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+Project Gutenberg's The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by Henry Baerlein
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2
+
+Author: Henry Baerlein
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2008 [EBook #24781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jason Isbell, Irma Spehar and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF
+YUGOSLAVIA
+
+BY
+
+HENRY BAERLEIN
+
+VOLUME II
+
+LONDON
+LEONARD PARSONS
+DEVONSHIRE STREET
+
+_First Published 1922_
+_[All Rights Reserved]_
+
+LEONARD PARSONS LTD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  VI. YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY (AUTUMN 1918 TO AUTUMN 1919)   7
+
+ VII. FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL (1919-1921)                             208
+
+VIII. YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS (1921)                                   272
+
+ IX. CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS                       392
+
+     INDEX                                                            411
+
+     MAP OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD--ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES--THE ITALIAN FRAME OF
+MIND--SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY--AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL
+AFFAIR--WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA--THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS
+UNITIS"--HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA--THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS--WHO
+SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH--AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO
+PRECAUTIONS--ITALIANS' MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS--THEIR TRUCULENCE AT
+KORÄŒULA--AND ON HVAR--HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR--WHAT THEY DID
+THERE--PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK--UNHAPPY POLA--WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED--THE
+FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA--THE DRAMA BEGINS--THE I.N.C.--THE CROATS'
+BLUNDER--MELODRAMA--FARCE--PAROLE D'HONNEUR--THE POPULATION OF THE
+TOWN--THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES--RAB IS COMPLETELY
+CAPTURED--AVANTI SAVOIA!--THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA--A CANDID
+FRENCHMAN--ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS--THE TURNCOAT MAYOR--HIS
+FERVOUR--THREE PLEASANT PLACES--ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO--THE
+STATE OF THE CHAMBER--THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY--A FOUNTAIN IN THE
+SAND--THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME--GATHERING WINDS--WHY
+THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA--CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF
+LONDON--ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO--WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF
+THE AUSTRIANS THERE--AND OF THE NATIVES--NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED--THE
+ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM--NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS--THE
+STATE OF BOSNIA--RADIĆ AND HIS PEASANTS--THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH
+THE TIMES--THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES--THE SLOVENE QUESTION--THE
+SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST--MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT--TEMEÅ VAR IN
+TRANSITION--A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA--YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER
+HOUSE IN ORDER--THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM--FRENZY AT RIEKA--ADMIRAL
+MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION--HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT
+Å IBENIK--THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS--YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY
+NONCHALANT--ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS--SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS--A GLIMPSE OF THE
+OFFICIAL ROBBERIES--AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY--THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA
+BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR--CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY--ALLIED
+CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY--NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES--A VISIT
+TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS--WHICH THE ITALIANS TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT
+NOT DURING, THE WAR--OUR WELCOME TO JELÅ A--PROCEEDINGS AT
+STARIGRAD--THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR--FOUR MEN OF KOMIŽA--THE WOMEN OF
+BIÅ EVO--ON THE WAY TO BLATO--WHAT THE MAJOR SAID--THE PROTEST OF AN
+ITALIAN JOURNALIST--INTERESTING DELEGATES--A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR
+EVANS--THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO--ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS--VARIOUS
+BRITISH COMMENTATORS--THE MURDER OF MILETIĆ--D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO
+RIEKA--THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR--THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR
+MINORITIES--OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN
+ANTISEMITISM.
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD
+
+With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes saw that one other obstacle to their long-hoped-for union
+had vanished. The dream of centuries was now a little nearer towards
+fulfilment. But many obstacles remained. There would presumably be
+opposition on the part of the Italian and Roumanian Governments, for it
+was too much to hope that these would waive the treaties they had wrung
+from the Entente, and would consent to have their boundaries regulated
+by the wishes of the people living in disputed lands. Some individual
+Italians and Roumanians might even be less reasonable than their
+Governments. If Austria and Hungary were in too great a chaos to have
+any attitude as nations, there would be doubtless local opposition to
+the Yugoslavs. And as soon as the Magyars had found their feet they
+would be sure to bombard the Entente with protestations, setting forth
+that subject nationalities were intended by the Creator to be subject
+nationalities. A large pamphlet, _The Hungarian Nation_, was issued at
+Buda-Pest in February 1920. It displayed a very touching solicitude for
+the Croats, whom the Serbs would be sure to tyrannize most horribly. If
+only Croatia would remain in the Hungarian State, says Mr. A. Kovács,
+Ministerial Councillor in the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, then
+the Magyars would instantly bestow on her both Bosnia (which belonged to
+the Empire as a whole) and Dalmatia (which belonged to Austria). That is
+the worst of being a Ministerial Statistical Councillor. Another
+gentleman, Professor Dr. Fodor, has the bright idea that "the race is
+the multitude of individuals who inhabit one uniform region." ...
+Passing to Yugoslavia's domestic obstacles, it was impossible to think
+that all the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes would forthwith subscribe to
+the Declaration of Corfu and become excellent Yugoslavs. Some would be
+honestly unable to throw off what centuries had done to them, and
+realize that if they had been made so different from their brothers,
+they were brothers still. For ten days there was a partly domestic,
+partly foreign obstacle, but as the King of Montenegro did not take his
+courage in both hands and descend on the shores of that country with an
+Italian army, he lost his chance for ever.
+
+
+ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES
+
+There was indeed far less trouble from the Roumanian than from the
+Italian side. On October 29, 1918, one could say that all military power
+in the Banat was at an end. The Hungarian army took what food it wanted
+and made off, leaving everywhere, in barracks and in villages, guns,
+rifles, ammunition. Vainly did the officers attempt to keep their men
+together. And scenes like this were witnessed all over the Banat. Then
+suddenly, on Sunday, November 3, the Roumanians, that is the Roumanians
+living in the country, made attacks on many villages, and the Roumanians
+of Transylvania acted in a similar fashion. With the Hungarian equipment
+and with weapons of their own they started out to terrorize. Among their
+targets were the village notaries, in whom was vested the administrative
+authority. At Old Moldava, on the Danube, they decapitated the notary, a
+man called Kungel, and threw his head into the river. At a village near
+Anina they buried the notary except for his head, which they proceeded
+to kick until he died. Nor did they spare the notaries of Roumanian
+origin, which made it seem as if this outbreak of lawlessness--directed
+from who knows where--had the high political end of making the country
+appear to the Entente in such a desperate condition that an army must be
+introduced, and as the Serbs were thought to be a long way off, with the
+railways and the roads before them ruined by the Austrians, it looked as
+if Roumania's army was the only one available. On the Monday and the
+Tuesday these Roumanian freebooters, who had all risen on the same day
+in regions extending over hundreds of square kilometres, started
+plundering the large estates. Near Bela Crkva, on the property of Count
+Bissingen-Nippenburg, a German, they did damage to the sum of eight and
+a half million crowns. At the monastery of Mešica, near Veršac,
+the Roumanians of a neighbouring village devastated the archimandrate's
+large library, sacked the chapel and smashed his bee-hives, so that they
+were not impelled by poverty and hunger. In the meantime there had been
+formed at Veršac a National Roumanian Military Council. The placard,
+printed of course in Roumanian, is dated Veršac, November 4, and is
+addressed to "The Roumanian Officers and Soldiers born in the Banat,"
+and announces that they have formed the National Council. It is a
+Council, we are told, in which one can have every confidence; moreover,
+it is prepared to co-operate in every way with a view to maintaining
+order _în lăuntra şi în afară_ (both internal and external).
+The subjoined names of the committee are numerous; they range from
+Lieut.-Colonel Gavriil Mihailov and Major Petru Jucu downwards to a
+dozen privates. The archimandrate, who fortunately happened to be at his
+house in Veršac, begged his friend Captain Singler of the
+_gendarmerie_ to take some steps. About twenty Hungarian officers
+undertook to go, with a machine gun, to the monastery on November 7; at
+eleven on the previous night Mihailov ordered the captain to come to see
+him; he wanted to know by whom this expedition had been authorized. The
+captain answered that Mešica was in his district, and that he had no
+animus against Roumanians but only against plunderers. After his arrival
+at Mešica the trouble was brought to an end. Nor was it long before
+the Serbian troops, riding up through their own country at a rate which
+no one had foreseen, crossed the Danube and occupied the Banat, in
+conjunction with the French. The rapidity of this advance astounded the
+Roumanians; they gaped like Lavengro when he wondered how the stones
+ever came to Stonehenge.... When the Serbian commandant at Veršac
+invited these enterprising Roumanian officers to an interview he was
+asked by one of them, Major Iricu, whether or not they were to be
+interned. "What made you print that placard?" asked the commandant; and
+they replied that their object had been to preserve order. They had not
+imagined, so they said, that the Serbs would come so quickly. "I will be
+glad," said the commandant, "if you will not do this kind of thing any
+more."
+
+
+THE ITALIAN FRAME OF MIND
+
+Italy was not in a good humour. She was well aware that in the countries
+of her Allies there was a marked tendency to underestimate her
+overwhelming triumphs of the last days of the War. Perhaps those
+exploits would have been more difficult if Austria's army had not
+suffered a deterioration, but still one does not take 300,000 prisoners
+every day. Some faithful foreigners were praising Italy--and she
+deserved it--for having persevered at all after Caporetto. That disaster
+had been greatly due to filling certain regiments with several thousand
+munition workers who had taken part in a revolt at Turin, and then
+concentrating these regiments in the Caporetto salient, which was the
+most vulnerable sector in the eastern Italian front. How much of the
+disaster was due to the Vatican will perhaps never be known. But as for
+the uneducated, easily impressed peasants of the army, it was wonderful
+that all, except the second army and a small part of the third,
+retreated with such discipline in view of what they had been brooding on
+before the day of Caporetto. They had such vague ideas what they were
+fighting for, and if the Socialists kept saying that the English paid
+their masters to continue with the War--how were they to know what was
+the truth? The British regiments, who were received not merely with
+cigars and cigarettes and flowers and with little palm crosses which
+their trustful little weavers had blessed, but also with showers of
+stones as they passed through Italian villages in 1917, must have
+sometimes understood and pardoned. Then the troops were in distress
+about their relatives, for things were more and more expensive, and
+where would it end? In face of these discouragements it was most
+admirable that the army and the nation rallied and reconstituted their
+_morale_.
+
+
+SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY
+
+Of course one should not generalize regarding nations, except in vague
+or very guarded terms; but possibly it would not be unjust to say that
+the Italians, apart from those of northern provinces and of Sardinia,
+have too much imagination to make first-class soldiers. And they are too
+sensitive, as you could see in an Italian military hospital. Their task
+was also not a trifling one--to stand for all those months in territory
+so forbidding. And there would have been more sympathy with the Italians
+in the autumn of 1918 if they had not had such very crushing triumphs
+when the War was practically over. What was the condition of the
+Austrian army? About October 15, in one section of the front--35
+kilometres separating the extreme points from one another--the following
+incidents occurred: the Army Command at St. Vitto issued an order to the
+officers invariably to carry a revolver, since the men were now
+attacking them; a Magyar regiment revolted and marched away, under the
+command of a Second-Lieutenant whom they had elected; at Stino di
+Livenza, while the officers were having their evening meal, two hand
+grenades were thrown into the mess by soldiers; at Codroipo a regiment
+revolted, attacked the officers' mess, and wounded several of the people
+there, including the general in command. Such was the Austrian army in
+those days; and it was only human if comparisons were made--not making
+any allowances for Italy's economic difficulties, her coal, her social
+and her religious difficulties--but merely bald comparisons were made
+between these wholesale victories against the Austrians as they were in
+the autumn of 1918 and the scantier successes of the previous years. In
+September 1916 when the eighth or ninth Italian offensive had pierced
+the Austrian front and the Italians reached a place called Provachina,
+Marshal Boroević had only one reserve division. The heavy artillery
+was withdrawn, the light artillery was packed up, the company commanders
+having orders to retire in the night. Only a few rapid-fire batteries
+were left with a view to deceiving the enemy. But as the Italians
+appeared to the Austrians to have no heart to come on--there may have
+been other reasons--the artillery was unpacked and the Austrians
+returned to their old front. In May 1917, between Monte Gabriele and
+Doberdo, Boroević had no reserve battalion; his troops, in full
+marching kit, had to defend the whole front: they were able to do so by
+proceeding now to this sector and now to that. No army is immune from
+serious mistakes--"We won in 1871," said Bismarck, "although we made
+very many mistakes, because the French made even more"--but the
+Yugoslavs in the Austrian army could not forget such incidents as that
+connected with the name of Professor Pivko. This gentleman, who is now
+living at Maribor, was made the subject of a book, _Der Verrath bei
+Carzano_ ("The Treachery near Carzano"), which was published by the
+Austrian General Staff. His battalion commander was a certain
+Lieut.-Colonel Vidale, who was a first cousin of the C.O., General
+Vidale; and when an orderly overheard Pivko, who is a Slovene, and
+several Czech officers, discussing a plan which would open the front to
+the Italians, he ran all the way to the General's headquarters and gave
+the information. The General telephoned to his cousin, who said that the
+allegation was absurd and that Pivko was one of his best officers. The
+orderly was therefore thrown into prison, and Pivko, having turned off
+the electricity from the barbed wires and arranged matters with a
+Bosnian regiment, made his way to the Italians. The suggestion is that,
+owing to the lie of the land and the weak Austrian forces, it was
+possible for the Italians to reach Trent; anyhow the Austrians were
+amazed when they ceased to advance and the German regiment which was in
+Trent did not have to come out to defend it. Everyone in the Austrian
+army recognized that the Italian artillery was pre-eminent and that the
+officers were most gallant, especially in the early part of the War,
+when one would frequently find an officer lying dead with no men near
+him. But such episodes as the above-mentioned--it would be possible, but
+wearisome, to describe others--could not but have some effect on the
+opposing army, and would be recalled when the Italians sang their final
+panegyric. The reasons for the Austrian _débâcle_ on the Piave are as
+follows: when the Allied troops had reached Rann, Susegana, Ponte di
+Piave and Montiena, the Austrian High Command decided on October 24 to
+throw against them the 36th Croat division, the 21st Czech, the 44th
+Slovene, a German division and the 12th Croat Regiment of Uhlans.
+However, the 16th and 116th Croat, the 30th Regiment of Czech Landwehr
+and the 71st Slovene Landwehr Regiment declared that they would not
+fight against the French and English, and, instead of advancing,
+retired. The 78th Croat Regiment, as well as three other Czech
+Regiments, abandoned the front, after having made a similar declaration.
+At the same time the 96th and 135th Croat Regiments, in agreement with
+the Czech detachments, made a breach for the Italians on the left wing
+at Stino di Livenza, while Slav marching formations revolted at Udine.
+The Austro-Hungarian troops consequently had to retreat.... No one
+expects of the Italian army, as a whole, that it will be on a level
+with the best, but when the British officers who were with the Serbs on
+the Salonica front compare their reminiscences with those of the British
+officers on the Italian front, it is improbable that garlands will be
+strewn for the Italians. Towards the end of October a plan was adopted
+by the British and Italian staffs for capturing the island of Papadopoli
+in the Piave; this island, about three miles in length, formed the
+outpost line of the Austrian defences. On the night of October 23-24 an
+attack was to be made by the 2nd H.A.C., while three companies of the
+1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers were to act as reserve. This operation is most
+vividly described by the Senior Chaplain of the 7th Division, the Rev.
+E. C. Crosse, D.S.O., M.C.;[1] and he says nothing as to what occurred
+on that part of the island which was to be seized by the Italians. Well,
+nothing had occurred, for the Italians did not get across and when the
+water rose they said they could do nothing on that night. These are the
+words of Mr. Crosse's footnote: "The obvious question, 'What was going
+to be done with the farther half of the island?' we have purposely left
+undiscussed here. This half was outside the area of the 7th Division,
+and as such it falls outside the scope of this work for the time being.
+The subsequent capture of the whole island (on the following night) by
+the 7th Division was not part of the original plan." Afterwards, when a
+crossing was made to the mainland, the left flank was unsupported, as
+the Italians did not cross the river, and thus the 23rd Division had its
+flank exposed. A belief is entertained that the Italian cavalry is one
+of the best in the world; evidently it is not the best, for on that
+Piave front, where thousands of Italian cavalry were available, the only
+ones who put in their appearance early in the battle were three hundred
+very war-stained Northampton Yeomanry.
+
+"The record of the Italian troops in the field renders unnecessary an
+assertion of their courage," says Mr. Anthony Dell;[2] "for reckless
+bravery in assault none surpasses them." But when you have said that you
+have nearly summed up their military virtues, for discipline is not
+their strong suit, and they have little sense of responsibility. On the
+other hand, we must remember their admirable patience, but the great
+mass of the people have not attained the level of Christianity; they are
+savage both in heart and mind, with no outlook wider than that of the
+family. It is the Italian proletariat which is judged by the Yugoslavs,
+whose otherwise acute discernment has been warped by the unhappy
+circumstances of the time. Indifferent to the fact that he himself is a
+compound of physical energy and oriental mysticism, the Yugoslav has
+become inclined to contemplate merely the physical side of the Italian,
+and for the most part that portion of it which has to do with war. The
+Italian long-sightedness and prudence and business capacity are ignored
+save in so far as they delayed the country's entrance into the Great
+War. The sensitiveness and artistic attributes of the Italians, who gaze
+with aching hearts upon the glories of a sunset, are but rarely felt by
+Serbs, who gather brushwood for the fire that is to roast their
+sucking-pig and who sit down to watch the operation, haply with their
+backs turned to the sunset. The Yugoslav, especially the Serb, is a man
+from the Middle Ages brought suddenly into the twentieth century. With
+his heroic heart and his wonderful strength he fails to understand those
+people who, on account of one reason or another, have no passion for
+war. And as the military deeds of the Italians have had such effect upon
+the minds of the Yugoslavs, we have alluded to them at a greater length
+than would otherwise have been profitable. The Yugoslavs despise the
+Italians. Also the Italians, who concern themselves with diplomacy, are
+conscious that their keen wits and their long training in the wiles of
+the civilized world, their old traditions and their prestige give them a
+considerable advantage over the Yugoslav diplomat, so that this kind of
+Italian despises the Yugoslav. He knows very well that the French or
+British statesmen do not, amid the smoke of after-dinner cigars, esteem
+his case by the same standard as that which they apply to the case which
+the ordinary Yugoslav diplomat presents to them in office hours. As for
+the wider Italian circles, one must fear that the old hatred of Germany,
+because the Germans seemed to despise them, will henceforward colour the
+sentiments with which they regard the Yugoslavs. It is a state of things
+between these neighbours which other people cannot but view with
+apprehension.
+
+
+AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL AFFAIR
+
+There was in Yugoslav naval circles no very cordial feeling for the
+Italians. The Austrian dreadnought, _Viribus Unitis_, was torpedoed in a
+most ingenious fashion by two resolute officers, Lieutenant Raffaele
+Paolucci, a doctor, and Major Raffaele Rossetti. In October 1917 they
+independently invented a very small and light compressed-air motor which
+could be used to propel a mine into an enemy harbour. They submitted
+their schemes to the Naval Inventions Board, were given an opportunity
+of meeting, and after three months had brought their invention into a
+practical form. The naval authorities, however, refused to allow them to
+go on any expedition till they both were skilled long-distance swimmers.
+Six months had thus to be dedicated entirely to swimming. At the end of
+that time they were supplied with a motor-boat and two bombs of a
+suitable size for blowing up large airships. To these bombs were fixed
+the small motors by means of which they were to be propelled into the
+port of Pola, while the two men, swimming by their side, would control
+and guide them. Just after nightfall on October 31, 1918, the raiders
+arrived outside Pola.
+
+Were they aware that anything had happened in the Austro-Hungarian navy?
+On October 26 there appeared in the _Hrvatski List_ of Pola a summons to
+the Yugoslavs, made by the Executive Committee of Zagreb, which had been
+elected on the 23rd. This notice in the newspaper recommended the
+formation of local committees, and asked the Yugoslavs in the meantime
+to eschew all violence. When Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Methodius
+Koch--whose mother was an Englishwoman--read this at noon he thought it
+was high time to do something. Koch had always been one of the most
+patriotically Slovene officers of the Austrian navy. On various
+occasions during the War he had attempted to hand over his ships to the
+Italians, and when some other Austrian commander signalled to ask him
+why he was cruising so near to the Italian coast he invariably answered,
+"I have my orders." He found it, however, impossible to give himself up,
+as the Italians whom he sighted, no matter how numerous they were, would
+never allow him to come within signalling range. Koch had frequently
+spoken to his Slovene sailors, preparing them for the day of liberation,
+and he was naturally very popular among them. Let us not forget that
+such an officer, true to his own people, was in constant peril of being
+shot.
+
+
+WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA
+
+On the afternoon of that same day, October 26th, when the
+Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its army and navy, was collapsing, Admiral
+Horthy, an energetic, honest, if not brilliant Magyar, the Commander of
+the Fleet at Pola, called to his flag-ship, the _Viribus Unitis_, one
+officer representing each nationality of the Empire. Koch was there on
+behalf of the Slovenes. The Admiral announced that a wholesale mutiny
+had been planned for November 1st, during which the ships' treasuries
+would be robbed, and he asked these officers to collaborate with him in
+preventing it. Koch, at the Admiral's request, wrote out a speech that
+he would deliver to the Slovenes, and this document, with one or two
+notes in the Admiral's writing, is in Koch's possession. "If you will
+not listen to your Admirals, then," so ran the speech, "you should
+listen to our national leaders." He addressed himself to the men, of
+course in the Slovene language, as a fellow-countryman. He begged them
+to keep quiet. He deprecated all plundering, firstly in order that their
+good name should not be sullied, and also pointing out that the
+neighbouring population was overwhelmingly Slovene. Out of 45,000 men
+only 2000 could leave by rail; he therefore asked them all to stay
+peacefully at Pola. Meanwhile the local committee had been formed; Koch
+was, secretly, a member of it, and on the 28th, Rear-Admiral Cicoli, a
+kindly old gentleman who was port-commandant, advised Koch to join it as
+liaison-officer. It was on the 28th at eight in the morning that the
+officers who had been selected to calm the different nationalities
+started to go round the fleet. That officer who spoke to the Germans
+declared that one must not abandon hopes of victory, and that anyhow the
+War would soon be over. Count Thun, who discoursed to the Czechs, was
+ill-advised enough to make the Deity, their Kaiser and their oath the
+main subjects of his remarks, so that he was more than once in great
+danger of being thrown overboard. Koch went first of all to the _Viribus
+Unitis_, but the mutiny had begun; a bugle was sounded for a general
+assembly; it was ignored, and the crew let it be known that they were
+weary of the old game, which consisted of the officers egging on one
+nation against another. This mutiny had not yet spread to the remaining
+ships, and on them the speeches were delivered. At the National Assembly
+that evening Koch was chosen as chief of National Defence; he thereupon
+went to Cicoli and formally asked to be allowed to join the committee.
+When Vienna refused its assent, Koch resigned his commission. By this
+time all discipline had gone by the board, no one thought of such a
+thing as office work and, amid the chaos, sailors' councils appeared,
+with which Koch had to treat. The situation was made no easier by the
+presence of large numbers of Germans, Magyars and Italians, of whom the
+latter also formed a National Council. On the 30th, Koch, as chief of
+National Defence, asked Admirals Cicoli and Horthy to come at 9 p.m. to
+the Admiralty, with a view to the transference of the military power. At
+7.30, in the municipal building, there was a joint meeting of the
+Yugoslav and the Italian National Councils, and so many speeches were
+made that the Admirals had to be asked to postpone their appearance for
+two hours; and at eleven o'clock, with the street well guarded against a
+possible outbreak on the part of any loyal troops, the whole Yugoslav
+committee, accompanied by one member of the Italian committee, went to
+the Admiralty. Horthy had gone home, but Cicoli and his whole staff were
+waiting. The old gentleman was informed that he no longer had any power
+in his hands; he was asked to give up his post to Koch, and this he was
+prepared to do. "It is not so hard for me now," he said, "as I have
+meanwhile received a telegram from His Majesty, ordering me," and at
+this point he produced the paper, "to give up Pola to the Yugoslavs."
+The affair had apparently been settled between nine and eleven o'clock.
+Cicoli was ready to sign the protocol, but out of courtesy to a
+chivalrous old man this was left undone; after all there were witnesses
+enough.
+
+During the night of October 30th-31st, a radiogram, destined for President
+Wilson, was composed. "Together with the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles,
+and in understanding," it said, "with the Italians, we have taken over the
+fleet and Pola, the war-harbour, and the forts." It asked for the dispatch
+of representatives of such Entente States as were disinterested in the
+local national question. But now a telegram was received from Zagreb,
+announcing that Dr. Ante Tresić-Pavi�ić, of the chief National
+Council, would be at Pola at 8 a.m. and that, pending his arrival, no
+wireless was to be sent out. Dr. Tresić-Pavi�ić,[3] poet and
+deputy for the lower Dalmatian islands, had always been, in spite of his
+indifferent health, one of the most strenuous fighters for Yugoslavia. Two
+years of the War he spent in an Austrian prison, but on his release he
+managed to travel up and down Croatia and Dalmatia, inciting the Yugoslav
+sailors to revolt; many of them had already read a speech by this
+silver-tongued deputy in the Reichsrath, a speech of which the reading and
+circulation had been forbidden as a crime of high treason. About 9 a.m. of
+the 31st there was a meeting, on board the _Viribus Unitis_, between
+Tresić-Pavi�ić and Koch. There was a brief ceremony, the leader of
+the Sailors' Council handing over the vessel to the deputy, as representing
+the National Council of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Admiral Horthy, in his
+cabin, likewise drew up a _procès-verbal_ to the same effect, saying that
+he was authorized to do this by the Emperor, and he supported his statement
+by the production of a wireless message. Koch urged on the doctor the
+necessity of sending the above-mentioned wireless to Wilson. "The news of
+this great event," says Tresić-Pavi�ić in an article in the
+_Balkan Review_ (May 1919), "was dispatched to all the Powers by wireless."
+But unfortunately he seems, whether on his own responsibility or that of
+Zagreb, to have prevented Koch from sending it on that day. Captain Janko
+de Vuković Podkapelski was then placed in command of the fleet, though
+the Sailors' Council at first declined to accept him. He was at heart a
+patriot, but had taken no active part in Yugoslav propaganda and, unluckily
+for himself, he had been compelled to accompany Count Tisza in his recent
+ill-starred tour of Bosnia, when the Magyar leader made a last attempt to
+browbeat the local Slavs. Yet, as no other high officer was available, Koch
+told the Sailors' Council that they simply must acknowledge Vuković, and
+at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav flag being hoisted on all
+the vessels simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the Croatian national
+anthem and the firing of salutes.
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS UNITIS"
+
+Three hours previously to this a torpedo-boat, with Paolucci and
+Rossetti on board, had sailed from Venice; and at ten o'clock in the
+evening, as Paolucci tells us,[4] he and his companion, after a certain
+amount of embracing, handshaking, saluting and loyal exclamations,
+plunged into the water. The first obstacle was a wooden pier upon which
+sentries were marching to and fro; this was safely passed by means of
+two hats shaped like bottles, which Paolucci and Rossetti now put on.
+The bombs were submerged, and thus the sentry saw nothing but a couple
+of bottles being tossed about by the waves. A row of wooden beams,
+bearing a thin electric wire, had then to be negotiated, and the last
+obstacle consisted of half a dozen steel nets which had laboriously to
+be disconnected from the cables which held them. It was now nearly six
+o'clock; the two men cautiously approached the _Viribus Unitis_ and
+fixed one of their bombs just below the water-line, underneath the
+ladder conducting to the deck. Paolucci simply records, without comment,
+that the ship was illuminated; perhaps he and his friend were too tired
+to make the obvious deduction that the hourly-expected end of the War
+had really arrived. A number of officers from other ships had remained
+on the _Viribus Unitis_ after the previous evening's ceremony; but the
+look-out, seeing the Italians in the water, must have thought it was
+eccentric of them to come swimming out at this hour to join in the
+festivities. A motor-launch soon picked them up and they were brought on
+board the flag-ship. "Viva l'Italia!" they shouted, for they were proud
+of dying for their country. "Viva l'Italia!" replied some of the crew to
+this pair of allied officers. When they were conducted to Captain
+Vuković they told him that his vessel would in a short time be blown
+up. The order was given to abandon ship, and Paolucci and his friend
+relate[5] that when they asked the captain if they might also try to
+save themselves he shook them both by the hand, saying that they were
+brave men and that they deserved to live. So they plunged into the water
+and swam rapidly away, but a few minutes later they were picked up by a
+launch and taken back, the captain having suddenly begun to suspect,
+they said, that the story of the bomb was untrue. They were again made
+to walk up the ladder, under which lay the explosives. It was then 6.28.
+The ladder was crowded with sailors who were also returning to their
+ship. "Run, run for your lives," shouted Paolucci. At last his foot
+touched the deck, and then he and Rossetti ran as fast as they could to
+the stern. Hardly had they got there than a terrific explosion rent the
+air, and a column of water shot three hundred feet straight up into the
+sky. Paolucci and Rossetti were again in the water, and looking back
+they saw a man scramble up the side of the vessel, which had now turned
+completely over, with her keel uppermost. There on the keel stood this
+man, with folded arms. It was Vuković, who had insisted on going down
+with his ship. About fifty other men were killed.
+
+When Koch came out of his house, feeling that there must be no more
+delay in sending the radiogram to President Wilson, a young Italian
+Socialist ran up to him in the street and told him of the fate of the
+flagship. As the news spread everyone thought it must be the work of
+some Austrian officers. It was feared that they would explode the
+arsenal, and that would have meant the destruction of the whole town.
+Amid the uproar and chaos, Koch had placards distributed, saying that
+the _Viribus Unitis_ had been torpedoed by two Italians, who were in
+custody. And then the wireless was sent to Paris.
+
+The two officers were taken to the Admiralty and then placed on the
+dreadnought _Prince Eugene_, it being rumoured that the Italians of Pola
+intended to rescue them. Subsequently Koch and other officers, together
+with Dr. Stanić, President of the Italian National Council, went out
+to see the prisoners. Stanić was left alone with them for as long as
+he wished. And when Koch saw them--he did not then shake hands--and
+asked if they knew what they had done, "I know it," replied Rossetti
+rather arrogantly. Paolucci's demeanour was more modest.
+
+"I was your friend all through the War," said Koch, "and now you sink
+our ships. I can only assume that you were ignorant of what had taken
+place."
+
+They said that that was so.
+
+"But if you had known," said the Admiral to Rossetti, "would you have
+done this?"
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I am an officer. I had my orders to blow up the
+ship and I would have obeyed them."
+
+Koch had undertaken that if it turned out that they were unaware of the
+ship's transference to the Yugoslavs he would kiss them both. He did so,
+and allowed them to communicate with Italy by wireless.
+
+Never, says Koch, will the unpleasant taste of those kisses leave his
+mouth. The men were officers; their words could not be doubted. But as
+they must surely have been in Venice for at least a day or two before
+October 31, it seems extraordinary that they did not hear, via Triest,
+of what the Emperor Charles was doing with his navy. If only they had
+perfected their invention and learned to swim a trifle sooner there
+would be no shadow cast on their achievement, but the Yugoslavs--who had
+never seen any sort of Italian naval attack on Pola during the
+War--could not be blamed for thinking that the disappearance of their
+_Viribus Unitis_ would be viewed with equanimity by the Italians....
+With regard to the other vessels, it was arranged in Paris that they
+should proceed, under the white flag, to Corfu with Yugoslav commanders;
+but this was found impossible, as they were undermanned. Part of the
+fleet arrived at Kotor and was placed at the disposal of the commander
+of the Yugoslav detachment of the Allied forces which had come from
+Macedonia. A serious episode occurred at Pola, where on November 5 an
+Italian squadron arrived and demanded the surrender of the ships. The
+Yugoslav commander succeeded in sending by wireless a strong protest to
+Paris against this barefaced violation of the agreement. The Italian
+commander, Admiral Cagni, likewise sent a protest, but Clemenceau upheld
+the Yugoslavs. They were absolutely masters of the ex-Austro-Hungarian
+fleet; it rested solely with them either to sink it or hand it over to
+the Allies in good condition. The Yugoslavs did not sink the fleet,
+because they wished to show their loyalty to, and confidence in, the
+justice of the Allies. They never suspected at that time that the ships
+would not be shared at least equally between themselves and the
+Italians. But in December 1919 the Supreme Council in Paris allotted to
+the Yugoslavs twelve disarmed torpedo-boats for policing and patrolling
+their coasts.
+
+
+HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA
+
+Admiral Cagni was invited by the Yugoslavs to enter the harbour of Pola.
+But for two and a half days he hesitated outside and heavily bombarded
+the hill-fortress of Barbarica, which had been abandoned. At last he
+made up his mind to risk a landing. The Italian girls of Pola, dressed
+in white, came down in a procession to the port; their arms were full of
+flowers for the Italian sailors. And the first men who disembarked were
+buried in flowers and kissed and kissed before the girls perceived that,
+by a prudent Italian arrangement, this advance guard consisted of men of
+the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The first care of the Italians at Pola was not
+to ascertain the whereabouts of the munition depots; they made for the
+naval museum, where trophies from the battle of Vis in 1866 were
+preserved. These they removed, as well as whatever took their fancy at
+the Arsenal. Among their booty was a silver dinner service which it had
+been customary to use on occasions of Imperial visits. An Italian
+officer appeared on the _Radetzky_. Very roughly he asked an officer who
+he was. "I am the commander," said this first-lieutenant. "No! no!" said
+the other, "I am that." But the Italians for the most part avoided going
+on board the ships.... Admiral Cagni himself was very ill at ease, but
+grew noticeably more confident as he observed the utter demoralization
+of Pola. His correspondence likewise underwent the appropriate changes.
+While Koch was in command of 45,000 men, Cagni wrote to "His Excellency
+the most illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when the numbers were reduced
+to 20,000 the style of address was "Illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when
+they fell to 10,000 it became "Al Signor Ammiraglio"; when only 5000
+remained a letter began with the word "Ammiraglio!" and when the last
+man had left Pola and Koch was alone, Cagni sent word through his
+adjutant that he knew no Admiral Koch but merely a Signor Koch.
+
+
+THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS
+
+Talking of numbers, one may mention that the Yugoslavs formed about 65
+per cent. of the Austro-Hungarian navy, as one would naturally expect
+from the sea-faring population of Dalmatia and Istria. In the technical
+branches of the service only about 40 per cent. were Yugoslavs, for a
+preference was given to Germans and Magyars. Out of 116 chief engineers
+only two were Yugoslavs. Serbo-Croat was an obligatory language; but
+German, as in the army, was the language of command. Thus one sees that,
+in spite of not being favoured, the Yugoslavs of the Adriatic, who are
+natural sailors, constituted more than half the personnel of the navy.
+"These Slav people," writes Mr. Hilaire Belloc,[6] who took the trouble
+to go to the Adriatic with a view to solving the local problems, "these
+Slav people have only tentatively approached the sea. Its traffic was
+never native to them." If he had continued a little way down the coast
+he would have seen many and many a neat little house whose owners are
+retired sea-captains. "They are not mariners," says Mr. Belloc. If he
+had made a small excursion into history he would have learned that
+Venice--since it was to her own advantage--made an exception of
+Dalmatia's shipping industry, and while she was placing obstacles along
+the roads that a Dalmatian might wish to take, allowed the time-honoured
+industries of the sea to be developed. Such fine sailors were the
+Dalmatians that Benedetto Pesaro, the Venetian Admiral against the Turks
+in the fifteenth century, deplored the fact that his galleys were not
+fully manned by them, instead of those "Lombardi" whom he despised.
+"They are," says Mr. John Leyland,[7] the naval authority--they are
+"pre-eminently a maritime race. The circumstances of their geography,
+and in a chief degree the wonderful configuration of their coast-line,
+with its sheltered waters and admirable anchorages, made them
+sea-farers.... The proud Venetians knew them as pirates and marauders
+long ago." And "there has never been a better seaman," adds Mr. Leyland,
+"than the pirate turned trader." In 1780 the island of Bra� had forty
+vessels, Lussin a hundred, and Kotor, which in the second half of the
+eighteenth century quadrupled her mercantile marine, had a much larger
+fleet than either of them. The best-known dockyards were those at
+Kor�ula and Trogir, while the great Overseas Sailing Ship Navigation
+Company at Peljesac (Sabioncello) occupied an important position in the
+world of trade. The company's fleet of large sailing vessels was of
+native construction; both crews and captains were natives of the
+country, so that it was in every way the best representative of the
+Dalmatian mercantile marine of the period. When the Treaty of Vienna in
+1815 gave Venice, Istria and the Eastern Adriatic to the Habsburgs the
+vessels plying in those waters were very largely Slav. And with the
+substitution of steam the Dalmatians are still holding their own, with
+this difference, that the ships are now built, even as they are manned,
+not by nobles and the wealthy _bourgeoisie_, but by men who come from
+modest sea-faring or peasant families. In the Austrian mercantile marine
+German capital formed 47·82 per cent., Italian capital 19·37 per cent.
+and Slav capital 31·80 per cent. One of these Dalmatian Slavs,
+Mihanović, going out in poverty to the Argentine, has followed with
+such success the shipbuilding of his ancestors that he is now among the
+chief millionaires of Buenos Aires. With regard to fishing, there are
+along the Istrian and Dalmatian coast more than 5000 small vessels which
+give employment to 19,000 fishermen, of whom only 1000 are citizens of
+Italy. But Mr. Belloc says that these Slav people have only tentatively
+approached the sea, that its traffic was never native to them, and that
+they are not mariners. It is marvellous that you can be paid for writing
+that sort of stuff.... By Mr. Belloc's side is the Marchese Donghi, who
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ of June 1922 says: "It is superfluous to add
+that everything which has to do with navigation [in Dalmatia] is
+entirely in the hands of the Italians." But I think it is superfluous to
+contradict a gentleman who ingenuously believes that Dalmatia is largely
+Italian because on our maps we have hitherto used Italian place-names.
+Will he say that the population of Praha is not Czech because on our
+maps that capital is commonly called Prague? It pleases the Marchese to
+be facetious about what he describes as "that queer thing called the
+Srba Hrvata i Slovenca Kralji (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and
+Slovenes)"; he should have said "Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca."
+He says that in Serbia "no industry is possible," whereas in one single
+town, Lescovac, there are no less than eleven textile besides other
+factories. He says that one-third of the population of Dalmatia is
+Italian, and "almost exclusively the nobility and the upper
+_bourgeoisie_." I suppose that is why more than 700 of Dalmatia's
+leading citizens were deported by the Italians after the Great War. He
+says many other nonsensical things, and sums it all up by telling us of
+the "bewildered incomprehension" of the Adriatic problem!
+
+
+WHO SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH
+
+Whether rightly or wrongly, the Yugoslavs had formed their opinion of
+the Italian sailors, an opinion which dated from the time of Tegetthoff
+and had not undergone much modification by the incidents of this War.
+They remembered what had happened when they cruised outside Italian
+ports; they knew very probably that the British had on more than one
+occasion to break through the boom outside Taranto harbour, and they may
+have read[8] of the experience of some French ladies who came to the
+Albanian coast on the _Città di Bari_ towards the end of 1915 with 2000
+kilos of milk, clothing and medical supplies for the Serbian children
+who had struggled across the mountains. These ladies write that after
+the torpedoing of the _Brindisi_ their own crew ran up and down without
+appearing to see them; the crew had life-belts, those of the ladies were
+taken away. Ultimately they succeeded in having themselves put ashore,
+and the _Città di Bari_ fled in the night without landing the stores.
+And in Albania, the ladies say, one witnessed the "stoic endurance of
+the noble Serbian race, of which every day brought us more examples. In
+that procession of ghosts and of the dying there was no imploring look,
+there was no hand stretched out to beg." ... The Yugoslavs may have
+known what happened to Lieutenant (now Captain) Binnos de Pombara of the
+French navy. This officer, in command of the _Fourche_, had been
+escorting the _Città di Messina_ and, observing that she was torpedoed,
+had sent to her, perhaps a little imprudently, all his life-boats and
+belts. A few minutes later, when he was himself torpedoed, the Italians
+did not see him; anyhow they made for the shore. De Pombara encouraged
+his men by causing them to sing the Marseillaise and so forth; they
+were in the water, clinging to the wreckage, for several hours, until
+another boat came past. The next day at Brindisi, when he met the
+captain of the _Città di Messina_, this gentleman once more did not see
+him; but the French Government, although de Pombara was a very young
+man, created him an officer of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO PRECAUTIONS
+
+There was thus a certain amount of tension existing between the military
+and naval services of the Yugoslavs and those of Italy. Other Yugoslavs
+were apprehensive as to whether the Italians would not demand the
+enforcement of the Treaty of London. But the United States was not bound
+by that agreement, which was so completely at variance with Wilson's
+principle of self-determination. One presumed that, pending an
+examination of these matters, the disputed territories would be occupied
+by troops of all the Allies. But unfortunately this did not turn out to
+be the case. France, Britain and America stood by, while the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs took whatsoever they could lay their hands on. As the
+Yugoslav military forces had to come overland, while the Italians had
+command of the sea, it was natural that in most places the Italians got
+the better of the scramble; and where they found the Yugoslavs in
+possession, as at Rieka, they usually ousted them by diplomatic methods.
+And in one way or another they managed to make their holdings tally, as
+far as possible, with the Treaty of London, and even to go beyond it.
+Baron Sonnino declined to make a comprehensive statement as to the
+Italian programme. Of course he desired in the end to exchange
+Dalmatia--the seizure of which would entail a war with Yugoslavia--against
+Rieka. But as Italian public opinion had scarcely thought of Rieka
+during the War, he made it his business to cause them to yearn for that
+town. His compatriots were asking why Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points
+should be waived for France in the Sarre Basin, for Britain in Ireland
+and Egypt, but not for them. And some of his would-be ingenious
+compatriots pointed out--their contentions were embodied in the Italian
+Memorandum to the Supreme Council on January 10, 1920--that as the
+Treaty of London was based on the presumption that Montenegro, Serbia
+and Croatia would remain separate States, this instrument had been
+altogether upset by the merging of those Southern Slavs into one
+country, Yugoslavia; it followed, therefore, that the Treaty which
+attributed Rieka to the Croats could no longer be invoked. But the other
+parts of the Treaty which gave the Slav mainland and islands to Italy
+were absolutely unassailable. The reader will resent being troubled by
+this kind of balderdash, but Messrs. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George and Wilson
+may have resented it even more.
+
+
+ITALIAN MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS
+
+On November 3 the Italians arrived outside Vis (Lissa), the most
+westerly of the large islands, where the entire population of 11,000 is
+Slav, except for the family of an honoured inhabitant, Dr. Doimi, and
+three other families related to his. Dr. Doimi's people have lived for
+many years on this island--his father was mayor of the capital, which is
+also called Vis, for half a century--and now they have become so
+acclimatized that, as he told me, three of his four nephews prefer to
+call themselves Yugoslavs. This phenomenon can be seen all down the
+Adriatic coast. It has often, for example, been pointed out to Dr. Vio,
+the very Italian ex-mayor of Rieka, that he has a Croat father and
+several Croat brothers. Thus also the Duimić family of the same town
+has one brother married to a Magyar lady and very fond of the Magyars, a
+second brother who is a Professor at Milan, and a third who lives above
+Rieka and is a Yugoslav. The terms "Yugoslav" and "Italian" have now
+come to signify not what a man is, but what he wants to be, applying
+thus the admirable principle of self-determination. Well, in the old
+days on the isle of Vis between two and three hundred people belonged to
+the Autonomist party, owing to their great regard for Dr. Doimi; but
+these say now that they are Yugoslavs, and the Italians--at all events
+Captain Sportiello, their chief officer at Vis--acknowledged that they
+must base their demand on strategic reasons. A day or two before the
+Italians arrived the population had arrested several Austrian
+functionaries, including the mayor and three gendarmes, who had
+maltreated them during the War. None of these persons were Italian; and
+when the Italian boats were sighted a committee went to meet them
+joyfully and brought the officers ashore upon their backs. The officers
+explained that they had come as representatives of the Entente and the
+United States, and for the object--which appeared superfluous--of
+protecting Vis from German submarines. If the Italians had been
+everywhere as inoffensive as at Vis, it would be more agreeable to write
+about their doings. Captain Sportiello, a naval officer, showed himself
+throughout the months of his administration to be sensible; he
+frequented Yugoslav houses. The greatest divergence occurred on June 1,
+1919, when the Italians planned to have a demonstration for their
+national holiday, and asked the inhabitants to come to the bioscope,
+where they would be regaled with cakes and sweets; the inhabitants
+replied that they preferred to have Yugoslavia.... But there is a
+monument in the cemetery at Vis to which I must refer. It is a very fine
+monument of white marble, erected by the Austrians to commemorate their
+victory in these waters over the Italian navy in 1866.[9] On the top
+there is a lion clutching the Italian flag, while on two of the sides
+there are inscriptions in the German language. One of them, some feet in
+length, relates that this memorial is placed there for the officers and
+men who on July 20, 1866, gave their lives in the service of their
+Emperor and country. The Italians screwed two marble slabs across the
+upper and the lower parts of this inscription, so that the German
+lettering of the central part remained visible; on the lower slab one
+read: "Novembre 1918" and on the upper one "Italia Vincitrice"
+(Victorious Italy). We were taken by several Italian officers to look
+at this. They were so proud of it that they presented us with
+photographs of the monument in its altered state. I fear that the
+Italian mentality escapes me. I should not have written anything about
+them.
+
+
+THEIR TRUCULENCE AT KORÄŒULA
+
+They landed on the same day, November 3, on the beautiful and prosperous
+island of Kor�ula (Curzola), putting ashore at Velaluka, the western
+harbour. With the exception of five families, all the people are
+Yugoslavs; and the Italians, who sailed in under a white flag, announced
+that they had come as friends of the Yugoslavs and of the Entente, to
+preserve order and to protect them against submarines. On the 5th, they
+went to the town of Kor�ula, where one of the two officers,
+Lieutenant Poggi, of the navy, put his assurances in writing, as he had
+done at Velaluka. He protested against the word "Occupation." On the 7th
+they returned to Velaluka and on the 12th went back, with about a
+hundred men, to Kor�ula. Once more he wrote that he had not come to
+occupy the island; he added, though, that the district officials should
+act on the opposite peninsula of Sabioncello in the name of the
+Yugoslavs, but over Kor�ula and the island of Lastovo (Lagosta) in
+the name of Italy--not of the Entente. He wanted to remove the Yugoslav
+flags from public buildings and substitute Italian flags. When he was
+reminded of what he had said with regard to the Entente, he exclaimed:
+"No, no! This is Italy!" The chief district official protested, and
+refused to carry out Lieut. Poggi's injunctions, nor were the Italians
+able to do so. This officer remained at Kor�ula, requisitioning
+houses and hoisting as many Italian flags as he could. He issued an
+order that after 6.30 p.m. not more than three persons were allowed to
+come together in the streets. His men used to offer food to the women of
+the place, who declined it; after which the food was given to the
+children, who were previously photographed in an imploring attitude.
+There was some trouble on December 15 when the _Leonidas_, an American
+ship, came in with a number of mine-sweepers. Apparently the Yugoslavs
+contravened the Italian regulations by omitting to ask whether their
+band might play in the harbour, but, on the supposition that this would
+not be accorded to them, went down to the harbour just as if they were
+not living under regulations. They waved American, Serbian and Croatian
+flags, all of which the Italians attempted to seize; the most gorgeous
+one, a Yugoslav flag of silk with gilt fringes, they tore up and divided
+among themselves as a trophy. When the _Leonidas_ made fast, a
+lieutenant leaped ashore and placed himself, holding a revolver, in
+front of an American flag. The captain, according to some reports, had
+his men standing to their guns, while others of the crew are said to
+have been given hand-grenades; but whether by this method or another,
+the turbulence on shore was calmed and the Italians seem to have invited
+the captain to step off his boat. He preferred, however, to go to
+another port; the populace came overland. One need not say that there
+was jollification.... When the other American boats departed, a small
+one remained at Kor�ula. One day a steamer came from Metković,
+having on board a few men of the Yugoslav Legion. The people of
+Kor�ula, not being allowed to take the men to their houses, came down
+quietly to the harbour with coffee and bread, but the carabinieri drove
+them away. These legionaries were emigrants to Australia and Canada, who
+had come back to fight for the Entente, including Italy. The Italians
+wanted to arrest them all on account of a small Croatian flag which one
+of them was holding, but at the request of the American ship they
+refrained. A certain Marko Šimunović, who had gone to Australia
+from the Kor�ula village of Ra�išca, went over to speak to the
+sailors on the American boat. Because of this the carabinieri took him
+to the military headquarters. He was interned for several months in
+Italy.
+
+The long island of Hvar (Lesina) was not occupied until November 13. It
+is interesting, by the by, to note how this island came to have its
+names. In the time of the Greek colonists it was known as � φ��ος,
+which subsequently became Farra or Quarra, leading to the name
+Hvar, by which it is known to the Slavs. They also, in the thirteenth
+century, gave it an alternative name: Lesna, from the Slav word
+signifying "wooded," for the Venetians had not yet despoiled the island
+of many of its forests. Lesna was the popular and Hvar the literary
+name; and the Italians, taking the former of these, coined the word
+Lesina, the sound of which makes many of them and of other people think
+that this is an Italian island.[10] The question of Slav and Italian
+geographical names in Dalmatia has been carefully investigated by a
+student at Split. Taking the zone which was made over to the Italians by
+the Treaty of London, he found that with the exception of a reef called
+Maon, alongside the island of Pago, every island, village, mountain and
+river has a Slav name, whereas out of the total of 114 names there were
+64 which have no names in Italian; and this is giving the Italians
+credit for such words as Sebenico, Zemonico and so forth, which in the
+opinion of philologists are merely modifications of the original
+Å ibenik, Zemunik, etc.
+
+
+AND ON HVAR
+
+At Starigrad on Hvar the Italians also said that they were
+representatives of the Entente, but soon they prohibited the national
+colours. Being perhaps aware that in the whole island, with its
+population of about 20,000, there were before the War only four or five
+Italians who were engaged in selling fruit, their countrymen in November
+1918 did their best, by the distribution of other commodities--rice,
+flour and macaroni--to make some more Italians. They succeeded at
+Starigrad in obtaining fifteen or twenty recruits. And they made it
+obvious that it would be more comfortable to be an Italian than a
+Yugoslav. The local Reading-Rooms, whose committee had received no
+previous warning, fell so greatly under the displeasure of the Italians
+that one night after ten o'clock--at which time curfew sounded for the
+Yugoslavs; the Italians and their friends could stay out until any
+hour--the premises were sacked: knives were used against the pictures,
+furniture was taken by assault, and mirrors did not long resist the
+fine élan of the attacking party. Old vases, other ornaments and books
+were thrown into the harbour near the _Sirio_, the Italian destroyer
+which was anchored ten yards from the Reading-Rooms. Of course there was
+an inquiry; the result of it was that several Yugoslavs (and no others)
+were imprisoned. The _Sirio's_ commander was a gentleman of some
+activity; he sent a telegram to Rome and another one to Admiral Millo,
+the Italian Governor of the occupied parts of Dalmatia, saying that the
+people of the island longed for annexation. These telegrams he read
+aloud before the islanders, with all his carabinieri in attendance....
+The old-world capital of the island, which is a smaller place than
+Starigrad, was occupied on the same day. The first serious encounter
+took place on December 4, when the Italians, who were quartered on the
+upper floor of the Sokol or gymnastic club, observed that furniture was
+being taken from the rooms below them and was being carried out into the
+street. If they had asked the people what they were about they would
+have heard that these things had been stored in the gymnasium during the
+War and that the place was now to be devoted to its original purpose.
+What they did was to believe at once the yarn of a renegade, who told
+them that the people were preparing to blow up the house. The Italians
+opened fire, wounded several persons and killed one of their own
+carabinieri.
+
+
+HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR
+
+On the mainland the Italians were received at Å ibenik with some
+suspicion. They announced, however, that they came as representatives of
+the Allies, and begged for a pilot who would take them into Å ibenik's
+land-locked harbour, through the mine-field. The Yugoslavs consented,
+and after the Italians had installed themselves they requisitioned sixty
+Austrian merchant vessels which were lying in that harbour. (They left,
+as a matter of fact, to the Yugoslavs out of all the ex-Austrian
+mercantile fleet exactly four old boats--_Sebenico_, _Lussin_, _Mossor_
+and _Dinara_--with a total displacement of 390 tons.) On the other
+hand, at Zadar, they were received in a very friendly fashion. In this
+town, as it had been the seat of government, with numerous officials and
+their families, the Autonomist anti-Croat party had been, under Austria,
+more powerful than in any other town in Dalmatia. With converts coming
+in from the country, which is entirely Slav, the Autonomists in Zadar
+had become well over half the population,[11] which is about 14,000,
+that of the surrounding district being about 23,000. Zadar was thus a
+place apart from the rest of Dalmatia, and although the Dalmatian
+Autonomists were unable to claim any of the eleven deputies who went to
+Vienna, they managed to be represented in the provincial Chamber--the
+Landtag--by six out of the forty-one members. The Landtag was not
+elected on the basis of universal suffrage; four out of these six
+members were chosen by large landowners, one (Dr. Ziliotto, the mayor)
+by the town of Zadar and one by the Zadar chamber of commerce. Out of
+the eighty-six communes of Dalmatia, Zadar was the solitary one that was
+Autonomist. Some very few Autonomists were wont to say that they aspired
+to union with Italy, but it was generally thought that most of them
+agreed with Dr. Ziliotto when he said in the Landtag in 1906: "We,
+separated from Italy by the whole Adriatic--we a few thousand men,
+scattered, with no territorial links, among a population not of hundreds
+of thousands but of millions of Slavs, how could we think of union with
+Italy?" And Dr. Ziliotto was one of those who always regarded himself as
+an Italian. But whether the Zadar Autonomists were sincere or not when
+Austria ruled over them, the large majority of them hung out Italian
+colours after the War, and in this they were undoubtedly sincere,
+although the motives varied; in some it was the love of Italy, in some
+it was ambition and in some a thirst for vengeance.
+
+[Although both Yugoslavs and Italians criticize the Austrian figures, it
+is probable that they are pretty accurate. The census of 1910 gave for
+Dalmatia: 610,669 Serbo-Croats, 18,028 Italians, 3081 Germans and 1410
+Czecho-Slovaks. The Autonomist party claimed that they were not 18,028
+but 30,000; and that 150,000 persons in Dalmatia speak Italian. But the
+Orlando-Sonnino Government really did try its utmost to improve these
+figures. At the end of November 1918 the Italians, who had charge of the
+police at Constantinople, put up notices asking all Austrian subjects
+from Dalmatia to inscribe themselves with the authorities and thus
+receive protection. In addition to the ordinary large Yugoslav
+population, the Austrian army was still there, and two of its officers,
+in uniform, inscribed themselves. The Italians had to endure not a few
+rebuffs, for they applied to people at their houses--they had found the
+nationality lists at the police offices. The Dutch were looking after
+Yugoslav interests, but received no instructions.]
+
+
+WHAT THEY DID THERE
+
+It was thought at Zadar that the Italians would be followed in the
+course of days by the other Allies. Anyhow the Yugoslavs were in no
+carping spirit; about 5000 of them assembled to greet the Italian
+destroyer; they were, in fact, more numerous than the Italians. And
+perhaps one should record that on this memorable occasion--it was at an
+early hour--Dr. Ziliotto had to complete his toilette as he ran down to
+the quay. Soon the Italian captain, shouldered by the crowd, was
+flourishing two flags, the Italian and the Yugoslav--although his
+country had, of course, not recognized Yugoslavia. For a little time it
+was the colour of roses, and the worm that crept into this paradise
+seems to have been a Japanese warship in whose presence each of the two
+parties wished to demonstrate how powerful it was. The carabinieri
+resolved to maintain order, and as an inmate of the seminary made, they
+said, an unpolished gesture at them from a window they went off and,
+with some reinforcements, broke into the Slav Reading-Room and damaged
+it considerably. The Italian officers and men at Zadar went about their
+duties for some time without permitting themselves to be drawn into
+local politics, but they were told repeatedly that the Slavs are goats
+and barbarians, so that at last the men appear to have concluded that
+strong measures were required. Some of them mingled, in civilian
+clothes, with the unruly elements, and Zadar's narrow streets became
+most hazardous for Yugoslav pedestrians. Girls and men alike were
+roughly handled; thrice in one day, for example, a professor--Dr.
+Stoikević--had his ears boxed as he went to or was coming from his
+school. Yet Zadar is a dignified old place; the chief men of the town
+and the Italian officers did what they could to keep it so. But away
+from their control some deeds of truculence occurred. The prison
+warders, as the spirit moved them, forced the Slavs there to be quiet,
+or to shout "Viva Italia!" Most of the Slavs were in the gaol for having
+had in their possession Austrian paper money stamped by the Yugoslav
+authorities; these notes were subsequently declared by the Italians to
+be illegal; but if a man came from Croatia, for example, and had
+nothing else, it was a trifle harsh to lock him up and confiscate the
+money. Eight good people went to Zadar prison owing to the fact that
+near the ancient town of Biograd they had been sitting underneath the
+olive trees and singing Croat folk-songs. Nor was it much in keeping
+with Zadar's dignity when the "Ufficio Propaganda" put out a large red
+placard which invited boys between the ages of nine and seventeen to
+join in establishing a "Corpo Nazionale dei giovani esploratori"--that
+is to say, an association of boy scouts. It is superfluous to inquire as
+to why these boys were mustered.... When the Austrians collapsed, a few
+old rifles were seized by the Italians and the Croats, the latter having
+fifteen or twenty which they hid in various villages. A priest and a
+medical student were privy to this fearful crime. A hue and cry was
+raised by the carabinieri--the priest vanished, the student jumped out
+of a window of his house and also vanished. But the carabinieri would
+not be denied. They suspected that the Albanians of the neighbouring
+village of Borgo Erizzo were abetting the Slavs. It was necessary,
+therefore, to castigate them. The 2500 inhabitants of Borgo Erizzo,
+nearly all of them Albanians who speak their own language and
+Serbo-Croat, while 5 per cent. also speak Italian, used to be divided in
+their sympathies before the War--75 per cent. being adherents of the
+Slavs in Zadar and 25 per cent. of the Autonomists. Now they have,
+excepting 5 per cent., gone over to the Slavs, and as they have retained
+some of the habits of their ancestors, they were not going to let the
+hostile forces win an easy victory. A student marched in front of the
+Italians, then about ten carabinieri, then a few ranks of soldiers, and
+then the mob of Zadar. The Albanians were in two groups, twenty
+sheltering behind walls to the right of the road and twenty to the left;
+they were armed with stones, their women folk were bringing them relays
+of these. The encounter ended in three carabinieri and seven or eight
+soldiers being wounded. In order to avenge this defeat one Duka, who is
+by birth an Albanian and is a teacher at the Italian "Liga" school,
+which was built a few years ago at Borgo Erizzo, determined on the next
+afternoon to attack the Teachers' Institute, which is situated 400 steps
+from his own establishment, and which on the previous day had shown a
+strong defence. He led the attack in person, firing his revolver. But
+the casualties were light. The Teachers' Institute was, after this,
+occupied by the military, and Admiral Millo paid a complimentary visit
+to Duka at his school.
+
+
+PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK
+
+Proceeding up the Adriatic we come to the Quarnero Islands, of which the
+most considerable is Krk (Veglia). The whole district had, at the last
+census, 19,562 inhabitants whose ordinary language was Serbo-Croat, and
+1544 who commonly spoke Italian. Of these latter the capital, likewise
+called Krk, contained 1494, and only 644 who gave themselves out as
+Slavs. The town, with its tortuous, rather wistful streets, was the
+residence of the Venetian officials, and five or six of those old
+families remain. The rest of the 1494 are nearly all Italianized Slavs,
+who under Austria used to call themselves either Austrians of Italian
+tongue or else Istrians. However, if they wish to be Italians now, there
+is none to say them nay. They include five out of the twenty officials,
+and these five gentlemen seem to have boldly said before the War that it
+would please them if this island were to be included in the Kingdom of
+Italy. They did not give their Austrian rulers many sleepless nights;
+this confidence in them was justified, for during the War they placed
+themselves in the front rank of those who flung defiant words at Italy,
+and one of them enlarged his weapon, copying upon his typewriter some
+Songs of Hate, which probably were sent to him from Rieka or Triest.
+These typewritten sheets were then circulated in the island. One of
+them--"Con le teste degli Italiani"--had been specially composed for
+children and expressed the intention of playing bowls with Italian
+heads. The songs for adults were less blood-thirsty but not less cruel.
+The Yugoslavs of the island must have been engaged in other War work; no
+songs were provided for them.... When Austria collapsed, some youths
+came from Rieka, flourishing their flags and sticks, and crying, "Down
+with Austria!" "Long live Italy!" "Long live Yugoslavia!" "Long live
+King Peter!" There was, in fact general goodwill. A Croat National
+Council was formed, and was recognized by the Italian party; it
+introduced a censorship, but as the postmaster's allegiance was given to
+the minority he sent a telegram to Triest, asking for bread and
+protection; and on November 15 the _Stocco_ arrived. Other people soon
+departed; the Bishop's chancellor and his chaplain, two magistrates and
+a Custom-house official, were shipped off to Italy or Sardinia, while
+the owner of the typewriter flew off as a delegate to Paris, having
+persuaded the town council of the capital to vote a sum of 36,000 crowns
+for his expenses--but a crown was now worth less than half a franc.
+However, two members of the town council thought that it was a waste of
+money; but when they were threatened with internment in Sardinia they
+withdrew their active opposition, and the delegate set out. On the way
+he granted an interview to an Italian journalist, and depicted the
+spontaneous enthusiasm with which the islanders had called for Italy.
+But the journalist had heard of the National Council and he asked, very
+naturally, whether it shared these sentiments. "Ha parlato da Italiano!"
+("I have spoken as an Italian"), replied the delegate; and when the
+newspaper reached the island, this cryptic saying was interpreted in
+various ways, his critics pointing out that, as he had diverged from
+truthfulness, this was another little Song of Hate. The Bishop, Dr.
+Mahnić,[12] did not go to Italy for several months. He was a learned
+Slovene, an ex-Professor of Gorica University, known also as a stern
+critic of any poetry which was not dogmatically religious. He gave vent
+to his dislike of the poetry of Gregor�ić and Aškerc, both of
+them priests. The former, being of a mild disposition, bowed before the
+storm; but AÅ¡kerc wrote a cutting satire on his critic. The
+Austrians, disapproving of his religious and patriotic activities,
+thought they would smother him by this appointment to a rather
+out-of-the-way diocese. But his influence spread far beyond it, and in
+the islands he was so solicitous for the people's material welfare that,
+for example, he founded savings-banks, which were a great success. It
+was unavoidable, as he was a man of character, that he should come into
+conflict with the Italians, for their commanding officer, a naval
+captain of Hungarian origin, was not a suave administrator. He charged a
+priest with making Yugoslav propaganda because he catechized the little
+children in their own language; another priest on the island of Unie,
+which forms a part of the diocese, was accused of making propaganda,
+because he has had in his church two statues--which had been there for
+years--of SS. Cyril and Methodus. They were removed from the church, he
+put them back; finally he was himself expelled and Unie remained without
+a priest. The naval captain was irritated by the old Slavonic liturgy,
+which is used in all except four churches of the diocese, but if he
+could not alter this--Dr. Mahnić referring him to the Pope--he and
+the Admiral at Pola, Admiral Cagni, could manage with some trouble to
+rid themselves of the bishop. This gentleman, who was in his seventieth
+year and an invalid, said that he would perhaps go to Rome after Easter.
+On March 24 the captain told him that the admiral had settled he should
+sail in three days, but the bishop was ill. On the 26th the captain
+returned with a lieutenant of carabinieri to ask if the bishop was still
+ailing; the admiral, it seemed, had ordered that two other doctors--the
+officer of health for the district and an Italian army doctor--should
+verify the report of the bishop's own medical attendant. The three of
+them quarrelled for two hours, but finally they all signed a memorandum
+that the bishop was ill. On the 31st the captain came to say that a
+destroyer would arrive and that it would take the bishop wherever he
+wanted to go, for the Italians had made up their minds that go he must.
+He had objected far too vigorously to their methods--not approving, for
+example, of the written permit which was given in the autumn to the
+people of two villages in Krk, on which it stated that these people
+could supply themselves with timber at Grdnje. This was a State forest,
+rented by a certain man; but the Italians acknowledged that what they
+wanted was adherents, and these grateful villagers, if there should be a
+plebiscite, would vote for them. The man appealed to justice, but the
+judge received a verbal order not to act. The villagers were given a
+general amnesty on January 1, an Italian flag was hoisted at the judge's
+office--the judge had gone away. Another transaction which the bishop
+had resented was after a visit paid by the captain and another officer
+of the French warship _Annamite_ to the Yugoslav Reading-Rooms at
+Lošinj mali (Lussinpiccolo); a priest and two other gentlemen had
+escorted their guests to the harbour at 11 p.m.; during the night all
+three were arrested and the priest deported. When the _Annamite_ put in
+at the lofty island of Cres (Cherso) and a couple of officers went to
+the Franciscan monastery, it resulted in the monastery being closed and
+the monks removed. Their simple act of courtesy was, said the Italians,
+propaganda. From Lošinj mali and Cres five ladies were collected,
+four of them being teachers and one the wife of the pilot,
+Sindi�ić. They were guilty of having greeted the French, and on
+account of this were taken to the prison at Pola. Afterwards in Venice
+they were kept for six weeks in the company of prostitutes and from
+there they passed to Sardinia, on which island they were retained for
+nine months. As for Dr. Mahnić, he set sail on April 4 at 6 a.m.
+Being asked whither he would like to go, he said he wished to be put
+down at Zengg on the mainland. "Excellent," said the Italians; but after
+a few minutes they said they had received a radio from Pola that the
+bishop must be taken to Ancona. He was afterwards allowed to live in a
+monastery near Rome.
+
+
+UNHAPPY POLA
+
+The Italians had not been two days in Pola--in which arsenal town the
+population, unlike that of the country, mostly uses the Italian
+language--when they made themselves disliked by both parties. The
+President of the Italian National Council was told by the Admiral that
+an Austrian crown was to be worth forty Italian centesimi. This, said
+the Admiral, was an order from Rome. The President explained that this
+meant ruin for the people of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to
+Rome. "I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect. Thereupon
+the President and the colleagues who were with him said they would never
+come again to see the Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I
+will have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the next day red
+flags were flying on the arsenal and on the day after the Italian troops
+were taken elsewhere, while 10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola,
+in exchange for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
+off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal from their own
+native country, which rather places them at the mercy of the
+coal-producing lands, seems to be more their misfortune than anybody's
+fault, yet the Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
+against France and Great Britain. Those two countries ought, they said,
+in very decency, to correct the oversights of Providence; but no very
+practical suggestions were put forward.
+
+
+WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED
+
+According to the Austrian census of 1910 Istria contained 386,740
+inhabitants, of whom 218,854 (or 58·5 per cent.) habitually used the
+Serbo-Croat language, while 145,552 (or 38·9 per cent.) used Italian.
+The Yugoslavs cannot help regarding the Istrian statistics with
+suspicion, and believing that here, more than in Dalmatia, they were
+made to suffer on account of Austria's alliance with Italy and with the
+Vatican: one of the wrongs which Strossmayer fought against was that
+Istria had been entrusted to an Italian Dalmatian bishop who could not
+speak a word of Slav. This prelate appointed to vacant livings a number
+of Italian priests whom the people could not understand; a Slav coming
+to confess had to be supplied with an interpreter. As to the statistics
+in the commune of Krmed (Carmedo), for example, of the district of Pola,
+the census of 1900 gave 257 Croats against three Italians, whereas in
+1910 it was stated that 296 inhabitants spoke habitually Italian and six
+spoke Croatian. Nevertheless, if one accepts the Austrian figures, the
+58·5 per cent. should not be treated as if they did not exist. Perhaps
+the Italian officials could find no interpreters to translate their
+proclamations and decrees; if the Yugoslavs could not read them that was
+a defect in their education. If they were unable to write to the
+authorities or to send private telegrams in Italian, let them hold
+their peace. At any rate, said Vice-Admiral Cagni, we will not encourage
+the Croatian language, and on November 16, 1918, he commanded the
+Yugoslav schools to be shut at eleven places in the district and also
+two schools in the town. The Austrians had allowed these schools to
+remain open during the War; but of course if you wish to prevent people
+from learning a language this is one of the first steps you would take.
+Thirteen Yugoslav schoolmasters at Pola were thus deprived of their
+means of livelihood. The Admiral said that he really did not want to let
+matters remain in this condition, but all these schools had been at the
+expense of the State; let the Yugoslavs support their own schools. They
+were, as a matter of fact, entitled by reason of their numbers to have
+State-supported schools. Yet that was, of course, in the time of
+Austria; and why should Italy be bound by Austrian laws? Italy would do
+what she saw fit. In various places the teachers were, in the presence
+of Italian officers, compelled to use Italian for the instruction of
+purely Yugoslav children. Slav schoolmistresses were, in several cases,
+taken out of bed in the middle of the night and conducted on board
+Italian ships. The clergy were ordered to preach in Italian in churches,
+such as that of Veprinac, where the congregation is almost entirely
+Slav[13]--and so on, and so on. Well, there are several ways of
+governing a mixed population, and this is one of them.... "Zadar and
+Rieka," said Pribi�ević in November to an Italian interviewer at
+Zagreb--"Zadar and Rieka will enjoy all liberty of culture and municipal
+autonomy. And we are convinced that an equal treatment will be accorded
+to the Slav minorities who will be included in your territory. We
+understand and perfectly recognize your right to Triest and to Pola, and
+we would that in Italy our right to Rieka and Dalmatia were recognized
+with the same justice."[14]
+
+
+THE FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA
+
+Rieka is a place concerning which a good deal has been written, but I
+doubt if there have been two words more striking than the phrase which
+the Consiglio Nazionale Italiano applies in a pamphlet to the last
+Hungarian Governor. This official, appreciating that his presence in the
+town would serve no useful end, dissolved the State police on October
+28, 1918, and departed. "Hôte insalué, il disparut...." says the
+pamphlet. After all the years of kindness, all the million favours
+showered on the Autonomists by their beloved friends the Magyars, after
+all the dark electioneering tricks and gutter legislation which for
+years had been committed by the Magyars to the end that the Autonomists
+and they should have all the amenities of some one else's house, it
+surely is the acme of ingratitude to call this tottering benefactor
+"Hôte insalué." If the Autonomists did not desire to reap advantages
+from any Magyar corruption, they might at any time since November 17,
+1868, have torn the swindling piece of paper, the "krpitsa," from the
+Agreement made between the Magyars and the Croats. Then the Croat would
+not have been kept for all these years a slave in his own home.... But
+on October 28, 1918, the "krpitsa" had no more weight, the iniquitous
+Agreement was obsolete, the Croats came into possession of their own.
+The Compromise of 1868, which gave the administration of Rieka
+provisionally to the Magyars, was formally denounced on October 29, so
+that the _status quo ante_ returned, and Rieka was again an integral
+part of the Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian Government (that is, the
+National Council) had then every right to depute its adherents at Rieka
+to undertake the affairs of that town. Dr. Vio was too much of a lawyer
+to dispute the legality of any of these statements....
+
+
+THE DRAMA BEGINS
+
+Some of the leading citizens of Rieka formed themselves into a Croat
+National Council; Dr. Bakar�ić and Dr. Lenac went up to the
+Governor's palace, and with them went Dr. Vio, as delegate of the town
+council. He said they recognized the Croatian Government, on condition
+that the town's municipal autonomy was guaranteed. To this they readily
+consented, with respect to the Italian language, to their schools and to
+the existing town administration, thus agreeing to every suggestion
+which Dr. Vio made. Moreover they gave him the town register (of births,
+etc.), which the Magyars had appropriated and which was now discovered
+at the palace. This was at 9 a.m. on October 30. Dr. Vio said that he
+was glad that everything had been arranged so amicably. But on the same
+evening the Italian National Council elected itself, for a large number
+of the Autonomist party had now become the Italian party. There still
+remained, however, an Autonomist party, which was no longer inspired,
+like the old Autonomists, by despotic sentiments towards the Croats, but
+by a feeling that in consequence of this long despotism the Croats were,
+as yet, not fit to govern such a place as Rieka. This is a matter of
+opinion. These Autonomists considered that, at any rate for several
+years, the town should not belong to Yugoslavia or to Italy, but be a
+free town under Allied, British or American, control. After five or six
+years there could be a plebiscite, and during that period the population
+would be encouraged to devote itself more to business and less to
+politics. This would tend to make them a united people, with the
+interests of the town at heart. But the Italian party, said the
+Autonomist leader, Mr. Gothardi, did not appear to think these interests
+important; when it was argued that Rieka would not flourish under Italy,
+because of the competition with Italy's other ports and especially
+Triest, because of the vast Italian debt, and for other reasons, the
+Italian party answered that even if the grass grew in Rieka's streets it
+must belong to Italy. "Very well," said the Slavs, "then we will develop
+the harbour at Bakar" a few miles away. "Infamous idea!" exclaimed the
+Italianists; "Rieka is the harbour for the hinterland." There the
+Autonomists agree with them, that the town should finally belong to the
+State which has the hinterland. Mr. Gothardi's party gathered strength
+and he himself became so obnoxious to the Italianists that when I saw
+him in the month of May 1919 he had been for several weeks a prisoner in
+his flat, on account of some thirty individuals with sticks who were
+lurking round the corner. His figures were as follows:
+
+          6,000 Socialists.
+          3,000 Autonomists.
+          1,500 Yugoslavs.
+          -----
+ That is, 10,000 voters out of 12-13,000.
+
+One may mention that he, like some others of his party, belongs to a
+family which has been at Rieka for two hundred years, whereas of the
+fifteen gentlemen who called themselves the Italian National Council,
+only one--a cousin of Mr. Gothardi's--is a member of an old Rieka
+family. Most of the others we are bound to call renegades.
+
+It may be asked why the Italian National Council was established, and
+why its members swore that they would give their lives if they could
+thus give Rieka to the "Madre Patria." Some of them believed, I am sure,
+that this was for Rieka's good, cultural and economical; others
+entertained the motives that we saw at Zadar--personal ambition and the
+desire to satisfy some animosities. And there were others who remembered
+what occurred in the great harbour warehouses. They hoped, they thought
+that if the town fell to the lot of Italy no questions would be
+asked.[15] There must also have been some who could not bear to
+contemplate the loss of their old privileged position.
+
+
+THE I.N.C.
+
+For a considerable time it was not known who were the members of the
+Italian National Council. From internal evidence one saw that they were
+not particularly logical people, for they made much play, in their
+announcements, with "democratic principles" in spite of the undemocratic
+fog in which they wrapped themselves. Of course they had not been
+elected by anyone except themselves; but there was a vast difference
+between them and the self-elected Croat National Council, since the
+latter derived their authority from the Croatian Government at Zagreb,
+which Dr. Vio, in the name of the Rieka municipality, had
+recognized--whereas the Italian National Council was destitute of any
+parent, though they would, had they been pressed, have claimed, no
+doubt, the blissfully unconscious "Madre Patria." Subsequently it turned
+out that the I.N.C. consisted of Dr. Vio and of fourteen persons who had
+hitherto not taken part in public life. They were fourteen worthies of
+the background, the most remarkable act in the life of their President,
+Dr. Grossich, for example, dating from twenty years ago when he was the
+medical attendant of the Archduchess Clothilde, and decorated, so they
+say, his consulting-room with black and yellow festoons. The I.N.C.
+appeared at its inception to be different from a Russian Soviet because
+it had no power.
+
+
+THE CROATS' BLUNDER
+
+A number of deplorable transactions ensued, and they were not all
+committed by the Italianists. The proclamations which were sent from
+Zagreb, exhorting the people to be tranquil, were printed in the two
+languages, but some Croat super-patriots at Rieka tried to make the town
+mono-lingual. At the railway station and the post office they removed
+the old Italian inscriptions and put up Croatian ones, they wrote to
+the mayor in Croat, which, although Dr. Vio has a Croat father and
+visited a Croat school and a Croat university, was tactless; they wrote
+that Croat would now be the language of the town, which was a foolish
+thing to do. They even seem to have demanded the evacuation of the town
+hall within twenty-four hours. And the irresponsible persons who made
+this demand were very properly snubbed by the municipal authorities.
