The interior political situation was complicated
by the "question of the regicides." The men who
had slain King Alexander took steps to secure their
own personal safety under the succeeding regime and
formed a separate political group, which has during
the reign of King Peter exercised a strong influence
in public affairs and the administration of the army.
A general reaction against the rule of the regicides
began to be felt, and under the pressure of English
demands several of the higher officers who had been
leaders in the conspiracy were removed from their
posts. The tension between the Regicide party
and their antagonists resulted in the assassination in
September, 1907, of the most active leader of the
anti-Regicide party, Captain Milan Novakovich.
The circumstances attending that assassination were
fully exploited by outside intrigues supported by
Austria-Hungary in an effort to supplant a national



720 THE SERVIAN PEOPLE

Servian ruler by an Anglo-German prince. 1 The
impression produced abroad and in the country
by these events was such that the Servians of all
parties realised the presence of a situation which,
if left to the natural course of human passion, was
fraught with gravest national peril. All parties
made an effort at self-control. The regicides ab-
stained from further marked intervention in ad-
ministrative affairs, and their antagonists, whose
numbers had considerably increased, maintained
also an attitude of self-restraint.
In Macedonia the struggles of the races — Greek,
Bulgarian, Albanian, and Serb— against Turkish
rule increased with the advance of the twentieth
century. The attempt at revolution in 1903 failed
of result except that it drew the attention of Europe
keenly to that region and gave the watching Powers
a fresh occasion for interference without benefiting
the population.
