priests. The first attempt in this direction was directed against the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church, to which a large number of Roumanians and Ukrainians belong; their Orthodox ancestors having yielded to the pressure of Leopold I and Maria Theresa and recognized the Pope as head of their Church, while preserving the old Slavonic liturgy. The Magyars, in order to obtain control over the Ukrainian and Roumanian clergy, hit upon the idea of creating a Magyar Greek Catholic bishopric, which would compete with the Ruthene and Roumanian bishoprics, and, seconded by the authority of the State, would gradually Magyarise their flocks. In 1912 such a bishopric was created at Hajdudorog, with Magyar as its official language. This step evoked lively protests among the Roumanians, who saw in it a grave menace to their national existence. Subsequent events have amply justified their anxiety.
The following summary of the situation is from Count Karolyi’s organ, Magyarország, of 26 August:—
“After the retreat of the hostile armies, when regular work was resumed in the villages with Wallach-speaking[1] inhabitants, thousands of the latter, inspired by patriotic sentiments, and belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, begged to be admitted to the Greek Catholic Church. They no longer wish to be under the jurisdiction of Wallach priests and bishops, but, as loyal Hungarian subjects, seek to belong to the Greek Catholic See of Hajdudorog. These Wallach villages have no priests, for some of them proved disloyal to the Magyar State and withdrew with the enemy, while the stern hand of Magyar justice fell upon the other traitors. Thus all the villages of Wallach language and Orthodox religion whose priests be came traitors have remained without spiritual leaders. It is both characteristic and encouraging for us that the members of these ecclesiastical communities, though speaking Wallach, did not apply for their new priests to the Wallach bishops, but to the Transylvanias Vicars of the Magyar bishopric of Hajdudorog. The transference of many thousands of Orthodox Wallachs to the Magyar Church is on such a scale that the Vicar and his priests can no longer cope with the situation."”
A wide extension of the crude proselytism which this passage reveals is demanded by the reactionary press, which is in close touch with the present Government. Magyar Orthodox bishoprics are to be created even where the number of persons of Magyar nationality and Orthodox faith does not amount to 5,000. Backed by all forces of the State, they hope gradually to permeate the Churches with their own priests, who would preach the Word of God in Magyar, and thus Magyarise the Serbs, Ukrainians, and Roumanians, whose religion preserves the national tradition.
Among these “national reforms” is also included agrarian reform. Baron Ghillány, Minister of Agriculture in the Tisza Cabinet, foreshadowed a land reform in which the sale and transfer of property would be regulated according to national principles. His successor, Mr. Mezössy, tried to carry out this idea in a spirit worthy of the Magyar State. On 1 November, 1917, he issued a decree which he had already explained in Parliament on 23 October:—
“This decree will strengthen the Magyar land policy. During the first half of the war it was recognized with regret that, in the most fertile districts of south Hungary, the land was in the hands of a population which is by no means reliable. The soil of these threatened districts must be n the hands of those who deserve confidence. With this in view any transfer of land will be made subject to the consent of the authorities. Not only this but leases also will depend on the authorities. The length of a lease cannot exceed ten years. I can assure evryone that I shall employ this right exclusively and solely in the service of Magyar national land policy.”
This decree is an open avowal that the Magyars are about to carry out forcible expropriation, and this is admitted in the Budapest press. When the Czechs protested in the Parliament of Vienna against Mezössy’s decree, the Pesti Hirlap, in an editorial of 28 November, defined the Magyar attitude as follows:—
“This decree, which the Czechs attack, merely constitutes a partial experiment in a systematic Magyar land policy. It only deals with a small part of the land. The Magyar State has the right to decide what elements shall possess the soil. It has the right to assure its territory against suspect elements. Hence the Mezössy decree is both wise and necessary. The intervention of the Czechs only serves to remind us that this decree must be extended to the whole territory of Hungary.
“The state must have an unlimited right of expropriation in order to be able to parcel out and colonise the land. It must carry out a healthy distribution of land to the Magyar race, which alone is a support of the State. To the south it is the Serbs who hold the best land; in Transylvania it is the Roumanians. That is why the Mezössy decree is only a beginning. We demand that this policy should be continued on a large scale. The attacks from Vienna cannot shake the Hungarian Government, which must finally convince itself that it is useless to stop half-way. As long as the government remains in power it must employ that power to make the Magyars masters of Magyar land.”
Parallel with this decree, the Magyars are preparing a regular plan of colonisation on a large scale, according to which the non-Magyar populations are to be removed en masse and replaced by Magyars. They propose to draw a continuous Magyar cordon right round Hungary, in the hope of thus destroying the geographical continuity between the non-Magyar races and their kinsmen beyond the Hungarian frontiers. On this subject the deputy Haller, a member of the People’s Party (one of the groups supporting the present government), said in Parliament, on 22 February, 1917:—
“There must be colonisation on a grand scale in the districts inhabited by the nationalities, for it is inadmissable that the party of the State should have no say in questions of property in these frontier districts. Where the nationalities live we must create new, modern marches, and the representatives pf these Magyar marches must be not only small, but medium holders of land.”
Finally, a crown has been set upon Magyar policy by the Franchise Bill recently introduced in the Hungarian Parliament. Long before its details were made public the Magyars boasted loudly of their
- ↑ “Wallach” is the common Magyar term for “Roumanian.”
