1942: Hungary

Hungary so far has gained considerably by her partnership with the Axis and her alliance with Germany. It is therefore understandable that Hungary is fighting wholeheartedly on Germany's side against the democracies, even more so because Fascism gained a strong hold on Hungary some twenty years ago. Hungary which in 1930 had a population of 8,668,319, in 1942 had a population of 14,736,000 increased by the incorporation of Czechoslovak, Rumanian and Yugoslav territory. Hungary has declared war on the Soviet Union and on the United States of America.

Political Situation.

Hungary, since the abdication of the Hapsburgs, was considered a monarchy with a vacant throne, the functions of the king being exercised by the regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy. As the regent is of advanced age and in failing health, the Hungarian parliament decided to elect a vice regent, to take over part of the duties of the regent, and especially to fill the vacancy in case of his death. In February it elected the older son of the regent, Stephen Horthy, as vice regent. Mr. Horthy who was only 38 years old, was known as an expert and skillful flier, he had piloted his own plane in April 1940 on his wedding trip to Rome, and had in July 1939 made a solo flight from Budapest to Bombay. In August 1942 he was killed while flying on the Russian front. A successor to the new high office has not as yet been elected.

The month of March also saw a change in the Hungarian cabinet. Prime Minister Dr. Ladislaus Bardossy resigned on account of ill health. The new Prime Minister is Nicholas von Kallay, a former Minister of Agriculture, who temporarily assumed also the office of Foreign Minister. All the other members of the cabinet remained in their position. In his programmatic declaration the new Prime Minister declared that Hungary's place could be only on the side of Germany and Italy. Hungarian official policy and public opinion have never shown the slightest hesitation, the Premier declared, in aligning Hungary with the Fascist Axis. This decision was not new, it had already been taken at a time when Fascism in the world was still in its infancy and when Germany had not yet started on the road to becoming the greatest power on earth. He pointed out that Hungary's fate was being decided on the Russian battlefield and that therefore Hungarian honor could not permit that this decision should come without Hungary's full and active participation. The chief concern of the government would therefore be the full prosecution of the war. As regards internal policy the Prime Minister promised a strict adherence to Fascist principles and the continuation of the anti-Semitic policy.

Relations with Neighbors.

Hungary's relations with all its neighbors were extremely strained. Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Rumania were afraid that Hungary might covet more of their territory. Hungary in 1938 and 1939 had annexed Slovakian and Carpatho-Ukrainian territory and thus acquired a large Slavonic minority, and Slovakia complained about the treatment of this minority. In the south Hungary had acquired in 1941 the Yugoslav territory of the Backa. There in January 1942 the Serb population revolted against Hungarian domination. The revolt took dangerous form, and for several days the most important city of the territory, Novisad, was in the hands of the Serb patriots. In suppressing this revolt the Hungarian armed forces were ruthless. Thousands of Serbs were executed and massacred. The Hungarian Prime Minister discussed these events in the Hungarian parliament in mid-July and regretted the excesses of Hungarian officials, and that among the victims many innocent persons were found. He promised a strict investigation.

While the relations with the other neighbors remained strained, those with Rumania threatened to culminate in open warfare. Rumania had been forced by the Axis to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary in 1940. Northern Transylvania was regarded by the Rumanians as the cradle of the Rumanian nation and the place of birth of modern Rumanian nationalism. Many of Rumania's political and cultural leaders had come from Transylvania. She therefore could never acquiesce in its loss. The situation was further complicated by the fact that both Rumania and Hungary were German satellites, but there was an important difference between them. Hungary was more efficiently organized and had kept somewhat more of her independence; Rumania was much more directly under German control, but on the other side had suffered much greater sacrifices in the German war against Russia. During 1942 the Rumanians clamored for the return of Transylvania. Violent speeches were made, in which the Rumanians protested that the Rumanian population in the part of Transylvania annexed by Hungary was being maltreated and dispossessed. The Hungarians countered with similar accusations regarding the treatment of the Hungarian minority in that part of Transylvania which had remained within Rumania and were ready to demand the cession of that part, too. On June 14 Premier von Kallay made an inspection trip to Transylvania to manifest Hungary's determination to keep Transylvania. His visit was the occasion of great demonstrations on the part of the Rumanians. The tension found expression not only in violent speeches and articles in the press, but also in border incidents. Germany succeeded only with difficulty in postponing the outbreak of open hostilities between the two countries and the settlement of the thorny question until after the end of the war against Russia.

