In addition to his terrorist activities, Percec does espionage work for foreign Powers Edifying details are given by his former secretary, who says she left him because of these latter activities.

A n n ex 19. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 754. Very urgent. Note Verbale. The Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to bring to the notice of the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs the following circumstances : The Yugoslav subjects, Edward Premec and John Kralj, residing in Hungary, handed to the Yugoslav State Railways Controller, Slavko Zagar, at Gyékényes, on July 29th last, a packet in book form addressed to Charles Bubanj, or, in his absence, to the Court for the Defence of the State in Belgrade, with the request that Zagar would post the parcel at Zagreb. Zagar, on his return from his journey on official duty to Hungary, handed the parcel to the Sub-Commissioner of Police at Koprivnica. The parcel exploded on the same day on the premises of the police headquarters, causing the death of a police agent and seriously injuring the Sub-Commissioner himself and another police official. As the crime in question is an ordinary crime, perpetrated by Yugoslav subjects at present residing in Hungarian territory, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to request the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to make'urgent representations to the competent authority with a view to the immediate arrest, and in detention custody, of the authors of the crime, Edward Premec and John Kralj, pending the arrival of the documents necessary with a view to their extradition. Budapest, August ist, 1933. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest. — 50 —

A nnex 20. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 764. Very urgent. Note Verbale. With reference to note verbale No. 754, of yesterday’s date, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to inform the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs that the accused person Kralj is named Michael (Mijo), and not John, as stated in the previous note. The Royal Yugoslav Legation begs to draw the special attention of the Royal Hungarian Ministry to the extreme urgency of this matter. Budapest, August 2nd, 1933. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nnex 21. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary No. 781. Very urgent. Note Verbale. With reference to the telephonic conversation of this morning between Counsellor Franko and the Yugoslav Chargé d’Affaires, the Royal Yugoslav Legation begs to com­ municate the following particulars to the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs with regard to Michael Kralj, born on September 17th, 1908, at Koprivnica, son of Blaise and Catherine Kralj, locksmith by trade, employed at an alcohol distillery distant some seven kilometres from Gyékényes. Michael Kralj is tall ; the face is oval ; the hair is cropped short. Budapest, August 7th, 1933. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nnex 22. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 795. Very urgent. Note Verbale. In acknowledging receipt of note verbale No. 561/1933-6, dated August 10th last from the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to supplement the description of Michael Kralj contained in its note verbale No. 781, of the 7th instant, as follows : The eyes are dark; the beard is shaved ; there is a small grey moustache, with the ends slightly turned up. The accused, Premec, is in a position to give any information required with regard to Kralj and his place of residence, since he was associated with the latter in the outrage committed on July 29th last. Kralj is, moreover, well known to the Royal Hungarian police at Gyékényes. Budapest, August 10th, 1933. [Seal.] To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nnex 23. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 561/1933-6. Urgent. Note Verbale. With reference to notes verbales No. 754, of August ist; No. 764, of August 2nd, and No. 781, of August 7th last, with regard to the extradition of Edward Premec and Michael Kralj, the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Yugoslav Legation that, according to communications received from the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice dated August 7th and 8th last, the Royal Hungarian frontier police of Gyékényes arrested Edward Premec on August 8th last and handed — 5i him over to the Royal Hungarian Public Prosecutor of Kaposvâr. Michael Kralj has not been found up to the present, either at Gyékényes or in the neighbourhood. As, according to the latest communication, dated August gth last, from the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice, the enquiry ordered by the Public Prosecutor of Kaposvar. has established that Edward Premec is unquestionably a Hungarian national, the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice regrets that it is not in a position to authorise the extra­ dition of the said Premec. The Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice has established the details of the facts with regard to the Hungarian nationality of Premec. According to certificate No. 202,654/11.27 issued by the Royal Hungarian Ministry of the Interior, Premec resumed Hungarian nationality and swore the oath of allegiance on November 24th, 1927. The Royal Hun­ garian Ministry of the Interior requests the Yugoslav authorities to forward the papers with regard to the criminal prosecution in question for perusal and necessary action. Criminal proceedings will be opened before the competent Royal Hungarian Court in respect of the offences giving rise to the arrest. It should be added that the Royal Hungarian authorities are continuing the police enquiries into the matter and have not failed to broadcast the warrant of arrest of Michael Kralj. The Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs proposes to forward such further communications on the subject as may be indicated. Budapest, August 10th, 1933. [Seal.'] To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A n n ex 24. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 980. Urgent. Note Verbale.

With reference to note verbale No. 561/1933-6, dated August 10th last, from the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with regard to the criminal proceedings against Edward Premec and Michael Kralj, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to draw the attention of the competent Hungarian authorities to the fact that, according to information in the possession of the Legation, Michael Kralj was seen on September 12th last, at 4.40 p.m., at the railway station of Gyékényes, from which he left the same day, about 5 p.m., in the direction of Zâkâny. There can therefore be no doubt that Kralj is on Hungarian territory, and either at Gyékényes or in the neighbourhood. The Royal Yugoslav Legation accordingly begs to request the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to be good enough to take the necessary steps to arrest Kralj and hand him over to the Yugoslav authorities for his share in the outrage committed at Koprivnica. The Royal Yugoslav Legation requests the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to be good enough to communicate, at the earliest possible date, the result of the action taken, and will be grateful for its good offices in the matter. Budapest, October 21st, 1933. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A n n ex 25. Royal Yugoslav Legation in Hungary. No. 1039. Urgent. Note Verbale.

