018 465 ilBinii"™" ^ HoUinger Corp. pH8.5 MEIiGRAiroUII BY THE SERBIAN SOCIALIST PARTY UPON THE CONDITIONS IM OCCUPIED SERBIA PRESENTED TO THE RUSSO-HOLLANDO- SCANDINAVIAN COMMITTEE IN STOCKHOLM WITH A PREFACE BY CAMILLE HUYSMNS . SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAU Issued Toy the Serbian Press Bureau, 931 Southern Bldg., Washington, D. C. em #&v n ists ,__^ . 931 Southern Building, "7 ' Washington, D. C;, -c May, 1918. The following appeal is signed by two eye-witnesses of the infamous acts of the Austro-Bulgarians in the occupied territory of Serbia. The first of these, Dushan Popovitch, permanent secretary of the Serbian Socialist party, has not 'left Serbia and since the evacuation of 1915, he was able to see, on the spot, all that the invaders have done to ex- terminate an entire people. The second, Katalerovitch, is a deputy of the Socialist party. He took part in the retreat through Albania but after arriving in Switzerland he decided to return to Serbia. The Austro-IIungarian Legation at Berne accorded him every facility and in the month of June, 1916, he left for Kraguevatz in Serbia. M. Ke.tzlerovitch is a Serbian "Zimmerv;aldian" and before returning to Serbia he had violently attacked the Serbian Government and Parliament, de- manding an immediate peace. The Wolff Agency hastened to re- produce their attacks and exploit them against Serbia. M, Katzlerovitch is therefore a witness particularly qualified to tell the truth regarding the horrors of the Austro-Bulgar- ian regime. "Messrs. Popovitch and Katzlerovitch went from Serbia to' Stockholm for the Socialist conference. The Central Powers believed that the two 'Serbian socialists would play the game of the internationalists and that is why they permitted them to go to Stockholm. There the Serbian delegates, once they had escaped- from the Austro -Germans, drew up this appeal to the civilized world, to protest against the regime of exter- mination practised in Serbia. They handed it in the month of November to M. Camille Huysmans, who, in making it public, thus described it in his introduction: "It is not a work of hate; it is a cry of distress." In view of the documentary value of this memorandum, we publish it in its full form, regardless of the fact that we do not share the political ideas expressed on this occasion by the Serbian Socialist Party. As to the behavior of the German troops in Serbia, described by Messrs. Popovitch and Katzlerovitch as having been less barbarous than the Bulgar- ian and the Austro -Hungarian, we make a point of issuing herewith an account of the German military expedition in Serbia by Oskar Maurus Fontana, a German writer and a Reserve Officer who accoiEpanied the German army to Serbia. SERBIAN PRESS BUREAU, Voyslav M. Yovembvitcil:! PREFACE. The war has -uade three martyr nations: the Belgians, the Serbs a^no. the Arruenians of Turt'ey. Ger.uany has .„artyred Belgiurr. ; Austria-IIur.gary and Bul- g&.ria have -iartyred Serbia. Turkey has ..-iar tyred Ariuenia. In all three countries tos agvressor has attacked an in- offensive and defenceless population. In Belgiuiu he has put to the sword hundreds of unar.isd iucn, women and childrea. In Serbia, he has been even inore pitiless. He has claim- ed his victiras by the thousand. In Armenia, his bestialty has knov;n no bounds. He has killed v;ith Sadie fury. B.ilgium has lost ;-)any civilians and will lose yet more under a regime of insufficient feeding and unendurable op- pression. Serbia has lost practically the help o£ her population, and unless im...ediate help is forthcoming, men, women and chil- dren will die like flies. Armenia, alas, can.".ot count the number of her viccimis. Vi/ill she ever after the War be able to make a list of those ■i/Vho survived and v;c;re reduced to slavery? The methods of murder and destruction have been applied v;ith greater brutality and shamelessness in proportion as one neared the East, v;here human life is held comparatively cheap. The objects of the aggressor were not the same in ee.ch case . The generous Germany of Luther certc.inly did not desire to exterminate the Belgians. To begin with, the latter are too numerous.' But she wanted to punish them for their unex- pected resistance. She v;as not a secular enemy. But she had recourse to blood letting in order to terrorize the vanquish- ed and to teach them docility for the future. Catholic Austria has done nothing but carry on her tra- ditional policy, . Her aggression of yesterday v;8s not acci- dental. During the whole of the ISth Century, she has never ceased to attack a young end gallant people, simply because -2- it is conscious of its nationaJ strength. And the slaugh- ter was compassed with the clear purpose of total destruc- tion. In the Imperial Ari-iy, it -./as the Ser'os of Austria who ^/ere al'vays sent for preference into ths fire, because one wanted to get rid of thern - e.nd the Seros of Serbia have been starved or hanged, interned or put in chains i/ith cy- nically refined cruelty. And the kindred Bulgars belonging to the ruling circles have helped the Austrians in this uonstrcus taski They de- sired to be revenged for pa,st defeats and they have re;uain- ed deaf to the voice of the blood. The Sons of the Prophet pursued an indenticc.l air:.. They, too desired the exter.r.ine.tion of a people. And, v;e must £,di^it it, they have accorriplished it conscientiously, like experienced scavengers. They have spared nothing. They have considered neither a,ge nor sex. They have made a clean sweep. They hr.ve carried out Sultan Selia's command to the letter. To violence to the nen they have adied bestiality to wou-sn amd even to children. And the Christians of Ger- •r:.any have watched unuioved, this slaugiiter of the Christians of Aritenia. While attacking the huiua,n beings the invador has not forgotten inanimate objects- He has sought to ruin the vic- H :y ne deportation of Ic-bour. One would think that the General Eecdquarters of the Turks, Austrians and Ger:v:c.n3 were acting by agreement. And how have they justified these abominations? In Balgiuiii, they invented the legend of the franc- fir eurs. In Armenia, they invented the legend of conspiro-cies. In Serbia, the Austrians invented nothing. They have too much imagination to delight in the clumsy pseudo- scientific imaginations of the German Government. Since the days of the Agram trial they have acquired too much exp_er- ience to re-edit a subterfuge v/hich brought upon thev:. tne^ moral censure of the whole of Europe. They have acted boldly, without hypocrisy and, tc.king it all rounds, this attitude strikes us as being the most decent. They have the courage of their crii:.es. I do not irean to hold the peoples of GerrLa.ny, of Aus- tria-Hungary, of Bulgaria and Turkey responsible for all this. I know what protests have rung through the Parlia- ments of Berlin, of Vienna, of Budapest and Sofia. I an convinced that thousands of I'lussulruans condemn the policy of the Young Turks, and if proof is required I need only- quote the touching pamphlet by Fayez El-Gosein, a Bedouin of Hauran. But what matters is that the Socialists, at least, of the Central Empires, should knovy and shou ld act . And th?4t is why my Serbian and American comrades have judged it useful to do as we have done in Belgium. To what is left of the civilized world they denounce wha,t has been done and is being done and they appeal at least to the solidarity of thou who lay claim to spare their ideals of humanity and justice. And if they are. told in reply that also on the other side of the barricade there are deplorable conditions. If they are told in reply, as I have already been told, that prisoners have been ill-treated elsewhere, v/e shall declare very clearly, that the Socialist protest must regard the misdeeds of one side as v;ell as the crimes of the other. ^As for me, I refuse to admit the axiom: "Krieg ist Xrieg", "War is VJ'ar". This phrase is nothing but a covert form of moral cov/ardice. The Socialists have no right to take no interest in the fate of other human beings. For this reason I thank my friends Popovitch, Secretary of the Serbian Socialist Party, and Katzlerovitch, Deputy in the Skupshtina, for having written this pamphlet, which is addressed to public opinion, ^vithout distinction. It is not a work of ha.te, It is a cry of distress! Stockholm, December 10th, 1S17 . CAMILLE HUYSL-IAWS, « - Secretary of the International Socialist Bureau. M E M R A N D U M By the Serbian Socialist Party Upon the Situation in Occupied Serbia, Presented to the Russo-Hollando -Scandinavian Committee . Opinions as to the culpability of Serbia in the present war are divided according to TOether tae nolders of these opinions belong to one or the other of the two belligerent and enemy camps. But v/hat is past all discussion for both parties is tha,t Serbia is one of the most sorely-tried vic- toms of the world war. The burden of tne war as it has fal- len upon