KING ALEXANDER

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3555, 8 December 1934, Page 2

KING ALEXANDER

SIDELIGHTS ON HIS CAREER. '■' '' il"''-"■ ■'■'. ': ■ ' • ' '" ' / - HIS INFLUENCE IN EUROPE. PLACE in history ~f \, - '-■■• London, October 11, '.'^..other Serbian rulers have eithei been assassinated, killed in battle, pr ':•;' been despqsed" before death. The fate Alexander 61 ;4ugosl.a.yia was. One he had for long He. was-a man of, iron resolution, however, and continued the course which he lipnestlyjbelieved to be best for his cpuirtryi "'■.;'. ')'■ "•' ■' * of the Karageorgevitch. dynasty r set. up in 1805 to 1813 a precarious independence of the Turks. But thV Turks returned, and a rival, to obtain ,the tolerance, of the Sultan for his elaim to aa%ihlster the country, had the first killed in his sleep, and Fifty ' jsfr* s later.'the Karageorge partisans Obreno-had-succeeded his father lohitfeeVSerbian throne; ; V©n Juhe IQ,; 190$ a ; ,band of officers dfcrW'^in^^ wWf and later the brothers of. the QtMjen,. together with the Prime Minister ang'tfie War Minister.' After this ey«nt~ the old Karegeorgevitch was recalled in the person of King Peter, tfie"great-grandson of its founder, irilo ; hid been "Hying in comparative tovfitif- in'Paris. ' « •The eldest son of King Peter was George, Who suffered from such an ' uncontrollable-tendency towards nets that'he r was 'called on to renounce his rights of succession. His brother, Prince Alexander, became the th£n Regent in place of his father, who was old and feeble, and/W ; n^a r |atneys'"deathi- KingAlex..*&s%?,' who •'was murdered at Mar-

ptMr nations to-day are finding some relief in the fact that it was a Croat who was the murderer, and not some member of another nation. Had an' Italian committed the crime, complications might have arisen immediately in the Italian parts of Dalmatia. Leader of Armies. .During the- first Balkan War of 1912-,' as Commander of the Ist Serbian Army, the Prince Regent led his troops' to victory -against the Turks at Kurhanovo. arid Prilep, and in the next year be defeated the Bulgarians at' Bregaloritza. These successes prayed; .to. be a baptism of fire and leadership for the much greater task which lay ahead. .■ At the Outbreak of the Great War he became commander-in-Chief' of the Serbian Armies, and his bearing during |hat" supreme test was one long record of gallantry. y.Qn' one 'occasion when he was. desperately ill, "he refused an Italian pfte'r to take' him in a warship across . th£!Adriatic. Instead, .He was taken fti. a. Jitter %o Burazzo, where., an operation was performed. ; once' 'did-" her leave his armies. That was when he made a journey to . England to confer with Allied repreon t|ue Balkan situation anjf|b discuss plans for the future. ;-vjCing Alexanders' kingdom was a Creation ofpost-war Europe, and in . the'Serbs, Croats &nd SIo-1 veh£a 'under one monarch the great Ppweta aet this Balkan King a very difficult task. His efforts to give his country good government are describH W. V.Ternperley, professor ofnaodern history at Cambridge, in "the Morning Post. ProfessorTpmperley is one of the greatest 'authorities on Eastern European Failure of Parliamentary Government. - ; For something like a decade (he writes) /YKfeg; Alexander persevered In. the paths' Government; but the situation was almost difficult, and ultimately prov- ■«£ impossible* Raditeh with the peasant party of Croatia Was able to clog Wheels of "the Parliamentary GovprOTpnt.r:'::'":;: '•*' _r "' '"" :: "'"'*''"•' "• ' • King Alexander tried to get Raditeh to w 4 ork with him, but : h|s' attempts were rendered difficult by the. irresponsible, and. perplexing ofthe peasant leader. At other- time* the King tried to make . na«"of his old Prime Minister, Pashitch, "but ultimately became dissatis- • fied r W$& ktift and!'for good reasons. : y dii?grJac.efaji scene took place on *fh^ of the "Parliament when Raditeh and. other leaders were shot. Ring" "abolished the exi§ tfiigfciJbnstitutipn 'and Parliament. tiiat hehepforth no one tafcpujilf ceine: •' between him -arid his '&} Hereditary Dictator. a. new form of State \At; the; head; Was a royal dictator governing ;^hw^oit^.7 There, i Was a arid a: strong police. cbn|rbL: : o|d; political parties ofrere ■ ;Po§o^f-M'^ir 'therewas plenty of slj*^ihjng; to: b'e said, on tb# other listir regime struck heavy the old; corruption wiiicli Parliamentary system, had favbiired. It proclaimed ; that' hence-

tijpj 'vfus -to'"lie oniy' ! tfne : riatibri,' Jugoslavia.; ■,''•':•>•' ' '■';" '•:', : :,; ; : 'V : ' : .''"■ Similarly, a uniform code- of laws for all Jugoslavia superseded the previous legal chaos. King Alexander's personal felicity was shown in two directions, that- of improving the schools and constructing new roads. The progress made in the latter was remarkable. Great roads uniting Ragusa (Dubrovnik) to Belgrade had been carried to both' sides of the gorge of the Tara, and railway connection is to follow. The Peasant King. The absence of the Parliamentary regime produced, and very naturally, some fierce . controversy, which increased when a rather feeble shadow of Parliamentary Government was restored. What the future would have held' it is now impossible to say, but no one who knew King Alexander well would say that his bent was naturally autocratic. He delighted to declare himself the peasant king of a peasant people, and he had an immense hold on the peasants of Croatia. It was, indeed, the intelligentsia of Croatia rather than the peasants who favoured a Parliamentary regime. During the. last few months the King had definitely been working towards ai reconciliation with some of the dissentient Croat leaders with a view to giving them a fair Government on agreed terms. There is an end to both-these things, but whatever c'riti* cjsms there may. be of King Alexander (Professor■:''■. ■Te'mperley, concludes) it will : ;be7adniitted,,that;hef.tried ■ to .do his duty as he understood it.

