EXPERIENCES IN HUNGARY.
Some Experiences in Hungary, August, 1914—January, 1915. By Mina Macdonald. (Longmans and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—The feeling of English people towards the Austrian Empire throughout the war has not been one of real enmity, but rather that the peoples composing it must take their punishment for their mistakes or the folly of their rulers. Nor has there been any sign that the Austrians hate us, or that the Hungarians and Slays are less fond of us than we have always gladly believed them to be. Those notions are supported by this book, which describes the first six months of the war spent by an English or Scots woman in the house of a Hungarian Prince. It is a light, rather superficial, pleasant enough volume, illustrated with photographs, and probably gives a true impression. The Herrschaft are cultured, genial folk, who succeed in making the alien enemy feel scarcely any discomfort, admitting to her, at any rate, little deep concern in the war. The neighbour- ing village is Slovak and frankly anti-Austrian. Miss Macdonald does not help us to understand how the Dual Monarchy has held together. She shows us officials friendly to the point of disloyalty, and villagers who would rather fight on the side of Serbia or Russia than on that on which they find themsel,ies. Of the wounded soldiers who come to be nursed at the Schloss, the prominent ones are from the Trentino, and only desire to get into Italy out of Austrian rule, and all hate their officers. The references to epidemic diseases in the Army and towns sound as though the vitality of the population must be sapped. Yet the Empire fights on.
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