Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/397

 got practically everything we asked for. At the last minute we secured a valuable concession, namely the right to our own telegraph and telephone lines across Austrian and Hungarian territory.

Easy comunication with foreign countries is but one of the conditions of our commercial and industrial prosperity. Our situation is difficult, for our economic life has grown up in connection with Austria-Hungary. Through the help of the French minister of commerce Clementel we have been permitted to make a customs treaty for three years with Austria and Hungary; during that time all customs may be suspended between us and these two nations, without affecting the most favored nation clause of other countries. We have agreed in general on a commercial treaty with France by which France will grant us the same privileges as to her allies of the Entente. This will have great importance for our future economic policy.

We also saw to it that too heavy financial burdens should not be imposed on our state, so as to handicap our industry and make it unable to compete in foreign trade. That was a difficult fight and we were obliged to accept certain sacrifices. We of course claimed that the Czechoslovaks, like the other nations, contributed toward victory. The Allies admitted it and France did not ask for any compensation from us. I will not speak about the various phases of this struggle. In the end we agreed to contribute the sum of 750 million francs.

TeThe [sic] second question was, how we were to share in the financial legacy of Austria. Together with Jugoslavs, Roumanians and Poles we declared emphatically that we would not pay any part of the Austrian war debts. We carried this point. As far as pre-war debt is concerned, the important question was the quota. After much altercation we, Jugoslavs, Roumanians and Poles agreed on two principles; Austrian debts to be divided on the basis of income tax in the years 1911—1913, Hungarian debts on the basis of all direct taxes. Another concession gained by us is that we can reclaim before an international commission objects of art taken from the Prague castle to Vienna.

Our economic environment is now very different, because we have to fight for our markets and compete not only with Entente products, but with German as well. That means that we must indulge in no experiments that would endanger our productivity. We must not go so far in social reforms as to hamper our exporting ability. We are an exporting state par excellence. We cannot live an easy-going life, as we did in the Austrian state; we must struggle and fight. But we who love the republic are not discouraged thereby. It will be a joy to employ our energy so as to show that the Czechoslovaks are worthy of the liberty which they conquered.

Such is the outlook into the future. I may say for the entire peace delegation that the economic conditions we have brought you may be approved by you without hesitation, and I trust that the National Assembly will promptly do so.

The Bolshevik government left as its legacy to Hungary, next to general disruption, tremendously high prices which exceed anything that one may have expected. I speak only of the prices in Pest; I have not sampled the cost of living in the country, but country people tell me that the difference is not great.

A kilogram of white flour costs 20 crowns (nearly two dollars a pound nominally), and bread cannot be obtained at all. Roumanian soldiers who have plenty of bread trade it for jewelry and other valuable objects. A kilogram of beef costs 80 crowns, of veal 70, pork 85. A live goose from 1200 to 2000 crowns, lard and butter cannot be got; a kilo of sausages from 300 to 400, ham 700, salt 20 crowns a kilo, a can of sardines 48 crowns, grapes 35 cr. a kilo.

People cat for the most part vegetables which are still brought to the market, although even vegetables are very high; thus tomatoes cost 5 crowns per kilogram, green pepper 1 crown, melons 14 crowns per kilo, plums 25, pears and apples 15; a liter of beer costs 5 crowns, of wine 30 crowns. Of course the beer has no taste and is really not fit to drink. No coal can be had, as the railroads use what little there is; heating is done by wood which is sold at a crown per kilogram.

We dined at the Ritz Hotel. It is the finest hotel in Budapest. We had soup, a bit of meat with a vegetable and a trace of pudding; that cost 95 crowns; they serve another dinner for 120 crowns, but even that is not a satisfying meal. The great majority of the restaurants serve no meals at all this time.

All the prices I gave here are maximum prices, dictated by the government and enforced by Roumanian soldiers. But even so few people pay strict attention to them. Foodstuffs are bought secretly and prices go up so high that an egg is sold for 28 crowns (nominally $5.60). Most stores are empty and closed. The city is closed hermetically by the army and nobody can go more than four miles from the city without a permit from the Roumanian command which