THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1928. ITALY AND JUGO-SLAVIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20426, 5 June 1928, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1928. ITALY AND JUGO-SLAVIA.

There is still ample justification for speaking of the “ unsettled Balkans.” The rioting in Jugo-Slavia, at Belgrade and other places, seems to have been mainly the work of students, who are a high-spirited class in any community. But the political significance of the demonstrations, in their direction against Italy, can scarcely bo altogether negligible. Although it is now said that the Jugo-Slav and Italian Governments both view the position calmly and that there was never any question of an ultimatum from Rome, the fact remains that a Note demanding reparations for damage done to Italian property was despatched from Rome to Belgrade, and the Jugo-Slav Government has promised compensation and the punishment of those responsible for the outbreaks. In the assessment of damages the disrespect shown for the portrait of Signor Mussolini, burned in the streets of the Jugo-Slav capital, will doubtless be included. It is stated that the Italian Government is well aware that the disturbances have been the work of Croat-Slovene factions, and intended to embarrass the Government of Jugo-Slavia. That may be so, but the explanation is not exactly comprehensive. The episode certainly redirects attention to the question of the relations between Jugo-Slavia and Italy. That there exists, between the two States a good deal of mutual suspicion seems to be a reasonable conclusion. For the origin of this it is necessary to look back to the post-war settlements. The Croat-Slovene element of the Jugo-Slav population coveted Fiume, which has been incorporated in Italy, and developments that have taken place since then have contributed to the creation of the present situation. Italy and Jugoslavia signed what is generally known as the Nettuno Convention in 1925. This was intended to adjust various questions connected with Fiume and other places, to regulate the position of the respective minorities, and to settle certain features of the property expropriation in the districts concerned. But, largely owing to internal difficulties and particularly as a result of Croat opposition towards certain privileges to be secured by the Italian population, the agreement failed to secure ratification when it came before the Chamber in Jugo-Slavia in 1926. This could not but be a source of annoyance to Italy, whore the Nettuno Convention had been proclaimed a diplomatic success. It is said that the anti-Italian demonstrations in Jugo-Slavia during the past week have been due to the Government’s attempts to secure a better understanding with Italy and to obtain parliamentary sanction to the Nettuno Convention. If so, the attitude of the Government of Jugo-Slavia would appear to be more or less at variance with popular sentiment in that country. A cause of Jugo-Slav suspicion of Italy has consisted in the special position occupied by that country in Albania. Though registered at Geneva, the Pact of Tirana, with its reference to support for the political, territorial, and judicial status quo in Albania, has been a source of real, if unnecessary, alarm in Belgrade. In the early part of last year there was an Italo-Jugo-Slav crisis, the Italian statement being that Jugo-Slavia was preparing to disturb the peace of Albania; and a month or two later there was a temporary rupture of diplomatic relations between Jugo-Slavia and Albania. From the Jugo-Slav standpoint, in order to be a settlement, the various arrangements made since the armistice clearly presupposed and necessitate the absolute freedom of the Adriatic throughout its length, and the entire independence of Albania within its complete frontiers, as recognised by the Ambassadorial Conference. Alternatively, as Italy has conceded a good deal in the Upper Adriatic and has no military forces upon the mainland of Albania, it was and is essential for her to feel confident that the integrity of that State is not to be threatened by Jugo-Slav intrigues, and to be assured that, if Albania cannot be under the domination of Rome, Italian influence shall be at legst as strong as any other on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. The attitude of the Government itself at Belgrade seems to have been diplomatically correct, but it would appear that unofficial Jugo-Slav support was, till recently at all events, being given to intrigues carried on among Albanians, domiciled in Jugo-Slavia, who are actuated by a desire to overthrow the existing Albanian regime. Moreover, there is a genuine fear in Jugo-Slavia, whether well founded or not, of an attempt on the part of Italy to establish a complete control of the Adriatic by the occupation of its eastern coast. It may bo, surmised that until a real settlement of tho Adriatic problem is reached the causes of friction between the two States will never be altogether ’■amoved.

THE MODEL FOR AFGHANISTAN. King Amanullah of Afghanistan, who has been acting in accordance with the principle that travel is good both for princes and their subjects, has completed his tour of western investigation. His observations of the institutions of European countries have led him to the conclusion that his own country cannot do better than remodel itself on the lines of modern Turkey. The hospitality of England and the blandishments of Moscow have seemingly left him cold. The King of the Afghans is of a practical turn of mind. Turkey is a near neighbour of his country and between the two a treaty of friendship and security has just been signed. The Turkish constitutional model is, therefore, the more easily studied, and in their general circumstances and outlook the peoples of Afghanistan • and Turkey have a good deal in common. There is between them a bond in religion and in separation * from Western Europe. The modernisation of Turkey is, moreover, so recent that its methods will be all the more easily imitated. The process of demolition and reconstruction inaugurated by the Government at Angora has been applied in Turkey in circumstances which will have a parallel in Afghanistan, and with which the monarch of that State will he familiar. There is nothing very surprising, therefore, about King Amanullah’s decision. How far and in precisely what directions he proposes to follow the lead of Mustapha Keinal and the Angora Assembly remains to be seen. It may also be a matter for conjecture whether, apart from the possible advantage of sweeping away a certain amount of traditional litter and the introduction of a modernised outlook in education and other directions, the Afghans will ultimately benefit should they endeavour to follow closely the example of the Turks. King Amanullah himself will naturally admire a despotic form of government. This he has seen flourishing at Angora. A new Turkish Constitution was worked out gradually, and adopted in final form in 1925, which set up a powerful President and Cabinet, elected, nevertheless, by the Assembly from among its members, and strictly responsible to it. Events have, however, since been shaping themselves so that the Government of Turkey, while preserving the constitutional plan and the form of election, is becoming a new kind of despotism. Mustapha Kemal, aided by the Prime Minister, Ismet Pasha, and an influential group, has gathered to himself more and more of the power of the Turkish State. It is said that by various processes known to rulers, including a ruthless but sparingly exercised and carefully directed resort to the execution of political opponents, he has eliminated opposition in the press, the pulpit, the professor’s chair, and finally in every branch of politics. According to a competent authority the Turkish elections of a few months ago appeared to have effected a complete reconciliation between a form of popular voting and a thorough-going concentration of the power of choice in the person of the President. Whether the admiration of King Amanullah for the Turkish form of Government and the methods by which the Turkish people are being " regenerated ” is extended by him to the attitude of the rulers of modern Turkey towards the Islamic tradition we are not informed. Should it be so, ho may be inclined to follow a rather dangerous lead. Admirers of Nationalist Turkey have claimed that what the Turks under Mustapha Kemal have done has been merely to return to a pristine Islam, to the pure traditions of the Turkish race, before Islam and the Turks had been corrupted by Arabic thought and theological influence. It was thought by such observers that the Turks would never throw over wholly the only basis of culture which they possessed or declare themselves an agnostic State and become officially hostile to the Moslem and other faiths. On these points a writer in the Observer offers this interesting and emphatic comment: “ Such ideology was false, and those who indulged in it are now proved to have mistaken the nature of the agents of the Kemalist revolution. The leaders of this revolution are—there is no earthly sense in burking facts which are attested by all impartial visitors to Angora—a low-living atheistic set of men. How long the present administration at Angora may last it is impossible to , say; its survival would appear to depend strictly on the limits of physical endurance, so free are the personal habits of the Nationalist leaders. For the time being, at any rate, Islam is at a discount in Turkey. The actual atheist has forced his atheism officially on the mass of Anatolia.”