Hungarian-British Diplomacy 1938-1941 The Attempt to Maintain Relations

This book deals with the relationship of Britain and Hungary during the crucial years 1938-1941. In addition to archival research in London and Budapest, mostly about the relations of the governments, Ban's work broadens into political, social, intellectual and cultural history. This is one of its exceptional assets, including materials hitherto overlooked or disregarded, as it relates to more than diplomatic history - even though, in dealing with the latter too, Ban's mastery of archival and other evidence is extraordinarily valuable.
From 1938 to 1941 both Hungarian ambitions and Hungarian society were divided. The principal ambition was still to revise the frontiers imposed on Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. However, at the same time, a minority of Hungarians (including Prime Minister Teiki as well as many officials of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry) recognized that at least equally important as the cause of frontier revision was the protection and revision of as much Hungarian independence as was possible in the shadow of an immensely powerful and dominant Germany. This division of attitudes, ideas and purposes ran through the society and bureaucracy of Hungary
at large.
There was no such profound division on the British side regarding Hungary: the Foreign Office and Churchill
recognized the limitations of an independent Hungarian foreign policy, hoping to encourage as much neutrality on Hungary's part as was possible.
But the break, in the end, could not be avoided. In April 1941, German armies invaded Yugoslavia passing through Hungary. Prime Minister Teleki shot himself. Hungary then joined the invasion having only a month before signed anon-aggression pact with its neighbor. Britain broke off diplomatic relation with Hungary, eventually declaring war eight months later.

This book deals with the relationship between Britain and Hungary during the crucial years 1938-1941. In addition to archival research in London and Budapest, mostly about the relations of the governments, Bán's work broadens into political, social, intellectual and cultural history. This is one of its exceptional assets, including materials hitherto overlooked or disregarded, as it relates to more than diplomatic history - even though, in dealing with the latter too, Bán's mastery of archival and other evidence is extraordinarily valuable.

Part 1: Diplomatic Relations 1. Historical Antecedents 2. From the Peace Treaty of Versailles to the Anschluss 3. From the Anschluss to the First Vienna Award 4. From Count Pal Teleki's Government to the Outbreak of the Second World War 5. From 1 September 1939 to Hungary's Accession to the Tripartite Pact 6. From 20 November 1940 to the Breaking Off of Anglo-Hungarian Diplomatic Relations 7. Three Hungarian Prime Ministers as Viewed from the Hungarian Record Part 2: International Relations 8. The Stucture of British Public Opinion 9. Anglo-Hungarian Economic Links 10. Anglophilia in Hungary and Anglo-Hungarian Intellectual Exchanges 11. Hungarian Emigres in Britain During the 1930s Part 3: Illusions and Disappointments

András D. Bán was born in 1962 in Hungary, and studied International Relations at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He was a member of the Research Group for the Study of Hungarian History, and researched the changes in British perception of Hungary during the Interwar period. He wrote on British foreign policy and edited the papers of György Barcza, the Hungarian Minsister in London in 1938-41. In 1995, he carried out research at the Hoover Institutition into American Hungarian Relations in 1938-41. In 1996 he compiled Pax Britannica: The Foreign Office Papers on Plans for a Postbellum East Central Europe. He published numerous papers on the subject of Central Europe. The present book was first published in 1998 in Budapest. András Bán died in 2001 at the age of 38.