THE NATIONALITIES AND THE MAGYARS
We must now examine the relations between the Magyars and the other
nationalities in Hungary rather more closely. At the census of 1910 the
official Hungarian Government figures as to distribution of population
in nationalities were as follows:--
Nationality. Number.
Magyars 10,050,575
Germans 2,037,435
Slovaks 1,967,970
Rumanians 2,949,032
Ruthenes 472,587
Croats 1,833,162
Serbs 1,106,471
Other races 469,255
----------
Total 20,886,487
----------
It will be advisable to supplement these figures by others, showing the
apparent increase in the proportion of Magyar to non-Magyar inhabitants
in Hungary, excluding Croatia-Slavonia, where the proportion has
remained nearly constant for many years, owing to the peculiar
conditions prevailing in that province, which will be mentioned later.
In the table[7] given on page 34 the first column denotes the year
of the census from which the data are extracted, the second the
total population to the nearest thousand of Hungary, excluding
Croatia-Slavonia, the third and fourth the percentages of Magyars and
non-Magyars respectively in that population, as returned by the Magyar
officials.
-----------+-------------------+-------------+---------------
Year. | Total Population. | Magyars, | Non-Magyars,
| | per cent. | per cent.
-----------+-------------------+-------------+---------------
1787 | 8,003,000 | 29 | 71
1869 | 13,579,000 | 44·4 | 55·6
1890 | 15,163,000 | 48·5 | 51·5
1910 | 18,265,000 | 53·1 | 46·9
-----------+-------------------+-------------+---------------
At first sight it would appear that the Magyars were to some extent
justified in their policy of Magyarisation. The percentage of other
races in Hungary was steadily decreasing, while that of the Magyars
was increasing correspondingly. They might have argued, as indeed they
did, that the other races were effete and moribund, and were rapidly
being displaced by the higher and more virile civilisation of the
Magyars. But this conclusion is erroneous. It is beyond the bounds of
credibility that so rapid an increase in the Magyar percentage could
be due to natural causes alone. The non-Magyar races were for the most
part an agricultural and pastoral people, with a birth-rate well up to
the average. This decrease is all the more remarkable because the Slavs
and Rumanians were in occupation of the soil long before the Magyar
invasion of 891, and have always been profoundly attached to their
mother-tongue and their national traditions. It is also a fact that
the percentage of Magyars has only increased since the time when they
determined to make Hungary a purely Magyar State.
But the official Hungarian figures, compiled as they were by Magyar
enumerators, must be regarded with considerable suspicion. The
Magyars, wishing to justify their policy as far as possible in
the eyes of the world, made every effort to demonstrate that they
possessed a majority in the country. It is notorious that the census
officials, acting in accordance with confidential instructions issued
by the Government, entered as Magyars large numbers of those Slovaks,
Ruthenes, Croats, Serbs and Rumanians who spoke Magyar. Prominent
Magyars have admitted as much. Count Apponyi himself, in proposing the
health of the chief Censor, who had been in charge of the census, at a
banquet at Budapest in 1910, said: “_Our honoured colleague combines
in himself the poet and apparently the most prosaic statistician.
But this incompatibility is only apparent, for having collaborated
with him for many years, I know that his acute mind has enabled him
to introduce into the figures of his statistics a similar sentiment,
to arrange these figures in such a way that the poetry of patriotism
is apparent in them at the first glance._” This is probably the most
remarkable compliment ever paid to a statistician, more especially
to one connected with such a vital matter as a census. It may be
suggested that a Government having no axe to grind, would prefer that
the “poetry of patriotism” was not so obvious in its official returns.
This observation on the part of the man who was at the time Minister
of Education is an eloquent proof of the fact that official statistics
were shaped to suit the ends of the Magyar race, and that they could
not be relied upon to show the true numerical proportion of the various
nations included in the realm of St. Stephen.[8]
This tendency in the official figures makes it impossible to gauge the
true proportions of the various races. It is certain, however, that the
figures shown for the Magyars are too large, while those shown for the
non-Magyars are too small. According to Professor Niederle, in his book
_The Slav Nation_, the Slovaks in 1900 numbered 2,600,000, instead of
the 1,991,402 returned in the census of that year, while the Ruthenes
were some hundred and fifty thousand more numerous than was reported.
