THE NATIONALITIES PROBLEM IN TRANSYLVANIA 1867-1940

The Hungarian intelligentsia consisted of several strata which had evolved at the time of the Compromise. One stratum of mid-size landowners was composed of professionals such as lawyers, doctors, etc. The Hungarian political and cultural leaders came primarily from their midst. Most of them were of the nobility, the so-called gentry. Civil servants and the employees of religious and educational institutions formed other significant strata. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, physicians, journalists, etc., whose ranks were growing but slowly, played a relatively less-important role.

It was the mid-size and large landowners among the strata of the Hungarian intelligentsia that went broke soonest. The land reform was merciless in their regard. Indeed, according to the data from Northern Transylvania, 80.5% of the Hungarians owning estates between 100 and 500 holds, and 90.8% of those owning estates above 500 holds were expropriated. ⁸⁰ The expropriation was carried out in accordance with the principles already enunciated. For instance, in the county of Turda Aries [Turda-Aries] 110,535 cadastral holds were expropriated. In this connection the best-known sociologist of the Romanians of Transylvania, Petre Suciu, noted "that the confiscated lands were mainly in

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Hungarian hands before the land reform. They had estates totaling over 150,120 holds and retained but 39,509 holds.'' ⁸¹ If we subtract the second figure from the first we are left with exactly 110,511 holds, which was the amount transferred into Romanian hands as a result of the expropriation. Thus in the county of Turda expropriation affected exclusively Hungarian landowners, even though there were quite a few Romanian landowners in the county as well.

According to the tables compiled by the Transylvanian Farmers' Union in the county of Somes [Szolnok-Doboka], only Hungarian estates were appropriated in that county as well, whereas the Romanian estates were left untouched. Of course, the class of Hungarian mid-size landowners went broke as a result. At the same time Romanian mid size landowners were not only spared but, as we shall see below, their numbers increased. In some places even the needy of Romanian nationality were left unsatisfied because the confiscated estates were not divided up but rented out. For instance, 419 of those entitled to land in the Banat were left landless because 1000 holds were rented out to a Romanian company called "Ogorul." Similarly, 10,000 holds were rented out in Satu Mare county to "Motocultura" Incorporated. In the community of Nojorid [Nagyurgod] in the county of Bihor 1,000 needy peasants received no land, because the area that had been expropriated for them was handed over to an agent of the government in Oradea. The Ruthenians of Maramures, like the Hungarians, were not given access to land. The 3,300 hold estate of the widow of Simion Pop, the former Romanian sheriff, was left intact. In April 1930 representatives of the landless in Maramures [Maramaros] turned to Ion Mihalache, the Minister of Agriculture, requesting that the large estate of the Pop family be distributed among those entitled to it. Mihalache stated that he was aware of the case, but could do nothing about it. ⁸²

Thus the land reform had bankrupted the Hungarian mid-size owners, but spared the mid-size owners among the Romanians; in fact, more than once it even spared large estates owned by Romanians. On the basis of the provision of the land reform providing confiscated land for lots to build apartments for civil servants on the outskirts of towns, large areas in the suburbs of Hungarian towns were taken away from members of the Hungarian middle class. At Cluj, Odorheiu-Secuiesc, Tirgu Mures, Miercurea Ciuc and other towns the parcels of land belonging to rather poor Hungarians, members of the intelligentsia, and to artisans, were confiscated for the benefit of the Romanian middle class. Altogether 775 holds were confiscated at Cluj for this purpose. The confiscated area was divided into 2,672 lots, which were divided among Romanians, including: Emil Poritiu a landlord from Cluj, who

