Protection of Minorities in Roumania
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[Communicated to the Council.] Official N o.: C. 174. 1931.1. Geneva, April 10th, 1931. LEAGUE OF NATIONS PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN ROUMANIA PETITIONS FROM THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE FORMER SZEKLER (HUNGARIAN) FRONTIER GUARD REGIMENT y ole Ini the Secretary-General. By document C.169.1931.1, the Secretary-General has informed the Members of the Council that, at the request of the Representatives on the Council of Persia, Great Britain and Norway, the question raised in the above-mentioned petitions has been placed on the agenda of the next session of the Council. The Secretary-General has now the honour to forward to the Council the documentation relating to this question. — 3 — CONTENTS. Page I I. V. Letter of transmission, dated July 22nd, 1929, addressed to the Director of the Minorities Section, signed by M. D. de i G yôrgypal........................................................................................... 5 B. Petition dated June 25th, 1929.......................................................... 5 C. Memorandum attached to the P e titio n ......................................... 7 D. Documents annexed to the Petition and the Memorandum : 1. Article 2 of Decree-1.aw of September 10th, 1919, for Transylvania.................................................................... 9 2. Article 24, paragraph (c). and Article 32, paragraph (c), of the Law of July 30th, 1921, concerning the Agrarian Reform in Transylvania.......................... 9 3. 1 )ecision of the Agrarian Committee regarding the taking over of the Private Property .................. 9 4. Brief inventory of the Private Property....................... 14 5. Declaration by the Minister, M. Constantinesco, made Document before the Chamber on December 7th, 1923, in C.502. ( reply to a question........................................................ 15 1929.1. 6. Prohibition of the general meeting of the “ Private Property ” convened for September 12th, 1923 15 7. Article I. 3 of the Pact concluded on April 21st, 19%, with the Roumanian Populist P arty .......... 16 8. Resolution No. 1472, dated August 27th. 1783, of the Emperor Joseph I I ..................................... 16 9. Memorandum from the Royal Hungarian Government presented to the Emperor-King Francis Joseph I on January 23rd, 1869, and Royal Resolution in reply to the Memorandum................................. 17 10. Extract from the Statutes of the “ Private Property ” 21 11. One of the documents showing that the “ Private Property ” did not belong to the State or C o m itat..................................................................... 23 II. Letter from the Chargéd ’Affaires ad ini. of the Roumanian Delegation | accredited to the League of Nations, dated October 2nd, 1929 24 Document \ III. Observations of the Roumanian Government, dated January 9th, C.33.I930.I.' 1930 .................................................................................................................. 25 IV. First Supplementary Petition, from the same source, dated Document \ December 15th, 1929, with Annexes............................................ 28 C.266. V. Second Supplementary Petition, dated December 23rd, 1929. 33 l 1 ' I- I VI. Observations of the Roumanian Government, dated May 8th, 1930, on the two Supplementary P e titio n s...................................... 34 VII. Letter from the Director of the Minorities Section to the Roumanian Representative to the League of Nations, dated June 19th, 1930 35 VIII. Letter from the Representative of Roumania to the League of Nations, dated September 3rd, 1930, to the Director of the Minorities Section, with three A n n e x e s ........................................ 36 Annex 1. —- Report of the Hungarian Government dated January 23rd, 1869, to the Emperor Francis Joseph 38 Annex 2. — Table of Property employed for the purposes of Agrarian R eform ............................................................... 47 Annex 3. — Property not affected by the Agrarian Reform 48 IX. Aide-Mémoire, with Annex, forwarded by M. Pâl Gâbor, Senator of i the Comitat of Ciuc, in May 1930 ................................................... 50 , \ X. Memorandum forwarded by M. Pâl Gâbor on behalf of the former Q'j Ï'jTm Board of the Private Property of the Comitat of Ciuc, dated I July 27th, 1930, and tables which were annexed thereto. 65 I XL Observations of the Roumanian Government, dated December 20th, 1 1930, on the question raised in the above-mentioned petitions 81 XII. Note by the Representatives of Persia, Great Britain and Norway, dated January 26th, 1931. 82 ^,(i- N. 375 (F.) 225 (A.) 4/31 Imp. Granchamp. I. X, LETTER OF TRANSMISSION ADDRESSED TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINORITIES SECTION. \ Translation.] Geneva, July 22nd, 1929. 