New-York tribune., 1919-05-16
Bound and Gagged
Budape st Under BoIshe uist Rule

tarily supreme in Budapest, while out in
the country the forces facing the Czecho-
Slovaks and Rumanians, though in many
cases no lovers of q Bolshevist government,
ere lovers of their fatherland.
"The programme of terrorization Of
those now in power is thorough. The death
penalty is attached to so mary government
tai DEGREES that one would think they had
been drawn up by the White Queen, though
it must be admitted that hitherto the exc
cution of this sanction has been as rare in
Hungary as it in Wonderland. Where
death is not threatened the sanctions are
long terms of Imprisonment and heavy
fines. Among the more oppressive meas
the following:
Measures Of Oppression
"(a) Provisional suspension, with q view
to ultimate abolition, of all courts Of JUS
tice, which will be replaced later by the
Soviets acting through lay courts composed
of working men. There are two exceptions:
CD The revolutionary tribunal, which has
just now to decide on all offences; CD
special arbitration court
"(b) Confscation without indemnity Of
all personal property above a very small
amount Thus not only are all shops, banks,
hotels, houses, factories, estates confiscated
with few exceptions, but, going far beyond
the communication of the means of produc-
ton, the Hungarian Bolshevists have seized
upon all personal and private property
whatsoever, in the form of money, notes,
jewelry, objects Of art, furniture and
SO forth. No man is allowed to possess
more than two suits of clothes, four shirts,
two pairs of boots and four pairs Of socks.
Women similarly rationed.
"(c) Oppression Of the clergy. The
clergy are specially singled out, together with
criminals, the insane and shopkeepers en-
poying paid assistant, as being incapable
either of the active passive right of
franchise All ecclesiastical taxation has
been abolished and clergy will live on the
donations of the faithful, which, under the
present regime, are not likely to be very
large.
"(d) Carrying out of the housing meas
ures in manner deliberately intended to
reduce the bourgeoisie to the level of the
proletariat. Already under the Karolyi gov
ernment beginning had been made on the
grounds that, owing to the stoppagee of
building during the and the huge in
crease in the population, there was a lack
of accommodation. Under the present
regime, however, attempt whatever is
being made to carry through this measure
with the minimum of friction. Owners of
houses are expelled from their best rooms
by strangers, who often have tolerable
apartments of their own, but who are profit
ing by the opportunity to obtain better
10 oil
roundings of wealth and ease The circum-
stances to which this decree may lead in
certain cases can be imagined, especially
where the mistress of the house is an un-
protected woman.
Dictated Journalism
"(e) Muzzling the Press-This appears
to the Jewish Mafa a perfectly natural
thing, and the reply always given is that it
makes difference to journalist whether
he writes at the dictation of his proprietor
of the state. The idea that newspaper
proprietor should allow his editorial staff
any freedom of opinion, or that journalist
should dare to claim any such thing, appears
grotesque to this gang Of tyrants, and in
cldentally Is interesting in that several
members Of the government, such as Po-
gany, Szamuely and Kunf, are Journalists
There is not single daily newspaper
now published in Hungary that is not abso-
lutely under the thumb of the ruling CLIQUE
Such space is not taken up daily by the
bombastic DEGREES and communicates of the
government is occupied by tendential tele-
grams or by slavering articles in praise of
the superlative wisdom of. the precious gang
who rapidly reducing Hungary to ruin
Calm and order have hitherto prevailed
in Budapest and elsewhere for no other rea-
son than that the population is temporarily
cowed, disarmed and demoralized The
population is passvely acquiescing for the
time being simply because it has no means
Of resistance and because a people which
has been broken down physically, intelec-
tually and morally by nearly five years of
unsuccessful warfare is naturally a happy
subject for the tyranny of any determined
gang OF miscreants."