Magyar külpolitika, 1930 (11. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)

1930 / 5. szám - Anton Eber, president of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry

October 1930 HUNGARIA LLOYD 27 washed Hungary's boundaries. Yet neither the extended nor the reduced territory was durable,. 11 Was not, because it could not be! The semi-arch oj the Carpathian mountains and the southern river frontier hare at all time's extended or diminished the frontiers around the original self-contained territory bounded by them. It is beyond any doubt, also the future will prove it, that reality is based on eternal laws the logic of which cannol be disputed. Then, may be, the cutting up of pre-war Hun gary resulted in the creation of a new economic unit better adapted to serve the interests of Europe and the population of the countries concerned.? This also is contrary to the facts! Pre-war Hungary was a prosperous self-contained territory in which production and demand complemented each other ideally. The Carpathian and Transylvanian mountains abound in forests and mines of all kinds and supplied the Hungarian lowland with timber, fire' wood, .salt and all sorts of ores and minerals, whilst the arable land in the heart of the country furnished the mountain regions with grain and all other necessary agricultural produce. After many centuries of mutual dependence, the forced dissection of the country Jias equally rendered miserable both old Hungary's mountain regions and tier lo'wlands. The population of the mountain regions is unable to find the means for economic existence under the new riders and is, therefore, living in hopeless misery, wJiilst the lowlands in the form of present Hungary, detached from their organically complementary surroundings, are also labouring under difficult economic conditions. The first visible result of this fact, already noticed by the interested foreign countries, is that the ruined Hungary is gradually losing its importance as a market for the industrial production of other countries. To give a true picture of the impossible conditions resulting from the new arrangements attention must be drawn to the way in which the complete hydraulic system of the enclosed semi-circle and the well arranged railway network of pre-war Hungary have been cut into pieces by the Trianon frontiers. The rivers originating on the slopes of the Carpathian mountains all take their course1 towards the great Plain and are destined to promole a wonderful fertility. But to make this ideally complete and uniform water system a blessing to ihe lowlands instead of a curse it is absolutely essential that both the upper and the lower courses of the rivers should he under /lie same ad'minisira Hon. The irrigation and canalisation of the Great Plain of Hungary, the plans for which were under careful consideration already by the Government of pre-war Hungary, are most practically feasible if the dikes required for the construction of canals, are built in the upper courses of the rivers. Since the forced partition of Hungary this lias become impossible: the fertilising pawer of the rivers of the Carpathian region has been lost lo\ the Hungarian Plain. Another fatal result of dividing the rivers is that the effective protection against inundation of the Hungarian lowlands is made more difficult, Inundation can only l»c prevented if the competent authorities an: able carefully to watch the upper courses of the rivers. By virtue of the treaty of Trianon the upper courses of all our rivers hare heroine Ihe properly of con nines whdse interest does not require that the grain producing Hungarian lowland he guarded against inundation. Years ago, in the absence of the most primitive system of warning the Czech authorities purposely omitted to inform the Hungarians of the rising of the upper courses of the rivers, with the result that serious inundations took Hungarian territories by surprise. Can it he thai the ruination of pre-war Hungary served some purpose of general culture? Perhaps it is considered that the detached areas have been annexed by more highly developed countries which are able to offer a higher civilization to the population deprived of their Hungarian citizenship? This, however, is not the truth! One third of Hungary with hardly any analphabets, was arbitrarily laken away and given to Roumania which had a majority of analphabets. The population of Southern Hungary has been delivered up to the Serbians, of a similar Balkan level of civilization as the Roumanians. The cultural level of even the upper regions annexed by Czechoslovakia, generally considered to be cultured State, have suffered as a result of detachment, because the Czechs endeavour to introduce their own culture in this territory and for this reason oppress the ancient culture of the occupied territories. Thus Hungary's dismemberment is not a profit but a loss to European culture in general. This is not only our opinion hut a fact which has been stated by unbiassed judges of international repute. Lord Newton, the eminent Member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament proved in the course of his speech on March 30th, 1920, that the Treaty of Trianon banished twelve million people from a higher civilization into a lower one. On the same date and in the same place Viscount Bryce stated that civilized cities of high culture have been simply handed over to, and made the victims of analphabet mobs. A committee delegated by the United States of America to investigate conditions reported from Transylvania that two million people of Western culture hare there been made Ihe victims of a sein/-Asiatic morality. These are Trianon's results from the point of view of civilization! Anton Eber, President of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A few days ago the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry, by unanimous resolution elected as its President Dr. Anton Eber, Director General of the Hungarian-Italian Bank. With this act Dr. Anton Eber's highly successful career has reached a point of highest prestige in Hungarian economic and financial life. It is his exceptional human qualities coupled with his special knowledge of political economy which have brought him to this point. Anton Eber's energetic individuality and his high perception long outgrew the limits of the banking world and it is beyond doubt that it is not the social status gained by the new honour bestowed on