AUSTRO- MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Persecutions of thz Jugoslavs. POLITICAL TRIALS, I908.?9I6. The Jugoslav Committee in North America President, Dr. ANTE BIANKINI, 3207 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, 111. AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. PERSECUTIONS OF THE JUGOSLAVS POLITICAL TRIALS, 1908-1916. The Jugoslav Committee in North America President, Dr. Ante Biankini, 3207 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, 111. :^Af ,Kt A \\^^ SERBO-CROAT ORTHOGRAPHY. s=sh in English " shif." c = ts y "cats." c = ch y "church." c=t y "nature." ]=y y "you." i = s , " pleasure n j = n , "new." S-'S "got." Bt Tr»»i«fi»r MAY 3 1919 ^ Austro-Magyar Judicial Crimes, PERSECUTIONS OF THE JUGOSLAVS. Austria-Hungary and the Slavs. According to the official statistics of 1910, which are touched up very considerably to the detriment of the Slavs, more than 45 p er cent, of the population of Austria-Hungary are Slavs, numerically exceeding the Germans and Magyars put together. In spite of this majority the Dual Monarchy assigned a dominant position to the Germans and Magyars. As regards the Southern Slavs (the Jugoslavs) of the Monarchy — the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs — they number seven and a half millions and inhabit a con- tinuous block of territory stretching from the Istrian shores to the Drina. In order to prevent the Jugoslav population from grasping the fact of its ethnical unity, it has been shared between the two States of the Monarchy and parcelled out under eleven different administrations. . ••• Having been expelled from Germany after Sadowa (1866), Austria could, and ought to have become a Federal State, granting the Slavs a position in accord- ance with their number and importance. The Jugoslav- group, constituting bu t one nation , and speaking one language, would in that case necessarily have attracted into the orbit of the Danubian Monarchy the two smal-1 4 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. independent Serbian States, viz., Serbia and Montenegro. At the time of Prince Michael of Serbia (i860- 1868), Jugoslav patriots were ready to attribute to Austria the task of uniting the whole Jugoslav race. But these hopes were doomed to failure. The Ger- mans and Magyars, having monopolised all power in the Empire, preferred to oppress their Slav subjects, and, by methods as violent as they were odious, the former sought to Germanise and the latter to Magyarise them. Jugoslav Resistance. These proceedings provoked a reaction among the Jugoslavs which the Austro-Magyars strove to paralyse. Hatred of the oppressors roused and strengthened the national sentiment. To free themselves from the foreign yoke the Jugoslavs realised that they must become strong, and that in order to become strong they would have to unite. And this union would have to include the lands beyond the Sava as well. As the national unification could not be accomplished by Austria, it would perforce have to be effected outside her borders and in opposition to her. It was thus that the role of a Jugoslav Piedmont devolved upon Serbia. Actions and Reactions in Relation to Jugoslav Unification. From henceforth there were two centres of action tending towards Jugoslav Union : one among the Austro- Hungarian Jugoslavs, the other in Serbia. But neither in the one nor in the other did the nation feel sufficiently strong to contemplate a territorial union. This was only a remote dream. Everyone knew well AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE SLAVS. 5 that it could not be realised without a general cataclysm, in which the Habsburg- Monarchy would perish. More- over, nobody desired war. The champions of unity restricted themselves to preaching an ethical and intellectual union. Thus, nothing but the violent and gross provocations of Austria-Hungary have precipitated the Jugoslav world towards an immediate realisation of its national ideal. The parallel actions of the Austro-Hungarian Jugo- slavs and the Serbs found their counterpart in Austria- Hungary's action against her Jugoslav subjects on the one hand and against Serbia on the other. The New Era. All went most satisfactorily for the enemies of the Jugoslavs until 1903; but in that year events of the utmost importance coincided in Croatia and Serbia. In Serbia the accession of King Peter put an end to the public and private scandals of the two last Obrenovic who had smirched the good name of Serbia in the eyes of all the world. In Croatia, spontaneous insurrectionary movements all over the country put an abrupt end to the twenty years' rule of the Magyar Count Khuen-Heder- vary, who had "by whip and oats" corrupted and perverted public opinion. The year 1903 ushers m a new period in Jugoslav history. In Serbia it meant a general renascence, a moral re-awakening, and the re-organisation, or rather the creation of that marvellous Serbian army which has so justly aroused universal admiration. Above all things it meant the end of the state of vassalage of Serbia and its dynasty towards the great neighbouring Monarchy 6 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. The Serbo-Croat Coalition. The pernicious regime of Count Khuen Hedervary in Croatia had been possible mainly because this Magyar lord was past-master in the art of fomenting and exploit- ing the rivalry between Serbs and Croats, by playing off one party against the other. But finally men's eyes were opened and they perceived his game. The very first effect of the reconciliation of the Serbs and Croats was the collapse of the detested Government of the Magyar Ban and his Magyarophil parliamentary majority. In 1905 the Croat and Serb Opposition Parties coalesced, proclaiming the national nnity of the Croats and Serbs. The Dalmatian Croato-Serbs joined this coalition ; the Slovene patriots endorsed it. Soon the coalition em- braced almost the entire Jugoslav population in Austria- Hungary. All attempts to break this coalition proved fruitless. Five times since 1906 the Croatian Parliament has been dissolved ; but the Serbo-Croat coalition has always emerged victorious from the Croatian general elections. Twice the Croatian constitution was sus- pended. Numerous attempts upon the Royal Commis- sioner, upon the Ban of Croatia, upon the Governors of Bosnia and Dalmatia were manifest protests on the part of the whole Jugoslav population against the foes of its national unity. The Annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina.. For a long time already Austro-Hungary had been preparing the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, which provinces she had occupied and administered since 1878. After the Young Turk revolution in 1908, which con- ferred upon Turkey a "constitution" and a "repre- sentative" government, annexation appeared indis- pensable. By the Treaty of Berlin, Austria had been AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE SLAVS. ; deputed to occupy and provisionally administer these provinces — to establish order there without infringing the sovereignty of the Sultan. Thus, there was a danger that the latter, on the strength of the new constitution, might invite these virtually still Ottoman provinces to send representatives to the Parliament in Constantinople. On the other hand, the world had to be shown that Bosnia-Hercegovina had no cause to envy the fate of the Turks ; in other words, she, too, had to have her "constitution." Thus, the imposition of a constitution necessitated a definite situation, viz., annexation. But this was a flagrant violation of the Treaty of Berlin ! Th€ "scrap of paper" theory had not yet been evolved. Austria-Hungary had no scruples at all about violating a Treaty to which she had set her signature; but all the same she wished to represent this action as a defensive precaution against the "diabolical machinations" of an evil neighbour. The Annexation as a "Defensive Precaution" AGAINST Serbia. This evil neighbour v/as none other than little Serbia, who — according to the Austro-Hungarian dictum — fomented insurrectionary movements in all Jugoslav countries, notably in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, with a view to detaching them from the Dual Monarchy and uniting them with the Kingdom of Serbia. Serbia was denounced to universal execration as the disturbing element in the Peace of Europe. These grievances against Serbia were obviously facti- tious. But there were some real ones as well. Austria- Hungary had definitely become the advance-guard of 8 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Germany. The Drang nach Osien became more and more pronounced. And as the routes to Salonica and to Constantinople alike pass through the valley of the Morava, Serbia was to become once more what she had been at the time of her Kings Milan and Alexander, vis., an AiAstrian vassal, or to disappear. All the more so as, owing to her increasing prestige, she was a danger- ous centre of attraction for the Jugoslavs, so disgrace- fully oppressed by the Austro-Magyars. The Two Obstacles to the Drang nach Osten. The two obstacles to the Drang nach Osten had to be broken — both Serbia and the Serbo-Croat Coalition. The latter, as representing the idea of Jugoslav unity, threatened to strengthen the power of resistance of the little kingdom. Austria-Hungary inaugurated a two-fold campaign. That against Serbia opened in 1908 with the annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, and was continued by manifold aggressive acts culminating in the ultimatum of 19 14, which unchained the present war. The annexation was a provocation to Serbia. The population of Bosnia-Hercegovina is exclusively Serbo- Croatian. It was therefore obvious that the subjection of these provinces would grievously wound Serbia. As a matter of fact, Serbia protested, and at the beginning of 1909 Europe was within an ace of war. Prosecutions of Jugoslavs. The campaign against the Jugoslavs opened with two notorious trials. One, the High Treason trial at Zagreb (Agram), was the arraignment of 53 Serbs. The AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE SLAVS, g second, the Friedjung case, was conducted before the Viennese Court of Law. The Zagreb prisoners were accused of having- attempted to provoke a rising in all Jugoslav countries in the interests of Serbia. The Friedjung case was^the sequel to an article published by the Viennese historian in the Ne2ie Freie Presse, in which he had accused Zagreb deputies, mem- bers of the Serbo-Croat Coalition, of being in the pay of Serbia. By these two trials Austria-Hungary desired to com- promise the Serbian Government and dynasty, and to break the Serbo-Croat Coalition. Political Trials in Austria Throughout Her History. Political trials, and the manner in which they are set on foot, are an Austro-Magyar speciality. Whenever it is deemed necessary for reasons of State to suppress persons who are politically inconvenient, agents -pro- vocateurs are quickly hired, false and suborned witnesses procured, incriminating documents forged, pliable judges appointed — and the result is a foregone conclusion. Since Austria has existed she has committed crimes against her peoples, and she is haunted by the fear, born of her bad conscience, of being endangered by con- spirators among those whom she oppresses. Hence the High Treason trials which abound in Austrian history. We will confine ourselves to recalling a few instances in the history of Croatia under the Austrian yoke. In 167 1 the chiefs of the two most powerful of the princely 10 AUSTRO-MAGYAR -JUDICIAL CRIMES. families of Croatia, the Zrinjski and the Frankopan, were impeached for High Treason, beheaded at Wiener Neustadt, and their immense estates confiscated and bestowed upon German Court favourites. Ljudevit Gaj, the founder of the "Illyrian" movement, which tended towards the unification of all Jugoslavs, was, in 1840, cast into prison for High Treason. In 1871 the Rakovica insurrectionary movement was cruelly suppressed, and many "Panslav" and "Panserb" High Treason trials were set on foot. War of Extermination Against the Jugoslavs. More especially since the annexation of Bosnia-Herce- govina had these High Treason trials become appal- lingly frequent in all Jugoslav provinces of the Monarchy; Austria-Hungary had not only vowed to put an end to Serbia — she inaugurated an open war of extermination against the whole Jugoslav race. During the present war all Jugoslav youths who could not escape and join the Serbian and Montenegrin armies were enrolled and thrust into the foremost fighting lines. Their losses have been terrific. They are so far estimated at half a million killed, wounded, and prisoners. Thou- sands and thousands of others, found unfit for military service, have been evacuated, interned, cast into prison, or executed. The President of the Croatian Sabor (Parliament), M. Medakovic, is interned in Vienna, under close police supervision. Yet, strange to say, this internment has not prevented him from presiding at the Sabor in Zagreb — from a distance ! The decree by which the assembly was convoked certainly bore the signature of the President, but a letter was read before the Sabor in which the AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE SLAVS, ii President excused his absence on the score of "illness"! As it happens, friends of the President declare that the letter is not M. Medakovic's handwriting". Thousands of Serb families in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Slavonia were pronounced guilty of High Treason and driven out of the country; their property was con- fiscated and bestowed upon German and Magyar colonists, who are already installed in these stolen lands. And all this has been done by administrative methods, without trial, without sentence. Meantime, the Magyar- isation of Croatia has been pressed forward by opening numerous new Magyar schools and by replacing large numbers of Croatian officials by Magyars. In Bosnia- Hercegovina, the Serb schools are simply suppressed. The Pretence of Judicial Procedure. To preserve appearances, the courts are permitted to continue their functions side by side with the administra- tion. But they are mere -pretences at judicial proce- dure. By these so-called trials those are suppressed whom administrative methods have spared. It is princi- pally the rising generation, the future of the nation, which is being attacked. There has been, chiefly in Bosnia-Hercegovina, quite a series of prosecutions for High Treason of schoolboys at secondary schools and their masters in Banjaluka, Bihac, Trebinje, Tuzla, and elsewhere. Many of the prisoners were not even fifteen years of age. To give the European public an idea of how political trials are "cooked" in Austria-Hungary, we will pass a few specimens in review. The Zagreb trial and the 12 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Friedjung case will be the most suitable instances to quote as proofs, because they obtained the widest publicity, and all our assertions can be easily verified. The proceedings of the Zagreb trial were taken down in shorthand and officially published. The stormy inci- dents of the Friedjung case were reported by the entire Vienna Press. The Zagreb Trial. Towards the end of July, 1908, a pamphlet appeared in Budapest, entitled Finale, giving many names and details concerning a revolutionary pan-Serbian movement among the Austro-IIungarian Jugoslavs; the political club, "Slovenski Jug" (the Slav South), founded in Belgrade under the patronage of King Peter and the Crown Prince themselves, was supposed to be the imme- diate instigator of these machinations. This pamphlet was the signal for a series of wholesale arrests. Finally, fifty-three- Serbs from Croatia were detained and accused of High Treason. The Principal Informer. The author of the pamphlet, George Nastic, was a Serb from Sarajevo, the son of a well-known Austrian police spy. Before publishing his pamphlet he had spent several months in Belgrade, where, according to himself, he had obtained access to the political circles in the Serbian capital by posing as a Serbian martyr from Bosnia. As the recipient of an Austrian Government scholarship, Nastic had matriculated at the University of THE ZAGREB TRIAL. 