The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

to realise such a lofty ideal, did not prosper, or at least did not develop her economic and commercial resources at the rate of the neighbouring countries. Even little Serbia, assailed by so many evils, hampered by so many obstacles, could fairly compare her progress to that of Bosnia, Hercegovina and Dalmatia since they had passed into Austrian occupation. Austria’s population, not only from the rocky Dalmatian coast, but even from the rich Hungarian and Galician plains, emigrated to America and Australia. Her ports remained idle, her large navigable rivers carried a very limited traffic, her inhabitants throughout the Empire were wasted by poverty, and dissatisfaction was general. There was no province, no nation and no class in this vast Empire where people felt happy or contented.

There is a strange and incurable disease in the body politic of the Danubian Monarchy. The most degrading oppression, the least justifiable exaction, sheer injustice, the cynical denial of any right of citizenship are always cloaked by a form of legality and law-prescribed procedure. Every student of it may see how there is a State endowed with every modern institution warranting the freedom of the citizens and yet governed by police which disposes over the liberty and honour of every subject of the Empire. There are Parliaments, obviously for the purpose of safeguarding the constitutional rights of citizens

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