With reference to note verbale No. 561/1933, dated August 10th last, from the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in continuation of note verbale No. 980, dated October 21st last, regarding the criminal proceedings in the matter of Edward Premec and Michael Kralj, the Royal Yugoslav Legation has the honour to forward herewith — 52 — a record drawn up by the District Court of Koprivnica on October 13th last, including the testimony of Slavko Zâgar, rolling-stock controller, with the request that the record may be forwarded to the competent Hungarian court. The Royal Yugoslav Legation, at the same time, begs to request the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to be good enough to reply at an early date to note verbale No. 980, of October 21st last, in regard to the arrest and extradition of Kralj. The Legation will be grateful for the good offices of the Royal Hungarian Ministry in the matter. Budapest, November 12th, 1933. [Seal.] To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nn ex 26. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 916-6-1933. Note Verbale. In reply to note verbale No. 1039, of November 12th last, the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Yugoslav Legation that, according to information from the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice, it has not as yet been possible to arrest Michael Kralj on Hungarian territory. It has been ascertained that he was residing in Hungary during the period February-April 1933, but his place of residence since that date is not known to the Hungarian authorities. The Ministry of Justice, which has not failed to call upon the Public Prosecutor of Kaposvàr to continue his researches with a view to the discovery of the place of residence of the individual in question on the basis of the information contained in the note verbale referred to, proposes to communicate subsequently the result of its investigations into the matter. Budapest, December 14th, 1933. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A n n ex 27. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 322-6-1934. Note Verbale. In continuation of note verbale No. 218-1934-6, of March 13th last, the Royal Hunga­ rian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Yugoslav Legation that, in accordance with information received from the Royal Hungarian Ministry of Justice, the Court at Kaposvàr, on March 14th last, found Premec (Edward) guilty of the crime of murder and sentenced him on this ground, under paragraph 92 of the Criminal Code, to fifteen years’ hard labour and disqualification for employment for ten years. Seven months and ten days of the sentence were remitted, the accused having already been in custody for that period. The sentence of the court is not yet final, the Public Prosecutor, the accused and counsel for the defence having appealed. The main proceedings before the court furnish no evidence as to the present residence of Kralj (Michael), and the further enquiries ordered with a view to his arrest have remained without result. The Ministry of Justice further points out that, in the course of the main proceedings before the court, Premec did not cease to maintain that he had no knowledge of Kralj, and that no third person was present when the parcel containing the bomb was handed over. Budapest, March 31st, 1934. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest. — 53 —

A n n ex 28. Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest. No. 197/34- Note Verbale. The Royal Yugoslav Legation has had the honour to report to the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs a number of very serious cases of criminal activities on the part of certain Yugoslav subjects who enjoy generous hospitality in Hungary and command the special protection of the Royal Hungarian authorities—activities which are directed against the safety of the Yugoslav State and against the lives and property of its citizens. For example, in its memorandum No. 566 of July 10th, 1933, the Royal Yugoslav Legation drew the attention of the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the criminal acts of one Stjepan (Etienne) Koprek, a Yugoslav subject residing in Hungary, who has been convicted in contumaciam by the Court for the Defence of the State to capital punishment for a crime committed against the safety of the State and public order (destruction of objects of public utility and the organisation on Hungarian territory of an insurrectionary band), without any effective action having been taken by the competent Hungarian authorities to prevent the repetition of the criminal acts for which this man was convicted. On the contrary, although his departure for South America was reported some months before, his presence in Hungary was once more reported in June 1933. Again, by its note No. 754, of August ist, 1933, after the explosion of an infernal machine at Koprivnica on July 30th, 1933, as a result of which one police officer was killed and two others were seriously injured, the Royal Yugoslav Legation drew the attention of the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to the case of Edward Premec and Michael (Mijo) Kralj, the authors of the outrage, with a request for their arrest. On receipt of this request, the Royal Hungarian authorities proceeded to arrest one of the authors of the outrage, Edward Premec ; but, on the pretext that he had resumed Hunga­ rian nationality, the Hungarian judicial authorities did not see their way to agree to his extradition. Premec was sent for trial to the court at Kaposvàr, while is accomplice Michael (Mijo) Kralj, whose Yugoslav nationality could not be contested, has not been arrested, the police authorities having been unable to find him, although his presence on Hungarian territory has been frequently reported by this Legation on the basis of reliable information (see notes verbales No. 795, of August 10th, 1933, and No. 980, of October 21st, 1933)- This case is comparable to the Koprek case already referred to. In both cases, the guilty persons were able to escape from justice solely because of the Hungarian police authorities’ alleged inability to find them at a time when there were good grounds for supposing that they were still living in Hungary. Moreover, the criminal acts to which the Royal Yugoslav Legation drew the attention of the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs are not so much the work of individuals as the result of an organised and systematic campaign directed by a former Croat journalist, Gustav Percec, a Yugoslav national condemned to death by the Court for the Defence of the State at Belgrade, who is now residing under false names (the last of which was Groom Illés) at Janka Puszta or Budapest. The Yugoslav authorities are in possession of irrefutable proof that the terrorist activities of Percec and his accomplices are proceeding under the eyes and with the knowledge of the Hungarian civil and military authorities with whom Percec, according to statements by former colleagues of his own, is in constant relations. In this connection, special interest attaches to the revelations of the former secretary and mistress of Percec, one Jelka Podgorelec, who lived for a long time in Hungary in possession of a Hungarian passport wrongfully issued to her by the Budapest police headquarters. The Royal Yugoslav Legation, by its note verbale No. 1101 of December 21st, 1933, forwarded a pamphlet published by Podgorelec with a summary in French. In it will be found photo­ graphs of certain documents, including the Hungarian passport in question carried by Podgorelec. The revelations of the former secretary of Percec have, moreover, only confirmed what his other colleagues, since returned to their own country, had revealed to the Yugoslav authorities. For example, Marjan Madjeric, John (Ivan) Mraz and Charles (Dragutin) Sikirica, Yugoslav subjects from Hlebin in the border district of Koprivnica, all of whom were led by promises of agents of Percec to cross the frontier and visit the terrorist centre at Janka Puszta in Hungary, returned to Yugoslavia disillusioned, where they made statements to the Commissioner of Police at Koprivnica, in which they said amongst other things that: (1) On their arrival in Hungary on August 31st, 1931, they were interrogated by the civil and military authorities at Pécs, to whom they announced their intention of entering the service of Percec with a view to terrorist and revolutionary action directed against Yugoslavia. — 54 —

