GERMANY AND HUNGARY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 191, 21 January 1915, Page 6

GERMANY AND HUNGARY.

™ * ' . j EFFECTS OF THE RUSSIAN INVASION. SEPARATE PEACE. ' The growing discontent >"f Hungary is well illustrated in a most remarkable letter received by the London correspondent of a Hungarian newspaper from j a friend in Budit Pesth, and published in the Morning Post. It proves what has been asserted more than once—that the Hungarians are extremely dissatisfied with the situation, and hints that they 1 .'may seek to make peace separately _ The correspondent gives a piquant account of the mission of Count Ti«a, the Hungarian Premier, to Germany, supplied by a Liberal member to whom the' count related what happened:— - "The Prime Minister first of all had an interview with the Imperial Chancellor, Dr. von Bethinann-Holhveg, but, of course, they only discussed the political side of the question. Tisza put it juite clearly to him that he could not guarantee tae goodwill and loyalty of Hungary unless more attention was paid to the interests of the country. Ifc saw the Minister for War, the Great General Staff, and went from 'Pontius to Pilatus,' but was, of course, everywhere referred to the Empefor. "Tisza said that the Emp»ror was vu-y much annoyed, and at first did not want, to believe that the Hungarian Opposition had taken to threats, for lie c-mntcd upon the unity of all parties in the two ■Empires for the great cause. Hut Tisza is not the. ii'.an to be scared even by I Jie I.u.peror V iiliam, and stuck to the pe nt thai three a) my corns must be Rent to TTiingan tc defend the Hungarian plains ri': 111 inva>?ou and to throw th-; l!ns slnnH back across th.; Car;>.'.U''am-, or vtli'ifw't i his Cabinet, woull have to siirn.

Tisza says that the Emperor -as first became quite furious, and said sometiling to the effect that open enemies are not always the most dangerous enemies, and that the egotism of some people was likely to upset the whole plan of campaign. Nevertheless lie agreed to consult the general staff on tin' question, and promised to do all he could to satisfy the Hungarians." An official communique gave a reassuring account of the mission, but the Buda Pesth papers took another view:— "The I'esti Hirlap says in its leader that all we can see is that the Hungarian Prime Minister liad to beg f<n audience from the G-rman Emperor, and we are at his mercy as to tlie safety of our country. The Germans, it says, seem to have taken over flvett the constitutional rights of the monarchy as if we had no Emperor at all, as if wo Jiad not raised an army of four million men for the German General Staff to dispose of, and by handing over to them the supreme command we would have resigned our national independence an J become tile vassal of Germany. In consequence of this article the secret police I are now engaged in confiscating the copies of the paper qven from the cafes and I [tobacco shops., They even took it out of the hands of visitors in the eafes.' Some members 'of the National Com'mittee, says the correspondent, are about to start a peace propaganda on the ground that Hungary is an independent Stat?. "Of course, in theory the idea is quite acceptable, but I hardly believe :t would stand in practice, for it would mean nothing less than a split between Austria and Hungary and Hungary and Germany. The -Intention of these people seems to be undoubtedly to bring sucli a split about, and no doubt they are starting a well-planned campaign for their purpose. The majority of the people would bo on their side, and if I am not mistaken this movement would be the beginning of an independent Hungary. The time of action would be well selected just now, for the rage of the people is growing against Austria and Germany. Nothing but the invasion of Hungary could bring it about, and as the invasion is an evident fact I don't see how they could prevent the spreading of the movement." As to the invasion force, the letter says:—

"As to the invasion, we are worse off than last week, although all the avail- 1 able troops were sent north and cast, even those who had only one month in military training, boys of 18, who had been called to the colors in October. The Russians seem to mean business over the invasion of Hungary, and I understand they are operating an extremely strong force of about four army corps in the Carpathians. "The Slovack population in the Carpathians look at the war there with utter indifference, and some of them | are so ignorant as to believe that mail-: oeuvres are going on. Only when their 1 villages are burned by the Cossacks do| they realise that something serious is happening. But in no case do they leave their villages. There are very few young men among them, not because they' are with the colors, but becaus: they are all in America. (These villagers spend half of their lives in America, and there are villages in the Carpathians where the people only speak English.)" The correspondent mentions that one company of Russian infantry captured at Maramaros was found to be composed of Ruthenian peasants, who had been given weapons and equipment by the Russians and Wallacliians (Rouinnian peasants from Transylvania.) It believed that the Russians are arming all the Ruthenian and Roumanian population, and the authorities are prepared for an organised rebellion.