which finally culminated in the offer of resignation by minister of finance Rašín and minister of commerce Stránský. Their step was hastened by indications pointing to an understanding between the socialist parties and the agrarians as against the National Democrats or the so-called bourgeois party to which the two ministers belong. President Masaryk refused to accept the resignations, and even Rašín’s enemies were not anxious that he should quit, because no one was ready to take up his work of financial reconstruction. Thus the two ministers remain at their posts.
The internal political situation at the end of May was very unsatisfactory. Partisan bitterness was growing, the bolshevist element in the social democratic party, though weak in numbers, was ever bolder, and state authority weakened appreciably. There were constant complaints of thefts on railroads and in Prague itself riots occurred as a protest against high prices and profiteering in the necessities of life.
Magyar invasion of Slovakia cleared this oppressive atmosphere. It proved that the Czech people were patriots first and partisans only afterwards. When the news came that the Magyar Reds broke through the thin cordon of Czechoslovak troops on the long line of five hundred miles from Bratislava to Bukovina, all rancor was forgotten and everyone rushed to the defence of the country. The republic was faced with a serious situation: the bolshevist regime which everyone had expected to fall down very shortly suddenly manifested remarkable military strength. Bela Kuhn had mobilized the entire manpower of the Magyar nation against the Roumanians; when the Roumanians early in May stopped their advance, he saw a chance of striking a blow against the Czechoslovaks in the north. He made attacks simultaneously along the whole line, but his real effort was directed at the northeast. He wanted to carry the authority of the Red goverment of Budapest as far as the Ukrainian districts of Galicia and Bukovina and effect a junction with the Bolsheviks of Russia. For a time he was successful to a surprising degree. His bands overran a third of Slovakia, burning and wasting the country and committing unspeakable cruelties..png)
Map Indicating Military Operations in Slovakia.
Shaded portion covers territory invaded by Magyars, dotted portion indicates districts where bolshevist outbreaks occurred. Captured Czechoslovak soldiers were tortured and crucified; telephone girls were mutilated, and wounded or surrounded Czechoslovak patrols preferred to shoot themselves rather than fall into the hands of the devilish Magyar executioners. Insurrections occurred in the rear of Czechoslovak positions; a twofold propaganda was carried on there, one appealing to the Magyar elements of the population, calling on them to fight Czechoslovak rule, the other using bolshevist war-cries against a bourgeois government. The Magyar armies were well equipped, since they possessed the war material surrendered by Mackensen’s army in his retreat from Roumania, and since a large part of the Austro-Hungarian military supplies had been brought back from the