this small and weak country is so crusning and so bloody that there is no longer any equitable proportion be- tween crime and punishment, even if we assume tnat Serbia had committed the gravest faults. Still less can one take up tnis view if one takes into account txiat during tne wnole of last century the Serbian nation - an abstraction construct- ed of secondary factors and responsibilities in tne third de- gree - was in a state of legitimate defence a^^ainst txie bru- tal policy of conquest on the part a great reactionary neign -- bouring State, namiely Austria. The wnole world is more or less aware of tne great dis- tress into which Serbia nas been plunged by the war, and of the sacrifices entailed upon her by the latter, But vvhat is known of it is very superficial and incomplete . Tne object of our memorandum is to complete this general information by facts and data collected in occupied Serbia, in order to show the pressing need of speedy and efficacious help, both mater- ial and moral for this country cut off from all tne world and forsaken by it . On trie Eve of the Occupation and during the Catastropne . Serbia had already suffered great losses since the first year of the war. During the very first months of the war she had to repel two great Austrian offensives, one in September and one in November, 191^. Twice the existence of Serbia hung only by a tnread and twice she parried the mortal blov;, But these events entailed enormous losses as .veil among trie sol- diers as among tiie civil population. Appalled by the horrors -5- of T,h3 first Austro--Hun£:arian invasion in the neighbournooc:. of the town of Shabatz and in order to esctpe from the enemy troops v^hich vj-ere steadily venturing further, Serbian fami- lies were compelled to fly wholesale at an unfavourable sea- son, into the interior of the country. This second invasion was followed by a terrible epidemic which raged all winter and throughout the Spring of 1915' Hundreds'^of thousanas of men (including 1^0 doctors) perished principally of typhus. Tne result was tnat already in June, 1915, the total number of war victims reached tne figure of 500,000, Then came in October, I915, the tnird invasion under Mackensen,^ then the Bulgarian attack in tne flank. These events were follov;ed 'oj the migration of a vvnole people - women, children and old men - across tne Albanian mountains which had hitherto known no travellers but entnusiastic ex- plorers or blase adventuiers wlno no longer set any value upon their life of boredom,. Tnis migration ^^■d.s made on foot, through the terrific frosts of winter and autumn in the months of November and December, Of 39,000 boys between IR and IS years of age, taken away by tne commanders of the Serbian army, 31,000 perished in Albania of cold and hunger., not to speak of the considerable number of children, women, old men and soldiers who succumbed tnere . In Corfu^ cholera lay in wait for the famished and mortally exhausted soldiers. The total ntimber of Serbian victims reached the figure of .300,000 and even of 1,000,000 according to the opinion of iirell in- formed persons . This v;as already almost o ne -fourth of the total p opgl ati cn of Serbia according to the statistics estab- lished after the" peace of Bucharest. The general statistics included a considerable number of Albanians and Turks, vrhich means that the rate of miortaiity among the Serb population proper was even far greater. As for the Serbia that was in existence before the Balkan wars and forms in every respect the neucleus of the Serb nation^, one may say without exagger- ation that pretty well one-half of her pcpalation had perished. Nor should it be forgotten tnat tne fs^te of the Serbs living Austria-Hungary .faring the war has been no better. The policy of the ruling classes of Austria-Hungary nas been to solve the Serbian Austrian during t^ie \Tar quite simply by ex- terminating as many Serbs as possible. Tae soldiers of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, those from tne old military frontier of Lika, from Croatia, from Slavonia, tne Syrmia, Baohka and the Banat of Temesvar - all of tnem. Serbo-Croat lands - were sent where tne lignting was most dangerous, while a reglmie. . of prison, the gibbet and famine were applied at home to the rest of tne popula.tion. One need only read, for instance, the speech delivered by tne Croat deputy Guide Hreljanovich -o- a favir months ago in fcrie ?Iun^arian Farliti-rnsnt , concernin^^ ta3 bcirbarity prevailing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. T..13 epeec;., . as also tlie most recent one t-y Dr. Antun TresiGii--?aviohitch, in the Austrian Reichsrat, Octohex 17; 191?) contains the most horrifying details. It .vas received in silence by the Hungarian chamber, '.''e v;ill not dwell upon t..is further. These facts lie outside our iurisdiction. ''"e leave it to the Austro-Hungarian Social Democracy to fight this barbar- ous Government"^ v;hose aim is to prevent all development of the Serb pecole and to destroy its national conscious- ness. We TJill merely state t;.e follov/ing. The Serbo-Croat nation v;hich numbered more than ten million souls and whose annual increase amounted to 100,000, has lost so many of its members during this "\"ar of liberation" that it cannot hope to reach its old figure before t.iirty years after the war. The Occupation. When in the Autum.n of I915, t..e conquerors crossed tne Save, the Danube and tne Timok, all Serbia -..'as as it were divided into t.vo. One part preoented ti^e melanc.ioly pic- ture of a graveyard and t-^e otxxer t.ict of a nospital. Tne invaders were no longer faced by a redoubtable adversary whose resistance nad'to be broken, but by a sorely stricken country which according to tue most elementary humanitarian principles had a claim to be treated \vitn consideration. It is true tnat Mackensen within tr^e first days of xxis entry into the country issued a solemn proclamation in wliich he invited the entire civil population to return quickly to its homes and resume its ordinary occupations, because - thus it v;as assured by tne famous General - the war would not be waged against the peaceful population but against armed and fighting forces. But these were only empty words. Every Government of Occupation in Serbia has been nothing but a permanent war upon the peaceful population. And more- over it has not been a government of occupation at all bu^ rather a punitive expedition on the part of Austria- Hun gary and still more on that of Bu lgaria, and this is the word which m.ost correctly and most ccmxjletely defines the char- acter of the Austro-Hungarian and Bularian domination in Ser- bia. Serbia's enem.ies liave felt from the very first, instinc- tively, that this country v^rould not remain permanently in their possession. Therefore they made up their mdnds to render Serbia altogether incapable of carrying on her exist- ence . Unfortunately they have already partially accomplished this task. It is therefore the duty of tue civilized world to prevent them from carrying out their infamous purpose to the end. -7- P&,8 G-.j.? s of 'che Ge.rn ia.n 'i' loops, It v;as the G3?::;.an army wliicii diiring its march through Serbia, in October, November and Decembsr of 19-- ^'^ furnished the precedent for this horrible pjLicy, These troops did not content themselves v;ith the forn'iidable bo'.it;y represented by the vast proper-cy of the State abandoned every/ifhere in the greatest disorder and ^'/hioh, a,ocording to the statements of the German officers could only be compared with the booty they reaped in Russia after the break through at Gorlicz . Besides this, the Serbian people vras compelled to entertain gratuitously and for seveial months these countless German legions, for vifhomthe Balkans vvere merely a highroad on their conquering advance towards Asia. Minor. The poor Serbian was compelled out of his humble mea-ns to support the grandic-^e plans of the German imperialists and to take part in tne real- ization of their aims. All that Was necessa.ry for the army p~nd very often much that Was not, was so to say snatched out of tne mounts of the population consisting mainly of women ana children, and that without any compunction or compensation. It is trua txiat sometimes they were given requisition tickets in exchange, but this was done very rarely and a-lways in some non-valid form, It happened for instance tnat poor ignort^nt peasants, viThose last covir nad been taken were found in possession of requisition tickets bearing tne following le.