+
+
+MELODRAMA
+
+These excited patriots, delirious with joy that at last their own town
+was in their hands, did not set Rieka on fire, nor did they murder women
+and children; but the Italianists forthwith sent wireless messages to
+Venice, screaming that all these enormities were taking place. A few of
+them rushed off in motors to Triest, where they made themselves into a
+Committee of Public Safety, picked up some Triest sympathizers and flew
+on to Venice, where they related breathless stories of foul deeds. One,
+which appeared in the Italian Press, was that three children of Rieka
+had been publicly committed to the flames.
+
+
+FARCE
+
+On November 4 an Italian destroyer, the _Stocco_, shortly followed by
+the _Emanuele Filiberto_, a cruiser, came on their errand of humanity.
+The I.N.C. at once organized a plebiscite--by which is meant not a dull
+giving and counting of votes in the usual election booths. A plebiscite,
+at all events a plebiscite at Rieka, signifies for the Italianists a mob
+assembled in a public thoroughfare; photographs of such assemblies
+illustrate their pamphlets and are entitled "plebiscito." At the harbour
+the Italian Admiral, whose name was Raineri, told the joyous I.N.C.--who
+now had flung aside their anonymity--that he had come to bring them a
+salute from Italy, and that he had been sent to shield Italians and to
+protect Italian interests. The plebiscite threw up its hats and waved
+its flags, and shouted its applause and sang its songs. Flowers fell
+upon the Admiral, and on his men and on the guns; the ships, as we are
+told, were changed to floating gardens. But the sailors did not
+disembark. Some ladies, members of the plebiscite, besought the Admiral
+to come ashore, and hoping to persuade the men, they climbed on board
+and playfully seized many sailors' caps, which in the town, they said,
+could be redeemed. Then shortly afterwards, the Yugoslav officials came
+to greet the Admiral, as did the commandant of the Yugoslav troops which
+had been for several days guarding the town. Meanwhile some unknown
+persons had been up in the old clock-tower and, for reasons known
+perhaps to themselves, had taken in both the Croatian and Italian flags;
+the Admiral drove up to see the Governor, Dr. Lenac, and requested that
+his country's flag should be rehoisted, which of course was done. And
+until November 17 the Admiral was nearly every day up at the Governor's
+palace, as a multitude of details had to be discussed. A French warship
+arrived on the 10th, followed by a British vessel on the 12th or 13th.
+Perfect calm prevailed. Croatian and Italian flags flew everywhere, as
+well as French ones, British and American. The name of the Hotel Deak
+was altered to Hotel Wilson.... But the men of the _Emanuele Filiberto_
+and the _Stocco_ did not land. Colonel Teslić assured the Admiral
+that if anyone started to set fire to an Italianist child or to indulge
+in any other crime he would prevent it.
+
+
+PAROLE D'HONNEUR
+
+All this was very disconcerting to the I.N.C. They knew that on the
+hills outside Rieka were large numbers of Italian troops, which had come
+overland from Istria. But how to get them in? Rieka had not been
+ascribed to the Italians by the London Treaty.[16] ... On November 15 a
+detachment of Serbian troops arrived, under Colonel Maximović, and
+were given a magnificent reception. Thousands of people accompanied
+them, and in front of the French destroyer there was a manifestation.
+Some of the Serbs, old warriors who had been under arms since the first
+Balkan War, were moved to tears. The Italianists were furious; Admiral
+Raineri called on the Governor for an explanation of the Serbs' arrival.
+A conference was held between the Admiral, the Colonel and two Yugoslav
+officers. If the Serbs remained at Rieka, said the Admiral, he would
+land his marines. Maximović said he had come in obedience to his
+orders, and that he would have to prevent by force the disembarkation of
+the Italians. At this moment a Serbian officer entered to announce that
+Italian armoured cars were approaching from Abbazia. Maximović
+immediately ordered his troops to mobilize, but the Admiral said a
+mistake had been made and that the cars would be sent back. (The
+Government Secretary, Dr. Ružić, had been told at three o'clock by
+a telephone operator that the Admiral had himself telephoned to Abbazia
+for the cars.) It was decided at this conference that on Sunday,
+November 17, the Yugoslav troops would evacuate the town, that it would
+be occupied by Serbian and American troops, and that, to mark the
+alliance, a small Italian detachment would be landed. As Admiral Cagni,
+of Pola, ordered that Italian troops should be disembarked at Rieka,
+another conference was held between Admiral Raineri, Colonel
+Maximović, Colonel Teslić and Captain Dvorski (of the Yugoslav
+navy), as well as French and British officers. It was arranged _sous
+parole d'honneur d'officier_ that at 4 p.m. the Serbian troops should
+leave Rieka and go to Porto Ré, an hour's sea journey, that the Yugoslav
+troops should remain, and that the Italians should not land. No other
+steps would be taken till November 20 at noon, and the Supreme Command
+would be asked to settle the difficulty. As soon as the Serbian troops
+were out at sea, the Italian army, under General di San Marzano
+(attended by a kinematograph), marched in from the hills, entering the
+town simultaneously from four directions, in accordance with a strategic
+plan. The General was told what Raineri had agreed to do; he replied
+that he was Raineri's senior, that the final decision rested with him,
+and that he intended to proceed into the town. (One of the British
+officers is said to have addressed him rather bluntly.) At 4.30 Raineri
+landed his marines, and afterwards he was dismissed from his post--not,
+indeed, for having broken his word given at the inter-Allied conference,
+but for having delayed so long before disembarking troops in the town.
+He said he had received a written order from the Entente; if only
+Maximović had not left he might have shown it him. With twenty
+carabinieri the General went to the Governor's palace and asked Dr.
+Lenac to vacate it. He was so excited that he almost pushed the doctor
+out. "There is no room for the two of us," he said. And that is how the
+Italian occupation began. The French and British brought some troops in
+at a later date, but when they had six hundred each the Italians had
+22,000. With the Italians came fifty Americans, so that the force might
+have an international appearance. These Americans were given
+broad-sheets, printed by the town Italianists in English; they welcomed
+the Americans as liberators, and informed them that the population had
+by plebiscite declared for annexation to the Motherland. On the same
+night the Yugoslav troops were turned out of their barracks into the
+street by the Italian army.... These are, I believe, the main facts as
+to the occupation which has been the subject of much heated argument. I
+had the facts from eye-witnesses and documents: I exposed the evidence
+of each side to the criticism of the other.
+
+Very soon the disorders began. On the evening of the occupation Italian
+troops ran through the town, accompanied by some of the plebiscite, and
+compelled the people to remove the Yugoslav colours from their
+button-holes. In cases they surrounded their victim and used force. When
+this was used against women, after the arrival of the French and
+British, it produced some serious international affrays. The Italians,
+who invariably outnumbered the others, did not scruple to employ their
+knives; thus in the middle of December two French soldiers were stabbed
+in the back and their murderers were never found.
+
+
+THE POPULATION OF THE TOWN
+
+But there had been at Rieka an Englishman for whom I have an almost
+inexpressible admiration. This was Mr. A. Beaumont who, a couple of days
+after the Italians occupied the town in the above-mentioned curious
+fashion, sent from Triest a long message to the _Daily Telegraph_. How
+can anyone not marvel at a gentleman who travels to a foreign town which
+is in the throes of unrest and who, undeterred by his infirmity, sits
+down to grasp the rather complicated features of the situation? I am not
+acquainted with Mr. Beaumont, but he must be blind, poor fellow, for he
+says that the Yugoslavs occupied with ill-concealed glee a town entirely
+inhabited by some 45,000 Italians. Perhaps somebody will read to him the
+following statistics made after the year 1868, when Rieka came under
+Magyar dominion. The statistics were made by the Magyars and Italianists
+combined, so that they do not err in favour of the Yugoslavs. He might
+also be told that the Magyar-Italian alliance closed the existing
+Yugoslav national schools for the 13,478 Yugoslavs in 1890, while they
+opened Italo-Magyar schools for the 13,012 "Italians" and Magyars. They
+would not even allow the Yugoslavs to have at Rieka an elementary school
+at their own expense. Everything possible was done during these decades
+to inculcate hatred and contempt for whatsoever was Slav, hoping thus to
+denationalize the citizens. In view of all this it speaks well for
+Yugoslav steadfastness that they were able to maintain themselves. Here
+are the figures:
+
+           YUGOSLAVS.       ITALIANS.       MAGYARS.
+
+1880       10,227 (49%)      9,237 (44%)      379  (2%)
+1890       13,478 (46%)     13,012 (44%)    1,062  (4%)
+1900       16,197 (42%)     17,354 (45%)    2,842  (7%)
+1910       15,692 (32%)     24,212 (49%)    6,493 (13%)
+
+Assuming for the moment that these figures are correct--and it is an
+enormous assumption[17]--are not the Autonomists to be found chiefly
+among the Italians and Magyars? It is claimed that the Autonomist,
+Socialist and Slav vote exceeds that of those who desire annexation to
+Italy. One need not treat _au sérieux_ the great procession organized by
+the Italianists, when they could not scrape together more than about
+4000 persons, including many schoolboys and girls, the municipal clerks,
+visitors from Italy, Triest and Zadar. One need not gibe the Italianists
+with the numbers who followed Dr. Vio on that famous day when, weary of
+palavering, he summoned round him his supporters and strode off to the
+Governor's palace, where General Grazioli, who had succeeded General di
+San Marzano, was installed.[18] Arrived there, Dr. Vio with a superb
+gesture begged the General to accept the town in the name of Italy. It
+is not often in the lifetime of a man that he has the opportunity of
+giving a whole town away. Dr. Vio made the most of that occasion; if the
+crowd which followed him was disappointing, there may be good
+explanations. The allegiance of a town, one may submit, should be
+settled in another fashion. The house-to-house inquiry, conducted in the
+spring of 1919 by the Autonomists--resulting in an anti-annexionist
+majority--was much impeded by the police; and it is of course the
+business of the authorities and not of any one party to hold elections
+in a town. Had the Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of
+Italian bayonets, held a real plebiscite--secret or otherwise--the
+result would doubtless have given them pain, but no surprise.... And
+this will happen even if the Magyar system of separating Rieka from the
+suburb of Sušak is perpetrated. Sušak contains about 12,500
+Yugoslavs and extremely few Italianists; and, by the way, to show how
+the Magyars and the Italianists worked together, it is worth mentioning
+that the Magyar railway officials who lived at Sušak were allowed a
+vote at Rieka, while if a Croat lived at Sušak and carried on his
+avocation at Rieka he could vote in Sušak only. One must not imagine
+that Sušak is a poor relation; most people would prefer to live
+there. Dr. Vio was intensely wrathful because the British General
+resided in a beautifully situated house there by the sea. Not only is
+Sušak about twenty yards, across a stream, from Rieka, but from a
+commercial point of view their separation seems absurd, since half the
+port, including the great wood depots, is in Sušak. One of these
+timber merchants presented an example of Italianization. His original
+name was E. R. Sarinich and this was painted on his business premises at
+Sušak, while in Rieka he called himself Sarini. It must have caused
+him many sleepless nights.... Counting Sušak with Rieka as one town,
+the total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per cent.
+Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent. Magyar. These Magyars,
+by the way, seem not to have been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were
+still a good number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
+consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with Hungary, had that
+State continued to exist as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she
+certainly never contemplated handing over"--["handing over" is rather
+humorous]--"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population to the
+Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch there is printed a
+semi-official statement, sent by Reuter, from Rome. "Yesterday
+afternoon," it says, "our troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which
+was made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in view not only
+of the urgent and legitimate demands of the Italian citizens of Fiume,
+but also of the insistent appeals of eminent foreigners...."
+
+
+THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES
+
+"Italy's reward," says Mr. Beaumont, "must be commensurate with her
+sacrifices, and this is the attitude assumed here. It is quite apart
+from the mere question as to whether the Jugo-Slavs are in a majority in
+certain districts or not. Those districts form a part of old Italian
+territory, of Italian lands once peopled and occupied by the Italian
+race and into which, with Austria's encouragement, Slav populations have
+filtered." [I should love to know what are Mr. Beaumont's sources.] "The
+question must not be left to local ambition and antipathies. It must be
+decided authoritatively and quickly in strong counsel to the Jugo-Slav
+leaders." ... Let us leave Rieka and see how the Italians decided
+authoritatively and quickly on the island of Cres (Cherso). It is a
+large but not thickly populated island; having 8162 inhabitants for 336
+square kilometres. The Yugoslavs, according to the census of 1910,
+number 5714 or 71·3 per cent., while the Italian-speaking population
+amounts to 2296 or 28 per cent. About the middle of November the Italian
+authorities placed in the village of Martinšćica, which is in the
+south-western part of the island, 17 soldiers, 3 carabinieri and a
+lieutenant. Let me say at once that I have never been to Cres, all my
+knowledge of this case comes from a Franciscan monk who lives there, the
+Rev. Ambrose Vlahov, Professor of Theology. At Martinšćica, he
+says, there is not a single Italianist; the entire village is Yugoslav.
+When the Italian military arrived the lieutenant insisted that the
+priest, Karlo Hlaća, should cease to sing the Mass in Old Slav, and
+that for the whole service he should use Italian, the only language,
+said the lieutenant, which he (the lieutenant) understood. It was futile
+for the priest to demonstrate what a ridiculous and unreasonable demand
+this was; the lieutenant always came back to the subject, being sometimes
+merely importunate and sometimes using menaces. As Hlaća was a model
+ecclesiastic, highly esteemed by his parishioners, the lieutenant
+comprehended that as long as this priest remained, he would be foiled in
+his endeavours; he therefore sought an opportunity to turn him out. On
+January 5, 1919, the priest had, by order of his bishop, to read during
+the service a pastoral letter on the duties of the faithful towards the
+Church and towards their fellow-men; he had also to add a simple and
+concise commentary. In this letter there was a passage dealing with
+schools, and the priest on that topic remarked that "by divine and human
+law every nation may ask that its children should be instructed in their
+mother tongue." When Mass was finished, the mayor of the village
+assembled the parishioners and notified them that henceforward, by order
+of the lieutenant, there would no longer be in the village a Croatian
+but an Italian school. And in order to mollify the people he added that
+the lieutenant proposed to give subsidies to such as stood in need; they
+had only to present themselves before that officer. But, though the
+people often found it hard to satisfy their simple wants and were at
+that period in very great distress, they walked away from this assembly
+without making one step in the lieutenant's direction. This incited him
+to such fury that he ran, accompanied by soldiers and carabinieri, to
+the priest, and publicly, in a loud voice, insulted him, calling him an
+intriguer, a rebel, an agitator. On the following day the lieutenant had
+him conducted to the village of Cres by two soldiers and a carabiniere,
+who were all armed.... At Cres the priest was brought before the
+commanding officer of the Quarnero Islands--our old acquaintance, the
+naval captain of Krk--who happened to be in this village. He started at
+once to bellow at the priest and, striking the table with his hand,
+exclaimed: "This is an Italian island, all Italian, nothing but Italian
+and evermore it will remain Italian." About a score of parishioners had
+come to Cres behind their priest and his escort; they begged the
+commandant to set him free. As an answer he harangued them with respect
+to the Italian character of the islands, told them that they would have
+to send their children to the Italian school and that the whole village
+would be Italianized and that _only in their homes_ would they be
+permitted to speak Croatian.... On January 8 the priest was taken from
+Cres to the island of Krk, where he was informed that he would have to
+leave his parish, but that he might go back there for a day or two to
+fetch a few necessities. It was raining in torrents when Father
+Hlaća, wet to the skin, arrived at his village on the 11th at seven
+o'clock in the evening. As he suffers from several chronic
+ailments--which was known to the lieutenant--this bad weather had a
+grave effect upon him. When he reached his house he went to bed at once
+with a very high temperature. After about a quarter of an hour the
+lieutenant appeared with two carabinieri and shouted at him that he must
+get up. This draconian injunction had to be obeyed, the more so as the
+lieutenant was labouring under great excitement. He looked at the
+priest's permit which allowed him to come back to the village, and said,
+"If I were in your shoes I wouldn't venture to come back here." These
+words gave Father Hlaća an impression that his life was in danger.
+The lieutenant then ordered him not to go out among the people, but to
+stop where he was until he was taken away. Five days after this the
+priest was taken to Rieka, so that the villagers were left with nobody
+to guard them against the violence and the temptations offered them by
+the Italians. The Croat inscription outside the school was replaced by
+one in Italian and, with the lieutenant acting as teacher, the doors
+were thrown open. But the only children who went there were those of the
+lieutenant himself and those of the mayor, who was a renegade in the pay
+of the Italians. It was announced that heavy fines would be inflicted if
+the other children did not come. The villagers were in great trouble and
+in fear, with nobody to give them advice or consolation.... There may be
+some who will be curious to know concerning the "Italian" population of
+this island, which, according to the 1910 census, reached the large
+figure of 28 per cent. At a place called Nerežine it was stated, in
+the census of 1880, that the commissioner had found 706 Italians and 340
+Yugoslavs. Consequently an Italian primary school was opened; but when
+it was discovered that the children of Nerežine knew not one traitor
+word of that language, the school was transformed into a Yugoslav
+establishment. This is one case out of many; the 28 per cent. would not
+bear much scrutiny.... But the Italian Government, at any rate the "Liga
+Nazionale" to whose endowment it contributes, had been taking in hand
+this question of elementary schools in Istria and Dalmatia among the
+Slav population. The "Liga" made gratuitous distribution of clothing, of
+boots, of school-books and so forth. Some indigent Slavs allowed
+themselves in this way to become denationalized.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, however, you examine the embroideries of these
+islands--particularly beautiful on Rab and on the island of wild olive
+trees, the neighbouring Pag--you will be sure that such an ancient
+national spirit as they show will not be easily seduced. The Magyars, by
+the way, whose culture is more modern, borrowed certain features that
+you find on these embroideries--the sun, for instance, and the cock,
+which have from immemorial times been thought appropriate by these
+people for the cloth a woman wears upon her head when she is bringing a
+new son into the world, whose dawn the cock announces. Older than the
+workers in wood, much older than those who carved in stone, are these
+island embroiderers. In this work the people reproduced their tears and
+laughter.
+
+
+RAB IS COMPLETELY CAPTURED
+
+What will it avail to put up "Liga" schools in these islands, where the
+population is 99·67 per cent. Yugoslav and 0·31 per cent.
+Italianist--that is, if we are content to accept the Austrian
+statistics? What ultimate advantage will accrue to Italy from the doings
+of her emissaries, in November 1918, on the isle of Rab? It was Tuesday,
+November 26, when the _Guglielmo Pepe_ of the Italian navy put in at the
+venerable town which is the capital of that island. The commander, with
+an Italianist deputy from Istria, climbed up to the town-hall with the
+old marble balcony and informed the mayor and the members of the local
+committee of the Yugoslav National Council that he had come in the name
+of the Entente and in virtue of the arrangements of the Armistice; he
+said that in the afternoon Italian troops would land, for the purpose of
+maintaining order. It was pointed out to him that no disturbance had
+arisen, and that, according to the terms of the Armistice, he had no
+right to occupy this island. The commander announced that he must
+disarm the national guard, but that the Yugoslav flags would not be
+interfered with; the Italian flag would only be hoisted on the
+harbour-master's office and the military headquarters. On the next day,
+after he had been unable to induce the town authorities to lower their
+national flag from the clock-tower, he sent a hundred men with a machine
+gun to carry out his wishes. Filled with confidence by this heroic deed,
+he marched into the mayor's office and dissolved the municipal council.
+Armed forces occupied the town-hall, over which an Italian flag was
+flown. An Italian officer was entrusted with the mayoral functions and
+with the municipal finances, while the post office was also captured and
+all private telegrams forbidden, not only those which one would have
+liked to dispatch, but those which came in from elsewhere--they were not
+delivered. All meetings and manifestations were made illegal. The
+commander, whose name was Captain Denti di ---- (the other part being
+illegible), sent a memorandum to the municipal council which explained
+that he dissolved it on account of their having grievously troubled the
+public order; he did this by virtue of the powers conferred upon him and
+in the name of the Allied Powers and the United States of America. The
+islanders did not pretend to be experts in international law, but they
+did not believe that he was in the right.
+
+"I have every confidence," said the Serbian Regent, when he was
+receiving a deputation of the Yugoslav National Council a few days after
+this--"I have every confidence that the operations for the freedom of
+the world will be accomplished, that large numbers of our brethren will
+be liberated from a foreign yoke. And I feel sure that this point of
+view will be adopted by the Government of the Kingdom of Italy, which
+was founded on these very principles. They were cherished in the hearts
+and executed in the deeds of great Italians in the nineteenth century.
+We can say frankly that in choosing to have us as their friends and good
+neighbours the Italian nation will find more benefit and a greater
+security than in the enforcement of the Treaty of London, which we never
+signed nor recognized, and which was made at a time when nobody foresaw
+the crumbling of Austria-Hungary."
+
+
+AVANTI SAVOIA!
+
+It would be tedious to chronicle a thousandth part of the outrages,
+crimes and stupidities committed on Yugoslav territory by the Italians.
+Where they were threatened with an armed resistance they yielded. Thus
+on November 14, when they had reached Vrhnica (Ober-Laibach) on their
+way to Ljubljana (Laibach), they were met by Colonel Svibić with
+sixteen other officers who had just come out of an internment camp in
+Austria. Svibić requested the Italians to leave Vrhnica. He said that
+he and the Serbian commander at Ljubljana would prevent the advance of
+the Italians into Yugoslav territory. They would be most reluctant to be
+obliged to resort to armed force should the Italians continue their
+advance, and they declined responsibility for any bloodshed which might
+ensue.... The colonel of the Italian regiment which had been stationed
+for some days at Vrhnica informed the mayor of that commune that he had
+received orders to depart; he retired to the line of demarcation fixed
+by the Armistice conditions.
+
+
+THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA
+
+It was ironical that a young State, struggling into life, should be
+hindered, not by former enemies but by friends of its friends. The
+Italians complained that the French, British and Americans were not
+fraternizing with them. In the first place, it was repugnant to the
+sense of justice of these nations when they saw that General di San
+Marzano, after having fraudulently seized the town of Rieka and turning
+its absolutely legal Governor into the street, did not ask the citizens
+to organize a temporary local government, in which all parties would be
+represented, but delivered, if you please, the town to fifteen
+gentlemen, the I.N.C., who--at the very utmost--represented half the
+population. On November 24, the local newspaper _Il Popolo_ announced in
+a non-official manner that the I.N.C., in full accord with the military
+command, had taken over the administration--_i poteri pubblici_. This,
+by the way, was never confirmed by the representatives of the other
+Allies. The I.N.C. furthermore declared null and of no effect any
+intervention of the Yugoslav National Council in the affairs of the
+authorities of the State of Rieka. When the Yugoslavs appealed to the
+French, British or Americans they were naturally met with sympathy and
+urged to have patience. Case after case of high-handed dealing was
+reported to these officers. They sometimes intervened with good effect;
+far more injustice would have happened; far more Croats and Autonomists,
+for instance, would have been deported if the Allies had not interceded.
+It was now, of course, impossible for Yugoslavs to wear their colours;
+nor could they prevent the C.N.I. from hanging vast Italian flags on
+Croat houses. One of the largest flags, I should imagine, in the world
+swayed to and fro between Rieka's chief hotel and the tall building on
+the opposite side of the square--and both these houses, mark you, were
+Croat property. But the Allied officers knew very well (and the C.N.I.
+knew that they knew) that more than thirty of the large buildings on the
+front belonged to Croats, whereas under half a dozen were the property
+of Italians or Italianists. The ineffable Mr. Edoardo Susmel, in one of
+his pro-Italian books, entreats certain French and British friends of
+the Yugoslavs to come for one hour to Rieka and judge for themselves.
+But twenty minutes would be ample for a man of average intelligence. In
+many ways the presence of the Allies grieved the C.N.I. The Allies
+looked without approval at the "Giovani Fiumani," an association of
+young rowdies of whose valuable services the C.N.I. availed itself. But
+if these hired bands could not be dispersed they could have limits
+placed upon their zeal. One of their ordinary methods was to sit in
+groups in cafés or in restaurants or other places where an orchestra was
+playing, then to shout for the Italian National Anthem and to make
+themselves as nasty as they dared to anyone who did not rise. If
+everybody rose, then they would wait a quarter of an hour and have the
+music played again. The Allied officers persuaded General Grazioli to
+prohibit any National Anthem in a public place. It was distasteful to
+the Allied officers when a local newspaper in French--_l'Echo de
+l'Adriatique_--which had been established to present the Yugoslav point
+of view, was continually being suppressed. For example, on December 14,
+it printed a short greeting from the Croat National Council to President
+Wilson. The most anti-Italian phrase in this that I could find was:
+"Their fondest hope is to justify to the world, to history and to you
+the great trust you have placed in them." This was refused publication.
+It is unnecessary to say that Yugoslav newspapers were confiscated and
+their sale forbidden--after all, one didn't buy German or Austrian
+newspapers in England during the War, and the Italians now regarded the
+Croats as very pernicious enemies. _La Rassegna Italiana_ of December 15
+called its first article--printed throughout in italics--"I Prussiani
+dell' Adriatico," and took to its bosom an "upright American citizen"
+returning from a visit to "Fiume nostra," who defined the Yugoslavs "on
+account of their greed and their brutality and their spirit of intrigue
+and their lack of candour as the Prussians of the Adriatic." Personally
+I should submit that the Prussian spirit was not wholly lacking in those
+two Italian officers who penetrated on November 25 into the dining-room
+at the quarters of the Custom-house officials and informed them that
+they wanted their piano. No discussion was permitted; the piano
+"transferred itself," as they say in some languages, to the Italian
+officers' mess. The Prussian spirit was not undeveloped in a certain Mr.
+Štiglić--his name might cause his enemies to say he is a renegade,
+but as my knowledge of him is confined to other matters, we will say he
+is the noblest Roman of them all. He likewise had a dig at the
+Custom-house officials; I know not whether he was wiping off old scores.
+Appointed by the I.N.C. as director of the Excise office, he
+communicated with the resident officials--Franjo Jakov�ić, Ivan
+Mikuli�ić and Grga Mažuran--on December 5, and told them to
+clear out by the following Saturday, they and their families, so that in
+the heart of winter forty-one persons were suddenly left homeless.
+
+
+A CANDID FRENCHMAN
+
+This and innumerable other manifestations of Prussianism were brought to
+the attention of the French, so that it was not surprising when a
+Frenchman made a few remarks in the _Rijeć_ of Zagreb. His article,
+entitled "Mise au point," begins by a reference to the Yugoslav cockades
+which were sometimes worn by the French sailors. This, to the Italians,
+was as if an ally in the reconquered towns of Metz and Strasbourg had
+sported the colours of an enemy. "The cases are not parallel," says the
+Frenchman. "You have come to Rieka and to Pola as conquerors of towns
+that were exhausted, yielding to the simultaneous and gigantic pressure
+of the Allied armies. These towns gave themselves up. Are they on that
+account your property, and are we to consider as a dead-letter the
+clauses of the Armistice which settled that Pola should be occupied by
+the Allies? I am not so dexterous a diplomat as to be able to follow you
+along this track; let it be decided by others. But we who were present
+perceived that your occupation, which you had regulated in every detail,
+had a close resemblance to the entry of a circus into some provincial
+town, whose population is known beforehand to be of a hostile character.
+It is needless to say that this masquerade, these vibrating appeals to
+fraternity that were placarded upon the walls gave us in that grey,
+abandoned town an impression of complete fiasco." ["It is significant,"
+writes Mr. Beaumont the Italophil, "that the Slav population ... observe
+an attitude of strange reserve and diffidence. They are silent and
+almost sullen. When the Italian fleet first visited Pola there was
+hardly a cheer...."] "Now let me tell you," says the Frenchman, "that
+our entry into Alsace was different. Foch was not obliged to send
+emissaries in advance in order to decorate the houses with flags and to
+erect triumphal arches. The French cockades had not nestled in the dark
+hair of our Alsatian women since 1870, for forty-eight years the
+tricolors had been waiting, piously folded at the bottom of those wooden
+chests, waiting for us to float them in the wind of victory--nous
+rentrions chez nous tout simplement. Or, vous n'êtes pas chez vous ici,
+messieurs." ["Common reserve and decency should have induced the
+Jugo-Slavs to abstain," says Mr. Beaumont, "from rushing to take a place
+to which they were not invited ... an exclusively Italian city."]
+"Whatever you may assert," says the Frenchman, "everything seems to
+contradict it. Your actors play their parts with skill, but the public
+is frigid. Now the decorations are tattered and the torches on the
+ramparts have grown black.... Permit me, following your example, and
+with courtesy, to call back the glories of old Italy, to remind myself
+of the great figures that stride through your history and that give to
+the world an unexampled picture of the lofty works of man. Our sailors,
+who are simple and often uncultured men, have no remembrance of these
+things; the brutal facts, in this whirling age in which we live, have
+more power to strike their imagination. What is one to say to them when
+they see their comrades stabbed, slaughtered by your men as if they were
+noxious animals--yesterday at Venice, the day before that at Pola,
+to-day at Rieka. Englishmen and Americans, your Allies, receive your
+'sincere and fraternal hand' which holds a dagger. As a method of
+pacific penetration you will avow that this is rather rudimentary and
+that the laws of Romulus did not teach you such fraternity. We have also
+seen you striking women in the street and disembowelling a child. What
+are we to think of that, _fratelli d'Italia_? Excuse us, but we are not
+accustomed to such incidents. Is it not natural that the legendary,
+gallant spirit of our sailors should infect the crowd? Our bluejackets
+have looked in vain for the three colours which are dear to them and
+which you have excluded utterly from all your rows of flags. Well, in
+default of them, they had no choice but to array themselves in the
+cockades which dainty hands pinned on their uniforms.... And our
+'poilus,' in their faded, mud-smeared garments walk along 'your'
+streets, disdainfully regarded by your dazzling and pomaded Staff. Do
+you remember that these unshaven fellows who thrust back the Boche in
+1918 are the descendants of those who in 1793 conquered Italy and Europe
+with bare feet? Therefore do not strike your breasts if now and then a
+smile involuntarily appears upon their lips. O you who henceforth will
+be known as the immortal heroes of the Piave, if our fellows see to-day
+so many noble breasts, it was not seldom that they saw another portion
+of your bodies."
+
+
+ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
+
+"Yes, but that has nothing to do," some people will say, "with Rieka's
+economical position. We admit that Croatia has the historical right to
+the town, but we wish to be satisfied that the Croats are not moved by
+reasons that would cause Rieka's ruin. It may be nowadays, owing to the
+unholy alliance between Magyars and Italians, that the town, with
+respect to its trade, is more in the Italian sphere than in that of
+Yugoslavia." The answer to this is that Italy's share of the value of
+the imports into Rieka in 1911 was 7·5 per cent. of the total, while her
+share of the value of the exports amounted to 13 per cent., which proves
+that Italy depends commercially more on Rieka's hinterland than does
+that hinterland upon Italy. It seems to be of less significance that the
+millionaires of Rieka are mostly Croats, for they might conceivably have
+enriched themselves by trade with Italy. But of the nine banks, previous
+to the War the Italianists were in exclusive possession of none, while
+the Croats had four; of the eight shipping companies three were Croat,
+three were Magyar, one British, one German--not one Italian. It is true
+that some Italian writers lay it down that Rieka's progress should be
+co-ordinated with that of Venice, to say nothing of Triest, and should
+not be exploited by other States to the injury of the Italian Adriatic
+ports. Their point of view is not at all obscure. And all disguise is
+thrown to the winds in a book which has had a great success among the
+Italian imperialists: _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, by Mario Alberti
+(Milan, 1915--third edition). The author says that Italy, having annexed
+Triest and Rieka, will be "assured for ever"; her "economic penetration"
+of the Balkans "will no longer be threatened" by the projected
+Galatz-Scutari (Danube-Adriatic) railway; Italian agriculture which, he
+says, is already in peril, "will be rescued"; the Italian fisherman will
+no longer have the ports of Triest and Rieka closed (for exportation to
+Germany and Austria); the national wealth will be augmented by "several
+milliards"; new fields will be open to Italian industry; her economic
+(and military) domination over the Adriatic will be absolute. There
+will, he continues, be no more "disturbing" competition on the part of
+any foreign mercantile marine; the Adriatic will be the sole property of
+Italy, and so on. It would be worth while, as a study of expressions, to
+photograph a few Rieka Italianists in the act of reading these rapturous
+pages.... But lest it be imagined that I have searched for the most
+feeble pro-Italian arguments in order to have no difficulty in knocking
+them down, I will add that their strongest argument, taken as it is from
+the official report of the French Consul in 1909, appears to be that the
+commerce of Croatia amounted then to only 7 per cent. of the total trade
+of the port of Rieka. I am told by those who ought to know that wood
+alone, which comes almost exclusively from Croatia, Slavonia, etc.,
+represents 16 per cent. If other products, such as flour, wine, etc.,
+are considered, 50 per cent. of the total trade must be ascribed to
+Croatia, Slavonia, etc. And that does not take into account the western
+Banat and other Yugoslav territories. Serbia, too, would now take her
+part, so that there is no need to fear for the position of a Yugoslav
+Rieka based solely--omitting Hungary and the Ukraine altogether--on her
+Yugoslav hinterland. Rieka without Yugoslavia would be ruined and would
+degenerate into a fishing village, with a great past and a miserable
+future. This could very well be seen during the spring of 1919 when the
+communications were interrupted between Rieka and Yugoslavia. At Rieka
+during April eggs were 80 centimes apiece, while at Bakar, a few miles
+away, they cost 25 centimes; milk at Rieka was 6 crowns the litre and at
+Bakar one crown; beef was 30 crowns a kilo and at Bakar 8 crowns. Italy
+was calling Rieka her pearl--a pearl of great price; the Yugoslavs said
+it was the lung of their country. It is within the knowledge of the
+Italianists that the prosperity of Rieka would not be advanced by making
+her the last of a chain of Italian ports, but rather by making her the
+first port of Yugoslavia. What has Italy to offer in comparison with the
+Slovenes and the Croats? The maritime outlet of the Save valley, as well
+as of the plains of Hungary beyond it, is, as Sir Arthur Evans points
+out, the port of Rieka. And, in view of the mountainous nature of the
+country which lies for a great distance at the back of Split and of
+Dubrovnik, it would seem that Rieka--and especially when the railway
+line has been shortened--will be the natural port of Belgrade.
+
+
+THE TURNCOAT MAYOR
+
+One cannot expect in a place with Rieka's history that such
+considerations as these will be debated, calmly or otherwise, but at all
+events on their own merits. They will be approached with more than
+ordinary passion, since so many of the people of Rieka have been
+turncoats. Any man who changes sides in his religion or his nationality
+or politics--presuming, and I hope this mostly was so at Rieka, that his
+reasons were not base--that man will feel profoundly on these matters,
+more profoundly than the average person of his new religion, nationality
+or politics. He will observe the ritual, he will give utterance to his
+thoughts with such an emphasis that his old comrades will dislike him
+and his new associates be made uneasy. Thus a convert may not always be
+the most delightful creature in the garden, and he is abundant at Rieka.
+As an illustration we may study Dr. Vio. Many persons have repeated that
+he has a Croat father, yet they should in fairness add that his father's
+father came from Venice. But if he came from Lapland, that ought to be
+no reason why the present Dr. Vio should not, if he so desires, be an
+Italian. If he had, when he arrived at what is usually called the age of
+discretion, inscribed himself among the sons of Italy--_à la bonheur_.
+But he took no such step. He came out as a Croat of the Croats, for when
+he had finished his legal studies he became a town official, but
+discovered that his views--for he was known as an unbending
+Croat--hindered his advancement. The party in possession of the town
+council, the Autonomist party, would have none of him. At last he, in
+disgust, threw up his post and went into his father's office. He was
+entitled, after ten years' service, to a pension; the Autonomists
+refused to grant it for the reason that he was so dour a Croat. Very
+often, talking with his friends, did Dr. Vio mention this. He made a
+successful appeal to the Court at Buda-Pest and a certain yearly sum was
+conceded to him, which he may or may not be still obtaining. Then, to
+the amazement of the Croats, he renounced his nationality and
+became--no, not an Italian--a Magyar. He was now one of those who called
+Hungary his "Madre Patria," and as a weapon of the ruling Hungarian
+party he was employed against the Italianists. In the year 1913 the
+deputy for Rieka died and Dr. Vio was a candidate, his opponent being
+one of the Italianist party, Professor Zanella. Dr. Vio had the support
+of the Government officials, railway officials and so forth, and was
+elected. Now he was a Magyar of the Magyars: Hungarian police officials
+were introduced, and Magyar, disregarding the town statutes, was
+employed by them as sole official language. The citizens still speak of
+those police.... The War broke out, and Dr. Vio donned a uniform,
+serving chiefly on the railway line between Rieka and Zagreb. Gradually
+he seems to have acquired the feeling that it was unnatural for him to
+be a Magyar of the Magyars, even though he was compelled, like so many
+others, to wear this uniform. But one day in 1916 when his friend and
+fellow-officer, Fran Šojat, teacher at the High School at Sušak,
+walked into his room at Meja, when he happened to be putting little
+flags upon a map, he prophesied--King Peter and the Tzar would have been
+glad to hear him. Presently, he had himself elected as the mayor, which
+enabled him to leave an army so distasteful to him. How long would he
+wait until he publicly became a Croat once again? He did not doubt that
+the Entente would win, and told that same friend Å ojat that Rieka on
+the next day would be Croat. To another gentleman in June of 1918 he
+said he hoped that he would be the first Yugoslav mayor of the town, and
+on that day, out hunting, he sang endless Croat songs. In September, to
+the mayor of Sušak, "You will see," he said, "how well we two as
+mayors will work together." When the Croat National Council entered into
+office at the end of October he again met Mr. Å ojat, just as he was
+going up to that interview in the Governor's Palace. "Jesam li ja onda
+imao pravo, jesi li sada zadovoljan?" he said. ("Was I not right that
+time? Are you satisfied now?") Joyfully he pressed Mr. Å ojat's hand
+and greeted the two other persons who were with him. And Mr. Å ojat
+was pleased to think that Vio would now be a good Croat, as of old. But
+on the following day he was an Italian.
+
+
+HIS FERVOUR
+
+When I went up to see this variegated gentleman--whose personal
+appearance is that of a bright yellow cat--he purred awhile upon the
+sofa and then started striding up and down the room. As he sketched the
+history of the town, which, he said, had always been Italian and would
+insist on being so, he spoke with horror of the days when Jella�ić
+was in control, and then, remembering another trouble, he raised both
+his hands above his head and brought them down with such a crash upon
+the desk where I was writing his remarks that--but nobody burst in; the
+municipal officials were accustomed to his conversation. He was reviling
+at that moment certain Allied officers who had not seen fit to visit
+him. "I care not!" he yelled. "We are Italian! I tell you we are
+Italianissimi!" (He was glad enough, however, when his brother Hamlet,
+who had remained a Yugoslav and was on friendly terms with the chief of
+the carabinieri, managed to obtain for the mayor a passport to Italy,
+concerning which the carabinieri had said that they must first of all
+apply to Rome.) The doctor was sure that Yugoslavia would not live, for
+it had two religions; and another notable defect of the Croats--"I speak
+their language quite well," he said--was that in the whole of Rieka not
+one ancient document was in Croatian. I was going to mention that
+everywhere in Croatia until 1848 they were in Latin--but he saw what I
+was on the point of saying and--"Look here! look here!" he cried, "now
+look at this!" It was a type-written sheet in English, whereon was
+recounted how the mayor had offered to four Admirals, who came to Rieka
+on behalf of their four nations, how he had, in order to meet them in
+every way--"They asked me," he said, with blankness and indignation and
+forgiveness all joined in his expression--it was beautifully done--"they
+asked me, the Italian mayor of this Italian town, whether it was truly
+an Italian town!"--well, he had offered to take a real plebiscite, on
+the basis of the last census, and the Admirals, while appreciating his
+offer, had not availed themselves of it. (Maybe some one had told them
+how the census officials, chiefly members of the "Giovani Fiumani," had
+gone round, asking the people whether they spoke Italian and usually
+filling in the papers themselves. Presumably the mayor did not propose
+to allow anyone who had then been described as an Italian now to call
+himself Croat.) I was just calculating what he was in 1910 when he
+played a trump card and begged me to go up to the cemetery and take note
+of the language used for the epitaphs. Then let me return to him on the
+morrow and say what was the nationality of Rieka. There seemed to be the
+question if in such a town where Yugoslavs so often use Italian as the
+business language, many of them possibly might use it as the language of
+death; as it happened the first Yugoslav to whom I spoke about this
+point--a lawyer at whose flat I lunched the following day--produced a
+little book entitled _Regolamento del Cimitero comunale di Fiume_, and
+from it one could see that in the local cemetery the blessed principle
+of self-determination was in fetters. Chapter iii. lays down that all
+inscriptions must have the approval of the civic body. You are warned
+that they will not approve of sentences or words which are indecent, and
+that they prohibit all expressions and allusions that might give offence
+to anyone, to moral corporations, to religions, or which are notoriously
+false. No doubt, in practice, they waive the last stipulation, so that
+the survivors may give praise to famous or to infamous men; but I am
+told that they raised fewer difficulties for Italian wordings, and that
+the stones which many people used--those which the undertakers had in
+stock, with spaces left for cutting in the details--were invariably in
+Italian.... I hope I have not given an unsympathetic portrait of the
+mayor who has about him something lovable. Whatever Fate may have in
+store for Rieka, Dr. Vio is so magnificent an emotional actor that his
+future is assured. I trust it will be many years before a stone, in
+Croat, Magyar or Italian, is placed above the body of this volatile
+gentleman.... And then perhaps the deed of his administrative life that
+will be known more universally than any other will be the omission of
+an _I_ from certain postage stamps. When the old Hungarian stamps were
+surcharged with the word FIUME, the sixty-third one in every sheet of
+half an edition was defective and was stamped FUME.[19]
+
+
+THREE PLEASANT PLACES
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of Rieka, across the bay, lies Abbazia,
+which Nature and the Austrians have made into a charming spot. By the
+famous "Strandweg" that winds under rocks and palm and laurel, you go to
+Volosca in the easterly and to Lovrana in the westerly direction. Just
+at the back of all these pretty places stands the range of Istria's
+green mountains. More than twenty years ago a certain Dr. Krstić,
+from the neighbourhood of Zadar, conceived the happy thought of
+printing, in the peasant dialect, a newspaper which would discourse on
+Italy in articles no peasant could resist. He was given subsidies, and
+for some time the newspaper was published at Volosca. But perhaps the
+peasants did not read it any more than those near Zadar would take in
+the _Pravi Dalmatinac_ ("The Real Dalmatian"), which attempted a few
+years previous to the War to preach sectionalism to the Serbo-Croats.
+The Italians who came to the Abbazia district in November 1918 did not
+try such methods. In the combined commune of Volosca-Abbazia the
+population at the 1910 census consisted of 4309 Yugoslavs, 1534
+German-Austrians, and 418 Italians. Most of the 418 had never seen
+Italy; the only true Italians were some officials who had come from
+other parts of Istria. The official language was Italian, which was
+regarded as more elegant. The district doctor was Italian, but all the
+other 29 non-official doctors were either Germans, Czechs or Croats. At
+Volosca eighteen years ago there was no Croat school; when one was
+opened the Italian school at once lost half its membership and before
+the War had been reduced to 25 pupils. Before the War at Abbazia the
+Croat school had six classes, while the Italian had ceased for lack of
+patronage. The German school had 160 pupils; this has now been
+dissolved, the pupils being mostly sent to the re-opened Italian school.
+Thus it will be seen that efforts were required to Italianize these
+places. The efforts were continued even during the War, it is said by
+the ex-Empress Zita. At any rate the people who had altered their
+Italian names saw that they had been premature and reassumed their
+former ones. They reassumed the pre-war privileges: at Lovrana, for
+example, they "ran" the village, not having allowed any communal
+elections since 1905 and arranging that their Croat colleagues in the
+council should all be illiterate peasants. Some Italians were interned
+in 1915, as the Croats had been in 1914, but the council came again into
+their hands. At the meetings they had been obliged, owing to the
+council's composition, to talk Croatian; but their own predominance was
+undisturbed. On their return to power during the War they displayed more
+generosity, and admitted even educated Croats to the council. And if
+such out-and-out Italians as the Signori Grossmann, Pegan, etc. of
+Lovrana were kinder to the Yugoslavs than the Signori Grbac,
+Korošać and Codrić of Rieka it may be because the gentle spirit
+of the place affected them. The leading families would even intermarry;
+Signor Gelletich, Lovrana's Italian potentate, gave his sister to the
+Croat chieftain. But, as we have said, idylls had to end when in
+November 1918 the Italian army came upon the scene. Abbazia and Volosca
+and Lovrana were painted thoroughly in the Italian colours. Public
+buildings, private houses--irrespective of their inmates--had patches of
+green, white and red bestowed upon them. Everything was painted--some
+occupation had to be found for the military, who appeared to be more
+numerous than the inhabitants. Meanwhile, their commanding officers had
+other brilliant ideas: an Italian kindergarten was opened at Volosca,
+and the peasant women of the hills around were promised that if they
+came with their children to the opening ceremony, every one of them
+would be rewarded with 1 lb. of sugar. So they came and were
+photographed--it looked extremely well to have so many women seizing
+this first opportunity of an Italian education for their babies. Some
+one at Rieka most unfortunately had forgotten to consign the sugar. The
+Italian officer who was appointed to discharge the functions of podestà,
+that is, mayor, of Abbazia was a certain Lieut.-Colonel Stadler. He sent
+to Rome and Paris various telegrams as to the people's ardent hope of
+being joined to Italy. The people's own telegrams to Paris went by a
+more circuitous route. But Stadler did not seem to care much for the
+French, nor yet for the English. About a dozen of the educated people,
+thinking that the French might also come to Abbazia and wishing to be
+able to converse with them, took lessons in that language; another
+dozen, with a similar motive, had a Mr. Pošcić, a naturalized
+American subject, to give them English lessons. Away with these baubles,
+cried Stadler; on January 10 he stopped the lessons.
+
+
+ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO
+
+While the Italians were thus engaged, what was the state of opinion in
+their own country? Would Bissolati's organ, the _Secolo_, and the
+_Corriere della Sera_, which had been favourable to the Slavs since
+Caporetto, have it in their power to moderate the fury of the anti-Slav
+papers? Malagodi of the _Tribuna_ said on November 24 that the position
+at Rieka had been remedied. But was the public fully alive to what was
+happening at Zadar and Å ibenik? "While these cities have been
+nominally occupied by us and are under the protection of our flag, the
+Italian population has never been so terrorized by Croat brutality as at
+this moment." The _Mattino_ disclosed to its readers in flaring
+headlines that "Yugoslav oppression cuts the throats of the Italian
+population in Dalmatia and terrorizes them." Would the people of Italy
+rather listen to such thrills or to the _Secolo_, which deprecated the
+contemptuous writings of Italian journalists with regard to the
+Slavs--the _Gazzetta del Popolo's_ "little snakes" was one of the milder
+terms of opprobrium. The _Secolo_ recalled Italy's own illiterate herds
+and the fact that the Italian Risorgimento was judged, not by the
+indifferent and servile mass, but by its heroes. It explained that the
+Treaty of London was inspired by the belief that Austria would survive,
+and that for strategic reasons only it had given, not Rieka, but most of
+Dalmatia and the islands to Italy.
+
+It was calamitous for Italy that she was being governed at this moment
+not by prudent statesmen such as she more frequently produces in the
+north, but by southerners of the Orlando and Sonnino type. The _Giornale
+d'Italia_ would at a word from the Foreign Minister have damped the
+ardour of those journalists and other agitators who were fanning such a
+dangerous fire. Sonnino once himself told Radović, the Montenegrin,
+that he could not acquiesce in any union of the Yugoslavs, for such a
+combination would be fraught with peril for Italians. And now that
+Southern Slavs were forming what he dreaded, their United States, it
+would have been sagacious--it was not too late--if he had set himself to
+win their friendship. Incidents of an untoward nature had occurred, such
+as those connected with the Austrian fleet; nine hundred Yugoslavs,
+after fighting side by side with the Italians, had actually been
+interned, many of them wearing Italian medals for bravery;[20] the
+Yugoslavs, in fact, by these and other monstrous methods had been
+provoked. But it was not too late. A Foreign Minister not blind to what
+was happening in foreign countries would have seen that if he valued the
+goodwill of France and England and America--and this goodwill was a
+necessity for the Italians--it was incumbent on him to modify his
+politics. The British Press was not unanimous--all the prominent
+publicists did not, like a gentleman a few months afterwards in the
+_Spectator_, say that "if the Yugoslavs contemplated a possible war
+against the Italians, by whose efforts and those of France and Great
+Britain they had so recently been liberated, then would the Southern
+Slavs be guilty of monstrous folly and ingratitude." Baron Sonnino might
+have apprehended that more knowledge of the Yugoslav-Italian situation
+would produce among the Allies more hostility; he should have known that
+average Frenchmen do not buy their favourite newspaper for what it says
+on foreign politics, and that the _Journal des Débats_ and the
+_Humanité_ have many followers who rarely read them. And, above all
+else, he should have seen that the Americans, who had not signed the
+Treaty of London, would decline to lend themselves to the enforcement of
+an antiquated pact which was so grievously incongruous with Justice, to
+say nothing of the Fourteen Points of Mr. Wilson. But Sonnino threw all
+these considerations to the winds. He should have reconciled himself to
+the fact that his London Treaty, if for no other reason than that it was
+a secret one, belonged to a different age and was really dead; his
+refusal to bury it was making him unpopular with the neighbours. One
+does not expect a politician to be quite consistent, and Baron Sonnino
+is, after all, not the same man who in 1881 declared that to claim
+Triest as a right would be an exaggeration of the principle of
+nationalities; but he should not in 1918 have been deaf to the words
+which he considered of such weight when he wrote them in 1915 that he
+caused them to be printed in a Green Book. "The monarchy of Savoy," he
+said in a telegram to the Duke of Avarna on February 15 of that year,
+"has its staunchest root in the fact that it personifies the national
+ideals." Baron Sonnino was rallying to the House of Karageorgević
+most of those among the Croats and Slovenes who, for some reason or
+other, had been hesitating; for King Peter personified the national
+ideals which the Baron was endeavouring to throttle. As Mr. Wickham
+Steed pointed out in a letter to the _Corriere della Sera_, the complete
+accord between Italians and Yugoslavs is not only possible and
+necessary, but constitutes a European interest of the first order; if it
+be not realized, the Adriatic would become not Italian nor Slav, but
+German; if, on the other hand, it were brought about, then the language
+and the culture, the commerce and the political influence of Italy would
+not merely be maintained but would spread along the eastern Adriatic
+coast and in the Balkans in a manner hitherto unhoped for; if no accord
+be reached, then the Italians would see their whole influence vanish
+from every place not occupied by overwhelming forces. But Sonnino, a
+descendant of rancorous Levantines and obstinate Scots, went recklessly
+ahead; it made you think that he was one of those unhappy people whom
+the gods have settled to destroy. He neglected the most elementary
+precautions; he ought to have requested, for example, that the French
+and British and Americans would everywhere be represented where Yugoslav
+territory was occupied. But, alas, he did not show that he disagreed
+with the _Tribuna's_ lack of wisdom when it said that "the Italian
+people could never tolerate that beside our flag should fly other
+flags, even if friendly, for this would imply a confession of weakness
+and incapacity."
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE CHAMBER
+
+The Government was in no very strong position, for the Chamber was now
+moribund and the many groups which had been formed, in the effort to
+create a war Chamber out of one that was elected in the days of peace,
+were now dissolving. An incident towards the end of November exhibited
+not only the contrivances by which these groups hoped to preserve
+themselves, but the eagerness with which the Government rushed to
+placate the powerful. A young deputy called Centurione, a member of the
+National Defence group (the Fascio), made a furious attack on Giolitti,
+under cover of a personal explanation. He had been accused of being a
+police spy. Well, after Caporetto, convinced that the defeat was partly
+due to the work of Socialists and Giolittians, he had disguised himself
+as a workman and taken part in Socialist meetings. He was proud to have
+played the spy for the good of his country, and he finished by accusing
+Giolitti and six others of treason. The whole Chamber--his own party not
+being strongly represented--seems to have made for Centurione who,
+amidst an indescribable uproar, continued to shout "Traitor!" to anyone
+who approached him. Sciorati, one of the accused, was at last able to
+make himself heard. He related how, at Turin, Centurione had made a fool
+of himself. (But if Lewis Carroll had been with us still he might have
+made himself immortal.) "I have seen him disguised," said Sciorati, "as
+an out-porter at the door of my own house." Giolitti appeared and
+demanded an immediate inquiry, with what was described as cold and
+menacing emphasis. And Orlando, the Prime Minister, flew up to the
+Chamber and parleyed with Giolitti in the most cordial fashion.
+Centurione's documents were at once investigated and no proofs of
+treason were found, no witnesses proposed by him being examined. He was
+expelled from the National Defence group for "indiscipline," his
+colleagues frustrating his attempts to sit next to them by repeatedly
+changing their seats. The attitude of the Fascio was humble and
+apologetic, and the other significant feature of the incident was the
+haste with which Orlando reacted to Giolitti's demand for an inquiry.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY
+
+Baron Sonnino had to take into account not only the unsteadiness of the
+ground on which the Government stood, owing to these parliamentary
+regroupings, but the general effects that would ensue from the country's
+financial position. When, in spite of the victory and the approach of
+peace, the exchange price of the lira dropped 2 to 3 points towards the
+end of November, this may have had, contrary to what was thought by
+many, no connection with a revolutionary movement. The fact that in
+Triest the authorities had been obliged to isolate Italian ex-prisoners
+on their return from Russia, since they were imbued with revolutionary
+principles, at any rate were uttering loud revolutionary cries, may have
+been the mere temporary infection caught from their environment. But
+that of which there was no doubt was the entire truth of Caroti's
+statement when that deputy declared at Milan that while Italy had been
+triumphant in the military sphere, she had been economically overthrown.
+Bankruptcy had not been announced, though it existed. Sonnino may
+therefore have been impelled not only by imperialism, by his inability
+to adjust himself to the new international situation, but by the hope
+that through his policy the new internal situation might be tided over.
+If the thoughts of his fellow-countrymen could be directed elsewhere
+than to bankruptcy and possible revolution, it might be that in the
+meantime adroit measures and good luck would brush away these
+disagreeable phenomena. And he would then be rightly looked upon as one
+who had deserved well of his country. So he set about the task with such
+a thoroughness that he turned not alone the thoughts of men, but their
+heads. Professor Italo Giglioli addressed a letter to _The New Europe_
+in which he said that he was claiming now not the territories given by
+the Treaty of London, but considerably more. He wanted all Dalmatia,
+down to Kotor. In foreign hands, he said, Dalmatia would be an eternal
+danger, and besides: "What in Dalmatia is not Italian is barbaric!" It
+was a melancholy spectacle to see a man of Giglioli's reputation saying
+that Dubrovnik, the refuge of Slav culture in the age of darkness and
+the place in which Slav literature so gloriously arose, was, forsooth,
+throughout its history always Italian in culture and in literature.
+"Among thinking people in Italy," proclaims the Professor, "there are
+indeed but few who will abandon to the Balkan processes a region and a
+people which have always been possessed by Italian culture and which
+constitute the necessary wall of Italy and Western Europe against the
+inroads of the half-barbaric East." He protests that it is ridiculous of
+_The New Europe_ to assert that the secret Treaty of London is supported
+by a tiny, discredited band of Italians; and indeed that Review has
+regretfully to acknowledge that many of his countrymen have been swept
+off their feet and carried onward in the gale of popular enthusiasm.
+Giglioli ends by asking that his name be removed from the list of _The
+New Europe's_ collaborators. In vain does the _The New Europe_ say that
+the Professor's programme must involve a war between Italians and
+Yugoslavs. "We must be prepared for a new war," said the _Secolo_ on
+January 12. "The Italians who absolutely demand the conquest of Dalmatia
+must have the courage to demand that the demobilization of our Army
+should be suspended, and to say so very clearly." And the _Corriere
+della Sera_ warned Orlando of the consequences if he took no steps to
+silence the mad voices. "No one knows better," it wrote, "than the
+Minister of the Interior, who is also Premier, that on the other coast
+Italy claims that part of Dalmatia which was assigned to her by the
+Treaty of London, but not more.... If the Government definitely claims
+and demands the whole of Dalmatia, then the agitation is justified; but
+if the Government does not demand it, then we repeat that to favour and
+not to curb the movement is the worst kind of Defeatism, for it creates
+among Italians a state of mind tending to transform the sense of a great
+victory into the sense of a great defeat ... quite apart from the
+intransigeance which this provokes in the Yugoslav camp." It was in
+vain. And when Bissolati, having resigned from office on the issue of
+Italo-Yugoslav relations, attempted to explain his attitude at the Scala
+in Milan on January 11, his meeting was wrecked, for though the body of
+the hall and the galleries were relatively quiet, if not very
+sympathetic--it was a ticket meeting--the large number of subscription
+boxes, which could not be closed to their ordinary tenants, had been
+packed by Bissolati's adversaries, who succeeded in preventing him from
+speaking. After a long delay he managed to read the opening passage, but
+when he came to the first "renunciation"--the Brenner for the
+Teutons--disturbance set in finally and he left the theatre. Afterwards
+the rioters adjourned to the _Corriere_ and _Secolo_ offices, where they
+broke the windows. And thus the first full statement of the war aims of
+any Italian statesman could not be uttered. It was spread abroad by the
+Press. Bissolati claimed to speak in the name of a multitude which had
+hitherto been silent.... The masses, he said, demanded, that their
+rulers should devote all their strength to "the divine blessing of
+freeing mankind from the slavery of war." ... "To those," he said, "who
+speak of the Society of Nations as an 'ideology' or 'Utopia' which has
+no hold over our people, we would reply: Have you been in the trenches
+among the soldiers waiting for the attack?" [Signor Bissolati had the
+unique record, among Allied or enemy statesmen, of having volunteered
+for active service, though past the fighting age, and of having served
+in the trenches for many months before entering the Orlando Cabinet.]
+
+
+A FOUNTAIN IN THE SAND
+
+The speech was an admirable expression of that new spirit which the
+Allies had been fighting for. "Each of the anti-German nations," he
+said, "must guard itself against any unconsciously German element in its
+soul, if only in order to have the right to combat any trace in others
+of the imperialism which had poisoned the outlook of the German people."
+With regard to the Adriatic: "Yugoslavia exists, and no one can undo
+this. But to the credit of Italy be it said, the attainment of unity and
+independence for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was and must be alike
+the reason and the certain issue of our War.... Italy felt that if
+Serbia had been swallowed up by that monstrous Empire--itself a vassal
+of the German Empire--her own economic expansion and political
+independence would have received a mortal blow. And so she was on
+Serbia's side, first in neutrality, then in intervention.... Those who
+only see, in the formation of the Yugoslav State, a sympathetic or
+antipathetic episode of the War, or a subsidiary effect of it, have
+failed to detect its inner meaning." As for the Treaty of London which
+was concluded against the enemy, it was not to be regarded as intangible
+against a friendly people. By special grants of autonomy, as at Zadar,
+or by arrangements between the two States, he would see the language and
+culture of all the trans-Adriatic sons of Italy assured. He warned his
+countrymen lest, in order to meet the peril of a German-Slav alliance
+against them, they should have to subordinate themselves to France and
+England, and be their protégés instead of their real Allies--a situation
+not unlike that of the Triple Alliance when Germany protected them
+against the ever-imminent attack of Austria.... "But perhaps the
+Yugoslavs will not be grateful or show an equal spirit of conciliation?
+Certainly they will then have no vital interests to push against Italy,
+and in the long run sentiments follow interests." There was, in fact,
+throughout the speech only one questionable passage, that in which he
+said that "if Italy renounced the annexation of Dalmatia she might
+obtain from Yugoslavia or from the Peace Conference the joy of pressing
+to her heart the most Italian city of Rieka, which the Treaty of London
+renounced." This may have been a sop to Cerberus. But Bissolati's
+appeals to justice and to wisdom fell upon the same stony ground as his
+demonstration that Dalmatia's strategic value is very slight from a
+defensive point of view to those who possess Pola, Valona and the outer
+islands. There is a school of reasonable Italians, such as Giuseppe
+Prezzolini, who for strategic reasons asked for the isle of Vis. Mazzini
+himself, after 1866, found it necessary, for the same reasons, that Vis
+should be Italian, since it is the key of the Adriatic. Some of us
+thought that it might have been feasible to follow the precedent of
+Port Mahon, which Great Britain occupied without exercising sovereignty
+over the rest of the island of Minorca. The magnificent harbour of Vis,
+perfectly protected against the bora, would have satisfied all the
+demands of the Italian navy. Vis is to-day practically as much Slav as
+Minorca was Spanish, and if the Slavs had been left in possession of the
+remainder of that island it would have proved the reverse of a danger to
+the Italians, since with a moderate amount of good sense the same
+relations would have existed as was the case upon Minorca.... The
+solution which was ultimately found in the Treaty of Rapallo was to
+allocate to the Italians in complete sovereignty not the island of Vis,
+but the smaller neighbouring island of Lastovo.
+
+While the vast majority of Italians would not listen to Bissolati they
+delighted in Gabriele d'Annunzio. The great poet Carducci[21] had his
+heart full when he thought about the ragged, starving Croat soldiers,
+pitiable victims of the Habsburgs, exploited by them all their lives and
+fighting for them in a foreign land--and they fought bravely; but as
+they were often clad in miserable garments, they were called by those
+who wanted to revile them "Croat dirt." And that is what they are to
+Gabriele d'Annunzio. When the controversies of to-day have long been
+buried and when d'Annunzio's works are read, his lovers will be stabbed
+by his _Lettera ai Dalmati_. And if the mob had to be told precisely
+what the Allies are, it did not need a lord of language to dilate upon
+"the thirty-two teeth of Wilson's undecipherable smile," to say that the
+French "drunk with victory, again fly all their plumes in the wind, tune
+up all their fanfares, quicken their pace in order to pass the most
+resolute and speedy--and we step aside to let them pass." No laurel will
+be added to his fame for having spoken of "the people of the five meals"
+[the English] which, "its bloody work hardly ended, reopens its jaws to
+devour as much as it can." All Italy resounded with the catchword that
+the Croats had been Austria's most faithful servants, although some
+Italians, such as Admiral Millo, as we shall see, when writing
+confidentially, did not say anything so foolish. Very frequently,
+however, as the Croats noticed, those who had been the most
+uncompromising wielders of Austria's despotism were taken on by Italy,
+the new despot. For example, at Split when the mayor and other Yugoslav
+leaders were arrested at the beginning of the War, one Francis
+Mandirazza was appointed as Government Commissary, after having filled
+the political post of district captain (Bezirkshauptmann) which was only
+given to those who were in the entire confidence of the Government. As
+soon as the Italians had possession of Å ibenik they took him into
+their service.
+
+
+THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME
+
+_The New Europe_, whose directors had taken a chief part in bringing the
+Italians and the Yugoslavs together, which congress had resulted in the
+Pact of Rome, of April 1918, pointed out that in those dark days of the
+high-water mark of the great German offensive, this Pact--which provided
+the framework of an agreement, on the principle of "live and let
+live"--was publicly approved of by the Italian Premier and his
+colleagues, but was rejected now when the danger was past and Austria
+was broken up. Those who brought about the Pact reminded Italy that she
+was bound to it by honour and that the South Slav statesmen never had
+withdrawn from the position which it placed them in with reference to
+Italy.... Everyone must sympathize with the disappointment of those
+gentlemen who--Messrs. Franklin-Bouillon, Wickham Steed and Seton-Watson
+were associated in this endeavour--had striven for a noble end, had
+achieved something in spite of many obstacles, and now saw that one
+party simply would not use the bridge which they had built for it. This
+party had, however, shown such reticence both while the bridge was being
+made and afterwards that one could scarcely be astonished at their
+attitude. The Congress at Rome was in no sense official, but a
+voluntary meeting of private persons, who were got together with a
+certain amount of trouble. So unofficial, in fact, was the Congress that
+those Serbs who worked with the representatives of the Yugoslav
+Committee belonged to the Opposition; the Serbian Government, then in
+Corfu, not giving their adhesion to the Congress, which was perhaps a
+very clever move on the part of Pašić. Whether it be true or not
+that Signor Amendolla, the General Secretary--he is the political
+director of the _Corriere della Sera_--was asked by the Yugoslav
+Committee not to admit any Serbian deputies except those of the
+Opposition, it appears that no other Serbs took a part in the
+proceedings. The Italian Government adopted an ambiguous attitude, for
+while Orlando publicly endorsed the resolutions, as did several other
+Ministers, notably Bissolati, the Premier gave no confirmation to those
+who interpreted his attitude as implying the tacit abandonment of
+Italy's extreme territorial claims. Sonnino was so reserved that he took
+no share at all in the Congress and refused to receive the Yugoslavs. He
+made no secret of his determination to exact the London Treaty. Nothing
+was signed by the Italian Government; and if Orlando's honour was
+involved it certainly does not seem possible to say the same of Sonnino.
+It may be that Pašić foresaw what would happen and was therefore
+unwilling to be implicated. He is an astute statesman of the old
+school--"too old," says _The New Europe_, which regards him as an
+Oriental sultan. But respecting the Pact of Rome they were rather at
+issue with the Italians. What the Italians gained was that the various
+clauses of the Pact were used as the basis for propaganda in the
+Austrian ranks on the Piave. And when once the Austrian peril had
+vanished the old rancour reappeared, particularly when, by the terms of
+the military armistice with Austria, Italy obtained the right to occupy
+a zone corresponding with what she was given by the London Treaty.
+Whereas in that instrument the frontiers were exactly indicated, there
+was in the Pact of Rome no more than a general agreement that the
+principles of nationality and self-determination should be applied, with
+due regard to other "vital interests." Bissolati's group was in favour
+of something more definite, but to this Orlando was not well disposed;
+and Trumbić, the President of the Yugoslav Committee, did not avail
+himself of the, perhaps rather useless, offer of some Serbs who were not
+participating in the Congress, but suggested that while he worked with
+the Government they would keep in touch with the Bissolati group; even
+as Bismarck who would work openly with a Government, and through his
+agents with the Opposition.
+
+
+GATHERING WINDS
+
+As the Serbian Society of Great Britain observed in a letter of welcome
+which they addressed to Baron Sonnino on the occasion of a visit to
+London, they were convinced "after a close study and experience of the
+Southern Slav question in all its aspects and some knowledge of the
+Adriatic problem as a whole, that there is no necessary or inevitable
+conflict between the aspiration of the Southern Slav people towards
+complete unity and the postulates of Italian national security and of
+the completion of Italian unity; but that, on the contrary, there exist
+strong grounds for Italo-Southern Slav co-operation and friendship." The
+Italian Government, however, had now got almost their whole country
+behind them, and in the months after the War so many Italians had become
+warlike that they were enchanted with the picture drawn by Gabriele
+d'Annunzio: "And what peace will in the end be imposed on us, poor
+little ones of Christ? A Gallic peace? A British peace? A star-spangled
+peace? Then, no! Enough! Victorious Italy--the most victorious of all
+the nations--victorious over herself and over the enemy--will have on
+the Alps and over her sea the _Pax Romana_, the sole peace that is
+fitting. If necessary we will meet the new plot in the fashion of the
+Arditi [units of volunteers employed on specially dangerous
+enterprises], a grenade in each hand and a knife between our teeth." It
+is true that the other poor little ones of Christ, the Franciscans, who
+are greatly beloved by the people of Dalmatia, from whom they are
+sprung, have hitherto preached a different _Pax Romana_. The Dalmatian
+clergy, who are patriotic, have been rather a stumbling-block in the
+way of the Italians. A very small percentage of them--about six in a
+thousand--have been anti-national and opportunist. At one place a priest
+whom his bishop had some years ago had occasion to expel, returned with
+the Italian army in November 1918 and informed the bishop that he had a
+letter from the Pope which reinstated him, but he refused to show this
+letter. He was anxious to preach on the following Sunday; the bishop
+declined to allow him. Then came unto the bishop the chief of the
+Italian soldiery and he said unto him: "Either thou shalt permit this
+man to preach or I will cause thine office to be taken from thee."
+Unfortunately the bishop yielded, and the sermon, as one would imagine,
+was devoted to the greater glory of the Italians. Sometimes the
+Italians, since their occupation, have made a more humorous if not more
+successful use of the Church. On Palm Sunday, after the service a number
+of peasants, in their best clothes, were walking through a village
+holding the usual palm leaves in their hands. They were photographed,
+and a popular Italian newspaper printed this as a full-page coloured
+illustration. It was entitled: "Dalmatian Peasants on their way to pay
+Homage to Admiral Millo."
+
+This policy of a grenade in each hand and a knife between the teeth
+makes a powerful appeal to the munition firms. And others who feed the
+flame of Italo-Slav hatred are, as Gaetano Salvemini, the
+anti-chauvinist, pointed out in the _Unità_ of Florence, those
+professional gladiators who would lose their job, those agents of the
+Italo-German-Levantine capitalism of the Triest Chamber of Commerce who
+want to be rid of the competition of Rieka and think that this can only
+be obtained by annexation, and also those Italian Nationalists who
+believe that the only path to national greatness is by acquiring
+territory everywhere. No light has come to them from the East; the same
+arguments which are now put forward by such societies as the "Pro
+Dalmatia" could be heard in Italy before she possessed herself of
+Tripoli. One heard the same talk of strategic necessities; one heard
+that nearly all the population was waiting with open arms for the
+Italians; one heard that from a business point of view nothing could be
+better; one heard that the Italians without Tripoli would be choked out
+of the Mediterranean. And what have been the fruits of the conquest of
+Tripoli? No economic advantages have been procured, as Prezzolini wrote,
+no sociological, no strategic, no diplomatic benefits. A great deal of
+money was thrown away, a vast amount of energy was wasted, and thousands
+of troops have to be stationed permanently in the wilderness. That
+expedition to Tripoli, which was one of the gravest errors of Italian
+politics, was preceded by clouds of forged documents, of absurdities, of
+partial extracts out of consular reports, of lying correspondence which
+succeeded in misleading the Italians.
+
+
+WHY THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA
+
+"The Italian Government," said the _Morning Post_,[22] "is well
+qualified to judge of the interests of its own people." Here the
+_Morning Post_ is not speaking of the Italian Government which dealt
+with Tripoli, but that which has been dealing with Dalmatia. The reasons
+which have been advanced for an Italian or a partly Italian Dalmatia are
+geographical, botanical, historical, ethnical, military, naval and
+economic. As for the geographical reasons: even in the schools of Italy
+they teach that the Italian natural frontier is determined by the point
+of division of the waters of the Alps and that this frontier falls at
+Porto Ré, a few miles to the south of Rieka--everything to the south of
+that belonging to the Balkan Peninsula. We may note the gallant
+patriotism of an Italian cartographer mentioned by Prezzolini; this
+worthy has inscribed a map of Dalmatia down to the Narenta with the
+pleasing words: "The new natural boundaries of Italy." As for the
+argument that the flora of Dalmatia resembles that of Italy, this can
+equally well be employed by those who would annex Italy to Dalmatia.
+Historically, we have seen that Venice, which held for many years the
+seacoast and the islands, did not alter the Slav character of the
+country. It is not now the question as to whether Venice deserved or did
+not deserve well of Dalmatia, but "the truth is," says M. Emile
+Haumant,[23] the learned and impartial French historian, "the truth is
+that when Marmont's Frenchmen arrived they found the Slav language
+everywhere, the Italian by its side on the islands and the coast,
+Italian customs and culture in the towns, and also the lively and
+sometimes affectionate remembrance of Venice; but nowhere did a
+Dalmatian tell them that he was an Italian. On the contrary, they all
+affirmed that they were brothers of the Slav beyond, in whose
+misfortunes they shared and whose successes they celebrated." The
+Italians themselves, in achieving their unity, were very right to set
+aside the undoubted historical claims of the Kingdom of the Two
+Sicilies, those of the House of Este and those of the Vatican, seeing
+that they were in opposition to the principle of nationality and the
+right of a people to determine its own political status. With regard to
+the ethnical reasons, we are flogging another dead horse, as the
+statistics--even those taken during the Italian occupation--prove to the
+meanest intellect; and now the pro-Italians, despairing to make anyone
+believe that the 97·5 per cent. of the people of Dalmatia are truly
+Italians who by some kink in their nature persist in calling themselves
+Slavs, have invented a brand new nationality, the Dalmatian, after the
+classic style of the late Professor Jagić who at Vienna, under the
+pressure of the Austrian Government, began talking of the Bosnian
+language in order not to say that it is Serbo-Croat. He was drowned in
+laughter. With respect to the military reasons, the Dalmatian littoral
+cannot be defended by a State which is not in possession of the
+hinterland. In time of peace a very strong army would be needed; Italy
+would, in fact, have to double her army for the defence of a frontier
+700 kilometres long. And in the event of war it would be necessary
+either to abandon Dalmatia or to form two armies of operation, one on
+the frontiers of Julian Venetia, the other in Dalmatia, and without any
+liaison between them. From the military point of view it is incomparably
+more to the interest of Italy that she should live on friendly terms
+with the people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
+should maintain there an army out of all proportion to her military and
+economic resources--an army which in time of war would be worse than
+useless, since, as M. Gauvain observes, the submarines, which would find
+their nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
+communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if she had to fight on
+the eastern side of the Adriatic her sailors in the morning would have
+the sun in their eyes; but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped
+in the case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic reasons,
+the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee to the Germans and
+Magyars the commercial monopoly of the East, and Italy will perceive
+that she has paid very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
+by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce to penetrate to
+the Balkans is by concluding with a friendly Yugoslavia the requisite
+commercial treaties, which will grow more valuable with the construction
+of the lateral railways, running inland from the coast, which Austrians
+and Magyars so constantly impeded.
+
+
+CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON
+
+If, then, it is difficult to see where the Italian interests will be
+profited by the possession of Dalmatia, there remains the argument that,
+irrespective of the consequences, she must have a good deal of it since
+it was allotted to her by the Treaty of London,[24] although the
+engagements entered into by Italy, France and Great Britain when they
+signed the Treaty with Germany caused the earlier instrument to be
+subject to revision where its terms had been disregarded. Signor
+Orlando, in an interview granted in April 1918 to the _Journal des
+Débats_, eagerly insisted that the Treaty had been concluded against the
+Austrian enemy, not against the Yugoslav nation; and if this be more
+than a mere phrase it is clear that with the disappearance of
+Austria-Hungary the Treaty automatically fell to the ground. By this
+Treaty of April 1915, France and Great Britain are bound--if necessary,
+by force of arms--to assist Italy in appropriating what, I believe, will
+be acknowledged to be some one else's country, at all events a country
+the vast proportion of whose inhabitants have determined that on no
+account will they come under the Italians. Would it not have been
+advisable if those who signed this document had made a few not very
+recondite researches into eastern Adriatic questions? They must have
+felt some qualms at the cries of indignation and amazement which arose
+when the provisions of the Treaty were disclosed, for it did not remain
+a secret very long. They had imagined, on the whole, that as Dalmatia
+had been under alien rulers, Venetian, Austrian and so forth, for so
+many years it really would not matter to them very much if they were
+governed from Vienna or from Rome. Perhaps a statesman here and there
+had heard that the Dalmatian Diet had petitioned many times since 1870
+that they should be reunited to their brothers of Croatia and Slavonia
+in the Triune Kingdom. But all the calculations seem to have been made
+upon the basis that Austria-Hungary would survive, as a fairly
+formidable Power at any rate. The union of the Southern Slavs was too
+remote, and the Italians would be kindly masters. When the howl of
+indignation rose, the statesmen seem to have conceived the hope that the
+Italians would be generous and wise. The chief blame for the Treaty does
+not rest, however, on the Frenchmen and the Englishmen, but on the
+Russians; it was naturally felt that they should be more cognizant of
+Slav affairs, and if they were content to sign the Treaty, France and
+England might well follow their example. When Dr. Zarić, the Bishop
+of Split, saw the former Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonov, in Paris
+in the spring of 1919, this gentleman was in a state of such dejection
+that the Bishop, out of pity, did not try to probe the matter.
