It is not of course to be assumed that anything like the whole of these debateable districts will be assigned to the Slovaks, but somewhere within them the final frontier will have to be drawn. The Grosse Schütt—the rich territory forming an island between the two arms of the Danube east of Pressburg—is claimed by the Czechs as necessary for their control of the river; but it will probably be decided that this would be a gratuitous violation of the national principle, since the island contains only a few hundred Slovaks in over 100,000 Magyars. On the other hand, the town of Pressburg (now rechristened Bratislava), which contains a German-Magyar majority but is surrounded by Slovak territory, is vitally needed by the new State as its Danubian port and hence as a means of commercial access to the Balkans and the Black Sea.
Further east the provisional frontier assigned to the new Republic follows the Danube from Komárom to the mouth of the Ipol and thus assures to the Slovaks the whole course of their chief river, the Váh, and the two lesser rivers, Nitra and Hron. The advantages of securing this natural frontier are, of course, very great; but the Conference may conceivably decide to be guided by direct investigations as to the racial character of the districts lying immediately to the north of the Danube. It will probably be found that their Magyarism is for the most part little more than a political veneer imposed by the peculiar circumstances of the last two generations.
The provisional frontier follows the Ipol to no great distance from its source, and then, leaving the foothills near Rimovska, strikes diagonally north-eastwards until it reaches the Ung river near Užhorod (Ungvár), on the line of cleavage between Slovaks and Ruthenes. It is probably safe to assume that in its essentials this line will be made permanent, and that the extreme Czech claim, comprising such towns as Vácz and Miskolcz and the mining district of Salgôtarján, which is so vital to the Magyars, will be disallowed. The main interest of the Czechoslovaks, as of every State under the new dispensation, is to be saddled with as few, not as many, alien subjects as possible; and it will be an unmixed blessing for Prague if it can find safe devices for paring down certain sections of the frontier and so reducing the number of its German and Magyar subjects.
Attention must, however, be drawn to the fact that while several hundred thousand Magyars will inevitably be included in Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks, on their side, will be obliged to sacrifice a number of flourishing colonies—amounting to 226,972, according to the official figures, and probably far more numerous which lie scattered in the plains of Central and Southern Hungary, and which, owing to their geographical position, must necessarily remain in the Hungarian republic (or even in Jugoslavia). Of these the most important are Békés Co. (66,770); the Báčka (30,137); Pest Co. (26,681); Budapest (20,359); Csanád Co. (17,133); Torontál Co. (16,143). Thus, an exact racial division being impossible, the existence of small racial minorities on either side of the new frontier may be regarded as a guarantee of mutual tolerance, if, as is only too probable, any attempt to exchange them should break down in face of the peasants’ attachment to the soil.
It is necessary to point out that throughout the northern counties the Magyar element consists mainly of officials (administrative, judicial, or educational) imported from Central or Southern Hungary to hold down the Slovaks, and of a certain number of Magyarized Slovaks who have yielded to political pressure or forsworn their nationality in return for some local position. Of these, the former will automatically withdraw to Hungary, while the latter will speedily rediscover their Slovak nationality. When this natural process is complete the number of Magyars will be negligible. This of course, does not apply in the same degree to the districts close to the ethnographic frontier, where there are many pure Magyar villages interspersed with Slav.
The Bohemian National Alliance, 3734 W. 26th St., Chicago, has just published a second edition of an account by Vojta Beneš of the “Economic Strength of the Czechoslovak Lands.” The story has been brought to date and contains in addition a summary of the “American Commerce with Czechoslovakia” before the war, reprinted from the Czechoslovak Review. Together the two articles make a handsome booklet of 32 pages. Order it from the Bohemian National Alliance (15 cents each) and present to your American friends.
