Further, more than that, I want to serve notice upon the representatives of the Magyar people in this country that the CzechoSlovaks in this country will do everything within their power to prosecute this malicious and mischievous propaganda until it is forever banished from the shores of the United States, and we will back up the statement that we make. I thank you very much. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Svarc, of Cleveland, Ohio.

STATEMENT OF MR. VEN SVARC, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

Mr. SVARC. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: Representing the Slavic League of America and the Bohemian National Alliance, two organizations in the United States which were organized for the purpose of prosecuting the war to a successful issue, so that the people from whom we have sprung abroad might on the other side come into their own, might again be free and enjoy the blessings of liberty, I thank you for this privilege of addressing you on this occasion, and I know that our people, not only in the United States but our long-suffering people abroad, appreciate the fact that we can raise our voices before you on behalf of their liberty. We did not think a few days ago that it would be necessary for us to appear before you. We had an idea that in the peace conference, owing to the victory which the allied armies, together with the Army of the United States, have won abroad, the political questions would be settled over on the other side, and, above all, that our Magyar brethren would finally see the light, and in the light of their previous mistakes, the mistakes which are due to that outlook upon political life which goes back to feudal times, that they would be willing to get back into the channels of the modern world and become modernized. But it seems that they have not only failed to grasp the lesson of the war on the other side but they on this side who live under the Stars and Stripes have nevertheless failed to be imbued with the idea for which America stands, the principle which she represents, and the stern logic which she applies in these progressive times for the betterment of the world, for the increase of justice in the world, and for the upbuilding of fraternity among nations.

And that is why we are here; not because we wanted to come, but because the occasion has compelled us to come in order that we may raise our voice in behalf of the truth, and endeavor to efface the various distortions of history, the various distortions of truth, and that subtle, specious reasoning which has been introduced here in this committee room by our Magyar friends in order that they might throw sand into your eyes and in order that they might deceive the American public at large in regard to those issues which are at stake on the other side and which are at stake as well in this country of

ours.

The political questions arising out of the situation in Hungary are quite easy to determine if we go back to a few basic definitions What is or what was this country that was known as Hungary? There have been certain unscrupulous men not only in these United States but elsewhere in the world who have traded wonderfully upon this word "Hungary," and who, because certain people came from this geographical designation known as Hungary, these unscrupulous men had thought to claim them in that generic term "Hungarians."

What is a Hungarian, or what was a Hungarian? A person who came from the geographical area known as Hungary. He was either a Magyar, he was either a Slav-that is, a Slovak, Serb, or a Croat― or he was a Roumanian. In some instances he was a German, who came from the German settlement in Slovakia or in Transylvania. There never was such a thing as a homogeneous Hungary inhabited by a homogeneous nation. These various nations have inhabited. Hungary from times immemorial, and the Magyars were the last people to enter Hungary. These peoples formed one polyglot State. This polyglot State until almost the close of the eighteenth century, because of these various nations which spoke different languages, employed the Latin language in its transactions of government, the Latin language was used in its parliament, and the Latin language was used in the law courts. This condition continued down to the lose of the eighteenth century, when under Joseph the Second, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, the great movement for Germanizing by force all the peoples of Austria-Hungary was endeavored to be put into effect.

Under the stress of the Germanizing movement, the Magyar people began to receive the idea that they ought, in that geographic part known as Hungary, or the Kingdom of St. Stephen, to seek to Magyarize, and immediately after the French Revolution, when the new ideas began to pervade Europe, and the question of nationality began to assert itself, from that day begins the idea of a Magyar imperialism, and from that day, accentuated later on by the effort of Louis Kossuth, which effort has been misrepresented in these United States, and which modern scholarship has sought to set right-American scholarship among other scholarships-the Magyars sought to efface all the other nations which had been on very friendly terms in centuries past, inhabiting a common country, and sought to Magyarize these other nations, a terrible task in itself and a most brutal one, when we stop to consider that if the truth were known, that is if Magyar statistics did not lie, being made by the government, probably 8,000,000 people were seeking to rob 12,000,000 people of their language, of their educational systems, of their part of the government, and were simply trying to efface every vestige of their national tradition and impose upon them a false idea that they were Magyars.