Politics.

Hungary tried to retain some of her independence against Germany. The forms of parliamentary life were maintained. In the Lower House the government party, the party of Hungarian life, as it called itself, had 184 deputies, and together with the party of Transylvanian deputies had a large majority. But there existed small groups which accepted the whole Nazi program and desired the complete Nazification of Hungary — among them the most important being the Arrow Cross Party which frequently bitterly attacked the government. Most of its Fascist demands were in any case granted by the government, though with some small reservations, and internal dissensions among the different leaders of the extremist groups weakened their position.

Hungarian divisions participated in the war on the Russian front. Most of them were reported in the vicinity of Voronezh. Other Hungarian divisions were used to hold down Yugoslavia. Hungarian territory was several times raided, probably by Soviet fliers. The first air attack on the Hungarian capital of Budapest happened in the night of Sept. 4, 1942.

1941: Hungary

Within the Nazi Orbit.

This central European kingdom continued during 1941 to be ruled by Admiral Nicholas Horthy as regent representing the Hungarian throne, which has been vacant since 1918. Under Admiral Horthy, Hungary continued its policy of close collaboration with Germany and of integration into the 'New Order,' a policy that brought Hungary actual results in the aggrandizement of her territory, although accompanied by many internal difficulties and by complete subservience to Germany. Hungary continued to make territorial gains in 1941. By the first Vienna award of Nov. 2, 1938, she received 4,605 square miles, with a population of 1,044,438, from Czechoslovakia. She annexed, in March 1939, an additional 4,690 square miles with 671,962 inhabitants, mainly the territory of Carpathian Ukraine or Ruthenia. On Aug. 30, 1940, by the second Vienna award, she received from Rumania, the northern part of Transylvania, about 16,642 square miles with a population of 2,392,603. In April 1941, she annexed Yugoslav territory in the Voivodina comprising about 8,000 square miles with more than 1,000,000 inhabitants.

The war had serious effects on the country's economy. Italy's entrance into the war virtually cut Hungary off from overseas markets, and made impossible her imports of many essential raw materials. That brought about not only a scarcity of certain industrial products but also a rise in prices, especially because a very poor agricultural harvest has also led to an increase in food prices and cut down Hungarian exports in wheat and other agrarian products.

Early in 1941, the country mourned the loss of two of its leading political figures. On Jan. 27, Count Stephen Csaky, the foreign minister, died. He had been instrumental in bringing Hungary more and more into Germany's orbit, in engineering Hungary's adherence to the Rome-Berlin-Tokio Pact in November 1940, and in concluding a pact of eternal friendship with Yugoslavia on Dec. 12, 1940. Both of these pacts were unanimously approved on Feb. 4, 1941, by the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies. Csaky was replaced by a Hungarian diplomat, Laszlo Bardossy, who followed without, hesitation the pro-German policy of his predecessor and was ready to adopt it completely even so far as to involve Hungary without reservation in Germany's wars and thus sign away her independence. By the end of March the relations between Germany and Yugoslavia had become so strained that German aggression against Yugoslavia could be expected at any moment. It was under these circumstances that the Hungarian prime minister, Count Paul Teleki, finding himself pledged to allow German troops to occupy Hungarian territory and thus involve Hungary in a war against Yugoslavia with whom but three months before she had concluded a pact of everlasting friendship and non-aggression, committed suicide on April 3. By granting concessions, Count Teleki had hoped to be able to keep Hungary from disaster and dishonor. With his hopes shattered he did not wish to live longer. But his warning remained unheeded.

