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diff --git a/78696-0.txt b/78696-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3899c7b --- /dev/null +++ b/78696-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6656 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78696 *** + + + + +HUNGARY AND +DEMOCRACY + + + + +THE STORY OF THE NATIONS + +NEW EDITIONS + + + THE BALKANS: Rumania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro. By WILLIAM + MILLER, M.A. Third Edition. With Maps and 39 Illustrations. + + TURKEY. By STANLEY LANE-POOLE, assisted by E. J. W. GIBB and ARTHUR + GILMAN. With a Map and 43 Illustrations. + + BOHEMIA: From the Earliest Times to the Foundation of the + Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. By C. EDMUND MAURICE. Second Edition + Revised. With Maps and 38 Illustrations. + +_An illustrated prospectus of “The Story of the Nations,” the best +popular library of the world’s history, is ready, and will be sent post +free to any address on application._ + + + T. FISHER UNWIN LTD LONDON + + + + +HUNGARY AND +DEMOCRACY + +_By_ C. J. C. STREET +WITH A FOREWORD BY +T. P. O’CONNOR + + +T. FISHER UNWIN LTD +LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE + + + + +_First published in 1923_ + + +(_All rights reserved_) + + + + +FOREWORD + + +There is no more dangerous centre of future disturbance, if not of +a new war, than the regions which include Hungary and its immediate +neighbours. For the moment there is in Hungary herself the domination +of a reactionary and somewhat militaristic party; and this party is +lending encouragement, secret or open, to just the kind of movements +that want to stir up war. The materials for this campaign exist mainly +in the transfer of some of the population of the Old Hungary to the New +States that have come into existence. With this transfer, a large body +of Magyars have been placed under the control of men of another race; +the numbers are formidable: 800,000 under the Rumanians, 636,000 under +the Czechoslovakians, and 100,000 under the control of Yugo-Slavia. + +That such a transfer of allegiance should be bitter to a proud race +like the Magyars is intelligible; one can sympathize up to a certain +point with them. But the answer to the complaint must be found in their +own inexcusable and almost incredible persecution of those other races, +while they held omnipotent sway over not only the Magyar but many other +races. The Magyar ascendancy had nothing like it in the modern world +outside, perhaps, the Orange regime in the six counties of Ulster; +suffice it to say that there is no form of ascendancy which was not +carried out ruthlessly and deliberately; jerrymandering, incredible +under-representation in the Parliament; relentless suppression of +the language and the schools of those other races; with now and then +the exercise of brute force to prevent the expression of opinion, +and occasionally this suppression in blood. To ask any of these now +emancipated peoples to go back to such servitude would be at once +unjust and impossible. + +It is a misfortune of these Magyar peoples who have been transferred +that geography has so intermingled them with the majorities of the +other races and new kingdoms, that you could no more separate them +from their present habitations than cut out the heart of a body and +expect it still to live. These Magyars have the right to the liberties +of every minority--even though they themselves never respected these +liberties in others; liberty as to language and school and Church--and +any of the new Governments which now rule them will fall under the +disapproval of all liberal thinkers in the world if they do not live up +to this obligation. + +The writer of this book is a man trained in observation, has visited +these regions, and gives the results of his investigations in what +appears to me a fair and impartial spirit; and I recommend the perusal +of his pages as the best guide to the problems of this storm-tossed +centre; and as a useful antidote to the agitation which is being +carried on in this country against the new kingdoms by the British +reactionaries who naturally throw their sympathies to the side of +reaction elsewhere. + + _March, 1923._ T. P. O’CONNOR. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy has resulted in a +redistribution of territory among the States of Europe. The old Kingdom +of Bohemia has been united with the Slovak districts of the former +Hungary to form the Czechoslovak Republic, Serbia has absorbed the +territories of her Yugoslav kindred, Italy has regained the Italian +districts of the former Austria, Poland has been re-united after a +partition lasting more than a hundred years, Rumania has been awarded +the care of her Transylvanian brethren. As a consequence of this +redistribution, Austria and Hungary, the partners of the former Dual +Monarchy, have shrunk to a fraction of their former size. + +In these circumstances it is inevitable that complaints as to the +justice of the new frontiers should be heard. To the casual observer +it might seem that Austria and Hungary have suffered for their defeat +in the war by the dismemberment of their territories, the usual fate +of vanquished nations. Hungary to-day covers an area of approximately +33,000 square miles, and has a population of about seven and a half +millions. The Kingdom of Hungary before the war covered an area of +about 125,000 square miles, and had a population of about twenty +millions. The disparity seems enormous, and at first glance would +seem to display the savage vengeance of her enemies, an act of far +greater ruthlessness than the tearing of Alsace-Lorraine from France +in 1871. Had Hungary been a homogeneous nation, this would indeed be +the truth. But, in fact, the former Hungary was never homogeneous, and +was inhabited by races of widely divergent aims and culture. It was no +policy of vengeance that inspired the partition of Hungary, but the +operation of the principles of self-determination in the interests of +the component races of the former Kingdom. + +Present-day Hungary is that part of the former kingdom in which the +Magyars are in the majority. Before the War the Magyars laid claim to +the whole of the territory ruled by them, regardless of the fact that +their yoke was bitterly resented by the non-Magyar nationalities. It is +perhaps natural that they should protest against the dismemberment of +this territory, and should make every endeavour to present a case for +the restitution to them of their former frontiers. Attempts are being +made throughout Europe and America to represent the Magyar race as the +victims of injustice, with the ultimate object of influencing some +future readjustment of the Peace Treaties in their favour. With this +end in view the Magyars have embarked upon an intensive campaign of +propaganda, the methods of which vary with the section of the community +it is desired to influence. This propaganda starts from the assumption +that Hungary is and always has been a democratic country. Upon these +premises the argument is built up that Hungary, the traditional +friend of the Allies, has been unjustly treated, that her division +was contrary to the principles of self-determination, and that her +continued existence within her present boundaries is impossible. The +only rightful and expedient course is therefore to restore her to her +former state. + +The object of the present book is to adduce the facts necessary +for a dispassionate examination of the arguments of the Magyar +propagandists. It is, of course, impossible to reply to each of the +Magyar contentions in detail; the most that can be done is to give +some idea of the form in which they are presented. A single instance +must suffice. A periodical entitled _Chains_ is published at Oxford, +and describes itself as “The Organ of the Oxford League for Hungarian +Self-Determination.” The following is an extract from the Editorial in +its issue of March 16, 1922: “_It is fundamentally wrong to suppose +that the accident which placed Hungary by the side of our enemies +is sufficient to warrant our silent acquiescence in the destruction +of the economic and political stability of a country whose ideals +have so nearly approximated to our own for centuries past._” In the +same issue Lord Newton contributes an article on “Hungary under the +Trianon Treaty.” Extracts from this article are as follows: “Why was +Hungary treated with such vindictive ferocity?” “_The rewards of the +Succession States were, except in the case of Serbia, out of all +proportion to their services during the War, and unfortunately for the +Hungarians were made chiefly at their expense._” “It is customary to +exact territory from a conquered enemy; there was, therefore, nothing +surprising in the fact that Hungary was forced to surrender territory +to States against which she had fought.” + +Now let us examine the above dispassionately. In the first place the +editors speak of the “accident” which placed Hungary by the side of our +enemies. What was this accident? The clamour for war in July 1914 was +nowhere louder than in Hungary; it was no accident which precipitated +the Magyars into war with France and Russia, but hatred of those +countries on account of their support of Serbia. The contemporary +Magyar Press is sufficient proof of this. “_What have the French, the +English and the Russians in common except spiritual decadence and moral +infamy, the only ties which bind them? Their ideal is the brutal force +of superior numbers.... Light struggles against darkness, human dignity +against slavery, the inspiration of the soul against the brutishness of +masses, idealism against barbarity and against a perversity which wears +the mask of a false culture_” (_Pester Lloyd_, September 19, 1914). +“In the true sense of the word we are confronted with an alliance of +ruffians; Russia wishes to steal territories from the Austro-Hungarian +Monarchy both on her own account and on that of Serbia; France wishes +to steal from Germany Alsace-Lorraine and more besides; as for England, +she wishes to steal from Germany her economic powers and her commerce” +(_Az Ujsag_, February 4, 1915). During the whole period of the War +the Magyar Press poured out a torrent of abuse against the nations at +war with Hungary. There is no trace among its pages of any accidental +participation on Hungary’s part. + +Again, the editors of Chains speak of Hungary as a country “_whose +ideals have so nearly approximated to our own for centuries past_.” +I leave my readers to judge by the light of the facts adduced in the +following chapters how far this assumption is justified. To those who +wish to pursue the subject further, I recommend Dr. Seton-Watson’s +_Racial Problems in Hungary_, published in 1908 (now, unfortunately, +out of print). + +Lord Newton, as will be seen from the quotations from his article +given above, bases his arguments upon the assumption that Hungary +was dismembered solely to reward her enemies. This is the first and +principal contention of the discontented Magyars of to-day. Their +second contention is that the transfer of the nationalities to the +jurisdiction of other States was contrary to their own wishes, and that +those States are not capable of governing their new subjects with the +same justice and impartiality as they enjoyed under Magyar rule. In +order to examine the truth of this contention it will be necessary to +investigate the conditions under which the new nationalities existed +before the transfer and their position at the present day. Finally, +the Magyars complain that their racial minorities in the States +surrounding Hungary are oppressed and denied adequate representation +in the Government of those States, while the national minorities still +remaining in Hungary are treated with the greatest consideration. The +status of these various minorities will therefore require investigation. + +In the past the Magyars have regarded the non-Magyar nationalities +within their borders as of inferior culture. In the article already +quoted, Lord Newton treats the superiority of the Magyars as a fact +established beyond question. “Millions of Hungarians have been +transferred,” he says, “without any opportunity of expressing their +wishes, to alien States of an inferior civilisation.” This is in exact +accordance with the public utterances of the most prominent Magyar +statesmen in the past. + +The present book is in no way inspired by hostility towards the Magyar +race, nor is it intended to create a prejudice against that race among +its readers. It is merely an attempt to supply the necessary data for +a fair examination of the arguments of the Magyars, and incidentally +to trace the relations between present-day Hungary and democracy in +the true sense of the word. If the Magyars can prove their case, there +are adequate grounds for their appeal for a revision of the Treaty +of Trianon. If the partition of Hungary was inspired by motives of +revenge; if the nationalities of the former Hungarian Kingdom are +indeed misgoverned and oppressed by States to which they yield a +reluctant obedience, while in those States the Magyar minorities +suffer political persecution, it would undoubtedly be in the interests +of the world at large that Hungary should be restored to her former +frontiers. But, on the other hand, if it appears that all these +contentions on behalf of the Magyars are inspired by the imperialism +of a reactionary and oligarchic people, which has for centuries been +accustomed to treat non-Magyar nationalities within its borders as +hewers of wood and drawers of water, and whose pride is wounded by +the emancipation of those nationalities, the reactionary tendencies +of Magyar aims will be exposed and the motives of their complaints +revealed. + +The Magyar attitude at the present day may be exemplified by +a quotation from an interview accorded by Admiral Horthy to a +representative of the _Chicago Tribune_ on October 19, 1922. “Admiral +Horthy received me in the colossal castle formerly occupied by Emperor +Francis Joseph at the top of the ridge overlooking the Danube,” reports +the interviewer. “When I asked the possibility of Hungary paying +£300,000,000 (as reparations), he snapped back, ‘We cannot pay £3. +You cannot change Nature and make rivers run uphill over mountains +just by shifting frontiers,’ said the Regent, his eyes glancing at +the map of Transylvania. ‘That territory drains Hungary economically, +commercially, morally.’” + +It is impossible within the compass of such a book as this to give +more than a bare summary of events and facts, but I have endeavoured +throughout to give references to sources whence fuller information may +be obtained. In general it may be remarked that an excellent summary of +Hungarian history is contained in Professor Alison Phillips’s article +in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, and that Dr. Seton-Watson’s _Racial +Problems in Hungary_ is a mine of information on the subject of the +Magyar treatment of the nationalities up to the year 1908. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + FOREWORD 5 + + INTRODUCTION 7 + + I. HUNGARY BEFORE THE WAR 13 + + II. THE NATIONALITIES AND THE MAGYARS 33 + + III. REPRESENTATION AND JUSTICE 52 + + IV. EDUCATION 72 + + V. WAR, REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION 92 + + VI. HUNGARY AND HER NEIGHBOURS 111 + + VII. THE MINORITIES IN HUNGARY TO-DAY 128 + + VIII. THE MAGYAR MINORITIES IN THE NEW STATES 147 + + IX. MAGYAR PROPAGANDA 160 + + X. HUNGARY’S ATTITUDE TO-DAY 183 + + XI. HUNGARY AND DEMOCRACY 198 + + INDEX 205 + + + + +Hungary and Democracy + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HUNGARY BEFORE THE WAR + + +It is beyond the scope of this book to deal, however briefly, with the +history of Hungary before the famous Ausgleich, or Compromise, of 1867. +This Compromise determined the status of Hungary as a modern State, +independent to all intents and purposes, but linked with Austria under +a common monarchy. It is sufficient for our present purposes to point +out that this link in no way prejudiced the freedom of Hungary to +manage her own internal affairs; it is no exaggeration to say that her +domestic policy was as unfettered by it as that of England or America. +The treatment of the Slovaks and Rumanians by the Magyars was in no +way influenced by Austrian legislation, although it was undoubtedly +affected by the example of the Austrians in their dealings with the +Czechs. The Magyars, owing to the measures which they took for their +own supremacy, were dominant in an independent Hungary, and up to the +outbreak of war in 1914 the internal policy of the Hungarian nation was +governed by the will of the Magyar race. + +The population of Hungary at the time of the Compromise, according +to the official Hungarian census of 1869, was 13,579,000, of which +6,027,000 were of Magyar nationality, and 7,552,000 of other +nationalities. From this it will be seen that the Magyars were in +a minority, forming as they did 44·4 per cent. of the total. But in +consequence of the agreement between the Magyars and the Hapsburg +Monarchy, the former, although forming a minority upon the territory +which they occupied, contrived to become the sole directors of +the State. At the same period, Hungary was composed of the same +territories as in 1914. These were Hungary proper, Transylvania and +Croatia-Slavonia. In the first the population was preponderatingly +Magyar, in the remaining two various nationalities were closely +intermingled. It is and always has been impossible to draw definite +lines of demarcation between the different races. The most that can be +done is to indicate roughly the areas in which any given race forms +the majority of the population. In order to give a general idea of the +geographical distribution of the various races included in the former +kingdom, it may be said that the Magyars formed the majority of the +population of the central and western districts, the Serbs and Croats +the south-western corner from the Drave to the Adriatic, the Rumanians +the eastern and south-eastern portions, the Ruthenes the north-east, +and the Slovaks the north-west and north. The Germans were distributed +in compact colonies throughout Hungary proper and Transylvania, with +their greatest strength in the western frontier between Hungary and +Austria, and the Szekels, allied to the Magyars, formed a compact block +in the extreme east of Transylvania. + +It will be seen from this rough description that the Magyars occupied +the hub of the wheel while the other races were situated about its rim. +Further, each of these outlying nationalities were in close contact +with their kindred in other countries, with whom they naturally sought +union, if not definitely political at first, at least cultural. They +had interests beyond the frontiers of Hungary which drew them away +from, rather than towards, the Magyars of the centre. They felt that +they were parts of living nationalities, each with its own national +characteristics, rather than the remains of defunct races of which +the inevitable destiny was absorption in a Magyar Hungary. But, given +judicious treatment, there was no reason why this feeling should +have evinced itself in disloyalty to the country in which they were +included. Had the Magyars possessed the gift of good government there +was no reason why even such a polyglot country as Hungary should not +have developed into a contented State. But the Magyars have always +regarded themselves as a superior and noble race created by God to rule +over the subject races. A Magyar, Erno Baloghy, in his book published +in Budapest in 1908 entitled _Magyar Culture and the Nationalities_, +says: “Our Nationalities cannot substitute any other culture for the +Magyar, for there is not and cannot be a special Serb, Rumanian or +Slovak culture.” This remark is merely typical of other utterances, +both written and verbal. + +The result of this attitude on the part of the Magyars has been to +alienate the nationalities, and to force them still further away +from the centre. Where capable and tactful treatment would almost +certainly have bound them by links of common policy and interest to the +Magyar nucleus, coercion and irritation have driven them to look for +their political future beyond the borders of the State. Through the +Compromise the Magyars obtained complete control over their domestic +affairs, and they utilised this control to embitter the nationalities +with whom they might have lived in perfect harmony. + +The first important event which followed the Compromise was the “Law +of Nationalities,” which was adopted by the Hungarian Parliament on +December 1, 1868. This law is a most remarkable document, and had it +ever been administered in the spirit of its preamble, and the letter of +its provisions, it might very possibly have solved the whole problem of +racial difference in Hungary.[1] + +The principal provisions of the law deal with the language to be +employed in Courts of Justice, Schools, Churches and Institutions. In +general, the provisions ensure that any Hungarian subject can employ +his native tongue in the course of his dealings with the State or with +his fellow subjects. In the case of schools, the wording of the law is +peculiarly definite. “Since, from the standpoint of general culture and +well-being, the success of public instruction is one of the highest +aims of the State also, the State is, therefore, bound to ensure +that citizens living together in considerable numbers, of whatever +nationality, shall be able to obtain instruction in the neighbourhood +in their mother-tongue, up to the point where the higher academic +education begins.” + +The manner in which this law was administered will be dealt with in a +subsequent chapter. For the moment it is only necessary to state that +it was never enforced. One after another prominent Magyar politicians +admitted in Parliament that the law was a dead letter, or that it was +impossible to fulfil its provisions owing to the fact that those whose +duty it was to administer it were almost exclusively Magyars ignorant +of any other language but their own. The most striking commentary +on the Magyar outlook upon the law after forty years’ experience of +its operation was contained in a leading article in the _Budapesti +Hirlap_, a leading Hungarian newspaper, of April 3, 1908. Speaking of +the provision already quoted with regard to schools, the writer points +out that the educational stipulations cannot be carried out, “_because +the necessary teaching staff who could teach in a foreign tongue and +also the necessary customers are wanting_.” The Magyar organ, it will +be noticed, uses the adjective “foreign” to describe the languages +spoken by more than half the population of Hungary, and is apparently +unaware of the existence of that half. It is interesting to compare +this statement with the official Hungarian statistics of population for +the year 1900, which show that out of a total civil population whose +mother-tongue was not Magyar, of 8,132,740 only 1,365,764, or 16·8 per +cent., could speak Magyar. + +The next incident of importance was the Electoral Law of 1874, which is +one of the most curious perversions of franchise which it is possible +to imagine. Under the provisions of this law, the qualifications for +the vote are extraordinarily complicated, and are such as to restrict +the voters to the propertied and official classes.[2] Only 6 per +cent. of the population enjoyed the vote under the law, and care was +taken that of these the majority should be Magyar. Not content with +this partial measure, the Magyars introduced a special franchise for +Transylvania, so ingeniously contrived that the majority of voters in +the province should be composed of the Szekels of Magyar sympathies, +while the Rumanian element, which forms the majority of the population, +was almost excluded. In fact, it was estimated that of the population +of Transylvania not more than 3·2 per cent. were enfranchised. + +The Electoral Law was mainly the work of Coloman Tisza, who controlled +the policy of Hungary for some eighteen years. “Tisza’s aim was to +convert the old polyglot Hungarian kingdom into a homogeneous Magyar +State, and the methods which he employed--notably the enforced +Magyarisation of the subject races, which formed part of the reformed +educational system introduced by him--certainly did not err on the side +of moderation.”[3] This process of Magyarisation, as it came to be +called, will be dealt with more fully in a subsequent chapter. For the +moment it will be sufficient to give a short sketch of the Hungarian +educational system. + +Until 1867 education in Hungary had been entirely in the hands of the +Churches of various denominations, with very slight superintendence +by the Government. To show the great diversity of religious belief in +Hungary proper, excluding Croatia-Slavonia, where the population was +about 70 per cent. Roman Catholic, 25 per cent. Orthodox, and 5 per +cent. various, and where an entirely different system of education +prevailed, the statistics given on the following page may be quoted. + +It must be borne in mind that in many instances nationality and +religious faith overlap. The Serbians are mostly Greek Orthodox (Greek +Catholic); the Ruthenians are Uniat Greeks (Greek Oriental); the +Rumanians are either Greek Orthodox or Greek Uniats; many Slovaks are +Lutherans; the only other Lutherans being the Germans in Transylvania +and in the Spis (Zsepes) country in Slovakia. The Calvinists are +composed mostly of Magyars, so that in the country the Lutherans are +designated as the “German Church” and the Calvinists as the “Hungarian +Church.” The Unitarians are all Magyars. Only to the Roman Catholic +Church belong several nationalities. + + ---------------+-----------------------+---------------------- + | 1869. | 1900. + Religion. +-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- + | Number. | Per Cent. | Number. | Per Cent. + ---------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- + Roman Catholic | 6,215,251 | 45·8 | 8,136,108 | 48·7 + Greek Catholic | 1,583,043 | 11·7 | 1,830,815 | 10·9 + Greek Oriental | 2,067,778 | 15·2 | 2,187,242 | 13·1 + Lutheran | 1,096,184 | 8·0 | 1,250,285 | 7·5 + Calvinist | 2,017,391 | 14·9 | 2,409,975 | 14·4 + Unitarian | 54,345 | 0·4 | 67,988 | 0·4 + Jewish | 542,257 | 4·0 | 826,222 | 4·9 + Other Sects | 2,880 | -- | 12,939 | -- + ---------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+---------- + +“In 1869 there were only 13,646 primary schools in existence, or one +to every 995 inhabitants; and of these hardly any were fully equipped +with the necessary teaching appliances. Many of the buildings were +overcrowded, insanitary or even too dilapidated for use; 1,598 communes +were without a school of any kind, and of the total number of children +liable to attend under the new Act, barely 48 per cent. actually +attended.”[4] It was obvious that in these circumstances it was the +duty of the State to interest itself in the matter of education and +to supplement the efforts of the denominations by the establishment +of national schools or by subsidising the existing religious +organisations. This duty was emphasised by the census of 1869, which +revealed that 63 per cent. of the population was entirely illiterate. + +The result was the Primary Education Act introduced in 1868 by the +Minister of Education, Baron Eötvös. The main provisions of this Act +were compulsory education between the ages of six and twelve, and +the obligation imposed upon the communes of erecting schools where +no denominational school already existed, and where at least thirty +children were not otherwise provided for. This Act was amended by +the educational policy of Count Apponyi in 1907, which was frankly +Magyarising in its tendencies. The results of this policy were that +for the period 1913-14 Hungary (excluding Croatia-Slavonia) contained +16,929 elementary schools, with 35,253 teachers and 1,971,141 pupils. +The number of Magyar elementary schools was 13,608 with 29,963 teachers +and 1,666,270 pupils. The number of pupils according to native language +was 1,107,497 speaking Magyar and 256,020 speaking Slovak, a proportion +of 4·3 to 1, which is approximately the proportion of Magyars to +Slovaks in the population of the country. According to official +Hungarian statistics 214,267 of the Slovak pupils were allocated to +Hungarian elementary schools, that is to say schools where Magyar +was used exclusively in imparting instruction. The number of purely +Slovak elementary schools was 365, with 42,186 pupils. In other words, +while the proportion of Slovak pupils was 19 per cent. of the total +speaking Magyar or Slovak, only a little over 3 per cent. of these were +receiving education in their mother-tongue. But this is not even yet +a complete presentment of the state of national education. Under the +Apponyi Act the law provided the Government with a decisive voice in +the control of all the denominational schools, irrespective of whether +they received a Government grant or not. The Minister of Education +might, and in practice almost invariably did, arrange the hours of +instruction in Magyar (which was a compulsory subject in all schools) +in such a manner that little time was left for instruction in other +subjects. As a result, in elementary schools which were officially +designated as Slovak, German, Rumanian or Serbian, the Magyar language +was cultivated to such a degree that these schools differed but little +from purely Magyar schools, instruction in the Magyar language being +carried on for four-fifths of the time, leaving only one-fifth for the +teaching of other subjects, which might be carried on in the pupils’ +mother-tongue. + +As a natural consequence the educational results were very +unsatisfactory, and the number of illiterates was very large. The +average percentage of people who could read and write had certainly +risen to 63 throughout the entire area, but the increase was mainly in +the Magyar districts. In the Slovak districts the percentages were not +nearly so favourable. In the district of Saris it was only 48·6, and +in the Uzgorod (Ungvar) district only 43·5. In 1913 there were 32,700 +Slovak children, including those who by law were supposed to attend +continuation schools, who were not registered in any school at all. + +These figures are extremely interesting, as demonstrating the practical +working of the alleged equality of nationalities in pre-War Hungary. +The results of Magyar policy were in effect to deny adequate education +to those unwilling to abandon their native tongue and accept teaching +in Magyar. It must not be supposed that this policy was inspired +by the idea that the other languages spoken within the borders of +Hungary were moribund languages, whose abandonment would be of benefit +to civilisation. The exact opposite is indeed the case, and it may +safely be stated that but for the artificial efforts made to keep +it alive, Magyar as a modern tongue would gradually disappear. The +proscribed languages were those spoken by millions, and were in no case +confined to Hungarian territory. It was rather fear of a spreading of +these languages, and with them the national ideals of their users, +that inspired the Magyar legislators. They believed that they could +overcome the centrifugal tendencies of the nationalities by a policy +of forcing them to abandon the tongues with which they conversed with +their brethren beyond the frontiers, and grafting on them in the place +of these tongues the Magyar language, and with it the Magyar culture +and ideals. Subjection rather than alliance was the formula which was +to secure the union of Hungary, or, as one of the most prominent of +the Magyar politicians, Coloman Tisza, put it, the so-called subject +nationalities must be taught to “_be silent and pay_.” A Magyar writer, +Bela Grünwald, in a work entitled _The Highlands_, is refreshingly +frank on the subject. “_The secondary school is like a huge machine, at +one end of which the Slovak youths are thrown in by hundreds and at the +other end of which they come out Magyars._” + +Enough has been said already to give the reader a rough idea of the +Magyar policy with regard to the nationalities. It may be summarised +by the statement that the Magyars, while on the surface passing +legislation which seemed to demonstrate the perfect equality which +prevailed in Hungary between the constituent nationalities, in the +administration of the law took every precaution that the nationalities +should be subordinated to the Magyar race. Before the War, as well +as at the present time, Magyar publicists made every effort to +spread throughout the world the fable of the liberty enjoyed by the +nationalities which composed the realms of the Crown of St. Stephen. +Both nationalities and citizens, according to them, enjoyed the most +complete freedom. Hungary was the true home of democracy, a modern +Utopia. How far they succeeded in imposing upon their hearers is +proved by the words already quoted: “_a country whose ideals have +so nearly approximated to our own for centuries past_.” The ideal +of the English-speaking races has been true freedom and equality +of all citizens in the eyes of the State. The legislation and the +administration of Hungary have been directly opposed to this ideal. Is +it possible to make any comparison between the franchise of England or +America and that of a country where until recently only 6 per cent. of +the population was entitled to the vote? Or between the educational +systems of these nations and one which, at the beginning of the War, +had so far succeeded that a third of the population of the country was +utterly illiterate? + +Far from being the home of democracy, Hungary was, and, as will be +seen later, still is the stronghold of an oligarchy comparable only +with that of Venice before the Napoleonic era. The Magyar spirit has +always been reactionary and oppressive. It would almost seem that a +true Magyar is unable to realise that other nationalities have rights +in the political sense, or that their love of their own language, +customs, history or culture is due to anything but the most deplorable +ignorance. It is quite certain, from the perusal of the utterances of +Magyar spokesmen or the leading articles of Magyar journals, that the +rank and file of the Magyar race honestly believed that the “subject +nationalities,” as they habitually speak of the Slovaks, Serbs and +Rumanians, would be far better off as the helots of the Magyars than +as their equals. But, unfortunately, the nationalities did not see eye +to eye with their would-be masters. They exhibited an incomprehensible +desire to follow their national bents, and an equally incomprehensible +dislike of the idea of incorporation in the Magyar race. They were +consequently accused, almost tearfully, of ingratitude, of thrusting +aside the hand which endeavoured to lead them to higher planes of +existence and culture. + +As a matter of fact, the Magyars have always been incapable of +dealing with the problem presented to them. If, instead of a policy +of coercion, they had followed the advice of St. Stephen of Hungary, +they might have welded the constituent parts of the nation into a +homogeneous whole. “_Treat the new-comers well_,” he writes to his +son Emmerich, at a time when he was insisting upon the advantages +which would accrue to his country from the immigration from the West, +to which he had himself opened his kingdom. “_Hold them in honour, +for they bring fresh knowledge and arms into the country; they are +an ornament and support of the throne, for a country where only one +language and one custom prevails is weak and fragile._” Enlightened +advice, more easily attributable to a statesman of the twentieth than +to a monarch of the eleventh century. Almost every modern nation has +at one time or another in its history been confronted with the problem +of absorbing into a unanimous State the different nationalities +inhabiting its territories. History proves that it is only by a policy +of give and take on the part of each of these nationalities that the +desired end can be reached. Any attempt by one of them to employ +force in the subjugation of the rest, even though the former may be +in an overwhelming majority, leads inevitably to failure. Scotland +and Ireland are cases in point. Towards the former, England, once she +abandoned her policy of aggression, adopted an attitude based upon +natural alliance. The alliance led by easy stages to union, and union +to so close an association that at the present day Scotch and English +are politically indistinguishable. Towards Ireland, England maintained +the policy of aggression until it was too late, with the result that +union was proved to be unwelcome, and the Irish nation has chosen for +itself an independent position in the Empire. + +It is useless to speculate now how far the Magyars might have changed +the centrifugal tendencies of the other nationalities, which originated +in the first place in geographical position, into a centripetal +tendency founded upon mutual interest. It is possible that the racial +tendencies of the nationalities are so divergent from those of the +Magyars that the attempt would have been unsuccessful. But it is +obvious to any student of even the most limited history that a race +which formed the minority of the population of the country could not +hope to bend the majority to cheerful acceptance of its will by the +employment of coercion. That the Magyars should have contemplated such +an enterprise shows them to be alien in thought to the democratic +nations of the modern world. It is enough for them that they claim a +moral superiority; let other races fail to recognise it at their peril! + +Count Czernin, a former Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, has placed +on record his opinion of the Magyar outlook. “One is forced to ask +oneself what the Magyars understand by ‘nation.’ If we apply the term +to the inhabitants of Hungary, we see that the Magyar race forms only +40 per cent. of them, that is to say, that it is in a minority. By what +right do the Magyars employ as synonymous the expressions ‘nation’ and +‘Magyar State’? The opinion of the majority in Hungary--that is to +say, the real will of the nation--is never expressed; which is due +not only to the nature of the Hungarian suffrage, set up with a view +to favouring the Magyar minority, but far more to the intimidation, +unique in Europe, to which all anti-Magyar opinions are subjected. In +addition to the nationalities, humiliated, oppressed, and reduced to +silence, there exists in Hungary, even among the Magyars themselves, +a number of people of all classes and in every station in life who do +not approve of this policy. However, any protests would involve such +measures of repression on the part of the Government, the courts of +justice and the authorities, that these people dare not express openly +what their conscience urges, that their submission is only due to +force. Hungarian elections are proverbial in Europe, and the manœuvres +of which the Prime Minister Banffy availed himself when they were held, +the unheard-of terrorism which he employed, are still fresh in the +memories of all of us.” + +This utterance may be compared with Count Apponyi’s description of +Hungary as the “_island of liberty_” on the occasion of his visit +to America in 1911, and with the proud declaration of the Hungarian +newspaper _Budapesti Hirlap_ on June 20, 1917: “_We proclaim in the +face of the whole world that on no part of the earth’s surface are the +problems of nationality treated with greater patience, loyalty, and +humane liberality than in Hungary._” + +This astonishing declaration followed the words of Count Tisza, who, +on January 24th of the same year, in the course of a speech in the +Hungarian Chamber had said, amid loud cheers: “_I am confident that +I am expressing the opinion of the whole House, without distinction +of parties, when I say that public opinion throughout Hungary +respects the principle of nationality, that the public opinion of the +Magyar race desires the free development and the prosperity of the +nationalities._” It must be remembered that these declarations were +made under the influence of war-time conditions, when every nation +was doing its best to justify itself in the eyes of its neighbours. +In the less strenuous days of peace there had been certain Magyars, +more honest or less hypocritical than most of their fellow-countrymen, +who did not scruple to employ the German doctrine of necessity in +justification of their treatment of the nationalities. For instance, a +certain Dr. Rez, a professor in the University of Kolozsvar, had stated +publicly in the _Budapesti Hirlap_ of May 26, 1910: “_Our object is to +establish the supremacy of the Magyars: there is no sense in concealing +the fact. Let us say openly that we do not desire equality of right, +because political equality and political supremacy are contradictory +conceptions. Supremacy is inequality, it is the domination of one race +over another._” + +The ethnological problems of Hungary have been extremely well set out +by Gustave Beksics, an eminent Magyar publicist, in his book _Nemzeti +Akcio_, which was published in 1912. “There is fought a confused and +bloodless struggle, sustained by social and economic means, in which +the Magyars must be victorious or perish. The Magyars would fain +spread over the whole country, or, in other words, secure a decisive +majority over the other nationalities, in such a way as to reduce them +to relative insignificance, lest the non-Magyar races spread over the +country in their turn, stimulating their national consciences and their +culture in opposition to the Magyars, and so the idea of a Magyar State +fall into oblivion. This must be the end of the underlying motive of +our national struggle: the motive of a Magyar entity, political and +social. Thus, in the near future, Hungary must either be transformed +into a natural State, or she must cease to exist as a State in her +present form.”[5] + +The Magyars, obsessed by their national ideal of making Hungary a +Magyar State at the expense of the other nationalities, had already, +in the years before the War, realised that the task of suppressing +the non-Magyar races was beyond their unaided strength, and they had +therefore sought help from abroad. They knew that they could not count +entirely upon their union with Austria, for the German element in that +country was itself engaged in a desperate struggle for supremacy with +the non-German races, of which the principal was the Czech, closely +related by origin and language with the Slovaks. The Magyars therefore +centred their hopes in Berlin, believing that German aspirations to +world-sovereignty coincided with their own ends. + +It will be necessary to conclude this chapter with a brief survey of +Magyar foreign policy prior to the War. Gambetta styled the Magyars +“_jingo barbarians_.” Bismarck said that their policy was a compound +of lawyer-like sophistry and of hussar-like arrogance. It may be added +that they displayed the unforgiving temperament of a Corsican. It is +possible to trace throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century +the national desire for revenge for the defeat of Villagos, in 1849, +where the Hungarian armies, commanded by Gorgei, in revolt against +Austria, were defeated by the Russians, who had been called in by the +Emperor. Their anger was directed rather against the Russians, the +leaders of an imaginary “Pan-Slav” movement which had for its supposed +object the union of the Slavs throughout Europe in opposition to the +Magyarising tendencies evinced in Hungary. It must be remembered +that all Hungarian policy was directed by the Magyars, and that the +other races had no voice in it. The consequence was that the Magyars +consistently opposed the Slav races and all other nations suspected +of being friendly or allied to them. This is, in fact, the key-note +of Hungarian foreign policy. After the occupation of Bosnia and +Herzegovina in 1909, the Magyars intrigued at Vienna and elsewhere in +favour of war against Serbia. Things reached so advanced a stage that a +manifesto was already drawn up and even approved by the Emperor, ready +for issue to the Austro-Hungarian Army. This manifesto called upon the +troops, relying upon their prowess, for which they were famous, to +punish the insolence of the Serb nation. The men at the helm of the +Magyar State were already dreaming of a war against Russia, to which +the Serbian war was to be but a prelude, and for this reason they +inclined towards Germany, which they had hitherto hated cordially, as +the motherland of the German nationals within their borders, who showed +a powerful resistance to the Magyarisation of their districts. So +violent had been this hatred that in 1879, after the alliance between +Andrassy and Bismarck, Coloman Tisza had been compelled to deny it +for fear of the disturbances which threatened to arise throughout +the country. But desire for vengeance proved stronger than this old +antagonism, and from this time the Magyars became devoted friends of +the Germans.