''Alexander the Absolute"

"Alexander the Absolute"

(See front cover)

Events strikingly revealed, last week, that Jugoslavia's 12,000,000 citizens are now quietly despotized by one man-- their King. The nation was faced with a problem which most people would refer to their Parliament. But the King has abolished Parliament (TIME, Jan. 14). He has suspended the constitution. Therefore it was Alexander who decided of his sole volition, last week, that Jugoslavia should ratify the Kellogg-Briand peace pact renouncing war (TIME, July 30).

Even in the U. S., where the pact was conceived, it was put through only after a hot fight in the Senate. But at Belgrade the pact was ratified in a few seconds, when Jugoslavia's Dictator-King dashed onto a royal decree his sprawling: "ALEXANDER."

Alert observers who remember all the way back to Jan. 6, 1929, when the King seized his new dictatorial powers, slyly recalled last week that "Alexander the Absolute" was not long since known as "the king who looks like a dentist."

Dentist into Dictator. There was a time when Signor Benito Mussolini looked like a dentist or a dental student. That was before he shaved off his black, toothbrush mustache. Similarly King Alexander used to be of an insignificant appearance. Though his mind and features were slowly maturing, hardening, this change was obscured by the fact that when one beheld the King, one's attention was monopolized by the little tufts of black. Not until the "dentist" put away his "tooth-brush"--not until the historic week when His Majesty w ent to Paris and there shaved off his mustache (TIME, Nov. 26)--did 12,000,000 Jugoslavs begin to recognize that his matured and resolute countenance is that of a dictator (see front cover).

Unquestionably the trip to Paris, where King Alexander conferred secretly with that stern greybeard Prime Minister Raymond Poincare, marked the turning-point in the royal career. Jugoslavia is the "little ally" of France, and the statesmen at Paris have been repeatedly vexed by the notorious instability of the Parliament in Belgrade--an instability which became anarchy last summer when the leader of the opposition, Stefan Raditch, was assassinated on the floor of the House (TiME, July 2). Apparently M. Poincare recommended the kill-or-cure panacea known as a military dictatorship. King Alexander, assured of French backing, went home and sprang his coup royal, with the aid of Jugoslavia's secret military organization, "The White Hand," and its somewhat sinister leader, General Petar Zivkovitch.

Commenting on the situation to a French correspondent, after the coup, His Majesty observed significantly:

"God be thanked, the army in this country is loyal, and in no way engaged in politics. . . . I want my country to benefit later by more just electoral laws, by true parliamentarianism and real democracy. . . . But before this can be attained there must be a period of hard work. . . . We must clean up and reorganize the government, which may take a long time, but I thoroughly believe in our ultimate success. . . If I fail it will be I, and I personally, who am to blame, but with my people behind me I shall not fail!"

Royal Murder. Despite the Dictator-King's democratic remarks, he has appointed Leader of The White Hand General Zivkovitch his Prime Minister. How likely it is that this ruthless militarist will promote democracy appears from his dark record. He was the spruce young lieutenant charged with the personal safety of King Alexander Obrenovitch and Queen Draga, in 1903, when they were foully murdered in the royal bedroom of the old palace at Belgrade.

The present Alexander Karageorgevitch is no kinsman of the murdered Alexander Obrenovitch. For a century past the Karageorgevitches and the Obrenovitches have been snatching from each other the throne. On the night of the murder, the Dictator-King of today was a mere student prince in St. Petersburg, and shortly after ward a page to his Tsaric majesty Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias. Presumably he did not know that Lieutenant Petar Zivkovitch was about to unlock, stealthily, a palace back door in Belgrade, and admit the assassin of Alexander Obrenovitch and Queen Draga. As a Karageorgevitch, however, Dictator-King Alexander can scarcely fail to see in this deed the hand of Divine (Greek Orthodox) Providence. So great indeed is his faith that, upon ascending the throne, he did not hesitate to make General Zivko vitch commander of the royal guard, a post which the general retains today. However, a new palace has been built, and Alexander Karageorgevitch does not sleep in the same royal bed as did murdered Alexander Obrenovitch.

Dictature Consolidated. Throughout the week there were signs that King Alexander and General Zivkovitch are rapidly consolidating their dictature, slowly relaxing their censorship, reorganizing the various ministries of State, ruthlessly suppressing all political opposition.

Telephone censorship was sufficiently relaxed so that one U. S. correspondent actually shouted to his Vienna office from Belgrade certain confirmative details respecting General Zivkovitch's role in the royal murders of 1903. Also the German newspapers Berliner Tageblatt and Vossische Zeitung, which were barred from Jugoslavia for criticizing the dictatorship, are now admitted freely.

