The Charlotte News
Wednesday, May 31, 1939
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: When Hitler took the Sudetenland and ultimately all of Czechland and Slovakia in March, 1939, he made a deal to appease Hungary by allowing it to take Ruthenia, and backed Hungary in its ultimate taking from Romania in 1940 the territories of S. Dobruja, the Banat, Criana-Maramure, and part of Transylvania, as well as parts of Yugoslavia in 1941--historically Hungarian territories redistributed among the three countries after World War I by the Treaty of Trianon which reduced Hungary's territory by nearly two-thirds and placed about one-third of all ethnic Hungarians in these other sovereignties. The surrender of the territories in Romania by King Carol caused his deposition from the throne in 1940.
Hungary closely aligned itself first with Mussolini, then with Hitler, between 1938 and 1944. In November, 1940, Hungary's Premier Pál Teleky would allow Hungary to join the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy, and Japan requiring each signatory to agree to defend the other in case of attack by any then "neutral" nation, primarily aimed at unity against U.S. intervention in the war. When, however, Hitler wanted Hungary to enter the war against Yugoslovia in early, 1941 in exchange for territory, Teleky committed suicide on April 3, apparently realizing his fatal misstep earlier, leading his country into the slavering jowls of the predator.
Ultimately, under new leadership, on June 22, 1941, with the invasion by Germany of Russia, Hungary did enter the war allied to the Nazis.
But in March, 1944, as Hungary sought to make peace tenders to the Allies, and in the wake of the government's efforts to protect Jews there from the extermination camps, (though deportation and deprivation of civil liberties had been the rule under Teleky and afterward), Hitler, fearing Hungary would ally itself with Russia, did precisely what Cash predicted in 1939 he would ultimately do to anyone trying to play tortoise to him--he removed the carapace and occupied the country, just as with Czechland, Poland, France, and most of the rest of central Europe in 1939-40. Adolf Eichmann then was sent in and ordered 400,000 Jewish Hungarians to their deaths.
Cassandra, warning of the unfaithful Clytemnestra, proved finally correct, even if too few were listening.
Neutrality
Politics Has No Place In Settling This Issue
That a great deal of the opposition to Mr. Hull's proposals in regard to "neutrality" is going to be political is manifest from the fact that the Hon. Ham Fish is the first man to rush out against them. There are in the Senate and the House together some dozen or so isolationists of long-standing and thoroughly honest conviction. But the Hon. Ham has never been one of them. And his whole record is one of the most rabid partisans in Congress bears out the suspicion that his stand here has nothing to do with sober judgment as to what is actually desirable in regard to "neutrality," but proceeds from the fact that (1) he is against any anything a Democratic Administration of any sort might do, and (2) that he hopes to make capital against Mr. Roosevelt in particular by shouting that the President is a cynical warmaker.
It is not a pleasant spectacle. The plain fact, it seems to us, is that the embargo on arms is anything else but neutrality. In its single important application today--the Spanish case--it served simply to make us a party to the aggrandizement of the Berlin-Rome Axis, certainly the last thing the American people wanted. And if it were applied to a general European war, it would come greatly to the aid of that Axis again. For it would deprive England of a right when she has immemorially enjoyed under international law as the result of her strength on the sea. What Mr. Hull proposes is simply that we shall go back to the solid basis of neutrality under international law and abandon aiding of our enemies and throttling of our friends by foolish internal laws. Moreover, what also has to be taken into consideration is that Hitler is very likely to read a refusal of Congress to repeal these laws as a repetition of the President's international stand--as a "go ahead" signal from the American people. And Ham Fish or anybody else who assumes to play politics here is assuming to gamble with the national interest and the lives of the millions of Americans who may die before any war that actually comes in Europe is settled.
Will Hungary Go Next?
Playing Ball With Mr. Hitler Has Only Served To Get Her Tight Within The Nazi Wolf's Jaws
Hungary is now finding out that playing ball with Germany in consideration of Hitler's promises, is about like climbing into the wolf's jaws on the strength of his promise not to eat you, my dear. The charges of outraged Premier Teleky and his cohorts have a most familiar ring about them. Germany, it appears, has for sometime past been buying and depreciating Hungarian pengo bank notes abroad and pouring them back into Hungary to purchase peasant votes for the Nazi Party. How extensive those operations have been is indicated by the fact that the pengo has gone up from eleven for the dollar to seven for the dollar--without anything having happened to Hungary's internal economic structure to justify it. And--yesterday the Nazis made overwhelming gains in Hungary, a electing more than a hundred of their sympathizers to the parliament.