13 Vienna, but he did not finish his studies. He had been prosecuted for stealing opera-glasses from the Viennese theatres. Together with other youths, he had been several times sentenced in the Sarajevo police courts for seditious demonstrations, e.g., shouting 'Long live King Peter!" but the Austrian police authorities had never troubled particularly to make him suffer his punishment. It was proved by documentary evidence, reproduced in fac- simile in the Croatian and Serbian papers and produced during the course of the Zagreb trial, that he had been paid by the military authorities in Sarajevo for supplying them with confidential information concerning certain Bosnian Serbs. Professor Fried jung, in the very newspaper article which provoked the notorious case before the Viennese tribunal, gave Nastic the following character: "This man, whom you can only touch with the tongs, was certainly paid by the Prince of Montenegro to betray his comrades" (this refers to another High Treason Trial, this time before the court in Cetinje, where Nastic like- wise ^gured as witness for the Crown), "and if he declares that he has not been paid by Baron Rauch" (the Ban of Croat' a, during whose term of office the Zagreb trial took place), "let who will believe it." In the Zagreb trial Nastic was the only witness for the alleged relations of the accused with official Serbia. Moreover, a deputy, Srgjan Budisavljevic, recently him- self sentenced for High Treason by the Zagreb court (his crime consisted in his having been President of the Serb athletic society "Sokol" in Zagreb), produced proofs (letters and receipts) in the Croatian Parliament — proofs which were never denied — showing that Nastic had been paid for his evidence by the Prefect of Police in Zagreb 14 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. and the State prosecutor; and that, on the eve of his ex- amination, the examining- magistrate had given him in- structions as to how he was to reply to certain questions which would be put to him. The whole of his pamphlet, and all his depositions in court, were — as was proved during the course of the proceedings — nothing but a tissue of flagrant falsehoods. It was on the evidence of an individual like this that the sentence of the court was based as regards the rela- tions of the prisoners with the official circles of Belgrade. The court explained its extraordinary attitude by saying "that the personal trustworthiness of the witness Nastic was a matter of indifference to them, and that it was a matter of no moment to them whether or not the witness answered truthfully to the questions of the defence." In other words, the court did not care in the least about the personal probity of the witness nor whether — speaking generally — he had spoken the truth. Their conviction that the witness had spoken the truth sufficed on those points which the court considered decisive. They had no wish to enquire whether the witness had lied with regard to all the other facts which were important for the defence. The Austro-Hungarian Minister a Police Spy. Two of the counsel for the defence, Mr. Hinkovic and Mr. Budisavljevic, went to Belgrade during the proceed- ings to obtain information. In order to observe every formality, their first visit was to the Austro-Hungarian Minister Plenipotentiary, Count Forgach, who in the course of conversation said to them, verbatim: "I am convinced that there is no Serbian Irredentism in the territory of the Crown of St. Stephen.^' THE ZAGREB TRIAL. 15 Delighted with this declaration, the two counsel believed themselves safe under the special protection of the Magyar diplomat. Their mission fulfilled, they returned ; but not together. Mr. Hinkovic started before his companion. No sooner had he crossed the frontier than a mysterious hand snatched his valise. Several months later the police returned it to him with the lock forced. It had been searched for the notes made by the counsel for the defence during his enquiries in Belgrade, but in vain ; Mr. Hinkovic had observed the precaution of confiding them to a friend who crossed the frontier at the same time as himself. Thus baffled, the police were more careful in the case of the second counsel. On his arrival in Zemun, the frontier town, Mr. Budisavljevic was arrested and searched. His notes were found upon him and confis- cated. After being detained for a whole day, Mr. Budisavljevic was released and permitted to proceed on his way; of course, without his notebook. The Prosecution Makes Use of the Notes Stolen FROM the Defence. The two counsel for the defence were convinced that they owed their adventure to the kind attentions of the Austro-Hungarian Minister in Belgrade, who knew the time of their departure. Thus they were not greatly surprised when, a few days later, the State Prosecutor, with a triumphant gesture, and in full view of the public, produced the notebook of Mr. Budisavljevic. The counsel for the prosecution made use of these notes. But as they were, taken as a whole, a crushing i6 AU^TRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. refutation of his accusation, he made extracts of them which he arranged to suit his purpose. The court saw nothing reprehensible in this method of arranging the texts; it was presided over by a con- firmed dipsomaniac, and had been selected from the lowest representatives of magistracy. Fabrication of Spurious Documents by the Court. In the possession of one of the prisoners. Valerian Pribicevic, the authorities had found and seized two letters from his brother Milan, who, after leaving the Austrian army, in which he had held the rank of lieutenant, had entered the Serbian army. In his letter of March 23rd, 1906, Milan spoke to his brother of a possible military counter-revolution, fomented in Bel- grade by Austria, against the new state of affairs created by the accession of King Peter. In a subsequent letter he alluded without further precise specification to the revolution he had previously mentioned, then criticised at length the spirit of the military cliques who were in favour of the counter-revolution, and wound up with an expression of faith in the victory of the patriots, e=ven in case of an armed conflict. It was obvious that the author of the letter was a partisan of the new order of things, and that he hoped to come out victorious with his com- rades from this struggle, even if it were to degenerate into an armed conflict. These letters had nothing what- ever to do with anything in Austro-Hungary. NoiVy in order to found its final judgment on this letter from Milan Pribicevic, the court tarnpered with it, suppressing four-fifths in the middle, joining the beginning to the end, and then presenting these tivo THE ZAGREB TRIAL. 17 separate, joined-up extracts as one continuous letter zvithout an omission. A reader of this distorted letter might easily, with a little reading between the lines, imagine that it referred to a revolutionary movement in the Jugoslav provinces of Austria-Hungary, and that the writer was hoping that the insurgents would succeed. Pray take note that the originals of the two letters referred to were included in the dossier, and reproduced in their entirety in the verbatim report of the public sittings, and that the distorted letter was also published, together with the text of the judgment in full, in the official paper, " Narodne N ovine." Everybody is there- fore in a position to compare both texts and to note the forgery. Further Subterfuges Employed by the Judicial Authorities. But all these manoeuvres, however ingenious, failed to satisfy the needs of the Austro-Magyar policy. They merely provided "justice" in the case of isolated victims, while the real need was for wholesale convictions and executions. To compass this end, the Government had recourse to evil ways. Endless theories of witnesses, attempting to prove the existence of certain revolutionary phenomena among the population, were brought mto court; if the worst came to the worst and in default of witnesses, these "phenomena" were described as being "generally known." For instance, it was alleged that the portrait of King Peter was very popular with the population — "more often to be seen than that of our Gracious Sovereign"; that the people sang revolutionary songs, i8 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JtfDICIAL CRIMES. indulged in seditious cheers, took no pains to hide its sympathies with Serbia, etc. And then the next step. The appearance of these phenomena coincided with the foundation in Croatia of the Independent Serb party; therefore — argued the tribunal — it is evident that the Serbian Independents are the cause of the trouble; the greater number of the prisoners were members of this party — and the conclusion was drawn as a matter of course; by this line of argu- ment the whole -party was at the mercy of the State prosecutor. And as the Independent Serb party, with others, was included in the Croato-Serb Coalition, and the Coalition represented almost the whole of the Serbs and Croats, the entire population — if reasons of State demanded it — could be rendered criminally responsible for phenomena zvhich, although "generally known" did not perhaps even exist. National Institutions as Instruments of Crime. It was further suggested that all Serbian institutions in Austria-Hungary, whether literary, religious, econo- mic, political, social, educational, hygienic, or connected with sport; and the national emblems, banners, escutch- eons, and the Cyrillic script (always used by the Serbs) and the very name Serb, and the awakening of national consciousness, were so 7nany devices for revolutionary propaganda. Vainly did the defendants appeal to the laws of the constitution, which guarantee the Serbian name, script and institutions ; vainly did they plead that all the activities of the latter were subject to the control of die Austro- Hungarian authorities. "Yes," replied the THE ZAGREB TRIAL. 19 Public Prosecutor, and after him the court, "but all depends on the tendency according to which these rights are made use of, which may thereby become criminal ' instruments. If, for instance, the script is a pan-Serb device, i.e.^ if it is used as a revolutionary means and for the advantage of Serbia — then^ since the means have become crbninal, everyone who employs them renders himself guilty of High Treason." A young man is a member of a Serb Sokol (athletic society) or Pobratim (temperance league); in itself — the Public Prosecutor tells him — there is no harm in this. But these societies disseminate revolutionary ideas. In becoming a member, one renders oneself responsible for their criminal activity. Readers Held Responsible for Newspaper Articles. At the instance of the State Prosecutor, the court caused to be read, in camera, innumerable newspaper articles, some of which had appeared in Zagreb and the rest in America. The former, before appearing in print, had all passed the censorship of the State Prosecutor. Some of them related facts about Serbia ; they spoke of general elections ; they explained how liberal are the Serbian electoral laws. "This article is seditious," declared the State Prosecutor, "because it aims at inciting the reader against the reactionary electoral laws of Croatia; because it shows that all things are better m Serbia; and that Croatia would therefore do well to detach herself from the Habsburg Monarchy. Or, again, there was an account of one of King Peter's journeys, during the course of which he had talked familiarly with the peasants, who called him "thou," as is the Serbian custom. "Ah, this is serious," cried 20 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. the Public Prosecutor; "by this article they have tried to arouse hatred against our Gracious Sovereign, who does not speak our language, and would never permit such familiarities on the part of his subjects." Even For Those They Have Not Read. The articles in the American Croato-Serb Press were exceedingly bitter against Austria-Hungary. They had appeared since the Bosnian crisis, and therefore at a time . when all the defendants in the Zagreb trial had already for a long time been in custody. " But does all this literature concern us ? " protested the defendants. "Certainly it concerns you. You are indirectly responsible both for the articles in the Zagreb papers, because you read them — to read without protesting is as much as to approve, and your approval encourages the authors to continue — and for the American articles, because they are the result' of the revolutionary activities of the societies to which you belong." "But the Zagreb articles appeared with your approval, and, as for the American articles, we could not even know of them, having long been in prison when they appeared," the defendants ventured to object. But in vain. Nothing New. This whole system of indirect, cumulative, abstract, and general incrimination is nothing new in Austria. In the great "pan-vSlav" case against the Czech patriots IHE ZAGREB TRIAL. 21 in 1 87 1, the Prefect of Police in Prague, Mucha, de- nounced as "grave pan-Slav phenomena" the fact that the celebrated historian Palacky had suggested the dis- missal of the Curator of the Museum, who was a German, and the appointment of a Czech in his place; that a crowd which was provocative by its great number had applauded the performance of the national dance "Beseda"; that Count Thun had caused the Imperial Eagle to be removed from his palace and replaced it by the Czech Lion, etc. The Judgment. The defendants, who were in custody on remand during the months of July and August, 1908, remained in prison during the whole course of the trial. One of them died in prison. The deliberations, which began in March, 1909, lasted until October 6th, the date of the judgment. These long deliberations, which lasted for seven months, were nothing but an uninterrupted succession of illegalities committed by the court. There would be no end, if one were to try and enumerate even the most flagrant. Mr. Hinkovic, on whom devolved the arduous task of conducting the defence, was constantly in con- flict with the court, which repeatedly fined him heavily to assert its authority. The judgment of the court aroused consternation by its severity. Thirty-one of the prisoners were found guilty of High Treason and sentenced to penal servitude for from five to twelve years. By Austro-Croatian law, the sentence of death upon the instigators cannot be carried out unless the Ave judges composing the court 22 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. are unanimous in the judg-ment. Thanks to this provi- sion, the brothers Pribicevic, although convicted of being instigators, were not sentenced to death; as a unanimous vote for the death penalty could not be reached. All the counsel for the defence appealed on behalf of their clients. The statements concerning flaws in the proceedings were made in writing. The statement of Mr. Hinkovic was subsequently published in the form of a pamphlet of 83 pages in octavo. In this pamphlet the author exposes all the irregu- larities committed by the court, and does not hesitate to charge it with downright forgery. As a matter of fact, this remarkable court did not shrink from the enormity of distorting the depositions of the witnesses and from suppressing in the finding all reference to extenuating circumstances, retaining nothing but what was favourable to the prosecution. At the end of one of the chapters of his statement, Mr. Hinkovic could not refrain from the despairing cry that "truth, right, and law are drowned in an ocean of misstatements." The Supreme Court (the Court of Seven), moved by this statement, quashed the adverse verdict " because," so it said, " of considerable doubts concerning the truth of the facts on ivhich the finding ivas based." Together with a revision in favour of the convicted men, the Supreme Court authorised the production of the proofs of certain facts put forward by the defence and rejected by the court. Legally, the case ought to have been reopened within the space of eight days, or definitely dismissed. The Bench, however, did neither the one nor the other; the months dragged wearily on, and no one remembered THE HINKOVIC CASE. 23 the unfortunate prisoners; finally, to the stupefaction of all parties, the proceedings were set aside by a Royal Decree. This unforeseen solution gave rise to a fresh case; this time it was the counsel for the defence who found himself prosecuted. II. The Hinkovic Case. Counsel for the Defence Prosecuted in his Turn. To set aside a trial is the prerogative of the Crown, but it is not an act of clemency, since there has been no definite sentence; nor is it a dismissal of the prosecution; it is simply a suppression of the proceedings, leaving the question of guilt or innocence in suspense. The setting aside of the Zagreb trial was proclaimed in September, 19 10. Mr. Hinkovic, who, from the beginning of the trial, had waged an unremittent Press campaign against the instigators of the prosecution, violently attacked the Decree setting aside the proceedings in an article in the Press. According to him, it was the most unsatisfactory solution of all, since on the one hand it had not silenced the suspicion against the Serbs in general and the Croats of the Coalition in particular, and because, on the other hand, it prevented the victims of these suspicions from legally proving their innocence. It was, therefore, according to Mr. Hinkovic, in reality a refusal of justice. 