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also owned a residence and an estate at Chinteni [Kajanto], and who was a member of the expropriation committee. He was awarded two lots at Cluj. Augustin Pop, a Romanian priest from Nadas, who owned an estate at Nadas [Nadas] and a house in Cluj, likewise received two lots. Two lots were awarded to Florea Bitichie, the Chief inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture. President Leonide Petrescu and chief inspector of roads and bridges, Eugen Tilea, a permanent resident of Brasov, also received two lots each. Ioan Lapedatu, the director of the Romanian National Bank and former Minister of Finance, and Alexandru Lapedatu Minister of Religious Affairs, resident of Bucharest, received a lot each. The mayor Octavian Utalea received a lot too, although he had a house at Cluj and an estate of 200 holds near Dej [Des]. The prefect Septimiu Muresan also received a lot on the grounds that he was a poor civil servant. Moreover, General Ioan Anastasiu, landlord and landowner of Suceagu [Szucsak], general of the medical corps Gheorghe Badescu, the director of the Academy of Economics Mihail Serban who already owned two houses at Cluj, the registrar Alessandru Pop, agrarian Judge Enea Munteanu, landlord Covrig Rosianu, university professor and bank president Leon, university professor and landlord T. Calugareanu, professor Gheorghe Pamfil, the director of the Institute of Pharmacology who had occupied a six-room apartment as part of his appointment and had a house of his own, the pharmacist Nicolau Mantu from Turda, bank director Virgil Comsa, the executive director of the Banca Natiunea Gheorghe Ionescu, the director of the tobacco monopoly of Bucharest Agripa Ionescu, undersecretary of finance Simionescu, the director of the coal mines of Aghiresul [Egeres] Gheorghe Manoilescu, chief superintendent Ioan Ciomac, and executive director of surveys Ioan Podariu each received one lot. Tnasescu, former undersecretary and a resident of Bucharest, also received two lots. The agrarian judges who participated in the expropriation awarded themselves one lot each, but there were two among them who received three lots each. Among those receiving lots, there was not a single worker or lower ranking civil servant, although there were some dancers and artistes. By 1928 altogether twenty homes had been built on the 775 holds of terrain. ⁸³

Similar procedures prevailed in the towns of the Szekely area. At Odorheiu-Secuiesc the lot of over one hold belonging to the widow Mrs. Balint Erdos and her four children was confiscated, even though the poor woman had nothing else to rely on. The lot of Ferenc Balint, suffered the same fate. The confiscated lots were awarded to well-paid Romanian civil servants. In Ciuc county, the Romanian middle class did increase in numbers thanks to the above procedure. In the area

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appropriated from the commonwealth of Borsec [Borszek], 150 lots for building villas were distributed to wealthy and distinguished Romanians among whom we find the wife of Alexandru Constantinescu, the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Foreign Affairs l. G. Duca, Minister of Transportation, Arthur Vaitoianu, county prefect Dr. Spatar the Senator Pantelimonu Halippa, and members of parliament Iosif Blaga, Ioan Vlad, Dr. Lupas, and E. Iorga. ⁸⁴ In the counties of Trei Scouns, Mures Turda, and all regions inhabited by Hungarians, the confiscated lands were generously distributed among members of the Romanian middle class. Some Romanian authors condemned this peculiar phenomenon, and protests by Romanians were published in some papers. The semi-official paper of the Romanian National Party of Transylvania made the following observations in 1925:

If some time in the future the country develops on the basis of the new system of land tenure, it will become clear that the object of the expropriation was not to provide land for as many poor peasants as possible but rather to create a capitalist bourgeoisie. Only this way can we explain that in lieu of the class of rural peasants; a class of farmers came about composed of lawyers, doctors, professors, teachers, priests, civil servants, engineers, architects, wholesalers, etc. in other words, individuals who know nothing about agriculture, village life, or animal breeding. ⁸⁵

Indeed, Romanian society evolved along these lines. The place of the Hungarian mid-size and large landowner, on the verge of bankruptcy, was taken by a class of Romanian mid-size landowners which had multiplied in numbers and assisted by all kinds of economic privileges granted by the authorities. Some of the Hungarian mid-size owners emigrated, others attempted to eke out a living on the fraction of their estates that was left to them. They were soon compelled to become involved in the political issues concerning the Hungarians of Transylvania, and assumed the leadership of Hungarian institutions in the area.