Teleky is already hastily saying that he'll have to "co-operate" with Germany much more closely then he had expected. But on the whole, if he wants to stay out of a concentration camp, he had perhaps best begin to remove his funds to Switzerland or elsewhere and keep his plane waiting, with motors constantly warmed up. For he has been guilty of the unforgivable crime of opposing some Nazi demands. And it is highly doubtful that Hitler is going to be satisfied with what Teleky proposes. He has made it abundantly plain that he means to absorb the whole of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. And just now he sadly needs a thumping conquest to divert the attention of the German people and the world from the fact that, for the time being at least, the Poles have him pretty well stymied with regard to his demands for Danzig and the Corridor. So before long we may very well see either a coup by the Hungarian Nazis (a crew of sheep manipulated by Hungarians of German descent and Nazi agents sent in for the purpose) or another election in which, by intimidation and bribery, the Nazis will gain complete control. Then, according to standard Nazi technique, the same thing will happen which we have seen happen in Czechland and Slovakia: the Nazi Army will be "invited" in to "restore order." And Hungary will have become for all practical purposes merely another part of the Reich.
But it is not only the fate of Hungary which is involved here. If Hungary goes, Rumania will be the next in line for the use of the same tactics--with considerable chance of success, since there are large numbers of Nazi sympathizers already there. And if that happens--then England will be put to the acid test as to the value of her commitments and of her will to stop Hitler. The latter seeks to execute all his conquest under the cloak of legalisms, and if England--herself greatly addicted to legalisms--hasn't the courage to strip off the mask, she can never stop him.
One For Solomon
Is A Jury Trial Necessary To Show Violation Of Parole?
Since Hitler is more or less quiet just at this juncture and the police commissionership is in the toils of the lawyers, let's take time out to examine a skull-cracking conundrum that has been put to Superior Court Judge Gwyn.
About a week ago a woman, holder of a Federal liquor stamp, was convicted in County Recorder's Court of selling liquor. She was assessed a fine, which she paid, and given a sentence of four months in jail, suspended on condition that she not violate any law, particularly any liquor law, for a period of two years. That night the cops arrested her again on the charge of selling liquor.
She was brought back into court, but when her case was called, her attorneys hopped up and demanded trial by jury, which meant transferring the case to Superior Court. Not so fast, interposed Solicitor McAulay, and moved that the suspended jail sentence be declared in effect. The woman's attorneys had renewed their appeal to Superior Court, but Judge Howard ruled that while they had the right to appeal the second case, they cannot appeal his indication of the suspended sentence which had been accepted without appeal in the first case.
The question, a puzzler, comes down to this: can the County Recorder simply take judicial cognizance of the charged violation of the terms of the suspended sentence and order it into effect, or does he have to await a jury's verdict in the second case as conclusive proof that there has actually been a violation? Judge Gwyn is welcome to it.
Reverse Cassandra
A Profound Reflection On The Nature Of Things
The lady was a sort of Cassandra in reverse. That celebrated dame, you will remember, had an uncanny gift for announcing unpleasant things for the future which always happened on schedule. But nobody ever believed her. She tipped off Hector that he was slated to make a tail for Achilles' cart, she warned the Trojans to lay off the wooden horse; over and over she told them that the jig was up--but all of them only smiled tolerantly at her as a nice but goofy old girl. Agamemnon came fetching her home to Argos as a prize of war, for despite her pessimism she was an eyeful. And, having herself taken a shine to the old boy, she told him plainly in the presence of his wife, Clytemnestra, that the latter was no lady, had been playing around while the cat was away, and that very moment was planning to play Charlotte Corday to his Marat. But he only grinned and chucked her under the chin, as you may read in Aeschylus.
The lady in Verde Island, a hundred miles south of Manila, was the other way about. Everybody believed her pronto, though she was only a wash woman and presumably not a looker. The island, she said, was going to sink right into the sea--was, indeed, already sinking. And the 4,000 inhabitants took one look and decided that she was right, started in to flee in every available craft, sent out calls for help. The newspapers gravely reported that their island was sinking. Learned geologists explained that the limestone foundations of the place had been undermined. And then--then a party of scientists went out to have a look, and reported that there was only one thing wrong with the old girl's status as a prophet: the island wasn't sinking, gave not the least sign of intending to.
A sad world, mates. Either you are right and nobody believes you, or you are wrong and everybody believes you. From which, with our usual modesty, we suddenly decide to take a great deal of comfort.
Framed Edition
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