1 have the honour to enclose several copies of the petition from the representatives of the descendants of the former Szekler (Hungarian) Frontier Guard Regiment, addressed to the Council of the League of Nations. ( S i g n e d ) D. de Gyôrgypal. B. PETITION TO THE COUNCIL OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, GENEVA. I luring the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there sprang into existence in Slavonia, the Banat and Transylvania, along the frontiers of those provinces bordering on Turkey, a special institution of that period — the “ frontier guard regiments In return for the protection of the southern frontiers of Hungary against the incursions of the Turks, grants were made to the population responsible for forming these regiments and provision for their needs. When, later on. in the course of the nineteenth century, the “ military borders ” — the name by which they were most commonly known — were abolished, the former grants were converted by Royal decision into property belonging to the descendants of the former frontier guards and intended to provide for their economic and intellectual needs. From that time onwards this property was administered by the populations concerned. In some cases it was divided up among individuals, while in others the entire property continued to be administered, in common in a similar manner to foundations, by organisations established for this purpose. Such was also the origin of the four collective properties of this kind existing in Transylvanian territory when it was transferred to the sovereignty of Roumania as a result of the world war. Two of those properties belonged to the community of goods of the former Roumanian frontier guard regiments — namely, the regiment of the Comitat of Naszod (in Roumanian Nàsaud) and that of the District of Karânsebes (in Roumanian Caran^ebeÿ). The t liird and fourth belonged to the Szekler population in the Comitats of Csik and Hâromszék fin Roumanian Ciuc and Treiscaune), which had formed the old Szekler1 ( Hungarian) frontier guard regiment. It is common knowledge that one of the first acts of authority of the Roumanians in this recently acquired territory was to set on foot an agrarian reform scheme. Under Article 2, paragraph '2(b) of Dec re e-Law No. 391 of September Kith, 1919 (Annex No. 1), which contained the first rules for the execution of this agrarian reform in Transylvania and the rest uf the territory acquired from Hungary, all the property of all the old frontier guard regiments, without distinction, was expressly exempted from expropriation for the purposes of this reform. However, even before this Decree-Law came into force, the above stipulations were abrogated by the definitive Agrarian Law of July 30th. 1921, relating to Transylvania, and only the property of the old Roumanian frontier guard regiment of Nâsaud (Annex No. 2) was exempted, under Articles 24 and 32. The property of the second Roumanian frontier suard regiment, that of Caran$ebe$. benefited by the same exemption when the law was applied. < In the contrary, the property of the Hungarian frontier guard regiment of the Comitats of I si k and Hâromszék (Ciuc and Treiscaune) is not mentioned in the Agrarian Law of July 30th, 1921, and, consequently, exemption from expropriation was not granted to it under that law, a lth o u g h it is identical in origin and of a similar juridical character to the property of the Roumanian regiments of Nâsaud and Carançebeç. As a result of this differentiation established by the law, the authorities of the first and second instance responsible for carrying out the agrarian reform ordered a considerable portion of the Hungarian property in question to be expropriated, whereas, as stated above, the property of the descendants of the Roumanian frontier guards was left intact. We. the representatives of the descendants of the former Hungarian frontier guards, lodged an appeal against the decisions of the authorities of the first and second instance with the Agrarian Committee, which is the Supreme Court in matters of agrarian reform. 1 he historical name of certain Transylvanian Hungarians who form a numerous and compact group in the south east ol [>;msylvania. Their Hungarian name is, in the singular. Sztkely, in the plural, Sztkelyek ; in German, Sekler, which of th name usec* in the Minorities Treaty. The name probably comes from the particular form of the original settlement lhest Hungarians in this district in the Middle Ages — i.e. their settlement and administration by Szik. — 6 — In view of our appeal, the Agrarian Committee cancelled the decisions of the lower authorities, but, to our great astonishment, decided at the same time that this property had belonged to the Hungarian State and now formed part of the patrimony