Chapter VII: The Minorities in Hungary To-Day

According to Hungarian official statistics, the population of the Republic of Hungary is now 7,482,000, composed as follows:

Magyars 6,612,000
Germans 500,000
Slovaks 166,000
Yugo-Slavs 111,000
Rumanians 49,000
And a small fraction of other nationalities.

As a matter of fact, the estimates of the non-Magyar nationalities are probably too small, for the reasons already set out in a previous chapter. The Slovaks themselves estimate their numbers as 267,500, and it is certain that the correct estimate is nearer the latter figure. In the present chapter we may examine the treatment of these minorities by the Magyars.

As regards the Slovaks, although they inhabit certain districts in a compact mass, and although, even according to official Hungarian statistics, they form either a majority or a considerable minority in 99 towns, they have not yet been provided with a single elementary school, not to speak of secondary or technical schools.

The Hungarian Government, in order to evade the duties devolving upon it in accordance with the Treaty of Trianon, relative to the protection of racial minorities, declares that the Slovaks now settled in Hungary do not desire schools in which instruction is carried out in their native tongue. A strange light is thrown upon the accuracy of this statement by the fact that in March 1919 a deputation was sent by the Slovak inhabitants of the Bekes area, which contains more Slovaks than any other part of present-day Hungary, to Karolyi, then President of the Hungarian Republic, and to Berinkey, then President of the Council, to submit a memorandum claiming Slovak schools for the Slovak minority in present-day Hungary. The President of the Council promised them this, but only on the condition that they should sign a manifesto protesting against the union of Slovakia with the Czechoslovak Republic. The deputation declined to comply with this condition, and their request was consequently refused.

Another proof that the Slovaks in Hungary wish to have their own schools is that, at the period when the Rumanian Army occupied a large part of Hungary after the defeat of the Bolshevik troops, the Slovaks in that area applied to the Rumanian Government for the establishment of Slovak schools.

But the Magyars have in no way abandoned their Magyarising tactics against the non-Magyar races. On the contrary, the oppression of the latter has grown even more severe, although now that the majority of these races have been delivered from the Magyar yoke, the Magyars have no longer reason to fear that the Magyar ideals of Hungary may be menaced. In order to create the impression that the Slovaks are contented with their lot, and do not desire the establishment of Slovak institutions, the Magyar Government systematically terrorises the humbler classes of the racial minorities, and with the help of armed threats forces them to sign declarations against the establishment of their own schools and other national means of expression.

They have even gone further than this. The Slovak minority has been deprived of the negligible number of schools in which instruction was carried on partially in Slovak, and these schools now use nothing but Magyar. This has occurred at Kestuc, at Slovensky Komlos, at Pitvaros and elsewhere. In the latter town, two teachers were dismissed from their posts by the Hungarian Government and deported to an unknown destination, because in spite of orders to the contrary they had continued to use Slovak as the language of instruction. In the Churches belonging to the non-Magyar nationalities Magyar has been forcibly introduced into Divine Service, as, for example, at Slovensky Komlos. Slovak pupils in secondary schools have been forbidden to speak Slovak in the streets.

The non-Magyars are being subjected to persecution and imprisonment, and in some cases even to torture. Instances can be cited by the dozen. A former Slovak deputy named Hrabovsky, now a farmer at Caba, was imprisoned and tortured, together with about fifty of the principal citizens of Caba, Slovensky Komlos and Pitvaros. They were kept in prison for twenty months without being brought to trial. For no reason whatever Martin Morhac, a Slovak Evangelical clergyman of Budapest, with his wife and daughter, were treated in the same way. Again, the Slovak preacher Rohacek, of Niredhaza, was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment for having urged his fellow-Slovaks not to conceal their nationality when filling in the census returns. It is instances such as this last which makes it allowable to doubt the correctness of the Hungarian census. Where terrorism prevails among a poor population, it is certain that a large percentage of that population will yield to it rather than incur the danger of fine and imprisonment. It is impossible to estimate even roughly how many Slovaks alone were led by these considerations to inscribe themselves as Magyars in the census papers.