+"Sometimes," said Sazonov, "sometimes the circumstances are too much
+opposed to you and you have to act against your inclinations."[25] The
+French and British statesmen gave the Bishop the impression that they
+were ashamed of the Treaty. He read to them in turn a memorandum in
+which he suggested that the whole Dalmatian question should be left to
+the arbitration of President Wilson, who was well informed, through
+experts, of the local conditions. And was it, in any case, just that an
+Italian, both claimant and judge, should sit on the Council of Four, to
+which no Yugoslav was admitted? To President Wilson the Bishop said,
+"You have come to fight for the just cause."
+
+The President made no reply.
+
+The Bishop, a native of the island of Hvar, a great linguist, was a man
+who made you think that a very distinguished mind had entered the body
+of the late Cardinal Vaughan. To him the most noticeable features of the
+President were the clear brow, the mystic eyes and the mouth which
+showed that he stood firmly on the ground.
+
+"You have come to work and fight for the peace," said the Bishop.
+
+"Yes, indeed, to fight," said Dr. Wilson. "And I will act with all my
+energy. You," he said, "you must help me."
+
+"I will help you," said the Bishop, "with my prayers."
+
+The Yugoslav Delegation in Paris had, on the authority of the Belgrade
+Cabinet, suggested that the question should be arbitrated.
+
+"The Italians have declined the arbitration," said Dr. Zarić, "just
+as in the War Germany and Austria declined yours."
+
+The President nodded.
+
+"They have committed many disorders in our fair land," said the Bishop.
+
+"I know, I know," said the President.
+
+But, it will be asked, why did not Dr. Wilson insist on a just
+settlement of the Adriatic question, taking into his own hands that
+which Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau were so chary of touching?
+These two statesmen, with the London Treaty hanging over them, wanted
+Wilson's assent for matters in which British and French interests were
+more directly concerned, while they required Sonnino's co-operation in
+the Treaty with Germany. It would have suited them very well if Wilson
+had taken such energetic steps with Italy that they themselves could,
+suitably protesting to Sonnino, be swept along by the presidential
+righteousness. But Dr. Wilson was disappointing those who had--in the
+first place because of the lofty language of his Notes--awaited a really
+great man. He was seen to be out of his depth; strenuously he sought to
+rescue his Fourteen Points and to steer the Covenant of the League
+through the rocks and shallows of European diplomacy. Sonnino, playing
+for time, involved the good Wilson in a maze of confused negotiations,
+while nearly every organ of Italian official and unofficial opinion was
+defaming the President. On April 15 Dr. Wilson in a memorandum suggested
+the famous "Wilson Line" in Istria, which thrust the Italian frontier
+westwards, so that Rieka should be safeguarded from the threat of an
+Italian occupation of Monte Maggiore. Italy was to give up northern
+Dalmatia and all the islands, save Lussin and Vis; in return she was to
+be protected by measures limiting the naval and military powers of
+Yugoslavia. When Wilson appealed over the head of the Italian Government
+to the people, their passions had been excited to such a degree that
+much more harm was done than good. It is said that he had promised
+Messrs. Lloyd George and Clemenceau that he would not publish his letter
+for three hours, but that--pride of authorship triumphing over
+prudence--it was circulated to the Press two hours before this time was
+up, and a compromise which had been worked out by Mr. Lloyd George had
+perforce to be abandoned. This was one of the occasions when the
+President's impulsiveness burst out through his cold exterior, when his
+strength of purpose, his grim determination to fight for justice were
+undermined by his egotism.
+
+
+ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO
+
+For months the Italians had been consoling themselves with the thought
+that such a hybrid affair as Yugoslavia would never really come into
+existence. Some visionaries might attempt to join the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes, yet these must be as rare as Blake, who testified that
+"when others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the sons of
+God shouting for joy." One only had to listen, one could hear already
+how they were growling, how they were quarrelling, how they were killing
+each other. In Montenegro, for example, and Albania the Italians were
+greatly interested--not always as spectators. If you tell a hungry
+Montenegrin peasant in the winter that there is a chance of his
+obtaining flour and--well, that he may have to fight for it, but he will
+get good booty at Cetinje, he will go there. In January 1919 there was a
+battle. "The Montenegrin people rose in rebellion against the Serbians
+to recover their independence," said an Italian writer, one Dr. Attilio
+Tamaro in a weekly paper called _Modern Italy_, which was published in
+London. "This intensely popular revolt, animated by the heroically
+patriotic spirit of the Montenegrins, was relentlessly suffocated in
+blood. In the little city of Cetinje alone, where there are but a few
+thousand inhabitants, over 400 were killed and wounded. The Serbians and
+the French together accomplished this sanguinary repression. We repeat,
+it is painful to see the French lend their men, their blood and their
+glorious arms to the carrying out of the low intrigues of Balkan
+politics." The money and the arms that were found on the dead and
+captured rebels were Italian. If the schemes of the Italians had not
+been upset by the timely arrival of the Yugoslav forces, with the few
+Frenchmen, they would have occupied Cetinje and restored the traitor
+king. As it was, they occupied Antivari, from which place they smuggled
+arms and munitions into the country. They conspired with the adherents
+of the old régime, a very small body of men who were enormously alarmed
+at the loss of their privileged position. The chief of them was Jovan
+Plamenac, a former Minister whom the people at Podgorica had refused to
+hear, a few weeks previously, when he attempted to address them. He was
+hated on account of the most ruthless fashion in which, as Minister, he
+had executed certain of his master's critics at Kolašin. There was a
+time, during the first Balkan War, when he advocated union with Serbia
+and on April 6, 1916, he wrote in the _Bosnische Post_ of Sarajevo that
+Nikita, owing to his flight, "may be regarded as no longer existing."
+But his unpopularity remained and, with vengeance burning in his heart,
+he went from Podgorica to the Italians. They concocted a nice plan--he
+was to raise an army of his countrymen and the Italians would bring
+their garrison from Scutari. On January 1 Plamenac and his partisans
+tried to seize Virpazar, on the Lake of Scutari--the Commandant of the
+Italian troops at Scutari, one Molinaro, had asked the chief of the
+Allied troops, three days before this attempt, whether he might dispatch
+two companies to that place for the purpose of suppressing the disorders
+which had not yet come to pass. Another rising was engineered at
+Cetinje, where twenty or thirty of the poor peasants who had let
+themselves be talked over by Plamenac were killed; the rest of the
+misguided fellows were sent home, only their leaders being detained.
+Plamenac himself escaped to Albania.[26] On the side of the Montenegrin
+Provisional Government no regular troops were available, as the Yugoslav
+soldiers who had lately arrived were engaged in policing other parts of
+the country. Volunteers were needed and a body of young men, mostly
+students, enrolled themselves. They were so busy that they omitted to
+inform Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that they really were Montenegrin
+students. That indignant gentleman insists that they were Serbs, armed
+with French and British rifles, against which, he tells us (in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, January 1921) the insurgents could not do much.
+Eleven of these volunteers were killed and they were buried underneath
+the tree where Nikita used to administer his brand of justice. All kinds
+of incriminating documents were found upon the dead and captured rebels,
+as also a significant letter from the Italian Minister accredited to
+Nikita, which was addressed to the chancellor of the Italian Legation at
+Cetinje. An inter-Allied Commission, over which General Franchet
+d'Espérey presided, issued their report on February 8 at Podgorica. "All
+the troops," it said, "in Montenegro are Yugoslavs and not Serbs; there
+are not more than 500 of them." It further stated that the rebellion had
+been provoked by certain agents of the ex-King, assisted by some Italian
+agents. As for the ridiculous Italian charge which I quoted, accusing
+the French of a share in the low intrigues of Balkan politics, this
+participation consisted in their General at Kotor demanding of
+Darković, the leader of the Montenegrin deputies, that his followers
+and the rebels should not come to blows. The reply, which annoyed the
+General, was to the effect that if the rebels made an attack, then
+Darković with his scratch forces would defend himself--and the battle
+lasted for two or three days. A junior French officer, who had been in
+command of a small detachment at Cetinje, told me that the noise of
+firing had awakened him every night and he had not the least idea what
+it was all about. But the French had a pretty accurate idea of the
+nationality of the "brigands" who on December 29 fired on the SS.
+_Skroda_ and _Satyre_ near the village of Samouritch when it was
+carrying a cargo of flour up the Bojana for the Montenegrins. These
+vessels were sailing under the French flag and the "brigands," about
+fifty in number, were armed with machine guns. An International
+Commission established these facts, as also that the Italian ship
+_Vedeta_ passed up the river just before the outrage and the _Mafalda_
+just after it, and neither of them was molested. In consequence of what
+occurred and as practically all the supplies for Montenegro had at that
+time to be sent by the Bojana, General Dufour, in the absence of French
+troops, authorized the Serbs on February 12 to occupy the commanding
+position of Tarabosh.
+
+
+WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF THE AUSTRIANS THERE
+
+These Yugoslav troops had been detached from the left wing of the
+Salonica forces and had come overland in order to deal with the
+situation in Montenegro. The Austrians had been in a woeful plight; it
+was regarded as a punishment to serve in Montenegro and Albania, not
+only because of the lack of amenities and the unruly spirit of the
+people, but also for the reason that the officers who came there--many
+managed to avoid it--were too often causes of dissatisfaction. More
+complaints had gone up from this front than from any other. The supplies
+allotted by the High Command in Austria were ample, as the Rieka depots
+testified, but a great deal did not reach its proper destination. Some
+officers took down their wives or other ladies, loading up the army
+motor-cars with luxuries of food and grand pianos, while the men were
+forced to tramp enormous distances; if anyone fell out, the natives in
+Albania would emerge from where they had been hiding and would deprive
+the wretched man of his equipment and his clothing, and perhaps his
+life. The sanitary section of that Austrian army was not good; it
+happened frequently that victims of malaria and wounded men were told to
+walk--if they arrived, so much the better. These poor fellows did not
+know that if they ultimately got back to Vienna they might be the
+objects of Imperial solicitude--the least to be dreaded was the Archduke
+Salvator, who was wont to come to a hospital, with his wife, and to
+bestow on every man a coloured picture-postcard of their Imperial and
+Royal persons, with a sentence printed underneath respecting their
+paternal and maternal love; it was officially reported in Vienna, of
+another hospital, that those who lay there had been spending "happy
+hours" in "the circle of the exalted Family"--this referred to the
+Archduchess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions for the piano are said
+to be beyond all criticism; she herself did not play them, but would sit
+there while they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men. Not
+very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers who were taken to
+that hospital in Buda-Pest over which the Archduchess Augusta, a
+strikingly ugly woman, presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were
+allowed to be dressed until the Archduchess, arrayed in uniform and
+armed with a revolver, made her appearance of an evening. The officers
+were told that it was etiquette for them to broach a pleasant
+conversation with their benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg
+was the Archduchess Blanka, who was interested in medicine; she had
+thought out for herself a remedy which human ailments never would
+withstand, but which was more especially effective in cases of
+tuberculosis, of malaria and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the
+Kirchstetterngasse she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys. Her
+treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers; the patients were
+packed in these bandages and that was all that was done to them. With
+regard to the diet, there were no particular regulations. Some of the
+men were sent from there to another and less original hospital, but it
+was often too late.
+
+
+AND OF THE NATIVES
+
+The Montenegrins who had been for so long--some of them for three
+years--leading a congenial life among their rocks, descending now and
+then to kill an Austrian and to gather booty, were most active when the
+ill-starred Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians, for
+instance, took the road from Kolašin with the intention of marching
+to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres. Thirty-five of them arrived
+there. Thus the population avenged such incidents as the hanging by the
+Austrian authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General
+Vešović,[27] the General having taken to the hills and his brother
+being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians had now to pay the
+penalty of ruthlessness; on September 1, 1917, Count Clam Martinić,
+the Military Governor, issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: "In
+consequence of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that
+telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians, we make the
+following order:
+
+     "1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage will be
+     summarily shot, their houses will be razed to the ground and
+     their property confiscated by the Military Administration
+     Authorities.
+
+     "2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found, the
+     procedure will be as follows:--
+
+       "(_a_) The commune where the act of sabotage has taken place
+       will be condemned to a heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not
+       paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle will be seized.
+
+       "(_b_) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of sabotage
+       are repeated, will be executed in their commune."
+
+Life under the Austrians had become unendurable. Typhoid fever, marsh
+fever, typhus and dysentery assumed such proportions that in the towns
+and villages one saw--apart from such notices as Order No. 3110--no
+other bills posted up on the walls but those containing advice as to the
+correct way of nursing the sick. While poor wretches were dying of
+hunger in the hospitals and on the high road for want of bread, the
+authorities published a recipe for the making of wheat-butter, which was
+a recent discovery of German science, reputed to be very nourishing for
+debilitated organisms. But the price of a kilo (2 lb.) of wheat was 12
+crowns (about 10s.). When the epidemic of typhus, which broke out in
+Cetinje and in the Njeguš clan, reached alarming proportions and
+spread to other districts, the medical authorities advertised that
+household effects and linen should be washed with water and potatoes. A
+kilo of potatoes, in the autumn of 1917, cost a price equivalent to 6s.,
+a quart of oil cost £2, 10s., a quart of milk 5s., a kilo of coffee £2,
+18s. 4d., a yard of cloth £4, 4s. to £6, 6s., a pair of boots £8, 7s. An
+average of 200 persons--mainly women and children--were dying every day
+of starvation.
+
+The Austrian army in retreat was incapable of action. It occupied a line
+east of Podgorica: Bioce-Tuzi-Lake of Scutari, with very few guns. The
+troops were scanty, they were weakened by malaria, etc.; but the
+Italians pursued them with great caution. The chief enemies were
+Albanians and Montenegrins. The wily Austrians gave rifles to the
+Albanians in order that they should attack the Montenegrins, but they
+were often used against their former owners. Then the contingents of the
+Salonica army came across the mountains, and when the Austrians went
+north, as best they could, the Yugoslavs of the Imperial and Royal
+army--Bosniaks were well represented--pinned on their tunics the
+national colours and were greeted by the inhabitants. Arriving at
+Cetinje they heard the incredible news that a Yugoslav State had been
+founded, that the Austrian navy had been handed over to the Yugoslavs,
+that French and Italians were already at Kotor. During the journey to
+that port the commanders were depressed, but the rank and file rejoiced
+at the idea of going home. Discipline was at an end. Thousands of
+rockets were fired into the air. It was the end of the Habsburg
+monarchy.
+
+
+NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED
+
+The next thing for the Montenegrins to do was to depose Nikita. By a
+futile proclamation that personage had tried in October to resist the
+union of the Yugoslavs; he had made a last desperate attempt to save his
+crown. "I am ready to do," he said, "what my people desires." He
+plaintively protested that all his life had been dedicated to their
+service and now he wanted to go back to ascertain precisely what they
+wished. "Montenegro," he had said, "belongs to a nation of heroes, who
+fought with honour for the highest ideals." But when on November 24 the
+Great National Skupština met, and when on the 26th it unanimously
+deposed him--the old gentleman was wise enough to follow the advice of
+some French statesmen and remain where he was. "Here am I amongst you,
+dressed in our beautiful national costume," he said at Neuilly to his
+supporters, on one of the occasions when he denied that he had been a
+traitor or anything so dreadful. But being a prudent old gentleman he
+refrained from uttering these words at Podgorica, where the Skupština
+had met; a better plan was to communicate with the Press Association, in
+the hope that many editors would print his words. If it was a final
+anti-climax for a mediæval prince--ah well, what is life but one long
+anti-climax? He would protest against the constitution of the
+Skupština. He had by no means given his approval to the new election
+laws; and if, contrary to his own practice, the gendarmes were having
+nothing to do with the urns, that was merely in order to curry favour
+with the Western Powers. The deputies were chosen by the people
+indirectly--that is to say, every ten men elected a representative, and
+these in their turn elected the deputies. This was not done by ballot,
+for Montenegro, like Hungary, had never known the ballot. An absurd
+outcry was raised by Nikita's band of adventurers and their unhappy
+dupes in this country; they called the world to witness this most
+palpable iniquity on the part of the Serbs, whose armed forces had
+rushed across the mountains, and the moment they arrived in Montenegro
+had so overawed the population that this pro-Serb, pro-Yugoslav
+Skupština was duly chosen. Go to! Of course it was a sad
+disappointment to Nikita that a Yugoslav instead of an Italian army
+should occupy Montenegro. He had telegraphed at the beginning of the War
+to Belgrade that: "Serbia may rely on the brotherly and unconditional
+support of Montenegro, in this moment on which depends the fate of the
+Serbian nation, as well as on any other occasion"; and since he knew,
+without any telegram, that Serbia would in her turn support
+Montenegro--but not the tiny pro-Nikita faction--he was reduced to the
+appalling straits of a plot to force himself upon his own people by
+means of a foreign army. Now the composition of the aforementioned
+Yugoslav forces should be noted--after more than six years of heroic
+fighting against the Turks, the Bulgars, the Austro-Germans, the
+Albanian blizzards, and again the Bulgars and the Austro-Germans there
+did not survive a very large number of the splendid veterans of Marshal
+Mišić, and in Macedonia the ranks were filled by Yugoslav
+volunteers from the United States. Many of these Yugoslavs (over half of
+them Dalmatians and Bosnians) were included, in the army which entered
+Montenegro. The whole force at the time of the National Skupština
+consisted of about 200 men, ten of whom were Serbs from the old
+kingdom--and if anyone maintains that 200 men could impose their will
+upon a population of 350,000 which has arms enough and is skilful in the
+use of arms, he makes it clear that he knows little of the Montenegrins.
+
+
+THE ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM
+
+The Podgorica Skupština was not elected by these troops. No one will
+pretend that in the excitement of those days the voting was conducted in
+a calm and methodical fashion. Here and there a dead man was elected;
+the proceedings--though they were not faked, as in Nikita's time--were
+rough-and-ready. But if the deputies had been selected in a more
+haphazard fashion, say according to the first letter of their surnames,
+the result would have been identical--they would, with a crushing
+majority, have deposed their King and voted for the merging of their
+country in the rest of Yugoslavia. If the former Skupština had been
+convoked, as some people advocated--it would have most effectively
+nonplussed the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might even have
+silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who asserted[28] that this "packed
+assembly" consisted of "Serbian subjects and bought agents in about
+equal numbers")--but then two-fifths of the country--those territories
+acquired in the Balkan War--would not have been represented. Observe,
+however, that the Skupština in Nikita's time was for union with
+Serbia. Even then--although of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14,
+while the other 62, of course, were people whom he pretty well approved
+of--even then they had passed resolutions in favour of an economic
+union, a common army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica
+Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were from the new areas. The
+Constitution did not provide for such an assembly; but Nikita's friends
+who clamoured for the Constitution evidently had forgotten that under
+Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and people is declared
+to have forfeited his legal rights. Those foolish partisans who cried
+that it was monstrous not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins
+had come back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of Nikita's Red
+Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused to take. Moreover,
+certain of them were elected, after their arrival, as vacancies
+occurred, and they were also represented among the dozen deputies whom
+the Skupština chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders
+happened during the elections, the best available men were chosen--76 of
+them having enjoyed a university education. It is worthy of remark that
+while 20 of the Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former
+parliaments, another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out of
+the total number of past and present deputies (_i.e._ over 300), only 15
+declared for a kind of autonomy, but were in favour of Yugoslav union.
+The Metropolitan of Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war
+Premiers gave their unreserved support to the new régime. With them was
+the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen Vukotić, a grand-looking
+personage who has remained all his life a poor man; he was questioned by
+General Franchet d'Espérey as to whether he had also voted against his
+brother-in-law. "If I had seven heads and on each of them a crown,"
+answered the Voivoda, "I would give them all for the union of the
+Southern Slavs." ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia? "The Black
+Mountain," said Nikita at Neuilly--"the Black Mountain, as well as her
+national King, has always pursued the same path, the only one leading to
+the realization of our sacred ideal--that of National Unity." One might
+object that a national King should really not have written to his
+daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918, that he would propose a republic for
+all the Serbs and Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and
+the two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe for a republic,
+but that in advanced circles his suggestion would be enthusiastically
+received, and in a short time he would reap the benefit. "That," he
+wrote, "is my impression--it may be that I am wrong--but I do not know
+what else I can do." And a truly national King--but the world, as
+Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders, and nothing is more wonderful
+than man--a truly national King should not have supported those twenty
+Montenegrins who in the summer of 1919 assembled at the monastery of
+De�ani with the design of establishing a Bolševik republic. Before
+the Yugoslav troops could reach the spot these men were surrounded by
+Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
+intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute
+representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found
+only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
+"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking
+'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived,
+and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....
+The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.
+Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest
+folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that
+sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had
+not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a
+rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack
+of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given
+them short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's
+panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted
+as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at
+least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his
+charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better
+days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.
+
+After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was
+issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began,
+"the great and bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
+Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....
+Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished
+themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
+sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....
+Let us reject all attempts which may be made to deprive us of our happy
+future and put us in a position of blind and miserable isolation
+henceforth to work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths. One
+is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future, the other is covered
+with dangerous and impenetrable brambles." If any disinterested and
+intelligent foreigner, say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought
+that it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she, like Croatia,
+Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself in the Yugoslav State or
+whether he considered that the sort of federation which the ex-King had
+suggested would assist more efficaciously the welfare--social,
+economical and national--of the Montenegrin, he would not have thanked
+you for asking so superfluous a question.... Nikita then asserted that
+those terrible Serbian bayonets had caused the Podgorica Skupština to
+vote as it did. Anyone who has spoken to one of those Bocchesi or
+Dalmatian volunteers who were at that time in Montenegro will quite
+believe that they applauded the result, but to pretend that they drove
+the Skupština with bayonets to do what every reasoning creature would
+have done is so farcical that one might have thought it would not even
+form (as it did form) the subject for questions in the British House of
+Commons.... The only part played by bayonets was when on November 7 (one
+day previous to that fixed for the elections) a detachment of the
+Italian army landed at Antivari and another marched to within about six
+kilometres of Cetinje, where they were met by the Montenegrin National
+Guard, were told that bigger forces, which it was difficult to restrain,
+would shortly arrive and were given one hour in which to depart. Of this
+they availed themselves, announcing that they were all Republicans. They
+left behind them an elderly man who was sick and requested the
+Montenegrins not to murder him. The Italians and Nikita's friends soon
+afterwards spread a report of horrible murders in Montenegro. Certain
+Allied officers went up to investigate the matter and found that the
+charges were baseless. They were told by Mr. Glomažic, the prefect of
+Cetinje, that the Allies, apart from the Italians, could go anywhere in
+Montenegro, but that the Italians would be opposed by force of arms and
+that if the Allies came up together with the Italians, then they too
+would be attacked. Thereupon the Allied officers invited Mr. Glomažic
+to lunch.
+
+
+NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS
+
+Nikita had no hopes that any good would come from such a Skupština.
+In 1912 it had been different; with a budget of some 6,200,000 perpers
+(or francs), including the Russian subsidies and the revenues from the
+Italian tobacco monopoly, the royal civil-list comprised 11 per cent. of
+the expenses, while the police accounted for 12 per cent., agriculture
+and commerce 1½ per cent., public works 4 per cent. and education 5
+per cent. The Skupština of that period had not caused him to pay more
+attention to the people's requirements. The darkness in which they lived
+was so profound that when Montenegro had to pay the interest on a
+six-million-franc loan from Great Britain no one in Cetinje could
+calculate how much was due; a telegram was therefore sent to London
+asking for this information and the date when payment should be made. If
+his people did not prevent him from allocating merely 11,000 francs to
+the Ministry of Justice for the increase of salaries and so forth, while
+the Ministry of the Interior received 700,000 francs for the work of
+spying, the expense of killing people and various propaganda--both these
+items being labelled "special expenses"--then Nikita had no fault to
+find with his Skupština. Things were almost as satisfactory as before
+1907, when for the first time a budget was issued and the people were
+told how their contributions were spent. The personal property of the
+sovereign had indeed been formally separated from that of the State in
+1868; but Nikita's manipulations were so little supervised that, even
+when he had established the Skupština, he could say with truth,
+"L'état c'est moi." The Skupština of 1918 was going to make vast
+changes.
+
+
+THE STATE OF BOSNIA
+
+In Bosnia, for some time after the Austrian collapse, it was
+inconvenient to travel. If you went by rail you were fortunate if you
+secured a good berth on the roof of a carriage; by road you went less
+rapidly and therefore ran a greater risk of being waylaid by the
+so-called "Green Depot," who were deserters from the Austrian
+army--either through national or other reasons--with their headquarters
+in the forests. Some of them were simply men who had gone home on leave
+and stayed at home. Here and there a National Guard of peaceful
+citizens, irrespective of nationality, was formed against them. But it
+was some time before they were induced to lead a less romantic life.
+What happened afterwards in Bosnia between the Serbs, the Croats and the
+Moslems was so much a matter of routine that the Italians should not
+have run off with the idea that this imperilled Yugoslavia. Of the
+1,898,044 inhabitants in 1910 the proportions were as follows: Orthodox,
+who call themselves Serbs, 43·49 per cent.; Moslem, 32·25 per cent.; and
+Catholics, who call themselves Croats, 22·87 per cent. (The remainder
+are miscellaneous persons, such as 850,000 Jews, who speak the usual
+Balkan Spanish; they play an inconsiderable part in public life.) The
+Serbs, the Moslems and the Croats are identical in race and language,
+but have hitherto been much divided. Those who joined together in the
+Turkish days were led to do so as companions in distress; the rule of
+Austria, or to speak with greater accuracy the rule of Hungary--no one
+knew exactly who possessed the land, but the Magyars took it for granted
+that it was theirs--this rule, of course, did nothing to unite the
+various religions. The Moslems, especially after their complete
+isolation from Turkey, were the most favoured, while the Serbs, owing to
+the proximity of Serbia, were the most oppressed. And during the War it
+was the Serbian population which was chiefly tortured. Besides all those
+who were dragged away to such places as Arad, hundreds and hundreds were
+hanged in their own province. Not satisfied with using, as we see in so
+many of those ghastly photographs, their own army as the executioners,
+the Austro-Hungarians also organized local bands among the lower classes
+of the towns, and in so doing they availed themselves of any latent
+religious fanaticism among the Moslems. From the day of the Archduke's
+assassination it was the Serbs who suffered most; and many onlookers
+must have expected in the autumn of 1918 that they would take a very
+drastic revenge. For some weeks the people were left very much to their
+own devices, with no troops or police--the Austrian _gendarmerie_ having
+to be protected by the better classes, who explained to the peasants
+that it was not right to regard only the uniform of those who had so
+often maltreated them; yet the gendarmes took the earliest opportunity
+of getting into mufti. There was also for several months a dearth of
+detectives. Many of those who had worked under Austria and were more or
+less criminal, fled at the collapse; others continued to act, but in a
+half-hearted way. Sixty new detectives were taken on by the Yugoslav
+authorities, and fifty-six of them had to be dismissed. After all, if
+one can judge a person's character from his face, the detective who
+allowed you to do so would be so incompetent as not to warrant a trial.
+And after six or seven months of Yugoslav administration only
+thirty-three out of fifty-two detective appointments in Sarajevo had
+been definitely filled. So there was not much restriction on the
+peasants in their dealings with each other. A few of them were murdered.
+In Sarajevo the National Guard was largely composed of well-meaning
+street boys; the Serbian troops did not arrive until November 6, and in
+many parts of Bosnia not until the end of the month. And yet in the
+whole country, with people on the track of those who in the pay of
+Austria had denounced or murdered their relatives, and with the poor
+_kmet_ at last able to rise against the oppressive landlord, there were
+in the first six months under fifty murders, and these were mostly due
+to the desperate straits of the Montenegrins, who came across the
+frontier in search of provisions, during which forays they assassinated
+various people. In the Sandjak of Novi Bazar there was no doubt less
+security; but to anyone who knew, say the Rogatica district, under
+Austria's very capable administration, it will seem that Bosnia, after
+the collapse, was singularly tranquil. Anyhow the population, in the
+summer of 1919, were living on much more amicable terms with one another
+than for many years. The Government met with some criticism, for it was
+alleged to be reserving all the lucrative appointments for the Serbs;
+one had to take into account, however, that it was the Serbs who had
+been chiefly ruined by the War, and it was just that the concessions for
+the sale of tobacco, for the railway restaurants and so forth, should
+be, for the greater part, given to them. Nevertheless it may interest
+travellers to know that the restaurateurs at the stations of Ilidže
+and Zenica are Catholics--the Moslems are not yet very competent in such
+affairs. They are, as their own leaders sadly confess, the least
+cultured and the least progressive class. As elsewhere in Islam there
+has been a total lack of female education--the mothers of the Sarajevo
+Moslem _intelligentsia_ can neither read nor write, while their sons are
+cultivated people who speak several languages. A change is being
+made--there are already five Moslem lady teachers employed in the mixed
+Government schools; this a few years ago would have been thought
+impossible. It is to be deplored that these divisions into Moslem and
+Orthodox and Catholic should be perpetrated--the Moslem leaders look
+forward to the time, in a few years, when their deputies will no longer
+group themselves apart on account of their religion; but it is unwise to
+introduce too many simultaneous innovations, considering that the
+illiterates of Bosnia number about 90 per cent. of the population. The
+Yugoslav idea will prosper in this country; and, by the way, while you
+meet an occasional Serb who hankers for a Greater Serbia, an occasional
+Croat who would like a Greater Croatia, the Moslems have no aspirations
+save for Yugoslavia. [They speak of "our language," since the word
+"Serbian" has for them too much connection with the Orthodox religion,
+the word "Croatian" with Roman Catholicism.] They are not indifferent to
+the fact that to their own 600,000 in Bosnia they will add the 400,000
+of Macedonia and Old Serbia, together with the 200,000 of Montenegro and
+the Sandjak.... One was inclined to think that the least desirable
+person of the new era in Sarajevo was the editor of the _Srpski Zora_
+("Serbian Dawn"); his methods had a resemblance to those of Lenin, for
+he printed lists of persons whom he called upon the Government to
+prosecute, and when he was himself invited to appear in court and answer
+to some libel charges he declined to go, upon the ground that the laws
+were still Austrian and the judge a Magyar. He disapproved of such
+tolerance, he disapproved of the Croats because they declined to
+recognize that the Serbs had more merit than they, and as for
+Yugoslavia--it was a thing of emptiness--he laughed at it and called it
+Yugovina, the south wind. The only chance of life it had was if you
+left the whole affair to the Serbs and then in two years it would be a
+solid thing. It may be thought that the local Government, since they
+left him at large, endorsed his theories; but they were reluctant to
+give him a halo of martyrdom. They imagined that he was nervous because
+he was losing ground--they acknowledged, though, that he still gave
+pleasure to a great many Serbs, who were carried away by his appeals to
+their old prejudices. It is undeniable that with the peculiar traditions
+and customs of Bosnia, that province must for some years have a
+Government--whatever method is evolved for the other parts of
+Yugoslavia--whose eyes are not turned constantly to Belgrade. It might
+even be well to set up a local Chamber in which all classes would be
+represented. The Moslems and Croats would thus lose any lurking fear
+that they were being swamped, and by coming into contact with other
+political parties even the less cultured classes would gradually tend to
+discard these fatal religious, in favour of political, divisions. A
+somewhat primitive Balkan community cannot be expected of its own accord
+to love henceforward in the name of politics those whom hitherto it has
+hated in the name of religion. And as yet they are much more interested
+in the harvest than in politics; from day to day they change their
+views, according to the views of the last orator from Belgrade, Zagreb
+or Ljubljana. Only the Socialists appear to be well disciplined. Of
+course the present political parties in Yugoslavia are not wholly free
+from religious prejudices, an important party, for example, among the
+Slovenes being based on Roman Catholicism. But as the Slovenes are, as
+yet, the best upholders of the Yugoslav idea, it is obvious that
+education covers all things, and that with the increase of education in
+Bosnia the religious differences will be less important. Anything that
+can be done against this tyranny is beneficial, whether the St. George
+be a political orator or a schoolmaster. And as the effects produced by
+the former are more rapid, so should he be encouraged. He is, in fact,
+appearing in Bosnia, he will carry away, more or less, the _clientèle_
+of the _Srpski Zora_, and the shattered nervous organism of its editor,
+Mr. ÄŒokorilo, will be, one trusts, reconstituted and devoted, as it
+can be, to a nobler purpose. One of its deplorable effects has been
+that the organ of the Croat party, a paper called _Jugoslavija_, has
+been compelled to write in a similar strain, whereas the editor, a
+dapper little priest, assures one that he would prefer a more elevated
+tone.
+
+
+RADIĆ AND HIS PEASANTS
+
+Those who wished that Yugoslavia would be an idle dream have had their
+hopes more centred in Croatia. They told the world that horrible affairs
+took place, that there has been a revolution, several revolutions, that
+castles have been sacked and that the statesman, Radić, was
+imprisoned. If you met this little pear-shaped man, who is a
+middle-aged, extremely short-sighted person, with a small, straggling
+beard, an engaging smile and a large forehead, you would say that surely
+he had spent a good many hours of his life in some university garden
+where the birds, knowing that he could not easily see them, were in the
+habit of alighting for their dinner on his outstretched hands. He is a
+very learned little man, who started his career by obtaining the first
+place at the famous École des Sciences Politiques in Paris. But Stephen
+Radić happens also to be very much interested in politics and
+extremely impulsive, so that his wife and daughter have often had to
+look after the bookshop, since the Government--that of Austria-Hungary
+and afterwards that of Yugoslavia--had consigned him to prison. He
+probably expected nothing else, for his eloquence--and he is an orator
+in several languages--has frequently carried him along and swept him
+round and round, like a leaf, not only in a direction opposite to that
+which he previously travelled but flying sometimes in the face of the
+most puissant and august authorities. So, for example, he began to
+agitate in 1904 against the vast territorial possessions of the Church
+in Croatia. This resulted in the then Archbishop issuing an interdict
+against him and his meetings--a measure which, I believe, is still in
+force. He was described as Antichrist, with the consequence that his
+audiences, out of curiosity to see what such a personage might look
+like, became larger than ever. For many years he was the only Croat
+politician who gave himself the trouble to go amongst the peasants. "In
+politics," said Radić to me--he said a great many other things in the
+course of our first conversation, which lasted for four hours, though it
+seemed a good deal shorter--"In politics," said he, "one should not, as
+in art, try to be original. One should interpret not only the living
+generation but the ancestors." The peasant, who feels what Radić
+expresses, has repaid him well, for there is now no party in Yugoslavia
+which is more devoted to its leader. He has taken the place once
+occupied by the clergy--he is by no means hostile to the Roman Catholic
+Church, but he is the foe of clericalism. "Praised be Jesus Christ! Long
+live the Republic!" is the usual beginning of one of his orations, so
+that his enemies accuse him in the first place of being a hypocrite, and
+in the second of holding views which cannot possibly amalgamate with
+those of monarchical Serbia. But the reference to Christ appears
+perfectly natural to the Croat peasant--at an open-air meeting of 10,000
+of them I saw their heads uncovered, and all bowed in prayer for a few
+minutes on the stroke of noon. As for the Republic, this first came into
+the picture on July 25, 1918, when the cry was raised at a meeting of
+the Peasants' party. A large number of peasants had imbibed this idea in
+America--those who emigrated have been in the habit of returning, and
+even if their home is in the desolate parts of Zagorija or among the
+rocks of Primorija, the coastal region. And thousands of Croats had
+spent part of the War as prisoners in Russia--having deserted from the
+Austro-Hungarian army--so that they had seen how the Great White Tsar,
+previously regarded as an almost divine being, could be dethroned. Four
+months after this famous meeting a Convention was held, in the American
+fashion, with 2874 delegates, who represented some 100,000 people. They
+pronounced themselves to be Republicans and Yugoslavs. It is quite true
+that many of the farmers in Croatia have a pretty vague idea of the
+Republic. "Long live Mr. Republic!" has been heard before now at one of
+their meetings, while a landowner of my acquaintance was asked by two of
+his aged tenants whether in the event of this Republic being established
+they should choose as President King Peter or the Prince-Regent or King
+Charles. But we should remember that in 1907 a printing press was
+founded by the Peasants' party at Zagreb, and those who gave their money
+for this cause were, to a great extent, illiterate. The people are
+groping towards the light, and they are willing to be told by those they
+trust that they have much to learn as to the nature of the light.
+Republicanism was fanned into flame by Radić's imprisonment and other
+causes, so that he says he is uncertain whether he can now persuade them
+to modify their demands. But if he tells them that in his opinion a
+constitutional monarchy will meet the case, they will probably still
+consent to accept his view--and this has of late come to be his own
+opinion. It may very well be that he adopted the republican idea with no
+other purpose than to obtain for the peasants the social and economic
+legislation which they would otherwise not have secured. And, after all,
+there was something of a republican nature in Croatia's autonomy under
+the Magyars. As for his imprisonment, it was strange that the Belgrade
+Cabinet, who should have known their man, treated him as if he were a De
+Valera; and perhaps the conduct of a subsequent Cabinet, that of Mr.
+Protić, who came out for Croatian Home Rule, was also strange in
+appearance, for while Radić was still in prison he was invited to
+decide as to whether the Ban, Croatia's Governor, should or should not
+remain in office. But Mr. Protić understood that at this period
+Radić's republicanism was somewhat academic.
+
+His party had, in years gone by, been small enough in the Landtag; but
+the fact that his followers then numbered only two is anyhow of no
+importance, as his very real power was derived from the peasants, who
+were largely voteless. How often in his prison he must have yearned for
+those old Landtag days--apart from his advocacy of the peasants, he
+loves to speak. In two hours he would traverse the whole gamut of human
+thought, expressing opinions to which John Hampden and Jack Cade and
+Montaigne and Machiavelli would in turn assent. The words used to rush
+from his lips in a torrent, while to many of his faithful peasant
+followers he seemed, throughout his discourse, to be in direct contact
+with the Almighty. Next to the Almighty the Croatian peasant had been
+taught to revere Francis Joseph, so that when the heir to the throne
+was murdered in 1914 it was not very difficult to make the Croat
+peasants rise against this sacrilege by plundering the Serbian shops at
+Zagreb--Austrian officers coming with their children to look on--just as
+in other parts of Croatia and Bosnia. There is as yet within the Croat
+peasant a certain hostility against the Serb and for various reasons:
+one of them is that he was always taught by Austria to detest the
+adherents of the Orthodox religion, another reason is that for centuries
+they have had a different culture; and so, since Austria's collapse,
+when it has been explained to them what is a republic and what is a
+monarchy, they have often demanded the former for no better reason than
+that the Serbs prefer the latter. They were taught by Austria to look
+forward to a Greater Croatia, which would eliminate the Slovenes by
+delivering them to the Germans, for that celebrated corridor to the
+Adriatic. And it is from the Slovene Socialists that the peasants of
+Croatia might very profitably learn.... The Slovene influence, coming
+from a more highly organized province, would be beneficial both for
+Serbs and Croats, for the industrial workers and for the peasants. The
+nature of the Southern Slavs, say these Socialists, is democratic, and
+the State mechanism might be made more so. Now that the various parts of
+Yugoslavia have liberated or are liberating themselves from various
+yokes, they have approached one another with a different mentality; they
+will become much better known to one another. And it was hoped that when
+Mr. Radić regained his freedom and his book-shop he would find that
+his devotees preferred to hear him not as a Croat Jack Cade but as a
+Yugoslav Hampden. In his absence the party was leaderless.
+
+As for the other Croats, only Frank's Clerical party, which numbered
+five or six deputies, and did not hide its persistent sympathies with
+the House of Habsburg, kept up Separatist tendencies. All the Coalition
+(now the Democrat) party and two-thirds of the so-called Party of
+Croatian Right were for a close union with Serbia and the regency of
+Prince Alexander. That is not to say that there was perfect unanimity
+with regard to the interior arrangements of this union; in fact Dr. Ante
+Pavelić, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Yugoslav National Council,
+who was received in special audience by the Prince at Belgrade, is also
+the leader of the old Star�ević party and as such an opponent of
+complete centralization. The _Obzor_, Zagreb's oldest newspaper,
+maintains this point of view, not paying much attention to the form of
+the State, monarchic or republican, so long as it is organized in a
+manner which would prevent the Croats being subordinated. Zagreb, it
+thinks, is destined to play the New York to Belgrade's Washington--but
+nowadays it looks very much as if Zagreb's rôle were to be that of
+Yugoslavia's Boston.
+
+Among the Slovenes this anxiety for decentralization--which is very
+proper or exaggerated, according to the point of view--is less
+accentuated. It appears as if the Christian-Socialist party of Monsignor
+Korošec[29] is rather centralist in its Belgrade words and
+decentralist in its Ljubljana deeds. This party has shed some of its
+extremist clerical members, who to the cry, "The Church is in danger!"
+were very good servants of the Habsburgs. Such of them as were unable to
+accept the new order of things--elderly priests, for the most
+part--retired from the political stage.
+
+
+THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH THE TIMES
+
+There remains the Voivodina (Banat, Ba�ka, etc.) party, some of whom
+are as much frightened of Croat predominance as the _Obzor_, for
+instance, is of Serb. The argument of these Voivodina politicians is
+that Serbia has lost so many of her _intelligentsia_ during the War that
+she must have special protection; they also found it hard to swallow the
+old functionaries whom the State took over from Austria. Of course it
+does not follow that if a Slav has been a faithful servant of Austria he
+will be an unsatisfactory servant of the new State. Obviously the
+circumstances of each case must be considered; and, as a barrister, a
+dissentient member of this party told me at Osiek, one must often put
+personal feelings aside; he himself had been arbitrarily imprisoned
+during the War by an official who was then an Austrian and is now a
+Yugoslav functionary. The most extreme exponent of this anti-Croat party
+seems to be a well-known editor at Novi Sad, Mr. Jaša Tomić. In
+his opinion you cannot join by means of a law in twenty-four hours
+people who have never been together; let it be a slower and a surer
+process. He is ready to die, he says, but he is not ready to lose his
+national name. Let the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes retain what is most
+precious to each of them. Let them not be asked to give up everything.
+In the matter of the flag Mr. Tomić is justified, for now their
+former flag has been taken from each of them and a totally fresh one
+created, which is particularly hard on the Serbs after the sublime
+fashion in which their old colours were carried up the Macedonian
+mountains in the Great War. It would not have required much
+ingenuity--as they all three share the colours, red, white and blue,
+differently arranged--to have devised, not a mere new and unmeaning
+arrangement of the simple colours, but a method on the lines of the
+Union Jack or of the former Swedish-Norwegian flag, wherein all three
+would have remained visible. Mr. Tomić believes that a real
+_intelligentsia_ would demand of the people what it can execute, and he
+regrets to think that at least two-thirds of the _intelligentsia_ want
+the people to call themselves Yugoslavs. But Mr. Tomić has a far
+greater majority than two-thirds against him, because while his
+arguments would be admirable if the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes had no
+neighbours, they must be--and the vast majority of Yugoslavs feel that
+they must be--superseded on account of this imperfect world. By all
+means let each one of the three retain every single custom that will not
+interfere with the national security and will not interfere too much
+with the national welfare. If Mr. Tomić, who is much respected but
+generally looked upon as rather old-fashioned, is going to die sooner
+than give up something which the State considers essential he will be
+following in the footsteps of those whom Cavour, in the course of the
+welding of Italy, had to execute.
+
+It may be said without fear of contradiction--in fact I was given the
+figure by one of the decentralization leaders of Croatia--that at least
+90 per cent. of the Croat _intelligentsia_ wants the union with Serbia,
+and if a republic is decided upon they will mostly vote for King
+Alexander as President. While they discuss their internal
+organization--no simple matter when one considers their varied
+antecedents, their different legal systems and so forth--they will not
+let Yugoslavia go to pieces. The work of construction and of more or
+less strenuous, but necessary, criticism occupies by far the greater
+number of the politicians. They have not yet, all of them, given their
+adherence to this or that group, while new groups are arising--such as
+the Agrarian, which being far more interested in the peasant's material
+welfare than in anything else will give their alliance to that political
+party which is prepared to assist the villages towards improving their
+cleanliness and their manure.
+
+
+THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES
+
+The chief parties which in the new State's first two years evolved
+themselves out of those that previously existed in the various parts of
+Yugoslavia were:
+
+     (_a_) the Pašić party, consisting chiefly of the Serbian
+     Old Radical party, together with Serbian parties from the
+     Voivodina and Bosnia.
+
+     (_b_) the Pribi�ević party, consisting chiefly of the
+     Croatian Coalition party, together with the Slovene Liberal
+     party and the Serbian parties in opposition to Pašić.
+
+     (_c_) the Christian Socialist party, under Korošec,
+     consisting chiefly of Slovenes, together with a young group in
+     Croatia and other Clerical groups that are forming in Dalmatia
+     and Bosnia.
+
+     (_d_) the Star�ević party, under Pavelić, consisting
+     of decentralizing parties in Croatia and Slavonia, and some
+     Croats in Bosnia.
+
+     (_e_) Socialists:
+
+         (1) the Slovene non-communistic Socialists.
+
+         (2) Korac's party, chiefly from Slavonia and Serbia.
+         This remarkable man, whose mind floats serenely in a body
+         that is paralysed, has twice been included in the Cabinet.
+         By many he is looked upon as too subversive, but he
+         believes that a revolution will come unless his department
+         acts in a revolutionary fashion. His programme includes
+         old-age pensions from the age of sixty--the people being
+         now enfeebled by the wars--and obligatory insurance with
+         regard to all those, including State employees in the
+         railway service and the post office, who do not enjoy an
+         independent existence, half the insurance being paid by
+         the employer and half by the employee, while with regard
+         to accidents the whole would be paid by the employer. He
+         has also very firm ideas for the safeguarding of the human
+         dignity of the pensioners.
+
+         (3) Dr. Radošević's party. This gentleman was said
+         to adore Lenin, on whom he lectured. His party had no
+         strength except such as it derived as a protest against
+         any forced centralization.
+
+     (_f_) Republican party, consisting of 90,000 Croat peasants
+     under Radić.
+
+Of these by far the most important were the first two. In Serbian
+political parties the personal question used to be nearly always
+uppermost, and now, in the case of parties (_a_) and (_b_), it was most
+difficult to understand what aims the one had which the other did not
+share. One may say that each of them was a group under a wily politician
+who was able, not only to forge out of various elements a homogeneous
+group, but to persuade them that there was a fundamental difference
+between their group and any other. Here one has not so much the Western
+system, under which a man enters a Cabinet as the exponent of party
+principles, but the Eastern system under which a Minister uses his
+influence to found a party, which is based inevitably on the
+disappearing relics of the past. In the spring of 1919 many foreign
+observers fancied that new parties were surging up like mushrooms and
+proving, no doubt, that the people's vitality was strong, although one
+would have waited willingly for this evidence until the country's
+external and internal affairs were more settled. As a matter of fact
+these rather numerous parties, of which the outside world now heard for
+the first time, had been in existence or semi-existence for years. There
+was, however, a certain bewildering vacillation on the part of some of
+the deputies. The Bosnian Moslems, for instance, could not make up their
+minds whether they would be Serbs or Croats and belong to (_a_) or
+(_b_). Finally most of them settled down in (_b_), while two others
+formed an independent group. It must be remembered that they, like all
+the other deputies, were not really deputies but delegates, since it was
+not yet possible to hold elections. There would naturally be many
+changes after the first General Election; for one thing, the Moslems
+intend to join in one group with their brethren from Macedonia and Novi
+Bazar.... As we shall see, later on, the changes produced by the first
+General Election--which was the election held in November 1920, for the
+Constituent Assembly--were extremely sweeping. While the Radicals and
+Democrats returned with close on one hundred members each, the
+Korošeć party met with comparative disaster, and the Star�evic
+group was overwhelmed. With about fifty members apiece, the Communist
+and the Radić parties gave expression, roughly speaking, to the
+discontent produced by the unsettled conditions--unavoidable and
+avoidable--of the new State's first two years. The Moslems came back
+with nearly thirty members, and a healthy phenomenon for a country in
+which the peasant so largely predominates was the success, apart from
+the Radić Peasant party, of the Agrarians with some thirty deputies,
+and the Independent Peasant party with eight.
+
+The Italian Press disposed in five lines of the historical Act of Union
+which occurred when the delegates of the Yugoslav National Council were
+received by the Prince at Belgrade on December 1, 1918. In the address,
+which was read by Dr. Pavelić, it is recorded that "the National
+Council desires to join with Serbia and Montenegro in forming a United
+National State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which would embrace the
+whole inseparable ethnographical territory of the South Slavs.... In
+the period of transition, in our opinion, the conditions should be
+created for the final organization of our United State." And there is a
+dignified protest against the Treaty of London and the Italian
+encroachments which even went beyond that which the treaty gave them. In
+his reply the Prince, among other remarks, said that "in the name of His
+Majesty King Peter I now declare the union of Serbia with the provinces
+of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in an indivisible kingdom. This great
+moment should be a reward for the efforts of yourselves and your
+brothers, whereby you have cast off the alien yoke. This celebration
+should form a wreath for the officers and men who have fallen in the
+cause of freedom.... I assure you and the National Council that I shall
+always reign over my brothers and yours, and what constitutes the Serbs
+and their people, in a spirit of brotherly love.... The first task of
+the Government will be to arrange with your help and that of the whole
+people that the frontiers should comprise the whole nation. In
+conjunction with you I may well hope that our powerful friends and
+Allies will be able justly to appreciate our standpoint, because it
+corresponds with the principles which they themselves have proclaimed
+and for the achievement of which streams of their precious blood have
+been poured out...." The Prince spoke of Italy in phrases to which we
+have already alluded.[30] He reminded her of the Risorgimento and of the
+principles with which her great sons had then been inspired. But the
+Italian Press preferred to moralize in column after column on the
+variety of the political groups of Yugoslavia, with the object of
+showing to the world that they were a people of no cohesive capacities
+and of no real national consciousness.
+
+
+THE SLOVENE QUESTION
+
+This matter of the frontiers had been very lucidly set before the Allies
+with regard to Dalmatia and Rieka; it now remained for the Slovenes to
+formulate their case. From the statement given by Dr. Trumbić to the
+Council of Ten in Paris we will take these extracts: "The province of
+Gorica-Gradišca may be divided into two different parts, both from an
+ethnical and economic point of view. The western part, up to the line
+Cormons-Gradišca-Monfalcone, is economically self-supporting. If we
+estimate the population on a language basis, there are about 72,000
+Italians and 6000 Slovenes. Geographically it is simply the prolongation
+of the Venetian plain. We do not claim this territory called Friuli,
+which belongs ethnologically to the Italians. The rest of this province
+to the east and the north of the Cormons-Gradišca-Monfalcone line,
+which comprises the mountainous region, is inhabited by 148,500 Slovenes
+and 17,000 Italians, of whom 14,000 are in the town of Gorica, where
+they constitute half the population.... The Slovenes are an advanced and
+civilized people, acutely conscious of their racial solidarity with the
+other Yugoslav peoples. We therefore ask that this district should be
+reunited to our State.... Istria is inhabited by Slavs and Italians.
+According to the latest statistics, there were in it 223,318 Yugoslavs
+and 147,417 Italians. The Slavs inhabit central and eastern Istria in a
+compact mass. More Italians live on the western coast, particularly in
+the towns. They inhabit only five villages north of Pola, and their
+populations have no territorial unity. Istria is territorially linked
+with Carniola and Croatia, whereas it is separated from Italy by the
+Adriatic, and therefore it ought to belong to the Yugoslav State....
+Triest and its neighbourhood is geographically an integral part of
+purely Slav territories. The majority of this town--two-thirds,
+according to statistics--is Italian and the rest Slav. These statistics
+being on the language basis, include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc.,
+as Italian-speaking, among the Italians. The Slav element plays an
+important part in the commercial and economic life of Triest. If the
+town were ethnically in contact with Italy we would recognize the right
+of the majority. But all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet
+the commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly counts, and
+it is a port of world trade. As such it is the representative of its
+hinterland, which stretches as far as Bohemia, and chiefly of its
+Slovene hinterland, which forms a third of the whole trade of Triest
+and is inextricably linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
+would be politically separated from its trade hinterland, and would be
+prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since Austria has crumbled as a
+State, the natural solution of the problem of Triest is that it should
+be joined to our State."
+
+
+THE SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST
+
+It would be futile to talk of Triest without considering the relations
+between Italians and Germans. We have seen already how at the elections
+they combined against the "common enemy." But in commerce the Germans
+were in need of no alliance, for the Italians have relatively so little
+capital to dispose of that they were unable to keep the Germans from
+attaining that very dominant position in Italy. As the Italians have, as
+a general rule, a lack of initiative and enterprise with respect to
+modern industry, it was to German efforts that the great industrial and
+commercial awakening of Italy and of Triest were largely due. In that
+town the Italians were principally agents; and it is to be feared that
+if it ultimately falls into their hands it will become a German town
+under the Italian flag. It would be the object of the Italians to
+emancipate Austria from the Yugoslavs, giving them an outlet to Triest
+over Italian territory; and it would be to the Italian advantage if
+Austria were joined to Germany. Therefore it is preferable for all the
+Allies, except the Italians, that Triest should be international.
+Conditions could then be offered to the Austrians that would cause them
+to prefer these rather than to join themselves to Germany. But, in the
+opinion also of many enlightened Italians, it is not in that country's
+interest that she should hold Triest. Apart from the older publicists
+and statesmen, including Sonnino, who might wish to modify their
+opinions, one of the best-informed writers on Triest and Istria, A.
+Vivante, a native of Triest, in his _L'irredentismo adriatico_ (1912) is
+a most determined adversary to an Italian occupation of Istria or
+Triest; his book has been withdrawn from circulation by the Italian
+Government. Other resolute opponents have been all the inhabitants of
+Triest, except the extreme Nationalists. The town's prosperity dated
+from the time when the Habsburgs were driven out of Italy. Triest has
+not forgotten what occurred when she and Venice were under the same
+sceptre; and this it was which brought about, at Austria's collapse, the
+autonomous administration in which practically all the elements of the
+town participated. Only the Irridentists then thought that Triest's
+liberation need involve union with Italy and economic separation from
+the hinterland on which it depends.... When the occupation started, in
+November 1918, the Chief of the Italian police summoned before him the
+members of the Yugoslav National Council of Triest. Only two of them
+answered the summons, whereupon a lieutenant read them the following
+order from the Italian Governor: "In view of the fact that the Italians
+troops have occupied the line of demarcation and that traffic over this
+line is suspended for the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, it is
+ordered that, for strategical reasons, the South Slav National Council
+in Triest be dissolved and its offices closed." The Slovenes demanded a
+copy of this order, which, however, was refused. They were not allowed
+to depart until the books and national emblems had been removed from the
+premises of the National Council, the doors sealed and a guard
+stationed. "We others, Italians," an Italian writer had said in the
+_Edinost_, the Slovene paper of Triest, on August 18, 1918, "should
+understand that if we want our freedom we must see that this is likewise
+given to our neighbours." And the _Mercure de France_ of October
+remarked that these wise words would be listened to at Rome. In the
+realm of navigation the Italians were not idle. They started at once to
+negotiate with the Austrians for the sale to themselves of the Lloyd
+Steamship Company, the Austro-Americana and the Navigazione Libera, the
+three largest Austrian companies. By the end of February 1919, a Mr.
+Ivan Å vegel related in a well-informed article,[31] the Italians had,
+by acquiring a large portion of their shares, obtained the decisive
+influence in these companies. The deal which was carried through with
+the assistance of the Austrian Government and which, according to the
+_Neue Freie Presse_ of February 22, "fully satisfied the needs of
+Austrian commerce," was transacted during the Armistice and behind the
+back of public opinion. Surely the Austrian mercantile marine, to which
+the Yugoslavs contributed the majority of the personnel and which they,
+with the other nationalities of the late Empire, helped to build up with
+the aid of considerable subsidies, should not have been permitted to
+fall an easy prize into the lap of Italy, but ought rather to constitute
+an asset in the liquidation of the late Austrian State and a subject of
+public discussion.... In consequence of the Italian attitude towards
+Austria on the one hand and the Slovenes on the other, the Austrians
+made an attack from northern Carinthia near Christmas and despoiled the
+Slovenes of about half the territory they had occupied. An American
+mission asked both sides to cease from hostilities, saying that the
+question of frontiers would be decided by Paris in a few weeks. Two
+Americans, who unfortunately could speak neither German nor Slovene,
+motored through the country, made some inquiries, especially in the
+towns, and departed for Paris. It would have been as well if, like the
+French farther to the east, they had deliminated between the two people
+a neutral zone. Sooner or later the troubles were bound to recommence.
+
+
+MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT
+
+Meanwhile, of all the lands which the Yugoslavs were inheriting from
+Austro-Hungary, that which was passing through the period of transition
+with the least disturbance was the Banat. Those Magyars who stayed were
+saying wistfully that it had been Hungarian for a thousand years, but
+considering what they had done they could not have brought forward a
+worse reason for their reinstatement. Here and there at places near the
+frontier, such as Subotica, they waylaid and murdered lonely Serbian
+soldiers; after which, with the complicity of Magyar officials whom the
+Serbs had not removed, they managed to escape to Hungary. But as a rule
+they thought it wiser to stay peacefully in the Banat than seek their
+fortunes in a land so insecure as Hungary was then. While Count Michael
+Karólyi's Government was doing its utmost to cultivate good relations
+with France, England and America--printing in the newspapers cordial
+articles in French and English, surrounding the Entente officers even in
+their despite with the old, barbaric hypnotizing Magyar hospitality,
+assuming in a long wireless message to President Wilson that the
+Hungarians were among those happy people who at last had been liberated
+from the yoke of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire--("I beg you, Mr.
+President, to use your influence that no acts of inhumanity or abuses of
+authority may threaten our new-born democracy and freedom from any
+quarter. They would cruelly wound the soul of our people and hinder the
+maturing of that pure pacifism and that mutual understanding between the
+peoples without which there will never be peace and rest on earth.... We
+will not discredit or delay with acts of violence the new-born freedom
+of the peoples of Hungary or the triumph of your ideas....")--at a place
+called Nagylak the free Hungarian people requested the authorities to
+give them an official document permitting them to plunder for
+twenty-four hours; at a place called Szentes there was a car which had
+been stolen from a man at Arad, sixty miles away; hearing where it was
+he telegraphed to the authorities and nothing happened; so he hired
+another car and went himself to Szentes where the Magyar Commissary
+confiscated this one also. It was better to remain in the Banat if one
+had anything to lose. The treatment which the Magyars received was such
+that Mr. Rapp, Commissary of the Buda-Pest Government, published a
+proclamation on the generous conduct of the Serbian troops occupying
+southern Hungary: "Our nationals," he declared, "though vanquished and
+in a minority, are safe. The Serbian officers in command treat them in a
+most humane and chivalrous fashion."[32] At Pan�evo, for example,
+the Magyar officials were placed, for their protection, on board a boat
+by the Serbian authorities and kept there, provided with food and
+cigars, for twelve hours, after which, as the danger was past, they were
+set at liberty. In the same town, forty years earlier, the language used
+in the law courts had been Serbian; no one, in fact, spoke Magyar,
+except the cab-drivers--if you spoke it people said you must have been
+in prison. Yet, although the Magyar judges had, to put it mildly, not
+been too considerate towards the Serbs, they were retained in office on
+the understanding that they would learn Serbian within a year; nor were
+they asked, as yet, to administer the law in the name of King Peter, but
+in the name of Justice. This magnanimity was not displayed because, as
+with the railway employees, the Serbs were short of people for those
+posts, since they had barristers well qualified to be employed, as they
+were, for example, at Sombor, in the position of temporary judges. Even
+the town advocate was not dismissed, although this healthy gentleman had
+superseded a Serb forty-two years of age, considerably older than
+himself, who had been compelled to join the army. Not alone were all
+these functionaries left in office, but the papers sent to them were in
+their own language, Magyar or German. And in return they generally were
+loyal to the Yugoslavs.
+
+
+TEMEÅ VAR IN TRANSITION
+
+An extraordinary state of things was to be seen at Temešvar, where
+the Magyar mayor was one of the most worried men in Europe. Until
+February 1919 he was being asked to serve not two but several masters.
+Some uncertainty existed as to whether the town was under French or
+Serbian military command, but that was not a very serious question.
+There was at Novi Sad a temporary Government for all the Voivodina, this
+was the "Narodna Uprava" (National Government), consisting of eleven
+commissaries, each over a department, who had been appointed by the
+Voivodina Assembly of 690 Serbs, 12 Slovaks, 2 Magyars and 6
+Germans--one deputy for every thousand of the population. The mayor of
+Temešvar could have reconciled the wishes of the Narodna Uprava and
+the military authorities, but there was a Magyar Jewish Socialist, a
+certain Dr. Roth, who had elected himself to be head of the "People's
+Government," and was subsequently appointed by telephone from Buda-Pest
+the representative of the Hungarian Government. Roth organized a civil
+guard, mostly of former Hungarian soldiers, who--although he paid them
+well (since Buda-Pest had given him 12 million crowns for propaganda
+purposes), yet had a way of borrowing a coat or cap from Serbian
+soldiers and, arrayed in these, holding up pedestrians after nightfall.
+Roth had therefore been granted the right to rule, but--save for the
+dubious guard--his power was only that which the Serbian or French
+authorities would give him. He issued many orders to the mayor, some of
+which were very questionable, as for instance when he sent provisions
+out of the Banat to Hungary. This produced so great a scarcity that the
+flour-mill employees thought it was the time to go on strike; they
+demanded 80 per cent. increase in wages, without undertaking to go back
+to work if they received it. "I am not a politician," said the harassed
+mayor, "I only want to save the town from starving." But the Narodna
+Uprava would send no food, since the town (that is to say Roth) would
+not acknowledge its authority. There were many rumours as to how Roth
+spent the sums from Buda-Pest, and a weekly Socialist sheet, which he
+himself had founded, but had now made over to a couple of his friends
+(likewise Magyar Jews), called Fürth and Isaac Gara, started to bring
+charges against its founder. Roth, whose previous resources were not
+large and were well known to Fürth and Gara, used now to frequent the
+fashionable café and indulge, night after night, in potations of
+champagne, inviting to his table not Fürth nor Gara, but the French
+General. This officer, in the advance through Serbia, had captured a
+great many prisoners and a very large number of guns, arousing
+everybody's enthusiasm by his personal bravery, his dashing tactics and
+the skill with which he executed them. He was a most original person,
+who would sometimes about midnight in that café at Temešvar leap on
+to one of the marble tables and there perform a _pas de seul_. Dr. Roth
+succeeded in worming himself into this merry warrior's good graces, and
+Fürth and Gara looked with jaundiced eyes on the carouses of these two.
+And in their newspaper, the _Temešvar_, they said very biting things.
+Thereupon Roth complained about them to the Serbian authorities, asking
+that they should be sent to Belgrade. When the Serbs did nothing he made
+application to the French, and they--not aware of all the
+circumstances--sent the couple under guard to Belgrade, where they were
+interned. The mayor continued to receive the orders of the various
+parties, and then suddenly Roth organized a strike which lasted for two
+days--the railways, the electric light, the water-supply and the shops
+all joining in the movement. There was even a Magyar flag on the town
+hall, and cries were raised by a procession for the Magyar Republic. But
+this time he had gone too far. An order came from Belgrade, from General
+Franchet d'Espérey, and Roth was taken in a car to Arad, where he was
+deposited on the other side of the line of demarcation.
+
+
+A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA
+
+But the German-Austrians in Carinthia, seeing how the Slovenes were
+being treated by the Italians, could not resist attacking on their own
+account; and here the most tragic feature was that in the German ranks
+were many Germanized Slovenes. This had been the case at Maribor in
+Styria, where the population rose against the 70 Slovene soldiers during
+the visit of an American mission. Many of those who were afterwards
+questioned were obliged to admit that they were of Slovene or of partly
+Slovene origin, but Austria had taken care of their national
+conscience. Had they been freely left to choose between the two
+nationalities, and had they, out of admiration for the German, selected
+that one--you would not endeavour now to make them Slovenes; but of
+course these people were never given the choice, and therefore every
+effort should be used to make to dance that portion of their blood which
+is Slovene, and sometimes all your efforts will be fruitless. That those
+who fought in Carinthia against the Slovene troops were of this origin
+can be seen by the names of the officers of the so-called
+"Volkswehralarmkompagnien" (_i.e._ the People's Emergency Defence
+Companies). A document, marked W. No. 101, and signed by a Captain
+Sandner, fell into Slovene hands on February 21. It gives very full
+arrangements for these companies in Wolfsberg and the neighbourhood. At
+St. Paul, for instance, men are to gather from three other regions, to
+wit 40 from St. Paul itself, 120 from Granitzthal, 60 from Lagerbuch and
+30 from Eitweg; the officers of this St. Paul contingent are called
+Kronegger, Andrec, Klötsch and Gritsch--the last three are of Slovene
+origin. These Defence Companies consisted largely of ex-soldiers, under
+the command, very often, of a schoolmaster or some such person; and if
+they had done nothing more than to defend their own soil, one would have
+less to say about them; but as a matter of fact they sent arms across to
+their adherents in the territory occupied by the Slovenes. Thus at
+Velikovec (Völkermarkt) and Donji Dravograd (Unter-Drauburg) shots were
+fired from houses which had been armed in this way. Incursions were made
+into Yugoslav territory, where the people were urged to rise; and as
+these Defence Companies did not wear any uniform their members could, if
+captured, protest their innocence. The officers were given 20 crowns a
+day, the men six crowns, with 5.44 a day for their keep during the time
+of emergency, and four crowns daily in addition if they went outside the
+garrison town. As it would not be possible to get the commissariat at
+once into working order the men were asked to bring at least sufficient
+bread with them for a few days. Most of the men had their own guns;
+those who had not would be lent one at the village office on the
+understanding that it was brought back there when the emergency was
+over. These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by 2000 of the
+proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway station before they started,
+were cheered by speeches on the subject of plunder; at Graz they were
+joined by some students who proposed to maintain order.... It was in
+April that the Germans began nearly every day to fire on the Yugoslav
+troops, regardless of the Americans, who said that any infringement of
+the Armistice would be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
+Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for several days with
+heavy artillery, and the local commander, on his own initiative, crossed
+the Armistice line in order to seize this artillery; he did, in fact,
+carry off some twenty pieces, with which he returned to his old
+positions. This caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
+telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the Yugoslavs for having
+flagrantly crossed the Armistice line by 10 kilometres (cf. _Le
+Journal_, for example, of May 5). In the same report they were held up
+as villains for having crossed the river Drave at several points and cut
+the railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at least 11
+kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the artillery, of course,
+still farther off. This railway line, which was the means of
+communication between Austrians and Italians, was the subject of very
+fierce talk on the part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered,
+the Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do not pretend
+that they approach the Serbs as combatants. After centuries of
+servitude--a more insidious servitude than if their masters had been
+Moslem--they have now awakened to devote themselves, and with great
+success, to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
+spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in them. Their
+opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon Celovec (Klagenfurt) and
+Beljak (Villach), where they had at their disposal the munitions of the
+entire 10th Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from Vienna,
+as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers, who were clothed as
+infantry privates. These officers were serving for the love of their
+country--up to May 1 at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The
+Slovene ranks were somewhat depleted by Bolševik tracts, telling
+them to go home, as there would be no more war; and yet at Gutenstein
+sixty men with three machine guns, under Lieut. Maglaj, a Slovene from
+Carinthia, kept 1500 men at bay from 9 a.m. till 3.30, after which they
+slowly withdrew until the fighting ceased at six; a corporal and two men
+of a machine-gun detachment were cut off and concealed themselves in the
+shrubs of a defile. Suddenly they heard a German company come down the
+road, singing as they marched. The three men opened fire--the Germans in
+perplexity stood still and then retired in disorder. The whole
+German-Austrian movement was checked by General Maister. And when the
+Serbian veterans, men of all ages, with uniforms of every shade, marched
+through the streets of Maribor, it was felt that there need be no more
+anxiety as to that particular frontier of Yugoslavia.
+
+
+YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER HOUSE IN ORDER
+
+It was not until now that Great Britain (on May 9) and France (on June
+5) formally recognized the new Serbo-Croat-Slovene State.[33] As the
+_Times_ said, two years afterwards,[34] "it was not the Allies who
+created Czecho-Slovakia or brought about the establishment of
+Yugo-Slavia. These events were the inevitable result of the previous
+history which the Allies could not, even if they had desired to do so,
+prevent." The Americans had not been so extremely considerate to Italy,
+for they had recognized the Yugoslav State on February 7, a few days
+after Norway and Switzerland.... And how necessary it was for the
+Yugoslavs to have some leisure for their home affairs, which presented
+so many complications. Here one system of laws and there another--with
+the best will in the world and waiving to the uttermost one's own
+idiosyncrasies, the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes were faced, at the
+beginning of their union, by most arduous problems. The Agrarian
+question was regarded generally as one of the most urgent. In Serbia
+itself, with practically the whole country in the hands of small peasant
+proprietors, this question did not arise; but in the provinces which had
+been lately under Austria-Hungary no time was to be lost, and yet a good
+deal of time would be needed to cope with a problem so full of
+complications. One difficulty was that each political party was inclined
+to solve this matter in accordance with its own interests. Among the
+three Slovene parties, for example, the Socialists would naturally work
+for their own principles, the Christian-Socialist party, whose
+supporters were chiefly the small farmers, would prefer to legislate for
+them, while the Liberal party, having in its ranks the larger
+landowners, would wish that all, except the very largest, should if
+possible be left intact; the very large landowners, moreover, will with
+the spread of democratic ideas lose their influence over the voters.
+There are several points on which all parties are agreed: thus, it is
+most undesirable that a man's holdings should, as now, be separated from
+each other, often by considerable distances, so that half his time may
+be spent in going to and from his fields and a good deal of the other
+half in the disputes which naturally spring from such a scattered
+ownership.... In Bosnia, where the Agrarian troubles had produced such
+frequent outbreaks and savage repression, the Austrians were given the
+mandate in 1878 in the hope that they would regulate this matter. They
+did not do very much; all that they really did was to modernize a
+little. They wrote down in a book who was the landlord and who were the
+kmets, and a copy of these details was available for each one of the
+kmets. He had the right to remain where he was--unless his conduct was
+exceptionally bad--and to retain two-thirds of the produce of the land.
+This kmet-right was not hereditary in the female line; but the kmet
+could buy his portion--this was an old right, which Austria
+regulated--and become a free man, a beg. He would sometimes be a free
+man in one place and a kmet in another. In Bosnia there are, of course,
+some extremely large landowners; but most of the begs are poor folk, who
+live on the third part of a few farms. It would be better if these men
+were not compensated with cash, but rather that they should be
+established on farms which they would work themselves, the distinction
+between the small begs and the kmets thus disappearing.
+
+
+THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM
+
+A special Ministry was created to supervise, throughout Yugoslavia, the
+question of Agrarian Reform; but the Cabinet was frequently engaged in
+discussing this important topic and, many months afterwards, when the
+ownership of a good deal of the land had been changed, it was
+acknowledged that the problem had been attacked more often than it had
+been solved. Mr. Pašić, who does not believe in hasty legislation,
+pointed out that the Austrians had in forty years done really very
+little in Bosnia. He was told, however, that in Croatia, for example,
+the revolutionary spirit at the end of the War was so intense that if
+the Government were to postpone the necessary reforms then the people
+would simply seize whatever land they wished to have. It is true that
+violence was rampant in those parts--the peasants believed that with
+Austria's collapse there would arrive the Earthly Paradise, and in order
+to bring this about they ravaged a good many fine estates and set fire
+to various castles. They were going to stand no nonsense. At a place
+called Lubišica in Croatia--where the 350 families lived in 260
+houses--the landowner, out of the goodness of his heart, bestowed twenty
+"joch" of meadowland on the village in 1864. A law was passed which
+obliged him to devote a certain amount of land to the support of the
+church and the school--he gave the identical twenty joch. And at the end
+of the War the peasants maintained that at last this land was going to
+be restored to them; they drove their cattle on to it, but the priest
+with the help of _gendarmerie_ drove them off again. Once more the
+cattle came back and then the priest seized a gun; he fired at his
+parishioners and wounded in the head a sixteen-year-old boy, as well as
+three other persons. This so enraged the village that they went in a
+body and slew the priest.... And the authorities, although at that
+period they were faced with so many problems, attempted to settle right
+away this very complicated question. The Dobrovoljci--volunteers with
+the Yugoslav forces who had come home from the United States, Canada and
+Australia or who had managed to escape from the Austro-Hungarian
+army--had been promised so many acres, each of them, after the War. And
+these Dobrovoljci and the agitated peasants found that the land was, so
+to speak, thrust upon them. A lawyer-politician would take a map, would
+assign a certain area to A, another to B, and imagine he had done a good
+morning's work; but unhappily the lawyer often forgot that a farm, to be
+of any use to its tenant, must have a road leading to it, must have a
+well, a cart, a horse, some oxen and so forth--to say nothing of a
+dwelling-place. Thus it would happen that the new tenant would go to
+look at his holding and in disgust would go away, or--contrary to
+law--would sublet it or sell it back to the original owner. If, on the
+other hand, he remained the State would, from an economical point of
+view, only benefit in those regions where the land had hitherto been
+more or less uncultivated; where it had been cultivated by the
+moderately large or the very large landowner it always returned a
+harvest more considerable than that which the new tenant, insufficiently
+equipped and experienced, was able to achieve. Not only would there be
+this diminished production--frequently in the proportion of six to
+ten--but a large number of employees were thrown out of employment:
+sometimes a clever Czech overseer, whose family of six children had
+almost become Croat, and sometimes a native farmer whose house was
+wanted for the Dobrovoljci. The Czech would return to his own country
+and the dispossessed farmer would become a Communist. Yet these material
+and human losses to the State might have been endured if there had been
+a compensating political advantage, that is to say if the new tenants
+had been satisfied. But in far too many instances they were not. And one
+cannot help thinking that, in the vast majority of cases, they
+themselves would have preferred to wait until the Peasants' Co-operative
+Associations--such as flourish in Denmark--had been established. It need
+scarcely be said that, from the point of view of the peasant and of the
+State, these associations are an absolute necessity. The most deplorable
+example of the measures that were taken in such haste is seen, of
+course, in a model-property, such as that of Count Čekonić in the
+north of the Banat, where the new tenants, seeking as elsewhere to
+satisfy only their own wants and paying no heed to any possible exports,
+allow a highly developed property to go in a retrograde direction. If
+the Dobrovoljci had been skilled agriculturists there would have been no
+harm in settling them on this excellent estate; and with a Co-operative
+Association the 3000 joch of sugar that were grown there during the War
+would not now be reduced to 88 joch. But as it is, what with the
+unfortunate inexperience of most of the new tenants and their lack of
+means, and what with the stupidity of the local authorities who left to
+the previous owner one field here and one field there in the most absurd
+fashion, it would have been better both for Count Čekonić and for
+the State if he had simply presented to the Dobrovoljci half his land. A
+great many mistakes have been made in this question of Agrarian Reform,
+one of the most cardinal being--as Radić, the spokesman of the Croat
+peasants, has pointed out--to bestow the land not on people because they
+can farm it, but because they were heroes in the War.[35] It is a matter
+for congratulation that the measures now in force are not definite--the
+final dispositions will be taken in two or three years.[36] And perhaps
+then some part of the counsel of Radić may be adopted--Radić,
+whose critics are never weary of denouncing him for being a demagogue, a
+firebrand and various other things, but who by that time may very likely
+be a Cabinet Minister. He advises that there should be a compromise,
+that the ownership of land in Yugoslavia should not be strictly
+individualist nor strictly communist, but that while preserving the
+spirit of the _zadruga_ (ownership by the community) there should also
+be the mobility of individual ownership.
