1 The County of Orava has always contained the highest percentage of Slovaks (94.7 per cent in 1900). 2 There are also 50,827 Ruthenes (12,327 in Spis, 38,500 in Sarys). The foregoing statistics have been incorporated from the New Europe of April 3, 1919. HOW THE SLOVAKS WERE OPPRESSED IN HUNGARY. In the year 1867 the Magyar State Idea, the driving force of Magyar imperialism, "The revival of national consciousness among the non-Magyar races constitutes a Pursuing this policy, the Magyars first of all laid their hands on the Slovak schools. In 1874 and 1875 they closed the only three Slovak gymnasia or higher schools. They also disbanded the Slovak scientific and literary society, the Slovenska Matica, confiscated its funds and buildings. This property was turned over to the Magyar government and later employed in Magyarizing the Slovaks. The Slovaks were deprived of all secondary schools and hence were compelled to seek education in Magyar schools. Bela Gruenwald describes the rôle of educational institutions thus: "The secondary school is like a huge machine; at one end Slovak youths are thrown in by hundreds, and at the other we gather full-fledged Magyars." The Slovak student were prohibited from speaking the Slovak language, from reading Slovak or any other Slav books, and if they did not tamely submit to the process of Magyarization they were banished from the school. In this manner the Slovaks were deprived of a cultured class. In order to prevent the Slovaks from seeking education in other Slovic lands, a Slovak student could not receive his license to practice law or medicine if he did not have a diploma from a Magyar university. To furnish some idea of the condition of schools in Slovakia we submit the following: In 1914 there were in Slovakia 448 Magyar kindergartens, but not a single Slovak kindergarten. Primary schools, 4,253 Magyar, 365 Slovak; but the Slovak primary schools were Slovak in name only as the Magyar language was by law compelled to be taught from 17 to 24 hours per week, and the whole number of weekly school hours was but 26. There were 138 apprenticeship schools for artisans and merchants, all Magyar, not a single Slovak one. There were 112 Magyar higher elementary schools, not a single Slovak school. There were 46 Magyar high schools, not a single Slovak high school; 8 Magyar high schools for girls, not a single Slovak high school for girls. There was no Slovak university, no Slovak technical school, no Slovak law school, theological academy, or professional school; all were Magyar. The Slovak church, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, was in the hands of the Magyar Government and entirely employed for the purpose of Magyarization. When the Slovaks refused to recognize Magyar clergymen imposed on them, they buried their dead without religious rites and left their children unbaptized. At Cernova the Magyar Government insisted upn the dedication of a Slovak church by Magyar priests. The Slovak congregation refused to admit the Magyar priests. The government called out soldiers, though there had been no violence, who proceeded to shoot into the people, killing 15 parishioners, severely wounding many others, sending others to jail on the charge that they revolted against the gov ernment. The Magyars resorted to the practice of seizing Slovak children and sending them into strictly Magyar districts where they were placed in Magyar families. This official kidnapping at the instance of the Magyar Government finally had to be discontinued because public sentiment in Europe became so aroused against this crime that the Magyars were compelled to desist. Slovak editors were constantly harassed by fines and imprisonment, so that their existence became almost impossible. The Magyars purposed to efface the Slovak press. The electoral laws and the system of elections were so manipulated by the Magyars that the Slovaks were deprived of rightful representation in the Parliament. The economic oppression of the Slovaks by the Magyars made it practically impossible for the Slovaks to engage in industry. Every industrial or economic undertaking required a Government license, and the Slovaks were systematically refused such licenses, so that the Magyars would be able to hold everything in their own hands. As a result of all these persecutions in the last 40 years 739,565 Slovaks emigrated, most of them going to the United States. During the war the Magyars intensified their oppression and persecution of the Slovaks because of the hostile stand which the Slovaks took against them and the fact that Slovaks abroad joined the Entente armies and that Slovak