THE “GREAT SERVIA” IDEA--SERVIAN ORGANISATION
While Austria-Hungary, with Germany behind her, was discussing the
tearing up of the Treaty of Berlin with the rest of Europe, both Powers
failed to observe developments that were taking place under their very
eyes. The Austro-Hungarian official sent off to Bosnia or Croatia cared
very little about the people entrusted to him. His one and only idea
was to scheme and plan until he obtained his move to Vienna. He took no
means to detect and watch the conspiracies against the Government that
were being constantly hatched in the cafés of the town where he lived.
In a fit of sudden and uncalled-for energy, he would make a search for
cups and saucers decorated with the Serb colours or vindictively punish
the parents of a small child for permitting her to wear a Serb sash
round her waist, instead of a simple piece of ribbon. This unexpected
activity naturally raised the wrath of the Serbo-Croats, the more so
because really seditious acts frequently escaped notice, or, if the
administrators knew about them, they avoided taking cognisance of them,
as it meant the opening up of large questions and much trouble with the
central authorities in Vienna. Thus the Serbs, who lived under Austrian
or Hungarian rule, were often permitted to go to great lengths without
any interference. The sudden swoops of an enraged magistrate, who took
action rather because the plotters had interfered with his personal
convenience than because it was really incumbent upon him to do so,
produced a feeling of insecurity among the subject races. They regarded
the local governor somewhat in the light of a dangerous but slumbering
beast, and they prayed that his slumber might continue undisturbed.
Some, however, went the length of trying to twist his tail, when
they knew that he had been sent to the provinces in disgrace, as was
generally the case. If a man had been exiled for more serious offences
than uncouthness of manner, or a failure to respond to the friendly
advances of the chief’s elderly wife, and her invitation to shine at
her somewhat monotonous afternoon teas, the Serbs, who were always
well-posted in the reasons that led to an official being sent to the
provinces, felt that he was not in a position to injure them without
damaging himself, and behaved accordingly. The eight million Young
Slavs, as they call themselves, under the dominion of Austria or of
Hungary have always been well organised. When one of their number
arrives at either Vienna or Budapesth he calls round at his Union.
Although he may not know a single word of German or Hungarian, the
society find him a job. Accustomed to heavy labour, the Serb or Croat
is much sought after, especially in the lower ranks of service. Time
goes by, the man-servant or maid-servant has learnt the language and
is firmly established in the household. There is trouble in the home
because of the failure of a German tailor to keep his word. The Slav
servant has a relative who is willing to undertake the job, although
it is nearly midnight. He is hastily fetched, and by the advice of his
friend within the camp fixes his charges a trifle below those asked
by the German. He remains master of the situation, the German being
ousted. Gradually the household needs are supplied by Slavs, who carry
out orders promptly and carefully, and have none of the supercilious
“take it or leave it” manner of the German purveyor. The Austrians
always say “Let one Slav into the house, and they rule the ingoings and
outgoings for the future.”
The Slav is always an enigma, which years of close intercourse cannot
solve. His aspirations, his outlook on life are a sealed book to the
West European. The all-pervading and very distinct impression which
remains is that the Slavs have very distinct national aims, which they
are prepared to pursue with an utter persistence and ruthlessness, of
which no other peoples are capable.
Just at this period the Young Slavs within the Austro-Hungarian realm
were making a determined effort for liberation. They felt, and felt
justly, that they were oppressed. They thirsted for education and
paid large taxes to secure that same education in order to enable
their children to take their places as equals with the dominant races.
Austria and Hungary both dreaded the rise of the Slavs, and restricted
their education as much as possible, devoting the funds voted for the
purpose to other objects.
Things were so bad in this respect that a commission was sent over from
the States to ascertain how it could be possible at this date in the
civilisation of the world that such a large proportion of emigrants to
America should be illiterate. In some provinces it appeared from the
Government statistics that 69 per cent. of the annual recruits could
neither write nor read. The lack of education was most felt among
the Serbs, Croats, Poles and Little Russians. The Slavs, who possess
an uncommon amount of commonsense, felt that this withholding of
education was immoral, and that it served some deep ulterior purpose.
The Bohemians, who inhabited a rich manufacturing district, by force
of much agitation, were able to enforce their demands for education.
The Poles were miserably neglected, their representatives who attended
the Vienna Parliament were fêted and made much of, and, aristocrats
themselves for the most part, they were easily persuaded to forget the
wrongs of their people at home. In the Bukowina the people were on a
low level, and hardly realised their position. In Croatia, Dalmatia,
and especially in Bosnia, things were different. Italy was close by,
and the Slavs learnt how things were managed in that very progressive
and modern State. Servia and Montenegro were governed on lines that
contented the peoples there, and the Serbs across the frontier felt
that they would be better under the rule of King Peter than subject to
a governor who was so far from the centre that he could practically
deal with them as he pleased. It was seldom that the governor really
understood the vernacular. Being entirely German in his sympathies, he
naturally felt no interest in the Slav aspirations, except a desire
to crush them. While Vienna was using up her strength in arguing with
Europe, the Slavs considered that their opportunity had come for the
establishment of a vast Slav Empire, consisting of all the countries
inhabited by Slavs in Southern Austria and Hungary, which was to be
placed under the rule of the King of Servia.
Negotiations for a union between Montenegro and Servia, for the
establishment of a common customs tariff, a common army, and for the
pursuance of a common foreign policy, were being carried on. Servia
hoped to extend her territory to the sea. Whether she thought to
incorporate the Slavs of Austria and Hungary among her people is
difficult to say, but she, like the rest of South-Eastern Europe, was
aware that Austria-Hungary was rotten to the core. It must in the near
future follow Turkey and share its fate. As events move much more
quickly to-day in the epoch of telegrams and railways than they did
in the period of coaches and couriers, a much more rapid dissolution
of the Empire was to be expected than in the case of Turkey that
had been tottering for centuries. While the Austrian and Hungarian
Slavs were looking to King Peter to deliver them from Austrian and
Hungarian tyranny, Austria was intriguing, and encouraging the Serbs
in Servia to rebel. She had as little success with the Serbs as
with the Italians across the Italian frontier, as both peoples are
ardently patriotic, and even the poorest scorned Austrian gold. The
determination of the Young Slavs to live under the rule of a monarch
of their own race became strengthened at every fresh proof of the
effeteness of Austro-Hungarian rule. Themselves strong and virile,
they felt that they required administrators who could deal with the
problems that came to them for settlement in the rough-and-ready manner
peculiar to the other side of the border; they had always completely
misunderstood the shelving of petitions, the cumbersome multiplication
of documents, peculiar to Austro-Hungarian officialdom. Rapid justice,
even if less correct in the matter of form, was preferable, they felt,
to the long and unprofitable dilatoriness of the proceedings under an
administration more especially careless in dealings with things that
concerned people living far from the capital.
Austria-Hungary heard but little of the growing discontent in her
outlying provinces. Assassinations and attempts on the lives of
administrators multiplied, but the rulers in Vienna, busy with things
nearer home, simply suggested “that a heavier weight should be placed
upon the safety-valve.” After an outrage some few ringleaders were
hanged, half a dozen newspapers suppressed, and then the incident was
put away with other events of grave portent, signs of the times which,
however, were not allowed to disturb the gaiety of the capital.