ALBERT EINSTEIN and
CROATIA -A LETTER from SAN FRANCISCO, 1931
Jugo-Slavia Ruled by
Terror
The
charges of Prof. Albert Einstein, who, in an open letter, accused the
Jugoslavian Government of having engineered the sensational murder of Prof.
Milan Sufflay, once again have focused the attention of the world upon the
heroic struggle of the Croatian people against the terroristic and oppressive
rule of Serbian dictatorship.
The
hideous murder of the famous historian of Zagreb University does not stand
alone in Croatia's tragic history of recent years; it is but one link in that
endless chain of sinister killings, brutal violence and open blackmail which
marked the way of the dictatorship in Croatia ever since King Alexander
suspended the constitution and assumed absolute power.
Hundreds Slain, Croatians
also Jailed or Sent to Exile
Within
the short span of two years hundreds of Croatian patriots had been slain,
thousands thrown into jail or forced into exile because they dared to demand
full political rights for their native land-once a part of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy, but since the end of the war a component of the kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes, commonly called Jugoslavia.
On
the surface, the cause of the unrest seems to be the Croats' unrelenting demand
for self-government and independence from the Serbian political machine. In
reality, however, there are other and deeper reasons why the Croats are in open
revolt against so-called personal dictatorship of King Alexander.
Back
of the appalling number of political murders, bomb-throwings, imprisonments,
threats, extortion and espionage is the age-old struggle between East and West,
the mortal combat between a highly civilized nation, used to western methods of
political administration and a group of Balkan politicians, reared in an
atmosphere of intrigue and corruption, and accustomed to regard murder and
violence as common weapons of actual politics.
Croatia
became part of the Jugoslav Kingdom at the close of the World War. The old
dream of a union of all southern Slavs had come true, but it was effected in a
form entirely unsatisfactory to the Croats.
The
people of Croatia imagined the new kingdom as a Federalist state with full
autonomy for component parts. Instead of a greater freedom, however, they
received a form of treatment from their new overlords which ran counter to
their national aspirations.
Higher Culture
In
religious matters, the Croat is a Roman Catholic and a believer; the Serb is
orthodox and saturated with mild skepticism.
Croatia
was highly industrialized and looked for capital to Vienna and Budapest, while
Serbia is still today primarily an agricultural country.
In
the field of cultural activities, too, the Croats were superior to their
backward Serbian brethren. Art, literature, science and the theatre were on a
western level in Croatia, while across the frontier line there was no such
thing as Serbian literature or Serbian science.
They
soon awoke to the realization that this was impossible under the new
constitution and under the system of government introduced by the Serbian
political leaders. In the new Jugoslav state the Croats were treated as a
vanquished nation; the country was flooded with Serbian officials sent from
Belgrade, and soon the policy of centralization was in full swing.
The
Croats protested, first mildly, then more and more sharply and resolutely, but
their protests were answered with threats and oppressive measures. The Croat
leaders proclaimed passive resistance throughout the country, whereupon the
Serbs introduced their well-tested methods of persecution and terrorism.
Patriots Continue Fight
for Liberty
All
this, however, could not break the resistance of the Croats. They carried on
their fight for liberty, sent flaming appeals and protests to the League of
Nations, which the Serbs answered with the murder of Stephen Radich, the
Croatian leader, and the massacre of the Croatian parliamentarian in the
Skupstina in Belgrade.
The
situation soon became untenable not only for the Croats, but also for the whole
country and the dynasty itself. Jugoslavia needed money desperately and the
foreign money-lenders were unwilling to grant loans to a country virtually in a
state of civil war.
The
outside world had to be convinced that Jugoslavia was a united country and the
union of the Southern Slavs not an empty dream, a mere scheme designed to
further imperialistic plans of the Karageorgevitch dynasty and the Serbian
Radical party.
This
was the reason why King Alexander dissolved Parliament, suspended the constitution
and declared his personal dictatorship. Under the cloak of deadly silence which
fell upon the whole country the "system" could more easily be put
into effect.
The
King-who, by the way, changed not only his political course, but also his outward
appearance by shaving off his short black moustache in order to look more like
a dictator than a young dentist-appointed Petar Zhivkovitch as prime minister.
M.
Zhivkovitch was well trained in the Serbian methods of politics. He began his
career in 1903, when he joined the conspiracy against the Obrenovitch dynasty
and took an important part in the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga.
Zhivkovitch Halts Murder
of King
Lieutenant
Zhivkovitch rose swiftly; he became captain, than major, colonel and general.
During the war the Black Hand attempted to organize a new royal murder and the
victim was to be Regent Alexander, the present King. General Zhivkovitch,
however, disagreed, exposed the whole sinister scheme, executed several
officers and founded a new secret military organization, which he called the
White Hand-Bela Ruka.
By
Emery Derl. Noted war correspondent, author, editor and authority on central
European treaties and politics. San Francisco Examiner, May 31, 1931.
Contributed
by Adam S. Eterovich