The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1916-02-03
KING PETER MOST TRAGIC
ROYAL FIGURE OF WAR

Vienna--There is a second king In
europe without a kingdom, as a result
of the war. Peter or serbia, Is today
no better of than the king of the Bel
CLANS. Karageorgovitch Is a fugitive
before the advance Of the central pow
ers and Bulgarian troops. His two
capitals, Belgrade and Nish, are in the
hands of the invaders. For a time
King Peter travelled in a special rain.
At Krusevatch he had to abandon his
, movable court. AS he stood in the
station building OF that town and
waited for the automobile that was to
take him to other parts, tears streamed
down his cheeks. One of his dwindling
encourage murmured a few comforting
words, but to these King Peter merely
nodded. Today he is in Italy.
In many respects King Peter is the
most dramatic figure of the European
war. Two regicides are intimately
connected with his history, the murder
of his predecessor, Alexander Obreno-
Witch, and his queen, Draga, and the
assassination of the Archduke of Aus
tria, the dual monarohy's heir pre-
sumptive. There are those who claim
that King Peter knew Of the two plots,
that, indeed, he was the instigator OF
the former. How true this Is would be
hard to say in the absence OF more evil
dence than has so far been produced.
Certain 1t is only that King Peter
showed no inclination to be severe with
the regicides in either case. He even
managed to be on good terms with Ma
for Misitch, arch villain Of the crime
in the old Konak OF Belgrade, IL years
ago.
Peter Karageorovitch never forgot,
and never was permitted to forget, that
he had taken the place of a man who
had been foully murdered. Only q few
sovereigns consented to meet him, and
he was always so i'll at ease in the
presence Of strangers thai he usually
Stunned them.
King Peters family, it is said.
is Of Gypsy origin. The original Ka-
ragorovitch. or "son Of Black George"
however, was q shepherd. King Peter
himself spent much of his life in
Switzerland, where the summons TO
Serbia's i'll fated throne reached him.
Shortly after his election to the king
ship, Peter entered into close relations
with the Russian crown. A large an
nual revenue was settled upon him
with the understanding that in all mat
tiers affecting Serbias foreign policy
he was to keep Russia's interests on
the Balkan peninsula in mind.
The attitude of the Serbian liberal
party made such a course by Russia
advisable. This party had favored the
establishment OF a republic in Serbia
after Alexander and Draga had been
murdered. This, and the fact that the
liberals in those days were not the ar
dent pan Slavists which they became
later, recommended the reinforcement
Of the Serbian crown financially. In
Petrograd 1t was felt that Russia need
ed q reliable agent in the Balkans, nor
could II be overlooked there that ex-
periments in republican government by
a Slav people were not calculated to
make life for the Romanoff dynasty
easier. For IL years Peter drew his
Russian revenues, and, 1t is asserted
here, never lost an opportunity to serve
in return. The arrangement made
Serbia a veritable appendix to Russia.
and, so far as the European war has
now progressed, proved Serbia's un-
doing. Whether or not King Peter will
ever rule in Serbia Is hard to say at
this moment; in the central powers the
belief, of course, is that Serbia and It's
king are no more.