Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-26

and the right were probably divided;
both parts paid the penalty for the
excess Capitalization that the old Serb
leaders imposed.
Perhaps the main reason why the
union has proved so stormy lies in the
fact that one Of the necessary members
of the true Jugoslav unity of tomorrow
was lacking and Is still lacking
mean Bulgaria.
Had Bulgaria formed an integral part
of Jugoslavia--as she surely will some
day-the internal and international
difsiculties Of the new JugoSlav state
would not have developed into such
dangerous evils. Macedonia might have
become q link between the two Jugoslav
groups. the Serbian and the Bulgarian,
while now she is a dividing field of
hatreds and jealousies. Croatia would
have been less suspicious Of Serbia the
Adriatic question with Italy would have
been less bitter.
One man. better than any Croat or
any Serb, had felt and foreseen all that
-Stambulisky, the leader Of the Peasant
party in Bulgaria, the man who forced
King Ferdinand to abdication; SIAM
bulisky, the prophetic spirit who was the
FIRST to proclaim the necessity Of Jugo-
slav union, and who paid for 1t with his
life.
Lone Voice 70 Opposition.
When, at the time of the annexation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ferdinand
of Coburg, In agreement with Austrian
diplomacy, raised Bulgaria to the rank
of an independent kingdom, Stambulisky
alone damped the complacent enthuSi-
asm Of the Official classes for the out
ward success.
The independence proclaimed in this
manner" he declared in Parliament,
represents a danger for the country.
1t is the beginning OF policy that will
inevitably bring us TO war. This lean
ing toward Austria, contrary to the
permanent feelings OF the country. We
shall pay for with a catastrophe"
When, with Austria's war against
Serbia, his prophecy was about to be
fulfilled Stambulisky was already
leader Of q fairly numerous group Of
peasants in Parliament: for the peasant
masses had answered his call tired as
they were Of meeting the cost Of strug-
giles between the partisans OF Austria
and those Of Russia. Stambulisky's war
cry-"The cause Of the peasants inde-
pendence can be defended only by the
peasants had echoed widely. On the
day when the Austrians invaded Serbia.
he rose in Parliament. surrounded by
his group. and cried out:
II wish victory TO Cur Serbian
brothers!"
Called Traitor.
The majority. subservient to King
Ferdinand. covered him with insults:
Go, you traitor, you are nothing but
Serbian!"
And he replied calmly:
IT am neither a Serbian nor a Bull
garian; / am a southern Slav."
Such blasphemy-Which will prove
the truth of the future-had never YET
been spoken in the Bulgarian Parlia-
ment
A few months before his death-he
was killed by a gang Of officers and
Macedonians on June 8, 1923-Stam-
bulisky, being at the time Bulgarian
prime minister, asked my confidential
opinion on what was still his supreme
ideal-a federal union between the
two southern Slav Observation-Disclosures
and the new kingdom of the Serbians.
Croats and Slovenes. He knew that
when I had been at the head of the
Italian foreign policy. not only had
not been afraid Of such a hypothesis
but that had considered it consistent