The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-15
Croatia Has
 Declared Her
 Independence

Vienna, Aprit 15-W1iat purports to be an address to Belgrade by the 4 Croatfan Peasants Party formulated
 at meeting in Agram on February
 1neut is printed in the Reichspost of
 th.s city. Ii is virtually a dec1ar-
 alton of independence of Croatia.
 A significant feature of it is the
 fact that it is addressed to His
 Royal Highness, the Regent of the Kingdom of Serbia as Military Com /, n1ander in Belgrade Signed by 4S deputies of the Radich party it be- 2 gins with the statement that they . consider it their duty to invalidate in the name of the Croatian nation and state the address which the Central
 Committee of the National Assembly, with only eight members of the Cro-
 atian Diet, presented to the Regent
 in December 19, 1918, and also to inva1idate the decisions of the Croa-
 tian Diet since October of that year.
 Declaring that the Croatian Diet
 in October. 1918. proclaimed the en-
 tire independence of Croatia, SlaVo-
 mia. Da1matia and the Mur Islands
 and handed over to the National AS
 seTnbly the supreme power. the ad- dress points out that at the same time
 it distinctly made clear that they
 meant only to become members Of a
 union but by no means to join the
 centralized state of the Kingdom of
 the Serbs, Greats and SloveneS. It
 supports this view by constru1ng the decision of the Peace Conference in
 response to its appeal for an 1ndepen-
 dent Peasant Republic as meaning Croatia was compelled to become
 part of the s H S only in an 1nterna-
 tional sense and that the conference
 did not force upon Croatia the Ser bian monarchy
 The monarchy was proclaimed by the Regent, the manifesto continues, ''on the basis of the above-men ed address which was repudiated and invalidated by the Croatian na- ton in November of last year, so that the present regime which con- stituteS an unprecedented reign or terror can only be kept up by force of arms and oppression.
 Since December of 1920, the mani festo continues. the Croatan nation has been oppressed and suppressed in a manner never before eXperinced fin its history, while the introduction of corporal punishment and its daily practices upon the peasants by the gendarmeS because of their repubH- can tendencies lis deadly hurt to the national feeling, dignity and cui- | ture of the country"
 Relying upon military force, che l deprived the Croatians of equal rights in the union in any sphere | and has outlawed them in financial, | military and constitutional affairs Suppr ession of newspapers print | ing articles offensive to Belgrade is charged as we'll as the strict proh1- | bition of a Peasants Party organ- It | reciteS the arbitrary diSnlemb bern ent | of Croatia by a. packed commission in way "not even attempted by the | VenetianS. the Turks, nor the AuStr1- l ans.'' in the course of centuries: It recites the arrests and 1mprison- ment of the Croatian deputy Niko1a Srdovic because he defied the King and stood by his constituency and says that the Serbian commissionalres publicly declare they will bring about nIfrITa 1i--l ties who do not vote as Belgrade di- rects. N
 "By far worse wrongs+ were done by your government to the Croat1an- Mohammedan majority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.'' continues the docu- ment, ''as well as to the Croatian ma jority in the Barska Two hundred thousand Croatians there were treat ed in a manner that would have been forbidden even were they MaSyars. A system of murdering and plundering Is being carried on The emb1tter- lnent of the whole nation is such that history may hardly afford an analo- sy to such general discontent."
 The manifesto concludes: After this great war a peasant state can exist in our territory only in the form of a republic and if the present moment is not a suitable one for the Construction of a republican con stitution in our territory on account of party disputes and weariness. the
 
 Croatian people is inst a peasant re- public will be created without hind rance by force. The conscience of reawakened humanity, the vigilant eye of Europe. the vital interests of our Jugoslav national unity demand extraordinarily that your Royal High ness may forbid any tearing asunder !; of the Croatians and the Serbs by military forces under your command, thus creating an entrenched military camp in Croatia instead of building ,,p a peaceful workshop with new life in harmony with Serbia. and in community with all I JugoslavdoIn-'' r = The Reichspost declares that this : document was promptly suppressed and that the only paper printing IL ZyaS confiscated Incidentally the Vicrna Reichspost has been forbidden in South Jusoslavla pc cause of a series of articles descrlb- l ing alleged prosecutions of the minor peoples by the Belgrade government
 The combined farmers emergency tariff and anti-dumping bill is beinG