The Magyar socialist leader, Deszo Bokanyi, declared in a speech
delivered at Szeged in August 1917, that there were not more than eight
millions of Magyars in Hungary, and that it was even doubtful whether
they reached that figure. He added that it was well known that the
official statistics gave every opportunity to jobbery.
Another factor which helps to explain the increase in the Magyar
percentage shown in the official figures is the emigration from Hungary
to America, which was on the increase during the years before the War.
The number of emigrants from Hungary in the year 1906 reached the
alarming total of 178,170, or approximately 1 per cent. of the total
population. Of these emigrants the greater number were of non-Magyar
nationality, the Magyar emigrant forming less than one-third of the
whole.[9]
Grünwald, in the work already quoted, declares that Magyar policy
towards these non-Magyar races. “The awakening of a national
conscience among the non-Magyar races constitutes a danger to the
Magyar State. The only possible culture in Hungary is the Magyar. _It
is impracticable to win the Slovaks to the idea of a Magyar State by
kindness. The only means which remains to us is to exterminate them
utterly._ If the Magyars desire to survive, it is necessary that they
should strengthen themselves by the assimilation of the non-Magyar
races.” So notorious did this policy become throughout Europe that
even men like Björnson, the eminent Norwegian poet and publicist,
who from his well-known sympathy towards pan-Germanism might have
been expected to approve of the parallel pan-Magyarism, were moved to
protest against it. In the course of an article contributed to the
_Neue Freie Presse_ of Vienna (November 15, 1907), Björnson used the
following words:--
“You have certainly read the story of Peter Maupertuis, and of the
celebrated proposition which he made to Frederick the Great, of
the advice which he gave in order to ensure that the people should
speak Latin? The king was to enclose part of the country within an
insurmountable wall. This having been done, a large number of young
children were to be taken from their parents and immured behind this
wall, where they would only hear Latin spoken, nothing but Latin, from
morning to night. This extraordinary proposition was fully appreciated
at the time by Voltaire, as you know. It is, however, to the Magyars,
that original people, that chance has reserved its execution. The
Magyars have built this wall; it is the Hungarian frontier, rendered
impassable by the famous valour of the Magyars. Teachers exist also,
the partisans of Greater Hungary. Armed with book and law, with whip
and rifle, these masters introduce Magyar into the schools, a language
with which I am not acquainted, but which, I am told, resembles Turkish
and is consequently far superior to Latin.
“The motive behind this action is perfectly simple. There are not
enough Magyars; the Magyars are in the minority in their own country.
They are not very prolific, Heaven knows why. _It follows, therefore,
that Magyars must be manufactured. This is the chief Hungarian
industry._ It is a peculiarity of the partisans of Greater Hungary
that everything they are or do is the finest in the world. I have
recently learnt from a Magyar Government paper that the Slovaks are
with regard to the Magyars in the same relation as the Esquimaux are to
the Norwegians. But these Esquimaux of Hungary have produced a number
of great men, such as Petofi and Kossuth. These Esquimaux of the Great
Magyars are thus far superior to the other Esquimaux.”[10]
We may examine the methods of this “_chief Hungarian industry_,” as
Björnson so aptly styled it.
The Slovaks, despite lively opposition on the part of the Magyars,
succeeded in establishing three “gymnasia” (secondary classical
schools, intended as preparatory to the Universities), and a society
for the study of their national literature, the Slovenska Matica.
But the existence of these schools was contrary to the policy of
the Magyars. They closed the schools in 1874, and a year later, by
methods which were acknowledged at the time to be contrary to the
principles of justice or equity, they dissolved the Slovenska Matica,
confiscating the funds of which it had become possessed. The buildings
themselves they turned into Government offices. Since the closing of
these establishments the Magyars have been obstinately opposed to the
founding of the gymnasia which the Slovaks have desired to establish at
their own expense. The Slovaks were therefore deprived of any secondary
school in which teaching might be carried out in their mother-tongue.