Foreign minister Laszlo Bardossy became prime minister, and did not hesitate to follow a policy which put Hungary completely into German vassalage. It is true that Hungary could occupy, thanks to the German conquest, a part of northeastern Yugoslavia in which there was a Hungarian minority, and that this land in the Serbian Voivodina was of great fertility. But in occupying this land the Hungarians met with bitter resistance on the part of its Serb inhabitants, and there were many reports of mass executions as a consequence.

Attitude toward Minorities.

However, Hungary began to follow a more enlightened policy toward its many minorities whose oppression before the First World War had been the fundamental cause for the dismemberment of Hungary. On Feb. 2, a decree granted priority of minority languages over Hungarian in the approximately 1,200 minority schools of the country. The then Hungarian premier, Count Teleki, took the opportunity to emphasize the desire of the state not to create cause of irritation between it and the minorities, granting to parents the right to decide which language the children should regard as their mother tongue and be taught in it. Later during the year a Slovak Party was founded in Koice, to organize the large Slovak minority for collaboration with the Hungarian state while maintaining its rights and civilization.

Relations with Rumania and Slovakia.

But the relations between Hungary and her neighbors, Rumania and Slovakia, remained extremely strained throughout the year. Hungary had annexed in 1938 and 1939 important parts of Slovakia with a very large Slovakian population, and in 1940 the annexation of northern Transylvania had deeply wounded the national feelings of the Rumanians who regarded Transylvania as one of the most important parts of their national heritage. The desire of the Rumanians for the reconquest of Transylvania was frequently and openly expressed. At the same time Hungary was in no way satisfied with her annexations, and wished to restore the frontiers of the Hungarian kingdom of 1918, in which the Hungarians themselves had formed only a minority of the population. Thus Hungary had aspirations for the remainder of Transylvania which by the end of 1941 still belonged to Rumania, and for the whole of Slovakia which had been constituted by the Germans as an independent state under their protection.

These internal hostilities among the satellites of Germany were not even silenced by the fact that all three of them fought with Germany in her war against the Soviet Union which she started on June 22. Hungary, which had now become entirely a part of the German system, joined the war immediately and Hungarian troops fought against the Soviet armies.

At War with the United States.

As was to be expected, when Germany declared war against the United States, in December 1941, Hungary immediately followed suit. But meanwhile, Hungarians who had managed to leave Hungary, organized a Free Hungarian movement in New York and in London under the leadership of Tibor von Eckhardt, who had been one of the leading Hungarian politicians of the past twenty years and chairman of the party of the small Hungarian farmers. Although he was deprived of his citizenship by the Hungarian government as a result of his action, nevertheless he appealed to all Hungarians against the policy of their government which in his opinion could not lead to Hungary's true greatness or honor, and bade them to establish Hungary's independence in union with all other free peoples. See also YUGOSLAVIA.

1940: Hungary

Hungary is a kingdom in Central Europe, the throne of which has been vacant since 1918. The royal prerogatives have been exercised for the last twenty years by a regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy. During the year 1940 Hungary again increased her territory by the inclusion of Northern Transylvania. It was the third gain of territory by Hungary in quick succession. The award of Vienna in November 1938, gave to Hungary the southeastern part of Slovakia and the southern part of Carpatho-Ukraine; in March 1939, Hungary occupied and annexed the rest of Carpatho-Ukraine; and on Aug. 30, 1940, a second award of Vienna by Germany and Italy settled, at least for the time being, the dispute between Hungary and Rumania about Transylvania, by giving to Hungary the northern half of that province. By this division Hungary received the strategically important Carpathian mountain border against the Soviet Union, which by the occupation of Eastern Galicia and of the Bukovina had become Hungary's neighbor. The new borderline roughly cuts Transylvania in two, leaving the southern and southwestern portions to Rumania, but restoring to Hungary a larger area in the north and giving back a long stretch of her pre-World War mountain border in the east. The new line begins at a point southwest of Salonta, runs northeast to a point about seven miles southeast of Oradea (Grosswardein), then in an easterly direction south of and near the railway from Oradea to Cluj. Thence it runs south past Cluj to a point approximately twenty miles northwest of Tirgu-Muresului. (For relations with Slovakia see CZECHOSLOVAKIA.)

