Toward a New Central Europe

FEDERATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE

MILAN HODZA

Milan Hodza (1878-1944) was all eminent Slovak politician, head of the Agrarian Party, member of the Czechoslovak cabinet several times between the two world wars, and finally Prime Minister between 1935 and September 22, 1938. He drew up the "Hodza plan,' in 1935/36 to avoid the collapse of Czechoslovakia. His plan, however, which included Hungary, Austria and the Danubian countries that Austria was willing to accept to avoid Anschluss was sabotaged by his opponents.

Hodza early recognized that a system of small pseudo-national states was erroneous because, from time to time, they became pawns of foreign powers.

While in London, after the collapse of Czechoslovakia, Hodza elaborated his plan for a Federation of Central Europe in a book published in London and New York in 1542. Unfortunately, he died in 1944, and his opponent, President Benes, again pursued the wrong path away from federalism toward ultranationalism and great power politics. By this choice he brought about not only his own ruin but, in 1948, a new tragic turning point for all (Central Europe toward Stalinism. The following are some highlights from Mr. Hodzaís book.

Preface

WAR events in Central Europe obviously fully vindicate the idea of a solidly organized future co-operation of all those eight states which are placed in complete geographic coherence between Russia, Germany and Italy. According to pre-war statistics, that means a space of about 582,000 square miles, i.e., not very much at variance with the total of the territory of the United Kingdom plus France plus Germany plus Italy, which is about 620,000 square miles.

For the overwhelming majority of Central European nations, and at the end indeed for all of them, it is precisely their present condition which provides the evidence that only understanding and cooperation could ever strengthen their security, and that lack of this co-operation has proved to be a critical point with them.

Some of their neighbors may be less enthusiastic about their federation schemes. Still, one day they will have to realize that the small and middle-sized nations of Central Europe mean about one

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hundred million people in the aggregate. It certainly would be a futile undertaking to attempt to extinguish the national life of one hundred million people, or to drive them away from their homes.

As for Soviet Russia, one day she may be interested in an independent and strong bloc established between herself and Germany. For Western Europe and its permanent and indelible forces, Central Europe means for them the indispensable continental pivot of European security. It has to become in fact much more than the object of tactical interest in an extraordinary situation. It is rather in the light of a durable political interest that not merely the one or the other Central European country will contribute to the building of a new Europe, but that it is the united potential of all of them which is to be one of the indispensable supports of the peace to come.

Central Europe is going to develop in the course of history into not only a geographic, political, and economic unit. It also has its determined artistic and cultural climate. Warsaw, Poznan, Krakow, old Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and recently also Bucharest, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sofiaóthey all have the merit of shaping cultural values. By their traditional organic growth and youthful temperament, their peoples have already been recognized as able partners in and coworkers for European civilization. The Central European cultural effort is a worthy completion of an All-European cultural mission. For decades past it has been giving Europe new and fresh impulses and subjects originating in the particularities of its soil and soul. Placed in a vast territory between Berlin and Moscow, the Central European nations will have to play a part in European intellectual and artistic production which can only lay a very great stress on their importance.

A Scheme of Constitution

The freedom and security of individuals are to be guaranteed by the State. The freedom and security of small nations can only be guaranteed by their federation.

Is it, however, not too great a loss for a nation to sacrifice its full sovereignty? Since the Greek scientist and Minister, Politis, had the courage to establish what the position of sovereignties is becoming in the progress of a recent political development, discussing sovereignty is no more a crime. So it may be said that a voluntary agreement of putting sovereignties together and of making them a comparatively strong unit means definitely more to a small nation than the permanent danger of losing its sovereignty with no compensation at all.

It is not important to add to the discussion what federation may imply according to the various theoretical definitions. There may be several forms of it, from an organic but very loose co-operation to a

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federal state. The important point is rather plain. As any federation means an organized co-operation in order to secure for its members the advantages of a great economic and political unit, it is obvious that authorities have to be set up and machinery devised to provide a common-administration and legislation for the Commonwealth as far as concerns those matters which are recognized by the Federation as common.

The Constitution. What is to be the constitution of a Central European Commonwealth?