^end in German: "Peter Karageo rs^e vitca mu st pay" etc. But waat is worse is that in most cases tne proper'cy of the public was ^sstroyed without any necessity, out of pure spite. It v7ould be easy to quote countless instances of tnis perverse and purpose- less rage for destruction on the part of the German troops with regard to tne property of the peasants, including cases which fall within the scope of camp humour, but wnich really cost the poor population too dear, I'le think it, hov/ever, our duty to declare that on this occasion the C-erman troops, although they did not in tne lea-st respect the property of the people, never showed themselves barbarous towards the population itself, 'fe do not know of a single case in which the German soldiers were guilty of murder or outrage or of beating anybody. If there have been such cases, they v;ere eicceptional . After the German hurricane had ipa-ssed, came "normal" conditions. Order was established in Serbia. Let us see what manner of order it -was, and is. i -.8- A. The R e^-icn Qoo'-''TA^SkJ^':l-Jill°^LlJkz^!i^'!l'?jE^lZ- The economic liie of Serbia had bfith regard to Austria. Just novv it is Serbia's turn, ^hat is being done today in Serbia as regards her forests, which are such an essential resource of a country like ours, is not merely exaggerated exploitation but dov?n-right and complete devastation. Here is an example'. The Rogot forest, which was- owned by the State was a very beautiful old and dense forest in the very heart of Serbia. It was worth several millions. Today this forest no longer exists; it has been cut dovirn to the last tree. A wide and desolate expanse marks its form.er site. All the other forests of Serbia, some even larger and more val- uable, like those of Kopaonik, Tara and Rudnik^ have suffered the same fate , The sullen thud of the Austrian axe in the " depth of the ancient forests of Shumadia rings like the blow of a hammer upon a coffin. "Re quisitions . " And v;hile on the one hand the felling of timber proceeds apace, we have on the other nand the systematic and unintermit- tent expropriation of all tnat belongs to tne population. This goes by tne name of "requisition", Almost all tne proaucts of -li- the country even these which t-re indispensajle in evsry house- hold, m&tal utinB.J:;, ^tc. , ais rec^uisiticnec'. ur.cor_ta3 prs- tszt of S3rvir.7. nilitciry neeclc . And Ghcy are piid for at absurd rates l indsed, all this is Gnly a v,3?.l3d xoxrci of_ex- ^ propriation. The vdiole of the harvest is similarly requisi- tioned, '"heat is paid at the rate of [■)< Austrian crowns per 100 kilogrammes. Dried prunes, one of Eerhia's most impor- tant er.port products, are paid for at the rate of 10 crovrns per 100 kgs . and that at a time /d^en the Croatian Government is supplying the municipality of Vienna, by contract, with the same kind of prunes at a rate of 50 cro-vns per 100 kgs. Brandy, too, is requisitioned at a rate of from '10 to 5^' crowns, to, be resold later on to the innkeepers at rates of from 200 to 250 crc.vns, and the superior qualities even at 500 crowns per 100 litres. Oxen are paid for a.t 1,60 per kilogramme. And the peasant is not even entitled to be pre- sent v;hen his ox is .veighed '. This is the business of the officers and officials wno by reducina; tae weight^to be paid„ for by one-half or tnereaoouts, uake h. very good tiling out of it indeed. Most of the requisition tickets bear, generally speaking, a round number such as 100,150., 200 kgs., #hioh is already in itself a clear indication of this official robbery on a vast scale. Figs are bought for 1,50 '^o 2 crovi/ns per kg. v;hereas in Austria-Hungary they fetcn from 6 to 7 crowns. Ap- ples, another iraporta.nt export article, are paid for at txie rate of 25 to 4-0 crowns per 100 kg. to be resold at once for SO to 100 crowns in Austria-Hungary. Nuts are requisitioned, like- wise potatoes, beans, fruit, vegeta.bles, eggs, - in one word, everythinfj; . Official robberies. An elaborately subtle system of fines pursues the sa.me object. They are not a penalty imposed in the general inter- est of the community in order to enforce compliance with pre- scribed regulations, but a fresh means of despoiling the peo- ple and helping the military and civil employers to get rich quick. Last summer, many inhabitants of Belgrade were compelled to pay fines ranging from 1000 to I5CO cro^^'/ns for having ex- ceeded the prescribed allowance of water by a few litres. Vil- lage administrations are sentenced for mere nothings or under perfectly ridiculous pretexts to pay fines of 2,000, 5,000 or 5,000 gold ducats (between ^,^00 and 12,000 dollars). Even peasants have to pay their fines in golc. or in cash. The in- tention is obvious. The Serbian peasant is to be deprived of -13- the last grain of gold leit to him, pernc*.p&, ircin tno good, old times of the age of iDatr.l'-ironal co;umunism , Sonetimes t;)'^ au- thorities go so fa?? in tiiis avidity to obtain gold, that e„ g. they presumed one day to force tne safe of a vTe 11 -known mer- chant in Belgrade in order to seise the 2C00 "napoleons'' de- posited there and to reimburse him for tne same at tne rate of 2o crowns apiece at a time when their value on tne market was 70 crowns. And this is not an isolated case ', But let no one misapprehend our purpose , V.'e have no intention of bewailing the fate of the Capitalists, who have more tha,n one opportun- ity during tne war to recoup themselves for losses sustained by a tenfold larger gain. We merely wish to point out that if such proceedings are permitted against the well-to-do cit- izens of Belgrade^ the fate of the peasant in villages remote from the capital, the poor peasant handed over at discretion to the unlimited and tyrannical power of the local gendarme must be even more pitiful , As regards the forci b le deprec'iat.i_on_pf the rate o f ex - change for Serljian mon ey it is neither more nor less than rob- bery under arms. No sooner had Serbia been conquered than an order appeared directing under threat of the severest penal- ties, that the Serbian franc (dinar) was not to be worth more than half an Austrian crown. As the inhabitants possessed no other kind of money they were obliged to circulate the Ser- bian which passed in this vmy at an absurdly low rate into the hands of the Austrians, Germans and Eulgars , In this way, both the authorities and private persons could induDge in most lucrative speculation in Serbian money which, thanks to the high standard of the metal, is wortn twice as m.uch as Austrian money in the international market. Even today you can, in Austria, privately change 100 Ser- bian dinars for something over 120 Austris.n crowns. The loss caused in tnis way to the Serbian popula,tion, especially to the poorer people who cannot, like tue rich, afford to hold back their money until the most propitioxjs moment, is enor- mous and amounts to many m.illicns . Tne saddest part about this speculation is that tne poor women, children and old men, forsaken by all the Virorld - had nothing but their little sav- ings to fall back on and v^ere thus compelled to reduce by naif the small amount of food tney had so far been able to procure ■ All these refined methods of exploitation must obviously end by exhausting what is left of the wealth of the ccontry. In many cases moreover this exploitation is practised openly, brutally and in the most barefaced fashion, Especially during the earlier months of the occupation, it was the custom to force the doors of houses or shops belonging to absentee Ser- bian citizens, and to seize everything that happened to please -13- any officer, police agent or police spy that came along. _ Many privat4 dwellins;s ., espsc:.ally in Belgrade, v/sre looted in this way. Everything wa.s taken, from the linen ana the furniture to the :oianoG, which were generally sent across the Save as "war booty'' for the wives end mistreBses of tne Austro- Hunearian officers. The People ''s Hoxise, the property of our Party was not spared oy these robbers and murderes . During the first days of the oocuiDation, several articles were removed and many especiallv books, destroyed- Only four months ago tnese eentiemen presumeC, t;-; enter our People's House without any "by- your-leave" and to oa:c::v off everything thct was left, witnout leaving any requisiti:)^ tickets. Hereby cur Party, which is poor lost more than SO, 000 dinars in Belgrade alcne , Ve are by no means an:ciou£ t"? plead our own grievance in particular. T.d have merely quoted this instance as an illustration of the sad state of 'affairs in Serbia, From tne fact that such attacks ,are permitted upon the property of a political organization, which as everybody knows, maintains international relations and enjoys, so to say, international protection, one may easily con- clude what sort of fate is reserved for the population which is protected by nobody. . Briefly, then, t he economic .tosses sustai ned by Serbia >. '. during the war -■ before and especially du;.-inR- t his disastrous occupation are so great that the restoration of the count ry cannot be considered anything but fictitious unless it is cul - minated by collective financ ia l assistance organi^.ed on gen- erous lines, over and abov 0:M_iLejKmsjt ijbut_ior^^ ical independence . This "financial assistance is the only means of retrieving the country from ruin and restoring it to its for- mer standard of existence. 