JUGO-SLAVIAN CRISIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 January 1929, Page 7

JUGO-SLAVIAN CRISIS

THE KING’S DICTATORSHIP

(Australian Press Association.) • (By Cable—Press Assn—Copyright.)

LONDON, Jan. 11.

“The country will return to the Parliamentary regime the moment our particular job is finished,” declared General Zivkovitch, the new Prime Minister of Jugo-Slavia, in an interview with the Daily Express s special representative, who asked whether the present regime was permanent absolutism, a military dictatorship, or Fascism.

General Zivkovitch replied: Neither. The King has done only what the Croats and Serbs alike have been demanding. All said: ‘Let the King act. Only the King can save the situation.’ Well, the King acted, and selected men devoted to the State; men with clean political records, to form a neutral reforming Government.’ With the exception of Governmentinspired or approved messages, there is no news either from Belgrade or Zagreb. The Matchek interview, which was published in Budapest, denounces as sheer lies a statement that the new regime was welcomed in Croatia. “We know the dictatorship will not be short-lived; on the contrary, it will last its purpose, namely, to attain the Serbisation of Croats, which other means failed to attain. We demanded satisfaction for the murder of Raditch; instead, we got a dictatorship, which will result in the annihilation of the Croat spirit.” “LAST SEVERAL YEARS” BERLIN, January 11. The Tageblatt’s Belgrade correspondent telegraphs that Ministers confirm that the present situation will last several years. The Government is working out a programme, and there is no question of reorganising Jugoslavia on a federal basis, and certain:ly not a restoration of a Croatian I State.