Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-30
DR.. PUP|N DEFENDS
CAUSE OF SERWANS
Issues Heated Reply to Attack
of Austrian Ambassador
Dumba.

NEW YORK, July 30.-Prcf. Mi
chael I. Pupin, of Columbia Univer-
sity, Servian consul-general here and
the acknowledged leader of the Serbs
in the United States in the present
crisis, issued a statement last night
in reply to an interview recently
given by DR.. Dumba, the Austrian
ambassador, on the Servian situation
and the causes that have led up to
it. He declares that there is ample
justification for the agitation of the
Serbs against Austrian domination
he himself Is an Austrian born Serb
and affirms that no Serb patriot has
ever said anything which placed Aus
tria in more disgraceful light than
does the recent ultimatum of Servia.
DIR. Dumba holds that Servia is re-
sponsible for the Pan-Serb propa-
ganda which led to the assassination
of the crown prince and his consort
at Sarajevo and he asserts that Aus
trials purpose now is solely to main
tain her rule in Bosnia and suppress
Servian agitation in her border pro-
vinces. In his reply Prof. Pupin
says:
II admitted some time ago that
there is a Pan-Serb propaganda in
Austria, but this propaganda is
among the Serbs and Croats in Aus
tria, and not among the Serbs in Ser
via or Montenegro. These Austrian
Serbs, and | am one of them, need
no encouragement from Servia to
carry on their national movement.
Austrian violation or every principle
of justice and fairness, Austrian ty-
ranny, which cannot find its parallel
in the darkest period of the middle
ages, is responsible for this Pan-Serb
movement in Austria.
1T was only five years ago when
fifty-three prominent Serbs in Croa-
tia, an Austrian province, were ar
rested and tried for high treason on
the ground that they were members
of the Pan-Serb propaganda and that
they conspired with the Seryian gov
eminent to separate Bosnia and Her
zegovina from Austria. The result of
the trial. which lasted two years, was
acquittal. This trial showed most
conclusively that there was not an
atom of evidence of the Servian gov
eminent having any connection with
the Pan-Serb propaganda in Austria
"A refusal of the Austrian empire
to deal fairly with her Serb subjects
is particularly hard in face of the fact
that for two centuries they were the
bravest and most loyal defenders of
the empire. A majority of them emil
grated into Austria in 1890, when
thirty-five thousand picked Serb fam
lilies left old Servia at the express in
vitation of Emperor Leopold l., of
Austria, and settled along the south
ern Austrian frontier which was then
being devastated by the Turks.
I'm return for their splendid SER
vices to the empire the Serbs of Aus
tria became victims of the modern
Austrian policy of expansion toward
the Aegean Sea. The Serb is magma
tive, fond of his national music and
poetry and of his national costumes
and nothing in the world can pre-
vent him from INDUCING in the sweet
dreams of the Serb minstrel who
sang of the return of the Serb glories
of the fourteenth century. This is the
only offense of which the Austrian
Serb is guilty, and this offense con-
stitutes high treason in the Austrian
empire. How can an Austrian SUBJ
ject believe in and long for the re-
turn of the old Serb glories without
being an enemy of the Austrian
policy of expansion toward the Aeg-
can Sea? 2"
THE annexation by Austria of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the home of
the flower of the Serb race, in 1908
drove the people to desperation and
resulted in the Sarajevo tragedy, for
which Austria blames now the king
dom of Servia. The perpetrators Of
the act are two Serb boys, barely
nineteen, natives of Austria, who ex-
perienced very harsh treatment from
the imperial government and were
finally expelled from Bosnia. They
are members of the Pan-Serb propa-
ganda in Austria. but every Serb In
Austria is member of this propa-
ganda. l am a member of it, although
I have lived in this country since my
boyhood.
ut is not secret movement, but
an open one, and its object is well
known; it is vigorous opposition to
the repressive measures of the Aus
TRAN government against the very
existence Of the Serbs In Austria