PATRIARCH’S DEATH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 201, 26 July 1937, Page 8

PATRIARCH’S DEATH

3.15 P.M. EDITION

TROUBLE IN BELGRADE. MINISTERS ATTACKED. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph Copy right.) Received July 26, 12.56 p.m. BELGRADE, July 25. With the exception of the Minister of War, the Government will not lie represented at the funeral of the Patriarch Varnava and the election of his successor, owing to the Orthodox bishop excommunicating Ministers and members of Parliament who voted lor the Concordat. The indignation against them is so great that the Regent (Prince Paul), when he visited the cathedral where the Patriarch was lying in state, was not accompanied by his Ministers, who had been warned that they would he turned out if they entered the cathedral. This indignity has already befallen M. Subovitch (Minister of Justice) with whom the Synod also refused to discuss the Concordat. Two Parliamentarians visiting the Patriarch’s palace to express their condolences in the death were beaten by the crowd. M. Djuritch (member for Belgrade) was so manhandled that he was taken to hospital. Angry women tore to shredstlieir coats and hats. The populace regard the Patriarch s death in the midst of the crisis as a national tragedy. Thousands of men, women and children were weeping when filing before the body and kissing the coffin.