In these two days M. Pashich, in his passionate anxiety for peace, had
agreed to terms more humiliating than have often been dictated after
a victorious war. The Austrian Note had opened with a long indictment
of the Serbian nation. Complicity in the crime of Sarajevo was assumed
without any tittle of evidence, however vague or feeble, then or since
produced. Nevertheless the Serbian Prime Minister bowed to the storm.
His surrender was so complete that it deserves to be read textually.
These are, in skeleton, the main features (British Blue Book, No. 39).
The Serbian Government, having protested their entire loyalty past and
present to their engagements, both of treaty and of neighbourliness
towards Austria-Hungary, nevertheless “undertake to cause to be
published on the first page of the _Journal Officiel_, on the date of
the 13th (26th) of July, the following declaration--
‘The Royal Government of Serbia condemn all propaganda which may be
directed against Austria-Hungary, that is to say, all such tendencies
as aim at ultimately detaching from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
territories which form part thereof, and they sincerely deplore the
baneful consequences of these criminal movements. The Royal Government
regret that, according to the communication from the Imperial and
Royal Government, certain Serbian officers and officials should have
taken part in the above-mentioned propaganda, and thus compromised
the good neighbourly relations to which the Royal Serbian Government
was solemnly engaged by the declaration of the 31st of March, 1909,
which declaration disapproves and repudiates all idea or attempt at
interference with the destiny of the inhabitants of any part whatsoever
of Austria-Hungary, and they consider it their duty formally to warn
the officers, officials and entire population of the kingdom that
henceforth they will take the most rigorous steps against all such
persons as are guilty of such acts, to prevent and to repress Which
they Will use their utmost endeavour.’
“This declaration will be brought to the knowledge of the Royal Army in
an order of the day, in the name of His Majesty the King, by His Royal
Highness the Crown Prince Alexander, and will be published in the next
official army bulletin.”
The Serbian Government further undertakes--
1. To introduce severe Press laws against any anti-Austrian propaganda,
and to amend the constitution so as to give more vigorous effect to
these laws.
2. To dissolve the “Narodna Odbrana,” although none of its members have
been proved to have committed criminal acts, and “every other society
which may be directing its efforts against Austria-Hungary.”
3. To _remove without delay from their public educational
establishments in Serbia all that serves or could serve to foment
propaganda against Austria-Hungary_. (I print this in italics that
the shades of the sins of the National Board may find comfort and be
appeased.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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