The sun., 1919-05-31
HUNGARY LONG A NATION.
The Reasons for PartItloning Austria
Do Not Apply to 1t,

To THE EDITOR OF THE SuN-Sr: 1t
may be Of public interest to point out
the fundamental difference between the
case Of Austria and that of Hungary.
Austria was collection OF various
| duchies. prlncipalities and Kingdoms or
parts of them, annexed to the original
archduchies Of Upper and Lower Austria
| by the Hapsburgs through marriage,
fraud or conquest, mostly through the
| first two. They were held together only
by their common rulers, but there has
| never been an Austrian nation or an
, Austrian language.
Hungary, on the other hand. had been
| a State and a nation, possessing a dis
tlnct language Of her own. centuries be-
fore there was such a thing as an Aus
TRAN Empire. She has been a geo
graphical. TYPOGRAPHICAL, economical
| and historical unit for more than a
thousand years. her boundaries having
been cut out for her by nature herself
and having remained practically I'M
| changed during the whole millennium
for the conauests made by her national
kings beyond her natural boundaries in
| the Balkan Peninsula in the Middle
Ages were lost to her centuries ago
| through the invasion Of the Turks.
Austria therefore can be dissolved
into her constituent parts or into groups
of such parts. Hungary. on the other
hand, cannot be dissolved for want Of
| such constituent parts. She can only
| be dismembered or partitioned by tear
| ing the limbs off her living body, even
as Poland was partitioned in the eigh-
teenth century.
American statesmen used to hold very
| high opinions OF the political abilities
| OF the Hungarians. Said Daniel Web
ster, then Secretary of State, in his
speech of January 8. 1852:
1t ought to be known that Hungary
| stands out from 1t above her neigh
bors in all that respects free institu-
| lions constitutional government and a
hereditary love OF liberty
John A. Kasson. our Minister to Aus
tria- Hungary at the time Of the Con-
gress of Berlin, in an official report to
Secretary of State Evarts dated Vienna,
June 80, 1878. when the occupation OF
| Bosnia and Herzegovina was imminent.
| made the following estimate of the
capacity of the Hungarians:
Let some great Hungarian statesman
secure hereafter the control of the Gov
eminent. abandon the German alliance.
ignore the German element, push his
armies on the Egean. anticipate Russia
at Constantinople. resting the right OF
his empire on the Adriatic, his left on
the Bosporus and .41gean. with Buda-
pest for his political and Constantinople
for his commercial capital.
The Hungarians. however, had no such
ambitions of conquest, being even OPP
posed to the occupation of Bosnia, a pet
scheme OF Hapsburg imperialism. Nei-
Their did they ever succeed in controlling
the foreign policy OF the realms of the
1t is a great tragedy that after they
finally succeeded in getting rid OF the
baneful rule OF the German Hapsburgs
the French plan to partition Hungary
seems to have been accepted by the Paris
Peace Conference. The policy of the
French to eliminate Hungary as a polit-
ical factor Is shortsighted and Ill ad-
vsed. for the Hungarians are the most
gifted and advanced race in the east
of Europe. Moreover, they belong to
neither the Teutonic. nor the Slavic. nor
, the Latin group OF races. and are thus
best fitted to form a buffer State be-
tween those races. The east European
Hungarians, still less against them.
EUGENE PIvANY.
CLEVELAND, Ohio, May 30.