HUNGARY SHARES THE SPOILS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 149, 20 March 1939, Page 8

HUNGARY SHARES THE SPOILS

As a result of Germany’s seizure of Bohemia and Moravia, the elimination of Czechoslovakia as a composite State, Hungary has satisfied her desire to possess Ruthenia. Ihe announcement of this move was made with a bluntness typical of the occasion as a whole. Ihe Vienna Award, it was stated, had been superseded, and therefore “Germany had no objection to the incorporation of Ruthenia in Hungary. It is true that certain of the inhabitants of Ruthenia took it upon themselves to object, and a day or two ago reports of sporadic fighting came from the little wedge of territory east of Slovakia. But these futile protests have been merely incidental. Hungary, acting with the approval of Berlin, has made an easy gain.

All along the line Hungary has, profited substantially from Herr Hitler’s latter-day successes. In the post-Munich period she did so at the expense of both Slovakia and Ruthenia. Immediately after the settlement of the Sudeten question, when Czechoslovakia was first threatened with complete dismemberment by the agitation of the Slovak autonomists, Hungary demanded a frontier revision in her favour. This had the temporary effect of cooling the Slovaks’ ardour for independence, and persuading them that they were safer simply with autonomy within the Czechoslovak State, but it did not save them from territorial loss. The Hungarian Government asked Germany and Italy to adjudicate upon its demands, with the result that the Foreign Ministers of the two Powers met and, without hearing the Slovak case, composed the Vienna Award. This “sqcond Munich gave Hungary 4200 square miles of new territory on her northern border, embracing generous sections of both Slovakia and Ruthenia and a population consisting of 700,000 Hungarians, 100,000 Slovaks, and 90,000 Ruthenes. Slovakia lost three of her most important towns and a main railway line running from Ruthenia to Prague. Ruthenia was deprived of all fertile southern agricultural lands, her large southern towns, her capital (Uzhorod), and almost all of her railways. The remainder of Ruthenia became the “CarpathoUkraine,” its capital the small city of Hust. Even with this, Hungary was not satisfied. Ihe announcement of the Vienna Award was the signal for a fresh spate of Hungarian propaganda, which has had the effect during recent months of causing bad feeling in the borderlandsand occasional armed clashes. One recent observer reported that the shop windows of Budapest were displaying coloured maps with inscriptions urging the liberation of 3.700,000 northern Hungarians, Slovaks and Ruthenes who continued to groan under oppressive Czech rule. As the same writer pointed out, however, the tale of Czech “oppression” was not borne out by the facts. During the last 20 years (lie wrote) the Czechs have administered Ruthenia in an admirable way. In that time they have lifted the Ruthenes out of the primeval condition in which Hungary left them for 1000 years. . . . Prior to the war there was only one school in the whole of Ruthenia. Now there are schools all over tlie province. Swamps have been drained, towns have been cleaned up and improved, and hospitals have been provided. Bridges and roads have been built, and many splendid buildings have arisen. In all European countries post-war progress has been substantial, but that does not detract from what Czechoslovakia did for the Ruthenes. In spite of it, the regime has been discredited, and Hungary, by the grace of Germany, has had her way. She now possesses the whole of a territory which, before the Vienna Award, was one of 4886 square miles, also the remainder of the population (about 635,000 persons). She had already received the best agricultural lowlands, but she now takes the rest, and the high country for what it is worth. At the same time, she gains a common frontier with Poland. The future of Hungary rests with Germany. Herr Hitler has been generous with other people’s lands in satisfying Hungary s claims for exoansion, and her debt to the Fuehrer is a considerable one. The relationship between her Government and Germany in this respect may be likened to the relationship between the Spanish National Government and Italy. But Herr Hitler’s influence in Budapest, and over the Eastern European scene in general, is much more palpable and purposeful than Signor Mussolini s link with General Franco. That he has fostered this influence to the extent of giving Hungary all she has asked for is significant, for now that Hungary has Ruthenia her obligation will facilitate Herr Hitler - drive to the East when his plans are ripe for a further advance. And beyond her new eastern borders lie the oilfields of Rumania.