SCOTUS VIATOR Racial Problems in Hungary

RACIAL PROBLEMS

HUNGARY

SCOTUS VIATOR

Appendice 15

DECLARATION OF THE ACCUSED COMMITTEE OF THE ROUMANIAN NATIONAL PARTY BEFORE THE JURY COURT OF KOLOZSVÁR

The Memorandum for the publication and circulation of which we are haled before this court contains, as you have been able to convince yourselves, nothing save the grievances of the Roumanian people, which delegated us to demand the protection of the Throne for its rights and privileges, at present neglected and trodden under foot. What forced us to take this step was the deep conviction that there can be no question of our finding justice either from the Legislature or from the Government of this country. In vain have been all the promises which were so often given to respect our national rights ; in vain have we tried all legal methods; in vain have we lodged our complaints with all the competent authorities of the State. Racial intolerance has declared a war of extermination against our language and our nationality. There was, then, but one course left to us, an appeal to the supreme factor in the State and to the public opinion of the civilized world.

In the presence of this Memorandum, which does but contain the simple truth, and is a faithful image of the sufferings and injustices endured for centuries by the Roumanian people of Transylvania and Hungary, the Government was faced by the alternative of justifying itself in the eyes of the Crown or wreaking its revenge upon us. Justification being impossible, it has chosen revenge. It prevented us from reaching the steps of the Throne, and now it subjects us to the verdict of those against whom we appealed.

That which is under discussion here, gentlemen, is the very existence of the Roumanian people, and the national existence of a people is not discussed, but affirmed. Hence we have no intention of coming before you to prove our right to exist. In a question of this kind we cannot defend ourselves before you; we can only accuse before the civilized world the system of oppression which seeks to rob us of the dearest belongings of a people : its faith and its language. Thus we can no longer regard ourselves as accused, but rather as accusers. As individuals we have nothing to look for before this Court, for we have acted solely as mandatories of the Roumanian people, and an entire people cannot be brought to justice. The grievances of the Roumanians cannot be judged by an exclusively Magyar jury. The Roumanian people could not worthily consent to defend itself before an exclusively Magyar jury, before a court where the Magyars figure both as accuser and judge.

It is a political and constitutional question which is at stake, resulting from a struggle of centuries waged by the autochthonous Roumanian nation against the Magyar hegemony. There can be no question of judgment; you can condemn us as individuals, but not as the representatives of our people. Moreover, you have yourselves realized that it is not a question of law, but merely of force ; this fact you have not even attempted to conceal, for you have trampled under foot the most elementary legal forms which are observed even against common criminals in the courts of law. The world will learn with astonishment that a court has been found to judge men who were deprived of the possibility of having defenders. You have loftily proclaimed that force is superior to law, and you have not even sought to conceal from the world what is not so much a judgment as an execution.

Do not then ask us to become the accomplices of this mock trial, by making on our side the pretence of a defence. The Press has incited Magyar public opinion — as represented by the jury of Kolozsvár — against us and against the whole Roumanian people. Here in this city we have been insulted and terrorized ever since we denounced to the civilized world the persecutions which we endure. Can there then be any question of trial or defence in the legal sense of these words ? No. Act then as it may seem good to you! We know ourselves to be innocent: you are masters of our persons, but not of our conscience, which is in this cause the national conscience of the Roumanian people. Though you are not competent to judge us, there is none the less another tribunal which is larger, more enlightened, and assuredly more impartial ; it is the tribunal of the civilized world, which will condemn you once again, and yet more severely than it hitherto has done. By your spirit of mediaeval intolerance, by a racial fanaticism which has not its equal in Europe, you will, if you condemn us, simply succeed in proving to the world that the Magyars are a discordant note in the concert of European nations.

I hereby declare in the name of myself and all my colleagues that for the reasons which I have adduced before, we abstain from all defence.