Repository: UIHistories Project: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 18 [PAGE 6]

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their racial characteristics are tnc same; they have suffered together, a n j together they must be free. In July of 1917, authorized representatives of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes issued an official statement through the Serbian Press Bureau on the Island of Corfu in which they affirm that " the desire of our people is to free itself from all foreign oppression and to constitute itself into a free, national, and independent state, based on the principle that every people is free to govern itself " The declaration then describes the "modern and democratic principles" on which this state shall be founded. Jugoslavia, according to this programme, shall be "a constitutional, democratic, and Parliamentary Monarchy," with the Serbian dynasty for its royal house. It is to include "all the territory where our nation lives in compact masses and without discontinuity, and where it could not be mutilated without injuring the vital interests of the community." Equality before the law, religious toleration, and universal suffrage are likewise proclaimed. A year later, Jugoslavs in America had a great celebration at Washr ington, the principal feature of which w as the raising of a Jugoslav flag an emblem on which were interlaced the Arms of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Prominent natives made speeches befitting the great occasion; peculiarly significant among the addresses was the stirring appeal for an oath of allegiance to the new banner urged upon all Jugoslavs present, by Don Niko Grskovitch, President of the Croatian League of America. In September, 1918, the J body ethnically they are one nation, and that they base their national rights and claims on that fact. Accepting entirely the principle of self determination, they demand for themselves "a peace which shall bring us union, independence, and liberty." Since this important step, the state of Jugoslavia has been rapidly taking shape. Late in November the National Council at Agram appointed Prince Alexander of Serbia as Regent. A State Council, comprising all the members of the Agram Council, fifty delegates from Serbia, and five from Montenegro, was. summoned to meet at Sarajevo, and appointed a Jugoslav cabinet. As ^ n as conditions are settled enough, elections are to be held for a Constituent Assembly which is to sit at Sarajevo, determine the form of state to be set up, and adopt a constitution. The fundamental irreconcilability between all this development and the Italian programme

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