The Bookman

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 42, 17 August 1929, Page 21

The Bookman

MAGYAR AND CZECH

PLIGHT OF HUNGARY

A TRAGEDY OF TRIANON

For.Hungary: Review and . Criticism of the Effect of the Treaty of Trianon," by Count Albert Apponyi, Albert Berzeviczy, • '. Oliver Eottevyni, Francis Fodor, Bela Foldes, Eugene Horvath, George Lukaes, Emil Nagy, Baron Julius Wlassics.) London: Long- -.'.- man's, Green, and Co., Ltd. '(Eeviewed by the Et. Hon. Sir Robert Stout, 8.C., K.C.M.G., M.L.C., D.p.L., pxon., LL.D., Manchester and Edin- '■■'<.. burgh, etc.) \ "Who lias not read Shakespeare's aphorism, ".The evil that nieri,do lives after them —the good is often-interred vrith their bones." Would anyone have thought -when in 1879 Bismarck and Aridrassy made the treaty between .Germany and. Austria-Hungary to reEist any attack by Russia on those countries, and also to defend them, from any possible attack by France, that Hungary would be despoiled? Yet this has happened. The Treaty of Trianon, made after the Great War which started in 1914, has ruined the land of the "Magyaroazag." 'A noted Hungarian Jiamqd Bela Foldes has, in his article in a book just'published and entitled "Justice For Hungary," summed up the Hungarian losses. This Treaty has "deprived Hungary of almost everything she had preserved from the past, and many things upon which future development depends." His statement is not an exaggeration. The following facts cannot be disputed: Hungary has 105t'32.7 per cent, of its territory; 41.60 per cent, of its population; 65.50 per cent, of the whole of the Magyaroszag people; it receives a population of Slovaks, Bumanians,.. Serbs,, and Croats of .26 millions. Hungary's cattle-breeding, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining, and manufactures have all been injured. . .Of her meadow and pasture lands only 28 per cent, is left, and of her forests-only 14.5 per cent. The losses in horses and cattle are: 850,000 horses, 4,027,000 horned cattle, 3,572,000 pigs, ana; 4,758,000 sheep. It has lost the salt \ mines and most of its iron ores, all iits copper ores and much lignite. Hungary had many races amongst its people, but the Magyaroszag predominated. They are of 'the Turanian stock, the. same as the Finns, and they had that^loye of education and of freedom ■which is. found in Northern .Europe. These and other details are obtained from, the book, the title of which is at the head of this article. It ha» been issued by the Hungarian Society a* Foreign Affairs in Budapest and forwarded to me. It is mainly a criticism on the effect of the Treaty of Trianon by the Hungarian statesmen whose names appear on the first page of the book. All of them have held official positions in Hungary, while many of tlicm have been Ministers. . Hungary has had a troubled history: .■Wars and revolution have been her portions. Since the.Franco-Prussian War she-made considerable ■'> progress' in science, literature and dramatic -art but. since the Treaty the loss of cultural treasures and museums and libraries has been' great/ \ There were 1348 scientific and public libraries containing 9i million volumes, but since the, Treaty; more than half of these institutions containing 4 million volumes have been lost. It is said that out of 6000 public libraries more than one million volumes have been taken from her. The Hungarian national theatre at Kolozsvar was confiscated by the Rumanian Government, and the Czechs and Serbs have injured the theatres found in their new territories. The education system has also been ruined.. Out of . 291 agricultural schools, not a single school gives education in Hungarian competent to teach their language. There is one teacher to every 380 Czechs arffl Slovaks, but pnly one to every 745 Hungarians. Perhaps nothing will better, show the pettiness of their conquerors when we consider how the national monuments of Hungary have been treated. I quote trom the paper by Oliver Eottevenyi; "Slore than throe decades ago, hi 1896 our •country celebrated'its millennium, the thousandth anniversary of its occupation, and Parliament then decided to erect artistic momi- ?*» n aIJ tho points which marked the Boundaries of the land chosen by the ancient Hungarians as their future home. • Seven such Monuments were erected, at Munkacs, Nyltro Doveny, Pannonhalma, Zimony, Pusztazzar, Mid Brasso. One of these was at Dcvcny, at the confluence of the Danube and the Morava, oa the western frontier of our.ancient country. There It told the. foreigner that lie was looking 8t tha landmark of a nation a thousand years ttfd. After the collapse, however, during the Czech occupation it was mutilated, and the Statue of Arpad, our leader, was thrown down. 'In the south we erected a monument looking towards Serbia at Zimony, and another looking towards Rumania at Brasso. Our commemoration had no aggressive or provocative charMter, wo merely wished to symbolise, within 6ur own territory, the ■ boundaries of our country. But the Serbs arid the Rumanians have mutilated or blown up these monuments. Similar vandalisms ' were commuted' at Kyitra and Hunkacks." Over one hundred monuments have been destroyed,1 monuments >to the memory of coronations which had taken place there for. three hundred years. ■ One memorial made of Carrara marble represented the Queen, Maria Theresa, on horseback wearing the royal crown. This monument the Czechs barbarously destroyed by breaking it into pieces. There were monuments of a. similar character not allowed to remain,.and even names of piaces which had been so "named of celebrated -Hungarians have been changed. Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian hero, had a square called after him, but of course that name was removed, and that of some Czech celebrity substituted. A Czech mob destroyed, the magnificent fourteenth century cathedral'which stood as a memorial of' the War of Hungarian Independence, 1848-1849. lii fact, there has not been any- memorial of any of the Hungarian heroes left. Hungary has therefore been, deprived of its territory, of its people, of its educational institutions,'and it is a conquered country. ■The question now is, how can justice be done to Hungary? Instead of Hungarian people^ there are three other Government nationalities in charge.. There are the Czechs and Slovaks/the Jugo-Slavs and Rumanians, and it is impossible for Hungary to start a war to recover her lost treasures. Hungary was one of the first to agrea to.the League of Nations; she does not seek war; she, however, appeals to the League of Nations, and she says that in; the interests not only of the Hungarian race, but. of the central district of Europe, there ought to be some change, made in the conditions of the Treaty of Trianon. What, is to be done? If the League of Nations is unable to give her any relief, it augurs ill for the peace of Europe. There is a very able article published in this book called "The Road to Rectification.'? 'It is by Emil 3sagy,; who has spent part of his life in England. He had been a Minister in Hungary, and he knows the difficulties that beset the way of any alteration of the Treaty of Trianon. The. quotation of one or'two sentences will be sufficient, to show.that •he is. not what imay be termed a rabid Hungarian. He says:—

