Between the Lines

The Hungarian government is now drifting towards the establishment of a strong Fascist regime. Emulating Italy, the government of Hungary is now on the way to suppressing the existing labor organizations, the Socialist party and a number of liberal bodies.

This forthcoming wave of Fascism in Hungary will, however little affect the situation of the Jews there. There are a great number of Jews in the Hungarian municipalities who will lose their seats as a result of the new policy of the Hungarian government. These Jews, however, will be deprived of their seats not as Jews, but as members of the Socialist party. The Jewish Community in Budapest has long disassociated itself from those Jewish aldermen who were elected on the Socialist ticket. The leaders of the Jewish Community in Hungary have even go so far to declare in a public statement that those Jews elected on a Socialist ticket should not be considered as representing the interests of Hungarian Jews.

NAZIS WILL SUFFER

Should Fascism become the official policy of the government, instead of the semi-dictatorial policy of General Gomboes, the present war minister and virtual dictator of Hungary, the anti-Semitic Nazi movement will suffer by it not less than the Socialist movement. It will practically be declared illegal.

Even today the Hungarian government dies not view with favor any Nazi propaganda. It prohibits the existence of Nazi organizations. It suppresses Nazi newspapers. Its opposition to Nazi propaganda is so great that recently a number of parents whose children wore the swastika were sentenced to pay a special fine and the children were expelled from school for a full term.

The present tendency of the Hungarian government to follow the Italian Fascist line makes it even more certain that Hungary will not permit the anti-Jewish propaganda which the German Nazis are financing in other countries abroad. The strengthening of the Nazi propaganda in Hungary would be injurious directly for the Hungarian state interests. Such propaganda would develop later into a propaganda for the annexation of certain parts of Hungary.

SUPPRESSING ANTI-SEMITISM

The Hungarian government during the last year has tried not only to suppress the anti-Jewish propaganda which the Nazis are conducting but also any kind of propaganda in the country. It even indicated a desire to abolish the numerus clausus which still exists in some of the universities. Numerous pro-Jewish speeches were delivered in the parliament. Sentiment was developed in the country by certain members of the Hungarian cabinet in favor of Jews.

This attitude of the Hungarian higher authorities was appreciated by Jewish leaders in Hungary, especially because of the fact that Hungary borders so closely on Nazi Germany. In a declaration issued by the Jewish community of Budapest acknowledgement was made as to the fair treatment which the Jewish population received from the present Hungarian regime, and hope was expressed that the government of Gomboes would continue its pro-Jewish policy in the future.

The drifting of the Hungarian government towards Fascism of the Italian style does not, therefore, endanger the Jewish situation in Hungary.