The hatred which the Hungarian officials feel towards the Slovaks is shown on the slightest occasion. A typical incident is the case of Jan Calik, a farmer of Caba, who, on May 4, 1922, asked the superintendent of police to vacate the rooms he was occupying in his house, as his son was getting married and needed them. The superintendent attacked Calik and beat him savagely with the flat of his sword.

But the Hungarian Government faithfully followed the precedent laid down by its predecessors of 1868. In order to have a reply to criticism, it re-enacted to all intents and purposes the Law of Nationalities which had been a dead letter during the years before the War. On August 21, 1919, it issued the following decree:[38]

“1. All Hungarian citizens have completely equal rights. The fact
that they belong to a racial minority cannot give them any privileges
nor expose them to disabilities.

“2. Subjects of the State belonging to racial minorities can freely
make use of their native language in the Hungarian Parliament, in
district and communal assemblies, as well as on their committees,
wherever they have the right to make speeches.

“3. The laws and decrees of the Government are to be published in
the languages of all the racial minorities; the Magyar text is
authoritative. District and communal regulations will be published
in the administrative language of the communal area, and also in the
language used there at the meetings of the administrative bodies.

“4. The administrative language of a district assembly is fixed by
the district at a general meeting. Proceedings are to be reported in
that language and also in those languages which at least one-fifth of
the members of the departmental representative body desire to use.
The administrative language is the authoritative one.

“5. The district assemblies can make use of their administrative
language in all their requests and decisions, but if this language is
not Magyar they are bound to subjoin a Magyar text.

“6. The administrative language of communal bodies is determined by
their assembly. As regards the reports of their proceedings, see
paragraph 4.

“7. The communal bodies can use their administrative language in
their requests and decisions.

“8. Subjects of the State belonging to racial minorities can use
their native language in communicating with legislative bodies, the
Government, the Ministries, district and communal administrative
authorities, as well as with the public services.

“9. The administrative bodies will issue their decisions and replies
in the same language as the applications, complaints and requests
submitted to them, and in communicating with communal bodies,
societies, institutions and private persons, they will use the same
language as the latter, provided it is the administrative language of
the area.

“10. Whosoever requires the protection of the law and the assistance
of the law courts, either as plaintiff, defendant or appellant, can
use his native language, provided that it is the administrative
language for the area within the jurisdiction of the court concerned.

“11. The law courts will issue their decisions in the same language
as the application, etc. The evidence of witnesses and other judicial
procedure will be taken in the language of the witness or the parties
interested, with the same proviso as in paragraph 10. Under the same
conditions, appeals will be made in the language of the appellant
provided that the court is aware which language this is. All other
judicial decisions, including the verdict of the highest appeal
court, will be given in the language of the interested parties at
their request.

“12. Ecclesiastical administrative authorities, religious communities
and parishes, can decide freely what is to be the official language
of their Church or the language of instruction in their schools, and
they can make use of it in their dealings with State and autonomous
administrative bodies.

“13. Care must be taken that citizens of the State belonging to
racial minorities and living in sufficiently considerable compact
masses in the territory of the State may have facilities in the
State educational establishments of the area where they reside for
their children to be educated in their native language as far as
the initial stages of higher education. In the universities special
chairs will be established for the study of the languages and
literatures of each racial minority.

“14. Municipalities, communal areas, Churches, parishes or private
persons belonging to any racial minority may found elementary,
secondary or higher schools from their own resources or jointly.
For this purpose, and in the interests of developing the national
and economic resources, citizens of the State belonging to racial
minorities can form societies and make collections under the legal
control of the State. Educational and other establishments founded
in this manner will enjoy the same rights as other schools and
establishments. The founders will decide what language is to be used
in them.

“15. The fact of belonging to any racial minority will not be an
obstacle in the way of attaining rank or employment, whatever
they may be. The Government binds itself to see that judicial and
administrative posts, especially those of sub-prefects, are filled,
wherever possible, by persons belonging to racial minorities and
knowing their languages. Officials now in office are obliged to take
the necessary steps so as to be able, within a period of two years,
to satisfy the linguistic requirements of the racial minorities
inhabiting the area in which they are carrying out their duties.

“16. The competent Ministerial authorities are entrusted with
carrying out the present decree in co-operation with the Minister of
racial minorities, who will keep a continual check on the manner in
which this is done, and who will organise for this purpose a special
section for each of the racial minorities.