As to reorganization of the government, correspondents were regaled with hair-raising disclosures of former graft, plus assurances that wholesale padding of ministerial payrolls has ceased. There are said to have been some 500 government employes in the capital who never had a desk or a chair, and appeared at their offices only on payday. This state of affairs was said to have existed for decades, and through the prime ministry of Monsignor Anton Koroshetz (TIME, Jan. 14), who is now Minister of Transports and Railways.

Technically all political parties have now been suppressed, by royal decree, but in fact the authorities have concentrated on dispersing the Croat Peasant party, which has demanded for Croatia-Dalmatia local autonomy and the status of a dominion (similar to Canada) under the Crown at Belgrade. It was the leader of this party, Stefan Raditch, who was assassinated in the parliamentary chamber last summer. The assassin, Deputy Punica Ratchitch, an ardent supporter of General Zivkovitch, has not yet been brought to trial.

Stefan Raditch's successor as leader of the Croats is Dr. Vladko Matchek. Last week he strove grimly and discreetly to persuade General Zivkovitch not to sup press freedom of speech and assembly utterly in Croatia. Curiously enough, Dr. Matchek favored the dictature when it was first proclaimed, but last fortnight he said:

"The King wiped the slate clean and we rejoiced in the hope that this would open the way to a solution of our difficulties. . . .

"We were quickly disillusioned. . . . The five Croat representatives in the new cabinet have been carefully handpicked, not one of them representing any Croat party organization.

"Our uneasiness has been further augmented in recent days on account of numerous raids on Croat homes and by the fact that all our societies and associations, including choral and gymnastic ones, have been dissolved. This gives us the distinct impression that the new government is directed against us. . . .

" Discoursing upon this subject a few days previously, King Alexander said:

"The ministers that I have chosen are exclusively honest and capable men. There are five Croats in the cabinet, so that that part of the nation cannot claim to be oppressed."

Royal Family. The enthusiasm of Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania for her son-in-law King Alexander is well known. Her Majesty has said:

"I have never known a man who worked so hard. Then, too, he is one of the fastest walkers I know. It is extremely difficult to keep pace with him. All his movements are nervous. . . ."

As a child Prince Alexander was brought up in Geneva--since the Obrenovitches were in power at Belgrade--until he went to St. Petersburg to join the Corps des Pages of the Tsar. He was a younger son, and when his father, Peter I, succeeded the murdered Alexander Obrenovitch in 1903, he had no expectation of reaching the throne ahead of his elder brother Crown Prince George. However, a distressing malady forced Prince George to renounce his right of succession in 1909, and a similar necessity obliged King Peter to appoint Prince Alexander regent on June 24, 1914.

Possibly the young regent did not know that his prime minister, the venerable and scrupulous Nikolai Pashitch, was even then conniving at the prelude to the World War: the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo. The guilt of Pashitch has been affirmed by Ljuba Jovanovitch, the Minister of Education.

When Austria threatened Serbia (now part of Jugoslavia) on account of the assassination, young Regent Alexander sought and received the aid of Tsar Nicholas II, at whose father's court he had been a page. As the Great Powers mobilized (for their various and several reasons), and as the World War burst upon Europe, the wisdom of M. Pashitch's course was seriously in doubt. He lived to see it supremely vindicated, from the Serbian standpoint; for the peace treaties gave to Serbia additional territories of 59,400 square miles, including huge slices of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, and the whole of the little realm of Montenegro.

Not a few historians have held that "Serbia was the only nation which really profited by the War." In 1918 the Serbian throne became that of Jugoslavia, "a little empire"; and on Aug. 16, 1921 Prince Regent Alexander became His Majesty Alexander I, King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Jugoslavs).

A year later King Alexander married Princess Marie of Rumania, daughter of Queen Marie. They have two sons, bonny Prince Peter, 6, and baby Prince Tomislav, 13 months. The King and Prince Peter are extremely popular, notably cheerful. As for Queen Marie of Jugoslavia, she has confided to one or two newspaperwomen, among them the wife of a U. S. novelist famed for flaying Babbitts, much which they have never put into despatches. On Aug. 25, 1926, the Associated Press carried Her Majesty's reply to the question: "How does it feel to be a queen?"

"I can tell you," she said, "there isn't much fun in it! . . . Fate always spoils most of one's dreams."

The correspondent reported that Her Majesty apologized for the condition of the palace. She explained that Prince Peter was playing with a coal-scuttle. Said Her Majesty: "He insists on playing with coal, mud, paint, and everything else he ought not to play with." Changing the subject, she added, "Like my mother, I try to give as much time to charitable and hospital work as I can; but you have no idea how many other things a queen is called upon to do."