• Europe Revisited
VI.—The Hungarian Problem
[Two years ago the Spectator published a series of articles called "Europe after Twenty Years," recording impressions re- ceived after a tour through Northern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic Republics, Poland and the Danzig Corridor. The writer of these articles has just returned from a lengthy stay in Central Europe, during which he has had special opportunities of meeting many of the political leaders. Under the above heading, he is contributing a series of articles dealing with Southern Germany, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, of which this is the sixth.—ED. Spectator.]
READING about the Hungarian problem in the records of the League of Nations at Geneva or in the foreign Press• is a different matter to discussing it with Hungarians in their own country. I talked of it from morning till night with everyone I met till my brain was a jumble of confused impressions, and I went to sleep muttering optants, Transylvania, the Rothermere " frontier, Hlinka (the Slovak leader, and so on). I had long talks with leading Hungarians such as Count Apponyi, Mr. L. Walko, the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Josef Veszi, the editor of the Pester Lloyd," Count Csaky of the Foreign Office, and many others. All our talks were in English, and my informants all spoke with amazing facility. Perhaps one of my pleasantest memories was a conversation with Count Apponyi, the grand old man of Hungary, who is eighty-three, but has the brain of a man half his age, and whose old-world courtesy reminded me of the late Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, a visit to whose study is a cherished memory. Count Apponyi belongs to a bygone world, and holds one enthralled with recollections of Central Europe during the past seventy years. • In the days of the Dual Monarchy he filled responsible posts under the Emperor Franz Joseph. But unlike many okl men who have led full lives Count Apponyi has a young mind, and you wish that his mature experience might fall on young shoulders. The Count gets up early, and asked me to come and see him one morning at nine. I arrived punctually and found him sitting in a straw chair, having already break- fasted, with a pile of papers beside him, under the shadow of an old tree in his garden on the heights of Buda, over- looking the Danube and the great city of Pest—most of Which he has seen grow up under his eyes. Count Apponyi, although he speaks English perfectly, has not been in England much, but has had the great privilege, shared with Lord Balfour and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, of having addressed Congress at Washington. Few men know nineteenth-century European history as he does, and his great knowledge must be of much use to him as the principal Hungarian delegate at the League. I asked him what was the chief thing he noticed about llungary to-day, compared with thirty years ago. He said : "The change for the better in' the outlook of the People since the War; there has been a great coming back to the Roman Church here, it was never stronger, and there has been an outburst of apostolic zeal on the part of the clergy."
The point of view of the average well-educated Hun- garian is somewhat as follows :—The Treaty of Trianon is a "crime against humanity," and a nation with Hun- gary's cultural past cannot be left in her present dismem- bered position, operito attack on all sides, with hundreds of thousands of her people under alien rule and prevented from keeping in touch with their fellow-countrymen. Three hundred years ago Hungary threw off the Turkish yoke and freed Europe from the fear of Moslem domina- tion. Culturally she is a Western nation, and the local Goethe museum—the next best after Frankfurt—and the enthusiasm for Shakespeare show that her culture is as advanced as any in Europe. Her culture being much ahead of her neighbours, especially that of Jugoslavia and Rumania, how can Hungary acquiesce in a settle- ment which has handed over a large section of its peoples to primitive nations who have only recently "thrown off the Turkish yoke," and who only possess a veneer of civilization ? There are 3,300,000 expatriated Magyars, two millions of whom are on the borders of Hungary, and they will have to be rejoined to Hungary if a lasting foundation for Eastern European peace is sought. Feeling in Hungary is especially exacerbated against Rumania. Some Hungarians think that as far as the Transylvanian problem is concerned the resuscitation of Kossuth's idea of a confederation of the Eastern part of Central Europe —" Serbia," Rumania, Hungary and Bulgaria might be possible, but the general view is that part of Transylvania will have to be returned to Hungary.
When a readjustment of territory takes place there must be a plebiscite under League supervision in the doubtful districts—but this resettlement must not be postponed indefinitely. Great friendliness is felt towards Great Britain, and Lord Rothermere's advocacy of the Hun- garian cause has won him extraordinary popUlarity—his photograph in silver frames is to be seen in the leading shops. Great Britain's foreign policy is watched with some suspicion—or it was till recently—and there is a general belief that in the last resort we take our marching orders from the Quai d'Orsay. I protested that our foreign policy now advocated equally cordial relations with all European nations, but my hearers were incredulous.
The suggestion of some kind of Zollverein, or the establishment of an economic United States of Europe was greeted with little enthusiasm. The general position taken was that Hungary could not be expected to throw herself into any closer association with her neighbours until some of her own burning territorial grievances had been settled. The small size of their countries is a very real problem to Austrians and Hungarians, and comes home in a special way to the middle-classes, for the question, "What shall we do with our boys" constantly confronts them. There are few outlets for educated young men now that emigration, owing to the American " quota " restrictions, has practically ceased. Surely the British Dominions would be well advised to make greater efforts to attract such desirable human material ?
