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The Southern Slav's Appeal

(The Southern Slavs— Serbs, Croats, Slovenes)

PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF THE "JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE" BY MILAN MARJANOVI6.
CLEVELAND, O., NOVEMBER, 1916. OFFICES: 1402 E. 40th ST., CLEVELAND, O.

NUMBER 1. THE SOUTHERN SLAVS, OR JUGOSLAVS, AIMS FOR LIBERTY AND UNITY.

THE SOUTHERN SLAVS TERRITORY IN S. W. EUROPE.

THE JUGOSLAV-TERRITORY
JU603LOYEM3KAZMUA

LETERRlTOmE tOUSOSl&YE

THERE WERE MORE THEN 13,000,000 JUGOSLAVS BEFORE THE WAR. THERE WERE 5,000,000
JUGOSLAVS LIVING IN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, MORE THEN 7,000,000 IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
(IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA, CROATIA-SLAVONIA, SOUTHERN HUNGARY, DALMATIA, ISTRIA,
TRIEST, GORIZIA-GRADISCA, CARNIOLA, SOUTHERN CORINTHIA AND SOUTHERN STYRIA),
MORE THEN 200,000 IN ITALY (UDIXE) AND GREECE (VODENA, SALENIK) AND 800,000 IN
BOTH AMERICAS (700,000 IN THE UNITED STATES). -^THE NATIONAL TERRITORY OF THE
JUGOSLAVS IN EUROPE COVERS THE AREA OF MORE THEN 96,000 SQUARE MILES.

SERBO-CROAT ORTHOGRAPHY,
i = sh in "ship." c = ts in "cats."

5 = ch in "church." % = j in French "jour."

c = ditto (softer). j=y in "your."

Printed by "HLAS",
CLEVELAND. OHIO

AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

"When in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume, among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitles them, a decent respect
the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain un-
alienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty and the .pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed; that, whenever
any form of government becomes destructive

of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such prin-
ciples, and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them -shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed,
will dictate that governments long establish-
ed should not be changed for light and trans-
ient causes ; and, according, all experience hath
shown, that a mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But, when long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing in-
variably the same object, evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for
their future security."

Declaration of Independance 1776.

AMERICA'S PART IN FUTURE PEACE.

' ' "We are participants, whether we

would or not, in the life of the world. The
interests of all nations are our own also. We
are partners with the rest. What affects man-
kind is inevitably our affair as well as the
affair of the nations of Europe and of Asia. . .

.... The nations of the world have become
each other's neighbors. It is to their interest
that they should understand each other. In
order that they may understand each other it
is imperative that they should agree o cooper-
ate in a common cause and that they should so
act that the guiding principles of that common
cause shall be even-handed and impartial
justice. This is undoubtedly the thought of
America. This is what we, ourselves, will say
when there comes proper occasion to say it. ...

We believe these fundamental things :

First, that every people has a right to
choose the sovereignity under which they shall
live. Like other nations, we have, ourselves,
no doubt once and again offended against
that principle when for a little while controll-
ed by selfish passion, as our franker historians

have been honorable enough to admit; but it
has become more and more our rule of life
and action.

Second, that the small States of the world
have a right to enjoy the same respect for
their sovereignity and for their territorial in-
tegrity that great and powerful nations expect
and insist upon.

And, third, that the world has a right to
be free from every disturbance of its peace
that has its origin in aggression and disregard
of the rights of peoples and nations.

So sincerely do we believe in these things
that I am sure that I speak the mind and wish
of the people of America when I say that the
United States is willing to become a partner
in any feasible association of nations formed
in order to realize these objects and make

them secure against violation "

From the Speech of the Presi-
dent of U. S. A. W. Wilson,
discussing Peace and America's
part in a future league to pre-
vent war. May 26th 1916.

KING PETER I. TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA.

"I have long wanted very much to speak
from the bottom of my heart to the great heart
of America, which is so deeply moved over the
fate of Serbia and has done so much for our
unhappy people. It seems to me that somehow
your compatriots have been able to divine in
the struggles of a people, simple and rugged,
but stubbornly individualistic, the same sacred
fire which inspired the first Americans 300
years ago to leave Europe to erect in the wild-
erness of America a home for freedom. They
understand us. We speak the same language
of liberty.

"And those of your compatriots who have
come to us as doctors, nurses — the American
Red Cross, the Serbian Relief and Sanitary
Commissions — all these brave young people,
who have so gladly given their young lives
to fight typhus and the sickening effects of
shells and epidemics, of whom not a few rest
forever in Serbian soil — was it not they who
brought to us the soul of a kindred people
from America?"

''I do not know if it is quite understood
in America what it is all about that almost
entire Europe is at war. But I will tell you in
a word; it is the supreme, the last effort of
feudalism, a fight to a finish between the
feudalism of yesterday and the freedom of to-
morrow. So that is why war had to break out
on the banks of the Danube, and not elsewhere,
for the Danube separates by so little the most
intransigent feudalism, maintained by un-

worthy intrigues, like those of the smaller
Italian States in the Middle Ages, from the
most stubborn ideal of liberty, implanted in
those ready to fight to the last man to realize
that idea.

"Yet we have always wanted to live at
peace with the Austrians.

"But it is of the very nature of a feudal
state that liberty cannot and must not flourish
in the same vicinity, and Austria arranged
all that in the time of the Obrenovitches. 'Ser-
bia was made merely a tributary to Austria.
She was no longer free at all. By the treaty
of 1881 she renounced all her rights. Today,
again Austria still seeks to follow toward Ser-
bia crushed the same policy as before — to
create of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and
Herzegovina an empire of vassal States for
the benefit of a mediaeval feudal nobility. But
we cannot stand that. We are peasants, but
free peasants.

"I am King. I come from the people, but
a heroic people who preferred bitter death to
comfortable, shameful slavery. My grand-
father was a peasant, and I am prouder of
that than of my throne. Crowns are lost, brj
the pure, clean blood of those who have lived
of the earth does not die out."

(King Peter I. of Serbia, to
the representatives of the
American Press. February
1916.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The Jugoslavs are: the Serbians, the
Croatians, the Slovenians and the Bulgarians.
But the Bulgarians, pursuing as they are a
separatistic and imperialistic State policy, do
not, at the present time, belong to this move-
ment, nor do they in the contemporary policy
of the Jugoslav Unification ; consequently, it
is only the Serbians, the Croatians and the
Slovenians who are the bearers of that idea,
though the central group is formed by the
Serbians and the Croatians alone.

The Serbo-Croatians are absolutely one
and the same people by their blood relations,
by the identity of their spoken and literary
language and their aspirations • — irrespective
of the territories in which they live. The
Slovenians belong to the same race with a
slightly different literary dialect. At this
moment the matter could be summarised thus :
the Serbians are considered as the Orthodox
South-Slavs and the Croats the Catholic South-
Slavs.

Before this war there were about
13,000,000 Jugoslavs, of which number 5,000,-
000 were living in the Kingdom of Serbia and
Crnagora (or Montenegro), 8,000,000 under
the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
of which 1,000,000 abroad, as emmigrants. In
the present war nearly 2,000,000 Jugoslavs on
both Serbian and Austro-Hungarian sides have
been invalidated and have died partly of
cholera, thyphus, and other diseases; partly
through famine and starvation; partly in
prison, on gallows or in cold blood massacres ;
partly again in actual battles.

The Jugoslav idea demands that, at the
time of peace negotiations, all the regions, in-
habited by the South Slavs in an overwhelm-
ing majority and in compact masses, be
granted a full liberty and united into
one single and democratically ruled State.
Such a State would comprise a territory
of about 96,000 square miles with a popu-
lation of about 13,000,000, and would consti-
tute an element of an adequate equilibrium in
the South-East of Europe. Any kind of tear-
ing, chipping or exclusion would be unjust,
for the intimate connection (geographic,
strategic and economic), existing between all

the parts of Jugoslav lands, is such as not to
allow of any tearing or exclusion, and any
separation of however small a part would
greatly hinder the developement of the en-
tirety.

After the infamous ultimatum of Austria,
and for the idea of Jugoslav liberation and
unification, the free and independent King-
dom of Serbia has accepted the war. This is
in conformity with the National Programme
of Serbia's State Policy, and was proclaimed
in the expose of the Serbian Goverment (Nov.
1914) and the Serbian National Skupstina made
in Aug. 1915 and Sept. 1916 as well as the sol-
emn declarations of the Prince Eegent Alexan-
der and of the Prime Minister Pasic in Paris
and London in the Spring of 1916 ; besides, that
idea is supported by the "Jugo-Slav Com-
mittee" in London which is the representative
of the Jugoslavs from Austria-Hungary.
Consequently, Serbia to day is a pioneer and
mandatory for realizing the idea of the South-
ern Slavs freedom and unity.

The Jugoslav Committee in London is the
central and supreme representative of the
Jugoslavs from Austria Hungary in their
desire to liberate and unite themselves with
their brothers from Serbia and Montenegro.
The committee consists of well known and
popular political leaders, members of parlia-
ments, intellectual workers and financial-com-
mercial men of good standing, the greatest
part of whom have been working upon that
idea for decades. The Committee numbers
now 25 members, of which 15 Croatians, 7
Serbians and 3 Slovenians. All the Jugoslav
provinces of Austria-Hungary are represent-
ed : there being 10 members from Dalmatia,
3 from Istria, 1 from Goricka, 2 from Trieste
(Trst), 1 from Rieka (Fkime), 3 from Croatia,
1 from Corinthia, 3 from Bosnia-Herzegovina
and 1 from South Hungary. The Committee,
as well as its individual members, have in their
possession confidential authorizations and full
powers from the leading circles of all the
different Serbians, Croatian and Slovenian
political parties in the Jugoslav provinces in
Austria-Hungary. It is also in accord with a
certain number of the highest representatives

KING PETER I. TO THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA.

"I do not know if it is quite understood
in America what it is all about that almost
entire Europe is at war. But I will tell you in
a word ; it is the supreme, the last effort of
feudalism, a fight to a finish between the
feudalism of yesterday and the freedom of to-
morrow. So that is why war had to break out
on the banks of the Danube, and not elsewhere,
for the Danube separates by so little the most
intransigent feudalism, maintained by un-

worthy intrigues, like those of the smaller
Italian States in the Middle Ages, from the
most stubborn ideal of liberty, implanted in
those ready to fight to the last man to realize
that idea.

''Yet we have always wanted to live at
peace with the Austrians.

"I am King. I come from the people, but
a heroic people who preferred bitter death to
comfortable, shameful slavery. My grand-
father was a peasant, and I am prouder of
that than of my throne. Crowns are lost, bvj
the pure, clean blood of those who have lived
of the earth does not die out."

(King Peter I. of Serbia, to
the representatives of the
American Press. February
1916.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The Serbo-Croatians are absolutely one
and the same people by their blood relations,
by the identity of their spoken and literary
language and their aspirations — irrespective
of the territories in which they live. The
Slovenians belong to the same race with a
slightly different literary dialect. At this
moment the matter could be summarised thus :
the Serbians are considered as the Orthodox
South-Slavs and the Croats the Catholic South-
Slavs.

the parts of Jugoslav lands, is such as not to
allow of any tearing or exclusion, and any
separation of however small a part would
greatly hinder the developement of the en-
tirety.

After the infamous ultimatum of Austria,
and for the idea of Jugoslav liberation and
unification, the free and independent King-
dom of Serbia has accepted the war. This is
in conformity with the National Programme
of Serbia's State Policy, and was proclaimed
in the expose of the Serbian Goverment (Nov.
1914) and the Serbian National Skupstina made
in Aug. 1915 and Sept. 1916 as well as the sol-
emn declarations of the Prince Regent Alexan-
der and of the Prime Minister Pasic in Paris
and London in the Spring of 1916 ; besides, that
idea is supported by the "Jugo-Slav Com-
mittee" in London which is the representative
of the Jugoslavs from Austria-Hungary.
Consequently, Serbia to day is a pioneer and
mandatory for realizing the idea of the South-
ern Slavs freedom and unity.

The Jugoslav Committee in London is the
central and supreme representative of the
Jugoslavs from Austria Hungary in their
desire to liberate and unite themselves with
their brothers from Serbia and Montenegro.
The committee consists of well known and
popular political leaders, members of parlia-
ments, intellectual workers and financial-com-
mercial men of good standing, the greatest
part of whom have been working upon that
idea for decades. The Committee numbers
now 25 members, of which 15 Croatians, 7
Serbians and 3 Slovenians. All the Jugoslav
provinces of Austria-Hungary are represent-
ed : there being 10 members from Dalmatia,
3 from Istria, 1 from Goricka, 2 from Trieste
(Trst), 1 from Rieka (Fiome), 3 from Croatia,
1 from Corinthia, 3 from Bosnia-Herzegovina
and 1 from South Hungary. The Committee,
as well as its individual members, have in their
possession confidential authorizations and full
powers from the leading circles of all the
different Serbians, Croatian and Slovenian
political parties in the Jugoslav provinces in
Austria-Hungary. It is also in accord with a
certain number of the highest representatives

SOttHE&N SLAV'S APPEAL

of the Catholic Clergy amongst the Croatians
and the Slovenians.

The idea of the Unification of the South
Slavs has its traditions as early as the 16th
century, and has been especially clearly de-
fined in the first half of the 19th and the first
decades of the 20th centuries. The movement
has been started (in 17th and 18th centuries)
just in the provinces adjacent to the Adriatic
coast and has past from Dubrovnik (Ragusa)
and Dalmatia to the Croatian and Serbian
Vojvodina (Southern Hungary), thence to
Cetigne and Belgrade.

The dissention between the Serbians and
the Croatians has begun just in the second
half of the 19th century, after the Congress
of Berlin and the occupation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, but it has been stimulated and
artifically maintained by Austria and
Hungary. That dissention disappeared as
early as 1903.

It was Croatia and Dalmatia who, at the
expiration of the 19th century and in the most
recent times, have always mostly promoted the
idea of Serbo-Croat unification. The Croatian
sabors have, as early as the 18th century,
desired an entirety of territory and the unity
of the people, and more than once have legis-
lated the unity of the Croatians and the
Serbians. That was the leading idea of the
great Croatian Catholic Bishop Strosmajer
and his followers. Even nov in the time of
war, under the heaviest pressure, the Croatian
Sabor in Zagreb (Agram) accentuates that
idea, although the Austro-Madyar machinat-
ions had insisted to repel the Croatians from
it. Besides the Serbian Orthodox, the Croatian
and Slovenian Catholic Clergy have been per-
secuted, since this war, for their national feel-
ings, and the Croatian leading press, despite
all the censorship, has found the form to ex-
press her sympathy for the Allies, so that the
Government suppressed the main organ of the
Sabor majority in Croatia on account of ist
non-Austrophile editorials about the war.

Since in Austria thousands and thousands
of Jugoslav men of intellect and politicians
have been imprisoned, interned, and about
900,000 forced to the front, the only competent
voice of the people is that of the refugees and
emmigrants of whom the greatest number
are living in the United States of America or
in the South American republics. In the
United States and in Canada there are living

about 700,000 Jugoslavs, of which there are
400,000 Croatians, 200,000 Slovenians and
100,000 Serbians. In the South American
republics there are 100,000 Jugoslavs, who are
almost exclusively Croatians from Dalmatia
and Istria. At the very beginning of this war
it was a political organization " Croatian
Alliance" (or "Hrvatski Savez"), which has
successfully prevented all the Croatians from
joining as reservists the Austrian armies. On
the 10th of March, 1915, a meeting of 563
delegates (Serbs, Croat's and Slovenes) from
the entire United States was held in Chicago,
111., and they have proclaimed the national
unity of the Serbians, the Croatians and the
Slovenians. In the month of May, 1915,
several thousands of Jugoslavs from Austria-
Hungary have made a similar proclamation at
Nis, Serbia. In the Summer of 1915 a whole
series of great national meetings throughout
the United States have accepted the same
resolutions; in 'September, 1915, representa-
tives of 150,000 well organized Jugoslavs have
joined in that resolution in Cleveland, Ohio,
of which the strongest were the organizations
of the Croatians ("Hrvatska Zajednica" with
its 35,000 members and the "Hrvatski Savez",
(Creation Alliance of America). With that
programme has also agreed the Slovenian or-
ganization "Slovenska Liga" at the meeting
of the Slovenian delegates which was held in
Cleveland in 1916, as well as the numberless
meetings which have been held in the course
of the year 1916, by the delegates of the Ju-
goslav Committee, namely, M. Marjanovic and
Dr. N. Zupanic.

In the South American republics the un-
animity of the Jugoslav people is complete
and the programme of the unification has
been accepted in every sense; just as much
could be said of the Jugoslavs living in New
Zealand and Canada.

It should be mentioned also that New
Zealand and Canada have sent certain num-
bers of volunteers for Great Britain; that a
considerable number of volunteers from both
Americas have gone of their own free will to
join the Allies; that thousands of Austrians
deserters — among whom a great number of
officers — are fighting shoulder to shoulder
with the Serbian armies ; that there have been
formed in Russia already two divisions
(50,000 men) from the refugees and prisoners
of war — formerly Austrian subjects — and

THE SOTJfHEttN SLAV'S AffEAL

solifct'rs, who volunteered and are now fight-
ing in Dobrudga. It ought also to be accentuated
that the Croatians from the South American
republics have given to the Serbian .Red Cross
Society and Serbian orphans a sum of about
$200,000, and are giving every month a sum
of $20,000 for the needs of the Jugoslav Com-
mittee, and have collected already $300,000
for the national reserve fund. The Jugoslavs
in the United States of America — who are
practically all Serbians and Croatians, most-
ly poor workmen, from Austria-Hungary, —
have given for the Serbian Belief about
$300,000.

Finally, as a proof that neither the
religion nor the clergy are opposing the un-
ification, could be considered the resolution
which has been arrived at by the Serbian-
Orthodox, Uniat and the Croatian-Catholic
clergy at their meetings held in Chicago, 111.,
and Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1916.

Even the Moslems from Bosnia-Herzego-
vina, who are still at liberty in Switzerland
have declared themselves, by their separate
agreement, for the Allies and rose up against
Turkey.

From all this it is obvious that the Jugo-
slav idea is not one of recent creation, that it
penetrates in the traditional idea of all the
Serbians, the Croatians and Slovenians, that
it does not announce an aggressive policy of
Serbia but a policy of liberation by Serbia,
who is the bearer of the idea for which have
hitherto worked and immolated themselves
the best Serbians, Croatians and Slovenians
in Austria-Hungary. Napoleon the Great
himself had begun to realize that idea by in-
corporating the "Illyrian Kingdom" and had

thus left behind a most beautiful souvenir in
the Western Jugoslav provinces. That idea is
defended to-day by the Croatian Sab or and
all the political leaders of the Jugoslav people
in Austria-Hungary. For it, to-day, are now
fighting with Serbs and Russians tens of
thousands Jugoslav refugees and it is accept-
ed and supported by almost the entire number
of the Jugoslav emmigrants.

That idea has no spontaneous enemies
among the Jugoslav people, for it has been
proved that all oppositions are being pro-
voked, even in America, by Austria and her
paid agents who can, only for a time, mislead
the most neglected masses ; for absolutely all,
who are consciencious and more educated,
enlightened that idea.

The Jugoslav propaganda in America
has for its object to secure from the Jugoslav
emmigrants the permissible and legitimate
help for the great and just national struggle
and to stimulate the interest of the American
public opinion in that struggle, so that even
the official America, at the time of the peace
negotiation, should endeavor, through its
representatives, that the justified whishes of
the Jugoslavs should be realized in the spirit
of the American democracy and for the sake
of justice, liberty, democracy and lasting
peace in Europe and the world.

On the 29th of November there will be
held in Pittsburgh, Pa., the Second Universal
Jugoslav Meeting of the delegates from all the
colonies and organizations in North and South
America and in Cleveland has been established
the Central Office of the Jugoslav movement
which is publishing this statement.

The Jugoslav Committee.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ENGLISH BOOKS,

1. The Southern Slav Programme (Lon-
don, Jugoslav Committee).

2. The Southern Slav ; Land and People.
(London, Jugoslav Committee).

3. A Sketch of Southern Slav History.
(London, Jugoslav Committee).

4. Southern Slav Culture. (London, Ju-
goslav Committee).

5. Idea of Southern 'Slav Unity. (Lon-
don, Jugoslav Committee).

6. The Slovenians. (London, Jugoslav
Committee). Map of Southern Slav
Territory, by Dr. N. Zupanic. (Pub-
lished on behalf of the Jugoslav Com-
mittee).

7. The War in Eastern Europe, de-

scribed by John Reed, pictured by
R. Robinson, London, 1916.

8. Jugoslav Nationalism. Three lec-
tures by Dr. B. Vosnjak, with an
address by M. E. Sadler, London,
1916.

9. The Truth about Bulgaria, by Alfred
Steed, reprinted from the "English
Review". London, 1916.

10. The Experiences of a Unit in the
Great Retreat (Serbia 1915). H. J.
W. A Diary of a Nursing Sister in
Serbia. London 1916.

11. British Women in Serbia and the
War, by Dr. M. Curcin, London, 1916.

12. Kossovo Day, Report and two lec-
tures, (by prof. T. Georgevic and

prof. V. Yovanovic). London, 1916

13. With Serbia into exile, by Fortier
Jones, New York, The Century Co.,
1916.

14. The Aspiration of Bulgaria. By Bal-
canicus. London. Simpkin, Mar-
shalll, Hamilton, Kent S. C.

15. The Slav Nations, by Srgjan Tucic,
George H. Doron Company, New
York.

16. Serbia, Her People, History and Aspi-
rations. By W. M. Petrovich, New
York. (Frederick A. Storer Comp.)

17. Serbia in Light and Darkness. By Rev.
Father Nicholai Velimirovie, with
preface by the Archbishop of Can-
terbury. London. New York. (Long-
mans, Green & Co.)

