Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/57

Rh Czechs were on the point of obtaining some concession or other from Vienna, it was always the Magyars, as in 1871, who prevented it. They are of necessity the traditional and most faithful allies of the German, and their whole national and political existence depends on this alliance. It is on them principally that the responsibility falls, of letting loose the present war.

The Balkan policy of the Monarchy was above all things a Magyar policy. The war against Serbia was brought about more by Hungary, who possessed over four million of Serbo-Croats, than by Austria, who counted only one million. The efforts to unite the Yugo-Slavs, endangered Hungary above all. The Customs war waged against Serbia since 1907 operated to the profit of the Hungarian landowners, but to the detriment of the Austrian industries. The Magyars claimed the sole right to exploit Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moreover considered the road to Salonika and the Ægean Sea as their privilege.

All the persecutions of the Serbo-Croats in Slavonia and in Croatia since 1907 have been their work, and it was they who engineered the famous Agram trial. After all, there are only eight million Magyars in Hungary, and, therefore, they are almost in a minority against the Slavs alone, without counting the Rumanians. The political and economic development of the Slav nations