“The present decree will come into force on the day of its
publication.”

The decree is most ingenious in its wording. It would appear at first sight that absolute freedom was given to the racial minorities to choose the language they would use for official purposes. But upon closer inspection it will be seen that this free use is circumscribed by limitations depending upon the “administrative language of the area.” As a matter of fact, the “areas” in present-day Hungary are comparatively large and scattered, and in consequence, even though the provisions of the decree were faithfully carried out, it would be difficult to find the requisite proportion of the racial minority, not to determine the administrative language, but even to determine the alternative language permitted under paragraph 4.

The working of the law may be illustrated by the manner in which it applies to the Slovak minority. This minority occupies the districts lying along the frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, for the most part, although it is also found in other parts of Hungary. Following the events of 1918, a Minister of Racial Minorities was appointed. Oskar Jaszi, who had gained a reputation for Liberalism, was nominated to the post, in order that some pretence at least might be made of the intention of the Government to pursue a policy of conciliation towards the minorities. Jaszi made every effort to win over the Slovaks to Hungarian nationality by promising them autonomy, and he even recognised a portion of eastern Slovakia as an independent Republic under Hungarian protection.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat in Hungary did not assist the racial minorities to secure their rights, and it is quite evident that the so-called struggle for liberty of the Bolsheviks in Slovakia was nothing more than an attempt to secure national unity in Hungary. The Bolsheviks desired, at least at first, to extend the bounds of Soviet Hungary at least as far as those of the ancient monarchy, in order to secure contact with the neighbouring States, in which their next move was to take place. Consequently there was no further step taken with respect to the minorities until the counter-revolution had restored the Magyars to power. This step, when it came, was the decree of August 21, 1919.

The motives which inspired the Government in the issue of this decree are apparent in the words used by the Minister of the Interior in introducing the new provisions. He desired to extol the generous justice of the Hungarian nation towards the minorities, once so large, now from their reduced size of so much less importance. As a matter of fact, as will be shown later, his real intention was to continue the traditional policy of Magyarisation, and he had no idea of altering the existing condition of things. In his introduction to the decree he said:

“The Hungarian State has always recognised, honoured, and even assured to the racial minorities the right of using their language and of freely developing their national civilisation. That this is beyond question is brilliantly proved by the fact that on the territory of the thousand-year-old Hungarian State not only have the non-Magyar inhabitants been able to preserve their national languages, but large numbers of them speak no other. _Besides being able to use freely their mother tongues in their private life and in their schools, these inhabitants exercise in public life more extensive rights than those accorded by any European State to those of its subjects who speak other languages but those of the State._”

Had one not become accustomed to the utterances of Hungarian politicians in the past, this sort of statement is enough to take one’s breath away. The argument that many members of the racial minority spoke no language but their own because they had been allowed freedom to do so is laughable. The history of events in Hungary before the War proves conclusively that every attempt was made to stamp out the use of any language but Magyar, and that the reason for the continued existence of the other languages of Hungary was due to the most desperate efforts of the minorities to retain their national characteristics. The fact that so many of the inhabitants of Hungary spoke no Magyar conceals a fact which exposes the whole Hungarian policy. If the Minister of the Interior had been forced to pursue his argument to the end, he would have been compelled to admit that this large population who spoke no Magyar were entirely illiterate, and were composed of those who, rather than have Magyar thrust down their throats, as would have happened had they attended any place of education in Hungary, had preferred to evade the education laws and to deny themselves the benefit of any schooling whatever. The rest of his statement quoted is merely untrue. As Björnson said of Magyar utterances meant to impress foreign countries: “It is waste of time to explain to them (foreign countries) things as they are. They do not understand them. It is consequently necessary to remodel them, to embellish them, to transform them. _In our simple European languages we have a single word for this which cannot be used here. I am, however, assured that in Magyar there exists a fine majestic word which we can perhaps translate very closely by ‘patriotic language.’ When a Great Magyar says something which is not quite true he speaks patriotic language._ They have achieved in that respect a skill incomprehensible to outsiders, which doubtless has its origin in their racial talents.” We may, therefore, define the Minister’s statements as patriotic language.