According to the last official census before the War, Slovakia,
inhabited by a compact Slovak population, possessed thirty-three
establishments of all sorts in which secondary education was imparted,
in every one of which Magyar was the language of instruction.
All Slovaks, therefore, who were desirous of availing themselves of
secondary educational facilities, were compelled to attend the Magyar
secondary schools. The secondary schools, then, were the machinery
employed in the factories where the great Hungarian industry was
carried on. But even when the Slovak youth had entered the machines, it
was subject to persecution. If the Magyar authorities discovered that
the Slovak pupils endeavoured to keep up their knowledge of their own
language, or were even in possession of books written in Slovak, they
were immediately expelled from school.
Nor were the secondary schools the only agencies employed by the
Magyars in manufacturing countrymen for themselves. The lot of Slovak
elementary school children was no better. Under the Tisza Government,
which did not come to an end until May 1917, the elementary schools in
the Slovak areas of the country contained 266,107 Slovak pupils, of
whom 18,312 only could be accommodated in the so-called Slovak schools,
and even in these, in conformity with the Education Act of Count
Apponyi, the Magyar language was taught for eighteen hours a week. The
total hours of instruction per week in these schools was on the average
twenty-four. There were, besides, 978 schools, at which 86,363 Slovak
children attended, where the sole language used was Magyar, and 899
schools, attended by 89,299 Slovak children, in the two lowest classes
of which the Slovak language was allowed as an auxiliary tongue. Under
the Esterhazy Government, which followed that of Tisza, it was ordained
that the elementary schools were not to use any language but Magyar,
even as an auxiliary, and a little later that Magyar was to be used as
the language of instruction even in the Church schools.
But the great Hungarian industry began even before the non-Magyar
child reached elementary school age. “The Government fully recognised
the value of the primary school as a political instrument, but,
possessing a more intimate knowledge of the prevailing educational
and administrative chaos than was vouchsafed to the general public,
they were tempted to resort to still more drastic measures. Twelve
years’ experience had taught them what the common sense of pedagogic
specialists had foretold from the beginning--that a language so
difficult as the Magyar can only be effectually acquired in a Magyar
atmosphere, and that Slav or Rumanian village children, who perhaps
only attend school for half the year and during the remaining six
months seldom hear a syllable of Magyar spoken around them, are hardly
likely to make any real progress in the language, unless the teaching
staff is multiplied twenty-fold. An ingenious device was invented to
cope with this practical difficulty, which exists even when there is no
reluctance on the part of pupils and parents.... In 1891, therefore,
a Bill was introduced by Count Csaky for the compulsory erection
of Infant Homes (kindergarten and asiles) throughout the country.
The ostensible aims of the new law were (_a_) to place under proper
supervision young children whose parents were not in a position to
give them personal attention, and (_b_) to promote their physical
development and inculcate habits of cleanliness and intelligence....
Another aim is regarded by Hungarian statesmen as infinitely more
important than the reduction of infant mortality and the appalling
over-crowding and lack of medical treatment to which the mortality is
mainly due. This aim is the Magyarisation of the coming generation of
non-Magyars. Lest I should be accused of exaggeration, I prefer to
use the inimitable words of an official Hungarian publication.”[11]
The publication referred to by Dr. Seton-Watson is _L’enseignement
en Hongrie_, published by the Hungarian Ministry of Religion and
Public Instruction in 1900. According to this publication, since 1867
the kindergarten movement had lost more and more its humanitarian
character, and its important side became daily more apparent. The
provision regarding language made of the question of the teaching of
the children a factor in political culture. This circumstance possesses
all the more importance as it becomes more and more evident that
infancy is the most favourable age for the teaching of the Hungarian
(i.e. Magyar) language.... The completely national mission of our
establishments for infant teaching is what distinguishes them above all
from similar institutions abroad. Such a bare-faced admission is rare
even among the cynical declarations of the Magyars.
