The Jewish Bolshevik, Bela Kim, who had tyrannized over Budapest
for four months, resigned his "proletariat dictator-ship" on Friday week because, as one of his accomplices said, the Magyar " proletariat " was "unready for further sacrifices." The Rumanian Army had at last been permitted by the Alliesto advance on Budapest, and the Magyar people would not fight for the Bolshevik gang. Bela Kim escaped across the Austrian frontier with some of his ill-gotten gains, but waa arrested and interned. His ehief executioner, Szamuely, is said to have committed suicide when he wae taken by the Austrian police. Now that Hungary is freed from the Bolshevik plague, the Allies have raised the blockade, and will permit the import of foodstuffs and other necessaries. A Socialist Government succeeded that of Bela Kim, but was replacedon Wednesday by a Cabinet appointed by the Archduke Joseph. The Rumanian occupation will doubtless bring the Magyars to a better mind. It is strange to rememberthat twelvemonths ago the Hungarians were installed as conquerors In Bucharest.
`America, hitherto free from the labour unrest that has troubled us since the Armistice, is now confronted with the possibility of a railwaymen's strike. The Unions ask that the cost of living shall be reduced. Failing that, they desire a further increase of 25 per cent. in their wages with a forty-four-hours week, at an estimated cost of f160,000,000. The railways, which were placed under Federal control for the purposes of the war, are, like our railways, being worked at a loss. The Unions propose that the Federal Government should now assume the ownership of the lines, at a cost of nearly £7,000,000,000. This would be a complete reversal of America's traditional policy. The Federal Government have just returned the telegraph and telephone elate= to the companies which own them, to the great joy of the business community. The public found that the telegraphs and telephones were far less efficient under the management of the Postmaster-General than they were in private hands. The experiment will not predispose Americans in favourof railway nationalization.
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