What troubled Ambassador Taherovich most was that the economic value created by those two million people was also extremely high. Taking the Dalmatian capital alone, Split was now brimming with vitality.
Many new economic development projects could be seen in Split: a modern port, newly paved roads, bustling factories and shops of every kind...
On the eastern side of the city stood a newly built, luxurious railway station. Split's original old station building had already been demolished; it had mainly served the railway between Knin and Split.
But after the Kingdom of Dalmatia's north-south trunk railway was completed in 1937, the old station could no longer meet the new line's needs, so it was redesigned and rebuilt.
By 1937, Split had become a relatively developed modern city on the Balkan Peninsula.
Within Yugoslavia, the only cities that could completely overshadow Split economically were probably Zagreb and Belgrade.
"Since the Kingdom of Dalmatia gained independence, Split's development has entered a period of rapid growth. Its population has also surpassed one hundred thousand, making it a city of considerable scale even on the Balkan Peninsula!" Minister Modrov said with some emotion.
"As Yugoslavia's capital, Zagreb has not even surpassed two hundred thousand people, while Belgrade has only just exceeded two hundred thousand."
"Split's population growth rate is clearly higher than that of our two most economically developed cities. This also indirectly shows that the Kingdom of Dalmatia's economic development is faster than our own."
"The concentration of population in Split has itself been accompanied by the rapid advancement of Dalmatia's industry and trade."
The Balkan Peninsula's most populous city was Bucharest, Romania's capital, with more than six hundred thousand people. Next came Athens, Greece's capital, which possibly had over five hundred thousand.
Across the entire Balkan Peninsula, there were not even ten