As mentioned, a large number of officials, teachers, priests, professors and administrators were in the service of the Hungarian churches in Transylvania. During the Hungarian regime this personnel received a pay subsidy from the Hungarian state, much as the

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Romanian personnel in comparable positions. Some institutions that were well endowed with estates were able to pay their employees from the revenue of these estates and required no state subsidies: This was the case of the Bethlen College of the Reformed Church at Nagyenyed [Aiud], for instance.

The Romanian land reform affected not only estates in private hands but also those belonging to foundations. Thus the estates of the Hungarian churches, schools and various other institutions were also confiscated. The compensation awarded for the confiscated lands was no more than one eighth, and sometimes not even 1/20 of the true value of the property, and was paid off in government bonds, several years later. Thus the Hungarian churches and cultural institutions were completely deprived of their economic foundations and, since in most cases these foundations were designed to ensure scholarships for needy students, the confiscation of the estates of the churches prevented the replacement of the Hungarian intelligentsia. Scotus Viator (R. W. Seton-Watson), the British advocate of Greater Romania, wrote to the editor of a Romanian daily in Cluj: the ',land reform bankrupts not only the Hungarian landowners but, through the churches, the entire Hungarian intelligentsia, and sometimes even gives the impression of a national vendetta." ⁸⁶

In the chapter on the churches and culture we will examine in detail the situation in which the personnel of the Hungarian churches found itself as a consequence of the expropriation of the estates and the denial of state support. Suffice to mention here that the land reform affected not only the landowners but practically all of the Hungarian population, placing them into dire economic straits.

The majority of the Hungarian civil servants lost their posts and their livelihood between the beginning of the Romanian occupation and the signing of the Peace Treaty of Trianon. No sooner did the Romanian military authorities assume control than they demanded that the civil servants in the area take an oath of allegiance to the Romanian state. The large majority of Hungarian civil servants refused this demand, referring to section 45 of the Hague Convention. According to that section the occupation force "may not force the population of the occupied area to take an oath of allegiance." Then the Romanian authorities declared that those civil servants who refused to take the oath would forfeit their jobs and their pension, whereas the lawyers and notaries may no longer continue to function. Indeed, once

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they refused to take the oath they were dismissed from their jobs without further ado.

By January 1919 the Hungarian personnel had realized that the oath of loyalty was not meant to ensure the continued employment of the Hungarian civil servants, but rather was an excuse to dismiss them. Therefore, on January 15, 1919, a delegation from Cluj came to see Iliu Maniu declaring, in the name of the Hungarian civil servants that, in lieu of an oath, they would be willing to promise to carry out their tasks conscientiously and to abstain from all political activity. Maniu rejected this offer. During the following months thousands and tens of thousands of personnel who refused to take the oath were dismissed from their post. They soon moved to Hungary.

The other difficulty affecting the civil servants were the various measures requisitioning apartments. The Romanian civil servants and military officers streaming into the Hungarian towns requisitioned apartments everywhere. These requisitions deprived many officials of their last hope of being able to obtain a modest income by renting their apartment once they had lost their jobs. Those whose apartments were requisitioned were forced to make do with their families in a single room and, once even that room was taken away, they had to move in with friends. The matter usually ended in voluntary move to Hungary. As vacancies were created by the dismissed Hungarian officials their place was naturally taken over by Romanians. Consequently, the personnel in Transylvania was soon replaced almost entirely. After the dissolution of the Governing Council of Sibiu, ordered in 1920, the Romanian newspapers lauded the activities of the former members of the Council. The members of the Council themselves noted:

in spite of the superficial and mistaken interpretation of military conventions, our merit is to have succeeded in taking power into our own hands and introduced a Romanian administration into every branch of government.... The attempt of the Hungarian government to maintain control until the peace treaty was signed, in accordance with the military conventions, met with our powerful and adamant resistance and was shipwrecked.

