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UCSB LIBRARY

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

AA 000 833 164 7

The fraud of Rijeka

(Fiume)

BY

Ferdo de SISIC

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB

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PARIS

IMPI{IMER[E LANG, BLANCHONG & C-

7, Rue Rochechouart, 7

1919

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Kac-siniilc of Article GG of Ooato-Mag-yar Compromise, showing that tlie paper with the new text is pasted over the original one in diflerent L handwriting.

The Fraud of Rijeka

(Fiume)

Rijeka (Fiume) was built by the Croats w^lho, from the begin- ning of the 7th century, settled on that part of the coast, in Istria and on the Islands, not to speak of Croatia itself. Till the 12th century Rijeka formed part of th^e Croatian Kingdom, after that period — the exact date and circumstances are not known — the City became subject to German influence, like the Istrian peninsula. After having changed her masters several times, Rijeka in 1467 became, through inheritance, the property of the Habsburg and in their name was governad by captains, appointed by the Emperors, until 1776 when Maria-Theresa — according to her own language, — "re-united the town directly with tke Kingdom of Croatia" (immediate regno Croatiae reincorporentur). This act was put into final execution by a special commission at the end of October 1776. The population of Rijeka welcomed the event with enthusiasm and the City Councillors voted a declaration "that they were happy to have found in the Goverment of Croatia their true father and efficient protector" (se in eodem excelso consilio rcgio verum patrem et studiosissimum protectorem nactum esse). The reasons for which Maria-Theresa resolved this step were partly the desire to develop the commerce of Croatia and its hinterland, partly administrative changes resulting in the union of Rijeka with "Civil Croatia", in return for the separation from the latter of the districts of Glina and Pclrinja which were added to "Military Croatia". It was a matter of interchange of Croatian territory.

— 6 —

After havinjff thus satisfied military interests, the Empress attended to the commercial interests of Rijeka and Croatia. Upon the proposal of the Croatian Government itself Rijeka was given special privileges so' as to enjoy in every way the same advantages as Trieste. Internal autonomy was granted to the port which, according to the proposals of the Croatian Gover- ment, was made a separate possession of the "Crown of Hungary" (to which Croatia belonged) — separatum sacrae regni Hungariae adnexum corpus. At that time nobody, neither in Hungary nor in Croatia, would under the name of "holy crown of Hungary" have for one moment understood the Magyar country of latter days, but the then existing federation of several nations for who^m the Hungarian so called holiy crown of St-Stephen was the common symbol. The Croatian Government therefore by the above quoted wording did not intend to have it understood that Rijeka was to be separated from the Kingdom of Croatia and united directly with Hungary as part of its terri- tory. It only had in mind to assure to Rijeka an autonomous position within the bounds of the crown of St-Stephen. Its pro- posal was sanctioned by Maria-Theresa on April 23rd 1779 who conferred Municipal Autonomy on Rijeka, but without any idea of creating an imperium in imperio with the right of disposing of itself; she did not detach Rijeka from the territory of Croatia.

Then follows a short interval caused by the absolutist regime of Emperor Joseph (1780-1790) and the Franco-Austrian Wars during the times of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire. During this epoch, in 1807, Rijeka obtained upon Croatian request , a seat in the Common Parliament ofPressburg (Pozony), and in 1808 in the Croatian Parliament, This illustrates Fiume's legal position at that date : as part of Croatia she was represented in the diet of Croatia, and as part of the Crown of St-Stephen, she had her seat in the Common Parliament.

Until 1830 Croatians and Magyars managed fairly amicably in their associated countries (regna socia). After that date the breach grew to such extent that a return to the former conditions became impossible. The collapse of the Kingdom of St-Stephen was the consequence. The cause of the breach was the evident intention of the Magj^ars to magj'^arize the Croats, alike with the other nationalities of Hungary, the Roumanians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, and to rob them of their independence dating back to times immemorial, before the Hungarians had even

— 7 —

arrived in Europe. During these fights the Magyars tried to deprive Croatia of three counties of Slavonia (Osijek, Pozega, Srijem) on one side, pretending that they were really an integrant part of Hungary properly, and of the coast lands from Senj to Rijeka on the other, claiming that they were theirs and that Maria-iTheresa had given Rijeka to Hungary as part of her territory. The Magyars also began to agitate among the inhabitants of Rijeka, making to them extravagant promises. A party was formed in 'Rijeka whose program was the city's direct dependency of Hungary; but nevertheless the Croatian authority was maintained as in 1776. The Croato-Magyar conflict came to an end in 1M8-49 when Banus Jellacic fought for Austria, against Hungary, and with his Croatian army entered Budapest and Vienna. Rijeka took the Magyar side and was occupied by Count Jellacic. After the defeat of the Hungarian revolt Emperor Francis-Joseph expressly placed the city under the direct authority of the Croatian Banus as an integrant part of Croatia.

When in 1^60 the Emperor re-established the Constitutions of Croatia and Hungary, a new Magyar propaganda began in Fiume and along the coast, followed by manifestations and disorders in the handling of which the Croat authorities were not always fortunate (1). Efforts were however made to find! a ''modus vivendV between Croats and Magyars and to renew the old federation of St-Stephen. Diuring the negotiations the Croats insisted that Fiume was an integrant part of Croatia, while the Magyars, assisted by the citizens of Rijeka, claimed that it should belong to Hungary proper. Finally in 1868 a settlement was arrived at upon all matters, excepting this question of Rijeka. Now the then political leader of the Hungarians, Francis Deak, proposed to shelve this question for the time being and to leave it out of the agreement. The Croatians consented. It is with this idea in mind that article 66, wherein the territory of Croatia is defined, states that Rijeka is not mentioned "because regarding Rijeka the conference has not yet been able to come to an agreement". This wording of the draft was afterwards on September 24th 1868 accepted as law by the Croatian Parliament, and by the Hungarian Parliament on the 28th of September.