2j, T he Food P olicy... And what compensation does the Austro-~H;.ingar.ian Military Government offer the Serbian population in order to make amends for all its sufferings? After requisitioning everything does it at least guarantee the people the minimum necessary to sup- port life? Wot at all. On the contrary, everything is organized and calculated in such a way that tne population is doomed to die of starvation. Serbia is by nature a rich country wnicn can easily feed its population. But for the moment tnis country is split up into military and administrative districts vmich, as regards the exchange of foodstuffs are separated from eacn other by ver- itable Chinese walls. All exchange of foodstuffs between Mili- tary districts is strictly forbidden and it would be easier for -14- a camel to pass tiiroagh the eye of a neello faan for an egg to pass from one district into another in derb:...^ The Diot- rict Commanders dispose of unlimited powers as regards the distribution of foodstuffs in their districts and in this respect they are responsible to no one, not even upon their own Government. The result is that the v^hole indispcndable interchange of foodstuffs between t he various pai-ts of Serbia has become impossible and that the whole surplus produce of any one part of the country, which could and ought to be em- ployed to supply the needs of some other region is immediately exported to Austria-Hungary. Thus the authorities have ended by creating an artificial shortage of foodstuffs vmich Is then exported by the District Commanders themselves, by the Government officials and their civil agents, m the interests of the most shameless speculation. In this v/ay certain of- ficers and shady civilians grow richer from day to day while hundreds of thousands of Serbian women, children and old men lack the necessities of life and are in the grip of the most appalling famine. Austrian shops, or rather food cards are therefore tne only remaining resource of tne population.; but only too often one fails to get even tne quantity one is en- titled to by the card. This system, too, has become, a field for speculation. It is known for instance, that Austria-Hun- gary has never had any reason to complain of a salt snortage . Yet tnis has not kept the Serbian peasant from being left for months together without salt under the pretext tnat tnere was none. Although there was still plenty in tne shops. And while the peasants were being refused salt, Austrian agents, soldiers and non-commissioned officers, were selling that same salt, ostensibly surreptitiously, at the rate of S, 10 and 12 crowns per kilogramme . Any one who knows tne impor- tance of salt for agriculture and especially for stock-rais- ing will readily understand why the peasants were ready to part with all their produce at ridiculous prices for the sake of obtaining a little salt. As for the bread ration, it is the same in Belgrade as in Austria (e.g. not equal to the bread ration in Hungary). In spite of this for months together the population of Belgrade received under the name of "flour" merely a special mixture which could neither be made into bread nor cooked, nor eaten and which produced much sickness among the population. As re- gards the interior of Serbia, there are places v;here the bread ration is even more misere.ble. Thus, last spring, the unfor- tunate peasants of Baina Bashta rece:lved only one kilogramme of maiz e per inhabitant du ring one wh o le month. It may be imagined from this, what ration they will receive this 'rinter ind next Spring. -15- STARVATION IN BE LGRADE . Tills food, (ox .Tcitriar starvt^tion) policy, is xaost elo- quently discernible in tne faces of the inhabita.nts >^f Bel- grade. In tiiis town it is absolutely impossible to buy any- thing no matter what. It is only exceptionally and at fabu- lous prices that one^Can obtain a little fat, eggs, potatoes or beans. One can also get a little meat ana tnat at prices which, compared to tnose ruling in Austria and Germany, are not even very high. But as the population almost through- out tne country is absolutely deprived of the means of earn- ing a livelihood, tnese prices are relatively high. In Bel- grade you see hundreds of people waiting outside the shop which sells meat. But as the ainount of this offal (feet, tripe, entrails, etc.) is very limited, it nas become such a delicacy that people consider themselves lucky if they suc- ceed in getting some once or tvTice a month. For the present population of 50^0^0, the municipality of Belgrade furnishes from 2,000 to 3^000 litres of milk during the summer sea- son and only a fevv' hundred litres in winter. Thus only per- sons who are seriously ill and quite young children receive a quarter of a litre of milk (half a pint) a day, and that only after many difficulties and most complicated procedure. Last spring - and spring is tne best season for vegetables - the '.weekly allowance was only 157 grammes of vegetables for every inhabitant. One really fails to see how these people manage to keep alive. Thousands of women, children and old mer roam desperately day and night along the high roads and through the surrounding, sometimes very distant villages, in order to procure a little food. Meantime these expedi- tions are severely forbidden. You can buy nothing in the villages, neither monopolized produce, nor anything else. An order has been publisned in Belgra,de v/nereby every v;oman caught in the act of buying food is sentenced not only to arrest but to be beaten with a stick. Tne food prices fijced by tne authorities are such txiat no peasant will fur- nish provisions at that price. That is precisely what is wanted by tne men in power. It is tney who go to tne vil- lages and buy up all tne previsions at tne fixed prices and export tnem to Austria. Their policy as regards food prices, instead of helping both consiomex and producer, is directed agciinst both and pursues only tne sole object of robbing and ruining tiie country, and that is vJhy Belgrade, the cen- tre of a ricn agricultirral country, tnere is greater dis- tress and famine than in Vienna. The desperate plight of the population of Belgrade de- termined Dr, Veljkovitch, Mayor of Belgrade, Mr. Peritch, Professor at the University and several others to submit a -16- .i:ien:orand.ur;: to Colonel Kerschnawi, Chief of Staff of the ililitary Goverr.r.-.ent . The rsquasts einbodied in this meno- randura v/ere very iriocieat. The petitioners requested in the first place the siraplif ication of the extremely lengthy and complicated procedure v/hich the inhabitants of Belgrade have to go through in order to obtain permission to travel into the interior and that this permission should not only be granted to a feiv privileged Gpeculators, but to all -vho stood in need of procuring a feu provisions. The Govern- ment was furtht-r b?s;r;ed to modify the policy of maximum prices. And finally the petitioners requested that the municipality ox Belgrade should itsjlf be permitted to purchase the fixed quantity of cattle to be slaughtered in order to prevent the military Intendance from speculat- ing in this article of food. The intendants sometimes sup- plied the municipality vxith animals the entrails of which weighed 43 kg. while the whole of the meat weighed 37 kg. This memorandum, however, struck the authorities as being an exceedingly suspicious document. First, iiayor Veljko- vitch was sumr/ioned to the police station where he was of- ficially questioned as to his real intentions. Then fol- lov/ed^ after a long interval, an interview \/ith Colonel Kerschna\tfi which was extremely brief and frigid. As a matter of fact, it v^as only Colonel Kerschnawi who spoke. He declared that the Memoreuidum was not correct in its statements, that the population did not suffer from a short£v.^e of food, tha.t e-g, his '.vife bought aD.l her pro- visions in Belgx-j.do, r^ i shcAxt any Cifficult^ an:, v btv olie.r.p- ly and he wound up by saying these matters did not concern the Municipality, but the Military Government. Upon this statement the interview came to an end. In order duly to appreciate these incidents \re must not forget that Mayor Veljkovitch is an ex-Iiinister and chief of a party v;hich is in opposition to Mr, Pa^shitch (Prime iviinister of Serbia) and not at all hostile to Aus- tria-Hungary, while I'lr . Peritch is a convinced Austrophil and generally knov;n as such. In 3pite of this they were both of them and especially Dr. Veljkovitch, so badly used , that the latter found himself obliged to tender his resig- nation. It goes without saying that the authorities stand even less on ceremony v:ith the Socialist rabble. One of our comrades, To'-rn Councillor Mika Spassoyevitch, presumed last year in very moderate terms to criticise this policy of starvation and to demand bread for the people. Although over 70 years of s. ge, he was at once arrested and interned in Hungary, -17- This intolerable situation is further aggravated by tha a.rcsi2ir.g Ociilou.