THE JUGO-SLAVS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1919, Page 4

THE JUGO-SLAVS.

Wc are in receipt of a copy of a booklet edited l)y G. Jj. Scansie, of Auckland, a prominent leader of the Jugo-Slavs in New Zealand, dealing with the Jugoslav problem. The book aims, ay the author says, at giving a bald and dispassionate narrative of the events which immediately preceded the formation of the new triune State of the southern Slavs, comprising the Serbs and Montenegrins, the Croats and the Slovenes, and, further, at pointing out the relationship of the claims. 1 of the Jugo-Slavia to the Peace Conference, to the principles of national self-determination enunciated by President Wilson, and to the territorial aspirations of Italy. The author reproduces the actual official records and reports, proclamations, speeches, etc., relating to the subject, revealing the aims; of the Jugo-Slavs, the actions of their leaders, and their relationship towards Austria. The work is as informative as it is timely. It certainly sheds an entirely new light on the whole position of the Jugo-Slavs, who unquestionably deterve the encouragement, sympathy and support of other free nations in their effort to gain nationhood. People in the colonies are very ill-informed about the Jugo-Slavs and the part they have played in winning the war. This is not surprising, because, as Mr. Scansie shows, we have had to rely upon the scanty lines of the newspaper cable services for our information, whilst the news is controlled by Italy and Austria, and therefore comes; to us in a biassed form. For instance, we have been told that the sinister web of Bolshevism is spreading about the territories occupied by the Jugo-Slavs. The author says—and other writers confirm his statement—that Jugo-Slavia has been intensely democratic for many years, but it is even more intensely nationalist. Where the consuming fire of long-suppressed national aspirations is the impelling force of a race—and we know how Serbia, the centre of the JugoSlavs, fought and made sacrifices to maintain her freedom and nationality— Bolshevism and other similar influences of chaos and destruction must perish. "A truly democratic Jugo-Slav state will be," says the author, "the surest obstacle in the path of the western spread of Bolshevism." The author appeals; for an appreciation of their difficulties and a toleration for their mistakes, and looks for a broad and kindly patience with the peculiar difficulties "of a race whose martyred liberties have been suddenly reborn amid the throes of violence, and which seeks to build an enduing

fabric of freedom on the ashey of war," a hope, so finely stated, which will, we are sure, be realised. Britain his always stood at the side of the smaller nations struggling for their national rights and seeking expression of their national aspirations, and it is certain that her help will be extended to the newly cemented nation in her difficulties. In sTcw Zealand there have been mistakes made by the authorities in the treatment of the Jugo-Slavs, some of whom were nominally enemy subjects, but it does not tay a great deal for the judgment or perspicacity of our Cabinet that at a time v 'lien the Croats an J Slovenes were fighting in their various divisions on the Western, Italian and Serbian fronts, and doing splendid service against their hereditary enemies, who had crushed them for centuries:, these men, whose loyalty had never been open to doubt, should have been subjected to treatment almost as harsh as that extended to our straight-out enemy subjects.