THE WAR OF THE SERBIAN HOG would gather from the
ridicule heaped by 'Mr. Robert Bernays upon the book The Secret War for Oil. This book has, I think,
been withdrawn ; I have not read it, but I feel some sympathy for its main contentions, as given by Mr. Bernays. Another war may show us how much the " independence " of oil- bearing Iraq is worth. Since the struggle for oil is one of the main causes (though not the sole cause) of international rivalry, I sincerely believe that the substitution of steam and electric traction for oil and petrol-drive is the most positive contri- bution that can be made for peace.
However, with regard to the murder of the Archduke at Serajevo in 1914, there is evidence that it was not oil, but pigs, at the bottom of the immediate trouble. Writing in the United States Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin No. 126, Louis G. Michael and Pauline A. McDonnell stated :
" In 1906 the Austrio-Hungarian agricultural protective tariff went into effect and in August of that year, shipments of swine from Serbia abruptly ceased. The bitter feeling engendered in the Serbs at this time, on being shut out of the markets of the Hapsburg Empire, is said to have led to the events that precipitated the World War, which in the Balkans, is often spoken of as ' the war of the Serbian hog.' "
I may add that the natural destination of most Serbian pigs was Hungary, wherein pork is the national meat, hence the importance and extent of the Serbian trade in pigs.
In other instances the impact of agricultural upon political situations is often insufficiently appreciated. The cases of Ireland and Scotland suggest themselves, while there is reason to think that Western Australia's demand for secession is fundamentally due to her having contracted unduly heavy commitments for the purchase of tractors and of the oils necessary to run them—whereas animal horse power would have been safer and would not have compromised finances. The problem of India is essentially agricultural, and, as in
Ireland, neither votes nor political status will affect it,— Yours faithfully, HUGH NICOL. 46 Barnfield Road, Harpenden, Herts.
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