. I am unfortunately no longer able to look at. the ilunparian question with a purely Hungarian, eye for my conceptions hare be-.

come so: tempered by English ways of thinking that I am obliged to regard the affairs of my country from the standpolut of a sober and well-informed Englishman, as well as from that of a good Hungarian patriot. When, therefore, I. am asked what could be done and in what manner, .after, a disastrous war, to mitigate the Treaty of Trianon, I can only give an amalgam of my own and of the English point of view. Begarding the question soberly in this manner, I see clearly how the Peace Treaty might have been framed, even after a [lost war, bad it not been based upon false data entailing unbearable injustices. In my Anglo-Hungarian; soul I can clearly conceive of a Peace Treaty which would have -penalised us severely after the lost world war, but still only to such an extent as Impartial persons knowing the circumstances might havo decreed without scandalous injustice.

. If it should transpire that Hungary can receive no aid from the League of Nations, a great blow will be struck at the usefulness of the League. This is surely a case in which the other nations in Europe .'should consider what is to be done to help the poor Hungarians. Their treatment in many ways has been most severe. The Rumanians Have .cashiered some, of the Bishops, they have interfered with their religion, though they had promised that religion was not to be interfered with by the State; there was to be freedom. The Hungarians were devoted to culture, to education, and to science and literature. They have been, so far as these cultures are concerned, left stranded and hopeless, and the attitude of its conqtferors can be' guessed from what has been done to "their art treasures and their memorials. If then, there is no relief to be given in a case of tins sort, no change made in the Treaty of Trianon, can we look for peace in the future? Will it not be said that to remedy this great evil war may become a necessity, and we will then have in Europe a war more injurious to the lives and properties of Central Europeans than tho revolutions or wars of the past. The Hungarians who have published this book are no doubt influenced by what Emil Nagy has said. They believe that the Europeans are yet a kindly people, and will not have a nation destroyed, as has been done to Hungary. It was said of old, more than 2500 years-ago, by a great Chinaman—Confucius—that the way to govern a country of a thousand chariots (that means a large country) "there must be a reverent attention to business and faithfulness, economy in expenditure, and love for the people." •■ The rulers of this territory of Hungary have certainly failed in showing, any love for the people, and they cannot expect that the Hungarians, who arc under the rule of these three nationalities, Czechs, Slavs, and Rumanians, will be loyal to their countries if there is not some love •shown for the Hungarian people. And ought we not, who have representatives on the League; of Nations, to draw the attention' of our representatives to the vast injustice that has been done to Hungary? As has been said, "If there is no relief from the League of Nations, there is nothing left but a future war^" •'■'.."