[6] + +Long before the War, the Magyar circles in Hungary did their best +to incite the Empire to war against the Serbs, the Russians and the +French. The conclusion of the Entente between England and France was +sufficient to destroy the traditional friendship, to which the Magyars +are so fond of referring, between Hungary and the Anglo-Saxon races. +Henceforth, England was regarded as a possible enemy. The Magyar +newspapers habitually launched violent attacks against the countries +suspected of friendship towards the Russians and Serbs, and extolled +German policy and German aims. It was not to be expected that the +Germans in their turn would remain insensible of the advantages to be +gained from this change of heart on the part of the Magyars, although +it would seem that its significance was lost upon the other nations +of Europe. On September 21, 1897, the Kaiser took advantage of a +visit to Budapest to make a characteristic speech on the subject of +Magyar foreign policy. It was not the speech of a mere political ally, +desirous of making the most of a momentary identity of interests, +and ready to abandon his friends as soon as that identity ceased. It +was the speech of a ruler convinced that the political ambitions of +the Germans and of the Magyars were inseparably bound together and +complementary to one another. + +The nations of Western Europe seemed not to have realised the change +of policy which had taken place in Hungary since the days of Kossuth. +In France it was believed that the taste exhibited by the Magyars for +French fashions, literature and art was a sign of friendship towards +France. In England it was similarly believed that their passion for +racing, moulded upon the English model, was a proof of political +solidarity with that country. In America the persuasive words of +Apponyi convinced his hearers that Hungary was shaping a democratic +policy on the lines of the great Republic. Not one of these nations +seemed to be aware that for half a century Hungarian policy had +gravitated towards Berlin, and had chosen Germany as her political +and military ally. Western Europe anticipated a Magyar revolution +against the bonds that held Hungary to Austria, and this illusion was +encouraged and exploited by the Magyars in order to hide their true +intentions. Kossuth, the leader of the Revolution of 1848-49, was +regarded as the modern champion of independence and liberty, rights so +dear to the hearts of all democracies. But the Western nations seem +to have overlooked the fact that while Kossuth struggled against the +centralism of Austria and the policy of Metternich, he concurred in +the Magyar policy of coercion of the Slovaks, the Serbs, the Croats +and the Rumanians. He wished to centralise Hungary for the benefit +of the Magyars, and he, the champion of right, refused to listen to +the appeals for justice made by the non-Magyar nationalities, for the +granting of that justice would have sounded the knell of the domination +of Hungary by the Magyar race. The change in the attitude of Hungary +towards Austria passed almost unnoticed in the West. As soon as Vienna +abandoned her policy of centralisation of Hungary in the interests of +the Germans, and resigned the Kingdom of St. Stephen to the Magyars, +the latter abandoned their revolt against Austria. Had this tendency +been noticed and understood, there could have been no surprise at +the part played by Hungary during the War. It was no “accidental” +enmity towards the Entente Powers that animated the Magyars, but a +definite antagonism founded upon self-interest. They were persuaded +that their interests were identical with those of the Germans of +Austria, whose supremacy was equally menaced by the national movements +and consciousness of their “subject races.” Both Austria and Hungary +sheltered their political ambitions under the wings of the German eagle. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It is too long for full quotation here, but it may be found in full +in _Racial Problems in Hungary_. The preamble is as follows: “Since all +citizens of Hungary, according to the principles of the Constitution, +form from the political point of view one nation ... the indivisible +unitary Hungarian nation ... of which every citizen of the Fatherland +is a member, no matter to what nationality he belongs; since, moreover, +this equality of right can only exist with reference to the official +use of the various languages of the country, and only under special +provisions, in so far as is rendered necessary by the unity of the +country and the practical possibility of government and administration; +the following rules will serve as standard regarding the official use +of the various languages, while in all other matters the complete +equality of the citizens remains untouched.” + +[2] See page 56. + +[3] A. N. Bain and W. A. Phillips, _Encyclopædia Britannica_. + +[4] See Seton-Watson, _Racial Problems in Hungary_. + +[5] Even the most fervent admirers of the Magyars do not attempt +to deny the repressive policy carried out by them against the +nationalities; they attempt no more than to minimise it. “Under the +influence of the Jewish Press an excessive nationalism developed in +Hungary, which created discord among populations which for a long +time had been accustomed to get on fairly well together. There is +no doubt that this Magyar Chauvinism had nothing of the brutality +which disgraced the Prussian rule in Poland. Never were Serbian or +Rumanian children beaten in Hungary for the offence of having said +their prayers in their mother-tongue! It was rather the ebullition +of a puerile vanity, which manifested itself mainly in irresponsible +chatter (_bavardages de café_), in articles in the newspapers and in +oratorical displays. However, if the word ‘oppression’ is too strong +to express the attitude of the Magyars towards their nationalities, +it must be admitted that they were not treated as equals. Nothing, +or next to nothing, was done for their material, intellectual or +moral development. The blunder of the Magyars was to regard them with +supreme indifference. As someone graphically remarked: ‘The non-Magyar +populations do not go on foot, they travel third-class’” (J. and J. +Thiraud, _Quand Israel est Roi_, Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie). + +[6] See also _Magyars et Pangermanistes_, Paris, Editions Bossard, 1918. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE NATIONALITIES AND THE MAGYARS + + +We must now examine the relations between the Magyars and the other +nationalities in Hungary rather more closely. At the census of 1910 the +official Hungarian Government figures as to distribution of population +in nationalities were as follows:-- + + Nationality. Number. + + Magyars 10,050,575 + Germans 2,037,435 + Slovaks 1,967,970 + Rumanians 2,949,032 + Ruthenes 472,587 + Croats 1,833,162 + Serbs 1,106,471 + Other races 469,255 + ---------- + Total 20,886,487 + ---------- + +It will be advisable to supplement these figures by others, showing the +apparent increase in the proportion of Magyar to non-Magyar inhabitants +in Hungary, excluding Croatia-Slavonia, where the proportion has +remained nearly constant for many years, owing to the peculiar +conditions prevailing in that province, which will be mentioned later. + +In the table[7] given on page 34 the first column denotes the year +of the census from which the data are extracted, the second the +total population to the nearest thousand of Hungary, excluding +Croatia-Slavonia, the third and fourth the percentages of Magyars and +non-Magyars respectively in that population, as returned by the Magyar +officials. + + -----------+-------------------+-------------+--------------- + Year. | Total Population. | Magyars, | Non-Magyars, + | | per cent. | per cent. + -----------+-------------------+-------------+--------------- + 1787 | 8,003,000 | 29 | 71 + 1869 | 13,579,000 | 44·4 | 55·6 + 1890 | 15,163,000 | 48·5 | 51·5 + 1910 | 18,265,000 | 53·1 | 46·9 + -----------+-------------------+-------------+--------------- + +At first sight it would appear that the Magyars were to some extent +justified in their policy of Magyarisation. The percentage of other +races in Hungary was steadily decreasing, while that of the Magyars +was increasing correspondingly. They might have argued, as indeed they +did, that the other races were effete and moribund, and were rapidly +being displaced by the higher and more virile civilisation of the +Magyars. But this conclusion is erroneous. It is beyond the bounds of +credibility that so rapid an increase in the Magyar percentage could +be due to natural causes alone. The non-Magyar races were for the most +part an agricultural and pastoral people, with a birth-rate well up to +the average. This decrease is all the more remarkable because the Slavs +and Rumanians were in occupation of the soil long before the Magyar +invasion of 891, and have always been profoundly attached to their +mother-tongue and their national traditions. It is also a fact that +the percentage of Magyars has only increased since the time when they +determined to make Hungary a purely Magyar State. + +But the official Hungarian figures, compiled as they were by Magyar +enumerators, must be regarded with considerable suspicion. The +Magyars, wishing to justify their policy as far as possible in +the eyes of the world, made every effort to demonstrate that they +possessed a majority in the country. It is notorious that the census +officials, acting in accordance with confidential instructions issued +by the Government, entered as Magyars large numbers of those Slovaks, +Ruthenes, Croats, Serbs and Rumanians who spoke Magyar. Prominent +Magyars have admitted as much. Count Apponyi himself, in proposing the +health of the chief Censor, who had been in charge of the census, at a +banquet at Budapest in 1910, said: “_Our honoured colleague combines +in himself the poet and apparently the most prosaic statistician. +But this incompatibility is only apparent, for having collaborated +with him for many years, I know that his acute mind has enabled him +to introduce into the figures of his statistics a similar sentiment, +to arrange these figures in such a way that the poetry of patriotism +is apparent in them at the first glance._” This is probably the most +remarkable compliment ever paid to a statistician, more especially +to one connected with such a vital matter as a census. It may be +suggested that a Government having no axe to grind, would prefer that +the “poetry of patriotism” was not so obvious in its official returns. +This observation on the part of the man who was at the time Minister +of Education is an eloquent proof of the fact that official statistics +were shaped to suit the ends of the Magyar race, and that they could +not be relied upon to show the true numerical proportion of the various +nations included in the realm of St. Stephen.[8] + +This tendency in the official figures makes it impossible to gauge the +true proportions of the various races. It is certain, however, that the +figures shown for the Magyars are too large, while those shown for the +non-Magyars are too small. According to Professor Niederle, in his book +_The Slav Nation_, the Slovaks in 1900 numbered 2,600,000, instead of +the 1,991,402 returned in the census of that year, while the Ruthenes +were some hundred and fifty thousand more numerous than was reported. +The Magyar socialist leader, Deszo Bokanyi, declared in a speech +delivered at Szeged in August 1917, that there were not more than eight +millions of Magyars in Hungary, and that it was even doubtful whether +they reached that figure. He added that it was well known that the +official statistics gave every opportunity to jobbery. + +Another factor which helps to explain the increase in the Magyar +percentage shown in the official figures is the emigration from Hungary +to America, which was on the increase during the years before the War. +The number of emigrants from Hungary in the year 1906 reached the +alarming total of 178,170, or approximately 1 per cent. of the total +population. Of these emigrants the greater number were of non-Magyar +nationality, the Magyar emigrant forming less than one-third of the +whole.[9] + +Grünwald, in the work already quoted, declares that Magyar policy +towards these non-Magyar races. “The awakening of a national +conscience among the non-Magyar races constitutes a danger to the +Magyar State. The only possible culture in Hungary is the Magyar. _It +is impracticable to win the Slovaks to the idea of a Magyar State by +kindness. The only means which remains to us is to exterminate them +utterly._ If the Magyars desire to survive, it is necessary that they +should strengthen themselves by the assimilation of the non-Magyar +races.” So notorious did this policy become throughout Europe that +even men like Björnson, the eminent Norwegian poet and publicist, +who from his well-known sympathy towards pan-Germanism might have +been expected to approve of the parallel pan-Magyarism, were moved to +protest against it. In the course of an article contributed to the +_Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna (November 15, 1907), Björnson used the +following words:-- + +“You have certainly read the story of Peter Maupertuis, and of the +celebrated proposition which he made to Frederick the Great, of +the advice which he gave in order to ensure that the people should +speak Latin? The king was to enclose part of the country within an +insurmountable wall. This having been done, a large number of young +children were to be taken from their parents and immured behind this +wall, where they would only hear Latin spoken, nothing but Latin, from +morning to night. This extraordinary proposition was fully appreciated +at the time by Voltaire, as you know. It is, however, to the Magyars, +that original people, that chance has reserved its execution. The +Magyars have built this wall; it is the Hungarian frontier, rendered +impassable by the famous valour of the Magyars. Teachers exist also, +the partisans of Greater Hungary. Armed with book and law, with whip +and rifle, these masters introduce Magyar into the schools, a language +with which I am not acquainted, but which, I am told, resembles Turkish +and is consequently far superior to Latin. + +“The motive behind this action is perfectly simple. There are not +enough Magyars; the Magyars are in the minority in their own country. +They are not very prolific, Heaven knows why. _It follows, therefore, +that Magyars must be manufactured. This is the chief Hungarian +industry._ It is a peculiarity of the partisans of Greater Hungary +that everything they are or do is the finest in the world. I have +recently learnt from a Magyar Government paper that the Slovaks are +with regard to the Magyars in the same relation as the Esquimaux are to +the Norwegians. But these Esquimaux of Hungary have produced a number +of great men, such as Petofi and Kossuth. These Esquimaux of the Great +Magyars are thus far superior to the other Esquimaux.”[10] + +We may examine the methods of this “_chief Hungarian industry_,” as +Björnson so aptly styled it. + +The Slovaks, despite lively opposition on the part of the Magyars, +succeeded in establishing three “gymnasia” (secondary classical +schools, intended as preparatory to the Universities), and a society +for the study of their national literature, the Slovenska Matica. +But the existence of these schools was contrary to the policy of +the Magyars. They closed the schools in 1874, and a year later, by +methods which were acknowledged at the time to be contrary to the +principles of justice or equity, they dissolved the Slovenska Matica, +confiscating the funds of which it had become possessed. The buildings +themselves they turned into Government offices. Since the closing of +these establishments the Magyars have been obstinately opposed to the +founding of the gymnasia which the Slovaks have desired to establish at +their own expense. The Slovaks were therefore deprived of any secondary +school in which teaching might be carried out in their mother-tongue. +According to the last official census before the War, Slovakia, +inhabited by a compact Slovak population, possessed thirty-three +establishments of all sorts in which secondary education was imparted, +in every one of which Magyar was the language of instruction. + +All Slovaks, therefore, who were desirous of availing themselves of +secondary educational facilities, were compelled to attend the Magyar +secondary schools. The secondary schools, then, were the machinery +employed in the factories where the great Hungarian industry was +carried on. But even when the Slovak youth had entered the machines, it +was subject to persecution. If the Magyar authorities discovered that +the Slovak pupils endeavoured to keep up their knowledge of their own +language, or were even in possession of books written in Slovak, they +were immediately expelled from school. + +Nor were the secondary schools the only agencies employed by the +Magyars in manufacturing countrymen for themselves. The lot of Slovak +elementary school children was no better. Under the Tisza Government, +which did not come to an end until May 1917, the elementary schools in +the Slovak areas of the country contained 266,107 Slovak pupils, of +whom 18,312 only could be accommodated in the so-called Slovak schools, +and even in these, in conformity with the Education Act of Count +Apponyi, the Magyar language was taught for eighteen hours a week. The +total hours of instruction per week in these schools was on the average +twenty-four. There were, besides, 978 schools, at which 86,363 Slovak +children attended, where the sole language used was Magyar, and 899 +schools, attended by 89,299 Slovak children, in the two lowest classes +of which the Slovak language was allowed as an auxiliary tongue. Under +the Esterhazy Government, which followed that of Tisza, it was ordained +that the elementary schools were not to use any language but Magyar, +even as an auxiliary, and a little later that Magyar was to be used as +the language of instruction even in the Church schools. + +But the great Hungarian industry began even before the non-Magyar +child reached elementary school age. “The Government fully recognised +the value of the primary school as a political instrument, but, +possessing a more intimate knowledge of the prevailing educational +and administrative chaos than was vouchsafed to the general public, +they were tempted to resort to still more drastic measures. Twelve +years’ experience had taught them what the common sense of pedagogic +specialists had foretold from the beginning--that a language so +difficult as the Magyar can only be effectually acquired in a Magyar +atmosphere, and that Slav or Rumanian village children, who perhaps +only attend school for half the year and during the remaining six +months seldom hear a syllable of Magyar spoken around them, are hardly +likely to make any real progress in the language, unless the teaching +staff is multiplied twenty-fold. An ingenious device was invented to +cope with this practical difficulty, which exists even when there is no +reluctance on the part of pupils and parents.... In 1891, therefore, +a Bill was introduced by Count Csaky for the compulsory erection +of Infant Homes (kindergarten and asiles) throughout the country. +The ostensible aims of the new law were (_a_) to place under proper +supervision young children whose parents were not in a position to +give them personal attention, and (_b_) to promote their physical +development and inculcate habits of cleanliness and intelligence.... +Another aim is regarded by Hungarian statesmen as infinitely more +important than the reduction of infant mortality and the appalling +over-crowding and lack of medical treatment to which the mortality is +mainly due. This aim is the Magyarisation of the coming generation of +non-Magyars. Lest I should be accused of exaggeration, I prefer to +use the inimitable words of an official Hungarian publication.”[11] +The publication referred to by Dr. Seton-Watson is _L’enseignement +en Hongrie_, published by the Hungarian Ministry of Religion and +Public Instruction in 1900. According to this publication, since 1867 +the kindergarten movement had lost more and more its humanitarian +character, and its important side became daily more apparent. The +provision regarding language made of the question of the teaching of +the children a factor in political culture. This circumstance possesses +all the more importance as it becomes more and more evident that +infancy is the most favourable age for the teaching of the Hungarian +(i.e. Magyar) language.... The completely national mission of our +establishments for infant teaching is what distinguishes them above all +from similar institutions abroad. Such a bare-faced admission is rare +even among the cynical declarations of the Magyars. + +With the exception of 656,324, who were domiciled in Hungary proper, +the Serbs and Croats were mainly to be found in Croatia-Slavonia. +In accordance with the Hungarian-Croatian agreement of 1868, which +was ratified by the respective Parliaments of Budapest and Zagreb, +Croatia-Slavonia was nominally an independent State. “In theory the +viceroy, or _ban_, of Croatia-Slavonia is nominated by the Crown, and +enjoys almost unlimited authority over local affairs; in practice the +consent of the Crown is purely formal, and the _ban_ is appointed by +the Hungarian Premier, who can dismiss him at any moment.... Electors +must belong to certain professions or pay a small tax. The privileged +members are the heads of the nobility, with the highest ecclesiastics +and officials. (These privileged members formed about half of the +national assembly, or parliament, of Croatia-Slavonia and were not +subject to election, holding their seats _ex officio_.) As a rule they +represent the “Magyarist” section of society, which sympathises with +Hungarian policy. The chamber deals with religion, education, justice +and certain strictly provincial affairs; but even within this limited +sphere, all its important enactments must be countersigned by the +minister for Croatia-Slavonia, a member, without portfolio, of the +Hungarian Cabinet. At the polls, all votes are given orally, a system +which facilitates corruption; the officials who control the elections +depend for their livelihood on the _ban_, usually a Magyarist; and +thus, even apart from the privileged members, a majority favourable to +Hungary can usually be secured.”[12] + +Although the legal status of Croatia-Slavonia was that of a sovereign +state, the Magyars never hesitated to violate that sovereignty. The law +of 1907 concerning the railways is an example, for by it the Magyars +sought to impose their language upon Croatia-Slavonia. The Serbo-Croats +protested loudly against this violation of their national rights and of +the sacred obligations of the treaty. In reply the Hungarian Government +instituted a reign of terror in Croatia-Slavonia under the pretext of +pacifying the country. Serbo-Croats were imprisoned on the grounds +that they had conspired with Serbia against the Hungarian State. The +notorious trial for high treason of fifty-three Serbo-Croats at Zagreb +(Agram) in 1907 is a prominent example of Magyar persecution. + +Again, it is possible to quote a Magyar authority in condemnation +of Magyar policy. Count Joseph von Mailath, a well-known Magyar +statesman and a member of the Hungarian House of Magnates, produced +a book entitled _Rural, Social and Political Hungary_, intended as a +panegyric of the Magyar national policy. In this book he writes as +follows: “I think it preferable to put forward the political side of +the Croatian question, for this question is first of all a question of +power; the point is above all to know who is the strongest. To maintain +the Hungarian character of the railways of the Hungarian State, _to +assure, if necessary, by force and at a pinch even by fire and sword +the supremacy of the Hungarian language_ on the Croatian lines of +these railways, is for Hungary a question of life or death; indeed, we +cannot reach our port of Fiume except by passing through Croatia. It is +essential that we should be masters of the route to Fiume even if right +were not on our side.” In fact, right must give way to expediency where +Magyar interests are concerned. Necessity knows no law. + +As the Croats and Serbs were more or less segregated in +Croatia-Slavonia, so the Rumanians within the domains of the Crown +of St. Stephen were concentrated in Transylvania. “The population +(of Transylvania) in 1900 numbered 2,456,838. Until 1848 the chief +influence and privileges, as well as the only political rights, were +divided among the three ‘privileged nations’ of the Hungarians, +Szeklers and Saxons. The first are the descendants of the Magyar +conquerors. The Szeklers are of disputed origin, but closely akin to +the Magyars. The Saxons are the posterity of the German immigrants +brought by King Geza II (1141-61) from Flanders and the lower Rhine, +to cultivate and repeople his desolated territories.... The Hungarians +and Szeklers together number 814,994, and the Saxons 233,019, but by +far the most numerous element, though long excluded from power and +political equality, is formed by the Rumanians, 1,397,282 in number, +who are spread all over the country.... The efforts of the Rumanian +inhabitants to secure recognition as a fourth ‘nation,’ and the +opposition of the non-Magyar population to a closer union with Hungary, +led to troubles early in the nineteenth century, culminating in 1848. +In 1849 Transylvania was divided from Hungary by an imperial decree, +and became an Austrian crownland; but in 1860 Transylvania became +an autonomous province, with a separate Diet, and a high executive +power of its own. The Diet assembled in Nagy-Szeben in 1863 decreed +the complete separation from Hungary, the union with Austria, and the +recognition of the Rumanians as the ‘fourth nation.’ But the Hungarian +Government did not recognise this Diet, and the Diet assembled at +Kolozsvar in 1865, in which the Hungarians had the majority, decreed +again the union with Hungary. By the Compromise of 1867 Austria +granted the union of Transylvania with Hungary, which was completed in +1868. Transylvania lost every vestige of autonomy, and was fully and +completely incorporated with Hungary. Since that time the Magyarisation +of the Principality has steadily been carried through, in spite of +the bitter protests and discontent of both Saxons and Rumanians. A +Hungarian university was founded at Kolozsvar in 1872; and Hungarian is +recognised as the official language.”[13] + +A single example must serve to show the methods which the Magyars +employed in their treatment of the Rumanian population. In 1892, the +Rumanian National Party addressed a petition to the king. This document +called in question the legality of the annexation of Transylvania to +Hungary. It also set out the grievances of the Rumanians against the +Magyars. The Hungarian Government refused the Rumanian deputation +the right to approach the king, but the National Party published the +text of the petition. This action roused the ire of the Magyars, who +prosecuted the authors of the document and those who were concerned +in its publication, accusing them of “inciting to revolution against +the Magyar race.” As a result of these prosecutions, fifty Rumanians +were condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from two to five years. +Their sole crime had been that they had taken the liberty of drawing +attention to their grievances against the Magyars, and had declared the +facts of their oppression by the dominant race. + +In the attempt to extirpate the national existence of the Rumanians of +Transylvania, the Magyars followed their usual policy of depriving them +of educational facilities. Alarmed by the sympathy shown for Rumania +during the War, the Government ordered the closing of the Rumanian +normal schools in Transylvania. Some days later, Count Apponyi, then +Minister of Education, issued the following circular with reference to +the schools maintained by the Greek Orthodox Church: “In view of the +maintenance of the security of the Magyar State and the Magyar nation, +the Minister of Education has decided to convert all the Rumanian +national schools in the counties bordering on Rumania into Magyar +Government schools, in order to put an end to the anti-Magyar movement +originating in neighbouring Rumania. This result can be achieved if +the Rumanian schools pass into the hands of the Magyar Government. +The Minister finds himself compelled to take this step in consequence +of the fact that at the time of the invasion of Transylvania by the +Rumanians, many teachers and pupils displayed signs of hostility +towards the Magyar State.” + +Referring to this circular, one of the Rumanian newspapers published +in Transylvania remarked that the Minister of Education was profoundly +mistaken if he supposed that the conversion of Rumanian schools into +Magyar schools would in any way affect the patriotic spirit of the +Rumanians. Liberty rather than oppression would foster the spirit +of patriotism. The _Budapesti Hirlap_ stigmatised the remark of the +newspaper in question as unheard-of insolence. “It is liberty which +gave the Rumanians the opportunity for their traitorous conduct, which, +in its turn, provoked the ministerial edict.” The _Budapesti Hirlap_ +went on to express the hope that Count Apponyi would devote all his +energies to the carrying out of his edict, with the object of putting +an end to the anti-Magyar agitation which menaced the existence of the +Magyar State. + +It will be convenient to conclude this chapter with a short account +of the relations between the nationalities of Hungary up to the time +of the Ausgleich. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, when +the Turks were almost entirely driven from Hungarian soil, Hungary +was inhabited by scarcely two million people, of whom scarcely half a +million were of Magyar nationality. Thus the Magyars, forming only a +quarter of the population, were not in a position to play the leading +part in the country. The Austrian administration, which always retained +the decisive vote in the internal affairs of Hungary, was not disposed +to favour the Magyars beyond the other nationalities. It was only in +the reign of Charles VI (1685-1740) that the Hungarian administration +was set up and Hungarian courts were allowed. In the eighteenth century +Latin had not ceased to be the official language of all the Hungarian +nationalities. The Magyar tongue, being then only in the first stages +of its literary development, could not have replaced it, even had the +Magyars been capable of exercising the preponderating influence in +the country. In the fifteenth century attempts had been made at the +time of the Hussite struggle to make use of it as a written language; +its development was encouraged by the Reformation in the sixteenth +century. But these revivals were followed in the seventeenth century +by a period of decline. Only in Transylvania did the Magyar tongue +achieve any success, where as early as 1565 it was already the language +of several of the county assemblies. But when the Hapsburg dynasty +acquired Transylvania at the end of the seventeenth century Magyar +was no longer encouraged as an official language, and Latin was again +introduced as the language of legislation and administration. + +The renaissance of the Magyar language did not begin until the reign of +Maria Theresa. But in spite of the brilliant beginnings of a new Magyar +culture, whole blocks of the population remained strangers to Magyar +ideals. It was not until the “uncrowned king,” Joseph II, directed the +Hungarian administration in 1784 to use German in lieu of Latin that +the national conscience of the Hungarian nobility was aroused. The +Magyar tongue began to regain its ascendancy, Latin gradually lost its +hold, and the use of the Magyar crept into the administration of the +State and into the courts of justice. In 1840 Magyar had become the +sole official language of the Government and the Diet, to the exclusion +of all the other national languages of Hungary. Magyar jingoism, not +content with the successes achieved in Hungary itself, endeavoured to +enforce its language even on the Croats, notwithstanding the special +position occupied by the latter. + +The Magyars developed rapidly a presumptuous arrogance and a brutal +tyranny. They alone were the chosen race; the non-Magyars, and +especially the Slovaks, might think themselves fortunate in being +allowed to merge themselves into the noble Magyar nation. _Tot nem +ember_, the Slovak is not a man, was the common expression of Magyar +pride, which Count Szechenyi, “the noblest of the Magyars,” inveighed +against in a lecture before the Hungarian Academy. “_I do not know +a single Magyar_” he said, “_who, though his hair be white as snow +or his face lined by experience or by the struggle of life, who does +not at once become an irresponsible madman, or at least a man without +conscience, devoid of the feelings of honour or justice, as soon as +our nationality or our language is in question. In such moments our +compatriots lose their mental balance, the most far-seeing become +blind, and the most reasonable forget the everlasting commandment, ‘Do +unto others as you would they should do unto you.’_” + +But Szechenyi’s words fell on deaf ears. The Magyars lost all sense of +proportion, and alienated the other nationalities by suppressing their +native tongues and replacing them by their own. Although Magyarisation +made rapid strides, it seemed to the Jingoes that its progress was +still too slow. They desired to Magyarise the whole country in the +course of a few years, a desire which evinced itself in outbursts of +indignation against the Throne, whose occupants endeavoured to moderate +their fanatical zeal, and who, in the beginning at least, took the +non-Magyar nations under the wing of their feeble protection. By 1848 +the Magyar crusade reached its height. The pusillanimous king and all +his entourage with him abandoned their efforts in the face of the +insatiable greed of the Magyars. On April 11th of that year the new +constitutional laws were sanctioned, giving Hungary her independence +and dividing the monarchy into two halves. The new Constitution dealt a +blow at all the non-Magyar nationalities, especially the Croats, whose +country became a mere province of Hungary. A desperate struggle began +between the nationalities and the Magyars, leading to the Magyar revolt +against Vienna. It was only in July 1849 that Kossuth declared himself +willing to sanction the law guaranteeing their free development to +all Hungarian nations. The battle of Villagos and the capitulation of +Gorgei put an end to the revolution, and an era of Germanism began +throughout the whole monarchy, strangling every nationality except +the Germans. The Magyars rid themselves gradually of their unhealthy +megalomania. When Kossuth was exiled in 1859 he endeavoured to found +on alien soil a confederation of the three Danubian States--Hungary, +Serbia and Moldavia--with Wallachia, thus showing a different outlook +towards those nations from the one he had assumed the year before. The +Magyars were to be reconciled with the Serbs and Rumanians, and all +citizens, irrespective of their nationality or religion, were to enjoy +equal rights and liberties. This was the attitude of a representative +Magyar at a time when the Magyar race was undergoing political eclipse. + +The policy of absolutism brought the monarchy to the verge of ruin, and +led to the disastrous war in Italy. Following the defeats sustained in +1859, the Court of Vienna sought new means of retrieving its position. +It was decided to admit the people to a share in the deliberations +of the Empire, and after a short time negotiations were set on foot +in both Hungary and Croatia. These negotiations were hastened by +the Austrian defeat at the hands of the Prussians at Königgrätz in +1866. The skill of Beust composed the quarrel between the Magyars +and the Crown, and recommended the division of the monarchy into two +autonomous halves. The Germans of Austria and the Magyars of Hungary +were to have equal rights of aggrandisement at the expense of the other +nationalities. Each was to be allowed elbow room in his own country +in order to deal with its internal affairs. The Germans were to have +the right to oppress the non-German races of Cisleithania, while the +Magyars were to exercise the same right towards the non-Magyar nations +of Transleithania. Dualism was agreed to, and the monarchy assumed the +form it retained until the end of the War. + +Beust and the Emperor Francis Joseph had perpetrated a glaring act +of injustice towards the subject nationalities. Two nations alone +profited by the new regime of Dualism. They alone could enjoy liberty +in the spheres of politics, economics and culture, while the other +nations were relegated to the rank of their vassals. The Hungarian +nationalities were delivered to the mercies of the Magyars, and heavy +as had been the German yoke, the nationalities soon discovered that +that of the Magyars was far heavier. In an instant the Magyars cast off +the mask of liberalism and showed themselves once more in their true +rôle of brutal oppressors. The Law of Nationalities of 1868 was passed +indeed, but only to serve as a veil for their true policy, but they +never fulfilled the least of its promises, which they violated from the +very inception of Dualism. But their persecution of the nationalities +only reached its height during the administration of Coloman Tisza. + +From the time that he assumed office, it was as though the Law of +Nationalities had never existed. “For the Hungarians the very existence +of the State was menaced while the Magyars were not in the majority +and so long as the other nations were not assimilated, willy-nilly. To +this end they devised every expedient to spread the Magyar element and +to wipe out the other nations. On this principle everything worked to +build up the Magyar State; the Hungarian Government and administrative +officials, the Church, Members of Parliament, newspapers, societies, +schools, kindergartens, the intellectuals and particularly the +Jews. The Administration played the chief part in this policy of +Magyarisation, having in its power means which no other organisation +possessed. In spite of the law all non-Magyar languages were suppressed +in the courts and the administration, in State undertakings such +as railways, posts and telegraphs, in the schools, and in the very +churches and religious houses. The Government pushed its reforming +tendencies so far that it refused to tolerate even the Slovak secondary +schools maintained by religious associations.”[14] + +The methods by which this Magyarisation was carried out will be dealt +with in greater detail in the following chapters. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Extracted from evidence adduced before the League of Nations, +September 1922. + +[8] See also _Magyars et Pangermanistes_. + +[9] See also _Racial Problems in Hungary_. + +[10] For a collection of Björnson’s letters and articles dealing with +Hungary, see _Björnson et Apponyi_, by E. Lederer, Prague, 1921. + +[11] _Racial Problems in Hungary._ + +[12] K. G. Jayne, _Enc. Brit._ + +[13] _Enc. Brit._ + +[14] Dr. Kadlec, _Les Magyars et la République Tchécoslovaque_, 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +REPRESENTATION AND JUSTICE + + +In order that the full scope of Magyarisation may be understood, a +short summary of the principal Magyarising provisions of the laws of +Hungary is given. This summary is by no means complete, but it is +sufficient to give some idea of the legal aspect of the industry. + +Paragraph 7 of the law of 1792 states that the Magyar language will +form a branch of study regularly taught in the schools, and that every +Hungarian subject must learn Magyar, as in the future only those +knowing this language will be employed in the public services. + +Paragraph 14 of the law of 1805 introduces Magyar as the official +language of the Royal Hungarian Chancery, and ordains that the +political authorities are to make use of it in their dealings with the +municipalities. Only the departmental (local) bodies are left to decide +for themselves whether they wish to use it in their own affairs and +before the courts and Government authorities. + +Paragraph 8 of the law of 1830 decides that the Prefectures are to use +Magyar. The provision that candidates for the public services must know +Magyar is repeated. + +Paragraph 3 of the law of 1836 proclaims the Magyar wording and version +of the laws as authoritative. This language becomes the official one in +the Royal tribunals, and ecclesiastical authorities are instructed to +keep the parish registers in Magyar. + +Paragraph 6 of the law of 1840 declares Magyar to be the official +language to be used in representations made by the Houses of Parliament +to the Crown, in the law courts, in the business of the prefectures +and in parish registers throughout the country. All priests must know +Magyar. A knowledge of Magyar must extend to military matters. + +Paragraph 2 of the law of 1844 prescribes that all decrees and +regulations of the Royal Chancery and all legislation are to be drawn +up in Magyar, and that all parliamentary debates are to be carried on +in Magyar, except in the case of speeches by Croatian deputies ignorant +of the language. This latter concession, however, is to hold good only +for a period of six years. + +Paragraph 5 of the law of 1848 proclaims Magyar as the sole diplomatic +and legislative language in Hungary. By virtue of this proclamation, +nobody who is ignorant of Magyar can become a deputy. Paragraph 16 of +the same law declares that Magyar is the official language for all +parts of the country. + +Paragraph 42 of the law of 1870 relating to the establishment of +municipalities decides that one-half of the departmental (county) +assemblies is to consist of those who, being entitled to a personal +vote, pay the most taxes. In order that the non-Magyars, however they +may be qualified, should be effectively barred from office, it is +stipulated that for the committee of candidature, consisting of six +members, the assembly itself should nominate three members and the +prefect the other three; further, that on this committee the president, +who shall be the prefect himself, shall have the casting vote in case +the voting should be equal. It is thus assured that the committee +cannot nominate any individual as a candidate against the will of the +prefect. + +Paragraph 18 of the law of 1886 grants the president of a local area, +in his capacity as presiding officer at municipal elections, the right +of submitting as candidate for mayor, district attorney and medical +officer “anyone whom he regards as worthy” of these offices. As only +one candidate may be submitted for any vacancy, the submission of a +candidate is equivalent to his election. + +The law of 1874 relating to the changes introduced into the regulations +for parliamentary elections entrusts the committee drawing up the lists +of voters with the task of fixing the rating limit which is to be the +qualification of the vote. + +Paragraph 18 of the law of 1879 relating to elementary schools declares +Magyar to be a compulsory subject throughout the elementary schools of +Hungary. + +The law of 1898 decrees the Magyarisation of all place names in Hungary. + +We may deal with the various methods of Magyarisation suggested by the +above summary in turn, considering first the means employed by the +Magyars to prevent adequate representation of the non-Magyar races in +the county assemblies and the national parliament. + +The basis of the local government of the country has always been the +county system. Under this system, which was introduced by St. Stephen +and endures in all essentials to the present day, the county, municipal +and communal assemblies were entrusted with a very large share in the +administration. In 1886 the laws governing the election and duties were +revised. The membership of the county assemblies varied according to +the population of the county from 120 to 600, only half of whom were +elected. Half of the seats on the assembly were awarded automatically +to those members of the community who paid most taxes, in other words +to the great landowners, whose support for the Magyar nation and ideal +could be taken for granted. In the nature of things they were Magyars +themselves, and opposed to any measures which might alleviate the lot +of the peasant class or the nationalities. Having thus secured the +adequate representation of the oligarchical party, the law proceeded +to announce a so-called democratic franchise for the election of the +remainder of the members. But this franchise was no more than the +absurd and complicated parliamentary franchise of Hungary. + +But in order to assure that the privileged class should in all cases +have a clear majority, it was ordained that the county officials should +be ex-officio members of the assembly. These officials were indeed +elected by the assembly itself, if the word election can be applied to +their appointment. The candidates for these posts are nominated by the +president of the assembly, who was, of course, invariably a faithful +Magyar, and the members of the assembly, as the elective body, were +only permitted to record votes in favour of the candidates. Further, +no opposition candidates might be nominated, so that nomination of +a candidate was equivalent to his election. The result was that the +privileged members with the support of the officials were always +assured of a majority in the assembly. Few better examples of the +undemocratic nature of the Magyar administration could be supplied. + +The same principles were applied in the case of municipal and communal +assemblies. The Magyar working and peasant classes as well as the +members of the nationalities were thus denied all participation in +the government of the country, and it was easy to pass any oppressive +measures which might be indicated from the Magyar circles of the +central Government. The system had the further advantage from the +Magyar point of view that it ensured that all local officials should +be of Magyar birth and proclivities, or else Magyarised members of +the racial minorities. So effective was it in this direction that one +of the most serious problems of the new States after the War was the +disposal of the Magyar officials with which their new territories were +littered. + +The parliamentary franchise has already been touched upon. According to +the law of 1874, the qualification for the vote was as follows:-- + +(_a_) Property qualification. 