Page:Heinrich Karl Schmitt - The Hungarian Revolution - tr. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1918).djvu/47

 districts about Siebenbürgen, as well as, in particular, in Slovakia, where, following on the provocation of intense race-hatreds by paid agents, a debauch in plunder by the masses became formidable.

To me it was at once clear that there it was not a simple question of crimes against property, but that the intention was to furnish a pretext for invasion to foreigners. Order and tranquility had to be overthrown there, in order to "necessitate" the occupation of these regions by foreign troops, following on the demonstration that the Government was incapable of maintaining order.

Already in those first days it was evident that the cessation of hostilities was an object which haidto reckon with other forces and opinions than those at the helm on the enemy's side.

Declarations made by national politicians in the camps of the Roumanians, Servians, Czechs, Jugo-Slavs, revealed that, through the armistice, the moment seemed to have come for the enemies of Hungary to compensate the restraint of their fury with brute violence.

A hue-and-cry without parallel set in against the young Hungary, and all the sins of the past were now, like debts, to be avenged and driven home.

Meanwhile, the new Government was probing by its handling of facts that it was resolved to effectuate its program of progress of Radical Democracy.

The Minister of Nationalities, Jàszi, immediately on entering his office, began to set on foot negotiations with the nationalities, and what I learned from those who surrounded him confirmed me in the belief that this man strove with a peculiar nobility to translate ideal principles into actualities. At the time, indeed, it is true that the ideal stood in sharp contrast with the actual, for precisely the condition precedent for success in the negotiations was absent—namely, goodwill in the other parties to the negotiations. A rapprochement, as it may really henceforth be named, was complicated by prejudiced criticism and tribal expressions of opinion; and once more it was seen how appetite comes by eating. Only the future will teach and shew that the stomach