860h.01/29
The Chargé in Yugoslavia (Dodge) to
the Acting Secretary of State
Belgrade, January 10,
1919.
[Received February
11.]
No. 147Sir: I have the honor to enclose to you
herewith a clipping from the Pravda of the 26th.
December/8th. January giving the text of a
[Page 894]
proclamation addressed on Christmas Day, old
style, by the Prince Regent to the Serb, Croat and Slovene people. I
also enclose a translation which I have made from a French translation
of this proclamation.
The proclamation will be found to be of considerable interest as it
outlines the future plans of the Government. These in general outline
have already been reported, especially in my Despatch No. 137. of
December 24th.2 After
referring to the final union of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in a
single Kingdom by the unanimous wish of the people, & mentioning the
representative character of the present Cabinet composed of men of all
the political parties, regions and creeds of the new State, the
proclamation describes the composition of the provisional body which
under the name of “National Council” is to act as a national parliament
until a parliament is elected under the Constitution to be framed by the
Constitutional Convention. It will be noted that this Council is to
include delegates of the various National Councils which exist in each
of the Yugoslav provinces of the former Austro–Hungarian Empire and
delegates from the Banat and Batschka (the Voivodina). It will also
include, from Serbia proper, in addition to delegates of the
Skupschtina, delegates from the territories of Old Serbia and Macedonia
which were acquired during the Balkan wars. It will be remembered that
these territories, while annexed to Serbia, were placed under a special
régime and were not allowed to be represented in the Skupschtina. This
régime is in fact generally acknowledged to have been harsh and
meddlesome.
The proclamation then declares that the corner-stone of the new State and
its liberties will be constitutional and parliamentary Government and
that the Constitutional Convention will be elected upon a basis of
universal suffrage. The Cabinet will submit to the Constitutional
Convention a draft for a democratic Constitution on the basis of a
unified State with extensive local autonomies and the strictest
guaranties for political and personal rights. The future Government is
not to be a federal one but a strongly unified State with local
autonomies. As formerly reported, there appears to have been from the
beginning little popular sentiment in favor of a federal form of
Government although it is generally stated that local autonomy in the
new State will be more extensive than it has been in Serbia. The chief
reason given for desiring a centralized State is in order that it may be
stronger in a military sense as it will have enemies in Germany and
Hungary.
All the liberties and rights now given to the population of Serbia by its
Constitution are to be extended over all the new Kingdom.
[Page 895]
This will be a distinct
democratic gain in the former Austro–Hungarian provinces where much of
the present legislation is aristocratic and even feudal in character.
This is especially true in Croatia and especially as regards the land
laws which favor large estates. Many of these are of vast extent (as
those of the Odescalchi family) and the peasants living in them are
little better than serfs. The recent unrest in Croatia is largely
economic in character and owing to the desire of the peasants to acquire
the land which they till. In Serbia the reverse is the case and in fact
the whole country is one of peasant proprietors.
The proclamation also refers to the duty of the Government to relieve the
present distress, to care for the victims of the war and to reconstruct
the country. It calls upon the people to forget their differences and to
trust and support the Government in order that the Government may
inspire confidence abroad and be able to obtain its true ethnographic
frontiers. In describing the extent of these frontiers “unquestioned
sovereignty” is mentioned “from one end to the other of our sea.” This
phrase may be considered somewhat unfortunate but from what I have been
told by persons in authority, it should in no way be taken as signifying
more than a desire for the ordinary rights of a nation having a
sea-coast.
I have been assured lately by several prominent political men, including
the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Gavrilovitch, that the
Cabinet is strongly opposed to including in the Kingdom any territories
not peopled by Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, especially owing to the
danger which this would cause to the Kingdom. Where this appears to be a
necessity, as in the case of the Italian populations of Fiume and Zara,
the fullest educational and language liberties would be given.
Certain of the measures mentioned in the Prince Regent’s proclamation
have already been executed. The National Council has already been chosen
and is expected to meet about March 1st. The Skupschtina which has held
a short session, has elected the Serbian delegates and adjourned,
presumably to meet no more. A special Ministry has been appointed for
preparing for the coming Constitutional Convention, as has already been
reported, and is stated to be already engaged in drafting an electoral
law for this Convention and considering plans for a Constitution. A
decree has already been published extending to all the Kingdom the
rights and liberties enjoyed in Serbia. Regarding the relief of the
indigent population and reconstruction however, little has yet been
done. Lack of funds is partly responsible for this, lack of efficient
administrative personnel and a certain weariness and demoralization
after six years of exhausting warfare. The Croatians show more ability
in such
[Page 896]
measures than the
Serbs, owing to their having suffered less and possessing more
administrative ability. It is however a herculean task and it is
especially unfortunate that it must be accomplished at a time when so
many matters of absorbing political importance are forcing their
solution. Without substantial foreign assistance, proper relief and
reconstruction will be beyond the Government’s powers.
While adding that I have sent a copy of this Despatch to the Secretary of
State in Paris, I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
Christmas Day Proclamation of Prince Regent
Alexander of Yugoslavia
To My People:
To the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes!
We have finally reached the day so long desired of our delivery and
our free union in a National Independant State in which our race
will live its full life and will enjoy without hindrance the gifts
which the charitable hand of God has so richly bestowed upon our
beautiful country.
