THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN DISPUTE EXTRACT FROM TREATY OF BERLIN 1 ARTICLE XXV. The Provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary. The Government of Austria-Hungary, not desiring to undertake the administration of the Sandjak of Novi-Bazar, which extends between Servia and Montenegro in a southeasterly direction to the other side of Mitrovitza, the Ottoman Administration will continue to exercise its functions there. Nevertheless, in order to assure the maintenance of the new political state of affairs, as well as freedom and security of communications, Austria-Hungary reserves the right of keeping garrisons and having military and commercial roads in the whole of this part of the ancient Vilayet of Bosnia. To this end the Governments of Austria-Hungary and Turkey reserve to themselves to come to an understanding on the details. SECRET APPENDIX TO THE TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP AND ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF BULGARIA AND THE KINGDOM OF SERVIA 2 Signed at Sofia, February 29, 1912 ARTICLE I. In case internal disorders arise in Turkey, of such a character as to endanger the national or state interests of the contracting parties, or of one of them, as for instance in case Turkey should find itself beset by internal or external difficulties which might involve the maintenance of the status quo in the Balkan Peninsula, the first of the contracting parties to arrive at the conviction that military action should be taken on this account, shall make a statement, giving the reasons therefor, to the other party which shall be bound to enter immediately upon an exchange of views, and if the latter party does not agree with its ally, shall give to the ally an answer stating the reasons. If an agreement is arrived at, this agreement shall be communicated to Russia, and in case that Power does not oppose it, the action shall be undertaken in accordance with the agreement which has been reached, and in accordance with the sentiments of unity and community of interests. In the contrary case, - if an agreement is not reached, the two states shall appeal to the opinion of Russia, which opinion shall, so far as Russia shall pronounce the same, be binding upon the two parties. In case Russia does not give its opinion and an agreement between the two contracting parties cannot, even after that, be reached, and in case the party which is in favor of action decides to pursue such action alone and at its own risk, the other party shall be obliged to observe a friendly neutrality towards its ally, to proceed at once to mobilize its troops within the 1 Foreign Relations of United States, 1878, p. 901. • American Journal of International Law, Supplement, vol. 8 (1914), pp. 3–5. limits provided by the military convention, and to go to the assistance of its ally with all its power, if a third state takes the part of Turkey. ARTICLE II. All territorial additions which may be secured by common action as provided in articles one and two of the treaty and article one of this secret appendix thereto, shall be under the common dominion (condominium) of the allied states. The division thereof shall be made without delay within the maximum period of three months after the reestablishment of peace and upon the following bases: Servia recognizes the right of Bulgaria to territories to the east of the Rhodopes and the Struma River; Bulgaria recognizes the rights of Servia to those situated to the north and west of Char-Planina. As regards territories situated between the Char, Rhodopes, the Ægian Sea, and Ochrida Lake, if the two parties reach the conclusion that it is impossible because of the common interests of the Bulgarian and Servian nations, or for other reasons of domestic or foreign affairs, to organize these territories as a separate autonomous province, they shall be disposed of according to the following provisions: Servia agrees not to lay any claim to the territory situated beyond the line traced upon the annexed map, starting from the Turkish-Bulgarian frontier at Mt. Golem (to the north of Kr. Palanka) and following a generally southwesterly direction to Ochrida Lake, passing Mt. Kitka, between the villages of Metejeve and Podarji-kon, by the summit to the east of the village of Nerav, and following the watershed to the peak of 1,000, north of the village of Baschtêvo, between the villages of Liubentzi and Petarlitza, by the peak Ostrich 1,000 (Lissetz-Planina), the peak 1,050 between the villages of Dratch and Opila, by the villages of Talichmantzi and Jivalevo, the peak 1,050, the peak 1,000, the village Kichali, the principal line of the Gradichté-Planina watershed to the peak Goritchté, to the peak 1,023, following then the watershed between the villages of Ivankovtzi and Loghintzi, through Vetersko and Sopot on the Vardar. Crossing the Vardar, it follows the ridges toward the peak 2,550 and as far as Mt. Petropole, along the watershed of this mountain between the villages of Krapa and Barbares to the peak 1,200, between the villages of Yakryenovo and Drenovo, to Mt. Tchesma (1,254), along the watershed of