18 DECEMBER 1926, Page 2

The death of M. Pashitch, the " Grand Old Man

of the Balkans," has removed an extraordinary personality. His death was sudden and his strength was almost unabated to the end. Although he was eighty-folk years of age, it seemed quite possible a few days ago that he might be called upon again to become Prime Minister of Yugo-Slavia. Many years ago, when Serbia, like other Balkan • States, was being ground between the upper and nether millstones of Austrian and Russian rivalry, M. Pashitch devoted himself to the liberation of his country. He experienced disappointment and apparent political ruin over and over again, and his pro-Russian policy never seemed to help him—at least until it helped him indirectly after the War when his own Serbs were united with the Croats and the Slovenes in the triple kingdom of Yugo-Slavia.