(2) They were sent by the same authorities to Budapest, where, after having passed some days at Tolonchâz, they were put in touch with Percec by military officials (Major Klar-Kovàcs) and by the police. They were then sent, together with Etienne Petrovié, to Nagy kanizsa, and from there to Janka Puszta, where they lived under false names (Marjan Josipovic, John (Ivan) Jankovac, Charles (Dragutin) Djurid and Stephen Dragovic). Some days afterwards, other individuals arrived from Belgium and Italy to take part in the terrorist campaign directed by Percec, Ignatius Domitrovié and Michael Seletkovié. (3) During their stay at Janka Puszta, they were informed as to the revolution­ ary objects of the organisation and the outrages projected and were initiated into the handling of infernal machines, etc. (4) On leaving Janka Puszta as a result of a difference between the head of the band, Percec, and the other principal members, in particular Domitrovié, they returned after a variety of mishaps, to Yugoslavia. In this conflict between the members of the terrorist organisation, officers of the Hungarian Army (Major John (Jânos) Klàr-Kovacs, Andrew (Endre) von Huszâr and Julius (Gyula) von Tekes) intervened to smooth over the difference.

Another quite recent case proves that the criminal activities of the Yugoslav terrorists residing in Hungarian territory and enjoying a large measure of hospitality there are still being freely carried on. This is the case of one Joseph Krobot, a Yugoslav national who, on August 24th, 1933, assassinated the deputy and former Yugoslav Minister, Dr. Mirko Neudorfer, on his estate at Zlatâr. The author of this crime and his accomplices were discovered as a result of the explosion of a package containing four infernal machines in the house of the father of the said Joseph Krobot at Gornje Ladalje on October n th , 1933, in the course of which Joseph, the person principally implicated in the murder, and his mother lost their lives, while his accomplices, Thomas Kelemen, Francis Zrinjski and Michael Brodar, were seriously injured. A whole arsenal of firerams and bombs was found in the ruins of the house. As a result of this discovery, Krobot’s father, his wife and sister informed the authorities of Krobot’s criminal activities. Their depositions were fully confirmed by the statements of Krobot’s accomplices—Kelemen, Zrinjski and Brodar. It appears from their formal depositions (1) that Joseph Krobot, who had come from South America, had spent two months in Hungary with Gustav Percec from March 31st, 1933, when he left Austrian territory, until May 30th of the same year, when he returned to Yugoslavia; (2) that, after his return to Yugoslavia, he paid several further visits to Hungary, crossing the frontier unlawfully, and returned each time with weapons, bombs, ammunition and revolutionary tracts ; (3) that each time he conferred with the terrorist chief Percec and with Hungarian officers and police officials; (4) that it was he who, with the complicity of the said Zrinjski and at the instigation and on the order of the said Percec, assassinated the Member of Parliament and former Minister, Dr. Mirko Neudorfer, addi­ tional proof of which is to be found in an article on the subject which appeared in the October issue of a terrorist publication called Ustasa; (5) that the late Joseph Krobot, with the complicity of the said Francis Zrinjski, organised criminal attempts on trains— viz., on September 29th, 1933, by placing two infernal machines (which fortunately did not explode) on the Zidani Most-Zagreb main line near Reichenburg; and again, on October 6th, 1933, by placing an infernal machine (which exploded the following day causing great damage) on the same line between Podsused and Zapresic ; and (6) that the four machines which exploded in the house of Krobot’s father were also intended for attacks on the Cakovec-Zagreb line. The Royal Yugoslav Legation could instance other equally damning cased of the same kind ; but the above list of terrorist acts requires no further additions. The facts stated above show that the Yugoslav émigrés — in particular, Percec, Domitrovié and others, who have chosen Hungary as their refuge and have been received there with special hospitality and consideration by the Hungarian authorities—are carrying on criminal activities against the Yugoslav State, its security and public order, and the lives and property of its citizens, without the Royal Hungarian authorities having taken steps to stop them—a state of affairs which is quite intolerable and incompatible with neighbourly relations between States or with the international obligations of States. The Royal Yugoslav Legation accordingly, by order of the Yugoslav Government, has the honour to request the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs to make repre­ sentations to the competent authorities with a view to the suppressions of this terrorist campaign organised on Hungarian territory against Yugoslavia, and the expulsion from Hungary of Yugoslav émigrés who have so clearly violated the obligations incumbent on them in virtue of the generous measure of hospitality which they have enjoyed. Budapest, March 13th, 1934. [Seal.] — 55 —

