Hungary Under Pressure
Last week's resignation of President Tildy, a member of the vanish- ing Smallholders Party, was one more check to those Hungarians who thought that they would be clever enough, or lucky enough, to avert the complete domination of their country by Communists. The past two years or so, during which the alliance of centre and right- wing elements known as the Smallholders Party has been steadily whittled away, have shown that salvation, if it comes at all, will come through determination and good judgement rather than smartness or luck. But even now the signs are not altogether bad. At the same time as the Communist grip has tightened the Russian fear of the consequences if they allowed it to loosen for one moment has grown. Up to a point it was easy to break up the Smallholders. Some of them really were irresponsible right-wing intriguers, and were readily purged. M. Ferenc Nagy sent in his resignation from Switzerland in June, 1947, thus saving himself but not his party. President Tildy had been powerless for months, and in the end his resignation became inevitable. At each stage Communists have extended their power, and M. Szakasits, a former Social Democrat leader, now the Chairman of the Communist-dominated United Workers Party, has stepped into the Presidency almost automatically. But there is no room for the slightest Communist mistake. In June, 1947, it was easy enough to make the main political battle-cry the nationalisation of the banks. In August, 1948, with the Russian Balkan system quaking and peasants throughout Eastern Europe frightened that they will lose their holdings, it is much less easy to whip up a show of a demand for the nationalisation of the land. M. Tildy, who was trusted by the peasants, has gone. The plots and conspiracies suitable to the occasion have been discovered in the Ministry of Agriculture. If in the end the peasants are forced to give up their title, determination to remove Russians and Communists as well will be sharpened into a powerful weapon for any patriot bold enough to seize it.
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