1. In free towns, owners of houses which +contain three dwellings paying house tax, and owners of land paying +taxes on a direct income of 32 crowns. 2. In country districts, owners +of a quarter urbarial session (about 14 acres) or its equivalent. +Owing to special provisions of the law, this qualification varies in +different counties. 3. Owners of houses whose house tax was imposed on +a basis of 210 crowns of clear income. + +(_b_) Taxation qualification. 1. Merchants, manufacturers or town +artisans, paying taxes on income of at least 210 crowns. 2. In +boroughs, those who pay taxes for at least one apprentice. 3. Those +paying State taxes on a direct income of at least 210 crowns. 4. Those +paying income tax on 210 crowns income in Class I, on 1,400 crowns in +Class II, or in the case of officials on 1,000 crowns in Class II. + +(_c_) Professional and official qualification. All members of the +Hungarian Academy, academy artists, professors, doctors, veterinary +surgeons, engineers, chemists, foresters, public and communal notaries, +advocates, clergy, schoolmasters. + +(_d_) Ancestral qualification. All those possessing the franchise +previous to 1848. (In 1905, 32,712 persons still voted by right of +ancient privileges.) + +Remarkable as this franchise was, it contains even more remarkable +exceptions. For instance, not only are servants in the widest sense of +the word excepted, but also all apprentices and agricultural labourers. +“The proletariat has no share in political life, and if it has not +been found possible to exclude the non-Magyar races entirely from the +franchise, numerous devices have been successfully employed for the +past forty years to keep them from the polls or to prevent them from +electing men of their own nationality.... The constituencies have +been cut up in the most arbitrary fashion, in defiance of geography, +population and nationality, but with the one great object of favouring +the Magyar element.”[15] + +In consequence of the agreement between the Hapsburgs and the Magyars, +the latter, although forming a minority upon the territory which +they occupied, contrived to become the sole possessors of State +authority. In practice the non-Magyar nationalities were excluded +from any appreciable share in Hungarian legislation. In Hungary the +nobility alone had the power of decision, and from the beginning +of the “constitutional” era they made it impossible, with the help +of armed power, to elect representatives of the non-Magyar peoples +to parliament. How the Slovaks were represented in the Hungarian +parliament can be judged by the following figures: In the 58 electoral +areas of Hungary, inhabited almost entirely or for the greater part by +Slovaks, there were elected:-- + + Date. Magyar Deputies. Slovak Deputies. + 1865 58 0 + 1869 58 0 + 1872 56 2 + 1875 58 0 + 1878 58 0 + 1881 58 0 + +From the latter year onwards the Slovak political parties, seeing that +their efforts were useless against the electoral machinations of the +Magyars, adopted an attitude of passivity, which they maintained until +1901, making till then no attempt to secure the election of candidates. +From then the numbers elected were as follows:-- + + Date. Magyar Deputies. Slovak Deputies. + 1901 54 4 + +Of these four deputies, two were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment +each for having advocated an unauthorised policy in his election +speeches. + + Date. Magyar Deputies. Slovak Deputies. + 1905 56 2 + 1907 51 7 + +Of these seven deputies, one was forced to resign his seat by the +ecclesiastical authorities, another was deprived of his seat for +having advocated an unauthorised policy in his election addresses, and +two others were sentenced to a year’s imprisonment each for the same +offence. + + Date. Magyar Deputies. Slovak Deputies. + 1910 56 2 + +During the elections which took place after the Slovak parties had +decided to resume their activities, the list of the candidates and +voters sentenced for “crimes” in connection with these elections is +most instructive. In 1904 a candidate of the name of Veselovsky was +sent to prison for a year and fined 1,000 crowns for alleged incitement +to revolt in his election addresses. One of his supporters was sent to +prison for five days for shouting “Long live our candidate Veselovsky!” +In the previous year a candidate was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment +and a fine of 1,000 crowns for “incitement to revolt,” another to five +months and 500 crowns for the same offence. The brother of the latter, +a doctor, was imprisoned for two months and fined 200 crowns _for the +crime of “political activity at election meetings by recommending his +brother to the voters!”_ Another supporter, a Protestant clergyman, was +sentenced at the same time to three months and 300 crowns, also for +“_political activity at election meetings_.” + +“Violence or excesses during elections” is another favourite crime with +which non-Magyar voters were charged. In 1905, 31 farmers were awarded +sentences aggregating a year and ten months for this offence. In the +next year the figure rose to 56 and the aggregate sentences to five and +a half years. In 1907 the figures were about the same. + +The utmost endeavours were made by the authorities to prevent the +non-Magyar electors recording their votes. The constituencies and +polling stations were so arranged that the Magyar communities were +assured of easy access to the poll, while the non-Magyar communities +had to travel great distances. It was no uncommon trick for the local +authorities to declare roads and bridges unsafe for traffic on the day +of the election, or for all the horses in non-Magyar districts to be +placed under veterinary supervision and forbidden to move outside the +commune. As soon as the elections were safely over, these restrictions +were removed. There was no time fixed for the closing of the poll; +this was left to the discretion of the returning officer, who was +always an official of safe Magyar views. This was most convenient, +for if the Magyars voted early, the poll could be closed before the +non-Magyars had a chance of arriving, whilst if any important section +of the Magyars were delayed, the poll could be held open until they +had arrived. In order to silence complaints, the Magyar newspapers +published alarming stories of intimidation by groups of non-Magyar +voters, which had rendered it necessary for the returning officer to +protect the Magyars. This in spite of the fact that an election was the +signal for what was practically a mobilisation of the Austro-Hungarian +Army, which was called in to maintain order, and naturally maintained +it in the direction indicated by the authorities. In the elections of +1910, according to an official report _only_ 194 battalions of infantry +and 114 squadrons of cavalry were employed for this purpose! + +The famous “Memorandum” which the Rumanian party in Transylvania +attempted to present to the Emperor in 1892, and for which it was +persecuted in typically Magyar fashion, contained a reference to +the methods by which elections were conducted. It asserted that a +non-Magyar citizen could only take part in an election at the peril +of his personal safety, and that his attempts to record his vote +practically resulted in a civil war against the nationalities. The +troops and gendarmerie used every means of force and injustice to +keep the non-Magyar electors from the polls, and instances of their +brutality during the elections were so frequent as almost to pass +without remark. + +It was the endeavour of the officials in charge of the registers to +manipulate them in such a way that even when the opposition voter +reached the polling booth he more often than not discovered that +he was disqualified. The voting lists were drawn up exclusively in +Magyar, which made it easy to insert false particulars without the +knowledge of voters of subject nationalities. For instance, the +voter’s age, address or calling might be incorrectly entered, so that +when he appeared he did not answer to the description entered on the +list. Further, there was no secret ballot; voters were compelled to +declare aloud before the returning officer, and incidentally before +various other officials seated with him in the booth, the name of the +candidate for whom they wished to vote. If they voted thus for the +opposition candidate they became at once marked men, upon whom the eyes +of the local officials were directed, and the latter took the first +opportunity of trumping up against them some charge which involved +a fine or imprisonment. It thus required considerable courage for a +Slovak or Rumanian voter to vote for a non-Magyar candidate, or even +for a Magyar peasant to vote against the wishes discreetly conveyed to +him by the representatives of the Government party. + +The voter could not even be sure that the returning officer would +record his vote correctly. A nominee of each candidate was present in +the polling booth, but the returning officer had power to eject any +of these representatives on the most trivial excuse. In such cases, +while a substitute was being procured the returning officer had ample +leisure to transfer votes from the candidate he represented to the +one officially favoured. Again, it is the Magyar custom to describe +an individual by his surname followed by his Christian name. Should +a voter declare his intention to vote for John Smith, to anglicise +the position, he was promptly told there was no such candidate, and +sent away before he had time to correct his mistake and describe the +candidate as Smith, John. + +Complaint was worse than useless, as it merely branded the originator +of the complaint as disaffected and opposed to the Magyar nation. +The officials whose duty it was to deal with the complaint were those +in whose hands the control of the election lay. The following letter, +written by a departmental returning officer to his subordinate at +Ipolysag, a district of mixed Magyars and Slovaks, during the elections +of 1881, explains the official attitude. + +“I am sending you the 400 florins asked for; I know that you need them. +But in order that I may be able to keep my accounts in order, I ask you +to make a detailed note of it, and always to sign receipts. In matters +of this sort I like to be methodical, for I have seen and I still see +what harm has been done by the contrary procedure. _Keep a careful list +of the opposing side, and admit only 10 out of every 100 of them to the +urns. That is the chief thing. Those who do not like it can complain. +But no concessions!_” + +The letter was signed by the prefect himself, and his reference to +complaints is interesting, seeing that he himself administered the +appeal tribunal which heard such complaints. + +Björnson published an article dealing with the electoral conditions in +Hungary in the _Courrier Européen_ of February 25, 1908, part of which +is well worthy of translation here. + +“I belong to a free and independent nation, and in Norway no more than +in any other secondary nation is electoral fraud known. To falsify the +votes of the people would be in our eyes as grave a crime as to poison +the water they drank. Falsify votes! What sort of chambers could be +thus elected? And what laws would these chambers pass? And what sort of +morality would those who carried out these laws possess? Yet that which +we look upon in our political life as the worst of calamities is the +constant practice of the Hungarian aristocracy. + +“It is impossible for me to explain in a few words the electoral +system of Hungary. It is involved in inextricable confusion. But I can +safely affirm that the electoral law of Hungary of 1848, partially +recast in 1874, is an unjust act committed for an unjust end. If +this be thought too severe, let us no longer consider the law, but +the electoral organisations which result from it. According to these +arrangements, 5,161 electors in Hungarian Rumania are distributed +in twelve districts, to elect twelve--12--Magyar representatives, +but 5,275 electors are concentrated in a single district to elect a +single--1--Rumanian representative! + +“As though this unjust organisation did not sufficiently assure the +end aimed at, the law contains a provision by which a candidate can be +proposed by ten electors and elected by acclamation before the mass of +the electors have had time to arrive. This is how things happen. The +poll is set up in a place to which access is as convenient as possible +for the Magyars, and as inconvenient as possible for the Rumanians. +Voting begins at 9 o’clock, and within the space of half an hour there +is time to propose a candidate and to elect him by acclamation. The law +contains other similar provisions which are nothing but traps. I shall +not mention them, I shall merely state that Magyars alone are appointed +to supervise the elections! + +“And the elections themselves! I think of the districts where the +Magyar aristocracy is afraid of not securing a majority. I have been +sent a description of the elections in a country where the great +majority of the electors were German. But for all that the deputy +elected was a Magyar. People were so far from daring to go and vote +that they barricaded their doors.” + +The representation of non-Magyar nationalities in Hungary before the +War has been shown to have been farcical. The Magyar system was +completely oligarchical and utterly opposed to any idea of democracy. +Its tendency was to treat the non-Magyar as a foreigner, and as far as +possible to deny him any facility for the expression of his rights. It +would be possible to quote instance after instance of corruption in +elections and of the disqualification and imprisonment of deputies once +they were elected, but space will not permit of it. The way in which +the electoral system was made to serve the interests of Magyarisation +has been described first, for representation is the first principle +of a democratic nation. It will now be necessary to investigate the +prostitution of justice for the same ends. + +Under sections 7 and 8 of the Law of Nationalities, every Hungarian +subject is permitted to employ his mother-tongue before his local +courts, and has a choice of languages in those courts where his own is +not officially employed. But in the latter case the judge is compelled +to take the necessary measures, including the use of an interpreter +if necessary, to ensure that the parties concerned can follow the +proceedings, particularly the verdict. But these provisions were flatly +disregarded. Summonses were issued, trials conducted, and verdicts +issued in Magyar, even in districts where hardly any of the general +population, and certainly none of the litigants, understood that +language. This was merely another means of compulsion used towards the +racial minorities to employ Magyar as their natural language. A Slovak +or a Rumanian who remained ignorant of Magyar found himself to all +intents and purposes an outlaw; he was at the mercy of anyone who chose +to proceed against him on the flimsiest excuse. He could understand +neither the basis of the charge nor the case against him, nor would the +court listen to his defence. Finally, when the case had gone against +him by default, he was ignorant of the sentence inflicted upon him. The +judge entirely disregarded his right to an interpreter; if he wished +for such a luxury, he was compelled to pay the man’s fees himself, +which in a trial of any length were entirely beyond the means of a man +of the peasant or labouring class. + +Nor was the language question the only slur upon Hungarian so-called +justice. The judges themselves were the constant recipients of +communications from the central Government on the subject of the +conduct of the cases before them. They were very carefully selected +from that class of the community which could be trusted to employ +its influence in favour of the Magyar ruling class and against the +lower classes and the nationalities. They were bidden to employ every +resource of justice to suppress “class war,” which in Hungary meant +any protest by the nationalities or the Magyar peasant or labouring +classes against the intolerant rule of the landed classes. In the +eyes of the Magyar rulers justice was merely a convenient handmaiden +to the sacred principles of oligarchy, and the purveyors of this +justice were expected to act in accordance with this idea. In the +rare cases where judges were non-Magyar, care was taken to appoint +them to courts distant from the districts inhabited by their fellow +nationals. In 1910, of 2,633 judges and official lawyers in Hungary, +2,601 were Magyar, 31 were German, and 1 was Slovak. The latter was +kept in Budapest, well under the eye of the Minister of Justice. This +practice ensured that the judge would be unable to conduct a case in +the language of the racial minorities, even had he wished to do so. +There was yet another means by which judicial procedure could be used +as an instrument against those who had become unpopular with the +authorities, either from their democratic tendencies or because they +sympathised with the aspirations of the nationalities. They had only to +be accused of inciting to class war or of conduct to the prejudice of +the Magyar nation and arrested. There was no difficulty in delaying the +trial for a year or more; it was rare in Hungary for a trial to follow +an offence with less delay. Then, even if by some carelessness the +accused was eventually acquitted, he or she had served quite a useful +term of imprisonment, which would act as a salutary warning against the +holding of similar views in the future. + +It can now be realised how admirably the Magyars had contrived the +judicial procedure of Hungary to suit their own ends. The length to +which political persecution was carried was so great that any complete +description of it would require a book to itself. Echoes of the more +sensational political trials even reached the outside world, as, +for instance, the trial of Father Hlinka, the Agram trials and the +“Memorandum” trial, directed respectively against the Slovak, the +Croat and the Rumanian races of Hungary. The most impartial method of +obtaining some idea of political persecution in Hungary is to take +the leading cases for a single year. This summary was published in a +slightly different form by Björnson in _März_ of December 1907. + +The year in question extends from the end of August 1906 to the end +of August 1907. It must be realised that at that time there was no +suggestion of sedition on the part of the non-Magyar nationalities. +It has been urged that the Magyars have been engaged in a justifiable +attempt to put down smouldering rebellion against the State, that +they were taking steps similar to those which must be taken by every +nation faced with rebellion. This is utterly untrue. It has even +been represented that the non-Magyar nationalities were at this +period in the same state of revolution against the State as were the +Irish Sinn Feiners against the British power in 1920. Nothing could +be further from the truth. It would be far more correct to describe +the nationalities as being as peaceful as the Welsh. The political +persecution carried out by the Magyars was just as unjustifiable as +a similar persecution would have been if carried out by the English +against the Welsh, just because they were Welsh. + +On August 27, 1906, a master carpenter was sentenced to three months’ +imprisonment and a fine of 50 crowns for incitement to disturbance. +He had criticised the new amendments to the Education Act, and had +declared that it was unreasonable to martyrise the children of +non-Magyar parents by forcing them to learn Magyar. On September 24th +the Supreme Court of Budapest confirmed the sentence of the editor of +a Slovak paper to a month’s imprisonment and a fine of 200 crowns. On +October 20th his successor was sentenced to a fine of 500 crowns for +defamation of character, which was incurred by his publication of a +letter blaming the violence of a Magyar official. + +On September 16th two citizens were sentenced to three months’ +imprisonment and fines amounting to 1,100 crowns for having +ostentatiously left church when a schoolmaster, who had been appointed +against the wishes of the parish, began to play the organ. + +On November 16th the Slovak deputy and priest, Ferdis Juriga, whose +election had been particularly obnoxious to the authorities, was +condemned to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 1,200 crowns for the +crime of incitement against the Magyar nationality. He had published +two newspaper articles in which he had attacked the Jingoism of the +Magyars and had defended himself against charges of unpatriotism. The +offence was, of course, merely an excuse; he was less of a menace to +the policy of Magyarisation in prison than in parliament. + +On December 6th the famous Hlinka sentences were pronounced. As the +result of his advocacy of the Slovak cause, Father Hlinka had become a +popular figure, and on the occasion of his arrival in the village of +Rozsahegy a crowd assembled to meet him. It was dispersed by gendarmes +without disorder, but a week later Father Hlinka and a number of other +Slovaks were arrested and left for five months in prison without +trial. The accused were charged with instigation against the Magyar +nationality. Ninety-seven witnesses were summoned for the prosecution +and close upon forty for the defence, but of the latter all save four +were disallowed by the court. Father Hlinka was sentenced to two years’ +imprisonment and a fine of 1,500 crowns. One of the other defendants +was sentenced to a year and 900 crowns; one to four months and 300 +crowns; three to a total of sixteen months and 800 crowns, and the +remaining six to three months each and a total of 5,500 crowns. + +On January 31, 1907, a man was sentenced to five days’ detention and +a fine of 60 crowns for threatening to disturb the peace during an +election. + +On February 11th the manager of a Slovak paper was sentenced to +a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 80 crowns for the crimes of +incitement against the Magyar nation and of approval of acts contrary +to law. His offence was the publication of an article inviting the +prayers of the populace for Juriga, Hlinka and other condemned +Slovaks. On the 19th of the same month a contributor to the same paper +was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 400 crowns in +connection with the same offence. On February 28th and March 27th two +other Slovak editors who had ventured to criticise the actions of the +Magyars were sentenced, one to two months and 400 crowns, the other to +a year and 1,200 crowns. + +On April 12th a man was sentenced to fourteen days and 50 crowns for +words used in the course of his election speeches. + +On April 8th six Slovaks were fined 50 crowns each for having organised +a collection to pay the fine of deputy Juriga. On the 19th a man was +sentenced to three months and 100 crowns for inciting the people +against the Magyars in an article contributed to a Slovak paper. + +On April 24th four citizens were sentenced to 34 days’ imprisonment for +daring to offer opposition to Magyars who were trying to wreck Slovak +political meetings. + +On May 1st Hlinka was awarded an additional sentence of one month’s +imprisonment and a fine of 500 crowns for criticism of the actions of a +Magyar official. + +On May 2nd a man and twenty-three women of Zohor were sentenced to +imprisonment totalling three years and ten months. They had requested +that a priest of the name of Zak should be appointed to the parish. +The ecclesiastical authorities had overridden the expressed desire and +the right of the parishioners and appointed a well-known advocate of +Magyarisation, Imrich Hojsik. No sooner had he been appointed than the +women of Zohor drove him out of the commune. + +On June 17th four men of Lab were sentenced to three months’ +imprisonment each for having shown in their windows, on the occasion of +a religious fête, portraits of Juriga. + +On June 9th and 10th the local school examinations took place at a +Slovak village. The school children decorated the school with flags +of the Slav colours in honour of the event. This was interpreted by +the Magyar authorities as an attack against the independence of the +Hungarian State, and the three masters in charge of the school were +sentenced to fifteen days’ imprisonment and a fine of 200 crowns each. + +During the same month a printer was sentenced to detention for fourteen +days for an article discovered in a newspaper which was printed by him +but which circulated entirely beyond Hungarian territory. + +On July 15th a man was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and a +fine of 50 crowns for having criticised in public the actions of a +Magyarising priest who had denounced certain Slovak journalists from +the pulpit. + +On July 21st three Czechs were arrested in the village of Lucky, having +been denounced by the public notary for the crimes of speaking to the +women and children of the place and making inquiries as to the methods +of Magyarisation employed in the schools. One of them was detained in +custody for four weeks, and was only released on the intervention of +the Austrian Minister of Justice. + +This extraordinary list will serve to show the measures taken by the +Magyar authorities against the men of the non-Magyar nationalities in +the name of justice. + +But it must be borne in mind that the Magyar system of representation +bore hardly on the Magyar lower classes as well as upon the non-Magyar +nationalities. Although the lower class Magyar was not submitted to +the persecution which was the lot of his non-Magyar neighbours, he was +almost equally disenfranchised. Oscar Jaszi, an enlightened and liberal +Magyar, in a book written in 1912, said: “The pressure of agrarian +feudalism weighs as completely upon the other nationalities as upon +the Magyars themselves, and the pressure consists in _an Asiatic +administration, unjust taxation, bad schools and economic usury of +every description_. But the oppression of the nationalities is much +more serious than that of the Magyars. The Magyar Junker, maddened by +nationalist hatred, sees in the non-Magyar peasant even less of a man +than in the Magyar peasant.” + +The spirit of the Magyar oligarchy has not changed; as will be shown +later, it is as opposed to the principle of democracy as it has ever +been. The Hungarian Republic of to-day hides the germ of reaction +within the husk of hypocritical pretence. To permit any extension +of its boundaries would be to surrender anew to despotism nations +which after years of suffering have at length escaped from its toils. +Sympathy with the tortuous policy of Hungary means sympathy with the +forces of reaction and of a feudalism which has long been extinct +in all enlightened countries. The Magyar trades upon the revulsion +of feeling which all generous nations experience towards a beaten +enemy, in order to secure the consent of the world to his schemes for +imperilling the existence of the non-Magyar nationalities. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] _Racial Problems in Hungary._ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +EDUCATION + + +The Magyarisation policy of the Hungarian Government, although, as we +have seen, it prevailed in the realms of representation and justice, +attained its full development in the educational system of the +country. All Magyar claims to consideration before the tribunal of the +democratic nations are vitiated by the briefest consideration of their +reactionary attitude towards public instruction. In order that this may +be fully realised, it will be necessary to devote a whole chapter to +the subject of the condition of education in Hungary before the War. +It will be demonstrated later that even since the establishment of the +Hungarian Republic the treatment of the non-Magyar minorities has been +regarded in the same tyrannical manner. + +It is, of course, impossible to treat so large a subject adequately in +so small a compass. I have only attempted to give a brief sketch of the +results that accrued; the reader who desires to pursue the subject in +greater detail may be referred to Dr. Seton-Watson’s _Racial Problems +in Hungary_, in which the question is treated in great detail. + +According to the official Hungarian statistics for the school year +1908-1909 there were 16,496 elementary schools in Hungary, with 31,817 +teachers. Of this number there were only 467 Slovak schools, with 672 +teachers. Nevertheless, by the education law of 1906, these schools +were transferred into establishments for Magyarisation purposes. In +the same way the secondary schools and all the technical schools were +entirely Magyar, and from the year 1874 onwards it was impossible for +the Slovak student to obtain higher education in his native language. +The universities, of course, were also purely Magyar, not only in +language, but in spirit and organisation. Slovak pupils at Hungarian +secondary schools were not even allowed to speak Slovak among one +another, to read Slovak books or newspapers. During the whole of +their school career they were compelled to conceal their national +sentiments, and those who failed to do so were in danger of expulsion +or even judicial persecution. The school authorities made a special +point of emphasising all the elements of Magyar culture and Magyar +history, while everything with Slovak associations was either ignored +or made the subject of derision or belittlement. It is, therefore, not +surprising that during the period of their studies the young Slovaks +were largely deprived of their national consciousness and, with the +exception of a very small percentage, became Magyarised. For the period +of 1913-1914 the number of secondary schools in Hungary was 229, with +3,640 teachers and 77,636 pupils. Of these, 64,118 are described as +Magyars and only 1,620 as Slovaks. The proportion of pupils of other +non-Magyar nationalities was correspondingly small. But when one +remembers the convenient habit of Magyar enumerators of designating +as Magyars all those upon whom the process of Magyarisation had been +carried out, it is safe to estimate the minimum number of students of +Slovak nationality as not less than four thousand. This would make the +number of Magyarised students originally of Slovak nationality about +2,380, a not improbable figure. + +It may be objected that the comparative ease with which the process +of Magyarisation succeeded was a proof of its justification, that if +education prevailed upon the Slovaks to abandon their nationality so +rapidly it was because the Magyar culture displayed to the awakened +mind of the Slovak its superiority to the ideals in which he had +been brought up. But, as a matter of fact, the very reverse is the +case. The more highly the Slovaks were educated, the more clearly +they could see that Magyar culture and civilisation owed whatever it +possessed to outside and borrowed influences, among which their own +were predominant. The true reason for the success of Magyarisation in +secondary schools is to be found in the fact that unless the student +consented to be Magyarised, outwardly, at all events, his education +was a waste of time. As shown below, employment by the State or in the +professions was practically closed to him. This was impressed upon him +from the first, and he was faced with the alternatives of accepting the +imposition of Magyar nationality upon his own or abandoning all hope of +remunerative employment. + +If it be considered that the process of Magyarisation, which increased +in intensity as the student rose to the higher classes of the schools, +was carried out with meticulous thoroughness, it is fair to assume that +the actual number of Magyarised pupils was higher than that mentioned +above. At all events, the number of students with Slovak as their +native language at the Hungarian universities in the year 1913-1914 was +only 106, and it is therefore obvious that only a small percentage of +the Slovak pupils who passed through the ordeal of the Magyarisation +machinery succeeded in preserving their nationality. And this, be it +remembered, in spite of the sonorous preamble to the law of 1868: “The +State is bound to ensure that citizens living together in considerable +numbers, of whatever nationality, shall be able to obtain instruction +in the neighbourhood in their mother-tongue, up to the point where the +higher academic (i.e. university) education begins.” + +The training colleges for teachers were entirely Magyarised. There were +a few institutions upon whose curriculum the Slovak language figured +as a subject of instruction, two hours a week being devoted to it on +the so-called “direct” method. But nowhere was the Slovak language +cultivated in a scientific manner, and the educational authorities, +whose task it was to reorganise the schools in Slovakia after the +majority of the teachers had departed for their native land at the end +of the year 1918, were faced with extreme difficulties in the direction +of finding teachers with any experience of their profession who were +capable of imparting instruction in Slovak. + +The statistics of these secondary schools and training colleges are +interesting. In 1908-1909 there were in Hungary:-- + + 139 Magyar classical schools. + 7 German classical schools. + 4 Rumanian classical schools. + 1 Serbian classical school. + 0 Slovak classical schools. + +During the same period there were:-- + + 30 Magyar modern schools. + 2 German modern schools. + 0 Slovak modern schools. + +The figures for training colleges for teachers were:-- + + 59 Magyar. + 5 Rumanian. + 4 German. + 1 Serbian. + 0 Slovak. + +All the special technical schools in Hungary were Magyar. + +About 1860 the Slovaks had established three classical schools with the +help of funds which they had collected, but the Hungarian Government +did not tolerate them for long. After a successful activity which +lasted for twelve years, the Slovak classical school at Volca Revuca +was suppressed by the Government in 1874. In the following year the +same fate befell the Slovak classical school at Turocz St. Marton, +which had been in existence for eight years, and that of Klaster pod +Zniovem, which had been in existence for six years. The funds and the +premises of these establishments were confiscated by the Government, +and the teachers were discharged without compensation and without +pension. The Slovaks then abandoned the idea of founding secondary +schools. When, in 1910, the Evangelical clergyman Lichner began to +collect funds to establish a Slovak classical school he was fined by +the political authorities, and the sum which had already been collected +was confiscated. + +As has already been mentioned, Slovak pupils in the secondary schools +who ventured to pursue Slovak studies in their spare time rendered +themselves liable to expulsion. The following table, which covers a +period of ten years, gives the number of Slovak pupils expelled from +free schools for having privately devoted themselves to the study of +Slovak language and literature. + + -----+------------------------------+------------+------------- + Year.| Type of School. | Locality. |No. expelled. + -----+------------------------------+------------+------------- + 1881 |Normal school |Lucenec | 7 + 1882 |Normal school |Presov | 7 + 1882 |Girls’ high school |Bratislava | 5 + 1882 |Academy of law |Bratislava | 2 + 1882 |Classical school |Rim. Sobota | 1 + 1885 |Academy of Protestant Theology|Bratislava | 3 + 1885 |Academy of law |Bratislava | 5 + 1885 |Classical school |Bratislava | 4 + 1885 |Catholic seminary |Ostirhom | 2 + 1886 |Classical school |Levoca | 11 + 1887 |Central Catholic seminary |Budapest | 2 + -----+------------------------------+------------+------------- + +According to the census of 1910, the Slovaks constituted 11·9 per +cent. of the total population of Hungary. The extent to which they +participated in higher education is shown by the following figures:-- + + Per cent. + The training colleges for teachers contained 4·8 Slovaks + The classical and modern secondary schools 2·6 ” + The girls’ higher secondary schools 0·9 ” + The universities 0·9 ” + +It is natural that under these circumstances the educated classes +contained few avowed Slovaks. Moreover, the conditions which had to be +fulfilled by applicants for posts under the Government were such that +it was extremely difficult for Slovaks to obtain such posts. In 1887, +for example, the Government issued a regulation in accordance with +which even the foresters and their assistants in the State forests had +to understand Magyar. In any case the sentiments of the Magyars towards +the non-Magyar nationalities was almost sufficient to preclude the +appointment of a Slovak to a vacancy in the public services. Hungarian +official statistics afford abundant proof of this. The following +figures relating to Government officials denote the conditions +obtaining in the year 1910. + +Judges and official lawyers in Slovakia: 461 Magyars, 0 Slovak. In the +whole of Hungary: 2,601 Magyars, 1 Slovak (in the Budapest district). + +Law court and prison officials in Slovakia: 805 Magyars, 10 Slovaks. In +the whole of Hungary 4,756 Magyars, 16 Slovaks. + +Elementary teachers in Slovakia: 4,257 Magyars, 345 Slovak. In the +whole of Hungary: 18,480 Magyars, 404 Slovaks. + +Higher elementary teachers in Slovakia: 226 Magyars, 0 Slovak. In the +whole of Hungary: 1,268 Magyars, 2 Slovaks. + +Elementary and higher elementary women teachers in Slovakia: 199 +Magyars, 1 Slovak. In the whole of Hungary: 1,336 Magyars, 1 Slovak. + +Secondary school teachers in Slovakia: 638 Magyars, 10 Slovaks. In the +whole of Hungary: 3,518 Magyars, 23 Slovaks. + +Medical officers in Slovakia: 713 Magyars, 26 Slovaks. In the whole of +Hungary: 4,914 Magyars, 35 Slovaks. + +These figures are only typical. At this time, it must be explained, 70 +per cent. of the inhabitants of Slovakia spoke Slovak and scarcely 25 +per cent. understood Magyar.