Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/70

 priests. The first attempt in this direction was directed against the Greek Catholic or Uniate Church, to which a large number of Roumanians and Ukrainians belong; their Orthodox ancestors having yielded to the pressure of Leopold I and Maria Theresa and recognized the Pope as head of their Church, while preserving the old Slavonic liturgy. The Magyars, in order to obtain control over the Ukrainian and Roumanian clergy, hit upon the idea of creating a Magyar Greek Catholic bishopric, which would compete with the Ruthene and Roumanian bishoprics, and, seconded by the authority of the State, would gradually Magyarise their flocks. In 1912 such a bishopric was created at Hajdudorog, with Magyar as its official language. This step evoked lively protests among the Roumanians, who saw in it a grave menace to their national existence. Subsequent events have amply justified their anxiety.

The following summary of the situation is from Count Karolyi’s organ, Magyarország, of 26 August:—

A wide extension of the crude proselytism which this passage reveals is demanded by the reactionary press, which is in close touch with the present Government. Magyar Orthodox bishoprics are to be created even where the number of persons of Magyar nationality and Orthodox faith does not amount to 5,000. Backed by all forces of the State, they hope gradually to permeate the Churches with their own priests, who would preach the Word of God in Magyar, and thus Magyarise the Serbs, Ukrainians, and Roumanians, whose religion preserves the national tradition.

Among these “national reforms” is also included agrarian reform. Baron Ghillány, Minister of Agriculture in the Tisza Cabinet, foreshadowed a land reform in which the sale and transfer of property would be regulated according to national principles. His successor, Mr. Mezössy, tried to carry out this idea in a spirit worthy of the Magyar State. On 1 November, 1917, he issued a decree which he had already explained in Parliament on 23 October:—

This decree is an open avowal that the Magyars are about to carry out forcible expropriation, and this is admitted in the Budapest press. When the Czechs protested in the Parliament of Vienna against Mezössy’s decree, the Pesti Hirlap, in an editorial of 28 November, defined the Magyar attitude as follows:—

Parallel with this decree, the Magyars are preparing a regular plan of colonisation on a large scale, according to which the non-Magyar populations are to be removed en masse and replaced by Magyars. They propose to draw a continuous Magyar cordon right round Hungary, in the hope of thus destroying the geographical continuity between the non-Magyar races and their kinsmen beyond the Hungarian frontiers. On this subject the deputy Haller, a member of the People’s Party (one of the groups supporting the present government), said in Parliament, on 22 February, 1917:—

Finally, a crown has been set upon Magyar policy by the Franchise Bill recently introduced in the Hungarian Parliament. Long before its details were made public the Magyars boasted loudly of their