They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy Page A

started off with a provocative remark designed to bring out Barra’s talent for invective. More members joined the group knowing the spectacle would be worthwhile – or, at the very least, would serve to pass the time.
    ‘It’s my view,’ said Varju, ‘that we’re all fools to put up with this nonsense. We’ve sat here for two weeks and those louts are still drivelling on in their absurd language! If I were the government of Hungary I’d soon crush that lot!’
    The great Barra opened his mouth, which was so huge that it seemed to be wider even than his face as if it had been stretched by all the speeches made by its owner during his life in politics, that mouth which seemed to have a life of its own between the sweeping moustaches and the heavy chin.
    ‘What do you mean – “crush”? If you’re suggesting that the government should act against the Rules of the House, I’d fight you all the way! I’ve fought for the sanctity of our House Rules all down the years, even against the bum-bailiffs of the Camarilla. Oh, yes! I was the first to see what they were up to, as you must know – and the time may well come again when the freedom and independence of our country will be saved by the citadel of those very Rules. Let me tell you: the Rules of the House are sacred!’
    Old Bartokfay lifted a finger in agreement and then, speaking as always in the strongly accented dialect of the Maros country in Transylvania, said, ‘That we could never allow. Not to Ferenc Kossuth, nor even to Lajos Kossuth himself. Never! Never!’. And he stuck his hand majestically behind the lapel of his old-fashioned Hungarian dress, just as he had done back in the sixties some forty years before, to show that even then he had been a person of importance.
    ‘Indeed, we must never infringe the House Rules, even if they try to use them against us,’ fluttered some young member eager to keep in well with Barra.
    ‘That is not so!’ interrupted the great leader, who dearly loved an argument. ‘Remember that we represent the country’s will, the country’s good faith and liberty; that is why we use all the weapons we can lay our hands on! But think where we’d be if the whole thing goes too far! Just ask yourselves that! Parliamentarianism would be finished, our age-old constitution a dead duck! What we have to do, my dear Sir, is to find some way by which the only obstruction possible remains in the hands of the party, our party, which truly represents our national ideals!’
    ‘But you’ve just said,’ stammered the young member. ‘At least, I understood …’
    ‘You understood wrong; but I said it right! The Rules of the House are sacred. Nevertheless our national and moral aims – and those alone – give us a moral right …’ and he went into a flood of high-sounding phrases to expound a theory which sounded magnificent but which no one understood. More and more people clustered round, and Abady, hearing Barra’s voice booming away from some distance off, joined them too.
    Balint was in high good humour for his plans all seemed to be bearing fruit. While the surging tide of Croatian oratory stopped all business in Parliament and gave an opportunity for the general run of members of the three principal parties to indulge in their own disputes, the government had time for other things. Balint’s appointment as chairman of the co-operative project had already been decided, and all that was now needed was for the Economics Minister to have an opportunity to announce the details in Parliament.
    Abady joined the group round Barra just as one of his listeners had made some obsequious remark about Ferenc Kossuth, saying how wise he was, what a great statesman, etc. Barra did not like this, since he had been on bad terms with the Minister ever since they had been adversaries in debate.
    ‘He a statesman? Of course! Ministers have to be statesmen, do they not? It goes without saying!’ shouted Barra, his mouth wide with