His subsequent words bear out this supposition. “Nevertheless, those States which for political reasons complain so loudly of the oppression of their brothers within the Hungarian State provide thereby a convincing proof of their limitless intolerance and of their attempts to oppress irrespectively not only their Magyar subjects, but all their foreign subjects as well, and even those who speak a kindred language.”

He continues by adjuring the racial minorities not to endanger the Hungarian State, which is their own country, by exaggerated demands. It is within the borders of this State that they will prosper, in contrast to those who in other States are powerless to resist the efforts of alien races to assimilate them.

In order that the true application of the decree and of the Minister’s words may be fully understood, it will be necessary to summarise very briefly the legal situation of the racial minorities in Hungary as they existed before the publication of the decree. It is, of course, true that by the law of 1868 the equality of the nationalities was nominally established, but those who have read the earlier chapters of this book will be aware of the differences between the wording and the practice of this law.

The most important point concerns the local assemblies. According to the law of 1868, which is followed in this respect by the decree of 1919, the minutes of these assemblies were to be kept in the official language of the State, but they could also be kept at the same time in that language which at least one-fifth of the members of the body representing the jurisdiction wished. This language may be termed for our present purposes the auxiliary language of the assemblies. According to the law, this auxiliary language might be used in all courts and administrative bodies within the area of the assembly. As the province of the assemblies extended not only over their internal affairs, but over the whole of the services of the State, so far as these were not entrusted to other bodies, the important position thus given to the language of the minorities can be seen. But the auxiliary language had to be demanded by at least a fifth of the members of the assembly, and under the Hungarian system of election such a proportion of non-Magyars on the local bodies was unheard of. The net result was that up to the time of the _coup d’état_ there was not a single local body in Slovakia where Slovak was used as an auxiliary language. If this fact be borne in mind, and the various laws be recalled by which Magyar was introduced to the exclusion of all others, it will be seen that even under the provisions of the Law of Nationalities the use of a non-Magyar language in the courts was so restricted as to be to all intents and purposes inoperative.

A Slovak could only use his native tongue before his own communal court, of which the jurisdiction was limited to matters involving a value of not more than 50 crowns. The exclusive language of all higher courts was Magyar, as was the language of appeal from the communal courts to the district courts. All members of the legal profession pleading before the courts and the judges and magistrates presiding over those courts were restricted to the use of Magyar, whether engaged upon their own cases or acting as the legal representatives of minors or others. In practice Magyar was the only language in which legal proceedings could be conducted. In the matter of education the situation was similar as has already been seen (Chapter IV).

The decree of 1919 was nothing more than a continuation of the existing state of things, for it did not amend the law of 1868 in any vital provision. Wherever the decree authorises the employment of a non-Magyar tongue, it limits this authorisation by the condition that the language must be either the official or the auxiliary language of the area. As things are, it is impossible that either language could ever be Slovak. As a matter of fact, there is at present no commune in Hungary where Slovak is the official or auxiliary language, far less is there any larger administrative area.

But even this illusory right was still to be denied to the members of the legal profession, as was shown plainly enough by a proclamation of the Minister of Justice dated January 17, 1920.

A statement of Pechany[39] of November 17, 1921, reproduced in the _Pester Lloyd_, is interesting.

“By virtue of a commission from the Hungarian Government, I have paid official visits to nearly all the communes in which there is a Slovak-speaking majority. Everywhere I have assembled the inhabitants and have invited their views on intellectual, social and economic questions. In all cases minutes were kept. As a result of these minutes and of the speeches made in the assemblies, I can state the following: The population is primarily interested in economic questions. The recorded wishes and petitions are mainly concerned with the bettering of their material situation. The population of the communes in question can prove that a considerable improvement has taken place during a relatively short time. A very good feeling exists in the intercourse between Magyars and Slovaks, and as every Slovak speaks Magyar as well,[40] it is not even possible to perceive that a polyglot population inhabits the communes. In fact, purely Magyar villages are found in the neighbourhood. The natural result is that both Slovaks and Germans make every effort to learn Magyar in their own interests. At each conference I made special inquiries into the language of instruction in the schools, and I prepared a special report on the expressed desires of the inhabitants. The fixing of the extent to which they desire Slovak to be used in the schools depends entirely upon the inhabitants themselves. The necessity for the teaching of Magyar was everywhere positively expressed. There were a few Slovak communes where, owing to the enthusiasm caused by the Lovaszy Decree on the subject of languages, the teaching of Magyar had been reduced to the minimum, but the decree was soon changed by the force of circumstances, for it was realised that it is preferable that children should acquire Magyar at school, rather than subsequently to seek employment or enter service in Hungarian towns for the purpose.”

