THE DEAD HAND

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4632, 6 December 1934, Page 3

THE DEAD HAND

THAT KILLED KING ALEXANDER Lady Listowel, formerly Miss Judith de . Marffy-Mantuane, the daughter of a Hungarian diplomat, who lived for years in the Balkans, writes in the "Sunday Express" (London), her version of the events which led up to the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia. The assassination at Marseilles of King Alexander of Yugoslavia is the last incident in a sequence of savage events relentlessly connected. Alexander, King of Yugoslavia, was the friend of the man who beyond all practical doubt organised the assassination of Francis Ferdinand, the Austrian Archduke, in 1914.

Alexander had his erstwhile friend shot for plotting against him. Alexander's kingdom became a great Power as a consequence of the war that followed his friend's crime.

And now Alexander, close friend of the master assassin, is himself assassinated. He is assassinated in the very school of political murder that his friend gave to Europe and he fell as Francis Ferdinand fell.

We may well go further in this grim chain of events and say that Alexander perhaps thought as he died that it was his friend's avengers who had killed him.

Francis Ferdinand and Alexander both died because they had farreaching plans for those turbulent people, the Southern Slavs. It seems almost as though the outrageous deed at Marseilles were a logical continuation of the the one at Serajevo.

It begins in the early years of the century.

Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia, was the son of King Peter, who was worn out with the struggle of reigning over his unruly people. By 1914 Alexander had become regent in his place. , The real hero of Serbia was Col. Dimitrievits, who bore the magnificent nickname of Apis—the bull.

He was a leader of secret societies and it was alleged that he received secret funds from the Government. The secret societies were not comic-opera affairs. Their object was to enlarge Serbia at any cost. Their methods were bloody, but their members were regarded as national heroes.

In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, a province which Serbia coveted. Alexander and Apis came together. Alexander, the Western diplomat, and Apis, the Near East brigand, sympathised in their plans for a bigger Serbia. Alexander was the stronger man. Simple Apis could only see that there must be murder, murder, murder, and then the political path would be clear.

In time the two friends drew apart.

Then 1914. One of the secret societies, of which Apis was the hero, planned to murder the governor of Croatia, another province coveted by Serbia. It is impossible to doubt that the Government and Alexander knew of this project. In Belgrade, one of the principal officers of the army was taking two Bosnian youths out daily to a park on the outskirts, and teaching them revolver shooting at targets. One day the officer invited them to come to his house. There they met another officer. They took coffee and talked. Suddenly they realised they were in the presence of the great Apis. Soon after they were despatched with revolvers and bombs and—for themselves after they had done their work—strychnine. The Government, which was anxious to avoid trouble at that moment, telephoned for the frontier to be closed, so that the assassins could not leave the country. But their master, Apis' friend,

telephoned in the name of the secret society, and his command was mors powerful. The boys were ferried across the River Drina into Austrian territory at night.

They found that not only the Governor of Croatia, but the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was to be in Bosnia. So they went to Serajevo, and one of them, Princip, murdered the Archduke instead, and set Europe on fire. Back in Belgrade, Apis was becoming insufferable. He made disparaging remarks about the Crowr Prince. He refused to carry out orders in the campaigns which followed the Serajevo murders. Alexander was jealous of his power.

A White Hand secret society was organised to counter Apis' principal organisation, the Black Hand. The struggle between Alexander and Apis became more tense.

Then, in 1917, it was said that Apis was plotting against the life of Alexander. There was a trial, which jurists have&said was unsatisfactory. Apis was condemned to death.

After the war the former friend of Apis ascended the throne of Yugoslavia.

Alexander ruled mainly unassailed, finally seeing himself one of the most important factors of European politics. Now at Marseilles the wheel has turned full circle. It was Apis who taught the desperadoes who extinguished the life of Alexander. It was as though the wild' Serbian patriot had struck him from his grave.