Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/301



Month by month the Czechoslovak Republic is getting over the after-effects of the war and returning to the normal. The danger of famine has been, thanks to America, definitely overcome. The new crops are in, and on the whole they are satisfactory. It is true, of course, that lack of fertilizers and insufficiency of draft animals will make it difficult for many years to bring up the yield to the high average of pre-war cultivation which in wheat, for instance, was more than double the American yield per acre. But the weather during the season just ended has been on the wholefavorable, with the exception of local floods and hailstorms, and it is estimated that the crops will suffice to feed thirteen million people until the end of spring, 1920. Thus the authorities will have plenty of time to purchase and bring in the balance needed for the feeding of the people during the summer months. Both Jugoslavia and Roumania will have grain for export, and as the Danube is open again it will be much easier and cheaper to bring in the wheat and corn from the Balkans than from America, especially as payment can be made to these agricultural countries in Bohemian manufactures. At the same time the government finds it necessary to keep in operation for an indefinite time food measures imposed during the war. All grain will be taken over by the food ministry at prices determined by the government, and the system of bread cards, meat cards etc. will be continued for the present.

External danger to the new Republic has been greatly reduced with the fall of Bela Kuhn’s regime in Budapest. Its engagements and promises could not be trusted: its twofold nature, as a communistic experiment relying for its success on propagation of communism, and as nationalistic Magyar state, made its very existence a constant menace to the integrity of Czechoslovakia. Even after the Magyar invasion of Slovakia had been thrown back and the bolsheviks promised to respect for the future the boundaries set by the peace conference, no Czechoslovak political leader was willing to trust the Magyars, and it was felt necessary to keep large garrisons on the border. For that reason the fall of the extremist regime was welcomed throughout Bohemia and Slovakia as a fortunate event both for the Magyars and their neighbors. At first there was the utmost good will towards the Roumanians who had undertaken a job which nobody else cared to tackle. But as soon as Archduke Joseph, apparently with the help of the Roumanians, came to power in Budapest, the sentiment changed overnight. Before this the Hapsburgs were referred to in Bohemia with contempt or witticisms, but now there was hatred and back of it fear. Under no circumstances can the Czechoslovaks permit that this accursed family should get an opportunity to come back. If the peace conference had not driven out Joseph Hapsburg, it seems most likely that the Czechoslovaks would have marched on Budapest to put down a Hapsburg restoration in its first stages.

Roumanian toleration of Joseph, to give it a mild name, embittered the friendly relations of Czechoslovaks to Roumanians. Through the addition of autonomous Ruthenia to the Czechoslovak Republic the two nations became neighbors, and it was the hope of Czechoslovak statesmen that they would become allies in view of the common hostility of Magyars and Germans. But the behavior of Roumanians in Hungary made their relations to the Czechoslovaks strained. By robbing the Magyars of all that could be carried away they were also robbing the Czechoslovaks. For there