+
+But in the field of Agrarian Reform there has been one excellent plan,
+the transference of men from the unfertile districts of Montenegro and
+Lika, also of landless men from the Banat and Ba�ka, as also Serbs
+from Hungary and Slovenes from Istria, to those parts of Kossovo and
+Macedonia which were lying ownerless. The Albanians in Kossovo are
+mostly shepherds, and the land, which by Turkish law had belonged to
+"God and the Sultan," was now at the disposal of the Yugoslav
+authorities. Down to the spring of 1922 they had placed some 35,000
+persons in these regions, the Montenegrins being generally allocated to
+an Albanian neighbourhood, for they are accustomed to the idiosyncrasies
+of the Shqyptart. At first the Albanians viewed the new settlers with
+disfavour, but now so great a sympathy has developed between them that
+on various occasions the Montenegrins have remonstrated with the
+gendarmes for the excessive order they enforce and which, the
+Montenegrins say, you really cannot ask of an Albanian. Against the
+Montenegrins the Albanians do not care to use their rifles, since the
+custom of blood-vengeance is in the Montenegrin blood. In fact, these
+Albanians are very fair neighbours, the most unruly of them living in
+the mountains of the frontier. And the Montenegrins have been showing
+that when they are not compelled to live with weapons in their hand they
+can be quite industrious. There has, till now, been more colonization of
+Kossovo than of Macedonia; but there are wide tracts of country around
+Skoplje which will be settled, once they have been freed from malaria.
+The political consequences that this will have on Macedonia, by the
+stabilization of economic conditions, the supersession of the wooden
+plough by the steam plough--in fact, the advent of a new European spirit
+need scarcely be enlarged upon. In Serbian Macedonia, or South Serbia as
+it is now officially called, more than seven million acres of good soil
+are as yet not being used.
+
+
+FRENZY AT RIEKA
+
+As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists became more frantic.
+Their telegrams to Rome, in which they begged for instant annexation,
+were in vain, and after all, what was the use of adopting the system of
+Lieut.-Colonel Stadler, their energetic podestà at Abbazia, who would go
+into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct them that they must not
+say: "It will be settled by the Paris Conference," but rather--"It has
+been settled by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning what
+was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most important of these
+plaguy Allied officers had said that when he first came to the town he
+thought it was Italian, but he had soon perceived that it was all a
+comedy, and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda and
+statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris and that there was
+the faintest, awful possibility that one could say: "It has been
+settled by the Paris Conference." Everyone, alas! was studying the
+case--one heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being fêted at
+Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite intimate with Croatian
+history and to have discussed especially the story of Rieka. But by far
+the shrewdest blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What had
+his emissaries, who had listened with such care to everybody, told him?
+One must have a grand procession through the town to show the whole
+world what the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear the
+lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down with Wilson! down with
+redskins!" Some of the demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a
+donkey, a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion, that their
+enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of Austria, who was still alive.
+Another very good idea would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
+head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course, the Hotel Wilson
+must become the Hotel Orlando. Let them put a large black cross on all
+the Croat houses of Rieka--well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
+was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were too numerous; so
+let the soldiers rub them out again. And where the Croat names on banks
+and shops and elsewhere had been effaced, demolished--one could hide
+them by long strips of paper which they were so busy printing: "Either
+Italy or death!" "Viva Orlando!" "Viva Sonnino!"--those papers were the
+best reply to people who were asking if the entire Italian Cabinet was
+in harmony with Sonnino. Not merely in harmony--the Cabinet _was_
+Sonnino and more particularly Orlando was Sonnino. An Italian major came
+out on to a balcony one evening, in uniform, and opened his Italian
+heart to the crowd. What would the Allies say to that? The _Dante
+Alighieri_, the great dreadnought, manœuvring with her searchlights,
+let them rest awhile upon the _Schley_, an American destroyer. What
+would the Yankees do? "Avanti Savoia!" Perhaps in the old days they
+would have sent a shot or two into the searchlights, just for luck, but
+now they did nothing. And what a scene at the Opera when _André Chenier_
+was performed and one of the singers came to the word "Traitor!" and
+some one shouted "Wilson!" and the whole house shouted "Wilson!" and the
+singer, forced to repeat the blessed word, added amid indescribable
+enthusiasm the name of the President, that ignominious President
+concerning whom it was revealed by one of their newspapers that he must
+obviously have pocketed Yugoslav money, perhaps a million, and who most
+probably had a Yugoslav mistress--when that opera-singer had emended the
+phrase, did that very exalted Italian officer leave his box? Why, no--he
+stayed until the end of the performance.... Did any Italian in Rieka
+read to the end a small and lucid American book, _Italy and the
+Yugoslavs, A Question of International Law_, by C. A. H. Bartlett of the
+New York and United States Federal Bar? "It is an admitted fact," says
+Mr. Bartlett, "that Italy at the outbreak of hostilities had no rights
+to, or in, the territory to which she now makes claim. Her title,
+therefore, has arisen since the commencement of the War, and must be
+founded on either effective possession legally acquired or on
+documentary evidence or some other right recognized by international
+law." And quoting Professor Westlake (_International Law_, Part I. p.
+91) as to the four grounds on which a State may vindicate its
+sovereignty over new domain, he discusses the position in the Adriatic,
+and concludes that Italy can claim no title by occupancy, cession,
+succession or self-determination. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Bartlett's
+commentary on the London Treaty, which is the instrument invoked by the
+Italians for their claims to Dalmatia. With regard to Rieka, which, as
+everybody knows, was not included even in the London Treaty, Mr.
+Bartlett says that while "admitting, for the purpose of argument, that
+the seizure has since resulted in an effective possession, yet, as that
+is not sufficient in itself to give title, it has no legal or effective
+force, but can be compared with nomads squatting on the roadside and
+then claiming a right to the soil. Italy was ashamed to assume the
+responsibility for the original appropriation of Rieka, which was made
+in violation of every legal right of those to whom it belongs, and she
+might well be, for a more audacious, unjustifiable proceeding in
+violation of every principle of international law it is difficult to
+imagine." ... As for the Italian National Council, listen to the
+stirring sentences of Mr. Grossich, its old President, after they had
+unanimously voted on May 17, and with passionate conviction, an order of
+the day directed to Orlando. In that order it was stated that they
+looked upon the plebiscite of October 30, 1918, as an indestructible,
+historical and legal fact. Grossich exposed the situation and was then
+for some instants mute. His voice was trembling when he spoke: "The
+sacrifice which circumstances may demand is tremendous, but if it is
+required by the supreme interests of Italy we will know how to support
+it. More than a citizen of Fiume, I feel myself an Italian" ("Primo che
+fiumano mi sento italiano"). At this point the old patriot broke into
+tears. "Fiume will defend herself with arms against all those who desire
+to violate her will, her national conscience. Seeing that her tenacious,
+indestructible Italianity is a grave impediment for Italy in the
+attaining of other objects, let Fiume be left to look after herself,
+sure as she is of her sons, prepared as she is, to-day more than ever,
+to sacrifice herself. She will defend herself against all and from
+wherever they come." Those who listened thought that this must mean that
+either the _Pester Lloyd_ of April 29 was lying when it printed an
+official message stating that General Segré, the Italian representative
+at Vienna, had in the name of his Government requested the Hungarian
+Soviet Republic to undertake the care of Italian subjects in Rieka, or
+else that the Magyars had told him that the 22,000 or 23,000 Italian
+soldiers in Rieka ought to be sufficient, as this was practically one
+soldier for every person who had been described as an Italian. But the
+I.N.C. had now resolved to take no risks; they entered into negotiations
+with Sem Benelli, a well-known poet of the school which some critics
+call enlivening and other critics call inflammatory. Anyhow, on the
+afternoon of June 13, Mr. Benelli was made a citizen of Rieka, a member
+of the central committee and was entrusted with the portfolio of
+Minister of War, that is to say Commissary for Defence. He thanked the
+I.N.C. in a long speech, and declared that his appointment was the
+wedding of Rieka and Italy. Then Dr. Vio proposed a law, respecting the
+defence to the uttermost of Italian rights--that an army should be
+created and that the expenses should be met by the issue of bonds for a
+hundred million lire. The citizen Benelli was asked to undertake the
+organization and the command of the army.
+
+
+ADMIRAL MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION
+
+Farther down the coast and on the islands the Italians seemed, with few
+exceptions, to have relinquished every effort to make themselves popular
+with the Slavs. Of course one naturally hears more of the cases of
+tension than of those where friendliness prevails; but in the towns or
+villages where the Slav _intelligentsia_ appreciated that an officer was
+doing his best, they were obliged invariably to add that he was doing it
+in spite of his men, and that his control of these men was more or less
+defective. Numbers of the soldiers, marines and carabinieri may have
+been animated, when they landed in Dalmatia, with excellent intentions,
+but their months amid an alien population had produced in them too often
+a deplorable effect. It must be taken into account that many of them had
+an almost insurmountable desire to be demobilized. At Gradišca, where
+many Slovenes were interned, with fences round them but with no roof
+other than the sky, their guards with other soldiers had risen in
+revolt. This outbreak was suppressed, certain soldiers--some say sixty,
+but the number is doubtful--being shot; and all the others took an oath
+that on the first occasion of a deserter being shot at, they would, down
+to the last man, leave the barracks. This movement had been growing
+since the withdrawal of Bissolati from the Cabinet. As for the young
+officers, they had been exhorted, in a communication from Admiral Millo,
+the Governor, that they must realize the position they were in. The
+Admiral's memorial, which was marked with wisdom but also with a
+too-sweeping air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document: No. 558
+of Register P. Section of Propaganda. Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy
+was found by the Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed
+and replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the Croats the
+contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a lengthy and to us at times a
+rather rhetorical exposé, of which it will suffice to make some
+extracts. "The Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
+calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes which divide
+the sentiments of the local population. And in accounting,
+psychologically and historically, for the detestations and the
+aspirations of either party, he must regard the situation with the
+serene mind of a judge.... The position of officers is extremely
+delicate, more particularly in the small centres. It is known that
+outside the towns the population in its great majority and often its
+totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South, that is to say,
+Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people of another race, of that
+formidable Slav race which for centuries has been pressing against the
+West, athirst for liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a
+psychology, a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
+consciousness and a quite special individuality. This population is
+fundamentally good, good as simple and primitive people are. But the
+simple and primitive peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious
+and violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the officers from
+not taking these things into account and from letting themselves be
+guided solely by their Italian feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and
+an evenly-balanced mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
+of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment and a spirit
+of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on our part. The officer must
+... become an element of moderation and pacification, with the object of
+assuaging and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created and
+fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever; and of dissipating
+that hostility which, determined by a political situation and events,
+has been and is being incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
+artificially created campaign of interested parties (_da artificiose
+interessate campagna_).... It must be remembered that this is the first
+contact (_il primo contatto_) which the population, as yet primitive and
+uncultured in its mass, has had with Italy, where it instinctively sees
+the enemy and the new oppressor. We must do our best to make them see
+in Italy their friend and liberator.... It is evident and it leaps to
+the eyes of all how delicate and important is the moment of this first
+contact. Nothing more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances
+is needed for the officer to understand that in all his official and
+personal acts he must behave in such a manner that the population, which
+is primitive and simple and therefore all the more susceptible to
+suggestions, should regain the impression that Italy is a great country,
+the country of liberty and right, that its people is educated and
+civilized, that its officers and soldiers are here to fulfil a work of
+civilization and education, of love, in a country which must be Italian
+on account of historic rights and for the exigencies of Italy's defence:
+in which the Slavs, who have been introduced by the course of events and
+as an effect of the expansive potentiality of their race and the
+artifices of those who dominated the country, will find in the
+independence and development of their nationality a great fatherland
+which is civilized, powerful, humane and free.... In estimating the
+enmity of the Croats the fact must be taken into account that the
+Croatian world, I mean to say the Croat people, with its action in the
+interior of Austria while the Italian army was acting outside,
+resolutely and victoriously, has co-operated in precipitating the
+downfall of Austria and in freeing itself from a detested régime;
+particularly in the last year of the War this sentiment of nationality
+became accentuated with the fervent aspiration for liberty.... These are
+the circumstances which have determined a special psychology composed of
+joy and ecstasy--both elements which, in minds that are laden with all
+the influences of the East, produce a facile and dangerous excitement.
+On the other hand there survives in the Italian population the hatred
+against the Croatian supremacy, a hatred which is comprehensible but
+which in time must give place to other sentiments, rendering possible a
+fair coexistence of the two populations, whose aim should be common--the
+prosperity and development of Dalmatia, in the prosperity and for the
+prosperity, in the greatness and for the greatness of Italy. From this
+picture it must be instantly clear to every officer that his duty here
+is ... a truly lofty mission of civilization.... Especially the officer
+who is in charge of administrative work must awaken impressions that
+are naturally caused by the sense of justice for all; his severity must
+be good and his goodness must be severe, and from every act there must
+transpire the dignity which comes from the might and right of Italy, the
+kindness and generosity which come from the virtue of the race.... There
+is already an impression on the part of the Croats that the Italians are
+good, that Italy is strong. There must also be born and reinforced the
+other conviction that we are not oppressors but liberators.... The best
+propaganda, the most efficacious, because spontaneous and unexpected, is
+done by the officer and his men. The Italian officer ... with the
+harmony of manners which distinguishes him, obtains very easily the
+sympathies of this population, a sympathy, however, which for an
+optimist may become dangerous. Young officers must not forget that the
+propagators of the great Yugoslavia still exercise with their
+megalomania a potent influence over the primitive population and that a
+gesture of theirs, a word, an attitude, may even yet indirectly favour
+the Croat cause and make difficulties for us in exhibiting our mission
+of civilization."
+
+
+HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT Å IBENIK
+
+It is strange that this order should have been so scurvily treated in
+the town of Å ibenik, where it was issued and where the Admiral
+resided until the beginning of June, after which he transferred the seat
+of government to Zadar. At Å ibenik, by the way, the population
+comprises 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400 Italianists. On February 20, 1919,
+there arrived from Zadar, in consequence of an invitation from Admiral
+Millo, the Italian professor Domiakušić who, according to the
+sixth clause of the Armistice, was justified in assuming the functions
+of school-controller, but was not authorized to become the inspector or
+in any way to interfere in didactic matters. Two inspectors existed in
+Dalmatia, one for the elementary and one for the secondary school, but
+the chief school authority of the province and the two inspectors under
+him were not informed of Professor Domiakušić's nomination. If the
+Governor intended him to abide by the stipulations of the Armistice, he
+must have been astonished at the schools being shut on the day after
+his arrival. And they remained shut, both the modern school and the
+middle-class girls' school for months, because the Professor's quite
+illegal attempt to usurp the inspectorship was resented. The secondary
+school was closed and the teachers who had come to Å ibenik with their
+families, but whose permanent domicile was elsewhere, received an order,
+delivered by carabinieri, that they would have to leave the town in four
+days. A few Italians were brought from Split and the school was
+reopened, but the attendance, which had been about 200, was now 24, and
+of these only two were the sons of Yugoslavs--but Yugoslavs who had
+taken office under the Italians, one as President of the Court of
+Justice and the other as prison inspector; these gentlemen took their
+boys by the hand and led them to school. Perhaps the Admiral was unaware
+of these transactions; but various Yugoslav officials, whose salaries
+had been withheld because they would not sign a paper asking to be made
+Italian officials, continued, notwithstanding, at their posts for two
+months; after which the Government perceived that by the clauses of the
+Armistice they were compelled to pay them. Each of them received exactly
+what was due, while some Italian teachers who had signed the paper were
+given a war bonus, extending over five months, of 80 per cent. Whether
+the Admiral knew of this or not, it does not harmonize with his exalted
+sentiments. And the town-commandant spoke very darkly[37] on various
+occasions to the leading citizens of what would come to pass if the
+Italians by any chance were told to leave the place. His brave fellows,
+the arditi, so he said, had plenty of machine guns and of ammunition.
+But this fair-haired German-looking officer was a rampageous sort of
+person who discharged, according to his lights, the Admiral's "truly
+lofty mission of civilization." It was not he, but another of the
+Admiral's subordinates at Å ibenik, who, when approached by a certain
+Mr. Ivaša Zorić with the request that something might be done to
+release his son, a prisoner of war in Italy, replied: "Your son shall be
+released in eight days, provided that you declare, in writing, that you
+are content with the Italian occupation." On Mr. Zorić saying that he
+was unable to do this, "Very well," said the officer, "then your son
+will be one of the last to be set free."
+
+
+THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS
+
+Altogether one might say that the schoolmasters were being treated in a
+manner that was at variance with the Admiral's document. To give a few
+examples: Ivan Grbić, the schoolmaster at Sutomišcica, was
+arbitrarily imprisoned and was afterwards removed to another school at
+Privlaka. The Government school at the former place was closed, an
+Italian private institution being opened in the same building, with a
+teacher who was devoid of professional qualifications. The pupils of the
+school which had been dissolved were compelled by soldiers to attend the
+new Italian school. The elementary schools at Zemunik were likewise
+closed and the schoolmasters, after a period of imprisonment, taken to
+another village. If in the rather dreary little Zemunik, where there is
+not one Italian, the schoolmaster was very dangerous to the might of
+Italy, let us compare with this the conduct of the Slovene authorities
+who permitted more than one priest of the old régime to remain in
+office--one of them at a village four or five miles from
+Ljubljana--though they knew that these clergy were wont from the pulpit
+to utter disloyal sentiments. Maybe the Slovene Government was unwise,
+but they had scruples in removing a priest; and moreover, they had not
+given up the hope that these gentlemen would by and by change their
+opinions. On the island of Pag the schoolmaster Buratović and his
+wife, who was also a teacher, had to fly in order to escape
+imprisonment. The schoolmaster Grimani of the same place was obliged,
+with his wife, to follow the example of Buratović, so that the school
+was necessarily closed; and an Italian school was started in this island
+with its 0·31 per cent. of Italians. The same edifying scenes must have
+taken place as in so many Magyar schools where the pupils--Serbs,
+Slovaks, Roumanians and so forth--did not understand what the teacher
+was saying. The Government of the occupied part of Dalmatia appointed to
+the elementary schools at Rogoznica and Primošten two young Italian
+law-students from Zadar, who had no pedagogic qualifications; and
+whereas the legal annual salary was 1080 crowns, these lucky young men
+were in receipt of 625 crowns a month, which covered more than
+handsomely any depreciation in the currency. But now to another subject:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+ 1. Zadar                     with 80·25           with 18·61
+ 2. Hvar (Lesina)              "   92·94            "    6·75
+ 3. Kor�ula (Curzola)          "   94·89            "    5·08
+ 4. Šibenik (Sebenico)         "   95·66            "    1·31
+ 5. Starigrad (Cittavecchia)   "   97·98            "    1·91
+ 6. Vis (Lissa)                "   98·98            "    0·92
+ 7. Skradin (Scardona)         "   99·36            "    0·57
+ 8. Knin                       "   99·48            "    0·31
+ 9. Drniš (Dernish)            "   99·49            "    0·41
+10. Benkovac                   "   99·60            "    0·30
+11. Tijesno (Stretto)          "   99·61            "    0·35
+12. Biograd (Zaravecchia)      "   99·66            "    0·23
+13. Pag (Pago)                 "   99·67            "    0·31
+14. Obrovac (Obrovazzo)        "   99·84            "    0·12
+15. Kistanje                   "   99·88            "    0·12
+16. Blato (Blatta)             "   99·93            "    0·05
+
+The London Treaty had conferred on Italy the foregoing Judiciary
+Districts, whose population, according to the last Austrian census, was
+as given on page 147.
+
+Italy was also to receive portions of the following Justiciary
+Districts:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+1. Trogir (Traù)              with 99·12           with 0·32
+2. Sinj                        "   99·29            "   0·24
+3. Imotski                     "   99·84            "   0·11
+4. Vrlika                      "   99·95            "   0·04
+
+In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized by a delegation
+which the representatives of the occupied communes elected at Split on
+January 11. According to the census of 1900 the occupied territory
+contained 35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181
+inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants, the census was
+prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated the results of the
+plebiscite in the commune of Obrovac.[38] The delegates were therefore
+successful in canvassing 95·07 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In 34
+communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia was over 90 per cent.,
+while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per cent. At Zadar (the town) out of
+14,056 inhabitants 6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in
+the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was 89·57 per cent.
+In the islands the majorities ranged from 96 per cent. to 100 per cent.
+And if any doubts were entertained as to these figures, the delegates
+were authorized to propose another plebiscite under the control of a
+disinterested Allied Power.
+
+
+YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT
+
+Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants, is not a wealthy
+province; and one would have supposed that if the Italians thought it
+necessary to occupy a country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably
+opposed to them, it would have been--to put it at the lowest--politic to
+hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood. Austria had established
+fourteen military fishing centres (besides others in Rieka, Istria,
+etc.), and these the Croats joined most willingly, as a means of
+avoiding service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets were
+worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with new ones. Owing to
+the conditions of the Triple Alliance, the Italians enjoyed the right to
+"high-sea" fishing, that is to say, the fishing up to three miles from
+the Dalmatian coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich
+fishing grounds among the northern islands. These dispossessed natives
+were originally more preoccupied with fish than with Italians. Is it
+strange that they refused to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral
+Millo, the friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss
+Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line for the
+exploitation of its forests; during the War this line was continued to
+Prijedor, and with great difficulty it had served for the transport of
+food-stuff and passengers from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to
+Sissak normal gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there to
+Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or Å ibenik narrow
+gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading between 30 per cent. and 50
+per cent. of the goods were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the
+inhabitants of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor hundreds of
+waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to be forwarded, and with Italy
+blocking the road at Knin they simply perished.
+
+
+ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS
+
+The Italian administration of Dalmatia--economically, politically,
+scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)--was
+thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence;
+it is impossible to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention of
+Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogić, who was deported to Sardinia for
+political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a
+Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to Å ibenik
+and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with
+nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the
+S.S. _Almissa_, bound for Ancona. Near Å ibenik the boat collided with
+the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of
+their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in
+their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the
+doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to
+stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were
+stolen--at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars.
+His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his
+fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The
+carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without
+unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey
+was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence--being all the time
+attached to one another--it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison
+doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogić was ill, but as he declined
+to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to
+Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen.
+From Leghorn in the S.S. _Derna_ he was shipped to Sardinia, where he
+had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania,
+where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received
+2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor
+they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what
+he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000
+Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for
+more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line
+and--as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their
+release--letters some of which I read--they had very friendly
+recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of
+Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "bestially
+maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to
+Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on
+the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost
+exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin
+and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an
+absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered
+the doctor to dictate the whole affair and said that if nothing else
+could be done he would go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he
+struck the table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split
+and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and "Wir sind doch die
+grössten Schuften!" he exclaimed ("After all, it is we who are the
+biggest scoundrels!").... When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian
+Government at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald man, made
+a speech to the prisoners from the balcony of the town hall. He armed
+two of the Italians and ten French prisoners, whom he told off to guard
+the magazine. The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli)
+vanished after a couple of days; the French remained for a week, and
+when a French destroyer arrived at Split they were taken there, not as
+prisoners but as soldiers, bearing arms. Dr. Bogić was a member of
+the National Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague at
+Drniš to ask him whether the Italian troops were coming up from
+Å ibenik. This letter was his undoing. The reason he wrote it was
+because the population at Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective
+occupation and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He should have
+remembered, no doubt, that the Italians regarded this as enemy country
+and that to make inquiries with regard to the movement of troops was a
+crime. An officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he would
+kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the place which was
+indicated he found himself surrounded by carabinieri. Their captain, a
+certain Albano, said that he and two or three others must go to
+Å ibenik to undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return
+in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to take any money,
+clothes or linen. As a matter of fact the doctor had, on the previous
+day, been warned from Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but
+he laughed--he had done so much for them and he felt so innocent that
+it seemed absurd to run away. He could have gone, because he had a
+written permit issued to him on January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry
+regiment at Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever
+they wished, to Split.
+
+
+SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS
+
+During the winter and spring over seven hundred persons, chiefly
+belonging to the clerical, the legal and the medical professions, had
+been deported from Dalmatia. The leader of the Italian party at Zadar
+told me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra, saying that
+this, their place of interment, was a health resort and that they were
+getting fat. He scouted the idea that they were under any sort of
+compulsion when they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must
+anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia, as were the
+vast majority. Those who managed to return from that island--among them
+Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar, through the intervention of Bissolati, on
+account of Mrs. Macchiedo being at death's door--said that they found in
+Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment. Many priests
+were deported, on account of crimes which varied in enormity. A very
+frequent cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a
+congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One must say that the
+Italians exhibited no religious partiality, for they treated the Roman
+Catholic Church just the same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions
+were so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be due to a
+misunderstanding. To mention only one which came under my observation at
+Skradin, not far from Å ibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his
+sumptuous vestments had led his congregation out of the old town in
+order to perform an annual ceremony in connection with the fertility of
+the fields. In what way was the Italian cause assisted when carabinieri
+broke up that procession and refused even to allow the people to walk
+back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest and the
+other church officials with the sacred emblems, were forced to go back
+to Skradin as best they could by wading through the marshes?
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES
+
+An allusion has been made to the Italian financial methods. More than
+one Italian officer, including Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the
+Austrian currency, which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In
+Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had the Government
+stamp, and the Italians resolved that in the territories which they
+occupied the notes must have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But
+when some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation from Croatia
+or else landed somewhere in a boat the Italians were not making good
+propaganda for themselves when they seized the notes, tore them up and
+refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow whom I know of
+came with his mother along that wonderful road which the Austrians built
+over the mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious affection of
+the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar to consult an oculist. He took
+with him practically all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know
+what otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use of a bank.
+Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told him testily to go about
+his business. The same thing happened to the following persons:
+
+                                                                   Crowns.
+ 1. March 22, 1919. Bogdan Babović, son of Radovan,
+                     of Montenegro,                   was robbed of 1,348
+ 2.   "   22,   "   Peter Lukšić, son of Stephen of
+                     Spić,                             "      "     1,800
+ 3.   "   30,   "   Marijan Ševelj, of Tu�epa,         "      "     3,530
+ 4.   "   31,   "   Frano Frankić and Ivanica
+                      Petri�ević,                      "      "    12,000
+ 5. April  8,   "   Stephen Vukušić, son of Peter,
+                      of Katuna,                       "      "     4,758
+ 6.   "    8,   "   Nikola Cikeš, son of Mate, of
+                      Žeževice,                        "      "     3,071
+ 7.   "    8,   "   Martinis Jozo, son of the late
+                      Nikola, of Komiža,               "      "     6,332
+ 8.   "    8,   "   Jure Rubić, son of the late Peter,
+                      of Zadvarje                      "      "     6,030
+ 9.   "    8,   "   Mato Škari�ić, son of Stephen,
+                      of Podgrazza,                    "      "       500
+10. April  8, 1919. Mihovil Å arac, son of the late Crowns.
+                      Marko, of Split,                was robbed of   300
+11.   "   11,   "   Ilika Kutlja�a, son of the late
+                      Peter, of ÄŒista,                 "      "       600
+12.   "   13,   "   Marko Čaljkušić, son of the
+                      late Ante, of Å estanova,         "      "    11,000
+13.   "   14,   "   Damjan Udovi�ić, son of Jakov,
+                      of Imotski,                      "      "     3,200
+14.   "   16,   "   Antun Radić, son of Peter, of
+                      Trogir,                          "      "    62,000
+15.   "   16,   "   Madalena Kugmić, widow of
+                      Nikola, of Split,                "      "     1,000
+16.   "   17,   "   Pero Jurić, son of Abram, of
+                      Ostrozac,                        "      "     2,285
+17.   "   19,   "   Jakov Jurković, son of Miško       "      "}
+18.   "   19,   "   Mate Rajić, son of Ilija,          "      "}    8,140
+19.   "   19,   "   Jerko Rejić, son of Luke,          "      "}
+20.   "   19,   "   Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko,
+                      of Livno,                        "      "    25,000
+21.   "   25,   "   Zorka Aljinović, of Split,         "      "       600
+22.   "   28,   "   Ana Žižak, of Split,               "      "     1,900
+23.   "   29,   "   Nikolina Rastor, of Split,         "      "     1,800
+24.   "   30,   "   Antica Milić, of Split,            "      "     5,000
+25.   "   24,   "   Tomislav Novak, son of Mate,
+                      of Hvar,                         "      "     3,000
+26.   "   24,   "   Gjuran Arif, of Livno,             "      "     2,200
+                                                                   --------
+                                                             Total 136,794
+                                                                   --------
+
+These were the complaints over a period of a month, which were received
+by the Provincial (Yugoslav) Government at Split. One has to take their
+word for it that the list is not fictitious. I did not investigate any
+of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the list said that
+they were persuaded I would find that in every case the person culpable
+was an officious, ignorant N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a
+fragment. At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from the
+people, who were searched both on landing and on leaving, 40,000 crowns
+had been confiscated, and at first they had been told that the money
+should be stamped. A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few
+hours I was at Metković told me that he had gone to the island of
+Kor�ula to his brother and, on landing, had been relieved of 34,000
+crowns.
+
+
+AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY
+
+In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of the Allied policy of
+allowing a disputed zone to be occupied _ad interim_ solely by the
+troops of one interested country. The chronic state of war which
+followed the landing of the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the
+charges and the counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied
+Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was issued early in 1920
+and was signed by an American Admiral and French, Italian and British
+Generals, laid the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher
+Command. The Commission considered that an inter-Allied occupation was
+necessary, because the Greeks, instead of maintaining order, had given
+their position all the characteristics of a permanent occupation, the
+Turkish authorities being powerless. They also considered that order
+should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other than Greek.... No such
+Commission visited Dalmatia, chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of
+endless provocations, displayed greater self-control than the Turks. But
+an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that the Italian régime had
+not the marks of a permanent occupation simply because such methods
+could never be permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was
+forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat newspaper. On
+one island I found about fifteen gentlemen gathered round a table in a
+sort of dungeon, reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into
+their possession. This they had been doing for more than six months.
+Every letter was censored, all telegraphic and telephonic communication
+between the occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited. All
+flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed. Admiral Millo told
+us that this prohibition did not extend to the flags of France, Great
+Britain and the United States; considering that it is on record when and
+where the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians, ordered to
+be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence of Allied contingents, it
+seems scarcely worth saying that, as we were often told, the Admiral's
+permission, which was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded
+by his subordinates. Another thing that was very rigorously forbidden,
+especially on the islands, was for any Yugoslav to go down to the
+harbour, if a boat came in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on
+board. It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable and
+tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning of Yugoslav
+clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving them empty because they found
+they did not want them, the requisitioning of private houses, with no
+consideration for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of forests,
+the closing of law-courts, the demand that other courts should pronounce
+no judgment before first submitting it to them. But, above all, what the
+Yugoslav Government at Split complained of were the methods they
+employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food,
+clothing and money:
+
+
+I
+
+GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE CURZOLA
+ISLANDS
+
+SUBJECT: _Question of Food Supplies for the Civil Population._
+
+No. 43. _March_ 18, 1919.
+
+To all subject authorities:
+
+I have heard that several commanding officers who have to distribute
+food to the civilian population have, by virtue of an authorization that
+they may save part of the entered amounts for the purpose of using that
+sum for propaganda, saved a conspicuous quantity without having the
+possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained that the only
+effective means of propaganda is the distribution of food supplies ...
+amounts which are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary
+for purposes of propaganda.
+
+THE VICE-ADMIRAL
+THE GOVERNOR,
+E. MILLO.
+
+
+II
+
+ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE
+CURZOLA ISLANDS
+
+STAFF. SECTION OF PROPAGANDA, No. Prot. "P." SEBENICO, _April_ 18, 1919.
+
+The section of propaganda of the Government of Dalmatia, whose object is
+the rapid diffusion of Italianity in this noble region which gives at
+last to Italy the complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has
+set before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action ... it is
+therefore necessary to give these latter certain advantages ... it has
+been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ... that offices be
+opened for the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that
+presents be given to the indigent population, that fêtes and spectacles
+be organized.
+
+[Signature illegible.]
+
+
+These two documents give some indication of the plan of campaign. One
+might mention, by the bye, that during this period there was a great
+shortage of food-stuffs in Italy; large quantities were being sent from
+the United States. The Yugoslav Government at Split complained of the
+disastrous social and moral results of these proceedings. It gave rise
+to many abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had, for
+example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all they had to do was to
+go on board the _Puglia_, the Italian flagship, whether their parents
+allowed them or not, and there they were given both provisions and cash.
+As elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of idlers and
+scamps, who seized this opportunity; another class of person, who had
+erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to
+proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these
+people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return
+for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in
+that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists
+of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists
+numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.
+
+
+THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
+
+To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just
+before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer,
+Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the
+Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each
+other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing,
+attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great
+inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few
+exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of
+which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between
+the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over
+Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with
+the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
+happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of
+Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga
+Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
+famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the
+successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on
+September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an
+Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
+before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in
+their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents
+whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of
+the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position
+has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents
+received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc.,
+gratuitously."
+
+The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No
+doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before the Austrian
+collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done--three boxes,
+presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the
+flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on
+October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived,
+principally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metković and Dubrovnik. In 1913
+Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was
+completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal
+people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the
+coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous
+instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all
+Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The
+chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven
+times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August
+19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and
+Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph
+celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a
+few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory
+conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian
+party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a
+big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary
+of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the
+chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr.
+Trumbić, Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr.
+Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance.
+On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who
+marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The attitude," he
+says, "of the Slav _intelligentsia_ was quite passive. The Italian band
+waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took
+place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called:
+'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down
+with the Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval
+lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the
+typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at
+Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury,
+how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation
+was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from
+following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians,
+he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with
+the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the
+"Società del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting
+club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a
+gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina,
+wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to
+offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per
+quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on
+August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will
+be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that
+this has caused the Slav _intelligentsia_ to be still more profoundly
+depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17,
+1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and
+smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had
+been driven out of Belgrade.
+
+When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians--I believe
+six from Zadar and two from Split--went to serve in the Italian army.
+Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these
+exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to
+the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged
+or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in
+charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their
+most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what
+the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became
+units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not
+incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura,"
+that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most assiduous in
+addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting
+all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular
+friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down
+with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the
+Slav _intelligentsia_. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr.
+Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.
+
+
+CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY
+
+One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the collapse of
+Austria, regarded the Italian party, and especially Dr. Salvi, with
+some suspicion. Since they had always placed themselves at Austria's
+disposal, it would be most natural if they attempted by a _coup d'état_
+to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment when they joined the Slavs
+and helped to turn the Austrians out. There was no notion then that the
+Italian army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until Christmas
+that this army tried to enter Split. When they proposed to come ashore
+they were prevented by the French, Americans and British; thereupon they
+threatened to come overland--although the town was not included in the
+London Treaty--but again they were prevented. In February, on the
+occasion of a conference between the four Admirals, there was a
+demonstration against Italy, the commandant of the _Puglia_ being struck
+and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was a widespread
+feeling of resentment at the way in which the _Puglia_ was, as we have
+seen, availing herself of the baser elements in the town for the
+furtherance of her propaganda; but what put the match to the bonfire was
+the omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian
+National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found that "officers
+belonging to an Allied nation have been molested." They announced that
+they would not tolerate a repetition of such acts, and that inter-Allied
+patrols, acting with Serbian troops and the local police force, would
+take measures to prevent them. On March 8, however, there was a renewal
+of the troubles; and again the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian
+member of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved of
+the findings and that he would present a special report.
+
+
+ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY
+
+"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at
+Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the
+future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially
+the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than
+diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few
+Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the
+incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths,
+sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were
+bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of
+arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the
+bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved
+by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered
+responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian
+soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were
+armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the
+Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting
+some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which
+they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the
+Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these
+authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian
+soldiers."
+
+
+NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES
+
+But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear
+of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the
+neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual
+prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities
+were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was
+to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the
+commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it
+than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the
+occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were
+deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with
+the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the
+Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government
+that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order,
+which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was
+not merely illegal--let alone inhumane--but was in contradiction with an
+earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout
+the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil
+employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to
+obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword:
+"Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the
+peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces,
+blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after
+night, and so on.... In the second half of February it was intended to
+conduct a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to Zadar, so
+that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced to be there, for the
+benefits which Italy had bestowed upon them. An officer who in this
+branch achieved particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the
+Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread and Italian
+promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken fisherfolk and
+peasants; they refused to take part in the ridiculous demonstration, and
+in order to avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and even
+went to the length of sinking their boats. In the possession of a
+peasant at Preko, Šime Šarić Mazić, were found some
+banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them and a very small French flag;
+for these transgressions de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive
+a box on the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison, and
+there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors afterwards certified,
+inflicted serious injuries upon his hands, which they beat with chains.
+For the same reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate
+Lon�ar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet. On March 2 at Preko
+the Italians, enraged because the people had not come to their
+demonstration, dispersed with sticks all those who were assembled in
+front of the church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated. On
+March 29 the aforementioned Lon�ar was condemned to three years'
+imprisonment because 11,780 crowns, unstamped notes, had been found on
+him; the notes, of course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way,
+were given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a discount of
+10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even the military used these
+forbidden notes, and compelled the peasants at the market to accept
+them. In the night of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of
+Zadar, who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their present
+misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested and deported to Italy;
+they included Mr. Joseph de Ton�ić, President of the Yugoslav Club
+and formerly the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two
+years of age and in precarious health. During this same night forty
+persons were deported from Knin, three from Drniš, three from
+Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine from Å ibenik and four from
+Benkovac.... On the populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected
+with the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant; here the
+Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still, bare-headed, when
+they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and
+forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba
+(Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
+seventy-five, called Lovrović, were imprisoned. The latter had told
+his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent
+and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to
+Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
+nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at
+Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of
+meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin,
+highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
+party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If,
+he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not
+to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of
+his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the
+Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto,
+which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high
+Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged
+to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said,
+was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and
+betrayed Italy--so many of those who now called themselves good Italians
+had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
+Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with
+no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a
+Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked
+a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo
+that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the
+Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt
+for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased
+with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated,
+and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas;
+the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he
+said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home."
+... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the
+_Rijeć S.H.S._, that Dr. Boxich, on account of having--exceptionally,
+the paper said--spoken the truth to a passing foreigner, had been
+deported to Italy.
+
+
+A VISIT TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS
+
+It was impossible to be at Split without meeting people who had fled
+from the occupied islands. It was also, in consequence of what they told
+one, impossible to set out with an unprejudiced mind. But, after all, we
+have our preconceived ideas on Heaven and Hell, and that will be no
+reason for us not to go there. I had become acquainted at Split with
+Captain Pommerol, of the British Army, a Mauritian of imposing physique
+and, as I was to see, of a lofty sense of justice. He had recently been
+spending several months in Hungary on a mission from the War Office.
+They had now dispatched him to Dalmatia and Bosnia with a very
+comprehensive programme; and, as I secured a little steamer, he came
+with me to the islands. [We hesitated to embark on this expedition,
+since the islanders whose national desires had been choked for so many
+months would probably display their sentiments in such a way as to bring
+down grave penalties upon themselves. But the Yugoslavs, both on the
+mainland and on the islands, were anxious that we should go; they
+doubted whether Western Europe had any knowledge of the Italian methods
+of administration. And if the immediate result of our journey would be
+to call down upon themselves--as indeed it did--a savage wind, they were
+optimistic enough to feel that it would eventually produce a whirlwind
+for their oppressors.] ... The S.S. _Porer_, 130 tons, was flying at the
+stern the temporary flag of white, blue, white in horizontal stripes
+which had been invented for the ships of the former Austro-Hungarian
+mercantile marine; on the second mast they displayed the flag of one of
+the Allies, and the _Porer_ happened to be sailing under the red ensign.
+She had a Dalmatian crew of eight, including the weather-beaten old
+captain and the still older and equally benevolent gentleman who
+combined the functions of cook and steward. In addition to Serbo-Croat,
+they had among them some knowledge of Italian, German and even English.
+The scholar was the mate who, having had his headquarters at Pola during
+the War, spoke Viennese-German. His wife had died at Split after an
+illness of several months, brought on by the idea that her husband had
+been killed at Pola in an air-raid.
+
+The large, rather waterless island of Brać, which is nearest to the
+mainland, seems to be chiefly remarkable on account of its
+chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder is produced; and the number
+of changes, no less than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the
+island from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress of
+Vienna. During that period it was sometimes under the Byzantines,
+sometimes the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire, its own autonomous
+Government, the Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one
+year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied by Italy after the
+end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did not ask for it when he was
+negotiating, before the War, with Austria.
+
+
+WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT NOT DURING, THE WAR
+
+The Italian Government put forward the question of the islands for the
+first time in April 11, 1915. There had been no previous discussion,
+passionate or otherwise, as in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But
+now they demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which were
+Hvar, Kor�ula and Vis, with a total population (in 1910) of 57,954.
+The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April
+14, p. 133) that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince Bülow
+with respect to these islands had been extremely animated, and that
+Sonnino had pointed out that the Navy and the whole country expected of
+him that he would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic,
+where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable harbour, that
+is to say serviceable war-harbour. And Sonnino added that he thought
+this was an opportune moment in which to rectify that state of things.
+On April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides drawing the
+Italians' attention to the nationality of the islanders--1·62 per cent.
+calling themselves Italian--pointed out that not only would there no
+longer be any question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if
+Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent coast would
+always be threatened. On May 4, the Ambassador asked whether an
+arrangement with Italy would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to
+every one of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the value of
+these islands was in Austrian eyes. When Sonnino did not reply to this
+question, the Ambassador understood that Italy's participation in the
+War had been determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government made up
+its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its proximity to the Italian
+coast." As a matter of fact it lies 42 miles from Vis and 33 miles from
+the nearest point in Apulia. As a strategic base this group of rocks
+would have no value, since the water is too deep for the construction of
+a harbour, and the sirocco rages with such ferocity that it flings the
+foam over the top of the lighthouse, which is 360 feet in height. This
+inhospitable place, with its population of 13 human beings, some sheep
+and goats, was inhabited in prehistoric days; when the excavations were
+being made for the lighthouse a variety of implements from the Stone Age
+were discovered, including a stone arrow that was found between the ribs
+of a skeleton.... But the Austrian Ambassador let it be known at the
+same time that he would be prepared to make a further friendly
+examination of the Italian demands with reference to the other islands.
+His Government also on May 15 (Red Book, No. 185, p. 181) announced that
+they were quite disposed to reopen the discussion. However, on the 23rd
+of the month, Italy came into the War. The Italians had been explaining
+that if only Austria would give up these islands--which was as if you
+were to invite a person whose designs you suspected to come and camp in
+the hall of your house--then, said the Italians, there would be an
+excellent prospect of permanently amicable relations between the two
+States.
+
+
+OUR WELCOME TO JELÅ A
+
+As soon as the War was over, Italy disembarked on the islands which she
+had obtained by the Treaty of London. Something has been said on
+previous pages of the way in which she introduced herself and made
+herself at home. As we were sailing towards the pretty town of Jelša
+(Gelsa) on the island of Hvar, we left Vrboška on our right. The
+Bishop of Split had told me of a grievance which the Italian troops at
+that place had lodged with his brother, the mayor. Some of them had
+visited, for the fêtes of carnival, both the Yugoslav Club, where they
+found many persons who could speak Italian, and the Italian Club, where
+they were annoyed to find that it was spoken by very few. As we came
+into the little port of Jelša, with the green shutters of its white
+houses harmonizing with the foliage of the cypresses and oleanders, we
+could see a crowd of people running round--and carabinieri running with
+them--to that part of the harbour where we were unexpectedly going to
+stop. There was some confusion, the carabinieri pushing the people back,
+evidently to prevent them shaking hands with us; and one small boy who
+did not hear or did not understand what they were shouting received a
+terrific blow in the back from the fist of a furious Italian. Some cries
+were raised in honour of Yugoslavia, Wilson, France and England, which
+may have been imprudent; but when a place in which there is not one
+single Italian has been held down for months, has been forbidden to
+show the slightest joy on account of the birth of Yugoslavia, has been
+savagely punished for having a copy of a Yugoslav newspaper, has
+repeatedly been cursed and cuffed and ordered, at the bayonet's point,
+to execute some wish of the carabinieri--one cannot be astonished if in
+the presence of some non-Italian foreigners they could no longer repress
+their feelings. Some of the people had brought flowers with them, and as
+Pommerol and I plunged into the whirlpool and made our way towards the
+Italian commander's office, we had many flowers either thrust into our
+hands while the carabinieri were looking the other way or else we had
+them thrown at us, in which case some of them would usually descend upon
+the shoulders or the three-cornered hats of the carabinieri. Whenever
+anybody uttered one of the forbidden exclamations one or more of the
+carabinieri would fling themselves into the crowd and attempt, with the
+help of vigorous kicking, to reach the culprit. Thus, in the midst of a
+series of scrimmages, we got to the captain's quarters. We found him a
+very pleasant young man, keenly conscious of the difficulties of his
+position; as we afterwards heard, he was such an improvement on his
+predecessor that the carabinieri were convinced he was a Yugoslav and
+had been heard to mutter threats against his life. He had apologized to
+the inhabitants, and had dismissed one of his men who had hauled down a
+Yugoslav flag and blown his nose on it. For these men an extenuating
+circumstance was that they had been very drunk on the night before our
+arrival, as they had heard--it was in the first half of June 1919--that
+the islands had been definitely given to Italy, and this they had been
+celebrating. We knew that after an American and an Englishman had
+visited Jelša, in the time of the other commandant, some of the
+people were interned; the young captain assured us that he would do no
+such thing. And one could see that he would never imitate the brutality
+of his predecessor, who had caused a frail old man of sixty-six,
+Professor Zarić, to be pulled out of his bed in the middle of a
+winter's night and taken across the hills on a donkey to Starigrad,
+afterwards on a destroyer to Split, from where--but for the intervention
+of the American Admiral--he would have been deported to Italy; and all
+on account of his having written, in English and French, a scientific
+ethnographical treatise on the islands.
+
+
+PROCEEDINGS AT STARIGRAD
+
+At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts looked like the
+scene of an opera, with an opening chorus of carabinieri. They were posted
+at various tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them
+advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to the office of the
+Commandant, a major who must have played a very modest part in the War, as
+I believe he only had three rows of ribbons.[39] He gave us some vermouth
+and informed us that the population was very quiet, very happy. When I said
+that I would like to see the mayor he sent an orderly, and in less than one
+minute his worship stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the major
+had said with regard to the population. In fact the picture which he drew
+brought back to memory the comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an
+American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that she lived at a place
+called Knoxville or Coxville in the States, replied "How nice!" The good
+Italians, quoth the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives,
+and with the exception of the Croat _intelligentsia_ they all wished for
+union with Italy. I asked him if he did not think that, looking at it from
+the economic point of view, there would be some difficulties when the
+island's exports--wine and oil and fish--would have to compete with the
+products of Italy. But he said that one must think of the other
+benefits--no longer would the island have to bear the hated Austrian. It
+was all the fault of Austria, he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad
+municipality had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their school
+and their orchestra. But now it would all be changed. He was clearly a
+product of the new dispensation; and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an
+Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else did this gentleman
+tell me, which was a pity, as in a message, presumably sent by him, to an
+Italian newspaper, _La Dalmazia_,[40] of Zadar, it was stated that in this
+conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local questions....
+Then we all stood up and the major said that he would accompany us down to
+the boat. I told him that I would join him there after I had seen some
+Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away with him while I went
+round the ancient little town--it even has some Cyclopæan walls--with
+certain Yugoslavs, two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out
+to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently taken a less active
+form than that of his successor, for he had only been an Austrian subject,
+while the actual mayor--Dr. Tamašković--had served, until the end of
+the War, in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the events of 1885,
+they told me that this was the time when the Croatian national
+consciousness awoke, so that an insufficient number of people had remained
+either to support an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the number
+of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600), and might increase if
+ice-creams were handed round in all the schools. One of my companions
+happened to live in the house of Hektorović, the sixteenth-century poet,
+and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful garden with its
+palms and shady paths and bathing tank, like that one in the Alcazar at
+Seville. Then we went on to the harbour where a number of the people were
+collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of military and naval
+officers and civilians, these latter being partly visitors from Istria and
+Zadar. Suddenly a woman, standing near me, threw her head back and cried:
+"Viva Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled her efforts. I
+should say that about thirty people were gathered round the major, shouting
+for Italy, and he was obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of
+persons who had different sentiments began to shout for Wilson, Yugoslavia
+and so forth. The carabinieri rushed among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs.
+Politeo, who was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and trampled on.
+The lawyers and the doctor with whom I had been walking were all three
+struck over the head or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (_La
+Dalmazia_ wrote that I had been filling their heads with idle tales.)
+Children were screaming. I saw another woman, hatless, being dragged off by
+a couple of carabinieri--and a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly
+ordered them to let her go--and they obeyed reluctantly. Four Dominican
+monks were next attacked--they had not taken part in the demonstration; it
+was enough for the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party.
+One of them, Father Rabadan--an elderly gentleman with gold spectacles--was
+thrown down, struck until his face was covered with blood, and then dragged
+off to prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers--one of these
+I saw in the act of loading his rifle--and the noise was tremendous. Here
+one would see a Yugoslav trying to tell one of the warriors that he had
+done nothing; then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey: one or
+two of the officers looked awkward--one or two actually looked exultant. As
+we steamed out of the harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were
+running along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over the
+stone walls--apparently it was a man-hunt. "There are places in Dalmatia,"
+Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier, had been saying in the _Temps_,[41]
+"where Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that in those
+circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization should prevail. Italy in
+her relations with other races has continued the traditions of ancient
+Rome.... It is their palpitating desire [_i.e._ that of Fiume, Sebenico,
+Zara, Traù, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of Italy."
+And on the next day a telegram was sent to Split from the unoccupied island
+of Brać, giving the names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and
+the name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father Rabadan and
+continued: "The carabinieri are still looking for Yugoslavs. On the
+occasion of the arrestment of the clerk Nikola Pavi�ić, the musket of
+an ardito went off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavi�ić. Great
+terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later message, to the
+newspaper _Jadran_ at Split, said that twenty-eight persons had been
+arrested and imprisoned in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the
+neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated, and for the first
+day being given nothing to eat. Everyone felt surprise that among the
+arrested was a certain Mr. Vladimir Vranković, as he was one of those
+who had betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this clumsiness
+on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and, by command of Major
+Penatta, he was released. All those who could get away from Starigrad were
+taking refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking for the
+intervention of the Entente, as the people's life was being made
+intolerable, and for the reason that they would not trample under foot
+everything which they regard as holy. But, according to _La Dalmazia_, the
+indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference a vibrating
+telegram, which begged for immediate annexation to Italy, and protested
+against those who in an unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's
+beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled at Zadar and
+condemned to terms that varied from four to eight months--seven of the
+accused, including Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving the
+severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian population dispatched,
+later on, a telegram of thanks to the Paris Conference for having ordered
+Yugoslavia to guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be left
+in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial interests in
+Dalmatia; while the half million Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to
+annex were not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It would be
+ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great, Liberal Power.
+
+After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching Hvar, the
+capital of the island, that our further progress was impeded. The pale
+Commandant of sinister aspect, this time a naval officer, Lieut.
+Vincenzo Villa, showed us a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at
+Kor�ula, which said that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of
+the inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little
+difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities, which he
+visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in the morning our cook, who
+went ashore to see what he could buy, was immediately arrested by the
+carabinieri, who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi
+citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the citizens of Rome
+were at loggerheads with the Vatican, arrested and disarmed all those
+adherents of the Papacy who showed their noses outside the Vatican's
+portals. Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant, who allowed
+him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri. After that we returned
+to Split, and from there to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.
+
+One would like to know what the Admiral would have said if this
+interview had taken place a few months later when, in alliance with
+Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in open, armed revolt against the Government
+of Italy. The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had
+not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he
+courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing
+which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went
+back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact
+he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These
+islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you
+know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the
+right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the
+population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since
+the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers
+and cheer the name of Wilson--in view of what these crimes entailed--we
+suggested that a small number, four or five of each party--those who
+desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy--should in
+succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
+if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the
+Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.
+
+
+THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR
+
+The subordinate Admiral, from Kor�ula, had come across on a destroyer
+and was kind enough to tell us at considerable length what were his
+views on local and international affairs. He frankly appealed to us--and
+his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness--to survey the whole
+matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion. But we were less ambitious; we
+desired merely to be the mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first
+came on board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be considered
+unfair if I employ this word rather than "Italians" for a body of men,
+most of whom are admittedly devoid of any Italian blood and whose
+Italian sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers 9 per
+cent. of the population of the town. Their chief point seemed to be that
+the Church was opposed to them, because there was no room for
+clericalism in Italy (!); and the only other point worth mentioning was
+that Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had played havoc with
+their vines. Among the Yugoslavs who succeeded these gentlemen there was
+an elderly priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri--no doubt
+in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken herself free from
+clerical obscurantism--entered the church while the bishop was
+officiating, and hoisted on the roof an Italian flag. This canon, Dom
+Ivo Bojanić, could scarcely be blamed if the Italian innovations did
+not appeal to him. He chanced to be looking out of his window on a
+moonlit night and noticed that an agile policeman was climbing up to his
+balcony for the purpose of decorating it with an Italian flag. The old
+gentleman protested, and was thereupon taken to the barracks, where he
+remained for one day. The Yugoslavs told us that the state of things was
+worse than in Africa--but that was a figure of speech; the facts were
+that the different societies and clubs had been closed, that all persons
+going down to the harbour had been forbidden to speak their own language
+to their friends on board ship, that three Croat teachers had fled to
+escape being interned, while an Italian soldier who did not know a word
+of Croatian had been appointed in their place.
+
+
+FOUR MEN OF KOMIŽA
+
+When we departed from Hvar the Admiral sent his destroyer to accompany
+us on our tour. She had on board a Roman journalist, Signor Roberto
+Buonfiglio, who was travelling in Dalmatia and the islands on behalf of
+the clerical _Corriere d'Italia_. The situation at Vis, the historic
+palm-shaded capital of the island of the same name, has already been
+described. The Italian Commandant, Sportiello, was a tactful and popular
+person; moreover the Yugoslavs were on the best of terms with Dr. Doimi,
+the head of one of the very rare Italian families. At Komiža, the
+other little town on that island, the relations between Yugoslavs and
+Italianists were not so cordial. But the deputation which represented
+the latter party comprised one man whom the Austrians had put in gaol
+for several years for forgery; a father and son, of whom the one had
+sold himself for the sake of rice, while the other had also been
+imprisoned by the Austrians for uttering false documents; the fourth and
+most innocent member--his name happened to be Innocent Buliani--had
+nothing to conceal except his fickleness, for in a short period he had
+called himself an Austrian, a Yugoslav and an Italian. None of these
+four was a native of the place, whereas the Yugoslavs who came to see us
+were natives who had risen to be the chief doctor, lawyer, priest and
+merchant. One of the Italianists, Antonio Spadoni, told us that the
+people were afraid of expressing their real wishes for union with Italy.
+This hypothesis might seem to demand some elucidation, but Signor
+Spadoni insisted on passing on to the "Workers' Society," which the
+young Commandant had founded for the purpose, according to Spadoni, of
+helping the people to find work and of looking after their interests. We
+were subsequently told by the Yugoslavs that the Commandant himself
+called the members his "Rice Italians," for many of them did not speak
+the language and did not even sympathize with Italy. But on joining they
+had committed themselves to something that was printed at the top of the
+paper, which part had been turned over. It really doesn't sound very
+worthy of a Great Power. When some of the members, discovering to what
+they were committed, sent in their resignation, it was refused. At
+Komiža all the municipal officers had been discharged by the
+Italians, the reading-rooms and places of amusement had been closed, and
+the Food Administrator at Split was forbidden to send any food, lest he
+should interfere with the Italians' object in distributing rice, etc.
+Once he was permitted to forward some American flour, and the people had
+to pay forty crowns of duty on each hundredweight.
+
+
+THE WOMEN OF BIÅ EVO
+
+From Komiža, the next morning, we steamed over on the destroyer to
+the wonderful blue grotto of Biševo (or Busi), which surpasses Capri.
+An Austrian Archduke, we were told, had once waited a week at Komiža,
+but had been compelled to leave without seeing the cave. We were more
+fortunate--the wind, the water and the sun were kind to us; we entered
+in a rowing-boat the little pearl-grey Gothic chapel which Nature has
+constructed underneath a hill, and as we gazed into the blue-green
+waters, through which from the rocks below a fountain of most brilliant
+blue was rising, every time an oar was dipped the waters painted it a
+silvery white. The population of Biševo consists of about 150 people,
+who mostly live around the little church of Saint Sylvester, two hundred
+feet above the sea. They occupy themselves with sheep and fruit and bees
+and fish, and with the vines that are even more famous than those of
+Vis. A good part of the population had assembled on a grassy platform
+high above the entrance to the cave, and as we climbed out of the
+rowing-boat on to the destroyer a much larger rowing-boat came round a
+promontory. Sixteen women formed the crew. They sang their national
+Croatian songs, and when they approached us some of them stood up and,
+while the wind played with their straw-coloured and golden hair, they
+laughingly threw flowers at us. As we left Biševo the men and women
+high above us and the women in the boat were waving their hands; some of
+them were singing, others were shouting a farewell. Here and there on
+the sunlit waters, rising and falling, were the flowers which had woven
+on the sea a gorgeous carpet. "Well," said the lieutenant-commander, "I
+admit that this is a Yugoslav island."
+
+I forget whether Signor Buonfiglio made any remark, but a few hours
+later at Velaluka he was most incensed. As our boat--we had returned to
+the old _Porer_ at Komiža--sailed into the harbour a huge Yugoslav
+flag was flying from the summit of a hill, with French, British and
+American flags around it. The destroyer had arrived before us and the
+burly journalist was striding up and down the quay. "I protest," he
+exclaimed, as he saw us, "and not as a journalist but as an Italian
+citizen! I protest!" Between us and the front row of houses, which
+included the town-major's office, there was a large empty space--the
+inhabitants could be descried up the side-streets and behind the
+windows. De Michaelis, the town-major, was evidently a superior young
+man; as he poured out the champagne he told us with perfect frankness
+that the educated people at Velaluka were Yugoslavs. Suddenly there was
+a terrific noise just underneath us. We hurried downstairs and found
+that the soldiers in their excitement had fired off a machine gun into
+the wall. Half an hour later the firing could be heard from the top of
+the hill, but we never ascertained whether anyone was wounded. In this
+place the Italianist party sent to us an ex-publican who had now joined
+the police, a small trader and a municipal clerk who had recently been
+imported from Zadar. The Yugoslavs were a large landowner, a doctor and
+a priest, who told us that the people for the most part were refusing to
+accept gratuitous food from the Italians.
+
+
+ON THE WAY TO BLATO
+
+We were anxious to visit Blato, an inland village of 8000 inhabitants.
+De Michaelis regretted very much that he had no carriage, but a Yugoslav
+had a quaint little car on which he was learning how to drive and he was
+kind enough to take us--for which he was afterwards deported to Italy.
+The good man made so much noise in changing his gears that our progress
+was advertised in the uttermost fields, and very few of those who bore
+down upon us came unprovided with flowers. Several of the bouquets hit
+Pommerol or myself in the eye, and the Dutch say that the best cause has
+need of a good pleader. But the people were so gay, waving their hats
+and running after us (they did not always have to run) and shouting for
+the various Allies and for President Wilson. I remember two small
+round-eyed boys who were not old enough to run; they were standing hand
+in hand by the side of the road, panting the magic word "Wilson! Wilson!
+Wilson!" There was a sudden contrast when we jerked into the village.
+People were not rushing towards us, but away from us--with furious
+carabinieri behind them. We got into the garden in front of the
+_gendarmerie_; one of the men was so enraged that he kept on muttering
+"Bestia! Bestia! Bestia!" In the Commandant's office we met Major
+Federico Verdinois, the town-major, who said that if he had only known
+of our coming this wretched scuffle would not have happened. Even as he
+spoke it started again; we leaned out of the window and saw two or three
+persons who were being prevented by soldiers from going down the street
+or from going anywhere. An officer was slashing with a riding-whip at a
+soldier who was particularly rough. "One can do nothing with the
+marines; they are brutal," said Major Verdinois. At last there was
+peace, and the major said that an Italian deputation would come to see
+us. It consisted of six individuals. The Austro-Hungarian census of 1910
+said that the Blato district contained 13,147 Serbo-Croats, 3 Germans
+and 6 Italians; but these six were not all in the deputation, for two of
+its members had come from Hvar, one from Zadar, two were ex-Austrian
+spies and one was a Yugoslav, who hoped in this way to help his people.
+One gentleman deplored that he had not been told about our journey; had
+he known he would have told his peasants to appear. Another gentleman
+assured us that the peasants were afraid of declaring their real wishes.
+Of course a country whose friends call it the most liberal in the world
+could not allow such a state of things to continue, and a short time
+after this the following Order was issued by the staff of the 66th
+Division of Infantry:
+
+
+No. 46. Confidential--Personal. VERY URGENT.
+
+_June_ 23, 1919.
+
+TO THE COMMANDERS AT BENKOVAC, OBROVAC,
+NOVIGRAD, ERVENIK, KISTANJE, SKRADIN,
+BIOGRAD, NIN, GJEVERSKE, SUKOÅ AN AND
+KARIN.
+
+TO THE COMMAND OF THE ROYAL DIVISIONS.
+
+It is necessary to bring about, with no delay and very discreetly, the
+dispatch of messages to the Prime Minister Nitti and to the Minister of
+Foreign Affairs Tittoni from the mayor, from societies, etc., of this
+garrison, expressing the people's keen desire to be annexed to Italy.
+
+A copy of said telegram should be transmitted to me.
+
+THE MAJOR:     THE MAJOR-GENERAL:
+   FORESI.             SQUILLACE.
+
+
+To return to the events at Blato--while we were waiting for the
+Yugoslavs a woman made her way as far as the corridor, flung herself
+down on her knees and entreated us to protect her. Major Verdinois gave
+us his word of honour that no Yugoslav with whom we spoke would, for
+that reason, be arrested. Perhaps he was overruled by his superior
+officers--at all events he arrested and deported to Italy, in the night
+of June 19, no less than ten persons, that is, all the Yugoslavs who
+spoke to us at Blato, with two exceptions. [We cabled this to the Paris
+Conference, and after some delay the unfortunate men were repatriated.]
+
+
+WHAT THE MAJOR SAID
+
+For what happened before our arrival I am indebted to the chemist
+Radimiri, from whose report the following is an extract: "At ten in the
+morning Major Verdinois had summoned to his office the communal doctor,
+Moretti, and the secretary, Dragunić, both of them Yugoslavs. He told
+them that two Englishmen who were cruising about in the _Porer_ would
+very likely be coming up that afternoon to Blato and he would permit no
+sort of demonstration. The doctor, he said, would be held responsible
+for any disorder; and as Moretti was about to make this known to the
+people, who were just coming out of church, the Italian adjutant
+approached him with a paper and ordered him to read it to the Yugoslavs.
+This document--it has been preserved--is in the Serbo-Croat language and
+was given to the doctor because the adjutant, who did not know the
+language, mistook it for another one. It was an exhortation to the
+people, urging them to have nothing more to do with the Yugoslav
+_intelligentsia_, which had made a great deal of money during the War.
+'And you have given your blood for four and a half years and what has
+been your benefit?' Dr. Moretti made a personal appeal for the
+maintenance of order, and the people, having called out 'Long live
+Wilson!' went their divers ways in peace. Nevertheless three platoons
+appeared, each with one officer and one N.C.O. The adjutant's platoon
+distinguished itself, for while the arditi attacked anyone they saw,
+including women and children, with the butt end of their muskets, Lieut.
+Giovanoni laid about him with a dog-whip. Several of the soldiers made
+for a group of four young fellows; three of them escaped and the fourth,
+Peter Kraljević, was struck with a rifle so severely across the face
+that he was bathed in blood. As he tried to defend himself he was shot
+at from a distance of three paces: one bullet went through his nose,
+another wounded him in the forehead. He fell to the ground, and a
+teacher, Mrs. Maria Grubisić, who had witnessed the whole incident,
+sank down unconscious at his side and was covered with his blood.
+Various other people were injured--three little girls received rifle
+shots in their bodies. All the main streets were shut off and eight
+machine guns were placed in readiness. But the people were not to be
+intimidated, and when the Englishmen arrived their national
+consciousness was displayed. As a result Peter ÄŒarap was knocked
+unconscious with a mighty blow of a musket, the fourteen-year-old Joseph
+Suležić had a similar experience, and among many others who were
+assaulted we will only mention an ex-official, Anthony Pižtulić, a
+man of sixty, who was struck twice with a rifle on his stomach and then
+prevented from going home but chased out into the fields.... It seemed
+as if it would be impossible for our people to have a conversation with
+the Englishmen, but at last twenty men and twelve girls managed to reach
+that house...."
+
+
+THE PROTEST OF AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST
+
+I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from this island--it
+appeared in the _Corriere d'Italia_ of June 16--but more than
+three-quarters of it is devoted to an account of some Dalmatian
+delegates who were received, during the War, by Francis Joseph and
+expressed their loyalty. The deputation was introduced by Dr.
+Iv�ević, a Croat; and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from
+this how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will have to give
+some other explanation for the very loyal speeches of his countryman,
+Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But I presume that his editor did not send Signor
+Buonfiglio on this journey to the end that he should write of what
+official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for the incidents we
+witnessed and the islanders' aspirations, he merely says that their
+welcome to us was an artificial affair which the Yugoslav committees,
+with extreme effort, had organized--and I don't think that that is a
+very illuminating observation.
+
+We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians dissolved the town
+council, on account of its incapacity to do the work. However, a
+military man to whom it was handed over gave his opinion that he had
+never seen a better administration.... Out of all that we were told, I
+will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were playing football,
+and when they kicked the ball into a maize-field and continued to play
+amid the maize, the farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty
+men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and when finally the
+major commanded them to stop, they dragged them to the barracks and
+thrashed them so that the people in adjacent houses heard them all the
+night.
+
+On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where the _Porer_ was
+waiting for us, we had a repetition of the scenes enacted between
+Velaluka and Blato; and a number of young men, heedless of the risks
+they ran, rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts.
+In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as our escorting
+destroyer. We therefore had to leave without delay, lest the young
+patriots should come into contact with the carabinieri. So very hastily
+and in a very illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on
+November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of Velaluka: "We
+Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka as the friends of Yugoslavia
+and of the Entente. We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such
+I ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together with that of
+Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent we will keep it there until
+the question of the general peace is definitely arranged, according to
+your and our ... according to the principles of ..." The two missing
+words are illegible.
+
+
+INTERESTING DELEGATES
+
+Lying off Kor�ula, that evening, we received the usual delegates. One
+of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a trembling, tearful voice that
+the Italians were far too good. And while we were hearing from one of
+his colleagues what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr.
+Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come! I wish I had not
+come!" He considered that it was outrageous of us to allude to
+plebiscites. The Yugoslavs did not tell us anything very thrilling; the
+Italian authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian, of
+which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity that this is not
+their most serious fault! A barrister called Dr. Pero Cvili�ević
+came, with a companion, to see us the next day, before breakfast. He
+said that they, like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and
+his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was, he said, a
+righteous, though rather a small party, as the island had been gravely
+handicapped by the support which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he
+added--it seemed a trifle illogical--"the people are all very contented.
+Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered the information that
+the law was being administered in the name of the Entente and the United
+States. It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we asked
+him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets were being applied
+under the same sanction.... When we paid our formal visit to the
+Commandant at his office on the quay he did not ask if we would care to
+go to one of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made a
+speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken to a school at
+Kor�ula, how the mistress had allowed him to ask the children if they
+knew Italian, how they had raised their hands, and how this had
+convinced him that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that
+journalist had not been told that prior to the War this town of some
+2000 inhabitants was provided with five schools in which not a single
+child spoke Italian, and with one school subsidized by the Liga
+Nazionale which--as in Albania--lured its pupils by gifts of clothing,
+books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not a word of
+Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of Italian. But not very much
+harm was done, as the population considered it shameful to attend this
+school, and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than thirty
+pupils, even when money was paid to the parents. This institution was
+reopened by the Italian army after the War, and presumably it is the one
+which the American visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress,
+forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat that a
+gentleman would come and say something in Italian, whereupon they would
+hold up their hands.
+
+
+A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR EVANS
+
+Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these months, had not been
+solved but on the contrary had been allowed to spread its poison more
+and more, one naturally wonders what was being done in Paris. The
+Conference was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the
+Armistice, the famous ethnologist and archæologist Sir Arthur Evans.
+This gentleman, whose distinctions are too numerous to mention (Fellow
+of Brasenose; twice President of the British Association; Keeper during
+twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; D.Litt.; LL.D.;
+F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many years devoted himself to the
+eastern Adriatic--the second edition of his _Through Bosnia and the
+Herzegovina on Foot_ appeared in 1877, his _Illyrian Letters_ in 1878,
+his _Slavs and European Civilization_ in the same year. He never ceased
+from that time onward to study these matters. "I think," he says in a
+letter to me from Youlbury, near Oxford, of which he kindly permits me
+to make any use I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak on
+the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman, as Dalmatia was my
+headquarters for some years. Neither did I approach the question with
+any anti-Italian prejudices. I was so far recognized as a competent and
+moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal Geographical Society to
+give them a paper on the subject.... Anxious, with others friendly to
+both sides, to secure an equitable agreement between the Italians and
+Yugoslavs, I took part in a series of private conferences in London
+which led to a preliminary Agreement forming the basis on which the
+Congress at Rome approached the question. There the Agreement was
+ratified and publicly approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try
+to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the Armistice, as it
+happened) there was to have been a new Congress of Nationalities at
+Paris, which I was asked to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as
+matters were thought too critical, owing to the submission of Bulgaria.
+But I thought it would be useful if I went to Paris all the same, and I
+obtained from the Foreign Office, War Office, etc., a passport viséd
+'British War Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice
+was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure of Mr. Steed and
+Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally no one among our countrymen
+at Paris who knew the intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the
+relations of Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian
+difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked me to be his
+go-between, and I had an immense lot of work thrown on my shoulders. I
+had gone to the expense of taking a large salon at the Hotel
+Continental, where I had private Conferences--the Yugoslav and Roumanian
+leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier question, and
+the conciliatory proposals made no doubt furthered the final solution,
+with which they harmonized. When there was a serious danger of a clash
+between the Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing
+the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations to Lord
+D., which he forwarded to Balfour, that immediate pressure was exercised
+at Rome, and the Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to
+convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to let our Ambassador
+have a short précis almost daily of affairs connected with those
+regions.... With great trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav
+representatives to agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the
+neutralization of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken
+up by the Americans--Colonel House inviting me to an interview on the
+subject, in which he expressed his approval. A copy was also sent to the
+F.O., and for this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O.
+I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many friendly
+conversations with prominent Italians in Paris, and in every way
+ingeminated agreement between them and the Southern Slavs. But,
+meanwhile, I exposed the Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino
+was privy, in the _Manchester Guardian_. Finally I went, at the end of
+1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord Derby (with whom I always had
+the friendliest relations) giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however,
+early in January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had kept on
+my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my way. Italian intrigue had
+apparently been on foot. I was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I
+told him briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered or
+acknowledged my letter, and it was only by making urgent personal
+representations at the F.O. that I finally got the answer that they
+refused me a passport.... I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue
+but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.' And so they
+blundered on, and to this day"--the letter is dated July 17,
+1920--"nothing is settled on the Adriatic but unsettlement."
+
+
+THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO
+
+Meanwhile at intervals during this year there had been troubles in
+Montenegro. On three occasions the Italians at Antivari had endeavoured
+to extend their sphere of influence, but the armed civilian population
+had been equal to these emergencies and had each time thrust them back
+to the coast. At Gaeta, between Rome and Naples, a very well-paid corps
+was stationed--almost every man was either a commissioned or a
+non-commissioned officer. The Italian Government was asked by Signor
+Lazari, the Socialist deputy, for what purpose it allocated 300,000 lire
+a month to support these peculiar troops. They were mostly
+Montenegrins--relatives of Nikita, members of the five favoured
+families, persons who were stranded and so forth; likewise at Gaeta were
+a number of other Yugoslavs who had been liberated from their Italian
+internment camps, but many of them, when they discovered what was
+expected of them, revolted. Thirty or forty of them managed to escape to
+France, and others to Montenegro, as for example the man who for twelve
+years had been Nikita's porter. He and three others reached Cetinje one
+day in August 1920 when I was there. They had with them a picture-card
+of the sixty-nine officers of the Gaeta army. Every one knows every one
+else in Montenegro and only two of these officers had held a previous
+commission. According to Nikita's Premier, Jovan Plamenac, the Italian
+Government considered this as the Montenegrin army and regarded (rather
+optimistically) as a loan the money it contributed to keep it up. In
+driblets the non-revolting part of this Gaeta army was taken to the
+eastern shores of the Adriatic, for the purpose of making "incidents" in
+Montenegro. There was a regular scale--so much in cash for the murder of
+a prefect, so much for a deputy. One day the father of Andrija
+Radović, a man of over seventy, was cut down; they waited until
+everyone had left the village to go to some fête in a neighbouring
+village, and the old man defended himself to the last.
+
+These emissaries from Gaeta, misguided Montenegrins, other Southern
+Slavs and Italians, made considerable use of the mischievous speeches
+that were sometimes heard in the British Parliament. They would explain
+to some poor, ignorant mountain-dweller that such great people in
+England were still discussing Nikita's return, and if he did return and
+they had listened to the voice of Radović, woe be to them. Some of
+these wretched dupes would follow their seducers, who--I have no
+doubt--would not only have declined his decorations if they had been
+better informed, but would have placed the matter in the hands of their
+solicitor, as Gabriel Rossetti threatened to do if he were ever elected
+to the Royal Academy. And yet, after the character of the scoundrel King
+was fully exposed, his advocates, so far as I know, had not the grace to
+own their error. Of course there was in Montenegro a certain amount of
+uninstigated unrest; the wine of politics, which they were now for the
+first time freely quaffing, had gone to their heads--it was youth
+against age, the students were enthusiastic Democrats, the peasants were
+sturdy Radicals and they did not always restrict themselves to
+dialectical arguments. A certain number of people had gone to live "u
+shumi"--"in the woods." But the reasons that impelled them were not so
+much their devotion to the ex-King, as their own criminal past or their
+poverty. Others again had taken to this life for what may be called
+reasons of "honour."[42] Among the brigands was a man who was captured
+on the borders of Herzegovina, and before his execution--he had murdered
+seven people--he declared that he was a patriot and had done all this
+for the sake of King Nicholas, his victims being members of the
+domineering party. But when reminded that one of them was a baby, he
+hung his head and said no more.... There was discontent produced by the
+high cost of living--as the Italians not only held Antivari but even
+fired on French boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana, it
+was necessary to revictual all except the new parts of Montenegro from
+Kotor. The lack of petrol, from which even the American Red Cross units
+were suffering, compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons,
+which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it was the staff of
+another mission, calling itself the International Red Cross, which was
+to blame for adding to the country's troubles; after they had been
+installed for a month or two at Cetinje the people themselves, and not
+the authorities, turned them out, on the ground that they had used the
+Red Cross to conceal their machinations in Nikita's interest. The
+Yugoslav Government was held up to reprobation in the British Parliament
+and press for having hampered more than one British mission in the work
+of relieving the Montenegrins. The resources of these missions appeared
+to be moderate--the head of one of them had a meeting with Colonels
+Fairclough and Anderson of the American Red Cross and suggested that
+they should provide him with the wherewithal for carrying on. But even
+if their resources had been scantier their co-operation would have been
+very welcome if they had satisfied the authorities that they were as
+non-political as the Americans. It was curious that those who in the
+British press ventilated the grievances of these missions were the same
+people who championed Nikita.
