![[National flag]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fotw.info%2fflags%2f..%2fimages%2fy%2fyu-1922.gif)
Flag of Yougoslavia - Image byŽeljko Heimer, 16 November 2003
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In late 1918 a new state was formed by the just united Kingdoms ofSerbia andMontenegro and the State of Slovenes,Croats and Serbs that encompassed the southern Slavic lands of the formerAustro-Hungarian Empire. The local legislationwas kept in use regionally, and it was not until 1922 that thequestion of the ensigns was resolved by the adoption of alegislation.
To the best of my knowledge, there are two laws passed on theensigns and flags for use at sea during the existence of Yugoslaviabefore the Second World War. The first law was adopted in1922 andthe second law, less kown until now, was adopted in1937. When theKingdom of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in 1929 to replace the Kingdomof the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, there was apparently no change inthe 1922 flag law.
I suspect, however, that there must have been some otherregulations that were adopted between 1922 and 1937, although I havenot found reference to them anywhere. All the sources refer to the1922 law only, and even the source that I have for the 1937 law doesnot mention anything else but the 1922 law. I suspect that there musthave been some other regulation for the following reasons:
- the 1922 law determines a rank flag only for arear admiral; at least two independant sources from the mid-1930s (reprints in Isaić[isa01] andFlaggenbuch[neu39]) show rank flags for three admirals ranks and a number of additional flags not included in 1922 law (e.g. the generals' flags)
- the 1937 law include those flags, but has too many differences in other flags to make it possible that the two sources above would have been based on it.
Željko Heimer, 16 November 2003
![[Merchant ensign]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.fotw.info%2fflags%2f..%2fimages%2fy%2fyu%7e1922.gif)
Merchant ensign of Yugoslavia - Image byŽeljko Heimer, 11 November 2003
The merchant ensign (literally "merchant flag",trgovačkazastava) is prescribed in Article 2 of the1922 law. The flag is horizontallydivided blue-white-red, with proportions 2:3.
The flag was used even before the law, but was formally introducedonly with the 1921 so-called Vidovdan Constitution, as the national flag. The 1922 law prescribes it as the civil and state ensign.
The1937 law did not change thisflag, which was later used as themerchant ensign ofSerbia and Montenegro.
Željko Heimer, 11 November 2003
Aphoto shows a tricolour flag being hoisted in Zagreb in 1930 onNovinarski dom (Journalist's House), the building of the Croatian Journalists Association located on the Roosevelt Square (as it is named today). On the photo, taken in 1930 during the celebration of "reaching the roof", the two hoisted flags are tricolours, but it is hard to say weather they are Yugoslav or Croatian - it seems that the blue stripe on the period photos usually appears as lighter then red, it might indeed be the Croatian tricolour. On the other hand, in 1929 King Alexander's dictature forbid the individual national tricolours for the use of the Yugoslav national tricolour. Weather this wasfollowed, is hard to say from this photo alone.
Željko Heimer, 3 January 2009
Article 6 of the "Directions for execution and implementation of the determinations ofthe Regulations on hoisting the flags on state, merchant and privateships of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia" (1934) prescribes the procedure of the use of theensign at half staff when a death occurs on a ship and when a ship iscarrying a dead. The second paragraph states:
During the Holy Week, from Thursday at noon until Saturdayat noon, according the the local custom, the Harbour Master may orderthe half-staffing of the ensigns on all the ships in the harbour.Such an order is valid for all the ships and other vesselsindiscriminately, and even for the ships under foreign flags.
Željko Heimer, 18 December 2004