With the exception of 656,324, who were domiciled in Hungary proper,
the Serbs and Croats were mainly to be found in Croatia-Slavonia.
In accordance with the Hungarian-Croatian agreement of 1868, which
was ratified by the respective Parliaments of Budapest and Zagreb,
Croatia-Slavonia was nominally an independent State. “In theory the
viceroy, or _ban_, of Croatia-Slavonia is nominated by the Crown, and
enjoys almost unlimited authority over local affairs; in practice the
consent of the Crown is purely formal, and the _ban_ is appointed by
the Hungarian Premier, who can dismiss him at any moment.... Electors
must belong to certain professions or pay a small tax. The privileged
members are the heads of the nobility, with the highest ecclesiastics
and officials. (These privileged members formed about half of the
national assembly, or parliament, of Croatia-Slavonia and were not
subject to election, holding their seats _ex officio_.) As a rule they
represent the “Magyarist” section of society, which sympathises with
Hungarian policy. The chamber deals with religion, education, justice
and certain strictly provincial affairs; but even within this limited
sphere, all its important enactments must be countersigned by the
minister for Croatia-Slavonia, a member, without portfolio, of the
Hungarian Cabinet. At the polls, all votes are given orally, a system
which facilitates corruption; the officials who control the elections
depend for their livelihood on the _ban_, usually a Magyarist; and
thus, even apart from the privileged members, a majority favourable to
Hungary can usually be secured.”[12]
Although the legal status of Croatia-Slavonia was that of a sovereign
state, the Magyars never hesitated to violate that sovereignty. The law
of 1907 concerning the railways is an example, for by it the Magyars
sought to impose their language upon Croatia-Slavonia. The Serbo-Croats
protested loudly against this violation of their national rights and of
the sacred obligations of the treaty. In reply the Hungarian Government
instituted a reign of terror in Croatia-Slavonia under the pretext of
pacifying the country. Serbo-Croats were imprisoned on the grounds
that they had conspired with Serbia against the Hungarian State. The
notorious trial for high treason of fifty-three Serbo-Croats at Zagreb
(Agram) in 1907 is a prominent example of Magyar persecution.
Again, it is possible to quote a Magyar authority in condemnation
of Magyar policy. Count Joseph von Mailath, a well-known Magyar
statesman and a member of the Hungarian House of Magnates, produced
a book entitled _Rural, Social and Political Hungary_, intended as a
panegyric of the Magyar national policy. In this book he writes as
follows: “I think it preferable to put forward the political side of
the Croatian question, for this question is first of all a question of
power; the point is above all to know who is the strongest. To maintain
the Hungarian character of the railways of the Hungarian State, _to
assure, if necessary, by force and at a pinch even by fire and sword
the supremacy of the Hungarian language_ on the Croatian lines of
these railways, is for Hungary a question of life or death; indeed, we
cannot reach our port of Fiume except by passing through Croatia. It is
essential that we should be masters of the route to Fiume even if right
were not on our side.” In fact, right must give way to expediency where
Magyar interests are concerned. Necessity knows no law.
As the Croats and Serbs were more or less segregated in
Croatia-Slavonia, so the Rumanians within the domains of the Crown
of St. Stephen were concentrated in Transylvania. “The population
(of Transylvania) in 1900 numbered 2,456,838. Until 1848 the chief
influence and privileges, as well as the only political rights, were
divided among the three ‘privileged nations’ of the Hungarians,
Szeklers and Saxons. The first are the descendants of the Magyar
conquerors. The Szeklers are of disputed origin, but closely akin to
the Magyars. The Saxons are the posterity of the German immigrants
brought by King Geza II (1141-61) from Flanders and the lower Rhine,
to cultivate and repeople his desolated territories.... The Hungarians
and Szeklers together number 814,994, and the Saxons 233,019, but by
far the most numerous element, though long excluded from power and
political equality, is formed by the Rumanians, 1,397,282 in number,
who are spread all over the country.... The efforts of the Rumanian
inhabitants to secure recognition as a fourth ‘nation,’ and the
opposition of the non-Magyar population to a closer union with Hungary,
led to troubles early in the nineteenth century, culminating in 1848.