18. The Soul of Serbia, by Nikolai Veil-
mirovic. London, 1916.

19. The Spirit of the Serbia, By R. W.
Seton Watson, London. (Nisbet &
Co.)

20. The Religious Spirit of the Slav, by
Nikolai Velimirovic, London. (Mac-
millan and Co.)

21. Heroic Serbia, By Victor Berard
(Kossovo Committee).

22. The Women of Serbia. By Fanny S.
Copeland (Kossovo Committe*).

23. Serbian Ballads. Translated by R.
W. Seton- Watson. (Kossovo Com-
mittee).

24. , The Balkans, Italy, and the Adriatic.

By R. W. Seton- Watson. (Nisbet and
Co., Ltd.).

25. German, Slav, and Magyar. By R. W.
Seton- Watson. (Williams and Nor-
gate).

26. Serbia Yesterday, To-day, and To-
morrow. By R. W. Seton-Watson.
(Kossovo Committee).

27. Without Home or Country. By a
Serbian Poet. (Kossovo Committee).

28. Serbia and Kossovo. By Dr. S. Geor-
gevitch.

29. Austro-Hungarians Atrocities. By R.
A. Reiss. (Simpsin, Marshall and Co.
Ltd.).

30. The German Peril and the Grand
Alliance. By G. de Veselitsky (Fisher
Unwin).

31. Jugoslav Culture, By Milan Marja-
novic. London. (Jugoslav Committee,
1915).

32. The Strategical Significance of Ser-
bia. By Dr. Niko Zupanic. (From the
"Nineteenth Century". London
1916).

33. The Persecutions of Southern Slavs
in Austria-Hungary. Preface by W.
Joynson Hicks. (London . Nisbet &
Co.).

34. The 'Serbian Macedonia. By Pavle
Popovic. London, from "The Near
East."

35. Hero Tales & Legends of the Ser-
bians. By W. Petrovitch. 32 illustra-
tions. London. (George Harrap Co.)

PART I.

THE SOUTHERN SLAVS.

The Jugoslav form part of the great Slav
race, which is itself a branch of the Indo-
Aryan race. They are divided into three main
groups, the Western, Eastern and Southern
Slavs. The Western Slavs include the Poles,
Czechs, Slovaks, and the Slavs in Germany
(i. e. the Serbs of Upper and Lower Lusatia
and the Cassoubs and Slovinci in West Prussia
and Pomerania). The Eastern Slavs are the
Russians, whose Southern branch goes by the
name of Ruthenes in Galicia, Bukovina, and
Hungary. The Southern 'Slavs or Jugoslavs
(Jug — South in the Slav tongues) include the
Bulgars, Serbo-Croats, and Slovenes.

Setting aside the Bulgars, who, by their
characteristics and political aims, form an en-
tily apart, the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes are
one single nation known by three different
names. In this and several other pamphlets
we propose to deal only with these people,
whom we call "Jugoslavs."

The Jugoslavs (i. e. the Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes) form the compact bulk of the present
population of the Balkan Peninsula. Part of
the land inhabited by them constitutes the in-
dependent Jugoslav kingdoms of Serbia and
Montenegro, and the large remaining portio-
belongs to Austria-Hungary.

The national territory of the Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes therefore comprises:

1. The kingdom of Serbia and Montene-
gro.

2. Bosnia-Hercegovina.

3. Dalmatia and the Dalmatian archipela-
go.

4. Croatia and Slavonia, including Rieka
(Fiume) and the Medjumurje.

5. The country of the Drave in Southern
Hungary (Baranja), the Backa, and the Banat.

6. Istria, the Quarnero Isles, and Trieste.

7. The Slovene lands, i. e. Carniola and
Gorica; 'Southern Carinthia, Southern Styria,
and the adjoining districts in South-western
Hungary.

The Jugoslavs are a homogeneous nation,
both as regards their language and their ethno-
graphical characteristics.

The Serbs and Croats form an absolute

linguistic unit. Their literary language is
identical ; their spoken language varies locally
according to the dialect, which is differentiat-
ed according to pronunciation of the word sto
(what; Lat. quid); in one part of the country
it is pronunced ca, in another kaj, in the third
sto. The first or ca dialect is spoken in the
north of Dalmatia, in the Isles, on the Croatian
coast, and in Istria. The second or kaj dialect
predominates in North-western Croatia from
the neighbourhood of Karlovac (Karlstadt) to
the river Mur, in the counties of Zagreb, (the
present Belovar), and above all in the Med-
jumurje. The third or sto dialect is the one
most widely spoken ; it is the speech of Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Dalmatia,
South-Western Croatia, Slavonia, and Southern
Hungary. It is also the most beautiful of the
three dialects, the most melodious, and the
richest in vowel sounds; it has taken prece-
dence of the other two, and reigns to-day as
the accepted literary tongue. The Slovene
speech is merely a variety of the kaj dialect;
it is still the local literary tongue of the Slo-
venes, but it has been greatly approximated in
its vocabulary, syntax, and morphology to the
sto dialect, which is the standard literary lan-
guage of the Serbo-Croats.

As regards ethnographical characteristics,
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes form but one single
nation. Popular tradition has kept the memory
of the national hero, Marko Kraljevic, alive
among all Jugoslavs. His exploits are sung
everywhere, and without exception, in all Ju-
goslav provinces. The fact that the Serbs,
Croats, and Slovenes have a national hero in
common is in itself a great proof of the racial
unity of the Jugoslavs.

In religious maters, our nation is divided
between the Orthodox Church, which predom-
inates in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercego-
vina, and parts of Dalmatia and Croatia-'Sla-
vonia, the Catholic Church (in Croatia, Slavo-
nia, Dalmatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Carniola,
Carinthia, Styria, and Istria), and the Mahom-
medan faith in Bosnia-Hercegovina. There
are, moreover, Nazarenes in South Hungary,
and a sprinkling of Jews scattered everywhere.

10 THE SOUTHERN

Among a large part of the Catholic, divine
service is celebrated in the Old-Slav tongue in
the same way as in all Orthodox Churches.

In the schools and in the literature the
Jugoslavs employ two forms of script — the Cy-
rillic and the Latin. Glagoliti" character?
are now no longer used, except in the Catholic
churches of the littoral.

THE PEOPLE OF THE
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY.

The Habsburg Monarchy is a dual state
formation, founded on the compromise of 1867,
by virtue of which the Germans and Hun-
garians have divided all the political power
between themselves and thus assured their do-
mination over other nationalities.

The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, (Bos-
nia and Herzegovina included), has in round
numbers 51,000.000 inhabitants. According to
the official census of 1910, there are only
12,010,600 (or 23.55%) Germans and 10,068,000
(or 19.75%) Magyars.

In the Austrian half of the monarchy, the
9,950,000 Germans (35.6%) rule the 18,000,000
non-Germans (64.4%). Out of these 18,000,000
non - German inhabitants, 16,958,000 (or
60.65%) are Slavs. (6,436,000 or 23% are
Czechs; 4,967,000 or 17.77% are Poles;
3,519,000 or 12% are Russians and 2,036,000 or
7.3% are Jugoslavs). The ballance are Ita-
lians (768,000 or 2.75%) and Rumanians
(275,000 or 1%).

In the Hungarian half of the monarchy,
which de facto controls Bosnia and Herzego-
vina, the 10,050,000 Magyars (48%), rule the
12,700,000 or 52% non-Magyars. Of these non-
Magyars 7,534,000 are Slavs. (Slovaks 2,040,-
000). The ballance in this half of the monar-
chy are Rumaninas (2,950,000) and Germans
(1,903.000).

Summarizing the official data, we can
state in round numbers that in Austria-Hun-
gary live 24,500,000 or 48% Slavs; 22,000,000
or 43% Germans and Hungarians and 4,023,-
000 are Latins, (3,225,000 Rumanians and
798,000 Italians).

Of the Slavs in the monarchy, the largest
group is Czecho-Slovaks (8,478,000) Jugo-
slavs (7,010,270), Poles (5,000,000) and Ruthe-
nes (3,999,000),

SLAV'S APPEAL

THE SOUTHERN SLAV TERRITORY AND
PEOPLE.

There are more than 13,000,000 Jugoslav
(Serbs. Croats and Slovenians).

Before the war, there were in round num-
bers 5,000,000 Jugoslavs living in the independ-
ent Jugoslav kingdoms of Serbia and Monte-
negro.

Under Austro-Hungarian rule, there were
about 7,165.000 Jugoslav in both Americas
800,000 (of which 700,000 in the United
States).

There are 40,000 Jugoslav living in Italy,
near Udine and in southern Italy, also the
ballance in Greece, near Florine, Vodene and
near Salonica, and in Northern Albania. —

The National Territory of the Jugoslav
people comprises all those lands in South-
Eastern Europe in which they have settled
more than 1000 years ago and which land they
inhabit even today in large majority and in
compact numbers.

This territory includes the following
lands :

The kingdoms of:

Serbia, with the area of SI, 000 square miles and 4.500,000 Jugoslavs

Montenegro. _ 5,000 500,000

TOTAL 36,000 5,000,000

Under the Austrian or German rule:

Dalmatia, with the area of 4,940 square miles and 610,000 Jugoslavs

Istria' 1,930 225.000

Triest. 10 70f(m

Gorizia-Gradisca, " 1,000 • ^5/000

Carniola, 3,850 490,000

Southern Carinthia, 2,000 " " 110,000

Southern Styria, " 3,000

Total under Austrian, 16,730
or German, rule.

" S.070.000

Under the Hungarian (or Magyar) rule :

Croatia and Slavonic, area of 16,770 sq. m. and 9,300,000 Jugoslavs

Rijeka, (.Fiume). 8 35,000

Medjumurje, ' " 500 " "

Baranja, Backa and Banat " 6 500

(in South Hungary), _J

Total under Magyar rule, SS.778 S.225,000

Bosnia-Hertzegovina, area of 19,690 ' 1,870,000

Under combined Austro-Hungarian rule:
Summary :

Under the Austrian or

German rule, area of 16,730 2,070,000

Under the Hungarian

or Magyar rule, area of 23,778 S,S25,000

Combined German and

Magyar rule, area of 19,690 1,870000

Total under German

and Magyar rule, area of 60,198 7,165,000

Total Kingdoms of Serbia

and Montenegro, area of 36,000 5,000,000

GRAND TOTAL, - - 96.198 lt.16S.000

(The official Austro-Hungarian statistics
of 1910 claim that there are 7,010,270 Jugo-
slavs in Austria Hungary including Bosnia-

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

Herzegovina. The difference of 154,730 comes
from mixed communities. We are sure that
our numbers are correct in accordence with a
private census effected by our people. The
Austro-Hungarian census agents, in mixed
communities invariably consider a person as
Hungarian or German, as the case may be, if
he is able to speak the Hungarian or German
language. The same rule applies to the Italian
censors throughout Istria and Trieste. Thus
a large number of our people are classed under
a false designation.)
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE SERBIANS.

At the moment when the world's greatest
cataclysm is taking the third — and it is to be
hoped the last — phase, it may not be wholly
without interest for George Washington's
champions of liberty to hear the sighs of a
most democratic people of Europe that has
been crucified three times in its history for the
high principle of freedom ond unity.

Yet, it is a source of an inexhaustible pride
and gratitude for the Serbians to know that,
after five centuries of Western Europe 's ignor-
ance of Serbia's immolation on the altar of
Christianity, when the prosperous and mighty
Serbian mediaeval state crushed — not without
crushing itself — the forces of Amurath and Ba-
jazett in the memorable battles of Kossovo, on
June 15 (0. S.) 1389, the proud sons of Albion
having finally known the incomparable virtues
of their little ally of the Balkans, have spon-
taneously and most manifestedly shown their
admiration and love of their heroic brothers in
arms, by ordering and performing on June 28,
1916, throughout their mighty kingdom a cele-
bration of the Kossovo Day.

And all that in honor of those Serbians
who were so badly handicapped in the popular
esteem of Great Britain and America on
account of their national revolution of 1903
and other "sinister" events in their recent
history ! Tout saviour c'est tout pardonner. And
when the world comes to know all about Serbia
there will be no shadow of doubt that her
people is one of the least guilty in human histo-
ry, and that her revolutions have not been
nearly so bloody as those of most advanced
and cultured nations.

THE ONCE PROSPEROUS PROVINCES.

After the battle of Kosovo the Serbian
State persisted still, though only as a vassal
province of the Ottoman Empire. But the
poetic 'Serbian soul was so deeply impressed
by that memorable catastrophe that the na-

tional bards gave expression, in a cycle of en-
chanting ballads of Homeric beauty, to the
greatest and saddest event in history, in which
the Serbian people was deprived of liberty and
unity. And, indeed, at the close of the fif-
teenth century, the Serbian suzerain state suc-
cumbed completely under the Sublime Porte
when the prosperous provinces of the once
mighty Serbian Empire were wasted by the
agents from Stamboul, whose systematic exter-
mination of Serbian Velika and Mala Vlastela
(i. e. Great and Small Nobility), was nearing
a close. The small remainder of the Serbian
aristocracy found refuge in the Orthodox
courts of Vallahia and Moldavia, some of
whom fled to Dubrovnik (Ragusa), Rome, and
even to Scotland and Ireland. As for the
people, they split into three distinct groups.
Those who dwelt in the lowlands alongside the
Danube and in the valleys of Morava and Var-
dar, remained in their homes and bent under
the Turkish yoke ; considerable numbers, and
especially the inhabitants of the regions in Ma-
cedonia and what was known till recently
under the name of "Old Serbia", settled, in
the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, in Hungary and colonized the Banat
Batchka (or Backa), and the provinces of
Sirmia (or Srem) and part of Croatia. Lastly,
a third group, unwilling to yield to any autho-
rity and composed chiefly of the small Vlaste-
la, withdrew into the mountains, inaccessible
to the Turkish horsemen, and became prac-
tically outlaws ; entrenched in their defiles,
expert in guerilla warfare, soon inured to per-
secution and hardship, and there they served
as the only check on the cruel manners that
the Turks adopted in exercising wholesale
Ottomanization. These indomitable fighters
with their nests in the Black Rocks of Monte-
negro, Dalmatia, and Sumadia (or Serbia prop-
er), are known to history as the Hajduks and
Uskoks, who preserved and upheld through
centuries of oppression the traditions of hero-
ism of their ancestors and the spirit of their
race. So tenaciously did they maintain their
nationality, religion, speech, and most especial-
ly their exuberant balladry, that at the dawn
of the nineteenth century they still formed a
nucleus round which Serbia was once more to
grow into an independent political body.
TURKISH CONTROL.

The subjugation of Serbia proper was
speedily followed by that of Bosnia (1463) and
of Herzegovina (1482).

The Serbian population which had ac-

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

cepted Ottoman rule lived thenceforth in a
most unhappy condition. They soon ceased to
be proprietors of their own land, which was
divided among Turkish spahis. To these land-
lords those of the people who did not embrace
Islam had to render many personal services
(kuluk), and to give a tithe, or a seventh part
of their produce. They paid a tax to the Sul-
tan, another to the governing pasha, and "bak-
sheesh" to the tax collector, whom they were
also obliged to entertain. During the Turkish
invasion of Hungary the passage of countless
armies again and again reduced a maturally
fertile country to an utter waste. There was
no security of life, honor or property, and
there was the crowning horror of the gift of
the Christian children, every seventh or every
fifth year, to be trained as janissaries.

Thus passed the eighteenth century, with
promise of better things ever alternating with
bitter disappointments. And the Serbian peo-
ple peacefully endured the oppression in the
hope that, sooner or later, the bright star of
their national unification would appear on the
horizon.

THE NEW SERBIA.

There lived at this time in the village of
Topola in Sumadia a man named George Pe-
trovitch. He had some experience of warfare,
having served under Austria as a volunteer in
1788, and was known as one of the most enter-
prising men in the country. He had narrowly
escaped death at the hands of the Janissaries
by instant fight into the forest. Tall, stalwart,
determined, highly intelligent, though illiter-
ate, he was also violent, morose and taciturn,
and known to the Turks on this account as
Kara George (i. e. Black George) ; it is under
this name that he has passed down to posteri-
ty. No sooner had he reached a place of safe-
ty than many bands of fugitives gathered
round him. One after the other the villages
and cities in Central Serbia feel an easy prey
to the brave troops of Karageorge, and a free
Serbia, however small, was soon reestablished,
only, alas, to be again subjugated in 1813 by the
irresistible forces of the three pashas advanc-
ing in three different directions. The efforts
which were renewed by another peasant gene-
ral, Milosh Obrenovic, were crowned with
better success, for he made in 1815 a fresh in-
surrection that terminated in a complete liber-
ation of Northern and Central Serbia. During
the War of Greek Independence Milosh wrung
from the Turks a number of valuable conces-

sions, the treaties of Akkerman (1826) and
Adrianople (1829) definitely regularized the
position of Serbia. By wholesale bribery
Milosh obtained in Constantinoule, in 1830 a
formal recognition as hereditary prince of
Serbia. The sudden return of Karageorge
from Russia, where he went to seek help and
munitions, his mysterious death upon his cross-
ing of Serbia's frontier and the bitter feud
that ensued between the two dynasties, show-
ed clearly that the two imperial governments
in Petrograd and Vienna struggled, at the ex-
pense of Serbia, for hegemony in that unfortu-
nate country. Milosh was banished, his son
Michael assasinated in Koshutnyak, near Bel-
grade, Karageorge 's son Alexander abdicated,
King Milan died in Vienna after having been
banished by his own son Alexander and his
mistress Draga; Alexander himself paid dear-
ly for his haughty manner and the unfort-
unate soil-tillers of Serbia looked at their new-
ly chosen King Peter Karageorgevitch, as they
did at his grandfather George Petrovitch, for
the long-awaited peace and order. And in-
deed, the wise citizen of Switzerland and the
graduate of Saint-Cyr, immediately upon his
arrival into power, gave his people a most de-
mocratic constitution and his government a
carte-blanche. The three years that followed
his accession were a period of rest and re-
cuperation under the quiet and wise admini-
stration of Mr. Nikola Pasic, agriculture,
industry and trade were encouraged and in-
creased to an unprecedented extend.

AUSTRIA AND SERBIA.

With the growth of trade, however, Ser-
bia's position of complete economic depend-
ence on the openly hostile or extortionate
markets of Austria-Hungary became more and
impossible, and to obtain relief from the
thraldom she concluded, despite the vigorous
and healthy opposition of a group of Serbian
industrials a customs treaty with treacherous
Bulgaria. Austria replied by a war of tariffs,
the socalled "Pig War", swine remaining to
that day the most important item of Serbia's
export trade. But as Serbia found new outlets
in Egypt, Italy and France for her exports
and thus showed the Dual Monarchy most
manifestly that she could be emancipated from
the oppression of her powerful neighbor, Aus-
tria, immediately upon the Young Turk re-
volution, threw a bomb-shell among the Euro-
pean powers by annexing the two provinces
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, wishing in this

manner to become herself a Balkan state in
order better to interfere with the affairs of
the Peninsula. Serbia, of course, was in no
mood to acquiesce to this deliberate tearing up
of the scrap of paper known as the Treaty of
Berlin. However, Russia, to whom the chal-
lenge was openly thrown, while endeavoring,
in her momentary impotence, to obtain some
compensation for Serbia, counseled modera-
tion. Thus the crisis was averted for the mo-
ment, but from that day it became obvious
that neither Russia nor Serbia, nor even the
Entente Powers, could forgive and forget, and
that the hour of reckoning was merely post-
poned.

Ever since, Austria has endeavored to find
some ca&us belli in order to have a free hand
in chastising hard-striving Serbia. The much-
complicated Macedonian question was settled
by the Balkan League of 1912, whereby the
Turks, to the astonishment of the world, were
all but driven out of Europe. The treacherous
Bulgars, upon the wink of ever-envious Aus-
tria, in open defiance of her secret treaty with
Serbia by virtue of which the dispute concern-
ing territory in Macedonia should have been
submitted for a final decision to Russia, at-
tacked her ally in the hope of renching out
of her and Greece the whole of Macedonia,
only, however, to receive severe punishment
by the armies of King Peter in the memorable
battle of Bregalnica.

The defeat of the sultan's forces in all
parts of European Turkey had been a tre-
mendous blow to Austria-Hungary, and es-
pecially to Germany. The defeat of Austria's
protegee, Bulgaria, by Serbia, the Greek occu-
pation of Salonica and especially the rise in
power and prestige of Serbia — the friend of
Russsia and the apostle of Jugo-slav (or South
Slav), emancipation — constituted for the Cen-
tral Powers a still greater catastrophe. Only
prompt action could retrieve such a miscarry-
ing of the Austro-German plans, and it is not
surprising to hear that already in 1913, Aus-
tria was bent on declaring war on Serbia and
endeavored to secure the support of Italy. As
this support was not forthcoming, action was
deferred for the moment, and a huge army
bill was introduced in Germany to regain the
balance of power and make ready for any
eventuality.

Serbia, after having settled the distribu-
tion of conquered territory between her allies
in a broad and generous spirit, wherein the
abandoned even the dearly paid coast of Al-

JTHB SOtTTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL 13

bania for the sake of peace with threatening
Austria, gladly hung up her sword and pre-
pared for a period of peace and recuperation,
of social and industrial advancement.

THE MURDER OF FERDINAND.

Such was the position when, on June 28th,
1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to
the Hapsburg throne, and his consort were in
a most mysterious manner murdered in the
streets of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Who
arranged that tragedy? Was it known pre-
viously in Vienna and Budapest, or in Bel-
grade, or also in all the three capitals? This
will remain for some time a mystery. But let
us be objective and consider only the facts.

