Evening star., 1934-10-10
DEATH MAY BRING
NEW AL|GNMENTS
General Conflict Remote, as
No International Hatreds
Are Involved.
BY CRESTON B. MULLINS.

King Alexander of Yugoslavia and
Foreign Minister Barthou of France
at Marseille yesterday may re-echo
soon in new crisis in Central Europe
and the Balkans. There is no King
living whose death, violent or other
wise, could affect so widely the
political affairs of a continent.
The death of Alexander removed
from the European scene its sole re-
manning absolute monarch. and brings
the likelihood, at least, of the realign-
ment of Central and Eastern Europe
The prospect of immediate conflict
as the result of the aSSaSsinations is.
however, remote; there are no inter-
national antagoniSmS directly involved
such as was the case in 1914, when the
killing of the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife at Saraievo
touched off dynamite already Smolder-
ing in Austro-Serbian relations. No
such international hatreds are in
Volved in the present instance.
Nevertheless the passing of the
Yugoslay monarch creates a situation
in that country which augurs i'll for
permanent peace, particularly for that
portion of Europe lying between the
Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea and the
Carpathian Mountains. Here are
thrown together in conglomera-
ton Yugoslayia, Rumania, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia. Austria. Bulgaria,
Greece and Albania. What are their
interests in the fate of a single
dictator? They are numerous.
Now Focal Paint
The deStinies of pre-war Eastern
Europe revolved around Serbia, ever
weak and barely able to stand alone
after its liberation from Turkish rule
in the treaty of Berlin in 1873.
Yet Serbia was the fatal point at which
the aggressive foreign policies of Aus
tria- Hungary and Russia met and
clashed-so fatefully for the entire
world. No less today is YugoSlavia the
focal point around which revolve the
foreign policies of all European pow
ers, but 1t is in a far different role
that OF firSt-rate European power.
OF this keystone in the continental
political structure Alexander was die
tator for more than Is years. Without
him now, what happens to YugoSlavia?
The old Serbian kingdom was aug
mented after the war by the addition
voluntarily on their part-of Croatia,
SloveEia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
all of which had constituted a part
OF the old dual monarchy of Austria
Hungary, in addition TO the previously
independent kingdom of Montenegro.
These formed the new YugoSlavia. BY
race they were all Southern Slavs: by
language they were all Southern Slavs,
only slight differences existing be-
tween that Of the Serbs and that Of the
Croats and SloveneS. However. there
existed from the start an irreparable
breach in the matter of religion, Serbs
possessing their own state church, the
Serbian Orthodox. while the CroatS
and SloyeneS were Stanch Roman
Catholics and irreConCilable to any
supremacy whatsoever of the Serbian
church in the reunited kingdom of
the Serbs, CroatS and Slovenes. Be-
sides this bar to harmony, there is
q numerous Mohammedan population.
Croatians DisilluSiOned.
Unification of all southern Slavs
had long been the dream Of all SlaVo-
phileS, those within the polyglot dual
monarchy as well as in Russia and
the independent Balkan states, but
upon achieving their aims the Croat-
1anS soon became disilluSioned, find
ing Serbian supremacy impressed
upon them everywhere. Public offices
were loaded with SiberianS, in diScrim-
ination against members of the other
two principal national groups. The
ruling family. KarageorgeVitCh, was
Serbian, unSympathetic to non-Serb-
ian elements and persistent in spur
ring the orthodox church TO proselyte
the Catholic Croats and Slovenes. To
this end a congress of the Serbian
orthodox church in 1892 appointed a
former bishop as metropolitan of Ag-
ram (Zagreb), the capital of Croatia
and a Catholic center for 1000 years.
In this atmosphere of repression on
national minoritieS a reaction of op-
pressed elements for the revival and
preservation of their national char
acteristics was inevitable.
Remedy Was Dictatorship.
This Croatian problem, which has
resulted in atrocities on both sides,
faced King Alexander throughout his
reign. His remedy although made
quate, was dictatorship. The peak Of
Serbo- Croatian conflict was reached
in 1923 with the murder of the Croat-
ian leader, Stephen Raditch, and two
of his associates on the floor of the
Skupshtina. the national parliament.
Croatian resentment reached alarm
ing proportions, and the following
year Alexander effected his coup to
become dictator. He renamed the
kingdom YugoSlavia, in line with his
program for a unitary. centralized
government in which would be erased
all minor national aspirations in favor
purely YugoSlavian nationality.
AleXander's purpose in stepping out
side the role assigned him by the
constitution of the SerboC Croat-Slo-
Vene state was to overcome the par
alyzing partisan strife. transform a
divided into a united nation and TO
present to foreign countries Soho
front. He achieved measure OF sue
cess in each direction.
Resentful Of their subsection TO Ser
Dldn RUE. IlOJ OIlIy SIOdIldilo' SuV
Slovenes and Macedonians as well have
carried on persistent campaigns Tor
autonomy, their aim being federal
state, in which each minority may eX-
ercise broad powers of self government,
the central government restricting Its
authority to those matters concerning
the kingdom as whole.
Faces Internal Crisis.
With the passing of the dictator
and the succession to the throne of the
young Crown Prince, for whom re-
gency will rule until he reached his
majority, Yugoslavia faces the great
est internal crisis of its existence. A
Croatian assaSsinated the ruler. dis
posing of one regime oppressive for all
Croatia and Slovenia; and all eXiled
Croatian leader weakly expresses re-
grets, simultaneously predicting a pc
riod of civil war unless the monarchy
is re-establiShed upon a democratic
and constitutional basis. The Croatian