Politika
- Economic Rapprochement with Hungary
- Before 29 May 1903
- What Is Being Said?
Politika for 28 October 1926 carried an economic column, a historical article and a gossip item. In a signed column, Dr. M. L. reported Hungarian statements offering Hungary as Yugoslavia's economic intermediary with the West, citing old Hungarian ties to Western economic centres, close knowledge of the Yugoslav market, and the claim that the shortest road from the West to the Balkans, and Western capital with it, ran through Hungary. A historical article headed 'Before 29 May 1903' argued that Russia, expecting an early war with Japan, wanted a free hand in the Balkans, where great-power interests reached as far as the Bosphorus and Constantinople. The gossip column 'What Is Being Said?', signed Ibis, joked that members of an Anglo-Yugoslav club had debated whether it was better to be a beggar or a sick millionaire.
The excerpts were read from the page images because the OCR is heavily corrupted. The gossip item has several illegible words, marked [?], and the name of the club is incomplete. Stories cut at tile edges, including the Moscow communist conference, the Prague Senate item and a photo caption, are not translated. The commentary covers the May Coup, the Cincar-Marković government and Politika's own history. The available evidence does not address the 1926 Yugoslav–Hungarian trade negotiations, Lamsdorf's 1903 visit to Niš, Marija Cincar-Marković's memoirs or the Anglo-Yugoslav Club, so those questions have no commentary.
Translation
Economic Rapprochement with Hungary
According to these statements, the Hungarians wish to take on the role of economic intermediary between us and the West, citing their old and extensive ties with Western economic centres as well as their excellent knowledge of our market and our conditions. The Hungarians assure us that the shortest route from the West to the Balkans leads through their country, and that Western capital too would have to come to us by that route, since it "by the very nature of things cannot be sufficiently informed about Yugoslav conditions."
Before 29 May 1903
Therefore — and in unconditional connection with the presentation of the facts set out above, which represent the foreign-policy circumstances and aims of individual great powers, and especially of Russia — it is understandable that the latter, in the event of the anticipated early war with Japan, wanted to have a free hand in the Balkans themselves, from where it could always expect a direct occasion for a European conflict, because the vital interests of certain great powers, as has already been mentioned, were constantly engaged there and, moreover, reached even to the Bosphorus and Constantinople itself.
What Is Being Said?
Members of the Anglo-Yugoslav [?] held a session yesterday at which they [?] on the topic: is it better to be a [?] beggar or a sick millionaire. After [?] and lively discussion, all the members of the club [?] that it is best to be — a [?] millionaire.
Context
What happened on the night of 29 May 1903
The date in the heading refers to the May Coup. By the Old Style dating used in the heading, officers murdered King Alexander I and Queen Draga in the Stari Dvor palace in Belgrade on the night of 28–29 May 1903, which corresponds to 10–11 June in the Gregorian calendar. A group of army officers led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević, known as Apis, organized the killing. Along with the royal couple the conspirators killed Prime Minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković, the army minister Milovan Pavlović and the general-adjutant Lazar Petrović. The coup ended the Obrenović dynasty, which had ruled Serbia since the mid-nineteenth century, and the throne passed to Peter I of the Karađorđević dynasty. Writing twenty-three years later, the article's author does not narrate the night itself in the selected passage. The author places it instead within the diplomacy of the great powers in the period 'before' it.
Why the article looks to Russia
The article explains the background to the coup through the foreign policy of the great powers, above all Russia, and claims that Russia, expecting an early war with Japan, wanted a free hand in the Balkans. That motive is the author's interpretation. Independent accounts establish a narrower framework. Serbia's two rival dynasties had foreign patrons: the Obrenović dynasty had mostly allied with Austria-Hungary, while the Karađorđević dynasty had close ties with Russia and France. Alexander himself changed course between the two powers in his last years. When his unpopular marriage to Draga strained his relations abroad, his foreign policy turned to Russia. Later the tsar refused to receive the king and queen on a planned visit to Russia, and in the autumn of 1902, facing growing hostility from the Russian court, Alexander again tried to approach Austria. These shifts explain why a writer in 1926 looking for the causes of the coup would weigh Russian policy so heavily, although the sources used here do not confirm the specific motive the article attributes to Russia.
Cincar-Marković and the last Obrenović government
Dimitrije Cincar-Marković, the prime minister killed alongside the royal couple, was an army general who had also served as chief of the general staff and taught war history and strategy. Alexander brought him to power after blaming the Radicals for the tsar's refusal to receive the royal couple: in what accounts describe as a new coup, the king installed a government headed by General Cincar-Marković on 6 November 1902. The government's final months included further arbitrary measures; in March 1903 the king suspended the constitution for half an hour. Cincar-Marković's cabinet was thus the last government of the Obrenović period, and its head died with the king on the night the article's heading recalls.
Politika looking back at an event before its own founding
The article revisits an event that Politika itself never reported as news. Vladislav F. Ribnikar founded the paper in 1904, and it launched in January of that year, about seven months after the coup. Its first issue had only four pages and a circulation of 2,450 copies. The First World War then interrupted publication: no issues appeared from 14 November to 21 December 1914, and again from 23 September 1915 to 1 December 1919. By October 1926 the paper had been back in print for less than seven years, and an article like this one gave its readers an account of the last Obrenović years of the Serbian kingdom that the paper had not been able to cover at the time.
Original
Економско зближење с Мађарском
Према тим изјавама Мађари желе, да узму на себе улогу привредног посредника између нас и Запада, позивајући се при том на своје старе и разгранате везе са западним економским центрима као и на своје одлично познавање наше пијаце и наших прилика. Мађари нас уверавају, да најкраћи пут са запада на Балкан води преко њихове земље и да би тим путем имао да дође до нас и западни капитал пошто он " по самој природи ствари не може бити довољно информисан о југославенским приликама ".
Пред 29 мај 1903
Зато, а у безусловној вези са налагањем горе наведених чињеница које представљају спољно-политичке прилике и смерове појединих великих сила, а нарочито Русије, схватљиво је, што је ова последња на случај предвиђаног скорог рата са Јапаном, хтела да има одрешене руке на самом Балкану, одакле је увек могла очекивати непосредни повод европском сукобу, јер су на њему битни интереси извесних великих сила као што је већ било напоменуто, стално били ангажовани, а уз то чак и до самог Босфора и Цариграда допирали.
Шта се говори?
Чланови Енглеско-Југословенског [?] држали су јуче седницу на којој су [?] о теми: да ли је боље бити [?] просјак или болесни милионар. После [?] и живе дискусије, сви чланови клуба [?] су се да је најбоље бити - [?] милионар.