The New York herald., 1921-01-30
With
Willing. France
nd Give Her Frontier son the Danube

justice, that the Hungarian State which ex-
listed before 1914 and persisted right down to
the end of the war was economically a dis
tinct unit, possessing all the physical cir
cumstances of an independent State. That
subdividing it, by transferring the various
minority races to their natural political
allegiances, created State which was eco
nomically and. for that matter politically
impossible In other words, the Magyars
argue that the State itself constituted the
unit, that the accident Of the presence of
various minority populations was unimpor-
tant.
Magyars, Confident of SeIf-Help,
Indifferent to Austria's Plight
In point of fact, this Hungarian thesis did
not and could not weigh at Paris. Even If 1t
had been sympathetically heard, there was no
power at Paris to restore that unity which
had collapsed with the defeat of the Haps-
burg armies in Italy. All that Paris could
do was to attempt to supervise the drawing
of frontiers in such fashion as to see that the
new frontiers far as possible followed the
actual frontiers between races. And, all
things considered, Paris did this work hon.
estly. if in certain notable instances with
too little regard for anything but racial con-
siderations.
Once the border tribes had been set off
there still remained three racial fragments
in the old Hapsburg area which constituted
separate units themselves. These were the
zecho-Slovaks the Hungarians and the Aus
trian Germans. Combined they constituted
a solid block of territory, including a little
less than three-fifths of the population of
the old empire. some 2S.000,00 people. and
perhaps half of the area Speaking from
the economic point of view, moreover these
fragments were capable, II their old unity
were maintained of constituting a going
concern, viable State.
But this unity could not be preserved be-
cause the Czechs, having for three centuries
waged war against their Austrian masters.
were unwilling, now that freedom was in
their grasp. to continue their old partnership
while the Slovak inhabitants of the Hunga-
rian highlands cherished toward their Magyar
masters similar antipathy. 1t was always
certain. therefore, that a Czecho-Slovak
State would be created, and Paris merely
welcomed a development 1t could not have
prevented.
The Czecho-Slovak State thus created
was in the main a possible economic unit.
1t had coal and iron, 1t had great industrial
plants and highly trained industrial popu-
lation. Dependent upon the outside world
for food, it still possessed the necessary re-
sources to obtain this food, to barter its
manufactures against the raw materials of
other countries. In joining the eastern Car
pathian countries to this new State the Paris
conference unquestionably sinned against all
economic and even political principles but,
aside from these areas, the Czecho-Slo
State recognized rather than created by the
peace conference was compact and possible.
But the rise of the Czecho- -Slovak State
completed the ruin of the old Austrian frag-
ment and gravely compromised the prospects
of the torso of the old Magyar body. which
still remained. Czecho-Slovakia could live
without Austria. but Austria could not con-
tinue without it. As for Hungary, deprived