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THE POSITION OF THE MONARCHY OF SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENES IN THE WORLD IN 1919
Bogdan Krizman
Sažetak
In the first part of the article the author describes the general situation in which the Yugoslav State found herself directly after the federation vas proclaimed on December 1, 1918. Her position at that time was anything but favourable and stable. She was surrounded by seven neighbours, and with six of them she was either in dispute or in conflict over their common frontiers. She was weighed down by the unfavourable conditions of the armistice of November 3, 1918 and left to herself by her war "allies" (France and Great Britain) who had their own imperialist interests in the Danube region and on the Balkan Peninsula. She was met and treated by almost incessant hostility in Italian diplomacy. At a time when Europe was greatly disturbed and deprived of the presence of two great powers (Tsarist Russia and the German Empire), at a time when traces of the recently ended war were everywhere and when the Peace Conference was to create or ratify and legalize the new political map of Europe, the Monarchy of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was almost constantly in a state of crisis. The war of 1914—1918 had devastated Serbia, but the situation was not much better in other parts of the new state either. In many regions famine threatened and the problem of food and supplies became one of the most important and most pressing. In the first few months the system of rationing from the war was kept, but in peacetime it worked even worse than during the war. Speculations flourished in the whole country, prices rose alarmingly and paper money lost value. Those who had least suffered most. To all this was added disorder in Communications, the discrimination practised by some regional governments, various difficulties in the administration, prohibitions and bureaucratic delays, the unsolved monetary question, unrest and revolt among the peasants and soldiers and above all the ill-fated and perilous policy of centralising everything. The government's unexpected measure of declaring a complete freedom of trade only changed the situation in the economy from bad to worse, and the first measures taken in the direction of an agrarian reform — devised as a vent for the accumulated discontent and rebelliousness remained open, speculation flourished and corruption spread. Unemployment could be felt everywhere. The capitalists started amassing riches faster and unscrupulously and the conditions of the proletariat got worse. This provoked discontent and a revolutionary mood which manifested itself in numerous strikes and tariff actions. The process of radicalization among the working masses resulted in the Congress of Consolidation and the creation of the Socialist Worker's Party of Yugoslavia (of Communists).
In the second part of the article the author discusses the main problems of foreign policy and states that the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ("Serbia") did not get a good reception at the Peace Conference in Paris (1919—1920). On the contrary, it could be said that she was not only included among the countries with "limited interests" but was treated as a country with limited rights. This could be noticed at the very beginning of the work of the Conference at the discussion of the number of delegates of the countries taking part. It could be seen even better in the question of the international recognition of the new conditions in public law formed by the union of Serbia and Montenegro with the South Slav countries that had been included in the former Habsburg Monarchy ("The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs"). The
Conference refused to recognize the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a whole, even though it recognized Poland and Czechoslovakia. The method of work at the Conference was unpleasant for small nations (A. Trumbić). At the first Plenary Meetings it had seemed that the small nations would be on an equal footing with the large ones. This only lasted for a short time, and then the representatives of the great powers took things into their own hands. First the Council of Ten was formed, and then the Council of Four. That Council of Four (Wilson—Lloyd George—Clemenceau— Orlando) decided all the more important questions put before the Conference without appeal. In addition Committees for certain questions were formed and they heard the requests of members or experts from certain delegations. The representatives of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were heard too. But they did not take part in the discussions of the Council of Four or in the Committees on numerous questions important for the new Yugoslav state: the question of reparations, the division of the Austro-Hungarian merchant and war fleet, the war expenses of Serbia, the liquidation of financial relations between Croatia and Hungary etc. This was especially well felt at the Conference's discussions of territorial questions. The delegation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was in an exceptional position in this question because none of the great powers except Italy were directly interested in her territorial problems. The delegation demanded corrections towers Bulgaria that would protect the eastern frontier and the railway line Belgrade—Skopje—Salonica exposed at Vranje and Strumica. In Banat it demanded the line Danube—Tisa—Moriš and in the east the line that passes about 20 kilometres to the east of Vršac and Temišvar. The Committee in charge of these questions did not grant its requests completely. In Bačka the Committee granted it Subotica, but not Baja. In Baranja it got the triangle between the Danube and the Drava closed by the line that runs from Kis-Köszeg to the Drava at Donji Miholjac. There were no difficulties in Međimurje, but there were many with the northwestern frontier (towards Austria) and the delegation finally managed to get Maribor and the valley of the Drava, Prekomurje and a plebiscite in the Celovec basin. The question of the frontier with Italy on the Adriatic caused the most difficulties, and at one point the "Adriatic question" threatened to break up the whole Conference. After many complications the Italian side, at the end of 1919, rejected the great powers' joint memorandum of December 9, and so that question remained unsolved when the Peace Conference finished its session in Paris.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
165359
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.10.1970.
Posjeta: 3.482 *