A nn ex 29. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 830/P0I./1934. Note Verbale. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to acknowledge receipt of note verbale No. 197/34 from the Royal Yugoslav Legation, and, in reply, to state that the circumstances to which it relates, together with other matters forming the subject of previous notes to which it refers, are under careful consideration by the Hungarian authorities. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs is at all times anxious to maintain neighbourly relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and will not fail to keep the Legation informed of the results of the enquiry and of such steps as may be taken in the matter in the light of the facts established. Budapest, March 15th, 1934. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A n n ex 30. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 1211/P0I./1934. Note Verbale. With reference to note verbale No. 197/34, of March 13th, 1934, of the Royal Yugoslav Legation, the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to make the following communication to the Legation. It is with astonishment that the Royal Hungarian Ministry has taken cognisance of the contents of the note verbale in question. The Royal Yugoslav Legation would appear, from several passages of this note verbale, to affect to regard certain Hungarian civil and military authorities—no names are given—as having tacitly tolerated preparations for the terrorist activities carried on in Yugoslav territory by Yugoslav émigrés residing in Hungary. The Legation even goes so far as to suggest that “ the terrorist activities of Percec and his accomplices are proceeding under the eyes and with the knowledge of the Hungarian civil and military authorities ”. The Royal Ministry is amazed that Hungarian administrative departments should be accused of such conduct, having regard to the fact that the Hungarian Government has at all times done its best to keep watch on the (not very numerous) Yugoslav émigrés in Hungarian territory, in spite of the difficulties occasioned by the action of agents provo­ cateurs and others. The most careful examination of the facts adduced by the Royal Yugoslav Legation has not brought anything to light which can serve as justification for such a charge. The Royal Hungarian Ministry does not question that incidents may have occurred from time to time, which were in reality due to the fact that the Hungarian Government agents against whom the conduct referred to is alleged were merely the dupes of the different malefactors in question—which is not surprising, having regard to the well-known nefarious practices of the latter. The Royal Ministry cannot therefore allow a charge of such a character to be made against the agents of the Hungarian Government, and protests in the most vigorous manner against any such imputation. That the goodwill of the Hungarian authorities should be called in question on the strength of statements and depositions so trivial as those quoted in the note verbale is matter for surprise. The Royal Hungarian Government is anxious now, as in the past, to collaborate in the maintenance of neighbourly relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In proof of the Hungarian Government’s goodwill, the Royal Ministry has the honour to inform the Royal Yugoslav Legation that, some considerable time before the receipt of the note verbale from the Legation, the Hungarian Government had taken the necessary steps for the evacuation by the Yugoslav political refugees of Janka Puszta, a farm leased by them some time ago. If the Hungarian Government has taken action, in spite of the consi­ derable difficulties in the way of such Government intervention in matters of private law, it has done so solely out of consideration for the Yugoslav Government, on the ground that the presence of the refugees, etc., in the neighbourhood of the frontier was felt by - 56 - the Hungarian Government to be unduly exciting Yugoslav public opinion and the Yugoslav Press. It will not have escaped the notice of the Legation that the said Edward Premec, author of an attempt against the lives of Yugoslav citizens, has been punished by the court of Kaposvàr with the full rigour of the law, which is itself sufficient evidence that the Hungarian Government does not, and will not, tolerate the preparation of criminal acts on Hungarian territory. The Hungarian Government, it need hardly be said, will not cease to accord the right of asylum to political émigrés who respect the law, but, in order to give further proof of its desire to establish and maintain neighbourly relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it is willing to accede to the request put forward by the Royal Yugoslav Legation in the note verbale in question that Yugoslav émigrés who have failed to comply with the obligations incumbent on them as recipients of hospitality in Hungary should be removed from Hungarian territory. The Royal Ministry does not consider it necessary in this connection to deal with the trivial depositions contained in the note verbale in question or with certain imaginative allegations to be found in the Podgorelec pamphlet. As regard the individuals named and accused in the note verbale, it was established in the course of the enquiry carried out (as stated in note verbale No. 830/pol. of the Royal Ministry, dated March 15th, 1934) that certain of these people had in fact resided temporarily in Hungary, but that the Hungarian authorities had never been able to obtain proof of their having engaged in illicit activities. It was also ascertained in the course of the enquiry that all of them had left Hungary and are at present out of the country. The Yugoslav émigrés still in Hungary will remain subject to the surveillance of the authorities. In the opinion of the Royal Ministry, however, this supervision can only be fully effective if the Royal Yugoslav frontier authorities observe the spirit of the Belgrade Protocol of October ist, 1929, in the performance of their duties. That presupposes close co-operation with the Hungarian frontier authorities, and arrangements for special meetings at regular intervals between the frontier authorities of the two States. It would further facilitate matters if the Royal Yugoslav Government would in future comply with the Hungarian Government’s applications for joint investigation of incidents on the Hungarian-Yugoslav frontier. The Royal Ministry is of opinion that investigations of this kind would be very valuable in furnishing information as to the activities of certain elements likely to interfere with the maintenance of neighbourly relations between Hungary and Yugoslavia. The Royal Ministry hopes that the above considerations will serve to reassure the Royal Yugoslav Legation as to the Hungarian Government’s sincere desire for the maintenance of neighbourly relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the same spirit, the Royal Ministry requests the Legation to make representations to the Yugoslav Government with a view to action by the latter to improve the conditions at present prevailing on the frontier between the two countries, and, in particular, to invite the Yugoslav Government to agree : To enforce again the provisions of Article 5, paragraph (e), of Annex A to the Commercial Treaty between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Hungary, signed at Belgrade on July 24th, 1926, as a means of remedying the hardships of the position of the persons owning land on both sides of the frontier; To take steps, with the same object, to do away with the unwarrantable delays and damage caused by the tardiness of the Royal Yugoslav authorities in affixing the visas provided for in the Belgrade Protocol on the frontier permits of the “ dual ” owners in question ; To negotiate with the Hungarian Government with a view to an increase in the number of Customs routes across the frontier; and, finally, To make the necessary changes in the regulations concerning the use of firearms by the Royal Yugoslav frontier-guards, so as to limit the number of fatal incidents on the frontier. Budapest, April 26th, 1934. [Sea/.] To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A nn ex 31. No. 1065/34. Note Verbale. The Director of Police at Sofia has informed the Yugoslav police that Vlada Georgiev Chernozemski left Bulgaria for Hungary two years ago to act as instructor in terrorist methods in the Croatian émigrés camps. — 57 —

