And that was precisely what Sabine had done. She had spoken with such assurance all through their conversation that her opinions were clearly those she had heard expressed by Ribbentrop and his friends, and now she had as good as said that the Germans meant only to maintain heavy pressure in the Caucasus while throwing everything else they could possibly rake up against Stalingrad. Coming from such a source it was a piece of information of inestimable value. For it meant that, there being no threat to the Russians' immensely long front to the north of Stalingrad, they could safely denude it of reserves and use them to stem the German advance in the vital sector.
Gregory felt that if, in all other respects, his journey to Budapest had proved a failure, this plum alone would have made it more than worth while. It strengthened his feeling that, come what might, he must contrive to spend as long as possible in Sabine's company, on the off chance that from her full scarlet lips there might drop other pearls of strategic knowledge.
'So you see,' she was going on, 'the Russians haven't a hope. With two months still to go before the winter closes in, the Germans have ample time to mount another all out offensive. The army defending Stalingrad will be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers, and by Christmas Stalin will have been compelled to throw his hand in.'
That was, of course, the very thing Gregory feared himself, and it was in the hope of saving the Russians by taking pressure off them that he had come to Budapest. In the circumstances, he could produce no sound arguments against her contentions; so he tried another tack:
'Very well, let's concede that, and look at the broader picture. It still leaves Britain and America in; and the Americans may not take as long as you think to finish off the Japs. Meanwhile, I give you my word that the British would sooner eat cats and rats than accept a dictated peace, and they will keep on bombing hell out of the German cities. It might go on for years and years. Think of the untold misery that will be suffered by millions of people on both sides. Surely it's up to all of us to try to find some way to prevent that happening?'
'Naturally,' she agreed at once. 'Nobody but a lunatic would want this awful slaughter to go on for a day longer than it is necessary. But your proposal is no solution. If the Hungarian army withdrew from the Russian front the Germans would have to fill the gap. That would leave them without sufficient reserves to make their breakthrough. Then the war there would drag on indefinitely; so you would have brought about the very thing you say you are trying to prevent.'
'No. Once Hitler realized that he could not finish the Russians off in the foreseeable future, he would have to think again. Given time to train and equip their huge manpower, the Russians will be able to go over to the offensive, and with every month the United States is growing stronger. Hitler would see the red light and put out peace feelers before the tide started to turn against him. If he did so this winter I think there is an excellent chance that an arrangement could be reached by which both sides might save their faces.'
Gregory did not really believe that either side would now stop fighting short of complete victory, but he thought the possibility worth holding out. It proved quite the contrary, for Sabine shook her head and promptly declared:
'If there were a patched up peace, it would be a bad day for Hungary.'
'Why do you think that?' he enquired.
'Because Bolshevik Russia would have survived, and would continue indefinitely to be a menace to Christian Hungary.'
'That is an old bogy. You put down your own revolution here in 1919 and for the twenty years that followed Hungary was never threatened by Russia; so I don't see why you should think that she might be in the future.'
'You would if you had watched the Soviets' five-year plans going forward through those years, and realized the overwhelming strength Russia would have attained, given another ten years of peace to develop her resources. And, remember, Hungary is very differently situated from England. We had a common frontier with Russia and if those ruthless swine ever get back to it they could mass their huge armies within a hundred and fifty miles of Budapest.'
'True. But the Bolshevik revolution is long since over, and there is at least some reason to hope that this war will bring Russia back into lasting friendly relations with the democracies. Anyhow, if Hungary had made peace possible by withdrawing her support from Germany, I am certain that the Allies would guarantee the integrity of her frontiers at the Peace Conference.'
'The Allies!' Sabine exclaimed, her dark eyes going almost black with anger. 'Would you place your life in the hands of a known murderer. Look what the Allies did to Hungary after the last war. That filthy, double-crossing little Welsh lawyer, Lloyd George, the dyed in the wool socialist, Clemenceau, and that idiot American schoolmaster Woodrow Wilson between them stripped Hungary bare, put her on the rack then drew a knife across her throat. It is a miracle, and only by God's grace, that she survived. They stole the lands we have enjoyed for centuries and gave them to anyone who cared to ask. Chunks of Hungary's living body were hacked off and thrown to the Rumanians, Czechs, Italians, Austrians, Croats and Serbians, then what remained of her carcass was left a prey to its own lice Bela Kun and his bloody revolutionaries.'
Gregory held up a hand in protest. 'I know; I know! But that occurred when the whole world had been turned upside down by its first major catastrophe, and it is admitted now that, while trying to sort things out, the Allied statesmen made all sorts of stupid blunders. Every thinking person has since recognized that the Treaty of Trianon was an iniquitous injustice.'
'Well!' Sabine's voice was intensely bitter. 'What did they ever do about it? Nothing. Take my own case. It so happened that all the estates of my family were in Sclavonia. We were practically beggared and, if we had not had a few things in Budapest that we could sell, we should have starved. But we were lucky. Do you know that no less than one million five hundred thousand Hungarians were handed over to their old enemies. They were deprived of their nationality and treated as if they were serfs or cattle. That we have since got Transylvania, the Banat and Ruthenia back we owe entirely to Hitler. The British and French preferred to make friends of those awful Czechs, then sold them out to their enemies. Trust the Allies! No, thank you. I'd sooner rely on the word of the Devil.'
T can well understand your feelings; but try not to let them obscure your judgment in taking a long-term view of matters. If Hungary stands by Germany to the end she will almost certainly be deprived of Transylvania and Ruthenia again: whereas if she came over to the Allies now, when her help would be of real value, she would be certain of keeping them and, in addition, probably be given a port on the Adriatic. That is, assuming that the Allies win. But say you are right and Hitler wins, it would be a poor lookout for Hungary. That's why she should help us, otherwise within a couple of years she would be reduced to the state of a German province.' 'Worse things than that could happen to her.' 'Does that mean that you have become a Nazi?' 'No. They go too far. I have no love for the Jews, but this wholesale massacre of them simply does not bear thinking about. Neither do the things that go on in the concentration camps. Of course, putting cranks and troublemakers behind bars until they come to their senses is entirely justified, because it is for the good of the majority. It is the only way to nip in the bud riots and disturbances which might otherwise bring injury, loss and hardship to thousands of people. But that can be done the way the Fascists did it in Italy. As I told you, I lived there for quite a time, and I became a great admirer of Mussolini.'