Hungarians tell you that the present position is impos- sible, that their country will never settle down, and that if Europe is indifferent to their just grievances they will merely bide their time as Poland did, and as France did in Alsace-Lorraine. They think that Czechoslovakia has not lived up to the promises made in the "Treaty of Pittsburgh" in the matter of giving autonomy to the Slovaks, and consequently they are watching with interest the struggles of patriotic Slovaks, such as Hlinka and Tuka for greater freedom. They think that it is useless for foreign politicians to talk of a Danube Confederation until their " urgent political problems have been dealt with." Hungary's neighbours are said to do all they can to isolate the Hungarian minorities within their borders from their mother country. Hungarian newspapers, wireless, books and even prayer books, I was told, were not permitted in the neighbouring States, and especially in Rumania. The following story was vouched for in two different quarters. The King of —, desiring to keep in touch with Hungarian affairs, ordered the Pester Lloyd (the Budapest daily paper printed in German). A fortnight later an equerry wrote to complain that His Majesty was not receiving the paper. The manager wrote denying that the fault was theirs, and said that the paper was being despatched each day regularly to the Hungarian frontier, and suggested that enquiries be made in the frontier customs of His Majesty's kingdom. A few days later it was found that the missing papers were collected there, zealous customs officials having stopped them in accordance with the regulations applying to all printed matter from Hungary.
After visiting most of the central European republics I was surprised to find that there is a strong Monarchical feeling in Hungary, and Hungarians point with pride to the fact that their nationalist government under Admiral Horthy's Regency has been in power for nine years.
You are told that the government is very strong, and that there is no conceivable alternative, and that the majority of the people are Monarchists—a statement I had no means of verifying. Certainly all those talked with were Monarchists. Apparently there are two kinds, the " Legitimists " who want as their ruler Prince Otto, the son of the late Emperor Charles and the "Free Electors" who demand freedom to choose whomever they like as their king. It seems hardly likely that a serious attempt to bring back a Hapsburg will be made, as such an action on Hungary's part would undoubtedly create_ difficulties among her neighbours, but the present Monarchist sentiment in Hungary is a curious phenomenon in post- War Europe, and has to be reckoned with.
The hope is frequently expressed that sooner or later, and the sooner the better, an Eastern Locarno will be held for the pacification of Eastern Europe, under the benevolent control of the Western Powers. They base their claim for the return of some of their former territory on the theory that "a people of a higher cultural state shall not be subjected to a people possessing a lower culture." Critics of Hungary frequently state that the present Government is not a democratic one, nor is it from our point of view. Hungarians reply that 35 per cent. of the voters have the secret ballot, and that by degrees the percentage will be increased. I spent much time in trying to find out what proportion of their demands Hungarians would be satisfied with—not an easy matter, because many patriots act on the theory that if you go on crying long enough and loud enough for the moon you may get something. But I gathered that if there was a return of territory to Hungary containing about half of their 3,300,000 expatriated nationals moderate Magyar opinion would be satisfied, provided the minorities left under foreign flags had their rights safeguarded, as are the rights of minorities in Canada and Estonia. I asked my Hungarian friends how they thought a treaty revision could be brought about, for the rest of Europe would he loth to stir up a hornet's nest, and acts on the assumption that an unjust treaty is better than chaos. The usual reply was that Hungary was determined to carry out all her treaty obligations and leave no loophole to her enemies to criticize her for bad faith, but Hungarians refuse to believe that Europe will indefinitely ignore the glaring injustices of the position, and they think that sooner or later world-opinion will force a readjustment of the Treaty of Trianon. But despite statements such as this, and they are general, I think, I sometimes detected a note of anxiety. What if the present position were continued indefinitely and the Hungarian minorities across the frontier became reconciled with their lot ? The enemies of Hungary are undoubtedly playing a delaying game, because they know that time is on their side.
The visiting Englishman, who tries to see all sides of the problem, and has no preconceived prejudices and finds it difficult to make up his mind. Is he to listen to those cautious persons who regard the Treaty of Trianon as something sacrosanct, and who say that if you once start tinkering with it the whole of Eastern Europe would tumble about your ears like a house of cards, and that it is much better to let sleeping dogs lie, even if some of the dogs are growling? Is he to listen to the voice of Hungarian friends, who have chapter and verse at their finger-tips, to show why much of the peace-making at Paris should be undone, and why most of what was taken from them should be restored ? The question is so beset with difficulties that it is small wonder if most people prefer to leave things as they are. But surely in the interests of a lasting peace in South-East Europe it is undesirable that a proud nation with a great history should be left with a burning sense of grievance.
When I visited one of the leading lunatic asylums in the hills outside Budapest I talked with some of the patients, whose minds were deranged. One of them was a healthy-looking middle-aged woman, who spoke excel- lent English, Her delusion consisted in imagining that she was "Lord God," and she insisted on showing me her sketch-book full of her paintings : "Can you see," she said, "that what is the trouble with most of us is that we haven't eternal eyes—what we all need is eternal eyes." As I drove away from the lunatic asylum this poor woman's words kept repeating themselves to me, "What we all need is eternal eyes "—eyes that will be blind to the ephemeral and will see through all the tangle of prejudice, Chauvinism and selfishness into which national relationships have been permitted to get. When the time comes for Hungary's case to be heard at the tribunal of the West let us hope that the jurors will be provided with eternal eyes, so that Hungary will take her place among the nations of Europe, who will enthusi- astically work for a United States of Europe,
J.
,(To be continued.)
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