Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/164
will prevail a long time and retard Germany’s recovery.
The relations with the Magyars are not improving. As long as the Council of Ambassadors is delaying the signing of the Magyar peace treaty and Signor Nitti openly advocates concessions to the Magyars at the cost of Czechoslovaks, Jugoslavs and Roumanians, Magyar agitation and jingoism will not abate. Dr. Beneš in a recent speech in the National Assembly declared that the Magyar government was not acting loyally toward the Czechoslovak Republic. There was absolute proof that Budapest officials were sending bolshevik agitators into Slovakia to stir up discontent, that they were hiring prostitutes and sending them north to spy and to corrupt officials. The Magyars make much of the fact that half a million of their people live on territory assigned to the Czechoslovak Republic; but they say nothing of 300,000 Slovaks who are left in Magyaria. The mixture of races in old Hungary was such, that a better division of its territory was not possible. And while in Czechoslovakia the Magyar minorities receive absolute equality and justice, non-Magyar minorities in Hungary are persecuted. Even Dr. Jehlička, the renegade Slovak who became the chief propagandist for the return of Slovakia to Budapest, is now in disgrace, because his predictions of a revolt in Slovakia before the handing of the treaty to the Magyar delegation failed absolutely. No Slovak was elected to the new Budapest parliament, although Slovak minorities should have several deputies, and although it would have been in the interest of Magyar plans to put forward such Slovak deputies as elected spokesmen of the Slovak people. But even where it would be to their interest, the Magyars cannot bring themselves to it to admit a member of an “inferior” race to their parliament. However, abroad the Magyars carry on a strenuous propaganda for integral Hungary and shout about their imaginary injuries. Their latest plan is to use the Magyar Reformed churches to appeal to the sympathy of Protestants in Holland, Great Britain and America; the campaign is purely political and is designed to create sympathy for Magyar territorial claims.
The bolshevik foreign minister Chicherin addressed a wireless message to minister Beneš on February 2, offering formally to negotiate a peace treaty and a commercial treaty with Czechoslovakia and asking Beneš to suggest the place and time for the meeting of delegates. Chicherin no longer speaks bitterly against the Czechoslovaks in Siberia, blaming their intervention in Russian affairs on foreign pressure. The fact of course is that the fight broke out, because the bulk of the Czechoslovak army were convinced that the bolsheviks intended to turn them over to the Germans, and Allied military attaches with the Czechoslovaks were at first horrified at the temerity of 40,000 men who in their opinion signed their own death sentence, when they broke with the bolsheviks. Dr. Beneš stated in parliament with reference to Chicherin’s offer that after verifying the genuineness of the message he would ascertain the attitude of the Western Allies toward the proposed negotiation and later advise the Assembly what action the Czechoslovak government would take.
The land reform is now practically carried out. The great estates, belonging mostly to former noblemen, partly to the old imperial family and the Church, have been taken over by the state. No man can own more than 150 hectares (about 380 acres) of agricultural land or more than 100 hectares of forest. The land was not socialized, but parcelled out to small cultivators on state credit. The principle of compensation to former owners has been formally adopted, but a controversy is going on as to the basis of valuation. The former noblemen ask for present sales value or twenty times the average rent of last three years, while public opinion on the whole is willing to pay only pre-war prices.
The plans for the Bank of Czechoslovak Republic provide for a capital of 75 million francs in gold, divided into 75,000 shares of 1000 francs each. The government will take 25,000 shares and will have three representatives on the board of directors, while the stockholders will elect six. The governor of the bank will be appointed by the president for a term of five years. The bank will receive a charter for 20 years, and it will issue its notes which must be covered up to 35% by gold. It is expected that most of the stockholders will be foreigners, as the capital must be paid in gold.