^i.ess Ghown by the authoi'ities and the Austro-Hurigariaii batiks. As Serbia is today dsprived of all ecouoiiiio life, everybody in the country lives vjholly upon , uhat relief reaches hiin from abrooxl . People live upon ivhat they receive frori Switzerland and France, from thjir relations or friends, or frorr, charitable ixiissions. Nov; in this latter respect, Serbia has been overlooked by all the rt'orld. Tv/ice only, in 1916, did missions - one A;uerioan cuid one Swiss - coL.:e to distribute food and cloth- ing aiuong the -population of Belgrade. The lioney received fro'^ relations in Svjitaerland a:id Fre^nce is therefore the one vital resource of the Serbia::! population. The suu.s V7hich the feithers of faiuilies heive hitherto been able to send are very insignificant in co'uiparison to the needs of the population. Collectively, they only ai/ounted to about t-ienty million (francs) in tv;o years.' nevertheless, this 3U.L-. represents a very great deal for :/.any far;iilio'), all the Tuore as 'chey receive no other help. In the lueantir-ie the Austro-Hungarian banks and authorities are so cruel o-nd so devoid of all conscience that they do not hesitate to delay the pay.uont of these suras for raonths together. There have been cases in v;hich buus despatched from Sv;it3srland or France in Septe.-.ber, 1S16 v;ere not paid out in Belgrade be- fore uarch or April, 1917 - after sii-c Licnths of speculation. It IS really superflous to explain once riore that the posi- tion of the population of Belgrade will be terrible this winter and next spring, if these ppor people are coiiipelled to live I'.'i thou t i Jon ey . So far they have, at any rate, ;i,anaged to exist, or rather to vegetate, painfully, \;ith terrible suffering ?.nd a vast phyijio logical deficit, the dangerous consequencesof v/hich T.v'ill not iJiake theiAselves felt until after the vjar . But for this winter and next spring, the population will be even more cruelly tried, because the liilitary Government suc- ceeded in organizing ci perfect systv^m for seizing this year's harvest (1917) to the last grain from the Serbian population. All, for positively all is at this moment exported, so that there is nothing left for the native population but to fold its hands and die of starvation. Help, as prompt and extensive as possible is urgently n eeded if this people for all that it is endovi^ed vjith great vitality is not to be do o med to die of starvation, under most terrible conditions. -18- 5. TH E POLITICAL SITUATIOII . Logically enough, 'cha aconouuc misery of occuioied Ser- oia is ooaiplsted by political slavery. Of couroe arxy kind of public right is out of the ques- tion. Wo foriii of collective life is possible in Serbia at the moment. All organi2£i,tioas, including ^:rof essional, co- operative and even charitable associations are prohibited. Anyone daring to try to forra any kind of association v-zould be inuediately inteiDed, and perhaps subjected to an even more terrible fate Irjmediately upon his arrivcil, the first Military Governor of Serbia published an order rigorously prohibiting all politics in the country. It is not diffi- cult to imagine what a reactionary and military government would understcind under the- term of "politics" . There is only one printing office in Belgrade today, the one v;hich is run by the Military Governor General and publishes the "Beogradske Novine" (Belgrade Ilev/s). All private print- ing offices have been closed often haviiig been looted. Neither rr.achinery, nor any other ma'cerial is left: it is even forbidden to print menus. A printing press - accord- ing to the expression of the local authorities -,is equal to a.n enemy arsenal. If a Serb citizen i^exe to be so bold as to solicit permission to edit a paper, he v/ould at once be entered in the blacklist of the Government. It is for- bidden to make use of the Serbian alphabet in public traf- fic, including the post. Needless to add^ all political activity is prohibited, as it is even dangerous to say openly \vhat one thinks and even to have independent thoughts. Quite harmless humdrum citizens, ignorant peasants and even gossiping women run the risk - if their harmless and naive conversation is overheard and reported by spies - of being sent off to internment camps, to prison, or even the gallov/s. TERROR I Sl/l IN SERBIA . The most elementsi-ry ri£:hts of man, are not guaranteed in Serbia , In the villages, the gendarmes v7ield unlimited pov/er and lord it over everybody. Their u.ethods of pro- ■ cedure are an admirable reflection of the system applied by the Austro-Hungarian adm.inistration to the subject nat- ionalities. Espionage, denunciations, exactions of all kinds, theft and sometimes even murder, are typical of the behavior of the gendarmerie in the villages. In the towns these privileges are enjoyed by the army officers and non- comraissioned officers. In manv towns official notices are posted UP directing that the whole native population men . -13- wnn^n. c^hildren an d old_nea ^^y'^y^lio o vex their he a^M^ nfviopi-a UBi-ip- their horse v/xir/ps upox-?. reoels v;ho ic.il to Sompir't o'cl wi^h these orders. Indeed oudgellinsa have SecoS a v.eans of eduo.txon in which ^fi,%^^^f^J?-;^^^f f ^^^ ' civilizators take a special delight, Tnis penalty -s ap- plied on every occasion and under the ■u.ozz aosura pretexts. Two Belgrade college students -.-ho had been compelled by w.nt to become tram conductors, were eacn sentenced .o f °^J^^ 75 blows with a stick for having railed to salu.e a ^suoaloern. The poor lads fainted three tiroes and each tine the oeatmg V7as recommencsed. After they had been subjec.ea .o this shameful punishment they were kfPt in prison for a mj^n.h and then interned in Hungary. In the prefecture of Police in Belgrade, a certain Lieutenant Wxedmann en^o^B animated power over the lives and liberties of all the mhacitants. It depends only upon his tyranny whether any given mnabi- t of Belgrade is arrested, cuffed, beaten w: tn a_s.xci:, tant of tiexg how. and above all, interned, which, as we shall preeertx/ is indirectly sentence of death. All Belgrade r.ae - and that often in the literal sen,^c. of the word - pacced through the hands of this gendarme, from ex-Ministers to tne num- blest day-laborer. There is soc-.rcely a person m Belgrade who has not had cause to complain of having been -ma.fGreaoed, insulted and outraged in his m-st saured fao-.ings by this Austrian Gessler v;ho behaves thus without any p^ausiole pre- text and without any offence on the part of those ^^lom he pe-^secutes. Serbia knows no personage more hateful tnan this tyrant - which circumstance has not preventf.d him from retaining his post ever since the beginning of the occupa- tion. I t is. th e r fiFore, not a case o f _.an_.exce.|jt2-on or an g.oniden-bal ri-dstake". bu t on the cont rary,.../c.hJ.^_;ra;rlb;^e_iji- rii;rj_r;-'ij3-; per sonifie s an en tir e svst^im. This fasnion of i^treation, the Serbian citizens, of reducing them to the level of mere cattle, to enslave them as completely as pos- sible and to let them constantly feel their degradation, constitutes the very essence of the Austro-Hungarian occu- pation in Serbia. The name o£. Lieutenant Wiedmann will dwell in the memories of future generations as the symbol incarr.ate of Austro-Hungarian "Kulturtraegerei" in Serbia. The courts exist not to pre^'ent all this robbing and tyranny, but to increase them. Fot o-a^ Austro-Hungarian officer accused of theft, e-zaction, outrage or murder, has ever been conviobed, alxhougii these crimes are of daily occurrence. It is even dangerous to lodge a ccrAplaint a- gainst an officer or an official- Anyone endea.voijng to defend his property, nis honour, or his life,, even in the rcost harmless vj'ay, is at once arrested, bea.ten, interned. -20- It v;ould. be easy to quote countless instances of such excesses. The arrests of perfectly inr.oceiit citizens and their being sentenced to incarceration amd even death is one of the most ordinary occurrences. The most iraportant aux- iliaries of ohe courts, and indeed of the whole adiainistra- tion in general, are secret agents, detectives and spies, recruited fron the least commendable and n^ost depraved of the Austro-Hungarian and Serbian populations. It is upon their depositions and reports that the property, liberty, honour and life of every Serbian citizen are wholly depend- ent. Tlie courts only exist in order to lend a pseudo-legal sanction to the decisions of these creatures, who froni a privileged class in Austria-Hungary and enjqy great social consideration. The most trivial denunciation can cast a r,ian into prison, and death sentences are pronounced by the court with truly cri;ninal unconcern. Thus 55 peasants, be - sides the schoolmasters. Glishitch vjere shot or hanged and 250 men and women were sentenced to incarceration this year in the village of Raraatya Cin the district of Gruzha), :nerely because some old and disused arms and old fowling pieces had been found in the village. As for individual death sentences pronounced by the courts or even by the gendarvaes and car- ried out on the spot, they are quite ordinary occurrences. iMany absolutely guiltless hostages have been done to death in this way. One is oven tempted to think that these gen- tlemen take a special pleasure in the carrying out of those death penalties. In many towns thti men are hanged and on one occasion this was even done virith a pregnant woman ~ with much ceremony in the market place, where the bodies are sometimes left hanging for several days. And this they call educating a savage people ! Vi/hen the Serbian people will have risen to the enviable ethic and aesthetic heights of the Austro-Hungarian officers and begin to take ■ pleasure in these compalistic exhibitions and patronize them, the former will presumably have become capable of understanding the lofty culture of the latter. 