Editing Yugoslav Committee (section)

==Pašić–Trumbić conflict==
[[File:NikolaPasic--balkancockpitpol00pric_0191.png|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Photograph of Prime Minister Nikola Pašić |[[Nikola Pašić]] led the government of Serbia during [[World War I]]]]

Relations between Pašić and Trumbić deteriorated throughout 1918. They openly disagreed on several key demands made by Trumbić, including the recognition of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes living in Austria-Hungary as allied peoples; the recognition of the Yugoslav Committee as the representative of those peoples; and the recognition of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes Volunteer Corps (formerly called the First Serbian Volunteer Division) as an allied force drawn from Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes living in Austria-Hungary. After Pašić refused to support these positions, the Yugoslav Committee authorised Trumbić to bypass Pašić and directly present the Entente Powers with their demands.{{sfn|Janković|1964|pp=229–230}} The Serbian government denied the Yugoslav Committee had any legitimacy, saying that Serbia alone represented all South Slavs, including those living in Austria-Hungary.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=168}}

Pašić requested the Entente Powers issue a declaration recognising Serbia had the right to liberate and unify South Slavic territories with Serbia, but this was unsuccessful. Pašić stated that Yugoslavia would be absorbed by Serbia and not the other way around, that Serbia was primarily waging war to liberate Serbs, and that Pašić had created the Yugoslav Committee. He rejected Trumbić's claim that only one third of population of the future union lived in Serbia and that the Corfu Declaration called for two partners, stating the declaration was only for foreign consumption and was no longer valid. The French and British governments declined two Serbian requests for the authority to annex South Slavic Austro-Hungarian lands, and the British foreign secretary [[Arthur Balfour]] upheld the Corfu Declaration as an agreement of partners, demanding Pašić align his views with those of the Yugoslav Committee.{{sfn|Boban|2019|pp=66–70}} However, in line with Serbia's wishes, the Entente Powers decided against recognition of the Yugoslav Committee as an allied body, informing the committee it would have to come to an agreement with Pašić.{{sfn|Boban|2019|p=75}}

The potential preservation of Austria-Hungary also caused friction between Trumbić and Pašić.{{sfn|Janković|1964|p=229}} The Entente Powers continued to pursue a separate peace with Austria-Hungary until early 1918,{{sfn|Jelavich|Jelavich|2000|p=300}} regardless of the Corfu Declaration. In January 1918, the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[David Lloyd George]] confirmed his support for the survival of Austria-Hungary. In his [[Fourteen Points]] speech, Wilson agreed, advocating for the autonomy of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.{{sfn|Sovilj|2018|p=1344}} In October, Lloyd George discussed the potential preservation of a reformed Austria-Hungary with Pašić, saying Serbia could annex any areas occupied by the Royal Serbian Army before an armistice.{{sfn|Sovilj|2018|pp=1347–1349}} In return, Trumbić asked Wilson to deploy US troops to Croatia-Slavonia to quell the disorder associated with the [[Green Cadres]], suppress [[Bolshevism]], and not to allow Italian or Serbian troops into the territory. He was unsuccessful.{{sfn|Janković|1964|p=228}}