THE NEW YUGOSLAVIA. BELGRADE CHANGES. „GROWING PAINS.“

Belgrade is an encouraging sight to anyone accustomed to the comparative stagnation of most of the post-war capitals of Central Europe. Reconstruction hits one in the eye.

The high ridge between the Save and the Danube on which the city stands is dotted with great piles of scaffolding and masses of new bricks and mortar. There are to be over 4,000 new buildings of more than three storeys completed this year alone. If one remembers that Belgrade was taken and retaken twice during the war, and partially destroyed by bombardment, and that roughly a quarter of the whole population of Serbia was wiped out, this creative energy says a great deal for the recuperative powers of the nation. Building activity is quite as much in evidence at Zagreb [Agram], the capital of Croatia, and the second largest town in the kingdom. A humdrum provincial town before the war, Zagreb is now fast adapting itself to become the commercial centre of Yugo-Slavia. A whole new business quarter is springing up, composed of one enormous office block after another.

Building enterprise in Yugo-Slavia is not hampered by the rent restrictions which have strangled it in such countries as Austria and Poland, and as there is plenty of building material to hand, house property is a favourite line for speculative investors. If you own a building plot in an eligible part of Belgrade, for instance, a building syndicate will put you up a block of flats which will become your property in 10 years. The syndicate reckons on making an ample profit out of the rents in the meantime.

OBSTINATE QUESTIONS.

This impression of energy and vitality, suggesting growth and consolidation in the new State, is not altogether an illusion, but its effect is profoundly modified by a number of questions which any visitor is soon compelled to ask himself and others about conditions of life in Yugo-Slavia. Why is it that, while most of the currencies of the new Central European States are on the mend, the dinar, which till the middle of last year stood at about 120 to the pound, has now fallen to 360 or more and is still dropping? Why does Yugo-Slavia, with 80 per cent of its population engaged in agriculture, have to import grain to feed itself? Why in such a purely agrarian country were over 50 Communists elected to Parliament, and why after the Communist Party had been declared illegal are these 50 or more constituencies left without representation? Why is it that 63 Croatian Deputies have refused to take their places at a protest against the Government’s methods? Why is the Government so shy of letting casual strangers visit any part of the country except Belgrade?

The answers to these questions have to be sought in all directions.

It must be made clear, in the first place, that the Serbs are the dominating partner in the Kingdom. Bosnia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Carniola, Slavonia, all the former Austro-Hungarian provinces, are governed by officials nominated from Belgrade. The two main Government parties are essentially Serbian parties. The Army is officered by Serbs. All the losses and disabilities and difficulties which the Serbs inherited from the war are multiplied now that Serbia has spread itself over a country three times its former size. Enormous quantities of materials have to be imported for purposes of reconstruction. The export trade is hampered by bad railway communications, also mainly a heritage of the war, and the transport difficulty is increased by the fact that the northern part of the country has been deprived, up to the present, of its natural port, Fiume. On top of this the Government has made a mess of the land reform. By planting peasant soldiers from the highlands of Serbia on the immensely rich lands of the Banat and the Batchka, which depend for their fertility on an elaborate system of drainage, it has temporarily ruined one of its wealthiest resources.. Yugo-Slavia’s neighbours, Magyars, Bulgarians, Italians, make the most of these troubles.   

INEFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION.

Bad administration is the most important cause of the country’s troubles. There are, to start with, at least twice as many officials as are required. Their salaries account for a good haf of the budget, the Army being responsible for another quarter. The bureaucracy is corrupt and inefficient for the reason that it is used by the Government as a means of providing favours for those who have served it well. The more lucrative and influential posts are divided between the different Government parties in proportion to their numerical strength. One of the advantages to the Government of a centralized system, such as M. Pashitch has suceeded in introducing, is that it increases the number of posts which can be bestowed on faithful supporters. Such a use of the public services is fatal to their efficiency. Financial reform is almost impossible in these conditions.

The peasant chafes bitterly under this regime, be he Serb or Croat, Bosnian or Slovene. The Radicals and Democrats, the two chief Government parties are mainly drawn from the towns, so that the peasant’s interests are neglected, though he is 80 per cent of the population. Incompetence in the management of the Government monopolies prevents him from getting his salt, sugar, oil, and spirits. He has to bribe the police and gendarmes if he wants to be left in peace. The non-Serbians resent having to do their military service outside their own country. Critics of the Government’s financial policy point to the fact that the peasant’s taxes are no heavier than they were before the war, in spite of the change in values, and that he can pay them now by selling a couple of fowls, where before they used to cost him a cow. But the present Government at any rate will not dare to raise them in the face of the grumbling which already comes from the country. The discontent of the peasantry under misgovernment is at the bottom of the Croatian separatist movement and of most of the Government’s nervousness about Communist and Hungarian agitators.

At the root of the whole matter are the corruption and intrigue which the new State has received into its system as a legacy from Balkan politics. A tortuous chain of feuds and conspiracies between the chief personalities in politics, the Army, and the Court marks the last epoch of Serbia’s history. It culminated in the shameful political trial which took place at Salonika in 1916. These past events are now like shackles on the progress of the Triune Kingdom. Personal considerations dominate politics. Partisanship and place-seeking play such a part that hundreds of gifted and honourable men simpy refuse to take public employment. These traditions will have to be shaken off if the country is to stand a chance of consolidation and healthy development.