Sir Valentine Chirol, in his "Serbia and
the Serbs" (Oxford, 1914), wrote about it:
"The absence of the most elementary precau-
tions for his (the archduke's) safety during
the visit to Sarajevo, though according to the
Austrians themselves the whole of Bosnia was
honeycombed with sedition, is an awkward
fact which has not hitherto been explained."

On the morrow of the crime the press of
Vienna and Budapest started a violent cam-
paign against Serbia, openly putting upon the
Serbian Government the responsibility for the
assassination. It availed nothing to point out
that a country still bleeding from the wounds
of two desperate wars, whose most urgent need
was a period of quiet and of internal consoli-
dation, could not have chosen itself in new un-
favorable a moment to involve itself in new
difficulties with a powerful neighbor; it pro-
duced no evidence to prove that the assassins
were Serbian subjects. In the words of Dr. R.
W. Seton- Watson ("The War and Democra-
cy," 1915) : "Bosnia, Dalmatia and Croatia are
a seething pot which needs no stirring from
the outside." The Austro-Hungarian press set
itself deliberately to spread the idea that the
outrage had been organized in and by Serbia,
and certain classes of people were, unfortunate-
ly, too ready to admit anything sensational and
too deaf to the voice of Belgrade to hear any-
thing else. Although the Bosnian Serbs were
always referred to in Austria by such names
as "die Bosniaken" or "die Orthodoxen aus
Bosnien" (i. e., "the Bosnians' or "the Ortho-
doxes of Bosnia"), the perpetrators, who are
unmistakably Austrian subjects, were referred
to invariably as "Serben" (i. e., Serbians),
and in such a manner as to give the impression
that they were Serbs from 'Serbia.

U THE

AUSTRIA FOR WAR

It was at 6 P. M. on July 23rd that the
Austro-Hungarian minister in Belgrade handed
to the minister for foreign affairs the note
embodying the demands of Austria and insist-
ing on a reply within forty-eight hours.

The Serbian Goverment was charged with
fomenting a revolutionary propaganda, having
for its object the detachment of part of the
territory of Austria-Hungary from the monar-
chy. It was averred, though no proof was given
and no dossier communicated, that the Sera-
jevo assasinations were planned and the mur-
derers equipped in Belgrade. The note was an
absolute ultimatum which no sovereign state
with any pride at all could accept. Yet the
Serbian Goverment exceeded all expectations
in the direction of conciliation, expressing its
readiness to refer any point either to the Hague
Tribunal or to the Powers who had taken a
part in the settlement of annexation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina.

A conciliatory answer was neither expected
nor wanted, however. The very evening of
the delivery of the Serbian reply the Austrian
minister was instructed to leave Belgrade, and
on the 28th of July, 1914, Austria declared war
on Serbia.

Within the next two days Austria awoke
to the startling fact that Russia was beginning
to move. In spite of the German ambassador's
assurances that the Czar would not and could
not fight, he had decided to intervene. At this
appearance of a full-grown adversary Vienna
pulled a very long face and, on July 31st, the
Ballplatz suddenly consented to eliminate from
the ultimatum those demands which involved
a violation of the sovereignty of Serbia, to
discuss certain others, and in short to reopen
the whole question. It was too late. Germany,
having jockeyed Austria into a position from
which there was no escape, declared war on
Russia the next day. Other declarations fol-
lowed in a rapid succession and the world's
greatest cataclysm started.

THE BRAVE SERBIANS

How severely punished were the three
successive Austro-Hungarian "punitive expe-
ditions" by the brave armies of the little
kingdom and how the survivors of Kumanovo,
Bregalnica, Jadar and Belgrade were, one year
later, attacked by the combined forces of

SLAV'S APPfiAL

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey
and even the brigandry of Albania, is still too
fresh in the memory of the world to be recalled
here. Before the tremendous multitude of
German cannon, which in the words of King
Peter, "prevented with their range the very
sight of their gunners", the remainder of the
Serbian army had been ebliged to retreat and
to reorganize itself for fresh attempts. And if
the fortune of war has really turned to the
Allies the Serbs may succeed not only in restor-
ing their lost kingdoms of Serbia and Monte-
negro but also to free and unite into a power-
ful homogenous state their brothers across the
Sava, Danube and Drina as also those living on
the Adriatic Coast. Thus it is to be hoped
that, recognizing the principle of nationality,
the great national unions of France, Germany
and Italy will be followed by that of 'the
South Slavs to which group belong the Ser-
bians, Croats, and the Slovenians.

THE SERBO-CROATS AND SLOVENES

UNDER AUSTRIA-HUNGARY'S

MISRULE.

A 'Southern Slav patriot has said that
no greater misfortune has befallen the
Southern Slavs than to pass under dominion
of civilized Austria. Had they been obliged
to share the fate of their brothers, the Serbs
they would certainly have tasted all the
misery of the Turkish yoke, but to-day they
would be free, as an independent state with a
right to their own national and intellectual
development. The one thing Turkey has left
untouched in the Serbs — the heart of the
people — is the very thing that Austria has
sought to destroy in her Southern Slav sub-
jects. Turkish captivity has steeled the hearts
of the Slavs she oppressed, but Austrian cap-
tivity has cankered them and made them
effete.

In many respects this pessimistic view is
justified. The struggle of the Southern Slavs
for national life has passed through many
phases, and has exhausted itself in many more.
The Croats have elected, after the extinction
of their royal family in 1102, the King Kolo-
man of Hungary for their own. After the
passing away of the house of Arpad, they
elected independently of Hungary Ferdinand
I of Hapsburg as their ruler (in 1527). By
their own free will they adopted the prag-

THE SOUTHERN

inatical sanction of 1712, by which they ap-
proved the accession of female, where there
was no male, as heir to the throne. For cen-
turies the Southern Slavs stood under the
protection of "Heaven militant," and his
motto was, "For faith and freedom." During
the time of Turkish power they aquired a
noble name ' ' Antemurale ( hristianitatis"
(outworks of Christianity), for their courage-
ous watching over the prosperity of Christian-
ity and the culture of Europe.

As a distinctly autonomous state, Croatia
dealt with Austria and with Hungary on the
principle of equality, and she was recognized
as such so long as she was needed for their
defense.

German "kultur" and Magyar lack of
culture were held in equal abomination by the
Slav nations, upon whom they were to be in-
flicted, and the ruthless spoliation to which
they were' likewise subjected engendered a
deep-seated animosity. The Northern Slavs,
who possess more practical business capacity
than the Southern, did not allow themselves
to be economically strangled, and even con-
trived to hold their own in this respect; where-
as, the Southern Slavs, being mainly an
agricultural people, found themselves the
helpless victims of Austria and Hungarian
rapacity. Dalmatia, one of the loveliest spots
in Europe, has for the last century known no
privilege except that of paying taxes, and Aus-
tria's maladministration of that country has
become proverbial.

Croatia and Slavonia fare little better.
They have to pay 56 per cent of their revenues
to Hungary. This tax figures under the head
of "contributions to mutual interests," chief-
ly represented by the railways and the postal
system. The annual income from these two
sources amount to 250,000,000 crowns, but of
this Croatia never receives a penny ! The net
profit all goes to Hungary, who brazenly
employs it as a subvention to the Magyar
propaganda in Croatia. The condition of
Carniola and Istria is almost as deplorable as
that of Dalmatia, and in Bosnia and Herze-
govina the Austro-Hungarian government has
for thirtyfive years built villages "after the
pattern of Potemkin," for the edification of
foreign journalists, while the people have been
left to starve or sink into poverty and
ignorance.

The numerous foreign tourists who have

SLAV'S APPEAL 16

traveled in these beautiful countries have seen
nothing of Austria's "work of civilization,"
as they are kept to the beaten tracks specially
prepared for them, and they only see the coun-
try like a carefully staged panorama on the
films of the imperial and royal picture show!
But had these travelers caught a glimpse of
the abject misery of the people, their pleasure
in these beautiful coutries would have been
spoilt, and they would have better understood
why the inhabitants are rebelling against the
"blessing" of Austro-Hungarian rule.

The history of these provinces during the
past generation is one of neglect and mis-
government. Croatia has been exploited by
the Magyars, and the narrow interests of
Buda-Pest have prevented railway develop-
ment and hampered local industries by skill-
ful manipulation of tariffs and taxation. A
further result is that even today Dalmatia has
no railway connection with the rest of Europe,
and those of Bosnia are artificially directed
toward Buda-Pest, rather than toward Zagreb,
Vienna and Western Europe. It is not much
to say, that the situation of those provinces
had become less favorable than it was at
earlier periods of their history; for the old
system of trade routes had broken down there
as elsewhere in Europe, but had not been re-
placed by modern communications. The
century-old roads built by the French are the
only roads in Dalmatia and Croatia, although
the French rule under Napoleon was only of
short duration, it did more for the Southern
Slav lands in three years than Austria did
during the century that followed.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria pur-
sued the same heartless policy. Out of the
three religions of one people she made three
nationalities, and then fostered dissensions
between them. Austria was not in the least
interested in the prosperity of the country,
and merely created an intolerable chaos by her
political intrigue in a land that had already
suffered beyond endurance. Her evidences of
civilization exhibited before the world were
pure humbug.

There have always been two fatal ob-
stacles to an Austrian solution of the Southern
Slav problem — Magyar hegemony and the
dual system, to which alone that hegemony
owed its survival. Under the compromise of
1867, the dual monarchy is composed of two
equal and separate states: the empire of Aus-

16 THE SOUTHERN

tria and kingdom of Hungary, each possessing
a distinct parliament and cabinet of its own,
but both sharing between them the three joint
ministries of foreign affairs, war and finance.

This system really secured the political
power in Austria and Hungary to two races —
the Germans and the Magyars, and they, as
the strongest in each country, fought off the
next strongest, the Poles and the Croats, by
the grant of autonomy to Galicia and Croatia.

Thus it came to an agreement between
the Croats and Hungarian in 1868. This agree-
ment by no means satisfied the aspirations of
the Croats, but it gave them the required foot-
ing against Magyar oligarchy. It was but a
short period after this agreement was signed
that it became a mere "scrap of paper." The
"Ban" (governor) of Croatia became a mere
exponent of the Hungarian government. Con-
tempt of the constitution and corruption were
the first fruits of the agreement under
Hungarian influence in Croatia.

Inability of the goverment to get the
majority of the representatives for their un-
constitutional ruling was a cause for the policy
of brutal imperialism then inaugurated which
remained in force to this day. From '1883 to
1903 Count Carl Khuen Hedervary was ban
of Croatia, and the twenty years of his
administration have been the blackest period
as regards political, economic and personal
thraldom.

In the ollowing ten years six administra-
tive heads were changed, some of them reigning
for only two months. The popular rising of
1903 opened new channels for the national
struggle ; it was also the prelude to the hardest
and bitterest time that the Southern Slavs have
yet been called upon to face. Two years later,
in the election of 1905, the opposition parties
won a brilliant victory. Not one goverment
candidate was returned. The sessions of these
parliaments were very short because the depu-
ties refused to pass such goverment bills which
were against the interest of the people, and
there are very, very few for the poeple.

The history of Croatia is the history of
* 'tepeated persecutions and tyranny. Whole
'• books might be written to illustrate the con-
tentions that in matter of education, admini-
stration and justice, of association and assem-
bly, of the franchise and the press, the Croats
have long been the victims of repression which

SLAV'S APPEAL

is without any parallel in civilized Europe.
But the people stood firm. The dire sufferings
of recent years have begotten a new and
healthy movement, which includes the entire
youth of Croatia. They began to go along the
path which leads away from Hungary, and
away from Austria, back to union with their
scattered kindred. Their aim is the establish-
ment of a great, free and independent Jugo-
slavia (Southern Slav State).

The Southern Slavs in Dalmatia, Carniola
and Istra fared little better than their brothers
in Croatia and Slavonia. We have already
alluded to the economic neglect of Dalmatia. In
politics, Germanization was practiced in much
the same way as Magyarization in Croatia.
Dalmatia, unfortunately, does not enjoy inde-
pendence, even on paper, and thus her oppres-
sion could wear a perfectly constitutional guise.
The Dalmatian "sabor", like that of Istria and
Carniola, is an assembly quite at the mercy of
the viceroy for the time being, who would
never dream of convoking it unless he had
made quite sure that no inconvenient resolu-
tions would be passed. As a rule these "sabors"
enjoy prolonged periods of rest, and the people
are only represented by their delegates in the
Viennese reichstrat, but they are too few.

THE SOUTHERN SLAV HISTORY AND THE
IDEA OF UNITY.

SOUTHERN SLAV, or Jugoslav, history
from the earliest times up to the present day,
presents the record of a people who, though
stubborn in resistance, are by no means aggress-
ive, and wrho, notwithstanding the great and
exceptional misfortunes that have befallen
them, have succeeded in preserving their
national individuality, and in asserting them-
selves as a homegeneous nation full of youth
and vitality.

In virtue of their geographical position,
which makes the Jugoslav lands the most direct
link between the East and West — that is to say,
between Western, Central, and Southern
Europe on the one hand, and the Balkans, the
Adriatic, and Asia Minor on the other — these
territories have always been the arena of great
political rivalries and fierce racial conflicts.
Many powerful states, ambitious of conquest,
and aspiring towards aggrandizement — Byzan-
tium, Hungary, Turkey, and Venice — have for
centuries in turn made countless efforts to

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

break the Jugoslav resistance, which thwarted
their ambitions and desires. Despite apparent
temporary success, these efforts have proved
virtually fruitless, and have so far failed to
bring about the desired results. It is true
that, during the course of these gigantic
struggles, the Jugoslavs have outwardly suc-
cumbed and been subjugated by other nations.
It is also true that they were by adverse cir-
cumstances checked in the full tide of progress,
and therefore failed to crystallize their civiliza-
tion or to establish their union. Nevertheless,
at the cost of tenacious struggles and countless
sacrifices they have at last succeeded in creat-
ing conditions which ought to assure their union
in the future. A considerable portion of the
Jugoslav territory has formed itself into the
independent kingdoms of Serbia and Monte-
negro. Such of the Jugoslavs as are still
subject to a foreign yoke, look fodward to a
union with these two states; they are keenly
conscious of belonging to the same nation, and
deeply desirous of forming part of the one
motherland.

A close study of the history of our nation
cannot fail to reveal the fact, that from its
origin to the present day and throughout the
centuries it presents a record of continuous
efforts to realise the great idea of Southern
Slav Unity. These efforts can be plainly
discerned in spite of the 4reat obstacles which
have at times partially obscured this. The
leading idea in all our progress and develop-
ment was the idea of Southern Slav unity.

Take, for instance, the earlier periods of
our history, the age of the Serbian prince
Caslav (10th century) and the Croatian King
Zvonimir (llth century) and the Slovene
Emperor Samo (7th century). What do we
find but that these various early attempts to
form small States merely represent the first
beginnings of he creation of our national
Unity, without regard to the fact that this or
that branch of the nation belongs to the
ethnical unit of the Serbs, Croats or Slovenes?

Or take the great struggle for the use of
the Slav tongue in Divine Service — a struggle
which began in the days of the first Slav
apostles Cyril and Method (9th century), and
is still being fought out at the present day?
What is the inner meaning of this struggle if
not one aspect of the great struggle for national
Unity on the part of the whole nation? And
is not this thousand-year-old struggle, which

has been maintained in the face of great odds
and is being prosecuted to-day with as much
vigour as in past ages, in itself the most
beautiful proof that the different provinces
inhabited by our nation desire to establish at
least an ethical union, if they can attain to no
other? Even in Istria, in the most remote of
our western Catholic districts, the Southern
Slavs desire to hear Divine Service held in the
Slav tongue, simply that they may not lose this
bond of union between themselves and their
Orthodox brothers in the east, in the valley of
the Vardar, where the Slavs have never been
denied the right to use their native tongue in
the Church. This and this alone is the true
meaning of this struggle.

What is the true significance of the labours
and achievements of the Serbian Emperor
Dusan (14th century) and his contemporary
Tvrtko, King of Bosnia— these two great rulers,
one of whom was lord over the eastern half
of the Balkan Peninsula, while the other ruled
the west — unless they were efforts to accom-
plish the Union of all our nation, which unfort-
unately could not be realised at that time,
owing to insurmountable obstacles?

Finally, what were those desperate and
un remittent struggles against the Turks, in
which every branch of the Southern Slav nation
has borne its share — whether dwelling in
Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Dal-
matia, Southern Hungary, Slavonia, Croatia,
Istria, Carinthia, Carniola or Styria — but
simply one great struggle on the part of one
single people? When numbers of our nation
migrated north and west from the Balkan?
before the overwhelming pressure of the Turks,
this circumstance merely led to the strengthen-
ing of the spirit of the race. It was due to this
that Marko Kraljevic, a Serbian King of Mace-
donia, became the chief national hero of the
entire Serb, Croat and Slovene nation, and that
the popular ballads telling of his exploits are
sung and known wherever the Southern Slav
tongue is spoken.

When finally the dawn of the nineteenth
century gave us thebeginnings of emancipation
and national re-birth, it also brought the syste-
matic realisation of our national unity. It
would be a mistake to believe that Kara George
Petrovic, the leader of the Serbian insurgents,
and Miles Obrenovic, he first prince of the
country, had only the emancipation of Serbia
in their minds, or that Petar I and Petar II

18 THE SOUTHERN

Petrovic Njegos, Prince-Bishops of Montenegro
thought merely of freeing their own particular
country, because they did not at the time
attempt the deliverance of the other Southern
Slav countries as well. No. The souls of
both Serbs and Montenegrins are too deeply
steeped in the great traditions of the Serbian
Empire of the Middle Ages to have forgotten
them at such a critical time. This great tradi-
tion has ever guided the liberators of the two
19th century Serb States in their mission of
emancipation, and without it their amazing
success would be simply inexplicable. All
popular poems, celebrating their achievements,
are full of reminiscenes of the glories of the
Mediaeval Kings and Emperors of Serbia.

It would be equally a mistake to believe
that the national awakening of the Croats and
Slovenes in the 19th century was a purely
local renascence due to a struggle for material
welfare. No. Since the beginning of the
Illyrian movement, both Croats and Slovenes
have been inspired by the ideas of their great
Kings Zvonimir and 'Samo, and still more by
the idea of the ancient kingdom of Illyria,
•which included the whole of the Balkan
Peninsula.

SLAV'S APPEAL

It is only natural that during the 19th
century the idea of Southern Slav unity was
perforce reduced to an ideal of local and
partial deliverance. It would have been ^ash
and foolish to attempt this vastest programme
of all at a time when even the smallest details
in his programme had yet to be achieved. This
fact was due to circumstances and the exingen-
cies of the time, but does not in the least prove
that the great Southern Slav idea was lost
sight of. Indeed, it was sometimes advisable
to conceal it. When the Serbian peasants em-
barked on their struggle with the Turks, and
took diplomatic action with the Great Powers
in order to reap the fruits of their military
successes, they could not openly advertise the
great ideal of the national emancipation and
unification of our whole nation, because the
very Chancellories to whom they were apeal-
ing would haye looked askance at it. On the
contrary, they had to represent this idea as
being utterly unimportant, so that they might
first realise the organisation of their own
little State, which would then serve as a basis
for the greater State in the future.

MESSAGE FROM DR. E. W. SETON-WATSON.

(Autor of "The Southern Slav Question" and other
Books dealing with S. E. Europe.)

Those who advocate the cause of Southern
Slav Unity are to-day no longer voices crying
in the wilderness; for it is becoming more and
more widely recognized that the cause of Serbia
and of her oppressed kinsmen in Austria-
Hungary represents a vital European and
British interest. The conquest of Serbia by
the Central Powers alters nothing in the
Southern Slav Programme, even though it
renders its realization more remote; and it is
a happy omen for the future that it should
have been in London that the Serbian Prince-
Regent publicly pinned his faith to the Jugoslav
idea.

Either Serbia must achieve the unity of the
race, or she, and Montenegro with her, must
share the fate of Bosnia and be swallowed up
in a victorious Austria. Any other solution
would mean a continuance of the intolerable
state of misrule and consequent unrest which

for the past decade has kept the Eastern
Adriatic shores and their hinterland in a fer-
ment, and contributed so materially to the
outbreak of the Great War. Only a radical
solution of the Southern Slav question can
assure permanent peace to the Balkan Penin-
sula. Without Southern Slav unity there can
be no serious barrier to those designs of Pan-
German hegemony from the North Sea to the
Persian Gulf which prompted William II. and
his advisers to unchain a wolrd-war.

Not even the tragedy of last winter can
make us despair. Serbia has survived five cen-
turies of grinding Turkish oppression, and she
will rise once more Pho3nix-like from the ashes
of Austrian neglect, Magyar tyranny, and
Bulgarian treachery.

R. W. SETON-WATSON.

June 20, 1916.

PART II.

THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE AND THE
SOUTHERN SLAV PROGRAMME.

The suddenness with which Austria-
Hungary brought this war upon the nations of
Europe placed the Jugoslavs under Austro-
Hungarian rule in an extremely difficult
position. There was no time to organize a
strong resistance against the systematic reign
of terror with which they were confronted.
According to plans carefully laid beforehand
the whole Austrian Jugoslav manhood of mili-
tary age was at once summoned to the colours,
and almost all representatives of the educated
professional classes, especially the leading
men of the nation, were imprisoned. Only a
very few prominent men were away from
Austria at the time or were able to effect their
escape. These emigrants opened their patri-
otic campaign in Rome, where they began by
publishing protests against the reign of terror
in the Jugoslav countries, and against the
mendacious reports from Austrian and Hungar-
ian official sources, whereby efforts were made
to represent the Jugoslavs as being in sym-
pathy with the aggressive pretensions of their
oppressors.

