Evening star., 1926-05-02

I n Il
| X slides swiftly down the last
hill and out upon the plain.
| - Behind on the slope the re-
| mains Of Roman camp are
outlined, ahead over the floor-like
plain are the Notifications built
against the Turk when he was still
an intruder in these regions. North
ward, outlined in the clear afternoon
light, the hills Of CZechoslovakia rise
about Pressburg. and thus with one
final whistle the train passes "A sign
board along the track and one leaves
Austria behind to enter Hungary.
| But in reality one leaves far more
behind, because this frontier. one of
| the new and accursed lines of the
peace treaties detested Of all Hungar-
| lans, a frontier drawn across a plain
as flat as the top of a table and sep
arating parts Of the same farms, vii
| lagos and fields, marks the division be-
tween material and romantic Europe.
1t is the last boundary Of the feudal
world, the last frontier of kings.
! Westward of 1t lies Austria, passive.
commercial, republican destitute of
the last faint flicker OF national or
patriotic spirit, waiting TO be delivered
! from the burden of independence.
| eager to be absorbed by the greater
Germany to the North.
Held Land for 1000 Years.
South Of this line are the descend
ants of 100000 Asiatic horsenren who
| rode on TO these plains something
more than / 900 years ago, saw that
the land was good. that 1t was walled
about by mountains that few fight
ing men could hold, that it was inhab-
tied by tribes and races which need
cause no difficulty. and seeing all this.
with one accord unsaddled and settled.
For fully ! 900 years, which ended
| almost as the last century closed. they
held this land. save only as the Turk
for a period and the Austrians for
briefer time. exercised sway over
proud race, which bowed to numbers
but kept spirit unbent and unbroken.
And now for a third time in history.
cOnquerors have dealt harshly with
the Magyar. OF all the mighty king
dom, which for the thousand-year span
belonged to the descendants of these
Asiatic tribesmen. only minor frag
| ment remains. If you would know
| what the Paris treaties did to Hun
gary take peach and cut 1t into four
parts, remove the quarters and the
stone which remains would represent
the new Hungary as the whole fruit
did the old. And Of the four quarters.
Jugoslavia took one, Rumania sec
ond, CZechoslovakia a third and even
Austria a fourth.
100000 Hungarians Included.
1t is true that in all these outer
quarters there We're people of other
races. that by far the larger half OF
| the people taken belonged to other
nationalities, but even so 5000 900 of
Hungarians went with them, against
their will. A country as large as Italy
has been reduced to a state smaller
than Pennsylvania and a nation with
many more than 20.000,000 to a king.
dom of 5000 900 souls.
| OF all the states which the map
makers at Paris created out of the
conflicting evidences of self-determina-
tion none is more lacking in natural
frontiers, in strategic or defensible
boundaries than Hungary. 1t lies in
the plain and from all the surround
ing hills, alien and hostile races look
down, not merely with anxiety, but
with hostility. Hostility. for the Hun.
garian has been master and con
queror for 900 years, anxiety, be
cause even now in his lOwly estate he
accepts nothing, comedies nothing
holds with a mystic faith to the belief
that as the Turk came and went, as
the Austrian came and went. so other
!
st. Stephen, one and indivisible. will
once more be restored.
Last Romantic Stronghold.
Thus Hungary is not alone the most
romantic. but perhaps the last TO
mantle stronghold Of Europe. There
is the breath Of feudalism. there is the
spirit Of an age that has given way
| to factory civilization almost every
where else. On all sides about Hun
gary the new countries have divided
the land and the peasant tills his own
fields, but in Hungary there still re-
man many enormous estates. Here
also are members of an ancient nObil-
ity, here the remaining and still vital
evidences Of a world which has van
ished elsewhere.
Happily or unhappily. as one may
view it, this old world Is passing in
Hungary also. If Budapest remains
the most fascinating city in all of
Europe today with a charm. n color.
a spirit nowhere else discoverable.
venture to advise my American friends
who travel and seek the unusual to
hasten toward Budapest, for what is
most charming there and nowhere else
discoverable in this drab modern
world is also doomed.
But what shall one say of the politi-
cal Hungary? No country has had u
worse press, Il more unfortunate rela-
tion to world opiniop. A truly great
state 10 years ago, it has fallen in
power to the condition of a Balkan
people before the war. 1t has had
Bolshevist revolution. which shook
the faith of the Western world and
led the pundits of Paris to cut its from
| tiers with merciless disregard of self
determination. 1t has had q White
Reaction, which has prejudiced against
IL all the liberals Of the world. 1t has
had without it's frontiers on all sides
jealous and fearful states, which, hav-
| ing taken it's lands, have united more
than 40 900 900 strong, against 5000.
900, to form the Little Entente, which
has no other reason for existence than
| to watch and restrain Hungary.
AristOcracy Remains Mistaken.
Nor can one say that the sum of all
| Hungary's misfortunes has been in
the foreign field, for at home there
have been, there remain, these lead
! ers Of an ancient aristocracy, who
! combine all the follies of the adherents
Of the House of Stuart three centuries
ago, with qualities quite their own,
qualities which are as fantastic as the
circumstances Of that Ruritania of
| which one read in the romantic days
before the war.
Yet, viewed at close range, does
this mournful fragment of a great
state, do these 100000 people living
in the open plain and surrounded by
enemies, constitute an enduring men
ace to European peace? Is Hungary,
which suffered most of all European
nations territorially, only biding her
| time to make new war?
At least one may say that out
| Wardly there is no warrant for this