Acquisition of Transylvania.

The newly gained territory with about 2,500,000 inhabitants is largely timberland; it includes the Carol line of fortification which the Rumanians built as a protection against Hungary, and it contains a very large Rumanian and a considerable German population. The Rumanians protested bitterly against this cession of a land which they regarded historically and ethnographically as predominantly Rumanian; there were many clashes between the Hungarian troops, which proceeded to occupy the new territory, and Rumanian demonstrators, but with German support Hungary annexed Northern Transylvania without any serious obstacle. On Sept. 5 the first contingent of Hungarian soldiers, led by Admiral Nicholas Horthy on a white charger, began the occupation. The first city to be occupied was Satu Mare, and by Sept. 13 the whole occupation was completed. By this action Hungary added an area of 17,000 square miles, and her population was increased to 13,500,000. On Oct. 10 forty-three Transylvanian deputies took their seats in the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, forming a part of the sixty-three deputies by which Transylvania will be represented in the Hungarian Parliament. The University of Cluj was again Magyarized; the university which had been established in 1921 in Szeged was transferred to Cluj, which will again be called by its Hungarian name, Kolosvar. (See also EUROPEAN WAR.)

Hungary Joins the Axis.

Hungary's gain of territory was not due to military conquest; it was entirely the result of decisions taken by Germany and Italy, and it therefore tied Hungary more closely to the Axis powers. The year 1940 witnessed the complete integration of Hungary into the Axis system, both as regards the foreign policy of the country and her internal development. The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Stephen Csaky, went to Vienna on Nov. 20 and signed there a protocol whereby Hungary joined the pact between Germany, Italy and Japan which had been signed in Berlin on Sept. 27, 1940. The protocol merely admitted Hungary to membership and to councils on matters affecting her interest. This formal adhesion of Hungary to the Axis powers did not create a new situation, but merely confirmed the trend towards Fascism which has dominated Hungarian life entirely for the past years. This fascization of Hungary had been promoted especially by Bela Imredy, a former president of the Hungarian National Bank who had resigned as Premier on Feb. 15, 1939. His adhesion to National Socialism gave greater influence to the Hungarian National Socialist party which is known under the name of Arrow Cross party, and whose official leader, Major Ferene Szalasi, was released from prison early last fall. Imredy's leadership offers a greater threat to the stability of the present Hungarian government, led by Count Teleki, than do the several out-and-out National Socialist parties and groups which exist in Hungary and which in the first part of November 1940, were accused by the Hungarian government of a plot to kidnap the Regent and to overthrow the existing government.

Internal Policies.

In spite of several cross-currents in Hungary's internal policy and the desire on the part of large Hungarian circles to maintain some Hungarian independence, Hungary was forced in December 1940, to close the Polish legation in Budapest, notwithstanding the often stressed long-standing close friendship between Hungary and Poland. In a similar spirit the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Stephen Csaky, went to Belgrade to sign a treaty of friendship with the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Alexander Cincar-Markovitch.

In conformity with the growing influence of National Socialism over all spheres of Hungarian life, the elimination of Jews from the economic life of the country proceeded with increased severity. Step by step the Hungarian Jews were deprived of their livelihood. The number of special restrictions imposed was very great, and followed each other in quick succession. On Oct. 2 the Government submitted a bill to the Hungarian Parliament, according to which the number of ecclesiastical members of the Hungarian House of Lords was increased as a result of the occupation of Northern Transylvania, and representatives of the Roman Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Greek Orthodox and the Calvinist faiths were added. At the same time the Jewish faith lost its only representative in the House of Lords, and the bill pointed out that the political, economic and social situation of the Jews in Hungary had so fundamentally changed that this representation was no longer needed.

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.

