The Yugoslav Government--as if it had not sufficient problems to
solve--was ordered now by the Peace Conference to accept sundry
regulations as to the rights of minorities, the transit of goods, and an
equitable regime for international commerce. The other States which had
inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them, faced with the same
demands; and they objected that to sign such Articles was inconsistent
with their sovereignty. The most onerous item--relating to the racial
and religious minorities--had been imposed--at America's instance, owing
to the manner in which the Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King
Charles' promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller number of
Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned only for the principle of
independence. Not having persecuted the Jews they resented having to
undertake that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit. "I
will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the Orthodox Bishop of
Ver[vs]ac to a deputation of Jews, when he made his formal entry into
the town of Pan[vc]evo. And when they stared at him, "It is not
tolerance that I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition
in the Yugoslav Skup[vs]tina might have exhibited more kindliness in its
attitude towards the Government and have refrained from rousing a storm
against the signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government and the
Opposition being practically of equal strength, the Ministers, who in a
calm atmosphere could have explained the realities of the situation,
found themselves at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that
they would be assuming obligations which they had assumed already. In
Macedonia, as any traveller could see, the time-honoured custom of
persecuting him who happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the
authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference between
themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the difference consisted in
praying for the Exarch instead of the Patriarch in the liturgy there was
not the slightest persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to
become Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new spirit which
informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the Bulgarian army, afterwards
came back to Macedonia. Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian
Moslems were expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration
was shown to them--at Ghevgeli, for instance, where building material
was, after the War, so scarce that many of the inhabitants had nothing
but a hole in the ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had
been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.