A KING AS DICTATOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 556, 8 January 1929, Page 8

A KING AS DICTATOR

VARYING with one grand stroke the current political procedure in Europe, King Alexander of Yugoslavia has declared himself dictator of his country. The European dictators now holding sway in Italy and Spain have added “cubits to their stature” at the expense of kings, but Alexander has done things differently. He has seen his country stricken by internal strife, and noted with regret the decay of parliamentary power which he had so carefully sponsored. King and statesman, he had wished to see the State of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes grow into prosperous unity, and with subtle skill he had laboured to make this dream a reality. Fighting factions have reduced the power of the parliament, and the king, feeling that useful institutions, built up so painfully, were imperilled, has taken the bbldest of steps to avoid political disaster. That Alexander’s action has not been prompted by a desire for increased personal power is shown by the fact that he has formed a Cabinet of influential advisers representing the component parts of the State. In the past there had been an uneasy feeling in Croatia that the power of the Serbs was in the ascendant. The greater part of the political power was certainly in Serb hands, and there„seemed to be slender hope of the desired unity so long as this uneasiness existed. The Croats had a great leader, Stefan Raditch, and his assassination in the Belgrade parliament by a. Yugoslav Deputy was a b w from which they have not recovered. Raditch, a true statesman, was filled with a desire to serve the whole State; and to fit himself better for this labour, be studied political conditions not only in England, but also in Russia. Finally the Peasant Party, led by him, came into power, and he refused later to form a coalition because he could obtain no warranty that his plans to suppress corruption would he carried into effect. With the death of Raditch there was disorder in Zagreb, the principal town in Croatia, and the rioting has continued ever since. It is the intense political dissatisfaction in that part of the combined State that has cairsed much of the old government’s impotence, and the king, seeing that it was impossible to hope for restoration of order under present conditions, has taken the stern statesmanlike course that lias resulted in the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies. Through this action, Alexander has shown that ho is a king with the welfare of his difficult country genuinely at heart. Already Croatia is joyous at impending equality with the Serbs, ami it seems as if the boldness of the king may bring stability and peace to a. troubled country.