For a long time I had not heard of them. In the first week of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat Michael Károlyi stood as an invisible power above the Revolutionary Cabinet. The People’s Commissaries treated him with respect. But after the Soviet elections, when Béla Kun and his followers had obtained full control, Károlyi was thrust into the background. They wanted to send him to Gödöllö, the former royal residence, as Commissary of Production, and later they placed their former protector with a Communistic co-operative society. For appearances’ sake Károlyi pays occasional visits to his office, but he does no work whatever. He has had a gramophone installed in his office. Detectives guard the peace of his villa in the hills of Buda, while motor lorries pass between the starving houses to carry food and ice to him. But the hospitals have no ice for their patients. His wife is often seen in a glaring red hat, driving through the quiet streets in the car of the People’s Commissaries. At night they partake of the festivities of Soviet House behind locked doors, in company with Béla Kun, Comrade Dovcsák, Pogány, Landler and their womenfolk. The Gipsies who play to them spread the tale. The revels go on and the music never stops. Disregarding prohibition, French champagne flows freely. Tibor Számuelly pours some into Countess Károlyi’s glass, pouring it with the hand that fixes the rope round his victims’ necks. They drink to the eternal prosperity of the Soviet, and costly banquets are consumed in illuminated halls while the dark town is starving. The evening ends in voluptuous dancing. Then the music dies away.... * * * * * _July 2nd._ People are being stopped in the street. “Your purse!” The 91st order of the Revolutionary Cabinet is being put into execution: “The banknotes of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, of the denomination of 50, 100, 1000, and 10,000 crowns, are withdrawn from circulation on the 1st of July of this year. Anyone using them after that date for payment, accepting or proffering them or exchanging them, will be charged before a revolutionary tribunal. Besides the punishment, all notes found in the possession of the culprit will be confiscated. The informer shall receive half the value of the confiscated amount.” Detectives are about and the Red soldiers are confiscating on their own account. They present their bayonets: “Your purse! Get it out of your pocket! Blue money is prohibited!” and they take the notes of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. Some of them keep the purse too—as a souvenir. But the white-backed Soviet money is returned with derision to the owner. Red posters on the walls proclaim: “Social production is the source of prosperity!” The Soviet system, after despoiling the treasury, the safe deposits and private dwellings, has now started to ‘produce’ from people’s pockets.