24 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. promulgated not in the interests of the accused, but con- trary to them, and in favour of those who had hatched this judicial plot. This article expressed aloud what all the world was whispering, and for this reason it made a great impres- sion. The Government decided that this inconvenient counsel for the defence would have to be rendered innocuous. As Mr. Hinkovic was protected by his parliamentary immunity, he could only be attacked in his capacity of advocate. The prosecutor for the Court of Appeal — the appointment was just then held by Mr. Gaj, father-in- law of the Ban — presented a petition to the Court of Appeal and demanded disciplinary proceedings against the Advocate Hinkovic who, in a Press article on the setting aside of the proceedings — an article supposed to be insulting to the courts and the judges — was alleged to have gravely violated the respect due to these authorities. Croatia does not possess an independent and autono- mous Bar; the disciplinary powers over the advocates are vested in the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal confided the proceedings to the court of first instance in Zagreb, which appointed an examining magistrate to investigate. By an amazing chance it was Mr. Pavesic who was appointed, the very man who had voted as first assessor in the High Treason case and drawn up the finding of the court of first instance. Mr. Hinkovic duly protested against this step in a memorandum which was simul- taneously presented to the Court of Appeal and published THE HINKOVIC CASE. 25 in two daily papers (one Croat and one Serb), and he challenged Mr. Pavesic's appointment. "This particular judge," said Mr. Hinkovic, "cannot possibly have the necessary impartiality for this enquiry. I am being prosecuted for my attacks upon the court in respect of its finding in the High Treason case. But it was this very judge who pronounced the judgment in question together with his colleagues, with whom he shares the responsibility, and the finding was actually drawn up by himself. My attacks are therefore directed chiefly against himself; it is he who had introduced into the finding innumerable and intentional misstatements, which abound in the judgment, as I have proved in my statement presented to the Supreme Court, and confirmed by that Court's reversal of the first finding, "because of considerable doubts concerning the truth of the facts on which the finding was based." In the meantime, the Croatian Diet was dissolved, and Mr. Hinkovic lost his parliamentary immunity. Thus, all obstacles to a graver prosecution were removed. The Bench found that the petition for challenging the appointment of the examining magistrate constituted the offence of "libel" and the misdemeanour of excit- ing opposition to the Courts, the former being punish- able by from one to five years' imprisonment with hard labour, and the latter by imprisonment from six months to one year. Then a fresh difficulty arose. We have already mentioned that the petition for the challenge was simultaneously presented to the Court of Appeal and published in two daily papers. 26 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Press misdemeanours, prosecuted officially, must be submitted to trial by jury. To avoid this, the authori- ties invented the theory of a "double offence" — one committed in writing, the second through the Press — and the whole matter was once more referred to the court composed of officials. Let us consider a moment. The Parts Reversed. According to Austro-Croatian law (Penal Code, Art. 209), anyone falsely denouncing a crime to the public authorities is guilty of libel. Now, it is obvious that denunciation was not, and could not be, Mr. Hinkovic's object in acting as he did. All he desired was to exercise his right to challenge and to state the facts upon which his petition was founded. It is likewise obvious that, since facts of this nature were indicated, they ought to have been investigated with a view to establishing whether they were true or false; to this end the petitioner should have been heard as complainant, and the judge whose appointment was challenged as defendant. The former ought to have been called upon to furnish proofs, and the latter to make good his defence. But the parts were reversed. The judge whose appointment was challenged by the petition v/as called as witness against the petitioner, i.e., against his accuser, and the petitioner was made the defendant. This case and the proceedings by which it was attended were calculated greatly to disturb the public THE HINKOVIC CASE. 27 conscience. In order to demonstrate their professional solidarity and sympathy with Mr. Hinkovic, forty-two barristers appeared at the hearing and offered to act for the defence. Others begged to be excused, while never- theless endorsing the demonstration of their colleagues. Every accused person has, by law, the right to oppose to the indictment, which is read out at the opening of the hearing, his general views on the case, and only after this has been done can the President of the Court examine him on such points as have not yet been sufficiently elucidated. This right was all the more valuable in view of the fact that in this case the indictment was simply a tissue of misstatements and abuse. In spite of this, Mr. Hinkovic was summarily refused this right. There was merely an examination in which the answers had to keep strictly to the questions asked. That was all. "You wish to prove your libellous insinuations by legal evidence" — this was, in substance, what the President said to the accused. "Very well, then; but this is absolutely useless, because we have another method of checking your statements. We will hear what the very judges whom you have libelled have to say, vis., the examining magistrate in the High Treason trial and the member of the Court whom you have petitioned to challenge." It is superfluous to add that the two judge- witnesses loudly protested their good faith, and the defendant was requested to be silent. . . . To cut a long story short, we will confine ourselves to quoting one typical incident during the examination of the examining magistrate in the witness-box 28 AUSTRO-MAGYAR jlJDICIAL CRIMES. One of the counsel for the defence suddenly asked the witness : Have you collaborated in the speech by the Attorney for the Crown in the High Treason case ? The fudge-witness^ taken by surprise, hesitatingly: No. Counsel for the defence^ showing him a notebook : Is this your hand-writing? The Witness (after inspecting the notebook) : Yes ; but these are merely personal notes and comments on the different phases of the case which I, as examining magis- trate, took down and which have been stolen from me, since they are in your hands. Counsel for the defence: This is not accurate. First of all, there are many passages in your supposed personal notes which appear word for word in the final speech of the Attorney for the Crown. Secondly, in these notes you make the Attorney for the Crown speak in the first person and on matters which transpired at the hearing. This rapid conversation was cut short by the President, who thundered that these questions were not relevant, and forbade the counsel for the defence to speak further. But it was too late. The effect had been produced. And what was the upshot ? The counsel for the defence was fined 200 k. While the Court retired to deliberate upon this inci- dent, the defendant, in an outburst of supreme indigna- tion, called out to the vState Prosecutor: "You have put me in the dock, but it is that false witness whom you ought to put there instead." THE HINKOVIC CASE. 29 For these remarks fresh proceedings were taken against Mr. Hinkovic, who was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in accordance with the indictment. To be sentenced for a crime implied the forfeiture of his pro- fession as an advocate, of his University degree of Doctor of Law, and his civil and political rights; in short, it was civil death. . . . This judgment against Mr. Hinkovic, already de prived of his office as an advocate, was published on May 28th, 191 1. The prisoner appealed, and on December 9th of the same year the Supreme Court assembled to make a ruling on the case. The disposi- tion of the judges left no doubt as to his acquittal. Then the Prosecutor-General intervened, and demanded the adjournment of the case on the plea that he had not studied it sufficiently. The Refractory President of the Supreme Court Compelled to Retire. In the meantime, the President of the Croatian Supreme Court, M. de Rakodczay, former Ban of Croatia, and Privy Councillor of His Majesty, who had refused to place the administration of justice at the service of the political powers, was brusquely compelled to retire, although he had not reached the age limit. He was replaced by Mr. Posilovic, brother of the late Archbishop of Zagreb. A few days later the Ban Cuvaj, at a reception of the Supreme Court, expressed to his new President the hope that h/. would find in the judges the needful support for his political task. This "needful support" was not long in forthcoming. The Supreme Court, appointed ad hoc, confirmed the sentence on the counsel for the defence. 30 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. The Tractable Judges Rewarded. In order to illustrate fully the type of justice which is dispensed in Austria-Hungary in the Emperor's name, we must add that the judges who had contributed to the conviction of Mr. Hinkovic were immediately and osten- tatiously rewarded. While the President of the Supreme Court had, by the very fact of his nomination, received his reward in advance, all the others were promptly promoted. III. The Friedjung Case. The Principal Informer. The historian Friedjung, whose intimate relations with the Ballplatz were no secret to anybody, published, on March 25th, 1909, a sensational article in the Isl eue Freie Presse, vis., a virtual proclamation of war against Serbia and grave allegations against the Croato-Serb Coalition. This happened while the annexation crisis was at its height. Everyone feared an immediate attack by Austria-Hungary on her little neighbour, and perhaps a general conflagration. The author of the article accused official Serbia — the Government and the Royal Family — of having bribed the leaders of the Croato-Serb Coalition to provoke, in the interests of Serbia, an insurrectionary rising in the Jugoslav provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The professor gave names and figures, with all the circumstances under which this sale of consciences was supposed to have taken place; and, what was much THE FRIEDJUNG CASE. 31 more serious, he averred that he possessed all the in- criminating evidence necessary to support his assertions. The Incriminating Evidence. The deputies belonging to the Croato-Serb Coalition collectively brought an action for libel against the professor, and the case came up before the Court in Vienna in December, 1909. Only then did the defendant produce his incriminating evidence. It consisted of secret documents stolen from the archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Belgrade and from the revolution- ary club, "Slovenski Jug"; orders from the Serbian Government to its agents or to the "Slovenski Jug" with reference to the Jugoslav revolution; reports from the agents on the fulfilment of certain missions that had devolved upon them ; apportionings of the funds destined for the leaders of the Croato-Serb Coalition ; minutes of sittings of the "Slovenski Jug" on all the plans of the revolutionary movement. The professor averred that he had received these documents from a confidential source, but one so exalted as to place their authenticity beyond all question. Everybody knew that this allusion, osten- tatiously repeated at every moment, referred to the Austro-Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and to the Archduke Francis Ferdinand himself. Photographic Copies. Professor Friedjung did not possess the originals, but he had photographs of the originals. The stolen docu- ments — according to Herr Friedjung — after having been photographed, were returned to their respective archives. 32 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JlTDICIAL CRIMES. so as not to give the alarm to the Serbian authorities. That explained why the poor people in Belgrade had failed to notice anything. But no sooner had the prosecutors cast their eyes on these documents than they gave way to an outburst of hilarity — the forgeries were too blatantly clumsy for words. The manner in which the matter was drawn up betrayed the fact that the author could not even have known Serbian properly; there were idioms literally translated from the German, but foreign to Serbian ; anachronisms impossible to anyone acquainted with the inner history of Serbia. It would take us too far if we were to give here a detailed analysis of all these docu- ments. We will limit ourselves to a few remarks. Revolutionary Meetings Presided Over by an Absentee! As we have already seen, Professor Friedjung's docu- ments included a large number of minutes of the meetings of the revolutionary club, "Slovenski Jug," in Belgrade. All these meetings had been presided over by M. Bozo Markovic, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Belgrade. This fact was always specially mentioned in the minutes. Moreover, they bore the signature of the President. Now, during the whole of the time when, according to the Fried jung documents, these meetings of the "Slovenski Jug" had been taking place, M. Bozo Marko- vic had been in Berlin, occupied on certain scientific studies, and in constant communication with several THE FRIEDJUNG CASE. 33 German scientists. The Berlin police were obliged to corroborate this fact. Needless to say, there is nothin.<^ revolutionary about the "Slovenski Jug-," which is a young men's study union and maintains a public reading-room. Flagrant Anachronisms. Herr Friedjung had exhibited a report from the head of a department in the Belgrade Foreign Office, Mr. Miroslav Spalajkovic, at this moment Serbian Minister in Petrograd, in which the author gave his hierarchic chief an account of an alleged mission to Hungary, where he was supposed to have met certain members of the Croato-Serb Coalition. In this report, which teemed with diplomatic "howlers," the author spoke of a Serbian loan that the Skupstina was presently to vote — whei^ the loan in question had already been raised a year before through the closest instrumentality of Mr. Spalajkovic himself, who obviously could not have been guilty of so palpable a lapse of memory. Deceiver or Dupe? Was Herr Friedjung the dupe or the accomplice of the exalted purve}(us of documents ? The papers were drawn up in Serbian, of which Herr Friedjung confessedly did not understand a word. Did that excuse him ? Could he exonerate himself by pleading this blind confidence in his patrons ? A justification of this kind was his death-warrant as an historian. Fool or knave, he was equally odious, vile as the part he had consented to play. One circumstance certainly points to a bad conscience on his part. His article appeared in the morning- edition of the chief Vienna paper on March 25th, 1909. In other 34 AUSTRO-MAGYAR 'JUDICIAL CRIMES. words, it had been set up and printed the night before. Now, the Annexation Crisis had been abruptly brought to a close on the very day before that date. Russia received Germany's ultimatum on March 24th; exhausted by the Japanese war, she had been compelled to give way and to invite Serbia to yield likewise. Herr Friedjung considered his article inopportune, both for himself and for his reputation. He tried to stop its publication, but the article Vvas of an unusual length ; it was too late in the day, and, for reasons of space, it was impossible to oblige him. The article appeared. The Court Intervenes to Protect the Forgers. No sooner had the action reached its ignominious denouement than Mr. Baerenreither, Austrian ex- Minister and confidant of the Archduke Francis Ferdi- nand, appeared among the prosecutors. The emissary of the heir-apparent appealed to their "patriotic senti- ments" — "the prestige of the Monarchy was at stake," he declared, "and it is your duty not to oppose your- selves to an amicable settlement of the case." The President of the Court, who had hitherto been scandal- ously biassed, now intervened. The prosecutors knew that they had to yield to these requests. Professor Friedjung read a declaration in public, regretting his mistake, and the prosecutors abstained from further proceedings. The Friedjung Case Cleared Up in Belgrade. But the Friedjung case found its solution before another court. A few months after the case in Vienna, an alleged journalist, Vasic by name, was arrested in , Belgrade, and told the court that Mr. Svientochowski, THE FRIEDJUNG CASE. 35 Secretary at the Austro-Hungarian Legation in Belgrade, had engaged him as tutor for his children; that after a certain trial time the Secretary had asked him whether he would like to earn much money for little work. The Secretary and his colleagues at the Legation then showed him the drafts of diplomatic reports, minutes of the meetings of the "Slovenski Jug," etc., drawn up in very bad Serbian and written in Latin characters. His job was to "serbicise" the text, i.e., to correct the grammar and the style, and above all things to substitute correct Serbian phraseology for that concocted by the authors; to transcribe the lot in Cyrillic characters, and finally to forge the signatures of certain persons from original signatures with which he was provided, or other signatures, which he was told to procure for himself. Thus he managed to get hold of a student's identity- book containing the signature of Professor Markovic, President of the "Slovenskf Jug." Then the texts were photographed, the "original" documents burnt, and the photographs sent to the Vienna Foreign Office. All this work was actually carried out in the offices of the Austro-Hungarian Legation; and it was on these photographs that Professor Friedjung based his imputations against Serbia and the Croato-Serb Coalition. . . . "An Idiot Who Believes. . . ." Vasic gave many substantial proofs of his allegations, which were, all of them, verified by the court. The forger produced the protocol of a meeting of the "Slovenski Jug," written in his own hand, in the text of which had been interpolated the remark, "An idiot 36 AUSTRO-MAGYAR' JUDICIAL CRIMES. who believes all this rubbish." The photograph of this "document," with the interpolation, of course, formed part of Professor Friedjung's collection. Vasic had also succeeded in purloining- a "document" and saving it from the auto-da-fe to which the others were consigned after having been photographed. The two Secretaries of the Legation were Poles, and their chief. Count Forgach, a Magyar; not one of