Caged Pribichevich

In Belgrade last week sleek, bespectacled, fussily-dressed King Alexander was hotly besieged by his former family friends the Pribicheviches.

Milan Pribichevich, Valerian Pribichevich, Adam Pribichevich--potent brothers all--all demanded audience at the Royal Palace. Telegrams poured in from members of the Independent ("Pribichevich"; Democratic party. But to all appeals King Alexander remained deaf. He would not, to please the Three Brothers Pribichevich. release from custody last week Brother No. 4: that great Croatian Statesman Svetozar Pribichevich, "one of the founders of Jugoslavia" (founded 1920).

The custody in which Brother Svetozar Pribichevich languished was peculiar. He was not in jail, but in a hospital. He did not particularly mind being in a hospital. What enraged all the Pribicheviches was the Government's announced resolve to banish Brother Svetozar Pribichevich for a second time to the tiny Serbian village of Brus, 20 miles from the nearest railway. When told last week that he would be sent back to Brus, Svetozar Pribichevich, a small, lean man, dramatically went on a hunger strike. Wailed Mme Bosilka Pribichevich: "My Svetozar will die! He will die!" "Svetozar," cried Col. Milan Pribichevich, "will die rather than yield!" "Svetozar will never yield to the Dictatorship!" cried Adam Pribichevich.

By "the Dictatorship" is meant King Alexander's concentration of almost all power in the hands of himself and hard-eyed, hard-jawed General Pera Zivkovitch. Prime Minister (TIME, Feb.11, 1929). When Founder Svetozar Pribichevich saw the Croats playing a poor second to the Serbs in the new government, he promptly protested, was banished to Brus. There he would have remained but for another, a more potent founder: Professor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk.

Professor Masaryk founded not Jugoslavia but neighboring Czechoslovakia of which he has been first and only President. Founders, he thinks, should stand together like kings. Banish one founder and you injure the dignity, the prestige of all founders.

Sternly President Masaryk intimated to King Alexander that it simply would not do to keep Svetozar Pribichevich at Brus Result: he was transferred to the Belgrade Hospital, one of the cleanest and most pleasant places in Belgrade. To help her husband get out Mme Bosilka Pribichevich presently announced: "I have gone on a hunger strike"

"So have I!" promptly declared Colonel Milan Pribichevich.

"We have also!" cried Adam Pribichevich next day, speaking for himself and Valerian Pribichevich.

Jugoslav papers, barred by the Government from printing a single word of Pribichevich news, printed column-long stories last week about how King Alexander was making a "triumphant tour of upper Croatia."

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