As between the Catholic and the Orthodox in Croatia the sole uncertainty
is whether this fusion will shortly take place or after an interval. It
is agreed by the most malcontent schoolmasters that their pupils are
growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs who will have no more fear of what
they call "Serb hegemony" than have the Scots of that of England. As for
the present generation of Croats and Serbs, if they were Occidentals
they would be old enough to laugh at each others' peculiarities and each
others' statesmen. But South-Eastern Europe is still under the morning
clouds, and they are inclined to take seriously what we in the West make
fun of. However, there is one man whose presence in the Cabinet the
Croats cannot be expected to regard with good-humour or with
nonchalance. The reconciliation of Croatia will be much more easily
effected if Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c] resigns. His merits as a demagogue and
political writer are undeniable. He would make an excellent Whip. But he
prefers to be a Minister, and most unfortunately he is not a statesman.
A zealous patriot, he is as yet unable to conceive that the business of
the State could be more successfully managed without him. The sweets of
office appear, if anything, to have made him more bitter; and even among
the Serbs of the old kingdom his withdrawal is considered advisable. A
friend of his has told me that in the middle of a laughing conversation
he threw out a hint of this, and like a cloud blown suddenly across a
summer sky, Pribi[vc]evi['c]'s face grew black. Unhappily he is not even
Fortinbras and yet imagines he is Hamlet. A good many people in
Yugoslavia call him _un homme fatal_, most of the others _l'homme
fatal_. It is said that in the Democratic party he is actively supported
by not more than ten deputies, but that the others, to preserve the
party, take no steps. He himself, however, would probably have not the
least hesitation in choosing another party, if he could otherwise not
stay in the Cabinet; for his permanence in office is the one idea that
crushes every other from his mind. If he cannot be Minister of the
Interior--a post from which he has been more than once, and happily for
Yugoslavia, ejected--then he insists on being Minister of Education.
What are his qualifications? Years ago he gave instruction at a school
for elementary teachers, and so faint a conception has he of the
educational needs of his country that one day when a Professor of
Belgrade University asked him if no steps could be taken to diminish the
prohibitive cost of books, especially foreign books, the Minister
simply stared at him as if he had been talking Chinese. And yet in a
recent book of national verses, published by his brother Adam, we are
told that:
"At the table also sat the sage Pribi[vc]evi['c],
Who can converse with Emperors...."
There are some who, curiously, have compared Radi['c]'s party with the
Sinn Feiners; Radi['c] may have announced that he would approach the
Serbs as the representative of an independent country, but he never
proposed, even when his views were most extreme, to realize them with
physical force. At a great open-air meeting of his adherents the
speeches were so mild that only twice did the Chief of Police, who was
next to me, raise a warning finger, and on each occasion to keep the
orator from very innocent digressions. Nevertheless, there is no
concealing the fact that even in these unsatisfactory times--"It seems
to me," said a philosophic peasant recently at Valjevo, in the heart of
Serbia, "it seems to me that if we had a plebiscite then Valjevo might
not wish to remain with Serbia!"--even in a world that is so awry the
Croats are more reserved towards the union than is good for the State.
Perhaps they would cherish fewer grievances if they had gained their
freedom with greater difficulty; and surely they need have no more
uneasiness than have the Scots that their name and nationality will be
swamped, for what the Magyars were unable to do, that the Serbs do not
wish to do. There are among the Serbs a few extremists, such as a
pernicious editor or two, but their anti-Croat tirades find extremely
little favour anywhere. Last autumn when the Prince-Regent (now King
Alexander) visited the Croat capital his reception was most
enthusiastic. "Let us keep him here!" cried the people, "and let King
Peter stay in Belgrade!" The Prince by his tact brought the Croat out of
his tent; he must not be allowed to go back again--let the Southern
Slavs observe what each of their provinces can bring towards the common
good. The Croats acknowledge that the military system of Serbia is more
endurable--only one son is taken out of each family--and that whereas in
Slovenia a lawsuit can be settled in fourteen days it has been wont in
Croatia to take as many years. Unfortunately human nature, in Serbia,
Croatia and everywhere else, finds that the bad points of other people
are more worthy of comment than the good. When two brothers have been
brought up in very different circumstances there will be so many points
on which they differ; and when a Serb taking part in a technical
discussion of scientists wishes to say that he differs from the previous
speaker he will commonly observe that that person has made a fool of
himself. When an editor alludes to a political opponent he may call him
an assassin and be much astonished if this is resented. "Je suis un
ours," said a Serbian savant of European repute; occasionally he behaves
like one and is rather proud of it. The Serbs of Croatia have been
imitating, nay exaggerating, the emphatic manners of their countrymen in
the old kingdom. And Pribi[vc]evi['c], as Minister of Education, has not
attempted to give the Croats a tactful course in courage, patriotism and
morality, where they have much to learn from the less civilized Serbs,
but scowling at them he has made up his mind that, in and out of school,
they must straightway be the closest of companions.
However, the Serbs and Croats have a man whose counsel is more worthy of
attention. Dr. Trumbi['c], formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had
been elected at the head of four different lists in his native Dalmatia
but had entered the Constituent Assembly without giving his allegiance
to any party. And in April 1921 he made a speech as memorable as it was
long, for it occupied the whole of one sitting and was continued the
next day. Careless of the applause and the antagonism which he excited,
the serene orator pointed out that the conflict between Serbs and Croats
was based on their different psychology. Croatia had had her independent
life and must be considered as a factor in Yugoslavia; but having come
in, like Montenegro, of her own accord, she had not wished to be a
separate factor. Traditions should not be so lightly set aside; and
while there was perhaps no people more homogeneous than the Yugoslavs it
should be remembered that none was more ready to resist the application
of force.