The Jugoslav Committee has been com-
posed of the following members :

President :

Dr. Ante Trumbic, President of the Croat
National Party in the Diet of Dalmatia,
late Mayor of Split (Spalato), and late
Member for Zadar (Zara) in the Austrian
Parliament. (Croat of Split, Dalmatia.)
Members :

Dr. Ante Biankini, President of the Jugo-
slav Committee for the U. S. America,
Chicago. (Croat, of Starigrad, Dalmatia).

Jovo Banjanin, late Member of the Croatian
Parliament and Delegate to the Parlia-
ment at Budapest. (Serb, of Croatia).

Dr. Ivo De Giulli, Town Councillor of Du-
brovnik (Ragusa, Dalmatia). Croat, of
Dubrovnik, Dalmatia.

Dr. Gustav Gregorin, Member in the Aus-

trian Parliament. (Slovene, of Trst
(Trieste).

Dr. Julije Gazzari, Town Councillor of Si-
benik (Sebenico) Dalmatia. (Croat).

Rev. Don Niko Grskovic, President of the
Croatian League of U. S. A. in Cleveland,
O. (Croat, of Vrbnik, Istria).

Dr. Hinko Hinkovic, Member of the Croa-
tian Parliament, and Delegate to the Par-
liament of Budapest. (Croat, of Croatia).

Dr. Josip JedlovskX Secretary of the Slo-
vene Society "Edinost" and of the Croat
School Union in Trst (Croat, of Trst).

Ciro Kamenarovic, Gen. Mgr. of the "Adria-
tic Bank" in Trst (Serb, of Kotor, Catta-
ro, Dalmatia).

Milan Marjanovic, Editor of "Narodno Je-
dinstvo" (National Unity) in Zagreb
(Agram), Croatia. Croat, of Kastav, Is-
tria).

Ivan Mestrovic, Sculptor (Croat, of Ota vice,
Dalmatia).

Dr. Mice Micic, Town Councillor of Dubrov-
nik (Croat, of Dubrovnik, Dalmatia).

Dr. Franko Potocnjak, late Member of the
Croatian Parliament and Delegate to the
Parliament in Budapest. (Croat, of Novi,
Croatia).

Prof. Mihailo Pupin, Professor at Columbia
University, New York, President of the
Serbian League "Sloga" and of the "Srp-
ska Narodna Odbrana". (Serb, of Pance-
vo, Banat, South Hungary).

Dr. Milan Srskic, Member of the Bosnian
Diet. (Serb, of Bosnia).

Frano Supilo, Editor of "Novi List", Rije-
ka (Fiume), late Member of the Croatian
Parliament, and Delegate to the Parlia-
ment in Budapest. (Croat).

Dr. Nikola Stojanovic, Member of the Bos-
nian Diet. (Serb, of Herzegovina).

Dr. Dinko Trinajstic, President of the "Slo-
veno-Croatian Society in Istria", and
Member of the Istrian Diet. (Croat, of
Vrbnik, Istria).

Dusan Vasiljevic, Vice-President of the Serb

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

National Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina".
(Serb, of Herzegovina).
Dr. Bognmil Vosnjak, Professor of the Uni-
versity of Zagreb, and Editor of the "Ve-
da" (Slovene, of Gorica, Gorkia).
Dr. Nikola Supanic, Curator of the Ethno-
graphical Museum. (Slovene, of Metlika,
Garni ola).

During its plenary meeting of June 1916,
the Jugoslav Committee elected the following
members :

M. Pasko Baburica, President of the "Jugo-
slav" National Defence" in Valparaiso,
Chile, (Croat, of Dalmatia).
Louis Mitrovic, (Croat) and Louis Moro
(Croat), both of Dalmatia, and residing
in South America, where they own large
commercial interests.

On May 1, 1915, the Committe presented a
memorandum dealing with the national aims
of the Jugoslavs and the desperate position in
which they are now placed, to M. Delcasse,
French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and to M.
Isvolsky, Russian Ambassador in Paris. Sub-
sequently the Committee, having in the mean-
time transferred its headquarters to London,
published a manifesto to the British Parlia-
ment and to the nation on May 12, 1915, and
on July 2, 1915, it presented a duplicate of the
Paris Memorandum to Lord Crewe, who was
at the time representing Sir Edward Grey at
the Foreign Office.

Through its members and representatives
and Members of Parliament, the Parliamenta-
ry Committee is in touch with the Ministers
and the Press in all the capitals of the Allied
Powers; it is in close contact with the re-
sponsible leaders of its free and independent

kinsman in Serbia and Montenegro, in the
unredeemned part of the nation still en-
slaved in Austria-Hungary, and with the
numerous Jugoslav emigrant communities
in the North and South Americas, and in the
British Colonies.

The Committee have been deeply gratified
by the sympathy and appreciation of their la-
bours on behalf of their country and country-
men extended to them in political and intel-
lectual circles among the Allied nations ; their
thanks are equally due to the Press which in
all the friendly countries has taken a keen in-
terest in their cause and given it full attention.

The Jugoslav Committee, whose head-
quarters are in London, England (54. Chejp-
stow Villas, Bayswater), has offices in follow-
ing countries:

France (Paris) ;

Russia (Petrograd and Odessa) ;

Switzerland (Geneve) ;

United States (Cleveland, 0.) ;

Chile (Valparaiso).

The Jugoslav Committee publishes:

"The Southern Slav Bulletin" (Semi-
monthly) in London.

"Le Bulletin Yougoslave" (Paris).

"The Southern Slav Library" (1. "The
Southern 'Slav Programme"; 2. "The South-
ern Slav Land and People; 3. "A sketch of
the Southern Slav History"; 4. "Southern
Slav Culture"; 5. "Idea of Southern Slav Uni-
ty"; 6. "The Slovenians".

"Biblioteque Yougoslave". (Paris. Pub-
lishes all the above pamphlets in French).

"The Map of the Jugoslav Territory."

"The Persecution of the Jugoslav" (The
same in French).

THE JUGOSLAV MEMORANDUM.

A PART OP THE MEMORANDUM OF THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE IN LONDON

SUBMITTED TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF FRANCE,

RUSSIA AND ENGLAND IN 1915.

All Jugoslavs, whether Serbs, Croats, or
Slovenes, confidently believe that this war will
bring about the union of all the branches and
all the territory of their race into one inde-
pendent State. This belief is based on the
solemn and oft-repeated assurances given by
the representatives of the Triple Entente
touching the realization and sure maintance of
the principles of nationality. It has saved the
still enslaved nations of our race from despair ;
it has been the mainspring of the moral force
whence arose the prodigious heroism of Ser-
bia and Montenegro when, by blocking the ad-
vance of the Austrian armies, they rendered
such gallant service to the cause of the Allies.

Serbia and Montenegro are not waging a
war of aggression to extend their frontiers.
These two Serbian states are the champions
of liberation for all Jugoslav alike, as are also
our helpers in the common task of establishing
our national existence in our own united coun-
try.

THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE IN JUGOSLAV
HISTORY.

This idea of national and political unity
was in the minds of the great rulers of our
national Empires before the Turkish invasion ;
it was the ideal of all martyrs of our race dur-
ing the time of the Ottoman oppression; it in-
spired our national poetry and the works of
the great thinkers and poets of Dubrovnik
(Ragusa), to whom Napoleon I. owed his idea
of a united Illyria; it gave strenght to the
heroic resistance of the Montenegrins, and to
the rising under Karadjordje which gave birth
to the modern Serbia. It directed every action
of the great Njegos, inspired the policy of
Price Michael, and has been the goal of the
entire house of Karadjordjevic and of Petro-
vic. It accomplished the renascence of the Cro-
ats and Slovenes, which bore such heroic fruit
in the struggles of 1848, and irradiates the life-
work of the great Bishop Strossmayer. It was
the primary cause of the long and often sangui-
nary struggles of the Croats for their inde-

pendence and unity, and of all the national
struggles in Dalmatia, Istria, Rieka (Fiume),
and South Hungary, in the 'Slovene lands, and
in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Political deliverence,
the integrity of our national territory, and the
foundation of a unified State have been the
final aim of all Pan-Croatian and Pan-Serbian
aspirations, of every constitutional struggle and
of every riot and insurrection throughout our
lands, whether in Austria-Hungary or in the
Balkans. Strenghthened by the principles of
democracy, and crowned by the successes of
the Serbian arms in the recent Balkan wars,
this idea has now assumed a precise and de-
finite form. The present war has given it the
sanction and support of the civilized world,
and our national ideal is ripe for realization.

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION TO
THE JUGOSLAV IDEA.

Austria-Hungary has vainly pitted all her
strenght against the Jugoslav idea. By every
means in her power she has tried to compro-
mise, to defame, and to crush it. To this end she
established the Dualism in the Monachy, par-
celled out the Jugoslavs in detached provinces,
mutilated the kingdom of Croatia, and sought
to germanize the Slovenes and to magyarize
the Croats. To this end Bosnia-Herzegovina
was first occupied and finally annexed. To
this end innumerable political charges were
brought against the Jugoslav and they were
subjected to endless persecutions. To this end
she encouraged mutual jealousies and conflicts
between the Slav states in the Balkans, and
finally, by threatening the soverign rights of
Serbia, Austria unchained the present war.

For, in her subservience to German Im-
perialism, Austria thought by this war to
crush Jugoslavdom, the great obstacle in the
path of Germany and herself towards the East.
She provoked the war, because she believed
that the Jugoslav question could no longer be
solved by partial or palliative measures, and
she flung herself upon Serbia to absorb her,
and with her the Jugoslavs. But when Austria,

ITHB SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

as Germany's vassal state and pioneer, en-
countered the national resistance of Serbia, the
Powers of the Triple Entente rose on behalf
of the smaller nation. In this way the Jugo-
slav question became a European problem, and
it is of paramount importance to Europe that
it should be fully and finally solved; only a
complete solution will ensure the results for
which the Triple Entente has gone to war.

THE JUGOSLAV IDEA.

Our nation, which has suffered so cruelly
and been so often deceived, is determined that
its fate shall be decided once and for all, even
at the uttermost cost. Our unnatural existence
and constant sufferings must be ended ; we de-
sire peace and peaceful development. We hold
that we have a right to be something more
than a subject for intrigues and a pawn on
the chess-board of foreign interests. Neither
will we continue to bring slaughter and ruin
upon each other at the bidding of strangers.
The Jugoslav people, known in history
as Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, are all mem-
bers of one and the same nation, with all the
necessary conditions for the formation of an
independent national state, and they have
every ethnographical and historical right to
the territory which they inhabit and in which
they form a compact population.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF THE JUGOSLAV LANDS

All these lands form an ethnical unit ; they
are geographically contiguous, and economi-
cally interdependent.

Serbia and Montenegro with Bosnia-Her-
cegovina cannot attain their normal develop-
ment without the possession of Dalmatia ; de-
tached from its hinterland the Dalmation coast
would be valueless for commerce and naviga-
tion, and the safety of Dalmatia would be per-
manently jeopardized, were she deprived of
her achipelago. One reason why Austria-Hun-
gary occupied and annexed Bosnia-Hercegovi-
na was that she already possessed Dalmatia.
Dalmatia and the Dalmatian archipelago must
properly belong to the owner of Bosnia-Herce-
govina.

Moreover, in the Middle Ages, Dalmatia
formed an integrant part of the Jugoslav
states — whether Serbian or Croatian — which
arose during the course of history, and when
she was incorporated with Austria, Dalmatia
herself evinced the tendency towards union
with other Jugoslav countries. As the utmost
that could at that time be aspired to, she asked
to be united with Croatia-Slavonia, and the

Diets of Zadar (Zara) and Zagreb (Agram)
have never ceased to demand such a union.
Obviously these demands were prompted by a
strong desire on the part of our countrymen in
Dalmatia to be united with the rest of the
Jugoslav race.

For centuries Croatia-Slavonia sturdily
defended her autonomy against Germanism
and Austrian centralization no less than a-
gainst Magyarization. In a union of all Ju-
goslav countries Croatia would at once take
her proper place ; first of all for ethnical rea-
sons; secondly, because her national and po-
litical renascence was accomplished under the
banner of a great Jugoslav movement, and be-
cause the Croatian Diets have always demand-
ed Jugoslav unity, territorial integrity, and
political independence ; and finally because her
three great waterways, the Sava, the Drava,
and the Danube, as well as the railway that
traverses the country and connects Belgrade
with Rieke (Fiume) render Croatia the na-
tural intermediat link between eastern and
western Jugoslavia.

Rieka (Fiume) is the only natural and
praticable seaport for Croatia-Slavonia, and
at present also for Serbia. The right of Croa-
tia to Fiume as an incontestable part of her
territory was never called into question before
the falsification of § 66 of the Croato-Hunga-
rian Agreement in 1868. As a result of this
crime Hungary deprived Croatia of the ad-
ministration of the town and seaport of Rieka,
just as she had in 1861 deprived her of the
administration of the Medjumurje,a purely
Croatian district between the Drava and its
affluent the Mur. As a port Rieka is valueless
without its hinterland, and this again cannot
thrive without its natural seaport. A Jugoslav
Rieka is of vital necessity to Croatia-Slavonia,
Serbia, and a large part of Istria and Carniola.

The possession of the Quarnero (Kvarner)
Islands and of Eastern Istria is inseparably
bound up with Rieka, just as Western Istria
is bound up with Trst (Trieste), the only sea-
port of the Slovene hinterland.

In the hands of the Jugoslavs, Trst
(Trieste) would prove, economically speaking,
an important stronghold against German eco-
nomic pressure, and nobody would stand to
benefit more by this than France and England.

If the Jugoslav lands were deprived of
Trieste and their communication with the sea,
they could no longer be sufficiently strong to
resist German southward pressure, which is
continually encroaching on the Slovene territo-

THE SOtfttfE'JtN SLAV'S APPfiAL

ry in Carinthia and Styria. Only the posses-
sion of Trieste, Carinthia, and Southern Styria
can enable the Slovenes to block the advance
of Germanism towards the Mediterranean, and
so accomplish their mission as the Alpine
Guard of the Adriatic and Jugoslavdom. In
this capacity they would serve the interests of
all the opponents of Pan-Germanism, and en-
sure the security of the Mediterranean Powers
as well as the national existence of all the Ju-
goslav countries.

There are in Hungary 102,000 Slovenes
living between the Mur and the Raab, and
800,000 Serbo-Croats north of the Drava and
Danube. This entire population, which con-
sists largely of wealthy landholders, can only
be saved from forcible Magyarization by union
with the brothers of their race. If they be
permitted to remain Jugoslavs, the fertile
plains of the Backa and Banat will be pre-
served to the nation and furnish the other
Jugoslav countries with the granary they re-
quire.

Any partition of the national territory,
and above all things the cession of any part
whatsoever to a foreign Power, would not
only seriously impede the development of Ju-
goslav unity and violate the principle of na-
tionnality, but prove a mere repetition of the
Austrian system, and a fresh source of endless
conflicts and collisions.

THE PRINCIPLE OF JUGOSLAV FUTURE
POLICY.

All questions as to the modes and forme
of the grouping of our nation in the future
state must be considered as internal questions,
to be settled in accordance with the free de-
cision of the whole nation.

After centuries of struggle for existence
our nation feels the need of peace, and there-

fore earnestly desires to live in perfect accord
with its neighbors. United in one State, it
will posess all the necessary attributes to be-
come an element of order and progress in
South-eastern Europe. Neither numbers nor
aggressive propensities will render the Jugo-
slavs a danger to their neighbors, more
especially because the great problems of their
own organization will fully occupy thier ener-
gies.

Tolerant in religious matters both by
nature and because of its democratic senti-
ments, our nation, once free and united, will
see no cause to persecute other creeds and
nationalities, more especially as we ourselves
do not profess the same creed, a circumstance
which neither impedes nor prevents the unity
of our sentiments and interests. Our nation
therefore contains in itself the necessary
guarantees for religious liberty.

Our nation inhabits the entire eastern
coast of the Adriatic. In this district we are
above all things anxious to live in complete
economic co-operation with all our neighbours
by land and by sea, and to utilize our natural
talents, not in warfare, but for the further-
ance of peace, by placing them at the service
of civilization and commerce. It will be to
our own economic advantage to throw open
our ports to commerce and to guarantee the
freedom of the routes of communication be-
tween those ports, and of all traffic with our
hinterland.

Thus the interests of our nation coincide
entirely with those of peace and universal civi-
lization, and especially with the interests
which inspired the great Powers of the Triple
Entente, when they took up arms against a
brutal Imperialism, that perpetul menace to
peace.

THE STATISTIC NOTES IN SUPPORT OF THE
SOUTHERN SLAVS UNITY

The Adriatic Barrier Against Germanism

The Slovenes are the natural barrier
against the German thrust towards the
Adriatic. This deserving, progressive, and
energetic people, which is a pure branch of
the Jugoslav race, effectively closes the way
to Germanism on the southern German ethno-
graphic boundary in Carinthia and Styria —
that is to say, upon a frontier line of 120 km. as
the crow flies. In the event of the Slovenes in
Carnia and the littoral not being liberated and
united with the rest of their Jugoslav brothers,
or the Slovenes in Carinthia and Styria being
sacrificed to the German Austrians, the
Germans could very soon and with ease advance
by the Drava-Mura line (Celovac [Klagenfurt]
and Maribor [Marburg]) to the Carso, to the
Adriatic, to Trst, and Rieka, and a progressive
nation of 1,400,000 souls would certainly
perish.

Importance of the Slovenes

The Slovenes are the most western of the
Jugoslavs, and they are Catholics by religion.
Their mountainous country lies in the direct
line between Germany and the Adriatic, and
tli is is why the possession of their territory is
of such supreme importance for the defence
of the Mediterranean against Germanization.
But the Slovenes can hold their own and
accomplish their task if they are united with
their Jugoslav brothers in one State of suf-
ficient strength. There are in all 1,400,000
Slovenes. Italy is demanding 420,000, and if
the 110,000 Slovens in Hungary, and another
120,000 in Carnia are sacrificed to other aspira-
tions, a total of 610,000 Slovens, or almost the
half of the nation, would remain under foreign
rule. In the case of the further cession of
Southern Styria with 410,000 Slovene inha-
bitants, only 380,000 Slovenes would remain to
profit by liberation and union with their
brothers. The application of such a policy of
dismemberment to a small nation in an import-
ant geographical position would mean its
inevitable destruction.

Incomplete Liberation and Unification of the
Jugoslavs

There are thirteen million Jugoslavs living
in South-Eastern Europe; five million are free
and eight million, roughly speaking, two-thirds
of the nation, living in Austria-Hungary, are
still awaiting liberation. If Italy is permitted
to realize her aspirations, though all the rest
of the Jugoslavs were liberated, 900,000 would
still remain under foreign rule ; if, futhermore,
the Jugoslavs living north of the Drave and
the Danube ar assigned to Hungary and to
Rumania another 900,000, or a total of
1,800,000, would remain unliberated.

Finally, by allowing Austria to retain
Southern Carnia and Southern Styria 530,000
Jugoslavs would still be Austrian subjects and
2,820,000 in all would remain under foreign and
hostile rule. By the deduction of Carniola
with 420,000 Jugoslav inhabitants from the
future free state of Jugoslavia, the number
would rise to 2,820,000, and if an analogous
process is applied to Croatia-Slavonia and her
population of 2,820,000 the total number of un-
liberated Jugoslavs would amount to 5,130,000,
i. e., it would be equal to the added populations
of Serbia and Montenegro to-day. If Italian
aspirations be satisfied, Croatia, Slavonia, and
the Slovene countries separately dealt with,
and the Jugoslavs in Hungary sacrificed, Serbia
and Montenegro would only gain a population
of 2,185,000 by this war. Their total popula-
tion would amount to little more than six
million, and six million Jugoslavs would remain
unliberated. Needless to say, a solution of this
kind would simply leave the Jugoslav problem
unsolved.

Statistics of the Eastern Adriatic Littoral

There are 450,000 Jugoslavs living in the
Austrian littoral (Gorizia-Gradiska, Trieste,
and Istria) and only 350,000 Italians. In Dal-
matia there are 610,000 Jugoslavs and only
18,000 Italians. If the whole of the Austrian
littoral, part of Carniola, the mainland of

THE SOUTHERN

Dalmatia north of Trogir, and all the islands
north of Mljet (with the exception of Brae),
are assigned to Italy, 350,000 Italians would
be liberated and united with Italy, whereas
900,000 Jugoslavs would remain under a
foreign yoke. In Dalraatia 350,000 Jugoslavs
would be sacrificed for the sake of 15,000
Italians, and only the 278,000 Jugoslavs in
Southern Dalmatia would be liberated. The
Jugoslav population of the Dalmatian Islands
amounts to 100,000 and the Italian only 1,500
souls. Gorizia-Gradiska, with the exception
of the valley of the Friuli, which the Jugoslavs
are not demanding, has a Jugoslav population
of 150,000 and an Italian population of 28,000.
Central and Eastern Istria with the Quarnero
Islands has a Jugoslav population of 120,000
and an Italian population of only 16,000. In
Southern Carnia there is not one single Italian
inhabitant among a population of 110,000 Jugo-
slavs. Only Western Istria, Trieste, and the
valley of Friuli (Gradiska) can be accounted
districts with a mixed population, and even
there the proportion is 260,000 Italian to
272,000 Jugoslavs, so that even in these dis-
tricts the Jugoslavs are slightly in the majority.