prisoners of war went over to the enemy. On November 1, 1918, the Magyar Government at Budapest issued a decree providing that owing to the fact that the Slovaks proved themselves disloyal in the course of the war, no real estate in Slovakia could be sold unless the grantee was approved by the Government, and that such sale would be either to the Government or to a person designated by the Government, at a price stipulated by the Government. During the war Slovak soldiers who would not deny their Slovak race were shot or hanged; Slovak girls were forcibly abducted under the pretense of being taken into the hospital service; in reality they were handed over to Magyar and German officers for the purpose of prostitution. Under the Karolyi government the same Count Apponyi, who is now imploring the American Republic to be just to the Magyars and who asks us to betray our Slovak and other non-Magyar allies and return them to Magyar slavery, became the minister of education. The Maygar apologists in the United States have been trying to create the impression that Apponyi and his clique have become democratic and liberal since the armistice. The fact is that they have only become more cruel and bitter. The only reason that they can not carry out their designs upon the non-Magyar population of Hungary is due to the fact that these liberated nations are now in a position to repel the Magyars by force of arms. Apponyi, on resuming the ministry of education in the Karolyi cabinet, outlined a policy whereby the last vestige of the Slovak language as well as other non-Magyar languages would be eliminated from the schools, and also proceeded to further put under his Magyarizing influence the churches of the non-Magyars. And in all these efforts Count Karolyi concurred. Yet the Magyar apologists in the United States have the effrontery to represent to us Count Karolyi as a liberal statesman who was misunderstood and wrongfully abused by Gen. d'Espery and the Allies generally. * * * It was further proposed that the Magyars should so manipulate the electorate that it would become almost impossible for the non-Magyars to get any representation in the parliament. In other words, they were willing to further limit the franchise. In the year 1918 the Magyars intensified their work of oppression along many lines. Instead of showing a more liberal policy to the oppressed nations of Hungary, they devised the aforementioned scheme to expropriate non-Magyar property. The Pesti Hirlap, in an editorial on November 28, 1918, stated as follows: "The Magyar State has the right to decide what elements shall possess the soil. It has the right to assure its territory against suspect elements. The State must have an unlimited right of expropriation in order to be able to parcel out and colonize the land. It must carry out a healthy distribution of land to the Magyar race, which alone is the support of the State. To the south it is the Serbs who hold the best land; in Transylvania it is the Roumanians. As long as the Government remains in power it must employ that power to make the Magyars masters of Magyar land." OPPRESSION OF THE SLOVAKS BY THE MAGYAR GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED IN OFFICIAL FIGURES. The Slovaks represent 14.8 per cent of the total population of Hungary. This is the representation which the Magvars graciously gave them. 1. State functionaries: (a) In Slovakia (17 counties and 3 towns), 1,733 Magyars, 32 Germans, 2 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary (exclusive of Croatia-Sloavnia) out of 13,017 State functionaries there are 12,447 Magvars, 225 Germans, and only 35 Slovaks. 2. County functionaries: (a) In Slovakia, 920 Magyars, 11 Germans, 18 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary out of 4,094 county functionaries there are 3,803 Magyars, 126 Germans, 19 Slovaks. 3. Municipal functionaries: (a) In Slovakia, 753 Magyars, 59 Germans, 11 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary, of the 7,090 municipal employees 6,198 Magyars, 449 Germans, and only 12 Slovaks. 4. Public and district notaries: (a) In Slovakia, 1,080 Magyars, 20 Germans, 33 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary, of the 5,313 public and district notaries there are 4,637 Magyars, 191 Germans, and only 38 Slovaks. 5. Judges and counsels of the crown: (a) In Slovakia, 461 Magyars, 3 Germans, no Slovak; (b) in Hungary, of the 3,093 judges and counsels of the crown, 2,801 Magyars, 31 Germans, 1 Slovak (in the Pest Pilis district). 