It was hardly to be expected that the Slovaks, terrorised by the brutality of the Magyar local officials, would stand up in public and oppose their voices to the soft and Magyarising words of the Special Commissioner. It is not through the medium of public meetings that the true sentiments of a _coerced_ country are ascertained.

It is true that in the Hungary of to-day there are no Slovak schools, and the reason is not the one so naïvely put forward by the Commissioner Pechany. The slightest sign of Slovak or other non-Magyar sympathies in Hungary is rewarded with the consequences which the non-Magyars know so well. The system of county organisation which exists in Hungary makes such persecution not only possible but easy. The control of every individual in the communes and small towns is vested in the local officials, who are in every case, owing to the Magyar system of elections, men who have been specially trained in the school of Magyar Jingoism. No one dares protest against the Magyarising tendencies of the central Government or its local officials. Even if direct molestation were not to follow, it is quite certain that the offender would never cease to feel the results of his act. At every step he is dependent upon the goodwill of the local officials, and the forfeiture of their goodwill means that existence is made intolerable to the object of their displeasure. To the citizens of a democratic country the power of petty officials is incomprehensible, but in a country such as Hungary it is no exaggeration to say that the struggle for existence is impossible in the face of the opposition they are enabled to exert.

Meanwhile the Minister of Racial Minorities had ceased to worry about the rights of the non-Magyar nationalities in Hungary itself, and had turned his attention to their brothers in the adjoining States. An article in the _Pesti Hirlap_ of January 14, 1921, gave the game away completely.

“The principle of the national Unitary Magyar State excludes all idea of the appointment of a special Ministry for the nationalities, and the _Pesti Hirlap_, as a defender of the national policy, has always protested against the idea. However, when our country was dismembered, when the nationalities torn from us, notably the brave Slovaks in the northern provinces, the patriotic Ruthenians and the faithful Germans, gave proofs of their attachment to the Hungarian State, the establishment of a Ministry which should concern itself with these patriot nationalities became justifiable. That is why we ourselves have acquiesced in it. We shall not raise any objection if, for the same reasons, the Ministry is continued, for its suppression at the present moment would be used by our enemies as a weapon against us among our non-Magyar brethren. The situation is such that the Ministry may be _a means of maintaining the integrity of our territory_, if it is used intelligently. Its continued existence should signify that we consider our nationalities[41] as forming part of the unity of the national unitary Magyar State, and that we look forward to their return to Great Hungary. It is, therefore, evident that the object of the Ministry of Nationalities cannot be to manufacture nationalities in a mutilated Hungary.”

The _Pesti Hirlap_ no more recognises racial minorities in Hungary than it recognises their rights. On the contrary, it impresses on the Ministry the right, or rather the duty, to occupy itself with the internal affairs of the neighbouring States. The Ministry of Racial Minorities has been suppressed, but it continues to function, as suppressed Government departments are so apt to do, in another form. It is now disguised as Government Commissions on various nationalities. The mouthpiece of these Commissions, so far at least as the Slovaks are concerned, is Pechany, whom we have already quoted. On another occasion he repeated his strange theories, under conditions which ensured for them the maximum publicity, trusting that the world at large had forgotten the grain of salt with which it is necessary to take the statements of a Magyar politician. “There can be no question of the suppression of Slovak schools,” he said. “Attempts have been made to teach Slovak in secondary schools both at Bekescsaba and at Szarvas. An insignificant number of scholars took up the course and very soon abandoned it. There is at the moment no obstacle to Slovak being taught in secondary schools, elsewhere if necessary, if application is made for it. Based on the statistics of Bekescsaba and Szarvas, I can testify that the number of pupils seeking instruction in Slovak in these two establishments is relatively very low, that in general Slovak pupils are only found in the lower classes of the schools, and go at once to the agricultural school or remain at home to engage in farming. Of the 441 pupils entered in the higher classes of the secondary school of Bekescsaba in 1921-22, only 63 speak Slovak. Among these are some Protestant Magyars and eleven Jews. Of the 451 pupils entered in the higher classes of the secondary school of Szarvas, 96 only speak Slovak.”