In 1849 Transylvania was divided from Hungary by an imperial decree,
and became an Austrian crownland; but in 1860 Transylvania became
an autonomous province, with a separate Diet, and a high executive
power of its own. The Diet assembled in Nagy-Szeben in 1863 decreed
the complete separation from Hungary, the union with Austria, and the
recognition of the Rumanians as the ‘fourth nation.’ But the Hungarian
Government did not recognise this Diet, and the Diet assembled at
Kolozsvar in 1865, in which the Hungarians had the majority, decreed
again the union with Hungary. By the Compromise of 1867 Austria
granted the union of Transylvania with Hungary, which was completed in
1868. Transylvania lost every vestige of autonomy, and was fully and
completely incorporated with Hungary. Since that time the Magyarisation
of the Principality has steadily been carried through, in spite of
the bitter protests and discontent of both Saxons and Rumanians. A
Hungarian university was founded at Kolozsvar in 1872; and Hungarian is
recognised as the official language.”[13]
A single example must serve to show the methods which the Magyars
employed in their treatment of the Rumanian population. In 1892, the
Rumanian National Party addressed a petition to the king. This document
called in question the legality of the annexation of Transylvania to
Hungary. It also set out the grievances of the Rumanians against the
Magyars. The Hungarian Government refused the Rumanian deputation
the right to approach the king, but the National Party published the
text of the petition. This action roused the ire of the Magyars, who
prosecuted the authors of the document and those who were concerned
in its publication, accusing them of “inciting to revolution against
the Magyar race.” As a result of these prosecutions, fifty Rumanians
were condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from two to five years.
Their sole crime had been that they had taken the liberty of drawing
attention to their grievances against the Magyars, and had declared the
facts of their oppression by the dominant race.
In the attempt to extirpate the national existence of the Rumanians of
Transylvania, the Magyars followed their usual policy of depriving them
of educational facilities. Alarmed by the sympathy shown for Rumania
during the War, the Government ordered the closing of the Rumanian
normal schools in Transylvania. Some days later, Count Apponyi, then
Minister of Education, issued the following circular with reference to
the schools maintained by the Greek Orthodox Church: “In view of the
maintenance of the security of the Magyar State and the Magyar nation,
the Minister of Education has decided to convert all the Rumanian
national schools in the counties bordering on Rumania into Magyar
Government schools, in order to put an end to the anti-Magyar movement
originating in neighbouring Rumania. This result can be achieved if
the Rumanian schools pass into the hands of the Magyar Government.
The Minister finds himself compelled to take this step in consequence
of the fact that at the time of the invasion of Transylvania by the
Rumanians, many teachers and pupils displayed signs of hostility
towards the Magyar State.”
Referring to this circular, one of the Rumanian newspapers published
in Transylvania remarked that the Minister of Education was profoundly
mistaken if he supposed that the conversion of Rumanian schools into
Magyar schools would in any way affect the patriotic spirit of the
Rumanians. Liberty rather than oppression would foster the spirit
of patriotism. The _Budapesti Hirlap_ stigmatised the remark of the
newspaper in question as unheard-of insolence. “It is liberty which
gave the Rumanians the opportunity for their traitorous conduct, which,
in its turn, provoked the ministerial edict.” The _Budapesti Hirlap_
went on to express the hope that Count Apponyi would devote all his
energies to the carrying out of his edict, with the object of putting
an end to the anti-Magyar agitation which menaced the existence of the
Magyar State.
