The Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies - Vol. 4 ... - EPA

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tion, they leave a great deal to be desired. Yet in both there are positiveas well as negative features.In The Hungarian Nationality in Romania, published by the RumanianInstitute of Political Sciences, the major merit can be found inthe "Annexes" which are appended to the text. Annex #1 lists theconstitutional, electoral, statutory, civil-criminal, legal definitions ofthe Hungarians' and other nationalities' rights and obligations inpresent-day Rumania. Unfortunately the listing is incomplete. It neglectsto discuss those laws which hinder Hungarian economic, educationaland cultural opportunities in Rumania {e.g., Decree-Law 278[May II, 1973] which requires a minimum of 25 elementary schoolstudents and 36 high school students to maintain Hungarian classes). 2However, it does provide a complete list of the positive, symbolicallysignificant general references to majority-minority relations (pp. 2834).Annex #2 provides a list of industrial enterprises which have "beencommissioned or developed during the 1966 1975 period" in thosecounties of Transylvania which have "a more numerous Hungarianpopulation" (pp. 35-38). Unfortunately, the listing has a number ofshortcomings. First, it fails to differentiate between "commissioned"and actually "developed" enterprises. Secondly, it does not indicatewhat percentage of the local Hungarian inhabitants actually benefitfrom these enterprises. I ndustrialization in itself is not always a boon tothe local population. It can be, and has been, used to dilute theethnically compact Hungarian areas of Transylvania (e.g., Cluj-Napoca[Kolozsvar], the largest city in Transylvania, was 84% Hungarian in1890; its population has been systematically Rumanianized since 1918,mainly through industrialization and urbanization. Thus, the Hungarians'share of the total population was 83.4% in 1910. This percentagehas been reduced to 54.2% by 1930, 50.3% by 1956 and 45% by1966, so that the Rumanians [12.4% of the population in 1910] haveactually become a majority of the city's inhabitants. The population ofthe city grew in these 85 odd years from 30,000 to over 205,000 at thepresent.) ^ Thirdly, the listing gives only Rumanian place names, creatingthe impression that the towns are historically Rumanian. Anyobjective presentation should provide the place names of Transylvaniancities in all relevant languages (e.g., Tirgu-Mures [Marosvasarhely],Sibiu [Nagyszeben, Hermannstadt], etc.). Only such a portrayal canreally acquaint people with the actual multi-national tradition anddevelopment of the area.Annexes #3 and #4 summarize the publishing opportunities of the
Hungarians in Rumania in terms of their daily-weekly newspapers aswell as monthly, bimonthly, quarterly and annual periodicals, journalsand yearbooks (pp. 39 45). This provides a profile of existing Hungarianpublications in Rumania. It is a useful listing insofar that itindicates the age, concern, frequency of publication, number of copiesand number of pages of the various papers and periodicals appearing inHungarian. Shortcomings of the listing are primarily two. First, it doesnot relate the vital statistics of these publications to their previousdevelopment. For example, it does not tell us whether the 25,000 copiesof Igazsdg (published in Cluj-Napoca [Kolozsvar]) is an improvementover the past or a reduction. The same is also true in reference to thenumber of pages or the frequency of appearance of each one of thesepublications. In view of the cutbacks announced in 1974 because of a"paper shortage," it would be interesting to compare the statistics givenfor 1976 with those of 1973 or 1969 or 1966. Furthermore, it would beinteresting to compare the ratio of cutbacks in minority publicationswith cutbacks among majority publications. A second shortcoming isthat this listing provides place names, again, only in Rumanian.The last "Annexes" in The Hungarian Nationality in Romania (pp.48 52, not numbered) are three press excerpts, two from the Hungarianliterary weekly Elet es Irocialom (Budapest) and one from Target, thepaper of the Fifth General Assembly of the Ecumenical Council held atNairobi, Kenya in 1975. These excerpts are direct responses to specificcharges against Rumanian policies relative to freedom of publicationand religion. The first two excerpts commend Rumanian efforts in thepublishing field, while the third one is a favorable testimony by minoritychurch leaders from Rumania. There is no place to reflect on the specifictestimonies. It is perhaps enough to note two weaknesses. In the case ofthe first two excerpts, the information is provided without any explanationof their objective. Thus, in themselves they are incomplete andincomprehensible for an uninitiated audience. In the case of the thirdexcerpt, the testimony includes an explanation, but it comes from asource which is obviously constrained and not disinterested. Theexcerpts also suffer from numerous English mistakes in style andcomposition (e.g., "mispresented" instead of "misrepresented"on p. 53)and from errors in facts and/or evaluation. For example, on p. 52, it iscontended that: "Religious journals are printed by the ProtestantChurches in Hungarian and German languages, for their clergy, fortheir theological schools as well as for their believers." As Annex #4 (p.43) points out, there are only two Hungarian language religious publications,Reformat us Szemle and Kereszteny Magveto. The former is a
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Canadian-American Review of Hungari
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the best possible settlers who woul
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than a decade later they were follo
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Sociologists have yet to explain sa
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fifteen minutes, and spent the rest
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from the "Canadian poetry" of Icela
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garian community of Western Canada,
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lowed translations from other, more
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which took place in the pages of th
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from teaching in 1968, Kirkconnell
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Magyar poets and writers to the rea
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tive of his helpful attitude and un
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33. Kirkconnell, A Slice of Canada,
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The groaning of the slaves on Egypt
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ecause most such lines are imbedded
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;Two spheres contend with one anoth
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matched it to this feeble hurdy-gur
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NOTES1. The only full-length study
Page 46 and 47: terest in Hungarian literature, has
Page 48 and 49: limitations of Bowring and others:
Page 50 and 51: Jones' Five Hungarian WritersJ 4 Su
Page 53 and 54: REVIEW ARTICLEHungarian Poetry in E
Page 55 and 56: ooks written in English. A table of
Page 57 and 58: passive, or into noun phrases in En
Page 59 and 60: REVIEW ARTICLEHungarian Religious P
Page 61 and 62: magas és a mély magánhangzójú
Page 63 and 64: SPECIAL SECTIONToldiAn Epic Poem (1
Page 65 and 66: CANTO ONE"He lifted, with one hand,
Page 67 and 68: "Who should be squire of this whole
Page 69 and 70: What meant this hubbub in a widow's
Page 71 and 72: "Lad, here's your share! Don't say
Page 73 and 74: The heavy stone flies on: where wil
Page 75 and 76: The homes of moorhen, plover, gull
Page 77 and 78: Perhaps I'll shed my blood, some no
Page 79 and 80: CANTO FIVENicholas went wandering a
Page 81 and 82: Her tongue was like a coulter in th
Page 83 and 84: Rosemary pots mourned on its window
Page 85 and 86: Such were her words. No more would
Page 87 and 88: As if a nest of hornets rose to sti
Page 89 and 90: Upon an isle, by a Czech's hand the
Page 95: REVIEW ARTICLEQuo Vadis Transylvani
Page 99 and 100: down by serious shortcomings in bot
Page 101 and 102: alanced presentation of the Vienna
Page 104 and 105: talent enables Wass to depict the s
Page 106 and 107: Carpathian Federation, and printed
Page 108 and 109: Now and then, however, this rule de
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Page 112 and 113: OUR CONTRIBUTORS (continued from pa
Page 115: TO THOSE WISHING TO SUBMIT MANUSCRI
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