Krónika, 1944 (1. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)

1944-09-15 / 9. szám

“Uj kiegyezés” cikksorozat a 4-ik oldalon

VOLUME I. ÉVFOLYAM

1944 SZEPTEMBER 15

NO. 9. SZÁM

Hungary and the Hungarians

By Francis Stuart Campbell (Reprinted from the May Issue of “Columbia’

PART II.

The Hungarians secured another slice of their ancient territory by the annexation of Northeastern Transylvania and connecting territories in 1940. The last gain was made in 1941 when the Germans used Hungary as a board in their attack against Yugoslavia. It was this action which dragged Hungary into the war literally over the dead body of her Prime Minister, Count Paul Teleki. German troop transports had hitherto only used the international Danube as a means of

neutrality had come to a sudden end.

Hungary’s entrance into this war is a tragic chapter but typical for a small European country in an isolated geographical position. Her Prime Minister, a dear and fatherly friend to the writer of these lines, was not only the most outstanding European geographer and a great savant, but also a devout Catholic and a gentleman with ethical standards unknown among the less inhibited politicians of the democratic or totalitarian brand. In early spring, 1941, he had signed a non-aggression treaty and friendship pact with Yugoslavia, but one nice day in April, 1941, he was “ordered” to report to the German Minister, in Budapest, who informed him that the Fuehrer wanted to use Hungarian territory as an attacking ground against Yugoslavia. In case the Hungarians would oppose the entry of German troops, their country would be deprived of its regained territory. Count Teleki had the choice between being a gentleman who keeps his pledge even to an unpopular neighbor and being a Hungarian “patriot.” His wife lay gravely ill in a sanitarium.' He had gone to Holy Communion that very morning but his nerves suddenly gave way. During the five minutes his conversation had lasted with the German Minister a whole world had broken down in him. A few hours later, in a state of mental depression and derangement, he committed suicide.

If we look at the gains of Hungary and at her new interim borders as conceded to her by Germany, the purpose of the Nazis in drawing these shocking boundaries becomes apparent. Not only in the case of Slovakia but also in the case of Rumania and Serbia do we see the Satanic desire of the men from Berlin to prevent any future understanding between Hungary and her neighbors. “Divide et Impera” is the slogan of this New Order in the Danube basin. The Nazis have also carefully avoided making Hungary strong or the Hungarian territory geographically sound and homogeneous. They could have restorual Switzerland which is called on many official documents, as for instance, on stamps, Helvetia. And within this "Hungária” there can be a Magyaria, Slovakia, Transylvania, Voyvodina, as part states with autonomous rights forming a federal state. The idea is extremely sound and popular. Indeed, there are few "liberal” diehards who would want to repeat the dangerous experiment of magyarization and centralization.

Due to the war and the military situation, Hungary is far from the realization of her wishes. Gered to but this.would have meant the establishment of a well rounded state of 24 million inhabitants which might have resisted the Nazis even more energetically than the helpless but nevertheless shrewdly stalling Budapest government.

The reader might ask the question how Hungary would deal with her minorities if she would be given back all lost territories. The semi-official "Magyar Szemle” published years ago the plan of the Government in the case of the restoration of St. Stephen s Kingdom. Dr. Ladislas Ottlik, an editor of this important review, developed in it the idea that Hungary should not be called "Magyarország.” (Land of the Magyars) because this would alienate the non-Magyars, but Hungária—this in imitation to trilingare bitter enemies of the formation of strong and stable countries in the Danubian basin. This is also the reason why Hungary fights against the Soviet Union; it is her interest that the USSR does not become her immediate neighbor by ennexing Polish Eastern Galicia.

The more pressing danger menacing Hungary are the Nazis. The government has so far displayed great ingenuity in evading commitments and in submitting to Gleichschaltung. The Nazis have insisted frantically that Hungary adopt the Nuremberg Laws and the government voted twice for regulations curtailing the activities and rights of its Jewish citizens. It took care to deprive the legislation somehow of its racial character and put those who have been baptized before 1919 into a

special category. It put those Jews who can prove that their ancestors came to Hungary prior t^> 1867 into another privileged group. It abstained from issuing any humiliating laws such as wearing the Star of David. There are no restrictions for Jews in everyday life and recently there are even Jews, like Mr. Francis Chorin, in the House of Lords. Hungary is the only country in Central Europe where Jews do not have to tremble hourly for their freedom and their lives. When the Nazi pressure was partlay declared Rfime Minister Kalsome day solve its Jewish pro blem, “but," he added significantly, only in a form compatible with the tradition of a Christian country.”

This resistance against Gleichschaltung is also evident in the tenacious preservation of the parliamentary system. Besides the Danish Kingdom "Feudal" Hungary is_ the only country under Nazi "protection" having socialist and democratic parties as well as trade unions which celebrated oniy recently in all solemnity their fortieth year of existence The press is relatively free and editors who speak out their minds too loudly receive one to two weeks of "honorary prison.” The representatives in both chambers enjoy parliamentary immunity which extends to all their political activities. The Cardinal Prince- Archbishop of Hungary Jusztinján Seredi, the son of a poor Slovak shingler, is one of the country’s greatest champions of hu man liberty and basic human equality.

The dangers besetting Hungary from west and east have drawn all the classes and parties together; party strife has been reduced to a minimum and a radical agrarian reform has been enacted which limits estates to 600 acri?^ each. The peasant class will thus be economically strengthened at the expense of the aristocracy, which in an unselfish way voted for the curtailment of its own material strength.

There is still a Washington megmérgeznié ha ez a véreskezü (Concluded on Page 11)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~ i'N u. y. OZv/AiV!

K R Ö NI K A

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