Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-31
GYPSIES IN HUNGARY
GOVERNMENT MAY COMPEL.
ABANDoNMENT OF HABITS
Wanderers Found Fsom Finland in the
MOI h to SPAIN and Roumania
in the South.

Vienna Letter to L9pdon Standard.
The gypsy question has long been a mat
ter OF concern iH every country in which
this nomadic tribe il to be found. from Fin
land In the north to Spain and Roumania
In the south. but more especially in Hun
gary. There an attempt, under the patron
age OF tho Archduke Joseph. has been made
to settle them In villages. but 1t ended in
failure. The cozy homes prepared for q
number of couples given In marriage by the
archduke, and provided at his own expense
with everything from clothes to. agrfcul-
tural Implements. are deserted, everything
Of any value has been taken away and the
families are again wandering like the rest
OF the trfbe-the better ones al musicians.
some as thinkers and others as vagabonds.
The provincial authorities are besieged with
complaints OF horse stealing and even Of
kidnapping children OF the properued
classes.
In the hope Of dealing with the evil. q
commission. composed OF county Heuten-
ants. officials OF the local administrative
bodies and the departmental chiefs from
the home office sat recently in Budapest
with the prime minister in the chair. 1t
considered how the gypsies could be set
tied. and. II settled. permanently retained:
what subsistence could be made out for
them; how those who left the settlements
could be identified as having belonged to
them: and, finally, how the children could
impossible to keep their elders within
bonds.
To Form Colonies.
One Obergespan suggested that the elders
should be forcibly separated from the
others; that those who form colonies should
be rewarded. and those who leave them
punished; that all of them should be photo
graphed, and that the young girls should
be domesticated on agricultural farms and
the boys sent to Industrial schools-in
short, that all tribal and family ties should
be severed. A member OF parliament pro.
posed. on the other hand, that the elders
should be persuaded to help in the coloni-
that all the men, old and young. should be
forcibly enlisted in the army, and that the
women folk. with their children, should be
kept in Concentration camps" under the
strict surveillance of the police One mem
Der of the commission wanted to forbid
gypsies from carrying arms or practicing
horse dealing-he might almost have. said
horse stealing-while high official of the
home Office proposed to detain the adults
In warehouses and the children in special
homes
Employment for Gypsies.
A well-known member Of parliament said
briefly that the gypsies should be kept I'M
der tutelage and should be employed wher-
ever the state, country or village had any
special work to be done not good enough
for any one else Another member OF the
commission stated that the gypsies plagued
only the non-Magyarc population. because.
knowing how much they were hated by the
latter, they were careful to avoid the Mag
var villages. but that view was Immediate
ly contradicted.
The prime minister wound up the pro-
ceedings with a speech. in which he prom
Used, a government bill avoiding oforcibles
colonization measures against the wander
ing gypsies. who. he said. defed the law of
the cOnntrv and fhArAfOrA had claim
ftesits protection who were a pest for all
rural districts and,a permanent danger to
the community. They. therefore, must be
forced since they could not be persuaded,
to abandon their ways. mo illusions" the
premier added. need be entertained as to
speedy result, 40, far as the adults are
concerned, and our hopes must center in
the young. who are the first to be taken
out of the present Injurious atmosphere
and whose training for q useful life must
afterward be taken In hand by the state
and the counties" The impression left was
that solution, Of the question had not
been found.