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.