Independent Bohemia | Page 5

are
often workmen dependent upon German masters and bound to declare
their nationality as German for fear they should lose their employment.
From private statistics it has been found that the percentage of Germans
in Bohemia can hardly exceed 20 per cent, as against 37 per cent, given
by the official census. Still greater pressure is brought to bear against
the Slavs by the Magyars in Hungary, who are famous for the brutal
methods in which they indulge for the purpose of shameless
falsification of their official statistics. Thus the actual strength of the
rival races of Austria-Hungary may with every justification be
estimated as follows:
SLAVS: Czecho-Slovaks 10 million \ Yugoslavs 7-1/2 " | > 27 million
Poles 5 " | Ruthenes 4-1/2 " / LATINS: Italians 1 million \ > 5 "
Rumanians 4 " / GERMANS 10 " \ > 18 " MAGYARS 8 " / OTHERS
1 " __________________________ 51 million
4. The rule of the German-Magyar minority over the Slav and Latin
majority, finally established by the introduction of dualism in 1867,
was made possible only by the demoralising system of violence
described above. One race was pitted against the other in Austria and

this enabled the Germans to rule them better, while the Magyars in
Hungary, by keeping their subject races in the darkness of ignorance
and by using the most abominable methods of violence, succeeded in
securing for themselves the entire monopoly of government. The
Magyars, who are a race of Asiatic origin, are truly the faithful
descendants of the ancient Huns, and true allies of the Huns of to-day.
When Kossuth came to England in 1848, he was hailed as the
champion of freedom and liberty, and entranced his audiences in
London and other English cities by his remarkable oratory. As a matter
of fact Kossuth, though called "the father of the Magyars," was himself
a denationalised Slovak; instead of a "champion of liberty," he might
with much greater justification have been called the champion of the
greatest racial tyranny in Europe. For even then, while fighting for their
own liberty and for the independence of Hungary, the Magyars denied
the most elementary political and national rights to the other peoples
living in Hungary.
In 1910 there were 2,202,165 Slovaks in Hungary according to the
official census. These two million Slovaks had only two deputies (Dr.
Blaho and Juriga), while the 8,651,520 Magyars had 405 seats, so that
every Slovak deputy represented one million electors, every Magyar
deputy, however, 21,000. As regards administration, all civil service
officials in Hungary have to be of Magyar nationality. The cases of
persecution for political offences are innumerable: Slovak candidates
were prevented from being elected by being imprisoned. Corruption
and violence are the two main characteristics of all elections in
"democratic" Hungary. Even to-day when some Radicals in Budapest
talk of electoral reform, they want suffrage to be extended to Magyar
electors only, and also stipulate that the candidates shall be of Magyar
nationality. No Magyar politicians will ever abandon the programme of
the territorial integrity of Hungary, their aims being expressed in the
words of Koloman Tisza: "For the sake of the future of the Magyar
State it is necessary for Hungary to become a state where only Magyar
is spoken. To gain the Slovaks or to come to a compromise with them
is out of the question. There is only one means which is
effective--Extirpation!" And this aim the Magyars have faithfully kept
before them for at least the last hundred years.
In the same way also the economic development of the non-Magyar

nationalities has been systematically hampered, because the Magyars
know that economic dependence means also political subservience. The
Slovaks and Rumanians are not allowed to found co-operative societies
or banks on the ground that such institutions "are opposed to the
interests of the elements which hold the Magyar State together."
But it is not only the non-Magyars who suffer. The Magyar working
classes and the majority of the Magyar country people themselves are
deprived of political rights, for Hungary is ruled by an oligarchy and
scarcely 5 per cent. of the population has the suffrage right.
We may say, therefore, without exaggeration that to-day Hungary is the
most reactionary country of Europe. Nowhere else (not even in Prussia)
have the people so little power as in Hungary, where the Socialists have
not a single seat in parliament. The "politics" in Hungary are the
privilege of a few aristocrats. Hungary is a typical oligarchic and
theocratic state.
When the Magyars plead to-day for "peace without annexations" and
for the integrity of Hungary, they want to be allowed to continue to
oppress and systematically magyarise the Slavs and Rumanians of
Hungary. The triumphant allied democracies will not, however, stoop
before autocratic Hungary. The dismemberment of Hungary,