THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1909. AN UNCOMFORTABLE THRONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3161, 13 April 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1909. AN UNCOMFORTABLE THRONE.

It is seldom that a European throne goes begging, as is the case at present with the throne of Servia, over which a dark shadow has been visibly impending ever since the murder of the late King Alexander and his cunsort Queen Draga. Prince George, the eldest son of King Peter, has solemnly renounced all his rights to the succession as Crown Prince, partly, it seems, because his political views are so violently anti-Austrian as to imperil the safety of the country, and partly because his private habits are incompatible with the maintenance of the dignity of Royalty in a civilised State. He has been accused of every kind of crime up to and including homicide, and even the most ardent supporters of the regicide dynasty boggle at such an unkingly monarch. Prince Alexander, the Crown Prince's younger brother, has, however, also renounced his right to the succession, declaring that he has no desire to supplant the rightful heir to the throne. King Peter's tenure of the throne has been beset by so many anxieties that in the eyes of his two sons the allurements of monarchy must have been seriously discounted. As the development of the situation in the Balkans postulates that the occupant of the Servian throne must be a creature of Austria, in order that Servia may retain even the semblance of an independent kingdom, the succession «f the second son, who is reported to have Austrian sympathies, would probably work for peace and quiet, at any rate for a time. The palpablejweakening of thn influence of the Karageorgevitch dynasty is one more sign that the Servian nation is losing its vitality, and when the sce,ptre drops from King Peter's nerveless hands it is quite unlikely chat Austria will abstain from ensuring quiet in Servia by placing her own nominee on the throne.