Just Balance of Power
The unification of all the Southern Slavs
would by no means interfere with a just balance
of power in South-Eastern Europe, but would
be in proportion to the natural balance of
power between the nations most concerned.
The Southern Slav State (Jugoslavia) would
have a population of about twelve million inha-
bitants. Hungary, reduced to her natural
borders, would also have about twelve million ;
Roumania, enlarged and united, also twelve
million ; and Bulgaria and Greece between
them about fourteen million inhabitants. The
Jugoslav State would certainly not pursue an
expansive policy, as the territory inhabited by
the Jugoslavs amply suffices for the population,
whose density amounts to fifty persons to one
square km. In Roumania the density of the
population amounts to 53 persons to one square
km. ; in Bulgaria it amounts to 41.6, in Greece
to 41, in Hungary to 64, in Austria to 95, and
in Italy to 113 persons to one square km.
Finally, the birth-rate among the Jugoslavs
cannot be expected to increase in such a
manner as to constitute a danger to their
neighbours. During recent years the propor-
tionate increase has amounted to 1.6 per cent.

SLAV'S APPEAL 25

annually, whereas among the Bulgars the in-
crease amounts to 1.5 per cent., and among the
Roumanians to 1.9 per cent.

Orthodox and Catholic Jugoslavs

The confessional differences among the
Jugoslavs, which are in many quarters looked
upon as an obstacle to the unification of the
whole Jugoslav race, do not really present any
obstacle at all to Jugoslav unity, but, on the
contrary, a strong argument against the dis-
memberment of the Jugoslav territory, as it is
impossible to draw a just boundary between
Orthodox and Catholic religions. If Serbia
acquires Bosnia-Herzegovina, Southern Dalma-
tia, Syrmia, and part of Slavonia, more than
one million Serbian Orthodox Jugoslavs would
still remain in the unliberated and non-incor-
porated Western districts, viz., 437,000 in
Croatia, 76,000 in Dalmatia, and about 500,000
in Hungary; whereas the enlarged kingdom of
Serbia wuold only have acquired 1,064,000
Orthodox, and 1,600,000 non-Orthodox subjects,
viz., 279,000 Catholics in Southern Dalmatia,
385,000 Catholics and 612,000 Moslems in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 208,900 Catholic Jugoslavs
in Syrmia and Slavonia, and 110,750 non-Slavs
of different confessions. Niether Serbia nor
the Western Jugoslavs could consent to such
dismemberment of the race. It would be
strenuously opposed equally by the one million
sacrificed Orthodox Jugoslavs, by the 1,750,000
non-Orthodox Jugoslavs given to Serbia and
cut off from their brothers, and by the 4,200,000
unliberated and non-incorporated Catholic
Jugoslavs among the Croats and Slovenes.
The Jugoslavs refuse to be crushed and
divided; they must, and will, be liberated as a
whole and united in one single State in which
they can consolidate themselves into a national
political unit.

JUGOSLAV APPEAL TO BULGARIA IN
OCTOBER 1915.

Before the Bulgarian entrance into the
war, The Southern Slav Committe in London
sent (in Oct. 1915.) the following message to
the President of the Bulgarian Sobranje
(Parliament) in Sofia:

"The Southern Slav Committee in London,
representing the Southern Slav countries in-
habited by Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs still

28 f Hfl

under the Austro-Hungarian domination, sends
the following brotherly message to the Bul-
garian nation at the moment of its coming to
the fateful parting of the ways :

' ' This committee, which is working for the
liberation of the whole Serbo-Creato-Slovene
race from the hateful Germano-Magyar oppres-
sion and for the realization of national and
political unity with Serbia and Montenegro,
after centuries of suffering and longing, refuses
to credit the gloomy forecast circulated in
Europe in connection with the Bulgarian
mobilization.

"In the name of the genius of the noble
Slav race, in the name of the Slav blood which
has been shed like water in the never-ending
struggle against Turkish aggression, we protest
emphatically in the defence of the Bulgarian
nation against the German insinuation that the
Bulgarian army would attack Serbia in the
hour of her martyrdom and provoke a fratrici-
dal war.

"It is unthinkable that Bulgaria shall
stretch her hand across Serbia to help the
Germano-Magyar forces to join the Turkish
armies and thereby assist in the subjection of
Bulgaria, of the whole of Slavdom, and the
civilization of the human race, to the most
brutal tyranny ever known in the world's
history.

"Faithful to the laws of nature and civili-
zation, we are emphatically on the side of the
Slav warriors of Montenegro, Serbia, and
Russia, and their gallant allies, and we heartily
hope and trust that Bulgaria will also take her
rightful place on that side."

At the same time the representatives of
the Croats and Slovenes in Austro-Hungary,
who have found a refuge abroad and are now
conferring in Geneva, have sent the following
telegram to the Bulgarian Goverment: —

"We, the representatives of the Croats
and Slovenes, who have taken refuge abroad in
order to represent the interests of our country-
men, and who in these days of trial firmly
believe in the ultimate triumph of the cause of
liberty over terrorism, and consequently in the
deliverance of our people from the th eAustro-
Hungarian yoke, have watched the recent turn
of events in Bulgaria with unfeigned amaze-
ment. We, who have equally deplored both
Slivnica and Bregalnica, and have seen the
hand of Germany in each of these tragedies,
do not believe that the national soul of either

SLAV'S APPB5AL

Serbia or Bulgaria has been tainted by these
unfortunate events ; and with profound horror
and indignation we refuse to believe that the
Bulgarian people will stoop to play the part
of Turko-German janissaries, and by this act
withdraw from our fraternity."

THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE AND
M. VENIZELOS

Through the Royal Greek Legation the
Jugoslav Committee sent the following tele-
gram to M. Venizelos, the Greek Premier, on
the occasion of his resumption of office in
September, 1915:—

"In the name of the Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes in Austria-Hungary, who desire to be
freed from the Austrian yoke and united with
their brothers in Serbia and Montenegro, the
Jugoslav Committee offer their sincerest con-
gratulations to Your Excellency, as the leader
of modern and Christian Hellas, the author of
the Balkan League, the Graeco-Serbian Alliance,
and the Treaty of Bucharest; they trust that
your return to power will greatly facilitate the
struggle of the Balkan nations for the realiza-
tion of the principle 'the Balkans for the
Balkan nations', and that your resumption of
office will also prove a guarantee for the
continued alliance and sincere and lasting
friendship between the noble Hellenic nation
and the Serbians who are striving for union
with their brothers, the Croats and Slovenes. —
For the Jugoslav Committee,

"The President, Dr. Ante Trumbic."

The Greek Minister in London most
cordially received the President of the Com-
mittee and showed the greatest interest in the
cause represented by the Jugoslav Committee.

THE JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE TO SERBIA
IN OCTOBER 1915.

On the 12th day of October 1915, the Jugo-
slav Committee sent the following telegram to
the Serbian Goyerment at Nish : —

"On this occasion of the latest offensive
of the German and Austro-Hungarian forces
against Serbia, the Jugoslav Committee desires
again to emphisize its full and complete soli-
darity with the Serbian nation in this terrible
hour, and to express its firm belief that in this
struggle Serbia will once more astonish the
world by her glorious and unequalled valour.
After the last defeats suffered by the superior

THE SOUf HEftN SLAV'S APPEAL

Austro-Hungarian armies in Serbia, both the
Central Powers are returning together to crush
and trample down little Serbia. But Provi-
dence, who guards both great and small, will
again endow the Serbian army with super-
human strength to repeat the history of David
and Goliath. To the Serbian Army, as the Ju-
goslav David, we send our hearts, our hopes,
and our faith. At the same time the Jugoslav
Committee appeals to all Croats, Serbs, and
Slovenes from the unredeemed countries in
Austria-Hungary, and at present living in Ser-
bia, to place themselves, at this most critical
moment in the history of Serbia and all the
Jugoslavs, unreservedly and without hesitation
at the disposal of the Royal Serbian Govern-
ment, to aid Serbia in her struggle for life.

"Dr. Ante Trumbic, President."

At the same time the Committee sent
urgent appeals to all Jugoslav emigrants out-
side Serbia to give their unconditional help to
their brothers and to offer their very lives in
this struggle for the salvation of the only in-
dependent, but now endangered, Jugoslav
country, for the future of the Jugoslav race,
and that the Balkans and the East may be
saved from the Germane-Turkish terror.

A DECLARATION OF THE JUGOSLAV
COMMITTEE IN FEBRUARY 1916.

The Jugoslav Committe, under the presi-
dency of Dr. A. Trumbic, met in Paris for a
plenary sitting, lasting from Feb. 16 to Feb. 24.
All the members of the Committee were pre-
sent, with the exception of those who were
absent on missions, to the Southern Slav colo-
nies in both Americas.

The Committee considered the general
situation from the Jugoslav point of view in all
its details, with due regard to the events that
have occured since the Committee was con-
stituted in May, 1915. Reviewing the results of
its propagandist activity in friendly countries,
it was able to record a notable success. Both
the knowledge and appreciation of the Jugo-
slav problem have made undeniable progress.

The Committee, having met in a plenary
sitting for the first time since the last invasion
of Serbia and Montenegro, testified its soli-
darity with the sufferings, aspirations, and
hopes of all the Jugoslavs — Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes — as well as its fixed determination to
fight to the end, side by side with the Allies,

for the liberation of the entire Jugoslav nation
from the foreign yoke under which it is for the
time being united.

The Committee has with satisfaction and
admiration noted the generous action of France
and her Allies in rendering efficient help to the
Serbo-Montenegrin army in its painful retreat
before the overwhelming superiority of the
enemy, by transporting it to a place of safety,
and reorganizing it for fresh heroic exploits.
For this the whole Jugoslav nation will be
eternally grateful to her.

As the representatives and mouthpiece of
the sentiments and aspirations of the Jugoslavs
in Austria-Hungary and in America, the Com-
mittee protests its unflinching adherence to the
cause of the Allies, and its endeavour, by every
means in its power, to further the common
cause in Europe as well as in the Jugoslav
colonies in America.

In its absolute confidence in the final
victory of the Allies the Committee has re-
corded the resolution that the future peace
shall not be confined to a mere restoration of
Serbia. For her superhuman efforts and sa-
crifices adequate compensation is impossible.
But on the basis of the principles of nation-
ality, right, and justice, which the Allies have
solemnly inscribed on their standards, the
peace of the future must solve the Jugoslav
problem in its entire extent.

By uniting and unifying the Jugoslav
nation, which has for centuries in the past
maintained a successful struggle on all fronts
against the Germans, Magyars, and Turks, in
one single State, the peace of the future will
raise an impenetrable rampart against any new
attempts at expansion towards the south-east
on the part of the Teutons ; it will provide the
necessary conditions for its durability, and
thereby ensure peace and brotherly good fel-
lowship between the nations of Europe.

The Committee further decided upon a
whole series of important measures with a view
to collaborating efficiently in the common
cause of the Allies. It also discussed suitable
means of increasing the work of propaganda.

Finally, it sent, by telegram, a message ex-
pressing its profound sympathy with the Ser-
bian Goverment, and its respect and admi-
ration for the heroic Prince Regent of Serbia.

28 THE SOtJf HERN

THE MANDATE AND THE DUTY OF THE
JUGOSLAV COMMITTEE.

"The Southern Slav Bulletin, No. 19, (Au-
gust 14. 1916) has published following decla-
ration :

' ' We are sure that students of our question
and of the national, polical, and etnogra-
phical conditions in our countries must, if
right and justice are to triumph, in the end
be wholy converted to the great necessity
of settling the Jugoslav question in full
accordance with the programme issued by
the Jugoslav Committee in London. It
is the programme of our whole nation,
of our whole race, and therefore in no
sense a political but a national programme.
The Jugoslav Committee is neither a political
party nor the author of this programme. At
home and before the war its members belonged
to different political parties, and as regards
domestic political matters they perhaps still
dift'fer, but out here they are united as a body
which represents the whole nation, viz., all the
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes dwelling in Croa-
tia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Istria, Bosnia-Herze-
govinia, Carniola, Carinthia, Goricka (Gori-
zia), Trieste, Styria, Gradiska, Prekomurje,
Baranja, the Banat, and Backa; and, further-
more, those Jugoslavs who live as emigrants in
the United States, in South America, and the
British Overseas Dominions. Being the only
body which is at present in a position to voice
the unanimous desire of all the Jugoslavs, the
Jugoslav Committee is to all intents and pur-
poses the nation itself, and the Jugoslav nation
is the author of the Jugoslav programme. We
must put it in this way so as to make it clear
to our many friends, as well as to our adver-
saries, that the Jugoslav Committee has the
mandate and the sacred duty only to propa-
gate, to the limit of its extent and in every pos-
sible way, the Jugoslav programme, but no
power whatsoever to negotiate concerning the
resolution of the nation, or to make any con-
cessions as regards the Jugoslav aims. Eight
and justice can be overthrown, but they are
not subjects for negotiation.

Our programme remains as it was in the
beginning, and as it originated in the martyred
soul of our whole nation, which has for cen-
turies struggled for liberation and unity. To
liberate one part of our nation and enslave
another afresh for "strategic reasons" or any

SLAV'S APPEAL

other considerations, even if such a part con-
sists merely of a "negligible quantity" in a di-
plomatic sense, offers no solution of the Jugo-
slav question at all. A single one of our bro-
thers enslaved in his ancestral territory means
that there can be no freedom for all the rest
until he also is freed.

History must record this war as a war of
Justice against oppression, as the Holy War of
nations against castes, as the sum of human
brotherhood united in overthrowing the mon-
ster Greed. Love, peace, and mutual confidence
must be issues of this war. Humanity and not
Imperialism must be the conqueror. The flag
of freedom must adorn every palace, every cot-
tage, every hut in the new Europe. If that
cannot be achieved, then, of course, this war is
only a preparation for new struggles, a new
troubling of the waters in which the Hohen-
zollerns and Habsburgs will find their richest
fishing ground.

The Jugoslavs have never asked, and do
not ask anything but the just recognition of
their indisputable rights. They desire nothing
more than to live in peace on their ancestral
territory, to develop in freedom, and to main-
tain absolutely sicere relations of friendship
with their neighbours. They never demanded
a single square inch of territory which rightly
belongs to nayone else, and they call only
those countries their fatherland which have
been theirs from the days they first settled
there, the lands where they made their history,
where their language is spoken, and their soul
linked with the soil for more than a thousand
years. Their cry for freedom has risen higher
than ever, even in the present time, because
they are convinced that the Allies are warring
and shedding their blood for all the oppressed,
and not only for those who are excluded from
"strategical considerations". The future of
nations must be founded on confidence and
friendship, and not on strategical frontiers. If
our resolution to dwell in amity and confi-
dence is reciprocated by our neighbours, then
our mutual honesty will be our best frontier
fortification. But only malice can sugest that
the Jugoslav — even Serbia proper — have ever
shown symptons of aggression or a desire for
expansion beyond their own ancestral terri-
tory. History proves that they never sized
upon the land of others, but on the contrary,
that they were constantly robbed of their own.
But these ages are past and one of the main
pillars of the future peace of Europe must
be a complete and undivided Jugoslavia."

PART III

SERBIA AND THE JUGO-SLAV PROGRAMME.

In the painful days, when the Austrian ar-
mies in the late autumn of the year 1914 raised
Serbia, the Serbian National Skupstina assem-
bled at Nis and formed a new Serbian Govern-
ment from the representatives of all political
parties. That government, through the Prime
Minister Pasic made on the 24th of November
(0. S.) the following declaration:

"The present government has been formed
in order to personify the unity of will, forces
and purposes of our land. Convinced of the
confidence of the National Skupstina as long
as it places all its forces at the service of the
great cause of the Serbian state and the Serbo-
Croatian and Slovenian race, the government
considers its paramount duty to bow with a
boundless respect before the exalted victims
who emmolated themselves bravely and wil-
lingly on the altar of the coutry. . . . Convinced
of the determination of the entire Serbian
people to persevere in the holy struggle for
the defense of its hearth and of its liberty, the
Government of the Kingdom considers it its
prime — and indeed in these fate-shaping mo-
ments — its only task to secure a successful end
of this great struggle which, at the moments of
its beginning has developed into a war for the
unification of all our un-liberated brothers Ser-
bians, Croats and Slovenians. The brilliant
success which will have to crown this warfare
will redeem opulently the bloody sacrifices
which the present Serbian generation is
enduring."

By that declaration, which the Skupstina
has unanimously sanctioned, Serbia has clearly
defined her intentions and thereby has become
before Europe the representative of our entire
people.

At several later opportunities declarations
in the same sense have been made to the public
by Premier Pasic, his assistant Mr. Jovan Jova-
novic, and by the Prince Regent himself in
which the same purpose has always been ac-
centuated, viz.: Liberation and unification of

the Serbians, Croats and Slovenians. This an-
nuls all the suspicions and reproaches that Ser-
bia strove after the formation of a "Greater
Serbia" in which the Croats and the Slovenians
would be drowned. At the moment when Italy
demanded our littoral, first representatives of
the Serbian policy as well as representatives of
the government participated in the great
national meeting at Nis, at which has been
received the resolution of national unity of the
Serbians, Croats and Slovenians as also the re-
jection of the Italian imperialistic demands.
The Premier Pasic has made in the Serbian
Skupstina a reiterated declaration that Serbia
officially does not know anything about the
demands of Italy, nor is she able to recognize
them. When Serbia's allies, devining that they
will be able to win over Bulgaria, demanded
Serbia to yield to Bulgaria a part of Macedonia
Serbia has agreed to it reluctantly, and after
long deliberations of the Serbian Skupstina a
resolution has been brought to the effect that
Serbia is ready for sacrifices if by her so doing
she be able to contribute towards the triumph
of the common cause of the progressive Europe,
and to facilitate the liberation and unification
of all the Serbians, Croats and Slovenians. By
that resolution the Serbian Skupstina has
proved that she is exalted to the height of the
great part of Serbia as the liberator, for she has
agreed even to dismember the Serbian fixed
territory and yield of it a very considerable
part which has been won and preserved only at
very bloody sacrifices. It has proved that Ser-
bia, in compensation for her territorial con-
cessions, does not demand nor receive greater
or smaller reparations and does not wish to
enter in "hair-splitting" for the territories in
the West, but to contribute her sacrifices for
the sole purpose of liberating of her entire
race.

When before the incursion of the Germans,
Austrians and Bulgarians, Serbia was offered
by the Germans certain concssions in Bosnia if
she would allow free passage of German armies

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

through her territory, and when the invaders
after having" penetrated far and wide in Serbia,
promised to spare both the Serbian country
and Serbian army if that army offers no or
very slight, opposition to the German ag-
gresssion; when the Germans and the Bulgar-
ians were before the walls of Nis and the Ser-
bian Skupstina assembled for its last and most
painful deliberation, and when the Premier
Pasic declared that Serbia will not be able to
resist the overwhelmingly superior enemy, the
King, the government and the Skupstina have
unanimously declared even to sacrifice their
entire land but to fight to the end, and not to
deviate from the announced idea of liberation
and unification of the Serbian, Croatian and
Slovenian race.

This declaration, the sincerity of which
has not been insured by written treaties but by
blood covered victims and by immolation of the
liberty of the entire Serbian country, grant to
the struggling Serbia the right to be and to re-
main— as long as lasts the war in which the
other non-liberated Jugo-slavs wish not or can-
not participate — the representative before the
world of all the Jugo-slavs. Her suffering and
her sacrifices will mean that — if even by her
own forces she should not be able to liberate
her brothers but enters our regions with her
liberating armies together with those of her
allies — to be saluted by all the Jugoslavs under
Austria-Hungary, as the liberator and redeem-
er.

SOLEMN PROCLAMATION OF THE JUGO-
SLAV PROGRAMME BY THE PRINCE
REGENT OF SERBIA.

The most momentous event of the Serbian
Crown Prince Alexander's stay in London (in
April 1916) was unquestionably his reception
of the great British deputation at Claridge's
Hotel. Led by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the most prominent men of British public life
came to pay homage to Serbia and her heroic
leader. The Crown Prince said:

'This manifestation of sympathy on the
part of so many represantatives of British na-
tion will strengthen me when I shall again be
at the head of my army, shoulder to shoulder
with the gallant Franco-British Army for the
furthering and realization of the ideal for
which we have longed through centuries. That
ideal is the unity in one single state of all the
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, who are our na-

tion, with the same traditions, with the same
language, and the same tendencies, and whom
only adverse fate has divided.

"This ideal, and the conviction that we
are fighting shoulder to shoulder with our
great Allies for right and justice, has main-
tained our courage through the indescribable
trials which our nation and army has had to
endure.

On April 20, 1916 his return from the
Allied capitals, Prince Alexander of Serbia,
Commander-in-Chief of the Serbian army, ad-
dressed a manifesto to his soldiers to convey to
them his impression of his journey.

"Our powerful friends and Allies ailmire
the irreproachable conduct of chivalrous 'Ser-
bia, and appreciate the contless sacrifices of
the Serbian people in whom they recognize all
the qualities warranting the guarantee of an
independent political existence and successful
effort towards intellectual development. They
have decided to give us every assistance in this
great struggle, so that Serbia may become
great, that she may include all the Jugoslavs —
that she may, in fine, become a mighty Jugo-
slavia in recompense for all the sacrifices she
has hitherto consented to make, and the ful-
filment of new requirements which will show
themselves after this bloody crisis."

MR. PASI6, THE SERBIAN PREMIER,

DECLARATIONS IN LONDON

AND PETROGRAD.

