The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1929. AN OMINOUS APPEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 5, 7 January 1929, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1929. AN OMINOUS APPEAL.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

There is bad news from Belgrade again. King Alexander has issued a proclamation in which he announces the suspension of Parliament. The reasons given in the royal rescript for this step are at least plausible, if not convincing. The King declares that the constant and dangerous disputes that have occurred of late in the Skuptshina have paralysed all its useful activities and completely undermined the confidence of the nation in Parliamentary government. Though Alexander has always had faith in democratic institutions, he now confesses that he is disillusioned, and he appeals to his people, Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes, irrespective of racial distinctions and rivalries, to assist him in the task of reorganising the administration of the country which he now proposes to undertake.

The immediate reason for this sudden and decisive assertion of royal authority is no doubt to be found in the bitter feud between Serbs and Croatians which culminated a few weeks ago in the assassination of Raditch, the leader of the Croatian Party, and several of his followers in the legislative chamber. The death of Raditch intensified the bitterness of the Croatians against the Serbs, and they have been very successful in embarrassing the Government and throwing the administrative machinery out of gear. It is possible that the King has decided to end the deadlock by force and is taking the reins of authority into his own hands for this purpose. But there is a more hopeful alternative to consider. Alexander has never committed himself to the extreme Serb policy with which the old statesman Pasitch was identified, and which aimed at reducing the Croatians and Slovenes to a wholly subordinate position in the Triune monarchy; and it is conceivable that his appeal to the Croats and Slovenes is an attempt to break loose from this unfortunate tradition. But whatever may be his motives, Alexander is evidently disillusioned with parliamentary methods of government, and his proclamation bears a suspicious resemblance in tone tp the denunciations of parliamentary institutions which heralded the establishment of absolute despotism by Mussolini in Italy and de Rivera in Spain.