Cabinet at Last

A tired, greying statesman donned formal raiment, last week at Belgrade, submitted while a valet pinned upon him the blazing orders which are his, and then rode wearily off to the white stone Royal Palace.

There King Alexander I, spruce, compelling, received Statesman Velja Vukitchevitch. Together these good friends had just broken the long deadlock among Jugoslav political blocs (TIME, Feb. 20) which had seemed to defy the possibility that a cabinet--any cabinet--could be formed. The wily Vukitchevitch by hook & by crook and King Alexander by imperative royal command had again induced the Jugoslav "national minorities" to enter a coalition headed by the "Radical" (reactionary) Vukitchevitch, now the chief bulwark of the Throne.

Soon His Majesty administered the oath required of a Jugoslav premier. It was high time that this be done. The country, premierless for more than a fortnight, was growing restive. While the politicians quarreled, conditions bordering upon famine had grown so acute in the Jugoslav districts of Herzegovina and Montenegro that the International Red Cross was reported to be starting famine relief measures which should certainly have been undertaken long ago by the Jugoslav Government.