(1) Not onlv the iCroatians of Fiume, but also the inhabitants of Bakar were at that time adherents of Hungarian policy against Austria, as also were many Croatians of the district of Zagreb, the Capital.

The Magyars waited till the Croatian Parliament was closed, after having sent the law to the Emperor for his sanction. Then, and r€gardless the fact that they also had already on September 28th voted that same law, they now passed a resolution "that "the city of Rijeka with its hinterland belonged directly to the "Kingdom of Hungary and must therefore immediately be re- "attached to the same". This resolution in a cynical manner deceived the Croatians and compromised their heretofore strong position in the controversy regarding Hij-eka. However, Francis- Joseph sanctioned the Croatian text of the law as it had been submitted to him. Then the Hungarian Premier, Andrassy, went in audience and told him that the Hungarian Parliament would not permit publication of the Croato-Magyar Convention. unless Rijeka were guaranteed to Hungary. He proposed to Francis-Joseph to change the text of article 06 by means of a subsequent rescript, tliat is to commit forgery. Francis- Joseph consented to this crooked deal (1), and with his knowledge and consent, that is by his order, a strip of paper with a new text as pasted over the old one of article 66 (2), the new text stating that Fiume was not Croatian territory since it formed a separate body of the "Holy Crown of Hungary", to which it had been re-attached, and that the legislative and administrative circums- tances resulting from the organization of its autonomy would have to be discussed and agreed upon between delegations to be chosen from the Parliament of Hungary, the Parliament of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia and the City Council of Rijeka. By this forgery, for a long time concealed, iRijeka was stolen

(1) During the great debate on Rijeka in the Croatian Parliament the Banus Count Khuen, the tool of the Hungarian Government, gave on February 6th 1900 the following declaration : "I am in a position, on the ''strength of official documents, to declare that the change in the Avording "of the Croato-Hungarian compromise was made with the direct and "explicit Consent of His Majesty. It conforms with the contents of the "tRoyal rescript of November 8th 1868 to the Parliaments of Hungarv and "Croatia."

On February 21st, during the same d.ebate, Count Khuen again expressed himself as follows : "I have already said that, though this "article 66 has been corrected in an unusua4 w^ay, nevertheless this has "been done upon special authorization from His Maj-esty." It goes with- out saying that in such a delicate discussion Count Khuen could not have referred to the person of the Sovereign -without his explicit permission.

(2) The original of this forgery is at present in Paris, in care of Pro- fessor Ferdinand de Sisic, Professor of History, University of Zagreb, Member of the Jugoslav Peace Delegation. Ordinarily the document is pre- served in the Croatian Archiv£s of Zagreb.

— 9 —

from the Croatians. To-day this falsification is of so much greater consequence since, had it not occured, in the event of a just and honest solution of the question of Rijek« in 1868, that question would now not be before the Peace Conference, because it would not be existing, and Rijeka would belong to Croatia like Bakar, Senj or any other city. In consequence of this forgery 'Rijeka under Magyar domination of half a century not only was partly Italianized (1), but it also became, for the benefit ot the Hungarians, a new object of Croat-Magyar quarrels. To-day Rijeka points to this forgery to claim the right of its natural destiny. The right of Croatia to Rijeka is as clear as the light of day. By taking it away from Croatia the Peace Conference would sanction the fraud committed by Francis- Joseph, Andrassy and those inhabitants of Rijeka whom Hungary used as her instruments.

(1) Statistics of 1851 sliow for Rijeka, among 12.598 inhabitants, 11.581 Croats and 691 Italians; in 1880 : 10.227 Croats and 9.237 Italians (12 years after the fatal year 1868); in 1890-: 13.478 Croats and 13.012 Italians; in 1910 : 15.687 Croats and 24.212 Italians. These Hungarian statistics prove that it was the Hungarian domination which has italia- nized the city, the Magyars themselves being so distant that it was a physical impossibility to achi.eve any perceptible increase of their own nationality in Flume. Quite naturally the Italian element had had good reasoin to always agitate against the union with Croatia, and for the union with Hungary, at the same time leaving out, in a most unnatural wa}' from an economic point of view, the suburb of Susak ^vhich, though physically one with Fiume, is left to Croatia b.ecause with its 13.000 purely Croat inhabitants it would give even to-day to Rijeka a Croatiain, majority.

Fiume consists of the town proper and the communes of Drenova, Kozala and Plase. In these communes .the same as in the suburb of Susak), the inhabitants are pure Jugoslavs, whereas in the town you find Italians and an even lari^'-er population of Italianised Jugoslavs iltalianisanti).

We append the four last census returns for Fiume. These returns were compiled by the municipality and on behalf of the Hungarian Government. For obvious political reasons, it was to the interest of both these authorities to make the language spoken by the Jugoslav population appear less impor- tant, and to swell the apparent importance of Italian and Magyar in proportion.

All the same, even these statistics give a relative majority of Jugoslavs over Italians as late as in 1.S90.

Date

Totals

Jugoslavs

Italians

Maavars

1880	20,981	10,227	or 49 %
1890	29,494	13.478	or 46 %
1900	38,955	16,180	or 42 %
1910	49,806	1J.G87	or 32 %

9.237 or 44 %

13,012 or 44 %

17,354 or 45 %

24,212 or 49 %

2,842 or 7 % 6,493 or 14 %

We append the latest census returns for Susak : 1910 13,214 ]1,706 or 89 % 658 or 5 %

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