Of the way in which these people as a nation have time and again met adversity, authority speaks thus: "Since the birth of Christ no country has been overwhelmed by such misery'—comment of the historian on Hungary after that country, holding the gate of western civilization, was laid utterly waste by the Mongols in the thirteenth century. A few hundred years later, Hungary rose again to power and mediaeval splendour. She formed the buttress of the west against the barbarous hordes of the Suliman. Later, they were overwhelmed and met with almost it. retrievable disaster. The same authority relates that population was decima ated, towns razed to the ground, treasures plundered, women outraged, and carried off.
Thus, the conclusion arrived at in the case of Hungary is that its mutilation has created an unbearable situation for the territory. Hungary was a wonderful example of a harmoniously built up state, and, as a result of the assiduous labour of a nation for centuries, a perfect economic unit was created within the Carpathians.
Coming now to the economic consequences of the disruption, here are some of the high-lights, as brought out by Sir Robert Donald:—In old Hungary there were five customs houses; in present Hungary (one-third of the territory of the old) there are thirty. Barriers are erected to intercept the transit of goods among people who formerly enjoyed uninterrupted means of communication. The economic Chauvinist is aggressive and self-centred. He wants his country to be self-contained. The balance of trade is his obsession, believing that this is the secret of in-
The next 200 years saw the resurrection of {he unconquerable Magyars who overthrow the Turkish yoke and triumphed over their other adversaries. When the
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