Growing Pains of Nationhood

Cue (NZERS), Issue 24, 31 May 1945, Page 6

Growing Pains of Nationhood

YUGOSLAVIA occupies a key J- position in Europe and the fortunes of the Southern Slavs have been greatly influenced by the geographical features of the Balkan peninsula. Mountain ranges, rivers andplains hare united or divided them. Dominated for centuries by other peoples, they have had little experience of complete self-government and although the resources of Yugoslavia offer considerable possibilities they have not been greatly developed. The state owed its creation to the desire of kindred Slav peoples for union but progress has been hampered by complicated political strife. Since 191/1 the difficulties have been increased by the divisions into which the country has been split by the German. Italian and Bulgarian occupations and by the disagreements between Chetniks and Partisans, Yugoslav politicians in exile and the young King Peter. Yugoslavia is the second largest Balkan state. It covers an area of ninety-six thousand square miles and has a population of about thirteen million. Like - Czechoslovakia it was constituted after the First World War and was at first named the Serb-Croat-Slovene kingdom. The new state was formed by join’ng part of the Austro-Hungarian . Empire—-the areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Dalmatia. Croatia-Slavonia, Slovenia. Voyvodina and a section of Macedonia—with Serbia and Montenegro. Serbs,. Croats and Slovenes constitute together about * eighty-five per cent of the total population of Yugoslavia. There are German, Hungarian and Albanian minorities, each numbering nearly half a million and a

Turkish group with a strength of about thirty-five thousand. The official language is Serbo-Croat but Slovene which differs slightly is recognised legally in Slovenia. The minority groups use their mother tongue on most occasions and prior to the war they published their own newspapers. Racial divisions within the state are complicated further by religious differcnccis. The Serbs belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Croats and Slovenes are Roman Catholics, there is a large Moslem element among the population of Bosnia-Hercegovina and the majority of the Germanspeaking peoples are Protestants. A Yugoslav National committee met at Zagreb toward the end of 1918 and its members renounced their allegiance with Austria-Hungary and voted for a Serb-Croat-Slovcne state. They offered the Regency, to Prince Alexander of Serbia and asked him to form a Serb-Yugoslav Cabinet. On December 1 the establishment of the kingdom was officially proclaimed in Belgrade. The new state had no international status and although the delegates to the Peace Conference included a Serb, a Croat and a Slovene they sat officially as representative® of - Serbia only. ■ ■ ; When its frontiers were finally settled the new kingdom was faced w-th many difficulties. Laws and taxes had to be devised. A Civil Service had to

be built up, social services and educational facilities introduced, roads, railways and communications adapted to the needs of the country and labour organised. It is little wonder that the growing pains of the new state soon became acute. ; A constitution was adopted in 1921 which provided for a single legislature elected by manhood suffrage, but it was net favourably received by all sections of the people' Party conditions rapid 1 y developed into a SerbCroat conflict. The Radicals who possessed the best party machine were in reality the most conservative and became the organ of Serbian nationalism. The Croat Peasant Party opposed the constitution, and changes of government were frequent because at elect ons no- party ever secured an absolute majority. The parliamentary quarrels ended in murder. In 1928 the Croat leader and two of his colleagues were shot by a Montenegrin Radical and the Croat deputies withdrew from the legislature. For six months King Alexander tried to induce the factions to co-operate, but was unsuccessful and so, in 1929, suspended the constitution and established a personal dictatorship. He declared that his aims were to improve administration and bring about national unity, and he promised restoration of constitutional government when the objects had been achieved. At the same time the name of the state was changed to Yugoslavia to indicate its homogenity. A new constitution was proclaimed by the King in 1931, and universal suffrage was re-introduced, but deputies were elected by open voting instead of by secret ballot. No parties were allowed to be sponsored by religious, racial or regional groups. Unfortunately, widespread discontent still pervaded political life. When King Alexander was murdered by a Macedonian revolutionary at Marseilles in 1934 the effect was

greatly to strengthen, the feeling of national unity and the government remained fairly- stable for five years. Early in 1939 the factional differences arose again, but domestic concerns were isocn overshadowed by disagreements over foreign pol cy. The proAxis Regency of Prince Paul was tolerated until 1941. When it bowed to Hitler’s demands the Yugoslavs rebelled. It took the German armies only ten days to over-run the unprepared state. A thousand years ago the principal nationalities now represented in the Balkan Peninsula were already settled there although they were not the original inhabitants. The peninsula had known the glories of the Periclean age, the Hellenistic Period and the Roman Empire. Toward the end of the fifth century the Slavs arrived from the region of the Bug and the Dneister. A Royal house of Croatia

was established by 925, and it ’survived for two hundred years, finally uniting with the Hapsburgs. The Serbian kingdom was founded > in the eleventh century. It fell to the Turks in 1 71, and it was not until 1878 that Serbia was again recognised as a separate kingdom. The vicissitudes of the South Slav states are reflected in the town and villages and the customs, cultures and appearance of the peoples. The capital city of Belgrade its situated in a strategic position at the junction of the Danube and the Sava, and many times through the centuries it has been besieged and sacked. Zagreb, the chief town of Croatia, is a mixture of old and new. It has both modern flats and ancient baroque palaces. In the Bosnian town of Sarajevo one-third of the people still wear the fez or the veil. Dubrovnik, the Dalmatian commercial port on the Adriatic coast, with a great circle of walls and splendid palaces, rivals Venice for beauty, while the South Serbian town of Skoplje reflects an atmosphere of ancient Turkey. There are forty Mosques in the town and it is one of the few places where ’’infidels’’ are allowed to attend Moslem ceremonies. About eighty per cent, of the Yugoslav population depend on agriculture and forestry. The chief crops are maize and wheat. There is much

mineral wealth. Coal, iron-ore, manganese, copper, lead, zinc, quicksilver, aluminium, antimony and gold are all found in quantity. Today, the conditions in Yugoslavia are appalling. War casualties, disease and starvation have taken over two million lives. Roads and railways have been destroyed... ... Since 1941 both Serbs and Croats have fought with the Partisan army. To what extent they are willing to forget their former feuds is not yet clear to outside observers.; Any prospect of a peaceful .future for ’’Europe’s most troubled area” will be viewed with •satisfaction and relief by the wholecivilised world. ' ♦** ♦ .

An advance note has been received from London -of a newly published book, Halo-Yugoslav Boundary by B. A. Moodie; It deals fully with the geography and history of the Julian region and the delimitation of the Italian-Yugoslav boundary, and provides.. a - fresh examination, of the problems and effects of the peace treaties made after- the First . World War. / There iis a foreword by the Professor of Geography, University of London. Copies of the book will shortly be available for issue on loan through the ERS Book. Request Service. . .. .