PARLIAMENTARY TOLERANCE IN HUNGARY.

LTO THE IDDzTOE OF YES "EPFOTAT011.".1

Sin,—My occasional attempts to describe in your columns the Chauvinism which at present dominates Hungarian politics have been met in this country by sharp (if vague)

rejoinders, and in Hungary itself by abuse so unmeasured as to be positively ludicrous. An incident of this week in the Hungarian. Parliament supplies such startling confirmation of my assertions, and is at the same time so typical of the Magyar attitude, that I hope you may find space for the following brief description. The facts are not drawn from non-Magyar sources, but are merely summarised from the Pester Lloyd, the organ of successive Liberal Governments in Hungary, and still the official interpreter of Hungary towards

the foreign public.

Ou February 16th, during the debate on the new Army Bills, the Roumanian Deputy, Mr. Maniu, acted as spokesman

of the Nationalist group. He began by emphasising the historic mission of the Dual Monarchy, as the vanguard of Western civilisation and as the protector of numerous races too weak ever to form separate political entities. He then described as mistaken the policy which in 1867 erected a German hegemony in Austria and a Magyar hegemony in Hungary to the detriment of the other races of the Monarchy, and he went on to lament the racial exclusiveness which hindered the development of the nationalities in every branch of public life. The discontent was already great, lie

added, and to introduce the racial struggle into the ranks of the Army would increase this discontent tenfold. The noisy protests which this remark evoked led Mr. Mania to

exclaim I- " You want to Magyarise every one in this country. (Noise on the Left, and cries: Of course we want to !') Can you then find fault with a Roumanian for protesting against this P (Noise, and cries : ' You are a Magyar Deputy I" Go to Roumania I' U.) In such circumstances, you cannot complain if every Roumanian resists such tendencies. (Great noise.) You wish gradually to introduce Magyarisation into the Army also." LADISLAS °KOMI:J[4E1n (KOSSIlthISt): " The Army is a pos- session of the Hungarian State (a magyar di/am)." STEPHEN PoP (Roumanian).: " The Army is not there in order to Magyarise, but to defend the country." OxoLicskum: "That is a blackguardly remark! That is un- patriotic/ Traitor!"

The President calls him to order.

JULIUS Malan (continuing): "We are not inclined to vote taxes of money and blood to an Army which you place at the service of such tendencies 1 (Prolonged uproar, cries of Out- rageous I') I reached this standpoint by studying military

statistics.' (Cries " Did you find Roumanian courage in them P ")

STEPHEN Pop : "No one who knows history can doubt that." (Great noise. Cries: "You can murder women and children:1 MANIU : "In a War Office Report of two years ago we find that the Magyar language was made the language of the 87th Infantry Bogiment. Such tendencies are dangerous for the Army." (Great noise, and cries of " Go to Austria!" " Hold your jaw !") EMIL NAGY: "A piece of impudence !" LADISLAS Hantsistssexasi "In the Hungarian Parliament no one may speak like that." LEOPOLD ICALLAY : "We won't listen to him. That's a filthy business," ("Schweinersi" in the Pester Lloyd.) The uproar then became SO great that the President suspended the sitting. On resuming, the President reminded Mr. Manin that in attacking the Magyar language he forgot that he was in Hungary, where Magyar is the language of State :—

"There is no Parliament which would tolerate agitation against

the language of State. (Loud applause.) We want to introduce into the Army the language of State, the nation's true form of expression. (Loud applause.) That is not the seine as introducing the racial question into the Army. I must be the hon. Member to remain within those limits, otherwise I shall not allow him to proceed." (Loud applause on all sides. Count BatthyLny calls out : " Go to Vienna or Bucharest! ") Mr. Mawxu then proceeded i " The Army must be kept free from the effects of such movements, and must not be in the

service of particularist interests." (Groat noise. Cries: " That is too much1") The President hereupon " deprived him of the word."

The same afternoon the incident; was discussed at a meeting of the Independent Party. Mr. Oscar Petrogalli (not a very Magyar name!) proposed a revision of the Criminal Code in order to deal with such attacks upon "the idea of the Magyar State"! The Minister of Justice, Dr. Gunther (also not a very Magyar name !), while condemning Mania equally strongly, announced that such a law had long been in prepara- tion. Finally, the Minister of Education, Count Apponyi, declared that as the Government aimed at extending the influence of the Magyar language in every direction, it was bound to regard Maniu's speech as an attack upon its aims, and he favoured an energetic retort on the part of the Inde- pendent Party. Next day Count Batthydny, in the name of the party, declared in the House that the utterance of " such insults and provocations under cover of Parliamentary freedom of speech " can no longer be tolerated.

It will be interesting to watch the successors of Louis Kossuth inventing a muzzle for Parliamentary freedom. " Without Chauvinism," said ex-Premier Baron Bantry a year ago, "nothing can be achieved," With it, one thing at least may be accomplished,—the ruin of Hungary. Quem dews vult perdere, prints dementat. But to press facts to their obvious conclusion merely earns for the foreign observer the charges of venality or corruption.—I am, Sir, &c.,