Evening star., 1934-11-04
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.

A6OoAoNo W AlahC y
the target for their natural
L indignation over the murder
of King Alexander serves to
call attention once more to the Hun
garian situation itself. There is. more
over, certain grim irony in the fact
that the Serbs, who owe the achieve
ment of their own unity primarily to
the murder of a prince, should now
be violently assailing the Magyars for
wholly unproven imitation of the
crime of Sarajevo.
Actually, the case Of the Hungarians
against the Yugoslavs is obvious. BY
the treaty of Trianon, Hungary was
compelled to cede to the Serbs not
only large areas in which the Slavic
majority was undisputed, but also
considerable territories north of the
Drave and west of the Tia in which
there lived almost half a million of
Magyars. In these regions the races
were not mixed and the Magyars con-
stituted solid bloc. The consider
able city which the HGngarians call
Maria Theresiopol and the Serbs Su-
botica, was the chief prize the latter
acquired by this division.
Ever since 1919 the Hungarians
have been open to any agreement with
the Serbs which might constitute a
definitive settlement contingent upon
revision of the treaty of Trianon.
The Serbs, however, have refused to
consider any such project and have,
instead, made military alliance with
the Czechs and Rumanians, each of
whom also acquired large Magyar pop
ulations by the same treaty and SINH
larly mean to keep them. Hungary
in the postwar period has thus been
encircled by the allies of the Little
Entente.
Rivalries Accentuated.
Under these circumstances the
Hungarians have made an alliance
with the Italians. who are themselves
at odds with the Yugoslavs over the
whole Adriatic question, while the
Little Entente, in its turn, has become
the partner Of France. Italy and
France have therefore been rivals in
the Danubian area ever since the rise
of Mussolini. The French, working
through the Little Entente, have sought
to create some form of Danubian as
sociation in which Austria and Hun
gary as well as the states Of the Little
Entente would unite-the association,
of course, to be economic. not political.
Italy, working in partnership with
Hungary, the very heart of the Dan
ubian bloc, has thus far been able to
prevent such an alliance. For Yugo-
slavia. a Magyar Italian agreement
constitutes a grave threat because if
the Serbs went to war with the 1tal-
ians, the Hungarians could attack
them in the rear Yugoslav feelings
have been aggravated by the fact that
Italy has been arming Hungary-as,
indeed. France has been providing
Yugoslavia with arms. Unwelcome,
too, is the rapprochement between
France and Italy in the presence of
Hitler's Austrian program. AS con-
sequence there have been conversa-
tions between Belgrade and Berlin
looking to some arrangement by
which the Serbs would drop France
and join the Germans. 1t was to
avert such a catastrophe to French
policy of encircling Germany that
King Alexander's fatal visit was ar
ranged. During their meeting. Bar
thou had hoped, also, that he and
Alexander would be able to bring
about some solution OF Yugoslav-
Italian disputes.
Since the Kings death did not put
an end to conversations between Rome
and Paris directed toward the pur-
pose the murdered monarch and min
lister had in mind, the Yugoslavs have
attempted to turn against Budapest
the domestic indignation formerly
aimed at Rome. And, in this, of
course. it is possible to detect French
influence, because a new Slav- Italian
crisis might make all adjustment be-
tween the two countries impossible
and insure a bargain between Bel
grade and Berlin.
German Alliance Possible.
No matter what attempts are made
to create an economic peace in the
Danubian area, Hungarian co-opera-
ton will not be forthcoming So long
as the treaty revision question is still
unsettled. Thus no real adjustment
is likely, because without Hungary
it could amount to little. If Yugo-
slavia continues to accept French
leadership and Italy, because of the
German question, comes to agree
ment with France, then it may well
be that Hungary and not Yugoslavia
will presently become the ally of the
Germans.
Such course would be the conse-
quence of necessity and not of desire
on the part of the Hungarians. for
the Magyars have a long memory of
German tyranny and they have no
wish to see themselves once more at
tached to the German cart in a re-
lationship which must inevitably be
subordinate. On the other hand, once
Germany has become fully armed,
she would be In a position to offer
Hungary a revision which neither
France nor Italy could provide. And
the first step in such an arrangement
would be the partition of Czechoslo-
vakia-Bohemia, Moravia anad the old
Austrian Silesia falling to Germany
and Slovakia reverting to Hungary.
Certain sections Of Hungarian
opinion, to be sure, demand not a re-
turn of the regions, which were taken
in 1919 despite the fact their popu-
lations were overwhelmingly Magyar,
but rather the restoration of the
whole traditional unity Of the crown
Of st. Stephen. On the other hand,
it is patent that Hungarian public
opinion would not long resist any
proposal that permitted the peoples
of the lost provinces to exercise the
right of self-determination, which at
the very least would insure the return
Of million and half Magyars lying
along the present frontiers.
Minoritiss Do Exist.
No one disputes the existence Of
these minorities, no one can Justly
claim that these populations desire TO
be separated from the bulk of their
fellow Magyars. Something more
than four years ago I travelled along
the Czech and Rumanian frontiers
Of Hungary and in Slovakia and in
Ira nSylvania studied the ethnic niIeS-