Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/121

 and the Budapest government sent north regiments which had in the meantime re turned from the Italian front. These forces hashad [sic] orders to oppose the occupation of Slovakia by Czechoslovak Armies and to destroy all property which was in danger of capture by Czechoslovaks. Thus they attempted to destroy the oil wells at Gbely, but fortunately a Czechoslovak regiment which had been fighting on the Italian side got to the spot in time to drive away the Magyars. In Trnava, a city of 20,000 people, Magyar sailors were masters for a while and used their power to plunder stores. In Bratislava sailors held up pedestrians at night and robbed them of money and jewelry. Of course many citizens were killed in connection with these robberies. In charge of the sailors detachment was a certain Lt. Heltay, formerly a vaudeville actor who later stole two million crowns from his government and robbed the safe of the Budapest railroad station. This was the type of men appointed by Count Karolyi to defend Hungarian territory integrtyintergrity [sic].

At that time the Allies had not drawn a demarkation line between the spheres of Czechoslovak and Magyar occupation, and the Prague Government was reluctant to push further into Slovakia and bring on war with the Magyars without expressed authorization by the Supreme Allied Command. Magyars employed thsthis [sic] period to kill the Slovak nationalist movement by terror; thus in the Trenčín county twenty peasants were shot without a trial for expressing the desire for union with the Czechs. The cries of the Slovak victims of brutal oppression induced the Czechoslovak government to organize a company of 180 gendarmes to assist Minister Šrobár. This small force was driven back by Magyar sailors, but a week later it was re-inforced and as the local people were rising in the rear of Magyar detachments, they had to fall back. Much scattered fighting all over northern Hungary resulted and lasted until early in January, when the Czechoslovaks captured Bratislava and Col. Vix notified Karolyi that the Allied Command insisted on the withdrawal of the Magyar armed forces from most of the territory claimed by the Czechoslovak Republic. Before their withdrawal the former rulers of the country sent away all valuable objects that could be moved, including machinery and furniture; and like the Germans in Belgium and Poland they destroyed what they could not carry away.

Not even then did the so-called democratic government of Budapest give up its hope of keeping Slovakia under Magyar rule. Only the tactics changed, and all of a sudden the Magyars made out that they were the best friends of the Slovaks. Secret agents were sent north for the purpose of creating discord between Czechs and Slovaks. They told the people that the Czechs were Protestants and infidels and they would take away the Catholic religion from the Slovaks; on the other hand the promise was made that the ministers in Budapest would give Slovaks full autonomy. It was too much to expect that the people would forget so quickly the deep wrongs suffered by them. Everywhere meetings were held denouncing the Magyars and pledging loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic. The attempt of the Magyar agents to create an independent Slovak republic met with a fiasco. Even the Rusins to the east of Slovaks declared that they wanted no autonomy in a Magyar state, but asked for inclusion in the Czechoslovak Republic.

The perseverance of the Magyars did not end there. The next step in their campaign was sabotage. It is a misfortune of the Slovaks that under the former oppressive rule they could not produce enough professional men, and when Magyar officials were expelled, the void could not be easily filled. Many qualified men came from Bohemia, but in the less important positions, and particularly in the railroad and post office services, Magyars had to be retained, if they were willing to swear allegiance to the new government. Even village notaries could not be immediately dispensed with, although those retained had to be sent far from their former posts. In February these state employees secretly organized themselves and false rumors began to sweep through Slovakia. The people were told that the Allies decided to leave the country to the Magyars and that all Slovaks who were not opposed to Czechs would be punished later on. Airplanes were sent to scatter handbills calling on workers to strike and commit sabotage. In several cities strikes resulted from this agitation and in Bratislava seven people were killed in the quelling of a disorder. In Komarno Magyar strikers killed a Slovak who would not go out and strike with them. When one remembers that some 130,000 Magyars were