There remains the Voivodina (Banat, Ba[vc]ka, etc.) party, some of whom
are as much frightened of Croat predominance as the _Obzor_, for
instance, is of Serb. The argument of these Voivodina politicians is
that Serbia has lost so many of her _intelligentsia_ during the War that
she must have special protection; they also found it hard to swallow the
old functionaries whom the State took over from Austria. Of course it
does not follow that if a Slav has been a faithful servant of Austria he
will be an unsatisfactory servant of the new State. Obviously the
circumstances of each case must be considered; and, as a barrister, a
dissentient member of this party told me at Osiek, one must often put
personal feelings aside; he himself had been arbitrarily imprisoned
during the War by an official who was then an Austrian and is now a
Yugoslav functionary. The most extreme exponent of this anti-Croat party
seems to be a well-known editor at Novi Sad, Mr. Ja[vs]a Tomi['c]. In
his opinion you cannot join by means of a law in twenty-four hours
people who have never been together; let it be a slower and a surer
process. He is ready to die, he says, but he is not ready to lose his
national name. Let the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes retain what is most
precious to each of them. Let them not be asked to give up everything.
In the matter of the flag Mr. Tomi['c] is justified, for now their
former flag has been taken from each of them and a totally fresh one
created, which is particularly hard on the Serbs after the sublime
fashion in which their old colours were carried up the Macedonian
mountains in the Great War. It would not have required much
ingenuity--as they all three share the colours, red, white and blue,
differently arranged--to have devised, not a mere new and unmeaning
arrangement of the simple colours, but a method on the lines of the
Union Jack or of the former Swedish-Norwegian flag, wherein all three
would have remained visible. Mr. Tomi['c] believes that a real
_intelligentsia_ would demand of the people what it can execute, and he
regrets to think that at least two-thirds of the _intelligentsia_ want
the people to call themselves Yugoslavs. But Mr. Tomi['c] has a far
greater majority than two-thirds against him, because while his
arguments would be admirable if the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes had no
neighbours, they must be--and the vast majority of Yugoslavs feel that
they must be--superseded on account of this imperfect world. By all
means let each one of the three retain every single custom that will not
interfere with the national security and will not interfere too much
with the national welfare. If Mr. Tomi['c], who is much respected but
generally looked upon as rather old-fashioned, is going to die sooner
than give up something which the State considers essential he will be
following in the footsteps of those whom Cavour, in the course of the
welding of Italy, had to execute.
It may be said without fear of contradiction--in fact I was given the
figure by one of the decentralization leaders of Croatia--that at least
90 per cent. of the Croat _intelligentsia_ wants the union with Serbia,
and if a republic is decided upon they will mostly vote for King
Alexander as President. While they discuss their internal
organization--no simple matter when one considers their varied
antecedents, their different legal systems and so forth--they will not
let Yugoslavia go to pieces. The work of construction and of more or
less strenuous, but necessary, criticism occupies by far the greater
number of the politicians. They have not yet, all of them, given their
adherence to this or that group, while new groups are arising--such as
the Agrarian, which being far more interested in the peasant's material
welfare than in anything else will give their alliance to that political
party which is prepared to assist the villages towards improving their
cleanliness and their manure.