“When it became known,” Kiss went on, “that General Smuts, though he had ordered rooms in an hotel, had not even entered the town but had summoned Béla Kun to the railway station, there was no limit to our illusions. But it did not last. This morning the Communists informed us triumphantly of their success; the Entente had entered into negotiations with the Governments of Moscow and Budapest....” My mind reverted to Brest-Litovsk. We did not know it at the time, but it was there that we lost the war. Now even the victors may lose it in Budapest and Moscow. “General Smuts came here,” Kiss added sadly, “not to threaten but to negotiate. The journalist friends of the People’s Commissaries told us that General Smuts had offered the Government a favourable line of demarcation. If Béla Kun will consent to come to some arrangement, the Powers are prepared to compel the Roumanians to retire eastwards and to form a neutral zone occupied by British, French and Italian troops. The journalists also say that the General will recommend in Paris that the interested States should hold a conference which would finally fix their respective frontiers. He promised to use his influence to persuade the Powers to invite Béla Kun’s Government to Paris. He will have the blockade raised and provide fats and other articles of which we are in need. All he required in compensation was the cessation of all attempts to spread the idea of a world-revolution. The success made Béla Kun dizzy. He would be satisfied with nothing. The attempt of the Entente to compromise with him has strengthened his position incredibly, and now he is proclaiming to the world that the Great Powers are afraid of him. He wants no increase of territory, he wants free trade and free propaganda in the neighbouring States.” Last autumn, the great collapsing Monarchy appealed to Wilson and asked for his intervention. Through Mr. Lansing, his Secretary of State, he sent the following answer: “We will not negotiate with you.” And with cruel irony he referred the peace-begging Power to its little neighbours. Then he did not deign to speak to us, but he has no hesitation in bargaining with Béla Kun. Are they really afraid of him? Or do they think that he will surrender Hungarian nationality in exchange for the freedom of Bolshevism? Is the national ideal of Hungary more dangerous in the eyes of the Entente than the national ideal of the Jews? The British General has gone. His steps die away in the distance. He has knocked at our window and we could not move and appeal to him. The villains have tied our hands and gagged us and we strain at our bonds in helpless agony. CHAPTER IV _April 6th._