[16] + +From the moment when the Compromise put the Magyars in control of +the internal policy of Hungary, they set to work to use the means of +education as the principal machinery in their factories for Magyarising +the “subject nations.” Their first attempt was clumsy, because it was +too brutal. They organised what was to all intents and purposes a +press-gang for the collection of poor children, whom they clothed in a +distinctive uniform, numbered and transported to farms in the Alföld, +the central district of Hungary, where they would be subjected to a +healthful Magyar atmosphere. There they were often ill-treated; some +of them escaped and contrived to reach their homes, clothed in rags +and dying of hunger. Their parents, who had been deceived by lying +promises, naturally kept them at home. In 1874, 400 children were +transported in this way; in 1892 the number had fallen to 174, and in +1900 only 24 could be collected. The experiment was then abandoned. + +It was, however, unnecessary to transport a whole people. A more +subtle means of Magyarisation was discovered. Let the children of the +non-Magyar nationalities be subjected to the process of Magyarisation +throughout the period of their education, so that these nationalities +would in due course die a natural death. In the national schools the +non-Magyar pupils were given a thorny path to tread. Life was made a +burden to them if they remained faithful to their national ideals, +while, on the other hand, they were pampered and extolled if they +allowed themselves to be converted to the true Magyar faith. In order +to escape these temptations the Slovaks succeeded in establishing three +secondary schools at their own expense. Their fate has already been +recounted. An inquiry was opened in 1874 into the state of the school +at Revuca. The inspector, a fierce Magyarist, reported that “the Slav, +and consequently anti-Magyar, tendencies discernible preclude all hope +that results favourable and useful to the State can accrue from the +teaching,” and the school was immediately closed. + +Trefort, the Minister of Education, had his appetite aroused by this +success. He sent another commission to inspect the establishment at +Klaster pod Zniovem, which was unable to discover any grounds for +objection. A second commission was equally unsuccessful. At last the +Minister discovered that the buildings were old, and did not conform to +modern sanitary requirements. The managers of the school explained that +they were just about to move into new quarters. But the educational +authorities were not to be baulked so easily. They inspected the new +premises and reported that the walls were not dry enough to allow of +the occupation of the buildings. In the middle of term, 200 pupils were +sent home and the school was closed. That of Turocz soon followed suit. +Since that time every request of the Churches or the communes for the +erection of new Slovak secondary schools remained unanswered, despite +the sentiment expressed in the law of 1868. + +As regards primary education, the public establishments, that is to +say those kept up by the State, were exclusively Magyar. In 1868 there +were, in round figures, in northern Hungary 6,000 Magyar schools, +and 6,500 non-Magyar. In 1896 there were 9,700 Magyar against 4,100 +Slovak. The county of Zemplin contained 295 Magyar schools for 141,000 +pupils, and 20 Slovak schools for 107,000 pupils. This meant that every +year thousands of children were deprived of education altogether, or +compelled to enter schools where it was impossible for them to learn +anything, instruction being carried out in a tongue unknown to them, +and where the sole object of their teachers was to humiliate them. + +Besides the schools maintained by Government funds, the law allowed +private individuals, communes or Churches, to maintain private schools +at their own expense. The Magyars did not dare to suppress these +openly in the non-Magyar districts, but effectual means were taken to +make the continuation of their existence extremely difficult, and +to use them for the purposes of Magyarisation. In order to obtain +a teacher’s certificate it was necessary that the applicant should +possess a good knowledge of the Magyar tongue; the private schools were +subjected to the inspectors of the national schools, who exercised +discretionary powers; it was ordered that Magyar should be taught in +all schools without exception, and the number of hours during the +week, in which such instruction should take place, was fixed by the +Minister of Education. In 1902 these hours were fixed at from eighteen +to twenty-four per week; at the end of four school years the pupils +were expected to be able to speak and write Magyar correctly, and the +teachers were held responsible for their progress. + +This law was so absurd that, despite the zeal with which it was +enforced, the results produced by it were negligible. The census of +1890 established the fact that 46 per cent. of the population did +not understand a word of Magyar; the progress made in the preceding +decade had been negligible. The Jingoes were seriously alarmed. They +attributed their ill-success to the obstinacy of the teachers in the +denominational schools, and they turned their attention to endeavours +to abolish these schools. A law of 1893 fixed a minimum salary for the +teachers in the denominational schools, and as the parishes as a rule +were too poor to pay the salaries fixed by this law, the State offered +to pay a contribution in such cases. But this contribution was to be +very dearly bought. In return for it the State claimed the right of +supervision of the school. Once the subsidy was accepted, the State +had the power to remove schoolmasters of whom it did not approve. +Further, in all subsidised schools Magyar was to be the language in +which teaching was carried out, and for ever after they were to be in +exactly the same position as State schools. + +In 1900 the Hungarian Government issued a report upon the conditions +of education in the country. (_L’enseignement en Hongrie._ Ministère +Royale des Cultes et de l’Instruction Publique. Budapest, 1900.) +According to this report, “primary education is one of the most +powerful means of consolidation of the Hungarian State.... This is +the reason why State elementary schools are found principally in the +poorest communes and in the districts where the population is mixed +and employs a foreign tongue (de langue étrangère). The Hungarian race +demands protection when it finds itself, as is often the case, enclosed +within a solid block of people speaking a foreign tongue.... _The +schools guarantee to the Hungarians the increase of their power and +extend the race towards the frontier._” + +In 1904 a fresh law was passed giving the country officials the power +to control the schoolmasters; to suspend or even to prosecute those +whose teaching of Magyar did not produce the results demanded by law. +In the training colleges for teachers, instruction was given only in +Magyar, and as the students came from the higher elementary schools, +which, as we have seen, were also Magyarised, they frequently found +themselves unable, when they became qualified teachers, to make +themselves understood by their pupils. In view of the inconvenience of +this state of affairs, it was ordained in 1908 that Slovak might be +taught in the training colleges for two hours per week. + +The process of Magyarisation, so painstakingly evolved for half +a century, received its final form by the Education Act of Count +Apponyi, in 1907. Wekerle, then President of the Council, declared that +“_nowhere are people speaking an alien tongue so liberally dealt with +as in Hungary_.” Apponyi himself introduced his Act with a flourish of +trumpets. “A Minister of Education would commit a crime against the +State, and against those of its citizens who speak another language, if +he deprived them of the chance of learning, besides their own tongue, +the Magyar language; this would be to isolate them artificially and, +in fact, to exclude them from political life, in which Magyar is the +dominant factor. I repeat, in this kingdom the Magyars are supreme, but +in that lies no menace to the other nationalities.” + +The Magyars are past masters in the art of camouflage, and the +administration of the law of 1907 is a striking commentary on the +generous phrases of its framers. According to it, all teachers, +irrespective of the nature of their schools, are Government officials, +with a minimum salary fixed by statute. Private associations too poor +to pay this minimum are compelled to give up their schools or to +accept a subsidy. But even more onerous conditions are attached to +the acceptance of this subsidy than before. The teachers in schools +where it is granted must be able to read, write and teach in Magyar; +the hours to be devoted to the teaching of Magyar are to be fixed +by the Minister of Education; the official primers must be used in +the school. If the subsidy granted is over 200 crowns, the Minister +has the right to refuse to ratify the choice of teachers, and if the +alternative candidate is not acceptable to him, he may nominate his own +without further delay. Whenever he may deem it necessary in the public +interest, the Minister may order a judicial inquiry into the conduct +of any teacher who neglects the teaching of Magyar to his pupils, +professes sentiments hostile to the State, which, being interpreted, +means showing any sympathy for non-Magyar ideals, or who excites +animosity towards the upper classes. If the finding of the court of +inquiry is unfavourable, the choice of a new teacher must be approved +by the Minister. Should the offence be repeated, the school is to be +closed and replaced by a national school. + +In non-Magyar schools, whether subsidised or not, Magyar must be taught +under conditions to be prescribed by the Minister. Wherever Magyar +has once been introduced as the language in which teaching is carried +out, it can never be replaced by any other language. In all higher +elementary schools instruction must be carried out in Magyar. The +school inspectors may recommend to the Minister those teachers whose +conduct merits reward. + +The Royal Arms are to be placed above every school, and the Hungarian +flag is to be hoisted on ceremonial occasions; no other emblems are +to be allowed. The class-rooms are to be decorated with pictures +displaying the exploits of Magyar heroes. Pictures which would tend to +the encouragement of ideas hostile to the State are to be removed (for +example, portraits of St. Cyril or St. Methodius, the traditional Slav +saints, or of prominent Czech writers). All written matter used in the +schools is to be in Magyar, even to the copy-books. And in upholding +this law Count Andrassy had the face to say, in May 1908: “_It is not +true that the language of the Germans, the Rumanians, indeed of any +nationality is threatened; it is not true that the Government engages +in Magyarisation._”[17] + +In 1907 three prominent Czech[18] wrote a letter to Björnson, which +was subsequently published by him in the periodical _März_, of Munich. +This letter so aptly described the conditions in Hungary at the time, +that an extract from it is worth reproducing. + +“Perhaps you will ask, where are the natural protectors of this +country? Where are the clergy, the schoolmasters, the intellectuals of +this people (the Slovaks)? + +“The clergy? The Catholic and Protestant dignitaries, if they are of +Slovak origin, are renegades who, in the name of the Gospel, pursue, +like bloodhounds, their own nation. In that they are assisted by +the other members of the clergy, and only a small number of priests +faithful to the Slovak cause exist in miserable little parishes, +surrounded by spies. + +“The professors? There are none, for the three secondary schools which +the Slovaks established some years ago at their own expense have been +closed, as has the Slovak national museum, founded at the cost of great +sacrifices. + +“The schoolmasters? Poor, persecuted men, living in terror of unjust +denunciation. The political autonomy of the Slovaks no longer exists; +their miserable religious autonomy is violated. The Education Law, +which has recently been passed by the two Houses of the Hungarian +Parliament, will destroy the last vestiges of national autonomy as soon +as it is passed. The 700,000 Slovak Protestants are not even allowed to +maintain denominational schools at their own expense unless they permit +Magyar to be the language of instruction for 24 hours per week. On the +other hand, there are on Slovak soil 33 classical schools, 6 modern +schools, 16 colleges for teachers, 4 academies of law, 14 theological +institutes, 143 technical schools, all Magyar! + +“There are besides, according to the provisions of a law of 1891, +infant schools set up in each commune, to which children between the +ages of three and six are obliged to go to learn Magyar. + +“Czech and Slovak books are taken from school children and burnt. +Pupils who have been discovered reading such books at home, or who have +had their photographs taken in groups, or who have even signed their +names in Slovak, are expelled. An example of this last offence occurred +a few days ago. + +“All these things are done in the name of the Magyar State, which sees +in Panslavism the Mene, Tekel, Upharsin written on the wall. + +“When, in June 1901, the Slovak deputy Juriga appealed for at least one +secondary school for his nation, another deputy, amid the applause of +the whole Chamber, answered him: ‘_You shall have no secondary school, +but a rope!_’ Count Apponyi, the Minister of Education, in replying to +the speech of the Slovak deputy Bella in January the same year, said, +‘_I shall make teaching impossible to those schoolmasters who refuse +to make their pupils into good Magyars. The principle that in this +country the Magyar alone is master, holds good for every citizen of the +State._’ The Chamber applauded these words. + +“We should have to compile bulky volumes if we tried to describe +how Hungarian history is falsified in the school primers; how the +schools, the Churches, the State in all its functions, shamelessly +lend themselves to the most violent Magyarism; how the activity of +the Magyar societies produces an almost pathological passion.... The +Rumanians, the Ruthenians, the Serbs, even the Germans, but above all +the Slovaks, are the victims of the Magyar fury. A whole series of +Government Slovak newspapers exists, whose only aim is to ridicule and +slander the Slovaks in their own language, and on the other hand to +extol Magyar civilisation. + +“Slovak orphans are taken from their native districts and sent into +Magyar areas to be educated as good Hungarian patriots; in reality in +order to become the slaves of their Magyar protectors and often to +perish in their exile. + +“Place names which have existed for over a thousand years have been +Magyarised by law throughout the whole State; thousands and thousands +of Magyar names have been made up for this purpose. Nevertheless, the +Magyars, although they have been absolute masters in their country +since 1867, have, according to the published statistics, more than 50 +per cent. of illiterates in their own ranks. + +“The Magyars use every means to transform their agricultural State +into an industrial one, but in spite of their efforts, they find it +impossible to put an end to the terrible pauperism of the population. +So miserable are the conditions that more than 200,000 citizens, +including 40,000 Magyars, leave Hungary for America every year. + +“This terrible gamble must necessarily end in disaster. Who are the +instigators, the tyrants in this matter; who are the actors in this +terrible drama? + +“The aristocracy, deeply in debt, ruined morally and physically, to +which the State is obliged to give employment lest it die of hunger; +the financial speculators, mainly Jews, who surpass in Magyar Jingoism +their Christian competitors, pure-blooded Magyars or renegades. + +“But Europe, except in the persons of a very few who are in touch with +the situation in Hungary, knows nothing of all this, for the Magyar +comedy of liberty is brilliantly played. + +“Wherever the fruits of civilisation are displayed, the Magyar heroes +are to be found. They are to be met at international meetings for the +furtherance of liberty, at scientific assemblies, rattling their spurs, +full of enthusiasm for liberty and fraternity. + +“They send telegrams to the Boers, address indignant manifestoes +against Russian autocracy, plead for the liberation of India. Yet at +the same time they take care to except themselves and their peoples +from their programme. + +“The idea of the Magyar State, which has become the staple of these +swindlers, pervades the market. It prevails not only in the salons of +the Magyar Tories, but also in the Courts of Law, in all the official +institutions of Hungary, in all the pulpits of the Churches, in the +money markets of Vienna and Budapest. It must always be maintained at +a high rate of exchange, for a lowering of its value would immediately +bring down the house of cards built by the imperialistic folly of the +Magyars. It is necessary to the existence of thousands of people who, +if it collapsed, would be without the means of subsistence. That is why +this tragi-comedy is played with such earnestness.” + +The reference in this letter to the Magyarisation of place names +requires some explanation. In 1897 a law was passed for the +Magyarisation of all place names in Hungary. The old historic names +were banished from the map, and their places taken by unknown and in +many cases fabricated and barbaric substitutes. All post office and +railway notices and tickets employed these new names and were drawn up +in Magyar, even in the localities where this tongue was unknown to the +large majority of the people. + +Nor was this form of Magyarisation confined only to place names. Every +inducement was offered to Hungarian subjects to change their Slav, +Rumanian or other names into a Magyar form. The fee for registration +of change of name was reduced to tenpence, and pressure was employed to +compel as many citizens as possible to avail themselves of the facility. + +Two examples of this pressure are extracted from the Appendix of Dr. +Seton-Watson’s _Racial Problems in Hungary_. + +“In 1881 the various forestry departments of Hungary received the +following circular from Headquarters:-- + +“... Hence it is easy to justify the endeavour of leading circles, +that, hand in hand with the development of Magyar literature and with +the declaration of patriotic feeling, the officials of the forestry +department should crown with a list of names of good Magyar sound the +building whose foundation has cost so much self-sacrifice, trouble and +activity. But it is regrettable that, despite the evidence of this +good feeling, there should be hardly a body in all Hungary in which +we meet with so many foreign-sounding names as among the forestry +officials. Both in order to restore this balance, and also as your +benevolent superior, who is convinced that under equal conditions the +Magyarisation of your names does involve some advantage for you, I +consider it to be my duty, in order to further your best interests, to +urge and encourage you to a general movement. But I also enjoin you to +endeavour to plant a similar spirit among the subordinate foresters. +The formalities for the Magyarisation of names have now been made so +easy that it is merely necessary to hand in to the vice-sheriff of +the county a petition bearing a one-crown stamp, accompanied by the +baptismal certificates of the children and employment papers. In the +latter, the places of birth and abode, position and moral character are +to be filled in.” + +On January 25, 1898, a private circular was addressed by Orban Sipos, +the School Inspector of Bihar County, to all schoolmasters under him: + + “I call your attention to the fact that by permission of the Minister + of Education your colleague, Nicholas Radovich, teacher at the State + school of Kozepes, has changed his name to ‘Keti’; Aug. Bruckenthal, + teacher at the State school of Haimagi, to ‘Bihari’; and finally, + John Modora, teacher at the State school of Olosig, to ‘Tinodi.’ I + therefore request you in your correspondence with them in future + to use Magyarised names. In this connection I express the hope and + expectation, that these patriotic examples, which affect neither + religious conviction nor the interests of the mother tongue, but are + merely a proof of a patriotic sentiment above all question, will be + speedily followed by the teachers who do not as yet possess names + of a Magyar sound; for otherwise I should, to my great regret, be + forced to the conviction that the teachers in question have not the + necessary will and courage to offer unequivocal proofs of their + loyal devotion to the Magyar Fatherland, or they would prove that + they subordinate this lofty aim to other trivial considerations. + While urging you to further the patriotic movement to which I have + referred, I remain, with regards, + + “ORBAN SIPOS, + “Royal Inspector of Schools.” + +With these telling examples of official Magyarisation before us, we +may now proceed to investigate the influence of the War upon the +peoples who, in 1914, found themselves under the dominion of the Crown +of St. Stephen. In the space at my disposal I have been unable to do +more than give the barest outline of what Magyar rule meant to those +subjected to it. But even this outline should suffice to explain how it +was that the great catastrophe found the subject races of Hungary, the +Slovaks, Rumanians and Slavs, burning to throw off the Magyar yoke and, +either of themselves or by union to some already established nation +akin to them, to seek the political and social freedom so long denied +them. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] Compare page 152. + +[17] See also Professor Ernest Denis, _Les Slovaques_, Paris, Librarie +Delagrave. + +[18] They were Lederer, a prominent lawyer, Heydrek, the poet, and +Kalal, a well-known writer. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WAR, REVOLUTION AND COUNTER-REVOLUTION + + +The outbreak of war came at a time when Magyar oppression of the +nationalities was approaching a crisis. The Hungarian Government felt +and feared the danger which was already looming on the horizon. They +felt the ground trembling under their feet, despite every effort to +reduce the subject races to passive obedience to their will. Of all the +influences which urged the Central Empires to select 1914 as the year +in which to launch their long-meditated plans, that of the Magyars was +the most potent. The result of a war in which Germans and Magyars were +allied would be the final submission of the Slav races of Hungary under +the Magyar yoke. + +So firmly was the idea of Magyar domination fixed in the minds of the +ruling classes of Hungary that in a sense they regarded the War as a +defensive measure. They had undertaken the struggle in order to defend +the place which they had usurped and which threatened to be taken away +from them. The German conception of _Mitteleuropa_ offered them a means +of reasserting their supremacy. In exchange for their compliance, they +would be awarded an important position in the great scheme, and would +secure the assistance of the all-powerful German Empire in an enlarged +policy of subjection of the subject races. Oskar Jaszi, in an article +published in May 1916 in _Wirtschaftszeitung der Zentralmachte_, +elaborated this idea. “_The uneasiness and the fears felt by 10 +millions of Magyars in the face of an equal number of non-Magyars who +necessarily feel themselves drawn in spite of themselves towards their +kindred beyond the frontiers is understandable. If the 60 million +Germans, politically and economically united, are indeed anxious to +superintend the peaceful economic and political development of a nation +of 120 millions, it is easy to understand that we should succeed in +breaking the teeth of national hatreds.... A rich and well-organised +Hungary would be for Central Europe the surest route towards the +Balkans.... Central Europe under German hegemony, the Balkans under the +protection of Hungary, such is the dawn of the new era._” + +With such a rosy prospect before her, Hungary was not disposed to +wait for victory before putting into effect improved measures for the +disciplining of the minorities. These measures grew steadily more +strict as the War continued. In 1916 the Hungarian Parliament contained +413 deputies, exclusive of the 40 deputies from Croatia-Slavonia. Of +these 405 were Magyar, and only 8 of other nationalities. On a basis +of representation by population, the proportion should have been 215 +Magyars to 198 of other nationalities. The subject races being thus +denied a voice in the affairs of their country, the way was clear for +the introduction of any repressive measures which might be thought +necessary. In February 1917 a Bill was brought in by the Opposition for +the adoption of universal suffrage. The franchise question had been +for many years a burning one in Hungarian politics, and it might have +been thought that the Government would have been glad to have settled +it in this way in order to conciliate the mass of the people, who had +already shown signs of restlessness. But fear of the minorities stood +in the way. Count Tisza opposed it vehemently. “_Universal suffrage +is a national danger_,” he said. “_Racial tendencies must be resisted +even if the wheel of universal history passes over the body of him who +resists. Trifling as may be my strength, I shall employ it to save +the nation from any thoughtless extension of the franchise._” That he +had the opinion of the majority of the House with him is proved by +an incident which occurred about the same time. Deputy Juriga, who +was one of the eight non-Magyar members, asked permission to read a +letter in Slovak, which the party he represented had written, thanking +the Minister of Education for having allowed, as a war-time measure, +the Slovak language to be taught in secondary schools as an optional +subject. His request was drowned by cries of “Nothing but Magyar!” to +which he retorted that quotations in French or English, the languages +of the enemy, were allowed in the House, but that Slovak, the language +of a part of Hungary, was forbidden. + +The sentiments of Parliament were reflected in the actions of the local +administrative authorities. In October 1917 the Lord Lieutenant of +Nyitra, a county of Slovakia, in the course of a public speech, put +the matter as bluntly as possible. “The Slovaks must not forget that +they live in the Magyar State, and that they must not demand anything +which conflicts with Magyar aspirations. Learn Magyar, all of you, +this is the best advice I can give you, for Magyar is a universal +language. Of what use would Slovak schools be to you? They are useless. +_The main thing is for you to guard against all ideas of separation, +for the moment I perceive anywhere the slightest tendency towards +upsetting the existing state of affairs I shall make the Slovaks feel +my power_ and shall punish them with the utmost severity. I recognise +the need for a policy of agreement and counsel, but this must be in +exclusive accord with the Magyar spirit. Our sole ideal must be the +Unitary Magyar State. He who opposes it will be punished mercilessly. +_I repeat, I shall punish all who do not act as the Magyar State +wishes._”[19] + +Two months previously the _Pesti Hirlap_ (August 19, 1917) had put the +Magyar attitude in a nutshell: “_It is necessary to put an end to all +bargaining with the nationalities. Hungary must be rendered Magyar._” +As soon as he came back to office, Count Apponyi set to work to give +expression to this desire. He ordered the closing of the Rumanian +elementary schools and forbade the use of the Slovak language as a +medium of religious instruction, which was the only subject in which +it was used in the schools. But this was not enough. Dr. Roland von +Hegedüs, of the University of Budapest, urged on the Government the +adoption of a novel agrarian policy. “The State cannot in future leave +the land in the frontier regions in the hands of proprietors whom, as +the War has taught us, it is impossible to trust from the military +point of view,” he declared. “In future the State cannot leave the +land in the hands of the non-Magyar nationalities. The State must +adopt an agrarian policy which will permit it to exercise a right of +option in the frontier districts and of furthering in them the process +of national assimilation.” Something of the kind had already been +suggested. On June 14, 1917 the _Szegedi Naplo_, in the course of an +article entitled _The Democratisation of Hungary_, had suggested a +scheme of wholesale deportations. Having proved statistically that +the non-Magyar nationalities occupied mainly the frontier districts, +the article went on to explain that as some sort of democratic reform +was necessary, but would be a source of danger to the Magyar State, +it would be a good plan to remove the non-Magyar nationalities from +the territories which they at present occupied, to scatter them over +the centre of the kingdom, and to replace them by good and faithful +Magyars. If this policy were carried out simultaneously with the +reform of the Electoral Law, even the most extended suffrage would not +be a menace to the Magyar State. The _Pesti Hirlap_ referred to the +matter on August 4, 1917 in the course of an article entitled _Magyar +Colonisation_. In the work of strengthening the Magyar nation, the +principal parts must be undertaken by the Ministers of Agriculture and +Education. The duty of the latter was to suppress non-Magyar education +in the schools and to enforce the Magyar language. The former must, +at the end of the War, initiate a national and colonising policy. +He must set himself to the task of readjusting the ethnographic map +of the country. Backed by public education given solely in Magyar, +a policy of colonisation would serve to diminish the menace of the +nationalities, which split up into Magyar islands the continuity of the +great anti-Slav ocean. This policy was the only hope of upholding the +national unity and territorial integrity of the State. + +It was not long before the suggestions bore fruit. On October 25th +the Parliament of Budapest approved a Bill presented by Mezossy, a +member of the Government. He explained the purport of his Bill to a +representative of the _Pesti Hirlap_, which paper published it next +day. “In the first half of the War the melancholy fact was realised +that in the most fertile regions of southern Hungary the land was in +the hands of an unreliable population.... The same was apparent in +the north.... The land in these threatened regions should be in the +hands of men worthy of confidence. In order to achieve this end, the +transfer of ownership of land will be regulated by the consent of the +authorities. Not only the transfer of land, but the lease of it as +well will depend on the authorities. The duration of a lease will not +exceed ten years. In the last resort, the Minister of Agriculture will +examine any particular case should there be any complaint. I can assure +everybody that I shall use this right for the sole advantage of the +national agrarian policy of Magyarism.” + +In Austria, Mezossy’s measure was criticised as savouring of barbarism, +but in Hungary, the Magyar spirit regarded it as insufficient. On +November 28th, the _Pesti Hirlap_ returned to the charge. “The State +should have unlimited rights of expropriation in order to be able to +parcel out and colonise the land. A sane allocation of land to the +Magyar nation, which alone sustains the State, must be contrived. +In the south, the Serbs occupy the best land; in Transylvania, the +Rumanians. Thus the decree of Mezossy is merely a beginning. We +demand that this policy be continued on a large scale. So long as the +Government retains the power to do so, it should endeavour to make the +Magyars the masters of Hungarian soil.” In the programme produced by +the reconstructed Cabinet at the end of January 1918, Wekerle showed +himself not unmindful of this advice. He declared that measures would +be taken in the interests of the definite safeguarding of the ideals +of the nation and the State. By that it must be understood that he +would do all in his power to assure to the Magyar nation the exercise +of all its prerogatives. Of these the most important was the right +of expropriation. In the matter of agrarian policy Magyar interests +demanded first of all that the land should be in Magyar hands. This +end could be achieved, without infringing the sacred rights of private +ownership, by the application of the right of expropriation. + +By this time it was clear that if the Central Empires won the War the +non-Magyar nationalities of Hungary would be subjected to a period of +oppression even more drastic than they had hitherto experienced. On +the other hand, even the Magyar Jingoes realised that the loss of the +War would mean the dismemberment of their much-vaunted “Unitary Magyar +State.” Germany, the predominant partner, was their one hope, and +during the whole of the War the Magyars did their best to support her +by every means in their power, particularly in the matter of the supply +of foodstuffs, even to the detriment of Austria. At the time of the +campaign in the Carpathians, the Magyars realised that the future of +Hungary was in the balance, and at the same time they were careful to +send only Croatian and Slovak regiments into the front line. This was +throughout the policy of the Magyars, to oppose to their Slav enemies +the hated and despised nationalities of Slav origin, in the pious hope +that they would mutually destroy one another and so leave the coveted +districts at the disposal of the Magyar nation. It was proved by Deputy +Jerzabek that among the nations of the Dual Monarchy the Magyars had +suffered the smallest number of casualties. This may be taken as +another proof of Magyar skill in inducing others to pull the chestnuts +out of the fire for them, while substituting for the traditional valour +of the race of Arpad a noisy bluster and a virulent abuse of the +Entente nations.[20] + +When President Wilson first formulated his famous Fourteen Points, the +Magyar Press rejected them unanimously as the product of an utterly +unpractical point of view. Count Czernin declared, on the subject +of self-determination, that the Monarchy would decide for itself +the details of its internal affairs, and would not brook outside +interference. Up to the last moment the attitude of Hungary was one +of stiff-necked obstinacy. The Magyar ruling class did not care what +lessons the War might have taught; their whole policy was still +concentrated upon securing for themselves the best possible terms and +the largest possible area upon which to batten. + +But the population of Hungary was utterly war-weary, even the military +caste was for the moment incapable of being goaded into further +effort. The _coup d’état_ of November, by which Hungary declared +herself a Republic, was inspired by the desire to make a display of +sympathy with the principles of democracy which had won the War. The +Republic of Hungary might escape the punishment hanging over the +heads of autocratic Germany and Austria; it might even hope that the +arbiters of peace would be moved to restore to it the allegiance of +the nationalities, who had already expressed their desires in no +uncertain terms. But Karolyi, the first President, although even +at the time he probably honestly believed that the introduction of +democracy was Hungary’s only hope of salvation, was a weak man, +unhappily placed between the socialistic demands of the disfranchised +proletariat and the oligarchic dreams of the ruling class, who, +although they had retired from the stage, remained very close behind +the scenes. It is doubtful whether any man could have stemmed the +Bolshevist flood which already threatened the nation; the inability of +Karolyi to do so was proved almost immediately. Instead of devoting +all his energies to framing a constitution for the purely Magyar +districts of Hungary, which it was evident were all that would be +left to her, and so endeavouring to satisfy the democratic instincts +of the working classes, awakened by the War to the sense of their +political importance, he wasted valuable time in launching plaintive +denunciations of the wrong that had been done to the “thousand-year +old Magyar State,” and in intrigue directed towards reversing what was +already in effect a _fait accompli_. + +Success in these directions could not be achieved by force of arms; +in the eyes of the old ruling classes there remained only the forces +of misrepresentation. Unscrupulous propaganda might yet save the day +that political incompetence had lost. The _Pesti Hirlap_ voiced the +prevailing panic. “In the three coming months we have to concentrate +all our efforts on the work abroad; no matter how much it costs, +whether it is one million or 100,000 millions, it is worth it. _Every +article written in French, English or Italian will save for us one +square kilometre of Hungarian territory. It will be the duty of a +clever manager to spread into the circle of our enemies what the staff +of writers will prepare. It is necessary to send into every foreign +country Magyar Socialists who speak foreign languages fluently._” To +uphold their nationality in foreign countries was surely a novel rôle +for “Socialists.” We may suspect the Socialists of the _Pesti Hirlap_ +of skin-deep convictions only. + +The methods of Magyar propaganda will be dealt with in a later chapter. +For the present it is sufficient to say that the most determined +attempts were made to seduce the inhabitants of the new States from +their allegiance. The agents employed in this campaign were the +officials of the old Magyar regime, who for the most part had been +left at their posts. The _Slovensky Vychod_ of February 27, 1919 said +of these men: “The new regime does not please them at all; for until +now they had been the supreme masters of the ‘stupid’ Slovaks. Under +the Magyar regime they took bribes from everybody who merely made +inquiries of the administration. Under the new order of things this +sort of corruption is not allowed. A certain number of these Magyar +officials have been dismissed the service because they refused to +recognise the sovereignty of the Czechoslovak State in Slovakia, but +they have remained within the borders of the State and have thus been +enabled to continue their subversive activity.” Side by side with these +attempts, the Magyars used every means of influencing foreign opinion +in their favour. The Karolyi regime was made to appear as the dawn +of democracy in Hungary, a sort of millennium in which all citizens +enjoyed the most unfettered freedom; the argument being that the +non-Magyar nationalities should be induced to return to the fold for +their own sakes as much as for that of Hungary. + +But Karolyi’s People’s Republic was short-lived. His failure to +influence the Entente in favour of Hungary discredited him in the eyes +of the ruling classes; his flirtations with Communism, undertaken +in the attempt to gain popularity for his regime in the eyes of the +proletariat, had afforded opportunities to the followers of Lenin +of which they were not slow to take advantage. Despite the efforts +of Oskar Jaszi, his Government had failed to win the nationalities, +and by March 1919 he perceived that he was friendless within Hungary +and without. The power slipped from his hands into those of a Soviet +Republic under the presidency of Alexander Garbai, the existence of +which was proclaimed on March 21st. Karolyi disappeared from the stage +of Hungarian politics, in his exit accusing the Entente of planning to +make Hungary a base of military operations against the Bolsheviks of +Russia. + +For rather more than four months Hungary was given over to the rule of +the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and became the scene of famine +and bloodshed. Bela Kun, the true leader of the new revolution, had +declared in February that he had brought with him from Russia a sum +of 300,000 crowns with which to overthrow Karolyi’s People’s Republic +and replace it by Soviet rule. Hungary was admirably situated to form +the focus of the World Revolution. It lay in the centre of Europe, +surrounded by States suffering in greater or less degree from the +exhaustion of the War and the fierce cross-currents of reconstruction. +Let Bolshevism but gain a firm foothold in Hungary, so Lenin and his +supporters argued, and it could not fail to spread until it covered the +face of Europe. + +For a time Bolshevism dominated the country and succeeded in organising +a by no means despicable Red Army with which it attacked the Czechs +in the north and the Rumanians in the south-east. Bela Kun believed +that the surest way of converting his neighbours to his own views +was by force of arms. At the same time, by means of his soldiers +and especially of his “Terror-boys” under Szamueli, a ruffian with +an insatiable blood-lust, he contrived to suppress all attempts at +counter-revolution. Time after time the adherents of the old ruling +classes endeavoured to rise against the new tyranny, but on every +occasion they were prevented. The Hotel Hungaria in Budapest became the +scene of political murders, while Szamueli, scouring Hungary with his +executioners in a special train, made away with such individuals in +the provinces who threatened to become centres of resistance to the +Soviet rule. It was not until July that the military caste succeeded in +setting up a White Government in Szeged. + +But even then this Government was powerless and isolated, mainly +through its own supineness.[21] The measures of the Soviet were +successful in preventing a rising of the masses in their favour, +although by this time the majority in Hungary were heartily sick of +the Bolshevik experiment and anxious to return to some form of sane +democracy. It might have been supposed that even the Magyar aristocracy +had learnt from the events of the past months that although Bolshevism +was unacceptable to the nation, the old regime would be almost equally +so. The mass of the people, at all events, believed that this lesson +had been learnt, and were prepared to allow their old leaders to accept +the task of cleansing the country from the stain of Bolshevism and of +establishing a new order on modern Western lines. If the people of the +country were prepared to agree to this, there was no reason for the +Entente to oppose their wishes. The Rumanians were eventually allowed +to enter Budapest to restore order, and with the advance of their +disciplined forces the Bolshevist regime disappeared like a shadow. +On the first of August the Soviet “resigned,” and the control of the +country was taken over by a military dictatorship, with Admiral Horthy +as Commander-in-Chief and Mr. Friedrich as Prime Minister. + +The Military Dictatorship was the direct outcome of the White +Government of Szeged, and it immediately set about the work of +persecuting all those suspected of sympathy with the Bolsheviks. In +the words of a Liberal Magyar,[22] “_The victims of the Red Terror, +according to an official statement, amount to about 300; but those +of the White Terror are estimated at 6,000._ These atrocities must +not be placed to the account of the Hungarian people as a whole, +which is naturally kindly and humane; they are mainly the work of the +Hungarian ‘gentry’ class, which is both economically and politically +in decay, and which contains within it elements sufficiently corrupt +and demoralised to employ such methods to prop up their traditional +regime.” The doings of the Horthy Government will be examined later; +we are only concerned here with the factors which led up to its +establishment. It was natural that a reaction from Bolshevism should +sweep the country in the first moments of relief from its sway, and +it was confidently expected that as soon as the Military Dictatorship +had restored order it would give place to some form of Parliamentary +government elected on a truly democratic franchise. But the months +passed by, and it became apparent that the old ruling classes, having +regained the saddle with the assistance of the military clique, had +no intention of relinquishing it. The danger to Hungary involved in +this state of affairs was obvious to every onlooker. Oskar Jaszi, +writing in the _New Europe_ of November 20, 1919, said: “If the ancient +regime re-establishes itself in Hungary, if the magnates and prelates, +with their traditional allies, the autocratic country gentry and the +Jewish usurers of the cities, regain their ancient power, then all +the democratic gains of our October revolution are lost, and Hungary, +a prey to race hatred and Chauvinism, reverts to its old policy of +oppressing the peasantry, the working classes and such few non-Magyars +as remain.” + + +That the Horthy Government had every intention of restoring in +Hungary not only the conditions which obtained before the Bolshevik +experiment, but also those which obtained before the establishment +of the Karolyi Government, is proved by the fact that they refused +admission to the country to Karolyi himself and all his supporters. To +support democratic tendencies was in their eyes treason to the State +and destructive of the ultimate object which had they in view, the +restoration of the Hapsburgs. Not only must democracy be suppressed +with an iron hand, but any encroachment on the power of the ruling +classes must be strenuously avoided. Their attitude to the agrarian +question is a case in point. In Hungary, perhaps more than elsewhere, +the distribution of land has for many years been in grave need of +reform. For the most part agriculture has been in the hands of large +owners employing very little labour, and in consequence the land +hunger of the people has grown more and more acute. Under the Karolyi +Government, attempts were made to readjust the tenure of land, but very +little had been achieved before the fall of the Government at the hands +of the power of Bolshevism. As the author already quoted,[23] remarks: +“As a result of the territorial demands put forward at Budapest by +Colonel Vyx in the name of the Allies, the working classes suddenly +went over in large masses to the Communist camp. The Soviet Government +which followed annulled the Buza land reform (instituted under the +Karolyi regime), and one of the people’s commissaries afterwards +publicly boasted at a meeting that the Communists had succeeded in +preventing or reversing the subdivision of the large estates which +had already partially begun, and that in this they had been aided by +the large proprietors, who mobilised their influence for this common +aim.” This policy was, in fact, one of the fundamentals of Communism. +The land was the property of the State, and the large estates were, +therefore, State property which was not to be privately owned by any +section of the people. But, in order to manage these estates, they were +put in the hands of agricultural co-operative societies, and in many +cases the original owner was left as “manager” of his own estates for +the co-operatives. The net result was that the labourers were as far +from owning the land under Bolshevism as they had been under the former +oligarchy. + +“As a natural result the Proletarian State roused the mistrust of the +great majority of the agricultural labourers, while the small and +medium peasant proprietors were no less alienated by so dishonest a +policy. Their suspicions were confirmed when the Communists came +out as open opponents of small peasant ownership.... The Hungarian +Soviet Dictatorship owes its really miserable failure only partially +to its corruption and excesses, which have often been exaggerated. +The foremost cause was that it aroused, by every possible means, the +hostility of the great majority of the agricultural population, and +this proved fatal to its food policy and also in other respects. +The Communist experiment would in any case have failed owing to its +internal weaknesses, especially in the matter of workmen’s discipline, +but it need not have left such a hateful memory behind it and injured +so gravely the whole cause of progress if the Soviet Government had +pursued a less doctrinaire and dishonourable agrarian policy.”[24] + +The counter-revolution thus found the conditions of land tenure +practically untouched, and it took good care that no undesirable +democratic ideas should disturb it. Divide the land to some extent +it certainly did, but in such a way as to produce in Hungary a pure +and undiluted mediæval feudalism. “Nothing shows so well its (the +Horthy regime) feudal character as the provision that owners of +the new peasant or medium holdings enjoy certain privileges, and +are consequently liable to military service ‘if social order is +threatened.’ The Ministerial decree, published in August 1920 in the +official gazette, _Budapesti Kozlony_, says: ‘Recognised patriots +who have distinguished themselves in the War will receive from the +hands of the Chief of State, Governor Nicholas Horthy, of Nagybanya, +a grant of small holdings for the most part, but in some cases also +a lesser manorial estate. _The land received in fief is a reward for +valour in the War,’ but everyone who receives land ‘must always be +ready for such public services as aim at protecting social order and +social peace.’