April 3, 1916. The London Times had a
statement from premier Pasic, who said in
part:

"It is natural that the future Serbia or,
rather the United Southern Slav people, will
be a somewhat different State from what Ser-
bia has been in the past. The new Serbia will
necessarily become more Western, more Euro-
pan than the purely Balkan Serbia of old could
possibly be. A State that includes 5,000,000
Catholic 'Southern Slavs within its borders will
necessarily be a State tolerant and respectful
of religious and political liberty. We conclud-
ed, not long ago, a concordat with the Vati-
can. When I had recently the honour to b
received by the Pope, his Holmes remarked
that the concordat concluded with us wa:
markedly liberal in character, and that the re-
storation of the Slav liturgy in the Roman Ca-
tholic Southern Slav churches was a proof of
good will of the Vatican towards us. Had we
not been animated by equal good will the con-
cordat could hardly have been arranged. We

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL
Serbs of Serbia belong to the Orthodox Church
and are true to our religion. But just as we
are faithful to our own beliefs, so we respect
the belief of others and expect them to be as
faithful to their own creed as we are to ours.
This as I understand it, is true religious
tolerance.

THE CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER OF

SERBIA AND THE SOUTHERN SLAV

COMMITTEE.

On May 5, 1916 the chief of the Serbian
Government made his declarations to the re-
presentatives of the Russian press on the ob-
jects and results of his diplomatic tour, which
we will quote from the Russian journals in so
far as they refer to the Jugoslav question.

According to the "Retch" of April 23
(May 6 n.s) Mr. Pasic took advantage of his
visit to the Allied Government to effect an ex-
change of views on questions of vital interna-
tional importance, and especially on that which
is nearest to himself, a knowledge of the fu-
ture organization of the Serbian nation which
firmly believes in the final victory of the Allies
in their fight for the triumph of right and
justice. In the opinion of the Serbian Premier
the moment has arrived to clear up in princ-
iple the intentions of the Great Powers with
regard to the Balkan question in general and
the Serbian question in particular. Mr.
Pasic has noted with satisfaction that the
Serbian ideals have met with perfect consent
from the Allies. They have promised Serbia
every help to attain this object. The idea of
the unification of the Serb, Croat, and Slovene
nation in one State has been most sympathet-
ically received in Rome, no less than in Lon-
don, in Paris, and, finally, in Petrograd. The
Governments of the Allied Powers have un-
animously recognized that the national aim of
Serbia, i.e., the unification of the Serbian
people and country must be realized.

To the "Russkoe Slovo" Mr. Pasic, speak-
ing of Serbia's future expressed himself in the
following terms: "Our hope in Serbia's future
are fixed on the deliverance and union of the
entire Serb, Croats, and Slovene nation. This
is our national ideal, and we are prepared to
endure every sacrifice for its realization. No
one can say how the war will finish and what
it will bring to Serbia; but under no circum-
stances whatsoever can we renounce our Croat
and Slovene brothers. Serbia places great
hopes in the support which the Allies will give
her for the realization of her national ideal."

On April 10 1916 the Crown Prince Alex-
ander, then in Paris, received the members of
the Southern Slav Committee and its Presi-
dent, Dr. A. Trumbic, in a special audience at
the Hotel Bristol, where he was staying. On
this occasion Dr. Trumbic, in the name of the
Committee and of all unredeemed Jugoslavs,
addressed the Crown Prince in part as fol-
lows:

"We cannot consent to any division of the
Jugoslav nation, just as we cannot consent to
any part of our blood soaked territory beinsr
wrested from us ; but we demand national uni-
ty of our country, including our wonderful
waters in the Adriatic, in whose fairy mirror
all the beauty and charm of our fatherland is
reflected, and which sea is the very lungs of
the life of our land.

"This is to be the new era in our history,
founded on nature, and no artificial intrigue
shall succeed in frustrating it.
The Crown Prince replied : —
"Gentlemen, your words have deteply
touched my heart. God and the fortune of
heroes will provide that the wishes you have
so beautifully expressed will be realized as
soon as possible. They are, of course, as you
rightly said, no longer merely wishes, but a
political programme. They are even more
than a programme. They are the goal of a
struggle in which the blood of Serbia's sons is
flowing in rivers. Gentlemen, it is quite im-
possible that out of so much noble blood free-
dom should not arise anew, freedom for our
martyred nation, wherever it lives, from the
Adriatic to Timok, from Perister to the Tri-
glav. My grandfather fought for the
Jugoslav idea, my father on his throne remain-
ed faithful to the ideals for which he once
fought as rebel, rifle in hand. The same blood
flows in the veins of the grandchild and son.
Forward into the struggle, gentlemen, with
pen, with the spoken word, and with arms in
hand, for the same high cause — for the free-
dom of our whole race and its glorious fu-
ture!"

MEETING OF THE SOUTHERN SLAV COM-
MITTEE WITH THE SERB DEPUTIES
IN NICE (FRANCE), IN APRIL 1916.

The members of various Austro-Hungta-
rian Parliaments and Diets, who belong to the
Southern Slav Committee in London, in April

1916 proceeded to Nice in order to enter into
personal contact, and exchange their views on
the general situation with their colleagues of
the Serbian Skupstina, 104 of whom were
there. The meeting took place in the morning
of April 18 in the Great Hall of the Marie (the
Town Hall), which the town of Nice had
kindly placed at the disposal of its guests. M.
Kosta Stojanovic, President of the 'Serbian
Club, speaking in the name of the Serbian
members of Parliament, extended a glowing
welcome to their Jugoslav colleagues from Aus-
tria-Hungary, whom the unheard of misfor-
tunes which have befallen the common mother
country on both banks of the Sava and Drina
have now brought together so tragically in
exile on the friendly soil of France. Then M.
Ante Trumbic, President of the Jugoslav Com-
mittee, in a most graphic speech, which was
frequently interrupted by enthuasiastic ap-
plause, gave an account of all the propagandist
work accomplished by the Southern Slav
Committee during these twenty months of war
in all the allied countries, and in several
neutral states as well, for the realization of
the ideal we all share in common, viz., the as-
surance of the unification of all our race in one
State under the native dynasty of the Kara-
gjorjevic ! After M. Marko Trifkovic, in the
name of the Serbian deputies, had reaffirmed
the complete accord between the Serbian Club
and the Jugoslav Committee, not only with re-
gard to their political programme, but also as
to the methods of the propaganda, the Presi-
dent declared the proceedings terminated.

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

DECLARATION OF THE SERBIAN SKUP-
STINA AT CORFU, SEPTEMBER 1916.

In September 1916, the Serbian Parliament,
(Skupstina), met in Corfu for a short session,
and has given out the following official bulle-
tin:

"After seven days deliberation in secret
sessions in which foreign minister Pasich, made
his report, based on the secret documents in the
foreign ministry ; — The Skupstina held an open
session and without a dissenting vote, has ap-
proved the report of the Royal Servian Govern-
ment as well as the Foreign Ministry future
course of action, which the goverment has pro-
posed to pursue. The Skupstina also has voted
the following resolution : —

After hearing the Government report of
the foreign situation, Skupstina consider its
duty to affirm again, for its own part too, after
all the suffering and privation of the Serbian
people, that we stand firmly most faithful to
our National claims.

The course which Serbia has pursued un-
til, the present time, and thru which she has
acquired very valuable friendship, it is the
only course which leads to the realization of
her National Ideals. The painful road which
we have gone thru and by which we lost nume-
rous national treasures, our most valuable
treasure, the honor of our people has been left
untouched. — Depressed in our sorrow, but be-
lieving in our ideals and in the ideals of human-
ity,—Serbia full of pride and with full confi-
dence looks into the future. ' ' —

IV.

THE SOUTHERN SLAV EMMIGRANTS FOR
THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY AND UNITY

A GREAT JUGOSLAV CONVENTION HELD
IN CHICAGO, ILL. IN 1915.

At a general Congress in Chicago on
March 10, 1915, the Jugoslav emigrants from
Austria-Hungary in America and Canada, and
represented by 563 delegates, recorded their
enthusiastic adherence to this national pro-
gramme.

(1) The following resolution was unani-
mously passed: —

"The Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes are one
and the same as regards nationality and langu-
age, though they are known by different names.
They inhabit a number of provinces in South-
Eastern Austria-Hungary, as well as the king-
doms of Serbia and Montenegro. Collectively
they are known as 'Jugoslavs.' In Austria-
Hungary, where the Germans and Magyars
are the dominant races, the Jugoslavs are ruth-
lessly oppressed. Having no political rights,
they are economically victimized and exploited,
hampered in their development, socially down-
trodden, and their nationality is imperilled.
This state of affairs can no longer be tolerated,
if their national existence and individuality is
to be preserved, but their only hope lies in lib-
eration from Austria-Hungary and the sever-
ance of every tie that binds them to her. Their
lives and national development can only be
safeguarded through a union of all Jugoslav
countries with Serbia in one single state. They
confidently appeal to the Powers of the Triple
Entente, who are waging this war for the
deliverance of the down-trodden nations, and
entreat their help in the realization of their
just aspirations, which, by establishing order
in South-Eastern Europe, will greatly help in
laying a durable foundation for the world's
peace."

RESOLUTION PASSED AT NIs (SERBIA)

On May 9, 1915, a large demonstration took
place in Nish, when at a meeting of several
thousand Serbian and Austro-Hungarian Jugo-
slavs, a resolution was passed, demanding the
union of all Jugoslavs, and protesting against
the abandonment of any part whatsoever of
the national territory.

The resolution was worded as follows: —
' ' In these momentous times of sacrifice and
of faith in Freedom and the Right, we herewith
proclaim the indivisibility of our Serbo-Croato-
Slovene national unity, which must be polit-
ically realized, even as it has already been
morally accomplished. We therefore declare
that we will never permit any purely Jugoslav
territory to be sacrificed or dismembered, least
of all in any part of our Adriatic coast-lands
inhabited by Serbs, Croats, or Slovenes. We
appeal to all the Powers who are at this moment
fighting for the principles of nationality and
justice, to guarantee the unity of our race, so
that Serbia may fulfill her mission of liberation
and thus ensure one of the primary conditions
for the future peace of (Europe. The dis-
memberment of the Adriatic coast-lands would
be an act of terrible injustice, especially in a
war waged for the liberation of nations. ' '

THE JUGOSLAVS IN THE UNITED STATES
AND SERBIA.

In the summer 1915, Jugoslav mass meet-
ings were held in all the great cities in the
States possessing Jugoslav colonies.

The meetings in Pittsburgh, Pa., Chicago,
Cleveland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and
New York — each attended by from two to three
thousand delegates — cabled the following mes-
sage to the Serbian Premier, M. Pasic : —

"In the name of our brothers in Austria-
Hungary, who are at present unable to express
their thoughts and sympathies, as well as on

34 THE SOOT HERN

our own behalf, we hereby declare that all Slo-
venes, Croats, and Serbs regard the struggle
of Serbia as their own national struggle, and
Serbia's ideals as their o'.vn. We unanimously
demand that by the stipulations of the future
Peace Congress not one inch of Jugoslav terri-
tory may remain under foreign rule; but that
all this territory shall be united in one state
with Serbia and Montenegro. With the earnest
request that you will in due course give your
support to this demand, and with full confi-
dence in you, we hereby send you our best
wishes from this great meeting; and through
you we beg to greet the Serbian King, the
Crown Prince, and the whole Serbian Army
as our liberators."

Similar resolutions were passed at other
meetings, and the Jugoslav propaganda as-
sumed considerable proportions in the U. S. A.

JUGOSLAVS IN AMERICA FOR
THE ALLIES.

The following resolution was unanimously
carried at all the great Jugoslav meetings in
America (in Summer 1915).

"In the name of our oppressed brothers
in Austria-Hungary, who are at present com-
pelled by ruthless tyranny to fight against
their brother Slavs, or to languish in prison,
and who are therefore unable to lay the facts
of their sufferings before the world, we hereby
protest energically before the whole of the civ-
ilized world against the inhumanities now
being practised upon them ; against the hang-
ing and shooting of innocent people; the
strangling and perversion of law and justice ;
the slaughter of women and children ; the cal-
ling to the colours of youths under military
age and infirm old men ; against the placing of
our countrymen in the first line of danger ;
against foully murdering them from behind;
and against the burning of homesteads and the
robbing of property in our devasted country.
We implore all the brothers of our race in both
continents to turn their hate and their arms
against their oppressors, and we implore our
brothers who are suffering in prison to be
patient and to trust that victory will be with
the Slavs and their friends, the French and
British, whose triumphs will achieve the Ju-
goslav ideal of liberty and unity. We pledge
our solemn word that we will in every way
help the cause of the Slavs and their Allies;
that we will strive to promote our own na-

SLAV'S APPEAL

tional unity; that we will not by strikes pr6-
vent or hamper the work of any factories en-
gaged in supplying armaments and munitions
to Russia, Great Britain, or France ; and that
we will rouse our brothers from the sleep of
apathy with the clarion call to freedom, which
shall finally dawn upon the Jugoslav also — the
last slaves in Europe."

JUGOSLAV MANIFESTATIONS IN THE
UNITED STATES IN SEPTEMBER 1915.

During the month of September, the great
Jugoslav Labour Union, "Hrvatska Narodna
Zajednica," which has 35,000 members, held its
congress in Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. The
Austrian Consuls had previously done their
best to undermine the authority of the leaders
of the Union, who are anti-Austrian and
thoroughly patriotic, and to replace them by
their own few followers. The Jugoslav papers
in the United States even publish the facsimile
of a letter from the Austrian Consul in Pitts-
burg, from which it transpires, that Austrian
agents actually founded a pseudo-Jugoslav
paper, and tried to bribe the delegates of the
Congress. Nevertheless the Congress passed
off without any kind of disturbance; all
Austrian attempts were defeated, the old lead-
ers were re-elected, and duly authorized to
continue to make use of the official paper of
the Union for the propaganda in favour of the
idea of Jugoslav emancipation from the
Austrian yoke.

Towards the end of September a great de-
monstration called the "Slovenski Dan"
(Slovene Day) was organized in San Francisco,
at the Pacific Exhibition. All Slovenes present,
and a large number of other Jugoslavs as well,
demonstrated in favour of their liberation and
unification.

On September 18 and 19 the Congress of all
the Croatian Gymnastic Associations in the
United States took place in Cleveland, Ohio.
Public exhibitions of gymnastics and pro-
cessions of many thousand gymnasts were most
successfully arranged. On this occasion it was
decided that henceforth all Croatian, Serbian,
and Slovene gymnastic associations should be
united in one great single Union, which will be
in constant touch with the Czech, Polish, and
Russian Associations. This resolution was ap-
proved by the great Congress of representa-
tives of the labour Union "Hrvatska Narodna

SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

Zajednica," by the Serbian Unions "Sloga"
and "Srbobran," the political Unions "Hrvat-
ski Savez" and "Slovenacka Liga,' and many
other Unions and Associations, representing in
all more than 150,000 organised Jugoslavs in
the United States. At this meeting the follow-
ing Resolution was unanimously carried: —

"The Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes are one
and the same nation in blood, language, and
by the national ideals they hold in common.
We are heart and soul with the army, the na-
tion, and the Government of our brothers in
Serbia and Montenegro. Their struggle is our
struggle. Shoulder to shoulder we stand with
them against our common enemies the Teutons,
Magyars, and Turks in this fight for the reali-
zation of the freedom and unity of all Jugo-
slavs in one great national State. We trust
that no part of our nation, nor one inch of our
soil, will be given into slavery to foreigners.
We confidently expect the victory of our bro-
thers the Russians, and of their noble Allies
and our own. Full of loyalty to the great
country of Washington and Lincoln, we hail
the wise policy of President Wilson with re-
gard to the hostile and inhuman conduct of the
Austro-Germans. ' '

A copy of the resolution was forwarded
to Mr. Lansing, Secretary of State, to Mr. Pa-
sic, the Serbian Premier, to Mr. Plamenac, the
Montenegrin Minister, to the Jugoslav Com-
mittee in London, and to the Russian, British,
and French Ambassadors in Washington."

Finaly, on September 23, the "Hrvatski
Savez" (Croatian League) held a meeting in
Cleveland protesting energetically against the
Austro-German intrigues in America. A re-
solution similar to those quoted above was pas-
sed, and copies of it were sent to the represen-
tatives of the Allied Powers. The League also
passed a resolution approving of the work of
the Jugoslav Committee in London and promis-
ing it every possible support.

JUGOSLAV CLERGY AND NATIONAL
UNITY

On August 27, 1915, prompted by the
Serbo-Orthodox priest, the Rev. Father Nikolai
Velimirovic, the Catholic, Orthodox, and Uni-
tarian priests of Jugoslav nationality resident
in the United States, held a joint meeting in
Chicago. Opening the discussion, the Rev. Mr.
Reljic, Chairman of the meeting, remarked that
"after a short interval of many centuries" this
was the first assembly at which priests belong-

ing to different confessions were met together
to demonstrate that divergencies of faith are
powerless to divide either the Jugoslav nation
or their clergy. The meeting adopted the
proposal that these joint meetings should be
continued, elaborated a programme for further
activities, and passed a resolution expressing
the "complete agreement of the Jugoslav clergy
with the will of the nation as expressed at
many meetings". The resolution proceeds:
"We also claim the fulfilment of those demands
of right and justice for which our free brothers
in Serbia and Montenegro are fighting, and
for which our unredeemed brothers in Austria-
Hungary are suffering. And God's justice,
which we hold to be on our side, consists in
this, that all Slavs in Europe shall be liber-
ated from the chains of German militarism and
Austro-Hungarian oppression; that all Jugo-
slavs, being one nation by blood, language, and
national claims, shall be liberated from
Austro-Hungarian misrule and united in one
independent State; that, futhermore, not one
inch of Jugoslav soil shall be excluded from the
borders of this State, either in Dalmatia, or in
Istria, in Slovenia, the Banat, or Macedonia;
that those differences of faith, which have
been regarded as the greatest obstacles to
national unity, are in fact and according to the
conviction of ourselves, who are representa-
tives of the two principal confessions in Jugo-
slavia, no obstacles at all to the practical reali-
zation of our ideal of one nation in one State;
that the free and united Jugoslav nation should
be permitted — free from foreign interference —
to organize the Jugoslav state on a democratic
basis, which will guarantee political and re-
ligious freedom; that hitherto Serbia and
Montenegro have proved by their excellent
example that Catholic and Orthodox Christians
can live together in love and friendship in one
State. We speak in our own name and in
that of our brothers, who are still in Austro-
Hungarian bondage, and we are sure that these
brothers would speak as we do, were they per-
mitted the liberty to do so."

SLOVENES IN AMERICA

On April 28, 1916, a great Slovene meeting
was held in Cleveland, U. S. A., at which 500
delegates represented the Slovene emigrants in
North America. The meeting adopted a resolu-
tion which was sent to President Wilson and
which reads: —

"We, Slovenians of Cleveland and vicinity,
gathered together in a national mass meeting,
April 28, 1916, realize that in view of the
present conditions existing between the United
States and the German Empire, it is our
patriotic duty as good American cititzens to
pronounce our unlimited loyalty to the consti-
tion and laws of the United States; and we
express our loyalty and our sincere thanks to
the President, Woodrow Wilson, for his noble
defence of humanity, honour, and the welfare
of American citizens.

4 'We express also our heartfelt gratitude
to those fighting for real democracy and the
freedom of small and oppressed nations, and
we thank noble France and her allies, as we
see in their victory the liberation of our
brethern suffering under the inhuman Austro-
Hungarian rule, from which tyranny we fled
across the ocean to the land of golden liberty.

"United by ties of blood, language, and
suffering with the Creations and Serbians, we
feel the sacrifices and sorrows of Serbia as our
own suffering, and we hope from the bottom of
our hearts for the liberation and union of our
nation in one independent and democratic state
of Jugoslavia."

JUGOSLAVS IN AMERICA AND
PREPARADNESS

With reference to the Preparadness in the
United States, the Jugoslav immigrants called
several meetings, from which the following
message was sent to President Wilson: —

"The Southern Slav Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes here assembled at their national meet-
ing, send their most sincere greetings to Your
Excellency, and beg to express their complete
confidence in your guidance of the politics of
the United States. They are prepared to
respond to your call at any moment, should it
become necessary to repulse foreign attacks
aimed at the foundations of our democratic
institutions."

The meeting received the following
answer : —

"The President highly appreciates the
noble words of our message, and has ordered
me to express his profound gratitude to you
and to all concerned. Your friendly assurances
have pleased and encouraged him extremely. —
Yours sincerely,

"J. P. TUMULTY,
"Secretary to the President of the U. S."

SOUTHERN SLAVS APPEAL

A GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE

SOUTHERN SLAVS IN SOUTH

AMERICA

In January, 1916, at a meeting held in
Autofagasta, Chile, the delegates from all the
Jugoslav Colonies in South America, passed
the following resolution : —

"In these epoch-making times of sacrifice
and hope for right and freedom, we proclaim
first of all the indivisibility of our Serbo-
Croato-Slovene National Unity, which must be
politically realized, even as it is already
morally accomplished .Consequently, we declare
that we will never permit that purely Jugo-
slav territories be sacrificed or partitioned,
particularly our Adriatic littoral, which is
inhabited by Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. We
appeal to all the Powers who are at the present
moment fighting for the principles of national-
ity and justice to safeguard the unity of our
race, and thus to enable Serbia to fulfil her
mission of liberation, which is one of the con-
ditions of stable peace in Europe. The dismem-
berment of the Adriatic littoral would be a
terrible injustice, especially in a war for the
liberation of nations.

"With the repeated declaration that they
have broken all ties that bound them to the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the House of
Habsburg, they place themselves at the disposal
of the Serbian Govennent and express their
complete confidence in the Southern Slav
Committee in London, which they look upon as
the legitimate representative body of the
Southern Slav countries under the Austro-
Hungarian yoke.

"They consider themselves — and desire to
be considered by the Allies of Serbia — as Allies
in the common struggle, and claim the protec-
tion of the representatives of the Entente."