It is tempting, indeed, when adopting this ambitious title to think of imitating the British model as well. It would be a mistake, however, to look at foreign models. And it would be another and a worse error to neglect the special circumstances in which the British Commonwealth emerged from world history, not to speak of the oceans which divide its constituent parts and necessarily compel them to use the fullest possible autonomy. Constitutions have to rise out of their own soil and out of their own historic, economic, and psychological conditions. Central Europe is undoubtedly a special case. What it may accept from the classic British models is rather the animus rerum gerendarum. A spontaneous self-decision and expediency are the primary requisites of legal constructions. Central European co-operation may be enrooted in common purposes. It will be reinforced by very many historic affinities. Its ability to conduct its affairs will be increased by some common features of social and political differentiation as mentioned in the fourth chapter of this book. Spontaneous self-decision offers the basis of a constitution which in a cast-iron framework will have to express the goodwill to co-operate for the sake of national and European security.

So the independent and reconstructed countries will have to set up a Federal Treaty establishing common affairs and the mutual obligations by virtue of which their own constitutions are modified by transmitting the administration of those common affairs to the Federal Government.

Political practice has to reckon with psychological obstacles, and in some cases should accept temporary stages of federation, provided that these stages are not employed as instruments of obstruction but are accepted as steps in an organic evolution.

The Federal President and the Federal Chancellor. The Federation is to be headed by a Federal President elected first by a conference of national Prime Ministers and subsequently by the Federal Congress for a period of one year. The President has to appoint the Federal Chancellor and the members of the Government as well as the chiefs of army administration. He himself is the supreme Chief of the Army. His privilege and duty are to decide upon the resolutions of the Federal Congress if disputed by the Federal Government or by the majority of any national representation

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Customs union; common currency; finances; commercial policy; defense; foreign affairs; federal law; communications; co-operation of trade unions and professional associations. A Central European Federation has to be based upon a customs union admitting interior tariffs f or standard articles for a period of not longer than five years. Agricultural produce, the critical item of Central Europe, is to be dealt with by marketing regulations. A common currency has to be established. Defense and international policy are common affairs. This implies that the following affairs should be conducted by a Federal Government:

1.) Finances, embracing all affairs connected with common currency as well as with budgeting Federal affairs. The revenue from certain definite taxes is to be reserved for the Federation by Federal Congress and by national legislative bodies. A Federal Bank has to be subordinated to the Federal Finance Minister. Fifty percent of the national Post Office Savings Banks have to be administered by the Federal Bank.

2.) International Trade may require planning in some branches of production, in order to avoid over-production and to facilitate marketing policy. Planning requires special agreements with national governments while international trade has to be fully reserved for a Federal Minister of Economics.

3.) A Minister of Federal Foreign Affairs has to concentrate the whole of diplomacy and external policy.

4.) A Ministry of Federal Defense has to concentrate all branches of military administration.

5.) A Ministry of Communications and Posts will have to provide for measures designed to align the respective policies of the federated countries. Necessarily, it will have to deal with special Federal means of communication.

6.) and 7.) Special Ministries for Air and Shipping have to be established.

8.) Considering the fact that the Federation is to be an economic unit, a wide field of Law will require a strict co-ordination of the national policies in question. The Ministry of Federal Law will also have to deal with Inter-National State's affairs.

The Minority policy of the National States has to be solidly embedded upon the principle of reciprocity. Inter-State arrangements based upon this principle should be compulsory. The respective treaties and their execution have to be put under the protection of the Federal Government and especially under that of its Ministry of Law.

9.) A Federal Ministry of Co-operation should foster by every means open to governmental power an effective fellowship of all national professional associations recognized by law. Effective provisions

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for raising standards of living and for dealing with labor conditions will have to be a prominent joint matter of the Federal Government and the professional organizations.

Federal Ministers with portfolio; National Ministers without portfolio. All federated nations have to be represented in the Federal Government by Ministers of their nationality without special portfolio.

The Federal Government is headed and led by the Federal Chancellor, who is responsible to the Federal President.

The Federal Ministers are appointed by the Federal President on the proposals of the Federal Chancellor to whom the owe responsibility. The Federal Ministers without portfolio are to be proposed and appointed by the respective national governments and they owe responsibility to those governments as well as to the Federal Chancellor.

The Federal Ministers with portfolio have to be assisted by Under-Secretaries of State belonging to all federated nations.

In staffs, nationals of all federated countries have to be appointed in the ratio of population proportion.

Federal Congress. Control over the Federal Government's budgeting and legislation concerning Federal affairs is exercised by the

Federal Congress of which the members are appointed by a two-thirds majority in the national parliaments, in the proportion of one member to one million inhabitants.

The function of Federal Ministers is incompatible with Congress membership.

