Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Tamás Magyarics: The (Re) creation of the Relations between the US and the Successor States in Central Europe after the First World War

Though foreign capital could have been able to find favorable conditions for investment in Yugoslavia because of the natural resources, cheap labor, outlets for industrialization, "at least 77 % of the total population was engaged in agriculture, the proportion rising to as high as 90 % in the backward areas of Macedonia and Montenegro."

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2 The Americans did not grasp every opportunity here. They invested mostly in raw materials: in metal-mining and Vacuum Oil, together with Standard Oil of New Jersey, was also on the spot The two American companies, in alliance with Shell, agreed to cooperate as to prices, marketing and quotas: in a word, they formed an efficient combination to eliminate domestic and foreign competition. Besides the oil companies, the Aluminium Co. of America was also active in Yugoslavia; it owned 95 % of the stocks of an important mining property in the country, Jadranski Bauxit Dionico Dustro.

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3 Finally, the U.S. diplomatic personnel at Belgrade was mirroring the modest American interest in the Kingdom;

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4 the relations between the countries can best be described as lukewarm: no great issues and hardly any activity characterized them in the 1920s. Treasury Gold Notes of the Government of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, to be dated as of March 31, 1925 ... Will you kindly advise us at your early convenience if the State Department has any objection to our offering the abovementioned Note issue ...", ibid., 738. QO 0

6 Macartney and Plamer, op. cit., 170. 8

3 See Dunn, op. cit, 159. 8

4 H. Percival Dodge was Minister Plenipotentiary, Gordon Paddock was the First Secretary, W. Roswell Banker was in the rank of Third Secretary, while the Military Attaché was Maj. Martin C. Shallenberger. Register, 41. Part of the research to this paper was done with the help of a grant provided byOTKA. 96