1939: Hungary

Increases in Territory.

The territory of Hungary, which had been increased in November 1938 by the addition of Eastern Slovakia and Southern Carpathian Ukraine, totaling about 4,655 square miles with a population of 1,027,450, was further enlarged in March 1939, when the Hungarian army invaded Carpathian Ukraine at the time of the final break-up of the Czechoslovak Republic, and annexed an area of 4,283 square miles with a population of 552,124. By this step Hungary established a common frontier with Poland, a goal long sought by both countries. Subsequent negotiations between Hungary and Slovakia gave to Hungary an additional 386 square miles with about 45,000 inhabitants, so that Hungary now covers an area of 46,000 square miles with a total population of about 10,500,000. The new Polish-Hungarian frontier was, however, not of long duration. The subjugation of Poland by Germany in September 1939 brought the Soviet Union, instead of Poland, to the important Hungarian border in the Carpathian mountains. This most unexpected change brought about certain complications for Hungary, in view of the fervent hostility which the Hungarian Government has always shown towards the Soviet Union.

Governmental Policy.

During the year 1939, the Hungarian Government continued to follow internally its semi-Fascist policy, and externally to work in closest friendship with the German Reich and with Italy. The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Stefan Csaky, visited Berlin in the middle of January and in an official statement he stressed Hungary's complete agreement with Germany on all questions of mutual interest. This attitude encouraged the radical extremists in Hungary who are organized in several groups modeled after the example of the German National Socialists, and of which the most important is the Arrow and Cross movement. This growth of radical opposition and the authoritarian methods of Prime Minister Bela Imredy brought about, in the middle of February, such a discontent among the more conservative and moderate members of the rightist majority in the Hungarian Parliament that Imredy was forced to resign. The irony of the case was supplied by the fact that Imredy, who was the father of the most violent anti-Jewish measures, intended to exclude Jews and those Christians of Jewish parentage from Hungarian public and economic life, discovered that his mother's grandfather was born a Jew. The Minister for Education in the Imredy Cabinet, Count Paul Teleki, formed the new Cabinet on Feb. 16. This change of government, however, had no influence upon the policy of the country. On Feb. 24, Hungary signed the anti-Comintern pact and thus joined with Germany, Italy, and Japan in a common front against the Soviet Union. On the same day the largest of the extremist organizations modelled after the National Socialist example, the Hungarist movement, was dissolved; the green shirts which the movement wore were banned; the leaders, among them Koloman Hubay, were arrested. Two of the main points in the program of the Hungarist movement, the anti-Semitic measures and the agrarian reform, were accepted by the government, although both in a less radical form and with the preservation of the parliamentary régime. The government party accepted the name of Party of Hungarian Life, and declared that its program was identical with that of the counter-revolutionary government which had been formed in 1919 in Szeged — a program which had been first put into execution under the Premiership of Julius Gömbös, upon whose initiative the anti-Semitic and agrarian measures were formulated.

Anti-Semitic Laws.

As the result of its allegiance to the Rome-Berlin axis, the Hungarian Government resigned from the League of Nations. In line with this policy, the Hungarian Parliament adopted at the beginning of May drastic anti-Jewish laws which excluded Jews entirely from the Civil Service and the liberal professions, as well as from any leading position in journalism, in the theatre and in the cinema. In business and industries their participation was limited to 12 per cent as regards the number of persons employed and the salaries and wages paid. Farm land in excess of one-half acre owned by Jews could be expropriated with compensation by the State. The Jews retained their vote for Parliament, but were only allowed to vote for special lists, and the number of Jewish members of Parliament was not to exceed 6 per cent. Jewish war veterans and Jews whose forebears had been in Hungary since 1848 and who had become baptized not later than 1919 were exempt from these restrictions. A number of leading Hungarian statesmen and church dignitaries assailed this new policy. Among them was Count Stefan Bethlen, who had been Prime Minister from 1921 to 1931, and who now announced his retirement from politics because of his disapproval of Hungary's present trend.

Parliamentary Elections.