The duration of membership of Congress is identical with that of the respective national parliaments, which, however, are entitled to replace Congress-men at their convenience.

The official language of the Congress is to be decided by a twothirds majority of its members. For individual speeches, limited to fifteen minutes, each member is entitled to use his own national language. These speeches are to be interpreted simultaneously into the official language by official interpreters appointed by the Congress Presidency.

The Presidency of Congress consists of the President and as many Vice-Presidents as are necessary for the representation of the nationals of all federated countries.

The presence of all members at all sittings is compulsory.

Committees are to be set up for all Federal affairs to prepare legislation and the decisions of Congress.

Members' salaries have to be determined by Congress.

Statute and procedure for the Congress have to be settled with a view to directing its discussions in an objective and dignified way.

The permanent seat of the Federation and its Congress and Government is to be settled by the Congress.

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The decisions and legislation of the Congress are definitive. They have to be put into operation by the Federal Government unless the Federal Chancellor re-submits them within a fortnight to the Congress for reconsideration. In the event of Congress's refusing to reconsider its decision within a month, the Federal Chancellor may submit the matter to the Federal President whose finding will be final and definite. The same procedure applies to a decision of Congress when the protest of the two-thirds majority of any national group has been lodged against it.

The Federal constitution set up by Congress has to be endowed and promulgated by the federated parliaments.

Secession; Supreme Court; Citizenship. Secession from the Federation is not admissible unless the constitution be modified ac cordingly.

A Supreme Court has to decide upon constitutional questions raised by the Federal or any national Government or Ministry.

Citizenship of any national state implies Federal citizenship, valid in all states of the Federation.

The official language of the Federal administration, as far as the internal service of Federal affairs is concerned, is identical with that of Congress. Federal administration in federated countries, however, has to be performed only in the respective national language and only by the respective nationals in Federal services. For Federal staffs and definite categories of employees, knowledge of the official language of the Federation is obligatory from the third year of the Federation onwards.

Fundamental principles aiming at strong unity in common affairs. It must be emphasized that the items put forward in this sketch of the constitution can only point out the leading principles upon which a system of federation law has to be constructed. Setting up these principles, however, may offer full evidence that the suggestion advocated here does not demand a loose co-operation, but a strong union of those national energies in which the freedom and prosperity of Central Europe have to be embedded.

These principles are not in full accordance with precedents such as the British Commonwealth of Nations, or the USA, or Switzerland, nor do they follow the lines laid down by many outstanding Western European authors. All these writers, including a number of experts, have the great merit of tackling the problem with the methods of conscientious scientists. They are constructing a wide, strong and useful basis for discussion. My suggestions, supported by some practical experience, may just be a contribution to the abundant material presented by them.

As to practical precedents, they can have the value of instructive examples only. The mechanical transplanting of constitutions into

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different circumstances would lead to failure. As I have said, constitutions have to emerge out of the particular historic, political and psychological conditions of those whom they are to serve.

This consideration may explain why a sort of Central European 'Real Union" should be preferred to a loose connection similar to the British Commonwealth. Central Europe is a coherent territory on the Continent while the British Commonwealth presents itself as an ocean empire of world dimensions.

Why a Congress of national delegates, not immediately direct elections? None the less, one could hardly suggest even for the geographic unit of Central Europe a parliamentary representation directly elected by the people of the federated countries. Without at present mentioning some politico-psychological handicaps which may disappear after a certain period of closer collaboration, there is good reason for building up the Federal parliament upon national delegations. There is hardly to be found on a comparably small territory a more mixed variety of suffrages and ballots than those of eight prewar countries of Central Europe. And what suffrages some of them were and are! And what ballots! One might describe some of them rather as ways and means of concealing the people's political opinions and desires than of expressing them. An official arrangement will have strictly to respect national self-government and also in electioneering machinery. But a direct election of Federal M.P.s certainly could not be complicated by a sort of eightfold ballot. We have just to accept these facts and hope that Central Europe will, as soon as possible, get rid of what may involve a diminution of those national democratic forces from which the Federation will have to derive its vitality. In point of fact, Federal Congress will have to consist of national delegates appointed, in due proportion, by the national parliaments and each national state will have to be represented in the Federal Congress by not less than ten and not more than fifteen members.