+
+The Italians persevered in their manœuvres--Nikola Kova�ević,
+the police commissary of Grahovo, sent in the month of May a
+confidential man of his to the Italian General at Dobrota, near Kotor.
+This man, who speaks perfect Italian, told the General that ever since
+1916 he had haunted the forests as the leader of a band. Fifty persons,
+he said, had attached themselves to him; and he had now come in for a
+supply of arms and money, also for instructions. It would be impossible,
+said he, to endure the Serbian troops much longer in the country.
+
+
+ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS
+
+"You must hold out for a couple of months longer," said the General. "I
+can give you no money at present, but I can take you on a steamer to San
+Giovanni, where we have a camp of the King's friends; and from there you
+can easily go to Italy."
+
+"I have given my word of honour," said the man, "that I will not go
+without my people. So I must first of all go back to ask them."
+
+"In a military way," said the General, "the Serbs can now do nothing.
+They had tremendous losses in the war; and in two months the King of
+Montenegro will return or else there will be an Italian occupation. Work
+hard, my friend. I want you, in the first place, to set houses on fire;
+then to shoot officers and officials who are for Yugoslavia. You should
+also rob the transports."
+
+Thereupon the man returned to Grahovo and soon afterwards the French
+General Thaon, who happened to go there, spoke with him for two hours
+and invited him to his headquarters at Kotor.
+
+The disturbances in Montenegro did not cease; a country through which
+you could formerly drive with less risk than in Paris, was now infested
+by outlaws and those who pursued them. And Count de Salis, who had
+served as H.B.M.'s Minister at Cetinje, was sent back to Montenegro on a
+mission of inquiry. His report was not published, for the reason that he
+did not beat about the bush in his references to the Italians and for
+the further reason that he gave the names of those persons from whom he
+culled his information. This was a fine opportunity for the foreign
+busybodies who were thrusting their silly little knives into Yugoslavia.
+"Count de Salis reports clearly and unmistakably," said Mr. Ronald
+M'Neill in the House of Commons, "that in his judgment the wish of the
+Montenegrin people is to retain their own sovereign and their own
+independence." When Sir Hamar Greenwood subsequently, speaking for the
+Government, threw out a hint that this was not the case, it was amusing
+to see how the pro-Nikita party lost their interest in the report. A
+certain Mr. Herbert Vivian sent from Italy in April 1920 a most
+ferocious indictment against the Serbs in Montenegro to a London paper
+called the _British Citizen_. He said that the Countess de Salis, while
+at Cetinje, was in danger of her life. But the lady has been dead for
+many years. I presume this is the same Mr. Vivian who in a book,
+_Servia, the Poor Man's Paradise_, trembles with rage whenever a Serb
+speaks admiringly of Gladstone.
+
+
+VARIOUS BRITISH COMMENTATORS
+
+Count de Salis's impartial methods did not always please the population,
+which was by a large majority against the former king's return and--as
+he clearly stated--heart and soul for Yugoslavia. Balkan people do not
+yet, to any great extent, appreciate your desire for truth or even your
+honesty if you should give a hearing to their antagonists. The Cetinje
+public, therefore, organized a demonstration or two against the Count.
+They would have preferred that he should reach the afore-mentioned
+conclusions without such an exhaustive study of the case. He noted that
+there had been certain irregularities in the Yugoslav administration,
+but it was inevitable that in those unsettled times the inexperienced
+officials would not prove equal to every emergency. These officials, by
+the way, in 1919 were not Serbs from Serbia, but for the most part
+native Montenegrins. "The country is occupied and administered by
+foreigners," said[43] Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P. "Montenegro," said he,
+"is full of Serb officials." I suppose one must receive it more with
+sorrow than with anger if a man like Mr. Massingham of _The Nation_
+says that the Serbs "have deposed the Montenegrin judges, schoolmasters,
+doctors, chemists and local officials, and set up their own puppets."
+While he might have assumed that the long years of War had left the
+Serbs with a very inadequate supply of officials for the old kingdom, he
+would have ascertained, if his sources had been more trustworthy, that
+Glomažić, the very human prefect of Cetinje, is a native of
+Nikšić, that Miloš Ivanović, the mayor, is from the Ku�i,
+near Podgorica--and he was a magistrate under Nikita; that Bojović,
+the prefect of Podgorica, is a barrister of the Piperi, while
+Radonić, the mayor, was an artillery officer, then a political
+prisoner and then the food administrator under Nikita; that
+Jaouković, the prefect of Nikšić, was a magistrate under the
+old régime--he comes, I believe, from the Mora�a; Zerović, the
+mayor and an ex-magistrate, is a native of Nikšić; that the
+prefect of Antivari, Dr. Goinić, is a doctor of law whose home is
+between Antivari and Virpazar; that Boško Bošković, the prefect
+of Kola�in, won great fame as an officer under Nikita, while
+Minić, the mayor, was Nikita's chief of the Custom-house. As for the
+doctors who left the country, these consisted of Matanović and
+Vulanović, who have gone to Novi Sad and Subotica respectively, as it
+is easier to make a living in those towns than in Montenegro. There are
+now three Yugoslav doctors at Cetinje (Odgerović, Radović--both of
+whom were doctors in the time of Nikita--and Matanović, a young man);
+they are all Montenegrins. So, too, with the chemists and the
+schoolmasters and the post and telegraph officials--I am sure that Mr.
+Massingham will excuse me if I do not mention all their names.
+
+Since there are quite a number of Montenegrins in the Serbian
+administration and army, all the officers and men, for example, of the
+2nd--the so-called "iron"--Regiment being of Montenegrin origin, one
+fails to see for what reason a Serb should be debarred from posts in
+Montenegro. It is unfortunate when people use the word "Montenegrin"
+without knowing that there is no separate Montenegrin nation, in the
+sense that there is a French or Italian nation. The Montenegrins are a
+small section of the Serbian nation, which sought a refuge among the
+bare, precipitous mountains and, unlike the other Serbs, maintained its
+independence. One should, therefore, to avoid confusion, speak of Serbs
+of Serbia and Serbs of Montenegro rather than of Serbs and Montenegrins.
+The purest Serbian is spoken in western Montenegro, on the borders of
+Herzegovina; those districts are ethnically different from the southern
+region, centring round Cetinje, which is the real old Montenegro, and
+the north and north-eastern parts, called the Brda, which in speech and
+customs are akin to the south. In western Montenegro, as in Herzegovina,
+the people, who live among their mountains on milk and its products, are
+very prolific, having families of eight or ten children. They are a very
+healthy, moral race.
+
+Another pro-Nikita, anti-Serbian writer, excusable only on account of
+his insignificance, is Mr. Devine, who teaches, I am told, at a school
+near Winchester and seems very unwilling to be taught. If he wishes, by
+producing a book on the subject, to show other people that he knows
+painfully little about Montenegro, that is his own affair. But he is
+just as ignorant with regard to his hero. He says that he "is in a
+position to state that there is not one single word of truth in the
+insinuations and charges impugning the absolute integrity and loyalty of
+King Nicholas towards his Allies." The King was, according to Mr.
+Devine, a defenceless old man whom it was very bad form to attack. But
+the King had been defending himself at considerable length not only in a
+harangue to his adherents in a Paris suburb, but also on various
+occasions in a newspaper, the _Journal Officiel_--and both the speech
+and long extracts from the newspaper are quoted, with approval, in Mr.
+Devine's book. This quaint person is so frantically keen to pour
+whitewash over Nikita that he has no time to listen to the main
+treacheries of Nikita's career. "Malicious falsehoods!" he
+splutters--and they can be traced to horrible pan-Serbians. He has
+reason to believe that they wish to make Serbia the Prussia of the new
+Federation; well, the Croats and the Slovenes and the Bosniaks and all
+the others cannot say that Mr. Devine has not warned them. My
+Montenegrin friend Mr. Burić stated in the columns of the _Saturday
+Review_ that this odd gentleman had nourished the ambition of becoming
+Montenegrin Minister to the Court of St. James, but that the plan did
+not succeed. I never saw Mr. Devine's denial--perhaps it fell into the
+clutches of a ruthless pan-Serbian printer. Naturally, Mr. Devine would
+not care to be the diplomatic representative of a villain; therefore,
+when he is brought face to face with certain definite charges he
+persists in replying "not in detail, but from the broad point of view."
+He is so exceedingly broad that when an accusation is levelled against
+the King he sees in this an accusation against the entire country--a
+country which unfortunately, as he says, "alone of all the Allies has no
+diplomatic representative in this country." Mr. Devine continues
+unabashed to repeat and repeat his pro-Nikita stuff in various
+newspapers. "Il y debvroit avoir," says Montaigne, "quelque corection
+des loix contre les escrivains ineptes et inutiles, comme il y a contre
+les vagabonds et fainéants...." Not long ago I happened to see that this
+egregious person described himself as "Hon. Minister Plenipotentiary for
+Montenegro," but another gentleman, Sir Roper Parkington, a pompous
+wine-merchant, announced in the Press that he had become "Minister
+(Hon.) of Montenegro." Perhaps one of them has resigned, and our poor
+overworked Foreign Office will not be invited to decide between a
+Minister (Hon.) and an Hon. Minister.
+
+
+THE MURDER OF MILETIĆ
+
+The Italians' stay at Kotor was drawing to an end. "We have no
+aggressive intentions," said Signor Scialoja, the Foreign Minister, "and
+we shall be glad if we are able to establish with our neighbours on the
+other side of the Adriatic those amicable relations"--and so forth and
+so forth. This he said on December 21, but if the Government was imbued
+with the same principles in August it is unfortunate that it omitted to
+instruct the responsible officers in Dalmatia. The Yugoslav commander,
+Lieut.-Colonel Ristić, heard one night that the Italian General at
+Dobrota was harbouring at his residence no less than twenty-one
+Montenegrin pro-Nikita komitadjis. They were clad in Italian uniforms,
+and, as a torpedo-boat and a motor-launch were always kept with steam
+up, could be shipped off at a moment's notice to Italy. Colonel
+Ristić sent his adjutant to make inquiries, and the Italians gave
+their word of honour that no Montenegrins were in the house. In order to
+avoid a conflict Colonel Ristić then requested the French General to
+send an officer; but this gentleman was not received by the Italians.
+Four or five Montenegrins, with an Italian lieutenant, came out of the
+house and fired at the twenty gendarmes who now encircled it. The fire
+was returned--all the Montenegrins and the Italian were killed. After
+this the French police disarmed the remaining Montenegrins and
+imprisoned them; and on the following day, much to his chagrin, the
+Italian General was told to take up other quarters at Mula, so that he
+was separated by the French and the Yugoslavs from Montenegrin
+territory.... Not long after this a certain Captain Miletić was
+cycling late one afternoon on the road to Mula. Five or six Italian
+soldiers lay concealed, and so expertly did they murder him that his
+friends who were cycling a hundred paces ahead and other friends who
+were fishing very near the spot in a boat heard nothing whatsoever. It
+was eight days after this when the Italians had to go from Kotor and the
+neighbourhood.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO RIEKA
+
+The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The more suave Tittoni,
+who had succeeded Sonnino, was hoping with the help of France to hold
+his own against Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with a
+large strip of hinterland should become a separate independent State
+under the League of Nations. An arrangement was also proposed by which
+the city was to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
+have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations were still in
+a nebulous state, but certain proposals were going to be put into force
+which were suggested by the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With
+French, American, Italian and British representatives this commission
+had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations was to the effect that
+public order should be maintained by British and American police; on the
+very day (September 12) that the British military police were to
+inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took matters into his own
+hands. He rose, he tells us, from a bed of fever and, refusing to
+recognize the Nitti Government, he marched with the appropriate
+theatrical ceremonies, into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he called
+the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the _Santa Entrata_--the
+Holy Entry--was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of blood.
+Rieka, the stage of many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the
+quaintest in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of a
+General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command of the town and a
+rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to recognize his authority. They seemed
+to be on the best of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
+that he was still in supreme command. Being invited on the following
+morning to explain the situation at a conference on board the U.S.S.
+_Pittsburg_, at which were present the Allied naval and military
+commanders, General Pittaluga informed them that he would be responsible
+for the maintenance of order and that nothing was to be considered
+altered in the government of the town. Forty minutes later, without
+consulting the Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
+himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent message to
+the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing for the Allied occupation of
+Constantinople, d'Annunzio's Foreign Department informed him that "the
+Legionaries of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
+police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the tortured city."
+Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate was at that time acting in
+collusion with Rome--his defiance and their thunders being included in
+the stage directions--or whether he was a real rebel. We may assume that
+Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer and that if officers and
+civil servants diverted Government cargoes into his hands they were not
+acting as Government agents. As for large numbers of these officials,
+their secret understanding with d'Annunzio received many proofs. On
+September 29 the _Era Nuova_ reported that, two days before, Major
+Reina, d'Annunzio's Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had
+an interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps. Illuminating
+also is the report, in the _Era Nuova_ of October 27, of a test case at
+Genoa, when a sergeant was tried for leaving his regiment and going to
+Rieka. The prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
+The court accepted the plea of the defence, which was that the court
+could not condemn or dishonour a soldier who was only guilty of
+patriotic sentiment. Moreover, it transpired that those who returned
+from Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties, were
+granted three weeks' leave and a reward of 100 lire. One observed that
+when the S.S. _Danubio_ left Å ibenik for Rieka with sixty
+waggon-loads of coal, the captain received his sailing orders from the
+Royal Italian port-officer. When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on
+that same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by Vice-Admiral
+Millo, who was supposed to be governing Dalmatia in the name of the
+Entente.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which
+had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be
+joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
+regardless of that which happened to the mediæval one. The C.N.I. could
+now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of
+or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of
+issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a
+thousand. He did a great many other things--he ruined, for instance, the
+economic life of the town. Everything had for a time gone swimmingly.
+The Chief of the Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of
+numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great Italian patriot.
+Such was the feeling of the majority of the army and navy, so that the
+Government in Rome was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am
+telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent of the
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_. "I have received a call from a superior hidden
+force, and though the fever burns within me I am consoled, because the
+War has made me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this
+mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have anything to do with
+the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported by the Parliament and the more
+responsible people, was openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly
+by the profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold taxation
+programme, by which he hoped to bring 30 milliards of francs into the
+Exchequer. The Nationalists assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army;
+and in northern Italy there were many who realized that an army which
+can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day, rally to
+Bolševism. No other troops remained in Rieka, the small French and
+British detachments having been withdrawn. Before this happened there
+occurred a repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French
+soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors who greatly
+outnumbered them. Some of the French were Annamites, than whom no more
+harmless persons can be imagined.[44] And it was in order to avoid such
+untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were evacuated.
+D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka was one of the problems which
+the Peace Conference had failed to solve, and now they were in much the
+same inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned Turkey
+not to mobilize, since they would not allow the Balkan Confederation to
+make an attack, and after the attack gave it out that the Balkan States
+would not be permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme Council
+in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A little patience,"
+begged Tittoni, "and my Government will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we
+want," exclaimed Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"--and the
+Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it was not Italy
+which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which wanted Italy. They would do their
+best, although so many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would
+sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his
+administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether distasteful
+to certain intriguers who were interested in the future of Triest. There
+might also arise, to the satisfaction, of other intriguers, an armed
+conflict with the Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the
+Yugoslavs' attitude. Perhaps these barbarians--as they are often styled
+in Italy--were confident that justice would prevail. Perhaps they
+thought that they could bide their time, and certainly what happened at
+Trogir was not calculated to reassure the Italians.
+
+
+THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR
+
+The little, ancient town of Trogir lay some twelve miles to the south of
+the demarcation line. Its inhabitants, with the exception of five
+Italophil families, are Yugoslav; and in the month of September 1919 the
+Yugoslav army was represented by eight men. Truth compels us to mention
+that on a certain night these men, instead of doing patrol duty, were
+sleeping off the effects of a carouse; and when the townsfolk looked out
+of their windows in the morning they saw machine guns and Italian
+soldiers. At 4 a.m. they had crept into the town with the help of a
+certain Conte Nino di Fanfogna, who had assembled a National Guard of
+thirty peasants, the employees of those five families. Conte Nino was
+striding to and fro; he muttered threats of death. Some of the chief
+men, such as Dr. Marin Katalinić, Dr. Peter Sentinella and others,
+came together and were at a loss for some effective means to chase out
+the Italians, since they had not even a revolver. An American boat
+appeared, but the captain, when appealed to, said that he was only
+cruising and could not come ashore. In the town hall Count Nino,
+labouring under some excitement, dismissed the mayor; and when Ferri,
+the mayor, told him to go about his business, he protested that he was
+the dictator and would, if necessary, use force. Outside in the square
+the Italians and the people stood face to face, and suddenly a few
+Yugoslav flags were fluttering, and then an old man, Dr. Sentinella's
+father, climbed up to the place in the town hall where the Italian flag
+had been hoisted. He tore it down. The soldiers were for shooting him,
+but the people began pulling the rifles out of their hands. Other
+soldiers, full of apprehension, dropped their rifles; the people picked
+them up, and those who were unacquainted with the mechanism cried out
+certain awe-inspiring sounds. Women and children--I fear this will not
+be believed; it is none the less true--women and children removed some
+of the men's helmets, and one group of children turned a helmet into a
+football. "I am a father of a family!" cried a soldier. "I am innocent,
+I have been deceived!" cried another. "O, Mama mia!" cried a third. They
+wept, they bolted into the courtyards, and the women showed them little
+mercy, for they tore off the men's belts and even struck them with their
+fists. A Mrs. Sunjara routed four men and went home with their machine
+gun on her back. In a few minutes the square was free of soldiers, and
+forty rifles were stacked in the town hall. Fifty soldiers on the quay
+were dealt with by a butcher who started firing at them; when they heard
+the shouts of the approaching crowd they threw down their weapons and
+fled. Two large motors escaped; the third was intercepted at the bridge,
+and although young Sentinella, who ordered them to stop, had forgotten
+his own rifle, they all--thirteen men and two officers--threw theirs
+away. It was suggested that the running soldiers should be pursued.
+"No," said an old man, "for we would kill them all. Let them rather go
+back without arms or helmets. It will frighten the others." ... Two
+hours later a party of Serbian soldiers arrived, but they were not
+needed, save for the protection of those who had thrown in their lot
+with the Italians. From Split, a few miles away, 1500 volunteers, who
+speedily assembled, came with knives or agricultural implements or any
+other weapon. "The Yugoslavs must realize," said Nitti, "that it is to
+their interest to maintain sincere relations of friendship with Italy."
+
+
+THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR MINORITIES
+
+The Yugoslav Government--as if it had not sufficient problems to
+solve--was ordered now by the Peace Conference to accept sundry
+regulations as to the rights of minorities, the transit of goods, and an
+equitable régime for international commerce. The other States which had
+inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them, faced with the same
+demands; and they objected that to sign such Articles was inconsistent
+with their sovereignty. The most onerous item--relating to the racial
+and religious minorities--had been imposed--at America's instance, owing
+to the manner in which the Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King
+Charles' promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller number of
+Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned only for the principle of
+independence. Not having persecuted the Jews they resented having to
+undertake that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit. "I
+will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the Orthodox Bishop of
+Veršac to a deputation of Jews, when he made his formal entry into
+the town of Pan�evo. And when they stared at him, "It is not
+tolerance that I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition
+in the Yugoslav Skupština might have exhibited more kindliness in its
+attitude towards the Government and have refrained from rousing a storm
+against the signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government and the
+Opposition being practically of equal strength, the Ministers, who in a
+calm atmosphere could have explained the realities of the situation,
+found themselves at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that
+they would be assuming obligations which they had assumed already. In
+Macedonia, as any traveller could see, the time-honoured custom of
+persecuting him who happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the
+authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference between
+themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the difference consisted in
+praying for the Exarch instead of the Patriarch in the liturgy there was
+not the slightest persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to
+become Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new spirit which
+informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the Bulgarian army, afterwards
+came back to Macedonia. Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian
+Moslems were expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration
+was shown to them--at Ghevgeli, for instance, where building material
+was, after the War, so scarce that many of the inhabitants had nothing
+but a hole in the ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had
+been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.
+
+
+OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN ANTISEMITISM
+
+If the Serbs were to express their grievance against the Roumanian
+ruling class for having landed them in this position, the Roumanians
+would reply that the Serbs do not run the same risk as themselves of
+being swamped by the undesirable Galician Jew. The Roumanians argue that
+their peasants will go under if they are not shielded. "In our last
+great manœuvres," said the late King Charles to M. de Laveleye,[45]
+"it was proposed to entrust the supply of food to Christians. On the
+first day the provisions came; on the second everything was late; on the
+third day the whole army was dying of hunger. I was forced to make a
+hasty appeal to the Jews. They have great qualities--they are
+intelligent, energetic, economical; but these very qualities make them
+dangerous to us on economic grounds." Roumanians acknowledge that the
+agrarian policy of a few vast landowners and a submerged peasantry did
+not admit of peasants being made more formidable by increased education,
+and they doubt whether their country-folk, so fond of music and dancing
+and drinking, have it in them to rival those Serbian non-commissioned
+officers who, early in 1919, became millionaires by skilful operations
+on the money market in the Banat. Yet the Serbs are as much addicted as
+anyone to the aforementioned delights, and it is probable that the
+Roumanian boyars do their own people an injustice. But while the people
+were favoured at the expense of the immigrants--not always very
+effectively: the Jews have been prohibited from owning land, yet a fifth
+of the whole of Moldavia belongs indirectly to a single Jew--one would
+suppose that some distinction might have been made between the more or
+less pernicious alien who is apt to get the village into his toils and
+that other Jew whose family has lived perhaps two hundred years in the
+country, who feels himself a Roumanian but is legally a foreigner. One
+Magder, a Jewish barrister, performed such exploits at the front during
+the Great War that he was mentioned in the communiqué, a distinction
+only conferred upon two other soldiers. For one and a half years the
+official publications insisted on Roumanizing his name into Magdeu,
+after which three Cabinet meetings occupied themselves with the subject
+and finally announced that the error was not intentional but
+typographical. A French officer wished the Roumanian Croix de Guerre to
+be given to him, but Headquarters refused the request on the ground that
+he was a Jew. One cannot blame the United States for taking the
+initiative in compelling the Roumanians to modify their legislation,
+since the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin were merely carried out to the
+extent of naturalizing a maximum of fifty Jews a year, each case having
+to undergo innumerable formalities, accompanied with payments to
+deputies and others that rose to 30,000 francs. Many Jews volunteered
+for the army in 1913 for the sake of thus obtaining the naturalization
+that was promised them as a reward; but these promises were frequently
+not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred during the Great War: the
+_Moniteur Officiel_, No. 261 (of February 2, 1918), printed a decree
+relating to one Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had
+been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous September.
+Kaufman was condemned to death, and the others to five years' hard
+labour. When the King was asked to deal more equitably with the three
+men, Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour without limit,"
+_i.e._ for life. It is superfluous to give many illustrations: at
+Falticeni seventy-two Jews were imprisoned without a trial for four
+months, though twelve of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of
+1877, while most of the others had sons at the front; at the village of
+Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out of their synagogue in
+order to listen to a speech in which he advised the Christian soldiers
+to watch them well, as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there
+were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was less than
+ardent--and who can blame them? In the 69th Regiment a special corps of
+Jews was clothed in the discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to
+the enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid 14 francs a month
+for spying on his Jewish comrades. At the battle of Savarat, to cover
+the retreat of three battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed--one
+hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second lieutenant; all but
+three of them were killed or wounded. After this retreat the General,
+who lost his head, commanded that the survivors should be killed
+wholesale on account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they were
+so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and only executed two Jews,
+Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha, _pour encourager les autres_. A young
+doctor, 2nd Lieutenant Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted typhus
+at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards he was sent to the 26th
+Regiment and kept under observation; it was most suspicious, said the
+authorities, that a Jew should return from France for his military
+service. A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could supply
+incriminating evidence against the doctor, but this was offered in vain.
+The Jews, by the way, were told that while they would be removed from
+menial positions in the hospitals they "would be tolerated" as
+doctors--and nearly a hundred of these doctors died on active service.
+
+The better class of Roumanians, such as Take Jonescu, is opposed to such
+methods--he was therefore charged with being in the pay of the Jews,
+although he was a wealthy man (a very successful barrister) whom
+politics made poorer. It remains to be seen whether the
+Roumanians--whose position with regard to the Jews is, partly through
+their own fault, not without peril--will be willing to put into effect
+those reforms to which the Supreme Council compelled them to subscribe.
+The Article in question will probably become a moral weapon, since the
+Roumanians regard themselves as on a higher level than the Balkan
+peoples, and will not desire that continual complaints should be made
+against them. One does not expect their prejudices and their
+apprehensions to be suddenly renounced--instead of judging each case
+individually, the railway administration, after the Government had
+agreed that the Jews _en bloc_ could become citizens, barred them _en
+bloc_ from that particular service by requiring that candidates should
+present their certificates of baptism. The Agricultural Syndicates have
+also introduced a statute which limits their organizations to Roumanian
+citizens who profess the Christian religion. Gradually--one hopes, for
+the sake of their country--the Roumanians will bring themselves to adopt
+a less timorous spirit, and to acknowledge that it is more dangerous to
+the Fatherland if a Jew as such is prevented than if he is permitted to
+hold the office of street-sweeper. From such lowly public offices, or
+from that of University Professor, no citizen should be excluded on
+religious grounds or admitted to them "by exceptional concession." And
+if a Jewish cab-driver at Bucharest is so severely flogged by his
+passengers outside the chief railway-station that he succumbs in the
+hospital to his injuries--a fate that overtook one Mendel Blumenthal, a
+man fifty-three years of age, in September 1919--one trusts that a
+newspaper article asking for an inquiry will henceforward not be
+censored. "It is true," said Dr. Vaida-Voevod, then the Prime Minister,
+"that the Jews still evince some reluctance to assimilate intellectually
+with our people or to identify their interests with those of the
+Roumanian State. But goodwill should be shown on both sides, and the
+overtures should be reciprocal." Thanks very largely to the former
+Liberal Premier, M. Bratiano, whose party was responsible for much
+illiberal legislation--one of his powerful brothers was popularly said
+to eat a Jew at every meal--the Supreme Council acted in such a manner
+as to produce a particularly unwanted crisis in the Yugoslav political
+world. Neither Roumanian nor Yugoslav need, in the opinion of Take
+Jonescu, have considered that their dignity was being slighted, for the
+tendency of the League of Nations is to limit the free will of each of
+them. The cardinal doctrine of the League, as Lord Robert Cecil has
+pointed out, is that its members are _not_ masters in their own house,
+but must obey the decision of the majority. However, the Opposition in
+the Belgrade Skupština could not resist from using the delicate
+situation for what many of the deputies thought was a patriotic course
+of conduct, and nearly all of them regarded as an admirable party cry.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 1: _The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th
+    Division._ London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: _Contemporary Review_, February 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 3: Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at
+    Washington.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: _Fortnightly Review_, June 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, December 13, 1918.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: _Land and Water_, May 29, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: _Nineteenth Century and After_, November 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: _Au Secours des Enfants Serbes._ Paris, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: Several old wooden warships, such as the _Aurora_,
+    the _Schwartzenberg_ and the _Vulcan_, were lying for years in
+    Å ibenik harbour, where they were used as repair-ships,
+    store-ships, etc. When the Italians evacuated Dalmatia they
+    took these vessels with them, but whether on account of their
+    contents or their history we do not know.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: Cf. _Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von
+    Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters_, by Dr.
+    Constantin Jire�ek. Prague, 1879.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: It is instructive to examine the attendance
+    figures at the schools of this the only Italian town of
+    Dalmatia, as the Italians call it. The figures are those of the
+    school year 1918-1919, and refer both to elementary and
+    secondary schools:
+
+                      YUGOSLAV SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 342
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     331
+    Combined Elementary School                "     222
+    Higher Elementary School for Girls        "     121
+    Teachers' Training College                "      70
+    Classical College                         "     469
+                                                   ----
+                         Total of Yugoslav Pupils, 1555
+                                                   ----
+
+                      ITALIAN SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 250
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     221
+    Higher Elementary School                  "      93
+    Classical College                         "     157
+    Technical College                         "     181
+                                                   ----
+                           Total of Italian Pupils, 902
+                                                   ----
+
+    I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by
+    Mr. Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations,
+    to inform the readers of _Land and Water_ (June 5, 1919) that
+    "Zara is quite Italian." He added that "Sebenia is Italian
+    too." If this be so, how comes it that in 1919 the Italian
+    authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
+    (Å ibenik)--which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers
+    to--with machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very
+    lurid threats of Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I
+    believe it is nearer the truth to say that the population of
+    this town consists of some 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400
+    _Italianists_.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless
+    patriotism, said the _Tablet_ (January 1, 1921), he "had
+    defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the
+    Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the
+    Italians."]
+
+    [Footnote 13: The population of Veprinac, according to the last
+    census, is: Yugoslavs, 2505 (83·7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0·8
+    per cent.); Germans, 422 (4·1 per cent.).]
+
+    [Footnote 14: Pribi�ević issued a statement to the effect
+    that the interviewer, Magrini, had put into his mouth the
+    precise opposite of what he had said with regard to Triest and
+    Pola. Pribi�ević had told him that the whole of Istria,
+    with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini that a
+    third person was present at the interview.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in
+    Albania had been concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded
+    by Yugoslav troops, as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had
+    disappeared, and the Russian prisoners employed there--about
+    500 men--had also vanished. In order to keep off nocturnal
+    plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to fire a few shots
+    now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the two
+    Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
+    night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their
+    injuries--is it not possible that they were out for plunder and
+    that this incident should not be used to illustrate what Mr.
+    Beaumont (of the _Daily Telegraph_) calls "the worst
+    characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the troops?
+    During the twenty days of the Yugoslav régime their authorities
+    sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these
+    warehouses to the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally
+    said in Rieka that the Italians in four days had given away six
+    million crowns' worth, that large quantities of flour were
+    removed until the British put a stop to this, and that the
+    robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
+    or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a
+    mysterious manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any
+    rate have been as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some
+    investigation. Since they failed to do so, it is natural that
+    gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the Italian
+    population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
+    waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the
+    stores of the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.]
+
+    [Footnote 16: Most people have assumed that this was done in
+    order that Rieka should be left to Austria-Hungary, although
+    they should have taken with some grains of salt this Italian
+    generosity which presented the Habsburgs with a good harbour
+    instead of one of those others in Croatia which the Italians of
+    to-day are never weary of extolling. The real reasons why Rieka
+    was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the _Secolo_
+    (January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
+    it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the
+    right of the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this
+    case the same principle must be admitted for the people of
+    Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing majority. But this is
+    precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."]
+
+    [Footnote 17: The Italianist employés of the Rieka town council
+    who took the census in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they
+    were acquainted with the Italian language; those from whom they
+    received an affirmative reply were put down as Italians. Had
+    they, on the other hand, asked the people if they spoke
+    Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes, there
+    would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have
+    remained not one single Italian--certainly not the members of
+    the Italian National Council--as everyone, he says, speaks and
+    knows Croat. This is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes
+    of Rieka are bound up with those of its suburbs and the
+    hinterland.]
+
+    [Footnote 18: Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals,
+    General Grazioli claimed supreme command of all the Allied
+    troops, but this the French General refused, maintaining--much
+    to the disgust of the Italians--that he was under the orders of
+    Franchet d'Espérey, who was then in command of the Army of the
+    Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve in their
+    own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
+    one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the
+    sole object of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to
+    General Grazioli should by chance be posted to the town. The
+    disrespectful Allies used to call Caneva "the man in the
+    cellar."]
+
+    [Footnote 19: The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's
+    collapse, was stirred the most profoundly by its postage stamps
+    was Zagreb. In order to commemorate the establishment of the
+    new State the Croatian Post Office published four stamps, which
+    were on sale on November 29. The whole edition consisted of
+    100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted to Zagreb, the
+    rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious that
+    there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
+    check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that
+    they should be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that
+    each purchaser would only be allowed to buy a limited quantity.
+    At 8 a.m. the sale began, but at seven many hundreds of people
+    were waiting outside the chief post office, the post office at
+    the station and another in the Upper Town. The face value of
+    the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At first they
+    were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
+    to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000
+    had been printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10
+    crowns for it, in order to complete their sets. At noon the
+    offices were all shut, as the rush was considered too
+    dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in the great hall at the
+    Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside. Nearly all
+    the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken. At
+    the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the
+    sentries. The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the
+    post offices had no stamps left (and citizens who had been
+    waiting all day to buy an ordinary stamp could not be served).
+    At 5 p.m. people who for the first time in their lives were
+    taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500 crowns from
+    collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
+    exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one
+    thousand crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers
+    were willing to give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of
+    boots, others were asking for sugar, coffee or petrol. The
+    price which was ultimately established was 250 crowns.]
+
+    [Footnote 20: Out of the hundreds of available documents it
+    will suffice if I print one. It is the report, given in his
+    words, of a Dalmatian, a native of Sinj, who having been an
+    emigrant could write in English. "On July 1915 I came to the
+    Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the lines and
+    deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
+    of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a
+    voluntary into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was
+    answered by Italian authorities in the negative. After the
+    Congress of Rome in 1918 I and some of my comrades who had
+    recently applied for admission were permitted to join the
+    Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away sent to the front
+    of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard bayonet
+    fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian
+    Commander for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own
+    request I was sent to the front, where I remained up to the
+    break-up of Austria or until we Yugoslav legion were disarmed
+    by Italians and as a reward for our participation in the war we
+    were interned as prisoners of war at Casale di Altamura in the
+    province of Bari. Four days after my internment I succeeded in
+    sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
+    Dalmatia. (Signed) JAKOV DELONGA."]
+
+    [Footnote 21:
+
+        "In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro
+         L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,
+         Perche piangi, o fratello croato,
+         Il figiul che in Italia mori."
+
+    ("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible
+    Habsburger has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother,
+    it weeps for the dear son who died in Italy.")]
+
+    [Footnote 22: April 23, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 23: Cf. _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie._ Paris,
+    1917.]
+
+    [Footnote 24: The Italians are very poorly served by some of
+    their advocates. For years they persisted in demanding the
+    execution of whatever in the Treaty or Pact of London was
+    obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded as obsolete another
+    clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
+    Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and--if I rightly
+    understand the Italophil Mr. H. E. Goad--they were justified
+    because, forsooth, Bulgaria had entered the War on the other
+    side. To say that the idea of this small Albania, with
+    corresponding compensations to the Serbs and Greeks, was held
+    out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a very wise
+    remark. However, "ne croyez pas le père Bonnet," said
+    Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-même lorsque
+    je dis du mal du père Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes
+    brouillés." Let the reader trust in nothing but the facts, and
+    I hope that those which I present are not an unfair selection.]
+
+    [Footnote 25: When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard
+    about the secret Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov.
+    The interview is said to have been stormy, for the Russian
+    Minister, according to the _Primorske Novine_ (April 23, 1919),
+    "had not the most elementary knowledge of the Slav nature of
+    Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
+    Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said
+    to have been no better informed than Sazonov.]
+
+    [Footnote 26: And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's
+    Prime Minister, was the central figure of a reception given by
+    Lord Sydenham at the Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship
+    I must add that in an hour's conversation he impressed me with
+    the fact that he was even less acquainted with Plamenac's
+    antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs, which
+    he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords,
+    endeavouring there--until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him--to play
+    the part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.]
+
+    [Footnote 27: We shall see that the subsequent history of this
+    officer was less laudable.]
+
+    [Footnote 28: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 29: This very able priest became Vice-President of
+    the Council of Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was
+    formed. When Cardinal Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of
+    1919 a Mass was celebrated by the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister,
+    the British Cardinal and a French priest who was an aviation
+    captain in the army. Monsignor Korošec's position reminds
+    one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
+    was the Archbishop of Trnovo.]
+
+    [Footnote 30: Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 31: Cf. _The New Europe_, March 27, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 32: There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic
+    Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kova�i�a) who,
+    having lost something between his house and the post office,
+    insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest papers. But the
+    Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three years
+    after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
+    Debelyacsa--where the _intelligentsia_ called the sympathetic
+    Serbian notary by his Christian name--not one of the
+    inhabitants proposed to remove to Hungary. No doubt the
+    goodness of the soil had something to do with this decision,
+    but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No military
+    service was as yet exacted--all that the Magyars had been asked
+    to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of
+    war. The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary
+    before the War still exercised their functions, and--in
+    contrast with what had previously been the case--both the
+    Magyar and the Serbian language were taught, the latter from
+    the third class upwards. Altogether there was perfect harmony
+    between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was there the only
+    racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was the
+    resolve of their _intelligentsia_ to have, as centre-half in
+    the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish
+    player.]
+
+    [Footnote 33: The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that
+    the Foreign Office was bound to behave to Italy, one of the
+    Great Powers, with a certain deference. They also recognize
+    that the Foreign Office is not actuated by malevolence if she
+    treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of the
+    strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir
+    Richard Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a
+    series of diplomatic automata. After all, these automata, who
+    have spent more or less laborious years in the service, have to
+    be deposited somewhere. But if one does not demand of the
+    Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending to the
+    Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man
+    as the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched
+    too late to Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be
+    maintained--it has happened before now that we have been
+    represented in a Balkan country by a Minister who, some time
+    after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing with those
+    people and of which Great Britain was one of the high
+    contracting parties; when taxed with this omission the
+    aforesaid Minister hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.]
+
+    [Footnote 34: October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 35: This has been done, but to a much more limited
+    extent, in Hungary where several hundred men who distinguished
+    themselves in the European War have been granted the Gold Medal
+    for Bravery, which entitles each of them to a goodly portion of
+    land. This the recipient may not sell, but he need not leave it
+    to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested in
+    agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to
+    exhibit outside his house a notice which informs the world that
+    he possesses this most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our
+    eyes the strangest privilege the Medal carries with it is the
+    permission to write "Vitez" (which is the Hungarian for
+    "brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji Sandor is
+    decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
+    Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not
+    only is the honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all
+    his sons and by their sons. We might imagine that a man would
+    shrink from permanently calling himself Brave John Smith,
+    especially if he has been very brave, but the average Magyar
+    will not feel excessively awkward, since he is not altogether
+    repelled by that which is garish.]
+
+    [Footnote 36: The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be
+    the work of a generation. They are beginning on the very large
+    estates, those which run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in
+    calculating the price to be paid, 40 per cent. is deducted for
+    the State on properties of this size. On those of between
+    20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so on
+    down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the
+    holdings of from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the
+    Government's intention in Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such
+    properties as are badly administered, and, by a wise proviso,
+    when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for example, that
+    the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State is
+    suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various
+    political parties, go down to investigate. If they find that
+    the accusation is not justified and that the place is
+    satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge is
+    obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.]
+
+    [Footnote 37: The trouble arose at the end of May when a number
+    of citizens of Å ibenik, men and women, donned the American
+    colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warship
+    _Maddalena_, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The
+    Å ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on the words of
+    Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed that
+    any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
+    with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore
+    them off and explained that it was done by the General's order.
+    Italian officers did not interfere while ladies were being very
+    roughly handled. A certain Jakovljević, a shopkeeper, who
+    had sold an American flag, was imprisoned. On the same evening
+    a number of prominent citizens were summoned before the town
+    commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows: "A Croat, a
+    Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
+    American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye,
+    the ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't
+    go to the _Maddalena_ to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall
+    prevent it! You are the leaders who will be responsible for
+    anything that happens to-morrow." [This was the eve of the
+    Italian national celebration of June 1.] "Our arditi are
+    blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of yours
+    receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
+    Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent
+    milliards and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr.
+    Miše Ivanović remarked: "I beg your pardon, but the Paris
+    Conference has not yet decided the fate of these territories."
+    And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided! But even if we
+    had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we shall
+    destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and
+    40,000 men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by
+    the town commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was
+    testified by the signature of all those who were present....
+    When, in 1921, the Italians were leaving Å ibenik they
+    destroyed a large number of young trees in the park and
+    elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
+    millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian
+    purpose.]
+
+    [Footnote 38: In view of what the census said with regard to
+    this place it is superfluous to add that when an Italian
+    officer in my hearing asked one who was stationed there if
+    there was any social life, the other answered: "None at all;
+    the whole population is Slav." I find that _Modern Italy_
+    (published in London) quoted with approval the following
+    telegram which appeared, it said, in the _Tempo_ of May 9: "A
+    remarkably enthusiastic celebration took place at Obrovazzo.
+    Several thousands, including representatives of the
+    neighbouring villages, formed a procession and marched through
+    the town. In the principal piazza, the President of the
+    National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which
+    was enthusiastically applauded."]
+
+    [Footnote 39: It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but
+    one decoration, the highest among those to which they are
+    entitled. To illustrate this Serbian modesty regarding
+    honorifics, I might mention that one evening at the house of a
+    Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to whom he had
+    been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had won
+    the Obilić medal for bravery and several other decorations
+    which--and his case was typical--he had not troubled to
+    procure.]
+
+    [Footnote 40: June 24, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 41: May 15, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 42: Mr. Leiper in the _Morning Post_ (June 23, 1920)
+    scouts the idea of these malcontents being the supporters of
+    Nikita, who "were all laid by the heels or driven out of the
+    country long ago--largely by the inhabitants themselves." He
+    observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil--its
+    frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and
+    policies. The nations, he points out, are not two but one--one
+    in blood, in temperament, in habits, in tradition, in language;
+    round the fireside they tell their children the same stories,
+    sing them the same songs: the greatest poem in Serbian
+    literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
+    Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian
+    State came into existence it has been, he says, the constant,
+    burning desire of the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may
+    well rub our eyes at a letter in the same newspaper from Lord
+    Sydenham, who makes the perfectly inane remark that this
+    constant, burning desire was never probable. "Montenegro
+    already _is_ Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
+    in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set
+    himself up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro;
+    therefore he cannot countenance the Leiper articles, which give
+    him "pain and surprise." Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a
+    shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted with the language,
+    should disagree with him? "The great mass of the people," says
+    Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their determination that
+    Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham: "I am
+    afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been misled by
+    the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
+    familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed
+    correspondent of his in Montenegro who says that the people
+    there are terrified of speaking. It is much to be desired that
+    a little of this terror might invade a gentleman who plunges
+    headlong into matters which he does not understand.]
+
+    [Footnote 43: Cf. _Morning Post_, November 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 44: A most vivid account of this affair was
+    contributed to the _Chicago Tribune_ (July 13, 1919) by its
+    correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan, one of the two neutral
+    eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that as Italy was an
+    interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in the
+    decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her
+    forces were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In
+    alliance with the city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian
+    soldiers attacked the French: "I can state emphatically," says
+    Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards did nothing whatever to
+    provoke the assault, some details of which would blot the
+    escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France
+    killed, after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could
+    scarcely believe my ears when Italian officers rapped out the
+    order to load. But they seemed to remember that Frenchmen can
+    fight." However, he also saw an Italian officer who "prevented
+    this murder and held back the civilians who were trying to
+    reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of this
+    officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game
+    little soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers
+    of Italy!' I wish I knew this officer's name." At another part
+    of the harbour, "A British naval officer, fearing that the
+    wounded Frenchman would be stabbed inside the court to which he
+    was dragged, followed the body and defied the captain of
+    carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the close "I was
+    no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness. The
+    British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
+    the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken
+    part in the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The
+    British Admiral wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian
+    officer running and bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are
+    willing to explain all....' American naval officers of the
+    destroyer _Talbot_ were also among this post-mortem crowd. In a
+    French motor bearing two Italian officers who stood up to ward
+    off possible shots, came a French captain. He was of that calm,
+    splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard, a
+    knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
+    flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep
+    down in that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer
+    tell him that the French had started the most regrettable
+    affair by firing on the Italian ships. The officer spoke this
+    falsehood under the glazed stare of the French dead and the
+    protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain nodded his
+    head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only pick up
+    the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside
+    her child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking
+    episode is contained in _A Political Escapade: The Story of
+    Fiume and d'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London,
+    1921). His narrative is extremely well documented--he appears
+    to have been a member of the British Mission. "It is
+    incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men could attack
+    the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover, they
+    were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French
+    garrison was small and had no intention of putting up a
+    defence." One of the lesser outrages described by Father
+    Macdonald, since it was not attended with fatal results, was
+    that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who from his window
+    saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver an
+    unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
+    room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed
+    bayonets and they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard
+    tried to intervene and received a blow on the arm dealt with
+    the butt end of a rifle. At this juncture an Italian officer
+    appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come without further
+    delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside greeted
+    Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
+    street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse
+    against France and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he
+    was brought into the presence of an Italian officer to whom he
+    was personally known. This gentleman, looking very uneasy,
+    refused to give the name of his brother-officer, but caused the
+    Frenchman to be released.]
+
+    [Footnote 45: Cf. _The Balkan Peninsula_ (English translation).
+    London, 1887.]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF--THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM--THEIR WISH
+FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE--FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES--SOME OF
+RIEKA'S SCANDALS--PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA--DESPITE THE NEW
+PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM--THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN
+YUGOSLAVIA--OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH--THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA--A
+GENERAL--TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST--THE BELATED TREATY OF
+RAPALLO--ITS PROBABLE FRUITS--NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV
+PARLIAMENT--(_a_) MARKOVIĆ, THE COMMUNIST--(_b_) RADIĆ, THE
+MUCH-DISCUSSED--THE SERBS AND THE CROATS--THE SAD CASE OF
+PRIBIĆEVIĆ--LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS--WHICH ONE
+GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE--MEDIÆVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA--THE STRICKEN
+TOWN--HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF
+
+When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan War, into the historic
+town of Prilep a certain soldier sent his family an interesting letter,
+which was found a few years afterwards at Niš and printed in a book.
+One passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point of
+mediæval history between the soldier and a chance acquaintance.
+"Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this town?" And the man of Prilep
+recognized at once that his catechist was not referring to the actual
+possessor but to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same question
+was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that Rieka was Italian then and
+for ever, and that he who proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a
+mutilated war-combatant. Most of the citizens, as time went on, began to
+think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's annexation to another
+land, which was the work of Nature. Those who did not entertain this
+view were the salaried assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who
+had bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as mistress of
+Rieka, would change them into lire, even if she did not give so good a
+rate as at Triest. The poet addressed himself to the France of Victor
+Hugo, the England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not to the
+business men of Rieka, who would have told him that 70 per cent. of the
+property, both movable and immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 per cent.
+was Italian and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to
+listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand men, to
+Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and won him over. Whether he
+would have persuaded Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must
+gravely doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we may take
+as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound to be true. I am not bound
+to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand
+with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right, and
+part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the wilful trespass
+committed by Italians on the property and rights of the Yugoslavs and
+the oft-repeated guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the
+American Government against such invasion, it is passing strange that
+d'Annunzio should have appealed to Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for
+Admiral Millo, he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his fortunes
+with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the populace a very fiery
+speech. It is not known whether he communicated with the France of
+Clemenceau, the England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson, whose
+representative he apparently continued to be for the rest of Dalmatia,
+while relinquishing that post with regard to Zadar, his residence.
+
+
+THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM
+
+If Admiral Millo's rebellion had been published in the press of November
+16th, it is most likely that 250, instead of 160, Socialists would have
+been successful at the General Election--an election which Signor
+Nitti, that very able parliamentarian, had brought about for the
+purpose, amongst other things, of testing the forces and popularity of
+the Nationalist party. The old Chamber had--voicing the wishes of the
+people--voted for the open annexation of Rieka, without war or violence;
+the Nationalists, in order to gain their ends, would seemingly have
+stopped at nothing. Military adventures, the breaking of alliances,
+agrarian and industrial upheaval--it was all the same to them. They
+scoffed at the common sense of the imperturbable Nitti when he said that
+the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, must return to the plough.
+Furiously they harped upon the facts that bread was dearer now, that
+coal was nearly unprocurable. And Giolitti, who in 1915 had strenuously
+tried to keep the country neutral, said in a great speech before this
+1919 election that the War had been waged between England and Germany
+for the supremacy of the survivor and that Italy should never have
+participated. He enlarged upon the fearful sufferings of his countrymen,
+and he compared the gains of Italy with those of her Allies. Nor was he
+deterred when Signor Salandra, the former Premier, called him Italy's
+evil spirit who, devoid of any patriotism, would have sold the
+Fatherland to the Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on
+whom 300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before the
+declaration of war, had good reason to know that even if Giolittism had
+melted away, the House had secretly remained Giolittian.
+
+A new electoral system was introduced, whereby the people voted for
+programmes and parties rather than directly for individual candidates.
+This, it was hoped, would render corruption more difficult by enclosing
+the individual within the framework of the list, and it was also hoped
+that there would be less violence than usual. As a matter of fact there
+probably was a diminution with respect to these two practices, but only
+because of the large number of abstentions--merely 29 per cent. voted in
+Rome, 38 per cent. in Naples, and in Turin scarcely more. The people
+were tired of the excessive complexity and dissimulation of Italian
+politics. There was a good deal of violence--in Milan, Florence, Bologna
+and Sicily the riots were sometimes fatal--and with such an electorate,
+more extensive than heretofore, so that symbols had often to be used
+instead of the printed word, it was to be expected that there would not
+be an atmosphere of even relatively calm discussion. At Naples 132
+candidates struggled for eleven seats--their meetings were
+indescribable. And it may be thought that in such conditions the
+victorious parties would not necessarily reflect the wishes of the
+country. The Nationalists were dispersed, the Giolittians were
+routed--the Socialists increased from 40 to 156, and the Catholics from
+30 to 101. Gabriele d'Annunzio had been the Socialists' chief elector.
+
+
+THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE
+
+There was now a fair hope that the Government would be in a position to
+solve the Adriatic problem. The Italian delegates in Paris had suggested
+that, in the independent buffer State, Rieka should have a separate
+municipal status, and that a narrow strip of land should join the buffer
+State to Italy. On December 9, a memorandum was signed by the
+representatives of Great Britain and America, which was the best
+compromise which anyone had yet proposed. The strip was dismissed as
+being "counter to every known consideration of geography, economics and
+territorial convenience." [Nevertheless this very dangerous expedient of
+the strip, after having been thus roundly rejected by the Allies, formed
+a part of the Treaty of Rapallo in November 1920--the Yugoslavs had most
+generously given way rather than leave this exasperating Adriatic
+problem still unsolved.] Rieka with her environment was to be a _corpus
+separatum_--and this was the chief point which made the proposals
+inacceptable to Italy. That Socialist group which is represented by the
+_Avanti_ seemed to be the only one whose attitude was not intransigeant.
+The question of Rieka, it argued, was not isolated, but should be
+considered as one of the numerous questions of Italian foreign politics.
+It laughed at those who every moment cry "Our Fiume," because there are
+in the town many people who speak Italian. Other groups of Socialists
+had altered very much from the day when the three delegates--Labriola,
+Raimundo and Cappa--spoke of the Adriatic at the Congress which Kerensky
+summoned to Petrograd. Labriola was considered the most arrogant and
+chauvinist of the trio, but not even he demanded Rieka--there was no
+question of it at the time. Still less did he dream of Zadar or
+Å ibenik; what he pleaded for was Triest, Istria and an island.... In
+December 1919 some Italian Socialist papers were printing reports on the
+economic life of Rieka, which was in a disastrous condition. But the
+great majority of Italians were so bent upon securing Rieka that they
+did not seem to care if by that time she were dead. And they threw a
+little dust into their eyes, if not into the eyes of the Entente, by
+declaring that if they did not annex Rieka that unhappy, faithful town
+would annex them. The self-appointed Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of
+Rieka was, however, at this time less preoccupied with the Madre Patria
+than with her own very troublesome affairs; she had no leisure to
+organize those patriotic deputations to Rome, which sailed so frequently
+across the Adriatic and which, as was revealed by Signor Nitti's organ
+_Il Tempo_,[46] were too often composed of speculators who liked to
+receive in Italy the sum of 60 centesimi for an unstamped Austrian paper
+crown that was barely worth ten. The disillusioned C.N.I. would have
+given a good many lire to be rid of d'Annunzio; the citizens were
+invited to vote on the following question: "Is it desirable to accept
+the proposal of the Italian Government, declared acceptable by the
+C.N.I. at its meeting of December 15, which absolves Gabriele d'Annunzio
+and his legionaries from their oath to hold Rieka until its annexation
+has been decreed and effected?" On December 21, in the Chamber, Signor
+Nitti announced that more than half the citizens had voted and that
+four-fifths of them were in favour of the suggestion of the C.N.I. But
+d'Annunzio, whose adherents by no means facilitated the plebiscite,
+proclaimed it null and void. Yet, after all, Italy had likewise, on
+every occasion when the Yugoslavs suggested a plebiscite under impartial
+control, refused to sanction it.
+
+
+FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES
+
+Then suddenly a ray of light shone through the clouds. The ever-cheerful
+Signor Nitti, after a conference with Lloyd George and Clemenceau--no
+Yugoslav being present, whereas Signor Nitti was both pleader and
+judge--was authorized to say that the December memorandum had been
+shelved. Terms more favourable to Italy were substituted and the
+Yugoslav Government were told they must accept them. One of these terms
+was to modify the Wilson line in Istria, ostensibly for the protection
+of Triest and in reality to dominate the railway line Rieka-St.
+Peter-Ljubljana; another of the terms was to present Italy with that
+narrow corridor which in December the Allies had so peremptorily
+disallowed. No wonder the American Ambassador in France gave his
+warning. "You are going," he said, "much too far and much too quickly.
+President Wilson cannot keep pace with you." The French Government was
+passing through a period of change, and these new proposals, as was
+underlined in the _Temps_,[47] emanated from London. Mr. Lloyd George,
+who may have wished for Signor Nitti's aid in his offensive against
+France in the Russian and Turkish questions, was this time very badly
+served by his intuition. The Yugoslavs were ordered to accept the new
+proposals or to submit to the application of the Treaty of London, that
+secret and abandoned instrument which--to mention only one of the
+objections against it--provided for complete Yugoslav sovereignty over
+Rieka, a solution that, in view of Italy's inflamed public opinion, was
+for the time being impracticable. And while the Yugoslavs were told that
+Rieka would, under the Treaty of London, fall to them, no details were
+given as to how d'Annunzio was to be removed. "Nous sommes dans
+l'incohérence," as Clemenceau used to say of the political condition of
+France before the war. Seeing that the Italian Government and the C.N.I.
+had shown themselves so powerless, were France and England going to turn
+the poet out? But Mr. Lloyd George was more fortunate than Disraeli,
+whose error in the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina had had such dire
+results; on February 13, a very firm note was issued by President
+Wilson, which compelled France and Great Britain to withdraw from the
+position they had taken up. Wilson would have nothing to do with the
+notorious corridor, though Clemenceau had said on January 13, to the
+Yugoslav delegates: "Si nous n'avions pas fait cette concession, nous
+n'avions pas eu le reste." "The American Government," said Wilson,
+"feels that it cannot sacrifice the principle for which it entered the
+war to gratify the improper ambition of one of its associates, Italy, to
+purchase a temporary appearance of calm in the Adriatic at the price of
+a future world conflagration." The rejoinder of the French and British
+Premiers was a trifle lame, and when they ventured to add that they
+could not believe that it was the purpose of the American people, as the
+President threatened, to retire from the treaty with Germany and the
+agreement of June 28, 1919, with France unless his point of view was
+adopted in this particular case, which, in their opinion, had "the
+appearance of being so inadequate," they were not caring to remember
+that while their own countries and Italy were suffering from a lack of
+food-stuffs and provisions were being imported at a disastrous rate of
+exchange from the United States, the products of Yugoslavia, such as
+meat and meal, could not be obtained because Rieka, which ought surely
+to serve its hinterland, was at that moment not available, owing to
+d'Annunzio. At the same time the President did not go to the opposite
+extreme of simply allocating the port to Yugoslavia, which the
+application of the Treaty of London would involve. He preferred to act
+on the principle that the differences between Italy and the Yugoslavs
+were inconsiderable, especially as compared with the magnitude of their
+common interests. And direct negotiations between the two parties were
+to be recommended, with the proviso that no use be made of France and
+Great Britain's immoral suggestion that an agreement be reached on "the
+basis of compensation elsewhere at the expense of nationals of a third
+Power." It had indeed been proposed that the Yugoslavs should be bribed
+by concessions in Albania, but this idea was very explicitly rejected
+and on more than one occasion by the Yugoslav delegates in Paris.
+
+While, in the following months, the Yugoslavs and the Italians
+negotiated, the task of their delegates was impeded by the occasional
+Cabinet crises in Belgrade and in Rome. It was made no easier by those
+Italians who clamorously objected to the remark of Clemenceau, when he
+said that both Yugoslavs and Italians had been compelled to fight in
+Austria's army. The _Corriere d'Italia_ told him that he displayed the
+zeal of a corporal to defend the Yugoslavs. After alluding to his
+"historical inexactitudes," it reminded him of the Italians who were
+slain at Reims and the Chemin des Dames, but as usual omitted to speak
+of the French soldiers who fell in Italy. And, while the negotiations
+were being carried on, Gabriele d'Annunzio clung to his town. The
+compromise of a mixed administration seemed to have small chance of
+being realized. It had been proposed by that Inter-Allied Commission
+which was set up to investigate the circumstances of the French
+massacre; and the Italian delegate, General di Robilant, not only said
+in his report[48] to the Senate that this compromise was most favourable
+for Italian aspirations but he is alleged also to have included some
+very drastic criticism of the actions of the high military authorities,
+whom he charged with unconstitutional interference. Nevertheless neither
+the poet nor the Premier were as yet in a tractable mood with regard to
+the Rieka problem. Signor Nitti, parading his bonhomie, championed the
+cause in a more statesmanlike fashion; he did not, like d'Annunzio,
+evoke the world's ridicule by his footlight attitudes and those of his
+faithful supporters who, when his "Admiral" Rizzo abandoned him, when
+Giorati his confidant withdrew, when even Millo advised moderation, took
+certain piratical steps in order to keep the garrison supplied with
+food,[49] and composed an anthem which on ceremonial occasions was
+chanted in the poet's honour. But when Signor Nitti observed, with the
+utmost affability, that Rieka had, after the fall of the Crown of St.
+Stephen, become mistress of her own fate and as such, regardless of the
+Treaty of London, asked for inclusion in Italy, he, the Prime Minister,
+was vying in recklessness with d'Annunzio. The prevailing sentiment both
+in Triest and Rieka, said the _Times_,[50] was that both these towns
+should become free ports in order to serve their hinterlands, which are
+not Italian. "Italy is neglecting Triest in favour of Venice," says the
+dispatch. In Rieka, where the situation was even worse, "an honest
+plebiscite, even if confined to the Italian part of the city, would give
+a startling result. The Italians of Rieka are convinced that their
+existence depends on good relations with the Yugoslavs. They wish the
+town and port to be independent under the sovereignty of the League of
+Nations. This I have recently been told by a large number of Italians in
+Rieka who are obliged, in public, to support d'Annunzio." Signor Nitti
+must have been aware that the voice of the C.N.I. was very far from
+being the voice of Rieka. The C.N.I. had reasons of their own for
+wishing to postpone the day when their arbitrary powers would come to an
+end and a legal Government, whether that of the League of Nations or of
+the people's will or of Italy or of Yugoslavia, be established.
+
+
+SOME OF RIEKA'S SCANDALS
+
+Owing to the complaints of innumerable citizens the C.N.I. had nominated
+a Commission to inquire into the pillage of the former Austrian stores
+at Rieka--this town, as we have mentioned, had been the base for the
+Albanian army--and the findings of that Commission displayed the
+culpability of the most prominent members of the C.N.I. This document
+was for a long time unknown to the general public, but was afterwards
+published in Italy by Signor Riccardo Zanella, himself an Italian and an
+ex-deputy and ex-mayor of Rieka. There was, by the way, an article in
+the Triest paper, _Il Lavoratore_, at the beginning of September 1920,
+wherein one Tercilio Borghese, a former member of d'Annunzio's army,
+confesses that on June 21, he was ordered by d'Annunzio, as also by
+Colonel Sani and Captain Baldassari, to get Signor Zanella in some way
+out of the world. Hinko Camero and Angelo Marzić, his fellow-workers,
+had likewise to be removed; and for this purpose Borghese says that the
+Colonel provided him with a revolver. He was also to try to seize any
+compromising documents. But he was forced by his conscience to reveal
+everything to Zanella.... Now this confession may be true or false, but
+the Triest "fascisti" (Nationalists) believed in it, for they issued a
+placard on which they called Borghese a traitor and threatened him with
+death. "He who after November 1918 returns to the martyred town," writes
+Signor Zanella, "is simply stupefied in beholding that those personages
+who now strut on the political scene, burning with the most ardent
+Italian patriotism, are the same who until the eve of Vittorio Veneto
+were the most unbending, the most eloquent and the most devoted
+partisans and servants of the reactionary Magyar régime." And around
+them a number of more or less questionable persons were assembled, whose
+conduct with regard to the disposal of the Austrian stores has now been
+so severely censured. That organization which, dependent on the C.N.I.,
+was supposed to administer the stores, was known as the Adriatic
+Commission. "We all knew," said the Commission of inquiry, "that the
+eyes of the whole world were gazing at our little town." It was,
+therefore, very desirable that nothing irregular should be done; whereas
+the judges give a most unfavourable verdict. Nobody, they say, would
+rejoice more than themselves if their conclusions should be shown to be
+completely or partly erroneous, for they are all of them penetrated with
+love for the fatherland Italy. But they relate, with chapter and verse,
+a large number of peculiar transactions which show that the goods were
+very improperly and very hastily auctioned, and that those who reaped
+the benefit were nearly always the same people. To give one instance,
+some of the wine, said to have been damaged, was sold at 260 crowns the
+thousand litres, while undamaged wine brought 320 crowns, and the firm
+of Riboli, the only one which appeared at the so-called auction, was
+only asked to pay 30 crowns. Thus a considerable number of people in
+Rieka were anxious that the town should not come under any Government
+which might punish the culprits or make them disgorge. And Nitti and
+d'Annunzio agreed with these interested parties in opposing a solution
+other than the overlordship of Italy. "The Yugoslavs should understand,"
+said the amiable Premier, "that Italy has no intention of acting in a
+manner distasteful to them, but is struggling for a national ideal." And
+meantime what of the conditions in the poor distracted town?
+"D'Annunzio," says an Italian paper, "is no longer the master of Rieka.
+He has become the prisoner of his own troops.... While he amuses himself
+and organizes the worst orgies, his troops quarrel in the streets and
+discharge their weapons.... A great many of them have their mistresses
+in the hospital, where they make themselves at home. When the doctors,
+after some time, protested, the arditi, with bombs in their hands,
+threatened to blow up the hospital if they were not allowed to enter
+it." On the other hand the pale, weary-looking poet succeeded in
+impressing on a special correspondent of the _Morning Post_ that he was
+"master of his job." He told this gentleman--and was apparently
+believed--that with the consent and approval of the C.N.I. he had had
+the whole place mined, city and harbour, and was prepared to blow it up
+at a moment's notice. The means by which d'Annunzio, according to his
+interviewer, worked on those who were depressed with gazing at the empty
+shops, the silent warehouses, the grass-grown wharves, so that the
+overwhelming majority of the town supported him, was by simply making to
+them an eloquent speech. D'Annunzio would indeed be the master of his
+job if with some rounded periods in Italian he could cause the very
+numerous hostile business men to forget so blissfully that they were
+men of business. Under his dispensation the town is said to have been
+turned into a place of debauchery. Accusations were brought against his
+sexual code, and with regard to men of commerce: "those who are not
+partisans of d'Annunzio are expelled, and their establishments handed
+over to friends of the ruling power.... Woe to him who dares to condemn
+the transactions of the poet's adherents. There and then he is
+pronounced to be a Yugoslav, is placed under surveillance and is
+persecuted." These Italian critics of the poet do not in the least
+exaggerate. One instance of his conduct towards a British firm will be
+sufficient. The "Anglo-Near East Trading Company" shipped sixty-seven
+cases (5292 pairs) of boots to private traders in Belgrade, and on the
+way they reached Rieka just before d'Annunzio. In March 1920 they were
+still detained there, and on the 13th of that month a certain Alcesde di
+Ambris, who described himself as the Chief of the Cabinet, wrote a
+letter saying that the boots were requisitioned, and that they would be
+paid for within thirty days at a price fixed on March 5 by experts of
+the local Chamber of Commerce. The company was offered forty lire a
+pair, but they declined to accept so inadequate a sum. Señor Meynia, the
+Spanish Consul, who was also representing Great Britain, attempted in
+various ways to help the firm; he was finally told by an officer that
+the "exceptional situation of Rieka compels the Authority to suspend the
+exportation or transport of such goods as are thoroughly needed here."
+And the Consul could do no more than protest. One might presume, from
+this officer's reply, that d'Annunzio required the boots for his army.
+As a matter of fact, they were simply sold to a couple of dealers, one
+Levy of Triest and Mailänder of Rieka. It is alleged that the prices
+paid by these receivers of stolen property was a good deal higher than
+forty lire. When Signor di Ambris travelled to Rome in the merry month
+of June and enjoyed a consultation with the Prime Minister, who by this
+time was Signor Giolitti, it was not in order to explain any such
+transactions as that one of the boots, but for the purpose, we are told,
+of offering the services of d'Annunzio and his legionaries in Albania.
+The regular Italian army was just then being roughly handled by the
+natives.... It may be that Signor di Ambris wanted guarantees that if
+the d'Annunzian troops were to come to the rescue, they would not suffer
+the fate of the Yugoslavs who in the Great War had managed to desert to
+Italy, had valiantly fought and won many decorations and--after the
+War--been ignominiously interned. And they had given no grounds for
+charges of financial frailty.
+
+
+PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA
+
+The months go by and Yugoslavia still survives. At the post-office of a
+large village in Syrmia, not far from Djakovo, where Bishop Strossmayer
+laboured during fifty-five years for the union of the Southern Slavs
+which he was destined not to see, a bulky farmer told me that in his
+opinion Yugoslavia, created in 1918, was now in 1920 "kaput." He deduced
+this from the fact that a telegram used to travel much more
+expeditiously in Austrian days; but he did not remember that the
+Yugoslavs, in the Serbian and in the Austro-Hungarian armies, had
+suffered enormous losses in the War, and that while French, Dutch and
+Swiss doctors have been obtained by the Belgrade Government, one cannot
+use telegraphists who are ignorant of the language. An excellent
+province in which Yugoslavia's solidity can be studied is Bosnia. At the
+outbreak of the War the Moslems and Croats were not imbued with the
+Yugoslav idea; it seemed to them that the Serbs, one of whom had slain
+the Archduke, were traitors to Southern Slavdom. During the War the
+Croats and Moslems were taught by their Slav officers to be good
+nationalists and were given frequent lessons in the art of going over to
+the enemy. After the Armistice one did not see every Serb, Croat and
+Moslem in Bosnia forthwith forgetting all the evil of the past. Among
+the less enlightened certain private acts of vengeance had to be
+performed; but these were not as numerous as one might have expected.
+And very soon the population of Bosnia came to be interested far less in
+the old religious differences--the two deputies Dr. Džamonia and
+Professor Stanojević smilingly remembered the day when, as
+schoolboys at Sarajevo, they had been persuaded by the Austrians to pull
+out each other's hair for the reason that one was a Croat and one was a
+Serb--and now it was the engrossing subject of Agrarian Reform which
+claimed the attention of Catholic, Orthodox and Moslem. This is not a
+religious question, for while the landlords are mostly Muhammedan begs
+about half the peasants are of the same religion; and the negotiations
+have been marked by a notable absence of passion. Most of the begs
+acknowledge that the old régime was unprofitable, for with the peasant
+paying one-third to one-fifth of his production to the landlord the land
+only yielded, as compared with the sandy districts of East Prussia, in
+the proportion of five to twenty-two. Under the new order of things,
+with the State in support of the "usurping" peasant--so that there are
+said to be in Bosnia about a thousand peasants who are millionaires (in
+crowns)--there is no longer any dispute with regard to the "kmet" land,
+where the peasants with hereditary rights have become the owners; and
+with regard to the "begluk," which the beg used to let to anyone he
+pleased, it is only a question as to the degree of compensation. Thus,
+it is not among the landowners and the peasants that one must look in
+searching for an anti-national party. Bosnia contains various iron works
+and coal mines, where profession is made of Communism. But when the
+Prince-Regent was about to come to pay his first official visit in 1920
+to Sarajevo the Governor received a communication from the Communists of
+Zenica, which is on the railway line. They asked for permission to
+salute "our Prince" as he came past; and a deputation of these
+Communists, who are very like their colleagues in other parts of
+Yugoslavia, duly appeared and took part in a ceremony at the station.
+
+
+DESPITE THE NEW PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM
+
+Just as innocuous--whatever the enemies of Yugoslavia may say--are the
+Communists in the old kingdom of Serbia. Perhaps in the whole State of
+Yugoslavia they number 50,000 in a population of about 12,500,000. But
+they are so well organized that in the municipal elections of 1920 they
+were victorious in most of the towns. In Belgrade they secured 3600
+votes, as compared with 3200 for the Radicals, 2800 for the
+Democrats--both of whom were not only badly organized but very
+slack--and 605 for the Republicans. However, the Communists refused to
+swear the requisite oath, and in consequence were not permitted to take
+office, the Radicals and Democrats forming a union to carry on. It was
+agreed to have a new election and the other parties, being now awakened,
+determined that the Communists should not again top the poll. But in the
+provincial towns they have not by any means shown themselves a
+disintegrating influence. At Niš, for example, they conducted the
+municipal affairs quite satisfactorily, while at ÄŒuprija they
+perceived that it would be impossible to put into effect their entire
+programme, and so, after fourteen days, they resigned.
+
+
+THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN YUGOSLAVIA
+
+... As for the Communists in the Skupština, it may be argued that
+though this party of over fifty members has ceased to exist we should
+have said not simply that they are innocuous but that they have been
+rendered so. They were in principle against any State which violated
+their somewhat hazy ideas on the subject of Capital: while professing to
+aim at the holding of wealth in common they secured a great deal of
+their success at the polls through the bait of more land for the
+individual, which they dangled before the eyes of the most ignorant
+classes. Some of the electors who supported them were prosperous farmers
+unable to resist the idea of a still larger farm; but the majority of
+their adherents were as ignorant as they were gullible. Yet one should
+remember that for most of them this was practically their first
+experience of an election: the constituencies which had formerly been in
+Austria-Hungary had always seen the booths under the supervision of the
+police, while the Macedonian voter (three Communists were returned for
+Skoplje) had only known the institutions of the Turkish Empire. Being
+told by the Communists that their box at the polling-station was really
+the box for the poor, the Fukara, all the gypsies and so forth of
+Skoplje, who had never voted in their lives, hastened to claim the
+privilege, under the impression that a Communist Government would
+liberate them from taxes and military service. Other reasons for the
+success of the Communists in Yugoslavia, an essentially non-industrial
+State, were the general discontent with post-war conditions, and the
+virus which so many of the voters had acquired in Russia or on the
+Dobrudja front during the War. The activity in the Skupština of this
+very indigestible party--largely composed of Turks, Magyars, Albanians,
+Germans and others--their activity in and out of Parliament was not
+confined to words. In June 1920 they only refrained from throwing bombs
+in the Skupština because one of their own members would have been in
+peril, and in December a plot against the Prince-Regent and some of the
+Ministers was foiled. Thereupon the Emergency Act of December 27, the
+so-called Obznana, came into existence. It suspended all Communist
+associations. This Act was issued for the good of the country, but was
+not previously presented to the Constituent Assembly or provided with
+the royal signature. How justified were the authorities in thus putting
+a stop to this party could be seen when some of the Communist deputies
+were interrogated, for either they were dangerous fanatics or else very
+ignorant individuals, who knew no more about any other question than
+about Communism, and had only been elected because they professed
+dissatisfaction with things in general. A few months later Mr.
+Drašković, the very able Minister of the Interior, who had drawn
+up the Obznana, but who by that time had laid down the seals of office,
+was murdered by Communists at a seaside resort in the presence of his
+wife and little children. The object of this particular outrage was to
+persuade the authorities in panic to withdraw the hated Obznana, whereas
+the previous attempts on various personages seem to have been greatly
+due to the desire to show some positive result in return for the cash
+which came to them from Moscow. (One of the leaders of the party, the
+ex-professor of mathematics, was arrested last summer in Vienna on his
+return from Moscow, with a large and very miscellaneous collection of
+English, French, American, Russian and other money.) After the murder of
+Mr. Drašković the mandates of the Communist deputies were
+suppressed; seven or eight of them were detained, for speedy trial, and
+the rest were told to go to their homes. The Communist parliamentary
+party was at an end--it was established that their Committee room in the
+Skupština had been used for highly improper purposes--but there was
+nothing to prevent these ex-deputies from being elected as members of
+any other party, and it was rather beside the mark for an English
+review, the _Labour Monthly_,[51] to talk of the "White Terror in
+Jugo-Slavia," as if there prevailed in that country anything comparable
+with Admiral Horthy's régime in Hungary.
+
+
+OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH
+
+The behaviour of the Communists was far from being the only clog in
+Yugoslavia's parliamentary machine. After the first General Election of
+November 1920--delayed until then on account of Italy's attitude, which
+made it impossible to demobilize the army--no single party nor even one
+of the large groups was possessed of a real working majority. Fierce and
+determined was the Opposition;[52] to carry on the business of
+government it became necessary to secure the coalition of several
+parties. The Radical and Democrat _bloc_ had to attract to its side one
+or two other parties, and it was truly difficult to make concessions to
+anyone of these without rousing the righteous or the envious wrath of
+another group. In principle it was proper that the Bosnian Moslems
+should receive compensation for their estates; the question is whether
+the very large sum was less in the nature of a fair price than of a
+bribe. The Radical party was no longer under its happy triumvirate of
+Pašić, the old diplomat, Protić, the executor of his ideas, and
+Patchoù, a medical man from Novi Sad, the real brain of the party. We
+shall give an example of Patchoù's prudence; the long views which he
+possessed may be illustrated by what occurred at a meeting of Radical
+deputies two days before the outbreak of the second Balkan War. The
+Tzar's proposed arbitration was being discussed and certain deputies,
+such as the late Dr. Pavlović, who was the first speaker of the
+Yugoslav Parliament after the Great War, raised their voices in
+opposition; they were supported by the army. "Can we have Bitolje
+(Monastir)?" they asked. "It is not known what the Tzar will decide,"
+said Pašić. "Then we can't accept arbitration," said Pavlović.
+And Patchoù spoke. "I would be very glad to know," said he, "what Mr.
+Pavlović would say if we could get, by possibly now sacrificing
+Bitolje, not only Bosnia, but Dalmatia and other Slav countries." "All
+that," said Pavlović, "is music of the future." "For you perhaps,"
+said Patchoù, "but not for us." And the vote in favour of arbitration
+was carried. Patchoù died in 1915 at Niš. Besides being an expert in
+finance and foreign affairs he was less arbitrary in his methods than
+Protić. That very erudite man--no sooner does an important book
+appear in Western or Central Europe than a copy of it goes to his
+library--has not been much endowed with patience. This brought him into
+conflict with his Democratic colleague Mr. Pribi�ević, the most
+prominent man in that party. It would have been well if Dr.
+Davidović, the gentle, tactful leader of the party, could have taken
+into his own composition one-half of his lieutenant's excessive
+combativeness. Pribi�ević and Protić find it impossible to work
+together, and we can sympathize with both of them. One day at a more
+than usually disagreeable Cabinet meeting Pribi�ević reminded the
+then Prime Minister that he was the first among equals, a point of view
+which did not square with the methods of Protić, who gives his
+support to those Ministers who bend before him. And as Pribi�ević
+has hitherto insisted on being in every Cabinet, Protić has withdrawn
+and has started a newspaper, the _Radical_, in which he attacks him with
+great violence and ability. One charge which he brings against this Serb
+from Croatia is perfectly true, for he has succeeded in alienating the
+Croats. Only two or three Democrat deputies come from Croatia, and they
+are elected by the Serbs who live in that province. It would seem that
+the Croats will remain in more or less active opposition so long as
+Pribi�ević, the arch-centralizer who scorns to wear the velvet
+glove, stays in the Government. There is also much doubt as to whether
+Protić can break down their particularism, which, of course, is not
+an anti-national movement. But luckily, through other men, it will be
+stayed. For other reasons one regrets that Mr. Protić is not now in
+power; as the Finance Minister he knew how to introduce order,
+preferring the interests of the State to those of his party. Both
+Radicals and Democrats have been reluctant, for electoral purposes, to
+tax the farmer; and Mr. Protić would probably have the courage to
+impose a direct tax, as the Radicals did, without losing popular favour,
+in the old days. In this respect and concerning the numerous posts that
+have been created for party reasons it is thought that Mr. Pašić
+has not displayed sufficient energy.
