The Banat had been an apple of discord ever since the close of hostilities.  The country, inhabited chiefly by Rumanians, but with a considerable admixture of Magyar and Saxon elements, is one of the richest unexploited regions in Europe.  Its mines of gold, zinc, lead, coal, and iron offer an irresistible temptation to pushing capitalists and their governments, who feel further attracted by the credible announcement that it also possesses oil in quantities large enough to warrant exploitation.  It was partly in order to possess herself of these abundant resources and create an accomplished fact that Serbia, who also founded her claim on higher ground, laid hands on the administration of the Banat.  But the experiment was disappointing.  The Jugoslavs having failed to maintain themselves there, the bargain just sketched was entered into by officers of the Hungarian and Allied armies.  For concession-hunters are not fastidious about the nationality or character of those who can bestow what they happen to be seeking.

This stroke of jobbery had political consequences.  That was inevitable.  For so long as the Banat remained in Rumania or Serbian hands it could not be alienated in favor of any foreign group.  Therefore secession from both those states was a preliminary condition to economic alienation.  The task was bravely tackled.  An “independent republic” was suddenly added to the states of Europe.  This amazing creation, which fitted in with the Balkanizing craze of the moment, was the work of a few wire-pullers in which the easy-going inhabitants had neither hand nor part.  Indeed, they were hardly aware that the Republic of the Banat had been proclaimed.  The amateur state-builders were obliging officers of the two armies, and behind them were speculators and concession-hunters.  It was obvious that the new community, as it contained a very small population for an independent state, would require a protector.  Its sponsors, who had foreseen this, provided for it by promising to assign the humanitarian role of protectress of the Banat Republic to democratic France.  And French agents were on the spot to approve the arrangement.  Thus far the story, of which I have given but the merest outline.[177]

In this compromising fashion then Bela Kuhn was left for the time being in undisturbed power, and none of his friends had any fear that he would be driven out by the Allies so long as he contrived to hit it off with the Hungarians.  Should these turn away from him, however, the cosmopolitan financiers, whose cardinal virtues are suppleness and adaptability, would readily work with his successor, whoever he might be.  The few who knew of this quickening of high ideals with low intrigue were shocked by the light-hearted way in which under the aegis of the Conference a discreditable pact was made with the “enemy of the human race,” a grotesque regime foisted on a simple-minded people without consideration for the principle of self-determination, and the very existence of the Czechoslovak Republic imperiled.  Indeed, for a brief while it looked as though the Bolshevist forces of the Ukraine and Russia would effect a junction with the troops of Bela Kuhn and shatter eastern Europe to shreds.  To such dangerous extent did the Supreme Council indirectly abet the Bolshevist peace-breakers against the Rumanians and Czechoslovak allies.