the mountains BabaPlanina and Krouchka-Tepessi, between the villages of Salp and Tzerske, to the summit of Protoyska-Planina, to the east of the village of Belitza, through Bréjani to the peak 1,200 (Ilinska-Planina), along the line of the watershed passing the peak 1,330 to the peak 1,217 and between the villages of Livoichta and Gorentzi to Lake Ochrida near the monastery of Gabovtzi. Bulgaria agrees to accept this frontier if His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, who shall be asked to be the final arbitrator of this question, decides in favor of this line. It is understood that the two contracting parties agree to accept as the final frontier the line which His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, within the above indicated limits, may find to correspond the closest to the rights and interests of the two parties. ARTICLE III. A copy of the treaty and of this secret appendix thereto shall be communicated together to the Imperial Government of Russia, which shall be asked at the same time to take note thereof, as a proof of the good intentions of the parties thereto in connection with the purposes sought by them, and with the request that His Majesty the Emperor of Russia deign to accept and approve the powers attributed to himself and his government in the provisions of these two documents. ARTICLE IV. Every difference which shall arise concerning the interpretation and execution of any of the provisions of the treaty, of this secret appendix, and of the military convention, shall be submitted to Russia for final decision, as soon as one of the two parties shall have declared that it believes it impossible to reach an agreement by direct negotiations. ARTICLE V. None of the provisions of this secret appendix shall be published or communicated to another Power without a prior agreement thereon by the two parties hereto and the consent of Russia. Done at Sofia, February 29, 1912. NOTE ADDRESSED TO THE SERVIAN GOVERNMENT ON the 31st March, 1909, the Servian Minister in Vienna, on the instructions of the Servian Government, made the following declaration to the Imperial and Royal Government: "Servia recognizes that the fait accompli regarding Bosnia has not affected her rights, and consequently she will conform to the decisions that the Powers may take in conformity with Article 25 of the Treaty of Berlin. In deference to the advice of the Great Powers, Servia undertakes to renounce from now onwards the attitude of protest and opposition which she has adopted with regard to the annexation since last autumn. She undertakes, moreover, to modify the direction of her policy with regard to AustriaHungary and to live in future on good neighborly terms with the latter." The history of recent years, and in particular the painful events of the 28th June last, have shown the existence of a subversive movement with the object of detaching a part of the territories of Austria-Hungary from the Monarchy. The movement which had its birth under the eye of the Servian Government, has gone so far as to make itself manifest on both sides of the Servian frontier in the shape of acts of terrorism and a series of outrages and murders. Far from carrying out the formal undertakings contained in the declaration of the 31st March, 1909, the Royal Servian Government has done nothing to repress these movements. It has permitted the criminal machinations of various societies and associations directed against the Monarchy, and has tolerated unrestrained language on the part of the press, the glorification of the perpetrators of outrages, and the participation of officers and functionaries in subversive agitation. It has permitted an unwholesome propaganda in public instruction, in short, it has permitted all manifestations of a nature to incite the Servian population to hatred of the Monarchy and contempt of its institutions. 1 B. W. P. no. 4. In the French Yellow Book, no. 75, will be found the memorandum of the Austro-Hungarian Government giving the reason for its action. See also Austro-Hungarian Red Book, no. 19. This culpable tolerance of the Royal Servian Government had not ceased at the moment when the events of the 28th June last proved its fatal consequences to the whole world. It results from the depositions and confessions of the criminal perpetrators of the outrage of the 28th June that the Serajevo assassinations were planned in Belgrade; that the arms and explosives with which the murderers were provided had been given to them by Servian officers and functionaries belonging to the Narodna Odbrana; and finally, that the passage into Bosnia of the criminals and their arms was organized and effected by the chiefs of the Servian frontier service. The above-mentioned results of the magisterial investigation do not permit the Austro-Hungarian Government to pursue any longer the attitude of expectant forbearance which they have maintained for years in face of the machinations hatched in Belgrade, and thence propagated in the territories of the Monarchy. The results, on the contrary, impose on them the duty of putting an end to the intrigues which form a perpetual menace to the tranquillity of the Monarchy. 