them knew Serbian properly. Thus they failed to perceive the tricks played upon them by Vasic; and thus it was that the photograph of this document passed into the hands of the learned historian who, as we said before, knew not a word of Serbian. The Diplomats Blackmailed by Their Accomplice. Vasic pretended that he had purlomed the document from "patriotic" motives, in order to convince the authorities of his country, by tangible proofs, of what was going on at the Austro-Hungarian Legation. As an opportunity for doing this was slow in presenting itself, the rascal disclosed to his benefactors at the Legation the little indiscretion of which he had been guilty, and even gave them to understand what use he might make of it to compromise those diplomatic photographs. . . . Then began a distracted game of cross-purposes between the knave and the staff of the Legation. They tried to buy or steal the precious document. On principle, Vasic never showed himself too exacting, but demanded ever-increasing sums of money, and carefully stuck to his instrument of blackmail. His foes tried, above all things, to get him out of Serbia, so as to have a free hand in dealing with him. They succeeded, but without the THE FRIEDJUNG CASE. 37 hoped-for result. He was promised a scholarship at the University of V^ienna, and then one at Zagreb. At the expense of the secret funds of the Austro-Hungarian Government he travelled to both towns, of which he pre- served delightful memories. But each time he "forgot" to bring the precious document with him. He was therefore sent back to Belgrade, where he promised to give it up. And there the game began again, until in the end he was laid by the heels by the Serbian authori- ties and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. The Head Forger Rewarded. We do not know what became of the two Secretaries at the Legation, who chose Vasic for their accomplice; we may be sure, however, that their crimes, which, inci- dentally, they had committed by order of their superiors, served them as an excellent recommendation in their career. But their chief. Count Forgach, under whose eyes all these questionable people had worked, was pro- moted, being first sent as Minister plenipotentiary to Dresden, but soon recalled to Vienna as departmental chief at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He was one of the part-authors of the ultimatum to Serbia in 191 4. One might say that the Zagreb and Vienna cases ended well as regards justice, since the first was set aside, and the second settled out of court. Matters Might Have Taken a Tragic Turn. But matters might have taken a tragic turn if the annexation crisis of 1908- 1 909 had not subsided by the sudden capitulation of Russia and Serbia. ^S AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. By hiring- people like Nastic and Friedjung to accuse the Croato-Serb Coalition, and more especially the Serbs, Austria-Hungary believed she could make sure of vent- ing her grievances against Serbia and the Jugoslavs of ^le Empire without risking the close scrutiny of the proofs of her grounds of complaints. She would have mvaded Serbia, proclaimed martial law in the Southern Slav provinces, and the fifty-three prisoners in the Zagreb trial, as well as the political personages against whom Friedjung's article was directed, would certainly have been put to death. And, being an ancient hypo- crite, the old sinner, Austrian Diplomacy, would have appealed before the world to Nastic's evidence and Fried- jung's documents to justify its action. The Opposite Effect. These scandals were, however, not without their good result, although the effect was the opposite of what had been intended. They provoked what the authorities desired to prevent. As a matter of fact, the Zagreb and Vienna cases had done more to confirm Serbia in her role of Jugoslav Piedmont and to propagate the idea of Jugoslav union than all those who had been falsely accused of High Treason could have done by twenty years' unhindered activity. The prosecutions of alleged revolutionaries have created real ones. The most moderate, the most "black-and-yellow" among the Jugo- slavs, understood at last that life is impossible in the Monarchy for everything that is not German or Magyar. Already one and a-half million Jugoslavs have been driven by the incessant persecutions of their Austro- Magyar masters to leave the home of their ancestors and seek a new fatherland beyond the x'\tl antic. • PROSECUTIONS. 39 Prosecutions in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Summary of the Political Situation in Bosnia- Hercegovina. For a better understanding of the trials which have taken place in Bosnia-Hercegovina during the war, it is necessary to recall the situation which has prevailed in those provinces since their occupation by Austria- Hungary. Returning from the Congress of Berlin, where he had obtained for Austria the authorisation to occupy and administer Bosnia-Hercegovina, Count Andrassy broke the good news to Francis Joseph with the words: "Your Majesty, I bring you the keys of the Balkans." He spoke truly. Except that since then Austria has done everything in her power to lock the door. The population of Bosnia-Hercegovina instinctively distrusted the "order" Austria-Hungary was to intro- duce. The occupation proved the very opposite of what Count Andrassy had imagined, viz., the march-past of a few regiments with bands playing. The population was not mistaken. The tyrannical domination of the foreigner exasperated it, and the first revolt, in 1882, which was stifled in blood, was succeeded by a reign of terror directed chiefly against the Serbs, v/ho were for- bidden even to call themselves Serbs. Their resistance showed itself first in long and bitter struggles for the autonomy of the Orthodox CKurch. Having gained some success they proceeded to political claims. Ever since 1903 the youth of the nation has 40 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. devoted itself especially to the dissemination of liberal ideas, and to demanding the autonomy of the province. The movement spread rapidl}^ and the leaders of the two great national organisations, both Orthodox and Mussulman, demanded in a Memorial, which was made public, a constitution for Bosnia-Hercegovina. Meantime, there was the ever-increasing hostility of the population towards the Germano-Magyar intruders, who monopolised all public appointments and exploited the unhappy provinces in a most shameless manner. The general strike of 1906, which was a protest against the foreigners, degenerated in Sarajevo and Mostar into riots which were mercilessly put down. The proclamation of the annexation on October 5th, 1908, aggravated the popular excitement. The leaders sent a manifesto to the nation, protesting against the annexation as an outrage upon the most sacred feelings of the population. • After Europe had capitulated before the diplomacy of Count Aerenthal and the German tyranny that stood behind it, Austria-Hungary, in an attempt to allay the profound unrest of the population as well as out of consideration for international order, imposed upon Bosnia-Hercegovina a "constitution" comparable to that of Alsace-Lorraine. The new Sabor (Diet) was convoked. But the youth of the nation refused to acquiesce in this new state of affairs. On the very day of the opening of the Sabor a student from Hercegovina, named Bogdan Zerajic, shot at the Governor of Bosnia-Hercegovina, PROSECUTIONS. 41 General Varesanin, as a protest against the annexation. This shot was the signal for a whole series of political outrages in Croatia and Dalmatia, the last of which was that directed against the person of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28th, 1914. The younger generation of Jugoslavs had passed to propaganda by action. The great mass of the peasantry had not remained indifferent. The feudal system of land tenure still obtains in Hercegovina. The Christian peasants are merely tenants of the land which they cultivate for the Mussulman landlords. They are crushed under the weight of their rent and all manner of taxes. Under the Turkish dominion this state of affairs led to innumerable revolts. And it was precisely to put a stop to these con- ditions — so it was said — that the administration of these two Turkish provinces had been confided to a "civilised" Power. But, faithful to her motto, "Divide et impera," Austria-Hungary never set herself to remedy this evil. The latent hostility between the Mussulman landlords and the Christian rayah suited her very well ; by inciting each against the other she could oppress both. The misery of the Christian tenants led finally, in 1910, to serious agrarian riots in Northern Bosnia. They were cruelly put down by police, prison and gallows. Thus the peasant was as hostile to Austria-Hungary as the intellectual, the Mussulman no less than the Chris- tian, and the Orthodox Serb no less than the Catholic Croat. In the lists of political prisoners, we shall find all classes and all religions represented. Serbia was in no way to blame for this general fer- ment. Her only crime lay in her splendid Balkan 42 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. victories, which caused all the oppressed Jugoslavs to turn their eyes towards the new Star of Liberation. Moreover, there is no connection between the excesses of youthful extremists and the demands of the political leaders. The first act of the new Sabor of Bosnia- Hercegovina was to demand a "real" constitution; in other words, to claim political rights through legrj channels. The younger generation was much more fiery and impatient. With the prowess of their Serbian brothers before their eyes, the youths of the nation arose to claim vengeance for the cruel oppressions by the Austro- Magyars. These latter seized upon the opportunity aft'orded hy the general upheaval to suppress the rebellious nation. After having caused the flower of the nation to be killed in the fratricidal war against the Russians and the Serbs, after having evicted one hundred thousand Serbs from their homes, and arbitrarily hanged and imprisoned yet thousands upon thousands, Austria-Hungary finally resorted to the Penal Code to behead the nation and slay its future. Shortly after the declaration of war on Serbia, the Zagreb paper, " Hrvatski Fokret" ("The Croat Move- ment"), published a letter from Sarajevo. "About i8o boys attending secondary schools," said this letter, "will be sent down at the beginning of the term. Most of the expelled youths belong to the Sarajevo schools, whose attitude during the trial of the assassins of the heir- apparent has been perfectly obvious. Several scholars who were accused, but against whom nothing -could be proved, were set at liberty. But as they will have to SCHOOLBOY PROSFXUTIONS. 43 appear as witnesses in another High Treason trial, in which the number of the prisoners will greatly exceed that in the former trial, they have been forbidden to leave Sarajevo. The headmaster and several of the assistant masters are already in custody on a charge of propagandist agitation." This was the beginning of the wholesale arrests and imprisonments of young men in Bosnia-Hercegovina. We will only deal with the most important of the trials that resulted. IV. Schoolboy Prosecutions. The Case Against 28 Schoolboys in Banjaluka. This trial began on March 3rd, 191 5, before the Court in Banjaluka. The boys were accused of the crime of dis- turbance of the public order, under §142 of the Penal Code, 22 students at the "Real School" (Modern School) of Banjaluka, five " abiturients " (candidates for matriculation), L. Gjukic, pupil at the Normal School (sentenced before to ten years' penal servitude in con- nection with the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand) ; also Dr. Krsmanovic, the headmaster of the "Real School"; and Professor J. Milic (at this moment at the front); V. Skaric and P. Popovic, assistant masters ; also M. Zaric, teacher at the primary school ; the Orthodox priest, M. Kostic; and F. Kurtagic, bank clerk. Seven of the prisoners were Mussulmans, four Catholics, one Uniate, and the rest Orthodox. According to the indictment, the youthful prisoners had the intention of founding a society called "Jugo- slavija" (Southern Slavdom), in accordance with instruc- 44 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. tions from the Jugoslav academic youth in Prague and the ideas put forward in certain newspaper articles by certain young Nationalists of Ljubljana (Laibach). The Jugoslav Nationalist youth had its own organs, viz.y the " Vihor" (the "Whirlwind") and the " Val" (the "Wave") in Zagreb; the " Jugoslavija" ("Southern Slavdom") in Prague; the " Narodnjak" (the "Nationalist") in Sibenik (Sebenico); and the " Jedinstvo" ("Union") in Split (Spalato). This intention was construed into a crime of dis- turbance of the public order under §142 of the Penal Code. The complicity of the headmaster and the assistant masters consisted in not having prevented the "revolutionary movement" among their pupils, although aware of its seditious character. The head- master. Dr. Krsmanovic, was likewise accused in his capacity of inspector of a primary school, where the teacher Zaric had caused the children to recite at the public examination certain small "disloyal" poems, which had appeared in the children's periodical, "Mala Srhadija" (Little Serbia). The inspector had, without raising any objection, permitted the recitation of these poems in his presence; he had even subscribed to the periodical for his little girl ! The priest Kostic was accused of having destroyed the papers of the teacher Zaric at the time of the latter's arrest. Several of the prisoners, including the headmaster, Dr. Krsmanovic, having been acquitted by the Banjaluka Court, the Supreme Court quashed that part of the verdict and ordered a new trial before the Travnik Court. This time all the prisoners were found guilty. The judgment, published on August 5th, 191 5, sentenced the "abiturient" Jarakula to two years' imprisonment, his fellow-student, Kulenovic, to one year eight students SCHOOLBOY PROSECUTIONS. 45 to six months, and two to four months of the same penalty. Dr. Krsmanovic, headmaster, and "Knight of the Order of Francis Joseph," was sentenced to four iionths' imprisonment. It may be as well to point out that trial by jury does not exist in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Case Against Nine Scholars of Mostar. After the first judgment of the Banjaluka Court, it was decided that henceforth all trials were to take place before some court other than that to the jurisdiction of which the accused naturally belonged. In this case the principal person involved, the schoolboy Marie, being at the time in Serbia, escaped conviction. His crime con- sisted in having maintained from Belgrade a corre- spondence with his friends in Mostar, to whom he was alleged to have sent a circular with instructions concern- ing the propaganda in project. The indictment accused the prisoners of having during a holiday tour given con- certs in Bosnia-Hercegovina, ostensibly on behalf of the Prosveta — a Serbian educational society of which we shall speak presently- — whereas in reality these concerts were alleged to have been merely an occasion for pan- Serbian propaganda. Although the concerts had been licensed by the public authorities, the court sentenced the performers. Sentenced to terms of imprisonment : The scholars V. Lalic, R. Grgjic and O. Mastilovic to one year; three fellow-students, J. Saric, M. Grgjic, C Mitrinovic, B. Bratic and A. Musita, to ten months; the scholar D. Pavic, and Dodier, an artisan, to one month each. 46 AUSTRO-MAGYAR [UDICIAL CRIMES. Case Against 65 Students of Sarajevo and Trebinje. The 13th of July, 191 5, saw the opening of the trial in Travnik of 65 students from Sarajevo College and the commercial school in Trebinje. But only about half the number of the defendants appeared at the hearing; the rest were either already enrolled in the army or abroad (serving as volunteers in Serbia). Among the prisoners were six (L. Gjuscic, C. Popovic, V. Cubrilovic, I. Kranjcevic, B. Zagorac and D. Kalember), who had previously been sentenced for alleged complicity in the Sarajevo murder. We would also point out that among the prisoners were six Mussulmans and seven Catholics; the rest were Orthodox. One of the principal defendants was Borivoj Jevtic. He was accused of having written numerous Press articles since 191 2, which had appeared in the periodicals pub- lished by the Nationalist youth. All the youths were charged with having organised themselves as "the Nationalist Serbo-Croat youth," and of having, under the guise of Jugoslav Nationalism, propagated pan-Serb ideas. This form of the indictment aimed at stirring up distrust among the Croats against the Serbs by suggesting that the latter do not aspire to a ?inio?i of the two branches of the Jugoslav nation, but to an absorption of the Croats by the Serbs. The youthful defendants had been in touch with the club Narodno Ujedinjenje (The National Union) in Belgrade, whose aim was the union of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from Skoplje (Uskub) to Ljubljana, and from Cetinje to Novisad (in South Hungary); moreover, they had inculcated hatred against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. \ SCHOOLBOY PROSFXUTIONS. 