The Royal Legation encloses a photograph of the murderer of His Majesty King Alexander, who is believed to be the aforesaid Vlada Georgiev Chernozemski, and has the honour, under instructions from its Government, to request the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs to ask the competent Hungarian authorities, with the utmost urgency, whether they are in possession of any information regarding the person in question and the place and time of his residence in Hungary. The Royal Legation would be most grateful to the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs if it would forward this information very urgently. Budapest, October 16th, 1934. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Budapest.

A n n ex 32. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. No. 3438/Pol. 1934.

Urgent. Note Verbale. The Royal Minister for Foreign Affairs begs to acknowledge receipt of note verbale No. 1065/34 from the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, and has the honour to inform the Royal Legation that the contents of the said note were communicated without delay to the competent Hungarian authorities, who will take the necessary steps urgently. As soon as the Royal Ministry is in possession of a reply, it will communicate it to the Royal Legation. Budapest, October 17th, 1934. [Sea/.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

A n n ex 33. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. No. 3438/Pol. 1934- Urgent. Note Verbale. With reference to its note verbale No. 3438/Pol. of October 16th, 1934, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia that, by order of the Royal Ministry of the Interior, the most exhaustive enquiries have been initiated with a view to establishing the passage through Hungary, or residence therein, of Vlada Georgiev Chernozemski. These investigations have led to no positive result during the first twenty-four hours that have elapsed since the delivery of the Royal Yugoslav Legation’s note verbale of October 16th, and will, of course, be most actively continued. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to draw the attention of the Royal Legation to the fact that the task of the Hungarian police authorities would undoubtedly be rendered easier if they could be furnished with a description and other particulars of the person above mentioned. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs would be grateful to the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia if it could supply the detailed information in question as rapidly as possible. Budapest, October 17th, 1934. [Seal.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest. - 58 -

A nnex 34. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia in Hungary. No. 1083. Very urgent. Note Verbale. In reply to note verbale No. 3438 from the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, dated October 17th, the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia has the honour to send the desired description of the murderer of His Majesty King Alexander of Yugoslavia. It is as follows : Occupation : Chauffeur. Birthplace : Kamenice, Bulgaria. Date of birth : March 15th, 1897. Height : Average, about 170 cm. ; upper part of body much more developed than lower part. Eyes: Hazel. Hair: Light brown. Eyebrows : Very thick. Teeth: Front teeth yellow, set wide apart. In 1924, Georgiev killed the Bulgarian Member of Parliament Hadji-Dimoff, and, in 1930, the publicist Tomalevski. After being amnestied in 1932, he entered the personal service of Vancha Mihailov, who shortly afterwards sent him to Hungary to take the place of Kyrill Drangov, the liaisoa agent between the Pavelic-Percec Croatian terrorist groups and the Macedonian organisation known as the O.R.I.M., of which Georgiev was an active member. It appears from the information in the possession of, and the statements of, the Bulgarian police, and from the interrogation of the murderer’s accomplices arrested in France, that Georgiev was an instructor of the Croatian terrorists in Hungary. Budapest, October 20th, 1934. [Seal.] To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nnex 35. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. No. 3543/Pol. I934- Note Verbale. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to acknowledge receipt of note No. 1083, dated October 20th, 1934, in which the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia transmitted the description of the murderer of His Majesty King Alexander of Yugoslavia. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs thanks the Royal Legation for this communication, and begs to state that it has forwarded the contents of the note in question urgently to the competent Royal authorities. Budapest, October 21st, 1934. [Seal.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

A nnex 36. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. No. 3688/Pol.1934. Note Verbale. With reference to the Royal Legation’s notes verbales No. 1065/34, dated October 16th, and No. 1083, dated October 20th, 1934, and in continuation of its own notes verbales No. 3438/Pol., ad 3438/Pol., and 3543/Pol., the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia as follows: — 59 —

Notwithstanding the most exhaustive and intensive investigations, the Royal Hungarian authorities have not as yet ascertained that Vlada Georgiev Chernozemski was ever in Hungary. On the contrary, the competent authorities conducting the investigations are almost completely certain that he never entered Hungarian territory. Nevertheless, the Royal Hungarian authorities will continue their investigations into the matter with the utmost diligence, and the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs will inform the Royal Legation immediately the slightest trace of any residence in Hungary is discovered. Budapest, October 26th, 1934. To the Royal Yugoslav Legation, Budapest.

