C.P.(Gen)Doc.1.Q.5.

Article 4, paragraph 3

Czechoslovakia proposes that after Article 4 a new article be inserted in the Treaty with Hungary which shall run as follows:

“Czechoslovakia is authorised to transfer a maximum number of 200,000 inhabitants of Magyar ethnic origin from its territory to that of Hungary and the latter is bound to receive these persons on its territory and to recognise them as its nationals.

“The conditions for the execution of the present Article shall be fixed by a bilateral agreement between Czechoslovakia and Hungary which these two States will conclude between themselves within six months from the coming into force of the present Treaty. As regards respect for the rights of person and property this agreement will establish conditions corresponding to those laid down for this purpose in the agreement concluded on February 27th, 1946, between Czechoslovakia and Hungary on the exchange of populations. The non-conclusion [Page 728] of this agreement shall not prejudice the execution of the present Article.”

Argument.

Minority questions in Central Europe have long been the cause of disputes between nations and States and have been exploited to excite conflicts.

Czechoslovakia has granted to Hungarian minority not only all civic, but also minority rights in far greater measure than she was bound to. In spite of this the Hungarian minority played an important part in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

By the agreement with Hungary on the exchange of populations and by restoring their citizenship to inhabitants of Slovak origin, even when entered in the census returns as Hungarians, Czechoslovakia has reduced the number of real Hungarians to about 200,000. When these 200,000 Hungarians leave for Hungary, Czechoslovakia guarantees them the right to take all their property with them, or else full compensation for the property which they leave behind them in Czechoslovakia; this is in accordance with the principles to which the Hungarian Government has agreed in the Treaty on the exchange of population.

Czechoslovakia has made it possible to find a final and democratic solution to this difficult problem which would otherwise gravely endanger internal development in Czechoslovakia and furnish a pretext for the maintenace of revisionism in Hungary, thereby giving continual cause for strained relations between Hungary and Czechoslovakia and thus causing constant unrest in Central Europe.