Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-20

Continued From First Page.l
solidly committed to the maintenance
OF the status quo. And Britain was re-
mote, unconcerned with Central Euro
! pean issues. And France and Britain
were the very nations with whom the
Magyars had the closest intellectual
and social associations.
1t was, in fact, a poor hand. But
Bethlen had to make the best OF It.
Nor had he more than taken office
| responsible shook Europe and brought
new condemnation upon Hungary. Two
attempts Of the Emperor Charles to
recover the Hungarian throne reused
the Little Entente states and brought
their armies to the very edge of the
frontier on a new march to Budapest
And, like all other Hungarian states
men, Bethlen is a monarchist. Thus in
the opening days of his regime he
twice saved his country from itself.
Thereafter, patiently, calmly, IN utter
ISOLATION, because no one shared his
confidence, he constructed q policy. He
spared his people the horror of q new
alien occupation, he stamped out the
smoldering embers of Red insurrec-
ton. He brought political order and
domestic tranquility. However, he al
ways was confronted with the fatal
limits geography had imposed upon his
country.
Seated on Gross Roads"
I'VE are seated at the crossroads of
history" he said to me once, sitting in
the home Of Magyar prime ministers on
Buda Hill looking out over Pesth. I'VE
are between the Slavs of the North
and the South, and we have similarly
been caught between the Germans and
Turks. We are small people, but the
ground which we occupy Is strategic.
What, in the end, will Europe do with
US? We must go somewhere. VIII the
west drive US to Russia or to
Germany"
That was in the earlier years of his
power. In the end he went to Rome
Not because at heart he sympathized
with Fascism. You cannot see the
Black Shirt gospel appealing to Prince
Of Pennsylvania. But France was able
to think of Central Europe only In
terms OF BeneS, and Britain thought of
1t not at all. And Bethlen had no mind
to follow Andrassy to Berlin, for in the
subordination of Austro- Hungarian to
German policies contemporary Hungary
sees the explanation Of its present ruin.
But the welcome MusSolini gave was
in the end Bethlens undoing. When
the great crisis of the Anschluss swept
over Europe last Spring 1t conceded
with the worldwide economic crisis,
and Hungary, an agricultural nation,
stripped of its capital by war, revolu-
ton and foreign occupation, was finan-
cially embarrassed. Money was to be
had only in Paris and, II the financial
terms we're not impossible, the political
terms were usurious. Because Bethlen
had for 10 years made hopeless, but by
no means inconsiderable, head against
the Little Entente, against the whole
French system Of status quo, he had
to go.
Pass Under French Yoke.
Under other circumstances this due
between Benes and Bethlen would have
attracted world attention, this battle
between the old and the new, the
Hungarian who is of the house OF
princes, this Czech, who is still young
academician-"an unrepentant Demo
crat" as he told me at Geneva last
Winter The duel lasted 10 years. The
fate of Central Europe, in measure
hung on the outcome. It was decided
In the end by the French franc. Had
Benes been beaten, Hungary might have
hoped for some relief, some partial
recovery Of the lost provinces. Now and
for a time which cannot be measured
hope must be deferred. The Magyars
in their turn have had to pass under
the French yoke.
Bethlen's departure was like him. He
had won a recent election, arranged q
French loan, set his political house In
order. Neither his nation nor his
friends knew Of his decision, but one
day, out of the blue, he announced his
denartlre. Swiftly, silently, as he had