n three years Serbia got three decisive victories which attracted
attention to her in both hemispheres. She got a decisive victory at
Kumanovo, against the Turks, in 1912. She got the second decisive
victory on the Bregalniza, against the Bulgars, in 1913. She got a third
decisive victory at Rudnik, against the Austrians and Magyars, in 1914.
But finally she perished, in 1915, under the blow of the allied Turks,
Bulgars, Austrians and Magyars with their common lord and leader against
Serbia, the Germans.

Why?

"Because she caused this world-war. That is a just punishment which she
well deserves," so say the Germans and their dupes. And saying so, they
think of the assassination in Sarajevo. A Serbian boy killed the Crown
Prince of Austria. Therefore Austria pretended to think that Serbia must
lose her independence. To punish Serbia for the crime in Sarajevo,
Austria sent the famous ultimatum to Serbia in the summer of 1914,
asking nothing less than what Shylock asked from Antonio--his life. To
punish Serbia, Germany made an alliance with the Bulgars, and sent her
troops and her iron--the best product of their culture--to destroy the
Serbian state, to devastate the Serbian country, and to take more than a
million of human lives for the life of the Austrian Crown Prince. And
this has been done with an unprecedented perfection. And this
destructive deed has been praised with eloquent words in all the
parliaments, churches, schools and papers all over Central Europe.

We could reply to this German accusation: "Did not your greatest
national poet, Schiller, glorify William Tell, who killed Gesler, the
Austrian tyrannous ruler in Switzerland? Why do you, who adore Schiller,
and who praise William Tell's deed, blame the Serbian boy, Princip, who
did the same thing in killing Franz Ferdinand, the tyrant of Bosnia, his
fatherland? And after all, shall a whole nation, which was as surprised
by the affair in Sarajevo as anyone in the world, be crushed because of
the crime of one man? Is that the principle of Frederick the Great, or
Leasing, or Kant and Schiller?"

The Magyars said through their leading men: "Serbia must be punished not
because of the affair in Sarajevo, but because she is making a
propaganda to liberate and unite all the Southern Slav people, which
means a great blow for the Magyar interests and for the crown of Saint
Stephen." Therefore the Magyars, rushing into Serbia in the first
invasion, in August 1914,