This situation continued down to 1867 with greater or less sucess, because up to that time the Magyars were immediately subject to the government of Vienna. In 1867 the Hapsburg ruler, Francis Joseph, saw that the Magyars were so obstreperous that it was time that he relented, that he should permit them to have their say, and so the old Empire of Austria-Hungary was divided into two parts, one part ruled from Vienna and the other part ruled from Budapest. The famous Saxon stateman, Bach, who got up this wonderful plan of dualism, upon the occasion of its being put into practice made this wonderfully humame statement. Turning to the German ruler from Vienna, he said "You will take care of your hordes"-meaning the Slovaks-"and of course,"-turning to the Magyar ruler. "you will take care of your hordes from Budapest.". And they have been quite true to that famous injunction. They have treated these subject peoples in all times as hordes.

It was quite amusing yesterday to hear the justification for dualism as it was explained here, that the Magyars under the situation did what they thought was best. Yes, because they knew that they would have power in their hands to proceed to efface these nations that inhabit the common country, and that they would make one Magyar Empire out of this country, which was never in a position to assume the Magyar language, a non-Aryan language, which is strange to their ears, which is difficult for them to learn, which has absolutely no significance in education or culture because it is practically limited to a nation of 8,000,000 people in the heart of Europe who are foreigners there.

Now, if we once set in our minds this picture of the former Hungary, namely, a country or area which is inhabited by four great nations, nations which have an independent history, which have an independent culture entirely distinct from anything that is Magyar, then we can readily see the false reasoning which has been presented there and through which false reasoning you have been asked to do your part in preserving the integrity of this conglomeration called Hungary. There is no such thing as the integrity of Hungary. There is such a thing as the integrity of the Magyar nation, and nobody is seeking to deprive the Magyar nation of its integrity. But the whole civilized world is raising its voice against permitting 8,000,000 Magyars comprising the Magyar nation to impose their brutal system of government, a system which means denationalization, carried on in the most brutal fashion. That system, of course, was overthrown by this war and the civilized nations of the world are bound to see that it shall not be resurrected.

Now, in this connection I think it would be proper to refer to the advertisement appearing in the New York World under date of Sunday, August 10, 1919, under caption, "To the American Nation. Real facts about Hungary," and signed by the "American committee for the relief of Hungary." It seems that the title of this American committee for the relief of Hungary is a misnomer. I quote from this article:

The American people had so little opportunity to hear Hungary's side of the story that this information should be welcomed by every fair-minded citizen of this country.

I wish to add to my previous remarks in regard to the definition of "Hungary," the way this term is abused, and refer to this abuse through this entire article, showing the way in which the American public is deceived.

In the Magyar language there is no term at all for an equivalent of the term "Hungary." In other words, they call the country Magyar-Orszag, meaning the country of the Magyars, and under that term they include Slovakia, they include Transylvania, that part inhabited by the Roumanians, and they include the southern partsCroatia, Slovania, and so forth.

In other words, in the Magyar language they do not recognize at all that ancient term "Hungary," which means simply a geographical area ruled by a common sovereign; and therefore, when they speak of Hungarians they usually fail to explain that they mean anybody who comes out of Hungary, but they try to impress you with

the fact that "Magyar" is synonymous with "Hungary," whereas the fact is that it is not synonymous at all. It means that the Magyars form but one portion of Hungary, that they number about 8.000,000 out of the 20,000,000 inhabitants of the whole country, that their interests are entirely hostile to the interests of the rest of the population, because this population demands self-determination, and they demand that they work out their own destiny. They have been doing this in the United States continuously by talking about Hungarians.

Senator POMERENE. If it will not interrupt you, how generally are these 8,000,000 Magyars distributed over what we understand to be Hungary?

Mr. SVARC. I shall explain that. In this very article appearing on August 10 in the New York World is the following statement, and I quote it at this point in order that I may use their own figures:

Life and time mingled the various races in Hungary incessantly. Other minglings were accentuated during the eighteenth century, and as one finds them now side by side, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, and Orthodox, similarly there are in Hungary in the same region members of five or six nationalities. If we except central Hungary, which is wholly Magyar, 85 per cent, and northern Hungary, which is indeed almost entirely Slovak, 76 per cent, the races are so intermingled that you can not cut out an unbroken territory from any of them. Every such attempt creates new mixed territories with no clear racial majority in them.

