in the truest sense of the word a vital condition
for the existence of the Hungarian State. It was fatal for all of
us that this willing people, endowed with so many administrative
qualities, ready to sacrifice themselves for all State and
national aims, have for centuries past not been able to devote
themselves to the common cause. The striving for a solution of the
world racial problem and the necessity of combining the
responsibilities of a Great Power with the independence of the
Hungarian State have caused heavy trials and century-long friction
and fighting.

Hungary's longing for independence did not take the form of
efforts for dissolution. The great leaders in our struggle for
liberty did not attack the continuance of the Habsburg Empire as a
Great Power. And even during the bitter trials of the struggle
they never followed any further aim than to obtain from the Crown
a guarantee for their chartered rights.

Hungary, free and independent, wished to remain under the sceptre
of the Habsburgs; she did not wish to come under any foreign rule,
but to be a free nation governed by her own king and her own laws
and not subordinate to any other ruler. This principle was
repeatedly put forward in solemn form (in the years 1723 and
1791), and finally, in the agreement of 1867, a solution was found
which endowed it with life and ensured its being carried out in a
manner favourable for the position of a great nation.

In the period of preparation for the agreement of 1867 Hungary was
a poor and, comparatively speaking, small part of the then
Monarchy, and the great statesmen of Hungary based their
administrative plan on dualism and equality as being the only
possible way for ensuring that Hungarian independence, recognised
and appealed to on many occasions, should materialise in a
framework of modern constitutional practice.

A political structure for the Monarchy which would make it
possible for Hungary to be outvoted on the most important
questions of State affairs, and therefore subject to a foreign
will, would again have nullified all that had been achieved after
so much striving and suffering, so much futile waste of strength
for the benefit of us all, which even in this war, too, would have
brought its blessings. All those, therefore, who have always stood
up firmly and loyally for the agreement of 1867 must put their
whole strength i