KING OF YUGOSLAVIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 13 (Supplement)

KING OF YUGOSLAVIA.

OUTLINES HIS AIMS. LIBERTY FOR NATION AND INDIVIDUAL. EQUAL TREATMENT FOR ALL. King Alexander o£ Yugoslavia, after a luncheon at the royal summer residence on Lake Bohine, to which I was invited by the King's cousin, Prince Paul, granted me an authorised interview in which he outlined the programme the new Government hopes to accomplish, and related the progress already achieved and the policies of his Government, states a " special correspondent. King Alexander is a fine-looking man 'with an open countenance and smiling eyes that note everything passing around him. He gives the impression that he is a statesman and true head of the Government, well informed concerning its every department, and earnestly working for administrative and agrarian reforms and for the development of his country's resources. After luncheon, under beautiful trees In view of the magnificent Slovenian mountain landscape, the talk turned upon the political situation. To my remark that the English people, whose devotion to constitutional Government and liberty of voting and the Press is the keystone of national life' were inclined to doubt the morality of government by any single individual, kaiser, czar, or dictator, his Majesty answered: "I believe in the largest liberty for the individual under proper well-defined laws if and when those laws can be so Applied as to protect' both the individual and the nation.- The dictatorship was forced on me in an hour of need to safeguard the nation -and deprive those not executing laws—nor obeying them —of the political power which many were using as privileges for perional and party profit to the detriment frf justice and equity." v ' The Coup d'Etat. Then after reviewing the abuses, misInnderstandings and circumstances which resulted in the coup d'etat last January, the King continued: "As soon as the dictatorship was announced on the Serbian Christmas, there ' was a movement of joy, and the nation ibreathed 'freely again. Maybe there are eome former Government employees who are out of work and accuse me of being the cause. But I ask them to wait until in some reorganisation which will bring greater prosperity they may find other employment suited to their abilities. "There were too many functionaries; now the public business is conducted with greater efficiency. A trifling instance of the first effort to promote efficiency was when we ordered that black coffee should no longer be served in the Government bureaus, for it had become the custom for many employees to have coffee served several times during working hours, while persons awaiting to transact urgent business were kept waiting, and often left to return and receive the same treatment. "One of the first acts of the new regime was to appoint a supreme Legislative Council of leading lawyers, jurists and professors, choosing them from all parts of the kingdom to advise me and the Cabinet as to the constitutionality of -laws to be enacted. Our effort ■was for unity of legislation, so as to give equal treatment to all subjects. This.was not the case before, because the laws under ■which the former Austrian provinces were governed had been little changed ibecause the Parliament had been too taken up with quarrels to give time to law making. "Some laws which already have been promulgated and are effecting great reforms are those concerning royal powers, defence of the realm, regulation of the Press, municipalities and provinces, iStata Council, Courts, land measurement, criminal statutes, corruption in government, co-operation with Austria, •'and ratification of the Kellogg Pact. Development of Resources.

"Our foreign policy has been to cultivate peace with neighbouring nations •>nd invite foreign capital to partake of • '(Commercial and industrial enterprises. "Much has to be done in Yugoslavia to develop her great resources of lumIber, iron, gold, copper, bauxite, grain, rice, cotton and fish. Industries and the [railways need electrification. There is ample opportunity for foreign capital in these undertakings, and we welcome '£he interest of industrialists and finan'ciers in these projects. "Tlie-League of Nations lias my full 'Support. I have the strongest admiration for what it has already accomplished. "Yugoslavia has a keen interest in the Satisfactory results of the deliberations 'on German reparations at The Hague. .The share we receive, paid by delivery in kind, has in some respects unfavourably affected our trade. "Oursjs a great people, old in racial (development but young in the practice of efficiency and time and labour saving. [But Ave will learn quickly. Even our politicians will understand in time that public office is a trust, not merely a job, as many of them have been making it. "We hope to have better road 3. The Queen and I are confirmed motorists, ! lß.nd drive our cars whenever possible." ,