PEASANTS AND THEIR EMPEROR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 8

PEASANTS AND THEIR EMPEROR.

THEY GAIN" THEIR POINT. The Austrian Emperor > had a new experience the other morning:, as lie was reluming irotn Sohonbrunn to his palace in Vienna. Six peasants, dressed in picturesque Slav costume, were awaiting him, kneeling in tho roadway, and holding their hands upward in supplication. When the carriage approached, one of Liem endeavoured to throw a petition into it. The men were arrested, and proved to be Austrian Sorbs, who had a curious story to tell. They represented 5(1,000 peasants living on tho frontier of Croatia, descended from the military colonists who were settled there long ago to_ i'orm a barrier agaiust .Servian raids. AYben in the sixties this so-called borderland was united with Croatia, the inhabitants were promised the ownership of the soil they had occupied on a kind of i'eudaltenure, 011 the payment of. a number of instalments. These were completed many years ago, but the big landlords and the communal authorities nevertheless' claimed to retain the ownership i of tho land, and a slow lawsuit followed. In 1908 tho highest .Hungarian court decided in the peasants' favour, but the peasants been unable to get the administrative authorities to carry out the judgment. Consequently, they sent the deputation to ask for an audience of the Emperor, but, as this was not granted, they • adopted the primitive method already described, directing Imperial attention to their grievance. The Emperor has ordered full inquiry to be made.