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Show ES STRONG PLEA 1 BRUISED SERBIA vrade Professor Dis-, Dis-, .j ies Country's Rights at the Peace Table. ! ! V ! j cularly Emphasizes the ht Made on Huns by j ihe Little Nation. J" ' v J. DR. LAZAR MARKOV1TCH, " -pressor of Belgrade University. ' DOX, March 1Z. The interallied j nee is meeting to elaborate the preliminaries. On this occasion f the allied powers will put for-ts for-ts own particular claim, the le-y le-y of which will be investigated i conference. will appear at this conference inew goiiso of kingdom of tho Croats and Slovenes, but this na-uiion na-uiion will in no way diminish the . claims which the Serbian peo-. peo-. ;nd to Insist upon in support of 'vational aspirations. .1,. Serbia tho Wilsonian principles, ;h even our enemies would fain :: today, merely mean the conse-of conse-of tho heroic struggle and unex-political unex-political idealism long before i nt Wilson delivered' his message iworld. S( fhe annexation of Bosnia-Hcrze-in 1908 the Serbian nation sus-a sus-a most cruel injury. Solely for :-se of the preservation of peace, - marie up its mind tamely to ac-,"is ac-,"is flagrant attack upon tho most - ary principles of international Is Perceived. the Serbian protests roused the Mce of tho western democracies, lid not fail to perceive the grave itailed by acquiescence in the us and immoral practice of alter-intcrnational alter-intcrnational treaty like that of nimply to suit the will of one of watoriea. Nevertheless, in face of iy's threatening attitude the en-it en-it ve way and advised Serbia to do Ve. The Bosnian crisis ended in ty-for German diplomacy, but the nctory of. right was on the sido ia. . 1 V 12, acting upon Russia's advice, .-concluded a treaty of alliance -r.jlgaria: that this treaty was to the grave of Serbian Indepen--as the intention of Austria-Hun-t : a agreement with Austria, Bul-:iscounted Bul-:iscounted a Serbian defeat, and vj- to render this defeat more sure v-i.'gard at the last moment drew ' ? om their contract and did not Serbs the 100,000 men they had T-jl more serious phenomenon, and ch has not yet been cleared up, eagerness of the Turks to attack c;er Serbs at Kumanovo not only ho effective junction of the three armies on the plateau between Stip and Veles had taken place, before the concentration of the armies was complete. a "Stapds By." Yc"3ly the move was suggested from and in view of the secret deal-... deal-... ween Sofia and Vienna it is not le ' that the suggestion originally v : d from Sofia. In any case, the r:i" counted upon a Serbian defeat, V itrla Mas standing by in readi- intcrvene to "save" Serbia from kish invader. R'ould have meant the realtza-Count realtza-Count Berchthold's famous pro-the pro-the administrative "decentral-' "decentral-' of Turkey, in the guise of the jfif' of an autonomous Macedonia Bulgaria's protection and an "autonomous" Albania, to e-rtffar e-rtffar as the Vardar, and they in-JU';to in-JU';to Austria's protection. In this stria and Bulgaria would have """.he Balkan peninsula between '.irbian victory over the Turks at p'o in 1912 not only saved Ser-the Ser-the entire Serbo-Croato-Slovene and in certain respects demo-i demo-i ,irope as well, Without this vic-flIL;ated vic-flIL;ated Serbia would havo lost her f resistance and the whole of U:;ans would have fallen under ' erman tutelage. The Berlin--line would have become an ac-, ac-, H--ed fact, and Germany would tcred the world struggle with t chances in her favor. Ho:; d in the Bud." V;i' J over tho Serbian victories, "v -vlungary, urged and supported '".any. did her best to limit tho ji-r.f the small kingdom. After Serbia to retire from the Adrl-;r'-itria and Germany hurled Bul-' Bul-' 5 : m& C9. 1913) against our coun-,Tr-',: io hope of seeing us crushed by (,.slans of the Balkans. 0- rhlan victory of the Bregalnlca '.his diabolical scheme to naught, T 913 Serbia for the second time ai" tho fate designed for her by .oo;;' m. The Perbo -Greco-Ru ma- j mce of 1913 snored a great sue- ca-1, I these three peoples had rn eh.1' 'r to preserve permanent peace ilkans. oi3:- Mutely, Greoce and Rumania gctitf'" r'pe for an anti-German pol-"'j3;;, pol-"'j3;;, treaty of Bucharest, which was , -o tho basis of this Balkan triple was abn ndoned by Rumania no on by Greece at tho very moment Tjft'vas to produce its chief resulty. j ) - ,bia was left to be the sole ram-jj) ram-jj) ;.ust the German Drang nach j h, Austria and Germany decided I ;.:.' )Hsh themselves what their Bui- I nd Turkish mercenaries had j do. Serbia restated, and on this she wiiN upheld by the entente. I support given by the allies . our country has worthily de-.