Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-26
NETTUNO PACT AROUSES
SERB-CROAT ANIMOSITY
Jugoslav Segment, Like Alsace, Posen
and Pennsylvania, Opposes Postwar
Governmental Arrangements.

crossed the Vosges, they were welcomed
with an enthusiasm which was POSI-
ticely delirious In Strasbourg, in Metz,
i'll Colnar and Mulhouse.
AIsatians Turbulent.
This is the plebiscite," Poincare re-
marked at the time and even the Ger
mans were chagrined and disillusloned
by the patent Joy with which the Asa
tians hailed their forcible election. Yet
10 years later all Alsace is shaken by
the resistance of the people to French
administrative system. While they con-
tinued to hate the German, the Asa
tians inevitably passed through the
German schools, they became accuS-
toned to German efficiency both IN
administration and IN business.
Like the Poles of Posen and the
Rumanians and Croats of the Hapsburg
monarchy. they had acquired a strong
provincial spirit of their own. In the
first hours of deliverance from q hated
alien rule this local sentiment was un-
disturbed But when French admins
trative methods were substituted for
German the reaction was inevitable and
immediate The people of Alsace we're
glad to exchange German for French
nationality, but in the new fatherland.
as in the old, they desired to remain
AlsatianS. They desired to preserve
their language. which was Teutonic.
They looked with apprehension at the
proposed extension to Alsace of the laws
which the French republic had adopted
disestablishing the Roman Catholic
Church
Thus. today. in Alsace, in Croatia. IN
Pennsylvania, in Posen, one is brought
face to face with very grave local dis
I Ina ~fN- L. I,1ae-
this discomfort express any desire to
escape from the new national union. the
AlSatians do not wish to become Ger
mans again, nor do the Poles of Posen.
Neither the Croats nor the Transyl-
vanianS have even the faintest aspira-
ton to return TO Hungarian domino
ton.
In every case the peoples are Sc
| fed with their new country Blu
| within that country they demand a
chance to exercise an influence COM
mensurate alike with their numbers,
their economic and financial ability
and their intellectual standards Above
all they resent the unmistakable attempt
of the inhabitants of the older frac-
tons of the states to deprive them of
their provincial rights and powers and
centralize all administration and bust
| ness in remote capital.
In at least half dozen European
states this battle between Capitalization
and federalism will have to be fought
out. 1t could easily provoke civil war
in Rumania and in JugoSlavia, as the
same spirit of provincial discomfort mar
rowly missed precipitating a struggle
in Poland. 1t is. too. Enthusiastically a
| disease incident to self-determination
The subject minorities which clamored
for liberty and union with their ethnic
maJorities no sooner realized these
aspirations than within their new
country they begin to struggle for the
preservation of their local institutions
and demand the Transformation of the
national administration, as well.
And Jugoslavia Is today enormously
interesting because it supplies the bss
and most significant example of til
new European trouble.
tCopyright. 1887