When the King took over the dictatorship of his*country, he issued a proclamation. : "Parliamentary life," he said in this, "has always been my ideal, hut blind political passions have so abused it that it has become an obstacle to all profitable work for the State." He also declared that "all useful institutions within the State and the development of our natural life have been jeopardised," and that "the unhealthy political situation is prejudicial to internal life and progress, and also to the development of external relations."

The proclamation was received at the outset with an outburst of enthusiasm. Croatia, on first hearing the news, gave every indication that she was overjoyed* Later, however, the Croat leader, M. Matchek, declared that the view of his fellow nationals as a whole was that the dictatorship was directed against all that the Croats stood for, and other evidence of dissatisfaction with the action of the King was forthcoming. Internal Difficulties. The problem within Jugoslavia is that of uniting the Orthodox Serbs, with their Balkan traditions, and.the Roman Catholic Croats and Slovenes, whose outlook and ideals are coloured by many centuries of association with Venice and Vienna. There were signs iri recent months that the * King's high personal character and devotion to duty had begun to win back many of the Croats, and, that the reappearance of Germany and the threat to Austrian independence had rallied rriany doubters to his side. The loss of King Alexander to Europe at the present time is a serious one. He had played an important part in the formation of the Little Entente. He. had repeatedly,.proved that he was no Chauvanist. His readiness to riieet King l - Boris of Bulgaria half-way on the road to understanding had greatly improved the prospects off Balkan agreement. His last and fatal journey had beea undertaken with the object of discussing with his French allies the conditions of a better relationship between' his country and Italy as the essential preliminary to ithe France-It'alian understanding on which so much depends. Friction With Italy. Although the murder can be regarded as of purely internal origin, there is danger lying in its becoming international as' a result of suspicions of foreign encouragement of the assassin's, cause ' \ A few weeks, ago the press, of Jugoslavia and Italy were engaged in a most deplorable mud-slinging campaign. It "was largely to end this protentially disastrous state of affairs that King Alexander was invited to Paris. The 'French Government was to act as, mediator between the disputing nations, who had only lately disebvered. a new bone of contention iii the* complicated problem of Austria., When the Italian army advanced on to the frontier of Austria at the time qf Dr. Dollfuss' murder, "ready for any emergency," the Jugoslavians disliked the idea of the possible entry bf Italian soldiers into Austrian territory, and from that' point strained feelings arose which culminated in the rather disgraceful newspaper war. The death of King Alexander kills any hope of the Jhiinediate improvement of relations between Italy and Jugoslavia, which the French Foreign Mihistei- sought. The best that can be anticipated is that Jugoslavia will Continue orderly, i and that a fresh opportunity \ will isoon. occur to renew the negotiations Which the deaths of King Alexander, and M. Barthou brought to so tragic ah end.

The himself the life and soul of Jugoslav dictatorship. Everything depended upon his personal will. It is, therefore,,"liripossible to estimate the forces which will establish themselves, behind the future Regency; It is, however, a vital European ipterest that j Jugoslav unity should be upheld, and that an internal solutiori. satisfying. to the 'corriponent parts of the nation, and in particular

'tp-the'Croats and Macedonians, should be speedily evolved. Scholarly Monarch. Appreciation of the personal characteristics of the late King are to be found in all London newspapers. These are from varying sources:— "He was highly educated, .spoke several languages, and had a variety of intellectual interests, including history, astronomy, botany, and economics. He was an excellent shot and an accomplished horseman, the most exacting monarch of modem Europe, but the task he set himself —to break one great empire and raise his own on the ruins—he achieved. "He did not Icok like a soldier, although he always wore uniform. His face was long, thin, and very pale. A pince-nez covered his dark eyes. His hair was black, and a sleek, black moustache veiled the thin, straight lips. Ho looked like a nervous man — more like a dentist than a king. Happy Family Life. If his bravery was beyond all challenge, so was his private life; his marriage to Princess Marie of Rumania was ideally happy, and he was never happier than in the company of his three boys, the eldest of whom (drown Princa Peter) was sent only recently to be educated in England. "King Alexander had a natural charm and . simplicity of mannei which it was difficult to resist, and he was more disposed than many kings "to listen to home truths, il they'rested upon knowledge and holiest conviction." A Model Monarch. "In his private life King Alexander was a model monarch. He was a great reader and a great student whose appetite for knowledge coulc never be sated. Every foreigner o: any importance who visited Belgrade was commanded to an audience, and was asked a thousand pertinent questions regarding the political and economic situation in his own country. The King's working day would have appalled even the most energetic business man, and, with the exception of two hours' exercise in the afternoon, when he played tennis or rode ; and an hour or two for bridge or chess in the evening, he

was receiving Ministers, or attending to his correspondence,' from 8 o'clock in the morning until after midnight. When he could spare the time he was a keen shot and was even persuaded to take up trout-fishing. Books, however, were his chief hobby, and with his glasses and his serious loo 1 .; and his dark, inquiring eyes, he gave one the impression more of a student than of a king."