1938: Hungary

The year 1938 was of momentous importance for Hungary, as well as for the rest of Central Europe. It brought to Hungary the first satisfaction of the aspirations which have directed her whole policy since the end of the World War, namely, that of regaining some of the territory lost in that upheaval. She had suffered losses to Rumania, Yugoslavia and Austria; and, after the war, to Czechoslovakia although part of this she has now regained. But she had to pay the price of throwing in her lot with the Rome-Berlin Axis by becoming dependent for her whole foreign and internal policy upon Nazi Germany, the more powerful partner of the Axis. This final outcome did not entirely correspond to the situation at the beginning of the year, when Hungary's aim was to steer a middle course and to remain, although with a definite leaning toward Italy, independent in her foreign and internal policy. But the Pact of Munich and its consequences drove Hungary into the Fascist camp.

Hungary's Territorial Claims.

Early in 1938 a conference in Budapest united the so-called Rome Protocol Powers, Italy, Austria and Hungary. On this occasion the Italian Government advised Hungary to try to establish better relations with Rumania, where, at that time, the Fascist government of Octavian Goga was in power. In Transylvania, that part of Hungary which had been ceded to Rumania after the World War, more than one million Hungarians lived under a much more unfavorable régime than did the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia. In February the Hungarian Regent, Admiral von Horthy, visited Poland, and during this visit the common policy of the two states was discussed. Both Poland and Hungary were friendly towards Italy and Germany, and hostile towards the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and the system of the Little Entente. But whereas the relations between Hungary and Rumania were unfriendly, those between Poland and Rumania were most cordial. Poland could thus function as an intermediary between Hungary and Rumania.

Growth of National Socialism.

Hungary's will to independence was strongly expressed by the Cabinet of Bela Imredy which took office in May. The Prime Minister, well-known as the leading financial expert of Hungary, a Director of the National Bank, and Hungary's Minister of Finance, had succeeded in balancing her budget, in paying a large part of her external debts, and in accumulating a Treasury reserve. Mr. Imredy's Cabinet was Hungary's answer to the threat of Nazi hegemony which had become imminent after the annexation of Austria by Germany in March, and which was increased by the growing National Socialist movement within Hungary, both among the relatively large German minority and among the younger Hungarian middle class.

Hungary, a feudal country with a very rich aristocracy, and a very poor peasant class which forms a large majority of the population, found herself in the throes of a deep social and economic crisis. The long-overdue agrarian reform was being resisted by the upper classes. The middle classes, mostly Jewish and German by origin, had suffered through the shrinkage of the Hungarian territory after the World War; the result having been especially disastrous for the Hungarian intelligentsia, who in pre-war Hungary had occupied all the official positions in that extensive country. After the World War a younger intelligentsia grew up for whom there were no positions open as officers or officials. These discontented youths became natural soil for the growth of a National Socialist movement in Hungary. They spread agitation among the impoverished and suffering peasant masses, and they appealed, as they had done in Germany, to anti-Semitism as a strong incentive to National Socialism.

The preceding Government of Daranyi had passed in April anti-Semitic legislation which severely restricted the economic and civil rights of the Jews. The law established professional chambers or syndicates in Hungary and decided that no syndicate should contain more than 20 per cent of Jews. In enterprises having over ten employees, Jews were not allowed to represent more than 20 per cent of the total number employed or of the salaries received. In a largely agrarian country like Hungary, the Jews, formerly unable to settle on the land, had built up most of the industry and commerce of the country and were represented in the professions by a proportion which varied between 25 and 50 per cent. The new government of Imredy continued this anti-Semitic policy, at the same time however trying to suppress the more radical sections of the National Socialist movement in Hungary. One of its leaders, Major Ferenc Szalasi, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment for subversive activities. The new Government endeavored to arrive at a compromise, accepting some of the Nazi methods and policies, but trying to preserve Hungarian independence. The Nazi agitation made itself especially felt in the schools, among the students and teachers, in the army and among the officials. The measures taken by the new Government aimed at eliminating this tendency in the schools and the army.

Question of Habsburg Restoration.

