Krónika, 1945 (2. évfolyam, 2-11. szám)
1945-09-15 / 9. szám
1945 szeptember 15-'■KRÓNIK A” 3-IK OLDAI initiated and that duty to defend this area must be laid on the peoples who live there and have shown in the past that they are quite capable of their own defense. It is of European interest that the fortress of the Carpathians, Sudetens and Alps are capable of selfdefense, and have therefore a unified military system, which, although leaving to each component its own army, secures a common armament, common training and common command for all the Danubian nations- This is the unique material way for the Danubian nations to remain free, and not to rely on help from the West, as did Austria and Czechoslovakia. The situation due to the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia by German is from the point of view of the security of the Danube and the European balance of powers definitely unbearable. The German forces were in possession of the western defenses, the Austrian Alps and the Sudeten, and have taken foothold on the southern slopes of the Carpathian mountains in Slovakia. They resumed their advance southwards as soon as they wished, as there were no natural defenses to stem their advance. German’s way to the Balkans was open. The opposition between East and West. The reorganization of the Danubian area is not only difficult because of the national problem, but also because the eastern and south-eastern European pravoslav Byzantine culture comes in contact in this country with the western Danubian culture, Catholic or Protestant. Both cultures are basically different. This difference makes at least as strong a partition wall in the life of the nations as the national difference. And if -these cultural differences are perhaps not so noisy as the national differences, they are profounder and much more difficult to bridge over- The’difference between the pravoslav and the Western culture is not only a religious one, but -— by the task assumed by Christian Churches in that sections of Europe since the acceptance of Christianity more than 1000 years ago, — extends to the whole way of life, all principles, traditions and social ideas, the whole niveau of culture, every manifestation of social life, even to such things of economic importance as wages, niveau of prices of the quality of the working performance. The Churches in the East were until the XIX-th century not only concerned with the welfare of soul and body of the nations, but were also the scientists, artists, doctors and teachers in spiritual, agricultural and industrial matters, thus implanting their whole spirit and way of living into the nations. Abstract thinking as well as practical experience must teach us, that it is more sane to frankly admit these differences than to negate them. As the differences are much profounder here than in the national fights, it is better to separate the people, so as to avoid the inevitable frictions, than to force them to a common life. This must not necessarily mean an absolute political separation, but in any case the reduction of the political common life to the inevitable minimum. This point of view was not considered in the last peacetreaties. They forced into one centralized state the Pravoslav Serbs with their highly developed Balkan consciousness, and the absolutely western, Roman-Catholic Croats; more interesting even, from this point of view, were the reactions of the Transylvanians when they came under Balkan rule. The Transylvanian Roumanians are not only socially and nationally, but to a huge part even religiously identical with the Roumanians of older Roumania. Nevertheless, living through centuries in an atmosphere of western-Danubian culture, they showed little capacity to adapt themselves to the Balkan way of living and always kept their typical Transylvanian reactions in public and private life. Their leaders, although undoubtedly loyal and devoted to the Roumanian state, were never in absolute concordance with the spirit that reigned in Bucharest-One can quite generally admit that a region with western culture feels itself very unhappy, if it is under Balkan-Pravoslav domination. The lower level, the spirit of servitude and the tendency towards corruption of the former Ottoman Empire have left permanent traces in the Balkan. The undeveloped feeling of social responsibility, the low wages and low prices act destructively on the moral and material life of western-Danubian groups used to a higher moral and material standard. If .the Balkan had not reached so far into the Danubian area after the last war, the goodneighbourly understanding would be far better between the Danubian and Balkan states. Looking back on the experience of 20 years, one can realize, that the extension of the Balkan into great Danubian arears was decisively unfortunate. Resuming this point it is certain that there ezists a profound incompatibility between the Pravoslav Balkan and the Catholic and Protestáns western Danubian culture, an incompatibility which makes a common life between the boundaries of an Unitarian, centralized state for a long term practically impossible. The end of economic isolation. The pre-war Austro-Hungarian Monarchy formed a soundly equilibrated economical unity. From the agricultural point of view, she was nearly self sufficient, worked little for export and could therefore jecure adequate prices for her agrarian areas through a moderate custom barrier. In industry, Austria-Hungary was active in many branches, and therefore permitted the possibility of creating capital and wealth- These advantages helped greatly to support the political independence of the country and made her independent even from the near-by German market. The peace-treaties replaced the roughly 5000 milés of moderate custom barriers by 8500 miles of economic Chinese walls, which through the economical and political fight of the Danubian states not only destroyed the common economic realm, and the common traffic system, but also pushed all the interested countries into an insane tendency towards autarchy, the agricultural parts trying to industrialize, and the industrial regions building up an economically unsound agriculture. This error had the most grave results for both the economic and political capacity of the Danubian area to stand free in face of the German aggression. This experience of the last twenty years must teach the Danubian countries to return to sound economic principles and to give up political points of view in a merely economic question. The economic principles which can secure a better future in the Central Danube valley are: a) The progressive abolition of all the custom barriers in sucb a why that this abolition may not produce in the interested countries too sudden a shock. There must be left a time for each national economy to adapt herself to the new conditions of Danubian free-trade b) Common creation of a general Danubian tariff for all Danubian countries towards the other non-Danubian countries. c) The unification of the Danubian road, railroad, airline and waterways traffic regulations. d) Adaption of all the national currencies to a common level, so as to finally arrive at a common Danubian currency with a common Danubian National Bank. The principles of a reorganization of the Danubian area, shortly summarized, should be the following: 1. The Central Danubian valley must be considered as a territory with its own character and own independent traditions and must therefore be organized separately from the Polish-Baltic region north of the Carpath and from the Balkan in the South-East- This does not mean, that between these three bolcks or two of them, there may not be in the future an intimate collaboration on every ground of human activity. 2. The traditional collaboration between the Danubian nations is to be reestablished. 3. National difficulties to be eliminated by applying the nationality principle through general establishment of autonomy for each" nationality, based on the democratic principle of equality of rights in linguistic, cultural and educational questions. 4. All this must be executed in such a manner, that the unity of defense in the area comprised between the Carpaths, Sudeten Mountains and Austrian Alps can be fully realized. 5. This reorganization must prevent the eastern and Balkan Pravoslav influence from spreading to areas with western-Danubian culture. 6- It will be necessary to reestablish the economic and financial unity, after a time of adaptation for the independent economic, unities of today. What/countries belong to the Central Danubian Valley? This question can be answered from three different points of view: the military, economic and cultural angle. The military angle must naturally be first thought of with the question of security, which is assured through the natural border. This MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM S. KEY az Egyesült Állaok budapesti katonai bizottságának vezetője, átadja a Magyar Vörös Keresztnek az Amerikai Magyar Segélyakció első gyógyszerküldeményét.
