When war broke out in August 1914, Trumbic traveled to neutral Italy, and met a great deal of Serb sympathy in Rome. Once Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, it would have been difficult for Trumbic to return to Austria and to Dalmatia. Trumbic established the 'Jugo-Slav Committee' in that month. He moved the group out of Rome and to London, possibly after Italian warships had shelled to ruins a large portion of undefended Spalato for no good reason. Once in London, the Jugo-Slav Committee released pamphlets and published books concerning liberation for oppressed Slavs in Austria-Hungary. In time, the Committee worked to bring about an alliance with the Serbian government in-exile in support of a state of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. At first, the Serbs refused to entertain the idea, confident that Russia’s promise of Hungary’s Vojvodina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a sea outlet (at Dalmatia’s expense) would hold true.
However, the Russian Revolution spoiled the chances of this happening. Although the Russian provisional government held true to its demands at London in 1915 and after, the Serbians knew their sponsor was losing influence. Trumbic pushed for a compromise, embedded in the Corfu Declaration, signed in July 1917, which promised the creation of a Jugo-Slav state. The Serbs were concerned that their power would be compromised by the influx of Croatians and other non-Serbs into their kingdom, especially since so many Croatians were still loyal troops fighting on the Italian and Russian fronts. Premier Nikola Pasic knew that Serbia’s army would be the deciding factor in the development of the new state.
On 1 December 1918 the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was declared by the Regent of Serbia, Prince Alexander. Trumbic basked in the glory of his creation, was appointed Foreign Minister of the new government. He set to work right away with his old friends in London, undermining Italy’s claims of Jugo-Slav territory. He had spent much of his pre-war time fighting Italian chauvinism in Dalmatia, and he was unlikely to surrender much to Rome. As it was, Italy annexed the city of Zara in northern Dalmatia with its offshore island, as well as Istria and the Quarnero Islands. Trumbic counld not tolerate the Italians’ intransigence on territorial issues and adventurism in supporting Gabrielle d’Annunzio’s Free State of Fiume. He resigned his position of Foreign Minister on 22 November 1920. Afterwards, he promoted the Croatian Party platforms and sent many complaints to Belgrade of the Serb generals and governors who were administering Croatian regions in defiance of the spirit of the Corfu Declaration. Trumbic also support the Agrarian reform movement, especially the cause of minister of parliament Stepan Radic. However, in 1928, Radic was shot and killed in the middle of parliament by a fanatical Montenegrin deputy, and the disturbance was sufficient for King Alexander to suspend the constitution and become a royal dictator. He implemented a series of reforms designed to eliminate nationalist tensions, such as destroying Croatia and Dalmatia and rebuilding them into non-national, non-historic Banjovinas. As his life’s work was being washed away by the event sof his day, Trumbic openly regretted the end of Austria-Hungary, where his reforms for the Croatian state might have had some positive outcome.
Anton Trumbic died in Zagreb on 17 November 1938.
GWS, 10/03
