Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-04-01 / 8. szám
THE HOLY CROWN (continued from page 5) Hungary was considered as the property of the Holy Crown. Old maps indicate this by stating that what they depict are the Szentkorona országai (the countries of the Holy Crown) and not simply "Hungary", and this term included Hungary proper, Transylvania, Croatia and, from 1779 on, the Adriatic seaport Fiume (today: Rijeka, in Croatia). In fact the situation with Fiume illustrates the best this concept. When in 1776 Maria Theresia, King (not queen!) of Hungary (1740-80) transferred this seaport to Hungary, there was a brief controversy, because Fiume was surrounded by Croatia, but the inhabitants of the city (overwhelming Italians) did not want to belong to it. Therefore, in 1779 Maria Theresia issued a complimentary document emphasizing that from then on, Fiume is a corpus separatum Sacrae Coronae regni Hungáriáé, i.e., a separate body of the Hungarian Holy Crown The "ownership"of the Holy Crown over the land of the country was later further enhanced by experts of constitutional law. It is almost impossible to translate into English their fine distinction between földtulajdon (the property of land) and földbirtok (the ownership of land). According to this, by definition, the Holy Crown is the supreme proprietor of all the lands, and the individuals only own their particular part by a special grant from the Crown. Although the "concept of the Holy Crown" sounds fairly archaic, in fact, it can be easily adapted to the present conditions and in my opinion easily related even to the Republican form of government. After all, what this concept says is that the citizens of the country, as a group, are the supreme authority: they are the “regnum”. Accordingly the Holy Crown is not a relic, a museum piece or a monument of the past, but it is a symbol of this authority, the symbol of the country. It represents the continuity between past, present and future: the elected leaders of the country exercise their power as its representatives, irrelevant to whether the country is lead by a king, a regent, a president or by a government responsible to the elected assembly of the nation. If we look it in this way, we may not oppose the idea of permanently depositing the Holy Crown in the Parliament building instead of the National Museum and continue to consider it as the embodiment of Hungary and the Hungarians. Dr. Leslie S. Ettre is a retired scientist, living in Bridgeport. He is also an amateur historian, studying mainly the evolution of various chemical laboratory techniques but occasionally, also various historical events. Bakó, Elemér: “MAGYAROK AZ AMERIKAI egyesült Államokban” Öt évszázad válogatott történetei, 1583- 1998. (Hungarians in the United States: Five Centuries of Selected Historical Essays). Published in Budapest by the Magyarok Világszövetsége Nyugati Régiója, 1998. 154 pages, text in Hungarian. The book under review is one of the volumes in a series, , “A VILÁG MAGYARSÁGA” (Hungarians of the World), initiated by the World Federation of Hungarians, which in the course of time will have many similar volumes. It is partially an anecdotal history of the Hungarians in the United States, and partially a book of facts on their most noted institutions, publications and personalities. The volume starts with an introduction by László Papp, the Founding President of the American Council of the World Federation of Hungarians. This is followed by the editor's preface, and then by nearly two dozen short essays of unequal length and of diverse nature about the Hungarian American past. Together these twentyodd essays cover over four centuries that span the period between the arrival of Stephen Parmenius of Buda in 1583 and the year 1998. Some of these essays have already appeared in print elsewhere, others were delivered as speeches on various occasions, while still others were written specifically for this volume. The essays cover such topics as the tragic life of Stephen Parmenius, the fascinating adventures of Captain John Smith, Prince Ferenc Rakoczi's connections to the New World, Sándor Bölöni-Farkas' travels in early nineteenth-centuiy America, Ágoston Haraszthy’s role as the "father" of Californian viticulture, Louis Kossuth's tour of the United States and its significance for American-Hungarian relations, and many others. In addition to these topics, the editor also included some usefol statistical tables on Hungarian immigration to the United States and Canada. President Harry Truman’s 1952 letter to the American Hungarian Federation and to Hungarian Americans in general, as well as a list of Hungarian Nobel Laureates and those who should also have received the Nobel Prize. The documentary section of the volume includes a list of Hungarian churches, institutions and associations, schools, scout troops, cultural and political organizations as well as a selection of newspapers, periodicals, and radio and television stations in the United States. The enclosed essays are interesting, reliable and delightful to. read. The documentary section has some associations and institutions, though some no longer exist. Some of these are listed under different names, some of them are headed by persons who have died years ago. Same with newspapers. Also immigration statistics were not updated beyond 1972. Elemér Bakó's book is a commendable undertaking and easy reading that will be of considerable use to many. But as the World Federation of Hungarians intended this work to be an often-used handbook, a second edition should update and expand the immigration statistics, and also clean up some data in the appendix. Steven Béla Várdy Since this subject is also part of the American history it would be beneficial to have it published in English. Page 6 (Editor)