This congress, which was presided over by
Messrs. Petrinovic and Jordan, assumed truly
impressive proportions. All the Jugoslav
colonies of the five Republics were united in a
huge gathering in order to take their import-
ant decisions jointly, and to form a vast Jugo-
slav National Defence organization.

The attendance was considerable, in spite
of intervening distances and travelling ex-
penses. Chilian personages, as well as French
and English, were present. M. Micic, Delegate
from the London Committe, and M. Leontic,

THE SOUTHERN

Representative of the Young Jugoslavs, were
likewise present.

In six days of deliberation, the Jugoslavs
of South America have fulfilled all the hopes
of their fellow-citizens, and at this momentius
juncture they have nobly fulfilled their
national duty and deserved well of their
country.

They have severed all the links that could
still bind them to the Empire. They have
placed themselves at the disposal of "their
native King", Peter I., and of the Serbian
Goverment. They have passed a vote of com-
plete confidence on the Southern Slav Com-
mittee, regarding this as the sole legitimate
representative body of the enslaved countries.
Prom the practical point of view, these resolu-
tions assumed the following forms. A new
organization, the Jugoslav National Defence,
has been formed with a very thorough-going
programme. Mr. Baburica is the President,
and the Council (Senate) is presided over by
Mr. J. Moro. Next, an amalgamation of all
Jugoslav papers in South America has been
realized, and all will henceforth represent a
single outlook. Furthermore, the members
have contributed the largest (proportionate)
donation to the Serbo-Montenegrin Red Cross
Society and Orphans, and have undertaken the
responsibility for the budget of the Southern
Slav Committee. Finally, they have recruited
a volutary legion to help in the national
deliverance.

These, then, are the practical results. Their
solidarity with martyred Serbia, thus openly
avowed by the Congress, demonstrates that the
Jugoslavs deserve their liberty, since they are
prepared and demand as their right to suffer
for its name. Thus we are in possession of
yet another proof that the Jugoslav nation in
its entirety is conscious of the greatness of the
times through which we are passing, and of the
aim in view.

The Jugoslovenska Drzava, the organ of
the Jugoslav National Defence, in bringing out
its first number, comments upon the growing
interest aroused by the Jugoslav cause among
the Chilian public and the foreign colonies.
The entire Chilian press has devoted long
articles, and in some cases an entire issue, to
these events. Chilian publicists (notably M.
Villagrau-Valenzuela) spoke at the Congress.
Jugoslav faith and determination deserve in the
eyes of everybody a respect which ought to be

SLAV'S APPEAL

all the greater as it is manifesting itself so
strikingly at the very moment when the in-
dependent principalities — Serbia and Monte-
negro— are likewise crushed and enslaved in
their turn.

It is well to mention that the South Amer-
ican Jugoslavs come for the greater part from
the littoral of Dalmatia and Croatia, notably
the presidents of the Congress and the new
organizations, are Croats from the littoral, and
all are natives of the Dalmatian Isles.

THE JUGOSLAV COLONY IN
NEW ZEALAND

There is a small Jugoslav colony in New
Zealand, numbering 3,000 Croats, chiefly
working men from Dalmatia. This tiny colony
has nevertheless its own friendly societies and
publishes its own newspaper. Since the begin-
ing of the war it has collected £200 for the
British Relief Fund, £2,000 for the Serbian and
Montenegrin Red Cross Society and the Relief
Fund for Austrian emigrants, and given one
hundred volunteers to the British Army.

JUGOSLAVS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

Last summer, the Jugoslavs — Croats, Slo-
venes, and Serbs — in British Columbia have
organized themselves and have held a mass
meeting in Vancouver. The meeting, which
was attended by many British sympathizers,
was very fully reported in all the English
papers in Vancouver, and the sympathy
extended to the Jugoslav cause by the Press
has been quite remarkable. At the meeting the
present position of the Jugoslavs in Austria-
Hungary and the efforts for deliverance and
unification were explained, after which a
resolution was passed, demanding the liber-
ation of all the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes
from Austria-Hungary and their unification
with Serbia in one single independent State.
Telegrams expressing loyalty to their land of
refuge and to the cause of the Allies were sent
to H. R. H. the Duke of Connaught, to Sir
Robert Borden, the Canadian Premier, to Mr.
W. J. Bowser, Premier of British Columbia,
and to the United States.

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

THE SOUTHERN SLAVS APPEAL TO THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Based upon the immortal
"Declaration of Independence."

When in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the powers
of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's
God entitles them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the
separation from the dual monarchy, namely
Austria-Hungary and to form a union with our
kin of southern Europe based upon the Ameri-
can democratic principles, consisting of the
following branches of the Southern Slavic
race, namely, Croatians, Serbians and Slovenes.

We hold these truths to be selfevi.dent, that
all men are created equal, that they are endow-
ed by their Creator, with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and
the pursuit of Happiness. And since the
government of the Dual Monarchy, Austria-
Hungary, is entirely foreign to its downtrod-
den Slavic subjects in race and traditions, it
has furthered its tyrannical ambitions by at-
tempting severely to Germanize them, who are
a people with nobler traditions, more ancient
than the Teutonic, whose so called "flower
of chivalry" in the time of the Crusades, name-
ly the Teutonic "Knights of the Cross", were
in reality but a band of robbers and plunder-
ers, masquerading under the sacred symbol of
"The Cross", conquering Prussia, Pomerania,
etc., in 1309, and successfully Germanizing the
Slavic inhabitants by the power of the sword.

The history of the present Emperor
Francis Joseph is a monstrous record of re-
peated injuries and usurpations, all having for
direct object the establishment of an absolute
tyranny over the Southern Slavs as a whole.
To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid
world :

He has with the assistance of his Germanic
clique, dissolved parliament repeatedly for
opposing their invasions on the rights of the
people; sent swarms of officials to harass our
people and eat out their substance ; refused
his assent to laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good; effected to

render the military superior and independent
of the civil power ; abolished some of our most
valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the
forms of our government ; politically attempt-
ed to complete the works of death, desolation
and tyranny, already many times begun with
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and
totally unworthy of the heads of a civilized na-
tion; constrained our people to bear arms
against their brethren, the Serbians especially,
or to fall themselves by their hands; incited
domestic insurrections amongst us, and have
allied themselves with that gory tornado, the
Turk, against democracy and civilization; and
in every stage of these oppressions we have
petitioned for redress in the most humble
terms, being in each and every instance answer-
ed only by repeated injury.

A government whose fundamental princi-
ples are thus marked by acts, which define
barbarous tyrants, are unfit for human fellow-
ship among sister nations.

We Croatians, Serbians and 'Slovenes (or
Slovenians) situated in the southern part of
the Dual Monarchy, together with our kindred
states have for ten centuries been the bulwark
of Christendom against the Turks, Avars and
other tribes of Mongol origin. Theorize, our
American brother, theorize upon the vast dif-
ference that would have been to the detriment
of western civilization if the Southern Slav
did not for a thousand years resist the west
ward march of Asiatic barbarians on many a
glorious battlefield, immortally inscribed in
history ! Almighty God, alone, may know if
the Gaul, Anglo-Saxon or Latin would have
advanced from darkness, and taken the world
with them as they did, if it were not for the
heroic Slav battling the hordes of Satan on the
eastern and southern borders of Europe.

The only source of information to be ha'"
by the western world was through Teutonic
channels, and it being the height of absurdity
to expect compliments from one's tyrant, we
therefore are not surprised at the mistakei
conception of the European Slavic world in
general, that is held in this glorious republic,

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

Henryk Sienkiewicz, the author of "Quo
Vadis", said that "America was the conscience
of the world." AMERICANS! we appeal to
that conscience ; to those noble hearts that feed
martyred Belgium; to your seats of science
whose genius freed stricken Serbia of typhus ;
to those noble traditions and impulses th
drove you into the realm of Mars in 1861 fo
over four bloody years, which resulted in the
emancipation of the black race and the prese?-
vation of the Great Union under the genir-
of martyred Lincoln, — for sympathy — for You'
Voice at the Fatal Hour, to help us secure our
coveted freedom through the power of you:
moral and material influence in world con-
ferences and diplomacy.

The Central Empires, in their official war
reports, state that the Croatians or Dalmatians
and other Slavs are enthusiastic victors in com-
bats with their brother Slavs, such as Rus-

sians and Serbians, thereby trying to sow the
seed of discord even among the Slavs through-
out the world, by trying to fasten their bloody
claws on the conscience of their numerous
victims.

Therefore, we wish to express our thanks
and appreciation to the American people for
liberties extended us and sincerely desire to re-
mind them of their ancestors of the Revolution-
ary War, the immortal heroes of 1776, when-
ever they enter a discussion of the Slavs in
general, thereby extending us what is right-
fully ours, — the sympathies of a great demo-
cracy, towards a downtrodden nation that de-
sires a share of the glow of that mighty
beacon— LIBERTY.

From the "Appeal"
Issued under the auspices of the
Croatian Benevolent Society "Dalmatia"
of Oakland, Cal. 1916.

MUSSULMANS FROM BOSNIA-EEEZEGOVINA FOR THE ALLIES.

La Tribune de Geneve, in its issue of July
8, 1916 publishes the proclamation by the
Bosnian and Herzegovinian Mussulmans living
in Switzerland: —

"The Mussulman academic youth from
Bosnia-Herzegovina in Switzerland unanimous-
ly hails the action of the Grand Sherif of Mec-
ca, the chief of Islam, and sovereign lord of
the native county of Mohammed.

"As faithful sons of Islam we perfectly
approve the manner in which the Grand She-
rif has acted in the interests of our sacred
duties, and we emphatically blame the present
Government in Turkey, which has dishonoured
our Holy Faith by placing it at the service
of Austro-German interests. It is a great mis-
take to believe that the Turkish Sultans were
the rightful protectors of Islam. Neither Or-
togol Bey, nor Osman Ali, nor the Sultan So-
liman II. the Great ever possessed any author-
ity to justify their depriving one Mussulman
race of liberty to the advantage of another;
and they are still less in a position to justify
the abuse of our religion in their own interests.

"Before; the proclamation of the 'Holy

War' on the part of Turkey, our Islam was
not in the least threatened. By this declara-
tion Turkey has not only ruined herself, but
she has also — and this is far more regrettable
— endangered our whole religion. We hold
that she has thereby forfeited all her rights
as protectress ot? Islam.

"Turkey can never justify herself for
having proclaimed the 'Holy War' for the ad-
vantage of the Austro-Germans, the secular
enemies of Islam, and she will be responsible
to the Sherifate. We Musselmans of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, who well know the methods em-
ployed by the State called Austria, are in a
better position than others to say what use
Austria has made of our religion.

"Therefore the Musselman youth of Bos-
nia-Herzegovina cannot but hail with joy the
movement of the Arabs who have risen in de-
fence of our religion, and rejoice in their
action. We cannot conceal the fact that our
sympaties are always on the side of those who
devote themselves to the defence of the prin-
ciples of religious and national freedom."

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

FRENCH BOOKS.

36. La retraite de Serbie, par Louis L.
Thomson, Medecin major, Paris,
Hachette & Co.

37. Pierre Bertrand. L'Autriche a voulu
la grande guerre. Paris. 1916.

38. La Serbie et Kossovo, par le Dr. T.
Georgevitch, Paris, 1916.

39. La Question de 1'Adriatique, par
Charles Vellay. Paris. 1915. (Literai-
rie Chapelat).

40. Le Plan Pangermaniste demasque.
Par Andre Cheradame. (Paris, Plon-
Nourrit A Cie, 1916).

41. Le Banat, par Gregoire Yakchitch.
Paris. (Plon-Nourrit & Cie. 1916).

42. Le Probleme Italo — slave, par P. T.
de Sakolovic. (Paris, Plon-Nourrit &
Cie.) 1916.

44. Le Probleme italo-slave, par J. T.
(Paris, Plon-Nourrit & Cie. 1916).

45. L 'Autriche-Hongrie en guerre centre
ses sujet, par Pierre de Lanux et Mi-
lan Toplica. (Paris, Plon-Nourrit &
Cie., 1915).

46. L 'Unite Yougoslave (manifeste de lo
jeunene Serbe, Croat et Slovine reu-
nie). (Paris, Plon-Nourrit & Cie.
1915).

47. Les Yougoslaves, lour paise, leur ave-
nir, par H. Hinkovic. (Paris, Librai-
rie Felix Alcan, 1916).

48. La Grande Serbie, par E. Denis. (Pa-
ris 1915. Librairie Delagrave.)

49. La Yougoslavie, par Pierre de Lanux,
(Paris, Payot, 1916).

50. L 'epopee Serbe, par H. Barby, (Paris
1916).

51. L'Autriche et la Hongrie de demain,
par le Dr A. Chervin, (Paris, Berger-
Levrault, 1916).

52. Les Yougoslaves au point de vue
ethnique. Leur union nationale, par
le Dr A. Chervin. (Paris, L 'Associa-
tion francaise pour 1'Avancement des
Sciences, 1916).

53. Les persecutions des Yougoslaves.
Proces politiques (1908-1916). Avan-
propos de Victor Berard. (Paris,
Plon-Nourrit & Cie. 1916).

54. Le Regime Politique d'Autriche-Hun-
grie en Bosnie-Herzegovine. A les
Proces de Houte Trahison, par un
groupe d' Homines politique yougo-
slaves, (Paris, Zupremerie Nouvelle-
Aunemane. 1916).

55. Balcanicus. La Bulgaria ; ses ambi-
tion, sa trahison, (1915).

56. La liquidation de PAutriche-Hungrie,
par Louis Leger, (Paris. 1915).

57. Avec Parmee d' Orient. Dardanelles,
Serbie, Salonique (avril 1915 — Jan-
vier 1916) par. Joseph Vassal, (Paris,
Plon-Nourrit & Cie. 1916).

58. La Hongrie d'hier A de demain, par
Andre Dubosco, (Paris, Blond et
Gay, 1916).

PART V.

THE JUGOSLAV VOLUNTEERS.

Even during the Balkan war many Jugo-
slavs from Austria-Hungary have deserted in-
to Serbo-Montenegrin armies and fought on
their soil.

In the beginning of this war all those Ju-
go-slavs from Austria-Hungary who happened
to be in Serbia and Montenegro at that time
and whose numbers exceeded two thousand,
placed themselves at the disposal of the Serb-
ian and Montenegrin authorities. Whoever
from the younger generation could, he immi-
grated during the first months of the war into
Serbia and Montenegro. A considerable num-
ber of such deserters came from Dalmatia, but
the greatest numbers fled from Bosnia and
Herzegovina. During the fighting in 1914 a
great number of Jugo-slav soldiers from Aus-
tro-Hungary surrendered readily and of whom
several thousands later joined of their own
free will either the fighting line or the police
forces or the civil service of Serbia and Monte-
negro. There were entire companies and in-
deed whole battalions from the Austro-Hunga-
rian armies who passed over to the Serbian
side : thus a whole regiment from Dalmatia,
has passed over with all officers, banners,
arms, music and equipment to the Serbian side.
During the Serbian retreat in the winter of
1915 the greatest number of the Austrian war
prisoners of Slav nationality joined the Serb-
ian fighting lines, and althoug^b, all the
prisoners were at liberty either to remain in
Serbia or to return to the Austrian lines, none
from the Jugo-slav prisoners remained in
Serbia. None of the war prisoners would re-
main but all joined the Serbian armies in their
retreat through Albania. Even at this moment
there are in the Serbian army great numbers
of Jugo-slav volunteers from Austria.

In the very beginning of this war many
Slavs, especially the Czechs and Jugo-Slav, sur-
rendered themselves to the Russians where-
ever an opportunity presented itself. This is
explained by the fact that in the first engage-
ments around Lvov (Lemberg) the greater
part of the third army corps, composed of
pure Slovenes, has reached Russian hands, as

also the thirteenth army corps composed chief-
ly of the Croatians forms the bulk of the lists
of the war prisoners in Russia. That is the
only manner to explain the fact that there are
to-day in Russia in round numbers 200,000 Ju-
go-slav, Austrian soldiers, who have been
captured.

The majority of these prisoners have been
liberated by the Russian Government, and they
have volunteered and formed two complete
divisions who are being drilled under the
command of the superior Serbian officiers, as
also the ex-Austrian officiers who have joined
those divisions.

Besides there are many Jugo-slav volun-
teers in British and French armies. It may be
established that since the beginning of this
war untill now at least 100,000 Jugo-slavs have
participated or organized for battle in the war
against the Central Powers.

All this proves most persuasively that the
Austrian Jugo-slavs long so much for their li-
beration that they give freely and in masses
their lives in the struggle for liberation and
helping their Serbian brothers, the Liberators.

JUGOSLAV SOLDIERS IN THE
FRENCH ARMY.

There are many Jugoslavs serving in the
French Foreign Legion, and fighting bravely
on the side of the gallant French. One of
them, Thomas Goricki, was recently mortally
wounded, and we fear that he has since died.
He was a brave and gallant boy, and was de-
corated for valour. As far back as on Feb. 8
the Paris Temps brought the following notice
about him, sent by one of its correspondents. :

"Thomas Goricki, from Virovitica (Croa-
tia), private in the marching regiment of the
Foreign Legion, at present on leave in Paris,
came to see me, and told me the following:
'As I was in France at the moment of the
declaration of war, I hastened to enlist in the
Foreign Legion. The medal of St. George
which you see on my breast was recently be-
stowed on me by His Majesty the Tsar. Several
others of my countrymen, who have distin-
guished themselves on the fields of battle by

deeds of dash or heroism, were similarly deco-
rated. All of us Jugoslavs are mixed up with
the Czechs, and that is why even the French do
not know that we too are fighting on their
side. We are fighting with enthusiasm beside
the French, for their victory, which will be
ours as well, because the foremost result of
this victory must be the dissolution of Aus-
tria-Hungary, and consequently the deliverance
of our whole Jugoslav race from the Austro-
Magyar yoke and our reunion with resuscitat-
ed Serbia."

SOUTHERN SLAV VOLUNTEERS FROM
RUSSIA.

Dr. H. Hinkovic, for the Jugoslav Com-
mittee, gave following communication through
"Manchester Guardian", September 1916:

According to a Petrograd despatch pub-
lished in the papers, Serbian troops, under
the command of the Serbian General Hadjich,
have entered Rumania in order to co-operate
with the Russian and Rumanian troops. Evi-
dently they could only come from Russia. But
how did they arrive there? And do we not
know that the remnants of the Serbian troops
who survived the Albanian castrophe are at
present on the Salonika front? Kindly allow
me to unveil this mystery.

These Serbian contigents are principally
formed of the Southern Slav prisoners of
war who succeeded in surrendering to the Rus-
sians. The war which the Germans and Ma-
gyars of Austria-Hungary are waging against
Serbia and Russia is for the Austro-Hungarian
Southern Slav (Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes) a
fratricidal one. To force them to fight their
brothers and kinsmen is a crime unparalleled
in history. Thousands of young men succeed-
ed in escaping from Austria-Hungary, and
other thousands who flocked from both Ameri-
cas and the British over-seas dominions joined
the Serbian army as volunteers and helped to
win its magnificent victories. There are also
Southern Slavs in the British and French ranks.
Tens of thousands are working in American,
British, and French ammunition factories.
Those who have been by force enrolled in the
Austro-Hungarian armies surrendered in mass-
es wherever there was an opportunity. It was
the Southern Slav Committee which took the

JTHB SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

initiative of forming volunteer contigents of
Southern Slavs captured by Russians. At our
appeal our heroes rushed from all parts of the
vast Russsian Empire to perform their sacred
duty. Enthusiastically they offered their young
lives to a noble cause. This cause is to crush
their gaolers — the Germans and Magyars; to
destroy their prison — Austria-Hungary ; to free
themselves, and to establish with Serbia an
independent State embracing the whole Jugo-
slav race.

There are those who ask if the Croats and
'Slovenes really wish to join the Serbs. The
Jugoslav volunteers who entered Rumania and
those who from every possible part rush to
Salonika to enlarge the number of the Serbian
fighters answer this question in an incontest-
able manner. They are all ready to shed their
blood with their Serbian brothers with a com-
mon enthusiasm for their common fatherland,
for their common national ideals.

FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG, 10, 16th, has
an article from its correspondent Alolf Koes-
ter. "The news that there are Russian troops
fighting in Dobrudja, under the Rumanian
command, must be confirmed; it is a fact
though, that on the Roumanian side there is
one Serbian division in which besides others,
there are a number of Austro-Hungarian vo-
lunteers. The Serbian officiers in command
have come fron Corfu to Russia, around
England...."

THE GLOBE (N. Y.), of September 17th,
has received the following from Lausanne ;.
Some time ago the telegraphic news has stated
that there are a number of Serbian troops in
Odessa, Russia. We are able, now, to give
some authentic news about this unusual phe-
nomen. From the large number of prisoners of
war captured by Russia, more then one half
of them, or about 700,000 are Slav, Rouma-
nians or Italians. Russia did not ask one
prisoner of war to volunteer into the army,
but thousands of prisoners ; Croat, Bosnian and
Herzegovinian have asked to be enrolled in a
Serbian Corps. Their wishes have been grant-
ed and last May, one hundred and thirty Serb-
ian Officiers have gone to Russsia to organize
these volunteers. Since then the number,
without doubt, has risen considerably.

This movement is of more political then
military consideration and it will no doubt,
be of great significance for the Austro-Hun-
garian Slavs."

ti SotifHEttN SLAV'S

THE JUGOSLAV VOLUNTEERS IN THE

BATTLE OF DOBRUDJA,

SEPTEMBER 1916.

