Josip Smodlaka on Conditions in Dalmatia, 1910

Abstract

The following speech was delivered in the Austrian Parliament on December 3, 1910. The speaker, Dr. Joseph Smodlaka, the founder of the Croat Democratic Party in Dalmatia, and member of Parliament for Spalato, is one of the ablest and most attractive Southern Slav politicians, and what is still better, "a modern of the moderns" in the midst of medieval conditions. The well-known Austrian novelist, Hermann Bahr, in his Dalmatinische Reise (pp. 109-117), gives an admirable character sketch of Dr. Smodlaka. He tells us how he had learnt of Dr. Smodlaka as translated from the Stenographische Protokolle of that date. (Abstract by R.W. Seton-Watson)