Politika
- Ceremonial Reception in the National Assembly
- The Sitting
Politika gave a page to the Czechoslovak parliamentary delegation's reception at the National Assembly in Belgrade. One report described how the Assembly's presidency, helped by police commissioner Đokić, prepared a festive welcome: admission tickets were rationed through the parliamentary clubs, a police clerk and a cordon of gendarmes kept order outside from early morning, and the courtyard was hung with greenery, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak flags and strings of electric lights. A second item printed part of the sitting itself, in which the presiding speaker announced the death of deputy Dragoljub Radojević and then set routine business aside, hailing the visit of the 'brotherly' Czechoslovak people's representatives as a rare and splendid day and invoking the custom of suspending a sitting as the highest honour. The page also showed the cover of the Czechoslovak address and photographs. This reading covers the opening portions of the two items and does not describe the photographs.
This reading covers the opening portions of two items: the report on preparations for the reception and the start of the sitting's proceedings. The OCR candidates were garbled and were not used. Body columns at the tile edges are cut off, the lettering on the address title page is unclear, and the bottom row is almost entirely photographs, which are not described here. Two unclear words are marked [?]. The research did not establish why the Assembly adjourned until 12 October, who presided at the sitting, or what the Czechoslovak address said, so the commentary does not discuss these points.
Translation
Ceremonial Reception in the National Assembly
The cover of the Czechoslovak address
The Presidency of the National Assembly, with the help of the diligent police commissioner Mr. Đokić, strove with all its might and took every measure to make the welcome of our Czechoslovak brothers as festive and cordial as possible. A large number of the public wished to attend this ceremonial sitting, but the number of admission tickets was limited and they were given to the presidents of the clubs to distribute. In front of the Assembly building, from early morning, a police clerk with a cordon of gendarmes kept the strictest order. The courtyard and the vestibule of the National Assembly were decorated with greenery and with our flags and Czechoslovak flags. Electric bulbs [?] were strung all through the courtyard and made a pleasant picture.
The Sitting
[?] that our colleague Dragoljub Radojević has passed away. (Unanimous cries: Glory to him!) May God rest his soul! (Unanimous response: May God rest his soul!) Gentlemen, deputies of the nation, now that the minutes of the previous sitting of the Assembly have been read, under the Rules of Procedure we ought to proceed to the announcement of the documents that have reached the National Assembly. But, gentlemen, deputies of the nation, today we have a wonderful and rare day; today we have, indeed, a splendid celebration — the visit of the parliamentary representatives of the Czechoslovak people, our brothers. (Lively applause and stormy cries: Long live!) It is our parliamentary custom to show special respect and to pay the highest honour by interrupting or suspending a sitting of the Assembly. And since the arrival
Context
A ten-day parliamentary tour, 2–12 October 1926
The reception Politika described was one stop on a tour of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by a delegation of the Czechoslovak National Assembly, which a photograph album that Princeton believes to be official dates to 2–12 October 1926. Princeton University Library's Graphic Arts Collection, which holds that album, says about seventy members of the Czechoslovak parliament made the trip and visited several towns. In Belgrade they called at the parliament and laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Hero on Avala hill. The 5 October issue thus reported from the first days of the tour. Princeton also describes the trip as a return visit: in 1922 a delegation of the Yugoslav parliamentary group had toured the National Assembly, the Senate and Prague Castle in Prague. The Belgrade sitting was thus the second half of a parliamentary exchange, and the speaker marked it in the Assembly's customary way, by setting aside the sitting's routine business.
The Little Entente and the fear of Hungarian revision
The warmth of the Belgrade sitting rested on an alliance. Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formed the Little Entente in 1920 and 1921 for common defence against Hungarian revisionism and against the prospect of a Habsburg restoration in Austria or Hungary. Any Hungarian attempt to recover lost lands or to restore the dynasty therefore touched each of the three partners. A parliamentary visit between two members of this bloc was also a public demonstration that the post-war settlement had friends in both capitals. When the speaker called the Czechoslovaks a 'brotherly' people, he was speaking within this framework of shared security as well as shared sentiment.
Treaties signed in Belgrade in 1920 and 1922
The two states that met in the Assembly chamber in October 1926 were already bound by treaties concluded in Belgrade itself. A collective defence arrangement between Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was signed in Belgrade on 14 August 1920. A further treaty between the two countries was signed in Belgrade on 31 August 1922, the same year the Yugoslav parliamentary delegation went to Prague. By the time of this sitting, the guests and their hosts had been formal allies for six years, and the visit gave elected deputies, not only foreign ministers and diplomats, a direct part in that relationship.
Two Slavic successor states and a new Czechoslovak mission building in Belgrade
The language of brotherhood in both articles drew on a common origin. Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were each created as a union of smaller Slavic peoples, and both emerged from the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, a multinational empire. Czechoslovakia was also building a lasting presence in the Yugoslav capital: in 1923 it bought a plot on Bulevar kralja Aleksandra for a new diplomatic mission, and the cornerstone of the building was laid on St Wenceslas's Day in 1925, a year before this visit. The ceremony Politika described, with Yugoslav and Czechoslovak flags side by side in the Assembly courtyard, belonged to this period of deliberate cultivation of ties between the two new states.
Original
Свечани пријем у Народној Скупштини
Корице чехословачке адресе Председништво Народне Скупштине уз помоћ вредног полицијског комесара г. Ђокића трудило се свим силама и предузело све мере да дочек наше браће Чехословака буде што свечанији и срдачнији. Велики број публике желео је да присуствује овој свечаној седници, али број улазница био је ограничен и дат је председницима клубова да их они разделе. Пред скупштинском зградом већ рано ујутру један полицијски писар са кордоном жандарма одржавао је најстрожији ред. Авлија и предворје Народне Скупштине били су искићени зеленилом, нашим и чехословачким заставама. Електричне сијалице [?] биле су испреплетене по целоме дворишту и давале једну пријатну слику.
Седница
[?] да је наш друг Драгољуб Радојевић преминуо. (Сложни узвици: Слава му!) Бог да му душу прости! (Сложан одзив: Бог да му душу прости!) Господо народни посланици, пошто је прочитан записник прошлог скупштинског састанка, требало би по Пословнику прећи на саопштење аката, која су стигла Народној Скупштини. Али господо народни посланици, ми данас имамо један диван и редак дан, ми данас имамо управо једну красну свечаност - посету парламентарних представника братског нам чехословачког народа. (Живо пљескање и бурни узвици: Живели!) Наш је парламентарни обичај, да прекидањем или обустављањем скупштинске седнице одајемо нарочито поштовање, указујемо највећу почаст. А како долазак