The first Jugoslav division, numbering
25,000 men, has given an excellent account of
themselves in the big battle fought the later
part of September in Dobrudja. This division
is composed entirely ot ex-Austrian soldiers
that were made prisoneres of war in Russia
and now are volunteering into the army. They
were on the left of the battle line covering
the town of Constanza. The position of the
Allied army was extremely bad, and when the
lines started to waver the time came for our
volunteers to go into the battle under the
leadership of he high Serbian officers. The
enemy stormed the lines of this particular di-
vision eighteen times without success. Furious
at such resistance, Mackensen ordered cavalry
to storm the lines but our boys broke the enemy
lines with bombs and bayonets. Five thou-
sand Germans were killed and eight big guns
and sixteen mittrailleuse composed the booty
taken from the Germans. The Second Jugo-
slav division has been also formed and with
the first one it will make a special Jugoslav
Corps under the command of the Serbian
general.

This has been also noted by the Austrian
Press and the Roumanian high command has
complimented our volunteers.

Even the Russian Tsar on the occassion
of the review of the Jugoslav troops at Odesa
has congratulated our troops for its bravery.

THE PROCLAMATION OF GEN. 2IVKOVI6
TO THE JUGOSLAV VOLUNTEERS.

M. Zivkovic, Serbian commander and gen-
eral adjutant to His Majesty the King.

The Novoe Vremja, leading Russian news-
paper, published in Petrograd, Oct. 17, has
brought the following order of the day, given

by General M. Zivkovic, commander of the
Jugoslav volunteers in Russia.

"I consider myself fortunate that his
Majesty our beloved King Peter has given me
the command of the volunteer corps, which is
composed of the sons of the Serbo-Croat-Slo-
vene people, and of our brothers Czechs and
Slovaks. I am especially glad to see you all
united, of your own free will, in the blessed
land of the defender of Slavs, the great Russia.
I am confident that the long awaited day, the
day of the liberation and the union of the Jugo-
slav people and the liberation of the Czechs and
Slovaks from the Austrian yoke, has arrived.

In the past, we have always been cogni-
zant of our peril and so for centuries we had
to fight our enemies. Today, as participants
in this great war for rights, we can see more
clearly, better than ever before, that the safe-
ty of the Jugoslavs lies in unity and solidarity.
I can see that your young hearts are full with
this idea, and I as your commander can testify
that you have been fighting for it as heroes,
as well as your brothers from Sumava, and the
first division's heroical sacrifice is the best
proof of it.

Heroes, do not forget for a moment that
in this war against our wicked enemies, not
only the survival of the Kingdom of Serbia is
at stake, but the whole question of unification
of all Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in one insep-
arable state of Jugoslavia, as well as the future
of our sister countries, Bohemia and Slovak-
land.

Serbia has proved to the world that her
existence is not worth while without being
united with her sisters, Croatia and Slovenia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Dalma-
tia, Srijem, Backa and Banat, and without free
Bohemia and Slovakland. In volunteering to
fight for Jugoslavia, you are fulfilling the vow
of your great teachers: "Love your brother,
whatever his faith."

?HB SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPBAJ-

LORD CROMER ON THE JUGOSLAVS

(From "The Spectator", August, 1916.)

"Some of the smaller countries of the
world owe their importance largely to the
accident of their geographical position. Egypt
and Belgium are cases in point. Serbia is
another. Serbia occupies a position of the
highest strategical and political importance.
'Just as in the Middle Ages Serbia lay across
the path of the Turkish conquerors moving
westwards, so last autumn she blocked the path
of the German conquerors moving eastwards.'
It cannot be too clearly understood that the
Drang nach Osten has constituted the corner-
stone of the foundations on which all recent
German policy has been built. The fact that
at the commencement of the war the efforts
of the German General Staff appeared to be
exclusively directed to reaching Paris some-
what obscured this view of the question. The
British public were disposed to think that
German action in 1914 was analogous to that
of 1870. In reality, no such analogy existed.
In 1870, the Germans were fighting to secure
German unity and nothing more. This almost
necessarily led to a conflict with France. In
1914, the French contest was merely a side-
show. The defeat of the French Army and the
occupation of Paris were mainly regarded as
indispensable preludes to the execution of an
Eastern policy which had long been contem-
plated. This became apparent when the
advance to Paris was checked. The true cha-
racter of the war became manifest when King
Ferdinand of Bulgaria threw off the mask and
events developed in Mesopotamia. The real
objective of the German Goverment was then
revealed. That objective had been explained
by numerous German writers long before the
war commenced."

Dealing with various ways of combating
Germany's sinister and ambitious projects,
Lord Cromer says: "One of them is to main-
tain intact that naval supremacy which excites
the boundless wrath of Count Reventlow, and
which has induced him to term Great Britain
the 'Vampire of the Continent.' But this alone
would not suffice to secure the object in view.
Another highly efficacious method would be
to adopt the policy advocated by Dr. Seton-
Watson, and described by Prince Alexander of
Serbia as 'the union in one single Fatherland
of all the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, who are

one people with the same traditions, the same
tongue, the same tendencies, but whom an evil
fate has divided.' Further, Bohemia must be
rendered autonomous. The disintegration of
Austria would be a necessary consequence of
these changes. The German provinces of
Austria would fall to Germany. There is no
reason why they should not do so. Their
adjunction would be in strict conformity with
the application of those Nationalist principles
which are generally favoured in all democratic
countries. Moreover, the addition of a South
German population to the German Empire
would possibly strengthen the revolt against
that disastrous Prussian hegemony which has
caused such fatal results, and which may not
improbably receive a check from the Germans
themselves when the present war is con-
cluded."

Lord Cromer concludes: —

"The formation of a strong Southern Slav
State, which 'would form a barrier against
Teutonic aggression, ought not to encounter
any opposition in Italy. Its creation would be
distinctly favourable to Italian interests. The
Hungarians will, of course, be violently op-
posed to any such political combination. The
spirit which still animates the Magyars is the
same as that proclaimed by Kossuth, who was
only a Liberal when direct Magyar interests
were at stake, when he said: 'I know no Croa-
tian nationality'. This opposition should not,
however, be allowed to stand in the way of the
realization of the project. On grounds alike of
sentiment and interest, the establishment of a
Southern Slav Federation merits not merely
the sympathy, but the full support of
the British Government. Thus, Dr. Seton-
Watson says: 'The small and land-locked
Serbia of the past will be transformed into a
strong and united Southern Slav State upon
the eastern shore of the Adriatic, no longer
seething with unrest as the result of Magyar
misrule in Croatia and Austrian economic
tariffs, but free at last to develop a national
life which has resisted five centuries of
Turkish oppression.' Moreover, by the adop-
tion of this plan not only would an act of
political justice be performed, but a very
valuable guarantee for the future peace of the
world would be secured."

PART VI

CROATS AND SLOVENES IN AUSTRIA- HUNGARY
AND THE SOUTHERN SLAV UNITY.

CROATIA AND NATIONAL UNITY.

From the fifteenth century to the present
day every Croatian Parliament has consistently
demanded that the national territory should
not be divided, but united in one state. Croa-
tia has always been the home of every move-
ment in favour of Jugoslav unity. Her greatest
men, no less than every one of her nineteenth-
century Parliaments, have never ceased to
preach the doctrine of Jugoslav unity to the
nation, especially to the Serbs and Croats. It
was because Austria and Germany realized
that a union between Croats and Slovenes on
the one hand, and 'Serbs and Croats on the
other, would endanger their supremacy in the
Adriatic, that the Central Powers provoked
this war, through which they hoped to deal the
Jugoslavs a mortal blow by crushing the New
Serbia of the Karageorgevic, that most dan-
gerous focus for the creation of a future Ju-
goslav state.

In 1712 the Croatian Parliament accepted
the Austrian "Pragmatic Sanction" before the
Hungarian Parliament did so, and independ-
ently of its decision. The Pragmatic Sanction
includes a clause to the effect that the Croatian
nation transfers "the Eoyal Power and Prero-
gative and the Rights of the Kingdom to such
descendants of the house of Austria in the fe-
male line as shall become possessed of Styria,
Carnia, and Carinthia," thus emphasizing the
demand of the nation that the Slovene coun-
tries should not be divided from Croatia.

The national awakening of Croatia and
the Croats began with the so-called "Illyrian
movement" in 1832. This movement was es-
sentially Jugoslav in its character, having for
its ideal the union of the whole nation from
Skutari to Varna and the Triglav.

In 1848, during the reign of Ban Jellacic
and at the time of the war against the Ma
gyars, who tried even then to Magyarize Croa-

tia, the Croatian Parliament proclaimed "the
unity of the Serbs and Croats" and their
brotherhood in arms, adopting "all Serbian
claims as our own, even as we form one nation
with the Serbs, and will never permit ourselves
to be divided from them." The Parliament
further demanded that the provinces of Dal-
matia, Istria, Gorizia, Carnia, Carniola, and
Southern Styria should be included in the
union of Croatia and the Serbian Vojvodina.

When in 1860 the Austrian Constitution
was re-established, and the Conference con-
voked by the Ban of Croatia was invited to
express its views, it replied by demanding that
"all Dalmatia, and at least the Quarnero Is-
lands of Krk, Cres, and Losinj belonging to
Istria, as well as the former Croatian districts
of Volosco, Labin, and Novigrad should be

united with Croatia."

* * *

The Croatian Parliament of 1861 and 1865
again affirmed the national unity of Croats
and Serbs, and demanded the territorial union
of all Jugoslav lands in Austria.

* * #

Even under the regime of Count Khuen
Hedervary (1883-1903), the most corrupt ever
known in Croatia, the Croatian Parliament in-
sisted upon the necessity of free and brotherly
intercourse between Serbs and Croats; and
the language used in all Government offices
and schools was officially designated as the
"Serbo-Croat language."

Since 1906 the majority in the Croatian
Parliament has consisted of members of the
Serbo-Croat Coalition, a group of parties which
has never failed to obtain a majority at all
elections, even upon occasions when the
Government has done its utmost to terrorize
the electors. The Serbo-Croat Coalition has for
its party programme the union of Croats,
Serbs, and Slovenes. The opposition consists
of a few members belonging to a small party
which is both Austrophil and Serbophobe. The
Magyaropbil party came to an end many years
ago.

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

CROATS AND MAGYARS.

We quote the following extracts (penned
in 1860 and 1862) from the writings of Mons.
Fran jo Racki, the well-known Croatian histo-
rian and politician, and first President of the
Jugoslav Academy of Art and Science, found-
ed in 1867 by Bishop Strossmayer (vide Vla-
dimir Zagorki, Francois Racki et la Renais-
sance Scientifique et Politique de la Croatic.
Paris, 1909) :—

"If the Balkan Peninsula had heen grant-
ed the centuries of comparative peace necessa-
ry to the development of state society, the
racial differences would have been gradually
obliterated, and the various nationalities amal-
gamated in one national community, which
would have proved strong enough to constitute
an independent State between the Adriatic and
the Black Sea. The principal reason why the
Jugoslavs have not taken that place in history
to which they are entitled both by their num-
bers and their geographical position, is that
they never succeeded in creating their own
body politic.

"The treaty between Hungary and Croa-
tia in the twelfth century not only interrupted
the growth of the Croatian state, but post-
poned the development of Jugoslav unity for
centuries. Every thinking man must admit
that South Eastern Europe owes its present
aspect by which it is a menace to civilization,
only to the absence of a strong Jugoslav state,
which would have prevented the Turks from
establishing themselves in Europe.

"Hungarian policy has always aimed at
undermining Croatian independence, so that
Hungary might reach the sea across Croatia,
just as in former times (this was written in
1860) Hungary sougfit to dominate Bosnia,
Serbia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, so that she
might carry her power as far as the Balkan
Mountains and the Lower Danube. The idea of
Jugoslav unity, no matter whether it appeared
in Croatia, Serbia, or Bosnia, never had a more
determined or ruthless enemy than Hungary.

"We see in Jugoslav solidarity the strong-
est guarantee for our national existence; but,
rightly or wrongly, the Magyars see in it the
grave of their own nationality. We look upon
the liberation of the East as a primary condi-
tion for a better national future, whereas the
Magyars look upon it as the beginning of their
downfall or at least as the end of their claims
to supremacy.

' ' The Croats can honestly say to the Serbs :
'we do not aim at supremacy, because there

can be no question of supremacy between two
branches of the same nation. Whatever you
may achieve, we will gladly acknowledge it and
join hands with you. You are masters of the
Drina. May God bless your standards when
you cross the river."

We will also quote Tadija Smiciklas, the
author of the first systematically compiled}
history of Croatia, late President of the Jugo-
slav Academy (died 1914). In 1888 he wrote
the following: —

"The Serbs and Croats are one nation. The
best and foremost sons of our nation bow
their heads before this highest principle ; but the
idea of nationality can only be realized by
national union."

SPEECH BY MR. TRUMBI6, IN THE DAL-
MATIAN DIET IN 1903, ON THE PAN-
GERMAN PERIL AND THE NEED
FOR A UNION OF THE EN-
DANGERED NATIONS.

(Mr. Trumbic is the President of the Ju-
goslav Committee in London).

In 1903 Croatia was convulsed by a na-
tional movement which aimed at freeing the
country from Magyar tyranny as represented
by Count Khuen Hedervary. The disturbances
which arose in Croatia at the time, accom-
panied by wholesale incarcerations and nume-
rous executions under martial law, found an
echo in Dalmatia, in Istria, and in the Slovene
land; the idea of Jugoslav communion of in-
terests and the national Serbo-Croat and Slo-
vene unity was strenghtened by it and pulsated
more vigorously than before. The contempt-
uous attitude of Francis Joseph, who would
not condescent to receive the deputies of the
Dalmatian Diet, who petitioned for the aboli-
tion of martial law, merely whetted the desire
for deliverance and the hatred for Austria-
Hungary, who wanted to force the German
language upon discontented Dalmatia.

Of the leaders of that movement some ar
in Austrian prisons, others are safe obroad, be-
yond the reach of Austrian persecution, and
furthering the work of union and deliverance.
The Deputy, Dr. Trumbic, now President of
the Jugoslav Committee, made a momentous
speech at the time (Nov. 7, 1903), in which lie
exposed the methods which Austria employed

THE SOUTHERN SLAV'S APPEAL

to isolate Dalmatia from the other Jugoslav
provinces.

Criticizing the machinations of Austria,
who was trying to introduce the German lan-
guage by force, Dr. Trumbic" said: "We d^
not want a foreign language. The rights, sen-
timents, and aspirations of the nation are on-
posed to it, because they demand that pn'd?
of place should be given to our native l«*v
guage, both in the Government offices and in
the home administration of our own country.
National sentiment refuses to tolerate subjec-
tion to the foreigner within its own borders.
Our national aspirations are not leading us
towards Germanism, but towards liberty. An
attempt is being made to force the German
language upon us under the pretext of unify-
ing the administration of the State. But in a
State desirous of possessing wholesome and
sound foundations there can be no needs be-
yond the needs of the people. And woe to
the State in which the interests of the State
are not identical with those of the people!

"Germanism threatens to make the aspi-
rations of the Croats an impossibility. Greater
Germany is gravitating towards the South of
Europe to enslave under its yoke the beauti-
ful lands which are the heritage of the Croats.
Germany is threatening the entire South of
Europe with her plans of conquest ; it is a fact
recognized by all Europe except Austria. Ger-
many is as great a menace to the oppressed
Croats as to the Magyar oppressors, who are
so intoxicated by their Pan-Magyar idea that
they fail to perceive that they are only the
tool of the Teuton, to be thrown away when
it has served its turn. Germany is a peril not
only to the non-Germanic nationalities in Aus-
tria and the Balkans, but also to one of the
great nations of Southern Europe, viz., our
neighbour Italy. What, then, is the lesson we
must learn from this peril? Our only lesson
is, that we must go forward all united, and
shoulder to shoulder, in order to oppose a com-
mon front to the common foe.

"It is inevitable that the Croats should
seek for support abroad, seeing that we may
look for help in vain in this Monarchy where
we are isolated and oppressed. The moral
support of foreign nations may help us more
than guns. The help of other nations and the
conviction of Europe that our cause is good,
that our claims are sacred and justified,
since they spring from the right to life
and existence, can alone change the destiny
of our nation, which has seen nothing but in-

justice and suffering in this Monarchy from
time immemorial down to this day. This
Monarchy, which ought to be a refuge for
small nations in the heart of Europe, has be-
trayed its trust. Instead of being a house of
liberty for the nations and helping them in
their progress and development, it is neither
more nor less than a slave market. Conflicts
between nationalities are raised, fictitious ad-
ministrative needs invented which are contra-
ry to the welfare of the peoples and solely ful-
fil the purpose of protracting the present state
of affairs. It seems that this Empire is incur-
able. So long as Austria felt equal to the task,
she oppressed her nationalitites single-handed ;
when she no longer felt equal to it, she created
the Dualism, handing over the nationalities
who lived in the other half of the Monarchy
to the savage caprice of the Magyars, while
she continued her own pernicious labours in
her own half.

"The events which have recently taken
place in our Croatian fatherland are calculat-
ed to disillusion even those old champions who
hoped that the Monarchy would in the end
bring its interests into harmony with those of
the Croatian people. Alas, these fair dreams
are shattered and the old champions are in de-
spair. As if all were at an end, if Austria
will not consent to be just. But this despair
is out of place so long as the nation lives ; and
we have been obliged to say: 'There is no
justice in the Monarchy for the Croats.' We
should add at once: 'Our nation has existed
before the Monarchy, and it will exist after
it.' (A voice: 'Both within the Monarchy and
without!')

"Violence will have had its day, and so
long as a nation lives on its own soil then,
so long as it is not dead, there is always hope
of success. The younger generation, by re-
awakening hope in the heart of the nation and
looking to the nation itself for support and
strenght, and abroad for moral support, will
carry on the work of emancipation, and we
shall attain our goal, which is to make the
Croats a nation which is its own master. I
will conclude my remarks with the words
with which Milan Samardzic, leader of Krivo-
sie insurgents, welcomed the Austrian General
Eodic: 'May God give Austria all she desires
for us Croats."

These are the words spoken by Mr. Trum-
bic, thirteen years ago, with the applause of
the Dalmatian Diet.

48 THE SOUTHERN

FEW OF MANY DECLARATIONS OF

POLITICAL PARTIES IN CROATIAN

PARLIAMENT SINCE THE

BEGINNING OF WAR.

When the Croatian Parliament reassem-
bled this year in July, i. e., under the most try-
ing conditions of a war atmosphere, it declared
through the Speaker, amids a storm of enthu-
siastic applause from all parties, that the Cro-
ats demand the Freedom, unity, and independ-
ence of the nation. During the sittings sharp
comments were passed upon the Germans and
Magyars, and upon the policy pursued by
Vienna and Budapest.

In one of the last sittings of the Zagreb
Sabor, Mr. Vilder, Serbo-Croat deputy and
editor of the news paper Hrvatski Pokret,
which has been suspended, spoke in answer to
a press campaign inaugurated against him by
an Austrophil journal.

Mr. Vilder said : "I am replying from the
platform of a deputy because the existing
typographic conditions (he was referring to
the censorship) do not permit me to reply
through the press to the polemics of hostile
journals. The abnormal conditions which pre-
vail because of the war are being exploited by
the Austrophil elements. Every Serb and Croat
who does not belong to the Frank party is
denounced as a traitor to the State. As for
me, I am accused of having declared that the
idea of the Serbo-Croat coalition will survive
the war. Well, yes ; here, during the war even,
I tell you frankly that the idea of national
Serbo-Croat unity will live after the war as it
lived before it. I am only re-stating here in
a few words what thousands of the best sons
of the Croatian people have said and preached.
It will be just the same in the future. Without
considering myself a prophet, I can assert with
perfect confidence that, even if after the peace
treaty the frontiers remain as they are at
present, those in power will be obliged to
reckon with this idea. ' '

Te sitting on June 14, the first of the new
session, was opened by a loyalist speech by

SLAV'S APPEAL

Mr. Pero Magdic who, referring to the war
on the Adriatic front, said: ''The enemy is
stretching his hand towards our Croatian sea
with the object of depriving us of our most
precious pearl." Mr. Veceslav Vilder, member
of the Serbo-Croat Coalition, spoke of his
attachment to the idea of Serbo-Croat unity
which he does not fear to defend in spite of all
informers. ' '

The same day, in the Budget Committee
of the Croatian Sabor, Mr. Alexander Horvat,
of the Frank party, refused to vote for the
indemnity, giving the following reason for his
refusal : —

"We have no liberty to express our
thoughts through the press. Everything moves
under the rule of the court martial, which
constantly weighs upon Croatia . . . Political
censorship is pitilessly rampant — although
utterly without system — in the columns of our-
newspapers. The Magyar politicians, both in
the Goverment and in the Opposition, are free
to express their views on the future reorganiza-
tion of the Monarchy, especially in all that
concerns the conquered territory of the king-
dom of Serbia; they discuss home and foreign
politics, and insult and provoke us at their
leisure. If we attempt to defend Croatian
rights, or even to copy what they freely write,
we are inexorably censored.

In the sitting of the Sabor on June 17 Mr.
Stjepan Radio, of the peasant party, critizised
the Hungaro-Croatian Compromise and re-
gretted the lacunae in the instruction received
by the Croatian youth. He complains of our
students' ignorance of foreign languages,
especially of Russian. His party, which
accepts the integral unity of Croats, Serbs, and
Slovenes, is opposed to the Hungaro-Croatian
Compromise, which is contrary to the national
unity: "Conscious of being Slavs and Europe-
ans we must endeavour to overthrow the exist-
ing Hungarian Goverment; the future of the
Croats is safe, because they are bound to the
West by their intellectual influence, and to
Russia by racial affinity."

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