The War Illustrated, Volume 3, No. 54, Page 272-273, September 13, 1940.

Rumania, so largely the creation of the Versailles settlement, was at once threatened when the "Diktat" came to be repudiated. She restored Bessarabia to Russia and the Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria, but jibbed at Hungary’s Transylvanian demands. Here we tell the contested province and of the Vienna award of August 30, 1940.

Those who remember their Latin will know that Transylvania means "beyond the woods" (i.e. in this case, from Hungary), and both in Hungarian and Rumanian its names signify "forest land." It is a country well deserving of its beautiful name-a country of hill and mountain, of rich pastures on which graze cattle and horses and sheep, of great fields of corn, of orchards and vineyards. It has its industrial side, too, for there is many an ancient town with factories and mines.

Sheltered within the embrace of the Carpathian mountains, it has escaped many of the great wars which have devastated Europe to east and west, but its very isolation, combined with its natural riches, has made it a land to which feet of the wandering peoples have gladly turned. Thus it is that today it is the despair of those tidy souls who would have every country inhabited by one people and one people alone, for in Transylvania there are many peoples of many different races, speaking many different tongues, worshipping according to many different rites. And, moreover, they are exceedingly intermingled.

Once a part of the Roman province of Dacia, Transylvania was overrun by wave after wave of barbarian tribes, the chief and last of whom were the Magyars, or Hungarians. In the middle ages the population consisted of the great mass of Romano-Dacians-from whom the present-day Rumanians are descended-and the three dominating "nations" the Magyars, the Szekelers (also of the Magyar race), and the Saxons. The last were German colonists who had arrived in the country in the 12th century and established themselves in the Siebenburgen (the "seven strong towns"), of which Sibiu (Hermannstadt) and Brasov (Kronstadt) were the most important. For many centuries the Magyars constituted the ruling race; the Rumanians-Wallachians or Vlachs they were styled-although they numbered more than half of the total population, were looked down upon and were subjected to religious persecution inasmuch as their religion was that of the Orthodox Church, while the Hungarians were Catholics.

From 1003, when Transylvania was conquered by King Steven of Hungary, until 1526, Transylvania was part of the Hungarian kingdom, and it was so again from 1691 to 1848 and from 1868 until October 1918, when, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Rumanians of Transylvania and of the adjoining Hungarian districts on the wets proclaimed their independence of Hungary, and a few weeks later voted for union with the kingdom of Rumania.

Now it was the Rumanians who were the dominant race, and the Hungarians deeply resented their new-found subjection. Under the "Red" dictatorship of Bela Kun the Hungarians invaded Transylvania in 1919, but were driven out by the Rumanians, who in turn occupied (and looted) Budapest. Hungarian protests were disregarded by the victorious Allies, and by the Treay of Trianon of 1920 the whole of Transylvania was granted to Rumania, together with large stretches of territory on the west.

Carol in Hitler’s Trap

Hungary was never reconciled to the situation created by the Treaty of Trianon, and never ceased to demand , the return of at least the western fringe of Rumania and a large part of Transylvania. When Carol bowed to Stalin’s demands and restored Bessarabia to Russia, when a few weeks later Bulgaria demanded the return of her lost territory in Southern Dobrudja and after a short negotiation was promised it-Hungary became increasingly clamorous in her demands for the restoration of the territory lost in 1920. King Carol threw over the British guarantee in the hope of ingratiating himself with the Axis powers, but he soon found himself in a pretty dilemma, for Hitler, desirous of strengthening Germany’s protegee, Hungary, worked out a plan whereby Rumania would cede to Hungary both territory and population.

According to report, this provided that the frontier districts of Crisana and Maramures, in which the Magyars are in the majority, were to be restored to Hungary, together with sufficient adjoining territory to provide a home for the half-million Szekelers, who were to be removed from the region in the Carpathians where they and their ancestors had lived for 800 or 900 years, while the farms and towns they vacated were to be taken over by Rumanians "brought home" from Hungary. But the plan failed to satisfy Hungary, who was now demanding the whole of Transylvania up to the line of the River Maros.

Then another solution was suggested that Transylvania should be constituted an independent State, divided into cantons on the lines of Switzerland.

But finally Hitler decreed otherwise. At a meeting in Vienna on August 30, attended by Von Ribbentrop, Count Ciano, Count Csaky, and M. Manoilescu, Foreign Ministers of Germany, Italy, Hungary and Rumania respectively, it was decided that about two thirds of Transylvania should be restored to Hungary. The line of division was drawn in the most arbitrary fashion from the Hungaro-Rumanian frontier south of Oradea across the middle of the country to the Carpathians north-east of Brasov. Hungary received some 20,000 square miles of Transylvanian territory, including Cluj the capital, territory inhabited by almost 2,500,000 people, of whom more than a million are Rumanians, not to mention some hundreds of thousands of people of German descent. The award, indeed, was altogether contrary to the principle of racial distribution, for many hundreds of thousands of Hungarians were left in the Rumanian portion.

Bitterly must King Carol and his advisors have regretted their denunciation of the British guarantee. They chose to put their trust in Hitler, and now in the space of a few weeks were called upon the pay the price. The Government communique issued on the day of the Vienna award stated that "the arbitration of the Axis Powers concerning the Hungarian-Rumanian dispute has been accepted as a result of the ultimative demands formulated by German and Italy." Report had it that if the award were not accepted forthwith, then Germany would not only aid her Hungarian vassal in seizing the territory awarded, but might herself go farther and occupy the whole of Rumania.

In Transylvania the news of the partition was received with anguish, and in particular Dr. Maniu, Leader of the National Peasant Party, protested. In Cluj and other Transylvanian towns crowds paraded the streets singing and shouting that they preferred war to surrender, while others knelt in prayer in the public squares. But these demonstrations were soon banned by the Rumanian Government, fearful that it might jeopardize what the Vienna arbitrators had left. By September 13, it was announced, the whole of the awarded territory should pass into the hands of Hungary.

But there were a few even in Hungary who believed that the Transylvanian problem had been settled, and none in Transylvania itself. For Transylvania is a word charged with emotional importance for Rumanians and Hungarians alike. The Magyars can never forget that the country was ruled by St. Stephen nine centuries ago, while the Rumanians for their part recall that all through the centuries of Transylvania’s history the back bone of its people have been the men of Rumanian race, that it was the birthplace of the Rumanian language and the seed-plot of the national revival which, a century ago, gave rise to Rumani today.