A n n ex 37.

Radiogram. Budapest, 1422-206-27-19-28. Interior, Sûreté, Judicial Investigations, Paris. In reply to your radiogram, we may inform you that the investigations carried out here have not produced any evidence that Gustave Percsecs has stayed here as a journalist under the assumed name of Josef Neumann. Our Passport Department has not issued any passport to a person of the above-mentioned name and occupation in the course of the last few years. Janka Puszta was rented by a certain Emile Horvath, but the building never belonged to Antony Zourich. It is possible that Michael Kralj, the alleged accomplice of Edward Premecz while he was in flight, passed through Janka Puszta, but he was entirely unknown there and it has therefore been impossible to establish this fact. We have ascertained that an individual of suspicions character, whose description corresponded exactly to that of Vjekoslav Servaci, lived under the name of John Szendrey at 81, rue Attiba, Budapest, in apartment No. 4, on the second floor. According to our information, this man left his lodgings on the 13th instant for an unknown destination. Though the premises were searched, no clue was found as to where he may have gone. Investigations are being continued. Prefecture of Police, Budapest.

A nn ex 38. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia in Hungary. No. 1089. Note Verbale. Ivan Kuzman Raic, an accessory to the assassination of His Majesty King Alexander, confessed in the course of his examination by the examining magistrate at Marseilles that a certain Vjekoslav (Aloyse) Servazi had taken part in the preparations for this crime. Raic stated that a man whom he himself did not know had come to Janka Puszta and handed him a passport, railway ticket and money, together with an order signed by Servazi to the effect that he was to leave immediately for Lausanne. In bringing the foregoing facts to the notice of the Royal Hungarian Government, the Royal Legation, acting on the instructions of its Government, has the honour to request the Royal Hungarian Government with all urgency to give instructions for the immediate tracing and arrest of the above-mentioned Vjekoslav Servazi, who is the leader of the Croat terrorist émigrés in Hungary. Budapest, October 22nd, 1934. [Sea/.] To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest. — 6o —

A nnex 39. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia in Hungary. No. 1117/34- Very Urgent. Note Verbale. With reference to its note verbale No. 1089, dated October 22nd, 1934, relative to the request for the arrest of a certain Servazi, one of the persons implicated in the Marseilles assassination, the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia has the honour to communicate to the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs the following description of the wanted man Vjekoslav Servazi: Place of birth : Ruma (Yugoslavia). Date of birth: 1886. Civil status: Married. Occupation : In business. Height: Tall. Face: Oval. Eyes: Grey. Hair: Light brown. Moustache: None. Beard : None. In addition to the above description, the Royal Legation has the honour to enclose a photograph of the man in question. The Royal Legation is instructed by its Government to press for the immediate arrest of Servazi, who, until a few days ago, was living in Budapest at an address known to the Royal Hungarian authorities. Budapest October 25th, 1934. [Seal.~\ To the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A nn ex 40. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 3645/Pol. 1934. Note Verbale. The Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to acknowledge receipt of the Royal Legation’s notes verbales No. 1089, of October 22nd, 1934, and No. 1117, of October 25th, 1934. The Royal Ministry duly transmitted the aforementioned notes verbales immediately on their receipt to the competent Hungarian authorities and will inform the Royal Legation as soon as possible of the results of the action which is being taken in the matter. Budapest, October 25th, 1934. To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

A nn ex 41. Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. No. 3687/Pol. 1934. Note Verbale. With reference to the Royal Yugoslav Legation’s notes verbales, No. 1089, of October 22nd, and No. 1117, of October 25th, 1934, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the Royal Legation as follows: In deference to the request made in the aforesaid notes verbales, the competent Hungarian authorities have set on foot very careful investigations with a view to the immediate tracing and arrest of Vjekoslav Servazi. Furthermore, in view of the informa­ tion contained in a report communicated to M. de Hory by His Excellency the Minister — 6i — of Yugoslavia, to the effect that the above-mentioned Servazi is identical with Szendrey Jânos, Attila-Utca 81, Budapest VI, the Royal authorities have also taken steps for the arrest of Szendrey. The Royal authorities have, in fact, ascertained that a man giving the name of Szendrey Janos has actually been living with his wife at the address given, though, according to the other tenants, they both left on October 13th and have not since returned. Very searching investigations are at present being carried [out by the competent authorities with a view to tracing the above-mentioned person, but, so far, their investiga­ tions have proved unsuccessful, his present whereabouts being impossible to ascertain. Budapest, October 26th, 1934. [Sea/.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

A nn ex 42. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest. P. 1110/34. 23 X. 1934. Telephone Message.

October 23rd, 1934, 10.30 p.m. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Political Department, Belgrade. The Chief of the Press Bureau yesterday informed journalists that the authorities had apprehended the man whom the Hungarian Government was yesterday asked by the Minister of Yugoslavia to have arrested. Reference : Your No. P. 23172. (Signed) V ukC evic.

