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Title: Hungary and Democracy
Author: Cecil J. C. Street
Author of introduction, etc.: T. P. O'Connor
Release date: May 16, 2026 [eBook #78696]
Language: English
Original publication: London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNGARY AND DEMOCRACY ***
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””
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