More Golden Bullets

The docile Cabinet of Alexander, the Dictator King who looks like a dentist, and his big-jowled Premier General Pera Zivkovitch assembled hurriedly at the summer palace last week. King Alexander, sober behind his glittering pince-nez, told them that his three-year Dictatorship was at an end (TIME, Jan. 14, 1929 et seq.). Before the Ministers had recovered from their astonishment. Minister of the Court Jevtitch stood up and read them Jugoslavia's new Constitution. This document was evolved by no convention. It is the handiwork of shrewd King Alexander himself. Points:

The country's official title remains The

Kingdom of Jugoslavia. Voting is to be by secret ballot with universal suffrage for all Jugoslavians over 21.

Parliament will consist of two houses, a Senate and a Skupshtina. Senators must be 40 years of age. will serve six years. Half will be elected by the people, half appointed by the King. Deputies are all elective, will serve four years. Jugoslavia remains divided into the new provinces or Banats. a clever scheme of King Alexander's to break up the old racial groups (TIME, Oct. 14, 1929). But the Governors of the Banats will be given greatly increased powers. Ever-protesting Croatia will resume its old boundaries, with the exception of the old county of Sypmia which continues to be split be tween Neusatz and Nisch. Communists may not organize. Military officers in active service may not run for office. By the next morning excited citizens all over the country were staring at blue, white & red bordered posters announcing the end of the Dictatorship and the terms of the new Constitution. Newspapers could not get out extras fast enough; cafes did a landoffice business. But foreign correspondents, scanning the reports care fully, soon realized that King Alexander was not giving up so much. Strengthened by several members of the last parliamentary regime, the Cabinet he has had through the dictatorship remains in power. The Constitution forbids the organization of racial or religious groups which might threaten his government. There is an at tempt to stop political assassinations by solemnly reviving a 120-year-old law providing that all Senators and Deputies must leave their pistols, their daggers and their bludgeons in a special check room before entering Parliament. What Jugoslavian citizens really receive is an increase in local autonomy, a chance to vote for somebody. Outside pressure had been exerted to bring about this watering of the dictatorship. Within 24 hours the world press was calling it "another victory for France's golden bullets."

Jugoslavia is one of France's firmest allies, one of her greatest debtors. Last May French bankers lent Jugoslavia $42,000,000. Within the past two or three months King Alexander has sought another loan. French bankers, listening to promptings from the Quai d'Orsay. replied that the efficacy of the large, well-paid Jugoslavian army was seriously damaged by Croat and Slovene plottings, that the dictatorship must be ended in order to bring these recalcitrants into line before the money bags jingled again. President Thomas Masaryk and Foreign Minister Edouard Benes of Czechoslovakia, another of France's allies, were equally insistent.

Reporters cast a speculative eye last week at General Pera Zivkovitch. King Alexander's permanent Premier. Wilhelm of Hohenzollern used to refer to Belgrade as "that nest of assassins." No one has ever accused him openly, but it is a well-known Belgrade legend that 28 years ago Lieut. Pera Zivkovitch was the young officer who unlocked a back door in the palace of his Sovereigns, King Alexander Obrenovitch & Queen Draga, and let in the assassins who killed them in their sleep, thus allowing King Peter I, Alexander's father, to ascend the throne.

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