4 . " IKTERNiiiSHT CAllPS'.' The greatest crime comiaitted by the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian Governments of occupation is the internment of perfectly inoffensive and peaceful citizens and their wholesale internment. All we hc^ve so far drawn attention to, was only massacre in do-tail. As regards the internments . they are nothing but wholesale massacre . Merely from the region occupied by Austria-Hungary, more than 150.000 Serbian subjects have been interned, including several thousands of pld men of over 60 years of age, several thpusand vjomen and even children from 8 to 15 years ! In giving this truly ap- -21- palling figure, v;e are not taxing into considsration tha 150,000 Serbian soldiers, prisoners of v;ar who share the J ate of their interned brothers in Auctria and Hungary. We should require a whole book v;ith appalling illus- trcitiony if vce v/anted to depict the position and existence of these raartyrs, Vfe must abstain from doing so for the mo- ment. We will confine ourselves to the following statement. The fact of being internet in Austria-Hungary or in Bulgaria really ar^ounts to being indirectly sentenced %o death . A- bout thirty per cent of these poor wretches have died up to the present i The rest are dragging out a miserable exist- ence amid infini-ce hardships and unspeakable suffering while waiting for inevitable death. In u;any concentration camps containing on an average several thousand interned persons, ten, twenty, and thirty deaths a day are the rule. But in soLie cases especially in Hungary there have been as many as 200 and 300 deaths a day. There are concentration camps where one-half of the inmates have already died. This is not ov^ing to so'aie epidemic which claius innumerable victims. They die of hunger and cold . There you may observe in truly typical aiid only too frequent ca^es, how a perfectly sound organieim ts gradually reduced to die by hunger. During the first state the organism, although having daily to submit to a huge deficit in nutrition, still lives upon its former reserves. Then comes the second stage, that of a sensation of atrocious animal irresistible hunger. The wretched suf - ferers devour the grass they find along the hedges, although this kind of food is strictly forbidden. They spend whole days in turning over refuse heaps and eat everything more or less resembling food. Their guards are powerless to re- strain them, even with the bayonet. This state is follov^ed , by the third and last, the period of exhaustion and apathy. The sufferer becoraes completely indifferent. The best food no longer tempts him in this state of prostration and he no longer cares for life. Fully conscious, calm and impassible he waits for the approach of his last hour. l^Jhen he feels it coming he lies dovm, covers' himself up c:nd dies without uttering a word. Those around him watch him with equal in- difference, well knoiTing that their own fate will be the same as that of their comrade, and that it will overtake them ere long. In countless oases the autopsy has revealed the fact that the organi . sm was in ideal health, but that there was not one grain of fat in the whole body . Even those who still survive must be looked upon as half -dead already. These poor wretches are doomed to die within a year or two after the war. Only a very small num- ber endowed with exceptionally vigorous constitutions will -23- be able to go on living and working after the via,!. The hor- rible fate of those interned is well known to everybody in Serbia, even to the very children. And so every man sen- tenced to internriient upon the denunciation of some spy, is followed by his distracted family, weeping and wailing as one does in following the dead. It is, ther-^fore, not in the least surprising or incomprehensible that people are terrified ci.t the prospect of being interned. But, v/hen. last year, a certain number of peasants from the district of Grusha, who were sentenced to internment by the military authorities, presuraed to hide and failed to respond to the first summons of the authorities, all these poor people, about forty in number, were sum ma rily shot without further formality. Their houses were burnt down^ all their proper- ty destroyed and their families were interned. We knov; very well that the civil population of Austria as well as her army, suffers likewise from lack of food and that it is not possible to give to the interned Serbs v^hat others have to go short of. But this does not explain gra- tuitous cruelty. Thus, e.g. the money which the interned Serbs receive from their relations, either from home, or from France or &.7itzerland, is speculated upon in a truly crimi- nal fashion in the concentration camps. There is a rule, in accordance with v;hich, regardless of the amount of the sum sent, only a very small proportion of it, from 30 to 50 crovms a month, is paid over to the interned recipient. The rest of the money is left at the disposal of tho officers and officials to employ in all manner of speculation's. Hov,' the inmate of an internment camp requires at lee-ot a few hundred crovirns a month in order to supplement the wretched food he receives in the camp -.vith such food as he can ob- tain at exorbitant prices through intermediary agents from the neighboring villages. For these interned people, money means neither more now nor less than life. And so, by de- priving these people of the money due to them, the concen- tration camp authorities dep rive them, in fact of their lives . This criminal playing v;ith human life constitutes an essen- tial part of the policy of every conqueror. Thus several Austro-Hungariaji doctors attached to these camps declined to see mor.3 than ten patients a day at a time when the death rate in the camps was from 20 to 50 a clay. But the m.osl importari'.-. point of all is that these poor people ought not to be interned at all. There is no kind of military necessity for it. During the occupation by the enemy armies, for a ^'7hole year and half there W3.s not a shadow of trouble, not an attempt at revolt in the whole country. This fact need not be construed as a compliment to the Government of occupation or as a proof of the exist- ence of enviable conditions in Serbia. It simply proves that the Serbian people is so exhausted with suffering that it can only think of rest. In spite of this the Austrian Military Governiuent has v;ithout any 'plausible reason interned more than 150,000 inoffensive Serbs including thousands of childreii, v;orien and old men over sixty years of age. By these intemiiients, the fauiilies of the poor v/retches and likewise the v;hole of the country which was thereby depriv- ed of its last reserves of labour, were dooi'ied to starve. And it was only after all these intern.vients and other cruel provoco-tions, c;,s the consequence of ill-trer-tacent and not as a preliminary act which raight have justified it, that the revolt in Southern Serbia ensued in March, 1S17. What is the true reason for these internn-ents without number. They are partly explained by the stupidity of the Austro-Hungarian administration Vifhich one sees in every Serbian child a person guilty of high treason and a bomb- thrower. On- the other hand it is an outcome of that crimi- nal disregard of human life v/hich is peculiar to soldiers, and especially to conquerors. Merely Lieutenant Vj'iedmann, whose name has been mentioned before;, has the loss of sev- eral thousand human lives, at least, on his conscience. This official v;ill cause a Serb to be interned and sii'uply because the latter has failed to reply immediately to his question or because he has ;-aresumed to exhibit fear during his cross examination. This is sufficient for him to do a man to death i:ith all his fa'mily. In short, the whole method of the Austrian Administration is directed by the inexorable purpose of exterminating the last remnants of the Serbian