Parliamentary "wire-pulling" to be avoided. The constitutional position of the Federal executive requires the most careful consideration. If it is made dependent upon the Federal Congress it may be doomed to lose time in that jeu parlementaire which can be prevented only by a strong parliamentary democracy gaining its forces from either its tradition or its cast-iron ordered discipline. Both of them require time to come to full strength. An organic evolution of Central Europe will certainly be apt to lead to this ambitious democratic goal. At present, however, federation itself is more important than the range of power of a new parliament. In the difficult first years of its functioning, it could hardly fail to embarrass the indispensable dynamism of the Federal Government. Central Europe may appreciate the fact that the Government of the USA also enjoys a great measure of independence of Congress and Representatives.

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Incompatibility of Congress membership with posts in Federal administration may offer another guarantee of the disinterested objectivity of Congressmen as far as their attitude towards the Front Bench is concerned.

Federal official language. There is one suggestion to be considered very carefully indeed. This is the urging of a Federal official language and its obligatory knowledge by those employed in Federal administration. This certainly means the obligatory learning of a foreign language. Astonishing as it may seem to anyone belonging to a great nation, it nevertheless seems unavoidable. The army, communications, national trade and also very many ramifications of intellectual work and leadership should never be handicapped by an inconvenience as petty as the necessity to make oneself understood. Oppressed peoples hate learning the language of the oppressor. Free nations, however, seeking national advantages in co-operation, and abandoning for this purpose a measure of their former sovereignty, will assuredly regard a special Federal language not as a nuisance, but as an advantage.

As far as learning languages is concerned, most Central Europeans know at least one world language. Why should they not continue this tradition by getting familiar with that world language, very probably the usual diplomatic language, which their Federation may one day endorse? Languages have to help men in communicating with, not dividing, each other.

Embedding the Federation in deep and wide layers of the national masses. An explanation may be useful to clarify the function of a Ministry of Co-operation. Political systems and federations would prove futile efforts if they were doomed to live on the surface of an administrative and legislative mechanism only. The Central European Federation has to be the bulwark of the racial and social security of its peoples. So the stability of its political organization requires that it should be founded in the deepest strata of the nations which it has to unite for a common work and a common fate. A real federation has to embark upon a precisely organized intrinsic co-operation of the peoples concerned. That means that all national organizations recognized by public law have to set up Federal centres. There they have to meet each other, seeing eye to eye and joining their valuable energies for what is a common purpose. All Chambers of Commerce Industry, and Agriculture, workers' Trade Unions and all sorts of co-operatives, the professional associations of all vocations, such as the men and women of law, technical and medical services, science journalism and education - they all have good reason to unite in co-operation. There is hardly a single field of human activity so indifferent as to be ignored by a federation which seeks the support of all the creative forces of those nations which expect it to provide for their moral and economic progress. All these associations are and remain as a matter of course; but to increase their efficiency, to as

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sure for themselves the advantages of great entities, they also will find it useful to launch federations of their own national organizations. Like any human institution, a commonwealth of nations also requires Men apart from Measures. It must not throw the task of and the responsibility for its efficiency upon the shoulders of its Ministers and high officials. It has to be the organized co-operation of the lasting forces of its nations. This is the reason why a responsible federal government has to deal with it. No doubt national forces will frequently endeavor to reach federal co-operation through individual initiative as they have always done. But why not foster a combination of individual effort by governmental power? We will allow no part of public life to fail when an accumulation of the whole national potential has to make the Federation a living organism of creative initiative, of creative force and of creative effect.

Epilogue

Referring to the Turkish victory over Hungary in 1526 and its sequels, a great British historian says: "It has been one of the standing misfortunes of Europe that the Poles, the Czechs and the Magyars have never been able to devise any durable form of political co-operation... From Bohemia, the richest and most civilized of these three monarchies, Poland was estranged by religion, Hungary by religion, race and language alike... The conjunction of Hungary and Bohemia . . . might have imposed a final limit upon the incursions of the Turk . . ."

The British historian refers to the religious conflicts and power policy which separated the two realms and their leaders. The Polish Jagellons were to undertake the task of uniting the forces of half Central Europe, but failed; and it was Habsburg who was going to build up his sway over the nations which were not able to unite their forces to erect upon this union their national freedom.

Yet, in the first period of Habsburg domination up to the end of the seventeenth century, European Christian civilization was safeguarded against Turkish aggression by Danubian Austria, supported at the critical moment by Poland. Now there is no Turkish aggression to be resisted. Now Liberty is to be defended on a larger scale than ever before.

Is it too daring a speculation to suggest that a Central Europe has to be constituted as a vanguard contributing a worthy share to the defense of Liberties by completing the architecture of European security?

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Toward a New Central Europe