Finally is fulfilled the vow which through centuries and continuously
all the generations of our race have confirmed and sanctified by
their blood.
The unanimous decision of the people, expressed by the unanimous vote
of its best representatives, has united into a single Kingdom all
the portions of our country until now scattered, a Kingdom over
which the national will has called to rule the King of all the
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, my August Father, His Majesty King Peter
I.
Exercising the Royal Power in His name, I have formed, in agreement
with the leaders and representatives of all the National parties,
Serb, Croat and Slovene, Our first State Government. As a visible
sign of our fraternity and complete fraternal solidarity there are
working in full concord in this Government the notables of the
Nation of all three religions and of all the three names, the
representatives of all the parties and of all the portions of Our
Kingdom.
My Government will work in full accord with the Representatives of
the Nation and will be responsible to them. For this purpose its
duty will be to call together as soon as possible at Belgrade the
National Representatives who include delegates of the Serbian
Skupschtina, of Old Serbia, of Macedonia, of a proportional number
of members of the National Councils and of representatives of the
Voivodina and of Montenegro. This National Representation will form
a provisional but complete representation of the Legislative Branch
in Our Kingdom.
[Page 897]
As King of a free and democratic people, I will hold without fail to
the principles of constitutional and parliamentary Government which
will be the corner-stone of our State created by the free wish of
the Nation.
In this spirit and in conformity with these principles my Government
will govern the country and decide all questions of foreign and
domestic policy. My Government will propose to the National
Representatives an electoral law which will insure, on a basis of
universal suffrage, free elections for the Constitutional
Skupschtina to which the Government will submit a draft for a
democratic Constitution of the State, framed on a basis of the unity
of the State, with extensive administrative autonomy and with the
widest guaranties of political liberty and civic rights.
It will be the duty of My Government to extend immediately to the
whole territory of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes all
the rights and liberties now enjoyed by the Serbs in accordance with
the Serbian Constitution. In this manner the complete equality of
all citizens before the law will be recognized and confirmed, all
class privileges will be abolished and the liberty and equality of
religious rights will also be guaranteed.
I desire that the solution of the agrarian question may immediately
be proceeded with and that the fiefs and great estates may be
abolished. In both of these cases the lands will be divided among
the poor farmers with a just indemnity to the present proprietors.
May every Serb, Croat and Slovene be the lord of his field. In our
free State only free proprietors will be able to exist and will
exist. It is for these reasons that I have requested my Government
to form at once a commission which will prepare a solution of the
agrarian question while I call upon the peasant-proprietors to wait
quietly, trusting in my Royal word that our State will give them the
land by legal process, the land which in the future will belong only
to God and to them as is the case since long ago in Serbia.
The four years’ war has caused profound disorder in all matters. In
order to cure these matters rapidly and successfully and to bring
back the country into its normal condition, my Government will
devote its attention principally to revictualling the people,
especially the most indigent, to helping and supporting the victims
of the war, to reconstructing the pillaged and ravaged regions and
to reestablishing the lines of communication by land and sea which
is the primary condition of the regular development of national
life.
The most urgent and most important duty of my Government today is to
determine, at the conclusion of the world peace, the frontiers of
our State so that [they] will coincide faithfully with the
ethnographic frontiers of our entire nation, so that no portion of
Our
[Page 898]
Kingdom will fall
under foreign domination. In order to obtain this success it is
indispensable that our young State should gather together and unite
all its moral and material strength, it is indispensable that its
internal life should remain strong and powerful. Consequently I
invite all the good citizens and faithful sons of Our Kingdom to
support by words, acts and example My Government in its efforts to
preserve the present peace and order in the country. This is not
only a present necessity but also a pledge for the future of Our
Kingdom.
Our noble Allies and the whole world have seen with just admiration
and recognized with all due appreciation the heroic and self-denying
efforts of My Army and the perseverance of my people. Let us try by
forgetting our mutual rivalries and giving up all our differences of
opinion to show to all the example of a people healthy and conscious
of its rights, worthy to live and labor in peace with the cultured
nations whose brave brothers in arms and loyal Ally it has had the
honor and pride to have been.
Encouraged by the examples of deep patriotism and self-sacrifice
which our soldiers, our martyrs and public men have shown during the
war, I and My Government will always take great care of the families
of the warriors who, covered with eternal glory, have fallen in the
bloody struggle for the realization of the great historical idea of
our nation.
In the name of My August Father and in My Own Name I send My Royal
greeting to all my people, to all the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes.
May the New Year be a happy one for us all, the year when, with God’s
help, our Tricolor will be unfurled to wave proudly through
centuries as the glory-covered symbol of Our Kingdom, recognized and
honored by the whole world, a shining token of the unquestioned
sovereignty of Our State throughout all its territories, over all
our mountains, all our rivers and islands and from one end to the
other of our sea.
Let us all preserve a faith unshakable in the healthy, strong and
brilliant life of Our Kingdom.
May God and the spirits of our glorious ancestors and of our great
men preserve us without fail to encourage us and keep us at work,
incessant, hard and wholehearted, for the prosperity and happiness
of My people.
Done at Our Royal Palace in our Capital,
Belgrad,
December 24,
1918.
Alexander
