Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/112

 which carried on an agitation against the integrity of the republic.

On the other hand the treatment of the strong Czech minority in Vienna proves that Germans have learned nothing from their defeat. During the elections for the Austrian Constituent Assembly the terrorism practiced on the Czechoslovak voters in Vienna exceeded anything known under the old regime. Not only were no Czech election posters allowed on the streets of the city, but Czech election headquarters were broken into and the workers man handled. Czech voters were intimidated and beaten, thousands were deprived of their right to vote on flimsy pretexts, and those that insisted on voting for Czech candidates were dismissed from their employment. In spite of all these tactics 63,000 votes were cast in Vienna for Czech candidates; only one was declared elected, although 8,000 Zionist votes also elected one candidate. Parties obtaining the highest number of votes in Vienna were Social Democrats, Christian Socialists and Czechs.

Relations with Magyars during February and March were extremely unsatisfactory. At the end of January the city of Pressburg on the Danube was made the seat of administration of Slovakia under the Prague government and Dr. Vavro Šrobar, the Slovak leader and member of the Czechoslovak government, proceeded to organize a new administration replacing the old Magyar rule. The name of the city was changed to the old Slav name Bratislava. The government of Count Karolyi employed the most dishonest methods to create chaos in the territory lost to them. They incited a strike of Magyar state employes still remaining at their posts, especially railroad and post office workers, they scattered handbills from airplanes claiming that Czechoslovak occupation was temporary and that vengeance would be taken on all who submitted to the new authorities; they went even so far as to send Bolshevik agitators for the purpose of creating social disorders.

In view of the feeling entertained to some extent in this country that the Magyars were unfairly treated by the Entente, when large sections of Hungary were taken away from them, an account of what they did in the Rusin districts in northeastern Hungary deserves attention. Shortly after the dissolution of the empire the new Magyar republican government decreed full autonomy to the races of Hungary; but when the Rusins began to agitate for union with the neighboring Slovak counties, their leaders were arrested by Magyar soldiers and shot without a trial. Those who displayed flags other than Hungarian flags were compelled to eat them and received in addition 25 lashes. Arms were distributed to the rabble which went around in bands and robbed the peasants, burning all they could not carry away. Whether the Magyar government in Budapest is aristocratic, as it was under the Hapsburgs, whether it calls itself democratic as under Count Karolyi, or whether it is communist, it can not be trusted to rule any other people except the Magyars.

In view of the new threat to the Allies and the peace of the world, involved in the communist revolution at Budapest, it, is of interest to note the military dispositions of the Czechoslovak Republic. There are under arms 30,000 first-class troops that served during the war with the French and Italian troops. There are also mobilized all Czechs and Slovaks up to the age of 36, who at the time of the revolution were incorporated in the Austrian Army. In Italy there are 50,000 men who surrendered during the last days of October to the Italians and who have since then been undergoing training to fit them for soldiers of the Czechoslovak Republic. These men would have been returned home by this time, if the Italians could have found railroad cars to transport them. Then there is the flower of the Czechoslovak Army, 60,000 men in Siberia, who are eager to return home and who know how to fight the Magyar Red Guards. The garrisons in Slovakia are commanded by the Italian General Piccione and the chief of staff of the entire Czechoslovak Army is the French General Pelle, who is also the representative of Marshal Foch, the supreme commander of the Allied forces.

Food situation has been much improved in March, and that fact has a great deal to do with the better morale of the people. The difficulties arising out of the conflicts of the Italians and the Jugo-Slavs north of Trieste have been to some extent at least solved by introducing a united control of the railroad lines leading from the Adriatic to Czechoslovakia, so that today the transportation of American food from Trieste proceeds at a satisfactory rate. Of even greater help has been the opening of the Elbe from Hamburg to Prague; as a re-