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APPENDIX XXVIII

THE SITUATION IN CROATIA [1]

The same century which saw Henry II's expedition to Ireland saw the final union of Croatia with Hungary, whose King could assert the triple claims of conquest, inheritance, and election. For eight centuries the Croats, while recognizing as their Sovereign the wearer of the Crown of St. Stephen, retained a certain, but ill-defined, measure of Home-rule. The Turkish conquest which dismembered Hungary naturally tended to strengthen Croatian autonomy, and this fact was strikingly emphasized when the Diet of Agram accepted the Pragmatic Sanction eleven years before it was sanctioned by the Hungarian Parliament. The eighteenth century closed amid a general revival of national sentiment, and in Croatia this was encouraged by Napoleon's creation of a new Illyrian State, reaching from Laibach to Ragusa. The reality lasted only nine years, under the enlightened rule of Marshal Marmont. The dream still remains, though the name of Illyria vanished in the storms of 1848. Croat nationality, developed by the genius of Louis Gaj, was roused to fever-pitch by the efforts of the Hungarian Diet, led by Kossuth, to impose the Magyar language upon Croatia; and the linguistic monomania of the Magyars, which is unhappily repeating itself to-day, was unques­tionably the reason why all the non-Magyar races of Hungary, above all the Croats under Jellačić, fought on the Austrian side in 1848. During the next twenty years the Croats were subject to Austrian absolutism, which tactlessly wasted the fruits of victory, by alienating all the races that had espoused its cause. After this interlude, the Ausgleich between Hungary and Austria was followed in 1868 by the Ausgleich between Hungary and Croatia. While the Germans in Cisleithania, by the grant of autonomy, won Polish support against the weaker races, the Magyars made sub­stantial concessions to the Croats, in order to obtain a free hand against the five other races of Hungary proper. Then as ever Croatia proved to be the Achilles' heel of Hungary ; and the famous "blank-sheet" which Deák left the Croats to fill in, while characteristic of his generous nature, has served only to whet instead of assuaging the appetite of the Croats. The Croatian Ausgleich is based upon a contract between the Central Parliament and the Diet of Agram, and secures to Croatia complete autonomy in all matters of administration, justice, education, and to some extent even finance. Its main provisions have been summarized on pp. 138-9.

Despite the great services of Bishop Strossmayer and a few others, it cannot be said that Croatia has kept pace with Hungary in the remarkable revival of the past forty years ; but this is perhaps due less to the inferior political talents of the Croats than to back­ward agrarian conditions. Hungary, after acting with generosity in 1868, has steadily favoured the status quo, and has thus created the impression among the Croats that she wished to stem their progress. Since the Ausgleich relations between the two coun­tries have more than once been strained almost to breaking-point, nor has military occupation been unknown ; but despite ominous rumblings, the machine of State has never absolutely refused to move. The system by which Croatia was so long kept within bounds has become identified with the name of Count Khuen Hedérváry, who was Ban from 1885 till the fall of the Liberal Party in 1905. His methods were far from noble, but they were generally effective. He aimed at maintaining a Governmental party in touch with the Liberal Party in Hungary proper and with a majority in the Diet of Agram. This National Party, as it was called, shared the fate of the Hungarian Liberals in 1905-6 and since then chaos has reigned in Croatia.

The responsibility for this state of affairs rests with Mr. Francis Kossuth and Mr. Polónyi (the ex-Minister of Justice), who as leaders of the Independent Party concluded in the autumn of 1905 a pact with the Opposition in the Croatian Diet. This pact, known as the Fiume Resolution, the exact terms of which are still doubtful, was above all else a reckless attempt to overthrow the existing régime in both countries, and in this it succeeded only too well. But the Resolutionists, or Serbo-Croat Coalition as they are now called, did not possess a working majority in the Diet; and progress was made impossible during the winter of 1906-7 by the obstruction of the Starčevič Party. This party, named after its founder, pursues a "Sinn Fein" policy, claiming absolute independence for Croatia (though under Habsburg sway), not recognizing the Hungaro-Croatian Ausgleich, but, unlike its Irish kinsman, allowing its members to take their seats in the Diet.

As if the situation were not lamentable enough already, the Hungarian Coalition in May, 1907, provoked a conflict with the Serbo-Croat Coalition by a new Bill regulating the status of the railway officials. The point at issue was by no means sensa­tional ; but, none the less, it raises the whole question of the Con­stitutional relations of Croatia and Hungary, which has been more or less dormant since 1868. In practice, Magyar, as the language of State, has always been the official language of the railway system of the entire country, but the awkward fact remains that the law recognizes the rights of the Croatian language. The Hungaro-Croatian Ausgleich of 1868 declares (in § 9) the railway system to be one of the "joint affairs" of the two countries, while § 57 recognizes Croatian as the official language for all organs of the joint Government within the bounds of Croatia (and hence also for the railways). Hence the attempt of the new Bill to legalize Magyar as the language of all State railways at once roused the Croats from their tacit recognition, and induced them to insist upon a strict fulfilment of the Ausgleich.

This impasse speedily led to obstruction by the forty Croat dele­gates in the Hungarian Parliament; the Kossuthist Government was hoist with its own petard, and the business of Parliament was at a standstill throughout the early summer. At length the Wekerle Cabinet introduced a law containing a single clause, which autho­rized the Minister of Commerce to enforce the disputed clauses by Ministerial order pending their acceptance by Parliament! The Croats were beaten, but only by a trick of fatal precedent to its inventors ; and the price of victory was the final ruin of the Magyarophil party in Croatia. A Magyar official was appointed Ban, but failed to obtain support from any Croat party; and his successor, Baron Paul Rauch, despite the attendance of whole regiments of troops at the February elections, could only secure the return of a single Unionist! All three heads of his Government (the so-called sectional chiefs) were defeated, and Mr. Supilo, the able Dalmatian journalist who leads the Serbo-Croat Coalition, disposed of an absolute majority in the new Diet. Parliamentary Govern­ment became impossible in Croatia unless the Hungarian Cabinet yielded; and the Diet was consequently prorogued on its open­ing day. Thus Croatia has been governed on Absolutist principles for over a year past, and the Coalition Government is pursuing an exactly identical policy towards Croatia, to that adopted by the Fejérváry Government against the Coalition in 1905.

Baron Rauch, soon after his appointment as Ban, publicly accused the Independent Serb Party (one of the chief parties of the Serbo-Croatian Coalition) of high treason and anti-dynastic tendencies. Its eighteen members thereupon published a manifesto to the nation, calling upon Baron Rauch to bring forward proof of his assertion, as otherwise they would assume him to have "mali­ciously lied, slandered and informed" (April 10, 1908). As Baron Rauch declined either to retract or to make good his accusation, they published a fresh statement declaring their assumption to be correct (April 15). In consequence of this affair one of their num­ber, who was also a professor at Agram University, was placed on the retired list by Rauch's government. Another professor, Dr. Šurmin, who watched a demonstration of students against the Ban without making any attempt to restrain them, was arbitrarily suspended from his chair. The students, by way of protest against this open violation of University autonomy, organized a strike and withdrew to Prague and Vienna, and the lectures were unattended all last summer.

The annexation of Bosnia will bring the Croatian crisis to a head, for the opinion of Agram on a matter of such vital interest to Croatia, cannot be ignored indefinitely.