Evening star., 1939-02-03
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN,

BUDAPEST, Hungary-The Brit.
ish Minister in Budapest casually
asked a Hungarian cabinet min.
ister: What is the proportion oi
Jews in the Hungarian officers
CORPSE" His excellency replied:
Negligible. should say off hand
less than 2 per cent"
"And what would happen to your
army if all the non-Jewish onicer.
were pensioned?"
The Hungarian minister laughed
and said: That is inconceivable
There would be no army left"
The Britisher talked about other
matters; then suddenly asked this
question: What is the proportion OF
Jews In your economic life?"
Colossal" was the prompt answer
How high a percentage do you
figure the Jews representa-" The
cabinet officer thought it over for a
few minutes, then replied: "Of
hand should say they represent
more than IS per cent"
well. then," said the English
man, don't you think your eco-
nomic life will be shot to pieces II
you eliminate that element. It re-
quires presumably as much skill to
run a business successfully as il
does to run company, q battalion
or a division. If your army will
cease to exist if you eliminate the
Aryans, what will happen to your
business if you eliminate the JeWs?'
Jewish Question in Hungary.
There is undoubtedly a Jewish
question in this country. Even
more so than in any other country
in Central Europe. Out of q popu-
lation of 100000 inhabitants,
there are 600 900 real Jews AMI 2OO,-
600 Catholic Jews. They are every
where, but mainly in towns. Most
of the lawyers and doctors, many
OF the newspapermen and teachers,
the majority Of executives and en-
gineers in factories, and almost all
the bankers are Jews. Some have
been here for generations and have
adopted Hungarian names. Others
are more or less recent arrivals.
The new Hungarian laws regard
ing non-Aryans are severe and mud
died. For good reason they fol-
low closely those applied in the
Reich. They were dictated from
Berlin. The regent is opposed to
them-some say because he himself
might be disqualified as having a
Jewish ancestor The obvious truth
however, is that he, like so many
other Hungarians, fear the laws will
seriously handicap the country. AL
though at the time this is written
they have not yet received Parlia-
ment's approval, it is pretty certain
they will Some changes will have
to be made to rectify impossible sit
uations. For instance, in the town
of Szegedin the Catholic bishop had
a Jewish ancestor. He is necessarily
considered a Jew. On the other
hand, the rabbi of the community
having been decorated for bravery
in the World War, is in the exempt
class and will enjoy the civil rights
the bishop cannot enjoy.
There are many men in high pub
lie offices whose ancestors belonged
to the Hungarian nobility but who
married wealthy Jewesses. These
are now disqualified citizens and not
able to hold any important positions.
Law Drafted Hastily.
Premier Imredy, while admitting
that he drafted the law hastily under
Berlins pressure. defends it by say
ing he was compelled to do it in
order to save Hungary. IT appears
that the Nazi propaganda subsidized
from Berlin is making great strides
in Hungary. mostly because of the
Jewish question. There are 10000
university graduates in this country
every year. They are all hungry for