the defense of their honor as well as for the liberty and independence of
small nations, has developed into a struggle for the Liberty of the World
and the Triumph of Right over Might. All nations which love liberty and
independence have allied themselves together for their common defense, to
save civilization and liberty at the cost of every sacrifice, to establish
a new international order based upon justice and upon the right of every
nation to dispose of itself and so organize its independent life; finally
to establish a durable peace consecrated to the progress and development
of humanity and to secure the world against a catastrophe similar to that
which the conquering lust of German Imperialism has provoked.

To noble France, who has proclaimed the liberty of nations, and to England,
the hearth of liberty, the Great American Republic and the new, free and
democratic Russia have joined themselves in proclaiming as their principal
war aim the triumph of liberty and democracy and as basis of the new
international order the right of free self-determination for every nation.

Our nation of the three names, which has been the greatest sufferer under
brute force and injustice and which has made the greatest sacrifices to
preserve its right of self-determination, has with enthusiasm accepted
this sublime principle put forward as the chief aim of this atrocious war,
provoked by the violation of this very principle.

The authorized representatives of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in
declaring that it is the desire of our people to free itself from every
foreign yoke and to constitute itself a free, national and independent
State, a desire based on the principle that every nation has the right to
decide its own destiny, are agreed in judging that this State should be
founded on the following modern and democratic principles: