Impressing Visitors

Able statesmen, like glamor girls, are expert in staging acts to flatter and impress useful admirers. Last September Adolf Hitler staged one of his most effective when he entertained Mussolini in Berlin. Signor Mussolini who, isolated for nearly 15 years in Italy, had come to think of himself as the most potent man in Europe, was shocked into a warmer enthusiasm for his ally when he saw the magnificently trained, well-oiled military machine that Hitler turned out for his inspection. Last week Adolf Hitler, mindful of his other success, decided to play host again, for a similar useful purpose.

His guest this time was just about the toughest boss-man in Eastern Europe, His Serene Highness astute old Admiral Nicholas Horthy de Nagybanya, Regent of the kingless Kingdom of Hungary. If & when Hitler decides to invade Czechoslovakia, Admiral Horthy as an awestruck friend can play the same part that Mussolini played when Hitler invaded Austria. If he does, the $750,000 Hitler expended last week on the Admiral's entertainment will be well spent.

It is unprecedented that a warship of one state should be christened by the wife of the head of another state. But last week, at Kiel, Mme Horthy was called upon to break a bottle of German champagne over the nose of the newest 10,000-ton German cruiser. "I christen thee the Prince Eugen!" she cried. Emotional Hungarians were deeply moved, for historic Prince Eugen was no German. More than two centuries ago under the Habsburg banner of the Austro-Hungarian dynasty he delivered the Danube valley from the Turks.

This was flattery. What followed was intended to impress Hungary's dictator. In a grand review 117 ships of the German Navy sailed past the Fuehrer and the Regent. Admiral Horthy was then permitted to inspect the brand new, Nazi-rebuilt defenses of the island of Helgoland, in the North Sea, once dismantled under the Treaty of Versailles, now again a potent naval base.

Next day Hitler and Horthy rolled by special trains across Germany to Berlin, where they were welcomed on a gayly decorated station platform by No. 2 Nazi Goering and No. 3 Nazi Goebbels. The colossal German military display which followed was even bigger than that staged last year for Premier Mussolini. In the Berlin suburb of Charlottenburg 1,100 armored cars and tanks, 318 motorcycles, 300 heavy guns, 750 cavalrymen, 61,000 infantrymen passed before Regent Horthy in just over two hours' time.

The foreign military attaches and the Regent suddenly spied in the hurrying military parade four specimens of a completely new heavy mobile gun. Each gun appeared to have a crew of about 40 and sped past in five sections, each rolling on rubber tires and pulled by a heavy tractor. First section, the gun carriage; second, the gun cradle; third, the immense recoil and recuperator gear; fourth, incidental equipment of the gun; and fifth, the gun barrel which appeared to be some 45 feet long with a calibre of ten inches. A retired naval officer of a Great Power exclaimed: "I have seen plenty of guns like that on shipboard, but I have never before seen one dragged through the streets."

Heretofore such big guns when used on land have been of such weight that they usually had to be mounted on railway cars at great sacrifice of their mobility. The Germans, having invented the first such gun which can be split up into separate loads, each of moderate weight, will no be able to rush these loads individual over bridges which would break under the weight of the gun as a whole. Bursting with pride, German officers last week hinted that their new big gun can be set up an where and fired within two hours, has an accurate range of some 20 miles. Four such guns passed in something under minute.

A second surprise was an eight-inch gun motorized in two loads, which itself would have made headlines except for the ten-inch. Among the tanks seven different types of tractor drive were noted.

Hitler's Pledge. Diplomatically, the high point of the Horthy visit to Hit was a banquet of 200 covers in the Marl Hall of the German Chancellery. Not intimidation but reassurance of his His Hungarian guests was for this night the Dictator's benign purpose. The pledge which Herr Hitler gave to Signor Mussolini that Germany would never encroach upon the frontier of Italy (TIME, May 16), Der Fuehrer now gave to Regent Horthy and Hungary, pledging in a toast, "as a result of historic events, we have found, as neighbors, our permanent, historic frontier, I am convinced that this mutuality not only will serve the interests of our own countries, but, in intimate collaboration with a friendly Italy, will constitute a safe a worthy pledge for a just and general peace."

Regent Horthy, always notable in Budapest as an especially warm personal admirer of Mussolini, replied to Hitler with a toast affirming Hungarian & German "common will for a just peace and common desire for friendship with Italy." This exchange evidently aligned Hungary as a friend, though not yet an ally of the Fascist powers. When Dictator Hitler finally said good-by to Regent Horthy as the latter was about to entrain for Hungary last week they clasped hands uninterruptedly for five full minutes, as they warmly conferred their mutual esteem.

$24,552,000. Behind the scenes of the Horthy visit occurred a whole series of secret parleys between the Hungarian and German leaders. Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, famed German Reichsbank Governor, cut short a Norwegian yachting holiday to confer in Berlin with Hungary's big-banker Premier, Bela Imredy.

According to latest figures, Germany owes Hungary about $24,552,000 representing the excess of her imports (raw materials and foods) over exports (mostly finished products) to Hungary. But last week Hungary was believed to be in the market for virtually the whole military equipment of the former Austrian Army. This Berlin could offer to sell at cut rates because German Army chiefs want to standardize their war machine by re-equipping Austrian soldiers with German arms.

Significance. Just how much Admiral Horthy was impressed by Herr Hitler's show can only be shown by events. But last week, while he was in Germany, one of his diplomats, Baron Bessenyei-Bakach, was quietly tending another iron which the hard-headed Admiral has in another fire. In Bled, Yugoslavia, the Baron was attending a meeting of the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Rumania), satellites of France. There on behalf of Regent and Hungarian Premier Bela Imredy, the Baron "agreed in principle" to a pact whereby: 1) Hungary would be relieved of her obligation under the Treaty of Trianon (1919) not to rearm; 2) Hungary and the Little Entente would refrain from employing force of any kind against one another; 3) the Little Entente would speedily arrange for better treatment of Hungarian minorities in Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Yugoslavia.

Before leaving Berlin, Premier Imredy explained to the German press that the real purpose of the "informal agreement" at Bled was to get concessions for Hungarian minorities in neighboring states. This neatly absolved Admiral Horthy of double dealing while he was accepting Hitler's hospitality, made it appear that he was trying to do the same thing as his host, get minority concessions out of Czechoslovakia.

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