The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

and consequently the proceedings were abolished. Not one of the many compromised officials was ever reminded of his responsibility, and some were ostentatiously promoted to rank and honours. But this new persecution inaugurated mainly against the Serbs was intended not only to frighten the Orthodox Serbs but also to create new dissensions between them and Roman Catholics, to whom were made overtures and flattering compliments on their loyalty to the Crown and the State. But the intrigue failed miserably, as the Serbs were not frightened and the Roman Catholics withstood all temptations, completely solidarising themselves with the Serbs, defending the latter during the trial, and openly denouncing the abominable methods of Vienna and Budapest, which though used in our days, were better suited to the time of the Spanish Inquisition. The short-sighted Austrian bureaueracy achieved only negative results: the national unity of the Serbo-Croats was strengthened, their feeling of solidarity enhanced, their disgust at Austria-Hungary’s governing methods increased, and European public opinion at last awoke and began to be interested in the events of that corner, where the darkness of medizval ages until then reigned supreme.

There was always a vacillation and fluctuation in the Hapsburg policy. The end remained always the same but the means of attaining it changed, engendering an ebb and flow of different

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