HUNGARY'S THREE DICTATORS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 165, 13 July 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

HUNGARY'S THREE DICTATORS

rREE dictators' shadows fall over Hungary, key country of the Danube Valley. They are those of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin. At the moment, turning to what she believes to be her strongest quarter. She is seeking to ally herself with Germany and Italy, and to press her own claims against Rumania, already troubled by the Russian seizure of Bessarabia. To-morrow she may be herself but a pawn in the game. The Balkans, remain, as ever, a powder magazine. Once Hungary looked to Italy to protect her; to-day she looks to Germany. To-morrow it may be Stalin. The play is on.

As it is, Joseph Stalin's troops stand guard at the other end of Hungary's mountain passe* to the north. He may decide to resume the southward march in search of ice-free waters for the vast landlocked Soviet Union; then Hungary's lot would be hard. Hungary's western noig-hbour, Hitler, is eyeing Rumania, the land of wheat and oil.

Distrusts Both And it is for the first time in its history that Hungary is a neighbour of both Germany and Russia. Traditionally, she distrusts both of them. "Crafty is the, German," says a Hungarian adage. Most of the country's history has been a struggle against Herman encroachments, and Hungary was the first country to fight Bolshevism. AntiCommunism was her set policy at the time Hitler was still a lance-corporal. What is the Hungarian people's attitude toward the three dictators? At first they liked Hitler's anti-Soviet crusade and his campaign against the peace treaties. For vears they had tried to tear up the Treaty of Trianon, but were never successful. The World War peacemaker* had deprived thousand-year-old Hungary of nearlv threetourths of lier territory and two-thirds of her population. Resentment had swept Hungary and her national policy was poignantly expressed in the famous words: "Xom, nem, soha"—No, no, never. These words of defiance were carved into the stone of a mountainside, and became a national slogan. Then came Hitler, who smashed the \ereailles system." Hungarians hailed him as the champion of the united antitreaty forces of all Europe. They were jubilant when he crushed Czechoslovakia and thought the, time had come to recover their losses. They made readv to regain Slovakia, which had been theirs for ten centuries. But the Fuehrer did not give it to them. Rather, he set up a puppet Government in Slovakia. It was only then that the Hungarian* realised Hitler was not their Santa

Claus and that his campaign against the peace treaties camouflaged his policy of world domination.

Hitler's eyes are fascinated by the wealth of the Hungarian soil. It grows some, of the best wheat in Kurope. Magyar cattle are renowned throughout the Danube region. The Fuehrer could have both guns, and butter if he had Hungary. Just as important as all this is the country's strategical position between east and west, north and south. While. Hitler is too busy with the Allies to carry actual warfare into Hungary, he is fighting an underground battle there. His shock troops are some of the 600,000 Hungarians of German descent, scattered all over the country. They are organised in the. so-called "Volksbund," which receives its orders from the A.O. —Auslands-organisation— in Stuttgart, the Moscow of the Nazi International. They have forced the Hungarian Government to grant them special rights that the majority of the. citizens do not possess. Hitler may use them at any time to interfere with Hungary's internal affairs. A trumpedup grievance may give him the pretext to treat Hungary as he treated Czechoslovakia.

In the summer of 1938, Hitler summoned the head of the Hungarian State, Rear Admiral Nicholas "Horthy, to Germany and there laid down*the law to him. Hungary was to maintain her nominal independence, but her army was to be absorbed in the "nilitary forces of the Reich. The Hungarians rejected those, demands. This rejection was given no publicity in the Press of either country. Hitler was raving, but his main business was the desttnetion of Poland and he could not weaken himself by pursuing his demands.

In Stalin's Eyes Stalin has also had an eye on this part of the Danube Valley for a long time. In the spring of 1919, Budapest wejit communistic. This regime lasted only four months. Bela Kun was the most conspicuous leader of the Hungarian Bolsheviks. During Hungary's bloody "White Terror" he had to flee; many of his associates were hanged or sentenced to long terms in gaol. Budapest became the Mecca of antiCommunist White Russians and the reactionaries of all countries. Later, Hungary joined the anti-Comintern Powers; diplomatic relations between her and Soviet Russia were severed. But early last October Red soldiers inarched to the Hungarian frontier and planted there the banner of the Revolutionary proletariat. Most hastily, Hungary has resumed normal diplomatic relations with the Kremlin. Now the Russians are engaged in propaganda in north-eastern Hungary, inhabited by Slavic peasants, alternately called Car-patho-Russiang and Carpatho-Ukrain - ians. Stalin may use them as Hitler did the Sudeten-Germans. Discontent is rife in this part of tne Carpathians. The Hungarian masters, who have replaced the Czechs, are stern and their taxes are high. In the wake of the Magyar occupation have come the land barons who were ousted twenty

yeans ajro when the Czechs took pos- | session of this mountain region. This Carpathian lanil is Stalin's window t<> Central Europe—the Danube region and the Balkans. In the distance beckons the Mediterranean. For two centuries the Czars of Kussia strove to reach it«i warm waters. Is the "Red Czar** the heir

of their expansive policy* l"nea*iiy Hungary stirs in the conipanv of the nrown and red dictators. Not ;.ll are convinced, however, that such proN'tniiy i* a deadly danger. Sonio observers in Budapest believe that so much dictatorship along their frontiers may lie a blessing in disguise. Hitler will not want Stalin to pounce upon this choic,. part of the Danube, and Stalin cannot allow the Fuehrer to obtain <n great an advantage. Will the two dictators keep each other in check? A« for 11 Ducc, he was the first one to stir the Hungarians to revolt against the |K-acc trtatics. At a time when the Magyars h-id no treaty right to have military 'planes, squadrons of his Air Force were flown to the Danube, were "wrecked" the] h and never leturned to Italy. Trainloads of "old iron" found their way from Italy to Hungary. The Hungarians were grateful, and one of the show placee of Budapest is now "Mussolini Square."' To-day Hungary can look to Ttaly only for the voice of Hitler. The Danube Valley is a throb with fear.