POPula"Gion. ViTe protest emphatically against this criminal policy of Austria-Hungary. We demand that an end be put to these massacres of thousands of guiltless Serbian citizens.' We appeal to the entire civilised i/orld, to raise its voice against these unliuard-of crimes and to demand of the Ai.istro- Hungarian Government that our countrymen be set at liberty and sent back to their homes. If this liberation is not brought about very speedily indeed, before the wi/.ter oets in \."ith its rigours, all these! people a.re doomed to die within the next fevj monxhs. B. THE REGION OCCUPIED BY BULGARIA . Before the beginning to depict the situc^tion in the Bul- garian part of Serbia, v/e feel bound to drav; attention to one very important fact which ought to gratify all Socialists in general and Balkan Socialists in particular, namely, that one ought to draw a sharp .distinction between the ruling classes of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people . One of the Signatories of this Memorandum has had the opportunity dur- ing the earlier months of the occupation of acquiring per- sonal knowledge of both administrations, the Bulgarian and the Austro-Hungarian. The Bulgarian common soldier, i.e. »■ the Bulgarian people under arms has everyv\fhere, wherever he has- come in contact with it, produced a good iuipression upon all the Serbian population. During the early dc^ys of the invasion, whan every soldier possessed, so to So-y, povj- er of life and death over the vanquished population, when h'is discretionary powers were unlimited and his responsi- bility ali-iost nil, while there was as yet no judicial order in those, regions, conditions virere far better in the ter- ritory conjured by the Bulgarian army. There v;as far u:ore liberty u,nd order than later on when the Government of oc- cupation hcod established itself there and ''official" order was introduced by the ruling classes. During this first period cases of murder, outrage and looting were unknovirn and none ..io-de a pcstiiue of ill-using the popuiatio::. . The 3ituatio.n in the ea,3tern ^jaro of Serbia (which xvas occu- pied by the Bulgers), was at that time better ctnd less in- tolerable than that in the IVest which was occupied by the Germans and Austrians* The Bulgarian com...on soldier felt sympathetic towards the Serbs to ivhom he was attracted by the kinship of race which unites them, and he fully apprec- iated the horrible tragedy of our position. It often hap- pened that these sons of the Bulgarian people wept in our presence over the ruin of Serbia and were profoundly unhappy ■CO see Bulgaria and Serbia dragged once more for the third tiuie, into a fratricidal war. Some of them even prophesied S, dark and -diaastrous future for Bulgaria for heaving con- sented to foment discord betvjeen the Bdkan peoples. It would be fcLlse to pretend th^t none but Socialists spoke in' this, way because among the BulgariaJi soldiers who expressed such opinions, there v;ere both ignorant peasants c^nd humble townspeople devoid of c*,ll politicc*.l education. It is only natural, moreover, thc*,t this u,ltogether instinctive senti- ment of solidarity should be so highly developed among the Balkan peoples, since they were all equally und^r the Turk- ish yoke, the slavery of v;hich they endured for centuries. More especially this sentiment is bound to persist between the Serbs and the Bulgars who are rec;,lly only one people, speaking different dialects of one and the same language. But a change came over the situation with the arrival of the masters of Sofia and the official policy dictated by the reactionary gang of brigands commanded by Radoslavoff . These people who have terrorized their own countrymen for decades, were little inclined to show consideration to the completely vanquished population of an occupied region. By an incredible system of outrage and a policy of method- ical extermination of the Serbs these criminals seek to prepare the ground for a Bulgarian hegemony in the Balkans and the establishment of a Bulgarian Eopire under the scep- ter of the Coburgs. The crimes committed against the Serbian people by these individuals are without number and our re- port would grow far too long, v^ere we to describe in detail -35- the situa-tion in the Serbiaxi territory occupied by Bulgaria, as we have done with regard to the territory governed by Austria- Hungary. All that has been said already about the Austro-Hunfyarv administration is equally true of the Bul- garian with this difference, that what has been .sa.id c.,bout Austria-Hungary raist be multiplied by itself, as it vjere. in order to be applicable to the Bulgarian administration . Bad as they are, courts at least exist in the Austro- Hungarian part. There is at least socie attecipt, froii time to tiiue, to clothe the despotism of the authorities in sorae sort of legal form. Soraetirnes, and were it only in appear- ance, public opinion is considered. One feels, and were it ever so slightly, restrained by vague forms of international law and morality. All this ceases completely as soon as you enter the do- main of the Bulgarian administration. Cross the iiorava river and you find yourself in Asia. The ruling classes of Bulgar- ia have proved the.t if they are not very good allies of the Turks they are at least their very apt pupils. The Bul- garian part of Serbia knows nothing of courts. Only quite recently has a court been established in Nish, v;hich has to do duty for the whole of the occupied territory of Serbia. It is the police, recruited from the very dregs of the pop- ulace, which is invested with unlimited powers. The personal liberty of every Serb citizen, no less than his life, de- pends wholly and solely upon the arbitrary pleasure of every Bulgarian police agent or gendarme. Beatings inflicted upon men, women, children and old men are even more comnion than V7ithin Austro-Hungarian territory. Old men of over 60 years of age - and that not only in the country but also in the towns - receive seventy-five blows with a stick for failing to salute a gendarme. A woman, who has a Bulgarian officer living in her house, and it goes without saying that he does not pay his landlady anythi.ag - is sentenced to twenty-five blows with a stick if the officer fancies that the tablecloth ■.vhich x& laid in his room is not l3ss fine that that of the mistress of the house. A Serbian judge living in Chupria, a man of superior education, is compelled every day to saw v¥00d for the schoolmistresses who lodge gratis in his house in order to avoid being beaten. In these regions the Serbs are reduced to a veritable state of slavery such as that of . which they were subjected tvjo centuries ago under the Turks. In the Austro-Hungarian region there is at least a sem- blance of public order. As for the region occupied by the Bulgars, the most elementary guarantee for public safety is conspicuous by its absence. Al^vays under threat of the pen- alty of death, the Bulgarian authorities resort to exactions and contributions to such an extent that many Serbs have been obliged to fly to the other side of the Iiorava into the Aus- trian domain. Numerous bands of brigands, tolerated by the authorities, roam about the country plundering and murdering ae they go. Not infrequently these bandits are even secret- ly in league with the Bulgarian Officers, police agents and gendarmes. Such are the authorities which rule today in oc- cupied Serbia. This is hov they promote the happiness of -Macedonia and "liberated Eastern Serbia." The liraits of our report do not permit us to depict all these abuses in detail. For this reason we 'Till confine our- selves to drawing attention to several special features of the Bulgarian Government of Occupation vJhich are so unique in character that they are v;ithout parallel even in the Aus- t r o -Hungar i an do main . 