The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-29

AUSL OL lHSu WcEC SLuQculSs .1OulH lS the time for the philosophy of action. There were also teachers, tradesmen, and peasants, artisans, and even men of the upper classes were ardent patriots. They were dissimilar in everything ex- cept hatred of the oppressor.
 Such were the men into whose hands the tiny bit of newsprint was sent by friends in Bosnia that April night in Belgrade. At a small table in a very humble cafe, beneath a flickering gas-jet we sat and read it. There was no advice nor admonition sent with it, Only four letters and two numerals were sufficient to make us unanimous, without discussion, as to what we should do about it. They were con- tained in the fateful date, June 28.
 How dared Franz Ferdinand, not sonly the representative of the oppres- sor, but in his own person an arrogant tyrant, enter Sarajevo on the day? Such an entry was a studied insult.
 June 2S is a date engraved deeply in the heart of every Serb, go that the called the vidovnan. It is the day on which the old Serbian kingdom was conquered by the Turks at the battle of Amselfelde in 1889. It is also the day on which in the second Balkan war the Serbian arms took glorious re- Venge on the Turk for his old victory and for the years of enslavement.
 That, was no day for Franz Fer dnand, the new oppressor, to venture to the very doors of Serbia for a dis play of the force of arms which kept us beneath his heel. Why, across the border, Serbia itself would look down on the wheeling ranks of the enemy. Those army units, containing many a Serb by birth and spirit, marching against his will, would execute Aus trian orders in a community which groaned beneath the Austrian yoke.
 Franz Ferdinand's visit would have been inopportune in any year as long as Serbia had a spark of national spirit. 1b was particularly inOppor tune in 1914 when the agrarian ques tions had not yet found their solution and when the burdens of an outrageous feudal system had made the peasants discontented and restless.
 "We Knew What We Would Do"
 As we read that clipping in Belgrade we knew what we would do to Fran1 Ferdinand. We would kill him, tC show Austria there yet lived within its borders defiance of its rule. We would kill him to bring once more to the boil ing point the fighting spirit of the rev Olutionaries and pave the way for re vole. We would kill him for his insult to our country. No Austrian could Haunt his domination over Serbians al the cOuntry's border, within the sound OF fh0 .ohVnNaOh haIlo vsnoriU0 fNr, Cnu bian fete.
 Not only was Franz Ferdinand q symbol of the Austrian oppression. HC was in himself one of the greatest enemies of our country. He was lead CT within the old Austro-H Hungarian empire of the party seeking pan-Ger manic expansion. And pan-GermaniC expansion meant the eternal extinction of any little. nation which fell within its path. Its path was towards the east, ConstantinOple and Bagdad. The triumph of pan-Germanism meant the end of Serbia, even little pre-war Ser bia, Shorn of much of its rightful terri tory.
 Our decision was taken almost i'm. mediately. Death to the tyrant!
 Then came the matter of arranging it. To make his death certain, 2S members of the organization were SC. lected to carry out the sentence. Al first we thought we would choose the men by lot. But here Gavrilo PrinciI intervened. Princip is destined to go down in Serbia history as one of her greatest heroes. From the moment Ferdinand's death was decided upon he took an active leadership in its planning. Upon his advice we left the deed to members of our band who were in and around Sarajevo, under his di- rection and that of Gabrinovic, lino- type operator on a Serbian newspaper. Both were regarded as capable of any thing in the cause.
 Bandit Chief Gives Arms
 Then came the matter of getting them arms. Present at our meeting was Major Tankosic, leader of band of Serbian comittachi, one of those bands of nationalist bandits who prey only on their country's enemies, who raid in Macedonia and other alien soil. He arranged that we should from his band the necessary hand gre nades and Browning automatic pistols.
 These arms were sent through cer- tain secret channels which were al- ways open to us in Bosnia, and found their way to a little town on the out skirts of SarajevO. They remained there until after the assination, when they were brought into Sarajevo, one by one, by the most innocent looking carriers, to the house of the school teacher Ilic. The night before the mur- der he took them to a bakeshop in the center of town, where they were dis. tributed next morning.