6. Subordinate officials of courts, crown counsels, and of houses of detention: (a) In Slovakia, 805 Magyars, 13 Germans, 10 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary, of the 5,113 of subordinate officials of courts, crown counsels and houses of detention, there are 4,756 Magyars, 129 Germans, and only 16 Slovaks. 7. Primary school teachers, elementary classes: (a) In Slovakia, 4, 257 Magyars, 129 Germans, 345 Slovaks. While the Slovak population amounts to 76 per cent of the whole population, only 7 per cent of the teachers were Slovaks. (b) In Hungary, of the 23,384 primary school teachers, there are 18,480 Magyars, 992 Germans, and only 404 Slovaks. 8. Higher primary men school teachers and teachers of higher classes of primary schools: (a) In Slovakia, 226 Magyars, 4 Germans, 2 Roumanians, and not a single Slovak; (b) in Hungary, of the total of 1,334 higher primary school teachers and of teachers of primary schools (higher classes) there are 1,268 Magyars, 35 Germans, and only 2 Slovaks. 9. Women higher primary school teachers and women teachers of higher classes in primary schools: (a) In Slovakia, 199 Magyars, 12 Germans, 1 Slovak; (b) in Hungary, of the total of 1,436 women school teachers there are 1,338 Magyars, 57 Germans, 1 Slovak. 10. Secondary (high) school professors: (a) In Slovakia, 638 Magyars, 12 Germans, 10 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary, of the total of 3,843 professors there are 3,518 Magyars, 169 Germans, 23 Slovaks. 11. Physicians: (a) In Slovakia, 713 Magyars, 57 Germans, 26 Slovaks; (b) in Hungary, of the total of 5,514 physicians there are 4,914 Magyars, 312 Germans, and only 35 Slovaks. REMARK.-In Slovakia almost 76 per cent of the population speak Slovak; only 24 per cent speak Magyar. In the whole of Hungary there are but 43.2 per cent of real Magyars (in 1851 there proportion was 36.5 per cent); while 14.8 per cent of the population of Hungary are Czecho-Slovaks. The American representatives of the medieval militaristic and reactionary Magyar oligarchy which once ruled Hungary and still dreams of returning to power, and which is made up of Magyar magnates, the nobility of the country, who would seem to be somewhat out of place in a modern democracy, have been loudly declaiming about the dangers that threaten Magyar Protestants if these should be placed outside of the devoted and pious care and protection of this noble ruling clique. It was this same ruling clique of Magyar junkers, who, probably impelled by a powerful Christian charity, used to flog their farm hands, empowered thereto by the warrant of law, which they solicitously put on the statute books which they kindly managed for the common people. In this instance they, of course, did not consult the wishes of the farm hands. This ruling clique and its agents need not worry about religious toleration in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The Czecho-Slovak nation, which was the cradle and the champion of Protestantism in central Europe 100 years before the advent of Luther and until they lost their liberty in 1621, which began at Prague the struggle for liberty of conscience, which gave the world a Huss and a Comenius, which gave rise to the Church of the Unity (the Moravians), hardly needs any lessons in toleration from the compatriots of Bela Kun. For the information of Magyar propagandists let it be noted here that one of the first acts of the government of the Czecho-Slovak Republic was the publication of an edict affirming the freedom of religious worship. Yet it is consoling to note that the old Magyar oligarchy and its agents seem to possess some solicitation about religion. Considering their many crimes during the war and before it, and their sin-laden souls, it is a hopeful sign for the future. Considering all the foregoing there is but one conclusion at which we can arrive: It requires an immense amount of brazenness on the part of any propaganda committee to try to convince your honorable committee and the American public that the Slovak people are entirely satisfied with Magyar misrule and tyranny, and that it is your duty to intervene on behalf of tyrants, returning the Slovak people, who have shed their blood for their freedom and for ours, into their former bondage. We believe in the wisdom, in the keen discernment, in the love of truth and righteousness of the American people and their representatives in the Senate of the United States, and know that the cause of a free and resurrected Czechoslovakia is safe in your hands. Respectfully submitted. WASHINGTON, D. C., September 5, 1919. VEN SVARC. Senator KNOX. Mr. Chairman, I have a communication here which I received from Mr. Frederick McCormick. The communication is addressed to you and to the