After the passing of the anti-Semitic measures, the parliamentary discussions of which had lasted for thirteen months, the Hungarian Parliament elected on April 27, 1935, was dissolved. The new Parliament, comprising 260 members all of whom were for the first time to be elected by secret ballot, was elected at the end of May. After a bitter struggle between the Government party and the National Socialist opposition, the Government won 180 seats with an aggregate of 1,050,000 votes. The National Socialist groups gained 43 seats with 518,000 votes. The Hungarian Government warned 'irresponsible elements' in Germany against interfering in Hungarian domestic affairs. Although the National Socialists remained in a minority, they nevertheless gained many votes compared with former elections, and replaced the former opposition parties of the left, the Socialists, Liberals and Independent Agrarians, as the strongest opposition party. The new Parliament adopted a constitution for the annexed Carpathian Ukraine, which was declared an autonomous province of Hungary with its capital at Ungvar. Henceforth, it will be known as Carpathian Land. There the local Ukrainian language is admitted as an official language besides Hungarian. It discussed also the long-pending agrarian reforms which are to alleviate the land hunger of the Hungarian peasantry. According to the pending bill, private individuals are obliged to lease their lands if they exceed 500 acres, whereas corporations are obliged to do so if they have more than 300 acres of land. On the whole it is hoped that the reform will yield about 1,500,000 acres for small holders. Many clauses tend to moderate the effect of the bill upon the existing land distribution in Hungary.

Effects of European War.

The European War which broke out in September aggravated the position of Hungary. Poland, which had been connected with Hungary by long-lasting bonds of friendship, disappeared, at least temporarily, from the map; Hungary's border-line with Germany was extended; the Soviet Union became an immediate neighbor. Following the example of Italy, Hungary remained neutral at the beginning of the war, but reasserted again and again her loyalty towards the Rome-Berlin axis and her friendship for her two partners in the former anti-Comintern pact. Italy regarded her friendship with Hungary as the prime foundation of her foreign policy. The new war seemed to offer Hungary a possibility for pushing her revisionist claims against Rumania for the return of Transylvania. Foreign Minister Count Stefen Csaky made a strong statement in the middle of November drawing the attention of the Rumanian Government to the fact that some kind of territorial revision would be necessary to create friendly relations between the two countries. Generally Hungary followed with greatest attention the shifting game of Balkan politics. Her desire for an annexation of Rumanian territory was tempered by a fear of further expansion of Soviet influence in the Balkans and in Hungary. The Hungarian Government was very anxious for a rapprochement with Yugoslavia, but Yugoslavia was bound by treaties of assistance with Rumania. The effort to create a Balkan pact which would unite all the Balkan nations and Hungary in a mutual defensive agreement against any expansion by great powers in Southeastern Europe, although many times suggested, was not realized, largely on account of Hungarian and Italian opposition. (See also BALKAN ENTENTE; LITTLE ENTENTE; YUGOSLAVIA.)

Decline of the National Socialist Movement in Parliament.

The strain of the war seems to have produced a relaxation in the internal situation towards the end of the year. The newly elected president of the Hungarian House of Deputies, Andreas Tasnady-Nagy, emphasized in his installation speech on Nov. 10 the value of parliamentarian institutions against the National Socialist propaganda. 'We must not forget,' he said, 'that the parliamentary system is a treasure. It is our national inheritance and it is our duty to preserve it. The system may have its deficiencies which, however, can be mended. Whoever attempts to destroy the parliamentary system in Hungary is an enemy of the nation.' At a by-election at the end of November in one of the largest and most important electoral districts, the candidate of the governmental party was opposed by a radical rightist who was a close friend of the National Socialist movement and of Chancellor Hitler. The trend of public opinion was shown by the fact, that whereas the candidate of the government received 12,000 votes, the opposition candidate could only get 2,679 votes. This fact marked the outspoken decline of the National Socialist movement in Hungary and the strength of the parliamentary régime. Hungary followed in her foreign policy, a line of closest cooperation and sympathy with National Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy. She owed to this attitude the acquisition of the Carpathian Ukraine, and hoped for further territorial acquisition. In her internal policies, however, she strove to preserve a certain balance between National Socialist and Fascist principles on the one hand, and more conservative national Hungarian traditions on the other.