YUGOSLAVIA: Child Militia

“A national militia of boys and girls between the ages of seven and 20 years”—that was what Dictator-King Alexander of Jugoslavia created last week by a pen-scratch. In Italy a similar militia, for boys only, called Balilla* has been formed by the inventor of this apt scheme for bending twigs of youth, Signor Benito Mussolini. In Belgrade Dictator-King Alexander christened his balilla “The Hawks of Jugoslavia,” dubbed his bonny six-year-old eldest son, Crown Prince Peter, “The Eternal Chief of Hawks.”

*Named after an Italian boy, Balilla, who distinguished himself when Austrians besieged Genoa in 1800, by hurling a rock at the enemy.