Committee on Foreign Relations. Mr. Frederick McCormick was for many years the Associated Press representative in Japan, and he is the author of quite an important book on Oriental politics entitled, "The Menace of Japan." He desires the privilege of filing this in connection with the Shantung matter. The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection that will be done. (There was no objection, and the matter referred to is here printed in full, as follows:) STATEMENT OF MR. FREDERICK MCCORMICK IN REGARD TO SHANTUNG. Senator LODGE and the COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: In 1905 America mediated between Russia and Japan to end a war over China and Korea, and brought about the Portsmouth treaty of peace. Immediately, Japan undertook destruction of a policy and place in the world which gave us the power of such far-reaching decision in what so vitally affected her. In the decision Japan lost claims for indemnity and exacted secret terms from Russia by which she acquired joint claims of administration in Manchuria, This opened to her easy expansion into, and conquest of China, and gave her a policy and doctrine of special right vitally opposed to our own. Our own was the only thing in the way. It was the doctrine of the open door formulated by John Hay. It expressed the safe international position of China, and the future of America as head and front of Western civilization moving westward and sustaining for Western civilization the impact of Asiatic in the Pacific. This doctrine having been accepted by Europe, Japan began her work of destroying it by undermining its adherents, and bringing them to her side. England was Japan's ally in East Asia, and France and Russia became allies in Europe. England then reached an understanding with Russia, and by 1908 all treaties with, and about China, though containing the formula which safeguarded China and made our place in the world had failed and were powerless to give peace and safety to China and protection to rights and interests of others. Thereby it became necessary to bring the situation of our policy before the world. England and France appeared to misunderstand our aim, and at first resented our summons which was contained in a demand in 1909, to England, France, and Germany, to restore rights which they had seized from us in writing the Hukuang loan. But our course was in keeping with their pledges to support our policy for the peace and safety of China, and we were able with their renewed help, to create a base from which to resist the dissolution and destruction of our policy and of the safeguards to China, set up by Japan. Russia was the first to capitulate to Japan. Her position was the weakest because she had been vanquished in war with Japan, who joined and threatened her borders. Intimidated by Japan, she gave a nominal pledge recognizing community of Russia's hitherto exclusive rights in Manchuria, with Japan. Thus Japan was able to claim right of administration in Manchuria. It gave her a share of sovereign power there granted by China to Russia in the secret Article VI of the Chinese Eastern Railway convention of 1896. Japan then foiled us in measures to neutralize railways in Manchuria, and Russia, still further intimidated, signed with Japan a predatory pact to maintain the status quo of aggression which we were trying to supplant with justice under the open door doctrine. It opposed and revised the Portsmouth treaty, and Japan moved into inner Mongolia. Our efforts to restore China's full administrative power and sovereignty and protect her territorial integrity and rights of all, went on parallel with Japan's efforts at destruction. It was 1910, and in her agreement with Russia, Japan selected for its consummation the calendar date of July 4. America employed heroic and praiseworthy means to retain the support of the European powers to our policy which they had adhered to by written pledge for at least 10 years. England and France accepted our measures. We united the great powers behind the Hukuang, Manchurian, and currency loans for China's industrial development and reform. And August, 1912, Russia and Japan joined in the currency and reorganization loan, which made it the six-power loan. Our responsibilities in our defense against Asia and Europe in the Pacific, and in the defense of China and Asiatic civilization, were met in these plans and acts. They were successful, and the powers of Europe, which were willing to continue their adherence to them, as now exemplified in the six-power loan, only waited to see whether we were sincere and earnest in order to decide between us and Japan. |