_ Those receiving such grants obtain all the privileges +of entail; their land cannot, therefore, be alienated, and will be +inherited undivided by the eldest male survivor. In addition to this +they also receive exemption from taxation, and the further privilege +that their land cannot be mortgaged. Such proprietors are allowed to +add to their name the hereditary predicate of _Vitez_ (which means ‘the +brave,’ or, in old parlance, the equivalent of knight). Thus the effect +of the Horthy land reform is to create a new armed nobility.”[25] + +Lest it should seem absurd to apply the term “nobility” to landed +proprietors on so small a scale, it must be explained that Hungary is +accustomed to such a use of the word. Indeed, until 1848, the franchise +had been confined to the “nobility” so called, who were exceedingly +numerous, and indistinguishable from the remainder of the people either +by manners or wealth. They were known as _bocskoros nemesseg_, “sandal +nobility,” from their down-at-heel appearance. But they could be relied +upon to use their votes in the Magyar interest, and were therefore +invaluable to the Government.[26] It is obvious that the Horthy regime +is anxious to reintroduce this state of things, and to organise a band +of supporters upon whose votes and military training it can depend for +its continuance in power.[27] + +The tendency of the present Government of Hungary is evident from this +example of its internal policy. It represents almost exclusively the +privileged classes, who are bitterly opposed to the introduction of any +form of democracy into the Magyar State. The Government believes that +for the time the people, alarmed at the ease with which the democracy +of Karolyi degenerated into the Communism of Bela Kun, will not resist +the reinstatement of an oligarchy. During this period of consent to +its administration, it is working hard to entrench itself throughout +Hungary, so that by the time the people grow restless under its rule +they will find themselves bound hand and foot and powerless. + +It was not until the Entente intervened that the White Government of +1919 showed any signs of legalising its dictatorship by the summoning +of a National Assembly, which it finally did in November 1919. But +even then organisations like the “_M.O.V.E._” and the “_Awakened +Magyars_”[28] took good care that the assembly should contain as few +elements as possible likely to be dangerous to the cause they had at +heart. An extremely strict censorship guarded against unfavourable +reports of these elections reaching the ears of the outside world, +which was, indeed, for the most part, too vitally engaged upon the +problems of its own reconstruction to worry much about the details of +Hungarian conditions. On the surface things appeared to be going well. +Bolshevism had been defeated, a National Assembly was in process of +formation. Only the new States watched anxiously, knowing the dangers +which lurked behind the false appearance of a pacified Hungary. It is +only now, when the internal conditions of the countries of the world +are becoming more stabilised, that their inhabitants have eyes to +spare for the dramas being enacted in other lands than their own. In +the following chapters of this book, therefore, I shall endeavour to +inquire as to how far the new States, having achieved national unity, +are employing that unity for the furtherance of democratic ideals, and +are thereby demonstrating the justice of their existence in the modern +world; Hungary alone, the prey of an autocratic ruling class, we shall +find slipping back into reaction, and thereby becoming a danger to the +peace of Europe.[29] + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[19] See _New Europe_, October 4, 1917. + +[20] See page 7. + +[21] An interesting picture is given of the inactivity and lack of +initiative of the White Government when a bold move on its part might +have saved Hungary from the ignominy of salvation at the hands of her +late enemies the Rumanians, is given by MM. Jerome and Jean Thiraud, +in their book, _Quand Israel est Roi_ (Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie). +“They were French officers who went to seek at Vienna, where they +have taken refuge, Count Teleki and his friends, in order to put them +at the head of the Government of Szeged. But few magnates, however, +elected to follow them, the majority of these gentlemen preferring +to remain in Vienna at the famous Hotel Sacher, where they lived on +the fat of the land and wasted their money in gambling. It was by +virtue of a French safe conduct, and escorted by French officers, +that Count Teleki and a few others were enabled to cross the Hungary +of Bela Kun without hindrance. It was under the protection of our +troops, under the friendly eyes of our Staff, that they were able to +organise their Ministry and their army. If they had shown at once +a greater promptitude of decision, if they had wasted less time in +futile discussion and in mutual recrimination, if the odd thousands +of officers who were collected at Szeged had resolutely marched upon +Budapest with the arms and munitions which we had lent them, they would +have secured on the way to support of many of the peasants of the +Plain, and would perhaps have overthrown the Bolshevik forces, already +almost dissolved. Instead of that, they schemed and made merry at +Szeged, and allowed the Supreme Council time to declare that it did not +recognise this reactionary Government.” + +[22] Arnold Daniel, a supporter of Karolyi, in the _Slavonic Review_, +June 1922. + +[23] Arnold Daniel, in the _Slavonic Review_, June 1922. + +[24] Arnold Daniel, in the _Slavonic Review_, June 1922. + +[25] Arnold Daniel, in the _Slavonic Review_, June 1922. + +[26] For a description of the sandal nobility, see _Racial Problems in +Hungary_. + +[27] “Fortunately this reversion to the Middle Ages can only take place +on a very small scale, because the depletion of the Treasury and the +interests of the big landlords do not permit of large purchases of +land, except in so far as the State lays its hands upon the communal +land” (Arnold Daniel, _loc. cit._). + +[28] Societies for the propagation of Magyar sentiments by force. See +page 187. + +[29] The point of view of an active member of the Magyar aristocratic +class towards the events from October 1918 to March 1919 may be +perceived in Miss Cécile Tormay’s _An Outlaw’s Diary_ (London, 1923). + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HUNGARY AND HER NEIGHBOURS + + +The issue of the War had proved beyond dispute that the +Austro-Hungarian Monarchy could no longer exist in the form in which +it had existed previously. Apart altogether from the various _coups +d’état_ which had already shattered it beyond repair, the very nature +of the victory which had been achieved made a redistribution of the +nationalities which had composed it a sacred duty. In the eyes of the +majority of the human race the War had been a struggle between the +power of Might, as represented by Germanism and Magyarism, and the +power of Right, as represented by the Allied and Associated nations, +to use the convenient formula of the Treaties. In the past, Might had +stood for the acquisition of territory, irrespective of the wishes of +the inhabitants, in order to strengthen the aggressive power of the +great nations. In the future, Right was to proclaim the doctrine that +the allocation of territory must be governed by the will of those who +lived within its borders. + +This was the true meaning of self-determination. The small +nationalities, bound against their will to an alien race and forming +a factor of its aggrandisement, were now to be given the opportunity +of working out their own salvation. Europe, so long subjected to the +swords of the dominant Powers, was again to be resolved into the +nationalities, hidden for so many years on the maps under the patches +of colour which marked the empires of their masters, but none the +less sentient and race-conscious. The nationalities, freed from their +chains, could choose their own form of government, and in the future +were to stand or fall according to the measure of their capacity +for self-government, displayed in the manner in which they made use +of their freedom. It is important to remember that the rise of the +new nations was a natural result of the War, and not an artificial +structure of the Treaties. “Democracy had triumphed over autocracy, +and nationality over oligarchy. The absolute rule of the Emperors of +Germany and Austria-Hungary, of the Sultan of Turkey, of the Tsar of +Bulgaria, had been destroyed; the innumerable minor potentates of +Germany had disappeared.... + +“The races of the Hapsburg Monarchy, previously exploited by an +Austro-Hungarian oligarchy, were freed. Poles were liberated from +subjugation to Austria, Russia and Germany, and had already constituted +themselves into an independent State. When the Paris Congress +assembled, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugo-Slavia had already existed +as free States for three months. This is important to remember, as it +is often loosely said that the Treaty of Versailles ‘created’ these +States. The Treaty ratified their independence, of which they could +certainly have only been deprived by force.”[30] + +The true reason for the establishment of the new States must be fully +realised. They were the manifestations of national will, and were not +erected by the victorious side as monuments of their complete defeat +of the Central Empires. Indeed, it is not too much to say that in some +cases the existence of the new States proved an embarrassment to +the Allied diplomatists. Had their boundaries been determined by the +tribunal of the victors alone, had they been composed of such portions +of the Central Empires as the decision of this tribunal deemed the +just spoils of war, there might have been some justification for the +complaints of the Magyars and their sympathisers that Hungary had been +unjustly dealt with. But of this there was no pretence. The existence +of the new States was a _fait accompli_, it only remained for the +Powers to see that they were indeed formed in genuine regard for the +wishes of the nationalities. It was not a question of rewarding friends +or punishing enemies. The world had learnt that the surest way of +sowing the seeds of future war was to tear from the vanquished any part +of its territory inhabited by a people of its own race. The Allies were +scrupulously anxious to avoid any opportunity of creating in any nation +a just hunger for territory brutally torn from it. Racial preference +was to be the deciding factor, not the wish to weaken an enemy lest at +some future time she might again be dangerous. Indeed, in more than one +case enemy nations were awarded districts which had previously been +beyond their frontiers. The transfer of the Burgenland from Hungary to +Austria is a case in point. In this case, as in all others, the matter +was decided by the wishes of the population. + +But--fortunately or unfortunately--geographical exigencies have a +modifying influence upon the theory of self-determination. Theory +demands that self-determination should extend downwards to the +individual; practice cannot pursue the process of integration beyond +comparatively large communities. This difficulty has been brought +home to the British nation in the course of the settlement which +it has entered into with Ireland. “How far was the principle of +self-determination to extend? If Ireland had a right to secede from +her union with Great Britain, surely Ulster had a right to secede from +the rest of Ireland?... During the latter months of the year, various +local bodies in the Six Counties proclaimed their allegiance to Sinn +Fein ... but in their turn certain parishes in the dissentient areas +protested against such a course, and, to go a step further, individual +Sinn Feiners within these parishes evinced a disposition to determine +themselves in opposition to their neighbours.”[31] + +It was, of course, the same story with the boundaries of the new +nations. Geographical considerations and the necessity for short and +easily defined frontiers made it impossible to exercise the principle +of self-determination to the theoretical limit. Nations had to be +considered as Nature had made them; their boundaries already existed +and it was impossible to alter them. The result was that the problem of +minorities still prevailed, though in a very modified form. In no case +could the new nations or the old be so delimited that their boundaries +included no individual of an alien race. The best that could be done +was to reduce the necessary minorities as much as possible, and to +secure the insertion of safeguards in the Constitutions of the reformed +nations which should guarantee the minorities in those nations from +oppression. + +It is difficult to see how the Magyar propagandists can maintain, in +the face of these very obvious facts, the contention that injustice +was done them by the Treaty. The whole history of Magyar rule is one +of ill-treatment of what they themselves stigmatised as “subject +races” and the release of these races from their yoke is only an act +of elementary justice. This point was ably expressed in a reply to one +of Lord Newton’s articles on Hungary: “_The fundamental error made +by Lord Newton is due to his assumption that the Treaty of Trianon +constitutes a punishment to the Magyars for their conduct during the +War. Far from it. The Treaty of Trianon is a mere act of elementary +justice, rendering it impossible in the future for a number of races to +be ruled over by a nation whose past record most clearly demonstrates +that it is utterly devoid of the most rudimentary qualifications for +such a task._”[32] Injustice would have been committed had the victors, +for example, taken the Alföld, or some other Magyar district, from +Hungary as the spoils of victory and awarded it to the Czechs, Serbs +or Rumanians as the price of their support during the War. It is +important to distinguish the two motives. Slovakia, for example, was +taken from Hungary not as a punishment but because her previous misrule +had determined the Slovak nation to cast off her chains. Nothing but +a coercion as brutal as her own would have brought Slovakia back into +the Hungarian hegemony. The Magyars of Hungary may regret the loss of +territory which was once hers, but that regret will not be reciprocated +in Slovakia. Had the Alföld been taken from Hungary, on the other hand, +both the Magyars of Hungary and of the disunited Alföld would have +felt the same passion for reunion and a longing to right the injustice +done to them. And it is these mutual passions and longings which breed +future wars. + +So much for the establishment of the new nations. But in order to +justify the continuation of their existence it is necessary for them +to give proof of their capability of ruling the races under their sway +in the true principles of freedom and democracy. Four years have now +passed since their establishment, and, in the light of all evidence, +it is fair to say that they have as far as possible in so short a time +supplied this proof. The autocracy and oligarchy of the old order have +given place to the democracy of the new; the old methods of tyranny +have yielded to the modern methods of popular suffrage and government. +The freed nations, allowing for certain temporary difficulties and +local mismanagement caused by the disregard of official policy by +certain inexperienced officials, have introduced for themselves and +for the minorities within their borders a new era of liberty which +contrasts strikingly with the coercion under which they suffered. +But there is an exception to this happier state of things in Central +Europe, an ugly shadow upon the fair picture. The Magyars, “the most +truculent people in Europe,” have not seen fit to alter by a hair’s +breadth their traditional domineering policy. Crushing her racial +minorities, now greatly reduced, but still a factor in world politics, +beneath her feet, Hungary looks with angry and covetous eyes towards +the territories which formed part of the “thousand-year-old Unitary +Hungarian State.” Her people cannot realise that the age in which +territory was held by the sword has disappeared, and that its place has +been taken by an age in which men strive to build States in accordance +with the wishes of their inhabitants as a whole and not of their ruling +classes alone. + +In the present chapter and the two which follow it, I shall endeavour +to show how the democratic and enlightened state of the nations +delivered from the Magyar yoke contrasts with the sullen and +rebellious attitude of Hungary. Magyar propagandists, anxious to create +a feeling for the revision of the Treaties in favour of Hungary, are +prone to speak of the “Balkanisation” of Europe and of the “mushroom +States” so created. The surest way of refuting them is to demonstrate +that these so-called “mushroom States” are energetically developing +themselves in accordance with modern ideals and enlightened practice, +while Hungary remains wrapped in the oligarchic dreams of the past. +The liberated nations look forward to the light; Hungary turns her +eyes back to the days when Arpad and his wild horsemen scoured Central +Europe for the captives of their spears. + +Of the new States Czechoslovakia is necessarily the most interesting, +both because it is a new name upon the map of Europe and because it +includes the Slovaks, who were probably the most sorely oppressed of +the former Hungarian nationalities. But although it is a new name on +the map, it must not be forgotten that Czechoslovakia is mainly the +recrudescence of one of the oldest nations of Europe, the Kingdom of +Bohemia. The instincts of nationality and self-government, so long +in abeyance, are none the less living forces among the Czechs and +their kindred the Slovaks, and these instincts have given proof of +their existence in the form in which the Republic has developed. “The +revived State was faced by a formidable cultural problem in Slovakia +and Ruthenia, as a result of the Magyars having repressed all national +education and literature in those districts. Particularly since the +Apponyi Education Acts of 1907, Slovak education had been virtually +abolished, since the few hundred denominational schools which still +survived were only nominally Slovak. To-day there are in Slovakia more +than 2,600 new Slovak national elementary schools; over 80 grammar +schools; over 30 secondary schools and also the beginnings of its own +university. In Ruthenia, also, there are already about 700 Ruthene +elementary schools, in addition to grammar and secondary schools +and also infant schools. Moreover, the Republic is also turning its +attention to the hygenic improvement of this much-neglected country; +State hospitals are being established, and epidemic and endemic +diseases are being stamped out. It may be said without exaggeration +that the cultural policy here pursued by Czechoslovakia has few +parallels in the new Europe.... + +“All the national minorities have their schools; the Germans, by reason +of their numbers and their high development, have, in addition, their +own university, two technical high schools and an agricultural academy +(this latter established by the Republic).”[33] + +“The Charter of the Constitution expressly declares the Czechoslovak +Republic to be democratic, and the State to be unified, not federative. +Only the territory of Ruthenia enjoys a special position with regard +to public rights. In accordance with the Treaty of St. Germain the +autonomy of this territory is guaranteed, and besides this, the members +of the national assembly elected in Ruthenia are admitted to full +rights of discussion and participation in all acts of the National +Assembly.”[34] + +It is instructive to compare the position of Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia +with that formerly occupied by Croatia-Slavonia in Hungary. +Theoretically the cases are to some extent parallel, but in practice +they are as wide apart as the poles. The Czechoslovak Government has +made it its business to develop, at considerable expense to itself +and with no prospect of reaping a reward for many years, if at all, +the territory of Ruthenia, one of the most backward in Europe. On +the other hand, the Magyars, in their treatment of Croatia-Slavonia, +had done their best to hinder the development of the country lest it +should evince resistance to the Magyarising policy of its masters. +“The Hungarian Government, through fear and hatred of the Slavs, +deliberately prevents the progress of the country (Croatia). The +service of the State railways is arranged of set purpose to confine +Croatian trade to Hungary and hinder its development elsewhere. Even +communication with Vienna is made difficult, for the Magyars are afraid +of the Austrians coming to an understanding with the Slavs.”[35] + +We have here an example of the entirely different outlook of the +new States compared with the narrow self-seeking of the old. If it +were necessary to make any defence for the policy of entrusting the +smaller nationalities to the government of their kindred, the cases +of Ruthenia and of Croatia-Slavonia might be cited as evidence of the +wisdom of that policy. In the first we have an example of an active +and sympathetic democracy striving to confer the benefits of modern +civilisation upon a community backward through the oppression of its +late masters; in the second we see the process by which oligarchy hoped +to render a subject people subservient to its will. Those who are +inclined to spare Hungary a measure of sympathy with her claims from a +spirit of chivalry towards a beaten nation, should remember that she +still practices the measures of coercion which made her rule hateful +in the past, and that any extension of her influence would deprive a +corresponding number of human beings of their new-found liberty. + +Contrast, for example, the liberty enjoyed in Czechoslovakia with +the servitude under which the subject nationalities of Hungary lived +before their release. “A special section of the Constitutional Charter +is devoted to the so-called ‘fundamental rights and liberties’ of the +citizens, which are comprehensively enumerated. Privileges derived +from sex, birth, or calling are not recognised; all residents of the +Republic are guaranteed complete and absolute security of life and +personal freedom of which they cannot be deprived except upon legal +grounds. Private ownership is inviolable and may be restricted only +by law. The Constitution guarantees complete freedom of the Press, +of assembly, freedom of instruction and of conscience and religious +creed, liberty of expressing opinion, the right of petition, postal +inviolability and domestic liberty. Marriage, the family and motherhood +are placed under the special protection of the law. All these +guarantees and rights are protected by the Supreme Administrative +Court, which sees to the legality of public administration.”[36] + +Nor are these provisions mere words. In the new States the freedom +so dearly won is a treasured possession. The examples of Austria and +Hungary are present to the mass of the population as well as to their +rulers. Neither have the least intention of imperilling the future +existence of the new States by incurring the resentment of the racial +minorities they contain. The Magyar minorities, as might be expected, +are vociferous on the subject of their imaginary wrongs, which consist +in the inability to display their alleged racial superiority. Despite +the inevitable confusion resulting from the many changes of government, +it is safe to say that no minority community in the new States has more +than trivial grievances, which are due to the period of transition and +will disappear as soon as the machinery works with greater freedom. + +I may be allowed to quote at length from an eminent authority on +the subject. “It cannot be emphasised too strongly that it is the +duty of this country--of all who desire to see reconstruction and +stable conditions in Europe, and a new life budding among the ruins +of the old world--to give their active help and sympathy to the new +States--Poland, Bohemia, Rumania and Jugoslavia--and to help them to +adjust their mutual differences, to overcome the internal difficulties +created by war, and to organise their shattered political and economic +systems. That is a perfectly practical programme for the future; and I +contend that it is the only programme for that part of Europe which has +the slightest prospect of success. + +“During the War those who advocated the break-up of Austria-Hungary +as the key to political (as opposed to purely military) success, were +condemned in certain quarters as being merely destructive in their +aims, and as putting forward a programme which, owing to its criminally +impossible character, was calculated to prolong the War. Some of us +never hesitated to take up this challenge; indeed, we claimed that, +so far from being impossible, this programme was the only sure road +to victory, and that although Austria-Hungary was rotten to the core +and uniformly unsuccessful in the field, she none the less provided +Germany with the ‘cannon fodder’ (35 millions of unwilling victims!) +and with the strategic frontiers without which she could not have +ventured upon, still less maintained so long, her struggle against +the whole world. Even in high politics you cannot put the cart before +the horse; and it should have been obvious from the first that if the +League of Nations is the goal (and it must be the goal of all sensible +students of foreign affairs) you must have your nations there, before +you can form them into a league. So long as Europe contained a whole +series of anti-national States like Austria-Hungary or Turkey or the +Old Russia, holding down by main force a score of nations struggling +to be free, it was obviously impossible to devise a scheme of order on +any basis save that of the Holy Alliance, whose members, starting from +the highest moral professions, ended with what was virtually a mutual +insurance against the spread of liberal and progressive ideas. It is +only now that most of these nations have at last been set free, that it +is possible to set to work in earnest upon the task of constituting a +League of Nations.”[37] + +These words were spoken in 1919, and the sequel has demonstrated the +truth of the ideas which underlie them. Not only have the new States, +in the close alliance known as the Little Entente, proved that their +common policy is directed towards the insurance of the peace of Europe, +but they have even proposed and secured the admission of Hungary to +the League of Nations, in the face of the doubts expressed by the +Powers. This action of the new States, each one of which has suffered +and is still suffering from the effort made by Hungary to undermine +their influence and their reputation in the eyes of the world, is +a striking example of their determination not to allow resentment +or the memory of old oppression to interfere with the peaceful +settlement of Central Europe. The speech of Dr. Osusky, the delegate +of Czechoslovakia, in recommending the admission of Hungary to the +League, was a solemn warning to Hungary that her admission was only due +to her expressed undertaking to abandon the policy she had hitherto +adopted. He explained that Article 1 of the Covenant laid down that +no State could be admitted to the League unless it showed a sincere +intention to observe all its international obligations. Hungary, by the +Treaty of Trianon, engaged to disarm and abolish compulsory military +service. It was true the latter had been abolished by law, but he had +observed in Hungarian newspapers in the present year notices calling +up the classes of 1898 to 1902 for military training, and at Szeged, +in February and March, violent demonstrations took place against the +application of compulsory military service. The inter-Allied Commission +of Control appointed by the Peace Treaty had obtained evidence of a +number of facts which would seem to show a certain lack of sincerity +on the part of the Hungarian Government in applying the law abolishing +compulsory military service, and it had had to apply certain important +reservations as to the way in which this law was applied with regard +to the destruction of material of war. It was true that very little +concealed material had been found, but in the opinion of the Military +Commission this alone did not form sufficient proof that none existed, +and certain obstacles in the way of control and investigation had +been placed by the Hungarian Government in the way of the Commission. +The Treaty of Trianon laid down that all subjects of the Hungarian +State should enjoy equal political rights. Without wishing to call +attention at length to the condition of the Hungarian minorities, +there was the Hungarian Law, Article 25 of which provided that only +Hungarian inhabitants whose moral spirit was considered satisfactory +would be allowed to vote as electors. The abolition of this law had +been frequently demanded, but, so far, the Hungarian Government refused +to do so, on the ground that its provisions were necessary for the +protection of the Hungarian race. + +Notwithstanding these facts, the Committee of the League had +recommended the admission of Hungary on the strength of a solemn +undertaking on the part of Count Banffy by which Hungary firmly +declared its intention to observe all its international engagements. +This solemn declaration had been noted by the Committee, and its terms +allowed of no doubt whatever, especially as regards the question of +the restoration of the Hapsburg dynasty. On the strength of this +declaration alone had the recommendation been made, in fulfilment of +the policy of the new States. Dr. Osusky concluded by remarking that +he hoped this evidence of the spirit which animated these States would +be of assistance to Hungary in the fulfilment of the undertakings of +Count Banffy. As the result of this speech, Hungary was admitted to the +League on September 18, 1922. She has yet to prove that she merits this +act of forgiveness on the part of her once oppressed nationalities. + +It must be realised that the democratic tendencies of the new States +are such that the condition of the Magyar peasant and working classes +is far more favourable under Czech, Rumanian or Serbian rule than +it was formerly, or for that matter is now, under the rule of the +Magyar oligarchy. The Magyar system of election, justice, assembly +and many other State-controlled functions bore very heavily upon the +Magyar poorer classes, who were, in fact, oppressed in much the same +manner, though to a lesser degree, as the racial minorities. In the new +democratic States the Magyar landowner is equal legally and politically +to the labourer of his own or any other nationality. It is this fact +which clouds the Magyar understanding, and makes it impossible for a +member of the Magyar ruling classes to see any good in the organisation +of the new States. The idea of the divinely bestowed superiority of +the Magyar over the man of any other Central European nationality +is so firmly implanted in Hungary that it is impossible for anybody +brought up in the traditions of Magyar supremacy to believe that States +conducted upon any other lines can possibly survive the wrath of +heaven. But in some cases there are other more mundane forces at work +among the Magyar landowning class. It is perhaps largely as the result +of these forces that the rulers of Hungary are straining every nerve +to produce a feeling in favour of the return of the territory of the +“subject races” to the Magyar yoke. The present regime at Budapest is +very largely swayed by the influence of the Magyar feudal magnates, and +these magnates are very large landowners in Transylvania. The Teleki, +Banffy and Bethlen families alone owned no less than 200,000 Joch +(284,000 acres) between them in what is now Rumanian territory. They +argue that this was Hungarian land, and that its transfer to Rumania +was an act of injustice. The fact that these great estates were owned +by Magyars is, of course, no argument for the return of a territory +inhabited by a majority of Rumanians, but it serves as an argument +in Budapest. The influence of these families upon Admiral Horthy’s +Government is at all events sufficient to cause the leader of the +State to refer to Transylvania in the terms already quoted. + +It is the uncompromising attitude of the Magyar ruling classes towards +the democratic leanings of the Magyar peasantry of the minorities +remaining in the States bordering Hungary which causes the greater +part of the difficulties met with by the administrations of those +States. The Magyar peasantry would show no marked hostility towards +their new rulers, especially as they begin to understand and experience +the vastly improved position to which they can raise themselves, were +it not for the constant encouragement and instigation they receive +from those whom for generations they have been accustomed to regard +as the masters of their destinies. In their disgust at finding +their aristocratic and hereditary privileges disregarded by the new +Governments, the Magyar nobility owning land in the new States leave +no stone unturned to incite their fellow-nationals, of whose welfare +they have hitherto been singularly indifferent, to protest and even +rebellion. The war of the Magyars against the new States is not only a +war against the hated nationalities, but even more--a war between the +hereditary privilege of oppression and the democratic ideal of liberty. + +The present book has no concern with the attitude or the policy of the +States surrounding Hungary, except in so far as these concern that +country. Enough has, therefore, been said in this chapter to show +the divergence between their ideals and the traditional predatory +tendencies of the Magyars. We may sum up by saying that the goal +towards which the former are working is enlightened and progressive, +while that of the Magyars is obscurantist and reactionary. In +supporting the new States we are supporting the cause for which so +many of the English-speaking race laid down their lives in the Great +War; in supporting the Magyars we are risking the regeneration of the +very circumstances which made that war inevitable. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[30] A. L. Kennedy, M.C., _Old Diplomacy and New_. + +[31] See the author’s _Ireland_ in 1921. I should, perhaps, apologise +for quoting my own words. + +[32] Jaroslav Cisar, in _Eastern Europe_ for October-November 1921. + +[33] President Masaryk, in the _Slavonic Review_ for June 1922. + +[34] _The Czechoslovak Republic_, Cisar and Pokorny. + +[35] _The Slavs of the War Zone_, W. F. Bailey, C.B. + +[36] _The Czechoslovak Republic._ + +[37] From an address delivered at Edinburgh on October 22, 1919, by Dr. +Seton-Watson. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MINORITIES IN HUNGARY TO-DAY + + +According to Hungarian official statistics, the population of the +Republic of Hungary is now 7,482,000, composed as follows: + + Magyars 6,612,000 + Germans 500,000 + Slovaks 166,000 + Yugo-Slavs 111,000 + Rumanians 49,000 + And a small fraction of other nationalities. + +As a matter of fact, the estimates of the non-Magyar nationalities +are probably too small, for the reasons already set out in a previous +chapter. The Slovaks themselves estimate their numbers as 267,500, and +it is certain that the correct estimate is nearer the latter figure. In +the present chapter we may examine the treatment of these minorities by +the Magyars. + +As regards the Slovaks, although they inhabit certain districts in +a compact mass, and although, even according to official Hungarian +statistics, they form either a majority or a considerable minority in +99 towns, they have not yet been provided with a single elementary +school, not to speak of secondary or technical schools. + +The Hungarian Government, in order to evade the duties devolving upon +it in accordance with the Treaty of Trianon, relative to the protection +of racial minorities, declares that the Slovaks now settled in Hungary +do not desire schools in which instruction is carried out in their +native tongue. A strange light is thrown upon the accuracy of this +statement by the fact that in March 1919 a deputation was sent by the +Slovak inhabitants of the Bekes area, which contains more Slovaks than +any other part of present-day Hungary, to Karolyi, then President of +the Hungarian Republic, and to Berinkey, then President of the Council, +to submit a memorandum claiming Slovak schools for the Slovak minority +in present-day Hungary. The President of the Council promised them +this, but only on the condition that they should sign a manifesto +protesting against the union of Slovakia with the Czechoslovak +Republic. The deputation declined to comply with this condition, and +their request was consequently refused. + +Another proof that the Slovaks in Hungary wish to have their own +schools is that, at the period when the Rumanian Army occupied a large +part of Hungary after the defeat of the Bolshevik troops, the Slovaks +in that area applied to the Rumanian Government for the establishment +of Slovak schools. + +But the Magyars have in no way abandoned their Magyarising tactics +against the non-Magyar races. On the contrary, the oppression of the +latter has grown even more severe, although now that the majority of +these races have been delivered from the Magyar yoke, the Magyars +have no longer reason to fear that the Magyar ideals of Hungary may +be menaced. In order to create the impression that the Slovaks are +contented with their lot, and do not desire the establishment of Slovak +institutions, the Magyar Government systematically terrorises the +humbler classes of the racial minorities, and with the help of armed +threats forces them to sign declarations against the establishment of +their own schools and other national means of expression. + +They have even gone further than this. The Slovak minority has been +deprived of the negligible number of schools in which instruction was +carried on partially in Slovak, and these schools now use nothing but +Magyar. This has occurred at Kestuc, at Slovensky Komlos, at Pitvaros +and elsewhere. In the latter town, two teachers were dismissed from +their posts by the Hungarian Government and deported to an unknown +destination, because in spite of orders to the contrary they had +continued to use Slovak as the language of instruction. In the Churches +belonging to the non-Magyar nationalities Magyar has been forcibly +introduced into Divine Service, as, for example, at Slovensky Komlos. +Slovak pupils in secondary schools have been forbidden to speak Slovak +in the streets. + +The non-Magyars are being subjected to persecution and imprisonment, +and in some cases even to torture. Instances can be cited by the dozen. +A former Slovak deputy named Hrabovsky, now a farmer at Caba, was +imprisoned and tortured, together with about fifty of the principal +citizens of Caba, Slovensky Komlos and Pitvaros. They were kept in +prison for twenty months without being brought to trial. For no reason +whatever Martin Morhac, a Slovak Evangelical clergyman of Budapest, +with his wife and daughter, were treated in the same way. Again, the +Slovak preacher Rohacek, of Niredhaza, was sentenced to five months’ +imprisonment for having urged his fellow-Slovaks not to conceal their +nationality when filling in the census returns. It is instances such +as this last which makes it allowable to doubt the correctness of the +Hungarian census. Where terrorism prevails among a poor population, it +is certain that a large percentage of that population will yield to it +rather than incur the danger of fine and imprisonment. It is impossible +to estimate even roughly how many Slovaks alone were led by these +considerations to inscribe themselves as Magyars in the census papers. + +The hatred which the Hungarian officials feel towards the Slovaks is +shown on the slightest occasion. A typical incident is the case of Jan +Calik, a farmer of Caba, who, on May 4, 1922, asked the superintendent +of police to vacate the rooms he was occupying in his house, as his son +was getting married and needed them. The superintendent attacked Calik +and beat him savagely with the flat of his sword. + +But the Hungarian Government faithfully followed the precedent +laid down by its predecessors of 1868. In order to have a reply to +criticism, it re-enacted to all intents and purposes the Law of +Nationalities which had been a dead letter during the years before the +War. On August 21, 1919, it issued the following decree:[38] + + “1. All Hungarian citizens have completely equal rights. The fact + that they belong to a racial minority cannot give them any privileges + nor expose them to disabilities. + + “2. Subjects of the State belonging to racial minorities can freely + make use of their native language in the Hungarian Parliament, in + district and communal assemblies, as well as on their committees, + wherever they have the right to make speeches. + + “3. The laws and decrees of the Government are to be published in + the languages of all the racial minorities; the Magyar text is + authoritative. District and communal regulations will be published + in the administrative language of the communal area, and also in the + language used there at the meetings of the administrative bodies. + + “4. The administrative language of a district assembly is fixed by + the district at a general meeting. Proceedings are to be reported in + that language and also in those languages which at least one-fifth of + the members of the departmental representative body desire to use. + The administrative language is the authoritative one. + + “5. The district assemblies can make use of their administrative + language in all their requests and decisions, but if this language is + not Magyar they are bound to subjoin a Magyar text. + + “6. The administrative language of communal bodies is determined by + their assembly. As regards the reports of their proceedings, see + paragraph 4. + + “7. The communal bodies can use their administrative language in + their requests and decisions. + + “8. Subjects of the State belonging to racial minorities can use + their native language in communicating with legislative bodies, the + Government, the Ministries, district and communal administrative + authorities, as well as with the public services. + + “9. The administrative bodies will issue their decisions and replies + in the same language as the applications, complaints and requests + submitted to them, and in communicating with communal bodies, + societies, institutions and private persons, they will use the same + language as the latter, provided it is the administrative language of + the area. + + “10. Whosoever requires the protection of the law and the assistance + of the law courts, either as plaintiff, defendant or appellant, can + use his native language, provided that it is the administrative + language for the area within the jurisdiction of the court concerned. + + “11. The law courts will issue their decisions in the same language + as the application, etc. The evidence of witnesses and other judicial + procedure will be taken in the language of the witness or the parties + interested, with the same proviso as in paragraph 10. Under the same + conditions, appeals will be made in the language of the appellant + provided that the court is aware which language this is. All other + judicial decisions, including the verdict of the highest appeal + court, will be given in the language of the interested parties at + their request. + + “12. Ecclesiastical administrative authorities, religious communities + and parishes, can decide freely what is to be the official language + of their Church or the language of instruction in their schools, and + they can make use of it in their dealings with State and autonomous + administrative bodies. + + “13. Care must be taken that citizens of the State belonging to + racial minorities and living in sufficiently considerable compact + masses in the territory of the State may have facilities in the + State educational establishments of the area where they reside for + their children to be educated in their native language as far as + the initial stages of higher education. In the universities special + chairs will be established for the study of the languages and + literatures of each racial minority. + + “14. Municipalities, communal areas, Churches, parishes or private + persons belonging to any racial minority may found elementary, + secondary or higher schools from their own resources or jointly. + For this purpose, and in the interests of developing the national + and economic resources, citizens of the State belonging to racial + minorities can form societies and make collections under the legal + control of the State. Educational and other establishments founded + in this manner will enjoy the same rights as other schools and + establishments. The founders will decide what language is to be used + in them. + + “15. The fact of belonging to any racial minority will not be an + obstacle in the way of attaining rank or employment, whatever + they may be. The Government binds itself to see that judicial and + administrative posts, especially those of sub-prefects, are filled, + wherever possible, by persons belonging to racial minorities and + knowing their languages. Officials now in office are obliged to take + the necessary steps so as to be able, within a period of two years, + to satisfy the linguistic requirements of the racial minorities + inhabiting the area in which they are carrying out their duties. + + “16. The competent Ministerial authorities are entrusted with + carrying out the present decree in co-operation with the Minister of + racial minorities, who will keep a continual check on the manner in + which this is done, and who will organise for this purpose a special + section for each of the racial minorities. + + “The present decree will come into force on the day of its + publication.” + +The decree is most ingenious in its wording. It would appear at first +sight that absolute freedom was given to the racial minorities to +choose the language they would use for official purposes. But upon +closer inspection it will be seen that this free use is circumscribed +by limitations depending upon the “administrative language of the +area.” As a matter of fact, the “areas” in present-day Hungary are +comparatively large and scattered, and in consequence, even though +the provisions of the decree were faithfully carried out, it would be +difficult to find the requisite proportion of the racial minority, not +to determine the administrative language, but even to determine the +alternative language permitted under paragraph 4. + +The working of the law may be illustrated by the manner in which it +applies to the Slovak minority. This minority occupies the districts +lying along the frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, for +the most part, although it is also found in other parts of Hungary. +Following the events of 1918, a Minister of Racial Minorities was +appointed. Oskar Jaszi, who had gained a reputation for Liberalism, +was nominated to the post, in order that some pretence at least might +be made of the intention of the Government to pursue a policy of +conciliation towards the minorities. Jaszi made every effort to win +over the Slovaks to Hungarian nationality by promising them autonomy, +and he even recognised a portion of eastern Slovakia as an independent +Republic under Hungarian protection. + +The Dictatorship of the Proletariat in Hungary did not assist the +racial minorities to secure their rights, and it is quite evident that +the so-called struggle for liberty of the Bolsheviks in Slovakia was +nothing more than an attempt to secure national unity in Hungary. The +Bolsheviks desired, at least at first, to extend the bounds of Soviet +Hungary at least as far as those of the ancient monarchy, in order to +secure contact with the neighbouring States, in which their next move +was to take place. Consequently there was no further step taken with +respect to the minorities until the counter-revolution had restored the +Magyars to power. This step, when it came, was the decree of August 21, +1919. + +The motives which inspired the Government in the issue of this decree +are apparent in the words used by the Minister of the Interior in +introducing the new provisions. He desired to extol the generous +justice of the Hungarian nation towards the minorities, once so large, +now from their reduced size of so much less importance. As a matter of +fact, as will be shown later, his real intention was to continue the +traditional policy of Magyarisation, and he had no idea of altering the +existing condition of things. In his introduction to the decree he said: + +“The Hungarian State has always recognised, honoured, and even assured +to the racial minorities the right of using their language and of +freely developing their national civilisation. That this is beyond +question is brilliantly proved by the fact that on the territory of +the thousand-year-old Hungarian State not only have the non-Magyar +inhabitants been able to preserve their national languages, but large +numbers of them speak no other. _Besides being able to use freely +their mother tongues in their private life and in their schools, these +inhabitants exercise in public life more extensive rights than those +accorded by any European State to those of its subjects who speak other +languages but those of the State._” + +Had one not become accustomed to the utterances of Hungarian +politicians in the past, this sort of statement is enough to take one’s +breath away. The argument that many members of the racial minority +spoke no language but their own because they had been allowed freedom +to do so is laughable. The history of events in Hungary before the +War proves conclusively that every attempt was made to stamp out +the use of any language but Magyar, and that the reason for the +continued existence of the other languages of Hungary was due to the +most desperate efforts of the minorities to retain their national +characteristics. The fact that so many of the inhabitants of Hungary +spoke no Magyar conceals a fact which exposes the whole Hungarian +policy. If the Minister of the Interior had been forced to pursue +his argument to the end, he would have been compelled to admit that +this large population who spoke no Magyar were entirely illiterate, +and were composed of those who, rather than have Magyar thrust down +their throats, as would have happened had they attended any place of +education in Hungary, had preferred to evade the education laws and +to deny themselves the benefit of any schooling whatever. The rest +of his statement quoted is merely untrue. As Björnson said of Magyar +utterances meant to impress foreign countries: “It is waste of time +to explain to them (foreign countries) things as they are. They do +not understand them. It is consequently necessary to remodel them, to +embellish them, to transform them. _In our simple European languages we +have a single word for this which cannot be used here. I am, however, +assured that in Magyar there exists a fine majestic word which we can +perhaps translate very closely by ‘patriotic language.’ When a Great +Magyar says something which is not quite true he speaks patriotic +language._ They have achieved in that respect a skill incomprehensible +to outsiders, which doubtless has its origin in their racial talents.” +We may, therefore, define the Minister’s statements as patriotic +language. + +His subsequent words bear out this supposition. “Nevertheless, those +States which for political reasons complain so loudly of the oppression +of their brothers within the Hungarian State provide thereby a +convincing proof of their limitless intolerance and of their attempts +to oppress irrespectively not only their Magyar subjects, but all their +foreign subjects as well, and even those who speak a kindred language.” + +He continues by adjuring the racial minorities not to endanger the +Hungarian State, which is their own country, by exaggerated demands. It +is within the borders of this State that they will prosper, in contrast +to those who in other States are powerless to resist the efforts of +alien races to assimilate them. + +In order that the true application of the decree and of the Minister’s +words may be fully understood, it will be necessary to summarise very +briefly the legal situation of the racial minorities in Hungary as they +existed before the publication of the decree. It is, of course, true +that by the law of 1868 the equality of the nationalities was nominally +established, but those who have read the earlier chapters of this book +will be aware of the differences between the wording and the practice +of this law. + +The most important point concerns the local assemblies. According to +the law of 1868, which is followed in this respect by the decree of +1919, the minutes of these assemblies were to be kept in the official +language of the State, but they could also be kept at the same time +in that language which at least one-fifth of the members of the body +representing the jurisdiction wished. This language may be termed +for our present purposes the auxiliary language of the assemblies. +According to the law, this auxiliary language might be used in all +courts and administrative bodies within the area of the assembly. As +the province of the assemblies extended not only over their internal +affairs, but over the whole of the services of the State, so far as +these were not entrusted to other bodies, the important position thus +given to the language of the minorities can be seen. But the auxiliary +language had to be demanded by at least a fifth of the members of the +assembly, and under the Hungarian system of election such a proportion +of non-Magyars on the local bodies was unheard of. The net result was +that up to the time of the _coup d’état_ there was not a single local +body in Slovakia where Slovak was used as an auxiliary language. If +this fact be borne in mind, and the various laws be recalled by which +Magyar was introduced to the exclusion of all others, it will be seen +that even under the provisions of the Law of Nationalities the use of +a non-Magyar language in the courts was so restricted as to be to all +intents and purposes inoperative. + +A Slovak could only use his native tongue before his own communal +court, of which the jurisdiction was limited to matters involving a +value of not more than 50 crowns. The exclusive language of all higher +courts was Magyar, as was the language of appeal from the communal +courts to the district courts. All members of the legal profession +pleading before the courts and the judges and magistrates presiding +over those courts were restricted to the use of Magyar, whether +engaged upon their own cases or acting as the legal representatives of +minors or others. In practice Magyar was the only language in which +legal proceedings could be conducted. In the matter of education the +situation was similar as has already been seen (Chapter IV). + +The decree of 1919 was nothing more than a continuation of the +existing state of things, for it did not amend the law of 1868 in any +vital provision. Wherever the decree authorises the employment of a +non-Magyar tongue, it limits this authorisation by the condition that +the language must be either the official or the auxiliary language of +the area. As things are, it is impossible that either language could +ever be Slovak. As a matter of fact, there is at present no commune in +Hungary where Slovak is the official or auxiliary language, far less +is there any larger administrative area. + +But even this illusory right was still to be denied to the members of +the legal profession, as was shown plainly enough by a proclamation of +the Minister of Justice dated January 17, 1920. + +A statement of Pechany[39] of November 17, 1921, reproduced in the +_Pester Lloyd_, is interesting. + +“By virtue of a commission from the Hungarian Government, I have +paid official visits to nearly all the communes in which there is a +Slovak-speaking majority. Everywhere I have assembled the inhabitants +and have invited their views on intellectual, social and economic +questions. In all cases minutes were kept. As a result of these +minutes and of the speeches made in the assemblies, I can state +the following: The population is primarily interested in economic +questions. The recorded wishes and petitions are mainly concerned +with the bettering of their material situation. The population of the +communes in question can prove that a considerable improvement has +taken place during a relatively short time. A very good feeling exists +in the intercourse between Magyars and Slovaks, and as every Slovak +speaks Magyar as well,[40] it is not even possible to perceive that +a polyglot population inhabits the communes. In fact, purely Magyar +villages are found in the neighbourhood. The natural result is that +both Slovaks and Germans make every effort to learn Magyar in their +own interests. At each conference I made special inquiries into the +language of instruction in the schools, and I prepared a special report +on the expressed desires of the inhabitants. The fixing of the extent +to which they desire Slovak to be used in the schools depends entirely +upon the inhabitants themselves. The necessity for the teaching of +Magyar was everywhere positively expressed. There were a few Slovak +communes where, owing to the enthusiasm caused by the Lovaszy Decree +on the subject of languages, the teaching of Magyar had been reduced +to the minimum, but the decree was soon changed by the force of +circumstances, for it was realised that it is preferable that children +should acquire Magyar at school, rather than subsequently to seek +employment or enter service in Hungarian towns for the purpose.” + +It was hardly to be expected that the Slovaks, terrorised by the +brutality of the Magyar local officials, would stand up in public and +oppose their voices to the soft and Magyarising words of the Special +Commissioner. It is not through the medium of public meetings that the +true sentiments of a _coerced_ country are ascertained. + +It is true that in the Hungary of to-day there are no Slovak +schools, and the reason is not the one so naïvely put forward by the +Commissioner Pechany. The slightest sign of Slovak or other non-Magyar +sympathies in Hungary is rewarded with the consequences which the +non-Magyars know so well. The system of county organisation which +exists in Hungary makes such persecution not only possible but easy. +The control of every individual in the communes and small towns is +vested in the local officials, who are in every case, owing to the +Magyar system of elections, men who have been specially trained in the +school of Magyar Jingoism. No one dares protest against the Magyarising +tendencies of the central Government or its local officials. Even if +direct molestation were not to follow, it is quite certain that the +offender would never cease to feel the results of his act. At every +step he is dependent upon the goodwill of the local officials, and the +forfeiture of their goodwill means that existence is made intolerable +to the object of their displeasure. To the citizens of a democratic +country the power of petty officials is incomprehensible, but in a +country such as Hungary it is no exaggeration to say that the struggle +for existence is impossible in the face of the opposition they are +enabled to exert. + +Meanwhile the Minister of Racial Minorities had ceased to worry about +the rights of the non-Magyar nationalities in Hungary itself, and had +turned his attention to their brothers in the adjoining States. An +article in the _Pesti Hirlap_ of January 14, 1921, gave the game away +completely. + +“The principle of the national Unitary Magyar State excludes all idea +of the appointment of a special Ministry for the nationalities, and +the _Pesti Hirlap_, as a defender of the national policy, has always +protested against the idea. However, when our country was dismembered, +when the nationalities torn from us, notably the brave Slovaks in +the northern provinces, the patriotic Ruthenians and the faithful +Germans, gave proofs of their attachment to the Hungarian State, the +establishment of a Ministry which should concern itself with these +patriot nationalities became justifiable. That is why we ourselves have +acquiesced in it. We shall not raise any objection if, for the same +reasons, the Ministry is continued, for its suppression at the present +moment would be used by our enemies as a weapon against us among our +non-Magyar brethren. The situation is such that the Ministry may be _a +means of maintaining the integrity of our territory_, if it is used +intelligently. Its continued existence should signify that we consider +our nationalities[41] as forming part of the unity of the national +unitary Magyar State, and that we look forward to their return to Great +Hungary. It is, therefore, evident that the object of the Ministry of +Nationalities cannot be to manufacture nationalities in a mutilated +Hungary.” + +The _Pesti Hirlap_ no more recognises racial minorities in Hungary +than it recognises their rights. On the contrary, it impresses on the +Ministry the right, or rather the duty, to occupy itself with the +internal affairs of the neighbouring States. The Ministry of Racial +Minorities has been suppressed, but it continues to function, as +suppressed Government departments are so apt to do, in another form. It +is now disguised as Government Commissions on various nationalities. +The mouthpiece of these Commissions, so far at least as the Slovaks are +concerned, is Pechany, whom we have already quoted. On another occasion +he repeated his strange theories, under conditions which ensured for +them the maximum publicity, trusting that the world at large had +forgotten the grain of salt with which it is necessary to take the +statements of a Magyar politician. “There can be no question of the +suppression of Slovak schools,” he said. “Attempts have been made to +teach Slovak in secondary schools both at Bekescsaba and at Szarvas. +An insignificant number of scholars took up the course and very soon +abandoned it. There is at the moment no obstacle to Slovak being +taught in secondary schools, elsewhere if necessary, if application +is made for it. Based on the statistics of Bekescsaba and Szarvas, I +can testify that the number of pupils seeking instruction in Slovak +in these two establishments is relatively very low, that in general +Slovak pupils are only found in the lower classes of the schools, and +go at once to the agricultural school or remain at home to engage +in farming. Of the 441 pupils entered in the higher classes of the +secondary school of Bekescsaba in 1921-22, only 63 speak Slovak. Among +these are some Protestant Magyars and eleven Jews. Of the 451 pupils +entered in the higher classes of the secondary school of Szarvas, 96 +only speak Slovak.” + +In fact, Pechany is unable to perceive the existence of any Slovak +minorities in Hungary at all, in spite of the fact that their existence +is demonstrated by the census figures of his own Government. + +After the experiences of representative Slovaks, particularly those +of the well-known Slovak patriot, Juraj Grabovsky, who, together with +54 of his fellow-citizens of Bekes, spent two years in prison for the +crime of having suggested the annexation of that province to Rumania +during the Rumanian occupation, it is hardly surprising that Pechany +found so little openly expressed enthusiasm for Slovak speech or +Slovak ideals. In the communes in which the Slovaks predominate the +detachments of gendarmerie have been strengthened, and anyone suspected +of “Panslavism” is promptly removed to prison. + +On February 1, 1922, the former deputy, Stephen Rakovszky, declared +that Hungary’s chief mistake was a false policy towards the +nationalities, that the Slovaks were being alienated by the neglect of +their language and their institutions, and that it was only possible +to regain the lost districts by a favourable policy towards the racial +minorities. + +On February 25, 1922, more than three years after the end of the +War, Count Andrassy published in _Az Est_ a stinging criticism of +the Magyar system of oppression of the minorities in Hungary. “For +myself,” he said, “I have not long been a supporter of the secret +ballot; my reasons having been the faulty policy pursued towards the +nationalities, as a result of which the whole Magyar nation found +itself on every occasion in opposition to a large number of voters of +other nationalities. Hungary was faced with the alternatives of either +changing its attitude towards the nationalities, or keeping to an +electorial system which enabled the Government to exercise a decisive +influence over the elections. Now the situation is reversed. In the +first place we no longer have the nationalities, in the second everyone +is agreed that the attitude towards the nationalities in the past was +bad, and that in any case it is impossible to return to it. Under these +conditions I consider that public voting is a crime against the right +of the nationalities to self-determination, and I most emphatically +condemn it.”[42] + +These words of Count Andrassy convey an entirely different impression +from a sincere desire to further the rights of the nationalities, +since he does not appear to be aware of their existence in present-day +Hungary. It is safe to assume that the Slovaks at least do not +enjoy any of the rights provided for racial minorities, since their +“Commissioner” maintains that they do not desire to exercise these +rights. + +Nor is it only the Slovaks who suffer. The experiences of the German +inhabitants of Oedenburg form a case in point. According to the +_Budapesti Hirlap_ of February 6, 1922, before the plebiscite of +Oedenburg a deputy of Germans of that locality waited upon Count +Bethlen, the President of the Council, to acquaint him with the wishes +of the German inhabitants of that town and to assure him of their +devotion to the Hungarian Fatherland. The President asserted that the +application of the Law of Nationalities and the decree of 1919 would +not be subject to any delay, and promised the deputation that the +desires of the German population should be met. In the _Nemzeti Ujszag_ +of January 25th Anthony König voiced the complaints of the Germans, +who, having heard so many promises and fair words, were getting +impatient for something to be done. Those who are familiar with the +situation as regards education in the areas inhabited by the Germans +have gained the impression that no move has yet been made in the +direction of applying the laws. + +As for the other minorities in Hungary, the same conditions prevail. +The Rumanians have been awarded a Government Commissioner and nothing +more. The Hungarian Government apparently does not recognise the +existence of the Ruthenes, Serbs or Slovenes. + +It is clear that the old passion of the Magyars for their domination +at the expense of the non-Magyar nationalities still burns as fiercely +as ever, and that the country which now proclaims the injustice which +has been done to her has yet no intention of dealing justly with the +minorities within her own borders. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[38] Signed by the Prime Minister, Stephen Friedrich, and published +November 19, 1919, in the official gazette. + +[39] Commissioner to the Slovaks in Hungary. + +[40] Compare the remark of the Minister of the Interior (page 136). + +[41] Evidently meaning the subject nationalities of _former_ +Hungary.--C.J.C.S. + +[42] Compare the article on Hungarian Elections, by A. Kristicz, +in the _Oxford Hungarian Review_, vol. 1, No. 2, p. 164, where the +author says: “In the rural districts the polling is public and oral, +corresponding to the frank character of the provincial Magyar and his +sense of responsibility for the open deeds done.” + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MAGYAR MINORITIES IN THE NEW STATES + + +It is one of the principal complaints of the Magyars that since the +division of Hungary the Magyar minorities in the surrounding States +have been oppressed and unfairly treated. That such a complaint should +be made by a nation, the whole of whose recent history has been one of +coercion of racial minorities, is astonishing; but the very fact of the +accusation having been put forward makes it necessary that it should be +investigated. + +Magyar minorities exist at the present day in Czechoslovakia, Rumania +and Yugo-Slavia, each of which States includes some part of the former +dominions of the Crown of St. Stephen. According to recent figures, +Czechoslovakia contains a Magyar population of about 636,000, mostly +in Slovakia; Rumania a Magyar population of about 800,000 (if the +Szeklers are included among the Magyars), mostly in Transylvania; and +Yugo-Slavia a Magyar population of about 100,000, mostly in Croatia. It +will be seen, therefore, that the Magyar minorities in Czechoslovakia +and Rumania are the most important. + +We may deal first with the position of the Magyars in Slovakia under +the rule of the Czechoslovak Republic, upon which we have been able +to obtain indisputable evidence, and which may help us in estimating +the value of the Magyar charges in other cases. Enough has been said +of the condition of Slovakia under Magyar rule in earlier chapters of +this book to make further reference to the subject unnecessary. It is +sufficient to say that the Magyar minority in Slovakia comprises 21·2 +per cent. of the population of the province, and about 5·5 per cent. of +the total population of the Republic. + +Articles 8 and 9 of the Treaty of St. Germain (September 10, 1919) +between the Allied and Associated Powers and Czechoslovakia, stipulate +that Czechoslovak subjects belonging to racial minorities are to +be granted the liberty of founding, managing and governing schools +and other institutions established specially for them, and that the +Czechoslovak Government is to grant all its subjects, whatever may be +their mother-tongues, adequate educational facilities. The children +of such subjects are to be granted the right of instruction in their +native languages when they form a considerable fraction of the total +number of the inhabitants of a town or district.[43] + +So much for the theory of nationalities in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. +We will now turn to the practical manner in which this theory has been +carried out. It will be remembered that in Slovakia under Magyar rule +there were no schools in which the Slovak population could secure +general instruction in the Slovak language. It is interesting to see +how the Magyars fare in their turn. The tables which follow give the +educational figures for Slovakia alone for the year 1921. In examining +them it must be borne in mind that the proportion of Magyars in the +population of Slovakia, contemporaneous with these figures, was 20·6 +per cent. + + -----------------------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- + Language of Instruction. | No. of |Per Cent.| No. of |Per Cent. + |Schools.| |Classes.| + -----------------------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- + _Elementary Schools_: | | | | + Slovak | 2,613 | 70·7 | 4,207 | 68·2 + Magyar | 762 | 20·6 | 1,373 | 22 + Magyar-Slovak-German | 3 | -- | 20 | 0·3 + Magyar-Slovak | 26 | 0·7 | 53 | 0·8 + Magyar-German | 2 | -- | 48 | 0·7 + | | | | + _Higher Elementary Schools_: | | | | + Slovak | 85 | 77·3 | 434 | 77·9 + Magyar | 15 | 13·7 | 94 | 17·2 + Slovak-Magyar | 2 | 1·8 | -- | -- + Magyar-German | 2 | 1·8 | -- | -- + | | | | + _Secondary Schools_: | | | | + Slovak | 28 | 70 | 267 | 69·5 + Magyar | 4 | 10 | -- | -- + Slovak-Magyar | 3 | 7·5 | 31 | 8 + Slovak-German-Magyar | 1 | 2·5 | -- | -- + Magyar-Slovak | 1 | 2·5 | -- | -- + Magyar-German-Slovak | 1 | 2·5 | -- | -- + -----------------------------+--------+---------+--------+--------- + +From the above it will be seen that as regards elementary education +the Magyar minority in Czechoslovakia obtains better terms as +regards education than are provided for in the Treaty. The latter +only provides for facilities for elementary education for the racial +minorities, whereas the Magyar minority not only gets this in greater +proportion than its strength warrants, but also gets the advantages +of higher elementary and secondary education in its own language. As +for the Slovak majority, their lot is so different now that Slovakia +is released from the Magyar yoke, that it is almost unrecognisable. +The population now has complete freedom in educational matters, and +facilities for their enjoyment. Instead of being compelled to imbibe +what knowledge it could through the medium of a foreign tongue, it has +at its hand a modern and extensive system of schools of all grades. As +a consequence the percentage of illiterates is decreasing by leaps and +bounds, and the backward state of the remoter parts of the country, +such as Ruthenia, which under Magyar rule were left in mediæval +darkness, is rapidly giving place to intellectual consciousness. + +Nor does the Czechoslovak Government spare expense in equipping Magyar +schools. The outlay on education in Slovakia for the year 1921-22 was:-- + + Czechoslovak Crowns. + For State Elementary Schools 41,661,957 + For Private Schools 90,808,142 + ----------- + Total 132,470,099 + ----------- + +Out of this total expenditure, the following grants were made for +non-Slovak schools:-- + + State Schools. Private Schools. + Magyar 5,770,173 24,245,763 + German 1,587,318 4,267,981 + Ruthenian 141,650 4,177,172 + --------- ---------- + Total 7,499,141 32,690,916 + --------- ---------- + +Thus the Magyar schools receive 22·5 per cent. of the whole sum spent +on elementary education in Slovakia. The outlay on secondary schools in +Slovakia amounted to 9,712,526 crowns for 1921-1922. Out of this sum +the Magyar schools received 2,048,006 crowns, or 21 per cent. of the +total. + +As regards the admission of Magyars into the public services, the +Czechoslovak Government adopts an entirely unprejudiced attitude. The +following figures show the distribution of the nationalities in various +branches of the public services of Slovakia for the year 1921. They are +worth comparing with the similar statistics for the same province under +Magyar rule in 1910, which will be found on page 78. + + Political Administration: Czechoslovaks 1,763, Magyars 397. + + Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones: Czechoslovaks 1,631, Magyars 1,423. + + Elementary School Teachers: Czechoslovaks 4,676, Magyars 1,685. + + Higher Elementary School Teachers: Czechoslovaks 413, Magyars 137. + + Secondary School Teachers: Czechoslovaks 431, Magyars 138. + + Doctors and employees in State Hospitals: Czechoslovaks 248, Magyars + 88. + + Judges and Lawyers: Czechoslovaks 198, Magyars 160. + + Public Works: Czechoslovaks 869, Magyars 144. + + Agricultural Services: Czechoslovaks 993, Magyars 576. + +From the above it will be seen that the proportion of Magyars in the +public services of the Czechoslovak Republic is far greater than the +actual strength of the Magyar minority would warrant. + +In the Czechoslovak Parliament, including both the Senate and the +Chamber of Deputies, the representatives of racial minorities can use +their own language, both in speeches and written communications. + +Racially the present Chamber of Deputies has 199 Czechoslovak members, +72 Germans, and 7 Magyars. The Senate has 103 Czechoslovaks, 37 +Germans, and 3 Magyars. + +The manner in which the Czechoslovak Courts carry out their +proceedings, even against Magyars who have committed acts of sedition, +has received no higher justification than the tribute which was paid to +it in the Parliament of Budapest by the deputy Rassay, who commended +it to the notice of the Magyar Courts as a model of justice and +impartiality. In any degree of court in the Republic racial minorities +are permitted to plead in their own tongues.[44] + +In carrying out agrarian reforms in Slovakia, the Government is showing +the fullest consideration for the demands of the Magyar peasantry. It +is natural that the owners of the large estates in this district, the +majority of whom are of Hungarian nationality, should endeavour to +delay the process of agrarian reform as much as possible, but the small +farmers, whether Magyar or Czechoslovak, are opposed to their attitude. +Wherever land has been distributed, it has been allotted to the workers +irrespective of their nationality, according to the locality in which +it was situated. Thus the whole of the Coburg estate, which is situated +in a Magyar locality, and the area of which was about 2,500 acres, was +divided exclusively among Magyar workmen. + +The Czechoslovak law of languages does not restrict itself to the +conditions imposed by the Treaty of St. Germain, but accords to the +minorities far greater advantages than that Treaty contemplates. Where +the Treaty mentions a racial minority, Czechoslovak law does not limit +this expression to a given nationality, represented by a sufficient +proportion of members, but extends the rights of minorities to all +groups of citizens speaking other languages, who form a fifth of the +population of any district. Thus, in a district of 20,000 inhabitants +it is sufficient that there exist 4,000 citizens speaking other +languages, not necessarily the same, to endow that minority with the +rights appertaining to minorities in general. It is not only in this +sense, but in a number of others, that Czechoslovak practice outstrips +the letter of the obligation. For instance, the Treaty provides that: +“Notwithstanding the establishment of an official language by the +Czechoslovak Government, appropriate facilities shall be given to +Czechoslovak subjects speaking languages other than Czech, for the +oral or written use of their language before the courts.” The Supreme +Administrative Tribunal published an order on October 5, 1921, to the +effect that all members of racial minorities were to be given the +advantage of this provision, whether they were Czechoslovak subjects or +not. + +Again, the Government is not obliged, under the Treaty, to give the +lingual advantages defined above except before the courts. But the law +of languages extends the right of usage of a minority language beyond +the courts to “all other services, branches of administration and +agencies of the Republic”; in other words, to the postal, educational, +financial, political and other services. + +The Treaty speaks of “appropriate facilities,” which must be given the +minorities for the use of their languages. + +In Yugo-Slavia, also, the Magyar minority has been afforded every +facility for the continuance of its national existence. It is confined +almost exclusively to Croatia and Slavonia, which were formerly in +Hungarian territory, and where, even then, the Magyars formed a +very small fraction of the population. The Slavs of those districts +have shown no tendency to retaliate upon their former masters the +indignities they once suffered; the Magyars are permitted free use +of their language and are subject to no restrictive legislation, +notwithstanding the intrigues which exist between them and the +irredentist societies of Hungary. + +In Transylvania the problem which confronts the Rumanians is more +complicated. The conditions which existed in this district before the +War have already been touched upon, and the injustices of Magyar rule +exposed. In Transylvania, and the same remark applies with equal force +to the other transferred regions, the Magyar population was to a large +extent made up of the official classes, who had been appointed by +the Hungarian Government for the purposes of Magyarisation. Upon the +transfer of the regions, these officials were offered terms, in many +cases extremely favourable, upon which to continue in their posts, +as long as they showed their intention of keeping faith with the new +authority and refrained from supporting Magyar irredentist policies. + +In many cases these officials showed themselves unworthy of the trust +displayed in them. In Transylvania especially was this the case. Many +of the leading Magyar families owned large estates in the agricultural +districts of Transylvania, and were able to exert a pernicious +influence upon those officials and others who, originally appointed +under Magyar rule through the influence of the landowning families, +preserved their appointments by the transfer of their allegiance. +In many cases this transfer was only nominal, and was effected +deliberately in order that they might be in the position to further +the schemes of the Government of Budapest. As a result, the Rumanians +have been faced with grave difficulties in assimilating their Magyar +subjects, who have remained closely in touch with the sources of +sedition. The defection of the official classes has been seconded by +the efforts of the Magyar propagandists, and Magyar subjects of Rumania +have been encouraged to offer a policy of passive resistance to the +efforts of the administration to form a homogeneous Kingdom of Rumania, +combined with an unceasing stream of complaints as to the injustice +with which they assert they are treated under the new regime. + +In many cases the Rumanians have been compelled at short notice to +replace disaffected officials by men of Rumanian birth whose loyalty +is unquestioned. Naturally the supply of men trained for such posts is +limited, and in some cases men may have been appointed whose ideas of +local administration have been modelled upon the methods of the Magyars +when Transylvania was under their rule. The Magyar propagandists, +always keenly on the watch for any incident upon which to base their +protestations, have seized with avidity upon the acts of their Rumanian +pupils to demonstrate the tyranny with which they are treated under +Rumanian rule. + +As a matter of fact, in Transylvania the Magyars under Rumanian rule +are far better off than the Rumanians ever were under Magyar rule, +even in the most extreme cases, which the Magyars themselves have been +able to quote. But such a state of affairs is not sufficient to ensure +the peaceful settlement of Transylvania, and of this the Rumanian +Government is well aware. The oppressive acts of local officials, +which are in fact limited to misinterpretation of the provisions of +the law-giving freedom of language, education and religion to the +Magyar minority, are entirely contrary to the express instructions of +the Government of Bucharest, which is deeply concerned to enforce the +provisions of the Treaties which ensure the protection of minorities. +But the Government is in an extremely difficult position. The Rumanian +population of Transylvania, from the highest to the lowest, is deeply +incensed at the Magyar efforts, overt and covert, to stir up strife +and to secure by hook or by crook the return of the province to +Hungarian rule. The Magyar irredentists regard Transylvania as the +Sinn Fein irredentists regard Ulster; both alike proclaim the iniquity +of “partition,” regardless of the presence in Transylvania and Ulster +respectively of large majorities in favour of such partition. In both +the irredentist minority have committed acts of aggression against the +majority; in both the servants of the Government have been guilty of +hasty and ill-advised actions in restoring order and administering the +law. But no reasonable person accuses the Ulster Government of a policy +of repression of the Sinn Fein minority in Fermanagh and Tyrone. It +would be equally unreasonable to accuse the Rumanian Government of a +policy of repression of the Magyar minority in Transylvania. + +That local officials and members of the civil population of +Transylvania have been guilty of foolish and arbitrary actions is +undeniable, and not to be wondered at. It is indeed extraordinary that, +overrun as the country is with Magyar _agents provacateurs_, these +actions have not been of greater violence and frequency. Exasperated +by the overbearing demeanour of their late tyrants, their political +dishonesty and their perpetual efforts to stir up discord, the Rumanian +inhabitants have at times retaliated by furtive efforts at petty +persecution, not one of which has been allowed to pass unnoticed by the +delighted Magyar propagandists. It is regrettable that the Rumanians +have thus played into the hands of these men, as it affords them a +ground upon which to base their futile cry for the restitution of +Transylvania to Hungary, and so to delay the peaceful settlement of +that province. + +A distinguished Englishman,[45] as the result of investigations on +the spot, sums up the situation as follows. “The Rumanian character is +extraordinarily easy-going. They are not hustlers (perhaps it would +be better for them if they _could_ hustle a trifle), and no one would +suggest that in all sections of their country their administration is +perfect. It must not be forgotten, however, that the country has been +roughly doubled in area and that in the newly annexed territories it +was impracticable to retain a large number of civil servants who had +been brought up in the machinery of another State--at any rate, as far +as the leading officials were concerned; but it may here be mentioned +that the majority of the minor personnel on the Transylvanian railways, +as well as postal officials, etc., who worked under the old regime, +have been retained by the Rumanian Government. Every Englishman knows +how long it has taken us to build up an efficient Civil Service. +Rumania is a country which has not behind her the traditions of +organisation which Great Britain enjoys, and in the selection of the +various administrative officials during the short period which has +succeeded the War, there have undoubtedly been appointed some men +who have proved themselves unfitted to carry out the work. Humanly +speaking, this was bound to happen, and in my humble opinion the +Rumanian Government is doing all that is possible to make good when +failure in this respect is discovered.” + +Despite the exaggerated claims of the Magyars, there is no question +that the Magyar minority in Transylvania is in every respect far better +off than ever was the Rumanian majority under Hungarian rule. Such +minor injustices as have been perpetrated towards the Magyars have +been due to the misplaced zeal of isolated local officials, and are +in no way representative of official Rumanian policy. Beyond these, +Rumanian demonstrations of triumph inspired by the acquisition of an +essentially Rumanian province, are naturally distasteful to a proud +people. But of grievances such as would justify a reconsideration of +the Treaties, even the Magyar propagandists can adduce no trace. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[43] These terms of the Treaty are embodied in the Czechoslovak +Constitution, which contains the following provisions:-- + + 128. + + 1. All Czechoslovak citizens are fully equal before the law and enjoy + the same civil and political rights, without distinction of race, + language or religion. + + 2. Differences of religion, confession, opinion or language can be no + bar to a Czechoslovak citizen, within the limits fixed by the general + laws, particularly to admission to the public service, offices or + honours, or in the exercise of the various professions or industries. + + 3. Czechoslovak citizens may, within the limits fixed by the general + laws, employ freely any language, in private or commercial matters, + in the exercise of their religion, in the Press or in any form of + publication, or at public meetings. + + 4. The rights in these respects belonging to State agencies according + to the laws at present in force or those which may be passed in the + future, in the interests of public order, the safety of the State or + of efficient supervision, are not prejudiced by the foregoing. + + 129. + + The principles of the right of language in the Czechoslovak Republic + are fixed by a definite law forming part of the Constitution. + + 130. + + The general laws according to citizens the right to establish, direct + and control at their own expense charitable, religious or social + institutions, schools and other educational establishments--all + citizens, without distinction of nationality, language, religion or + race, are equal and enjoy the right to use freely their own tongue + and practise freely their religion in these establishments. + + 131. + + In towns and districts containing a reasonable proportion of + Czechoslovak subjects speaking a language other than Czechoslovak, + the children of these Czechoslovak subjects are guaranteed the + possibility, within the limits fixed by the general educational laws, + of receiving instruction in their own tongues, but Czechoslovak may + be declared an obligatory subject. + + 132. + + In cases where in towns and districts inhabited by a reasonable + proportion of Czechoslovak subjects belonging to racial, religious + or linguistic minorities, certain portions of the public revenue + are earmarked for educational, religious or charitable purposes by + State, communal or other budgets, part of the amount so earmarked, + corresponding to the appropriation and the objects, shall be applied + to these minorities, within the limits of the general regulations + concerning the public administration. + + 133. + + The putting into force of the principles of 131 and 132, and + particularly the definition of the expression “Reasonable + proportion,” will be provided for by special legislation. + + 134. + + Any measures of forced denationalisation whatever are forbidden. + Violation of this principle may be declared by law a criminal act. + + +[44] See also below for an amplification of this statement. + +[45] Sir Harry Brittain, in _Eastern Europe_, October-November, 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MAGYAR PROPAGANDA + + +From the moment when Hungary realised that her defeat in the field +would result in the loss of the territory populated by what the +Magyars termed the subject races, she devoted all her energies towards +regaining them by the use of the more subtle weapons of propaganda. The +analysis of a propaganda campaign is always extremely difficult, unless +the strategic scheme of those directing it is known. The tactics of +propaganda can usually be unmasked, but the true motives which inspire +those tactics are frequently difficult of discernment. Propaganda in +the modern sense means the influence of opinion by the dissemination +of some particular idea or theory. It is based upon the psychological +fact that people upon whom a point of view is perpetually impressed +will in time insensibly adopt it as their own. If this point of view is +skilfully presented, it is unlikely that the general public will see +any motive behind it. Further, unless the point of view concerns some +set of conditions with which the particular section of the public it is +desired to convince is remarkably familiar, the arguments adduced in +favour of it need not necessarily be founded on the strictest fact. + +The Magyars, taught by their German allies, became during the War +adepts at the gentle art of clothing fancies with the convincing +garments of fact, and as soon as their nation decided to take up +the weapons of propaganda they had no difficulty in finding the men +to wield them. But even so their methods displayed a certain native +clumsiness, which makes it possible to counter their strokes by the +only really convincing method. To attempt to refute propaganda point +by point is a wearisome task, and one which often plays into the +adversary’s hand, by giving him opportunities of reply. The surest +method of making it harmless is to expose the object of the propaganda +and the sources whence it rises. I shall not attempt to deal with +Magyar propaganda except by the quotation of the Magyars themselves, +with an occasional commentary where necessary to explain them. + +The ratification of the Treaty of Trianon compelled the Magyar +propagandists to assume a veil of secrecy, and to disguise official +propaganda under the guise of the operations of unofficial bodies. +Of these bodies the “League for the Defence of Hungary’s Integrity” +has taken the lead and has absorbed many of its smaller competitors. +The General Secretary of this League is Dr. Alexander Krisztics, a +Professor at the University of Budapest. On January 23, 1921, at the +General Assembly of the League, he made a report, from which may be +extracted the following passages:-- + +“We have carried out a task worthy of Sisyphus. In January 1920 I +accompanied the Hungarian Peace Delegation, inciting them not to dare +to cede even a jot of our ancestral rights. The same demand was shouted +to them by the people at every station on the way. We used this means +of strengthening the morale of the delegation in this direction. In +the report of the delegation, however, passages have been observed +which indicate that they had consented to bargaining. But even these +have failed to soften the hearts of the Entente Ministers. They have +returned with the most intolerable conditions. We have done everything +in our power to ensure that the protest of the nation should be as +weighty as possible. We held a whole series of meetings for the purpose +of protesting against these conditions, in Budapest as well as in the +country, ending up with enormous processions and scientific lectures. +Our protests found an echo even in the foreign Press. In vain. Not even +at the second attempt has the delegation been able to bring back more +advantageous conditions. Consequently we began an agitation against +the signature of the Treaty, exploiting absolutely everything. But we +could not even prevent this. We hoped from the assurances we received +that the ratification would not be carried out. We then expected +that the Magyar Sisyphus would finally complete his task, pushing +his heavy burden to its goal and thus ridding himself of it. But +again we were disappointed. We failed to obtain even the postponement +of the ratification of the Peace. We therefore shoulder our burden +once again. Now we fight for the revision of the Treaty, and prepare +ourselves for new and great national efforts, hoping to be victorious +in this new attempt. The faith is the old one. It is invincible, being +an eternal source of power for our future happiness. If we had all +united in the service of the Fatherland instead of admitting discord, +we should have obtained palpable results to show for our efforts to +regain our integrity. Sisyphus himself often loses his strength through +this discord and busies himself with too many difficult problems, +when indeed he has but one problem to solve, namely, the regaining of +territorial integrity, which is all important and without which no +other problem can be solved. + +“Until we solve the problem of territorial integrity none of our +internal problems can be seriously and satisfactorily solved.” + +“In the month of August Mr. Galocsi held a series of conferences +on the question of nationalities with the leaders of the aforesaid +nationalities. The minutes of these meetings remain eternal documents +from which one can ascertain that the nationalities themselves _do not +desire more than what is granted by Article No. 44 of the law of 1868_. +It remains to be seen whether these delegates have acted according to +their statements made at the conferences or not. + +“We have done all that is possible to maintain a favourable spirit +for the internal propaganda. In 1920 we held 85 big meetings combined +with concerts and lectures, and 280 popular meetings; and we have +distributed 34 different pamphlets, 58 different placards, 71 different +letters, and 8 kinds of propaganda stamps. + +“The provincial Press, which has not appeared for a considerable time, +has resumed work, and its newly organised Press section under the +leadership of Dr. Okolicsany Laslo has worked with admirable results. +During two months 250 articles issued by our Press section have +appeared in the provincial Press, all serving the cause of integrity. + +“In Western Hungary we have distributed 6 different pamphlets, 9 +different German manifestoes (loose leaves), the paper _Westungarische +Briefe_, and a German calendar. + +“For the occupied territories we have settled the methods for placing +at the disposal of the various nationalities our pamphlets in their +respective languages. We have made every effort in this direction to +promote the movement and to give help to the branch league and to the +refugee municipal council. The refugee municipal councils are already +official organs, according to a ministerial order by which the refugee +officials must present themselves to the respective municipal councils +for the verification of their offices.” + +“Propaganda abroad has met with great success, both in connection with +the Peace Delegation and otherwise, with the result that European +public opinion is acquainted with our grievance and sees that the +Hungarian question is an open wound in the body of Europe. We have +succeeded in creating the Hungarian question, and it is the duty of +the League to keep it on the surface of European politics until it is +solved in our favour. This is the basis of propaganda abroad. + +“Up to the present we have distributed 28 different pamphlets in the +English language, 17 in French, 8 in Italian. The number of pamphlets +in these languages amounts to 300,000; if these distributed by other +organisations all over the world be included, the amount is 400,000. + +“We have also sent 25,000 copies of our review, _The Hungarian Nation_. +Of the political-economic map of Hungary, worked out by Feodor Ferentz, +with German, English, French, Italian and Magyar text, 10,000 copies +have been distributed abroad with excellent results. + +“Among our more important publications we have the English _East +European Problems_, of which ten numbers have appeared up to the +present; of the _Questions de l’Europe Orientale_ six numbers have +appeared. The pamphlet dealing with the refutation of the allegations +made with regard to the White Terror in Hungary we have published in +English as _Reports of the White Terror in Hungary_ in greater numbers +than usual. + +“During 1920 we have sent abroad 250 parcels containing our books, +reviews and pamphlets to the most prominent statesmen and institutions. + +“For the distribution of our material abroad we have established close +connections with important bookstalls in London, New York, Paris, +Berne, Geneva and Milan. _As our publications were not bought by the +public, we have directed the booksellers to distribute them gratis to +the customers._” + +“The relations we have had with foreigners who have visited our +country have had splendid results, thus, as a result of our influence +a book appeared from the pen of Mme. Hedvig Latter Correvoh, the Swiss +journalist, and Dr. John Polterra, Deputy of the canton of Zurich. +Similarly, two articles by the American journalist, Kenneth Roberts, +have been published in the _Saturday Evening Post_, which has a +circulation of three million copies, one article on the division of +Hungary and the other on Northern Hungary. The former is very strong, +and our illustrations were published with it, with the result that the +article and illustrations together filled a whole page of the paper. + +“We have sent commissioners abroad for the service of propaganda, of +whom Dr. Varosy Karoly achieved great success in Switzerland, making +proposals regarding our cause even to the President of the League of +Nations, and founding the Magyar League in that country. Our emissary +to Italy has personally discussed the matter with the Pope of Rome and +the high dignitaries of the Holy See. + +“The activity of a member of the Reformed Church, Magyerosi, has been +very marked in Holland. He held 26 lectures on Hungary in 24 towns, as +well as two matinées, which were attended by the highest aristocracy +of the country. He also informed us that Western public opinion is +beginning to appreciate the machinations of the Rumanians, Czechs, +Serbs, etc., and that nobody has any faith in the consolidation of +those States.” + +“We have received six foreign journalists, to whom we have given +information, and have also shown them the impossible frontier. In Berne +we have arranged an exhibition of our maps and pamphlets, by which we +have demonstrated the impossibility of dividing Hungary. The exhibition +was a great success. + +“Abroad we have up to the present 34 emissaries in 30 large cities who +work zealously for us, not only Magyars but also foreigners, drawn from +the ranks of those who have visited our country, and whom we have won +to our cause. + +“The information in the foreign Press is conveyed both directly to the +newspaper offices and indirectly through our bureaus and agents. In +1920 we have employed six such agents and we are negotiating with six +others. + +“We send our news direct to 182 English and American papers every +week through our Press service. In these communications we show the +impossible internal situation of the States which have taken possession +of our territory, the atrocities committed on our territories, +expounding at the same time the unanimous wish of the population of +those territories for the old Unitary Hungary, and insisting on the +revision of the Peace Treaty. All this appears as informatory news. + +“We have close connections with 18 daily papers abroad, which publish +without any modification the matter given them by us, as, for instance, +the American review, _The Commentator_. Our emissaries and agents +receive from us articles and information to be sent to the Press of the +locality in which they work, which device has given splendid results. +We have registered 15,000 addresses to which we regularly send all our +printed matter.” + +“Our action for the revision of the Treaty has the support of 53 +deputies, with Dr. Karafiath Jeno at their head, who further our +efforts in every direction. + +“Our programme for the future comprises the improvement and the +completion of the foreign services, particularly of the Press service, +by sending information to the Press of the world in its various +languages. We shall publish pamphlets in all languages to advocate our +aims and shall distribute them universally. + +“We particularly wish to send a considerable stock of books to our +Hungarian brokers in America, and we shall do everything within +our power to provide literary books for our agents in the occupied +territories. The stock of correspondence we propose to use entirely for +the strengthening of the militarist spirit. + +“In the above we have the honour of presenting to you the report for +the year 1920.” + +There are one or two points in the above report which may require +some elucidation. Mr. Galocsi, in his much vaunted conferences with +the leaders of the nationalities, took care to get in touch only with +those few malcontents whose private concerns would have shown more +profit under the corrupt Magyar rule. “Article 44 of the year 1868” +is the infamous Law of Nationalities. It is quite credible that the +nationalities desired no more than was included in its provisions. But, +as we have already shown, these provisions were never put into force +under Magyar administration. + +The reference to “refugee officials” in the occupied territories, by +which term the new States are referred to throughout, is perhaps a +trifle obscure. It must be remembered that when Slovakia and the other +transferred territories were part of Hungary, they were ruled by a +swarm of local officials, all of them Magyar or of assured Magyar +sympathies. These officials in many cases used the extreme toleration +with which they were treated by the administration of the new States, +most of them being continued in their posts, but with widely different +orders as to their duties, to intrigue against their new masters. +Their actions were repeatedly overlooked, but in extreme cases it was +necessary to expel certain of them from the new States. Even those +who remained were approached by the Hungarian authorities, especially +by the officials of the Ministry of Nationalities, in order that they +might be used as agents for hostile propaganda to the States to whom +they had taken the oath of allegiance. + +The admission of the report that the League had created the Hungarian +question is interesting. The implication is that there would be no such +question in the mind of the world but for its agitation, which is very +near the truth. + +The Press service of the League deserves further description. It +consists of a printed slip, headed “East European Press Service. +Published by Alexander L. Krisztics, LL.D. Editorial Office: Budapest +IV, 1 Maria Valeria Street.” A typical issue contains a report of +a visit paid by a deputation of American and English Unitarians to +Transylvania, and of the devastating conclusions reached by it; three +other items whose contents may be gathered from their headings, “The +National Minorities excluded from the Rumanian Parliament” (dated +from Bucharest), “North Hungary a Second Siberia” (dated from Prague, +and apparently designating Slovakia as North Hungary), and “Czech +Opposition and the Hapsburgs” (also dated from Prague), and a paragraph +headed “Polygamy and Free Love in Bohemia” (dated from Prague), which +contains an entirely fictitious account of the introduction of a law +in favour of polygamy into the Czechoslovak Parliament! Professor +Krisztics’ estimate of the gullibility of the English-speaking Press +appears to require revision. It is amusing to note that this farrago of +nonsense is inscribed “Subscription Price: annually £1 or $5.” But as +a matter of fact it shares the fate of the doctor’s other propaganda +material, of which he reports so pathetically that it had to be +distributed gratuitously for lack of purchasers. + +The League and its associates had made every endeavour during the year +covered by the above report to arouse dissension in Slovakia against +the Czechoslovak Republic. During the first period of their union +with the Czechs a fraction of the Slovaks were inclined to look with +searching eyes into every move of the new State. They had suffered +for so long under Magyar domination that they were unaccustomed to +honest dealing on the part of the Government responsible for their +well-being, and were consequently on the look out lest the Czech +administration should adopt the traditions of the Magyars. The +existence of this vague feeling was at once seized upon by the Magyars +as the basis of subversive propaganda in Slovakia, and the energies +of the propagandists were directed to fanning it into open revolt. It +is hardly necessary to say that they failed entirely, and that at the +present day the Slovaks are as loyal to the Republic as the Czechs +themselves. But the methods of Magyar propaganda are none the less +instructive, and form a useful illustration of their methods in other +directions. + +The object of the propaganda during 1920 was twofold; the overthrow of +the Czechoslovak Republic and the restoration of the Monarchy. Its +headquarters were at Vienna, and its chiefs were Gustav Gratz,[46] +the Magyar Envoy, and Arpad Reich, who dealt with the Press under his +instructions. Gratz and Reich looked to Budapest for general guidance +in their campaign. In Vienna Reich had a special committee for carrying +on propaganda in Czechoslovakia. The head of this committee was Leopold +Mandl,[47] who was on the staff of the _Neues Wiener Journal_, and +one of its members was a former People’s Commissary for Slovakia +of the Magyar Soviet Republic. The committee maintained paid spies +in Czechoslovakia, among whom were Koloman Tobler, a member of the +Czechoslovak Chamber, who contrived to supply Gratz with papers stolen +from the Czechoslovak Foreign Office, and a captain in the Czechoslovak +Army of the name of Schenschich. At Budapest the head of the whole +organisation was Tibor Eckart. + +In July 1920 Reich sent the following report to the Hungarian Minister +for Racial Minorities and to Eckart. The report is marked “Strictly +Confidential.” + +“As a result of numerous discussions and negotiations with regard to +the irredentist movement in Upper Hungary, an irredentist association +and various irredentist committees have been founded. + +“Our confidential agents who were dispatched to the occupied territory +arranged the necessary meetings, organised the movement, allotted the +individual activities, and also managed the material side of the +matter. To-day practically every village is represented. The Upper +Territory is divided into four areas, each of which is managed by a +special committee. Ruthenia forms a special area whose committee works +in complete independence and submits its reports to the main committee +in Vienna. It has its own Press and working funds, its printing is +managed in Budapest, and its news service in Vienna. + +“The following four towns are suggested as the headquarters of these +four committees: (1) Bratislava, (2) Kosice, (3) Banska Bystrice, (4) +Nove Zamky (or some other town). + +“Connection with Bohemia is much easier from Vienna, where we have +excellent printing arrangements and an extensive network of espionage. + +“Important services are being rendered to us by the well-known editor +Mandl, whose articles in the Viennese Press pursuing anti-Czech +tendencies have considerable influence and are quoted abroad. + +“The objects of the committee are partly of a political, partly of +a military character. The military affairs and the organisation of +troops are managed by high military authorities who are co-opted on the +committee, and they are having excellent results. I will refer to this +activity again later. + +“The individual committees are in mutual connection, but one is not +subordinated to the other. The Czechs have an extensive espionage which +works well. + +“As the population in Slovakia is very devout, it is necessary that +every priest, as far as he is not known as a pronounced friend of the +Czechs, should be won over for the movement. + +“Besides the priests, the persons of chief importance to us are the +teachers and lawyers. The destinies of the people are in the hands of +these intellectuals, and it is therefore upon them and not upon the +people that our main effort should be concentrated. + +“The harvesters, who were last year obtained from the occupied +territory in numbers much greater than were needed for performing +harvest operations for the Hungarian estate owners, were chosen so that +they should bring irredentist ideas back home with them, disseminate +them, and at the given moment put them into practice. + +“The preparations for winning over and using the Press are already +completed with good results. With few exceptions the papers are +practically all in good hands. + +“On account of the liberty of the Press, no changes were carried out +among the editorial staffs; the old guard is in its place and is +entirely on our side. There are only a few insignificant exceptions +which are not worth referring to. It is a matter of absolute +indifference whether the papers pursue white or red tendencies, whether +they are Jewish or Christian, whether they follow national or class +interests. The only thing that matters is whether they are in favour +of Magyar tendencies or whether they are convinced adherents of the +Czechoslovak State. + +“The French are well aware that the present conditions in Central +Europe cannot last, and that there must be a complete restoration of +the former state of affairs. The French[48] will not hinder this, +although if necessary they will apparently oppose it, while actually +agreeing with us and giving us their support. The French feel the same +need as we do, and are convinced that the Czech State is incapable +of continued existence. It is, of course, well known that there are +politicians in France who pursue a different policy, but they will +become weaker and weaker, and only those whom we need will remain in +power. + +“A number of papers at Bratislava are for sale. We have already begun +negotiations. + +“A number of important officers in the present Czech Army are in +connection with us, and so we can obtain prompt information of every +military activity. As a result of their former military training these +officers have remained our brothers and regarded themselves as officers +of the Monarchy and not of the Czech State. + +“We are acquainted with military secrets which alone would justify our +faith in our ultimate success. + +“It is of special advantage to us that we have our representatives in +the Slovak Ministry, who are better able to manage this organisation +and keep us informed of everything. + +“Steps have been taken so that Slovak troops will refuse to serve in +Czech districts, and this will lead to a slackening of discipline and +help to bring the army on our side at the necessary moment. + +“The officers who were selected for the most important positions, and +who are now serving as Czech officers, are doing excellent work. + +“Our plans have been sanctioned by the French,[49] and their +representatives are already on their way to Budapest, where they will +negotiate with the politicians. + +“In any case the return of Kosice and Bratislava can be regarded +as settled, but the Magyar politicians, with the help of military +pressure, will demand a complete capitulation. Strategic plans with +regard to Upper Hungary are ready, and are on such a large scale as to +make the use of artillery unnecessary. + +“Through the pressure of the French politicians we shall be obliged +to enter into an alliance with Rumania. Rumania will demand strong +guarantees, but we shall do the same. The French politicians and +military leaders have undertaken to negotiate this friendship, which is +really due to the visit of the Queen of Rumania to Paris. The King of +Rumania is said to be using his influence to bring about a union with +us against his allies. The Rumanians would have no objection to the +return of the Hapsburgs, for the King of Rumania personally sympathises +with King Karl. + +“The Czechs certainly know about this affair, and also in Austria they +are to some extent aware of it; Renner is already preparing his counter +measures. There is great excitement behind the scenes among the Czechs, +and the Czech Embassy continually appeals to Paris, whence it receives +courteous but evasive answers. We know for certain that the Austrians +are negotiating with Renner as intermediary, and that before very long +an open union will be reached between Prague and Belgrade for defence +and resistance in common. But this alliance need not cause us any +alarm, as after the elections in Austria there will inevitably be a +change. + +“In Upper Hungary the lion’s share of the work has been performed +by estate owners and the Magyar nobility. It is a fortunate thing +that they are Slovak subjects, and therefore not easily amenable to +political control.” + +There is little need for comment on the above report. I prefer to let +it stand in its naked audacity. + +The method by which Gratz and Reich endeavoured to influence their +compatriots is indicated by the following document. It is a slip +handed to Magyar subjects applying at the Hungarian Embassy for +passports to enter Czechoslovakia. + + +“HUNGARIAN EMBASSY AT VIENNA. + + “Travellers proceeding to Upper Hungary are to do everything to + intensify the opposition to the Czechs which prevails among the + people, and should avoid anything that might harm the Magyar cause. + Every Magyar who proceeds to Upper Hungary should regard himself as + an envoy of the Magyar national interests, whose moral duty it is by + every word he utters to aim at strengthening the trust and confidence + in the future of Hungary among the inhabitants of the occupied + territory. + + “Travellers should speak about such matters which, being duly + circulated, can do harm to the authority of the Czechs. Such are, the + ‘Freedom from Russia’ movement among the Czech clergy. Bolshevism + is developing in Bohemia, and with it is associated the persecution + of Christians. The Czech industries are robbing the Slovaks. The + prices of industrial products are not fixed, while the prices of + agricultural products are. Food supplies are being taken from the + people, and the trains which transport them to Prague start off at + night. All these misfortunes are due to the fact that the Slovaks + have seceded from the Crown of St. Stephen. All the Jews have escaped + to Slovakia, where they are safe because the Czechs are their + abettors. The Slovak language is being suppressed, and even the + taxation records are written in incomprehensible Czech. The economic + and financial conditions are desperate, Czechoslovakia having in one + year contracted debts to the amount of 5,000 million. Misery and + distress will last until the territories of Hungary are again united; + it was God Himself who created them as a unity, marking them off by + a huge chain of mountains. The rivers, too, do not flow to Prague, + but to the Hungarian plains. The Czechoslovak State is an unnatural + product. He who is in favour of this product is also in favour of the + starvation and suffering of the people. Let each one choose where he + wishes to belong, either to Christian Hungary which gives and assures + full liberty to all its citizens, in order that the hardships of the + past may not return, or to the Czechs, who are oppressing the Slovaks + in economic matters, in religion and language, are starving them, and + desire to reduce the Slovak nation to beggary. + + “Travellers must avoid anything that might place Hungary in a bad + light. Whatever is imperfect and burdensome there must be depicted + with the forbearance of children who do not declare their parents’ + weaknesses to the whole world. Above all, comparisons of Hungarian + conditions with those in the territories occupied by the Czechs must + be avoided, in order that it may not seem as if the latter were + better; this would be nothing less than betrayal of our country. + If, nevertheless, anything unfavourable must be mentioned, it must + be modified and depicted as the result of circumstances during a + period of transition. Among all reliable people it must be emphasised + that justice must prevail and that soon, since the Czechs cannot + maintain themselves in their State, which is an economic and + geographical impossibility, against nations which are numerically + stronger and are inimically disposed. It is absolutely impossible + that military occupation of Slovakia should continue for long, + and the Entente will not protect this State which is incapable of + permanent and independent existence. The feeling of the Entente is + beginning to turn away from the Czechs and to incline towards the + Magyars, it being no longer possible to-day to govern according to + Wilson’s principles. Our best friends in the Entente are to be found + principally among the English, the Americans and the Japanese, and + if our rights did not fully prevail immediately on the conclusion of + Peace, this was only due to the fact that the Entente was obliged + for the sake of its honor to fulfill the undertakings it had made. + These commitments, however, will lapse with the conclusion of the + final Peace terms. The League of Nations, which is being founded by + England and America, will be composed of reasonable elements who will + respect national wishes. It is obvious that in the future the Entente + will adopt the attitude that the natural course of events must not be + hindered and that European peace must not be menaced by the retention + of unnatural conditions. Hence it depends entirely upon the probity + and perseverance of the Magyars whether our rights will prevail. A + very large number of utterances abroad indicate the sympathies which + Hungary has gained by crushing the hydra of Bolshevism, and, in spite + of unfavorable conditions, bringing about order and creating a strong + army within a short time. + + “The Poles are supporting us most eagerly, and they desire to have + common frontiers with Hungary, since otherwise they also would be + surrounded by hostile nations. In all the occupied territories a + feeling of moderation is beginning to show itself, even among that + part of the population which at first was opposed to us, because it + now realizes that separation from Hungary is unfavorable even from + its point of view. The greatest dissatisfaction prevails in Slovakia, + where we are informed that the great majority of the inhabitants + desires to break away from the Czechs and return to the old Hungarian + State. + + “Travellers to Slovakia who are stopping in Budapest should pay + a visit to the headquarters of the Upper Hungarian League, or + should go to the Information Bureau, where they will obtain printed + matter indicating the kind of information required by the League. + If, however, they cannot proceed to Budapest, they should bring a + reliable and accurate reply to the following questions: (1) feeling + among the people; (2) coercion on the part of the Czechs; (3) + strength of the Czech and Slovak troops in various places and the + feeling among them; (4) official measures taken by the Czechs; (5) + any signs of unrest or typical utterances; (6) what circumstances, + events and opinions are, according to their experiences, favourable + to Hungarian policy in the occupied territories, and what + arrangements, measures or actions should be adopted. + + “Reports or information should be brought or else sent in writing + to the headquarters of the League. Persons wishing to work in other + ways for the League should make personal application. In conclusion, + it should once again be emphasised that all pessimistic feeling does + harm to our cause, and it is therefore the patriotic duty of every + traveller to Slovakia to strengthen confidence in our future by all + his actions. + + “BUDAPEST, _December 20, 1919_.” + +It is necessary to make one or two comments upon the above in order +that it may be fully understood. In the first place the reference +to “incomprehensible Czech” demands some mention of the question of +language in the Czechoslovak Republic. The Magyar propagandists have +made great capital out of the allegation that the Czechs have enforced +the use of their language throughout the Republic, to the exclusion +of Slovak. As a matter of fact, the languages are almost identical. +Without entering into a discussion as to their theoretical differences, +I shall content myself by quoting the experience of Mr. Crawfurd Price, +whose personal acquaintance with Central Europe makes him a reliable +and impartial witness. “My own plan,” he says, “consisted of taking a +Czech who had never been to Slovakia and never studied the so-called +Slovak language, and using him as an interpreter among the peasants +in the remote districts of the country. I found that neither party +experienced the least difficulty in understanding the other, and I was +led to the conviction that Czech and Slovak are merely dialects of one +and the same language, with less essential difference between them than +exists say, between London and Lancashire.”[50] + +The document itself contains an implication which is alone sufficient +to demolish the whole structure which Magyar propaganda strives so +laboriously to build up. Magyars are not to discuss conditions in +Hungary on Czechoslovakian soil, lest the obvious superiority of the +institutions of the latter should become too apparent. To admit this +“would be nothing less than betrayal of our country!” + +Recently the _League for the Defence of Hungary’s Integrity_ has formed +the _Magyar National Union_ as a purely propagandist organisation. +The Union issues propagandist and irredentist pamphlets, postcards, +stamps, posters, poems and songs, which are offered for sale at various +celebrations, in schools, offices, shops, banks and elsewhere. The +proceeds of these sales are extremely profitable to the Union, as +rich Jews and others are coerced into paying ridiculous prices for +the goods offered them. The Union also acquires funds from public +collections and more or less voluntary contributions. For instance, +even small communities such as Szeghalom and Veszto have contributed +100,000 crowns each for the furtherance of the irredentist movement. +Among the foremost workers on behalf of the Union are to be found +Ivan Rakovszky, the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Eugen Karafiath, +State Secretary, Julius Gömbös, the leading light of the __M.O.V.E., +Baron Lers, Count Gedeon Raday, Baron Albert Kaas, who is in charge of +propaganda on the Ruthenian frontier, and many others. + +With the co-operation of the _Union of University Students_ (Mefhosz) +the Union sends a selected student to England, usually Oxford. +It was at this university that the Oxford League for Hungarian +Self-determination was founded. The expenses incurred in sending these +students are defrayed by public subscription, or in some cases the +students are sent at the expense of individual municipalities. + +The Union is assisted in its work by the Pedagogic Museum, the Director +of which, Ministerial Councillor Alexander Hadasi, requested English +publishers to use the Magyar names of places in books issued by them. + +The Union numbers about half a million members, and its motto is _nem, +nem, soha_ (no, no, never), which it declares to be the unanimous reply +of the Hungarian Nation to the frontiers imposed upon it by the Treaty +of Trianon. A special Irredentist Banner of the Union is preserved +by the main altar in the Basilica at Budapest. With the Union are +associated the various other irredentist organisations, mostly formed +by the so-called “refugees” from the neighbouring States. A special +Union has been formed for Slovakia, Transylvania and the Banat, with +branches for such areas as Spis and Bratislava. In these organisations +the former departmental officials represent the separate local areas as +though these were still in the Hungarian State. The Magyar Government, +wisely apprehensive of the criticism of the League of Nations and +foreign countries, leaves the direction of political propaganda to +private persons, restricting its own participation to the suggestion of +general tendencies and to providing pecuniary assistance. + +The Government attaches far greater importance to what is termed +cultural propaganda. This emanates from the Ministry of Education, +and is directed by State Secretary Julius Pekar. This type of +propaganda is also indulged in by the Magyar Foreign Society, which is +presided over by Dr. Albert Berzeviczy and Count Apponyi. Besides the +activities of the Mefhosz already mentioned, this society organises +travelling scholarships and local student societies on the German +model. These organisations are pledged to keep alive the agitation for +the restoration of Hungary to her former boundaries. They are wholly +militarist in their spirit and activities. + +An expressly irredentist propaganda is carried on by the political +party known as the Honvedelmi Part (Party for the Protection of the +Country), which originated from the Union of Protective Leagues +formed on the territory of Hungary’s neighbours. The President of the +Party is the former deputy Nandor Urmanczy, and Slovak affairs are +supervised by F. Persay, a former Vice-Governor, Oliver Eottevenyi, +a former Governor, Dr. Galocsy, Zikmund Strobl, and others. The +leading workers include a former State Secretary, Gustav Ilosvay, the +poetess Papp-Vary, Koloman Kovacs, the chief Pastor in the Basilica +and guardian of the Irredentist Banner, and many other well-known +Hungarians. During the elections of 1922 this party was extremely +active in the areas with a Slovak majority, especially at Bekesska +Caba, and it applied considerable sums to the support of students from +the separated territories. It also issues leaflets and pamphlets of +an irredentist character, and advocates the forcible revision of the +Treaty of Trianon and the restoration of former Hungary. It arranges +competitions in which prizes are awarded for irredentist slogans, +poems, songs, etc. From time to time it issues a report to its members, +entitled _Magyar Irredenta_. + +With the insight into the methods and aims of Magyar propaganda +afforded by the documents quoted above, the English-speaking reader +may be trusted to avoid the pitfalls spread before his feet by Magyar +guile. It is, even to-day, a safe maxim to regard all news or comment +favourable to Hungary or derogatory to the new States as being inspired +by the corps of Magyar propagandists, unless clear evidence exists of +its pure and unbiassed source. This may seem a sweeping statement, +but it is in conformity with experience. The pronouncements of Magyar +politicians, the contents of Magyar newspapers, the influences brought +to bear upon visitors to Hungary, the whole force of Magyar culture +are all at the service of the propagandists in order that Hungary, by +sowing dissension beyond her own borders, may establish a claim to the +restitution to her of the territories of the Crown of St. Stephen. +Before the War we were accustomed to regard Germany as the menace +to the peace of Europe. We may now with equal justification regard +Hungary, with her complete disregard of the truth, her unblushing +intrigue and her almost undisguised reactionary tendencies, as the bar +to the peaceful settlement of the problems which still exercise the +minds of the statesmen of Central Europe. And it is undeniable that a +menace to the peace of Central Europe is a menace to the peace of the +world. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] Gustav Gratz was an intimate adherent of the ex-Emperor Karl, and +is consequently a legitimist of the most earnest type. He was Minister +for Foreign Affairs and is a frequent contributor to the _Pester Lloyd_. + +[47] Leopold Mandl is well known in Austria as one of the most venomous +and scurrilous opponents of Serbia and the Yugo-Slavs, a rôle he has +played since 1907 or so. Before the War he maintained close relations +with the Ballplatz and particularly Count Aerenthal. + +[48] It should be explained, although Reich is careful not to do so, +that the attitude ascribed to “the French” was not that of the French +Government, but of certain groups in Paris. + +[49] Here, too, it is necessary to repeat the comment contained in the +previous note. + +[50] _Eastern Europe_, October-November, 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HUNGARY’S ATTITUDE TO-DAY + + +The hostile attitude of Hungary towards the new States and her +determination to seek revision of the Treaty of Trianon, are +demonstrated by methods other than those of propaganda. It is +unfortunately true that in present-day Hungary exists a State whose +rulers and the majority of whose people have abandoned all attempts +to organise the Magyar territory which remains to them into a stable +modern State, in favour of a policy of self-seeking and aggression. The +traditional Hungarian policy of refusing all share in the government +of the country to all but a privileged class was followed by a natural +corollary after the War. The tenets of Bolshevism found a fruitful +soil in the “unitary Magyar State.” The attractions held out by its +exponents were bound to appeal to a proletariat which had for ever +been excluded from any semblance of power. The Soviet Republic was the +result, which lasted until the people had discovered that they had +only exchanged one tyranny for another. Then came the reaction, which +was no less disastrous to Hungary’s prosperity and good name than +the revolution had been. And through the whole of this sequence can +be traced their primal cause, the incapacity of the Magyar spirit to +accommodate itself to modern democratic ideas. + +Hungary, under the rule of Horthy, is no more worthy of sympathy than +she has ever been in her history of oppression and crime. That this is +so can be proved out of the mouths of patriotic Magyars, themselves +not guiltless of the sins committed in the past by Hungary’s rulers, +but now exiled because they have shown symptoms of relaxation of the +principles of Magyar oligarchy. These men are Michael Karolyi, the +President of the Hungarian Republic established in October 1918, John +Hock, who was President of the National Council, and three of the +Ministers of their Government, Oskar Jaszi, the first Minister of +Racial Minorities, Bela Linder and Paul Szende. On the occasion of the +meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference at Vienna in August 1922, +this “group of Hungarian Democratic and Republican _Émigrés_,” issued +a pamphlet entitled “On the sham Parliamentary Government instituted +by a Military Dictatorship in Hungary and on the need of replacing it +by true Parliamentarianism.” Extracts from this pamphlet follow. It +must be explained that the pamphlet is addressed to the members of the +Conference. + +“It is our duty to lay before you sincerely the real condition of +Hungary and to leave nothing undone to impress you with the truth, that +the actual situation in Hungary is not only disastrous to the Hungarian +people, but that it is also a formidable obstacle and impediment to +European consolidation.” + +“Hungary is at present the only member of the former Central Powers on +the territory of which the _ancien régime_ is still in full swing. Nay, +it is flourishing more strongly than ever. + +“Except for a short interruption, _Hungarian feudalism has never +ceased to live and assert itself_. Before the collapse of the old +order of things through the October Revolution of 1918, Hungarian +Parliamentarianism had never been more than a democratic screen, +behind which feudal nobility continued its reign. An excessive +property qualification and open voting were essential to the Hungarian +Constitution. Electoral districts were artificially arranged in such +a way that the urban wards, including several thousand voters, were +counterbalanced by small country divisions numbering only a few +hundred voters. Bayonets, alcoholic drinks and bribes: such were the +traditional means by which the Government fought out its electoral +battles in Hungary. + +“The alliance of the great landowners, the Hungarian governing class, +with the dynasty set up a barrier against democratic reformist +movements. The Hungarian ruling class provided for the military needs +of the dynasty, in return for which the dynasty left the privileges of +Hungarian feudalism untouched. By these means Hungarian aristocracy +and nobility, in common with the plutocracy of finance, were able +to maintain their rule over the Hungarian people and the non-Magyar +nationalities of Hungary, even up to the beginning of the twentieth +century. Hungary continued to be the stronghold of Central European +feudalism. + +“As the result of Magyar pseudo-democracy illiteracy was excessively +widespread, the masses were decimated by diseases, especially by +consumption; great bodies of workers had to emigrate to America and +to other countries, while the welfare and general culture of Hungary +remained on the very lowest level. + +“_It was only the October Revolution of 1918, following on the military +collapse of the Dual Monarchy, which raised Hungary for a short time to +a higher level. A democratic Republic was established, with universal +suffrage, secret ballot and proportional representation; the freedom of +meetings, coalitions and of the Press, was proclaimed, the equality of +racial minorities guaranteed; the social conditions of the workers was +improved on Western lines._” + +“Counter-revolution began by erecting a Military Dictatorship in +Hungary.... The Military Dictatorship had to create _a parliamentary +screen_. Universal suffrage and secret ballot were actually given, +but the elections were placed under the control of the military +_détachements_. Moreover, the Hungarian Fascisti, the so-called +_Awakened Magyars_, helped to suppress the meetings of the opposition, +kidnapping, imprisoning, whipping and torturing the recalcitrant +voters. The very moderate Social Democratic Party of Hungary was forced +to quit the field, and to boycott the elections.” + +“Such were the antecedents of the meeting of the first National +Assembly under the Military Dictatorship. Yet even then _the +détachement of Ostenburg had to occupy the Parliament House, in order +to secure the election of Vice-Admiral Horthy, the chief of the +military clique, to the Governorship of Hungary_. The election of +the National Assembly had been achieved by him with the help of the +bayonets of his _détachements_; his election to the Governorship was +due to the assistance of his officers. In spite of pretended democracy +and mock elections, the first Assembly of the counter-revolution +represented no more than a puppet-show in the hands of a military +clique. + +“With the exception of a very few honest and brave men, this Assembly +as a whole had not a word of protest against the murders committed by +Horthy’s officers. It was left unmoved by the hecatombs of Orgovany, +by the cruelties with which the White Terror butchered the social +democratic editors Somogyi and Bacso, together with Cservenka, the +Secretary of the Social Democratic Party, and many others.” + +These references are to the orgy of revenge which followed the +establishment of the counter-revolution. After the suppression of +Bolshevism in August 1919, vengeance for the excesses committed by Bela +Kun and his bloodthirsty lieutenant Szamueli was, with the connivance +of the Government, undertaken by two Societies, known respectively as +the __M.O.V.E. (Magyar orszagos vedo egyesulet, League for Hungarian +Integrity) and the _Awakening Magyars_. These societies used as their +physical arm the _Physical Force Formations_ and the _Détachements_, +which were in effect organised bands of ex-officers and soldiers, and +whose chief occupation was the murder of so-called Communists, in fact +of anyone whom they suspected a sympathy with the Bolsheviks.