Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-06
BY FRANK SIMONDS.
III-The Minorities Question.


To the political and economic aspect.
Of the European problem 1t is neces.
sary to add third, which might per.
haps be described as the human phases
and this is in many respects the most
disturbing Of all, since it bears upon
the feelings and circumstances of mil
lions Of people directly and of tens Of
millions indirectly. This question con-
Germs the present situation Of the rela-
lively large masses Of people who were
by the peace treaties transferred to q
new and alien rule.
And 1t is precisely where one en-
counters this question Of ethnic minor
tiles that one most acutely feels the
atmosphere Of passion and despair
which prevails over vast areas of the
European Continent. In my recent
European visit Travelled through the
Polish Corridor, around the wide and
tragic circle Of the postwar frontiers
OF Hungary, examined at close range
the conditions of German, Polish
Hungarian and other Slav minorities,
studied at first hand the human con-
sequences of the peace treaties. And
from this journey I confess to have
brought back a conviction deeper than
that produced by any political or eco
nomic circumstances.
Dominated by Despair.
In fact, once you cross the Rhine or
the Alps, 1t Is to come in contact with
condition dominated by bitterness,
agony and despair which has no par
allel in American experience and can
hardly be translated into our own lam
guage. Invariably, too, in facing these
facts one has to remember that what
now exists has endured for more than
a decade Of nominal peace, has in fact
become chronic.
Moreover, If this phase of the Euro
pean problem Is primarily human in its
appeal, 1t Is not less economic in its
detail For the same treaties which
Subordinated more than 10000, 900 Ger
mans and Magyars to foreign and alien
rule also destroyed the political and
economic associations of more than
$50 100000 people, associations which
had developed and expanded during
centuries in all the vast regions be-
tween the Baltic and the Aegean, the
Pripet marches and the Elbe.
As a consequence of these treaties,
systems Of economic life were upset.
Innumerable railway lines playing a
useful role in the service of large areas
were cut by new frontiers. the change
marked by the removal Of rails. Lit
orally thousands of miles of such rail-
ways now end in rust, where ethnic or
alleged ethnic limits meet.
Rivers which once carried heavy car
goes of wheat and coal are now devoid
of trafic and have silted up. Before
the war the Danubian plains and the
Slovak and Transylvanian highlands
were under single political control
which regulated the rivers in the noun
plains. Today the mountain regions
are controlled by states which have no
interest in the fate of the lowlanders
belonging to a foreign country. AS a
consequence, the great regulating works
are neglected and the people of the
plain exposed to devastating floods. All
the vast and intricate system of water
control along the TIA. the Maros, the
Vistula. and even the Danube. Is falling
into disrepair, and fields drained by
decades Of careful labor are reverting
to marsh.
Isolated From Country.
To satisfy stragetic requirements
cities were isolated from their country
districts, the peasant from his market
the merchant from his customer. Wiz
lagos were cut of from the railway
stations by new frontiers, farm houses
shut of from their only highways by
political boundaries indicated by their
front fences. Indeed, houses have been
separated from barns, wells from the
kitchen. On the days when Rumania
has holidays, Hungarian peasants
whose lands are divided by the frontiers
cannot cross the line.
1t then follows, automatically, that
the new frontiers are everywhere be-
coming indicated not so much by
ethnic distinctions as by a no-man,s
land of economic and agrarian decay.
II one travels from Berlin to Bucharest
by Prague, Vienna and Budapest, he
will pass almost as much time in
boundary haltS as in motion. At each
frontier station he will be overhauled
by two sets Of officials. He will see
each frontier station having something
CT the aspect of a fortress on a war
footing: at certain points he will see
the pill boxes of the old trench, war
style, loopholed for machine guns
Everywhere he will find soldiers, secret
service agents, spies.
And at every one of these frontiers,
save, perhaps, the Austro- Hungarian.
he will be made painfully aware of the
atmosphere of suspicion, resentment.
hatred and fear. equally violently felt
on either side. Similarly, the most I'M
observant of travellers has only to pass