47 All the defendants were sentenced to terms of im- prisonment varying from three years to six weeks. The crime of one consisted in the seditious cheer: "Hurrah for the Revolution ! Hurrah for Jukic ! " (Jukic was the youth who in 191 2 fired at the Royal Commissioner in Croatia, and was sentenced to death by the Zagreb Court : his sentence was by Royal clemency commuted to one of penal servitude for life.) Four others were sentenced for having sung, "Give ear, ye brother Slavs ! " The Case Against 38 College Boys of Tuzla. The 13th of September, 191 5, was the opening day of the proceedings in the Bihac Court against thirty-eight Tuzla College boys and three of their professors, vis., P. Miletic, V. Vujasinovic and A. Bise. The scholars were accused of High Treason, of disturbance of the public order and the foundation of secret societies. Their principal crime, according to the statement of the State Prosecutor, lay in their relations with the Narodna Odbrana, a Belgrade society, said to bear a revolutionarv' character. Three of the younger people were accused of having expressed approval of the Sarajevo murder, one of them having made a false statement in the witness-box with regard to the murder. Three of the prisoners (one of them a teacher) were Mussulmans, three Catholics, the rest Orthodox. The hearing lasted three weeks. The judgment, made public on October 5th, sentenced Todor, Ilic to death on the gallows, Mladen Stojanovic to sixteen years' imprisonment, Stevan Botic to fifteen years, Vojislav Vasiljevic to fourteen years; Bozidar 48 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Tomic and Marko Ilic, student of divinity, each to twelve years, Streten Stojanovic to ten years, and Drago Mazar to three years of the same penalty. All these lads were found guilty of High Treason. Convicted of being- accessories and of not having denounced their fellow- students, sentence of five years' imprisonment was passed upon Lj. Todorovic, Branko Juzasic, Obrad Micic, Lj. Rankov, Nikifor Tadic; Jovan Zecevic was sentenced to four and a-half years; Vid Garkovic to four years; A. Simitovic to three years ; A. Budimir, S. Mihicic, L. Klador, Z. Zaric, R. Starovic, I. Bangic, D. Stanisic, P. Jovanovic, P. Vukovic, M. Ilic and G. Jovanovic, each to two years and a-half; Stevan Hakman and M. Popovic to one year; Adam Bise, assistant master, to eleven months; V. Stepanovic to ten months; Veljko Vujasinovic, assistant master, and Petar Miletic, head- master of the commercial school, to ten months; N. Nikolic, Angjeljko Popovic, J. Savic, M. Jokovic and K. Hakman, each to one month's imprisonment. Total, one death sentence and 155 years and ten months of imprisonment. In all these trials the students thus convicted were, with rare exceptions, under age; some of them were not over fifteen years of age; in some cases those found guilty were sentenced to a term of imprisonment actually equal to their age at the time. All the convicted teachers were deprived of their functions THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 49 V. The Banjaluka Trial. The Indictment. A monster trial was that which opened on Novem- ber 9th before the Banjaluka District Court. The number of prisoners included 112 married men, whose families totalled 335 children; 4 of the accused were women. Among the total number there were 1 1 fathers of 4 children, 12 fathers of 5 children, 9 fathers of 6 children, 3 fathers of 7 children, 3 fathers of 8 children, i father of 9 children and i father of 11 children. Classified according- to their professions, 20 of the prisoners were officials in public or private service, 20 w^ere priests, 19 school teachers, 44 were in business, there were several students, deputies, medical men, engineers and landowners; the rest were peasants and artisans. But the action ivas directed mainly against the intellectuals. The court was composed of German judges, vis., Koloman von Milletz, Mayer, Ansion and Hofmann, and the State was represented by the Public Prosecutors Koenig and Pinter, likewise Germans. ^ Thus, in a political case, at a time ivhen Germans and Slavs zvere openly at zvar with each other, in a purely Slav country, Serbs were placed at the mercy of 7nagistrates and accusers belonging to the enemy nation. so AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. The deliberations of the court were carried on virtually in camera. We can nevertheless form an idea of their character from what the official paper Sarajevski List and the semi-official Hrvatski Dnevnik were permitted to report. The indictment was a volume of 265 pp. folio. The State Prosecutor dealt at great length with the manifesto of Francis Joseph to his peoples at the time of the declaration of war upon Serbia, with the Austro- Hungarian Red Book and a Serbian pamphlet on the organisation and activities of the Narodna Odbrana (National Defence). The pan-Serb Propaganda — the indictment explained — aimed at the unification of all the Jugoslav lands under the sceptre of the Karagjorgjevic, and the Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade was the centre of the propaganda. It had agents, especially in Bosnia-Hercegovina, in all classes of society, even on the bench and in the army, A great number of the prisoners in this case were sus- pected of being agents of the society. The indictment, properly speaking, was based on numerous documents found in Serbia during the Austro-Hungarian military operations in 191 4. Capital importance was attached to the notebooks of the Serbian Captain Kosta Todorovic, inspector of the military radius in Loznica, and since killed in battle. These notebooks contain the reports of the Serbian officer to the Narodna Odbrana and to the Serbian Minister for War, and notes on the employment of funds devoted to propaganda. His voluminous correspondence with his Bosnian agents who worked under his orders "for liberation and unification" had also been found. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 51 The conclusions drawn by the Public Prosecutor were, on the one hand, that the Narodna Odbrana was an organ of the Serbian Government, and that all seditious agita- tions in Bosnia were due to its activity; on the other hand, that all persons mentioned in the notes of the Serbian officer were implicated in a plot against the territorial integrity of Austria-Hungary. The letters which were found were said to be written in a private code which the prosecution had succeeded in deciphering — so they said. According to the indictment, all Serb national insti- tutions in Bosnia-Hercegovina, notably the athletic societies — or Sokols — and the temperance societies — or Pobratims — were nothing but instruments of the pan- Serb propaganda. The Sokols^ which were all arranged on the same pattern, had even the same words of com- mand as those which are in use in the Serbian army. To be the member of a Sokol or of any other Serb society is already a grave symptom of guilt. Another suspicious circumstance : if one of the accused persons had been in Serbia, what was he doing there ? The principal defendant, the deputy Vaso Grgjic, was also secretary of the society Prosveta (Enlightenment). Suspect. And his radical speeches in the Diet, his con- tributions to the periodicals " Narod " (the " Nation ") and " Srfska Kijec" (the "Serbian Word") were likewise sus- pect. Similar charges were brought against Dr. Sava Ljubibratic, Government Councillor, a very active mem- ber of several agricultural societies, correspondent of several Serbian papers, and — which is particularly serious —an intimate friend of the principal defendant. S2 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. It was rather odd on the part of a soldier, but appa- rently the notes of the Serbian officer were interlarded with long psychological dissertations on a considerable number of the prisoners, who, by the way, were not mentioned by name, but indicated only by numbers or letters of the alphabet, which the prosecution flattered themselves with having deciphered, and attributed to the rightful designees. Thus, Kosta Gnjatic appeared as "A" and as No. i. It is a pity that the State Prosecu- tors did not see fit to divulge the secret of the method by which the names of the accused concealed under these letters and figures were discovered. The great majority of the defendants declared that they did not know the author of the incriminating notes. The deputy Matija Popovic is of opinion that a shady individual from Vlasenica, one Jovo Srbijanac, was perhaps the party who indicated the names of many of the prisoners to the author of the notes attributed to the Serbian officer. Apparently, however, the names were indicated by their initials only, as the examining magistrates asked him whether he was Matija Pavolic or Matija Petkovic. In this case the defendant was able to prove an alibi for the day on which he was supposed to have been presented to Prince Alexander of Serbia. The President : Do you know Todor Popovic? Defendant : Yes. The President : You have said that he was a fine man ? Defendant: Perhaps. * The President : Do you know what that means ? Defendant: Yes; that he is a man of good character. Tlie President: It means that he is a member of the Narodna Odbrana. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 53 The defendant Gjorgje Dakic protested that he had never been a Serbian spy. On the contrary, he had been an Austrian spy, and the prefect Albrecht had sent him to Serbia in 1906 to procure information on some military matters. The President: You pretended to spy for Austria in order to be more successful in your true role of Serbian spy. The crime of Dr. Risto Jeremic consisted in his having travelled in Serbia; and of being, in Bosnia, one of the initiators of the temperance unions, called Pobratims. The deputy Jovo Sniiic, engineer, was accused of having betrayed to Serbia the plans of the new Bosnian railways with which, in his capacity of expert reporter to the Diet, he was of course familiar. Defendant : But these plans were in no sense of the word secret, as they were published in a German periodical. Vaso Rundo, lawyer's clerk, demonstrated that those notes of the Serbian officer which referred to himself betrayed an altogether foreign style, and contain phrase- ology which is not only not used, but impossible in the Serbian language. Therefore, they certainly did not proceed from z Serbian hand. The visiting-card of one defendant was found in the possession of another. Both are gravely compromised — each by knowing the other. 54 AUSTRO-MAGYAR jlJDICIAL CRIMES. In the cross-examination, the same questions recur constantly. Are you a member of some Serb society ? Have you contributed, or are you a subscriber to some Serb periodical ? Are you a Serb Nationalist ? Have you ever been to Serbia ? Have you any friends there, etc. ? Perceiving- that the defence put forward by most of the prisoners was very much the same (they averred that they did not know the author of the incriminating notes, etc.), the President of the Court remarked, at the public hearing, that this was obviously the result of collusion, and that from henceforth he would take the strictest measures against such plotting among the prisoners, who were, as a matter of fact, all in custody and confined separately. The fundamental question is : Whether the Serbian officer's notes are authentic or apocryphal, and, if they are authentic, how they come to contain words and con- structions unknown in Serbian or contrary to the genius of the language ? And also, are they correctly deci- phered ? Do the initials in the notes necessarily stand for the names of the accused, etc. ? We have not the means for going into these details. Let us point out, however, that in the Friedjung case the prosecution employed documents zvhich had been forged in the offices of the Austro-Hungarian Legation in Belgrade by two secretaries and under the auspices of their chief, Count Forgach. And the first suspicion of the authenti- city of those documents had been roused by the peculiar "Austrian-Serbian" in which they were written. But, said the State Prosecutor, the authenticity of the notebook and notes of the Serbian captain Kosta THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 55 Todorovic has been proved by experts in handwriting. Everyone knows what the "science" of these experts is worth; even when they are acting in all good faith and in a country where justice is not a grim parody, as in Austria-Hungary. We will merely state that during the Zagreb trial the experts declared upon oath that the "Revolutionary Statute No. 11," which played an impor- tant part in the trial, was indeed — just as the State Prosecutor had asserted — in the handwriting of Milan Pribicevic, an officer in the Serbian army and brother of the two principal defendants. On that occasion the defence furnished irrefutable proof that the allegations of the exoerts were false. How These Trials Are Worked. The Banjaluka trial bears the hallmark of all political trials "made in Austria," viz., an amazing simplicity. The accusations are invariably based on some fantastic allegation, officially pronounced a fact; and this renders all proof and all explanation superfluous. In all proceedings against Jugoslavs the object is the same. All those proceedings are directed against the Unionist movement among the Jugoslavs and against Serbia as the pioneer of that movement. At first this movement was, in reality, merely an ethical and intel- lectual one. In the Zagreb trial and the Fried jung case the "Slovenski Jug" (Southern Slavdom) had been denounced — without any proof, however — as a centre of machinations for instigating a Jugoslav rising against Austria-Hungary. This club was supposed to have been secretly directed by the Serbian Government and the Serbian Royal Family. The prosecution then endea- 56 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. voured to prove, or rather to invent, some kind of rela- tions between certain Jugoslav patriots and this club. The most insignificant circumstance sufficed as indication or even proof. A simple journey to Belgrade or any connection with some politician in the kingdom was a ground for suspicion, and sometimes the proof of con- nection with the supposed-to-be seditious club. If the accused belonged to some national society — whether political or literary, athletic or charitable — then this society itself was proclaimed a branch of the "Revolution- ary Club" in Belgrade. By this method the Government not only succeeded in ridding itself of certain incon- venient personages and in keeping the Jugoslav movement in check by a regime of judicial terror, but it gave itself licence indiscriminately to persecute all national societies and at the same time to accuse official Serbia before the world as the disturber of the peace. Substitute the Narodna Odbrana (the 'National Defence) of Belgrade for Slorenski ]ug, and you have the Banjaluka trial. The "Narodna Odbrana." Already in the Red Book, published by the Austro- Hungarian Government at the outbreak of the war, we find the Narodna Odbrana denounced as the head- quarters of a revolutionary movement in the Jugoslav provinces of Austria-Hungary. It was the Narodna Odbrana which was supposed to have supplied the assassins of Francis Ferdinand with arms. Hence it was the Narodna Odbrana which, according to the Austrian Government, was responsible for the present war. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 57 As a matter of fact, the Narodna Odbrana was founded in 1908, at the time of the annexation crisis, in those days of anguish when Serbia found herself face to face with the Austro-Hungarian peril in all its gravity. Serbia was still in the throes of reconstitution, and her military preparations were far from complete. Several patriots decided to supplement this deficiency by private enterprise. Committees were founded all over the country to enrol and train volunteers for the defence of the country. Within a very short time a considerable army of volunteers was created. But as soon as the annexation crisis was over the activity of the Narodna Odbrana came to an end. The imminent danger having- passed, the society was radically reorganised. Its military programme was replaced by a different, peaceful activity, which entered into the national life. Its chief task now consisted in organising popular lectures or, at most, rifle clubs in the villages, and in promoting the patriotic education of the people. All existing societies derived moral and material support from it. The Narodna Odbrana worked quite openly, in the light of day, and its periodic financial reports were regu« larly published. But its growing activity attracted the enmity of the political circles of Vienna and Budapest, where nothing was dreamt of but the triumphant march to Salonica. On the eve of the present war a woman from Zemun, Jelena Dimitrijevic by name, was arrested in Belgrade on a charge of espionage. She admitted that on behalf 58 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. of the Government of Bosnia-Hercegovina she had tried to procure a list of such members of the Narodna Odbrana as were Austro-Hungarian subjects. After a close enquiry into the methods and objects of the society, the court acquitted the woman on the ground that, as the Narodna Odbrana was an absolutely private society, and not in any way connected with the Serbian State, any attempt to gain information about such a society could not be of the least prejudice to the State, and therefore could not constitute an offence. This is surely one more proof of the futility of basing an indictment on the suggested relations between the Narodna Odbrana and the Serbian Court. We have alluded to the notebook of Captain Kosta Todorovic, which served as basis for the Banjaluka in- dictment. The State Prosecutor stated at first that the author of the notebook was a member of the Narodna Odbrana, and that in accordance with the alleged sedi- tious objects of the society, he had endeavoured to gain adherents in Bosnia. As the names of several of the defendants were discovered m the notes of the Serbian captain, the indictment did not hesitate to describe them as agents of the Belgrade "revolutionary" society. And as the persons accused were members of certain patriotic societies in Bosnia, the indictment inferred a seditious collaboration with the Narodna Odbrana. Yet this line of argument suffered from a weak point. The Serbian captain in question had never been a member of the Narodna Odbrana himself. How, then, could he have acted as its agent ? Surely this alone is a good and sufficient reason for entertaining the most serious doubts concerning the whole elaborate accusation. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 59 The deputy Vasilje Grgjic, whose name we regret to have to mention among those condemned to death, was not even accused of standing in any relation with the Serbian captain. His crime consisted in his having been general secretary of the Bosnian Serb Society Prosveta (Enlightenment). Let us see what this society really is. The Prosveta. In order to understand the need which led to the founding of the Prosveta, we must consider the past history of the odious Austro-Hungarian regime in Bosnia- Hercegovina. We confine ourselves to a few outlines. The first care of the Austro-Hungarian Government upon occupying the province was to close hermetically its frontiers against all communications with Serbia. The Serbian schools, which, under the Turkish dominion, had been founded and maintained by the population itself, were closed. The teaching of Serbian history was forbidden, and the former Governor of Bosnia, M. de Kallay, placed his own "History of Serbia" on the Index. T"he use of the Cyrillic script was prohibited, and the Serbian language had to be referred to as the "vernacular" or the "Bosnian language." In this effort to stifle all national sentiment among the Serbs, the Government sought the help of the Jesuits and of the German colonists, who were themselves protected by the Dentscher Schulverein and the Katholischer Schnlverein, notorious German propagandist societies. Thanks to the considerable funds supplied by the public treasury, the Jesuits in 1882 founded a college in 6o AUSTRO-MAGYAR -JUDICIAL CRIMES. Travnik (Bosnia), while at the same time the Serbian college in Sarajevo, established under the Turkish rule by the Serbian population itself, was closed down. The Jesuit college was endowed with an annual subvention of 80,000 crowns; whereas, after a seven years' struggle, the Serbian bishopric only succeeded in obtaining a sub- vention of 38,000 crowns for students desirous of taking Holy Orders. German schools were founded and maintained at the expense of the Provincial Government. The study of German was made obligatory in all schools, and a know- ledge of this language became an indispensable condition for all public employment. Between 1878 and 1906, in a country of 51,000 sq. km., the Government opened 251 primary schools for 1,800,000 inhabitants, but 266 barracks for 2,442 gen- darmes. In 1906 the whole of the annual Budget for public instruction amounted only to 575,000 crowns, whereas 3,753,189 crowns were set aside for the gen- darmes. Moreover, the public schools are for the greater part reserved for the children of German colonists, while the Serbs have to bear the expense for the upkeep of their own parish schools. Thus, the distress of the Serbian population was truly great. In 1894 several Serbian parish and school com- munes petitioned the Government for permission to organise the public instruction of their parishioners at their own expense. This petition was taxed with being an incitement to rebellion. The most important of the Serbian church and school communes were dissolved, their property confiscated, the leaders of the movement THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 6i sent to prison, and the whole nation persecuted. But in spite of all this the movement continued. In view of the annexation which was then preparing, the Govern- ment desired to gain the sympathies ot the Serbs. This is why, in 1902, it was decided to accede partially to the petition of 1894, ^^^ ^ group of Serb intellectuals, them- selves public officials, obtained permission to found the Prosveta, destined above all to help the Serb students in Bosnia-Hercegovina in their studies. Within ten years the society became the strongest organisation in the country. It possessed about one hundred local com- mittees and more than six thousand members. It enlarged its activities, subsidised primary schools and various social institutions, organised courses for the illiterates, who constitute 90 per cent, of the population in Bosnia, founded public kitchens, published books, founded a circulating library, etc. ; its activity was facilitated by a generous bequest from Miss Irby. This prosperity of the Prosveta was viewed with dis- favour by the Jesuits and the Government. By a miracle of prudence it succeeded in safeguarding its existence; even during the Balkan wars it succeeded in escaping the persecuting fury of the Austro-Hungarian bureau- cracy, which only sought a pretext to destroy it. But in 1914, after the Sarajevo murder, the populace, incited by the Government, wrecked the offices of the Prosveta and burnt the furniture, etc. Then the Government ordered the confiscation of all the society's property — long before the discovery of the Serbian officer's notebook, upon which the State Prosecutor in Banjaluka was to base his accusation of High Treason against the Prosveta. 62 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL. CRIMES. The Chief Defendant. At the head of the list of defendants figures the name of the deputy Vasilij Grgjicy secretary of the Prosveta; he was described as the chief and instigator of the whole movement. In a striking speech in his defence, this great Serbian patriot defended above all things the Serb national philanthropic work accomplished during the past ten years by the Prosveta, which he had directed with so much success. *'I have worked for the Prosveta," he said, "with all my strength, as a patriotic duty, and out of love for my nation. You can find the best proof of the fact that the Prosveta has never concerned itself with politics in the 40,000 reports of its committee meetings, in which its whole activity is recorded. "The Prosveta is being accused of being merely a branch of the Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade, whose organisation it is supposed to have copied. But pray compare the two societies, and you will at once perceive the fundamental difference between them. We have maintained one boarding-school for ordinary scholars, and another for apprentices; we have founded libraries and public reading-rooms, subsidised schools and pub- lished books. Is there anything seditious in all this ? I am also accused of having delivered revolutionary lectures when, in my capacity of secretary of the Prosveta, I went on a lecture-tour in 191 3. But all my lectures were attended by the police commissioners, and I never had any difference with any of them. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 63 "If you convict me," concluded the defendant, "the same will be said of me as was said by the Austrians of the last Prince of the ancient Serbian State— the Despot Gjorgje Brankovic — whom they detained in prison for twenty years till the day of his death, even while they were making use of the Serbian army whose Chief he was, and while they were promising the Serbian people their independence and the re-establishment of their dynasty: l^ihil male fecit, sed ratio rei fublicc^ expostulavit." The "Sokols" and the "Pobratimstvos." According- to the indictment, the notes of the Serbian captain contained the remark that the Sokols (falcons) and Pobratimstvos (brotherhoods) would be the best instruments for revolutionary propaganda. This was enough to stamp these societies as seditious, and to accuse their founders of High Treason. The first Serbian athletic and temperance society in Bosnia was founded in 1893, in Foca. For no reason except the hostility of the Government towards any kind of Serbian association, this Sokol was dissolved and its property confiscated. During the next ten years not a single athletic society could be founded in Bosnia- Hercegovina, although similar associations existed among the other Slavs of the Monarchy. At last, in 1904, the foundation of a Serb Sokol in Mostar was permitted ; in 191 2 there were 47 Sokols in Bosnia-Hercegovina, with a total membership of 1,873 members. These Sokols were in no way different from the other athletic societies, like- wise named Sokols, among the other Slavs of the Monarchy, notably the Croats and the Czechs. 64 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. The Pobratunstvos were rural sections of the urban Sokols. As physical exercise was not necessary for the country population, the Pobratinistvos were more specially devoted to fighting alcoholism. In 191 2 there were 46 Pobratinistvos in Bosnia-Hercegovina, with a total mem- bership of 1,842 members. The Austro-Hungarian Government, which had steadily refused to recognise the great services rendered by the Sokols and the Pobratinistvos to the population from a hygienic point of view, seized upon the first avail- able pretext for suppressing them all, and casting theii directors into prison until such time when they could be sent to the scaffold. The defendant, Deputy Dr. Vojislav Besarovic, spoke in defence of the Sokols and Pobratimstvos. "Oui Sokols y" he said, "are accused of having been branch institutions of an analogous athletic society in Serbia, the " Diisan Silni" (Dusan the Powerful). But our relations with this association were never in any way different from those which we maintained with the Croat and Czech societies. Our Sokols had no other object in view than the moral and physical regeneration of our people. "The prosecution takes exception to the military training of our Sokols, which, it suggests, is provided only with a view to an insurrectionary rising. Let me remind you that it was the officer commanding the 15th Sarajevo Corps who offered us rifles for our target prac- tice — an offer we declined, precisely because we did not wish to give a military character to our institution." "The activity of the Sokols is an open book," said Stevan Jakula, another defendant, and director of the THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 6:^ commercial academy in Sarajevo and principal promoter of the Sokol movement in Bosnia. "The Government has had every opportunity of knowmg all about it. Because the Sokols in Bosnia-Hercegovma were dissolved already, in 191 3, during the recent dissolution of all Serbian societies, and their re-establishment was not permitted till March, 1914. During this tem.porary suppression, the archives of the Sokols were in the hands of the Government, and not a thing was found in them that might have been taken exception to. The re- establishment was made without any change in the rules and statutes. Three months later they were finally suppressed as being dangerous to the Monarchy. (i) "The indictment," continued the defendant, "alleges that the Slets (annual gatherings of all the Sokols in Bosnia, similar to those in the other Jugoslav provinces) were nothing but opportunities for anti-dynastic demon- strations. But similar Slets took place also among the other Slavs of the Monarchy. The indictment had even gone out of its way to find in the poster of one of the Slets — a representation of St. George overthrowing the (i) When during the month of May, 1913, Austria- Hungary had signified her ultimatum to Montenegro on the subject of Skadar (Scutari), General Potiorek, Governor of Bosnia-Hercegovina, in expectation of war against the little State and its ally Serbia, decreed on pain of being charged with High Treason the dissolution of all the Sokols and Pohratimstvos in Bosnia-Hercegovina, A perquisition at the headquarters of the various societies having yielded nothing that could have been considered of a compromising nature, the Governor had to admit the futility of his measures against these societies before the Diet in November, 1913. It is to be noted that all accusations against the Sokols and Pohra- timstvos date from a time prior to their dissolution. 3 66 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. Dragon — a revolutionary symbol, vis., Austria-Hungary attacked by the Serbian Sokol, as deliverer." This defendant was accused of having adopted for the Sokol drill the words of command in use in the Serbian army — whereas he had merely used the termin- ology of the Croatian Sokols. The prosecution even saw a crime in the fact that he had sent a picture postcard in the orthography used in the Kingdom of Serbia (the so-called "ekavstina") to one of his pupils. The Deputy Aianasija Sola was also accused of being a founder of the Sokols. "Upon my election to the Diet," explained the defendant, "I resigned my presi- dency of the Mostar Sokol. During my presidency I have never com.e into any collision with the authorities, and, as for any active opposition in the Sabor (the Diet of Bosnia-Hercegovina), I am not responsible for that to the court." The President : You are not asked to defend yourself on that score, but rather for having organised the Sokols after the pattern of the Na/'odiia Odbrana in Belgrade, to which, moreover, your paper "Narod" (the Nation) was affiliated. Defendant : That paper was not edited by me, but by Dr. Kridj and M. Malic.. The President : You have been a member of the Zora (Dawn) ? Defendant : No. The student's Union Zora in Vienna is being confused with the literary review of the same name which appears in Mostar, whose editor I was, and to which nobody ever dreamt of taking exception. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 67 The President: You have, however, taken an interest in the academic youth. Did you read the papers which appear in the Kingdom of Serbia? Defendant : Some of them, }'es. The President : Perhaps even those that are forbidden here ? Such was the nature of the examination in a trial in which the prosecution for the Crown demanded the death penalty for the prisoners. The Academic Youth and the Jugoslav Movement. The number of the prisoners included a group of students, representatives of Jugoslav Nationalism. George Ostovicy medical student, defended himself in the following words: "We Jugoslavs," he said, "we dwell on a cross-road where the mighty German and Italian civilisations meet and clash, while our flank is exposed to the Magyars. Thus our position is fraught with the greatest danger and our nationalism bears a more or less defensive character. From our ancestors we inherit the idea that Croats and Serbs form a single nation; our task is nothing else but to give real meaning to this idea. It is false to say that this idea originated in Serbia. It lives wherever our nation lives. It is with the object of effacing the artificial differences which divide us that we have amalgamated our Croat, Serb and Slovene Students' Societies in Prague ni one single joint society, the Jtigoslavija. 