A nn ex 43.

Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest. P.1112/34. 24.10.34. Telephone Message.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs,Political Department, Belgrade. October 24th, 1934. Last night’s report of the arrest is now denied at Police Headquarters, in spite of the fact that confirmation of it was given to our Press attaché yesterday evening by the same authorities. I propose to make enquiries in the matter and will communicate the result in due course. Reference : My telephone message No. P. m o . (Signed) V ukC evic.

A n n ex 44. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest. P l I I 3/34- Telephone Message. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, October 24th, 1934. Belgrade. In continuation of my telephone message No. P. 1112/34: I have been informed at the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs that the report of the arrest was incorrect. The wanted man was enquired for at the address given, but it was found that he had left with his wife a few days previously for an unknown destination and had not since returned. Efforts to trace him have been made in every part of Hungary, though so far without success; these efforts are to be continued. As the result of the statement made by the police to journalists last night, Hetenyi, the Director of the Political Police, was summoned this morning to the Ministry for Foreign — 62 —

Affairs, where he stated “ that he did not see how anyone could have made such a statement on behalf of the police (Signed) V ukC evic.

A nnex 45. Budapest, November 12th, 1934. The Hungarian News Bureau officially publishes the following report : The Hungarian police have provisionally concluded their investigations relating to the Marseilles assassination. The headquarters of the State police of Budapest publishes the following communiqué: " During the days following the Marseilles assassination, the Hungarian police authorities conducted extensive investigations. Furthermore, in compliance with the representations of the Paris police and the request of the Legation of Yugoslavia—the latter being transmitted through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs— its investigations were carried out with the greatest possible rapidity. The police examined several hundred persons and twenty-one arrests were made. The investigations revealed that none of the persons examined or arrested could be in any way connected with the Marseilles assassination. There is, moreover, no evidence that the man who murdered King Alexander of Yugoslavia was ever in Hungary or ever resided there. It has been decided that all Yugoslav nationals resident in Hungary who may be regarded as Croat political émigrés will in future remain subject to police supervision ”.

A nn ex 46. Royal HungarianMinistry for Foreign Affairs. No. 3726/Pol. 1934- Urgent. Confidential. Verbale Note. With reference to note verbale No. 1133, of October 28th, 1934, the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to notify the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia that, though under no international obligation to do so, the Royal Hungarian Government is prepared to supply the Royal Government of Yugoslavia with information regarding the stay in Hungary of émigrés described by the Royal Legation as Croats. In making the foregoing communication to the Royal Yugoslav Legation, the Royal Government presumes that the Royal Yugoslav Government has, at the same time, addressed similar requests to the other Governments which have granted an asylum to Yugoslav émigrés. Before proceeding, however, to collect the information requested, it would appear necessary to define the term “ Croat émigré ”. In the above-mentioned note verbale, the Royal Legation stated that the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs had “ recognised that a certain number of Croat émigrés were at present in Hungary ”. That statement would not appear to be correct, as the word “ Croat ” does not occur in note No. 1211, of April 26th, mentioned by the Royal Legation. In that note, the Royal Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs described the persons in question as Yugoslav émigrés. It would nevertheless be possible to draw a distinction between Yugoslav and Croat émigrés, for example, in the light of the information supplied to the Hungarian authorities by the émigrés themselves regarding their date of birth. Thus the Hungarian police records contain the names of 561 heads of families of Yugoslav nationality who were born in the former territory of Croatia. Even in the case of these persons, it is of course difficult to make a distinction between those who might be regarded as Croat émigrés and the others. Many of them have been resident in Hungarian territory for several decades, whereas others only arrived quite recently. The reasons which led them to leave their native country are not always known to the Hungarian authorities. Some regard themselves as Croats, while others do not. Similarly, some describe themselves as émigrés, while others do not. Such being the case, the Royal Ministry feels bound to ask what category of Yugoslav subjects the Royal Legation means when using the term “ Croat émigré ”, since a full and correct list as requested by the Royal Legation, could only be compiled on the basis of an exact definition of the category of persons which that list should include. The Royal Ministry would therefore be grateful to the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia if it would at once inform it of its Government’s views on this question. The Royal Ministry has the honour to inform the Royal Legation that, in the meanwhile, the Royal Hungarian Government has had seventeen persons who are suspected of belonging to the separatist Croat organisation directed against the unity of Yugoslavia placed under special police supervision (Annex). — 63 —

In the course of the negotiations which took place in Belgrade in June and July last, M. Simonovitch, Director of the Yugoslav Sûreté Générale, supplied the Hungarian delegation with information regarding the above-mentioned Croat Separatist Organisation, together with the names of its leaders, Ibro Basitch, Stevo Duitch, Dr. Artukovitch and Percec. The Royal Ministry has the honour to inform the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia that none of these persons is at present in Hungarian territory. While bringing the foregoing facts to the attention of the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs takes this opportunity of requesting the Royal Legation to transmit to the competent Yugoslav authorities the Hungarian police’s request that, in order to facilitate its own investigations in this matter, it might be kept informed of any evidence obtained in connection with the examination of those accused of complicity in the deplorable outrage at Marseilles. Budapest, November 2nd, 1934. [Sea/.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