1 To achieve this end the Imperial and Royal Government see themselves compelled to demand from the Royal Servian Government a formal assurance that they condemn this dangerous propaganda against the Monarchy; in other words, the whole series of tendencies, the ultimate aim of which is to detach from the Monarchy territories belonging to it, and that they undertake to suppress by every means this criminal and terrorist propaganda. In order to give a formal character to this undertaking the Royal Servian Government shall publish on the front page of their Official Journal of the 13/26 July the following declaration: "The Royal Government of Servia condemn the propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary i.e., the general tendency of which the final aim is to detach from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy territories belonging to it, and they sincerely deplore the fatal consequences of these criminal proceedings. "The Royal Government regret that Servian officers and functionaries participated in the above-mentioned propaganda and thus compromised the good neighborly relations to which the Royal Government were solemnly pledged by their declaration of the 31st March, 1909. "The Royal Government, who disapprove and repudiate all idea of interfering or attempting to interfere with the destinies of the inhabitants of any part whatsoever of Austria-Hungary, consider it their duty formally to warn officers and functionaries, and the whole population of the kingdom, that henceforward they will proceed with the utmost rigor against persons who may be guilty of such machinations, which they will use all their efforts to anticipate and suppress." This declaration shall simultaneously be communicated to the Royal Army as an order of the day by His Majesty the King and shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the Army. The Royal Servian Government further undertake: 1. To suppress any publication which incites to hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the general tendency of which is directed against its territorial integrity; 2. To dissolve immediately the society styled "Narodna Odbrana," to confiscate all its means of propaganda, and to proceed in the same manner against other societies and their branches in Servia which engage in propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Royal Government shall take the necessary measures to prevent the societies dissolved from continuing their activity under another name and form; 3. To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Servia, both as regards the teaching body and also as regards the methods of instruction, everything that serves, or might serve, to foment the propaganda against Austria-Hungary; 4. To remove from the military service, and from the administration in general, all officers and functionaries guilty of propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy whose names and deeds the Austro-Hungarian Government reserve to themselves the right of communicating to the Royal Government; 5. To accept the collaboration in Servia of representatives of the AustroHungarian Government for the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the Monarchy; 6. To take judicial proceedings against accessories to the plot of the 28th June who are on Servian territory; delegates of the Austro-Hungarian Government will take part in the investigation relating thereto; 7. To proceed without delay to the arrest of Major Voija Tankositch and of the individual named Milan Ciganovitch, a Servian State employee, who have been compromised by the results of the magisterial inquiry at Serajevo; 8. To prevent by effective measures the cooperation of the Servian authorities in the illicit traffic in arms and explosives across the frontier, to dismiss and punish severely the officials of the frontier service at Schabatz and Ložnica guilty of having assisted the perpetrators of the Serajevo crime by facilitating their passage across the frontier; 9. To furnish the Imperial and Royal Government with explanations regarding the unjustifiable utterances of high Servian officials, both in Servia and abroad, who, notwithstanding their official position, have not hesitated since the crime of the 28th June to express themselves in interviews in terms of hostility to the Austro-Hungarian Government; and, finally, 10. To notify the Imperial and Royal Government without delay of the execution of the measures comprised under the preceding heads. The Austro-Hungarian Government expect the reply of the Royal Government at the latest by 6 o'clock on Saturday evening, the 25th July. SERVIA'S REPLY TO THE AUSTRIAN NOTE, JULY 25, 19141 (Translation) THE Royal Servian Government have received the communication of the Imperial and Royal Government of the 10th instant, and are convinced that their reply will remove any misunderstanding which may threaten to impair the good neighborly relations between the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Kingdom of Servia. Conscious of the fact that the protests, which were made both from the 1 B. W. P. no. 39. |