In Servia there are 17 departments, 81 arrondissements, and 1571 communes. At the head of each department is a prefect nominated by the King, at the head of each arrondissement a sous-prefect, and at the head of each commune a mayor elected by the people.
Military service is compulsory, and the number of conscripts average 26,700 a year. The duration of service in the active army is for cavalry and infantry two years, and eighteen months for other branches of the service. I visited various barracks, and was afforded several opportunities of inspecting the troops. Both officers and men seem exceedingly smart and capable. Many of the officers had received their military education in France, Germany, and Russia, while one artillery officer I met had studied at Shoeburyness!
When the defensive forces are re-armed, as they will be completely within the next twelve months, Europe will find in Servia a very capable and well-trained army. Every Serb is a born fighter, and no detail is being overlooked to render Servia’s defences up to date and complete.
Servia is not a country of great landowners. Apart from the property held by the State, the land is almost wholly divided among peasant proprietors. The law grants to every Servian peasant 2.8 hectares of land, which cannot be sold to pay private debts. It is also forbidden for cultivators to give bills of exchange. These two measures are of great importance in preserving the land to the Servian peasant. The country is a very rich agricultural one—perhaps one of the richest in Europe. Yet one fact struck me as curious, namely, that in Belgrade one cannot obtain any good milk, and all butter worth eating comes from Budapest. There is a very great opening in Servia for dairy-farmers, a branch of industry which, it seems, does not exist. The vines have, in recent years, been all destroyed by the phylloxera, but they are being rapidly replaced by the American variety. The country around the arrondissements of Smederevo, Golubac, Ram, and Krayina are particularly noted for good grapes and excellent wine.
In “The Kalemegdan”: Belgrade.
The Market Place: Belgrade.
Tobacco is a monopoly of the State. It is purchased upon a tariff fixed by special commission, and is of well-known quality and peculiarly adapted for the manufacture of cigarettes. The departments where it is principally cultivated are Vranya, Krayina, Nisch, d’Uzice, and Kragooyevac, while in other parts of Servia the Turkish varieties are grown with great success, and for aroma will compare well with the tobacco of Albania or Kavala. Not only is sufficient tobacco grown in Servia to supply the wants of the country, but the quantities exported are increasing year by year. A favoured few Englishmen, and especially diplomats in various parts of Europe—who know the excellence of the special quality of Servian cigarettes—have them direct from Belgrade. Cigarettes bought for export cost one-half the price they do for consumption in Servia.
Marmalade and slivovitza—an eau-de-vie made of prunes—are also two articles manufactured in Servia and largely exported, about three million francs’ worth of the former, and two hundred thousand francs’ worth of the latter being sent out of the country annually.