The absorption of Austria by the Reich and the growing strength of Germany were responsible for the waning influence of that group of Hungarian leaders who had favored the restoration of the Habsburgs to the throne of St. Stephen. Hungary was the only country of the former monarchies which had not become a republic after the World War. It had remained a Kingdom, although without a king. Admiral von Horthy became Regent of Hungary, at first with the expectation of filling the position only until the coronation of the king, but he now seems disposed to consider his status permanent. There is little prospect of the Kingdom finding its king. The occupation of Austria settled not only the question of the Habsburgs, but also the question of the Burgenland, that part of Hungary which had been ceded to Austria and which the new Great Germany was determined to keep.

Nazi Influence in Hungary.

The German campaign against Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1938 awakened a two-fold echo in Hungary. On the one hand the Hungarians hoped that the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia would put them in a position to reclaim territories which they had been obliged to cede to Czechoslovakia after the World War; on the other, they foresaw that the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany would spell the doom of Hungary's independence and would lead the way to Hungary's complete absorption within the orbit of Nazi influence. German aggressiveness in Central Europe increased the strength of the Hungarian Nazis. The Hungarian Government answered by again sentencing the Nazi leader, Major Szalasi, to imprisonment, this time for a term of three years. Thus Hungary's situation depended on the outcome of events in Czechoslovakia.

Although the grain harvest in Hungary was exceptionally good in 1938 and although the rearmament program increased employment, nevertheless the unemployment situation remained serious among middleclass youth, who continued to listen to promises of great opportunities in Hungary, similar to those which Nazi Germany seemed able to provide. Late in the summer it became apparent that although the Imredy Government had come into power to check the Nazification of Hungary, the drift under Imredy was more and more to the Right. The question in dispute between the Government and the more vehement Nazi opposition was no longer that of orderly progressive government versus authoritarianism, but of a more or less orderly authoritarianism as opposed to a revolutionary and riotous one. The economic life of the country was put under rigid control on Fascist lines; civil liberties were practically abolished.

Hungary and the Little Entente.

At the end of August Admiral von Horthy paid a visit to Chancellor Hitler. At the same time the states of the Little Entente held a conference in Bled, Yugoslavia. They announced in an official communique that the relations between Hungary and the three countries of the Little Entente, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Rumania, had developed during the last months in a more satisfactory way than during all preceding years and that there was real hope for a complete understanding between them. Negotiations which had been conducted throughout the year with Hungary had made it possible to reach an agreement resulting in a pledge by Hungary and the Little Entente members to refrain from the employment of force of any kind against one another, and in the recognition by the three Little Entente members of Hungary's equality in the matter of rearmament. Thus the long-standing conflict between the Little Entente and Hungary seemed to be approaching a favorable outcome. The states of the Little Entente had officially agreed to Hungary's full rearmament against the stipulations of the Peace Treaties. Hungary still refused, however, to conclude minority treaties with the three states of the Little Entente, because she hoped at that moment to be able, on account of German pressure upon Czechoslovakia, to get especially favorable terms from Czechoslovakia. The events of September abruptly brought to an end these promising beginnings for mutual understanding among the Danubian countries. (See also LITTLE ENTENTE.)

Cession of Territory by Czechoslovakia.

During the Czechoslovak crisis in September and October, the Hungarian Government moved cautiously. Whereas Poland seized on the Pact of Munich as the opportunity to present an ultimatum to Czechoslovakia and to insist upon the acceptance of all her demands, the Hungarians tried to negotiate with the Czechoslovaks, or rather, as all their claims were confined to the territory of Slovakia and Carpatho-Russia, which had formerly been part of Hungary, they conducted their negotiations with the new autonomous governments of Slovakia and of Carpatho-Russia. The Hungarian demands seemed unacceptable to the Slovaks and Carpatho-Russians. The negotiations were broken off several times and the atmosphere on the border was very tense for weeks. Finally Hungary and Czechoslovakia agreed to submit to the arbitration of Italy and Germany. On Nov. 2 the two foreign ministers, Count Ciano and Von Ribbentrop, met in Vienna. By their decision a large part of southern Slovakia and the fertile part of Carpatho-Russia, with several of the most important cities, were given to Hungary. At the beginning of November Admiral von Horthy, Prime Minister Bela Imredy and Foreign Minister Koloman de Kanya triumphantly entered the new territory. As Admiral von Horthy arrived on a great white charger, he was greeted by Premier Imredy with the words: 'Your Serene Highness, the great vision has materialized. Hadur, the war god of the Magyars, has today ridden in on a white steed and liberated the land of our forefathers.' (See CZECHOSLOVAKIA.)