I ask you gentlemen to consider the sincerity of a statement of this type, which admits that in the Danubian plain, which is practically the only part that is essential Magyar, where they admit that per cent of the people are Magyars, even in this vast Danubian plain 15 per cent of the population belong to other races and nationalities.

Senator POMERENE. Approximately what portion of the territory is that?

Mr. SVARC. I will show you the map which they presented here yesterday It is practically this part here

Senator KNOX. About 20 per cent of the whole?

Mr. SVARC. Which, according to their own claim, would be about. 20 per cent of old Hungary. They do not use the word "Slovakia." It has been the policy of these propagandists, and the policy of the Magyar Government sitting at Budapest, to endeavor all through these years to efface that word "Slovak." Then they have the effrontery to come into this committee room, as they did yesterday, and to suggest to you gentlemen that the situation there is similar to the situation in the United States pertaining to Texas or to California; in other words, that they are trying to do over there with those people what we are trying to do in these United States, to make the nation homogeneous. I think that if they were sincere, a better comparison and parallel would be to compare the situation to that in Switzerland, where three nations or peoples, speaking three languages, live side by side and manage their own government. That would be the truth. But one of the reasons why we are here is to protest against any such comparison as comparing the situation over there in Hungary with the situation in the United States as it pertains to Texas or New Mexico or California. It is nothing of the sort. These nations in Hungary were there before the Magyars came.

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And another point against which we protest, that is contained in this advertisement, is the claim that all these nations that are seeking the right of self-determination over there now are immigrants, that the Magyars were there first. The Magyars have set up the false contention that they were the aborigines. I do not think it requires much of a scholar to realize the fact that any race that came to Europe in the tenth century, is far from being the aboriginal race of the country, because we know that the great migra tions took place in the sixth and seventh centuries.

We also know this fact, that the Magyar language, as far as its terminology is concerned which relates to agriculture, which relates to the home, which relates to the marriage state, which relates to the common things of life such as tools, practically all in the terms in the Magyar language have been adopted from the Slovak. That of itself, gentlemen, is significant, because no nation aboriginal in a country borrows its common words from a nation which has come in in later years. The process is just the reverse. And when they, before you here, have been claiming their much-vaunted culture. that culture such as it is is due to the fact that they have taken it from these other nations, and they have labeled it Magyar. The extent to which they have gone along these lines in order to rob the nations which have lived in a common country with them, of their own reputation along the lines of civilization and culture, is apparent from the fact that at the World's Fair in Chicago they would not permit the Slovak women to label their embroideries as Slovak embroideries, but insisted that they be labeled as Hungarian embroideries, again fooling the public with that term "Hungarian and misleading the public.

The same was true in London, where they refused to permit the Slovaks, and Austria on the other hand refused to permit the Czechs to label their exhibits under their national names. In this robbery of reputation these two plunderers, the Germans of Vienna and the Magyars of Budapest, have persisted in all these years, in order that they might make it appear to the world that they were ruling over homogenous nations; that Austria was German and that Hungary was Magyar, and yet on the other hand Hungarian, a thing which meant nothing if it did not mean the fact that it was Magyar. Now we protest against this misrepresentation in this advertisement. which seeks to show that the Magyars were the aboriginal inhabitants of Hungary, and that these other nations moved in there like a lot of interlopers many centuries afterwards and that now they are trying to rob the Magyars of their country. In proof of the facts which I have stated, I refer you gentlemen to the books of Seton Watson, Racial Problems in Hungary, and Political Corruption in Hungary, and the work of Seton Watson on the Jugoslav question. I also refer you to the work of Emily Green Balch on Our Slovak Fellow Citizens. Emily Green Balch is an American, and she discusses the problem of our Slovak fellow citizens both here in the United States and on the other side, where she has had an opportunity to view them. Every impartial observer and scholar in Hungary has condemned the governmental system over there, the system of denationalization, and condemned that colossal humbug that the Magyars have been circulating over the world, in stating that they are a chivalrous, progressive, liberty-loving people.