CHAPTER III THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANCIS FERDINAND THE year 1914, as has already been shown, found Austria-Hungary and Serbia living on terms that are unsafe for neighbors, Public sentiment was inflamed in both countries and there was a danger that some unusual occurrence would cause an outburst of feeling and bring on war. The event that fanned the smoldering hatred into a flame was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heirapparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary. The crown prince and his wife were killed on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, by the explosion of a bomb thrown by two Serbian subjects of Austria-Hungary. "No crime," says the British White Paper, "has ever aroused deeper or more general horror throughout Europe; none has ever been less justified. Sympathy for Austria was universal." 1 The crime owes its significance to the feeling aroused in Austria-Hungary and Serbia by it; 1 B. W. P., iii. 43 to the alleged complicity of the Serbian people and Government in the crime; and to Serbia's inability or refusal to satisfy Austria-Hungary as to reparation and guarantees for the future. According to Austrian sources, public sentiment in Serbia approved the deed of the assassins. The people rejoiced over it as an act of "revenge for the annexation" and hoped that it would prove to be the initial step in a movement that would ultimately lead to "the detachment from the Dual Monarchy of all territories inhabited by South-Slavs and the eventual destruction of that monarchy as a great power. Manifestations of joy and exultation were reported from Belgrade,3 Nish, and Uskub, the populace at the last named place giving "itself up to a spontaneous outburst of passion." 5 4 The press of Serbia was also charged with responsibility for "the outrage of Sarajevo,' because the public mind had been inflamed by the propaganda conducted by it against Austria in the interest of the "Great Serbian" cause. This propaganda had not been confined to Serbia but had also been carried on, it is alleged, in the Serbian districts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The Austrian Red Book gives extracts from twenty-six Serbian newspapers commenting on the assassination to show the 2 A. R. B., 1, 6. 5 Ibid., 3. attitude of the press toward this crime. These press extracts breathe a very hostile feeling toward Austria, but no one of them attempts to justify the murder. The statements that come nearest to a justification of this act are the following: The Piemont of July 1 said: The fact that Princip [one of the assassins] carried out his act of vengeance on the sacred national holiday of Vidovdan [St. Vitus Day], the day fixed for the carrying on of maneuvers, makes the desperate deed of the young martyr appear more intelligible and natural. [The paper was confiscated by the police because of this article, but the confiscation was annulled on the following day by the Belgrade court of first resort.] The Pravada of July 4 said: All murders and attacks heretofore committed in Austria have had one and the same origin. The oppressed peoples of the monarchy were obliged to resort to this kind of protest, because no other way was open to them. In the chaos of a reign of terror it is natural and understandable that the era of murderous attacks should become popular. The Mali Journal of July 7 said: A scion of the Middle Ages was murdered in Sarajevo a few days ago. He was murdered by a boy who felt the suffering of his enslaved fatherland to the point of paroxysms of emotion-the suffering which the despoilers of the lands of his fathers had inflicted upon it. What has official Austria-Hungary done thereafter? It has replied with general mas7 A. R. B., 19, enclosure 9. |