Austro-Serbian Alliance of 1881having communicated to one another their full powers, found
in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles:
Article I. There shall be stable peace and friendship between
Austria-Hungary and Serbia. The two Governments engage to
follow a mutually friendly policy.
Article II. Serbia will not tolerate political, religious, or other
intrigues, which, taking her territory as a point of departure,
might be directed against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy,
including therein Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the Sanjak of
Novibazar.
Austria-Hungary assumes the same obligation with regard to
Serbia and her dynasty, the maintenance and strengthening of
which she will support with all her influence.
Article III. If the Prince of Serbia should deem it necessary,
in the interest of His dynasty and of His country, to take in
behalf of Himself and of His descendants the title of King, Aus-
tria-Hungary will recognize this title as soon as its proclamation
shall have been made in legal form, and will use her influence to
secure recognition for it on the part of the other Powers.
Article IV. Austria-Hungary will use her influence with the
other European Cabinets to second the interests of Serbia.
Without a previous understanding with Austria-Hungary,
Serbia will neither negotiate nor conclude any political treaty
with another Government, and will not admit to her territory a
foreign armed force, regular or irregular, even as volunteers.
Article V. If Austria-Hungary should be threatened with war
or find herself at war with one or more other Powers, Serbia will
observe a friendly neutrality towards the Austro-Hungarian
Monarchy, including therein Bosnia, Herzegovina and the San-
jak of Novibazar, and will accord to it all possible facilities, in
conformity with their close friendship and the spirit of this
Treaty.
Austria-Hungary assumes the same obligation towards Ser-
bia, in case the latter should be threatened with war or find her-
self at war.
Article VI. In any case where military coöperation is con-
sidered necessary by the two Contracting Parties, the ques-
tions touching this coöperation, especially those of the supe-
rior command and of the contingent passage of troops
through the respective territories, shall be regulated by a mili-
tary convention.
Article VII. If, as a result of a combination of circumstances
whose development is not to be foreseen at present, Serbia were
in a position to make territorial acquisitions in the direction of
her southern frontiers (with the exception of the Sanjak of
Novibazar), Austria-Hungary will not oppose herself thereto,
and will use her influence with the other Powers for the purpose
of winning them over to an attitude favorable to Serbia.
Article VIII. The present Treaty shall remain in force for a
period of ten years, dating from the day of the exchange of rati-
fications. Six months before its expiration the Contracting Par-
ties shall, if there is occasion, take counsel together in regard to
its prolongation or to the modifications which the circum-
stances of the moment may render desirable.
Article IX. The Contracting Parties undertake to keep the
present Treaty secret, and not to communicate either its exis-
tence or its tenor to any other Government without a previous
understanding.
Article X. The ratifications of the present Treaty shall be
exchanged at Belgrade within a period of a fortnight, or sooner
if may be.
In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have
signed it and have affixed to it the seal of their arms.
Done at Belgrade, in duplicate, the twenty-eighth/sixteenth
of June of the year 1881.
L.S. Baron de Herbert.
L.S. Ch. Mijatovich.Personal declaration of Prince Milan that he would carry
out the Treaty without restrictions.
To His Excellency Benjamin de Kállay, in charge of the Imperial
and Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Vienna.
Excellency,
I hasten to acknowledge receipt from Your Excellency of the
letter which you have been good enough to address to Me
through the medium of the Imperial and Royal Legation at Bel-
grade under the date of the 17th instant, in reply to that which I
had written on September 20/October 2 to the enlightened
Minister, so sympathetic to Serbia, whose loss we have joined
you in deploring.
For Me it is more than a duty, it is a veritable debt of the
heart, to express to Your Excellency today My most sincere grat-
itude for the proof of friendship which you have shown Me in
daring your readiness, as Official in Charge of the Imperial and
Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to accept the proposals which
I had made to the late Baron Haymerle.
While I frankly and loyally laid before him the motives for
My conduct, and at the same time employed such language as
could be used only by one who considers it a question of honor
to develop relations of cordial understanding with the neigh-
boring Monarchy, and who has the firm and unshakable inten-
tion to follow systematically this policy as salutary for Serbia, I
wondered whether My explanations were sufficiently clear to
present the situation in its true light in proper quarters and to
make understood the real difficulties which I had to overcome
and the cogent reasons which had dictated My conduct.
I felt Myself all the more embarrassed by the fact that the
matter related to an act which had received an august sanction
and which therefore could no longer be the subject of any dis-
cussion. My sentiments of profound respect and of unchanging
affection for the person of His Majesty the Emperor could not
permit Me to tolerate this contingency for an instant; concern
for My own dignity likewise imperiously commanded Me to
make clear, on the one hand, that M. Pirotchianatz was not
invested by Me with any official mission, and that, far from
approving, I condemned his scruples, and, on the other hand,