Annex to Note Verbale No. 3726/Pol.1934. Under -police supervision : N am e Place of residence N am e Place of residence Ribar Eugen Letenye Florijan Ivan Berzencze Mulat Ferdinand Basa psz. Vancura Ivan Berzencze Marijan Srecko Bâza psz. Luksic Jure Porokszentkirâly Domagoj Lovro Ôrtilos Graef Ferenc Siklôs Sabol Tomo Ortilos Wagner Adolf Villâny Hermance Josip Vajszlô Kaufmann Felix Villâny Kostelac Franjo Vajszlô Wolf Martin Baja Zsurics Antal Nagykanizsa Rezek Stjepan Budapest Konkoli Tomo Berzencze

A n n ex 47. Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest. No. 1176. Note Verbale. With reference to the note of the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs No. 3726/Pol, of November 2nd, 1934, the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia has the honour to inform it that in its note No. 1132, of October 28th, 1934, it naturally referred to all thoseYugoslav émigrés in Hungary known to the Royal Hungarian authorities on account of their separatist and terrorist activities directed against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In this connection, it may not be inappropriate to remind the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs that a voluminous correspondence has already been exchanged with that Ministry on this subject; that the Royal Legation has mentioned a large number of names ; and that, in its note No. 1211, of April 26th, 1934, the Royal Ministry referred to certain offenders, together with the persons mentioned in the Royal Legation’s note No. 197, of March 13th, 1934, who, according to the Ministry, had been resident in Hungary ; according however to the information in the possession of the Royal Legation these persons have not left Hungary in spite of the fact that the Hungarian authorities have records of their departure. While bringing the foregoing facts to the attention of the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia has the honour to insist on the urgent need for the communication of the list requested in its afore mentioned note. Budapest, November 8th, 1934. To the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Budapest.

A n n ex 48. Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Hungary. 3873/Pol.1934. 2 Annexes. Note Verbale. With reference to notes verbales No. 1132, October 28th, and No. 1176, of November 8th, 1934, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honour to inform the - 64 -

Royal Legation of Yugoslavia that the Hungarian authorities are not aware that any Yugoslav émigré known to the Royal Hungarian Government as being engaged in terrorist activities directed against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia is now resident in Hungary. The Royal Ministry is convinced that all the Yugoslav émigrés who might answer to this definition are at present outside Hungary. It is therefore not possible to draw up a list of persons now resident in Hungary and known to the Hungarian Government on account of their separatist and terrorist activities. With regard, on the other hand, to the separatist and terrorist émigrés who formerly resided in Hungary but are now abroad, it was the Royal Legation itself that was good enough to call the attention of the Royal Hungarian Government to their activities while they were resident in Hungary. For that reason, the Royal Ministry does not see that a list containing only the names of such persons could be of any value to the Royal Legation. In consideration of the foregoing, and being anxious to meet the aforesaid request as fully as possible, the Royal Ministry is prepared to go considerably further than it has been asked to do. More particularly, the Royal Ministry has the honour to furnish to the Royal Legation herewith a list of all the Yugoslav subjects of Croatian origin who have arrived in Hungary since 1919 and are now resident in this country, and a list of those who, after residing in Hungary for some time, left this country during the years 1931-1934. The Royal Ministry hopes that these lists, which are complete and accurate according to all the Hungarian Government’s information on the matter, contain the particulars desired by the Royal Legation. Budapest, November 21st, 1934. [Seal.] To the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia, Budapest.

A n n e x N o . i to N o t e V e r b a l e f r o m t h e R o y a l M in is t r y f o r F o r e ig n A f f a ir s o f H u n g a r y , N o . 3873/P0I.1934. List of Yugoslav subjects ' from the former Croatia-Slavonia who, having immigrated into Hungary, left that country during the years

N o. N am e O ccupation Domiciled at From L eft for D a te of d e p a rtu re

Benedikt Emil Schoolmaster Janka Puszta A broad E n d of 1933

31. Gaj Vjekoslav B lacksm ith Janka Puszta, 1933 Disappeared S ept. 1934 afterwards Ôrtilos N ote: Probably identical with Raic Ivan.

33. Gredicsek Andràas Janka Puszta A broad March 1934

38. Horvàth Emil Farmer Janka Puszta 1931 A broad E n d of 1933 Note : Identical with Gustav Percec. 39. Huskic. Hasszàn Gardener Janka Puszta About end Abroad ? of 1931 40. Jakovac Ivan Cultivator Janka Puszta, after- End of Abroad D ec. 1932 wards Hajdusàmson 1931 N ote: Probably identical with Mraz Ivàn.

48. Kralj Mijo M echanic Janka Puszta February Disappeared J u ly 1933 1933

52. Madjeric Marjan C ultivator Janka Puszta, after- End of A broad J a n u a ry 1933 wards Hajdusàmson 1931

57. Micek Ivàn ? Janka Puszta A broad E n d of 1933

70. Pogorelec Jelka D ancer Janka Puszta A broad S ept. 1933

75. Roham Gyôrgy Chauffeur Janka Puszta, after­ Disappeared from wards Nagy Kanisza Nagy Kanisza Sept. 1934 Note : Perhaps identical with Pospiêil.

80. Sekirica Dragee Cultivator Janka Puszta, after- End of Abroad May 1932 w ards D ebrecen 1931

86. Szendrey Jànos Trader Budapest 1934 D isappeared O ctober 1934 Note : Identical with Servazi Vjekoslav.

98. Zarko Jozsef Cultivator Janka Puszta December — 1924 Note: Committed suicide, June 1933.