Page 266 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

768 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

family from counter-revolutionary retaliations; secondly, he delivered several speeches in
Budapest and in the rest of Hungary: in this way he prevented the news of the fall of the
Bolshevik government from having negative consequences on public order; he finally tried,
uselessly, to mediated for Pedl’s government (since the new premier made a good impression
9
to the Italian officer) at the Entente, as to avoid a Romanian occupation. It is also useful
to mention his previous action, during the last days of the Bolshevik government, for the
religious hierarchies and their goods, plundered in those days by governmental agents in
their last attempt to gain goods for the resistance. Later on, with the above mentioned Hun-
garian occupation by Romanian troops, one of the first problems faced by the Mission was to
obtain sufficient food and medicines to alleviate population discomforts. But the most diffi-
cult challenge for Romanelli and his troop was trying to combine the duties deriving from the
alliance between Italy and Romania, with the commitment towards the population, affected
by plunders. Actually it was the occupying army that, with under the pretext of the war status,
kept on robbing and plundering the population and his goods. This feeling for Hungarian
national situation was very appreciated by civilians, but probably led to some disciplinary
actions against Romanelli. During August of the same year, Romanelli was personally
thanked by Admiral Horthy, for having defended the interests of Hungarian population, but
he didn’t hesitate to denounce crimes committed by the next counter-revolutionary govern-
ment, lead by Friedrich, which was trying to summarily repress representatives and support-
ers of the previous communist government. In this way Colonel re-affirmed his position de-
fense towards the civilians and their interests. Furthermore, Romanelli went to the jails to
check on police procedures and life conditions of the prisoners. He pointed out the daily vio-
lence suffered by them, because he considered the actions in favor of the prisoners and of
Hungarians in general as his personal moral duty, according to the general purpose of the
Mission itself: trying to pacify the nation and to consolidate, socially and economically, the
nations that had lost the war. Unfortunately the Mission was alone in this fight, because its
actions were regarded with total indifference by the other members of the Entente. For all
these reasons, Romanelli saw his competences progressively decreasing in Hungary, also due
to the arrival in Budapest of the four Generals that formed the Inter-allied Commission (Gor-
don for the Great Britain, Grazianì for France, Bandholtz for United States and Mombelli for
Italy, who also had to supervise the Mission). In spite of all this, Colonel Romanelli kept on
offering his help as a mediator between Hungarian population and the representatives of al-
lied nations, demonstrating how active his spirit was. While doing this, he still hoped to be
able to keep the peace, in a situation that could potentially lead to another crisis. After few
months the problematic situation would have finally met its solution, thanks to the end of the
Romanian occupation and the beginning of the authoritarian government lead by Admiral
Horthy, who had the task to guarantee for the political and social situation of the Country in

9 For this intercession at winning Countries, Budapest’s citizens exhibited their gratitude clapping hands and
screaming under Military Mission office: Colonel Romanelli – considerably honoured to be compared to
Garibaldi, Türr and others prominent people – tell in his memoirs as the crew praised the absolute bravery of
Italian delegation and commended its interference to help Hungary, reminding the friendly relations between
italians and Hungarians during the Risorgimento. See G. RomanElli, Nell’Ungheria di Béla Kun..., pp. 155-
156.