It will be convenient to conclude this chapter with a short account
of the relations between the nationalities of Hungary up to the time
of the Ausgleich. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, when
the Turks were almost entirely driven from Hungarian soil, Hungary
was inhabited by scarcely two million people, of whom scarcely half a
million were of Magyar nationality. Thus the Magyars, forming only a
quarter of the population, were not in a position to play the leading
part in the country. The Austrian administration, which always retained
the decisive vote in the internal affairs of Hungary, was not disposed
to favour the Magyars beyond the other nationalities. It was only in
the reign of Charles VI (1685-1740) that the Hungarian administration
was set up and Hungarian courts were allowed. In the eighteenth century
Latin had not ceased to be the official language of all the Hungarian
nationalities. The Magyar tongue, being then only in the first stages
of its literary development, could not have replaced it, even had the
Magyars been capable of exercising the preponderating influence in
the country. In the fifteenth century attempts had been made at the
time of the Hussite struggle to make use of it as a written language;
its development was encouraged by the Reformation in the sixteenth
century. But these revivals were followed in the seventeenth century
by a period of decline. Only in Transylvania did the Magyar tongue
achieve any success, where as early as 1565 it was already the language
of several of the county assemblies. But when the Hapsburg dynasty
acquired Transylvania at the end of the seventeenth century Magyar
was no longer encouraged as an official language, and Latin was again
introduced as the language of legislation and administration.
The renaissance of the Magyar language did not begin until the reign of
Maria Theresa. But in spite of the brilliant beginnings of a new Magyar
culture, whole blocks of the population remained strangers to Magyar
ideals. It was not until the “uncrowned king,” Joseph II, directed the
Hungarian administration in 1784 to use German in lieu of Latin that
the national conscience of the Hungarian nobility was aroused. The
Magyar tongue began to regain its ascendancy, Latin gradually lost its
hold, and the use of the Magyar crept into the administration of the
State and into the courts of justice. In 1840 Magyar had become the
sole official language of the Government and the Diet, to the exclusion
of all the other national languages of Hungary. Magyar jingoism, not
content with the successes achieved in Hungary itself, endeavoured to
enforce its language even on the Croats, notwithstanding the special
position occupied by the latter.
The Magyars developed rapidly a presumptuous arrogance and a brutal
tyranny. They alone were the chosen race; the non-Magyars, and
especially the Slovaks, might think themselves fortunate in being
allowed to merge themselves into the noble Magyar nation. _Tot nem
ember_, the Slovak is not a man, was the common expression of Magyar
pride, which Count Szechenyi, “the noblest of the Magyars,” inveighed
against in a lecture before the Hungarian Academy. “_I do not know
a single Magyar_” he said, “_who, though his hair be white as snow
or his face lined by experience or by the struggle of life, who does
not at once become an irresponsible madman, or at least a man without
conscience, devoid of the feelings of honour or justice, as soon as
our nationality or our language is in question. In such moments our
compatriots lose their mental balance, the most far-seeing become
blind, and the most reasonable forget the everlasting commandment, ‘Do
unto others as you would they should do unto you.’_”
But Szechenyi’s words fell on deaf ears. The Magyars lost all sense of
proportion, and alienated the other nationalities by suppressing their
native tongues and replacing them by their own. Although Magyarisation
made rapid strides, it seemed to the Jingoes that its progress was
still too slow. They desired to Magyarise the whole country in the
course of a few years, a desire which evinced itself in outbursts of
indignation against the Throne, whose occupants endeavoured to moderate
their fanatical zeal, and who, in the beginning at least, took the
non-Magyar nations under the wing of their feeble protection. By 1848
the Magyar crusade reached its height. The pusillanimous king and all
his entourage with him abandoned their efforts in the face of the
insatiable greed of the Magyars. On April 11th of that year the new
constitutional laws were sanctioned, giving Hungary her independence
and dividing the monarchy into two halves. The new Constitution dealt a
blow at all the non-Magyar nationalities, especially the Croats, whose
country became a mere province of Hungary. A desperate struggle began
between the nationalities and the Magyars, leading to the Magyar revolt
against Vienna. It was only in July 1849 that Kossuth declared himself
willing to sanction the law guaranteeing their free development to
all Hungarian nations. The battle of Villagos and the capitulation of
Gorgei put an end to the revolution, and an era of Germanism began
throughout the whole monarchy, strangling every nationality except
the Germans. The Magyars rid themselves gradually of their unhealthy
megalomania. When Kossuth was exiled in 1859 he endeavoured to found
on alien soil a confederation of the three Danubian States--Hungary,
Serbia and Moldavia--with Wallachia, thus showing a different outlook
towards those nations from the one he had assumed the year before. The
Magyars were to be reconciled with the Serbs and Rumanians, and all
citizens, irrespective of their nationality or religion, were to enjoy
equal rights and liberties. This was the attitude of a representative
Magyar at a time when the Magyar race was undergoing political eclipse.
