Fraternity-Testvériség, 1959 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-03-01 / 3. szám
6 FRATERNITY depicts the social, political and intellectual life of Hungary in the period following the revolutions, the tensions between the landless or decaying peasantry, the intelligentsia and the conservative upper classes. The central figure, strong, vigorous and genial sculptor, Bálint Bóor, is a modern Hungarian Laocoon, caught in the coils of political reverses who, seeing the approaching monster of Nazism, cries “Help”. It is amazing that Dezső Szabó saw the approaching danger of the new totalitarianism as early as 1925 and raised a warning voice. The fourth in the political series is “Why?” It begins in a Transylvanian Hungarian town under Roumanian rule, then continues in Paris among emigrant intellectuals and politicians. His purpose is to show the life of Hungarians outside their mother country. Dezső Szabó raises the question of minority life and the role of Hungarian diaspora abroad. Unfortunately, the publication of this arresting novel with its interesting philosophical meaning had to be suspended in 1939 when World War II broke out. As the author explains, “the novel deals so intensively with the pangs of the whole European crisis and has such scenes and characters that it is more advisable to postpone its publication.” It is hoped that its continuation will be found among his manuscripts and eventually published. A fifth part entitled “Mártha Szilágyi” was begun. “It will”, he announced, “be a synthesis of present Hungarian life mirrored in the fate of a Hungarian modern young woman.” But the publication was also interrupted and it is uncertain how much remained among his manuscripts. After the death of Dezső Szabó in 1945, a deposit containing the first part of another political novel, “Song in the Haven”, was opened in the Archives of the Hungarian National Museum. Its hero is a famous politician, a former finance minister involved in great reforms, parliamentary struggles and a secret love for a popular primadonna. To this series should be added about 50 shorter stories dealing similarly with other issues of socio-political life, like “Night in Transylvania”, “Prince Bors”, “László Ocskay” and many others. His masterful political satires were written mostly in the early thirties. (To be continued) CITIZENSHIP Question: My daughter, a native born American citizen, had a child out of wedlock, while she lived abroad. After some time she and the child came back to the United States. Is that child an American citizen by birth? Answer: Yes. A child born out of wedlock outside of the United States on or after December 24, 1952, is a citizen of the United States at birth, if the mother was a citizen of the United States at the time of the child’s birth and if the mother had previously been physically present in the United States, or one of its outlying possessions, for a continuous period of one year. Incidentally, American citizenship is not conveyed by an American citizen father to his illegitimate child, who is born abroad.
