Commonwealth and Foreign
JUGOSLAVIA AND THE CONCORDAT
FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Bggrade.
THE recent riots in Belgrade have drawn the attention of the world to the Yugoslav Government's Concordat with the Vatican, intended to regulate the status of the Roman Catholic Church in Yugoslavia. The Government of Dr. Stoya- dinovitch has farc:..d the ratification bill through Parliament ; it has still to pass the Senate, where the Government cannot yet count on a majority.
The riots were the result of fierce opposition to the bill by the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the more extreme enemies of the Government were quick to seize on an issue which is calculated to make a strong appeal to Serbian nation- alist feelings. The Government, indeed, maintains that the agitation against the bill is predominantly political ; it hopes in the months that pass before it will submit the bill to the Senate both to make sure of a majority there—a number of Senators are due soon to retire and those appointed in their place will presumably vote for the bill—and to win over enough Bishops to smash Church opposition and leave the political capital-makers stranded high and dry.
The concessions made to the Catholic Church certainly seem astonishing. On paper, at least, Catholic priests are to be raised to some extent above the law ; compensation is to be given for property confiscated in the days of the Austro- Hungarian Empire ; the State makes itself responsible for ensuring that the children of mixed marriages become Catholics ; and these are only some of the concessions. The formation of Yugoslavia—by the addition of the CatEol:c Croats and Slovenes to the Orthodox Serbs—left the quessian of the relationship between the Yugoslav State and its Catholics to be settled, and successive Governments, whose various draft bills M. Stoyadinovitch claims merely to have inherited, negotiated a treaty for many years. Nevertheless, the extent of the concessions seems reason enough for the angry oppo- sition of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which, after the Karageorgevitch dynasty, was the most powerful weapon in the struggle of the Serbs against the Sulu n and the Kaiser. The Patriarch Varnavas, who, inopportur_ely for M. Stoya- ditiovitch, died a few hours after the bill had been passed, had himself fought with the Comitajis against the Turk ; and so closely is the Church in its whole history and tradition linked with the Serbian national struggle for freedom that it still called itself the " Serbian " Orthodox Church long after King Alexander, in order to combat the idea that there was any dividing racial or religious line among the " South Slays " who formed his kingdom, had renamed the Serbo-Croat- Slovene State " Yugoslavia." Thus many Serbs see in the Orthodox Church the symbol of all they have fought for, and you have only to tell them that the Government is striking at the Church that overcame the Sultan and the Kaiser in the interest of the Pope in Rome to make them angry.
The extreme Serbian Nationalist forces in Belgrade seized avidly this opportunity to attack the Government, which they have always reproached as the enemy of Yugoslav unity and the friend of Croat separatism because of the milder hand it has used in Croatia, where Dr. Matchek, the Croat leader, has been forming a private army and riding through the streets like a monarch. From these extreme Serbian Nationalist quar:ers came the attempt on Dr. Stoyadinovitch's life in the Skupshtina a year ago. At present they are mainly represented by the Yugoslav National Party of General Zhivkovitch, who as a young officer took part in the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga and who was Prime Minister under the other King Alexander's dictatorship, and M. Yeftitch, who became Prime Minister after the King's assassination and would have continued its methods, but was ousted by M. Stoyadinovitch ; and by the " Zbor " Fascist movement of M. Lyotitch. The parties in Serbia, which were suppressed under the King's dictatorship but actually still exist, Democrats and Peasants, have stood aside from the agitation against the bill. Thus the Government is right in maintaining that the agitation is largely a political one.
A main argument of the Nationalists against the Government is that although it allows the Croats so much rope in Croatia it makes no attempt actually to solve the Croat issue, which the Croats describe as one of self-government and the Serbs as one of separatism. As long as the " firm hand " was applied mainly in Croatia the Nationalists had nothing against it; indeed, they now want it to be applied again. Their wrath was unbounded when, in the Belgrade riots of July 19th and 29th, they found it used against Serbs and Serbian Bishops and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Their anger turns against the Croats. All these concessions are being made, and our Church is being attacked, they argue, in the interest of the Catholic Croats. Actually the issue is much less simple. The only explanation which experienced political observers can find for the concessions made to the Catholic Church is that Dr. Stoyadinovitch is paying the price demanded by that Church to abstain from supporting Dr. Matchek. The bill may benefit the Catholic Church in Croatia ; but it is a weapon against the Croat political movement headed by Dr. Matchek.
There are reckless and violent men among the extreme Nationalists in Belgrade, and the way in which angry crowds pelted with chairs and stones gendarmes armed to the teeth on July 29th shows the temper of their supporters. To this extent the agitation is a dangerous one. It is made more difficult to follow by the fact that it is all beneath the surface. The strict censorship forbids all free Press discussion of the controversy. But shoals of illicit pamphlets and leaflets circulate, in which the most inflammatory charges and counter- charges are made. The opposition alleges that the Govern- ment has been suborned to destroy Yugoslavia, that the Patriarch was poisoned, that some vast international conspiracy is on foot, an integral part of which is to range Yugoslavia with a group of Fascist Powers for an attack on Soviet Russia and to restore to the Demidoffs (Prihce Regent Paul's mother was a Demidoff) their great estates in Russia.
The Government retaliates in the same tone. A leaflet is circulated showing Bishop Nikolai of Ochrid, who is well known in England and has taken a leading part in the fight against the bill, sitting amicably at table with two excommuni- cated Ministers, the intention being to discredit him. The photograph is two years old. Another photograph is circulated showing Dr. Janitch, a priest and deputy who was expelled from the Government Party for voting against the bill, appar- ently singing a roystering song to the accompaniment of gipsy musicians in a disreputable tavern. The photograph of Dr. Janitch, taken while he was making an impassioned speech, is genuine ; the gipsy musicians and other details have been superimposed by an ingenious photographic conjuror.
For a few months the bill has been shelved and the time will be filled with intricate political manoeuvres behind the scenes, designed to split the bishops and pack the Senate. After that it will become clear whether Yugoslavia is faced by a real domestic conflict of major dimensions or whether the Govern- ment has been able to outmanoeuvre the opposition. What effect any change in the Government would have on inter- national affairs it is difficult to foretell. M. Stoyadinovitch has somewhat estranged his French and Little Entente friends by the extent of his approaches to Germany, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary, but his policy enabled Yugoslavia to derive great trade and other benefits from an exceptionally favourable international situation, and he always maintained that Yugo- slavia did not intend to weaken in her older friendships and allegiances. His enemies always allege that this is but lip- service, and that he is actually bringing Yugoslavia into the orbit of the Fascist Powers. Whether they, in office, would make a great change is problematical. In the absence of free elections, which would give a real picture of the country's mind, any successor to M. Stoyadinovitch can only be a man enjoying the confidence of Prince Regent Paul ; and Prince Paul's particularly deep-grained abhorrence of Communi:rn is an important factor in all considerations.
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