The policy of absolutism brought the monarchy to the verge of ruin, and
led to the disastrous war in Italy. Following the defeats sustained in
1859, the Court of Vienna sought new means of retrieving its position.
It was decided to admit the people to a share in the deliberations
of the Empire, and after a short time negotiations were set on foot
in both Hungary and Croatia. These negotiations were hastened by
the Austrian defeat at the hands of the Prussians at Königgrätz in
1866. The skill of Beust composed the quarrel between the Magyars
and the Crown, and recommended the division of the monarchy into two
autonomous halves. The Germans of Austria and the Magyars of Hungary
were to have equal rights of aggrandisement at the expense of the other
nationalities. Each was to be allowed elbow room in his own country
in order to deal with its internal affairs. The Germans were to have
the right to oppress the non-German races of Cisleithania, while the
Magyars were to exercise the same right towards the non-Magyar nations
of Transleithania. Dualism was agreed to, and the monarchy assumed the
form it retained until the end of the War.
Beust and the Emperor Francis Joseph had perpetrated a glaring act
of injustice towards the subject nationalities. Two nations alone
profited by the new regime of Dualism. They alone could enjoy liberty
in the spheres of politics, economics and culture, while the other
nations were relegated to the rank of their vassals. The Hungarian
nationalities were delivered to the mercies of the Magyars, and heavy
as had been the German yoke, the nationalities soon discovered that
that of the Magyars was far heavier. In an instant the Magyars cast off
the mask of liberalism and showed themselves once more in their true
rôle of brutal oppressors. The Law of Nationalities of 1868 was passed
indeed, but only to serve as a veil for their true policy, but they
never fulfilled the least of its promises, which they violated from the
very inception of Dualism. But their persecution of the nationalities
only reached its height during the administration of Coloman Tisza.
From the time that he assumed office, it was as though the Law of
Nationalities had never existed. “For the Hungarians the very existence
of the State was menaced while the Magyars were not in the majority
and so long as the other nations were not assimilated, willy-nilly. To
this end they devised every expedient to spread the Magyar element and
to wipe out the other nations. On this principle everything worked to
build up the Magyar State; the Hungarian Government and administrative
officials, the Church, Members of Parliament, newspapers, societies,
schools, kindergartens, the intellectuals and particularly the
Jews. The Administration played the chief part in this policy of
Magyarisation, having in its power means which no other organisation
possessed. In spite of the law all non-Magyar languages were suppressed
in the courts and the administration, in State undertakings such
as railways, posts and telegraphs, in the schools, and in the very
churches and religious houses. The Government pushed its reforming
tendencies so far that it refused to tolerate even the Slovak secondary
schools maintained by religious associations.”[14]
The methods by which this Magyarisation was carried out will be dealt
with in greater detail in the following chapters.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Extracted from evidence adduced before the League of Nations,
September 1922.
[8] See also _Magyars et Pangermanistes_.
[9] See also _Racial Problems in Hungary_.
[10] For a collection of Björnson’s letters and articles dealing with
Hungary, see _Björnson et Apponyi_, by E. Lederer, Prague, 1921.
[11] _Racial Problems in Hungary._
[12] K. G. Jayne, _Enc. Brit._
[13] _Enc. Brit._
[14] Dr. Kadlec, _Les Magyars et la République Tchécoslovaque_, 1921.