The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-17
AGED KING
 PETER DIES ;. IN BELGRADE
Belgrade, Jugoslavia, Aug 17- Associated Pres)-King Peter of Serbia died yesterday.

The King. who for a long time had been i'll. was reported early in June to be in 8 serious condition. He was then suffering from pleurisy. A short Steadily improving in health, and his physicians declared him out of dan ger.
 Nothing thereafter was heard of the aged monarch until Q few days ago, when a dispatch from Belgrade said he was seriously ill with con- gestion of the lungs He sank into unconsciousness Friday, remaining in that condition until the following day. His condition became worse Sunday night, and he gradually fail ed until tre end.
 Peter Karageorgevitch, King Peter l. of Serbia. came to the throne com paratively late in life, following the assassination of King Alexander I. of reign was signalized by the shaking Eof by Serbia of the Austrian infu !ence, and the consequent trinmphs in the wars of 1912 and 1913, followed fby the attack upon the kingdom by Austria which led to the general European war. Peter was born at Belgrade. June 29. 1844, his father, Prince Alexander. son of Kara George, then ruling in Serbia
 Peter was educated in Geneva and at the French military academy of St. Cyr1, and at the age of $ joined sthe French Foreign Legion in the
 
 decorated for bravery in battle. Five years later, when the oppressed Slay peoples in the Balkans had been driven to desperation by Turkish op- !preSsion, Peter went into Bosnia, and Herzegovina under the name of Peter fMrkonjitch and led the revolt of the Serbs in these provinces, where he fought again with great distinction. Turks, but in the following year Ser bia declared war on Turkey. Peter ithereupon offered his services to Milan Ohrenovitch, then ruling Ser bia, with the promise that he would undertake no anti-dynastic action. tBut Milan refused. so Peter had no part ir. Serbia's unsuccessful war }with Turkey, which led Russia to lmately a encouragement of the entire Balkan situation at the Congress of Berlin.
 Peter remained in exile for the next Russia and Paris, but most often in Switzerland. In 1883 he married Princess Zorka. Lioubitza- daughter of Nicholas of Montenegro. and they lived in Paris till her death in 1890.
 In 1908 the Serbian throne was left vacant of the murder of the last tObrenovitch. This King. Alexander, and his Queen Draga had long been very unpopular in Serbia He was thought to be toe strongly under Aus !trian influence and when he suspended .the constitution by royal decree in the sSDring of 1903 popular indignation frose to 9 point which was expressed @on the night Of June 10-11 by the 31nurGer of the King and Queen at the ;11ands of a group of army oftlcers. murder of the Prime Minister, and several other officials, army officers, :and members of the royal household. besides many casualties in street fights ;between loyal troops and those who ySuppOrted htS cDnSpfcaJOrS
 Denied Toreixnowiedge of Crime.
 Despite his denials of foreknow :eraIIy seized upon the fact that Peter was the one who had profited by the crime-for he accepted the offered ;throne four days later-and held him lquestien was fostered by Austrian spropaganda for Peter had his sons sedacated in Russia and was sym 'spathetic with that country. When he swas installed as King, Great Britain Abroke diplomatic relations and re- Sfused to send a Minister to Serbia for ssonne years, and for a long time Peter Twas not favOrably regarded py Flu i But, however, Peter was regarded Iebroad, his rule was beneficent to ser sbia. He respected the constitution, Efostered the national spirit. yet dis splayed great caution when, as at the Ftfnne of the Austrian annexation Of lRosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, en- sthuSiaSdC patriots would nave IuSh- ed into a suicidal war.
 . Peter was a constitutional ruler, ;and because of this and perhaps Of his age he played no great personal .part in the two Balkan wars and the diplomatic negotiations by which the ,Ba1kan allies were cheated or part or
 Made Grown Prince His Regeus:
 The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand in June. 1914, once <more put Austro-Serbian relationships Iin a very precarfous condition. Peter, son account of his age, had appointed
 Serhia only three days before this event (June 25). and in the dtpio- matic exchanges leading up to the
 war;. and in the early days or the the :tituiar commander of the army, ful- filled the functions of the crown. But, in November, when the second great Austrian attack on Serbia had forced sthe evacuation of Belgrade, Peter : went down in person into the front ttrenches at Valjavo and took part Tn fthc Serbian counter-attack whlch routed the Austrian army ana recon-
 IIes than year later, however. Ser :bial was crushed by the combined :rialn onslaught under Mackensen- Pc tier shared the incredible hardsh1pS or 4 his arny's retreat over the Albanian smountains, and after brief stay With fhis brother-in-la-w, the King of Italy, went with his suite to the Island of iFuboia, where for a while he re- mained as the guest Of the Greek igovernment.
 After the defeat of the Bu1garians tby the Allies, in which the remnant of the Serbian army took conspicu- i, ous part, and the collapse of the tCen+raI Powers. King Peter returned ito Belgrade, where, in falling health, i he had since lived.
 scrDvT NNE DEpSnN