+
+There was in Yugoslavia a heavy war deficit, both economic and
+financial. Communications were out of order and the State, owing to the
+adverse exchange (which was not justified by the economic potentialities
+of the country, but was probably caused by the unsettled conditions both
+internal and external), the State could not obtain the necessary raw
+products for industrial undertakings such as iron-works, tanneries,
+cloth factories, etc. The Yugoslavs did not borrow from abroad, as they
+might have done, in the form of raw materials. The agricultural products
+which were exported should have been sold for the needful manufacturers'
+material and not for articles of luxury and not for depreciated foreign,
+especially Austrian, currency.[53] The Yugoslav public is slow to learn
+economy, that it should restrict the importation of luxuries. What makes
+it particularly unhappy, in which frame of mind it listens to the voices
+prophesying woe for Yugoslavia, is the knowledge that for increased
+production and for many other necessary aims more capital is wanted,
+whereas under present conditions it has been difficult to borrow. But
+happily in this respect the corner has been turned, and in the spring of
+1922 a considerable loan was negotiated with an American syndicate.
+
+
+THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA
+
+However, the principal disintegrating force in Yugoslavia, we were often
+told in England, was Montenegro, where, it seems, the natives were
+yearning to cast off their yoke. The British devotees of the former king
+told us of the ghastly state of Montenegro, and our Foreign Office was
+bombarded with reports which ascribed these evils to the wretched
+Government of Yugoslavia. "There is nothing anywhere," says a memorandum
+from the ineffable Devine. "The shops are empty, the town markets are
+deserted. The peasants, who may not travel from one village to another
+without a Serbian 'permit' ... etc. etc." Well, I visited Cetinje market
+on a non-market day, and passing through the crowd of people I admired
+the produce of various parts of the country--melons, tomatoes, dried
+fish, onions, peaches, nuts and cheese, lemons from Antivari and so
+forth. I happened to ask a comely woman called Petrie�ević from
+near Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised at such a
+question. It is very true that the more mountainous parts of Montenegro
+are far from prosperous, but to insinuate that this is the fault of the
+Government is childish. Hampered by the lack of transport--practically
+everything has to be brought on ox-carts up by the tremendous road from
+Kotor--they have recently given away 38,000 kilos of wheat and many
+mountain horses at Cetinje. I suppose it was all in the game for Devine
+and his assistants to throw mud at the Yugoslav Government if they
+believed that they would--for the happiness of the Montenegrins and
+themselves--help to restore Nikita. But what was the use of saying that
+"the poor people have no money and have nothing to eat; they are said to
+be living on a herb of some sort that grows wild in the mountains"?... A
+very satisfactory feature of the past year has been the migration of
+7000 Montenegrins to more fertile parts of Yugoslavia. And as for
+Nikita's partisans, they were such small beer that when they wished to
+hold a meeting at Cetinje the Government had not the least objection; it
+also allowed them to sing the songs that Nikita wrote, but that was more
+than the population of Cetinje would stand. It is only at Cetinje, where
+he reigned for sixty years, and at Njeguš, where he was born, that
+Nikita has any adherents at all. As for his adherents at Gaeta, the
+Cetinje authorities were perfectly willing to give a passport to any
+woman who desired to spend some time in Italy with her husband or
+brother or son. She might stay there or come back, just as she pleased.
+And very likely when she got to Gaeta she would relate how in the
+cathedral, at the rock-bound monastery of Ostrog, and in other sacred
+places, one could see the Montenegrin women cursing their ex-king.
+
+
+A GENERAL
+
+The sinister shadow of d'Annunzio had fallen across Dalmatia and beyond
+it: for instance, on November 20, 1919, the King of Italy's name-day, a
+general holiday was proclaimed in the occupied districts. The director
+of the school at Zlosela, a Slav who had never been an Italian subject,
+gave--perhaps injudiciously--the usual lessons. He and his wife were
+arrested and for months they were in prison, their six-months-old child
+being left to the mercy of neighbours; and the local commandant, Major
+Gracco Golini, told Dr. Smol�ić, the President of the National
+Council, that the slightest action on the part of the Yugoslavs would
+provoke terrible measures on the part of d'Annunzio's arditi, who would
+spare neither women nor children.... The reader may remember the
+Montenegrin General Vešović, who took to the mountains and defied
+the Austrians. On the accession of the Emperor Karl he surrendered and,
+much to the surprise of his people, he travelled round the country
+recommending every one to offer no more opposition, to be quiet and
+obedient to the Austrians. When the war was over the authorities at
+Belgrade gave him, as they did to other Montenegrin generals, the same
+rank in the Yugoslav army; but the numerous Montenegrins who resented
+his unpatriotic behaviour persuaded the War Office, after two or three
+months, to remove him from the active list. This exasperated the
+ambitious man to such an extent that he withdrew to his own district and
+began to work against Yugoslavia. A major with a force of 200 gendarmes
+was sent to fetch him back and, after conversations that lasted ten
+days, induced him to return to Belgrade. There he was not molested; he
+used to sit for hours in the large café of the Hotel Moscow in civilian
+clothes. But one day a policeman at the harbour happened to observe him
+talking for a long time to a fisherman; he wondered what the two might
+have in common. When the fisherman was interrogated he refused at first
+to give any information, but he finally divulged that he had agreed, for
+1500 francs, to take the General down the Danube either to Bulgaria or
+Roumania. That evening at nine o'clock the General appeared, with his
+son and a servant; he was captured,[54] and among his documents were
+some which proved, it was alleged, that he was in communication with
+d'Annunzio.
+
+
+TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST
+
+Month follows month. The reading public and some of the statesmen of the
+world begin to recognize that, whatever may be the case on other
+portions of the new map, there is nothing unreal or impossible or
+artificial about Yugoslavia. This State is the result of a national
+movement, having its origins within and not without the peoples whose
+destiny it affects. The various Yugoslavs, after being kept apart for
+all these centuries, have now--roughly speaking--come to that stage
+which the Germans reached in 1866. They cannot rest until they reach
+the unity which came to the Germans after 1870. And here also, it seems,
+the unity will not be gained without the sacrifice of thousands of young
+men. "Go, my son," said Oxenstiern the Swedish Chancellor, "and observe
+by what imbeciles the world is governed." It is pitiable that the
+leaders of the nations, in declining month after month to give to
+Yugoslavia an equitable frontier, should apparently have been more
+impressed by the arguments of Mrs. Lucy Re-Bartlett[55] than by those of
+an anonymous philosopher in the _Edinburgh Review_.[56] "Nationality?"
+says the lady, speaking of the country people of Dalmatia, "nationality?
+These people of the country districts--the great mass of the
+population--are far too primitive to have any sense of nationality as
+yet, but if some day they call themselves Italian...." That is what she
+says of a people which through centuries of persecution and neglect have
+preserved their language, their traditions, their hopes; a people which,
+more than forty years ago, won their great victory against the Habsburg
+régime of Italian and Italianist officials, so that with one exception
+every mayor in Dalmatia and all the Imperial deputies and hundreds of
+societies of all kinds, such as 375 rural savings-banks, were
+exclusively Yugoslav. Out of nearly 150,000 votes at the last general
+election, which was held in 1911 on the basis of universal suffrage, the
+Yugoslav candidates received about 145,000 against 5000 to 6000 for the
+Italians. It is indisputable that the Dalmatian peasants are backward in
+many things, but one is really sorry for the person who declares in
+print that they possess no sense of nationality. Let her visit any house
+of theirs on Christmas Eve and watch them celebrate the "badnjak"; let
+her listen any evening to their songs. Let her think whether there is no
+sense of nationality among the priests, who almost to a man are the sons
+of Yugoslav peasants. And let her recollect that these are the days when
+the other Yugoslavs are at last uniting in their own free State. She has
+the hardihood to tell us of the poor Dalmatians who were being bribed
+with waterworks and bridges and gratuitous doctoring. I daresay that the
+little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering round the
+kindly Italian officer were glad enough to eat his chocolates,[57] but I
+think that we others should pay more attention to those secret
+societies, the _�etasis_ (which is Slav for komitadjis), who have
+sworn to liberate all Istria from the Italians. We may also consider the
+proposals made by the Southern Slavs whom Signor Salvemini, the
+distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pisa, called "extreme
+Nationalists" (see his letter of September 11, 1916, to the editor of
+_La Serbie_, which was being published in Switzerland). Well, it appears
+that the "extreme Southern Slav Nationalists," as the utmost of their
+aspirations, claim the Southern Slav section of the province of Gorica
+with the town Triest and the whole of Istria, that is to say, a
+territory which, with a population the majority of whom are Slav,
+contains also 284,325 Italians, whereas the smallest programme ever
+proposed by moderate Italians, including Professor Salvemini, covets
+some 364,000 Southern Slavs. Thus the extreme Southern Slav elements, in
+their widest demands, are more moderate than the moderate Italians in
+their most limited programme. "Without distinction of tribe or creed,"
+says that Edinburgh reviewer, "all the Yugoslavs are waiting for their
+1870. This will fix and perpetuate their unity.... The preparation is
+going forward silently--almost sullenly--and without demur or
+qualification the Yugoslavs are accepting the Serb military chiefs'
+guidance and domination." He was much impressed by the silence and
+controlled power of the Serbian General Staff. There was in Europe a
+general war-weariness; but not in Yugoslavia. There was a hush in this
+part of Europe, broken only by the shrill screams of Italian
+propagandists and outbursts of suppressed passion on the other side.
+
+
+THE BELATED TREATY OF RAPALLO
+
+And the Rapallo Treaty of November 1920, when at last the statesmen of
+Italy and Yugoslavia came to terms regarding all their frontiers! This
+Treaty was received with much applause by the great majority of the
+French and British Press; in this country of compromise it was pointed
+out by many that as each party knew that the other had abated something
+of his desires the Treaty would probably remain in operation for a long
+time to come. And column after column of smug comment was written in
+various newspapers by the "Diplomatic Correspondent," whose knowledge of
+diplomacy may have been greater than his acquaintance with the Adriatic,
+since they followed one another, like a procession of sheep, in copying
+the mistake in a telegram which spoke of Eritto, the curious suburb of
+Zadar, instead of Borgo Erizzo. They noted that each side had yielded
+something, though it was true that the Yugoslavs had been the more
+generous in surrendering half a million of their compatriots, whereas
+the Italians had given up Dalmatia, to which they never had any
+right.[58] "The claim for Dalmatia was entirely unjustified," said
+Signor Colajanni in the Italian Chamber on November 23--yet it was not
+our business to weigh the profit and loss to the two interested parties.
+After all, it was they who had between themselves made this Agreement,
+and one might argue that it surely would be an impertinence if anybody
+else was more royalist than the king. These commentators held that it
+was inexpedient for anyone to ask why the Yugoslavs should now have
+accepted conditions that were, on the whole, considerably worse than
+those which President Wilson, with the approval of Great Britain and
+France, had laid down as a minimum, if they were to realize their
+national unity. And, of course, these writers deprecated any reference
+to the pressure which France and Great Britain brought to bear upon the
+Yugoslavs when the negotiations at Rapallo were in danger of falling
+through. If we take two Scottish newspapers, the _Scotsman_[59] was
+typical of this very bland attitude; it congratulated everyone on the
+harmonious close to a long, intricate and frequently dangerous
+controversy. The _Glasgow Herald_,[60] on the other hand, was one of the
+few newspapers which took a more than superficial view. "Monstrous," it
+said, "as such intervention seems, no student of the Adriatic White
+Paper--as lamentable a collection of documents as British diplomacy has
+to show--can deny its possibility, nay its probability. It is precisely
+the same game as was nearly successful in January 1920 and again in
+April 1920, but both times was frustrated by Wilson. We are entitled to
+ask, for the honour of our nation, if it has been played again; indeed
+if the whole mask of direct negotiation--a British suggestion--was not
+devised at San Remo with the express purpose of making the game succeed.
+If it be so--and if it is not so it is imperative that we are given
+frankly the full story of British policy in the Adriatic, for instance
+the dispatches so carefully omitted from the White Paper--then our
+forebodings for the future are more than justified.... It is
+emphatically a bad settlement."
+
+"We shall not establish friendly and normal relations with our neighbour
+Italy unless we reduce all causes of friction to a minimum," said M.
+Vesnić, the Yugoslav Prime Minister, who during his long tenure of
+the Paris Legation was an active member of the Académie des Inscriptions
+et Belles-Lettres and other learned societies; he excelled in getting at
+the root of the worst difficulties in international law, and he was
+particularly admired for his ability to combine legal and historic
+knowledge. Because he studied history minutely--with a special fondness
+for Gambetta who, racially an Italian, had something of the generous and
+sacred fervour that distinguished the leaders of the Risorgimento--M.
+Vesnić could not bring himself to hate Italy, despite all that
+d'Annunzio and other Imperialists had made his countrymen suffer.
+"Neither the Government nor the elected representatives of the Serbs,
+Croats and Slovenes," said he courageously in his first speech as Prime
+Minister, "ought to look upon Italy as an enemy country. We have to
+settle important and difficult questions with Italy.... We must reduce
+all causes of friction to a minimum."
+
+The Treaty of Rapallo gives Zadar to Italy, because in that little town
+there is an Italian majority; but central and eastern Istria, with their
+overwhelming Slav majority, are not given to the Yugoslavs--a fact which
+Professor Salvemini deplored in the Roman Chamber. By the Treaty of
+Rapallo Rieka is given independence,[61] but with Italy in possession of
+Istria and the isle of Cres, she can at any moment choke the
+unprotected port, having very much the same grip of that place as
+Holland has for so long had of Antwerp; and the sole concession on
+Italy's part seems to be that in the south she gives up the large Slav
+islands of Hvar, Kor�ula and Vis, and only appropriates the small one
+of Lastovo.... "It has cost Italy a pang," says Mr. George Trevelyan,
+"to consent, after victory, to leave the devoted and enthusiastic
+Italians of the Dalmatian coast towns (other than Zara) in foreign
+territory." The truth is that henceforward Yugoslavia will contain some
+5000 Italians (many of whom are Italianized Slavs), as against not less
+than 600,000 Slavs in Italy. And while the former are but tiny groups in
+towns which even under Venetian rule were predominantly Slav and are
+surrounded on all sides by purely Slav populations, the latter live for
+the most part in compact masses and include roughly one-third of the
+whole Slovene race, whose national sense is not only very acute, but who
+are also much less illiterate than their Italian neighbours. One cannot
+be astonished if the Slovenes think of this more than of Giotto,
+Leonardo, Galileo and Dante. But one may be a little surprised that
+such a man as Mr. Edmund Gardner should allow his reverence for the
+imperishable glories of Italy to becloud his view of the modern world.
+It is certainly a fact that the Slovenes are to-day less illiterate than
+the Italians, but because Dr. Seton-Watson alludes to this, Mr. Gardner
+(in the _Manchester Guardian_, of February 13, 1921) deplores the
+"Balkanic mentality that seems to afflict some Englishmen when dealing
+with these problems."
+
+
+ITS PROBABLE FRUITS
+
+Now it is obvious that the Treaty of Rapallo has placed between the
+Yugoslavs and the Italians all too many causes of friction. Zadar, like
+other such enclaves, will be dear to the heart of the smuggler. She
+cannot live without her Yugoslav hinterland--five miles away in
+Yugoslavia are the waterworks, and if these were not included, by a
+special arrangement, in her dominion, she would have no other liquid but
+her maraschino. She cannot die without her Yugoslav hinterland--but so
+that her inhabitants need not be carried out into a foreign land, the
+cemetery has also, by stretching a point, been included in the city
+boundaries. It remains to be seen how Zadar and the hinterland will
+serve two masters. We have alluded to the questionable arrangements at
+Rieka, in which town there had for those years been such an orgy of
+limelight and recrimination that even the most statesmanlike solution
+must have left a good deal of potential friction. In Istria the dangers
+of an outbreak are evident. Italy has now become the absolute mistress
+of the Adriatic and has gained a strategical frontier which could hardly
+be improved upon, while Yugoslavia has been placed in an economic
+position of much difficulty. Sooner or later, if matters are left _in
+situ_, trouble will arise. Perhaps an economic treaty between Italy and
+Yugoslavia, as favourable as possible to the weaker State, would
+introduce some sort of stability; but no good cause would be served by
+crying "Peace" where there is no peace, and while Yugoslavia has a
+grievance there will be trouble in the Balkans.
+
+The most serious phase of the Adriatic crisis is now ushered in, for a
+new Alsace has been created; and those who point this out cannot be
+charged with an excessive leaning towards the Yugoslavs. It also seems
+to me that one can scarcely say they are alarmists. If Yugoslavia, in
+defiance of that most immoral pressure, had declared for war, Vesnić
+at the general election would have swept the country with the cry of
+"War for Istria!" To his eternal honour he chose the harder path of
+loyalty to the new ideas which Serbian blood has shed so freely to make
+victorious. A momentary victory has now been gained by the Italians, but
+not one that makes for peace. It poisons by annexations fundamentally
+unjustifiable, however consecrated by treaty, the whole source of
+tranquillity in the Near East. "Paciencia!" [Have patience] you say, in
+refusing to give alms to a Portuguese beggar, and he follows your
+advice. But when the Yugoslavs ask for a revision of the Treaty--if the
+Italians do not wisely offer it themselves--it would be rash if in
+attempting to foretell the future we should base ourselves upon the
+premise that their patience will be everlasting. A new Alsace has been
+created, an Alsace to which, in the opinion of competent observers, all
+the Yugoslavs will turn until the day comes when it is honourable to set
+the standards forth on a campaign of liberation.
+
+
+NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT
+
+When the Yugoslavs were at last in a position, late in 1920, to hold the
+elections for the Constituent Assembly the Radicals and the Democrats
+were the most successful, but even if they made a Coalition they would
+still have no majority. [Now and then the Democrats asserted themselves
+against the Radicals, but when the Opposition thought they could
+perceive a rift the Democratic Press would write that the two parties
+were most intimately joined to one another, and especially the
+Democrats.] The small parties were very numerous, the smallest being
+that of M. Ribarac, the old Liberal leader, who found himself in the
+Skupština with nobody to lead; the clericals of Slovenia came to
+grief, a fact which appeared to give general satisfaction, and a similar
+mishap befell the decentralizing parties of Croatia. On the other hand
+the Croat Peasants' party, whose decentralization ideas were more
+extreme, had a very considerable success, and the Communist party, whose
+fall we have already described, had come to the Skupština with some
+fifty members.
+
+
+(_a_) MARKOVIĆ THE COMMUNIST
+
+The temporary triumph of the Communists was admittedly due to the
+exceptional position in which the country found itself. They had in Sima
+Marković an enthusiastic leader who has abandoned the teaching of
+mathematics in order to expound the gospel of Moscow, and in the
+Skupština the shrill, voice of this kindly, bald-headed little man
+had to be raised to its uttermost capacity, for most of his
+fellow-members were unwilling to be taught. It so happens that he is
+Pašić's godson, and on one occasion when the little Communist was
+talking with great vehemence the old gentleman, who was turning over the
+pages of some document, was heard by an appreciative House to murmur:
+"Oh, be still, my child, be still!" But the most unfortunate episode in
+Marković's oratory was when he expressed the hope that Communism
+would rage through the country like an epidemic, forgetting for the
+moment that those municipalities which had gone over to Communism had
+won general praise for their improvements in the sanitary sphere.
+Largely on account of this infelicitous simile he was replaced in the
+leadership by another, a less vigorous and less entertaining person. And
+this party stood in particular need of attractive champions.
+
+The Croat Peasants' party, or the Radić party, as it came to be
+called, gave to its beloved chief more than half the seats in Croatia,
+forty-nine out of ninety-three; and the whole party refused to go to
+Belgrade.
+
+"Would it not have been better," I asked him, "if you had gone? The
+Constitution will be settled without you."
+
+
+(_b_) RADIĆ, THE MUCH-DISCUSSED
+
+"We had various reasons," said he, "for not going. One of them was that
+the Assembly which laid down the Constitution was not sovereign. For
+example, it was not permitted to discuss whether Yugoslavia should be a
+monarchy or a republic. I admit that three-quarters of the members would
+very likely have voted for a monarchy, and in that case we should have
+accepted the situation very much as do the royalist deputies in the
+French Parliament."
+
+"What are your own views on this subject?"
+
+"Well," said he, "for this period of transition I believe--mark you,
+this only applies to myself--that a monarchy is not merely acceptable
+but preferable. On the other hand the Croat peasant was so badly treated
+by the Habsburgs that he will now hear of nothing but a republic."
+
+I ventured to say that this sudden conversion to republican ideas in one
+who for centuries had lived in a monarchy was peculiar, and Radić
+acknowledged that when the first republican cries were raised at a
+meeting of the Peasants' party on July 25, 1918 they came to him as a
+revelation, one which he accepted.
+
+"You don't accept everything that your peasants shout for?"
+
+"I do not," said he. "There was a gentleman who asked them at a meeting
+whether they would kill him if he, elected as their representative, were
+to go to Belgrade. They shouted back that they would do so. And when the
+prospective candidate came to tell me this story, thinking that I would
+be delighted, I told him that a ship's captain cannot have his hands
+bound before undertaking a voyage and he must therefore withdraw his
+candidature.... When the time comes we will go to Belgrade."
+
+"And those who say that you are longing for the return of the
+Habsburgs?"
+
+He gripped my arm. "They are fools," said he. "We are looking forward as
+eagerly as the great Bishop Strossmayer to the union of the Southern
+Slavs. According to the spirit of his time he began at the top, with
+academies, picture galleries and so forth. We prefer to begin with
+elementary schools." And bubbling with enthusiasm he told me of the
+efforts his party was making. It was plain to see that what lies nearest
+to his heart is to improve their social and economic status. And those
+observers are probably in the right, who believe that he merely uses
+this republican cry as a weapon which he will conveniently drop when it
+has served its purpose.
+
+"If only Yugoslavia had a great statesman," said I, "who would weld the
+new State together, so that the Croats remain with the Serbs not alone
+for the reasons that they are both Southern Slavs and that they are
+surrounded by not over-friendly neighbours. The great statesman--perhaps
+it will be Pašić--will make you all happy to come together."
+
+"From the bottom of my heart I hope he will succeed," said Radić,
+"and he will be remembered as our second and more fortunate
+Strossmayer."
+
+We generally imagine that the statesmen of South-Eastern Europe are a
+collection of rather swarthy, frock-coated personages who, when not
+engaged in decrying each other, are very busily occupied in feathering
+their own nests. If any one of them, at the outset of his career, had a
+sense of humour we suppose that in this heated atmosphere it must have
+long ago evaporated. But strangely enough, the two most prominent
+politicians in Yugoslavia, the venerable Pašić, the Prime Minister
+of this new State of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, even as he used for
+years to be the autocrat of Serbia, and his opponent Stephen Radić
+are, both of them, by the grace of God, of a humorous disposition.
+Outwardly, there is not much resemblance between them: Pašić, the
+picture of a benevolent patriarch, letting fall in his deep voice a few
+casual words which bring down his critics' case, hopelessly down like a
+wounded aeroplane, and Radić the fervid little orator, the learned
+man, whose life has been devoted to the Croat peasants and who is said
+to find it difficult to make a speech that is under eight hours in
+length. Last year when the vigorous Pribi�ević, then Minister of
+the Interior, who is determined to compel the Serbs and the Croats
+straightway to live in the closest companionship, whereas Radić,
+supported by most of the Croat _intelligentsia_, argues that in view of
+their very different culture, the Serbs having enjoyed a Byzantine and
+the Croats an Austrian education, it would be advisable for these two
+branches of the South Slav nation to come gradually and not violently
+together,--last year when Radić was lying in prison on account of his
+subversive ideas Pribi�ević sent a message to say that he was
+prepared to adopt half his programme. And Radić sent back word
+regretting that the Minister could not adopt the whole of it and thus
+obtain for himself the Peasants' party. It is wrong to assert that this
+party is unpatriotic; the enemies of Yugoslavia, who welcome in Radić
+a disruptive element, are totally in error. Years ago he was working for
+the eventual union of Serbs and Croats--the Austrians imprisoned him
+because in 1903 he went to Belgrade at the accession of King Peter and
+made an admirable speech to this effect--and his present attitude is due
+to the impatient manner in which Mr. Pribi�ević and his friends
+are endeavouring to bring the union about. His peasants are a
+conservative people; they cannot instantly dispel the anti-Serb ideas
+which the Austrians for ever inculcated, nor the negative anti-Serb
+frame of mind which they learned from their own _intelligentsia_. It
+will take a little time before the Catholic peasant realizes that the
+Orthodox Serb is his brother and that now his military service will not
+be in an alien army, but in his own. "Let us go slowly," says Radić,
+"with our peasants"; and he knows them very well.... One is told that he
+changes his opinions from hour to hour; he is certainly very impetuous,
+very much under the influence of his emotions; but in one thing he has
+never varied--he has always struggled for the Croat peasant, and he has
+been rewarded by the unbounded devotion of that faithful, rather
+incoherent, creature.
+
+Now the Serbs are a democratic people; they are by their nature in
+opposition to any force, civil or military, which might attempt to make
+the monarchy more absolute. The wisest Serbs do not forget that in the
+peasant lies their principal wealth, and although as yet the Serbian
+Peasants' party does not hold many constituencies in the old kingdom,
+nevertheless it appears to have a brighter prospect than any other
+Serbian party, for in that country the revolt against the
+lawyer-politician is likely to be more efficacious than in France or
+England. One may look forward to an understanding between Radić and
+this Serbian party, which is only two or three years old, although its
+founder, the excellent Avramović--an elderly gentleman who sits
+behind vast barricades of books in various languages--has devoted
+himself for many years to agrarian co-operative societies, of which in
+Serbia there are more than 1500.
+
+The most uncertain factors seem to be the moderating hold of Radić
+over his peasants and over himself. No one doubts but that he has the
+interests of the peasant very much at heart, and if he succeeds in
+improving the peasant's lot then that grateful giant will presumably not
+sink again into the sleep which he enjoyed when he was under the
+Habsburgs. The circulation of Radić's weekly paper _Dom_[62] ("The
+Home") has risen from 2000 before the elections and 9000 during the
+elections to 30,000. One enterprising vendor, a Serb from the Banat,
+takes 500 copies a week and tramps over the countryside, disposing of
+his wares either for cash or for eggs, the latter of which he sells at
+the end of the week to a Zagreb hotel. The peasant is making great
+efforts to raise himself--a case has recently been brought to light of a
+farmer in Zagorija who, as a hobby, has taught more than 700 persons to
+read and write. The peasant perceives that he has been assisted far less
+by the Catholic Church than by the work of Radić. It is not unfair to
+say that the Church desired, above all things, to keep the peasant
+under her control. If a parish priest was disliked by his flock, so a
+prominent Croatian priest tells me, that was all the more reason why the
+Bishop refused to remove him. And the clergy, except for an enlightened
+minority, have been very much opposed to Radić's policy of
+democratizing the Church.... In return for his unceasing labours he has
+now secured the peasant's love and confidence. He will retain them if he
+satisfies his client, and it seems to be within his power--gaining for
+him a better position and dissuading him from fantastic demands. He can
+be of immense assistance in the task of building up the State. But will
+the brilliant flame within him burn with steadiness? Has he got
+sufficient strength of will? With all his qualities of heart and brain
+he has not managed to discard his zig-zag impetuosity. The peasants, who
+recognize his talents, ask him to captain the ship; but he runs down too
+often into his cabin and leaves the unskilled sailors on the bridge.
+Down in the cabin he is feverishly and with great skill writing a
+contradiction of a pronouncement he made yesterday.
+
+Those who are openly sailing in Radić's boat are for the most part
+the hard-headed peasants. Yet a number of the _intelligentsia_ are
+coming on board--some of them, no doubt, with a view to their own
+advancement, but others on account of their convictions. And a still
+greater number of the Croat _intelligentsia_ look on him with
+sympathy--municipal officials, barristers, doctors, merchants,
+schoolmasters and military officers. It is most foolish to pretend that
+all these people are thinking regretfully of the old Habsburg days--they
+are, in the vast majority, sincere and loyal Yugoslavs who have certain
+grievances. They do not believe that Croatia has fared very well since
+the institution of the new State and it would seem wise to give them as
+much autonomy as is consonant with the interests of the whole country,
+for then they will only have themselves to blame if there is no
+improvement. Maybe they are unduly sensitive, but they were for many
+years in political warfare with the Magyars and this should be taken
+into consideration. Even if all the grievances are based on
+misconceptions, on the difficulties of the moment, on the circumstances
+of the fading past--the new generation of Croats, say their teachers,
+are growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs--yet an effort should be made
+to sweep them away.
+
+When Belgrade makes a statesmanlike gesture then Radić will probably
+be able to persuade the peasants to abandon their republican
+slogan--both they and the _intelligentsia_ will abandon their reserved
+attitude towards the Government which they were far from entertaining
+when the State was first established. It seems as if the role of
+conciliator may well be filled by that wise old man, Nicholas
+Pašić, who is now no longer a mere Balkan Premier. When he was
+that he very properly used Balkan methods, despite the stern remarks of
+a few Western critics.
+
+
+THE SERBS AND THE CROATS
+
+We have alluded to the relations between Serbs and Croats. This is a
+subject of such importance that it will be well to consider it more
+fully. When Yugoslavia sprang into existence at the end of the War--70
+per cent. of this State having previously been under the rule of the
+House of Habsburg--it was met in various quarters with a grudging
+welcome. Soon, we were told, it would dissolve again, and every symptom
+of internal discontent was treated as a proof of this. On the other hand
+there were those who told us that the Southern Slavs, having come
+together after all these hundreds of years, were tightly clasped in each
+others' arms and that all reports to the contrary came from very
+interested parties.
+
+Little was said of the Slovenes; their language, as we have mentioned,
+is not the same as that spoken by Serbs and Croats, and--what is of
+still greater importance--they have Slovenia to themselves. If Croatia
+were equally immune from Serbs, then by this time the Southern Slavs
+would be a more united nation. Those people were wrong who fancied that
+the presence of the Serbs in Croatia--they form between one-fourth and
+one-third of the population--would be of service in welding together the
+new State. They forgot that for many years the Austro-Hungarian
+Government had in Croatia played off the Roman Catholic Croats against
+the Orthodox Serbs. The two Slav brothers were incited to mutual hatred,
+and though such a propaganda would naturally have more effect among the
+uneducated classes, yet all too often the _intelligentsia_ responded to
+these machinations. More favour, of course, was shown to the Croats,
+whose obedience could largely be secured by means of the Church, whereas
+no similar pressure could be brought to bear upon the Orthodox Serbs.
+Even if the Government approached the Orthodox clergy, these latter had
+only a very moderate control over their flock. A Serb is always ready to
+subscribe towards the erection of a new church, which he regards as most
+other nations regard their flag; but when it is built he rarely enters
+it. This being so, the Austro-Hungarian Government tyrannized over the
+Serbs in Croatia by measures taken against their schools, the Cyrillic
+alphabet and so forth. It was natural that the suffering Serbs were apt
+to compare these restrictions with those that were imposed upon the
+Croats. However, among the _intelligentsia_ an effort--a fairly
+successful effort--was made to nullify this dividing policy; the
+Serbo-Croat Coalition was formed, one of the protagonists being Svetozar
+Pribi�ević, that very energetic Serb of Croatia, and in 1906 this
+party obtained no less than sixty-eight seats, while the power of the
+older Croat parties was correspondingly diminished and Radić had his
+very small following in the Zagreb Lantag. [Those who represented
+Croatia in the central Parliament at Buda-Pest were chosen by the Ban,
+Khuen-Hedérváry. Those forty members had practically no acquaintance
+with the Magyar language, so that some of them drew their 8000 annual
+crowns and only went to Pest if an important division was expected,
+others who spent more time in the capital wasted their lives amid
+surroundings just as riotous as and more expensive than the Parliament,
+while only those did useful work who managed to confer, behind the
+scenes, with the authorities. To some extent this was done by
+Pribi�ević and to a greater extent by another Serb, Dr. Dušan
+Popović, who surpassed him in capacity and geniality. It was he, by
+the way, who demonstrated in the Buda-Pest Parliament that if the
+average Croat deputy was ignorant of the Magyar language, there was a
+greater ignorance of Serbo-Croatian on the part of the Magyars. One day
+when he had started on a speech in his native tongue he was howled down
+after he had explained that he was talking Serbian. He promised to
+continue in Croatian, and did so without being interrupted.]
+
+At Zagreb the fusion of the Croat and Serb _intelligentsia_ was still
+very incomplete at the outbreak of the War--the Croat Star�evist
+party and others going their own way. During the War the
+Austro-Hungarian Government ruled by means of the Coalition party; but
+the latter had no choice, and throughout Croatia they were never charged
+with infidelity to the Slav cause. They did whatever their delicate
+situation permitted; and in October 1918, when the Slavs of Croatia and
+Slovenia threw off the yoke of centuries and joined with the Serbs of
+Serbia and Montenegro, one hoped that the simultaneous arrival in
+Belgrade of the Coalition and the Star�evist leaders heralded in
+Croatia a cessation of the ancient hostility. Pribi�ević became
+Minister of the Interior in the new State, and very soon it was obvious
+that he meant to govern in a centralizing fashion, despite his earlier
+assurance that no such steps would be taken without the sanction of the
+Constituent Assembly. No doubt his motives were unimpeachable; he feared
+lest the negative, anti-Serb mentality, which for so long had flourished
+among the Croats, would not, except by drastic methods, be removed. He
+was met with opposition. Now you see, he cried, there are still in
+Croatia a number of disloyal Slavs, great landowners, Catholic clergy
+and others whom the Habsburgs used to favour. And he continued, with
+hundreds of edicts, to try to weld the State together. Consumed with
+patriotism, his great black eyes on flame amid the pallor of his
+face--his luminous and martyred face, to use the expression of his
+friends--he never for a moment relaxed his efforts; if those who opposed
+him were numerous it was all the more reason why he must be resolute.
+The rôle fitted him very well, for he is the dourest politician in
+Yugoslavia--a perfectly honest, upright, injudicious patriot. His
+Democratic party had now taken the place of the Serbo-Croat Coalition
+and it saw the other parties in Croatia gradually drifting back again
+from it or rather from the dominating man; if his place had been
+occupied by his afore-mentioned colleague, the burly and beloved
+Dušan Popović, there would have been in Zagreb a very much suaver
+atmosphere. But unfortunately Popović is a wealthy man, a highly
+successful lawyer who cares little for the tumult of politics.... It was
+a thorny problem, whether the State should be constituted on a federal
+or a centralized basis.[63] The federation of the United States depends
+on the centralization of political parties, whereas in Yugoslavia the
+parties have only just begun to combine. Feudalism in the German Empire
+rested on the predominance of Prussia, a position which the Serbs are,
+under present conditions, loth to occupy in Yugoslavia. In Germany,
+moreover, many of the States used to be independent, while in Yugoslavia
+this was only the case with Serbia and Montenegro. Centralism would tend
+to obliterate the tribal divisions, but on the other hand it brings in
+its train bureaucracy, which is slow, cumbrous and often corrupt; it
+demands unusually good central institutions and first-rate
+communications, neither of which are as yet in a satisfactory state. The
+constitution has arrived at a compromise between the federal and the
+centralized systems. A writer in the _Contemporary Review_ (November
+1921) said that the division of the whole of Yugoslavia into some
+twenty administrative areas [he should have said thirty-three] to
+replace the racial areas, was a very drastic proposal to put forward;
+and he added that when the historic provincial divisions of France were
+broken up into departments, the nation had been prepared by nearly 200
+years of centralization under the monarchy. It is a flaw in his argument
+to say that the previously existing areas were racial, whereas
+populations of identical race were divided from one another by the
+course of events. And in the proposed obliteration of these
+divisions--to be effected in a less arbitrary fashion than in France,
+where no account was taken of the former provinces--it can scarcely be
+maintained that, of itself, this part of the centralizing programme in
+Yugoslavia is so very drastic.
+
+Whatever one may think about the Balkan peoples it is a fact that the
+essential Serb, the Serb from Å umadia, is a pacific person, rather
+lazy perhaps, but certainly more devoted to dancing than to battle. And
+some of the wiser Serbs were dubious in 1919 and 1920 as to whether the
+most sagacious methods were being employed in Croatia. Radić was in
+prison, but they were told that this impetuous demagogue was insisting
+on a republic, and the Croat _intelligentsia_ were far from happy. It is
+true that in the elections of November 1920 the National party, as the
+Star�evists now called themselves, had no great success; but the
+Radić party had more than half the seats. Surely this had not been
+brought about merely by the chief's imprisonment? There seemed to be in
+that province some wider, some growing dissatisfaction. And in the
+spring of 1921 most of the Catholic Croats, those within and those
+without the Radić party, were nourishing a score of grievances. No
+doubt a large proportion of these were unavoidable (in view of the state
+of Central Europe) or were rather trivial (the mayor of an important
+town told me that he, who was under the Minister of the Interior, had
+received an order from the Belgrade Minister of War, with respect to the
+detention of deserters--conditions, said he, were not so primitive in
+the Austro-Hungarian monarchy) and sometimes the grievances were against
+the Habsburgs (for not having made them more fit to assume these new
+responsibilities), and sometimes they were against the Serbs for being
+less civilized--though they might be more moral--than themselves, and
+sometimes the grievances were personal: now and then after the Austrian
+collapse a Serbian officer or his men, uncertain of the feelings of the
+population, had acted with unwise, or rather with inexpedient,
+vigour--instead of shooting those who in the general anarchy were laying
+waste and plundering, they merely flogged them, and this was for a long
+time remembered against them, although the Croat _intelligentsia_ who
+had taken service in the police flogged in a far more wholesale fashion.
+But down at the bottom of all the grievances there is the fundamental
+fact that the Southern Slavs yearn to be comrades, to shake off the
+differences which in the course of ages have grown up between them.
+These fraternal sentiments may be crudely expressed--it has happened
+that a Slav from Bosnia (whose ancestors adopted Islam some centuries
+ago) finds himself in a Serbian village. He strikes up acquaintance with
+some native. "What is your name?" asks the latter. "Muhammed." The Serb
+has never heard of such a name; he is puzzled. "Well, never mind," says
+he, and takes his new friend back to dinner. They sit down to the
+sucking pig. Muhammed refuses to partake of it, and informs the Serb
+that Allah would be angry. "Don't be afraid," says the Serb; "I'll tell
+him that it's my fault," and after a time he overcomes the Bosniak's
+scruples.... In more cultured circles the wonderful union of the
+Southern Slavs is manifested after a different fashion, and those
+neighbours who imagine that the afore-mentioned grievances are going to
+dissolve the new State will one day see how much they are mistaken. The
+Southern Slavs intend to quarrel with each other, to quarrel like
+brothers.
+
+
+THE SAD CASE OF PRIBIČEVIĆ
+
+As between the Catholic and the Orthodox in Croatia the sole uncertainty
+is whether this fusion will shortly take place or after an interval. It
+is agreed by the most malcontent schoolmasters that their pupils are
+growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs who will have no more fear of what
+they call "Serb hegemony" than have the Scots of that of England. As for
+the present generation of Croats and Serbs, if they were Occidentals
+they would be old enough to laugh at each others' peculiarities and each
+others' statesmen. But South-Eastern Europe is still under the morning
+clouds, and they are inclined to take seriously what we in the West make
+fun of. However, there is one man whose presence in the Cabinet the
+Croats cannot be expected to regard with good-humour or with
+nonchalance. The reconciliation of Croatia will be much more easily
+effected if Mr. Pribi�ević resigns. His merits as a demagogue and
+political writer are undeniable. He would make an excellent Whip. But he
+prefers to be a Minister, and most unfortunately he is not a statesman.
+A zealous patriot, he is as yet unable to conceive that the business of
+the State could be more successfully managed without him. The sweets of
+office appear, if anything, to have made him more bitter; and even among
+the Serbs of the old kingdom his withdrawal is considered advisable. A
+friend of his has told me that in the middle of a laughing conversation
+he threw out a hint of this, and like a cloud blown suddenly across a
+summer sky, Pribi�ević's face grew black. Unhappily he is not even
+Fortinbras and yet imagines he is Hamlet. A good many people in
+Yugoslavia call him _un homme fatal_, most of the others _l'homme
+fatal_. It is said that in the Democratic party he is actively supported
+by not more than ten deputies, but that the others, to preserve the
+party, take no steps. He himself, however, would probably have not the
+least hesitation in choosing another party, if he could otherwise not
+stay in the Cabinet; for his permanence in office is the one idea that
+crushes every other from his mind. If he cannot be Minister of the
+Interior--a post from which he has been more than once, and happily for
+Yugoslavia, ejected--then he insists on being Minister of Education.
+What are his qualifications? Years ago he gave instruction at a school
+for elementary teachers, and so faint a conception has he of the
+educational needs of his country that one day when a Professor of
+Belgrade University asked him if no steps could be taken to diminish the
+prohibitive cost of books, especially foreign books, the Minister
+simply stared at him as if he had been talking Chinese. And yet in a
+recent book of national verses, published by his brother Adam, we are
+told that:
+
+    "At the table also sat the sage Pribi�ević,
+     Who can converse with Emperors...."
+
+There are some who, curiously, have compared Radić's party with the
+Sinn Feiners; Radić may have announced that he would approach the
+Serbs as the representative of an independent country, but he never
+proposed, even when his views were most extreme, to realize them with
+physical force. At a great open-air meeting of his adherents the
+speeches were so mild that only twice did the Chief of Police, who was
+next to me, raise a warning finger, and on each occasion to keep the
+orator from very innocent digressions. Nevertheless, there is no
+concealing the fact that even in these unsatisfactory times--"It seems
+to me," said a philosophic peasant recently at Valjevo, in the heart of
+Serbia, "it seems to me that if we had a plebiscite then Valjevo might
+not wish to remain with Serbia!"--even in a world that is so awry the
+Croats are more reserved towards the union than is good for the State.
+Perhaps they would cherish fewer grievances if they had gained their
+freedom with greater difficulty; and surely they need have no more
+uneasiness than have the Scots that their name and nationality will be
+swamped, for what the Magyars were unable to do, that the Serbs do not
+wish to do. There are among the Serbs a few extremists, such as a
+pernicious editor or two, but their anti-Croat tirades find extremely
+little favour anywhere. Last autumn when the Prince-Regent (now King
+Alexander) visited the Croat capital his reception was most
+enthusiastic. "Let us keep him here!" cried the people, "and let King
+Peter stay in Belgrade!" The Prince by his tact brought the Croat out of
+his tent; he must not be allowed to go back again--let the Southern
+Slavs observe what each of their provinces can bring towards the common
+good. The Croats acknowledge that the military system of Serbia is more
+endurable--only one son is taken out of each family--and that whereas in
+Slovenia a lawsuit can be settled in fourteen days it has been wont in
+Croatia to take as many years. Unfortunately human nature, in Serbia,
+Croatia and everywhere else, finds that the bad points of other people
+are more worthy of comment than the good. When two brothers have been
+brought up in very different circumstances there will be so many points
+on which they differ; and when a Serb taking part in a technical
+discussion of scientists wishes to say that he differs from the previous
+speaker he will commonly observe that that person has made a fool of
+himself. When an editor alludes to a political opponent he may call him
+an assassin and be much astonished if this is resented. "Je suis un
+ours," said a Serbian savant of European repute; occasionally he behaves
+like one and is rather proud of it. The Serbs of Croatia have been
+imitating, nay exaggerating, the emphatic manners of their countrymen in
+the old kingdom. And Pribi�ević, as Minister of Education, has not
+attempted to give the Croats a tactful course in courage, patriotism and
+morality, where they have much to learn from the less civilized Serbs,
+but scowling at them he has made up his mind that, in and out of school,
+they must straightway be the closest of companions.
+
+However, the Serbs and Croats have a man whose counsel is more worthy of
+attention. Dr. Trumbić, formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had
+been elected at the head of four different lists in his native Dalmatia
+but had entered the Constituent Assembly without giving his allegiance
+to any party. And in April 1921 he made a speech as memorable as it was
+long, for it occupied the whole of one sitting and was continued the
+next day. Careless of the applause and the antagonism which he excited,
+the serene orator pointed out that the conflict between Serbs and Croats
+was based on their different psychology. Croatia had had her independent
+life and must be considered as a factor in Yugoslavia; but having come
+in, like Montenegro, of her own accord, she had not wished to be a
+separate factor. Traditions should not be so lightly set aside; and
+while there was perhaps no people more homogeneous than the Yugoslavs it
+should be remembered that none was more ready to resist the application
+of force.
+
+
+LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS
+
+Except at Kolašin, where a few friends of Nikita tried their brigand
+tactics, there was perfect calm in Montenegro during the elections. As
+elsewhere in Yugoslavia, there was a general amnesty and a prohibition,
+for the three preceding days, to sell wine or rakia. The ten elected
+candidates, all of them for the Yugoslav union and against Nikita, were
+equally divided between Radicals and Democrats on the one hand and
+Communists and Republicans on the other. The authorities took not the
+slightest step to favour any candidate; various prominent deputies, such
+as Dr. Yoyić, the Minister of Food Supply, were beaten. And in a
+letter to the Press we were told by Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that these
+elections were certainly both "farcical and fraudulent." He is
+contradicted by Mr. Roland Bryce, who, after his excellent work on the
+Allied Plebiscite Commission in Carinthia, was sent by the Foreign
+Office with Major L. E. Ottley to report on the Montenegrin elections.
+He says (in Command Paper I., 124) that "in actual practice the method
+of voting prescribed by the electoral law was found to ensure absolute
+secrecy (the system adopted being the only feasible one in a country
+where the proportion of illiterates is great), and the manner in which
+the ballot was supervised and carried out was unimpeachable and proof
+against the most exacting criticism." Mr. M'Neill is also contradicted
+by the Republican candidate, M. Gjonović, who in a manifesto drawn up
+after the election declares that "none can say that the elections were
+not free, or that anyone who wished could not make up a list. At the
+elections only the lists and boxes of the Republicans, Democrats,
+Independents, Radicals and Communists were represented. All of these
+parties had in their programmes the motto 'The people and State union,'
+with, of course, different points of view and different opinions as to
+the organization of our national and State forces, except the
+Communists, who go further and desire the union of all peoples."
+
+
+WHICH ONE GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE
+
+It will thus be seen that the friends of Nikita were altogether wrong in
+suggesting that those who voted for the Republicans or Communists were
+opposed to the union with Serbia in Yugoslavia. Both Republicans and
+(paradoxical though it sounds) the Communists resented this insinuation
+very bitterly; and considering that the leaders of both parties are
+pronounced antagonists of the old régime, and were indeed severally
+condemned to death by Nikita, it would have been strange if they now
+supported him. Thus every single programme put forward by the different
+parties included, in some form or other, union with Serbia. The
+candidates themselves explicitly said so; but Mr. M'Neill knows better,
+and informs us how very hostile to the Serbs they really were. He is a
+wonderful man, Mr. M'Neill. Standing up in the House of Commons he
+directs his penetrating gaze upon the Black Mountain, and with such
+effect that he can see in the minds of Montenegrin politicians what they
+themselves had never dreamed of. Since we have such a man as Mr. M'Neill
+in the country, one would think that the Foreign Office might have saved
+itself the expense of sending out Mr. Bryce and Major Ottley.
+
+But since we have it, let us look at Mr. Bryce's very interesting and
+detailed report. After explaining that both Republicans and Communists
+were in favour of union with Serbia, he tells us how it happened that so
+many people voted for these two lists instead of for the orthodox
+Radical and Democratic parties. The Communists, according to Mr. Bryce,
+were benefited by a party organization, a vigorous canvass and a better
+discipline than that of any of their opponents. Their policy won the
+support of many ardent and very patriotic Nationalists, who voted in
+many cases for Communism on the ground that it was the Russian
+policy--out of gratitude for what the Tzars had done for Montenegro in
+the past! Major Temperley, assistant military attaché, in another report
+(Command Paper I., 123) observes that some local discontent had arisen
+in Montenegro because the native does not understand, and has never
+experienced before, a really efficient system of government, and
+because the introduction of conscription was not well adapted to the
+national tradition of lawless and untrained vigour. Major Temperley
+testifies that the Republican party gained the suffrages of numerous
+returned emigrants who admired the state of things in America. He shares
+Mr. Bryce's opinion as to the insignificance of the pro-Nikita party.
+"Even making large allowances," says he, "there seemed to me to be no
+doubt that the pro-Nicholas party were the weakest in Montenegro."
+Certain of his devotees were simply brigands who, like the Neapolitan
+miscreants after 1860, sought to cast a glamour over their depredations
+by affecting to be in arms on behalf of their former King. This
+personage himself was so well aware of his unpopularity that he was
+prudent enough to tell his supporters to abstain from voting. Those who
+did abstain were altogether only 32·69 per cent. of the electors, though
+one would have been justified in expecting a much higher proportion,
+since the people have not yet fully grasped their rights and duties with
+respect to the franchise; the distances to the booths were often very
+great, and the peasants were often indifferent as to whether one
+candidate or another with a very similar programme should be elected.
+The tribal or family system is still so prevalent in the villages that
+one member of a family would be sent to express the considered views of
+his fellows. The effect of the elections being held on a Sunday was to
+increase rather than diminish the number of abstainers, for although
+Sunday is a public holiday the Christian Montenegrin is under no
+obligation to hear Mass and for that reason travel to the village. The
+churches are practically deserted, for he is accustomed on that day to
+remain at home; while the Moslem voters largely declined to vote because
+there were no Moslem candidates. That is why it would appear that those
+of the 32·69 per cent. who abstained because they were in favour of
+Nikita were extremely few. Their simple-mindedness has its limits, while
+that of good Mr. M'Neill believes that because France, Great Britain and
+America undertook to restore Montenegrin independence, they were still
+obliged to do so after they perceived at the conclusion of the War that
+an overwhelming majority of Montenegrins did not desire it. This
+majority dethroned its traitor-king; but Mr. M'Neill maintains that
+France and England have dethroned "a monarch who was a friend and an
+ally."[64] Because M. Poincaré, in the days before the Montenegrins had
+rejected Nikita, addressed him as "Very Dear and Great Friend"--the
+ordinary form of words for a reigning monarch--Mr. M'Neill actually
+seems to think that France was for evermore compelled to clasp Nikita to
+her bosom. He clearly admires those who, since the end of the War, have
+risen in the cause of their old King; and I suppose that in consequence
+he disapproves of the Omladina, the voluntary association of men who
+banded themselves together to resist the terrorism of the pro-King
+komitadjis. If he had been in Montenegro during the years after the War
+he would possibly agree that komitadji is the proper name for the many
+lawless elements who have found the traditional fighting life more
+congenial than the thankless task of tilling their very barren land. The
+moral effect of opposing to these the Montenegrin Omladina instead of
+Serbian troops was to destroy all pretence of the movement being a
+national Montenegrin insurrection against the union, and the cessation
+of assistance from Italy resulted in the complete suppression of the
+movement. The few outlaws who still remain at large, said Mr. Bryce in
+December 1920, are in no sense political, but are merely bandits. And as
+the Omladina has now no _raison d'être_ they have disbanded themselves.
+Much now depends on the Constitution. If it gives them equal rights--and
+naturally it will--with the other inhabitants of Yugoslavia the
+Montenegrins will be content.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In August 1921 the _Secolo_ of Milan sent a famous correspondent to
+Montenegro. He came to much the same conclusions as Messrs. Bryce and
+Temperley. Not a single political prisoner was to be found, and not one
+of the ex-soldiers who returned from Gaeta had been molested. The
+correspondent thought that the Serbs had been ill-advised at the
+beginning to employ forcible methods against the pro-Nikita partisans
+who were opposed to Yugoslavia; they should, said he, have let the pear
+ripen spontaneously and fall into their lap. But now their policy had
+become one of conciliation: during the last two and a half years
+Montenegro had received from Belgrade for public works, pensions and
+subsidies, 93 million dinars, and had paid in taxes only 5 millions.
+Secondary education had been increased, and 700 Montenegrin students (of
+whom 500 are allotted a monthly grant) frequent Yugoslav universities.
+The fertile lands of Yugoslavia were open to Montenegrin emigration. In
+fact an isolated, independent Montenegro was no longer needed. With the
+disappearance of the Turk from all Serbian territory in 1913 a return to
+the union of the Serbs, as in the days of Stephen Dušan, was only
+hindered by historical, sentimental and, above all, by dynastic reasons.
+It was sad, quoth the correspondent, that the glorious history of
+Montenegro should have come to such a tame end, but her historic mission
+was closed in 1913, even as that of Scotland in 1707, to the benefit of
+both parties. Now the Serbs were leaving them to manage their own
+affairs; many ex-Nikita officials had been confirmed in their posts,
+while officers were given their old rank in the Yugoslav army. It is
+unfortunate for itself that the "Near East" (of London) does not employ
+so discerning a correspondent. We should then hear no more of such folly
+as that which--to select one occasion out of many--caused it in November
+1921 to speak about "the forcible absorption of Montenegro." And the
+world may be pardoned if it is more ready to accept the observations
+made on the spot by an expert Italian correspondent rather than the
+futile remarks sent by the Hon. Aubrey Herbert from the House of
+Commons, also in November 1921, to the _Morning Post_. This gentleman
+informs us that "it was probably because the Yugoslav Government was
+allowed to annex the ancient principality of Montenegro, exile its King,
+and subjugate its people, without any interference from the Great
+Powers, that M. Pasitch thought that he could do as he liked in
+Albania." That is the sort of statement which one may treat with Matthew
+Arnold's "patient, deep disdain."
+
+
+MEDIÆVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA
+
+On July 14, 1920, a letter marked "urgent" (No. 2047) was written by
+Colonel Sani, the Chief of d'Annunzio's Cabinet, in which he confirmed
+the orders which he had already given verbally, to the effect that all
+the foreign elements, especially the Serbs and Croats, who "exercise an
+obnoxious political influence," should be expelled from Rieka at the
+earliest possible date; he mentions that this is the command of
+d'Annunzio, who is in full accord with the President of the Consiglio
+Nazionale. This was the continuation of a practice which the Italian
+authorities had carried on in a wholesale manner. Father J. N.
+Macdonald, in his unimpeachable little book, _A Political Escapade_
+(London, 1921), gives us numerous examples of persons who in the most
+wanton fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant called
+Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while talking to some English
+soldiers. After three days, spent under arrest, he was told that he
+would have to depart "from Italy" (_sic_). He was given a _faglio di via
+obligatorio_ by the carabinieri, according to which he was banished on
+the ground of being "unemployed." Yet this man had had a fixed residence
+in Rieka for thirty-six years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished
+with a regular industrial certificate.... His name had been found on one
+of the lists in favour of annexation to Yugoslavia. When the world in
+general turned its attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to
+think that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that an
+agreement had at last been reached and the poor harassed place was to be
+neutral, it presumed that those among her citizens who had been openly
+in arms against the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
+would have been astonished to be told that the notorious self-elected
+Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame President, Mr.
+Grossich, cheerfully remained in office. It is true that they now called
+themselves the "Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this change
+of title made a good deal more impression than upon the local Yugoslavs,
+whose treatment did not vary. A decree was printed on January 21, 1921,
+in the _Vedetta_, which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
+previous Government retained their force, but that appeals might be
+addressed to the Rector of the Interior. A deputation was received by
+this gentleman, and was told that the procedure would be so complicated
+and so lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until after
+the elections. These elections had been fixed for the end of April, and
+it seemed as if France and England were so blinded by the blessed words
+"Provisional Government" that they could see nothing else. That over
+2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from the d'Annunzian
+era or been since introduced was surely gossip, and how could anyone
+believe that those men had been granted citizenship on the simple
+declaration of a Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the
+applicant worked under him? These declarations, by the way, must have
+refrained from going into details, for there was an almost total lack of
+work--except in the political department of the police. Rieka was to all
+intents in the possession of Italy, and she was learning what that
+meant. The town was like a dead place, shops were only open in the
+morning, and if the shopkeepers had not been compelled by the
+authorities to remove their shutters they would have strolled down to
+the quays where the grass was growing--"but, thank Heaven," cried
+Grossich, "thank Heaven, it is Italian grass!" (If he ever recalls that
+long-distant day, when, as a student, he fought for his fellow-Croats,
+and when, as a young doctor, he was an enthusiastic official of the
+Croat Club at Castua near Rieka, perhaps this gentleman thanks his God
+for having led him to Rieka and turned him into an Italian.) Cut off
+from its Yugoslav hinterland the population of Rieka, which consisted
+more and more of arditi and fascisti, less and less of Yugoslavs, the
+population had nothing to do save to speculate in the rate of exchange
+(but not in the local notes which no one wanted) and to prepare for the
+elections. Thus, with time very heavy on their hands, there was a great
+deal of corruption; cocaine could be obtained at nearly all the cafés.
+The elections drew nearer, and one wondered whether the Entente was
+going to look at the lists of voters and to inquire how it came that
+many natives of the town were not inscribed. What was likely to happen
+if the place was delivered altogether to the C.N.I. could be seen when
+the harbour of Baroš, given by the Rapallo Treaty to Yugoslavia, was
+demanded, simply demanded, by the Italian Nationalists; those
+ultra-patriots the fascisti, in Italy and in Rieka, when they saw that
+in the "holocaust city" everything was going just as well for them as in
+the brave days of d'Annunzio, persisted loudly in claiming Baroš as
+an integral part of Rieka. The Yugoslavs must be prevented, wherever
+possible, from approaching the Adriatic--this being the furious policy
+of the Italian capitalists who had succeeded in sweeping most of the
+Italian people off their feet. With Baroš, a port of limited
+possibilities, in the hands of the Yugoslavs, it would mean that the
+adjacent Rieka through its Yugoslav commerce would prosper; but anything
+that savoured of a Yugoslav Rieka was obnoxious to the capitalists and
+their wild followers, since they feared that in the first place it would
+raise a grievous obstacle to their penetration of the Balkans, and
+secondly it would involve the ruin of Triest, where German capital still
+plays a predominant part. So in their folly they strenuously fought for
+the Germans, spurred on by the terrible thought that Rieka might become
+predominantly Yugoslav. They refused to listen to their wiser men, who
+pointed out that the possession of an odd town or island was to Italy of
+not so much importance as friendship with their Slav neighbours. When,
+at the beginning of April 1921 a large sailing boat, the _Rad_ (Captain
+Vlaho Grubišić) came into Baroš, the first ship to bring the
+Yugoslav flag to that port, there was intense commotion among the
+fascisti. Forty of them with weapons ran down to the harbour, but
+Grubišić told them that he saw no reason why he should not fly the
+flag of his State. A number of workmen, Italians and Yugoslavs, then
+appeared and made common cause against the fascisti, so that the latter
+withdrew. And the captain of the Italian warship _Carlo Mirabello_ sent
+to ask Grubišić if he had removed the flag. On hearing that he had
+not done so the captain said that he had acted perfectly correctly. It
+seems to be too much to hope that such honourable Italians as this
+captain and these workmen will be able, without certain measures on the
+part of France and England, to prevail over those elements who have
+dragged Rieka down to death and to dishonour.
+
+At last, on April 25, the elections were held. There were two parties,
+that of the C.N.I., swollen with arditi and fascisti, who would have
+nothing to do with the Treaty of Rapallo--their programme consisted in
+annexation to Italy--and the other party, whose object was to carry out
+the provisions of the Treaty. Professor Zanella was its chief. There did
+not seem to be much hope that it would be successful, although it
+contained what was left of the Autonomists, who in 1919 were the largest
+party--desiring that the town should be neither Yugoslav nor
+Italian--and these Autonomists were now reinforced by the Yugoslavs. But
+so numerous had been the expulsions that many of the survivors feared
+that it would be futile to vote, and on the other hand the Annexionist
+party was quite confident that it would win. During the afternoon of the
+election day, however, they perceived that the impossible was happening,
+and that Zanella was marching to victory. Thereupon the enraged fascisti
+had recourse to violence. "Zanella's victory was intolerable to these
+patriots," said _La Nazione_,[65] "because they remembered the two years
+of tenacity and of splendid Italian spirit and of suffering which the
+town had lived through." Most of the electors remembered the suffering.
+The fascisti seized a number of urns and made a bonfire of them; there
+was presented the spectacle of Signor Gigante, d'Annunzio's obedient
+mayor, bursting with armed companions into that room of the Palace of
+Justice where the votes were being scrutinized. "I yield to violence,"
+said the presiding official; and twenty minutes afterwards the contents
+of the urns were burning merrily. But these measures did not help the
+cause of the fascisti, no more than did their screams that they had been
+betrayed. And if Zanella had to fly from Rieka because, as the
+Nationalist paper put it, he could not stand up against the vehement
+indignation of so many of the citizens, yet he and his party have
+triumphed. "Fiume or Death," used to be the device dear to d'Annunzio.
+He placarded the long-suffering walls with it, and it was on the lapels
+of the coats of his adherents. "Fiume must belong to Italy or be blown
+up," cried the poet. But, strange to say, a majority of the inhabitants
+prefer that their town should continue to exist, and this it can only do
+if, in accordance with the Treaty of Rapallo, it becomes a neutral State
+on friendly terms with both its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia. The
+Italian Government desires, of course, to execute its Treaty
+obligations,[66] and if it finds too painful the task of moderating the
+ardours of its own super-patriots, it will no doubt be glad to have this
+done by an International force. That method, which was only prevented by
+d'Annunzio's arrival in 1919, offers the speediest and most efficacious
+solution of Rieka's troubles.
+
+
+THE STRICKEN TOWN
+
+If anyone imagined that they would be ended with the installation of
+Zanella he was wrong. At the municipal elections 90 per cent. voted for
+the Autonomist party, the Yugoslavs having had the good sense to join
+them. But the Italian Nationalists were not going to yield to
+moderation, and immediately after the elections Zanella was obliged to
+flee for his life, so that he was not installed in office until October
+5. He struggled manfully to clear away the chaos and to make such
+economic arrangements as would eventually convert Rieka into a
+prosperous port. This the fascisti of Triest and Venice could by no
+means tolerate, and on January 31 an unsuccessful attempt was made by
+them on his life as he was leaving the Constituent Assembly. On February
+16 the Anai (Assoziazione Nazionale fra gli Arditi d'Italia) sent out a
+very urgent message from their headquarters in the Via Macchiavelli in
+Triest. They informed the subsections that not only was Zanella
+preparing to deliver Rieka to the Croats, but that the army of the
+"globe-trotter" Wrangel was waiting in Sušak to seize the wretched
+town. Therefore Gabriele d'Annunzio had commanded that every loyal
+servant of the cause was to be mobilized. And after a few rhetorical
+sentences it continued, "I will give the marching orders by telegram as
+follows: 'Send the documents. Farina.' If only a small number of people
+are needed I will telegraph, 'Send ... Quintal. Farina.'" The men were
+to assemble at the Italian Labour Bureau, 9 Via Pozza Bianca in Triest.
+They were to be clad in mufti, to be armed so far as it was possible and
+to have with them three days' provender.... The subsections are asked to
+telegraph the approximate number of those on whom they can rely. And
+this memorandum should be acknowledged. It is signed, "With brotherly
+greetings. Farina Salvatore." About ten days later--between February 26
+and 28--there was a meeting at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, under the
+presidency of Vilim Stipetić, formerly a major of the Austrian
+General Staff. Some dissident Croats--among them Dr. Emanuel Gagliardi,
+Captains Cankl and Petri�ević, Gjuro Klišurić, Josip Boldin
+and Major-General Ištvanović--two dissident Montenegrins, Jovo
+Plamenac and Marko Petrović, together with two Italian officers,
+adherents of d'Annunzio, Colonel Finzi of Triest and Major Ventura of
+Rome, ... assembled for the purpose of stirring up trouble for the
+Yugoslavs in the spring. They referred with pleasure to the presence of
+sundry Bulgarian komitadjis in Albania, Finzi declared that the Italian
+Government would satisfy the Croats and give them Rieka as soon as
+Croatia had achieved her independence and a less visionary promise was
+made of disturbances in Rieka. On March 1 the two Italian officers left
+for Triest and on March 3 Rieka was confronted with another _coup
+d'état_. The fascisti of Triest and of Gulia Venetia descended on the
+town in two special trains of the Italian State Railway. They had not
+the slightest confidence in Zanella, who was an honest man, working on
+the basis of the Treaty of Rapallo, whereby Italy and Yugoslavia
+recognized the Free State of Rieka. In their eyes it was a monstrous
+thing that Italy should be expected to observe this instrument. So let
+the town be freed, let Zanella be expelled. And as he only had at his
+disposal a force of about three hundred local gendarmes, with rifles but
+without munition, it was not particularly difficult for the fascisti
+heroes to accomplish their task. Zanella had to fly once more.
+
+"If Italy were to offend against the freedom and independence of the
+State of Rieka she would deprive herself," said Signor Schanzer, the
+Italian Foreign Secretary "she would deprive herself of the name of a
+Great Power and in the Society of Nations she would retain no
+authority." Thus did the successor of the relentless but unavailing
+della Torretta try, with eloquent and noble words, to wipe the blot from
+Italy's scutcheon. She could scarcely have the nations coming to the
+Congress of Genoa, there to debate with regard to the economic
+re-establishment of Europe, while her own conduct was so very much under
+suspicion. It would have been rather curious, so the _Zagreber
+Tagblatt_[67] pointed out, for a robber to invite you to his house with
+a view to taking steps against robbery. Something drastic had to be
+done, so that Europe would not look askance at the Italian Government.
+Zanella, it was true, had been thrown out--but why should not the world
+be told that this had been effected by the people of the town? A very
+excellent idea! And so a certain Lieut. Cabruna of the _gendarmerie_
+made a plan to get together the Constituent Assembly and then--well,
+there are always methods by which resolutions can be passed. Perhaps it
+would not even be necessary for a single rifle to be fired at the
+deputies from the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery. But most of the
+deputies succeeded in escaping from the town, although frantic efforts
+were made to prevent them. Out of the threescore only thirteen poor
+devils were held fast and came to the futile meeting. The others, with
+Zanella, assembled on Yugoslav territory at a place called Saint Anna.
+
+And Signor Schanzer went on talking. Officers and men of the Italian
+army and navy, said he, had shown perfect discipline. Signor Schanzer
+may not be an expert on discipline, but as a humorist he wins applause.
+One's ordinary notions of discipline do not include the seizure of a
+warship by a handful of bandits, the cannons of the vessel being
+afterwards directed against the Government palace of a neutral State.
+The fascisti, with the help of Italian troops and accompanied by several
+Italian deputies, eject the legal Government of Rieka. One of these
+deputies, Giuratti, is chosen by his friends to be President of the
+Free State--Giuratti of the fascisti, Giuratti who most barbarically had
+ill-treated the Istrian Slavs, but--for we will be just--this was when
+he believed they were barbarians, savages, quite common, brutal men;
+well, he had learned, he wrote,[68] that this was not the case, they had
+adopted Western culture, they had raised the revolutionary flag against
+the dynasty of Karageorgević and if Yugoslavia's dismemberment should
+ever come to pass, "then, as I confidently hope," said he, "the Croats
+with their righteous national aspirations will unite with their great
+neighbour Italy. We salute the Croat Revolution with sincerest
+sympathy..." and so on and so on. That was the kind of calm, impartial
+personage to have as Governor of the distracted Free State, where in one
+point anyhow most of the population think the same, and that is that
+their union with Italy would be an absolute disaster. Behold this
+Giuratti posing his candidature, Giuratti whose patriotism and idealism
+are, says the Italian Government, fully appreciated by them;
+nevertheless it has advised him to refuse the suggested honour. That he
+should be punished did not occur to them; but what would they have said
+if a Yugoslav--surely with more right than an Italian and certainly with
+a larger following of townsfolk--had been selected as President? "The
+proceedings of the Italian Government," said Schanzer, "are clear,
+speedy and determined." But did anything unpleasant happen to Commandant
+Castelli, an officer sent to make order, when he quite openly placed
+himself on the side of the fascisti? Would degradation be the lot of any
+officer or soldier who "mutinied" and joined the fascisti?... Apparently
+it was due to the unhappy political condition of Europe that the whole
+civilized world did not launch an indignant protest against the baseness
+and cynicism of the Italians. But how utterly they failed to persuade
+others that the wishes of Rieka were as they represented them! Rieka
+desires to remain independent and this desire the Italians will have to
+respect. And the later they make up their mind to keep their promises,
+so much the worse for them. The Yugoslavs can wait, for theirs is the
+future. A cartoonist in the Belgrade _Vreme_ depicted a rough old
+Serbian warrior holding on his open hand a very neat little Italian
+soldier. "Now listen to me," he was saying, "and I will tell you a
+story. Once upon a time there was a country called Austria...."
+
+There was a characteristic little affair at Saint Anna on March 23. A
+few minutes after Zanella had left the Lubić Inn a suspicious-looking
+person appeared. He began observing the customers and their
+surroundings, when the Police-Commissary Peršić came up to him and
+asked for his passport. "Take yourself off!" shouted the intruder, as he
+pulled a bomb out of his trouser pocket. Peršić grappled with him
+and soon overpowered him. And outside the house four other fascisti,
+Armano Viola, Carpinelli, Bellia and Murolo, were captured. They claimed
+to be journalists, and it is quite true that Viola is on the staff of
+the notorious _Vedetta Italiana_; but when he comes into a foreign
+country as a special correspondent and is teaching others how to go
+about that business--for until then they had been otherwise engaged,
+Murolo being charged with numerous thefts and attempted murders, while
+Bellia and Carpinelli were accused of breaking into the Abbazia
+Casino--if Viola was teaching them how to be journalists he would on
+this occasion have been better advised if he had restricted them to the
+conventional tools of the profession instead of bombs, revolvers and
+daggers. Little use did they get out of them, for a trio of these armed
+individuals were seized and disarmed by one Yugoslav gendarme, who was
+himself very meagrely equipped. With tears in their eyes they begged for
+mercy. "Pietà, Pietà!" they exclaimed. So long as their own lives were
+spared they were very willing to forgo the 60,000 lire which had been
+put on Zanella's head.
+
+Unfortunately it seems obvious that this exploit, if not ordered by the
+Italian Government was, at any rate, permitted by them. How otherwise
+could the automobile containing these men have got past the sentries at
+the Sušak bridge and two other Italian sentry posts? Moreover, these
+men were in possession of documents which proved that official Italian
+circles at Rieka were privy to their undertaking, and that they proposed
+to investigate the Yugoslav military positions on the frontier....
+These five fascisti brigands--who were also lieutenants of the Italian
+army--would therefore have to be tried not only for attempted murder but
+for attempted espionage. They were put into a train and transported to
+the prison at Zagreb. "If once we begin to march," so the Italian
+soldiers at Rieka had over and over again been telling the Croats, "then
+we shall not halt before we come to Zagreb, your capital." Those five
+will perhaps some day explain to their comrades how quickly Zagreb can
+be reached.... As yet those whom they left behind them had not lost
+their bombast: a manifesto was issued by them which declared that five
+true patriots had sallied forth to Saint Anna, for the purpose of
+parleying with the Constituent Assembly, and that in a barbarous fashion
+they had been arrested, maltreated and possibly killed. Let the people
+avenge the shedding of such noble blood. Everything, everything must be
+done in order to liberate the captured brethren. And so, towards eleven
+at night, about sixty fascisti and legionaries came together. Armed to
+the teeth, they designed to cross over into Yugoslav territory, but when
+they noticed that the sentry posts had been strengthened they went home
+to bed.
+
+A number of American and European journalists rushed out to Belgrade,
+under the impression that the Yugoslav-Italian War could now no longer
+be avoided. But they did not realize how great a self-control the
+Yugoslavs possess. It may be, as a commentator put it in the
+_Nation_,[69] that Italy "is practically at war with Yugoslavia," for
+she is obsessed by the "Pan-Slav menace"; but if they insist on the
+arbitrament of arms they will have to wait until the Yugoslavs have time
+to deal with them.... The Free State of Rieka owes its existence to a
+Treaty between Italy and Yugoslavia; both of them should therefore
+guarantee its freedom. Italian and Yugoslav _gendarmerie_ and troops
+should resist together the incursions of fascisti; and if the two races
+cannot work in harmony, then let the administration of the town be
+entrusted to neutral troops; and as High Commissioner one would suggest
+Mr. Blakeney, the British Consul at Belgrade. If this imperturbable and
+most kindly man were to fail in the attempt at repeating in Rieka what
+has been accomplished in Danzig, then, indeed, one might despair; but he
+would brilliantly and placidly succeed. All the other qualifications are
+his; an intimate knowledge of every Near Eastern language--and, of
+course, Italian; a perfect acquaintance with the mentality of all those
+peoples; common sense of an uncommon order, and the whole-hearted
+confidence of those with whom he comes into contact. Great Britain and
+France compelled the Yugoslavs, at enormous sacrifices, to sign the
+Treaty of Rapallo; they are, therefore, morally obliged to see that it
+is executed. For too many months the Italians were saying that they
+would carry out their part of it and leave the third zone in Dalmatia if
+the Yugoslavs would agree to a few more concessions, commercial and
+territorial, that were not in the Treaty. During the Genoa Conference in
+the spring of 1922 the Italian authorities confessed to the Yugoslav
+delegates that their hands were bound by the fascisti. These elements
+would certainly object to the execution of that part of the Treaty of
+Rapallo which refers to the port of Baroš. Accurately speaking, the
+arrangements with regard to Baroš are embodied in a letter from Count
+Sforza, the then Foreign Secretary, and are added to the Treaty as an
+appendix. Both were signed on the same day, and apparently this plan of
+an appendix was adopted on account of the fascisti. Yet if Count Sforza
+had not signed that letter it is safe to say that the Yugoslavs would
+not have signed the main body of a Treaty which to them was the reverse
+of favourable. And at Genoa the Italians started haggling about a strip
+of land near Baroš, in the hope that some success would stay the zeal
+of the fascisti. Furthermore they pleaded that Zadar could not live if
+Yugoslavia did not, in addition to supplying it with water, give it
+railway communication with the interior. The Yugoslavs were thus invited
+to construct at great expense a railway to a foreign town which their
+own Å ibenik and other Adriatic towns did not possess. This,
+naturally, they refused to undertake, as also to agree to the Italian
+suggestion that a free zone of some twenty kilometres should be
+instituted at the back of Zadar. One might safely say that the Italian
+agents in this region would not have confined themselves to salutary
+measures for the welfare of the town. It is stated in the Treaty of
+Rapallo that in case of disagreement either party could invoke an
+arbitrator, and the Yugoslavs, who happen now to be the weaker party,
+have been contemplating application to the League of Nations. Well, in
+Genoa it was proposed by Italy that Yugoslavia should renounce the
+clause which deals with an eventual arbitration. If you make a large
+number of demands--never mind that they should be in opposition to a
+Treaty you have signed--then you may gain a few of them--and Italy was
+hoping that the Free State would repay the costs which she incurred
+there on account of her unruly son d'Annunzio, and, likewise, that the
+good Italianists who at the end of the Great War committed wholesale
+thefts from the State warehouses should not be made to pay for it. With
+all their guile and strength the Italians were endeavouring to avoid the
+execution of her Treaty of Rapallo. "Italy is the one Power in Europe,"
+says Mr. Harold Goad[70] who thrusts himself upon our notice, "Italy is
+the one Power in Europe that is most obviously and most consistently
+working for peace and conciliation in every field."
+
+
+HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE
+
+The complicated troubles, avoidable and unavoidable, that have been
+raging in Central Europe after the War are being met to some extent by
+the Little Entente, an association in the first place between Yugoslavia
+and the kindred Czecho-Slovakia, and afterwards between them and
+Roumania. The world was assured that this union had for its object the
+establishment of peace, security and normal economic activities in
+Central and Eastern Europe; no acquisitive purposes were in the
+background, and since these three States now recognized that if they try
+to swallow more of the late Austro-Hungarian monarchy they will suffer
+from chronic indigestion, we need not be suspicious of their altruism.