1. POLICY OF DENATIONALIZATION . The Austro -Hungarian Administration v;as by no means in- nocent of a certain tendency to modify the national culture of the Serbs, and of aspiring to "Croaticize" and "Magyarize" the school youth. It also attempted a clerical propaganda among the population, v/hich it desired to see imbued v/ith this spirit. But it achieved very poor results in this di- rection. The attempt to uake the Serbian population into a priest-ridden community was foredoomed to failure from the outset, because from a religious point of view, the Serbs are decidedly emancipated. The Church , as a political and social institution, possesses no importajice and no povjer with us. The clergy only exercise a very slight influence in politics. With us it is not the priests who drav7 the pop- ulace sifter them. On the contrary, it is the masses who exert their influence upon the clergy. Only such priests as have devoted themselves energetically to the cause of democracy, have succeeded in playing a leading part in our country. But all that has been done in this respect in the Austro-Hungarian domem, cannot be compared with the policy of denationalization as pursued by the Bulgars, The Bul- garian ruling classes deny on principle, the existence of the Serbian race throughout the whole of the territory they have conquered, although it is precisely this region which furnished our land with its greatest national heroes v;ho fought one hundred years ago in the Serbian Insurrection against the Turks, for Serbia's liberty and independence and died for it (Stevan Sindjelitch, from Nish District, ^^ and.Hajduk Veljko, from Negotin, etc.). But whoever would today in this occupied region declare himself a member of the Serb nation and insist upon this description, would im- mediately be arraigned for high treason and vrould have signed his own death-warrant. All Serbian writings, not only the books in the public libraries, but even those found in pri- vate dwellings, are being requisitioned and burnt. It is expressly forbidden, even in private intercourse ^ to write Serbian. Even the official papsr of txie allied domain, tna orga.n of the Austro-Hungarian Millitary Government, is severely prohibited throughout tae teri'itory occupied ly the Bul- gars, solely because it is published in Croatian, i.e. in Serbian, since "Croat" and "Serb" are only two different designations . for the same language and the sane people. It is likewise forbidden to bear Serbian naraes. One of the signatories of this .Piernoranduiu, Popovitch, could oily obtain a passpoxt.in Chupria (a tov^n .situated in Ihe region occupied by the Bulgars) under the name of "Popoff", i.e. as a Bulgar. Ne:7born infants are only given Bulgar bap- tismal names by the Bulgarian priests, so that the faith- ful will have to have thern re-named after the war. Only Bulgarian is taught In the primary schools and instruction is given solely by Bulgarian schoolmasters and mistresses. It is the same in ecclesiastical matters. All scholastic and ecclesiastical appointments and all offices in munici- pal administration are filled by Bulgars. Throughout the entire territory occupied by the Bulgars you will not find even one Serbian teacher or priest. All have been interned or even murdered except those who were compelled under the threat of death to, sign statements declaring that they are Bulgars and that the districts occupied by the Bulgars , are all Bulgarian lands . The other Serbian officials have been similarly dealt with, e::cepting only a rery few. In proof of this, we can only quote a few cases which impressed themselves particularly upon our memories. For readily comprenensible reasons v/e were unable to carry away sys- ■ tematically coiapiled mateiial and '.vritten evidence from our country. Here are the cases in question: (1) In the town of Vranja ti-iere were killed, Alcsentie lUshitch, priest and George Antitch, a former member of the Serbian .Parliament for tnat to^.'n. (2)0ne night, in November I9I3, the Arcn-priest Stevan Komnenovitch, the priests Michailo Igniatovitch, Yosif Pop- ovitch, Trandafil Kotsitch, Svetolik Antonievitch and the schoolmaster Marko Yokovitch were led away from the town of Leskovatz, with their hands pinioned. T^vo years passed without any of these men having given a sign of life to his family as is usually done by interned persons. But even- tually the peasants discovered, not far from the mouth of the Morava, several corpses, long-haired and with long beards, and showing signs of a violent death. (The ortho- dox priests of the East wear their hair and beards long in conformity ^;ith their order) . Tnere can be no doubt but that these were the bodies of these unfortunate men, \7ho had been foully done to death, (3) One night the Bulgarian authorities carried away the priest Onufrie Popovitch from Vlasotintsi. Some time afterwards the priest *s head, hidden under a heap of stones, was discovered by his family. -23- (^) In th3 village of Prekoptchelitza, the Bulgarian ' authorities began by looting tne Louse of a priest. Petal Tsvetkovitch, in order to rob hin of 5>000 dinars in gold, and in the end they murdered hiin. (5) On Noveir.ber S^h, I915, the Bulrarian authorities carried away 2^ Serbian priests from the town of Nish, in- cluding Luka Harianovitch, Yovan X. Popovitch, Yanlco Yanko- vitch, Dobrosav Markovitch and Koyitch, Not a sign of life from these men has ever reached trxeir families. (6) On November, 15 tlx, 1915* ^ second batch of priests was carried away from Nish, including Tsvetko Bogdanovitch, George Yankovitch and Milan Tsvetkovitch, It is hot known to this day what has become of them or rather, one knov/s it on- ly too well . (7) On November l^tn, 1915* the Bulgars deported from Nish a retired official, Vessa liilovanovitch, brotner of the late Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ser'oiy,n Prime Minister Dr. Milovan Milovanovi t en . His '.vife in despair finally approacned tne Bulgarian general Ratcho Petroff, a former personal friend of Dr. Milovanovitcn. General Petroff replied by sending ner the following official re- port: "The name of Vessa Milcvanovitch is not on the list of interned persons." (£i) Three priests, George Petrovitch, Sima Yovanovitch and Vladimir Rashitch were taken away from the tov;n of Zayetchax. They v;ere all three murdered on tne road to Vidin, and their bodies thrown into a ditch, vfhere they were devoured by the village dogs. The peasants found ■ . nothing left of the bodies, to bury them, but the bones, (9) The priest Pavle Yovanovitch, of the village of Veliko Yasikovo, was killed in the same manner. His v;ife subsequently found the body and had it biuried. (10) In March, I917 , four citizens of the town of Prokuplie and a priest Radivoye Vuchinitch, were killed in the open street by the Bulgars . (11) The priest Trayko, of the village of Turekovatz, was taken away and nothing has been neard of him since. His daughter who was accueed of being secretly in league with the Serbian comitadjis, was hanged. But before be- ing hanged, she was subjected to atrocious tortures by being flogged with a strand of barbed wire. Tne young girl's sister, wife of tne book-seller I. Obrenovitch of Leskovatz, was so cruelly beaten, tnat not only -were all hex teeth knocked out, but sne '.^ ent uad within two aays of the exxcution. Sne died snoxtly aftenvards. Their brother Vassa, a priest, was lilcev/ise taken away and uur- -29- dered together ivith his son, a Icia of l6. And all these victims were made in one fci.r.iily alone I 2.. DEPORT ATIOF AND EXTERMIHATIOI? OF THE SERBIAN POPULATION . A very large number of Serbs whom, it was not possible to kill in Serbia have been deported to Asia Ilinor. ^.'"hole families from Eastern Serbia, women, children and old men were dragged by force from their homes and carried off to Asia Minor. And this is not intended for personal and in- dividual punishment. . It is a system, corresponding to a definite policy. All elements capable of offering any effective national resistance are first to be eliivdnated from that part of Serbia, and then tne rest of the popu- ' lation is to be Bulgarized. It goes v/ithout saying that the Bulgars have here set taeuselves an unrealizable aim, as from this point of view Eastern Serbia does not in the ■ least resemble Macedonia. Tne Slav population of Ilacedonia easily becomes either Serbian or Bulgarian. But as for Eastern Serbia, its national and ethical pnysiognomy is far too pronounced to perm.it of the country becoming de- nationalized. To try to Bulgarize that part of Serbia is as stupid as vjould be an attempt on the part of our Gov- erm.iant to Serbicize the tov/n of Sofia and the neighbor- ing country bordering on Serbia, These methods of denationalization, v.hich the Bulgars have copied from the Turks, can only result in the barbarous extermination of the harmdess and unprotected Serbian pop- ulation. Those countless Serbian families which have been deported to Asia Minor, are all doomed to perish. These deportations are in fact nothing but wholesale executions of Serbs, similar to the massacres of the Armenians or- ganized hy Sultan Abdul Hamid and the Young Turks. The revolt^ ^7hich broke out in March 1917 in Southern Serbia, more especially in Bulgarian territory, furnished the Bulgarian authorities with a splendid opportunity of displaying all the bestial cruelty by v/hich they are in- spired. It is difficult to say with certainty how it was possible for this r evolt to take place. But vi/hat is be- yond all doubt is that the Serbian civil population had practically no hand in it. The whole insurrection was planned and carried out by Serbian soldiers and comitadjis who had succedded in invading tne authorities. These con- spirators Were Very probably supported by Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian deserters discontented with tiaeir fate. Nevertheless it was the innocent population vjhich wbs made to answer for the 18-J.6.5 621 8 # Uio HoUinger Corp. pH8.5 \ iliiiSi j 018 465 621 o ^1 Hollinger Corp. pH8.5