The Murder at Sarajevo
FOR the Serbs the Balkan wars had been a period of mixed
triumph and anxiety. By August 1913 they had achieved
complete success. The statesmen, Serbian, Greek, and
Montenegrin, who had concluded the treaty of Bucharest were
greeted with enthusiasm as they arrived by water and stepped
ashore at Belgrade. But the entry of the troops roused the
capital to yet wilder expressions of delirious joy. Arches
bearing the inscription "Za Kossovo-Kumanovo. Za Slivnitzu,
Bregalnitzu" (For Kossovo, Kumanovo. For Slivnitza,
Bregalnitza) spanned the road. Amidst the shouts of the crowd
and a rain of flowers the Danube division marched into the
city. Foot, horse, and then the all-conquering guns, all
decorated with bouquets. In front came a cavalcade, the
General Staff of the Serbian army, and ahead rode a single
officer in plain service uniform, the Crown Prince Alexander.
Slowly the great procession made its way to the palace and
defiled before the windows where stood the three veterans
who had guided Serbia to this hour of triumph - King Peter, M.
Pashitch, and Voivoda Putnik. As a monument to Kara-George
was inaugurated the guns boomed out announcing their message
of victory and peace. It was the greatest moment of Serbia's
history.
But such moments pass; and the Serbs settled down to the task
of putting their house in order. Many problems awaited
solution. An Albanian insurrection kept a large part of the
army still in action. Many of our Serbian friends have been
continuously mobilized since September 1912.
|
Lieut. Krstitch tells me that he has never been home for more
than twenty days on end since the Turkish war began. Then
there was the religious problem. The adherents of the Greek
Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Exarchate were transferred to
the obedience of the Archbishop of Belgrade, the Greeks being
allowed to keep their schools. The Mohammedans were less
tractable and regretted the passing of the temporal power of
their faith. The free exercise of their religion was, however,
secured to them, and the Turks, at any rate, have
accommodated themselves to the new situation. The Roman
Catholic Albanians, who had long been used as pawns in the
political game by Austria-Hungary, were removed from her
influence by a Concordat with the Pope which placed them
directly under the Roman Catholic bishop of Belgrade.
For some time after the proclamation of peace the new
territories were under strict military government. The
administration had to deal with hostile elements which had
long been accustomed to the practice of pillage and murder,
and with the agents of the Bulgarian propaganda. It cannot be
pretended that the work of introducing order amongst the
population of Old Serbia and Macedonia was unaccompanied by
acts of violence, mistakes, excesses. It would have been
remarkable had it not been so. Time was needed to soften the
harshness of excessive nationalism and to reconcile the
population, accustomed to the easygoing laxity of the Turks, to
the more vigorous methods of the Serbs. Remember Serbia had
only had her new territories for less than a year when the
present war broke out. Yet in that time the government, urged
on by the parliamentary opposition, had organized a civil
police, set up ordinary tribunals of justice, and disarmed most
of the population.
|
