Page:Secrets of Crewe House.djvu/49

Rh to the secret pact, representatives of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, had assembled in Corfu, under the leadership of Dr. Trumbitch (president of the Southern Slav Committee) and M. Pashitch (Prime Minister of Serbia), and had issued the Southern Slav Unitary Declaration on June 20, 1917, proclaiming the union of the three peoples and claiming all territory compactly inhabited by them, which (said the Declaration) "cannot be mutilated without attaint to the vital interests of the community. Our nation demands nothing that belongs to others, but only what is its own." On the one hand, this was an important counter-step to the partition of Dalmatia proposed in the Treaty of London; while on the other, it was a definite advance towards the solidification of the three peoples into nationhood. Consequently it was not without effect upon the German military leaders, who foresaw its influence upon the Southern Slav regiments of the Austro-Hungarian armies, and it undoubtedly hastened their decision to take direct control of the forces of the Dual Monarchy.

The next move was made after the Italian armies had recovered from the disaster of Caporetto and had re-established their line