6S AUSTRO-MAGYAR 'JUDICIAL CRIMES. "Many of the articles published in our magazine, the Zora — the publication which I at one time directed — have been charged with sedition. But all these articles had passed the preventive censorship of the public authorities in Zagreb, Vienna and Prague, without any fault being found with any of them. "The lectures I gave in Bosnia in 191 1 and T912 on the Sokols and the Pobratimstvos have likewise been attacked as being seditious. But for all those lectures I used matter which had been previously approved by the local authorities and even recommended to them by the chief of the district." Question: The idea of the Sokols and the national idea are one and the same, are they not ? Anszver: The idea of the Sokols is only a part of the national idea. That evolves in proportion as the nation develops. Question: Does the idea of the Sokols also include the idea of national unity ? Answer: The purpose of the Sokols is simply to awake and develop the national sentiment. Question: But this sentiment must necessarily lead to the desire that the whole nation should be united in one and the same State ? Spiro Soldo, student of philosophy and president of the Students' Union Zora, pointed out the need for national defence against the menacing thrusts of the THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 69 Central Powers of Europe. "A German Congress," cried the accused, "proclaimed in the name of Kultur the necessity for destroying the Czech nation, and the German savant Haeckel always demanded, likewise in the name of Kultur, the disappearance of the Slavs from the Balkans. Against these monstrous ideas we are thus obliged to defend ourselves by concentrating all our ethnic forces." The student Vnkasin Babtmovic concluded his defence by saying that modern pedagogy no longer relies on the whip, and yet there was an idea that nationalism should be strangled with the gallows. The State FroseaUor : It is the only method by which you can be kept in check. The Witnesses. Of the 46 witnesses for the prosecution exactly one- haLf were openly in the service of the Government, viz., three admitted police spies, a former defendant who consented to play the part of King's evidence in con- sideration of the withdrawal of the charge, and finally 19 Government officials, mainly police officers. There remained, therefore, 23 apparently "impartial" witnesses. But, judging by their dispositions, a large number even of these must have been in the secret service of the police. First on the list of witnesses for the prosecution figured Obro Golic, originally charged with High Trea- son, and for whom the State Prosecutor had demanded the death penalty on the gallows. The defence objected 70 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. against this change of parts as not being above suspicion, to which the President replied that, in virtue of his discretionary powers, he had himself ordered the calling of this particular witness, after the prosecution had relinquished the proceedings against him. That was all. This wretch, who bought his life at the price of false evidence dictated to him, levelled his accusations mainly against the priest Matija Popovic and two other defen- dants. He averred that they had taken him to Loznica, in Serbia, where Captain Kosta Todorovic, revolver in hand, had forced him to become a member of the Narodna Odbrana. The witness Trifko Krstanovic, having been made a prisoner of war on the Italian front, could not be called. His deposition, made at the time of the trial of the assassins of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was read instead. The witness also declared that he had had the misfortune of having forcibly b^en made a member of the Narodna Odbrana ; happening to be in Serbia at the time of the annexation crisis, he said he had been forced to enlist as a comitadji. In this capacity, he said he had been ordered secretly to execute several Serbian spies sentenced to death by the Narodna Odbrana. Only after four years of servitude had he succeeded in escaping to Bosnia. The deposition of this witness was intended chiefly to ^\\^ information on the internal organisation of the Narodna Odbrana and the revolutionary customs prevailing in it. But all this information referred in the main to the annexation crisis, when, as we have said, the activity of the Narodna Odbrana bore an entirelv different character. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 71 The prisoner Vasilij Grgjic hastened to supplement this deposition. "On his return from Serbia," he said, "witness offered for a consideration to divulge to me 'matters of capital importance.' He made the same offer to the paper ' Srpska Rijec,' then to the Austrophil journal ' Hrvalski Dnevnik,' and finally fell back on Baron Pittner, head of the Bosnian Government. But everywhere he was shown the door. Nevertheless, only a short time afterwards the very same Government which had shown the door to this solicitous busybody called him as one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution." We will also quote the deposition of the third police spy, ]ovo Jaglicic, who was also, according to himself, enrolled against his will in the Narodna Odbrana. The accusations he brought against the prisoner Vasilj Grgjic were grave indeed. Moreover, he had in 191 3, by laying- information precisely similar to his present deposition, brought about proceedings against the prisoner, who was on that occasion acquitted, an obvious proof that at that time the court had not believed his tales. The depositions of 5. Peters and Z. Berger, district commissioners of Vlasenica and Zvornik respectively, which districts are adjacent to Loznica, tell us very little. "I was head of the district of Vlasenica from 1910 to 191 2," said the former of these two witnesses, "and during all that time no suspicious movements came under my notice." All he knew of the prisoners was that at the time when he was appointed he had already been warned of the dangerous character of the priest Matija Popovic. When the Serbian congregation at Vlasenica wished to erect a church on a hill which recently served as position to the Serb army during 72 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. its incursion into Bosnia, witness considered there might be some hidden reason for their choice of that particular site. Quite a num.ber of witnesses retracted their depositions at the enquiry; some of them gave edifying details on the methods by which their preliminary depositions had been extorted. The witness Risto Trifkovic : "One day Milan Madrapa (a policeman) came to me, took me by the hand, and said : ' Look here, you have to give evidence against the teacher Toinovic; you have got to say, for instance, that he shouted, "Long live King Peter! Down with Austria ! " ' He then took me to the district commis- sioner, who proceeded to threaten me: 'If you don't speak, you will be made to pay dearly.' In face of these threats, I made my deposition. I said that on meeting tlie teacher Tomovic before the church at Stolac, and asking him why the town was decorated with flags, he replied : ' After the black flags of the morning (it was just after the Sarajevo murder) there will come the white flags of evening. Long live King Peter ! ' I said that in fear of my life. But there isn't a word of truth in it. To-day, before the court, I speak the truth." The witness Nikola Batinic alleged still more extra- ordinary proceedings. "Two or three days after the declaration of war on Serbia, Corporal Serif Kuzmic came to my house with a patrol and told me to hold up my hands. After searching me, the soldiers tied my hands with a rope. One soldier escorted me to the station and IkQm there to Renovica, where I remained for a week. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 73 I wasn't too badly off, because the soldiers gave me, from time to time, beer and meat. But presently these soldiers were replaced by others, and my plight became terrible. Corporal Kukavica amused himself by ill-treating me and dragging me along the rails with my hands tied. One night, as we were crossing a field, the soldiers noticed a herd of calves. They tied me to a tree, where I was left crucified for three hours, while they went off with the calves. Only one soldier remained with me. I thought my last hour had come. When they came back, the soldiers continued to drag me about from one village to another, forcing me to point out to them the places where the people had hidden their arms. This grieved me greatly, because the people whose houses were searched were friends of mine. Corporal Kuzmic said to me : 'Well, Niko; the Serbs are laying information against you and bringing most serious charges against you. Look here, don't you know anything against them ? ' I told them I didn't. One evening we came to the village of Sjetline. The corporal insisted that I was to tell him what I knew against the Serbs. He ordered wine, which went to my head, because I was famished. And while we talked and smoked and drank another corporal wrote. One may imagine the rage of the State Prosecutor over this deposition. He ordered the arrest of the witness and the institution of proceedings against him for per- jury — a fate which had already befallen the previous witness and was likewise in store for three others. The prosecutor even saw in these retractions a conspiracy among the witnesses against the prosecution. Colonel Sertic appeared as military expert witness. He declared that the Serbian captain Todorovic, who 74 AUSTRO-MAGYAR .JUDICIAL CRIMES. was killed in the Serbian offensive around Vlasenica, was a most hard-working and conscientious officer. Any- thing contained in his notes might be regarded as plain truth. The reports received by that officer on the state of affairs in Bosnia were exact, and his information ser- vice had "seriously hampered our ulterior operations.'* According to the expert colonel, the organisation of espionage in the Serbian service had not ceased even after a state of siege had been proclaimed in Bosnia, a fact which was looked upon as a singularly aggravating circumstance as far as the prisoners were concerned. On the other hand, the expert admitted that not a single original MS. of a confidential report zvas found among the -papers of the Serbian captain. After all the witnesses had been heard, the State Attorney, Dr. Konig, in his speech for the prosecution, violently attacked Bosnian nationalism and the national Serb institutions in Bosnia, labelling them all as seditious. Meantime, he found himself obliged to with- draw the charge against a certain number of the prisoners, who had succeeded in proving alibis for the occasions when they were supposed to have made certain statements or committed certain acts. Dr. Dirnovic, in his striking speech for the defence, attacked chiefly the vagueness of the indictment which, instead of giving precise details of facts and specifying them individually for each of the prisoners, lost itself in generalities, speaking, for instance, of "a wide- spread political movement," etc. The Judgment. The judgment was pronounced on April 22rd, 1916. During the deliberations, which lasted 175 days, the THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 75 prisoners Risto Banjakovicy Dragoljiib Kesic and Jovo Pavlovic died. There were 98 convictions and 53 acquittals (the cases against two of the prisoners were to be dealt with separately). There were 16 capital sentences ; 82 to penalties varying from twenty years to two months' imprisonment. Among the condemned men were four priests (Orthodox popes). The number of those sentenced to imprisonment includes four priests, several deputies, six medical men and a girl, Darinka Malic. All the prisoners found guilty had to pay between them a fine of fourteen million six hundred and forty- four thousand seven hundred and sixty -nine crowns (14,644,769/^.), for the relief of the refugees from the adjacent Serbian districts and the necessitous relatives of men called to the colours. We vamly try to find a connection between the alleged crimes and the refugee? and soldiers ! Those condemned to death by hanging are to be executed in the following order: — 1. MILUTIN JOVANIC, merchant, married, one child. 2. PETAR BILBIfA, merchant, single. 3. CEDO MILICy merchant, married. 4. DIMSO DjOKANOVIC, landed proprietor, mar- ried, two children. 5. MlHAfLO SAVICy sergeant, married, two children. 6. MILAN PETKOVIC, priest, married, two children. ;6 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. ;. SIMO BEGOVIC, priest, married, five children. 8. DlMiTRljE JEVDJEVIC, curate, married, two children. 9. RADE DIURANOYIC, student at the primary normal school, sing-le. 10. D]ORG]E DAKIC, notary, married, eight children. 11. BOSKO CAPRIC, Secretary of the Union of Agricultural Associations, widower. 12. MIRKO TO MO VIC, teacher, single. 13. ALEKSA JAKSIC, merchant, married, five children. 14. M ATI J A POPOVIC, Deputy, priest, married, three children. 15. KOSTA GNJATIC, teacher, married, two children. 16. VASILJ GRDfIC, Deputy and Secretary of the Prosveta, single. The condemned men have to assist at the executions of those who are put to death before them. The agony of each, therefore, increases with the number of those who precede him to the gallows. Vasilj Grdjic, secretary of the Prosveta, was to be executed last of all, in order to intensify the cruelty of his punishment. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. ^^ Sentenced to Various Terms of Imprisonment. Tiventy years : ly. ARSEN KRSTIC, comptroller of taxes, married. Eighteen years : i8. PETAR. MILOSEVIC, merchant, married, two children 19. ANDRI]A UROSEVIC, merchant, married, two children. 20. SAVA CUPOVIC, teacher, widower. 21. Dr. YOJISLAY BESAROVIC, Deputy, Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, single. Sixteen years: 22. KOSTA KRAJSUMOYIC, teacher, single. 23. KOS^PA BOZIC, dean, married, four children. 24. SVEPOZAR LUKICy clerk, married, one child. 25. POSO BEAPOVICy merchant, married, six children. 26. DANILO ACIMOVIC, married, three children. 27. NIKOLA. JOYANOVIC, teacher, married, two children. 28. YASA KOSORIC, priest, married, two children. Fifteen years: 29. DRAGO UROSEYIC, priest, married, three children. ;8 AUSTRO-MAGYAR J-UDICIAL CRIMES. 30. NEDELj'KO ZARlC, merchant, married, six children. 31. LjUBO IvOVACEVlC, innkeeper, married, six children. 32. TlMOTlj A SAVIC, landed proprietor and mer- chant, married, seven children. II. RAjKO MARKOVIC, innkeeper, married, five children. 34. TOSO STAiVCIC, peasant, married, six children. 35. A2ANASI/A KOSORIC, priest, widower, four children. Fourteen years: 36. ]OYA'N SIMIC, painter, single. 37. BRA'NKO CUBRILOVIC, medical student, sing-le. 38. M ATI J A MILADINOYIC, married, five children. 39. MAKSIM GIURKOVIC, Deputy and landed pro- prietor, married, seven children. 40. V LADIMIR MATIC, merchant, married, three children. 41. GJORDJE DUJANOVIC, teacher, married, two children. Twelve years : ,^.z. RISTO STEP AN VIC, hair-dresser, married. 43. jOVAN PERENCEVIC, student of law, single. 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 79 lOSIP SIMIC, chauffeur, single. ATANASIIE SOLA, landed proprietor and Deputy, single. JEFTO DUCIC, merchant, single. JOY AN ERIC, smith, married, five children. JAKOV ERIC, farmer, widower, three children. MILAN /OVANOVIC, teacher, married, four children. JEFTO JEFTIC, peasant, married, five children. BOZO RADULOVIC, merchant, married. NEDELjKO VUKADIN, peasant, married, six children. SIMO KOVACEVIC, merchant, married, five children. BOZIDAR ZECEVIC, clerk in the "Slavia" Bank, married. DUSAN SUB OTIC, priest, married, four children. 7^77 ye./us: 56. lOVO BANDjUR, merchant, single. 57. STEVAN NIKOLIC, teacher, single. 58. lOVAN N. POPOV IC, Director in the service of Provincial Government, single. 59. LJUBOMIR MIJATOVIC, solicitor, single. 8o AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. 60. D RAG U TIN DAKIC, peasant, single. 61. PETAR BOZIC, baker, single. 62. SIMO MIRKOVIC, engineer, single. 63. VUKASIN BABUNOVIC, medical student. 64. ATANASIJA KRSTIC, Provincial Government official, married, two children. 65. GJOKO NIKOLIC, peasant, married. 66. MILAN MAISTOROVIC, merchant, married, four children. 67. GJORDJE MIHAJLOVIC, goldsmith, married, four children. 6S. Ml LOS G/URAN, employe of the Prosveta, married, one child. Eight years: 69. DUSAN LUKICy wheelwright, married, two children. 70. STEVO rOMKOVIC, teacher, single. ;[. RAJKO MILAN OVIC. locksmith, married. 72. MILAN KLJAIC, divinity student, single. 73. GJOKAN GJORCIC, farmer, married, four children. 74- DUSAN BOGUNOVIC, teacher, married, one child.' THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 8i 75. lOVAN KALDESIC, farmer, married, five children. Seven years: ;6. VICENTIJA SAVIC, merchant, single. Six years: 77. JOVAN LUKICy valet, widower, four children. 78. STEVO ZAKULA, Director of the Commercial Academy, two children. 79. CEDOMIR JOLIC, merchant, married, three children. 80. VASO MEDAN, curate, married. 81. GJORGJE OBRADOyiC\ bank clerk, single. Five years: 82. Dr. JOVO SIMICy Deputy, engineer, married, one child. 83. /AKOV MLADENOVIC-MILOJCIC, fanner, married, eight children. 84. GAJO DAVIDOVIC, contractor, married, four children. 85. MILAN OBRADOVIC, teacher, widower, four children. 86. KOSTA VUDAKIN, peasant, married. 87. Dr. VLADIMIR COROVIC, Secretary ot the Pro- vincial Museum, married, one child. 82 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. 88. VOJISLAV KECMANOVIC, M.D., married, two children. 8q. I LI J a SAKOTA, merchant, married, two children. 90. VELJKO YUJASINOVIC, secondary school master, married, one child. 91. SAMUJ/LO DAVIC, peasant, single. 92. SPIRO SOLDO, M.A., sing-le. 93- CVJf ITIN BOBAR, peasant, married, five children. Four years: 94. DARINKA MALIC, young girl. Three years: 95. RISTO JEREMIC, M.D., married, two children. 96. Dr. VASILI RUN DO, advocate, married. Tzvo years: 97. LAZAR BAVRLICA, peasant, widower, fom- children. 98. PETAR JOJINOVICy peasant, married, three children. Most of these sentences were inflicted for High Trea- son and being accessory thereto; the comparatively lighter sentences are inflicted for the crimes of espionage and lese-inajeste. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 8^ The Crimes. After having attributed a common intention and action to all the prisoners found guilty, the judgment pro- ceeded to impute special oftences to each of the prisoners or to certain groups of them. The following translation of extracts quoted from the " Hrvatski Djtevnik," the organ of Mgr. Stadler, the Austrophil Archbishop of Sarajevo, we guarantee to be strictly faithful. All the prisoners convicted of High Treason and of being accessory thereto were pronounced guilty of having "desired to change, by violence, the relations and bonds "between the provinces of Bosnia-Hercegovina and the "Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; of having, within the "years from 191 1 to 1914, joined the organisation of the "Serbian revolutionary society Narodna Odbrana in "Belgrade as members thereof and agents in Bosnia- " Hercegovina, ni the full knowledge of the objects of "the society, which contemplated the reunion by force "of Bosnia-Hercegovina with the Kingdom of Serbia, "and, to this end, the rising of these provinces at a "propitious moment, and notably in time of war; and "of having collaborated in this enterprise partaking of "the nature of High Treason." Let us turn to some of the individual charges. Vasilj Grgjic, as we have said, heads the list of those condemned to death. Besides being guilty of the above- mentioned acts, he is also guilty "of having by the "organisation of a revolutionary society, in accord and "understanding with the central management of the 84 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAi. CRIMES. Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade, by acts of espionage, by his activity as secretary of the society Prosveta, with the above-mentioned intention partaking of the nature of High Treason, notably by the dissemination of the organ of this society, viz., its almanac, further- more its books and pamphlets, and by his lectures inciting the Orthodox Serbian population of these pro- vinces to rebellion, propagated the idea of the political union of the entire Serb nation and aroused in it the desire to accomplish it by violence." Nedeljko Zaiic and eight other persons are found guilty of "having, in understanding and accord with the "Serbian officer Kosta Todorovic, served as interme- " diaries for written and oral communications between "the agents of the Narodna Odbrana." Branko Cuhrilovic is found guilty of "having founded "the Srpski SokoL societies, being aware of their aims, "which are of the nature of the above-mentioned High " Treason, and of having been active in them in a manner "systematically revolutionary." (Let us point out that not a word is "above- mentioned" in the judgment concerning the alleged revolutionary aims of the Sokols.) Stevan Nikolic is guilty of "having become a member "of the Srpski Sokol and having been active in it as its "president, being aware of the aim of the society, which "was of the nature of High Treason and of its connection "with the Narodna Odbrana" THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 85 Simon Mirkovic and Dr. Vladimir Corovic are "guilty "of having", the former in his capacity of president of "the Prosveia, and the latter as his secretary, directed "the whole activity of the society towards the object "of inciting the population to revolt by the publica- "tion and dissemination of the organ of the society and "of its almanac, of books and pamphlets, and also by "lectures, calculated to show, on the one hand, the per- "fection, liberty and excellent aspects of the political, "social and economical institutions of the Kingdom of "Serbia, and emphasising, by contrast, the short- " comings, the backwardness, the lack of liberty and "enslavement of the Serb people in the Austro- " Hungarian Monarchy, with the object of arousing in it "contempt, hatred and antipathy towards all that is " Austro-Hungarian, and, contrarily, a fanatical attach- "ment to all that goes on in Serbia; and also with the "object of rendering material assistance to the Serbian "institutions in the province, such as the Sokols and the " PobratimstvoSy although well aware of the connection "of these institutions, through the intermediary of "similar institutions in the Kingdom of Serbia, with the " Narodna Odbrana, and of having, by such action, in "view of the connection of the Prosveta itself with the "Narodna Odbrana, propagated the idea of the political "union of the entire Serb nation and aroused in it the "desire to realise this union by violence." Milutin Jovanovic is guilty "of having, with other "members of the committee of the Reading Club in "Zepce, in 191 4, publicly and in concert with them, with "intent to infringe the homage and veneration due to "His Imperial and Apostolic Royal Majesty, removed 86 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. "his effigy from the reading-room and of having trans- "ferred it to the old kitchen, at this moment used as a "lumber-room." Petar Jajnovic is guilty "of havmg sought by a "widely circulated MS. to incite to hatred and contempt "of His Imperial and Apostolic Royal Majesty, by "exhibiting in the village his notebook containing the "Lord's Prayer written in his own hand and concluding "with the words: 'And lead us not into temptation, but "deliver us from the wily Francis Joseph. . . ." A Short Analysis. Let us now try to sift out the actual meaning of the judgment. The acts for which the prisoners were pro- nounced guilty of High Treason and of being accessory thereto are both collective and individual. All are found guilty of having joined the Narodna Odbrana in Belgrade as members and agents for it in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and of having collaborated in the object of this society, which aims at the insurrection of these provinces and their reunion with Serbia. They are, moreover, guilty: — ' I. — The chief delinquent, of having preached the politi- cal union of the entire Serbian nation, and of having incited the Serb population to revolt; (i) by organising the Prosveta ni concert with the ISJarodna Odbrana of Belgrade. (2) by acts of espionage. THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. Sy (3) by his activity as secretary of the Prosveta, which he carried on in the ideas of the Isarodna Odbrana, notably — (a) by the dissemination of the almanac of the Prosveta and other books and pamphlets. {b) by lectures. II. — One group of delinquents, o£ having served as intermediaries between the agents of the Narodna Odbrana in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Serbian officer (in the Intelligence Department). III. — Anotlier delinquent, of having founded SokoLs and been active in these societies, comformably with their object of High Treason. IV. — Another delinquent, of having, as president, been active in a Sokol while aware of the revolutionary object of the society, and of its connection with the Narodna Odbrana. V. — The president and the secretary of the Prosveta, of having spread the idea of the political unity of the whole Serbian nation and incited the popula- tion to revolt in order to realise it, making use of the Prosveta for the activity, notably — (i) by disseminating the almanac of the society and other books and pamphlets. 88 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. (2) by giving lectures in which — (a) they exalted Serbia and belittled Aus- tria in order to excite a fanatical attachment for the former, and an antipathy towards the latter; and {b) they incited to the giving of contribu- tions to the Sokols and Fobratini- stvos, which societies are affiliated to the Narodna Odbrana, with which the Frosveta itself is connected. Everyone must admit that, from a legal point of view, all this verbiage means nothing, or next to nothing. In the whole trial there is only one thing proved, and that is that the State Prosecutor produced the notebook of a Serbian officer who was killed during the Austrian invasion, and that this notebook contains notes.- which more or less compromise some of the prisoners. We have expressed our well-founded doubts concerning the authenticity of those notes. As regards the alleged revolutionary character of the Narodna Odbrana, it could not be proved, for the very good reason that it does not exist. Consequently, the Frosveta, the Sokols and FobratinistvoS could not be seditious institutions either, by the sole fact of their alleged connection with the 'Narodna Odbrana. Moreover, the judgment never gets away from generalities. It confines itself to stating that so-and-so became a member of a supposed-to-be seditious society or founded similar ones ; that he disseminated books or gave lectures. This is al) the more insufficient, as in Bosnia- THE BANJALUKA TRIAL. 89 Hercegovina all public life, and even private life, is subjected all the time to the closest police surveillance. How are we lo believe, then, that it was possible to carry on for years a revolutionary propaganda by pen and word, by books and lectures, under the very nose of the police ? But what ought to be, above all things, pointed out, is that the judgment does not allege a single concrete fact. One cannot convict a man of theft or murder without giving details of the circumstances which constitute the crime. These circumstantial details are absolutely lack- ing in the judgment. It is obvious that the Serbian population of Bosnia- Hercegovina is in a wretched plight and has only one desire, vis., to free itself from the detested foreign yoke. But not desires — criminal acts alone can be legally judged and punished. If merely a hostile spirit suffices to con- stitute High Treason, then the whole population is guilty. And this, as a matter of fact, is the real opinion of the Austro-Hungarian Government, since it wages a war of extermination against the whole Jugoslav race. These High Treason trials are only a grim parody of justice to get rid of people by' "legal" means whom it was not possible to massacre in any other way. It appears that, even among the Allies, Austria- Hungary has kept alive friendly sympathies, which look upon her survival of the world-war as something possible — or even desirable — because necessary. "Do we not read," they say, "on the front facade of the Vienna Hofburg the sublime words, ' jiistitia Regnorum Funda- ment inn?' Is she not a civilisatory element of peace and justice ? " go AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. The accounts of judicial murders contained in these pages, and which represent only a diminutive fraction of the truth, a feeble echo of the untold sufferings which the Jugoslavs have to endure under the Austro-Hungarian dominion, will, we trust, disillusion the minds of these too guileless souls. And let no one imagine that these abominations should be laid only to Austria's charge, and that the "chivalrous generosity" of the Magyars is uncontaminated by them. Bosnia-Hercegovina is jointly governed by both States of the Monarchy; there- fore, both Austria and Hungary, Germans as well as Magyars, must answer before civilisation and humanity for the crimes committed in their names and by order of their Governments. APPENDIX. One of the Tragicomedies. October 3rd, 191 6, was the opening day of the trial of Stevan Grdjic, retired professor and ex-deputy, brother of the unfortunate Vasilj Grdjic, who was sen- tenced to death in the Banjaluka trial. Professor Grdjic was accused — (i) of attending the memorial sitting of the Diet on the 28th of June, 1914 (the day of the murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand), in a light suit; and (2) of having remained seated and having chatted with a fellow-member when he ought to have been standing during a moment of particular solemnity. APPENDIX. 91 As regards the first part of the charge, Professor Grdjic was able to prove that, owing to his absence from home, the invitation to the extraorcHnary memorial sitting of the Diet did not reach him mitil he had only just time to proceed to the House in the clothes he stood up in, which happened to be light grey. Another deputy, who was in a similar position, and to whom he expressed his regret at not being able to change into suitable attire, reassured him and explained that he had better go in a light suit than sta)- away altogether. As to the second half of the charge. Professor Grdjic denied having behaved in the manner ascribed to him. He was, nevertheless, sentenced to 14 months' hard labour. Now, after the conclusion of the case, the " Bosnische Post" published a letter from the wife of the Deputy Dr. Njezic, with whom Professor Grdjic was supposed to have talked during the memorial sitting; Mrs. Njezic ex- plains that Stevan Grdjic could not possibly have talked with her husband during the sitting in question, as Dr. Njezic himself had not attended it, owing to his absence upon a judicial enquiry in the neighbourhood of Banja- luka. Mrs. Njezic adds that her husband is at this moment prisoner of war in Russia. In view of this statement by Mrs. Njezic, the inflicted penalty seems even more monstrous. Sequel to the Banjaluka Trial. The worst about an Austrian High Treason trial is that it goes on like a hardy perennial, giving rise to others of its kind. As a result of the proceedings in the Banjaluka trial, a large number of fresh suspects 92 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. were arrested, incarcerated, and tried in their turn in Sarajevo. The first detailed account of the proceedings at the trial appeared in the " Agranier Tageblatt" of October 26th. In this report the number of the prisoners is given as 39 Serbs of Bosnia-Hercegovina, and it gives their names, etc., in full. During the preliminary enquiry one of the prisoners died, so that the number of persons actually brought to trial is 38 ; the list contains the names of all who are included in the charge. The Court is composed of Koloman Milpc as Presi- dent, the Judges Ansion and Dr. Mayer Hoffman, Assis- tant Judge Bela Kaszwinski, and the Secretary Vladisa- vljevic. Dr. Wilhelm Konig is again acting as Public Prosecutor, and Mr. Danilo Dimovic and Dr. Vlado Andric are conducting the defence. The indictment runs into 93 printed pages. Among the 39 prisoners, there are 10 merchants, 10 farmers, 4 priests, 2 men of independent means, 2 students, 2 clerks, i usher of the Court, i bank director, I photographer, i schoolboy, i goldsmith, i mason, I agriculturist, i baker, and i servant. The list of prisoners is as follows: — 1. D AMI AN GJURIC, aged 34, father of six children, priest. 2. JAKOV POPADIC, aged 31, blacksmith and merchant. 3. SMO NIKOLIC, aged 39, goldsmith. 4. MILAN HADZI-YUKOVIC, aged 44, merchant. 5. MIL'OS; TOMASEYIC, aged 26, usher of the Court. APPENDIX. 93 IGNJATIJE VIDOVIC, called MARTIC, aged 32, clerk. STOJAN JURISIC, aged 32, father of two children, farmer. VID CRNADAK, aged 43, father of eight children, farmer. RISTO FORCAN, aged 30, father of one child, farmer. MILOVAN 2ARIC, aged 26, mason. PROKO JERKOVIC, aged 30, farmer. MILOS MILOSEVIC, aged 52, merchant. JAKOV PET ROY IC, aged 50, father of two children, farmer. MILAN IVEZIC, aged 20, clerk. RANKO RANKIC, aged 41, father of three children, merchant. VASILI/E IV AN I C, aged 45, father of six children, merchant. NIKOLA POPOVIC, aged 41, father of seven children, agriculturist. DUKA DEJIC, aged 52, father of five children, innkeeper and merchant. KOSTA JOVICIC, aged 22, merchant. MILAN BOZIC, aged 29, father of two children, priest. STEVAN FILIPOVIC, aged 42, father of five children, farmer. MIHAJLO PETROVIC\ aged 29, father of one child, gentleman. 94 x\USTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. ILIJA PETROYIC, aged 36, father of 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 children, gentleman. ILIJA. KULIC, father of two children, farmer. VO/IN PANIC, ag-ed 41, father of one child, merchant. LAZAR MARKOVIC, aged 47, father of two children, priest. RADE I0KIC\ called RAJO. aged 20, servant. MICO MISIC\ aged 26, baker. ALEKSA JOVANOVIC, aged 22, merchant. VASO RISTIC, aged 33, father of four children, bank director. SALIH CI SIC, aged 25, student of philosophy, Mussulman. IBRAHIM ALAJBEGOVIC, aged 25, student of philosophy, Mussulman. "for having from 191 1 until the month of July, 1914, belonged to the organisation of the society Narodna Odbrana (National Defence) with the mtention of alter- ing by force the position and State adherence of Bosnia and Hercegovina towards the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy" ; 33. VLADIMIR GUTESA, aged 19, merchant. 34. PETAR GUTESA., aged 20, University candidate. 35. DUSAN MARJANOVIC, aged 36, father of two children, photographer. 36. MILOVAN GJOKIC, aged 39, father of three children, farmer. APPENDIX. 95 3;. DKAGOMIR CITOJIC, aged 4;, father of four children, priest. 38. GAVRO NOVCIC, aged 45, father of eight children, farmer. 39. GJURA GACIC, aged 38, father of three children, farmer. "for having intentionally omitted to inform the authorities of the action of the prisoners i to 32 inclusive, although their action was known to them." The result of the trial is not yet known. The second edition of the Banjaluka trial will surely be followed by a third, and so on. After a trial lasting five weeks, sentence was pro- nounced on December 5th, 191 6. Nineteen were sen- tenced, the others discharged. Sentenced to death (three): PROKO ]ERKOVIC\ aged 30, farmer. ILIJA PET RO VIC, aged 36, six children. MlHAjLO PETROVlCy independent gentleman, one child. Sentenced to sixteen years' hard labour (tivo): DAM I AN G] URIC A, aged 34, six children, Orthodox Priest. MILAN BOZIC, aged 29, two children, Orthodox Priest. Sentenced to ten years' hard labour (four): MILAN IVEZIC, aged 29, shopman. IGN/ATI/E VIDOVIC, aged 32, tradesman. 96 AUSTRO-MAGYAR JUDICIAL CRIMES. RANKO RANKIC, aged 41, three children, merchant. MICO MiSlCy aged 26, baker. Sentenced io eight years' hard labour (two): VASILIJE IVANICy aged 45, six children, merchant. VAJO PANIC, aged 41, one child, merchant. Sentenced to five years' hard labour (two): I LI] A KULICy aged 27, two children, farmer. SALIH CICIC, aged 25, student, Mussulman. Sentenced to three years' hard labour (one): MILOVAN GJOKIC, aged 39, three children, farmer. Sentenced to iivo years' hard labour (four): ST J AN JURISIC, aged 32, two children, farmer. VID CRNADAK, aged 43, eight children, farmer. VLADIMIR GUTESA, aged 19, merchant. PETER GUTESA, aged 20, student. Sentenced to one year's hard labour (one): ALEX A JOVANOVIC, merchant. As in the chief trial, here too the accusations were founded on events which happened long before the beginning of the war. Thus, the regime of the new Austrian Emperor begins as the other ended : by new and shameful condemnations of innocent men for High Treason and lese-majeste. Printed in Great Britain by Haytiian, Christy ^ L^l^^i, Lid.., London, \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS