Levéltári Közlemények, 43. (1972)

Levéltári Közlemények, 43. (1972) 2. - FORRÁSKÖZLÉS - Kanyar József: Brit diplomáciai iratok a magyarországi földreformok történetéhez, 1920–1945 / 403–417. o.

416 Kanyar József soldiers, to cross over to the new Army. The population of West Hungary was urged to form village Committees as in Liberated Hungary, and warned that supporters of Szálasi would not get land. 5. Soviet broadcasters strongly seconded these appeals and urged speed, and the Generals may have felt that unless they hurried the Bill into force, suspicions of their democratic intentions might arise. 6. The Law as now enacted does not differ substantially from the draft first put forward by the National Peasant Party. 37. One other special and urgent difficulty is likely to arise out of local circumstances. In some areas of Hungary, e. g. Baranya, the distribution of land is already healthy. There are few big estates and also only a small agricultural proletariat. Moreover, these areas contain many members of the Volksbund. Here there would be more than enough land to satisfy all claimants. In Fejér or Szabolcs there is a big agricultural proletariat, but also many big estates. But there are also some notorious congested areas, especially in Heves and Zala, where there is a dense agricultural proletariat and relatively little available land. The agricultural workers of these areas have been accustomed to go aut seasonally in gangs to other parts of the country. If it is true that distribution has already begun, and is largely in the hands of local Committees, on which local claimants are largely represented, if its to be feared that painful inequalities may result. 38. Finally, it is clear that if the terms "Fascists", "enemies of the people", etc. are used in an extensive sense, a vertical cleavage in" Hungarian society will result which may be much more unsettling than the horizontal operation of simply destroying a relatively small "feudal" landowning class. Not only 95 per cent of the Vitézi Rend, but very many of the Arrow Cross rank and file are small men and landless labourers (many of whom have in their day also been adherents of the Communist Party, the Smallholders' Party and whatnot). If the reform is used simply to satisfy . the claims of one political group, leaving the remainder in the same state as they were before, it will not have provided a final solution to the social and political problems of Hungary, 39. Agricultural production may, to judge by analogies, be expected to decrease at first. In general, production of most crops in Hungary has been lower on the small estates than on the large, and above all, it has been inferior in quality, as the most modern methods have in use only on some of the big estates. Thus over the years 1931—1941 the average yield per hold on estates of 100 hold and over exceeded that on holdings of 20 hold and under-by the following percentages: wheat 24, rye 22.4, barley 24, oats 31.2, potatoes 23.8, maize 16, fodder or root crops 18.7, lucerne 13.7, It was stimated that land reform by distribution would reduce the total agricultural production by 80—100 million quintals a year, thus reducing the national income by some 2000 million pengő. 40. On the other hand, the smaller holdings (altough not the dwarf-holdings) carried a somewhat heavier animal population, and the yield of some corps, notably industrial plants, was heavier on the smaller holdings. 41. The modern progressive school argues that by concentrating on dairy farming, industrial crops, ets. Hungarian small-holding farming could attain and ever surpass present production. Less wheat would be produced, but her rather one-sided reliance on wheat production has proved economically dangerous to Hungary in the past. To raise small-holding production, however, material assistance is again necessary (provision of live-stock, stabling and implements), as well as agricultural education, and an essential condition, according to the experts, is a large-scale compulsory consolidation, as existing holdings are often composed of a fantasticnumber of tiny, widelyseparated plots. 42. Wheat production will certainly be less economical in man-power if carried out in smallholdings. 43. While total production may end by exceeding present figures, the quantities available for trade, internal and external, will undoubtedly fall, as much more will be consumed by the ownergrower. At present a large proportion of the agricultural proletariat is very much undernourished during most of the year. 4th April, 1945. Research Department, Foreign Office. PRO FO R 6502/26/21 Kanyar József /