Prager Tagblatt
- Germany Against Military Control.
- The Soviet Mission's Protest Note.
- Italy Protests Against Radić.
The Prager Tagblatt of 14 November 1926 led with a Berlin report: with "Thoiry" now a catchword spoken only skeptically and offering no immediate program, the German Foreign Office was concentrating on the final removal of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission and its replacement by a League of Nations body for disarmament control, amid a somewhat nervous mood in Berlin. The paper also printed a statement from a responsible representative of the Soviet mission rejecting rumors that agents of "mysterious institutions" inside the mission were controlling the plenipotentiary representative's work, and a Belgrade dispatch reporting that the Italian envoy had handed Foreign Minister Ninčić a written protest over Stjepan Radić's attacks and demanded full satisfaction.
Translation
Germany Against Military Control.
Berlin, November 13. Since Thoiry has become a catchword spoken only with skepticism, with no program that could be carried out immediately, the work of the Berlin Foreign Office has turned with heightened zeal toward the final removal of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission and its replacement by a League of Nations commission entrusted with disarmament control. The mood in Berlin is somewhat nervous.
The Soviet Mission's Protest Note.
A responsible representative of the Soviet mission has given us the following information: "We were extremely astonished by the reports that our mission includes representatives of some 'mysterious institutions' that exercise control over the work of the plenipotentiary representative. These rumors are entirely without foundation."
Italy Protests Against Radić.
Belgrade, November 13. The Italian envoy, General Bordero, handed Foreign Minister Ninčić a written protest over the attacks by Stefan Radić. The envoy demands full satisfaction for the insults inflicted on him.
Context
What the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission did, and when it left Germany
The Berlin report describes the German Foreign Office pressing for the "final removal" of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission and its replacement by a League of Nations commission supervising disarmament. The commission was the body through which the post-war peace treaties enforced their military clauses on the defeated Central Powers; among its listed duties was to receive from the state concerned information on the location of stocks and depots of munitions. The goal the paper describes was reached within months: the commission ceased to function in Germany on 28 February 1927, roughly three and a half months after this report, and in Hungary on 31 March and Bulgaria on 1 June of the same year. The paper presents the League replacement as Berlin's aim as of 13 November 1926, not as an agreed arrangement.
A Soviet mission in a Prague that had not yet recognized the USSR
The second item quotes a "responsible representative of the Soviet mission" denying rumors that agents of "mysterious institutions" inside the mission were controlling the work of the plenipotentiary representative. The paper speaks of a mission rather than an embassy, and the diplomatic background matches that wording: the Czechoslovak government recognized the Soviet Union de jure only on 9 June 1934, and the two states signed their alliance treaty in Prague on 16 May 1935. In November 1926, therefore, the Soviet representation in Prague worked without full legal recognition from its host, and this denial was addressed to Prague readers through a local German-language newspaper.
Who Stjepan Radić was when Italy protested
Radić was a Croat politician and co-founder of the Croatian People's Peasant Party, active in Austria-Hungary and then in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In March 1925 his party recognized the Vidovdan constitution before the full parliament, and Radić was made Minister for Education. The Italian protest reported from Belgrade was therefore aimed at a politician who had entered the Belgrade government; the same source notes that Radić resigned his ministerial post in 1926 and returned to the opposition. The dispatch itself does not quote the attacks. Radić's career ended violently less than two years later, when he was shot in parliament by the Radical Party deputy Puniša Račić in 1928.
Italian–Yugoslav relations around the Radić protest
The protest came at a strained point in relations between Rome and Belgrade. The Treaty of Nettuno, signed by the two countries in 1925, was not ratified by the Yugoslav parliament until 1928. Two weeks after this dispatch, Italy and Albania signed a friendship pact on 27 November 1926, which ended the working relationship between Italy and Yugoslavia. Foreign Minister Momčilo Ninčić, the same minister who received General Bordero's written protest, resigned over that pact. The Radić affair reported here thus belongs to the weeks just before a larger break between the two kingdoms.
Original
Deutschland gegen die Militärkontrolle.
Berlin, 13. November. Da Thoiry ein nur noch mit Skeptizismus ausgesprochenes Schlagwort ohne unmittelbar zu realisierendes Programm geworden ist, haben sich die Arbeiten des Berliner Auswärtigen Amtes mit gesteigertem Eifer auf die endliche Beseitigung der interalliierten Militärkontrollkommission und ihre Ersetzung durch eine mit der Abrüstungskontrolle betraute Völkerbundkommission gerichtet. Die Berliner Stimmung ist einigermaßen nervös.
Die Protestnote der Sowjetmission.
Ein verantwortlicher Vertreter der Sowjetmission hat uns folgende Information erteilt: " Wir waren außerordentlich verwundert über die Meldungen, daß sich in unserer Mission Vertreter irgend welcher " geheimnisoollen Institutionen befinden, die eine Kontrolle über die Arbeit des bevollmächtigten Vertreters ausüben. " Diese Gerüchte entbehren jeder Grundlage.
Italien protestiert gegen Radić.
Belgrad, 13. November. Der italienische Gesandte General Bordero überreichte dem Außenminister Nincic einen schriftlichen Protest wegen der Angriffe Stefan Radic '. Der Gesandte fordert volle Genugtuung für die ihm angetanen Beleidigungen.