4. To remove from the Army all persons proved guilty of acts directed
against Austria-Hungary.
5. “The Royal Government must confess that they do not clearly grasp
the meaning or the scope of the demand made by the Imperial and Royal
Government that Serbia shall undertake to accept the collaboration of
the organs of the Imperial and Royal Government upon their territory,
but they declare that they will admit such collaboration as agrees with
the principle of international law, With criminal procedure, and with
good neighbourly relations.
6. “It goes without saying that the Royal Government consider it their
duty to open an enquiry against all such persons as are, or eventually
may be, implicated in the plot of the 15th of June, and who happen to
be within the territory of the kingdom. As regards the participation in
this enquiry of Austro-Hungarian agents or authorities appointed for
this purpose by the Imperial and Royal Government, the Royal Government
cannot accept such an arrangement, as it would be a violation of the
Constitution and of the law of criminal procedure; nevertheless, in
concrete cases communications as to the results of the investigation in
question might be given to the Austro-Hungarian agents.”
7. To arrest any incriminated persons.
8. To reinforce and extend the measures against illicit traffic of arms
and explosives across the frontier, and to punish severely any official
who has failed in his duty.
9. To deal with any anti-Austrian utterances of Serbian officials.
10. To keep the Austro-Hungarian Government informed of the carrying
out of these engagements.
Then follows the offer which confirms the good faith of Serbia, and
which damns the Central Empires before the Judgment of History.
“If the Imperial and Royal Government are not satisfied with this
reply, the Serbian Government, considering that it is not to the common
interest to precipitate the solution of this question, are ready, as
always to accept a pacific understanding, either by referring this
question to the decision of the International Tribunal of The Hague,
or to the Great Powers which took part in the drawing up of the
declaration made by the Serbian Government on the 18th (31st) of March,
1909.”
Of the ten points of the Austrian Note eight are conceded under
conditions of unparalleled humiliation. No diplomatic triumph could
be more complete. Serbia yields, well knowing that her immediate
past is a good deal fly-blown and that nobody in Western Europe has
the least intention of dying for her _beaux yeux_. But paragraphs 5
and 6, demanding the association of Austrian officials in judicial
enquiries to be held within the territory and under the jurisdiction
of the Serbian Government, aim at more than humiliation; they demand
that Serbia shall abdicate her own independent sovereignty. M. Pashich
rejects them, but in a mode that will remain as the final condemnation
before history of the Germanic Powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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