+It is perfectly true that the first impulse which moved the creators of
+the Little Entente was not constructive but defensive; their great
+Allies did not appear, in the opinion of the three Succession States, to
+be taking the necessary precautions against the elements of reaction.
+Otherwise they, especially France (which was naturally more determined
+that Austria should not join herself to Germany), would not have
+favoured the idea of a Danubian Federation, in which Austria and Hungary
+would play leading parts. The Great Powers would also, if they had been
+less exclusively concerned with their own interests, have handled with
+more resolution the attempts of Charles of Habsburg to place himself at
+the head of the present reactionary régime at Buda-Pest; and if it had
+not been for certain energetic measures taken by the members of the
+Little Entente it may well be doubted whether the Government of Admiral
+Horthy, which does not conceal the fact that it is royalist--the king
+being temporarily absent--would have required Charles to leave the
+country. The Little Entente pointed out to their great Allies what these
+had apparently overlooked, namely, that the return of the Habsburgs was
+not opposed by the Succession States out of pure malice but for the
+reason that it would inevitably strengthen the magnates and the high
+ecclesiastics in their desire to bring about the restoration of
+Hungary's old frontiers. As the frontiers are now drawn there dwell--and
+this could not be prevented--a number of Magyars in each of the three
+neighbouring States (the fewest being in Yugoslavia), just as the
+present Hungary includes a Czech-Slovak, Roumanian and Yugoslav
+population.[71] But the Great Powers agree that if this frontier is to
+be changed at all, every precaution should be taken against having it
+changed by force. It is no exaggeration to say that there can be no
+real peace in Central Europe until normal intercourse with Russia is
+re-established, but let it in the meantime be the task of the Little
+Entente to guard the temporary peace from being shattered.
+
+Apart from this defensive object the countries of the Little Entente
+have the positive aim of a resumption of normal economic conditions and
+the institution of a new order of things in accordance with the new
+political construction of Central and Eastern Europe. It is obvious that
+these three States have numerous interests in common which make their
+co-operation very natural, if not indeed indispensable.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 46: April 16, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 47: January 22, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 48: According to the Rome correspondent of the _Petit
+    Journal_.]
+
+    [Footnote 49: But the wind was considerably tempered for him:
+    vessels laden with his precise requirements sailed over from
+    Italy and said they had been captured by d'Annunzio's arditi.
+    General Badoglio, in command of the royal troops outside the
+    town, ascertained in November 1919 that Rieka's coal-supply was
+    nearly exhausted and 7000 tons per month were required for the
+    public services alone. He accordingly informed a syndicate of
+    coal merchants in Triest that he would be personally
+    responsible for the first consignment of coal to d'Annunzio. A
+    month earlier, when the town was supposed to be blockaded, it
+    was announced that a limited supply of food-stuffs would,
+    nevertheless, be introduced, through the Red Cross, for very
+    young children. This amounted, as a matter of fact, to 21
+    truckloads a week. It is significant that there was no rise in
+    the prices charged in the public restaurants of Rieka, and that
+    persons living outside the line of Armistice found it cheaper
+    to do their shopping in the besieged city.]
+
+    [Footnote 50: February 20, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 51: September 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 52: However, in the Yugoslav Parliament, although
+    some of the deputies have spent their lives in far-off,
+    primitive places--by no means all of those who represent the
+    Albanians can read and write--one does not hear such deplorable
+    language as that which, according to the _Grazer Volksblatt_ of
+    January 19, 1922, disgraced the Austrian Assembly. A certain
+    Dr. Waneck, of the Pan-German party, wished to criticize the
+    Minister of Finance, Professor Dr. Gürtler of the Christian
+    Socialists. He remarked that one could not expect this Minister
+    to be sober at four o'clock in the afternoon, and went on to
+    say that no less than five banks, whose names he would give,
+    had received early information from the Minister, which enabled
+    them to speculate successfully. He repeated this accusation
+    several times and with great violence, but when he was invited
+    to reveal the names of these banks--"No, sir!" he cried. "I
+    will not do so, because I don't want to."]
+
+    [Footnote 53: Cf. "The Tri-Une Kingdom," by Pavle Popović
+    and Jovan M. Jovanović, in the _Quarterly Review_, October
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 54: He was kept for some time in confinement at
+    Mitrovica, in Syrmia, and in November 1920 he was liberated in
+    consequence of the great amnesty.]
+
+    [Footnote 55: Cf. _Spectator_, July 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 56: Cf. _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 57: A few months after this, in the course of a
+    little controversy in the _Saturday Review_ (which arose from
+    an unsigned and, I hoped, rather reasonable article of mine on
+    the Adriatic Settlement) I quoted from memory this passage of
+    Mrs. Re-Bartlett's and said that the Italian captain was giving
+    chocolates to the children at Kievo. Thereupon Mr. Harold W. E.
+    Goad of the British-Italian League wrote a highly indignant
+    letter to the editor, and in the course of it he denounced me
+    for having egregiously invented the chocolates "for the sole
+    purpose of throwing her testimony into ridicule.... What do
+    you, Sir, think of such methods as that?" And he concluded by
+    declaring that I wallowed in a "truly Balkan slough of
+    distortion and calumny." Well, on referring to Mrs.
+    Re-Bartlett's article I find that there is no mention of
+    chocolates, and I apologize; presumably the children were
+    crowding round their adored _Capitano_ in order to thank him
+    for the bridges and waterworks which were being built in
+    Dalmatia.]
+
+    [Footnote 58: During the Italian occupation, said Professor
+    Salvemini, teachers, doctors and priests were deported or
+    expelled from the country, while the Italian Government had to
+    dissolve 30 municipal councils out of 33, so that at the head
+    of the communes were Italian officials and not properly elected
+    mayors. Moreover, all liberties were suppressed. No Slav
+    newspapers, no Slav societies were permitted, and 32 out of 57
+    magistrates were dismissed--these methods being due not to
+    cruelty or folly, said the Professor, but to the necessity of
+    keeping order by forcible means in a country which was wholly
+    hostile.]
+
+    [Footnote 59: November 13, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 60: November 15, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 61: This, of course, did not meet with the approval
+    of Signor d'Annunzio. He made numerous pronouncements with
+    regard to his inflexible desires, saying that, if necessary, he
+    would offer up his bleeding corpse. And his resistance to the
+    Italian Government did not confine itself to rhetoric. During
+    his usurpation of Rieka this man had done his country grievous
+    harm. It was not only that he held her up to the smiles of the
+    malicious who said that she could not keep order in her own
+    house, but he was guiding the people back to barbarism. When
+    sailors of the royal navy deserted to his standard, he knelt
+    before them in the streets of Rieka at a time when from Russia
+    Lenin was inciting the Italian Communists to revolution and to
+    the conquest of the State. He refused to deal with Giolitti,
+    even as he had rejected the advances of Nitti. But the aged
+    Giolitti grasped the problem with more firmness, which was what
+    one might expect from the statesman who, after his return to
+    power, had leaned neither on the industrial magnates of Milan
+    nor on their Bolševik antagonists. Giolitti was resolved to
+    put an end to the nuisance of d'Annunzio; in no constitutional
+    State is there room for a Prime Minister and such a
+    swashbuckler. The Nationalists of Italy were furious when they
+    perceived that the Premier was in earnest and that force would
+    be employed against their idol. And it had to come to that, for
+    the utterly misguided man continued to resist--hoping doubtless
+    for wholesale desertions in the army and navy--with the
+    deplorable result that a good many Italians were slain by
+    Italians. Orders were issued by the Government that all
+    possible care should be taken of d'Annunzio's person; and
+    eventually when Rieka was taken by the royalist troops the poet
+    broke his oath that he would surely die; he announced that
+    Italy was not worth dying for and it was said that he had
+    sailed away on an aeroplane. He had accomplished none of his
+    desires; the town had not become Italian, though he had bathed
+    it in Italian blood. His overweening personal ambitions had
+    been shipwrecked on the rock of ridicule, for as he made his
+    inglorious exit he shouted at the world that he was "still
+    alive and inexorable." But yet he may have unconsciously
+    achieved something, for his seizure of what he loved to call
+    the "holocaust city" provided the extreme Nationalists with a
+    private stage where--in uniforms of their own design, in cloaks
+    and feathers and flowing black ties and with eccentric
+    arrangements of the hair--they could strut and caper and fling
+    bombastic insults at the authorities in Rome, until the
+    Government found it opportune to take them in hand. The
+    greatest Italian poet and one of the greatest imaginative
+    writers in Europe will now be able to devote himself--if his
+    rather morbid Muse has suffered no injury--to his predestined
+    task. Those--the comparatively few that read--whose
+    acquaintance with this writer's work usually caused them to
+    regret his methods, could not help admiring his personal
+    activities, his genius for leadership and his vital fire during
+    the War. But, once this was over, he relapsed; and expressing
+    himself very clearly in action, so that he became known to the
+    many instead of the few, he lived what he previously wrote, and
+    now it is generally recognized that Gabriel of the
+    Annunciation, as he calls himself, who produced a row of
+    obscene and histrionic novels, is a mountebank, a self-deceiver
+    and a most affected bore. When he came to Rieka he thought fit
+    to appeal to the England of Milton. And, like him, Milton lived
+    as he wrote. Milton, Dante and Sophocles--to mention no others
+    of the supreme writers--were as serious and responsible in
+    their public actions as in the pursuit of their art.]
+
+    [Footnote 62: Whatever be the limitations of the _Dom_ as a
+    newspaper--it is almost exclusively occupied with the person
+    and programme of Mr. Radić--yet that brings with it the
+    virtue, most exceptional in Yugoslavia, of refusing to engage
+    in polemics. This would otherwise take up a good deal of its
+    space, as Radić has become such a bogey-man that nothing is
+    too ridiculous for his opponents to believe. A Czech newspaper
+    not long ago informed the world that this monstrous personage
+    had told an interviewer that not only had Serbian soldiers in
+    Macedonia been murdering 200 children but that they had roasted
+    and consumed them. Furthermore Radić had said that the
+    British Minister to Yugoslavia had called upon him and had
+    asked his advice with some persistence, not even wishing to
+    leave Radić time to reflect, as to whether the Prince-Regent
+    should rule in Russia, while an English Prince should be
+    invited to occupy the Yugoslav throne. The first of these
+    remarks proved conclusively, said a number of Belgrade papers,
+    that Radić was a knave and by the second he had demonstrated
+    that he was an imbecile. And my friend Mr. Leiper of the
+    _Morning Post_ speculated as to whether he was more likely to
+    end his days in a lunatic asylum or a prison. But Radić was
+    caring about none of these things; his birthday happened at
+    about this time and some 30,000 of his adherents came to do him
+    honour at his birthplace, over 500 of them on decorated horses
+    having met him at Sisak station the previous evening. When I
+    asked him what he had to say about the two afore-mentioned
+    remarks he gave me an amusing account of how the interviewer
+    had appreciated the various samples of wine which he (Radić)
+    had just brought down from his vineyard. The conversation
+    lasted for about four hours, and in the course of it Radić
+    mentioned that a certain Moslem deputy from Novi Bazar,
+    irritated by the fact that Mr. Drašković, Minister of the
+    Interior, found no pleasure in his continued presence on a
+    commission of inquiry in the region of Kossovo, had been
+    throwing out very dark hints about a child which he accused the
+    Serbs of killing in the stormy days of 1878, and then relating
+    to the Tsar that this dastardly deed had been committed by the
+    Turks. This was the basis of that part of the interview. As for
+    the other absurdity, it was mentioned that some courtiers had
+    told the Prince-Regent that he alone could establish an orderly
+    Government in Russia, whereupon Radić observed that England
+    and France were not likely to allow one person to reign both
+    there and in Yugoslavia. And when I asked why he had not
+    published this explanation in his paper, he said that he
+    couldn't very well charge a guest with having liked his wine
+    too much.]
+
+    [Footnote 63: Cf. _The Quarterly Review_ (October 1921), in
+    which Messrs. Pavle Popović and Jovan M. Jovanović
+    published a very able survey of Yugoslav conditions.]
+
+    [Footnote 64: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 65: April 26, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 66: Unhappily it became apparent that the Italians
+    were not disposed to have the Treaty put in force]
+
+    [Footnote 67: March 23, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 68: Cf. an article in a fascisti newspaper, quoted by
+    the _Zagreber Tagblatt_ of May 14, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 69: Cf. "The Rise of the Little Entente," by Dorothy
+    Thompson. April 1, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 70: _Fortnightly Review_, May 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 71: The magnates of Hungary and their friends do not
+    grow weary of lamenting the sad fate of the Magyar minorities.
+    Whatever may be happening in Transylvania, they have a very
+    poor case against the Serbs. In the Voivodina there are,
+    according to Hungarian statistics, about 382,000 Magyars out of
+    1·4 million inhabitants. These Magyars have their primary and
+    secondary schools, their newspapers and so forth, whereas in
+    the spring of 1922 the schools in various Serbian villages near
+    Budapest were forcibly closed, the lady teachers being told
+    that if they stayed they would have to undergo the physical
+    examination which is applied to prostitutes.]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS
+
+INTRODUCTION--(_a_) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE ACTORS--2. THE
+AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE--3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS--4.
+THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE--5. A METHOD WHICH MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED
+IN ALBANIA--6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA--7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER
+MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION--8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN
+AUTHORITIES--9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS--10. DR. TRUMBIĆ'S
+PROPOSAL--11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE
+MIRDITI--12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE--13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE
+YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS--14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS
+HAVE RETIRED--15. THE PROSPECT--(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER--(_c_) THE
+BULGARIAN FRONTIER--(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE STATE OF THE
+ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA--2. THE BANAT--(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN
+FRONTIER--(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER--(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Nobody could have expected in the autumn of 1918 that the frontiers of
+the new State would be rapidly delimitated. Ethnological, economic,
+historic and strategical arguments--to mention no others--would be
+brought forward by either side, and the Supreme Council, which had to
+deliver judgment on these knotty problems, would be often more
+preoccupied with their own interests and their relation to each other.
+It would also happen that a member of the Supreme Council would be
+simultaneously judge and pleader. The mills of justice would therefore
+grind very slowly, for they would be conscious that the fruit of their
+efforts, evolved with much foreign material clogging the machinery and
+with parts of the machinery jerked out of their line of track, would be
+received with acute criticism. When more than two years had elapsed from
+the time of the Armistice a considerable part of Yugoslavia's frontiers
+remained undecided. We will travel along the frontier lines, starting
+with that between Yugoslavs and Albanians.
+
+
+(a) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER
+
+1. THE ACTORS
+
+Those who in old Turkish days lived in that wild border country which is
+dealt with on these pages would have been surprised to hear that they
+would be the objects of a great deal of discussion in the west of
+Europe. But in those days there was no Yugoslavia and no Albania and no
+League of Nations, and very few were the writers who took up this
+question. It is, undoubtedly, a question of importance, though some of
+these writers, remembering that the fate of the world was dependent on
+the fraction of an inch of Cleopatra's nose, seem almost to have
+imagined that it was proportionately more dependent on those several
+hundred kilometres of disputed frontier. It would not so much matter
+that they have introduced a good deal of passion into their arguments if
+they had not also exerted some influence on influential men--and this
+compels one to pay them what would otherwise be excessive attention.
+
+Let us consider the frontier which the Ambassadors' Conference in
+November 1921 assigned to Yugoslavia and the Albanians. We have already
+mentioned some of the previous points of contact between those Balkan
+neighbours who for centuries have been acquiring knowledge of each other
+and who, therefore, as Berati Bey, the Albanian delegate in Paris, very
+wisely said, should have been left to manage their own frontier
+question. A number of Western Europeans will exclaim that this could not
+be accomplished without the shedding of blood; but it is rather more
+than probable that the interference of Western Europe--partly
+philanthropic and partly otherwise--will be responsible for greater loss
+of life. If it could not be permitted that two of the less powerful
+peoples should attempt to settle their own affairs, then, at any rate,
+the most competent of alien judges should have sat on the tribunal. A
+frontier in that part of Europe should primarily take the peculiarities
+of the people into account, and I believe that if Sir Charles Eliot and
+Baron Nopsca with their unrivalled knowledge of the Albanians had been
+consulted it is probable they would, for some years to come, have
+thought desirable the frontier which is preferred by General Franchet
+d'Espérey, by a majority of the local Albanians, and by those who hope
+for peace in the Balkans.
+
+
+2. THE AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE
+
+A battle which took place near Tuzi, not far from Podgorica, in December
+1919, may assist the study of the difficult Albanian question. At the
+first attack about 150 Montenegrins, mostly young recruits, were killed
+or wounded; but in the counter-attack the Albanian losses were much
+greater, 167 of them being made prisoners. On all of these were found
+Italian rifles, ammunition, money and army rations. On the other hand, a
+few Montenegrins, with three officers, were also captured and were
+stripped and handed over, naked, to the Italians. But these declined to
+have them, saying that the conflict had been no concern of theirs, and
+the unfortunate men--with the exception of one who escaped--remained
+among the Albanians. The fact that Tuzi would be of no value to the
+Italians neither weakens nor strengthens the supposition that they were
+privy to the Albanian attack; but it may very well be that the natives
+had taken their Italian equipment by force of arms. It would, anyhow,
+seem that the Italians have little understanding of this people: during
+the War, when General Franchet d'Espérey was straightening his line, he
+paid some hundreds of Albanians to maintain his western flank, and they
+were very satisfactory. (It troubled them very little whether they were
+holding it against the Austrians or against other Albanians.) When Italy
+took over that part of the line she employed a whole Division, which--to
+the amusement, it is said, of Franchet d'Espérey--provided the local
+population with a great deal of booty, and in particular with mules.
+There was constant trouble in those regions of Albania which were
+occupied by the Italians,[72] and in June 1920 things had come to such a
+pass that the Italian garrisons, after being thrown out of the villages
+of Bestrovo and Selitza, were actually retiring with all the stores they
+could rescue to Valona. Their retreat, said Reuter, in a euphemistic
+message from Rome, was "attended by some loss." As Valona was their last
+stronghold in Albanian territory, it seemed that very few, if any, of
+the tribes were in favour of an Italian protectorate. And since it was
+calculated that during the first six months of 1920 the Italian
+Government was paying from 400 to 500 million lire a month for corn, and
+the year's deficit might be enough to lead the State to the very verge
+of bankruptcy, one was asking whether from an economic, apart from any
+other, point of view, it would not be advisable for the Italians to cut
+their losses in central Albania. And this they very wisely determined to
+do. Would that their subsequent policy in northern Albania had been as
+well-inspired.
+
+It would also seem as if the affair of Tuzi shows that the Albanians
+have no wish for a Yugoslav protectorate, and there are a good many
+Serbs, such as Professor Cvijić, who view with uneasiness any
+extension of their sway over the Albanians. Many of the tribes are
+prepared, after very small provocation or none, to take up arms against
+anybody; and those who, in the north and north-east of the country, are
+in favour of a Yugoslav protectorate would undoubtedly have opposed to
+them a number of the natives, less because they are fired with the
+prospect of "Albania for the Albanians" than on account of their
+patriarchal views. We must, however, at the same time, acknowledge that
+those Albanians who are impelled by patriotic ideals, and who would like
+to see their countrymen within the 1913 frontiers, resolutely turn away
+from the various attractions which the Slavs undoubtedly exercise over
+many of them and combine in a brotherly fashion, under the guidance of a
+disinterested State, to work for an independent Albania--those idealists
+have every right to be heard. Their solution is, in fact, the one that
+would, as we have elsewhere said, be best for everyone concerned. The
+late Professor Burrows, who believed in the possibility of such an
+arrangement, thought that it would take generations for this people "to
+pass from blood feud and tribal jealousy to the good order of a unified
+State, unless they have tutorage in the art of self-government." There
+seem to be grave difficulties, both external and internal, in the way of
+setting up such a tutorage over the whole of the 1913 Albania; and if a
+majority of the northern and north-eastern tribes prefer to turn to
+Yugoslavia, rather than to join the frustrated patriots and the wilder
+brethren in turning away from it, they should not be sweepingly
+condemned as traitors to the national cause. The frame of mind which
+looks with deep suspicion on a road that links a tribe to its neighbour
+is not very promising for those who dream of an Albanian nation; it is a
+prevalent and fundamental frame of mind. "The Prince of Wied," we are
+told by his countryman, Dr. Max Müller, "succeeded in conquering the
+hearts of those Albanians who supported him and of gaining the highest
+respect of those who were his political opponents." No doubt they were
+flattered when they noticed that he had so far become an Albanian as to
+surround his residence at Durazzo with barbed-wire entanglements.
+
+Among the solutions of the Albanian problem was that which Dr. Müller
+very seriously, not to say ponderously, put forward in 1916.[73] This
+gentleman, with a first-hand knowledge of the country, which he gained
+during the War, did not minimize the task which would face the Prince of
+Wied on his return. Of that wooden potentate one may say that his work
+in Albania did not collapse for the reason that it was never started; a
+few miles from Durazzo, his capital, from which, I believe, he made only
+that one excursion whose end was undignified, a few miles away he
+excited the derision of his "subjects," and a few miles farther off they
+had not heard of him. Dr. Müller, after reproving us sternly for smiling
+at the national decoration, in several classes, with which his Highness
+on landing at the rickety pier was graciously pleased to gladden the
+meritorious natives, admits that at his second coming he will have to
+take various other steps. Austrians and Germans should be brought to
+colonize the country, and not peasants, forsooth, like those who have
+laboriously made good in the Banat, but merchants, manufacturers,
+engineers, doctors, officials and large landowners--not by any means
+without close inquiry, so as to admit only such as are in possession of
+a blameless repute and a certain amount of cash. Dr. Müller was resolved
+that, so far as lay with him, none but the very best Teutons should
+embark upon this splendid mission. He desired that, after landing, they
+should first of all remain at the harbour, there to undergo a course of
+tuition in the customs and peculiarities of the tribe among which they
+proposed to settle. His compatriots would be so tactful--apparently not
+criticizing any of the customs--that the hearts of the Albanians would
+incline towards them and by their beautiful example they would make
+these primitive, wild hearts beat not so much for local interests but
+very fervently for the Albanian fatherland. One cannot help a feeling of
+regret that circumstances have prevented us from seeing Dr. Müller's
+scheme put into action.
+
+
+3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS
+
+In 1913, after the Balkan War, the flags of the Powers were hoisted at
+Scutari, and a frontier dividing the Albanians from the Yugoslavs
+(Montenegrins and Serbs) was indicated by Austria and traced at the
+London Conference. This boundary was still awaiting its final
+demarcation by commissioners on the spot when the European War broke
+out. Then in the second year of the War disturbances were organized by
+the Austrians in Albania--their friend the miscreant ruler of Montenegro
+caused money to be sent for this purpose to the Austro-Hungarian Consul
+at Scutari--and in April and May of that year the Serbs were authorized
+by their Allies to protect themselves by occupying certain portions of
+the country. Various battles took place between those Albanians who were
+partisans of Austria and those who were disinclined to attack the Serbs
+in the rear. The Serbian Government opposed the Austrian propaganda by
+dispatching to that region the Montenegrin Pouniša Ra�ić, of
+whom we have much to say. He was accompanied by Smajo Ferović, a
+Moslem sergeant of komitadjis. They explained to the Albanians that the
+Serbs had been offered a separate peace with numerous concessions, but
+that Mr. Pašić had refused to treat. When the two Albanian parties
+discussed the situation by shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian
+officers made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came to an
+end.
+
+When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up from Macedonia, were
+requested by General Franchet d'Espérey to undertake a task which the
+Italians refused, and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of
+Albania. Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
+mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large part of Albania
+should be given up to their administration. The Serbs agreed and
+withdrew; they even took away their representative from Scutari, where
+the Allies had again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
+upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern Albania, but--save for
+a few misguided politicians--they were logical enough to reject the
+whole of the pernicious Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in
+Dalmatia and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods. Over and
+over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare in Paris that it was their
+wish to see established an independent Albania with the frontiers of
+1913. These, the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
+were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of thwarting the
+Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It is true that several towns
+with large Albanian majorities were made over to the Serbs--very much,
+as it turned out, to their subsequent advantage--yet, being separated
+from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless, if a free
+and united Albania could be constituted the Serbs were ready to accept
+this frontier, and even Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French
+Albanophile of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this attitude
+of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their honour. But before relative
+tranquillity reigns among the Albanians it is, as General Franchet
+d'Espérey perceived in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
+temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance for some miles
+into Albania, so that on the river Drin or on the mountain summits they
+might ward off attacks. These, by the way, had their origin far more in
+the border population's empty stomachs than in their animus against the
+Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people could regard the 1918
+frontier as unnecessary. The Albanians were themselves so much inclined
+to acquiesce that one must ask why, in the months which followed, there
+was a considerable amount of border fighting. What was it that caused
+the Albanians in the region of Scutari to make their violent onslaughts
+of December 1919 and January 1920, the renewed offensive of July 1920 at
+the same places--after which the Albanian Government forwarded to that
+of Belgrade an assurance of goodwill--and the organized thrust of August
+13 against Dibra, which was preceded on August 10 by a manifesto to the
+chancelleries of Europe falsely accusing the Serbs of having begun these
+operations, and which was followed by the Tirana Government promising to
+try to find the guilty persons? The 19th of the same month saw the
+Albanians delivering a further attack in the neighbourhood of Scutari,
+and then the Yugoslav Government decided that their army must occupy
+such defensive positions as would put a stop to these everlasting
+incidents. But a voice was whispering to the Albanians that they must
+not allow themselves to be so easily coerced. "You have thrown us out of
+all the land behind Valona," said the voice, "and out of Valona itself.
+You must, therefore, be the greatest warriors in the world, and we will
+be charmed to provide you with rifles and machine guns and munitions
+and uniforms and cash. We will gladly publish to the world that your
+Delegation at Rome has sent us an official Note demanding that the
+Yugoslav troops should retire to the 1913 line, pure and simple. Of
+course we, like the other Allies, agreed that they should occupy the
+more advanced positions which General Franchet d'Espérey assigned to
+them--and to show you how truly sorry we are for having done so, we
+propose to send you all the help you need. In dealing with us you will
+find that you have to do with honourable men, whereas the
+Yugoslavs--what are they but Yugoslavs?"
+
+Anyone who travelled about this time along the road from Scutari down to
+the port of San Giovanni di Medua would inevitably meet with processions
+of ancient cabs, ox-wagons and what not, laden with all kinds of
+military equipment. Some of these supplies had come direct from Italy,
+while others had been seized from the Italians near Valona. The
+detachment of Italian soldiers at San Giovanni, and the much larger
+detachment at Scutari, may have looked with mixed feelings at some of
+these commodities, but on the other hand they may have thought, with
+General Bencivenga,[74] that it was good business--"_un buon
+affare_"--in exchange for Valona to obtain a solid and secure friendship
+with the Albanians. Roads, as he pointed out, lead from Albania to the
+heart of Serbia, and for that reason a true brotherhood of arms between
+Italians and Albanians was, in case of hostilities, enormously to be
+desired. And so the Italians stationed at Scutari, under Captain
+Pericone of the Navy, may have felt that it was well that all those
+cannon captured from their countrymen were in such a good condition.
+They would now be turned by the Albanians against the hateful Yugoslavs.
+["Italy is the one Power in Europe," says her advocate, Mr. H. E. Goad,
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1922), "that is most obviously and most
+consistently working for peace and conciliation in every field."] ... A
+further supply of military material is said to have reached the
+Albanians from Gabriele d'Annunzio in the S.S. _Knin_. To the Irish, the
+Egyptians and the Turks the poet-filibuster had merely sent greetings.
+Some one may have told him that even the most lyrical greeting would
+not be valued by the Albanians half as much as a shipload of munitions.
+
+For a considerable time the more intelligent Italians had noticed that
+these two Balkan peoples were disposed to live in amicable terms with
+one another. Traditions that are so powerful with an illiterate
+people--under five per thousand of the Albanians who have stayed in
+their own country can read and write--numerous traditions speak of
+friendship with the Serbs: Lek, the great legislator, was related to
+Serbian princes; Skanderbeg was an ally of the Serbs; "Most of the
+celebrated leaders of northern Albania and Montenegro," says Miss
+Durham, "seem to have been of mixed Serbian-Albanian blood"; Mustapha
+Vezir Bushatli strove together with Prince Miloš against the Turks,
+and the same cause united the Serbian authorities to the famous Vezir
+Mahmud Begović of Peć. A primitive people like the Albanians
+admire the warlike attributes beyond all others, and the exploits of the
+Serbian army in the European War inclined the hearts of the Albanians
+towards their neighbours. Some of them remembered at this juncture that
+their great-grandfathers or grandfathers had only become Albanian after
+having accepted the Muhammedan religion; now the old ikons were taken
+from their hiding-places. And there was, in fact, between the two Balkan
+people a spirit of cordiality which gave terrible umbrage to the
+Italians. So they took the necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests
+had been in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners of Italy.
+Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to be anti-Turk but, as was
+evident when in 1911 he negotiated with Montenegro, he is not personally
+anti-Slav. Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary, and
+so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies, transferred from
+Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are willing to provide the cash--and
+nobody can blame him. Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and
+a great friend of Monsignor Bumçi, the Albanian bishop, was succeeded by
+an Italian. But, of course, the new almoner did not confine his gifts to
+those of his own faith. Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a
+monthly salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the Italians
+as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor country, and with no
+Austrian competition you found quite prominent personages deigning to
+accept a rather miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
+Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those mountain tribes are
+being paid?" "Well," he said, "I think that it is not improbable." ...
+At the time of the Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their
+Minister of Finance the sagacious Patchoù. The War Minister, a General,
+was strongly in favour of an instant declaration of war, and the Premier
+suggested that the matter should be discussed. He turned to the Minister
+of Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money for such an
+undertaking. Patchoù shook his head. "But our men are patriots! They
+will go without bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
+General. "The horses and mules are not patriots," said Patchoù, "and if
+you want them to march you'll have to feed them." The Albanians were so
+little inclined to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians had, in
+various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what did the Albanians think
+of these intrigues? At any rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth
+Professor Chimigò,[75] a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
+"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great nation.... The
+Albanian Government," said he, "has charged me to declare in public that
+Albania does not regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is
+convinced that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops from Valona,
+were obeying a sentiment of goodness and generosity." Such words would
+be likely to bring more plentiful supplies from Rome. And fortunately
+the Italians did not seem to suffer, like the Serbs, from any scruples
+as to the propriety of taking active steps against another "Allied and
+Associated Power." When Zena Beg Riza Beg of Djakovica came in the year
+1919 to his brother-in-law Ahmed Beg Mati, one of the Albanian leaders,
+he told him that the Belgrade Government, in pursuance of their policy
+"The Balkans for the Balkan peoples," would be glad if the Italians
+could be ousted from Albania. Zena Beg returned with a request for
+money, guns and so forth; but they were not sent.
+
+Ahmed Beg and Zena Beg are patriotic young Albanian noblemen of ancient
+family and great possessions. But Zena Beg has the advantage of living
+in Yugoslavia, outside the atmosphere of corruption which is darkening
+his native land. Ahmed Beg, who in 1920 was Minister of the Interior,
+Minister of War, Governor of Scutari and Director (in mufti) of the
+military operations against the Yugoslavs, did not accept Italian
+bribes, but he was surrounded by those who did, and thus the gentle and
+industrious young man was being led to work against his own country's
+interests. With him at Scutari was another of the six Ministers of the
+Tirana Government, in the person of the venerable Moslem priest Kadri,
+Minister of Justice, and one of the four Regents, Monsignor Bumçi. There
+was about it all an Oriental odour of the less desirable kind, which
+caused some observers to say that when Albania obtains her independence
+she will be a bad imitation of the old Turkey--a little Turkey without
+the external graces. When the thoughtful greybeard Kadri went limping
+down the main street, a protecting gendarme dawdled behind him, smoking
+a cigarette; but this endearing nonchalance was absent from the methods
+of government: any Albanian whose opinions did not coincide with those
+of the authorities could only express them at his peril. [Blood-vengeance
+is, to some extent, being deposed by party-vengeance--this having
+originated in the time of Wied, when the politicians were divided into
+Nationalists and Essadists, after which they became Italophils and
+Austrophils, who now have been succeeded by Italophils (who ask for an
+Italian mandate) and Serbophils and Grecophils (who desire that these
+countries should have no mandate, but should act in a friendly spirit
+towards an independent Albania). Meanwhile the Italophils, nearly all of
+them on Italy's pay-roll, were, till a few months ago, in the ascendant,
+and their attitude towards the other party was relentless.] One Alush
+Ljocha, for example, said that he thought it would be well if Yugoslavia
+and Albania lived on friendly terms with one another. Because of this--the
+Government having adopted other ideas--his house at Scutari was
+burned,[76] and when we were discussing the matter at the palace of the
+Metropolitan, Monsignor Sereggi, I found that His Grace was emphatically in
+accord with a fiery Franciscan poet, Father Fichta, with the more placid
+Monsignor Bumçi, and with two other ecclesiastics who were present. "We did
+well to burn his house, very well, I say!" exclaimed Father Fichta,
+"because Alush is only a private person and he has no business to concern
+himself with foreign countries." Of course, when Father Fichta made his
+comments on foreign countries it was not as a private person but as a
+responsible editor. Thus in the _Posta e Shqypnis_ during the War he
+denounced Clemenceau and Lloyd George as such foes of humanity that their
+proper destination was a cage of wild beasts, and, after having visited
+France during 1919 as secretary to the sincere and credulous Bumçi, he
+contributed anti-French and, I believe, anti-English poems to the _Epopea
+Shqyptare_.
+
+"I have been told," I said, "by an intelligent Albanian who was educated
+at Robert College at Constantinople that the greatest hope for the
+country lies, in his opinion, in the increase of American schools, such
+as that one at Elbasan and the admirable institution at Samakoff in
+Bulgaria, where the Americans--in order not to be accused of
+proselytism--teach everything except religion."
+
+"If I had my own way," cried Fichta, "I would shut up these irreligious
+American schools. Religion is the base of the social life of this
+country."
+
+"And you and the Muhammedans," I asked, "do you think that your
+co-operation has a good prospect of enduring? With a country of no more
+than one and a half million inhabitants it is essential that you should
+be united."
+
+"God in Heaven! Who can tolerate such things?" exclaimed the
+Metropolitan. That very corpulent old gentleman was bouncing with rage
+on his sofa. "Is it not horrible," he cried in Italian, "that this man
+should dare to come to my house and make propaganda against us?"
+
+"Really, sir, I am astonished," said Monsignor Bumçi, reproachfully, in
+French, "that you should ask such a question." [It was answered a few
+weeks later, when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg--who, being outside
+Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental opinions--said that they
+had not the slightest doubt but that the friendship between the fanatic
+Moslem and the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of them
+would again in the first place think of his religion, so that, as
+heretofore, they would regard themselves as Turkish and Latin people
+rather than as Albanian. This foible does not apply to the Orthodox
+Albanians of the South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
+the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship with the Moslem.
+They have been the domineering party, but all that is finished, and we
+are the best of friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
+Regents![77] Our Government of all the three religions is very good,
+and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his chair, "it insists on the
+Albanians obtaining justice in spite of our enemies."
+
+It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor of Theology and
+Philosophy, in the Franciscan church. Because his brother had had
+occasion to kill an editor in self-defence, this, perhaps the most
+enlightened, member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
+to remain for eight months in the church and its precincts, seeing that
+the Government was powerless to guarantee that he would not be overtaken
+by that national curse, the blood-vengeance.
+
+"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance," said the
+Monsignor.
+
+"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting on justice for the
+Albanians."
+
+And some time after this Professor Achikou and another prominent young
+priest were deported to Italy and, I believe, interned in that
+country.... With their fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a
+priest whose anti-Slav paper, the _Bessa Shqyptare_, is alleged to
+exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday, whom Italy insisted
+on installing as Provincial of all the Franciscans (after vetoing at
+Rome the appointment of Father Vincent Prênnushi, whom nearly all the
+Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday, it is interesting
+to note, is of Slav nationality, for he comes from Janjevo in Kossovo,
+but he studied in Italy, and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors.
+This town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia and a few
+Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized, still retains a costume that
+resembles the Dalmatian, as also a rather defective Dalmatian dialect.
+The Austrians for thirty years endeavoured to Albanize them, but the
+people resisted this and boycotted the church and school. The priest
+Lazar, who defended their Slav national conscience, was persecuted and
+forced to flee to Serbia--he is now Mayor of Janjevo. It usually
+happened, by the way, that the priests of this Catholic town came from
+Dalmatia; but the Slav idea could bridge over the difference between
+Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that if no Catholic priest was available
+his place would be taken by an Orthodox priest from a neighbouring
+village. Only a few of the natives are anti-nationalists, having been
+brought up, like Father Doday, in some Italian or Austrian seminary.
+There are in Albania to-day about ten such priests who come from
+Janjevo.... How well this Father Doday has served his masters may be
+seen in the case of the Franciscan priest in Shala, who, with the whole
+population of armed Catholics, resisted the Italian advance of 1920.
+Together with Lieut. Lek Marashi he organized komitadjis in Shala and
+elsewhere, his purpose being to liberate his country from the Italians.
+Since these latter could do nothing else against him they compelled the
+Bishop of Pulati to punish him; however, all that the Bishop did was to
+tell the patriot priest to go away. But Father Doday was more willing to
+work for the Italians; he excommunicated his fellow-countryman, on the
+ground that he would not come to Scutari, where his life would have been
+in danger.
+
+
+4. THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE
+
+But, you may say, one cannot in fairness expect the new Albanian
+Government to achieve in so short a time what the Serbian Government has
+effected among the Albanians of Kossovo, who are being persuaded to
+relinquish their devastating custom of blood-vengeance. Prior to March
+1921, over 400 of its devotees and of brigands had given themselves up
+in Kossovo--turning away from the old days when, as one of them
+expressed it, "a shot from my rifle was heard at a distance of three
+hours' travel"; one of the most eminent among them disdained to
+surrender to a local authority and made his way to Belgrade, where he
+presented himself one afternoon to the astonished officials at the
+Ministry of the Interior. "After all," as Miss Durham has written, "the
+most important fact in northern Albania is blood-vengeance." What we
+must set out to probe is whether the Albanians, if they are left to
+themselves, will be able after a time to administer their country in a
+reasonably satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a very
+low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs and several proverbs were
+all that Consul Hahn could collect for his monumental work,[78] though
+his researches, which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
+One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some idea of
+their æsthetic value; a lover, standing outside the house of his lady,
+invites her to come out to him immediately; he threatens that if she
+disobeys him he will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more,
+he will have it washed and then he will return, howling like a dog.
+Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians, by the way, stated that the
+social life of Cæsar's _Bellum Gallicum_ was applicable to the tribes
+which now inhabit southern Albania, those of the north not being equal
+to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known Russian Consul-General,
+tells us of the villages of Retsch and Tschidna, where in winter men and
+women clothe themselves with rags, in summer with no rags--so that in
+the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not to shock the
+natives, would take the precaution of depositing his clothes in some
+convenient cavern. On the other hand, when the ladies in waiting on the
+Princess of Wied drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather,
+the people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called the terrible
+behaviour of their Prince's harem. These mountain people live on maize
+and milk and cheese--salt is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
+by the few educated Albanians as the most competent foreign observer. He
+knew the language well and travelled everywhere. One custom he relates
+of the Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they suspect
+that treasure is buried; on the next morning they look to see what
+animal has left on the ashes the print of its feet, and this tells them
+what sacrifice the guardian of the treasure demands--sheep or hen or
+human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement and water is the sole
+emetic known to the Albanians; it is used in all cases of poisoning. But
+the Albanian's death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot. "In
+Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"--42 per cent. of
+the adults, according to Nopsca, dying a violent death. "It was her good
+government and her orderliness that obtained for her her admission to
+the League of Nations," said the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., in the
+_Morning Post_ of November 29, 1921. And the enthusiastic President of
+the Anglo-Albanian Society is modest enough to refrain from telling us
+how much she was indebted to his own championship. The evil eye is
+feared in Albania more than syphilis or typhus. Siebertz[79] mentions a
+favourite remedy, which is to spit at the patient. A ceremonial spitting
+is also used by anyone who sees two people engaged in close
+conversation; very likely they are plotting against the third party, and
+by his timely expectoration their wicked plans will be upset.
+
+Absurd as it may sound, there are not a few Albanian apologists who lay
+the entire blame upon the Turks. They assert--and it is true--that
+Constantinople left this distant province so completely almost to its
+own devices that the suzerain might just as well not have existed. A
+few Turkish officials lived in the towns, in the country they showed
+themselves when they were furtively travelling through it; and the chief
+officials, such as the Vali of Scutari, were wont to be Albanians. And,
+being left by the Turks to evolve their own salvation, they turned
+Albania into a region of utter darkness--at any rate, they did
+practically nothing to shake off the barbarism which they had inherited.
+They have certain alluring attributes, such as their unpolluted mediæval
+ideas on the sanctity of guests and the punctilious maintenance of their
+honour,[80] their readiness to die for freedom as well as for a quarrel
+about a sheep, and their not infrequent personal magnetism. They are
+very abstemious, their morals are pure, they have certain mental
+qualities, as yet undeveloped, and they are thrifty. But "they are so
+devoid of both originality and unity," says Sir Charles Eliot,[81] that
+acutest of observers, "that it is vain to seek for anything in politics,
+art, religion, literature or customs to which the name Albanian can be
+properly applied as denoting something common to the Albanian race."
+
+The apologists, such as Miss Durham, argue that the other Balkan peoples
+suffered from a good deal of internal tumult after they had set
+themselves up as independent countries. And it is submitted that the
+Albanians would gradually develop the same national spirit as their
+neighbours. But there are as yet, Miss Durham must acknowledge, very
+few signs that this will ever come to pass.
+
+"We are Albanians," said Monsignor Bumçi, "we ask for Albania! We demand
+it! Surely you can see that we are all marching together, men from all
+parts of Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are united."
+
+And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian army was returning
+from a foray into Yugoslavia. When they came into the territory of a
+certain tribe they were compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their
+booty. Such incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously the
+conditions still prevail that were described in 1905 by Karl
+Steinmetz,[82] an Austrian engineer who learned the language and
+travelled through the country in the disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The
+tribes cannot conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
+his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up the new State
+these tribal institutions should be used as much as possible. Except in
+the towns, which play a relatively small part in the country's life, the
+voting should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala meet," says
+he, "except for mutual destruction? Will a Mirdite for a nice word give
+up his bandit expeditions to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet
+far too great." More often than not you would find that the Albanians
+regard each other as at the time of the Balkan War, when, for example, a
+Serbian cavalry officer took the village of Puka and asked the mayor to
+lead him to the neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented, but
+after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped. "We are now midway
+between the two villages," he said, "and I can go no farther." "Unless
+you continue," said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
+"_Nukahaile_ [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is all the same to
+me whether I am killed by you or by the men of Duci, and I certainly
+shall be killed if I show myself there."
+
+"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is splendid!" said Monsignor
+Bumçi. "And we are not by any means fanatical--with us it is the
+country first and our religion afterwards."
+
+Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman as we have sometimes
+been led to believe. Prenk Bib Doda is said to have cherished the
+precepts of the Catholic Church with such devotion that he could not
+bring himself to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
+wife. We are told that his mother was animated with similar scruples,
+and that, to solve this awkward question the old lady one day seized a
+rifle and shot her daughter-in-law dead. There is not more truth in this
+tale than in that of the brigands who, on a certain Friday, overpowered
+and slew a caravan of merchants between Dibra and Prizren. On examining
+their spoil they are said to have discovered a large amount of meat,
+but, as it was Friday, to have refrained from consuming it. Prenk Bib
+Doda was, as a matter of fact, impotent; and his widow, Lucia Bib Doda,
+survives him.... One agrees with Monsignor Bumçi that the Albanian is
+not altogether so blindly a supporter of his Church as we have been
+told, and his murderous intentions against a neighbouring tribe will be
+not at all diminished if they happen to profess the same religion as
+himself.
+
+"Anyone can see," quoth the Monsignor, "that the Government is dear to
+us. Men are coming from all over the country, anxious to execute its
+wishes and to be enrolled against the Yugoslav."
+
+Yes, we saw numbers of men tramping up to Scutari, from boys to
+septuagenarians. They were going to fight--it pleased them enormously.
+But if the Tirana Government had ordered them to go back and work on
+their fields, if it had asked them to take some precautions against the
+ravages of syphilis, if it had expressed the hope that they would no
+longer sell their women for an old Martini, or that the village prefects
+would pay some regard to sanitary matters--in the whole of Albania, says
+Siebertz, there is only one W.C.--then they would have laughed at this
+Government which tried to lay a hand on their ancestral liberties.
+
+"The end of it all is," said the Monsignor, "we are Albanians. We demand
+the independence of our country."
+
+"As a Latin," writes Professor Katarani,[83] "I was fire and flame for
+Albania.... But after a few months I was forced not only to change my
+views about them, but to regret all that I had written in the _Mattino_
+and the _Tribuna_.... They are not a people, but tribes ... they are
+against every principle of public officials, they live the most
+primitive lives. I who know Albania from end to end, who have sacrificed
+myself for that country, am absolutely convinced that there could be no
+greater misfortune than if, in its present state, it were given autonomy
+or independence. Otherwise I confess that an Albania free from any
+foreign Power would be to the interest of Italy." And he concludes by
+saying that the Albanians have done nothing to deserve an independent
+State. It is well known that in the Albanian Societies that after May
+1913 were engaged at Constantinople and Sofia, at Rome and Vienna, in
+striving for the independence of the country it was not the Albanians
+themselves who had the chief word. Those who were initiated into secret
+Balkan policies were aware that Albania was the domain with which
+Article 7 of the old Triple Alliance was concerned.... The fiery
+Albanian patriot, Basri Bey, Prince of Dukagjin, also agrees that in the
+beginning an independent Albania would be productive of anarchy. "I
+greatly regret to acknowledge it," says he,[84] "but Albania is, so to
+speak, the classic type of a country which has never had a real
+government." Nevertheless, he is strongly in favour of independence, his
+reasons being because Albania is "at the same time the old mother and
+the youngest daughter of the Balkans." This flamboyant prince and doctor
+and deputy who denounces both Essad Pasha and his nephew Ahmed Beg Mati,
+has got his own panacea for the country, which is a Turkish army of
+occupation commanded by a French general. Basri Bey seems to confirm the
+remarks of his more enlightened co-religionists, Halim Beg Derala and
+Zena Beg, for whereas the Moslems can claim no more than a rather larger
+third of the inhabitants, he calmly assumes that the whole country is
+Moslem. Albania, he says, is now more than ever attached to Turkey, for
+the attachment is purely moral. ... The influence of this gentleman
+seems to be confined to Dibra, but he has a good opinion of his own
+importance. In 1915, in the days of the greatness of Essad Pasha, he set
+up a Government at Dibra with himself as Prime Minister and Essad Pasha
+as his Minister of the Interior! There does not seem to be much
+justification for Basri Bey to call himself a prince. He is a Pomak, for
+his ancestors were Bulgars who accepted Islam. His father was an
+official of the Turkish Government at Philippopolis.
+
+Father Fichta told me that his countrymen would do very well indeed if
+they could import from other parts of Europe financial help, technicians
+and judges. Some years ago the Turks settled to send two judges to
+Scutari; then the Albanians would no longer be able to charge them with
+not administering the law, so that each man was obliged to take it into
+his own hands. "It is entirely your fault," said the Albanians, "that we
+are driven to adopt the method of blood-vengeance." So thoroughly did
+they adopt it that the assassinations in the region of Prizren,
+Djakovica and Peć amounted, according to Glück, to a total of about
+six hundred a year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
+Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were murdered.
+
+What memory have the Albanians of their own great men? One sultry
+afternoon, as we were driving in a mule cart from the quaint town of
+Alessio, the driver lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a
+mile of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the driver's
+mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms and bled profusely and was
+doctored by the fierce gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the
+wound, so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the remainder
+of the afternoon our mule went at a walking pace, and presently, to
+while away the time, we begged the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio,
+who was travelling with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
+Skanderbeg. They stared--their mouths were also shut. And finally the
+gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It dealt with Zeph, a man with
+sheep, and Mark who stole them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
+no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day, as he hid behind a
+wall, he fired at Mark and slew him. "That is the song," said the
+gendarme, "about the hero Zeph."
+
+To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb, I think it will be
+generally agreed that some régime other than unaided independence must,
+in the meantime, be established there. One hears of those who argue that
+Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because they are a gifted
+and a very ancient people. They are not more gifted than the Basques,
+and their antiquity is not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
+level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do the Basques as
+compared with theirs. Not many tears are shed by the Basques or by
+anyone else because those interesting men are all the subjects of France
+or Spain.
+
+
+5. A METHOD THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED IN ALBANIA
+
+If only the Albanian question would be taken in hand by
+humanitarians.... Here you have one and a half million of wild
+children.... Build them schools and roads, police their country--they
+themselves agree that the savage atmosphere in the northern mountains
+was radically altered by the Austrians when they occupied that country
+during the War. One has heard of numerous philanthropic societies in
+Great Britain whose object has been more remote and less deserving; if
+some such society would turn to Albania, their educational and economic
+labours might, after a time, be made self-supporting by the permission
+to exploit--of course, with due regard to Albania's future--the forests
+and mines. "To be master in Albania," says M. Gabriel Hanotaux, "one
+would have to dislodge the inhabitants from their eyries"--(another
+French statesman has used a less exalted simile: "Albania," M. Briand
+once said, "is an international lavatory")--and it goes without saying
+that any corporation which undertakes to civilize the Shqyptart would
+need to bring in a military force, on similar lines to the Swedish
+_gendarmerie_ in Persia. The Swedes, in fact, who are a military nation,
+might be glad to accept this mandate; the expenses could be met by an
+international fund. A certain number of Albanians would be admitted to
+the _gendarmerie_; and the more unruly natives would be dealt with as
+they were, for everybody's good, by Austria.... The Yugoslavs would then
+be delighted to accept the 1913 frontier, which is also what the
+Albanians ask for; and Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks would all retire
+from Albania. There is really no need for the Italians to demand Valona
+or Saseno, the island which lies in front of it. The Italian naval
+experts know very well that the possession of Pola, Lussin and Lagosta
+would not be made more valuable by the addition of an Albanian base.
+
+
+6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+But as Europe has not arrived at some such solution, and since the
+Albanian Government has been prematurely recognized by the Powers, then
+while the Albanians are engaged in the stormy process of working out
+their own salvation, it is only fair that Yugoslavia should be given a
+good defensive frontier. The 1913 frontier is only possible if the
+Albanians are pacific, but as it has now been thought wise to set up an
+unaided and independent Albanian State there is nothing more certain
+than the turmoil of which its borders will be the scene, and this will
+be so whether the Italians do or do not come to the Albanians'
+assistance. What hope is there of even a relative tranquillity on the
+Albanian border when so many of the natives, preferring Yugoslav rule to
+that of their own countrymen, will be waging a civil war? That this
+preference is fairly widespread one could see in 1920 by the number of
+refugees on the Yugoslav side of the frontier. [Of course, a large
+number of Albanians also fled to Scutari and elsewhere from the
+districts lately occupied by the Yugoslav army. In both cases the
+refugees were moved sometimes by hopes for a brighter future, sometimes
+by fears which were caused by their clouded past. To speak first of
+those who fled on account of a guilty conscience, it is evident that
+these were more numerous among the refugees in Albania than among those
+in Yugoslavia, for it was the Yugoslav authorities and not the Albanian
+who extended their sway. Mr. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., wrote[85] "that in
+the North the Yugoslavs had destroyed more than 120 Albanian villages."
+It would have been interesting if he had given us their names, because
+the Yugoslavs appear to have set about it so thoroughly that one cannot
+find anything like that number on the Austrian maps, which are the best
+pre-war maps for those regions. The Anglo-Albanian Society tells the
+British public, in November, 1920, of the 30,000 destitute refugees in
+Albania, and in such a way that the cause of their exodus is ascribed,
+without more ado, to the terrible Yugoslav. But as the names are known
+of a good many Albanians who did not wait for the Yugoslav army, on
+account of past troubles between themselves and Yugoslavs, as also
+between themselves and other Albanians, it would have been as well if
+the Anglo-Albanian Society had reminded the public that all who fly in
+those parts are not angels. It would, on the other hand, be just as rash
+to sing the undiluted praise of those Albanians who, at odds with the
+Tirana Government, thought it opportune to leave their native land; but
+one can safely say, I think, that among these wanderers there was a
+larger proportion of laudable men....] Yugoslavia attracts the Albanians
+for more than one reason--not so much because the ancestors of many of
+these Muhammedan Albanians were, and not so long ago, Christians, as
+because inclusion in Yugoslavia would be to their economic
+advantage--Scutari can scarcely exist without the Yugoslav hinterland,
+while the people of the mountains are longing for that railway which the
+Yugoslavs will only build over land which is moderately immune from
+depredation. Other causes which have made so many of the borderland
+Albanians--to speak only of them--turn their eyes to Yugoslavia are the
+admiration which any primitive people feels for military prowess and the
+knowledge of what has taken place in the Prizren-Peć-Djakovica
+region since it came into possession of the Serbs in 1913. Let us in the
+first place see what sentiments are now entertained by the Albanian
+natives of that region towards their rulers. It goes without saying that
+these sentiments are perfectly well known to those Albanians who live
+outside the Yugoslav frontier.
+
+Well, at Suva Rieka, near Prizren, for example, I found that all the
+Muhammedan inhabitants of Serbian origin are aware that they used to
+celebrate the Serbian national custom of "Slava," still keep up the
+Serbian Christmas Eve customs and often practise the old Christian nine
+days' wailing for the dead. Some of us may think that this new
+pro-Serbian tendency is rather on account of utilitarian reasons; the
+great thing is that it should exist. With rare exceptions, the people of
+Suva Rieka used to live by plunder; now they are sending their children
+to the Serbian school, at any rate the boys, and for the study of
+religion the authorities have made arrangements with a local Moslem. It
+is to be regretted that Miss Edith Durham, whose writings were so
+pleasant in the days before she became a more uncompromising
+pro-Albanian than most of the Albanian leaders, says that if these
+children go to Serbian schools it merely shows to what lengths of
+coercion the Serbs will resort. In 1912-1913 Serbian and Montenegrin
+officers seem to have told her that severe measures would be employed
+against any recalcitrant Albanian parent who might decline to send his
+son to school. Assuming that these officers were not young subalterns,
+that they were quite sober and that they were not rudely "pulling Miss
+Durham's leg," it may be urged that even if the children be driven to
+school at the point of the bayonet, such conduct would compare
+favourably with that of the Albanians towards the Serbs in Turkish
+times. Talking of coercion, I suppose that the progress in agricultural
+methods which one sees around Prizren is only further evidence of
+Serbian tyranny. The _gendarmerie_ on the country roads is composed
+largely of Muhammedan Albanians--doubtless the Serbs have coerced them
+by some horrible threats. And if Miss Durham were to hear that Ramadan
+(_né_ Stojan) Stefanović of the village of Musotisti had decided to
+return to the Orthodox faith to which his brothers George and Ilja had
+been more faithful than himself--such variegated families are not
+uncommon--I believe, though I may be doing her an injustice, that her
+first impulse would be to write to the papers in drastic denunciation of
+the Serbian authorities. They have, like most of us, sufficient to
+regret--for example, the person whom they sent to Peć, when they
+wanted the land to be distributed, was King Peter's Master of the Horse.
+He was thoroughly unsuitable, and caused a great deal of
+dissatisfaction.
+
+There was a time at the rather gloomy town of Djakovica, when, owing to
+the blood-vengeance, the Merturi were unable for eight years to enter
+the place; now they come in, merely to gaze at the Serbian major who is
+in command. Halim Beg Derala, the aristocratic and wealthy ex-mayor, who
+as a pastime used to plan an occasional robbery in Turkish days, told
+me--he speaks a little French, in addition to Albanian, Turkish, Serbian
+and Greek--that citizens were often unable to leave their houses for two
+months at a time,[86] and although every house was provisioned for a
+siege, yet one frequently had to manage without bread. Now the
+candid-eyed, fair-bearded priest rides out with Ljuba Kujundjić, the
+erstwhile leader of komitadji, in order to negotiate with the Albanian
+Zeph Voglia, at that personage's own request, for his surrender to the
+Serb authorities. Zeph has written from a forest that he feels uneasy,
+because he owes sixteen blood-vengeances. He asks that his affairs may
+be settled by the law, and those sixteen pursuing countrymen of his have
+signified that this will meet their views, since in the first place the
+Serbs are disinterested in the matters between them, and, secondly, the
+Serbian penalties are not so mild as theirs, not permitting that a
+murder shall be expiated by the payment of a moderate sum or that a
+guilty party may absent himself for three years and suffer no further
+loss than the devastation of his house. Another sphere in which the
+Serbs have gained Albanian sympathies is with regard to the disputed
+ownership of land. Even as the Moors have been in the habit of handing
+down, from father to son, the key of some Sevillan house that vanished
+centuries ago, the Montenegrins, more fortunate, have been appearing
+with the ancient title-deeds of lands that now are in Albanian
+possession. According to Serbian law it is the oldest document which
+prevails. And the Albanians are generously compensated.... Those who,
+with the highest motives, advocate "Albania for the Albanians," may
+argue that the mediæval activities of Riza Beg and Bairam Beg Zur--whose
+adherents started shooting at each other every evening after six o'clock
+in the refuse-laden streets of Djakovica--would have been concluded and
+would not have been continued by their sons even if the Serbs had not
+appeared. Let them, before proclaiming the modern reasonableness of the
+Albanians, recollect that in 1919 the Moslem Bosniak ex-prisoners
+required on the average three months in order to traverse central
+Albania, the country of their co-religionists. From village to village
+the Bosniaks made their way, earning a little and then being plundered
+at the next place. Eighty per cent. of this population believe, in their
+fanaticism, that the Sultan will again unfurl over them his flag and
+that the world will ultimately be converted to Muhammed. And if,
+entertaining such ideas, they are so rigorous towards their
+fellow-Moslems, what prospect is there that this 80 per cent. will
+assist the Orthodox and Catholic Albanians in building up a State? Their
+ferocity, in fact, is so profound that it thrives on a diet which is
+chiefly of milk.... Perhaps a day will come when the Albanian will
+submit to be ruled by a member of another tribe, when local politics
+will engage his attention less than the silver, iron, copper, arsenic
+and water-power of his country. Perhaps the day will come. Midway
+between Djakovica and the monastery of De�ani there stand two large
+houses side by side. In 1909 a man belonging to one of them slew four
+men of the other house, and on account of this he fled beyond the Drin,
+together with thirteen other men of his family. There is no knowing how
+long these refugees would have stayed away if that part of the country
+had not come under Serbian rule, but in 1919 negotiations were set on
+foot which--to the satisfaction of the members of the other house--would
+enable the thirteen innocent refugees to return, while the criminal
+would be arrested.
+
+As evidence of the cordiality now prevailing between Albanian and Serb
+in Yugoslavia, one may mention those cases where the Albanians in 1919
+entered into a bond that for six months they would exact no
+blood-vengeance from their fellow-countrymen; the number of these debts
+which hitherto had been regarded as debts of honour was very
+considerable, for they were not only incurred by assassination but could
+also be in payment of a mere scowl or of your wife, from within the
+house, having heard the voice of another man raised in song. The Serbian
+authorities are hoping confidently that the Albanians who have thus for
+a season placed themselves under the law will be ready in the future to
+pledge themselves. They are beginning to see that in a place the size of
+Djakovica it should be possible to make a wheel, that one should be able
+to find a shop whose contents are worth more than 100 francs, that the
+breed of their cattle, of their sheep and goats and horses could be
+vastly improved, that if their land were sanely treated it could be
+rendered much more fertile, and that their system of fruit cultivation
+is absurdly primitive.... And with Djakovica and the whole region of
+Kossovo being treated as we have shown by the Yugoslavs I think it will
+be almost as great a surprise to the reader as it was to the local
+population when he learns that in a memorandum of April 26, 1921, the
+Tirana Government complained to the League of Nations that the Yugoslav
+civil and military officials were behaving in a very pitiless fashion
+towards the Albanians. Certainly they have not as yet established
+Albanian schools, but they propose to do so when there is accommodation
+and when teachers are available; and then, maybe, to the disgust of Miss
+Durham, Mr. Herbert, etc., the Albanians of the district will, with an
+eye to the future, prefer to visit the Yugoslav schools.
+
+
+7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION
+
+Having glanced at what the Serbs have done in such a very short
+time--most of the years since 1913 being years of war--to win the
+gratitude of their Albanian fellow-subjects, we shall, in following a
+possible frontier between Yugoslavia and the Albanians, at any rate
+believe that many Albanians of those thus coming under Yugoslav rule
+would regard the change, as well they may, with equanimity. Suppose,
+then, that the frontier were to run along the watershed at the top of
+the mountain range to the west of Lake Ochrida. The people living to the
+east of this line in that district would acknowledge their Serbian
+origin. Thence passing to the neighbourhood of the village of Lin and
+from there in a northwesterly direction, so as to include in Yugoslavia
+the Golo Brdo, the so-called Bald Mountains, whose thirty villages are
+inhabited by Islamized Serbs who only speak, with very rare exceptions,
+the Serbian language, one may say that not only would their inclusion in
+Yugoslavia be beneficial to these people, but that they would accept it
+with alacrity. No very deep impression has been made upon them by the
+religion to which, not long ago, they were converted. In the Golo Brdo
+it was in great measure due to the Greek Church which, about the middle
+of the nineteenth century, left the region without a single priest, so
+that children of the age of eight had not been christened, and the
+people in disgust went over to Islam. Near Ochrida, some of them were
+asked whether they frequented the mosque.
+
+"Never," they replied.
+
+"What is your religion?"
+
+"Well, it is very strange," they told us, "but we have none."
+
+"What religion did you formerly have?"
+
+"Well, we don't know."
+
+Their priest roams the mountains with his gun, and there has been a
+tendency, since a man in this position received his salary from the
+State, for many to persuade the mufti to appoint them, irrespective of
+whether they could read or write. The devout Moslem is, to the
+exclusion of everything else, a Moslem; but in these districts, where
+the faith was assumed in a moment of pique or as a protection, and where
+the Muhammedan clergy has been so negligent, the people are gladly
+cultivating their Christian relatives. In the district of Suva Rieka one
+hears of conversions to Christianity, and the functionaries bring no
+pressure to bear, unlike the misguided Montenegrin officials who in 1912
+rode into Peć, the old Patriarchate, and wanted in their delight to
+have everyone immediately to adopt the Orthodox faith. Now the
+authorities, with greater wisdom, do not interfere in these matters.
+They know that Yugoslavia will have no enemy in that house in the
+village of Brod, between Tetovo and Prizren, where two brothers are
+living together, of whom one went over to Islam. They know that the
+Muhammedan Krasnichi of Albania are proclaiming their kinship with the
+great Montenegrin clan of Vasojević, that the Gashi are calling to
+the Piperi and the Berishi to the Ku�i. The new cordiality will be
+impaired neither by the differences of religion nor by the similarity of
+costume. The average Albanian of Djakovica would not be any fonder of an
+Orthodox fellow-citizen if the latter continues to wear the Albanian
+dress which was generally adopted about a hundred years ago, and the
+Vasojević may please themselves as to the wearing of a costume which
+they once found so useful in the Middle Ages. They happened to be for
+ten days in the Hoti country for the purpose of wiping out a blood
+affair, and when they were about to fall into the Hoti's hands they
+shouted, "What do you want with us? We are Kastrati!" The Kastrati, to
+whom these Albanian-clad people were led, confirmed the statement, so
+that the Vasojević earned for themselves the nickname of
+Kastratović.
+
+From the Golo Brdo the best frontier would pass north-eastwards to the
+Black Drin and along that river until it is joined by the White Drin.
+This is a poor country whose inhabitants are, for the most part,
+Moslemized Serbs. About a hundred men are now engaged in excavating the
+very finely decorated Serbian church at Piškopalja on the Drin--much
+to the edification of the local Moslems. This church of their ancestors
+was covered in during the Middle Ages in order to conceal it from the
+Turks. Too often the natives' present occupation is brigandage; but from
+of old they have had economic relations with Prizren, to which old town
+of vine-arched, narrow, winding streets and picturesque bazaars these
+countryfolk have been accustomed to come every week. These Moslems (of
+whom there are some 100,000 in the department of Prizren, with 13,000
+Orthodox and 3000 Catholics) used to detest the Christians on account of
+their religion, although half of the Moslems could speak nothing but
+Serbian. The Serbs, it must be admitted, were not always blameless; in
+the early nineties, for example, they suspended a pig's head outside the
+mosque. And the amenities of Prizren were complicated by the hostility
+between Orthodox and Catholic. This was largely due to the fact that, by
+the intervention of the French Consul after the Crimean War, the
+Catholics--descendants of Ragusan emigrants of the Middle Ages--had
+secured the former Orthodox church of St. Demetrius, in which church, by
+the way, the services had come to be held in Albanian. When the Vatican,
+in the second half of the nineteenth century, sent a Serbian priest, the
+congregation had become so thoroughly Albanized that after a year he had
+to leave. The propaganda of Austria, Italy and Russia did nothing
+towards persuading the three religions of Prizren to regard each other
+in a more amicable fashion; while Italy and Austria gave exclusive
+assistance to the Catholics, whom they found in such distress that,
+forty years ago, most of them went barefoot, the presence of the Russian
+Consul was of such importance to the Orthodox that their position at
+Prizren was better than in their old patriarchal town of Peć.
+Nowadays, with Austrian and Russian propaganda deleted, there is only
+that of the Italians, whose proposal to create an independent Albania
+(under Italian protection) was at first applauded by some simple folk in
+1919. The Moslem took to accepting Italian money and then honourably
+informing the Yugoslav authorities that they had been appointed as
+agents of Italy; they offered to capture the Franciscan priests with
+whose help the Italians were trying to secure the Catholics; and as for
+the cash, it seems mostly to have been spent in a convivial fashion by
+the Moslems and the Serbs together. This friendship appears likely to
+continue, for the Serbian authorities, so far from countenancing such
+pranks as that of the pig's head, do not even propose to reconsecrate
+their ancient church of Petka. When this building was made into a
+mosque, the Moslem still permitted the Christian women to come and pray
+there, while if a Christian man was sick they let him leave a jar of
+water in the mosque all night, so that it might acquire certain
+medicinal properties. It is the intention of the Serbs not to restore
+the church to Christian worship, but to turn it into a museum.
+
+With the frontier then being drawn along the Drin, towards the Adriatic,
+the famous villages of Plav and Gusinje would definitely pass to
+Yugoslavia, in accordance with the wishes of a deputation sent by them
+to Belgrade in 1919. The well-meaning British champions of Gusinje, who
+maintain that this village is furiously antagonistic to the Slav and is
+ready to struggle to the uttermost rather than be incorporated in a Slav
+kingdom, these champions do not, I think, draw a sufficient distinction
+between Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Plav, with its mostly Christian
+population, and Gusinje, where the Moslem preponderates, refused at the
+time of the Berlin Congress to be given to Montenegro, with which they
+had certain local quarrels. Nicholas reported to the Powers which had
+awarded him these places that they were obdurate, for which reason he
+was given in their stead a much-desired strip of coast, down to
+Dulcigno, and nothing could have suited that astute monarch better.
+Nikita--to call him by his familiar name--imagined that the two villages
+would eventually fall to Montenegro, because of the formidable mountains
+which divide them from the rest of Albania; the road from Gusinje to
+Scutari is very long and very arduous. When Montenegro succeeded in
+capturing Plav in 1912, a certain Muhammedan priest of that place joined
+the Orthodox Church and was appointed a major in the Montenegrin army.
+He acted as the president of a court-martial, and in that capacity is
+reputed to have hanged or shot, some say, as many as five hundred of his
+former parishioners, because they declined to be baptized. He told them
+that their ancestors were all Serbs, and that therefore they should
+follow his example. Since the Montenegrins did not restrain this
+over-zealous man, the villagers were naturally not in favour of that
+country. Montenegro had a very small number of good officials, owing to
+Nikita's peculiar management which, in considering his favourites, did
+not regard illiteracy as a bar to the highest administrative or judicial
+post.... The people of Plav and Gusinje have, on the other hand, no
+hostility against Serbia. In November 1918 a detachment of thirty Serbs
+was stationed at Gusinje, what time certain Italian agents put it into
+the shallow minds of some Albanians that Albania desired to be
+independent under Italian protection. Nothing happened when a Serbian
+force came from Mitrovica, except that these agents and a few of their
+tools--be it noted that perhaps half the population is ignorant of the
+Albanian language--withdrew to the Rugovo district, where they tried to
+induce the people to fly with them, so that the world would hear how
+iniquitously the Serbs had acted. Those of Rugovo refused to accompany
+them; in consequence of which there was a fight, some houses were
+burned, some women and cattle were seized. And afterwards the men of
+Rugovo repaired to Gusinje and exacted a vengeance which, the most
+Serbophobe person will admit, had nothing to do with the Serbs. The
+luckless village of Gusinje was again laid waste in 1919 by the
+Montenegrins, but this came to pass as the result of the Montenegrin
+clan of Vasojević having their property ravaged by some Albanian
+marauders who were prompted by the same Great Power. The Vasojević
+believed that this evil deed was done by the men of Gusinje, so that
+they destroyed their houses. When the facts were explained to them, the
+Vasojević said that they were prepared to rebuild the village. And
+now Plav and Gusinje, who ask for Serbian and not Montenegrin officials,
+recognize that it is impossible for them to live except in union with
+Yugoslavia.... Miss Durham's wrath concerning an affair which happened
+during 1919 in this region shows to what lengths a partisan will go. She
+complained with great bitterness that the Serbs had actually arrested a
+British officer whose purpose it was to make investigations.
+
+The Serbs are human beings and are not immune from error; and Miss
+Durham is so determined to expose them that if all her charges were
+dealt with from Belgrade it would necessitate the appointment of one or
+two more officials. But in this particular case she is not the sole
+accuser. A Captain Willett Cunnington--who, according to the President
+of the Anglo-Albanian Society, the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., has
+several years' intimate experience of Albania--said in the _New
+Statesman_ that in consequence of what occurred to Captain Brodie the
+Serbian Government was compelled to apologize abjectly. Now I happen to
+be very well acquainted with the stalwart Pouniša Ra�ić, the
+Montenegrin who arrested Brodie. Albanians have told me that
+Pouniša's knowledge of the north and north-west of their country is
+not a matter of villages but of houses. And he has always observed the
+customs which prevail in those houses, so that when he is known to be
+approaching, the people who live at a distance of many hours will come
+to meet him, whether for the pure delight of discharging their firearms
+to his greater glory or for the purpose of seeking his advice. It is not
+because he has studied jurisprudence in Paris that they respect him in
+that bitter region, but because he does not disregard the laws that
+govern the wild hearts on both sides of the frontier. Yet I suppose
+Captain Brodie had never heard of him--poor Captain Brodie! unconscious
+of the great good luck which had brought him into the presence of this
+man who could have made his journey much more pleasant for himself and
+vastly more profitable for his superiors.
+
+This is what Pouniša Ra�ić told me:
+
+"At the end of January and the beginning of February 1919, we were
+having a certain amount of trouble in the Gusinje and Plav district,
+where I was acting as delegate of the Belgrade Government. Travellers
+were being murdered, telephone wires were being cut, and so forth. In
+those parts, which I have known for so many years, it is a good deal
+easier to ascertain a criminal's name than to seize him, and I had not
+captured these malefactors when one day I had a message to say that a
+European Commission was approaching. Later on I was told that
+thirty-nine of its members were Albanians. I ordered my lieutenant to
+find out whether they were from our territory, in which case they were
+to be disarmed and brought to me; or from Albania, in which event they
+were to be received politely. A quarter of an hour after this I was told
+that they were all well-known brigands from our State, and there was one
+specially notorious person, Djer Doucha, who in 1912 was converted to
+Christianity and was made a gendarme at the court of King Nicholas; in
+1915, after the Austrian invasion, he was reconverted to Islam and
+became a sergeant of _gendarmerie_. In that position he killed fifty or
+sixty Serbs and Montenegrins, to say nothing of his other acts of
+violence. In 1918, for instance, he murdered seven school-children whom
+he met on the road.
+
+"I had some urgent business at Plav," continued Ra�ić, "and there
+all these people were brought before me. In addition to the thirty-nine
+Albanians there were three men in British uniforms. I was acquainted
+with one of them, a certain Perola, a Catholic of Peć, a former
+Austrian agent who had committed many crimes against the Serbs and had
+lately escaped from the prison at Peć. One of the other two said that
+he was Captain Brodie, whom the London Government had sent as their
+delegate for Albania and Montenegro. I suppose the third man was his
+British orderly; I never heard him speak. But Brodie said many things.
+One of them (which was quite true) was that his Government had not yet
+recognized the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He demanded the
+instant release of his companions. 'Do you know who they are?' said I.
+'That is no concern of yours,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'they are
+criminals, and it is for the judges to say whether or not they are to be
+liberated.' 'I protest,' he exclaimed, 'in the name of England, against
+their arrest!' 'And I thank you,' said I, 'in the name of the Serbian
+police, for having brought them here.' 'You are a savage, a barbarous
+nation!' said he, 'and you don't deserve to be free and independent.'
+'Sir,' said I, 'if you are an Englishman you should know that we are
+your allies, that you and we have shed our blood for the common cause.
+We love England very much, and I am very surprised to hear a British
+officer speak in this way.' Again he demanded to be set free, he and all
+his people, so that he could continue his mission; but I told him that
+after what I had heard from him and what I had seen of his escort, I
+could not permit him to go on to other villages unless he could show me
+an authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Belgrade. 'I do
+not recognize the Belgrade Government,' said he. 'Whom, then,' I asked,
+'do you regard as the legitimate ruler of this country?' 'King
+Nicholas,' said he, 'and the Government of Montenegro.' So I advised him
+to get a visa from King Nicholas and to come back to perform his
+mission, when that visa would be honoured. 'Anyhow,' said he, 'the
+people of these parts are against Serbia.' Thereupon I sent for the
+chief men and told them to say quite candidly in front of this
+Englishman what they wanted. There were five Moslems, including Islam
+and Abdi Beg Rejepagić (the leading family) and Ismael Omeragić,
+also two Christians, of whom I remember Stani�a Turković. 'Long
+live Serbia!' they shouted. 'Death to Nicholas and the Albanians!' On
+hearing this Captain Brodie was discontented; he told me that I was a
+savage and did not know how to esteem an Englishman. 'I esteem you very
+much,' said I, 'and because he is wearing a British uniform I won't
+arrest this interpreter of yours.' (By the way, Perola was not acting as
+interpreter in our conversation, as the captain and I were talking
+French.) 'He used to be an Austrian agent,' said I. 'You are a liar!'