As regards the civil servants, they noted:

the rungs of the civil service, from the highest to the lowest, are occupied mostly by Romanians, and those who are not Romanian by birth, nevertheless, serve the Romanian state faithfully in accordance with Romanian principles.... We have reorganized

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the obsolete electoral system of the municipal and county officials and replaced it with a system of appointments. ⁸⁷

Indeed, by the time the Governing Council had functioned for a year and a half, the majority of Hungarian officials had been replaced by Romanians. The dismissed Hungarian officials continued to hope that their situation might improve. When they received the news of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon, many offered to take the oath. Most often, however, their offer was not even accepted and their situation became gradually hopeless. On June 27,1920, that is a few weeks after the treaty had been signed, the government summoned all Hungarian officials to take the oath, in response to an open letter written by the Hungarian journalist Domokos Olajos to Prime Minister Alexandru Averescu in the Kolozsvari Ujsag. By his summons he promised that the rights acquired by taking the oath would be respected. The officials did take the oath, yet there was no favorable turn in their predicament. Hungarian civil servants were employed, once they took the oath, in those branches of service where the experienced Hungarians could not be replaced by inexperienced Romanians: this was the case with the Hungarian postal workers, as of July 20, 1920. But most officials who did not take the oath were not rehired, even though many among the more objective Romanian experts argued that such a solution was warranted. For instance, Dr. G. Sorban, the Romanian prefect of Dej, argued in a leaflet in 1921 that even from a Romanian nationalist point of view these officials ought to be rehired.

There are many worthy individuals among the Hungarian officials; they are honest and responsible, and we would be glad to employ them, to kill two birds with one stone: on the one hand, we would obtain the services of useful persons for the state and; on the other hand, by providing a livelihood to these persons, we would rid the country of an anti-state and dissatisfied stratum. In order to achieve these ends and win over these Hungarian officials, we must keep the spirit of all the promises we had made at Alba Iulia with regard to the entire Hungarian ethnic group of Romania. ⁸⁸

Unfortunately, these understanding words of Sorban were a cry in the wilderness. No one attempted to realize its profound truths and the predicament of those officials who did not take the oath deteriorated year after year. A collection was organized on their behalf at the beginning of 1923, but the Romanian authorities would not authorize

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it. The only alternatives were emigration to Hungary or suicide. While thousands of Hungarians opted for the latter solution, the majority moved to Hungary, and this was precisely the objective the Romanian authorities had in mind. As the American Unitarian Committee noted during its tour of Transylvania in 1920:

the first order of business of the Romanians was to expel from Transylvania all those Hungarians who had settled there since 1913. Their next move was against the leaders of the Hungarians, officials and teachers, who were required to take the oath of loyalty in a matter of days.... The consequence of this, as the Romanians must have foreseen, was that individuals belonging to this class left the country en masse along with their families, while the towns were flooded with civil servants hired on the spur of the moment; although there were some Transylvanian Romanians among them, most came from Bucharest. For instance, we visited Fagaras [Fogaras] in June; we estimate that of the 6,000 residents about 1,000 had been chased away one way or another; over fifty families among the latter belonged to the intelligentsia. When we arrived in Transylvania, the first wave of expulsions had already subsided; but the steady flow of emigration continued because of the living conditions under Romanian rule. On July 8 we crossed the border on a train of refugees at Baje [Puspokfurdo]. The train was composed of five freight cars filled with emigrants from Turda and their belongings. Many of the women were in tears as we crossed the border; all those departing had to take an oath that they would never return, that they are saying good-bye to Transylvania forever.

We encountered the most moving instance of exile in May, during our visit to Cluj. The Romanians had taken over an institute for the blind and deaf maintained by private charity. The Transylvanian children were let loose in the province whereas those who were born in Hungary, some fifteen of them, were given five kilos of bread, loaded onto a cattle wagon, and sent across the border. They would not even allow a physician to accompany them. ⁸⁹

Those expelled simply increased the number of those who, having lost their jobs, were intent on leaving Romania anyway. The newspaper Laptatorul blamed the whole Romanian government for this measure.

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The Hungarian, Saxon, and Jewish employees are forced to leave their homes, while immigrants from the Old Kingdom are installed in them. If neither the Minister of the Interior nor the Minister of Defense is able to do anything about this situation, the responsibility must rest on the entire Kingdom of Romania. ⁹⁰

As a consequence of these measures by the Romanian authorities, soon over 100,000 Hungarians had left Transylvania. Most were civil servants, students, and residents of cities, members of the intelligentsia, expelled from the country. A Transylvanian writer asked:

Can we imagine, how much suffering and bitterness we are injecting into the souls of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians? Hundreds and thousands are leaving the country, wounded to the core of their being, in despair. Can we understand, can we feel what it means for someone to have to leave his birthplace, the place where she or he was raised, to which he or she is tied by relations, by memories happy and sad, by the tombs of parents and children? Can we imagine how these people curse Romanian rule and how they will exert themselves to undermine the credit and prestige of Romania? There is not a state in the world which can afford the luxury of creating relentless enemies, least of all can we, being a young country still in the process of consolidation, surrounded by enemies on all sides, whose designs and sentiments can not fill us with a feeling of self- confidence. ⁹¹

Yet the expulsions continued. Towards the end of 1922, when Romania was once again under the administration of the Liberal Party, even the civil servants who had taken the oath were being dismissed en masse. At the instruction of the Minister of Finance Vintila Bratianu the Hungarian employees of the Internal Revenue offices in Transylvania and the Banat were let go. The Romanian politician Caius Brediceanu observed at a popular assembly.

They chase away the old trusted employees from the internal revenue offices of Transylvania and the Banat. Two old employees of the Internal Revenue Office of Lugoj [Lugos] were thrown out. The case of the financial councilor in Satu Mare cries to the heavens. He had taken the oath of allegiance, worked loyally and diligently yet, he was put out on the street, without benefit of

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pension suddenly. He was told he would receive his pension, to be patient. When he declared he had nothing to live on in the meantime, they were surprised that he had been unable to collect enough funds during his tenure of office. He vegetates with his wife and eight children, and begs from the municipality. Yet we claim to be a civilized country? In this land the people had always been part of Western Civilization, but now we are coping with Balkanism. ⁹²

The intervention of the more understanding and humane Romanians was in vain, the dismissal of Hungarian civil servants continued. From 1919 to 1924, 197,03S Hungarian refugees left Transylvania for the rump Hungarian territory created at Trianon. ⁹³ "In less than ten years the Hungarian population of Transylvania," noted one of the defenders of Romanian policies, "lost almost everything it had gained in 30 years." Between the censuses of 1910 and 1930 a total of 305,789 Hungarians vanished. The Romanian author noted that it was first of all "a matter of civil servants who had no roots on Transylvanian soil." ⁹⁴ We have seen, however, that the civil servants would have remained gladly, but could not, on account of the measures adopted by the Romanian authorities.

The number of civil servants who stayed at their jobs diminished from year to year. The issue of their dismissal was almost constantly brought up in the Hungarian press. Most of the time the grounds for dismissal were that the person was not familiar with the official language. All Hungarian civil servants were subjected to a language test in 1924. According to the Act on the status of civil servants "those who are employed at the time of application will take an examination in 1924, as instructed by the individual ministries. Those who pass the examination will retain their post, those who fail will lose their office." ⁹⁵

The first language tests were administered generally in a spirit of comprehension and the majority of the civil servants passed. One reason for this lenience was that there were not yet sufficient numbers of Romanian intelligentsia who could have taken over the positions of the well prepared Hungarian employees without serious complications. Later, however, when as a result of the educational policies introduced by Constantin Anghelescu (Angelescu) more and more high school graduates joined the workforce, the Hungarian civil servants were subjected to further examinations, and the spirit of understanding no longer pervaded these as in 1924; hence hundreds of Hungarian employees were let go. Interventions in the House of Delegates or in

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the Senate were in vain, as were the protests in the press: the process could not be halted.

By 1930, there remained no more than 1,500 civil servants of Hungarian background in the formerly Hungarian areas attached to Romania. ⁹⁶ Those who were dismissed from their jobs lived in misery. Receiving no pension, they could survive only if they succeeded in finding employment elsewhere. Finally in 1929, Romul Boila, the Director of the Pension Fund, prepared the law published in number 183 of the Monitorul Official, dated August 20, 1929, which, after a protracted struggle, finally granted another extension of six months to those civil servants who had not taken the oath of allegiance before the signing of the Treaty of Trianon. This law finally settled the issue of pension for those civil servants. Of course, once again there were many abuses when it came to carrying out the provisions of the law.

