Hungary is a country of 22,000,000 souls, of whom approximately 9,000,000 are Magyars and 13,000,000 non-Magyars, belonging to four or five different races. The Magyars have always insisted upon the fact that in Hungary they form by themselves a block of 9,000,000, while the other nationalities, taken altogether, are but 13,000,000, and that each of these, taken separately, constitute beside the Magyars a negligible minority. Naturally, if the 9,000,000 Magyars lived dispersed in all the provinces of Hungary, mingled with other nationalities in the proportion of 9 to 13, or 41 per cent., or if in each or in the majority of these provinces they formed a majority over the non-Magyars, or even an overwhelming majority over the most important of these nationalities, nothing could be done; the racial question in Hungary should not and would not arise. In that case, no doubt, the Hungarian State would properly bear the impress of the most numerous race, and would be, in fact, a national Magyar State, and the minority races would necessarily be sacrificed, even although their blood-brothers across the frontier might form powerful and prosperous States, (Rumania, Serbia, &c.) However objectionable might be the measures taken by the Magyars against these nationalities, they would, in such conditions, be up to a certain point excusable. It is impossible to create a strong and workable State and to insure peace and prosperity in a country so heterogeneous and containing an imbroglio of peoples each facing in its own direction and gravitating toward other neighboring States.
EACH RACE ISOLATED
He states that the Magyars, however, have never allowed it to be understood how the various races have been distributed in the kingdom, and he elucidates this as follows:
Hungary consists of several provinces, each of which is inhabited by a separate nationality, homogeneous and compact. Of these provinces one of the most important beyond question is the Hungarian Pousta, situated on the banks of the Theiss and the middle Danube, and inhabited by 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 Magyars. The remaining 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 Magyars are scattered over the other provinces, forming the ruling caste and providing officials, magistrates, and police. Their business is to dominate the nationalities of these provinces and bend them under the yoke of the Magyars.
In these other provinces each race is at home, and is as compact and homogeneous as the Magyars in the Pousta. Transylvania, for example, with the neighboring plains of the Banat, of Chrishana and Mamaramuresh is peopled by 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 Rumanians, among whom there are to be found here and there small bodies of Magyars. The Southern Slavs in their turn dwell in compact masses of between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 in the southern part of Hungary; and there are at least 2,000,000 Slovaks in the north, who also form a compact group. The Magyars are determined that the 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 of the Hungarian Pousta shall rule the 13,000,000 of non-Magyars in Transylvania, Jugoslavia, and Slovakia, and that these nationalities shall disappear, losing their language and individuality and adopting those of the Magyar people. It is nothing less than national suicide which the Magyars demand from these races, and, since this is refused, the jingoes of Budapest, enjoying carte blanche from the Emperor and the European powers, have for sixty years been carrying out a veritable campaign of murder against the non-Magyar races of Hungary.
TRANSYLVANIA'S CASE
The problem is intensified by the fact that the Serbs and Rumanians of Hungary see 5,000,000 of their brother Serbs and 7,500,000 of their brother Rumanians across their frontiers in Serbia and in Rumania under separate sovereignties of their own people. Mr. Draghicescu continues as follows:
Doubtless, if Transylvania and Jugoslavia were merely isolated provinces without affinity or resemblance to neighboring States, as is, for example, the case of Ireland in the United Kingdom, we should admit that, however great might be the majority of these races over the Magyars, the racial question would not and could not arise. It would in that case be merely a question of domestic politics and administration without international interest. But this is far from being the case in Transylvania, for instance, where the Rumanian population touches upon three sides the Rumanians of the kingdom, and where it has no contact with the Magyars, except on one-third of its racial frontier. Moreover, assuming the Magyars to have a certain superficial claim to ascendency in Hungary, where they are 41 per cent. of the whole population, this claim cannot be admitted in Transylvania, where they are but 15 per cent. to 18 per cent. In Jugoslavia the proportion of Magyars is even smaller. Now, if we imagine the reunion of Transylvania to Rumania to be an accomplished fact, the proportion of races in Greater Rumania would be 92 per cent. Rumanians to 8 per cent. Magyars; for if to the 7,500,000 Rumanians of the kingdom there are added 4,500,000 Rumanians of Hungary among whom there live scattered bodies of Magyars to the number approximately of 1,000,000, we shall have 12,000,000 Rumanians to 1,000,000 Magyars.
In this case, in place of the crying injustice of a 15 per cent. Magyar population seeking to dominate and exterminate a Rumanian population of 60 per cent., we should have a liberal State in which the Rumanians would constitute 93 per cent. and the Magyars between 6 and 7 per cent. In Jugoslavia the same process would give similar results. It is impossible for Serbs and Rumanians to be indifferent to the fate of their kinsmen threatened with Magyarization. If they desire to save their captive brethren, if they desire to liberate them and unite with them, it is not because they are themselves impelled by a spirit of conquest and inspired by a reprehensible imperialism. In them such aims would be absurd. They are roused against the Magyars by legitimate fears for their own fate and liberty in the future. If the Rumanians and Serbs of Hungary were finally Magyarized it would be a proof that the Serb and Rumanian Nations were ephemeral and might easily disappear without harm to any one. Once the resistance of the Serbs and Rumanians of Hungary was broken, the fate of the Serbian and Rumanian Kingdoms would be sealed. The Magyars, with the help of their German allies and masters, would soon overcome the Serbs and Rumanians in the free kingdoms, exposed as these would be to the treacherous onslaughts of Bulgaria.
Therefore, the true terms and proportions of this question may be stated as follows: It is a war of life or death between 9,000,000 Magyars and some 25,000,000 Slavs and Latins. The former are vigorously upheld by the Germans and the Bulgars. And the others? Surely they should have for allies all who desire that Germany and her vassals should not destroy the liberties of the world.
Supreme War Council Favors Free Poland and Jugoslavia
The session of the Supreme War Council of the allied Governments, held at Versailles on June 4, 1918, was attended by the Premiers of Great Britain, France, and Italy. At the close of its deliberations it issued the following statement: