Memorandum ADDRESSED BY The Jugoslav Socialises TO The International Socialist Peace Conference in Stockholm. f> TRANSYLVANIA O . 8 -^tsfcg THEJUGOSLAVTERRITORY JMOSCOVENSKAZEMUA LETERRITOIRE IOUG8SUWE THE JUGOSLAVS (The Southern Slavs) i.e., the Serbs, Croat*, and Slovenes, are by blood, language, and tradition, no leas than by economic and political conditions, one homogeneous nation, with identical aims in their national lif. They form the compact population of the Kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro (pop. 5,000,000). of the Jugoslav provinces in Austria-Hungary (Jugoslav pop. 7,000,000) and of the Italian district west of Gorica (40,000 Jugoslavs), whereas 800,000 Jugoslavs liv* as emigrants in overseas countries, making a total of 12,840,000. In Austria-Hungary the Jugoslavs are subordinated to two dominant State organi- zations, viz.. the German and the Magyar. Their territory is broken up into ten pro- vinces ; they are politically oppressed, socially persecuted, and in every way hampered and menaced in their intellectual, economic, and national development. There are 2,100,000 Jugoslavs under the German administration in Vienna. Of these 410,000 live in Southern Styria, 120,000 in Southern Carinthia, 490,000 in Carniola. 155,000 in rJorica-Gradiska. 70,000 in Trieste, 225,000 in Istria, and 610,000 in Dalmatia Under the Magyar domination there are 3,020.000 Jugoslavs, viz., 2,300,000 in Croatia - Slavonia, and 720.000 in Southern and South - Western Hungary (in the Medjumurje along the Styrian frontier, in the Baranja. Backa, and Banat). A joint Austro-Hungarian administration controls the 1,900,000 Jugoslavs living in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Finally, there are 40,000 Jugoslavs under Italian rule. The Jugoslavs have always desired to form an independent State, and to lead their own national life free from all foreign domination, whether Turkish, Venetian, or Austro-Hungarian. Both in Serbia and Montenegro they have already achieved and developed their freedom, but all attempt* to obtain even partial unification and th* conditions for national development within the borders of Au?tro-Hungary have in- variably proved unsuccessful. All unredeemed Jugoslavs look to the successful issue of the present war waged by Serbia and Montenegro and their mighty Allies to accomplish their complete deliveranr* from foreign domination. And they hope that in accordance with the principle of nationality they will be permitted to realize their ideals of union with their free brothers in the twn kingdom*, and of the unification of the national territorv in one single independent State. PREFACE. We are publishing our Memorandum for the information of Socialist and bourgeois public opinion in Europe on the subject of the Jugoslav Question which is so little known and so much misunderstood abroad. As will be seen from this Memorandum, we Southern Slavs, or Jugoslavs (Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) are one single people which has been politically, nationally and economically subjugated. ISTow, every people which is oppressed by another is by that very fact debarred from evolving normally in any direction. All its forces are wasted in the struggle against the intolerable foreign yoke. Our Memorandum illustrates this fact with sufficient clearness. Under these circumstances it is, of course, equally impos- sible for the Socialist movement to develop among the South- ern Slavs, since all conditions favourable to a class struggle are lacking. The Jugoslav nation is cut up between Serbia &nd Montenegro, and a whole mass of units in the Austro- Hungaxiau Monarchy, which are politically, economically and administratively distinct from one another. For this reason, and so long as this State of dispersion shall con- tinue, all progress of any kind is out of the question for this nation, whose national, political and economic aims arc nil common and identical. No class of the Jugoslav population has suffered more front this than the proletariat. That is why our Socialists were the first to recognise the source of all the ills from which the whole nation is suffering and to understand the need for union. Instead of taking the direction of a separatist nation- alism, as reflected in the various national designations among ihe Jugoslavs, they have put forward the collective national designation of Jugoslavs. This division of the Southern Slavs according to three national designations (Serb, Croat, Slovene) often played off one against the other by their oppressors, has done as much harm to the progress of each of them, and consequently also to the common progress of tall, as their politico-administrative dispersion. It was detri- mental to the Socialist ideal -so essentially one and indivis- ible and particularly so within the heart of a single people, to have to submit to this forcible fnacture into Serb, Croat, Bosnian, Dalmatian, Slovene, etc., Socialist parties. All these parties are compelled to assert themselves under differing conditions of life, to spend their principal efforts in divergent directions, and thus to dissipate the common strength in action, which is more often than not unfruitful and almost always insufficient. This situation, and the consciousness of the root of the evil, have urged the Jugo- slav Socialists to come in touch with each other through a congress. In January. 1910, they succeeded in bringing about the convocation of an inter-Balkan Socialist Congress at which the union of all Jugoslavs in one sole State organism was placed first among the claims of the Southern Slav proletarians. Our bourgeois politicians received this claim with a scep- tical smile in its day, and 'accused us of being Utopians. Who among " sensible and practical statesmen " would have said at the time that this claim could ever descend from the realms of pious aspirations? To-day the problem of Jugoslavia is being faced and discussed not only by our own statesmen, but by those of the whole world. It is therefore perfectly comprehensible that at this moment when the principle of the freedom of peoples to dispose of themselves is victorious we must not fail in our duty as the first pioneers of the Jugoslav Idea. The interest of Socialism, more than any other consideration, demands that the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes living in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slavonia, Dahnatia. Istria, Caruiola, Carinthia, Styria, the basin of the Mur. Baranja, Backa, the Banat. Bosnia and Herce- govina should be united in one sole independent and sover- eign Jugoslav State embracing all the territories aforesaid, in which our people forms the continuous population. As regards the Southern Slavs not included in this future Jug-o- slavin, we demand autonomy for them according to the per- sonal principle. With a view to obviating sanguinary con- flicts in the future we demand the open door for all nations as regards the Adriatic and, in conformity with the principle " the Balkans for the Balkan peoples." we likewise demand liberty for the Albanians. Touching the statistics contained in this Memorandum with reference to the population of the territories in dispute, I have in view of the unreliability of the accepted statistics given lower figures than those quoted by our nationalists. My statistics are therefore, if anything, unfavourable to the Jugoslav claims. As for the number of our emigrants, I have had to rely upon the figures given in our papers in the United States, as the official statistics are too incomplete. And so. true to our first programme, now that Jugoslavia has become a problem in practical politics, we repeat once more our old Socialist watchword, falsely called Utopian : Unified Jugoslavia'. M. Eadosevic. Petrograd, October, 1917. Memorandum of the Socialist Parties of Bosnia . ' and Hercegovina and of Croatia-Slavonia. < In August 10th. 1917. the Hollando-Scandinavian Com- mittee received the delegation of the Socialist party of Bosnia and Herceoi, yina. represented by Comrade Franjo Markic, and the delegation from Croatia and Slavonia. represented by Comrade Dr. Mihailo Radosevic. The two delegations put forward their views in the follow- ing joint declaration: " It is generally admitted that the immediate cause of the war and the pretext for it are to be found in the Eastern Problem, i.e., in the contest between the imperialist Great Powers on the one hand and the little Balkan States on the other over the Turkish inheritance in Europe and Asia. The most acute factor in this problem is the Jugoslav Question. For the sake of the establishment of durable peace in the Balkans to avoid the renewal of the crisis which brought about the present war and to stifle the germs of fresh imper- ialist eruptions, we demand that this Jugoslav Question should be solved in its entirety by the Peace Congress, in accordance with the principles of International Law and the right of free self-determination of peoples. Organised proletariat, enlightened and conscious of class antagonism, has discovered the just solution of the Balkan problem. At the first Inter-Balkan Socialist Conference in January, 1910, the representatives of all Socialist parties' declared unani- mously in favour of a Confederation of the independent Balkan States. This solution was likewise adopted by the Southern Slavs of Austria-Hungars, viz., the Croats, Serbs and Slovenes. In the midst of the present universal conflagration the Jugoslav bourgeoisie is evolving daily within sight and ken of the whole world. It is really undergoing an historic transformation and is taking part in the struggle for the creation of an independent Jugoslav State, free from all foreign domination. The Southern Slavs inhabit : I. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy : (a) Croatia-Slavonia (area: 42,534 'so. km.; popula- tion : 2.621,954). (6) Dalmatia and the Dalmatian Islands (tarea : 12,835 sq. km.; population: 700,000, of whom 3 per cent., or 5 per cent, at the most, are Italians). (c) Bosnia and Hercegovina (area: 51,199 sq. km.; population: 1,938,802). 2045469 (d) The South-East of Hungary (Baranja, Backa and the Bauat) where live a quarter of a million Jugoslavs. (e) Istria, the Quarnero Islands and Trieste (area : 4,956 sq. km. ; population, according to the official statistics: 220,382 Jugoslavs, and 145,525 Italians in Istria and the Islands). (/) Garniola, Gorica, Carinthia, Styria and South- western Hungary, with a total Jugoslav pop- ulation of one million and a half. II. Outside the Austro - Hungarian Monarchy in Europe : (a) Serbia. (6) Montenegro. (c) Bulgaria. III. The Jugoslav emigrants in America, Asia and Africa number one million and a half. After the French Revolution had brought about our national resurrection, there arose among us, in our bour- geoisie, a nationalist ideology which gave rise in our bour- geoisie to a feeling of national unity embracing Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. This has not prevented the Socialists from including also the Bulgars among the Jugoslavs, seeing that the former are by their traditions and ethnic characteristics just as much Jugoslavs as are the Serbs, Slovenes and Croats. The historic masters of the Jugoslavs have not been con- tent merely to keep the latter under their foreign yoke through the unlimited power of their police-run States; they have resorted to falsehood in order to represent them as a backward race, savage, inferior, incapable of all progress and unworthy of all liberty. In the Middle Ages the Jugoslavs had their own inde- pendent States. After the downfall of these the Jugoslavs endured slavery under many masters Turks, Venetians, Germans, Hungarians. The great nostalgia of the Jugoslavs for Liberty is traced in their blood on many pages of the world's history. Serbia did not succeed in freeing herself from the Turkish yoke until rafter thirty years of wars and insurrections (1804-1833). In Bosnia and Hercegovina there were the insurrections of the Mussulmans in 1832 and 1850, and those of the Orthodox Serbs in 1833, 1857, 1861 and 1878. The aim of all these insurrections was the liberation of Bosnia and Hercegovina from the Turkish yoke. All these sanguinary struggles, all these sacrifices for the sake of the cause of liberation merely led to the occupation followed by the annexations of these provinces by Austria-Hungary. In Croatia-Slavonia there was the sanguinary rising of Eakovicia by the Serbo-Croats in 1871, an attempt to free Croatia, Slavonia and Ualraatia from Austro-Hungarian despotism. The leaders of this movement (Eugen Kvaternik and his companions) paid for their patriotism with their lives. Fin- ally, in recent years revolutions have broken out in Croatia- Slavonia in 1883 and in 1903, and in Bosnia in 1906. The last-named movement was initiated by a general strike by the Socialist workers. All these insurrections which are also well-known and recorded abroad, as well as many others which have passed unnoted, were stifled in blood by the brute force of our rulers. The Southern Slavs, though con- quered in the fight, have never ceased to have faith in the justice of their cause and to hope for final victory. It is Austria-Hungary who has sinned the most against the small dismembered nation of the Southern Slavs, and that both within and without the Danubian Empire. In order to realise their agrarian policy of famine and to keep up the price of live stock in Austria-Hungary free from all competition, the great Landlords of the country obtained the closing of the Austro-Hungarian frontier against Serbia. The Serbs replied to this step by closing their own frontier against the industrial products of Austria-Hungary. To revenge herself for this act of independence and legitimate self-defence, and in order to cut off Serbia from other outlets Austria-Hungary decided to cut off Serbia from free access to the sea. Austro-Hungarian imperialism, on the strength of its might as a Great Power, has for decades made implac- able economic war upon weak little Serbia. This long-drawn economic war of destruction culminated finally in the present world war, when Austria-Hungary found in Prrncip's crime in Sarajevo a sufficient pretext for strangling her inconven- ient little neighbour and thus destroying the germ of Jugo- slav independence outside of the Danubian Empire. The Jugoslavs have always been inimioally treated by Austria-Hungary, both before and during the war. In order to weaken and dislocate our nation, she has divided it into seven small administrative units, governed by as many differ- ent Diets and possessing divergent economic interests. In the Central Parliaments of Vienna and Budapest the Jugo- ski.vs are only represented by delegates condemned to form an insignificant minority. This destructive dismemberment cvf one homogenous nation into several economic units has had a pernicious influence upon the Socialist movement among the Southern Slavs and has led to the formation of separate Croat, Slovene, Dalmatian. Istrian, etc., Socialist parties. Although these parties look upon themselves as forming part of one national unity, they are condemned to exist as best they can separate]}- in a state of economic nnd intellectual misery. This Austro-Hungarian policy, which our Austro-Hun- gariau comrades have in their Memorandum declared to be " favourable to the preservation of small nationalities," has been so -successful with 7 - egard to the Austro- Hungarian Jugo- slavs from the point of view of intellectual development that, notwithstanding our thirst for instruction, we take the lowest place iu the statistics of illiterates in Austria-Hungary. After forty years of this " civilisatory " .activity on the part of Austria-Hungary we have only one State school in Bosnia for every 4,052 inhabitants, i.e., one school for an area of 111 sq. km. The 458 primary schools existing in Bosnia and Hercegoviua owe their foundation, for the most part, to private societies. In Istria there are 44.550 Jugoslav child- ren of school age. only 28,778 of whom receive instruc- tion in the schools. In Carinthia there is one State school for every 1,008 German inhabitants, and only one Jugoslav school for 27,404 Slovenes. In Hungary, thanks to the policy of oppression pursued by the Magyar Junker?, we haA-e no Jugoslav schools at all. The conditions with regard to primary instruction in Dalmatia, Croatia. Slavouia, Carn- ioLa and other Jugoslav provinces are, proportionately, simi- lar to those we have just quoted. Since the war the school- masters have been called to the colours, the schools have been closed and public instruction has sunk to a yet lower level among the Southern Slavs. What have been the consequences of this unfavourable policy towards Southern Slav education;' Obviously an appalling number o.f illiterates, viz.. 90 per cent, in Bosnia and Hercego viria and from 50 per cent, to 70 per cent, in the other Jugoslav provinces. The public courses, of instruc- tion organised by private initiative in Bosnia and Herce- govina in order to remedy this state of affairs, were simply forbidden by the Government of the Province and those which used to exist in the other Jugoslav provinces have been sup- d since the outbreak of the war. By this policy it is made utterly impossible for the Jugoslavs to fight against ignorance among the masses. Those who nevertheless attempt the struggle are immediately prosecuted by the " Kulturtraeger " (the bearer.- of civilisation) as their masters are wont to style themselves and accused of hig-h treason before judges of excessive severity. As a matter of tact, the Austro-Hungariau powers that be in the Jugoslav lands do not trouble about education in the lands entrusted to their wisdom. They are too much taken up with cares concerning the development of the police and the gender- meri-e. Thus in Bosnia and Hercegovina the. annual expenses for the Gndermerie amount to 3,753,189 crowns, and those for public instruction barely to 675,000. What we have just said touching primary education, ap- plies equally to >econdnry and higher education. The oulv e-stablishments belonging to this category which are encour- aged by the Austro-Hangnrian Government are the eccles- ia-stic seminaries 'Catholic. Orthodox and Mussulman). There is no university either in Dalmatia or in Bosnia- Hercegovina or in Carniola. There are only theological seminaries. Most of the Southern Slavs of Austria-Hungary a-re debarred from prosecuting their advanced studies in their native tongue. As for those who graduate at the Croat Uni- versity of Zagreb, their degrees are refused recognition. All lhat the Southern Slavs have so far acquired in the domain of education has not been obtained with the help of the State, but is the result of long-drawn battles against the might of a .great Empire and has been won .at ti of great sacrifice. The Jugoslav champions in this field are unceasingly subjected to every excess of ruthless and refined persecution. The authorities persist in practising towards the Southern Slavs the famous policy which) " favours " their development. That is why the whole policy of the Southern Slavs as regards Austria-Hungary is limited at present exclusively to a fierce struggle against the oppression to which they are subjected. Not one of the Constitutions in any of the Jugo- slav provinces is deserving of the name because they are mere constitutional travesties. All kinds of electoral s\>tfm< possible or imaginable, com- bined with the division into wards according to class interest and religious denomination, serve only to maintain the ascendancy of the Agas (Mussulman feudal barons) and other feudal landlords as well as that of the prelacy. That is why we have not one single Southern Slav Socialist representative in Austria-Hungary. The great national resurrection of our people which began in Zagreb in 1832 manifested itself first under the name of " Illyrisni.'' and then under that of " Jugo-Slavia '' ('South Slavia) and, demanded the union of the entire nation dwelling between the Triglav (a mountain in C'airniola), Scutari and Varna -and including all Serbs, Bulgar-. Croat and Slo- venes. Later on this claim assumed a concrete form among the Southern Slavs of Austria-Hungary in the union of Slovenes. (>oat> and Serbs. This has also been the claim of every Diet and every Parliament in the Jugoslav provinces of Austria-Hungary both before and during- the war. Never- theless tins movement was fiercely persecuted by the Austro- Hungarian ruling powers and this persecution increased iu proportion as the Jugoslav ideal gained ground in the par- liamentary bodies. Briefly, then, the sole principle whereby the governmental policy is actuated towards the Southern Slavs in all provinces has always been one of favouring the "' Agas." the feudal squires and priests, the demoralisation and corruption of all classes of the population, the exploitation and pauperising of the peasantry. In Bosnia and Herregovina we have 112,000 families ot serfs. 650.000 persons in all. who live in a state of veritable mediaeval slavery and work like beasta of burden for 10,000 Mussulman Aga families. In Dalmatia the -Jugoslav peasant languishes under the latin form of serf- dom, the state of the colnnati. Finally, in the rest of the Jugoslav lands we have the modern form of serfdom, the serfdom of the mortgage weighing down the rural masses; they are still paying oft' the price of their emancipation from serfdom, promulgated in 1848. This financial burden weighs all the more heavily upon the Jugoslav peasants as all. the banks and all loan institu- tions are run by squires and priests, so that the mediaeval mastery of the latter has not been really .abolished in any of the Jugoslav provinces ; except in Bosnia and Hercegovina, it has merely changed its form. This is all the more strik- ing, when we consider that in the Kingdom of Serbia and in Bulgaria, neither of which command either the great mate- rial resources or the great reputation as a civilisinp 1 factor -*H! by Austria-Hungary and it is on the strength of the latter that she insinuated herself into Bosnia-Herce- govina by the mandate of Europe the old mediaeval and Turkish system of serfdom was promptly replaced by the modern system. In the end the Southern Slavs found no other means of counteracting these miseries than escape from our ill-starred lands. According to the official statistics of 1910, 400,000 persons, i.e., from ten to fifteen per cent, of the whole population of Croatia-Slavonia, were iat the time in America. It is the same with the other provinces. If one take^ into consideration that these emigrants are all adults and able-bodied men. one will readily understand that emigration on this scale is tantamount to positive depopula/- tion, to an extermination of the Southern Slavs in Austria- Hungary. In most cases the emigrants are replaced by German and Magyar settlers. It is superfluous to comment further from the Socialist point of view upon this method of internal colonisation solely with the object of ousting one people at the expense of another. That is why we, a Socialists, and therefore hostile to the oppression of mny people, protest and fight so emphatically against this form of Germanisation and Magyarisation. Monstrous political trials, like the famous High Treason Triii 1 in Zagreb with 53 defendants, and the Fried jung Case in Vienna in which Austria-Hungary compromised herself before the whole world by producing forged documents in evidence, and yet other trials without number followed by judicial murders and an unbridled orgy of repression on. the part of the police, had already before the war produced among the Jugoslav population an atmosphere of such poli- tical sultriness, that it discharged itself spontaneously in bombs and revolver shots. They seemed to be the only weapons wherewith to oppose the implacable regime of the ruling powers. The result was the series of murderous attempt* b\- Zeiajic. (June loth. 1910) in Sarajevo, and by Jukie (June 8th, 1912). Dojcic ('Aim-nst 18th, 1012), and Seter (May 20th. 1!)}:^ iu Zagreb. 9 When this Aeries of outrages culminated in the present war, the oppressive police regime of the ruling powers sur- i itself in unending and unlimited terror. Trial fol- lowed trial, each entailing death penalties or sentences of never-ending incarceration. For the sake of example, let us mention that out of 118 defendants in Banjanluka, 18 were sentenced to death, and 82 to a total of 820 years of inc-arceration besides a fine of fourteen million crowns. In another trial, also in Banjaluka, 28 schoolboys figured as defendants, in Mostar 9, in Trebinje and Sarajevo 65, and in DoTija Tuzla 38. In full accord with the court martials, both military and civil tribunals are indefatigable in accomplish- ing their bloody business. The public at large has never known and will never know the full tale of victims which exceeds several thousands because the Press lias been charged to keep silence. It is this kind of two-fold oppres- sion that determined citizen Adler to resort to the revolver. It is possible to form an idea of the Jugoslav situation from the fact that in the Slav lands in the south the papers are forbidden to reprint matter even from the Vienna and Buda- pest Press. The censorship even extends its rage for confis- cation to calendars printed in Cyrillic characters (the Slav alphabet), musical compositions and since the war also to Orthodox religious literature and thousands of perfectly harmless books, reviews and pramphlets. It naturally deals with extreme severity with all reports of " political " trials. Nothing, or practically nothing, is known of the. trials that take place before the military courts; very little is known <*f what goes on in the civil courts, and on the top of this we have the special solicitude of the censorship. For these- combined reasons it is very difficult for us to trace, even in very scanty detail, the via d-olorosa of the Jugoslavs and to estimate even approximately the number of victims claimed hy prosecution on the part of the Austro-IIungarian ruling ywwers. \Ve will simply state as a characteristic fact that T,he Southern Slavs (Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia- Slavouia) have been excluded from the amnesty granted by the new Sovereign to the peoples of the Monarchy. It is one of the great misfortunes of the Southern SLa.va that the territory they inhabit adjoins the present theatre nf war. This has already so far caused the shedding of much innocent blood. Southern Slavs have been taken as hostages by their own (rovernmeut, and when the Serbi-an. Italian or French guns break into thunder anywhere these hostages are la ken to the danger spots and made to serve as targets by their criminal rulers who delight in watching the terror of their victims. Against this: savagery of the Austro- .Hungarian soldiery, our deputy Biankini raised a vigorous ; rou>st in tlic Vicuna Parliament. But all this has not sufficed for the AiiMro-Ilungarian Government. To all these evils they have added thai of 10 famine. The Jugoslav population of Dalmatia and T. stria is succumbing wholesale to starvation. In Bosnia, and Hercegovina the Government deputy G. Hreljanovic inter- pellated the Government concerning the danger of famine menacing about one million of the inhabitants of these twv provinces. The Government Speaker replied, that so far only 200 persons hiad succumbed to starvation in Bosnia and Hercegovina. It is monstrous, but it is true and authentic. In order to show how far our judgment is not obscured by iiational bias we will quote an article from the organ of the Magyar Socialist party, the Budapest paper Xepszara. of July 24th, 1914. Here we read: " Xot content with having made war inevitable and with having started it, they (the Austro-Hungariau ruling powers) aspire to solve bloodily and in blood these (Jugoslav) Ques- tions which their despotism, their incapacity and their hos- tility towards the people have rendered insoluble. Bosnia was conquered by force, and force alone can retain it for the Au.>tr; '-Hungarian Monarchy. That is why the domina- tion of the Monarchy in Bosnia is a foreign domination. To this day it is under the rule of military despotism, bureau- cratic meanness the vanity of military men who have tri- umphed over a handful of badly armed people, iand officials of slight intelligence and unacquainted with the language of the country. To bureaucracy and militarism, clericalism ha-s joined itself as the third of a unseal trio. The Soldier. red tape and the Jesuit form the triple entente, the emblem of Austro-Hungarian domination in Bosnia. The whole political, economic and religious life of the country is handed over to this trio. The working classes are oppressed together with the rest of the population. The Serb peasant is still permitted to Languish in veritable serfdom. Nothing has been done to deliver him from the secular yoke of the Mussulman feudal lords. The masters of the country have invented a thousand police stratagems to oppress the national life of the Bosnian Serbs. They have enslaved the peasant and strangled the national movement of the bourgeoisie : they 'are harassing the proletariat. They have made themselves hated by everybody and have befriended no one but the re- actionary element in the country, the Mussulman landlords.*' Thus it is perfectly true that for decades militarism, feudal reaction, the rule of the squire and the priest brigaded with incapable officials, foreigners, corrupt and corrupters. were the only ''glories" of the policy of nationality as practised by the Austro- Hungarian ruling powers towards the Southern Slavs, with the help of gallows, bayonets and prisons, and that to this policy there was no o'ther reply possible but bombs and revolver shots. It is the climax of tragic irony that the Southern Slavs, who are to-day exposed to famine, inhabit the granary of the Balkans. Vast fields niid plains lie stretched beneath a Southern sky favourable to a most profitable cultivation of cereals, vegetables, wine and all kinds of fruit, if only the agrarian conditions were slightly improved. Beautiful scenery offers attractions to the tourist. The mineral wealth of the country (iron, copper, coal, etc.) and the large and valuable forests which abound in the Jugoslav lands have never been exploited for the good of the people. The lum- bermen of Croatia-Slavonia, who number 50,000. are back- ward from the point of view of class consciousness and education. They are completely at the mercy of the great foreign landlords and irresponsible bureaucrats. Just as the Jugoslav people represent an ethnic unit, the provinces inhabited by them form, from a geographical point of view, an economic unit. It is only for the sake of the imperialist economic interest > of Austria-Hungary, which demand that the Jugoslav lands should be treated like African colonies, that the economic centres of the S Slavs have been transferred to Vienna and Budapest. The freight rates on the railway are fixed in the intere-t< of the Hungarian capitalists, and this paralyses the development of commerce and industry in Croatia-Slavonia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. The cost of transporting merchandise by rail from one town to another in Croatia and Bosnia is higher than that of sending the goods via Hungary. Apart from this, railways and other modern means of communication are restricted to something even les< than the minimum of elementary requirement in the Jugoslav lands. A glance at the m.^p wilj suffice to show the perfect natural formation of the Dalmatian coastline, and yet not a single Dalmatian port has ever been utilised in the interests of the Southern Slavs. There are -can-ely any rail- ways: those that exist are mostly -ingle-track lines and con- structed solely for strategic purposes. In this way Dalmatia is artificially cut off from her own backlands, from Croatia- Slovenia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. All this provided the population of Dalmatia with an added incentive to emigration. The German and Hungarian bourgeoisie ha- n- use for competition, either in the South of the Monarchy or in the Ea-st in general, where it wishes to be able to sell its goods upon its own terms. To achieve this object in Austria- Hungary, it has had recourse in turns to political and econo- mic coercion, and in order to attain it in the Balkans it has had recourse to the present war. For it the Jugoslav pro- blem has also been merely a question of who is the strongest. It is obvious that the position of all conscious proletarians is extremely painful in this backward atmosphere, steeped in political illegality and ceaseless economic oppression. This strait-jacket which, was compre-ssing Jugoslav Socialism was slightly relaxed under the effects of the new breath of 12 liberty and democracy which travelled over the whole world thanks to the glorious Russian Revolution. On June 5th, 1917. the Croatian Diet was convoked, for the first time since the beginning of the war. The Socialists of Croatia-Slavonia wanted to take advantage of this occasion to demonstrate in favour of the democratisation of political life. "We convoked a mass meeting for June 3rd, 1917, for discussing " Political Conditions in Croatia-Slavonia and the Labour claims in the ..u Diet,'' but the meeting was prohibited. As we possess absolutely no rights, our only means of replying to this prohibition was to address a petition to the Diet. This petition, which describes the state of acute distress and misery prevailing among the Jugoslav proletariat, is couched in the following terms: " To the Chamber of Deputies. " The working classes and the Socialist party of Croatia- Slavonia have been the greatest sufferers under the state of war. All labour societies, without exception, have been dis- solved, all newspapers seized, and the right of assembly has been abolished. Thus the workers have not means nor oppor- tunity of voicing their opinion or defending their interests. " The war is pressing most hardly, in particular, upon the urban proletariat. This class, the weakest economic- ally, is exposed to the most acute privation and most dire distress. The wretched state of the conditions, the cause for which must rather be sought in the disorganisation of transport and food distribution tlnan in an actual lack of foodstuff's, are felt most keenly in the ranks of the working classes, where they are causing veritable dismay. The exorbitant cost of living leads to under-feeding, lack of clothing and insanitary dwellings; thence arise ceaseless epidemics, inoapacitatiou for work, and finally economic ruin, crime and prostitution. The workers have no legal remedy at their disposal to bring about an improvement in their position, as the}- have been deprived of all recources cf this- kind. They have to be content with very low wages, which do not permit them even to spend enough on food, let alone clothing-, rent and other necessaries of life. These terrible conditions are growing worse from day to day. "In the labour centres, exasperation and despair arc steadily increasing, while the working classes have no means of voicing their opinion and defending their interests. All political action, all trades' unionism, even the exercise of the- right ct assembly and of the Press are forbidden them. On the other hand, they have no representative of their awn in the legislative assemblies, no one wluj could convey the grievance of the workers to the authorities and ple-ad for intervention to ameliorate these social evils. " Ciider thef its power in conformity with the decisions taken at the first Inter-Balkan Socialist Conference which ice look upon as offering the only final possible solution of the Balkan problem 'in its entirety. As regards the general question of the future fate of nations we, as good Socialists, repudiate all colonial policy of con- quest. We are fully agreed with our comrades of the Ger- man Independent Socialist party upon the point that every fjolony, where the native population is not self -governing-, merely represents the appropriation of unfree human beings. As regards the Ukrainians, the Poles. Czechs. Jews. Finns and other nationalities, we endorse the declarations submitted by their respective delegates. With regard to the special reform of the community of nations, we accept, jointly with our Ukrainian Comrades, the idea of establishing a special organ, charged with defending the interests of nations. It would be attached to the International Bureau of Arbitra- tion. The decisions of this organ must be binding upon all. We demand the political independence of Belgium and her -complete restoration at the expense of the invader, as the German Chancellor promised at the time. As for the pro- blem of Alsace-Lorraine, we are of opinion that the best solu- tion would be offered by an understanding between the Ger- man and French Socialists. The Conference convoked will not achieve any positive result unless the questions dealt with by it are also dealt with by the Diplomatic Conference. In order to achieve this, it is necessary that, in accordance with the Hollando- Scaudinavian Committee, all Socialist parties and all econo- mic organisations should refuse all assistance to such Govern- ments as fail to publish their war aims or openly or secretly pursue imperialist aims. We on our part consider that the delegates of any party, refusing to consider the decision of the Conference as binding, should submit this question to the next General Congress of their party. For the Socialist Parties of Croatia-Slavouia and of Bosnia and Hercegovima. Mijo Radosevic. Franjo Markic. Printed by H. HOWES