First in History

Deputies of the Opposition cried "Butcher! Torturer! Nero! Judas! Hypocrite!" and many another heated epithet at Minister of Interior Boza Maximovitch, last week, at Belgrade.

They shouted that M. Maximovitch and the Belgrade Chief of Police Sokolovitch had caused hundreds of voters to be beaten and intimidated.

At last Minister of Interior Maximovitch rose to defend himself. He is a staunch royalist, a popular, impressive man. Feminine ears were attentive in the gallery.

"Before God and my King," cried M. Maximovitch, "I declare that these slanders are lies! My character should--"

At that instant a man, stark naked, his body a mass of bruises, rushed down the aisle and up to the tribune. While shrieks resounded from the gallery, this man, one Jovan Risitch, coughed and spat blood upon the floor, then cried in a husky voice: "You, Maximovitch, did this to me! Last night your assassin Sokolovitch had me stripped as I am now and beat me himself because I--a poor government clerk--would not vote as you ordered."

Historians wracked their memories for a similar incident in the whole chronicle of parliaments. The sensation at Belgrade, last week, cannot be put in words. Yet in the Balkans incidents almost as scandalous occur not infrequently. Therefore, last week, "nothing happened"--except that two investigations were started: one to plumb the alleged iniquities of the police; the other to apprehend those responsible for introducing a naked man into Parliament.

To His Majesty Alexander I, King of the Slavs, Croats and Slovenes, "Jugoslavs," or "Southern Slavs," this news of a naked man was worse than scandalous. It meant trouble for King Alexander in furthering his pet scheme to create a Royalist dictature with himself as Dictator. This scheme has matured so rapidly of late that even the Croatian Opposition leader, fiery Stefan Raditch, has been won over to support His Majesty. But the revelation of last week was most unsettling, cast a black stigma on the Royalist cause. A lady-in-waiting revealed that the King said bitterly to Queen Marie (daughter of Marie of Rumania): "One man without clothes seems stronger than my robes of State."