Papers and Documents relating to the Foreign Relations of Hungary, Volume 1, 1919–1920 (Budapest, 1939)
Appendix III. Parliamentary debates
i969 sion of various municipal forests and pastures divided by the new boundaries. And although the frontier delimitation commissions will have authority to draw other boundaries, the determination of new boundaries will call for the consideration of a maze of questions. It is not single problems that will have to be met but the economic life of whole regions will have to be adjusted. As to how difficult these will be we have several examples, not only on our own boundaries but — to use another's experience — on the Serb —Rumanian boundary in the Bánát. (Commotion.) I may say that this is not, perhaps, always a result of ill will but occasionally of a certain superficiality which characterizes some of the treaty provisions. For instance, the new frontier separates the railroad station of Nagylak from the village itself; the same was done on the Serb —Rumanian boundary in the Bánát in the case of the village of Bálkány. Then there are a host of other problems. The division of cities from their waterworks, as, e. g., in Sátoraljaújhely; the separation of factories from their source of raw materials, as, e. g., the separation of the Ecsed marshes from Börgönd. In a word, there are a number of problems which have to be solved and where natural forces and sober economic realities will assert themselves since such questions cannot be solved on paper. (Approval.) In financial matters, there will be the problem of our public debt which before the war was 390 crowns per head and which has risen now to 5,000 crowns, computed in the old currency. There will arise many other questions dealing not merely with the past but also those relating to future development. You will allow me again to cite a French authorithy, this time M. Clementil, Minister of Commerce in the former French cabinet, who said: „The period of laziness in Europe is of the past. No tract of land should bring less than the maximum; no mine should be left undeveloped; no drop of water should fall on the mountain slopes without utilization." Well, if we wish to exploit Europe according to such principles, then we must in many respects depart from this peace structure and I believe the various commissions will find ample opportunity to lead Europe from the platform of the peace treaties to that generally desired platform which we call the real peace of Europe. (Applause.) There is one more thing I should like to mention. In the British House of Lords, Lord Crawford expressed the hope of the British Government that Hungary's neighbours would realize that they will have to establish friendly relations with Hungary and assist her so that she, together with all Eastern Europe, can make a new start in economic activity and work for prosperity.