Hungary did not receive full satisfaction of her claims. She had claimed the whole of Carpatho-Russia, and she had been supported in this claim by Italy and by Poland, but opposed by Germany. Whereas Italy quickly went over to the German point of view, Poland continued to press for the transfer of the whole territory to Hungary. She wished to establish a common frontier with Hungary and so to act as a check upon further German expansion eastward, especially against the transformation of the remainder of Carpatho-Russia into a nucleus for Pan-Ukrainian propaganda. In view of Germany's violent opposition to a common Polish-Hungarian frontier, the Polish-Hungarian aspirations could not be realized. This led to a short Cabinet crisis in Hungary, but Admiral von Horthy rejected the resignation of Imredy. Only Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanya resigned, on account of his old age, after having been six years in office. The result of the crisis was a definite shift towards the Right. Imredy himself now decided to accept Nazi adherents in his right-wing majority.

Complete Nazification of Hungary.

The German minority in Hungary, under the leadership of Dr. Franz Basch, now put forward demands for recognition of German minority rights and especially for the right to the Nazi ideology. The Minister of Agriculture, Count Michael Teleki, declared in the General Assembly of the landed aristocracy that the Government would proceed with an agrarian reform, but that this reform would be limited to lands in the hands of foreigners, of stockholding companies, and of Jews, and only in the last resort would it touch the lands of the aristocracy. The Hungarian National Socialist movement, the symbol of which is the Arrow and the Cross instead of the Swastika, inaugurated a new intense activity. At the end of December the Italian Foreign Minister Ciano visited Hungary. Although he came ostensibly only as a guest of a hunting party, his presence served the purpose of drawing Hungary definitely within the Rome-Berlin Axis and of coordinating Hungary's life completely with that of the two leading Fascist powers.

The complete Nazification of Hungary expressed itself for the time being in two directions. Internationally, Hungary was to leave the League of Nations; at the same time she was to join the anti-Communist Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan. It was expected that Czechoslovakia might take the same course. Thus a strong block consisting of Germany (including former Austria), Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Italy, would be formed which could be used for further advances in the sense of the anti-Communist Pact. Count Ciano also visited Yugoslavia and worked for a rapprochement between Hungary and Yugoslavia. It was expected that Yugoslovia would cede at the beginning of 1939 some small part of former Hungarian territory to Hungary, and perhaps get in exchange the Italian city of Zara in Dalmatia. Thus Yugoslavia would be drawn into a common front with the Fascist Powers and would probably also join the anti-Communist Pact. On the other hand, the talked-of rapprochement between Rumania and Hungary temporarily receded into the background. It became clear that after the incorporation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary, and probably Yugoslavia, in the German front, the next country on which the pressure of this front would be exercised would be Rumania. Hungary was expected to start a campaign for the return of territory held by Rumania, after having settled her territorial claims with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. This would lead to an estrangement between Hungary and Poland, as Poland sees herself threatened similarly to Rumania by the forthcoming German Pan-Ukrainian propaganda and by the expected German drive eastward.

Anti-Semitic Campaign.

Internally, as another consequence of the inclusion of Hungary within the orbit of Nazi Germany, Hungary agreed to an intensification of the anti-Semitic campaign. After having, by a law in the spring of 1938, curtailed the economic rights of the Jews, a new law was proposed which was to exclude the Jews completely from all participation in Hungary's cultural life, from teaching, from journalism, from the theater, from music, from the movies, from the radio and from any other kind of cultural activity. At the same time the political rights of the Jews were practically suspended. Their participation in economic enterprises, outside the professions, was reduced to 9 per cent of the number of employers or employees in commerce, industry, banking and trade. Thus the rapid coordination of Hungary proceeded at a fast pace and opened a new chapter in her history.