-i, It has been bled white, but F od firm. ued to Fate.' & Jiot only abandoned us to our :r' tI''15, but she went so far as to j tQY&- in agreement with the allies In 1 ' ,, our expense and behind our j "'hls agreement was subcquent-i subcquent-i Aj1' void by Rumania's separate Y '.. : t it is nevertheless a document; 13: ' the Rumanians have no cause i ud. j 'orfl': no troat,os witn tno allies in : ffi1 at no time during our national lo did wo entertain the idea of , . U separate peace, t'nder slm- '' .instances Rumania did not take J.U-estHnding attitude. As for the King Constanttne, she formal -v'.'-' k1 us and abandoned us to the King Const an titio merely an "imortunity to serve his -law, iUiam. and never trou- jjpf the true interests of tho Greek , to Vonizolos, the Greeks have . to the policy of Balkan soll- d tho Greek divisions have vied 1-. otlu'i- in courage and enthu- ' Jjr:', no lust offensive In Macedonia, t MiiMiii. .she, too. is once more in 0t' I ll aku up the threads of her L' the only p.ili.-v which if).' k' 'lie interests of her national i' nt. rmcrly a member of tho triple ?r-'- -hoj-o to adopt ;t peculiar atii- u matter of fact, Italy has never contemplated the complete liberation libera-tion and unification of our people as a political actuality. She was more intent upon protecting herself against Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary by assuring herself of a good slice of our national soil. History Will Tell. History will divulge whether Italy had the idea of coining to an amicable agreement agree-ment with Austria at the expense of our territory, and of remaining neutral to the end of tho war, or whether she had a clear conception of the greatness of the struggle already from Uie beginning of the world war, AVhat is certain is that Italy made it a condition of her intervention on the side of the allies t hat she was to be guaranteed special advantages, a nd that Serbia was to have no knowledge of these. The treaty of London sealed this bargain. bar-gain. Tli is treaty is not binding upon the conference, which is to solve the Italo-Jugo-Slav problem on other lines. As for ourselves, it is not without interest inter-est to recall that once, and once only. Serbia refused, and refused categorically, to obey tho allies, and that was when Italy,' uhleh had denied Serbia the status of an ally and had already pegged out her claims on Jugo-Slav territory, appealed to tho allies in June, Iflln, with the request re-quest to demand an offensive from Serbia Ser-bia in order to facilitate the task of the Italian army. We were asked to undertake an offensive offen-sive at a moment when we were passing through an appalling internal crisis brought about by epidemics, and tho Italians bear us a grudge for it to this day. Loyal to Allies. AYe purposely retrain from speaking of the military exploits of the Serbian army and the volunteer legions of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Serbia's policy has been characterized by her perseverance in the Strugs le against Germanism, her unconditional uncon-ditional loyalty to tho allies, and a spirit of sacrifice which truly docs honor to the Serb national conscience. Tho peace conference will have to take these elements .inro account when dealing deal-ing with our national problem. It will do s not by merely recognizing the new-kingdom new-kingdom of the Serbs, fronts and Slovenes, Slo-venes, but by giving perfectly legitimate protection to our national integrity in tho oast no less than in the wot, in the south no Itss than in tho north. Ami if the future security of Kurope. apart from the league of nations, is to re.y upon a solid dyne agn:Mst Germanism, then it is the Sei-buui barrier w hw h must be strengthened. liui to this end neither Serbia, "who never barujiinrd. nor y part of tho integral in-tegral fcerbo-("ro;tto-SIovene nation ought to be made the object of any bargam-uriving. |