End of a Tightrope Walk

From its perch on the towering crags of Buda one dawn last week the Hungarian Foreign Office abruptly announced that Premier Count Paul Teleki had just died of a heart attack. Intimates of the Teleki family whispered that Count Teleki had taken poison. Finally doctors who examined the body signed a one-sentence communiqué: "Premier Teleki committed suicide at dawn April 3."

Whether Count Teleki had committed suicide in despair—perhaps even to arouse his people—because he believed Hungary was about to be completely engulfed by Hitler, or whether he had been killed by the Gestapo lest he initiate an anti-Axis coup d'état like that which took place in Belgrade last fortnight, he died because his policy was fatal. The "tightrope Premier," who had tried to serve Hungary's interests by cooperating with Germany, was not able to make a go of it.

In the last two years Count Teleki had succeeded in getting back for Hungary large pieces of territory she once owned. Hungary, which was chopped down after World War I from 125,000 square miles to 35,875 square miles, has by Nazi favor grown to 67,000 square miles. But Count Teleki had to pay for these gains. Last year Hungary issued over 6,000 transit visas to Nazi fifth columnists entering the Balkans disguised as tourists. Premier Teleki also obliged by letting German fighting forces and their supplies pass freely across Hungary on their way to browbeat Rumania and Bulgaria. But when he was asked to help invade Yugoslavia, with which Hungary signed a "pact of eternal friendship" only four months ago, Teleki's unrelenting conscience toppled him off his tightrope.

After signing that treaty Foreign Minister Count Csáky died mysteriously on his way back from Belgrade to Budapest (TIME, Feb. 3). Tough, square-jawed Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, asked Count Csáky's successor, Dr. Laszlo Bardossy, to step into the shoes of Premier Teleki. Budapest called Premier Bardossy "another tightrope walker"—meaning no offense—but with Germany riding herd in Hungary, there was no more tightrope to walk. Great Britain broke off diplomatic relations this week and prepared to bomb German troop concentrations in Hungary, a process already begun in Rumania and Bulgaria.

An Associated Press wire from Budapest revealed something hitherto unknown about the dead Premier: "Teleki was one of the men behind the book Why Germany Cannot Win The War, which broke all sales records in Hungary. Teleki told the author, Ivan Lajos, that he intended to ban the book—after it had sold 100,000 copies. He added that he would ban it before that unless a copy was put in the hands of every Hungarian Army officer."