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PREFACE.

The University students of the kingdom of Roumania published last year a Manifest[1] defending the cause of the Roumanians under the dominion of the Magyars.

In this paper, addressed to the members of the European universities, our brethren have depicted the sufferings that the Roumanian people endure under the politic of compulsory magyarization.

The numerous marks of approbation which the authors have received from all parts of Europe are eloquent proofs of the strong and lively interest which this manifest has awakened in all those who have been gifted by nature with a heart capable of responding to a cry for Justice.

We take this opportunity to thank all those who have shown such interest in us, a people deprived of its national rights in the land of its forefathers.

Shortly after the appearance of this Manifest, the Magyar university students published a pamphlet entitled Reply,[2] in which it endeavours to give the lie to the assertions contained in the manifest of Bucharest.

But the real facts, which may easily be controlled cannot be denied, because even the most skilful pen is powerless to convince a public brought face to face with irrefutable facts.

Our position in the question as university students of Hungary and Roumania is clearly defined.

It is our duly to give our opinion upon a question which concerns us as a people.

That the discussion be carried on between the students of Roumania and those of Hungary will not hinder us from speaking the truth and the more so since it is necessary to give exact and authentic information upon the Roumanian question to the whole of civilized Europe.

The Manifest of Bucharest states simple facts and does not contain a single phrase which may be suspected of disloyalty towards the Hungarian state.

To prove that the entire Reply of our Magyar fellow students is but a list of erroneous assertions which present things in a false light, we, university students of Roumania, who live under the Hungarian rule, knowing by our own experience of what nature the current of Magyarization is, to which our common country is exposed, have decided to make the present Reply.

We address it to the same public of the European universities to which both the Manifest of Bucharest as well as the Reply of Buda-Pesth were addressed.

They may thus be convinced of the manner in which the Magyar students as well as the whole Magyar society fight against the national existence of the Roumanians and of the other non-Magyar nations of Hungary and Transylvania.

Just as the Roumanian people do not attack the existence of the Hungarian state, so in this pamphlet we do not attack it either.

The Roumanian people of Hungary and Transylvania are looked upon as a model of loyalty and patriotism.

In the whole of our history, not a single disloyal act can be imputed to us either against our monarch or against the State we help to support and to which we lay a partial claim.

But these sentiments cannot and could not prevent us from offering an insurmountable resistance to that element which cohabiting with us and monopolizing Hungary, has invested it with a mask of pan-magyarism, and employed the strength of our country to an unworthy end, that of exterminating our nationality. It is against this element that the present pamphlet is directed. This is the system we have followed in our work. The material being so large we have divided it into chapters.

Considering that in many countries, our struggle against magyarization is but little known, we have aimed principally at making a clear and concise statement of the subject.

The present movement of the Roumanians bears but little reference to the past, nevertheless our Magyar fellow-students have placed the question on an historical ground.

For this reason we have devoted a chapter to the historical questions and discussed the formal points of their Reply.

This done our Reply takes into consideration one after another the assertions of the Magyar students and brings new proofs of the oppression exercised upon the Roumanian people of Hungary and Transylvania.

We have subjoined to our Reply an ethnographical map of Austro-Hungary and of the kingdom of Roumania in order to show what territory is occupied by the Roumanians in the three countries.

We have deemed this map indispensable to the clear understanding of what the historical and national relations are between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube.

This map is borrowed from that of Mr. H . Kiepert[3]

In perusing attentively these acts and documents taken from the most authentic sources, it will easily be seen to which side truth and justice belong.

The impartiality of the public to whom this Reply is addressed is a sufficient guarantee for us to await with absolute calm, the judgment they are called upon to give.

Vienna,

Graz,

Buda-Pesth, March 1892.

Cluj,