[51] There +was a certain rough and ready justice about their original formation, +for it was an undisputed fact that the Bolsheviks had shed large +quantities of innocent blood. But they very soon abandoned any pretence +of justice for the more lucrative employment of assassinating anybody +who became obnoxious to the counter-revolution, or from whose murder +any loot might be derived. In the massacres of Orgovany and Kecskemet +it is estimated that 170 victims were murdered, and the guilt for these +crimes was fixed upon the leader of one of the bands, by name Hejjas. +The bodies of the three men referred to above, Somogyi, Bacso and +Cservenka, the two former of which were responsible for the Socialist +newspaper _Nepszava_, were found in the Danube, and this crime also was +brought home to Hejjas and his band. The Memorandum of Karolyi and his +associates goes on to describe the further adventures of this man. + +“The methods employed by the military dictatorship were thrown into +sharp light by a recent trial. Ivan Hejjas, an officer very influential +with Horthy, was falsely informed by a confidential agent that three +merchants in the country had offered to pay a million and a half crowns +to the Rumanians as the price of their staying three weeks longer in +the district as an army of occupation. Although no inquiry whatever +was made by him, Hejjas nonetheless gave orders that these citizens +be executed instantly. In his written evidence sent to the court, he +expressed himself in the following manner: ‘_My patriotic feelings +having been shocked by what I heard, I ordered Zbona and Danics to +kidnap the three Jews and to put them to death._’” + +“Ivan Hejjas, this ‘best officer’ of the Governor (as he was called by +Horthy when addressing the British Labour Delegation led by Colonel +Wedgwood, M.P.), when pardoned for his numberless murders and other +crimes, flung back this amnesty to the Court of Justice with the +following words: ‘Concerning the mercy granted to me, I declare that I +do not need it and refuse to accept it most emphatically. I have not +implored anybody’s mercy and do not expect mercy from anybody.’ This +declaration of Hejjas remained as unpunished as did his greater crimes. +According to the statement of a Government paper, political balance +in Hungary depends on Hejjas. And, indeed, the man by whose mercy the +present system is living little needs any mercy from this system.”[52] + +“The ruling clique, being in their own opinion identical with the +Hungarian State and the Hungarian Nation, everybody lessening the +authority or impairing the credit of the Military Dictatorship or using +an abusive expression against the _détachements_ is prosecuted under +Statute III of 1921 (which punishes such an offence by five years’ +penal servitude). The Parliament of Military Dictatorship does not, +of course, regard its own actions as high treason against a people +deserving a better fate. But it regards as treasonable any description +of its own barbarous system of government, and any attempt to draw the +attention of Europe to these extreme abuses.” + +This is a reference to the conditions under which the Press works in +Hungary. By a law of December 1920 statements appearing in the Press +which were deemed likely to impair Hungary’s good name abroad were made +punishable offences, and the penalties were fixed according to the +gravity of the offence. Fines up to 100,000 crowns, imprisonment for +life, or expulsion from Hungary could be awarded. So-called freedom +of the Press was restored in December 1921, but it was limited to the +conditions obtaining during the War. The value of this freedom is shown +by the fact that newspapers are not allowed to print verbatim reports +of debates in the Assembly. + +“Not even this National Assembly was, however, inclined to restrict +the franchise by which it was elected. The Government omitted to +submit the draft of a Constitutional Bill to the Parliament, spending +its whole time in framing the specifically Hungarian institution of +a kingdom without a king. In the very last week of the two years’ +session, Parliament was suddenly taken unawares by a Bill for the +regulation of elections. When the National Assembly attempted to resist +this unexpected attack, the Government restricted the franchise by a +_ukase_. By the new ‘law’ some million and a half citizens lost their +right to vote.” + +Under this law the suffrage was restricted as follows: + +Men. Over twenty-four years of age, who have been citizens of the +Magyar State for ten years, have resided for two years in the same +district, and have passed through four classes of an elementary school. + +Women. Over thirty years of age, the same national and residential +qualifications as men, and in addition must + +(_a_) Be lawfully married and have at least two children. + +(_b_) Support themselves from their own property or earnings. + +(_c_) Have passed through eight classes of a secondary school or be +married to a man of equivalent educational standing. + +“Not only the poorer classes, but also ‘politically unreliable +persons’ were excluded from the franchise. Electoral qualification and +eligibility are denied to those who are under the charge of a political +offence. The franchise is denied also to those _who gave utterance +privately or in the Press to their sympathy with the enemy during the +War_.... Disfranchised are, further, all public officials discharged by +arbitrary decree on account of their political attitude, whereby the +flower of Hungarian _intelligentsia_ is robbed of its political rights. + +“The darkest blot of all on this reactionary electoral law is the +paragraph supplanting ballot by open vote.[53] With the exception +of the larger urban wards, in more than two-thirds of the country +divisions the electoral decree ordains open voting. This is practically +identical in Hungary with the dominance of the gendarmerie, the +publican and the local bankers at the polls. The repeal of secret +ballot means, therefore, the utter moral self-condemnation of the +existing system. It means an open confession that the present regime in +Hungary can only maintain itself with the help of military pressure and +corruption.” + +“The electioneering campaign was aptly opened by the bombing attempt +against the Democratic Club in the Elisabeth district of Budapest. +At this place a banquet was to be held in honour of Charles Rassay, +ex-M.P., the leader of the liberal opposition. The chief leaders of +the parliamentary Liberal Party were also to be in attendance on this +occasion. More than three hundred persons were present. The politicians +were happily some minutes late, when a terrific explosion rent the +walls of the building. An infernal machine had exploded and laid +everything in the hall in ruins. Eight persons were killed, more than +thirty severely wounded. A series of attempts by bombs followed. These +murderous attempts were committed by the _Awakened Magyars_, who went +so far as to cheer the criminals responsible before the club-house of +the Democratic Party, at the moment when the infernal machine exploded. +Detective-Inspector Kovacsevics saw some ill-famed _Awakened Magyars_ +leaving the critical spot immediately after the explosion had taken +place. Other reliable witnesses could give authentic evidence on +utterances of conspicuous _Awakened Magyars_ regarding the attempt. The +editor of the official paper of the _Awakened Magyars_ gave evidence +in connection with another bombing affair, that he had himself given +some hand-grenades to an _Awakened_ in the official premises of the +_Awakened Magyars_. A proclamation posted by the _Awakened_ states +that ‘the Home Secretary has in three instances implored the chiefs +of the _Awakened_ to ask for an investigation against themselves,’ +which they, however, haughtily refused to do. Under the pressure of +public opinion the Home Secretary had finally to instruct the police to +search one of the rooms in the premises of the _Awakened_. Although the +Society of the _Awakened Magyars_ had ample leisure to remove anything +it thought fit, yet several bombs were found in the course of this +very superficial investigation. After this the search slackened, the +_Awakened_ who happened to have been detained were again released and +publicly honoured by their comrades. At a banquet given in honour of +one of the released chiefs of the _Awakened_, Julius Gömbös, formerly +captain on the Staff, and at that time head of the electioneering +machine of the Government Party invested with dictatorial powers, did +not fail to appear. Count Albert Apponyi is reported by the papers +to have made the following statement on this affair: ‘Regarding the +antecedents and circumstances of the case it is not too much to say +that the good name of the country as well as the safety of the citizens +depends on a positive result of the investigations.’ It scarcely needs +to be said that the investigations led to no positive result at all.” + +The elections took place during May and June 1922. The policy of the +Government was to disallow public meetings during as many days of the +campaign as they dared, on all sorts of ridiculous pretexts. + +“During the short time when meetings were permitted, those of the +opposition were usually prohibited by special order of the local +authorities or simply broken up by the _Awakened_. Special decrees were +issued with respect to the agenda of meetings, in general forbidding +any debate on the question of land reform, excluding thereby the main +problem of actual Hungarian politics from discussion. No wonder that +opposition voters were sent to the internment camps, were arrested, +kidnapped, stabbed, beaten (women not being spared), that nomination +papers were stolen and torn up, that voters were imprisoned under the +sole charge of attempting to present to the authorities the nomination +paper of an opposition candidate, as happened in the case of the +Liberal leader Ladislaus Fenyes. No wonder that even the candidates +themselves, such as Buza Barna, Ladislaus Fenyes, Ernest Nagy, and +Louis Szilagyi were arrested, nearly all candidates of the opposition +having been threatened with death! Candidates were forbidden to +express their policy, as it happened with Imre Veer in Szentes, the +motive given being that the candidate was known to hold republican +views. The head of the gendarmerie in the district of Sajo-Szentpeter +called the candidate, Rudolph Krupa, a ‘swinish scoundrel.’ Krupa, +having asked for a proof of his identity, the gendarmerie official +whipped out his revolver and apostrophised the candidate thus: ‘_There +is my proof of identity, and if you don’t shut up, I will let it into +you swiftly enough._’ + +“On the election day military terror was at its height. Three days were +appointed for the voting, the official reason given being that the +military force of the Government was not sufficient to complete the +elections in one day. In spite of open terror, the Government could +only succeed _in the districts where voting was open, only 18 per cent. +of votes being gained by the Government Party in wards with secret +ballot, whilst in districts with open vote 67·2 per cent. of votes +were gained by the Government_. That is why the Government abolished +the ballot and re-established in Hungary the shameful practice of open +voting. + +“Although some five and twenty Socialists and a dozen Liberals +succeeded in getting seats (mostly in wards with secret ballot), the +National Assembly only represents the interests of the great landed +estates. The peasantry is far more inadequately represented than it +was in the first Assembly. The great majority of the Assembly are +under the direct influence of the great landowners. The territory of +Hungary covers 7,404,383 hectares (about 18 million acres), of which +3,339,174 hectares (about 9 million acres) belong to 1,500 landlords, +each of them owning more than 575·5 hectares (about 1,400 acres). These +1,500 great landowners are the masters of the National Assembly by +permission of the Military Dictatorship. In this Parliament there is +restored the system of Tisza which was one of the primary factors of +war.” + +I must impress upon my readers that this is no highly coloured +report derived from anti-Magyar sources, but the actual wording of +a considered statement drawn up by five leading Magyars, and that +it describes, not an exceptional state of affairs under transitory +conditions, but the Hungarian elections of 1922 under the actual regime +which prevails at this moment in Hungary, the country, according to its +apologists, “whose ideals have so nearly approximated to our own for +centuries past.” + +The conclusions reached by the authors of the Memorandum are equally +interesting. + +“Military Dictatorship in Hungary is the obstacle to all real +parliamentarianism. That Parliament which was elected by the force of a +terrorist suffrage does nothing but _strengthen military dictatorship_. +And as long as this Military Dictatorship, as long as the Governor’s +_détachements_ are in power, all Central Europe has reason to fear +that the peace of this hopelessly storm-tossed Europe will be utterly +broken by the Hungarian military gangs. The safety of Europe must not +depend on that same Ivan Hejjas, who, according to a recently published +record, made the following statement: ‘I have been watching events in +Austria for a long time. I have noticed that Austria is proceeding on +her downward path of ruin, so that the proclamation of Proletarian +Dictatorship will be inevitable.... _For some length of time I have +been systematically recruiting soldiers in all parts of the country in +order to form a body of insurgent troops.... I have organised these +bands with the single aim of being able to operate with them in a +more independent and uncontrolled fashion in the dismembered parts of +Hungary, as I cannot use the regular troops for some of my actions +which are prompted by patriotism._’” + +“But not only the peace of Central Europe is threatened at every moment +by Hungarian Reaction. As in Hungary civil war is not yet ended, as, +in defiance of the explicit agreement in the Treaty of Trianon, the +ruling classes are continually attacking the workers, the outbreak of +revolution in Hungary may be expected at any minute. This revolution +would certainly not leave untouched the European balance. Is it +imaginable that there should be no revolutionary tension in a country +where, for instance, the Sheriff at Vac breaks up a public meeting +dealing with economic measures with the declaration that ‘owing to the +recent elections the mood of the people is not such as to justify the +permission to hold public meetings’? Where the Home Secretary by Order +44, 126/1922, confers the power to allow or forbid the establishment of +Local Groups of Trade Unions on the local administrative authorities, +who may forbid them if they are pleased to think that the establishment +of the Local Group is ‘not sufficiently justified by public interest?’” + +“The dangers of a _coup d’état_ abroad and revolution at home will not +disappear in Hungary until Military Dictatorship disguised by a mock +Parliament is replaced by real democracy, real parliamentarianism. +Therefore, we are prompted by true patriotism (which is never opposed +to the interests of international civilisation), to beg all friends of +democracy, all true European citizens, to work for the transformation +of that state of mind which has allowed the restoration of feudalism +in Hungary, into one capable of restoring the ideas of the democratic +October Revolution of 1918, i.e. of Hungarian Democracy in the European +sense of the word. + +“_Finally, we desire to state that we are ready to prove all facts +mentioned in this Memorandum, as well as many points connected +with them, before the League of Nations or any other responsible +international institution by means of sworn testimony and documents._” + +The Memorandum is signed by its five authors. + +No more damning evidence of the rottenness of Hungary and Hungarian +institutions could be adduced. Karolyi and his associates, however +much they may be maligned by the military clique in Hungary for their +actions in the fateful days of October 1918, at least attempted to +reorganise the Hungarian nation on modern democratic lines. That they +failed does not alter their intentions or deprive their criticism of +the present state of affairs of its value.[54] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] “This paroxysm of fury died down gradually, but still I have +witnessed scenes like the following: It is evening in a Budapest café. +One of those cafés which are always full, in which a large part of the +life of the citizens is passed. Suddenly men are heard running in the +street outside; carriages drive up at full speed; at the door appear +various uniforms, belonging to the various officers’ _détachements_, +and behind them about a hundred adherents of the anti-Semitic League +of Awakening Magyars or __Awakened Magyars. A panic ensues in the +café. Customers are to be seen crawling under the billiard table and +the sofas, some run to the closets, others to the telephone. But an +Awakened Magyar stops the latter with the words: ‘It’s no good trying +to warn the police, all the wires are cut!’ Meanwhile the officers pass +from table to table politely asking everyone to justify themselves, +as they call it, that is to say, to show their identity papers. A Jew +is recognised merely by the way in which he gets up before anything +is even asked of him. He is immediately seized and passed from hand +to hand, and by a magical process he has not reached the door before +he has been relieved on the way of his pocket-book, purse, watch and +cigar-case. Then he is thrown to the crowd, which receives him with +howls and execrations, of which I remember this one: ‘Knock him on the +head, in case he gets crippled!’ The café having been purged, the band +of inquisitors salutes the remaining customers politely and goes on +elsewhere to repeat its not over heroic exploit. + +“One day, in the course of one of these affrays, a Jew urged in +his defence that he had been baptized, and forthwith produced his +certificate of baptism. + +“‘All right,’ replied the officer. ‘Say the Lord’s Prayer.’ + +“‘Our Father, Who art in heaven----’ + +“The recent Christian knew no more. He was incontinently bundled into +the street ‘to learn the rest.’”--(J. and J. Thiraud, _Quand Israel est +Roi_.) + +[52] In a “manifesto” published during the winter of 1921-1922, Hejjas +and his fellow-ruffian Baron Pronay speak of the work of the National +Assembly as “Two years of cockcrowing” in which “traitors and perjurers +have talked the loudest.” The Manifesto goes on to say: “Till now we +have watched with clenched fist the game of the National Assembly, +though anger has choked us. Yet amid the sighs of our starving +frost-pinched women and half-naked children we have proved that we too +desire order--the Christian order. But we have waited long enough. We +mean now to enter on paths of deeds.” + +[53] See page 145. + +[54] At the time of going to press the Budapest Parliament is about to +consider two Bills introduced by the Government. The first deals with +Public Order, and, among other things, provides for the internment in +“Labour Institutes” of any person who by his political tendencies may +prove obnoxious to the authorities. The second deals with Military +Taxation, and ordains that every male Hungarian subject between the +ages of 20 and 31 shall be liable to a poll-tax, unless he enrols +himself in the army, the gendarmerie, the police or the customs or +forestry services. This Bill is thus a thinly veiled measure of +conscription, and is in any case contrary to the provisions of the +Treaty of Trianon. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HUNGARY AND DEMOCRACY + + +The result of the War may justly be described as the victory of +liberal ideas and the triumph of democracy. The autocratic empires +have disappeared, and upon their ruins have been built up a series of +States in which the Government is founded upon the will of the people. +Hungary under her present regime is the only exception. In name a +republic, she is in fact ruled by an oligarchy which controls her +policy, both internal and external, in its own interests and without +reference to the welfare of the mass of her people. The whole history +of Hungary since the Compromise demonstrates the opposition exerted +by the Magyars to modern democratic ideals and the intensity of their +struggle for the maintenance of privilege. We see the Magyar ruling +caste, represented by such men as Apponyi and Tisza, straining every +effort to deprive not only the non-Magyar nationalities, but the lower +classes of their own race, of every vestige of participation in the +legislation of the country. Nor did their measures of repression stop +at disenfranchisement. Popular education was made as difficult as +possible, lest the downtrodden classes should find in it a means of +equalling their masters. Every commune in Hungary had its local despot, +the nominee of the greater despot at the head of the county, who was in +turn the trusted deputy of the central Government. The life, public +and private, of the individual was in the hands of these men; the +possession of ideas contrary to the policy of the ruling class was so +practically discouraged that the only alternatives before the Hungarian +citizen were their abandonment or else emigration to a country where +the political atmosphere was purified by the breezes of freedom. + +Under these conditions it was natural that the Hungarian nation should +become divided into two contrasting and antagonistic sections: the +Great Magyars, the upper classes which formed the military caste, and +the uneducated and politically unimportant lower classes, which formed +the mass of the nation. The War brought a measure of enlightenment +to these latter, as it brought enlightenment to so many hitherto +unconsidered fractions of the world’s population. But, owing to the +policy of their masters, they sought this enlightenment not from their +own countrymen, but from the disciples of Marx, who whispered in their +ears the delusive but enticing doctrines of Communism. The sense of +patriotism was killed, and no clear ideas were born in them to replace +it. + +The long pressure of the War and the final realisation of defeat let +loose upon Hungary this accumulated flood of supreme dissatisfaction. +But those who were dissatisfied knew only that the ancient form of +government was corrupt. Their lack of education in the past, and +the influences to which they had recently been subjected, made it +impossible for them to visualise the true principles of democracy. It +was too late for Karolyi and his associates to build up on the ruins +of the old Monarchy any enduring structure of popular government. The +stream had been dammed up too long; the dam once broken, the raging +torrent refused confinement in constitutional channels. Bolshevism, +the sinister tutor of the Magyar populace, was already entrenched, +largely by the influence and financial support of the Jews. Karolyi was +hated by the Great Magyars for what they termed the surrender of the +ideals of the Magyar State, and mistrusted by the people as a member of +the ruling class. From the first his fall was inevitable. Hungarians +have blamed the Entente for what followed, but outside agencies had +little influence on the course of events. The scourge of Bolshevism +which swept over Hungary was in reality the inevitable consequence of +the traditional Magyar policy, as surely as the Reign of Terror in +France was the inevitable consequence of the policy of the Monarchy. +Hungary lay helpless at the feet of a gang of ruffians who maintained +themselves by the simple expedient of affording a licence to the +lowest classes of an exasperated populace for unrestrained robbery and +violence. + +Nor was it Hungary who saved herself from this orgy of destruction and +bloodshed. The various attempts at counter-revolution were utterly +unsuccessful until the world became alarmed at the prospect of the +plague spreading. To Rumania was assigned the task of restoring order, +and in her execution of it she displayed an ability and a restraint +which will for ever redound to her credit. Bolshevism was extinguished, +and Hungary was once more given a chance to take her place among the +nations of Europe. + +From the first it was made clear to her that modern Europe could not +tolerate a reactionary Monarchy in its midst. The new democratic States +had suffered too greatly at the hands of that Monarchy to render it +possible for them to view its re-establishment without alarm. But there +was nothing to prevent the Magyar nation from choosing for themselves +an unrestricted middle course between the rock of absolutism and the +abyss of Soviet misrule. It might have been imagined that her recent +history would have taught Hungary wherein lay her political salvation. + +But the suppression of Bolshevism had produced a swing of the pendulum +as violent as that which had followed the collapse of the Monarchy. To +those who had suffered under the blood rule of Bela Kun and Szamueli +the old ruling class appeared as their only saviours. They thought only +of the vengeance against their late oppressors, and their untrained +minds did not foresee the effects of the reinstatement of the very +class from whose yoke the War had released them. But the restored +military clique perceived their opportunity and from the first took +full advantage of it. On the pretext of extirpating the remains of +Bolshevism, they secured their ascendancy by the removal of those +who were likely to oppose them, and by the erection of national +institutions which could be relied upon to support their policy. +The world at large and even the Hungarian proletariat were deceived +by their specious promises, and it was not until their unsuccessful +attempts to restore the Monarchy revealed their true aims that either +perceived their mistake. + +Hungary to-day differs little from the Hungary of the years before +the War. It is ruled by an oligarchy whose agents strive their +hardest to disguise the fact. The old oppression of all democratic +ideals continues, rendered more dangerous by the determination of +the jealous rulers of the State to undermine their neighbours, in +whose territories these ideals flourish. Hungary, while professing +poverty and proclaiming her impossibility to exist within the limits +imposed by the Treaties, expends her revenues in the maintenance of a +military organisation with which at the propitious moment to attempt +the invasion of the surrounding States. Despite the teachings of +history, despite the convictions of the modern world that territories +belong to the races which inhabit them, the Magyars still insist upon +their ridiculous conception of a “unitary Magyar State,” and pretend a +divine right to the lands over which St. Stephen ruled. The prosperity +and wealth of the nation is sacrificed by them to the vision of the +restoration of the former Hungary, while the political consolidation of +the present Hungary remains uncared for. It is the fable of the dog and +the bone over again. + +The statement that under modern conditions no nation can continue to +exist in splendid isolation has become the sheerest truism. Every +nation is more or less dependent upon the goodwill of its neighbours, +more especially those nations upon the continent of Europe which +are surrounded by States with which a reciprocal intercourse is an +essential to their existence. But on the other hand, apart altogether +from any exhibition of definite hostility, no oligarchy can secure +really sympathetic consideration by the popular mind of a democratic +country. Hungary’s rulers complain of the coldness of their neighbours; +of the antagonism displayed towards them by the Entente Powers. +But they make no attempt to bring their country into line with the +requirements of the present day; they seem unable to comprehend the +very meaning of the principles by which democratic states are governed. +A recent Magyar apologist compares the state of Croatia-Slavonia under +Magyar rule with the state of any of the great British Dominions. He +apparently believes that the height of democratic ideals was reached by +the permission accorded to the Croatian deputies to deliver speeches in +their own language in the Budapest Parliament. + +Until Hungary abandons her present reactionary tendencies and adopts +in their place the liberal ideas which from time to time have for an +instant shown themselves within her borders,[55] only to be quenched +by the energetic action of the Magyar oligarchs, she cannot hope for +the sympathy of the world. Her actions must be regarded with mistrust; +the utterances of her leaders must be judged only by their actions. +Defiance and propaganda can be no substitute for a genuine intention +to abandon the errors and the absolutism of the past, and to develop a +true Hungary along the lines of modern progress. + +Meanwhile, Hungary’s neighbours, eager to proceed to the restoration +of normal conditions within their borders, and prepared to devote all +their resources to that end, are compelled to spend a large proportion +of their energies in watching Hungary and concerting measures of +defence against her aggressions, moral and physical. They dare not +expose an unguarded flank to the _Awakening Magyars_, whose declared +object is the restoration of the former Hungary by force of arms, +or to the “League for the Defence of Hungary’s Integrity,” which +strives towards the same end by force of propaganda. Central Europe is +conscious of the volcano in its midst, and longs only for the fires +in the volcano to become extinct, so that it may become a firmly +established democratic mountain. Nowhere is there any antagonism to +Hungary as a State. One of the foremost leaders of thought in the new +States has said: “There can be no doubt that the democratic ideas and +principles of all these neighbour States are just one huge guarantee +of peace and order, and of the definitive creation of friendly +relations and a commonsense system of live and let live among the +various nations. If the popular classes in Hungary grasped in this +respect their political and national problem, they would quickly +recognise in what manner this crisis should be solved. Ninety-five +per cent. of their difficulties with their neighbours would diminish +the moment these neighbours perceived a tendency towards democracy and +republicanism, and could be without anxiety regarding the internal +regime in Hungary.... History teaches us that we and the Magyars cannot +live in permanent opposition and hostility to each other.”[56] + +It remains then for the Hungarian nation to abandon its present policy +of obstinacy and wilful blindness. However great her efforts may be, +they will not enable her to reverse the flow of the river of modern +tendencies. The old days of isolation of State from State are gone, +never to return, and the establishment of a mediæval feudalism is no +longer possible in modern Europe. Unless Hungary consents to look +facts in the face, unless she abandons her propaganda and her armed +bands and sets herself to develop the Magyar race as the nationalities +she once described so contemptuously as “subject races” have already +developed themselves, the future can hold nothing for her but ruin. +The false policy of its rulers is rapidly driving the “thousand years +old Magyar nation” towards collapse and ultimate extinction. At the +field of Mohacs Hungary fell gloriously, her valour overcome only +by overwhelming odds. But, unless the Magyars abandon their present +“awakening” for one more in accordance with practical politics, the +fall which threatens their country now will be the ignominious failure +of a nation which refuses to grasp its own destiny. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[55] As, for instance, in 1848 and 1918. + +[56] Dr. Beneš in the _Czechoslovak House of Deputies_, January 27, +1921. + + + + +INDEX + +NOTE.--_An asterisk indicates that the reference will be found in the +footnote to the page indicated._ + + + Agram, _see_ Zagreb + + Alison Phillips, Professor, 10 + + Andrassy, Count, 30, 84, 144 + + Anti-semitic persecutions, 187* + + Apponyi, Count, 20, 26, 31, 35, 39, 45, 46, 82, 83, 86, 95, 117, 181, + 193, 198 + + Ausgleich, 13, 15, 44, 46, 78, 198 + + Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, 5 + + “__Awakened Magyars,” 109, 186, 187, 187*, 192, 193, 203 + + _Az Est_, 144 + + _Az Ujsag_, 8 + + + Banffy, Count, 26, 124, 125 + + Beksics, Gustave, 27 + + Beneš, Dr., 204* + + Bethlen, Count, 125, 146 + + Beust, 49, 50 + + Bismarck, 29, 30 + + Björnson, 37, 62, 66, 85, 137 + + _Björnson et Apponyi_, 38* + + Bohemia, Kingdom of, 117 + + Bokanyi, Deszo, 36 + + Bolshevism in Hungary, 99, 102, 106, 183, 199 + + Brittain, Sir Harry, 157* + + _Budapesti Hirlap_, 17, 26, 27, 46, 145 + + _Budapesti Kozlony_, 107 + + Burgenland, 113 + + + Calvinists, 19 + + _Chains_, 7, 8 + + Charles VI, 46 + + _Chicago Tribune_, 10 + + Children, transportation of, 79, 87 + + Cisar, Jaroslav, 115* + + Classical Schools, Slovak, 75, 79, 80 + + _Commentator, The_, 166 + + Compromise, _see_ Ausgleich + + _Courrier Européen_, 62 + + Croatia-Slavonia, 14, 41, 118, 119, 202 + + Croats, 14, 47 + + Csaky, Count, 40 + + Czechoslovak constitution, 118, 120, 140 + + Czechoslovak education, 118, 150, 151 _et seq._ + + Czechoslovak justice, 153 + + _Czechoslovak Republic, The_, 118,* 120* + + Czechoslovakia, 101, 112, 117 + + Czechs, the, 13, 28 + + Czernin, Count, 25, 99 + + + Daniel, Arnold, 104,* 106,* 107,* 108* + + Democratic Club outrage, 191 + + _Détachements_, 186, 187 + + Dictatorship of the Proletariat, 102, 135 + + Dualism, 50 + + + _Eastern Europe_, 115*, 157*, 179* + + _East European Problems_, 164 + + Electoral Law, 17, 18 + + Elementary schools, 72, 80 + + Emigration, 36, 87, 185 + + _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 10, 18*, 42*, 44* + + Entente, 30, 32 + + Eötvös, Baron, 20 + + Erno Baloghy, 15 + + Esterhazy, Count, 39 + + Expulsion of Slovaks from schools, 77 + + + Fiume, 43 + + Francis Joseph, 49, 50 + + Friedrich Decree of 1919, 131, 139, 146 + + Friedrich, Stephen, 104, 131* + + Frontiers, delimitation of, 113 + + + Gambetta, 29 + + Garbai, Alexander, 101 + + Germans, the, 14, 28 + + Germany, policy of, 30, 31, 92 + + Geza II, King, 43 + + Gömbös, Julius, 180, 193 + + Gorgei, 29, 49 + + Grabovsky, Juraj, 144 + + Gratz, Gustave, 170, 170*, 174 + + Greek Orthodox Church, 18, 19, 45 + + Grünwald, Bela, 22, 36 + + + Hegedüs, Dr., 95 + + Hejjas, Ivan, 188, 189, 195 + + _Highlands, The_, 22 + + Hlinka, Father, 66, 68, 69 + + Hock, John, 184 + + Horthy, Admiral, 10, 104, 107, 186, 189 + + Horthy regime, 105, 107, 125, 183 + + Hungarian agrarian policy, 95 _et seq._, 105, 106 _et seq._ + + Hungarian churches, 16, 18 + + Hungarian elections, 26, 59 _et seq._, 145, 181, 185, 191, 193, 195 + + Hungarian education, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 39, 72 _et seq._, 117, + 130, 133, 143 + + Hungarian feudalism, 125, 126, 184, 185, 194 + + Hungarian franchise, 17, 23, 55, 56, 93, 190 + + Hungarian institutions, 16 + + Hungarian justice, 16, 64 _et seq._, 139, 140 + + Hungarian languages, 16, 21 + + Hungarian legislation, 52, 197* + + _Hungarian Nation, The_, 164 + + Hungarian population, 5, 13, 17, 33, 34, 128 + + Hungarian propaganda, 100, 117, 155, 156, 160 _et seq._ + + Hungarian statistics, 34, 73, 130 + + Hungary-- + area, 5 + nationalities in, 33 + partition of, 6 + + Hussite wars, 46 + + + Illiteracy, 20, 21, 23, 137, 151 + + Infant Homes, 40 + + Irredentism, 116, 161, 170, 182, 202, 203 + + “Irredentist Banner,” 180, 181 + + + Jaszi, Oscar, 70, 93, 101, 105, 135, 184 + + Jerzabek, Deputy, 98 + + Joseph II, 47 + + Juriga, Ferdis, 67, 94 + + + Karolyi, Count, 99, 101, 102, 129, 184, 199 + + Kolozsvar, Diet of, 44 + + Königgrätz, battle of, 49 + + Kossuth, 31, 38, 48 + + Krisztics, Dr., 145*, 161, 168, 169 + + Kun, Bela, 102, 187, 201 + + + Latin, use of, 47 + + Law of Nationalities, 15, 16, 50, 64, 75, 131, 139, 146, 163, 167 + + League for the Defence of Hungary’s Integrity (__M.O.V.E.), 109, 161 + _et seq._, 169, 187, 203 + + League of Nations, 122, 123 + + Lederer, E., 38*, 84 + + _L’enseignement en Hongrie_, 41, 82 + + Little Entente, 122 + + Local Assemblies, 33 _et seq._, 132, 138 + + Local officials, 54 _et seq._, 78, 134, 141, 152, 155, 163, 167, 198 + + Lutherans, 9 + + + Mailath, Count Joseph, 42 + + Mandl, Leopold, 170, 170*, 171 + + _Magyar Culture and the Nationalities_, 15 + + Magyar Foreign Society, 181 + + _Magyar Irredenta_, 182 + + Magyar minorities, 147 _et seq._ + + __Magyar National Union, 179 + + Magyar, use of, 52, 53, 81, 136 + + _Magyars et Pangermanistes_, 30*, 35* + + Maria Theresa, 47 + + _März_, 66, 85 + + Masaryk, President, 118* + + “Memorandum” of Rumanian Party, 60, 66 + + Metternich, 31 + + Mezossy’s agrarian measure, 96, 97 + + Military Dictatorship, 186, 189, 195, 196 + + Minister of Racial Minorities, 135, 142, 143 + + + Nagy-Szeben, Diet of, 44 + + Names, Magyarisation of, 89, 90 + + National Assembly, 109, 186, 190, 194 + + _Nemzeti Akcio_, 27 + + _Nemzeti Ujszag_, 146 + + _Nepszava_, 188 + + _Neue Freie Presse_, 37 + + _New Europe, The_, 105 + + Newton, Lord, 7, 8, 9, 115 + + Niederle, Professor, 36 + + Nyitra, Lord Lieutenant of, 94 + + + Oedenburg, Germans in, 145, 146 + + _Old Diplomacy and New_, 112* + + Orgovany, massacres at, 186, 188 + + Osusky, Dr., 123, 124 + + _Outlaw’s Diary, An_, 110* + + _Oxford Hungarian Review_, 145* + + Oxford League for Hungarian Self-Determination, 180 + + + Pan-Slavism, 29, 86, 144 + + Peace Treaties, 6, 7, 9, 112, 118, 123, 148, 153, 158, 161, 167, 182, + 196 + + Pechany, 140, 141, 143, 144 + + People’s Republic, 101, 105, 106, 184, 185 + + _Pester Lloyd_, 8, 140 + + _Pesti Hirlap_, 95, 96, 97, 100, 142, 143 + + Petofi, 38 + + __Physical Force Formations, 187 + + Place-names, Magyarisation of, 54, 87, 88 + + Poland, 112 + + Press, freedom of, 190 + + Press prosecutions, 67, 68, 70 + + Price, Mr. Crawfurd, 179 + + Primary Education Act, 20 + + Private schools, subsidising of, 81, 83 + + Pronay, Baron, 189 + + + _Quand Israel est Roi_, 28*, 103*, 188* + + _Questions de l’Europe orientale_, 164 + + + Racial Minorities, 9, 10 + + _Racial Problems in Hungary_, 8, 10, 16, 19, 36, 40, 57, 72, 89, 108 + + Recent prosecutions, 130 + + Rakovszky, Stephen, 144 + + Red Terror, 104 + + Reich, Arpad, 170, 174 + + Rez, Dr., 27 + + Roman Catholic Church, 19 + + Rumania, 174, 200 + + Rumanians, the, 13, 18, 34, 43, 44, 155 _et seq._ + + _Rural, Social and Political Hungary_, 42 + + Ruthenes, the, 14, 18 + + Ruthenia, 118, 119, 142 + + + St. Stephen, 24, 54 + + _Saturday Evening Post_, 165 + + Saxons, the, 43, 47 + + Secondary schools, 72, 75 + + Serbs, the, 14, 18 + + Seton-Watson, Professor, 8, 10, 19, 122 + + _Slav Nation, The_, 36 + + Slavs, the, 34 + + _Slavs of the War Zone, The_, 119* + + Slovak language, 75, 178 + + Slovakia, 19, 115 + + Slovaks, the, 13, 19, 28, 36, 38, 47, 57, 58, 128, 135, 140, 141, + 142, 144 + + “Slovenska Matica,” 38 + + _Slovensky Vychod_, 101 + + Soviet Republic, 101, 104, 183 + + Szamueli, 102, 187, 201 + + Szechenyi, Count, 47, 48 + + Szeged, 103, 103*, 123 + + _Szegedi Naplo_, 95 + + Szekels, the, 14, 18, 43 + + + Teleki, Count, 103 + + Tisza, Coloman, 18, 22, 30, 50 + + Tisza, Count Stephen, 26, 94, 195, 198 + + Transylvania, 10, 14, 18, 19, 43, 44, 45, 125, 155 + + + Uniat Greek Church, 19 + + Union of Protective Leagues, 181 + + Union of University Students, 180, 181 + + Unitarians, 19 + + Universities, 74 + + Upper Hungarian League, 178 + + + Villagos, Battle of, 29, 49 + + Vyx, Colonel, 106 + + + Wekerle, Prime Minister, 82, 97 + + White Government, 103, 104, 109 + + White Terror, 104, 164, 186 + + Wilhelm II, 30 + + + Yugo-Slavia, 112, 154 + + + Zagreb, 42, 66 + + + + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED +LONDON AND WOKING + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber’s note + + +New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the +public domain. + +Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Hyphenation +and proper names were standardized. The word, ascendency was +standardized to ascendancy. + +Page number references in the index are as published in the original +publication and have not been checked for accuracy in this eBook. + +Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following +changes: + + Page 17: “eduational stipulations” “educational stipulations” + Page 17: “most curious pervertions” “most curious perversions” + Page 34: “excluding Crotia-Slavonia,” “excluding Croatia-Slavonia” + Page 49: “Prussians at Koniggratz in” “Prussians at Königgrätz in” + Page 65: “which judical procedure” “which judicial procedure” + Page 66: “the judical procedure” “the judicial procedure” + Page 102: “Budapest become the” “Budapest became the” + Page 116: “proof of thei capability” “proof of their capability” + Page 134: “chose the language they” “choose the language they” + Page 159: “dduce no trace” “adduce no trace” + Page 189: “_detachements_ is” “_détachements_ is” + Page 205: “Bekrics, Gustave, 27” “Beksics, Gustave, 27” + Page 206: “Königgratz, battle of, 49” “Königgrätz, battle of, 49” + Page 206: “L’enseignment en Hongrie” “L’enseignement en Hongrie” + Page 207: “Rakovsky, Stephen, 144” “Rakovsky, Stephen, 144” + Page 207: “Slovaks, the, 13, 19, 28, 36, 38, 47, 57, 58, 128, 138, 135” + “Slovaks, the, 13, 19, 28, 36, 38, 47, 57, 58, 128, 135” + Page 207: “Vilagos, Battle of, 29, 49” “Villagos, Battle of, 29, 49” + + + Footnote 43: “expresion “Reasonable”” “expression “Reasonable”” + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78696 *** |