Page:The History of The Great European War Vol 1.pdf/26

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been prohibited; that the meeting of the Dalmatian Diet had been deliberately prevented; that where Croats, at that very time itself, had desired trains for purposes of festive outings, they had been denied them by the State; that the official journal of Serajevo itself had recently denounced all those who wished to further the idea of Serbo-Croatian national unity—an incident of Pan-Slavism—as enemies of the Catholic Church; and that not content with all these oppressive measures, others were in course of preparation by the Government. On that Sunday, every Slav of the southern States, every Slav in that crowd, knew or had every reason to know that new persecutions were about to be undertaken against their race in order that by fair means or foul the House of Hapsburg should have its way in its Balkan policy. It was known that a new effort was about to be made to destroy the racial unity of Croat, Serb, and Slovene. The Slavs were surrounded by enemies. We have already indicated the objects of the House of Hapsburg as against them, but the Germans themselves, as a people, aimed also at breaking up their unity in order that the domination of the Adriatic might be Teutonic.

The Archduke had arrived at the railway station at Serajevo with his consort, and, having first of all held a military inspection, was driving thence in a motor car to the town hall. This drive was through crowded streets and the acclamations of the people. Must one believe that the Archduke understood these acclamations to express spontaneously a genuine feeling of respect and loyalty to him and to the Crown? Were not rather these people there, for the most part, because the authorities had forced them to testify their loyalty to the Crown by their presence and by their cheers? If these people had had full liberty to act as they wished, would the streets have been so crowded and the cheers so prevalent?

Whilst so driving through these streets in the centre of this populace, a bomb was thrown at his motor car. It was thrown by a young Slav printer, named Cabrinovic, a native of Herzego- vina belonging to the Serb Orthodox Faith. The Archduke escaped this attack—it is said, by warding off the bomb with his arm—and proceeded to the town hall. An aide-de-camp who was seated in one of the motor cars that followed was wounded in the neck by fragments of the bomb and several passers-by also received slight injuries. On the arrival of the Archduke and his consort at the town hall, his Imperial Highness was furiously angry and full of wrath and said to the mayor, who was there to present an address, " What is the good of your speeches? I come to Serajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me.