Part 16 (1/2)
_The a.s.sertion of the Royal Servian Government that the expressions of the press and the activity of Servian a.s.sociations possess a private character and thus escape governmental control, stands in full contrast with the inst.i.tutions of modern states and even the most liberal of press and society laws, which nearly everywhere subject the press and the societies to a certain control of the state. This is also provided for by the Servian inst.i.tutions. The rebuke against the Servian Government consists in the fact that it has totally omitted to supervise its press and its societies, in so far as it knew their direction to be hostile to the monarchy._
The Royal Government was therefore painfully surprised by the a.s.sertions that citizens of Servia had partic.i.p.ated in the preparations of the outrage in Sarajevo. The Government expected to be invited to cooperate in the investigation of the crime, and it was ready in order to prove its complete correctness, to proceed against all persons in regard to whom it would receive information.
_This a.s.sertion is incorrect. The Servian Government was accurately informed about the suspicion resting upon quite definite personalities and not only in the position, but also obliged by its own laws to inst.i.tute investigations spontaneously. The Servian Government has done nothing in this direction._
According to the wishes of the I. and R. Government, the Royal Government is prepared to surrender to the court, without regard to position and rank, every Servian citizen, for whose partic.i.p.ation in the crime of Sarajevo it should have received proof. It binds itself particularly on the first page of the official organ of the 26th of July to publish the following enunciation:
”The Royal Servian Government condemns every propaganda which should be directed against Austria-Hungary, i. e. the entirety of such activities as aim towards the separation of certain territories from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and it regrets sincerely the lamentable consequences of these criminal machinations.”
_The Austrian demand reads_:
”_The Royal Servian Government condemns the propaganda against Austria-Hungary_....”
_The alteration of the declaration as demanded by us, which has been made by the Royal Servian Government, is meant to imply that a propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary does not exist, and that it is not aware of such. This formula is insincere, and the Servian Government reserves itself the supterfuge for later occasions that it had not disavowed by this declaration the existing propaganda, nor recognized the same as hostile to the monarchy, whence it could deduce further that it is not obliged to suppress in the future a propaganda similar to the present one_.
The Royal Government regrets that according to a communication of the I.
and R. Government certain Servian officers and functionaries have partic.i.p.ated in the propaganda just referred to, and that these have therefore endangered the amicable relations for the observation of which the Royal Government had solemnly obliged itself through the declaration of March 31st, 1909.
The Government ... identical with the demanded text.
_The formula as demanded by Austria reads_:
”_The Royal Government regrets that Servian officers and functionaries ... have partic.i.p.ated_....”
_Also with this formula and the further addition ”according to the declaration of the I. and R. Government”, the Servian Government pursues the object, already indicated above, to preserve a free hand for the future_.
The Royal Government binds itself further:
1. During the next regular meeting of the Skuptschina to embody in the press laws a clause, to wit, that the incitement to hatred of, and contempt for, the monarchy is to be must severely punished, as well as every publication whose general tendency is directed against the territorial integrity of Austria-Hungary.
It binds itself in view of the coming revision of the const.i.tution to embody an amendment into Art. 22 of the const.i.tutional law which permits the confiscation of such publications as is at present impossible according to the clear definition of Art. 22 of the const.i.tution.
_Austria had demanded_:
_1. To suppress every publication which incites to hatred and contempt for the monarchy, and whose tendency is directed against the territorial integrity of the monarchy._
_We wanted to bring about the obligation for Servia to take care that such attacks of the press would cease in the future._
_Instead Servia offers to pa.s.s certain laws which are meant as means towards this end, viz.:_
_a) A law according to which the expressions of the press hostile to the monarchy can be individually punished, a matter, which is immaterial to us, all the more so, as the individual prosecution of press intrigues is very rarely possible and as, with a lax enforcement of such laws, the few cases of this nature would not be punished. The proposition, therefore, does not meet our demand in any way, and it offers not the least guarantee for the desired success._
_b) An amendment to Art. 22 of the const.i.tution, which would permit confiscation, a proposal, which does not satisfy us, as the existence of such a law in Servia is of no use to us. For we want the obligation of the Government to enforce it and that has not been promised us._
_These proposals are therefore entirely unsatisfactory and evasive as we are not told within what time these laws will be pa.s.sed, and as in the event of the notpa.s.sing of these laws by the Skuptschina everything would remain as it is, excepting the event of a possible resignation of the Government._
2. The Government possesses no proofs and the note of the I. and R.
Government does not submit them that the society Narodna Odbrana and other similar societies have committed, up to the present, any criminal actions of this manner through anyone of their members. Notwithstanding this, the Royal Government will accept the demand of the I. and R.
Government and dissolve the society Narodna Odbrana, as well as every society which should act against Austria-Hungary.