After 1922, the "numerus valachius" movement initiated by Alexandru Vaida-Voevod and the dissemination of Iron Guard ideas resulted in a further decrease in the numbers of Hungarian civil servants. Soon new language tests were required in every branch of the administration. Some employees resorted to the courts to defend themselves against this requirement, since they had already passed the test in 1924 and had thus acquired tenure at their post. They insisted that the rights they had acquired be honored. The Romanian courts concluded, however, that knowledge of language could be tested at any time, and the authorities had the right to retest that aptitude even if the test had been passed. The courts would not admit proof of familiarity with the language, yet accepted the briefs filed by the agencies of the government who were party to the suits. Thus the civil servants were being let go all around, to be replaced by Romanians, as a consequence of repeated tests, or for the failure to take them. ⁹⁷ Hungarian civil servants were released one after another from the postal services, the workshops of the railroads, and other state institutions. On December 10, 1934, the post office of the district of Timisoara, for instance, under ordinance number 38,865/1934 and referring to ordinance 1080/1934 of the Ministry of Transportation, declared that all auxiliary workers must be Romanian and that by April 30, 1935 at the latest, "all minority auxiliary personnel, including mailmen and assistants, be released from service.,' The same circular was issued at the central post office of Miercurea Ciuc, and their example was soon followed elsewhere. After the postal services, it was the turn of the railroads.

As becomes clear from the above directive of the central post office of Timisoara, the Romanian Ministry of Public Works issued orders

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regarding the dismissal of postal employees of Hungarian background. Most probably the other ministries issued similar confidential orders, as a consequence of which the number of Hungarian employees was reduced to almost zero. One of the most fervent apostles of Romanianization noted with pleasure, already in 1935, that "judging from the number of civil servants, with the exception of certain local offices of the administration overstaffed with minorities, the country is generally in the hands of Romanians." This statement by Mihai Manoilescu indicates how effective the recently repeated decree on language tests really was. ⁹⁸

In 1936-37, Hungarian public life became increasingly dominated by all-pervasive Romanianization. To justify the renewed assault the Romanian press argued that there was an excessive number of civil servants of Hungarian descent in government positions. Then the Hungarian papers undertook a headcount of Hungarian employees still in government service. The count indicated that in 1936 there was not a single Hungarian at the Court of Appeals - for the three Chairs of Council, the 47 judges, and the executive board of the Court were all ethnically Romanian. ⁹⁹ In the county of Odorheiu, where the population, even according to the Romanian statistics, was 9696 Hungarian, every single sheriff was of Romanian background. Among the twelve employees of the sheriff's office there were nine Romanians and three Hungarians. Among the 53 community and district notaries there were only 14 Hungarians until the month of March 1935; in 1936 there were only four, and by 1938 only two who did not belong to the Romanian ethnic group. ¹⁰⁰

It was only natural that the new appointments should conform to the same trend. Only 19 among the approximately 5,600 public school teachers appointed in 1938 spoke Hungarian as their mother tongue, judging from their Hungarian-sounding names, although we may take it for granted that they did not admit to their Hungarian nationality. ¹⁰¹ In the same year, among the teachers at public secondary schools, there were but four out of 436 with a Hungarian name, whereas the 94 masters appointed to vocational schools included but one with a Hungarian name. Of the 213 postal workers and 138 civil servants granted tenure in 1938 there was not a single one with a Hungarian name, as there were none in the central offices of the administration. At the beginning of 1938 there was not a single Hungarian among the 215 engineers registered in the Association of Engineers. In the same year, in most places there were hardly any Hungarians among the provisional committee members appointed to replace the chambers of commerce and industry. There was not a single

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Hungarian in the chambers at Alba Iulia or Deva, whereas there was one Hungarian member at Timisoara and one at Satu Mare. Among the members of the provisional committees appointed to replace the health boards there was not a single member with a Hungarian name at Arad, Alba Iulia, Brasov, Cluj, Deva, Lugoj, Dradea, Petrosani, Resita [Resica], Satu Mare, Sibiu, Sighiesoara, or Tirgu Mures. The committees were renewed on August 25, 1938, but only at Tirgu Mures and Timisoara was a Hungarian member appointed. On the provisional committees appointed to replace the county Agricultural Chambers there was one Hungarian among six at Turda, and two among seven at Odorheiu, even though the population of the county of Odorheiu was 96% Hungarian. The twenty members of the county of Salaj, the 18 members in the county of Tarnava Mica, and the 19 members in the county of Bihor were all exclusively Romanian. Among the ten members in the county of Trei Scaune, there were five with a Hungarian name. ¹⁰²

In 1938, the statutes regarding minorities reiterated, in theory, that members of minority groups may be appointed to government jobs. But as we may note from the judicial appointments - as reported in the Monitorul Official of February 10, September 5, and November 14 of 1938 there was not a single Hungarian among the 64 newly appointed associate judges. ¹⁰³ By 193940 this process resulted in the "purification" - to use the Romanian expression - of all state offices in the former Hungarian areas of Hungarian civil servants, and those who by miracle managed to hold on to their posts even at this time expected their dismissal to come at any moment. Some of them were transferred to Bessarabia or Dobrudja. Others who had lost their jobs lived from day to day. Many tried to find a place with private companies, but this became almost impossible as a result of the Romanianizing labor defense measures.

Along with the dismissal of Hungarian civil servants the Hungarian intelligentsia in the professions was forced to retreat as well. We do not have overall statistics covering all the professions in this respect. From what data is available, however, we may note that the number of practicing professionals decreased year after year under Romanian rule. On the one hand, the number of those practicing their profession dropped and, on the other hand, they could not be replaced because of the admissions policies and other restrictions that prevailed at institutions of higher learning, especially after 1930.

Most significant among the professionals, on account of their numbers as well as their occupation, were the lawyers. The number of Hungarian lawyers diminished considerably in most counties of Transylvania after 1920. In the county of Arad their numbers dropped

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from 5S to 38, in the county of Bihor from 84 to 39, in Cluj county from 72 to 48, in Mures-Turda from 58 to 46, in Severin from 17 to 8 during the period 1920 to 1935. In the same period the number of Romanian lawyers increased from 52 to 123 in Arad county, from 41 to 128 in Bihor county, from 24 to 70 in Brasov, from 17 to 168 in Cluj county, from 16 to 43 in Mures-Turda county, and from 32 to 168 in Severin county. ¹⁰⁴ In spite of this, the Romanian Lawyers' Association increasingly insisted on the complete Ramanianization of the body of lawyers, because there was a sizable Hungarian representation from the counties of Odorheiu, Satu Mare, and Ciuc. The 41 representatives of the Lawyers' Association who met in Bucharest on February 21, 1937, included but one minority member, Dr. Miklos Czegledi, the representative of the Lawyers' Chamber of Oradea. At the meeting all the deans took a stand in favor of Romanianization. In his intervention Czegledi pointed out that it would be superfluous to hurry the process of Romanianization of the board of lawyers, because that process was inevitably taking place as a consequence of the economic decline of the Hungarians which had been going on for decades. While the number of Romanian lawyers in the Chamber of Lawyers of Oradea increased by 225%, the non-Romanians increased by only 4% from 1920 to 1937 That is, natural evolution was bound to bring about the complete Romanianization of the lawyers' body without any deliberate action being taken. ¹⁰⁵ But Czegledi's speech could not halt the process. The congress of the Lawyers' Association held on May 9, 1937, declared that the "lawyers' chambers will henceforth consist entirely of native Romanians.' ¹⁰⁶

This decision was soon followed by the decision of the organization of Romanian professionals (professors, engineers, architects, etc.) of May 16,1937, in Bucharest, which likewise insisted on the realization of the Romanianization in all the professions. ¹⁰⁷

The new constitution of 1938 stated, as a general principle, that the state-forming majority of the Romanian population must be taken into account in filling government positions and other jobs. At the same time a series of decrees were adopted summoning the non-Romanians in the professions to take language tests. Paragraph 1 of the Act of March 16, 1938, prescribed that those notaries who were not fluent in the official language, whether orally or in writing, may be dismissed by the Ministry on the recommendation of an agent of the Ministry of Justice. ^l08 The Act affected but few notaries, since by 1937, 155 of the 165 notaries in the Transylvanian Chamber of Notaries, or 94%, were of Romanian background, and there were but four (2.4%) of Hungarian background. ¹⁰⁹ Those who drafted the law were well

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aware of this, but even these four Hungarian notaries were a source of annoyance to them.

Language examinations for lawyers were decreed in 1938. The Hungarian Association of Lawyers, however, went on strike and did not present itself for the examination. Then the Romanian Association of Lawyers ordered that applications by young Hungarians for admission to law school not be considered. Thus they were able to cut off the supply of Hungarian lawyers, even though the number of Hungarians in the profession was already below the proportion of the population.

Similar difficulties appeared in the medical profession after 1934. Until then there was a serious shortage of physicians in Romania, hence doctors were not harassed on account of their ethnic background. But the Romanianization movement launched in 1934 affected even them. Most Hungarian candidates were not allowed to pass the admissions examination, and those who did manage to pass nevertheless, thanks to personal contacts, were exposed to all kinds of insults during lectures. By 1935 most medical students at the University of Cluj had enlisted in the Iron Guard, and they were extremely active in intimidating candidates from minority groups. At the same time the internal revenue agencies working with the municipalities (whose members were exclusively Romanian! assessed horrible taxes on Hungarian doctors. We have seen in connection with the artisans and merchants how the taxes paid in Hungarian towns exceeded those paid in Romanian towns. Similarly, the taxes paid by professionals in the non-Romanian counties were higher than in the Romanian ones. For instance, until 1924-26, according to the official Romanian data, the Transylvanian average of taxes paid by professionals was 36.596. But in the counties of Ciuc, Trei Scaune, and Odorheiu the taxes on professionals were assessed at 59%, and after 1934 this disproportion became even more pronounced. The doctors of Cluj suffered particularly from the terrible consequences of this discrimination. They sadly noted that a Hungarian doctor living on limited resources would have to pay taxes ten times as high as Dr. Livius Pop, the nationally know TB specialist, who had patients nation wide.

All strata of Hungarian professionals were weakened in numbers and economic resources by measures introduced by the Romanian government. Unlike what had prevailed in the case of Romanian professionals who, after 47 years of Hungarian rule, when World War I broke out, were still serving the Hungarian state in large numbers, while their presence in the professions only increased, the number of Hungarian professionals diminished from year to year. The Hungarian population, impoverished by the land reform and other economic

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measures, was in any case not able to ensure a livelihood to a large number of Hungarian professionals. Those of Hungarian background were gradually forced out from all government positions. There were attempts to rid them from non-state posts as well, with the help of the labor defense laws. There came a time when it seemed the economic survival of the Hungarian professionals was hopeless. Indeed, many lost hope and committed suicide. According to a report from the Romanian public health office in Cluj in 1935, altogether 106 Hungarian and 35 Romanians committed suicide in 1931-35 in that city. ¹¹⁰ Similar data comes from other cities. Indeed, Romanian economic policy did everything to force the Hungarian middle class into exile; into bankruptcy, or into death.

"It is not possible," noted Sandor Makkai, the former Reformed bishop, in 1936, "to support the fate of the minority under such circumstances." Many Hungarians of Transylvania agreed with the noted Hungarian writer. As we shall see, however, fortunately for the Hungarians under the Romanian regime, the Hungarian churches were able to inspire enormous strength into the impoverished and miserable Hungarian population thanks to their revival. Hungarians could survive and hope only thanks to the invaluable comfort offered them by the Christian churches.

THE NATIONALITIES PROBLEM IN TRANSYLVANIA 1867-1940