Krónika, 1946 (3. évfolyam, 2-10. szám)

1946-07-15 / 7. szám

VOLUME in. ÉVFOLYAM.

1946 JULIUS 15.

NO. 7. SZÁM*

ARCHDUKE OTTO: If we do the

old mistakes all over , Central

Europe will become the starting point of the third World War.

FROM CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 77th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION.

Mr. Jarman. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the Record, I include the following address delivered by Otto of Austria-Hungary at the luncheon of the political-science group of the Library of Congress, on June 10, 1942:

One of the greatest problems which confronts us today is the problem of the coming peace. It is our duty to study that problem as thoroughly as our workers do today their war-job. We must do so in order that our soldiers should not die in vain.

While approaching the coming peace we must bear clearly in blind the fundamental principles which we want to see triumphant. J believe that the goal of the coming peace muse be: That we can assure the world a time of security and thus give all the nations the advantages of freedom and economic prosperity. In order to achieve this goal, the coming peace must be realistic, constructive, and universal.

If We consider thus the problem of peace from the point of view of the whole world, or at least from continental points of view, it might seem, that the Danube area is a rather unimportant part in the general scene. But if we consider history., we might well accept that it is the heart of a continent. It was in the Danube area, that the Turkish attempt for world domination was crushed. It was the sacrifice of Hungary, which stopped the yellow invasion of the continent. It was Danubian unity, which for three centuries prevented the Prussian expansion to the southeast of Europe.

But first let us clearly determine what the Danubian area is. From a geographical point of view the central Danubian Valley is limited to the west by the Austrian Alps, to the north and northwest by the Sudeten Mountains and by the Carpathian Mountains, to the east by the Carpathian Mountains and the Transylvanian Alps. It is therefore a big natural fortress which to the south overlooks the Italian plain and to the east borders on the Balkan system. Its territory is roughly what used to be in the past Austria-Hungary. From a cultural point of view that area has its own particular culture which is a genuine mixture of Latin, Germanic, Slavonic,, and Magyar influences. That tuiture tends definitely to the west, and is much more closely related to Rome or Paris than to Berlin or the Balkan. From the economic point bf view that area as an entity is almost self-sufficient. Politically, finally, the Danubian area formed a unity for over 600 years.

The peace treaties which ended the last World War thoroughly Carved up the Danubian Basin. Instead of one state there were now five states which shared in the spoils of Austria-Hungary: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. These states [were established on the assumption of.the self-determination of the nations: unfortunately several nations were not asked. The borders [were drawn partly according to ethnic principles, partly from the millitary of security point of view. Specially the borders drawn for {military security were the subject of violent criticism. In fact, the peace {treaties themselves created the revisionist and antirevisionist movements and thus hampered successfully all tendency of collaboration between the nations.

From the economic point of view no sufficient provisions were {made to further collaboration between the nations. In fact, the newly created governments felt that economic self-sufficiency was a part of national sovereignty. So these governments established high custom barriers, the industrial countries like Austria and Czechoslovakia began feverishly to develop an artificial agriculture: the farming (countries like Hungary or Yugoslavia subsidized economically unsound industries. The free flow of goods which had been once the lifeblood of the Danubian economic system was cut off. And wherever the exchange still existed it was no longer object of peaceful internal competition but became a matter of international trade, regulated by treaties and contingents. So the economy along the Danube was never able to recuperate from the losses of the last W o r 1 d W a r . This economic disease was the deep reason of the weakness of European economies. It is not a mere coincidence that the world economic crisis started in Vienna, the heart of the Danube Valley, with the collapse of the greatest Danubian bank, the Creditanstalt. *

Finally the Paris peace treaties created a serious problem in the Danubian area — the question of minorities. The succession states were [based on one or two privileged state nations, to the disadvantage of lall the others—the minorities. As the nations of the Danubian Basin are not confined to definite areas but largely scattered and mixed it is quite impossible to draw the frontiers according to strictly ethnographic borders. In Yugoslavia, for example, the Serbs did not even have a majority of the total population; neither did the Czechs in Czechoslovakia. As soon as a state declares by law one group of its citizens to be permanently regarded as a minority, this group will permanently refuse to be satisfied with this discrimination, because only equality of rights and duties can give a state a lasting moral foundation.

So the picture of the Danubian area when Hitler came into power was one of political disunity, aconomic bankruptcy and national strife,

The small states who, united, would have been able to withstand agression, quarreled to the bitter end. Disunited they fell. The military invasion of Austria paved the way to Hitler’s bloodless march to Prague. By dominating Prague, he outflanked Poland and Hungary, and by dominating the policies in Budapest he became the overlord of the Balkans ans spread his unconditional influence to Italy. The last step in that series was the invasion of Russia.

It is in the light of these historic experiences that the next peace treaties must be made. It is obvious that we cannot return to a status quo which has created Hitler and his successes. But it would be unwise to simply overthrow tihe principles of 1921. What we would need is a wise synthesis between the principles of 1914 and of 1921.

This would mean for the Danubian area first of all the absolute land unconditional liberation of the whole country from the Nazi yoke. (I say absolute and unconditional on purpose because if we would make the mistake to leave to the Germans only 1 square mile of Hitler’s (conquest, it would teach the German people that aggression pays. 'From this point of view I frankly cannot understand certain people in the great democracies who still are not ready to declare, on account of some legal quibbling, the Austria and the Sudeto-German area will be liberated from the German yoke.