In fact, Pechany is unable to perceive the existence of any Slovak minorities in Hungary at all, in spite of the fact that their existence is demonstrated by the census figures of his own Government.

After the experiences of representative Slovaks, particularly those of the well-known Slovak patriot, Juraj Grabovsky, who, together with 54 of his fellow-citizens of Bekes, spent two years in prison for the crime of having suggested the annexation of that province to Rumania during the Rumanian occupation, it is hardly surprising that Pechany found so little openly expressed enthusiasm for Slovak speech or Slovak ideals. In the communes in which the Slovaks predominate the detachments of gendarmerie have been strengthened, and anyone suspected of “Panslavism” is promptly removed to prison.

On February 1, 1922, the former deputy, Stephen Rakovszky, declared that Hungary’s chief mistake was a false policy towards the nationalities, that the Slovaks were being alienated by the neglect of their language and their institutions, and that it was only possible to regain the lost districts by a favourable policy towards the racial minorities.

On February 25, 1922, more than three years after the end of the War, Count Andrassy published in _Az Est_ a stinging criticism of the Magyar system of oppression of the minorities in Hungary. “For myself,” he said, “I have not long been a supporter of the secret ballot; my reasons having been the faulty policy pursued towards the nationalities, as a result of which the whole Magyar nation found itself on every occasion in opposition to a large number of voters of other nationalities. Hungary was faced with the alternatives of either changing its attitude towards the nationalities, or keeping to an electorial system which enabled the Government to exercise a decisive influence over the elections. Now the situation is reversed. In the first place we no longer have the nationalities, in the second everyone is agreed that the attitude towards the nationalities in the past was bad, and that in any case it is impossible to return to it. Under these conditions I consider that public voting is a crime against the right of the nationalities to self-determination, and I most emphatically condemn it.”[42]

These words of Count Andrassy convey an entirely different impression from a sincere desire to further the rights of the nationalities, since he does not appear to be aware of their existence in present-day Hungary. It is safe to assume that the Slovaks at least do not enjoy any of the rights provided for racial minorities, since their “Commissioner” maintains that they do not desire to exercise these rights.

Nor is it only the Slovaks who suffer. The experiences of the German inhabitants of Oedenburg form a case in point. According to the _Budapesti Hirlap_ of February 6, 1922, before the plebiscite of Oedenburg a deputy of Germans of that locality waited upon Count Bethlen, the President of the Council, to acquaint him with the wishes of the German inhabitants of that town and to assure him of their devotion to the Hungarian Fatherland. The President asserted that the application of the Law of Nationalities and the decree of 1919 would not be subject to any delay, and promised the deputation that the desires of the German population should be met. In the _Nemzeti Ujszag_ of January 25th Anthony König voiced the complaints of the Germans, who, having heard so many promises and fair words, were getting impatient for something to be done. Those who are familiar with the situation as regards education in the areas inhabited by the Germans have gained the impression that no move has yet been made in the direction of applying the laws.

As for the other minorities in Hungary, the same conditions prevail. The Rumanians have been awarded a Government Commissioner and nothing more. The Hungarian Government apparently does not recognise the existence of the Ruthenes, Serbs or Slovenes.

It is clear that the old passion of the Magyars for their domination at the expense of the non-Magyar nationalities still burns as fiercely as ever, and that the country which now proclaims the injustice which has been done to her has yet no intention of dealing justly with the minorities within her own borders.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Signed by the Prime Minister, Stephen Friedrich, and published November 19, 1919, in the official gazette.

[39] Commissioner to the Slovaks in Hungary.

[40] Compare the remark of the Minister of the Interior (page 136).

[41] Evidently meaning the subject nationalities of _former_ Hungary.--C.J.C.S.

[42] Compare the article on Hungarian Elections, by A. Kristicz, in the _Oxford Hungarian Review_, vol. 1, No. 2, p. 164, where the author says: “In the rural districts the polling is public and oral, corresponding to the frank character of the provincial Magyar and his sense of responsibility for the open deeds done.”