BELGRADE AFFAIRS

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 11

BELGRADE AFFAIRS

ALEXANDER THE ABSOLUTE The statesmen at Paris have been repeatedly vexed by the notorious instability of tho Parliament in Belgrade —an instability which became anarchy last summer when tho leader of the Opposition, Stefan Rad itch, was assassinated on the floor of the blouse. Alter a trip to Paris, where he conferred secretly with Raymond Poincare, the French Prime Minister, King Alexander, assured of French hacking, went home, and with the aid of Jugoslavia’s secret military organisation, ‘The White Hand,’ and its somewhat sinister leader, General Petal’ Zivkovitch, commenced a military dictatorship. Commenting on the situation to a French correspondent, His Majesty said; “ 1 want my country to benefit later, by more just electoral laws, by true parliamentanani.siu, and real democracy. . . . Biit before this can bo attained there must he a period of hard work. . . . We must dean up and reorganise 1 lie Government, which may take a long time, hut 1 thoroughly believe in our ultimate success. . If 1 fail it will be f, and I personally, who am lo blame, but with ray people behind me I shall not fail!’’ Despite tho Dictator King’s democratic remarks, ho has appointed leader of the White Hand. General Zivkovitch, his Prime Minister. How likely it is that this ruthless militarist! will promote democracy appears from his dark record. H© was the spruce young lieutenant charged with the personal safety of King Alexander Obrenovitch and Queen Draga in 1903, when they were fouly murdered in the .Royal bedroom of the old palace at Belgrade. King Alexander and General Zivkovitch are rapidly consolidating their dictature, slowly relaxing their censorship, reorganising the various Ministries of State, ruthlessly suppressing al! political opposition. Technically all political parties have now been suppressed by Royal decree,

but, in fact, the authorities hare concentrated on dispersing the Croat Peasant Party, which has demanded for Crnatia-Dalmatia local autonomy and the stains of a dominion (similar lo Canada) under the Crown at Belgrade. The enthusiasm of Dowager Queen Mario of Rumania -for her son-in-law. King Alexander, is well known. Her Majesty Ims said: “ I have never known a man who worked so hard.” . Ak a child Prince Alexander was brought up in Geneva—since the. Ohrenovitehes were in power at Belgrade until he went to St. Petersburg to join the Corps dcs Pages of the Tsar. Ho was a younger son, and when his lather, Pc for 1., .succeeded the murdered Alexander OPTronoviteh in 1903 he had no expectation of reaching the throne ahead of his elder brother, Crown Prince George. However, a distressing malady forced Prince George to renounce his right of succession in 1909, and a similar ‘ necessity obliges Ring Peter to appoint Prince Alexander regent in 191 J. Possibly the young regent did not know that his Prime Minister, the venerable and scrupulous Nikolai Pashitch, was even then conniving at the prelude to tho World War—the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo. The guilt of Pashitch has been affirmed by Ljuba Jovanovitch, tho Minister of Fdueation. When Austria threatened Serbia (now part of Jugo-Slr.via) on account of the assassination, young regent Alexander sought and received the aid of Tsar Nicholas 11., at whose father’s Court ho had been a page. As the great Powers mobilised (for the;]’ various and several reasons), and as the World War burst upon Furnpe, the wisdom of M. Pashilch’s course was seriously in doubt. He lived to see it supremely vindicated from the Serbian standpoint; for lira peace treaties gave to Serbia additional territories of 59,100 square miles, including huge slices of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, and the whole of the littio realm, Montenegro. Not a. few historians have held that Serbia was the only nation which really profited by the war. In 1918 the Serbian throne became that of Jugo-Slavia, “a litttle empire,” and on August 16, 1921, Prince Regent Alexander became jfis Majesty Alexander 1., King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Jugoslavs).

A year later King Alexander married Princess Mario of Rumania, daughter of Queen JMarie They have two sons—bonny Prince Peter (six) and baby Prince Tomislav (thirteen months). The King and Prince Peter are extremely popular, notablv cheerful. Asked how it, feels to be a queen. Queen Mario of Jugo-Slavia said: “1 can tell you there isn’t much fun in it! . .• . Fate always spoils.most-of one’s dreams,”-