2 IP 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE SLAV WORLD AND BEYOND. 



A BURNING SLAV QUESTION. 



In the mid-July number of the Revue de Paris 

 M. Charles Loiseau has an article on the national con- 

 flict which is being waged between Hungary and Croatia, 



THE NAGODA. 



The Croatian Question, says the writer, is closely 

 associated with the political and social destinies of 

 Jrlungar)', yet the Croatians await in vain not only the 

 realisation of promises which have been made to them, 

 but respect for rights guaranteed by their own Con- 

 stitution. The consequences of the various repressive 

 measures adopted by Hungary have been attempts 

 at assassination of Count Tisza and M. Cuvaj, the 

 Ban or Governor. 



In 1868 Croatia, having lost her independence, her 

 connection with Hungary was restored, and the 

 relations between the two countries were defined in 

 a sort of treaty called the Nagoda. This Act granted 

 Croatia a parliament, an official language, and a flag 

 of her own. She was to have autonomy in all matters 

 4:ivil and judicial, educational and administrative, 

 while Hungary took care to retain the Departments 

 of Finance, Public Works, Railways, Agriculture, etc., 

 as affairs " common " to both countries, so as to be 

 able to dispose of the revenue from taxes and control 

 the economic life of the country. As to the inter- 

 parliamentary relations, they are defined in such a 

 way that Croatia, instead of electing direct representa- 

 tives to the Diet at Pesth, delegates to it forty members 

 chosen from her own Diet. 



THE CONSTITUTION SUSPENDED. 



The fundamental mistake of the Nagoda, it is 

 explained, lies in the organisation of the Executive. 

 The Ban is appointed by the King of Hungary on the 

 nomination of the Cabinet at Pesth, and is in no way 

 responsible to the Diet at Agram, with which, however, 

 he must manage to act in a manner wiiich will make 

 it possible for the institutions of the country to perforin 

 their functions. If he favours national feeling in 

 Croatia, he is suspect in Hungary. He is the ser\^ant 

 of the -King. Yet there is a Constitution in Croatia, 

 and it is necessary to vote the budget, avoid scandals, 

 and make believe that the country is satisfied. An 

 odd feature about Croatia is that the Government and 

 the representatives of the country are always at war. 

 'J'he latter can refuse to vote the budget, and they 

 liave other technical resources of obstruction, and the 

 Government replies by decrees of dissolution and new 

 elections. For forty years this sort of thing has been 

 going on, servile Assemblies alternating with insurgent 

 majorities. Finally, the Government at Pesth has 

 taken the initiative in resolving to end this perpetual 

 conflict by an act of force, and for several months the 

 Constitution of Croatia has been suspended. 



A DICTATORSHII'. 



The present Ban, M. Cuvaj, took office in January, 

 His first act was to dissolve the Diet elected the 



previous month, the reason given being that it 

 was not constituted so as to offer the necessary 

 guarantees for serious business. Provisionally relieved 

 of all representative control by this summary pro- 

 ceeding, he directed his further attacks to officials, 

 suspects, and his personal enemies. Next he turned 

 his attention to the Press. Hitherto the censor had 

 been content to tolerate blank spaces in newspapers 

 in place of prohibited articles, but the Ban considered 

 this had a bad effect. The spaces must be filled — by 

 something acceptable. Also when the censor objected 

 to an article and the writer withdrew it, he was not 

 further troubled. Now any article, though not 

 published, may be the cause of a prosecution. This 

 odious and puerile caricature of the Press law gives 

 us an idea of the sort of Ban Croatia had to endure, 

 even before the Hungarian Ministry transformed him 

 into a dictator and suspended the Constitution. If 

 such proceedings do not excuse assassinations, they 

 certainly cause the exasperation which suggests them. 



EFFECTS ON HUNGARY. 



Respect for the autonomy of the Croatian Con- 

 stitution is required of Hungary by the reciprocal and 

 solemn compact of 186S. The events of the last three 

 or four months must have reminded the Hungarians 

 who care for their own personal independence and 

 their own national liberties that force misapplied soon 

 returns against the oppressors, and that the public 

 peace has often to be maintained at the price of respect 

 for minorities. For two months Pesth has been in a 

 state of siege, and universal suffrage promised in 1906 

 is still indefinitely adjourned. The majority of 

 Magyars consider the problem of Croatia an inevitable 

 evil to be met by violent remedies. But the problem 

 remains. 



AN Al"STRO-HrN(;ARIAN QUESTION. 



The mistakes of the .Nagoda could be corrected 

 or modified by intelligent concessions. It is not all 

 hostility between Hungary and Croatia. For the 

 present suijordination of the Croatian Executive to 

 the Hungarian Ministry, and its consequent irrespon- 

 sibility to the representatives of the country, 

 responsibility of the Ban to the Croatian Diet 

 could easily be substituted. Legally more indepen- 

 dent than Hungary, it is a question worthy of 

 consideration by the Magyars whether they would 

 not have more to gain by living on good terms with 

 a nation " co-ordinated " than by keeping it in 

 tutelage. If the provisions of the Nagoda are not 

 construed in a new spirit or revised, it will only become 

 more and more unpopular, Hungary without Croatia 

 is a body organically incomplete. It is no longer 

 possible for Hungary to regard the (jueslion as an 

 affair concerning only their own administration. It 

 is stirring the susceptibilities of all the Slavs of the 

 Empire ; in short, it has become Austro-Hungarian, 

 and may e\'en become European. 



