Toys; Tactics; Tide

Ambitious parents busy themselves in Belgrade trying to wangle their moppets into the Charles Dickens Kindergarten. There they learn from Serbian teachers what passes for English, the tongue in which Boy King Peter and his little brothers Prince Tomislav and Prince Andreja do most of their shouting, squabbling and chattering. Last week the social advantages of being an alumnus or alumna of the Charles Dickens Kindergarten were again evident in Belgrade as news went forth that a dozen scholars had been given a party by King Peter & Brothers at the white marble Dedinje Palace.

"Almost all of our toys are electric," the dazzled Serbian moppets were told by 11-year-old King Peter. An earnest child, His Majesty then sat down at the wheel of his electric automobile, commanded favored child subjects to climb in behind, sedately drove the car around his palace grounds. Meanwhile, 7-year-old Prince Tomislav was out on the Palace lake, piloting other moppets in the King's electric boat. Astonishing, however, was the turn of royal duty done by 6-year-old Prince Andreja. Moppets lisped in Serbian-English after the party that "Pwinth Andwea wode us on the electwic wailway awound and awound and awound."

Meanwhile the Kingdom of Peter was settling down last week under the new Cabinet of Premier Milan Stoyadinovitch. Like nearly all his predecessors, new Premier Stoyadinovitch is of the ruling Serbian caste but pledged to administer Yugoslavia with due regard for her Croat, Slovene, Moslem and other assorted minorities. This time the Moslems have consented to enter His Majesty's Government, with Bosnian Moslem Mehmed Spaho strutting last week as Minister of Communications. The Croats, traditionally suppressed and embittered boycotters of every government at Belgrade, were for once benevolently on the fence, inclined to give Premier Stoyadinovitch a chance to prove his protestations that he is not just another Serbian wolf in politician's clothing. Said the new Premier at his debut last week before the Skupshtina: "The last words of Yugoslavia's great martyred King Alexander constitute my Government's program: 'Protect Yugoslavia!' "

Five thousand strong, a hopeful delegation of Croat peasants meanwhile cheered sexagenarian Croat Leader Vecheslav Wilder who cried: "We have endured seven lean years, given us by the Belgrade Dictatorship, but seven fat years lie ahead!" Seasoned old Croat rebels, such as famed Svetozar Pribitchevitch who now lurks in Paris, meanwhile slipped warning letters into Yugoslavia by secret courier. They feared that the Regent of Yugoslavia, Prince Paul, has developed Nazi leanings and chose M. Stoyadinovitch to be Premier for the purpose of shifting Yugoslavian policy a few points away from Paris and several points nearer Berlin. "Beware!" warned Rebel Pribitchevitch. "The main condition imposed by Germany for co-operation would be Yugoslav acceptance of Austro-German union, which would make Germany our country's neighbor. Germany would obtain hegemony in Central Europe and the Balkans and only a crazy man could believe that Germany would halt at our border. She would continue her march to the Adriatic and Saloniki and Yugoslavia would become her vassal."

Meanwhile hapless Ethiopia last week had made friends out of Yugoslavia and Italy, traditional foes. Needing grain to feed the Italian troops now embarking for Africa, Premier Benito Mussolini is placing huge grain orders in Yugoslavia. At the port and frontier city of Susak, where Italian and Yugoslav guards with fixed bayonets have glared at each other for years across barbed wire entanglements, suddenly last week Yugoslavian wheat began to pour in a golden tide onto Italian ships, paid for with Il Duce's pegged-to-gold lire.

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