At the conference of the members of the late (Serbian) Coalition Cabinet
and those of the present Cabinet, and also the representatives of the
Jugo-Slav Committee in London, all of whom have hitherto been working
on parallel lines, views have been exchanged in collaboration with the
president of the Skupstina, on all questions concerning the life of the
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in their joint future State.
We are happy in being able once more on this occasion to point to the
complete unanimity of all parties concerned.
In the first place, the representatives of the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes declare anew and most categorically that our people constitutes
but one nation, and that it is one in blood, one by the spoken and
written language, by the continuity and unity of the territory in which
it lives, and finally in virtue of the common and vital interests of its
national existence and the general development of its moral and material
life.
The idea of its national unity has never suffered extinction, although
all the intellectual forces of its enemy were directed against its
unification, its liberty and its national existence. Divided between
several States, our nation is in Austria-Hungary alone split up into
eleven provincial administrations, coming under thirteen legislative
bodies. The feeling of national unity, together with the spirit
of liberty and independence, have supported it in the never-ending
struggles of centuries against the Turks in the East and against the
Germans and the Magyars in the West.
Being numerically inferior to its enemies in the East and West, it was
impossible for it to safeguard its unity as a nation and a State, its
liberty and its independence against the brutal maxim of "might goes
before right" militating against it both East and West.
But the moment has come when our people is no longer isolated. The war
imposed by German militarism upon Russia, upon France and upon
England for the defense of their honor as well as for the liberty and
independence of small nations, has developed into a struggle for the
Liberty of the World and the Triumph of Right over Might. All nations
which love liberty and independence have allied themselves together for
their common defense, to save civilization and liberty at the cost
of every sacrifice, to establish a new international order based upon
justice and upon the right of every nation to dispose of itself and
so organize its independent life; finally to establish a durable peace
consecrated to the progress and development of humanity and to secure
the world against a catastrophe similar to that which the conquering
lust of German Imperialism has provoked.
To noble France, who has proclaimed the liberty of nations, and to
England, the hearth of liberty, the Great American Republic and the
new, free and democratic Russia have joined themselves in proclaiming
as their principal war aim the triumph of liberty and democracy and
as basis of the new international order the right of free
self-determination for every nation.
Our nation of the three names, which has been the greatest sufferer
under brute force and injustice and which has made the greatest
sacrifices to preserve its right of self-determination, has with
enthusiasm accepted this sublime principle put forward as the chief aim
of this atrocious war, provoked by the violation of this very principle.
The authorized representatives of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in
declaring that it is the desire of our people to free itself from every
foreign yoke and to constitute itself a free, national and independent
State, a desire based on the principle that every nation has the right
to decide its own destiny, are agreed in judging that this State should
be founded on the following modern and democratic principles:
(1) The State of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, who are also known
as the Southern Slavs or Jugo-Slavs, will be a free and independent
kingdom, with indivisible territory and unity of allegiance. It will
be a constitutional, democratic and parliamentary monarchy under the
Karageorgevitch Dynasty, which has always shared the ideas and the
feelings of the nation, placing liberty and the national will above all
else.
(2) This State will be named "THE KINGDOM OF THE SERBS, CROATS, AND
SLOVENES." And the style of the Sovereign will be "KING OF THE SERBS,
CROATS, AND SLOVENES."
(3) The State will have a single coat-of-arms, a single flag, and a
single crown. These emblems will be composed of the present existing
emblems. The unity of the State will be symbolized by the coat-of-arms
and the flag of the Kingdom.
(4) The special Serb, Croat, and Slovene flags rank equally and may be
freely hoisted on all occasions. The special coat-of-arms may be used
with equal freedom.
(5) The three national designations--Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes--are
equal before the law throughout the territory of the Kingdom, and
everyone may use them freely upon all occasions of public life and in
dealing with the authorities.
(6) The two alphabets, the Cyrillic and the Latin, also rank equally,
and everyone may use them freely throughout the territory of the
Kingdom. The royal authorities and the local self-governing authorities
have both the right and the duty to employ both alphabets in accordance
with the wishes of the citizens.
(7) All recognized religions may be freely and publicly exercised. The
Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Mussulman faiths, which are those chiefly
professed by our nation, shall rank equally and enjoy equal rights with
regard to the State.
In consideration of these principles the legislative will take special
care to safeguard religious concord in conformity with the spirit and
tradition of our whole nation.
(8) The calendar will be unified as soon as possible.
(9) The territory of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
will include all the territory inhabited compactly and in territorial
continuity by our nation of the three names. It cannot be mutilated
without detriment to the vital interests of the community.
Our nation demands nothing that belongs to others. It demands only
what is its own. It desires to free itself and to achieve its unity.
Therefore it consciously and firmly refuses every partial solution of
the problem of its national liberation and unification. It puts forward
the proposition of its deliverance from Austro-Hungarian domination
and its union with Serbia and Montenegro in a single State forming an
indivisible whole.
In accordance with the right of self-determination of peoples, no part
of this territorial totality may without infringement of justice be
detached and incorporated with some other State without the consent of
the nation itself.
(10) In the interests of freedom and of the equal right of all nations,
the Adriatic shall be free and open to each and all.
(11) All citizens throughout the territory of the Kingdom shall be equal
and enjoy the same rights with regard to the State and before the Law.
(12) The election of the Deputies to the National Representative body
shall be by universal suffrage, with equal, direct and secret ballot.
The same shall apply to the elections in the Communes and other
administrative units. Elections will take place in each Commune.
(13) The Constitution, to be established after the conclusion of peace
by a Constituent Assembly elected by universal suffrage, with direct
and secret ballot, will be the basis of the entire life of the State;
it will be the source and the consummation of all authority and of all
rights by which the entire life of the nation will be regulated.
The Constitution will provide the nation with the possibility of
exercising its special energies in local autonomies delimited by
natural, social and economic conditions.
The Constitution must be passed in its entirety by a numerically defined
majority in the Constituent Assembly. The Constitution, like all other
laws passed by the Constituent Assembly, will only come into force after
having received the Royal sanction.
The nation of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, thus unified, will form
a State of about twelve million inhabitants. This State will be the
guarantee for their independence and national development, and their
national and intellectual progress in general, a mighty bulwark against
the German thrust, an inseparable ally of all the civilized nations and
states which have proclaimed the principle of right and liberty and
that of international justice. It will be a worthy member of the new
Community of Nations.
Drawn up in Corfu, July 7/20, 1917.
The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia and Minister for Foreign
Affairs
(Sgd.) NIKOLA P. PASHITCH,