+cried Brodie; 'I know this man; he was nothing of the sort.' I remained
+calm, but I told him that he must not speak to me again in such a way. I
+asked him how long he had known Perola, who had got away from our prison
+a month ago. 'I have known him for a month,' said Brodie. 'And now,'
+said I, 'will you please show me your documents?' 'I have none,' said
+he, 'and I do not require any, as I am a British officer.' 'But I have
+read in the papers,' said I, 'that your people arrested and shot several
+persons who were wearing the uniform of a British officer. If you have
+no documents to prove that you are not a spy and that you are a British
+officer I shall have to arrest you.' Then he showed me one with some
+Italian words on it, I think a permission to go somewhere on the Piave
+front. 'From now,' said I, 'you are arrested; no one can come to you and
+you cannot leave this house. Prepare yourself to start to-morrow or the
+day after, if you are tired, for Peć, and perhaps Skoplje, so that
+you may prove your identity.' He protested, and declared that he must
+see the people in the neighbouring villages. 'If you are a real
+Englishman,' said I, 'I could not allow you to go by yourself, since
+there are many Moslems in these parts who have been excited against
+England by their hodjas, owing to your war with Turkey. They might kill
+you, and I would be held responsible; so that even if you had the
+necessary documents I could only let you go if precautions were taken to
+guard you. I am sorry,' said I, 'that you should have spoken as you have
+done against the Serbs; in fact, it seems to me that you are doing a
+disservice to England, and that here in this village I am serving her
+more truly.' 'I decline to go to Peć,' said Brodie; 'I want to go to
+Scutari.' 'You must go to Peć,' said I. He said that I could
+telephone concerning him either to the Belgrade Government or to the
+General at Cetinje. 'Unfortunately,' said I, 'it is these people who are
+with you who cut the telephone wires two days ago.' After this I
+appointed a guard for him. I gave him my room, with soldiers to serve
+him, to keep the room warm and bring him whatever food we had. [Observe
+that the above-mentioned Captain Willett Cunnington wrote in the _New
+Statesman_ that Brodie was treated with "gross indignity."] 'Three
+horses were got ready,' said Ra�ić in conclusion, 'and on these
+they rode to Peć, accompanied by a guard, both to prevent them from
+escaping and from coming to harm.'"[87]
+
+In its old Albanian days the village of Gusinje was perhaps the most
+inaccessible spot in Europe--it was rarely possible for anyone to obtain
+permission to approach it. Even to Miss Durham, friend of the
+Albanians, this people sent a decided refusal. But now, under the
+guidance of the Yugoslav authorities, they have abandoned these boorish
+ways; Miss Durham could go there at any time, but maybe the village no
+longer attracts her.
+
+
+8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN AUTHORITIES
+
+[We have more than once alluded to the writings of Miss Durham, since
+very few British authors have dealt with Albania, and she has come to be
+regarded as a trustworthy expert. But the flagrant partiality of her
+latest book (_Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_; London, 1920), which,
+moreover, is written with great bitterness, will make the public turn, I
+hope, to Sir Charles Eliot, who is a vastly better cicerone. The present
+ambassador in Japan is, of course, one of the foremost men of this
+generation. His Balkan studies are as supremely competent as his
+monumental work on British Nudibranchiate Mollusca, published by the Ray
+Society when Sir Charles, having resigned the Governorship of East
+Africa, was Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Equally admired are
+his researches into Chinese linguistics and his monograph, the first in
+the language, on that most obscure subject, Finnish grammar.[88] Will it
+be believed that in her account of the Balkan tangle Miss Durham does
+not quote Sir Charles Eliot, but Mr. Horatio Bottomley? It seems that
+Mr. Bottomley has not devoted much attention to the Balkans, since in
+November 1920 he poured the vials of his wrath upon the Serbs, who,
+according to his "latest reports from Montenegro," had destroyed no less
+than 4000 Montenegrin houses in the district of Dibra, a place which
+lies some 75 miles by road from the land of the Black Mountain and
+probably does not possess more than two or three Montenegrin houses; but
+he flings hard words against the Serbs, and that is good enough for Miss
+Durham. On the other hand, Sir Charles Eliot, who has travelled largely
+in Albania, wrote the simple facts about that people and they are
+obnoxious to this lady. "It is not surprising to find that there is no
+history of Albania, for there is no union between North and South, or
+between the different northern tribes and the different southern Beys,"
+said he in 1900, and such a people does not undergo a fundamental change
+in twenty years. "Only two names," says Eliot, "those of Skanderbeg and
+Ali Pasha of Janina, emerge from the confusion of justly unrecorded
+tribal quarrels.... Albania presents nothing but oppositions--North
+against South, tribe against tribe, Bey against Bey." (According to Miss
+Durham they are all aflame with the desire to form a nation.) "Even
+family ties seem to be somewhat weak," says Sir Charles, "for since
+European influence has diminished the African slave-trade, Albanians
+have taken to selling their female children to supply the want of
+negroes." (The Albanians are "enterprising and industrious," says Miss
+Durham.) "In many ways," says Eliot, "they are in Europe what the Kurds
+are in Asia. Both are wild and lawless tribes who inflict much damage on
+decent Turks and Christians alike. Both might be easily brought to
+reason by the exhibition of a little firmness.... Albanian patriotism is
+not a home product--had they ever been ready to combine against the Turk
+there seems to be no reason why they should not have preserved the same
+kind of independence as Montenegro; but from the first some of the
+tribes and clans endeavoured to secure an advantage over the others by
+siding with the invaders--papers and books on the national movement are
+written at Bucharest, Brussels and various Italian towns, but they are
+not read at Scutari or Janina. The stock grievance of this literature is
+that the Turks will not allow Albanian to be taught in the schools, and
+endeavour to ignore the existence of the language; but though the
+complaint is well-founded, I doubt if the mass of the people have much
+feeling on the subject." ... Those who are rash enough to assert,
+because Miss Durham says so, that in the last two decades the Albanians
+have made a progress of several centuries may be recommended to the
+testimony of Brailsford[89] (1906), of Katarani (1913), and of the
+Italian Press which, after the retreat of their army to Valona,
+published in 1920 the most ghastly particulars of what befell the
+hapless officers and men who were captured by the Albanians.
+
+Let the British public henceforth go to Sir Charles Eliot and not to
+this emotional lady for its picture of the unchanged Shqyptar. She
+reveals to us that more than one person in the Balkans said that her
+knowledge of those countries is enormous; she has knocked about the
+western Balkans and picked up a good deal of material, but her knowledge
+has its limitations: for example, she makes the old howler of ascribing
+Macedonian origin to Pašić, though his grandfather came not from
+Tetovo in Macedonia but from near Teteven in what is now Bulgaria. Miss
+Durham plumes herself for having sent back to Belgrade the Order of St.
+Sava, and seeing that it is bestowed for learning she did well. But even
+if her acquaintance with Balkan affairs were more adequate--her
+diagnosis of the Macedonian racial problem is extremely rough and
+ready--all the writings of Miss Durham are so warped with hatred for the
+Slav that they must be very carefully approached. Because she thinks it
+will incline her readers towards the Albanians she says[90] that they
+were early converts to Christianity. She omits to mention that the
+Moslem, on arriving in the Balkans, was able to spread his religion much
+more easily in Albania than anywhere else; and again, in the seventeenth
+century, when Constantinople offered many lucrative posts to the Moslem
+there occurred in Albania a great wave of apostasy. Miss Durham speaks
+with pride of the Albanians who during the Great War fought in the
+French, Italian and American ranks. Would it not be more straightforward
+if she added that large numbers were enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian
+army and _gendarmerie_? The special task of the latter was to dislodge
+from their mountain fastnesses those Montenegrins who continued to carry
+on a desperate guerilla warfare against the invader. To pretend that the
+Albanian has earned the freedom of his country by his glorious exploits
+in the War is an absurdity. He is a mediæval fellow, much more anxious
+to have a head to bash than to ascertain whom it belongs to. The Slavs
+have not always treated their raw neighbours with indulgence; in the
+Balkan War, when their army marched through Albania to the sea some very
+discreditable incidents occurred, whatever may have been the provocation
+they received from the sniping natives and however great be the excuse
+of their own state of nerves. Yet the first stone should be flung by
+that army of Western Europe which, in its passage through the territory
+of a treacherous and savage people, has done nothing which it would not
+willingly forget. And seriously to argue that the Slavs are of an almost
+undiluted blackness, while the Albanians are endearing creatures, is to
+take what anti-feminists would call a feminist view of history. Miss
+Durham tells us that some years ago she stood upon a height with an
+Albanian abbot and promised him that she would do all that lay in her
+power to bring a knowledge of Albania to the English. The worthy abbot
+may have glanced at her uneasily, but noticing her rapt expression
+reassured himself. And she appears to have believed that England,
+eagerly absorbing what she told them of this people, would in August
+1914 make her policy depend on their convenience. But to Miss Durham's
+horror and amazement, Great Britain turned aside from this clear and
+honourable duty. She entered the War as an ally of the Slav, bringing
+"shame and disgust" upon Miss Durham. "After that," says she, "I really
+did not care what happened. The cup of my humiliation was full."]
+
+
+9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS
+
+It is not as if Serbia never made mistakes in dealing with the
+Albanians. The Sultan used to govern them by sending in one year an army
+against them, and in the next year asking for no recruits or taxes. The
+Montenegrins, of whom the older generation was bored when it had no man
+to shoot at, used to be on very neighbourly terms with them. Both these
+systems the Albanians could understand. But they did not know why the
+Belgrade Government in 1878--and it was a mistaken policy--should expel
+a number of Albanians from the newly-won zones, thrusting them across
+the frontier and putting in their place a number of Serbs who were
+settled in Old Serbia. The twofold folly of this plan was not grasped at
+the moment; but for several years the Serbian frontier districts were
+regularly invaded and plundered. The following years of Turkish misrule,
+and especially the young Turkish policy of treacherous force, which
+resulted in Albanian risings every year, may possibly have caused many
+Albanians to be honestly glad when the Balkan War brought the Serbs into
+their country. But of these Albanians not a few would rejoice because
+they hoped that with the help of the Serbian army it would be possible
+to slay the members of some adjacent tribe against whom they happened to
+have a feud. Perhaps the Serbs were so eager to bathe their horses in
+the Adriatic that they did not notice such trifles as the destruction of
+a ford, this having been done to prevent a visit from undesirable
+neighbours. One might have imagined that Serbia, being well known as a
+land of small peasant proprietors--where there is even a law which
+forbids a peasant's house from being sold over his head; he is, under
+any circumstances, assured of so much as will enable him to eke out a
+livelihood--one would have thought that the Albanian _�if�ija_,
+who is nothing more than a slave of the feudal chief, would have
+rejoiced at the arrival of a liberator; and indeed, while the Serbian
+troops were in Albania the peasant refused to give his lord the
+customary third or half of what the land produced, and after the
+departure of the Serbs he was unapproachable for tax-collectors. Who
+knows whether this social readjustment, so auspiciously begun, might not
+have made Albania wipe out her grievances against the Serbs and remember
+only that in the Imperial days of Dušan, even if he was not of the
+most ancient Balkan race, there was prosperity and happiness where now
+is desolation; busy merchants in the seaport towns of Albania, which
+now are ruins; ships sailing in from Venice with the luxuries of all
+the world and taking back with them all those good things, a half of
+which Albania has forgotten how to make? And after that there had been
+times of friendship with the Serb--Dositej Obradović, the philologist
+(one of those amiable persons who invented for the Albanians an
+alphabet), tells us, for instance, how in his travels through Albania he
+was assured by natives that they and the Serbs lived together as if they
+were members of one family, while the Kući in eastern Montenegro had,
+by a gradual process of assimilation, become transformed from Catholic
+Albanians into Orthodox Montenegrins. It is told that in the wondrous
+hours when the _�if�ija_ gloried in the soil he was about to win,
+even the notoriously wild Klementi, filled with hunger for the land, ran
+down from their fastnesses. But, most unfortunately, at that moment the
+Great Powers decided that Albania was to be an autonomous, hereditary
+State. This interrupted the movement towards reconciliation with Serbia;
+and even now the Serbs will be told by many encouraging people that in
+their efforts to win the regard of Albanians they have an impossible
+task, that if some of them take a step towards you one day they will
+rush back a dozen on the day after. These people will repeat the legend
+that the Albanians have an invincible hatred for the Slavs; but the
+Albanians have not forgotten how, in the course of the Middle Ages, they
+were willingly open to Slav penetration--the Serbian language reached to
+beyond Alessio, the small Albanian dynasties intermarried with Slav
+ruling families, so that they preferred to speak Serbian, and down to
+this day two-thirds of the place-names of northern Albania are of Slav
+origin. One of the most important documents in this connection is a
+letter from the town of Dubrovnik to the Emperor Sigismund in the year
+1434. They inform the Emperor that Andria Topia, lord of the Albanian
+coast, has secretaries who know nothing but the Serbian language and
+alphabet. Thus when the Emperor sends him letters in Latin he is obliged
+to have them translated elsewhere, and the contents of the Imperial
+letters are not kept secret. So the Emperor was forced to write to Topia
+in Serbian.... Long memories are not always inconvenient, and Albanian
+memories are long because, until recent years, all that they knew came
+from tradition--Austria and Italy had not yet become so concerned about
+Albanian education that (forgetting their own illiterates in Bosnia and
+Calabria) the two Allies waved into existence boys' and girls' schools
+up and down the country; so desirous were they that these founts of
+knowledge should be patronized that both Italians and Austrians were
+prepared to pay good money and eke a supply of garments and a
+gaily-coloured picture of King or Emperor, as the case might be; and
+with respect to the cash, not only was each willing to pay but to pay
+more than the other. Yet the Albanian is most mindful of tradition, and
+he is aware that his approach to the Slav in the Middle Ages was blocked
+by the inopportune arrival of the Turks; it is in the nature of man that
+the Albanian was more impressed by the brilliant young States of the
+early princes, with that barbarically sumptuous residence at Scutari
+(the Catholics of Scutari also being in the diocese of Antivari, which
+was under Serb domination) than, centuries later, when he found himself
+confronted with the pitiable population of Old Serbia.
+
+In the Sandjak the task of Yugoslavia will be relatively simple; the
+Albanians who live there are not autochthonous, but arrived at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century on the plateau of Pechter. These
+Klementi--then very numerous--cared nothing for their Serbian origin, so
+that the Patriarch of Peć had to protect himself against them by
+means of a janissary guard--which the Sultan permitted him to maintain
+at his own expense--whereas they were attentive to the teachings of
+their religion, in so far as they obeyed the Catholic missionaries who
+dwelt among them and requested that in their forays they should confine
+themselves to Muhammedan and Orthodox booty. One of the places they
+attacked was Plav, from which they drove the population, and themselves
+henceforward took to living on the fertile fields in summer, while they
+spent the winter in some mountain caverns. But after seven years a large
+proportion of this tribe went back to its ancestral stronghold in the
+Brdo range, from which the Turks had transplanted them to the Sandjak.
+This wish of theirs to go to their old home was gratified after they
+had beaten off the Turks triumphantly in various engagements on the way,
+and even pursued them to their trenches.... The Klementi who had stayed
+on the Pechter were further depleted a few years later, when their
+kinsfolk, answering the appeal of the Archbishop of Antivari, rode up
+there and carried off fifty families who were on the eve of renouncing
+their religion. The final group which remained became Moslem, and with
+such ardour that when the Serbs of Kara George reached the Sandjak they
+found that these Klementi were completely Islamized; they resisted the
+Serbian army with the utmost resolution. Subsequently they attempted to
+convert the Serbian population round them, but with mediocre success,
+for the Klementi themselves were not too strong; moreover, they were
+isolated from the other Muhammedan Albanians.
+
+And yet certain incidents which occurred in the Sandjak during the Great
+War seem to show that even there the task of dealing with the population
+is a troublous one. They are conservative; one sees, for example, a
+woman who has got up very early holding aloft a vessel against the sun.
+This is done with the object of preventing the cows of a certain man
+from giving any milk. But the man is on the alert. He shoots the vessel
+out of her hand and proceeds, with an easy mind, about his business.
+Frequently the Austrians disarmed these men, but it is their practice to
+have more rifles than shirts, although during the occupation a rifle
+cost twenty napoleons. It occurred to the Austrian Governor-General of
+Montenegro, Lieut. Field-Marshal von Weber, that these Albanians were
+children and, if treated well, would make useful volunteers. A party of
+them was thereupon sent to Graz, where they were told that they would be
+trained to fight on behalf of the Sultan. Their military education was a
+trifle agitated--for instance, on their second day at Graz they thrashed
+their officers--but when their training was considered adequate they
+were sent to the front, and there they immediately surrendered to the
+Italians. This was not the first time that a body of Albanians had gone
+to Austria. In 1912, for the Eucharistic Congress at Vienna, some two
+dozen of them, in their national costume and conducted by their
+priests, had taken part in the procession. It is said that the financier
+Rosenberg, of whom one has heard, bore a portion of the pretty large
+expenses of the deputation. His title of baron dates from this period.
+Austria's work among the school-children was no more successful than
+among the adults. Remembering that just outside Zadar lies Arbanasi, or
+Borgo Erizzo, a village of 2500 inhabitants, nearly all of whom are
+Albanians, it seemed good to the Austrian authorities to procure from
+that place a schoolmaster who would make suitable propaganda. There was
+at Arbanasi a teachers' institute, as also an Italian "Liga" school
+which was closed by the Austrians during the War, and when the
+schoolmaster arrived at Plav, where the people speak Serbian, he set
+about teaching the children Albanian and also making propaganda for
+Italy, as he was from the "Liga" school.... That fidelity of the five
+hundred men of Plav who clung, as we have related, to their religion,
+had its pendant when the Austrians were engaged in constructing a road.
+The custom was for a potentate of that district to procure for the
+Austrians a sufficient number of men, to whom three or four crowns a day
+would be paid. Any man who disregarded the potentate's summons was
+thrashed by him, and thrashed in such a way that for three days he was
+prostrate. The late Chief of Police at Sarajevo, Mr. Ljescovac, was
+(being a Bosnian subject) administering this district during the
+Austrian occupation. He tried frequently to get particulars from the men
+who had been so mercilessly flogged, with a view to opening an inquiry.
+Their invariable answer was: "I know nothing."
+
+In the days of Charles, another member of the Topia family, a copyist,
+who was in his service, was transcribing the Chronicle of George
+Hamartolos, and twice, thinking of his master, he inserts: "God, help
+Charles Topia." As we leave the Serb and the Albanian face to face,
+sensitive, imaginative, tenacious people, both with very ancient claims,
+we must hope that a happy solution will be found. After all Serbia,
+being in Yugoslavia, is now a Muhammedan and a Catholic Power. She has
+men at her disposal, such as Major Musakadić, a Bosnian Moslem who
+deserted from the Austrian army to the Serbs, fought with them on
+several fronts and received the highest decoration for valour, the Kara
+George; then, after the War, he was sent by the Government to command at
+Brćko, a place in his native Bosnia where there is a Moslem majority.
+A few of the Orthodox protested energetically that they would not have a
+Moslem over them; they were received by the Minister of Justice in
+Belgrade. "Gentlemen," said he, "go back to Brćko and when anyone of
+you has earned the Cross of Kara George I shall be glad to see him here
+again." ... As in the old days, the Serbian civilization is far
+superior, but this is not everything; that the Albanian is ready to meet
+it with peace or war he shows clearly as he glides along in his white
+skull-cap, his close-fitting white and black costume, with his
+panther-like tread and with several weapons and an umbrella.
+
+But for the various reasons to which we have alluded he is now much more
+inclined to live in peace with the Yugoslav. Very differently, except if
+they are charged with gifts, does he receive the Italians; even at the
+moment of accepting their gifts of military material and cash he regards
+them with a more or less concealed derision, for he is impressed, as we
+have pointed out, by nothing so much as by military prowess and the
+reverse, whereof the news is carried far and wide. At the end of
+September and beginning of October 1918 two weak Yugoslav battalions of
+about a thousand rifles accomplished at Tirana what the large Italian
+forces could not, at any rate did not, achieve. Ten thousand Austrians
+were in the town, and for three months the Italians had sat down outside
+it. Then the Serbs descended on the place from the mountains; their
+carts came by the ordinary road, and on arriving at the Italian lines
+the drivers asked for hay; but when they explained that the rest of
+their force was going round by the mountain trail the Italian commandant
+refused to give any supplies to such liars. (Later on, though, he gave
+them sufficient for five days.) When an Austrian officer who was
+stationed in a minaret saw the Serbs coming down from those terrible
+heights he was so astonished that he felt sure they must be robbers. And
+after they had captured the town and the Italians conducted themselves
+as if it were they who had conquered it, the Serbs took to thrashing
+their allies and ejecting them from the cafés. The Italians did not
+protest....
+
+
+10. DR. TRUMBIĆ'S PROPOSAL
+
+To sum up this part of our long and, I fear, rather tiring dissertation
+on the Yugoslav-Albanian frontier that is to be: the Yugoslav delegates
+at the Peace Conference invariably disclaimed any desire to have
+Albanian lands conferred on them against the wish of the inhabitants.
+According to Prince Sixte of Parma, the ex-Emperor Karl was disposed to
+offer to the Serbs as a basis of peace a Southern Slav kingdom
+consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and the whole of
+Albania. But this last item only made it clear that in his brief tenure
+of the throne the Emperor had grasped something of the grand generosity
+of European statesmen when they deal with the possessions of other
+people in the Near East. The Albanians are not Southern Slavs, and it is
+merely the voice of the thoughtless mob in Montenegro which has been
+claiming Scutari for the reason that they held it in the Middle
+Ages--several of their rulers are buried there--and because 20,000
+Montenegrins gave their lives to take it in the Balkan War. Responsible
+persons in Yugoslavia, such as Dr. Trumbić, the former Foreign
+Minister, do not believe that Scutari is a necessity for their
+State--whether Yugoslavia is a necessity for Scutari is another
+question--and they hold that it is quite possible to preserve the 1913
+frontier (perhaps with a minor rectification in Klementi) and live in
+friendship with their neighbours. This, of course, is under the
+assumption that these neighbours will "play the game"--and it is just
+this which the Albanians will be unable to do if they are left to their
+own slender resources. How could one expect so poor--or shall we say so
+unexploited?--a country to make any social progress without the help of
+others? It has become the habit of many Albanians to accept financial
+assistance from Italy; if an independent Albania is now established
+these subsidies will be increased--and he who pays the piper calls the
+tune. If, however, an arrangement could be made for helping the
+Albanians--and the country undertaking this would have to be devoid of
+Balkan ambitions on its own account--then the 1913 frontier would be
+possible. No doubt the cynics will say that the Yugoslavs are aware that
+this is an unlikely solution, and that failing a disinterested Power,
+whose supervision would cause the Albanians during the troublesome
+civilizing process to be moderately peaceable neighbours, failing such a
+Power the Yugoslavs would feel that they were justified in asking for
+the frontier of the Drin. But this frontier I have heard advocated less
+by Yugoslavs of any standing than by those Albanians who despair of the
+administrative capacities of their fellow-countrymen. The Yugoslavs have
+not the smallest wish to add to their commitments, and even if all the
+Albanians on the right bank of the Drin were anxious for Yugoslav
+overlordship--and this, naturally, is not the case--there would be
+serious hostility to be expected from some of those on the other bank.
+If no disinterested Power, such as Great Britain or Sweden, will take
+the matter in hand, then Dr. Trumbić has an alternative proposal,
+which is for a free, independent Albania (with the 1913 frontier) which
+would exist on the Customs and on a loan made by the Great Powers, who
+would put in a Controller charged with seeing that the money were spent
+on roads, schools, etc. A police force, and not an army, would be
+maintained; while, if need be, the country could be neutralized; and Dr.
+Trumbić, within whose lifetime bandits and heiduks were roaming
+through Bosnia, believes that the Albanians would gradually discard
+their cherished system of feuds.... This would be the happiest solution,
+for it would leave the Balkans to the Balkan peoples, while it would aim
+at the development of whatever good qualities there are in the
+Albanians, and it would definitely recognize a Yugoslav-Albanian
+frontier which is acceptable to both countries.
+
+
+11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE MIRDITI
+
+While Europe in the year 1921 was either exhausted or belligerent, or
+both, she had a vague knowledge that hostilities were being carried on
+between the Serbs and the Albanians. Telegrams from Rome, Tirana and
+elsewhere appeared in the papers, saying that the Serbs continued to
+advance. Occasionally a Serbian statesman would declare that his
+Government desired the independence of Albania. Then some Albanian
+delegate in Geneva would make a protest and ask the League of Nations,
+of which Albania was now a member, to take this matter in hand. A
+Serbian delegate would also address the League. Again you would hear of
+the Serbian army pushing forward, that a good many soldiers had fallen.
+And no one seemed to know why the Serbs would want to shed their blood
+in order to add to their miscellaneous problems this very grave one of
+administering such a region inhabited by such a people. Why did they not
+content themselves with the frontier which the Powers temporarily
+assigned to them in 1918 and which, from the junction of the Black and
+White Drin, runs south along the rocky right bank of the river and then,
+crossing to the other side, passes along the top of a range of
+mountains? What more could they wish to have, presuming that it was not
+their intention to annex what lay between them and the Adriatic?
+
+Well, it appears that never once did they go beyond the aforementioned
+line to which they were legally entitled, except when for a short time
+they were in pursuit, towards Ljuria, of certain invaders. Not only were
+they legally entitled to take up their position on the mountains to the
+west of the Black Drin, but the Moslem tribes, the Malizi and the Ljuri,
+who dwell in that uninviting district, were most anxious that the Serbs
+should come and should remain. For this the tribes had two principal
+reasons: in the first place, they recognized that their compatriots in
+Djakovica and Prizren were immeasurably better off than before they came
+under Serbian rule; and secondly, they did not wish to be separated from
+these towns which are their markets. In fact, they had become so anxious
+to throw in their lot with the Slavs that they formed six battalions,
+which operated on both banks of the river, under the command of Bairam
+Ramadan, Mahmoud Rejeb and others. In opposition to these battalions
+were the troops of the so-called National Government, that of Tirana.
+This Government is repudiated by a great many Albanians on account of
+its reactionary methods, its subservience to the Italians, and its
+failure to do anything for the people. The battalions, then, were
+engaged in 1921, not against their immediate neighbours to the west, the
+Catholic Mirditi, of whom we shall speak anon, but against the more
+distant Government of Tirana. Thus the League of Nations beheld that the
+administration which they were about to confirm as the legitimate
+Government of Albania was violently opposed by compact masses of
+Catholics and Moslems. Perhaps some of the members of the League began
+to doubt whether they should have accepted the assurance of the
+Anglo-Albanian Society that the Tirana Government (containing Moslem,
+Catholic and Orthodox members) was really a national affair; perhaps
+they began to suspect that the two Christian elements were only there to
+throw a little dust in the eyes of Europe; and perhaps Lord Robert Cecil
+began to feel doubtful whether, at the urgent request of his friend Mr.
+Aubrey Herbert, President of the Anglo-Albanian Society, he had been
+well advised to bring about the admission into the League of a country
+which had two simultaneous Governments before it had a frontier. Perhaps
+one was beginning to recognize that there are Albanians but no Albania.
+
+The emissaries of Tirana might depict as of no importance the
+hostilities that were being waged against them by those Moslem tribes,
+they might tell the League of Nations that the Mirdite revolution was
+not worth considering. It is a fact that the Mirditi are not very
+numerous, but in close connection with their 18,000 people are the Shala
+with 500 houses and the Shoshi with 300. Tradition has it that they are
+descended from three brothers who set out from the arid village of
+Shiroka on Lake Scutari to seek their fortune. The most ancient, the
+most noble and important family of northern Albania is that of
+Gjomarkaj, whose seat is at Oroshi, the capital of the Mirditi. Despite
+enormous difficulties they succeeded in maintaining their own position
+and the prestige of the Mirditi. They refused to recognize the Turkish
+Government and clung so tenaciously to their own usages and laws, and
+were so famous for their courage that the Sultans were eager to grant
+them privileges and concessions. Thereafter they promised to assist the
+Sultan against external aggression, and always did so with great
+success. It was due to the Mirditi that the Albanian mountaineers
+preserved their nationality, their religion and their customs, for they
+were ever the leaders of the other Albanian tribes. The most prominent
+of the Mirditi in our time have been Prenk Bib Doda, who, after long
+years of exile, was assassinated in Albania; Mark Djoni, now the
+President of the Mirdite Republic; and, above all, the great Abbot
+Monsignor Primo Doci, a man of vast culture, who returned to his own
+country after serving the Vatican as a diplomat in various parts of the
+world. It is not surprising that the educational standard of his native
+land filled him with the determination to build schools and that, owing
+to his efforts, the Roman Catholic establishment of thirty native
+priests and of bishops who were nearly all foreigners has developed into
+a body of almost three hundred native priests with no foreign bishops. A
+poet himself, he founded the literary society, _Bashkimi l'unione_, in
+which all capable patriots were invited to collaborate. He constructed
+more than twenty strongholds in and around Oroshi, and when he died in
+February 1917 it was largely owing to the persecution which he suffered
+at the hands of the Austrians. What has latterly aroused his faithful
+people is the persecution levelled at them by the Moslem-Italian
+Government of Tirana.
+
+A certain amount of mystery envelopes the death of Bib Doda; an opinion
+widely held is that Italians were responsible, but Mr. H. E. Goad
+rebukes me in the _Fortnightly Review_ for not knowing that the Italians
+laid aside the crude methods of political murder centuries ago. Perhaps
+he doesn't regard the massacre of the helpless French soldiers at Rieka
+in 1919 as political murder, since they were only privates; perhaps he
+doesn't count that famous expedition of the five lieutenants to
+assassinate Zanella, because it was unsuccessful; but he may be right
+concerning Bib Doda. That personage had been to Durazzo to confer with
+the Italians; he had refused to accept an Italian protectorate in
+Albania, and on his return he was killed in his carriage before he could
+reach Scutari. The chief assailant was a Catholic of Klementi, believed
+to be an adherent of Essad Pasha and also an Italian "agent
+d'occasion." Yet as several Italian soldiers who accompanied Bib Doda
+were wounded it would seem that those, myself included, who believed
+that this affair had been arranged by the Italians were wrong.
+
+As for Bib Doda's fortune, Mr. Goad asserts that by Albanian law he did
+not have to leave it to his nearest kinsman, Marko Djoni. That is, I beg
+to say, precisely what he had to do according to the custom of their
+ancient family. Mr. Goad says that the cash went to the poor; I say that
+a good deal of it went into the pocket of a lady who was much younger
+than the dead man and was on excellent terms with an Italian major. If
+Mr. Goad had visited Albania at that time and had been interested in
+other things besides what he tells us of--the moonlight of Klisura and
+the splendid plane trees over the Vouissa and the sunrise reflected on
+the gleaming mountain-wall of the Nemorica--I would not have to tell him
+all this about Bib Doda's money. He says that Marko Djoni is a
+discredited, disgruntled person who became a tool of the Serbs and fled
+to Serbia. But he forgets that Bib Doda was killed in March 1919, and
+that until May 1921 Marko Djoni remained in Albania, enjoying the
+friendship of Italy rather than that of Serbia. In fact it was not easy
+for him to abandon this friendship, owing to various deals in connection
+with the Mirdite forests. No doubt he resented the loss of his heritage;
+but why in the name of goodness should not he and his followers fight
+for their liberty, and why should the Serbs not help them at a time when
+the frontiers of Albania had not been fixed nor the Government
+officially recognized? The Serbs were helping him to make war, says Mr.
+Goad, against his legitimate rulers. Yet we must be lenient with our Mr.
+Goad, for he himself admits that "few can write of Balkan politics
+without revealing symptoms of that partisan disease." He has made up his
+mind that the Serbs are the villains of the piece, and there, for him,
+is the end of it.
+
+A delegation from the Mirditi, consisting of the Rev. Professor Anthony
+Achikou and Captain Dod Lléche, came to Geneva in October 1921, and
+requested the League not to issue a confirmation of the Tirana
+Government. They showed that this Government had no other aim than to
+turn Albania into a small Turkey. No doubt the Moslems, as the most
+numerous element, had a right to have a majority in the Cabinet, but
+there was no justification in their appointment of pure Turks. (The
+Tirana Government proposed in the autumn of 1921 that any Albanian
+coming from Turkey, who has held a public office there, shall be refused
+admittance into the Albanian Administration until two years after his
+return. This is a proposal but not yet, I believe, an effective law.)
+The Minister of Justice has been old Hodja Kadri, and the Minister of
+War one Salah el Din Bey, an officer of Kemal Pasha, and neither of
+these was acquainted with the Albanian language. When the Mirditi
+started to show their dislike of this Government, the War Minister
+commanded his troops to slay without mercy anyone who dared to raise his
+voice. Thus it came about that the villages of Oroshi, Laci, Gomsice and
+Naraci were destroyed, while those of the inhabitants who could escape
+fled across the frontier to Serbia. As for particular cases of iniquity
+we may instance that of the Moslem officer, Chakir Nizami, who, as a
+manifestation of his hatred for the Christians, had violated at Scutari
+a girl of fourteen whose name was Chakya Hil Paloks. He was sentenced by
+the French military authorities and was liberated by the Minister of
+Justice as soon as the French had quitted Scutari. On the other hand,
+Kol Achikou, a brother of the delegate, had killed a Moslem in
+self-defence and been acquitted by the French court martial; after their
+departure he was taken to Tirana and sentenced to death. But apart from
+all such misdeeds the Mirditi complained that the Tirana Government,
+which could not openly wage war with Serbia, had organized the "Kossovo"
+Committee, whose object it was to foment trouble in Serbia and to send
+armed bands of marauders on to Serbian territory. At the very moment
+when the delegation was at Geneva, one of these bands (in the night
+between October 12 and 13) raided the village of Mojište, near
+Gostivar. Furnished with Italian machine guns and bombs they came over
+the mountains, set fire to the village and killed many of the people as
+they fled. They are accustomed on such expeditions to steal the children
+and hold them to ransom--a lucrative operation which d'Annunzio's
+arditi[91] may have copied from their Albanian colleagues. It would
+seem, then, according to the statement of the Mirditi, that in the
+conflict on the Black Drin, of which Europe had vaguely heard, the
+Tirana Government and not that of Serbia was the aggressor. Mr. Aubrey
+Herbert may write pathetic letters to the Press, Miss Durham may write
+letters of indignation, but how could their protégés of Tirana be said
+to be valiantly defending themselves against the wicked Serbs when the
+very villages which, said Mr. Herbert, were destroyed--Aras and Dardha
+and so forth--were situated in the district to which the Serbs were
+legally entitled?
+
+The Mirditi delegates had an interview in Geneva with Lord Robert Cecil.
+An attempt was made by the Tirana delegates to discredit Professor
+Achikou, by publishing a telegram from Monsignor Sereggi, the Archbishop
+of Scutari (but which the Professor accused the rival delegate, the
+bearded, bustling Father Fan Noli, of having composed himself),[92] and
+in that message it was stated that Achikou was expelled from Albania.
+This he did not deny; he was, he said, one of 4000 who had been driven
+out by an arbitrary Government and he hoped that they would soon be able
+to return. The message called Achikou a traitor; but that is a matter of
+opinion. It said that he was in the service of a foreign Power; he
+replied that the Mirditi had never concealed their wish to live in
+friendship with their neighbours, and the proof that they envisaged
+nothing more than friendship was that they were petitioning the League
+to recognize the Mirdite Republic. Among the other charges against
+Achikou was one which said that he was sailing under false colours. This
+was an absurd accusation, and one which enabled the reverend Father to
+mention that his opponent Monsignor, who was then being called Bishop,
+Fan Noli, was neither a bishop nor an Albanian, but a simple priest, a
+Greek from Adrianople, whose real name was Theophanus.[93] This clever
+man, who had decided to form an Orthodox Albanian Church and had
+apparently become its bishop without the formality of consecration, had
+enjoyed some success at Geneva owing to his knowledge of languages. He
+circulated a telegram from Tirana which purported to be a disavowal of
+the Mirditi delegation by a number of Mirditi notables; but a reply was
+sent by Mark Djoni, the President of the Mirdite Republic, an elderly
+man of great sagacity and experience, for in Turkish times he had been
+chief magistrate of the Mirditi. He pointed out that all the notables
+and all the tribal chieftains had gone, like himself, into exile, and
+that the names were those of insignificant persons who had acted under
+fear of death. Djoni did not in this telegram allude to the position of
+those Catholic priests and others in northern Albania who support the
+Tirana Government and its Italian paymasters; some of them may believe
+that they are acting in the interest of their country--to act otherwise
+would be perilous, and everyone seems to know the precise number of
+napoleons a month--ranging from the 150 of an ecclesiastical magnate
+down to 7½ (the pay of a simple gendarme)--which they are alleged to
+receive. Do they ever think of the starving Italian peasants?
+
+On October 7 another telegram was sent from Oroshi (the capital of the
+Mirditi) to the Tirana Delegation which "protested energetically against
+the activities of a certain Anthony Achikou." Yet, on October 9, an
+individual called Notz Pistuli, who had travelled specially from
+Scutari, presented himself at the Mirdite delegates' hotel, and in the
+name of the Scutari National Council asked whether a reconciliation
+could not be made between the Mirditi and the Tirana Government.[94]
+Being told that the Mirditi would have nothing to do with the Turkish
+Government of Tirana, he held out hopes that another Government more
+representative of Albania would soon be constituted. It was remarkable
+that Tirana should have dispatched this envoy after giving out that the
+Mirditi were traitors and that their delegates represented nobody.
+
+Lord Robert Cecil did not at first seem to think that their desire for a
+republic independent of Tirana could be gratified, but on being
+initiated into the facts of the case and told that definitely to reject
+them would look as if he were a foe to Christianity, Lord Robert said
+that such was far from being the case. He would do whatever he could to
+help them. And on the next day it was decided that, in accordance with
+the Mirdite request, a Commission should proceed to Albania.
+
+The Italian delegate, Marquis Imperiali, submitted that there was no
+need to hurry this Commission and Monsieur Djoni explained in a
+telegram[95] that if the Commission went forthwith it would discover in
+Albania cannons, rifles and other war material from Italy, that it would
+find numerous Turkish officers of the Kemalist army who had been brought
+from Asia Minor in Italian ships, and that it would perceive that the
+cannons, the Turkish Government of Tirana, the rifles, the Turkish
+officers, certain Catholic ecclesiastics--in a word, the whole of
+Albania such as it is to-day is nothing else, said he, but a masked
+Italian instrument of war against Serbia--while all the bloody
+consequences of this perpetual struggle have to be endured by the border
+population.... One afternoon, at the beginning of November, 650 Tirana
+soldiers, pursued by the Mirditi, gave themselves up to the Serbian
+authorities on the Black Drin. They had with them a dozen officers of
+whom two were Italians, and these accounted for themselves by saying
+that they had come out to organize and to lead the Albanian army.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, would this be the best solution of the Albanian problem, that the
+Mirdite Republic and that of Tirana should both be recognized, since it
+is quite clear that it would be immoral--and very useless--for Europe to
+try to persuade the Mirditi to place themselves under the Tirana régime?
+But there appears to be no doubt that the Moslems of northern
+Albania--however much they may now sympathize with the Mirditi in their
+attitude towards Tirana--would just as strenuously resist their own
+incorporation in a Christian Republic.... Down at the bottom of their
+hearts all the Albanian delegates who came to Geneva must know that if
+an Albanian State is larger than one tribe it will go to pieces.
+Whatever good qualities may be latent in the Albanian, he is as
+yet--with rare exceptions--in that stage of culture which has no idea of
+duty on the part of the State or of duty towards the State. As an
+example of his views on the exercise of authority we may instance the
+case of the 82 Albanians, led by Islam Aga Batusha (of the village of
+Voksha), who stopped Pouniša Ra�ić and his companions in the
+summer of 1921 while they were riding one day from Djakovica to Peć.
+Pouniša enjoys the fullest confidence of the border tribes because he
+has never been known to break his word; they are very conscious that
+even their vaunted "besa" is not nowadays observed as it was, say fifty
+years ago, for the Austrian and Italian propaganda schools have had an
+unfortunate effect. Well, as the 82 sat round Pouniša and his friends
+in the courtyard of a mosque, where they spent the whole day
+confabulating, they said they hoped that he, a just and wise man, would
+help them; and their principal grievance was that the Serbian police no
+longer allowed them to kill each other. Why should the police interfere
+in their private affairs? Recently the police had arrested a man whom
+one of these protesters wanted to kill, and therefore he thought he
+would have to kill one of the police. Even those who have spent their
+lives in Serbia are too often at this stage of development--a few years
+ago, in the village of Prokuplje, an Albanian assassinated his neighbour
+and was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. The judge asked the
+dead man's brother if he was satisfied. "No, I am not," he answered,
+"because now I shall have to wait twenty years to kill him." Their
+ancient custom of blood-vengeance continues to flourish, though in
+Serbia the police and public opinion are against it; thus, at Luka, in
+the department of Peć, one Alil Mahmoud was murdered by a Berisha to
+avenge his uncle, so that now the sons of this Mahmoud propose to kill a
+Berisha--not the murderer, but one equal in rank to their late father,
+and in consequence Ahmed Beg, son of Murtezza Pasha, of Djakovica, is
+afraid to leave his house, which the Serbian police, at his request, is
+guarding.
+
+How much the Albanian conceives that he owes a duty to the State may be
+instanced by the application of a smuggler that he be granted a permit
+to go to Zagreb in order to dispose of 6000 oka[96] of tobacco which he
+had brought over the frontier. He was talking to a Serb who has the
+confidence of the Albanians because he does not treat them as if they
+were Serbs; and when this father confessor advised him to get rid of the
+tobacco locally (which he succeeded in doing) the Albanian objected that
+the excise officers gave him constant anxiety, they were thieves who
+insisted on payment being made to them if they came across his
+merchandise. And if it be said that this is too humble a case, we may
+mention that of Ali Riza, one of the chief officers of the Tirana army
+which was last year operating against the Serbs. So indifferent is he as
+to the uniform he bears that the year before last, in Vienna, he begged
+an influential Serb to recommend him for a lieutenancy in the Serbian
+army. (His request was not granted because it was ascertained that,
+besides being unable to read and write, his work as an Austrian gendarme
+had been more zealous than creditable.)
+
+
+12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE
+
+What, then, is Europe to do with these wild children of hers?... The
+tribes, Catholic and Moslem, who dwell between the Big Drin and the
+frontier allotted to Serbia in 1913, asked the aforesaid Pouniša in
+1919 to intervene in their quarrels; and the result was that a small
+number of Serbian soldiers were scattered about that country. They were
+placed at the disposal of the chief, whom they assisted in maintaining
+order. (Needless to say, they collected no taxes or recruits, and all
+their supplies came to them from Serbia.) The people were impressed not
+only by the uniform but by the men's conduct. Before going to these
+posts--where they were relieved every two or three months--the men were
+instructed with regard to Albanian customs, and no case occurred of any
+transgression. So rigidly did they enforce the precept that anyone who
+tried to violate or carry off a woman was, if he persisted, to be shot,
+that last year, at Tropolje in Gashi, when the girl in question was
+said to be not unwilling, they pursued the abductors, and in the
+subsequent battle there were fatalities on both sides. The Serbian
+soldiers, for whose safety the village was responsible, made themselves
+so popular that when the Tirana Government appointed one Niman Feriz to
+go to those parts as sub-prefect he was chased away by the people headed
+by the mayor of the Krasnichi, who is a nephew of Bairam Beg Zur, the
+illiterate ex-brigand and ex-Minister of War of the Tirana Government.
+
+Let this system of small Serbian posts be extended over the whole of
+northern Albania, that is to say, in those districts where the natives
+are willing to receive them. After all, the Serbs understand these
+neighbours of theirs. Telephones and roads will be built and eventually
+the railway along the Drin. The northern Albanians will then, for the
+first time, be on the high-road towards peace and prosperity; and if the
+rest of Albania has by then attained to anything like this condition
+everybody would be glad to see a free and independent Albania.
+
+Now what prospect is there of the rest of Albania taking any analogous
+steps? If the regions which at present submit to Tirana decline to
+modify their methods, it would seem that warfare between them and their
+kinsmen to the north and north-east must continue, and that the
+foundations of a united, free Albania will not yet be laid. One might
+presume, from their bellicose attitude, that the Tirana Government
+(extending to and including the town of Scutari) is all against a
+pacific solution; and if one argues that their attitude would be quite
+different without the support they receive from Italy, then the Italians
+would doubtless reply that they have as much right to assist the Tirana
+Albanians as Yugoslavia has to assist those of the north.
+
+But this is not the case. Between Italy and the Albanians there are no
+such ancient political and economic ties as between the Albanians and
+the Serbs. The mediæval connection with Venice has left with many
+Albanians a dolorous memory, for apart from the fact that Venice, as in
+Dalmatia, was pursuing a merely selfish policy, it was directly due to
+her that the Turkish Sultan, in the fifteenth century, was able to
+establish himself in Albania. Thrice his troops had been repelled by
+those of Skanderbeg when the arrangement was made for them to enter the
+fortress of Rosafat in Venetian uniforms, and then four hundred years
+elapsed before the Sultan's standard was pulled down. In recent times
+the Government of Italy has been furnishing the Shqyptart with schools,
+and these were not its only acts of benevolence towards that wretched
+people. They have given schools and rifles and munitions and gold. The
+Albanians were willing to accept this largesse; but that it forged a
+link between patron and client, that it conferred on the Italians any
+rights to occupy the country, they denied, and enforced this denial in
+1920 at the point of the bayonet. Mr. H. Goad said in the _Fortnightly
+Review_ that this remark of mine is quite unhistorical, since Italy,
+says he, "was in course of withdrawal when certain Albanians, stirred up
+as usual by Jugo-Slavs, attacked her retreating troops." If the
+Albanians had only known that Italy, despite her having been, says Mr.
+Goad, "supremely useful to Albania," had resolved to quit, they would
+perhaps have let them go with dignity. But if Mr. Goad will read some of
+the contemporary Italian newspapers he will see that my allusion to the
+bayonet was much too mild. Utterly regardless of the fact that the
+Italian evacuation was "according to plan," the Shqyptart treated them
+abominably--it brought up memories of Abyssinia--or does Mr. Goad deny
+that even a general officer was outraged and blew out his brains? This
+Albanian onslaught was so far from being stirred up by the Yugoslavs
+that, as we have seen,[97] the Belgrade Government refused to furnish
+them with munitions. This is not to say that they did not approve of the
+Albanian push, for they maintain, in spite of Mr. Goad, the principle of
+"The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples." If Italy, as our strange publicist
+asserts, has a mandate--presumably a moral one--to defend Albania
+against aggression he will find, I think, that the Yugoslavs heartily
+agree with this thesis and that they are also quite determined to defend
+Albania from aggression.... When he asserts that various ties existed
+between Italy and the Albanians--the Albanian language, the feudal
+architecture, much that is characteristic in Albanian art and so
+forth--I would refer him to M. Justin Godart, with whom I am glad for
+once to be in agreement. "There is no traditional or actual link," says
+he, "between the two countries; if, on account of this geographical
+position, they propose to have commercial relations, then everything has
+yet to be established. If there is to be a friendship, we believe that
+Italy must do her best to wipe out many memories.... She has not
+profited from the large number of Albanians in her southern provinces in
+order to have an Albanian policy."
+
+However, the magnanimous Italians came back, declaring that on this
+occasion they would not occupy the country (except the little island of
+Saseno); but that they really could not restrain themselves from
+bestowing the schools, the rifles, munitions and gold. Once more the
+Albanians agreed to accept them; they also accepted the Turkish officers
+and officials whom the Italian ships brought to them from Asia Minor,
+and when their Government became more and more Turkish and more
+intractable they found that they had excited the hostility of large
+numbers of their own compatriots. This developed during 1921 into
+violent conflicts; and the bountiful Italians provided the Tirana
+Government's army with expert tuition. Nevertheless, in the Albanians'
+opinion, there are no bonds between the two races, and if the Italians
+would retire from Albania, permitting the Balkans to be for the Balkan
+peoples, and if the fanatical Turks went back to Asia Minor, it would
+soon be seen that the present rage between northern and central Albania
+would peter out into the isolated murders which the Albanians have
+hitherto been unable to dispense with. Left to themselves the Albanians
+of Tirana would eventually ask for some such assistance from Serbia as
+the northern tribes have received; three months after the departure of
+the Italians from Scutari a plebiscite would show that this town, which
+has lately gone so far as to refuse--yes, even her Moslems have
+refused--to fill the depleted ranks of the Tirana forces, was anxious to
+come to a friendly settlement with her Albanian neighbours and the
+Yugoslavs. This would be a victory of Scutari's common sense over all
+those fanatics and intriguers whose activities involve her death; for
+she cannot possibly thrive if she persists in cutting herself off from
+the hinterland and from the benefits that will accrue from the
+canalization of the Bojana.
+
+However, the Italians--officially or unofficially--will not yet awhile
+leave Albania. And how will this retard or modify the reasonableness of
+those parts which acknowledge Tirana? As for the town of Scutari, it is
+probable that if she found herself permanently cut off by the Mirditi
+from direct communication with Tirana she would allow her incipient
+independence to come more to the surface. With Tirana less capable of
+enforcing her behests the Scutarenes would gradually venture to act in
+their own interests; they would aim at local autonomy within the sphere
+of Yugoslav influence and in the same sphere as their markets. It is to
+be hoped that Yugoslavia will be prepared for this, since she does not
+possess too many educated citizens who understand the Albanian
+mentality. A course of conduct which pays no attention to this would
+alienate even the Turks from Podgorica and Dulcigno, whose acquaintance
+with the very language of Albania is so limited. There seems, however,
+to be no reason why the mixed population of Albanian Moslems and
+Catholics, of Orthodox Serbs and of Moslems who declined to come under
+the all-too-patriarchal rule of Nicholas of Montenegro should not have
+the same happy experience as the inhabitants of Djakovica and Prizren.
+Later on the Scutarenes will be called upon to decide whether they
+prefer, like those other predominantly Albanian towns, to remain in
+Yugoslavia or whether they wish to throw in their lot with a free
+Albania, and in that case their town would become the capital of the
+country. Failing Scutari, the capital would most probably be Oroshi,
+which is now the capital of the Mirditi.
+
+And why, we may be asked, why should not Tirana be the capital? In the
+central parts of Albania, in the country round Tirana, where the natives
+are derisively called "llape" by the warriors of the north and by the
+cultured Albanians of the south, we believe that the assistance of Italy
+will be unable to prevent a collapse. (It must also be remembered that
+the people of the district of Tirana are, for the most part, in
+opposition to the present Tirana Government. This became clear when the
+partisans of Essad Pasha's policy[98] overthrew and imprisoned the
+Tirana Ministers.) Economically and morally Tirana will decline, until
+she is compelled to seek a union with the people of northern Albania,
+those of the south having meanwhile gravitated towards Greece. Then the
+moment will arrive when the north and the south, in their task of
+building up a free and united Albania, will admit the centre under
+various conditions. These will have to be of a rather stern character,
+or so at any rate they will seem to the folk of Tirana: taxes will have
+to be paid, military service or service in the _gendarmerie_ will have
+to be rendered, and schools will have to be established for both sexes.
+
+This, then, is the future country of Albania, which--if one is rash
+enough to prophesy--may exist in fifty years. But there is no risk
+whatever in asserting that a free, united Albania is in the immediate
+future quite impossible.
+
+
+13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS
+
+Berati Beg, Tirana's delegate in Paris, said in an interview with a
+representative of the Belgrade _Pravda_, at the beginning of November
+1921, that he regretted that European diplomats should interfere in the
+Serbo-Albanian question. "Are we not all," said he, "one large Balkan
+family? And if the Powers intervene they will not act in our interests,
+but in their own." He said that it used to be Austria which grasped at
+Albania, now it was Italy. So the delegate showed that he was a
+clear-sighted man; he also showed that in Tirana they are not unanimous
+in loving the Italians. But alas! the Great Powers, urged by Italy, made
+a most disastrous plunge; they actually, at least Great Britain, charged
+the Serbs, their allies, on November 7, with being guilty of
+overstepping the frontier, and on November 9 informed them where this
+frontier was. It is a pity that Mr. Lloyd George should have launched
+such a thunderbolt, the French Government not being consulted.[99] But
+the most probable explanation of this lack of courtesy towards the
+Serbs, and lack of the most elementary justice, is that the Prime
+Minister, with his numerous preoccupations, allowed some incapable
+person to act in his name.[100] The world was told, however, that Mr.
+Lloyd George had sent a peremptory demand for the convocation of the
+Council of the League of Nations so that a sanction should be applied
+against the Yugoslavs. Mr. Lloyd George's substitute was so little
+versed in the business that he did not even know that the League of
+Nations is not a gendarme to carry out the decisions of the Ambassadors'
+Conference. He should have been aware of the fact that this was a
+problem for the Allied States, to be settled by diplomatic or other
+measures, and he should also have known that the League of Nations does
+not--except if invited to arbitrate--concern itself with the
+unliquidated problems left by the War, such as the Turkish question.
+Perhaps that dangerous confusion in the mind of this unknown official
+would not have occurred if Albania had not been illogically admitted to
+the League of Nations. But now, in November 1921, not an instant was to
+be lost in settling this frontier question, which--as the _Temps_
+pointed out--would have been settled months before if Italy had not
+prevented it. (She wished as a preliminary step to have certain claims
+of her own in regard to Albania conceded.) So the Council of the League
+was to be invited to apply Article 16, which could scarcely be invoked
+unless Article 15, which defines a procedure of conciliation, had been
+found of no avail.[101] Thus the misguided person who spoke in the name
+of Mr. Lloyd George was apparently too impetuous to read the texts. And
+then the Serbs were told that they must withdraw practically to the
+frontier which Austria, their late enemy, had laid down in 1913. Well
+might Berati Beg deplore that Italy should take the place of Austria.
+But such commands achieve so little. Very soon, when the troubles in
+Albania continue, as they certainly will, Mr. Lloyd George will see that
+he was misled.... But here it should be stated that while Italy
+persisted throughout in demanding the 1913 frontier (with the
+ludicrously inconsistent proviso that she herself should have the island
+of Saseno, which in 1913 she had demanded for independent Albania), and
+France raised no finger against her, the actual improvements of the
+frontier adopted were entirely due to Great Britain. No one is more
+qualified to speak on this matter than Mr. Harold Temperley of
+Cambridge, who was one of our experts. In his illuminating little book,
+_The Second Year of the League_, he has pointed out that the new
+Albanian frontiers are an improvement on the old--than which, indeed,
+they cannot be worse--because they conform more to natural features,
+they take into account an important tribal boundary (leaving the Gora
+tribe in Yugoslavia), and restore to both parties freedom of
+communication--the road between the Serb towns of Struga and Dibra being
+given to the Serbs, while to Albania is given the road from Elbasan to
+the Serb town of Lin. The rectifications in the Kastrati and the Prizren
+area involve the substitution of natural boundaries for unnatural ones
+in order to protect the cities of Podgorica and Prizren. They confer no
+offensive advantage on the Serbs, nor do they enable them to menace any
+Albanian city.
+
+To any impartial observer it is quite unjust that the Yugoslavs should
+have had to plead against the frontier of 1913. They have not the least
+desire to plant their flag on those undelectable mountains. If the
+frontier of 1913 could be held with moderate efforts against these
+people they would not wish to go an inch beyond it. But those who drew
+this frontier, namely the Austrians, were not much concerned as to
+whether it afforded adequate protection to the Serbs; what they had in
+view was to keep them away from the Adriatic (for which reason an
+arbitrary line cut through the proposed railway which was to link Peć
+to Podgorica and the sea) and to compel the Serbs to station in those
+districts a goodly portion of their army, to which end--so that the
+frontier should be weak--the towns of Djakovica and Prizren were
+separated from their hinterland. The Austrian plan likewise prevented
+the towns of Struga and Prizren from being joined by a road or by a
+railway along the Drin; to go from one to the other it became necessary
+to make an enormous detour. With the rectifications to which we have
+referred, the Ambassadors' Conference decided to insist on them
+returning to this miserable line, instead of permitting them to take up
+their position where General Franchet d'Espérey perceived in 1918 that
+they could be fairly comfortable. Monsieur Albert Mousset, the shrewd
+Balkan expert of the _Journal des Débats_, has remarked that on too many
+parts of the 1913 frontier it is as if one forced an honest man to sleep
+with his door open among a horde of bandits.... The Albanian Government,
+admitted to the League of Nations in December 1920, claimed that the
+international statute of 1913, creating a German prince, the Dutch
+_gendarmerie_ and the International Financial Commission--which happened
+to be inconvenient--was no longer in force; but that the international
+decisions as to the frontiers of Albania--which happened to be
+convenient--were still valid. However, during the War the country had
+been plunged in anarchy, and the Great Powers decided that Albania was,
+in Mr. Temperley's words, a _tabula rasa_, a piece of white paper on
+which they could write what they wished. In November 1921 the
+Ambassadors' Conference finally decided on the frontiers. The gravest
+violation of the ethnic principle was in the Argyrocastro area, where
+many thousands of Greeks and Grecophils were handed over to Albania; as
+for the Serbs, it was only through the efforts of some British experts
+that they obtained any satisfaction at all.
+
+Why did the Ambassadors' Conference arrive at this peculiar decision?
+For a long time the European Press had been publishing telegrams which
+told how the Serbs were ruthlessly invading Albania. Had they advanced
+about half the number of miles with which they were credited, they would
+have found themselves near to the offices of those Italian Press
+agencies. They were held up to vituperation for their conduct towards a
+feeble neighbour. The Mirditi, we were told, had to fly before them;
+whereas the truth was that the friendly Mirditi were driving the troops
+of Tirana helter-skelter towards the Black Drin, where the Serbs--not
+advancing an inch from the boundary which the Allies had for the time
+being assigned to them--received their prisoners. Again we were told
+that the piratical Serbs had seized the town of Alessio. It must have
+annoyed the Mirditi to have this exploit of theirs ascribed to other
+people. And if the newspapers contained too many telegrams of this kind
+they were strangely reticent with regard to what was taking place in the
+shallow Albanian harbours; but the two Italian vessels which--as I
+mentioned in a telegram to the _Observer_--were unloading, without the
+least concealment, munitions and rifles for the dear Albanians at San
+Giovanni di Medua in September 1920, were probably not the only ones
+with such a cargo. Europe and the Ambassadors' Conference were simply
+told that the truculent Serbs were destroying a poor, defenceless,
+pastoral nation. Therefore these Serbs must be ordered back, and
+whatever might be the merits of a hostile Austrian frontier as compared
+with a well-informed French one, at any rate the first of these was
+farther back, so let the Serbs be ordered thither.
+
+It was noticeable that when, on November 17, the British Minister of
+Education, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher (representing Mr. Lloyd George),
+explained before the Council of the League of Nations why Great Britain
+had thought it necessary to act in this Serbo-Albanian affair, he
+founded his case not on Article 16 but on Article 12, which obliges two
+conflicting nations who are members of the League to have their case
+examined by the League. Evidently the suggested application of Article
+16 was now acknowledged to have been a mistake. The blundering official
+in Whitehall should have seen the dignified sorrow with which Yugoslavia
+heard of her great Ally's unjustifiable procedure. So much faith have
+the Southern Slavs always had in the Entente's sense of justice that
+from 1914 to 1918 they continued to give their all, without making any
+agreement or stipulation; more than once the Serbian Government had the
+offer of terms from the Central Powers, but on each occasion, as for
+example during the dark days at Niš in 1915, they declined to betray
+their Allies.
+
+Mr. Fisher announced that the British Government's action was in no way
+caused by feelings of hostility against the Southern Slavs. All
+Englishmen, in fact, remembered the heroism and fortitude of the Serbs;
+they cherished for Yugoslavia the warmest sympathy. In Mr. Fisher's own
+case it might conceivably have been a little warmer--he was not ashamed
+to repeat the reasons which had induced Great Britain to summon the
+Council of the League. Yet he must have known the comment that he would
+arouse among his audience when they heard him base his arguments
+exclusively upon reports of the Tirana Government, while those of
+Belgrade were ignored; and in their place the delegate thought fit to
+bring up various extracts which had been collected from the Belgrade
+Press. If every organ of this Press were filled with a permanent sense
+of high responsibility, and if Mr. Fisher had made inquiries as to the
+existence in Belgrade of humorous and ironic writers, one is still
+rather at a loss to understand why these miscellaneous cuttings were
+placed before the League, which could scarcely be expected to treat them
+as evidence. The delegate added that he did not think a single nation
+was animated by unfriendly sentiments towards the Southern Slavs--so
+that Italy's unflagging efforts to strengthen the Tirana Government's
+army were prompted purely by the deep love which the Italians--despite
+their having been flung out of Valona--bear for the Shqyptart. Mr.
+Fisher proceeded to say that no better proof was needed of the general
+friendship for the Southern Slavs than the decision of the Ambassadors'
+Conference which, instead of allotting to Albania the frontiers of 1913,
+a method that would have been simpler, had resolved on several
+rectifications in favour of Yugoslavia, in order to prevent disturbances
+on Albania's northern frontier. After what Mr. Fisher had already had
+the heart to say we cannot really be astonished that he, or the people
+on behalf of whom he spoke, should have thought the enemy-drawn frontier
+of 1913 as worthy of the slightest consideration. We are all, I think,
+unanimous, said Mr. Fisher in effect, we are unanimous in our esteem for
+the Yugoslavs and could do nothing which that nation would find hard to
+bear. But after stating that some rectifications had been made in favour
+of Yugoslavia he should have referred to the village of Lin on Lake
+Ochrida whose transference to the Albanians will probably give rise to a
+great deal of trouble, since it is the most important centre for the
+fishing industry. A few of the best Belgrade papers, careless of the
+more than Governmental authority which they enjoyed in the eyes of Mr.
+Fisher, went so far as to allege that Lin's change of sovereignty was
+due to the formation on Lake Ochrida of a British fishing company.... We
+have said that the frontier rectifications were inadequate; but under
+the circumstances they were the best that could be obtained. They were
+most bitterly contested by the Italians, who demanded, as we have said
+above, that Yugoslavia should be given the 1913 frontier. France did
+nothing to help the Yugoslavs in this hour of need, and had it not been
+for the absolutely determined support of Great Britain the pernicious
+frontier of 1913 would have been adopted intact.
+
+Coming to the Mirdite revolt, Mr. Fisher's description is hardly what
+you would call felicitous. Mark Djoni and the other members of the
+Mirdite Government were compelled last July to seek refuge at Prizren in
+Yugoslavia, and since then they have conducted their affairs from that
+place. These circumstances, in Mr. Fisher's opinion, go to prove the
+existence of a Yugoslav plot whose aim it is to separate northern
+Albania from the Tirana Government. Again Mr. Fisher points an accusing
+finger at the Yugoslav officers who, in August, were helping the
+Mirditi; but is it not more natural that these officers should give
+their services to the Christian tribes for whom, as Mr. Bošković,
+the chief Yugoslav delegate, said, the Southern Slavs do not conceal
+their sympathy[102] nor the hope that they will gain the necessary
+autonomy--is not this more natural and more deserving of Mr. Fisher's
+approbation than the fact (of which he says no word) that the Moslem
+Government of Tirana has had the active assistance of Italian officers,
+such, for example, as Captain Guisardi, who, in the sector of Kljesh,
+has been in command of the artillery? A further proof that the Mirdite
+movement has been engineered by the Southern Slavs is, in Mr. Fisher's
+opinion, the damning fact that the Republic's Proclamation was composed
+in Yugoslavia and dated there--how brazen some people are! And the
+official Yugoslav Press Bureau has actually circulated the announcements
+of the Mirdite Republic. The question is whether the Yugoslav Government
+was more than benevolently neutral in thus assisting their guests at a
+time when these had not yet got their machinery into working order. When
+the Mirdite Government had made suitable arrangements it spoke to the
+world through its representatives at Geneva or through direct
+communications to the British and French Press. Surely, in considering
+whether the Yugoslav Government allowed themselves to exceed the limits
+of neutrality, one must remember that the Mirdite authorities at Prizren
+were out of all touch with their own army, which was engaged in a
+guerilla warfare. In conclusion, according to Mr. Fisher, the British
+Foreign Office was persuaded that the Mirdite Republic was nothing but
+an instrument of the Yugoslav Government, and that desire for Albanian
+unity extended also to the Christians of that country. The Foreign
+Office had, no doubt, been told that the Tirana Government received the
+support, at last spring's elections, of some north Albanian deputies;
+and possibly they gave no credence to the rumour that these gentlemen
+were much indebted to Italian support. It may have been mere harmless
+curiosity which kept Captain Pericone, the Italian commander, during all
+that day at the Scutari polling-booths, but what is certain is that,
+owing to the influx of Italian money, the value of a hundred silver
+crowns in the morning was 92 lire, and in the afternoon had fallen to
+75. It is likewise a fact that numerous Malissori, finding themselves
+for the first time in possession of bundles of paper and feeling far
+from confident that this was money, hurried off to the bazaar and spent
+it all. Thus were the four friends of the Moslem-Italian[103] Government
+elected, the four deputies who were in favour of Albanian unity under
+that Government; three of them are Christians (Messrs. Fichta, Andreas
+Miedia and Luigi Gurakuqi); one, Riza Dani, is a Moslem. How the latter
+travelled to Tirana I do not know, but the three Christians found that
+the population was so incensed against them that they could not go by
+the direct road; they were forced to sail down the Bojana on the Italian
+ship _Mafalda_, and then along the coast. This, I presume, will be
+considered sufficiently strong evidence that these deputies did not
+represent the people, and that their independence was not exactly of the
+sort ascribed to Gurakuqi by a writer in the _Times_;[104] one need not
+labour the point by mentioning what happened to Father Vincent Prênnushi
+whose candidature was vetoed in Rome, so that he was replaced by Father
+Fichta.
+
+This being the state of things one can scarcely argue that the people of
+the north are in favour of a united Albania, as it seemeth good to the
+Ambassadors' Conference, the League of Nations, etc. "We Germans,
+knowing Germany and France," said Treitschke in 1871, "know what is good
+for the Alsatians better than these unfortunates themselves.... Against
+their will we wish to restore them to themselves." The north Albanian
+deputies may join with those of the south and call themselves the group
+of "sacred union"; but they themselves are well aware that it is only in
+the south-central districts that the Government has a majority. That is
+one of the reasons why the seat of Government is Tirana in the central
+part of the country, for the Cabinet lives in apprehension of the
+followers of the late Essad Pasha, and by residing in that country they
+hope to be able to keep it quiet. How long will they be able to do so?
+Have they statesmanship enough to turn aside the animosity of their own
+countrymen? Does their Premier and Foreign Minister, Mr. Pandeli
+Evangheli, possess intellectual resources of a higher order than those
+which one commonly associates with the ownership of a small
+wine-shop?--that was his occupation till he came, some two years ago,
+from Bucharest. When this gentleman had a, perhaps temporary, fall from
+power, the _Times_ of December 16, 1921, wrote of him that "there is no
+Albanian public man with a better record for long disinterested service
+in his country's cause." Alas, poor Albania! We may surmise that Mr.
+Evangheli and his companions do not rely very greatly on their Western
+European patrons who, when it comes to the pinch, will do very little
+for them. I should be surprised to hear that they have caused the
+provisions of the Ambassadors' Conference to be traced in golden letters
+on a wall of their council chamber. And I doubt whether they take very
+great stock of a resolution signed in November 1921, by some twenty
+Members of Parliament and a few outside persons. These expressed their
+approval of Mr. Lloyd George's step in convoking the League of Nations
+for the settlement of the Serbo-Albanian question. If this resolution
+served no other purpose it showed, at any rate, that the signatories are
+such thoroughgoing friends of the Tirana Government that they rushed
+enthusiastically to their assistance, though their deep knowledge of
+affairs--without which, of course, they would never have signed--must
+have caused them to regard the Prime Minister's impulsive action with
+something more than misgiving. It is a minor point that the signatories
+sought to enlist the world's sympathy on the ground that a small
+"neutral State" had been wantonly attacked by the Serbs, because if this
+accusation were true it would not be worth objecting that the Albanians
+were scarcely a State (though some of them were trying to make one) and
+that their neutrality during the War consisted in the fact that they
+were to be found both in the armies of the Entente and--rather more of
+them, I believe--in those of Austria. But the accusation is untrue;
+there are, undoubtedly, a number of fire-eaters in Serbia, as everywhere
+else, yet the Government is not so childish as to wish to squander its
+resources in a region where there is so little to be gained. (The Tirana
+correspondent of _The Near East_ said on November 3, 1921, that the
+Serbian Government was reported to be committing unwarrantable acts,
+giving as an example that Commandant Martinović had had six million
+dinars placed at his disposal in order to recruit komitadjis and that he
+had himself promised 2500 dinars to each of his men if they succeeded in
+entering Scutari. But this gentleman, a retired officer, lives almost
+exclusively at Novi Sad, where his very beautiful daughter is married to
+M. Dunjarski, one of the wealthiest men in Yugoslavia. Yet neither his
+son-in-law nor the Serbian Government has ever given General
+Martinović the afore-mentioned sum or any sum at all for the
+afore-mentioned purpose. He goes at rare intervals to his old home in
+Montenegro, of which country he was once Prime Minister. It is natural
+that the numerous refugees from Albania should flock round him--in view
+of his own past prominence and of M. Dunjarski--begging for money and
+food.) The protesting British Members of Parliament registered their
+sorrow that the Serbs should have employed on their anti-Albanian
+enterprise "the strength and riches which they largely owed to the
+Allied and Associated Powers." I was under the impression that the Serbs
+had expended a far greater proportion of their strength and riches than
+any of the Allies,[105] that the Allies had, in 1915, left them in the
+lurch, and that the final success on the Macedonian front was due quite
+considerably to the genius of Marshal Mišić and the valour of his
+veterans. As for the strength and riches which the Southern Slavs
+possessed in 1921, it surely would not need an expert to perceive what
+the Southern Slav children knew very well, namely, that they could be
+more profitably employed in many other directions. May better luck
+attend the future labours of these Members of Parliament.... A week or
+so before the publication of this foolish manifesto there had been
+issued an equally deplorable Memorandum by the Balkan Committee (of
+London), which, I am glad to say, caused Dr. Seton-Watson to resign from
+that body. This jejune and impudent Memorandum attempted to dictate the
+terms of the Constitution of the Triune Kingdom--an attempt very rightly
+reprobated by _The Near East_.[106] If the Yugoslav Government were to
+adopt the recommendations of the Balkan Committee they would, it seems,
+be in a fair way to solve the Albanian question. Likewise that of
+Macedonia--when will the Committee cease to trouble Macedonia? Their
+object, in the words of Mr. Noel Buxton, is to aim at allaying the
+unrest in the Balkans; it would--I say it in all kindliness--be a move
+in that direction if the other members were to follow Dr. Seton-Watson's
+example.
+
+
+14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS HAVE RETIRED
+
+What of the population which inhabits the zone between the two frontier
+lines? We have alluded to them as a horde of bandits, we have also
+spoken of the six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
+Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the bosom of most of
+us, it is equally true that in most of the Albanians a brigand survives.
+And if not a brigand, then a mediæval person with characteristics which
+are more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the Shqyptar, as
+he calls himself (which means the eagle's son) is not without his
+aspirations. Reference has been made to those northern tribes, such as
+the Merturi and the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian
+detachments which came in answer to their urgent wish. And on the Black
+Drin the six battalions have shown their fidelity. There would be no
+need to guard oneself against such people. But unfortunately the
+Albanian is so constituted that if, in a hamlet of ten houses, five of
+them are amicably disposed towards you, there is a strong tendency among
+the others to be hostile. When these torch-bearers of an ancient
+tradition come under the rule of an organized State, then they gradually
+feel inclined to discard some of their customs which the State frowns
+upon. This can be seen in the changes among the people of Kossovo since
+it came into Serbian hands. Were the country between the two frontier
+lines to remain under the Serbs it would not be long before some of the
+time-honoured sensitiveness of the Albanians towards each other and
+towards each others' friends would vanish--though it has been found that
+it takes a number of years before they cease observing or from desiring
+to observe the very deeply-rooted custom of blood-vengeance.
+
+A good many of the border Albanians have made it clear that they wish
+for some sort of association with their more cultured neighbours. But on
+this point they are by no means unanimous. The unregenerate part of the
+people will not be able to resist an occasional foray into Yugoslavia.
+And although the reputation which the Serbs have left behind them may
+induce the tribes to be, for the most part, good neighbours, yet they
+have not been long enough under the civilizing process, and the more
+advanced among them would agree with the Yugoslavs that it would have
+been better for that régime to have continued over them. You may object
+that the finest patriots of the Albanians would have preferred to remain
+outside Yugoslavia. But they know that there are many thousands of their
+contented countryfolk in the neighbouring Kossovo and, what is more,
+they know that the towns of Kossovo are their markets.
+
+The Yugoslavs have bowed to the decision of their Allies. And the
+official champions of the too-ambitious League of Nations--overjoyed,
+after various failures and after the Silesian award, to have really
+accomplished something, and something with whose merits the public was
+far less familiar than with the Silesian fiasco--performed a war-dance
+on the Yugoslavs. If that people had been as obstinate, say, as the
+Magyars in the case of Burgenland, no doubt it would have come to
+another Conference of Venice; and Yugoslavia would, like Hungary, have
+returned from there with something gained. But, of course, when it is an
+affair between Allies one scarcely likes to behave in that stubborn and
+unyielding manner which is apparently the right--at all events, the
+successful--conduct for a whilom foe. If the Yugoslavs, in simply
+accepting the judgment of their Allies, acted against their own ultimate
+advantage, they can, at any rate, believe that their complaisance, their
+extraordinary lack of chauvinism, will be recognized. It is true that
+when, on former occasions, such as during the prolonged d'Annunzio farce
+at Rieka, they displayed a similar and wonderful forbearance, they did
+not manage to free themselves from this foolish charge. There happen to
+be a good many people abroad who insist that the new States are, every
+one of them, chauvinist; they think it is the natural thing for a young
+country to be, and especially if part of it lies in the Balkans. But if
+Yugoslavia repeatedly acts in the most correct fashion the day may come
+when she will be able to put a lasting polish on to the reputation which
+her Allies have tarnished.
+
+
+15. THE PROSPECT
+
+We may look forward to seeing the majority of this frontier population
+resolved that the links between themselves and the Yugoslavs shall not
+be broken. Very little will they care for the edicts of European
+Ambassadors. It would not have been surprising to hear that on the
+withdrawal of the Yugoslavs to the prescribed frontier their resourceful
+friends beyond it had procured from Serbia a few volunteers to take the
+place of the official Serbs. And failing this, that rough-and-ready
+people might simply declare themselves to be in Yugoslavia. This time
+they will be unable to persuade the Yugoslav Government to move its
+excise posts more to the west. But if these tenacious men have made up
+their minds to join their brethren on the right bank of the Drin and
+enter Yugoslavia, the Ambassadors' Conference would preserve more of
+their dignity in accepting with a good grace that which they are
+powerless to hinder.... The minority of the border population will go
+raiding in Yugoslavia. If they had been consulted they would have drawn
+the frontier very much as it is. With large areas lying at their mercy
+they will keep the border villages in constant dread. And that is the
+other reason which should induce the Ambassadors' Conference to cancel
+their unwise decision.
+
+It is better when the politicians do not come with advice to the
+battlefield; and in those primitive regions, where part of the people
+cannot, as yet, be restrained from perpetual warfare, it would have been
+better if the politicians had done nothing but confirm the General's
+frontier. Franchet d'Espérey gave it to the Serbs "for the time being,"
+and that period should last until there is no longer any military need
+to hold it. "No General, however distinguished, could possibly have any
+authority whatever to give to any nation the territories of another,
+such as can only be transferred and delineated by treaties and
+international recognition." So says Mr. H. E. Goad, or Captain Goad as
+he has the right to call himself. But it is a pity that he does not
+appreciate the difference between that which is temporary and that which
+is not.
+
+Italy has been given against the Yugoslavs a purely strategic frontier,
+which places under her dominion over 500,000 unwilling Slovenes, whose
+culture is admittedly on a higher level than that of their Italian
+neighbours. And yet the Ambassadors' Conference (in which Italy plays a
+prominent part) has refused to give Yugoslavia a strategic frontier
+against a much more turbulent neighbour, which frontier, moreover, would
+include of alien subjects only a small fraction of the number which
+Italy has obtained. The Albanian frontier now imposed on Yugoslavia is
+very much like that which the treaties of 1815 gave to France, when the
+passage (_trouée_) of Couvin, often called erroneously the trouée of the
+Oise, at a short distance from Paris, was purposely opened. "Formerly,"
+says Professor Jean Brunhes,[107] "the sources of the Oise belonged to
+France, protected, far back, by the two enclaves of Philippeville and
+Marienbourg, both fortified by Vauban." And M. Gabriel Hanotaux[108]
+remarks that this opening of the trouée of Couvin was the reason why in
+1914 France lost the battle of Charleroi.
+
+The Ambassadors' Conference has committed a grave injustice. "Let us
+hope," says M. Justin Godart,[109] a French ex-Under Secretary of
+Hygiene, concerning whose very misguided mission to Albania we have
+written elsewhere,[110] "let us hope," says he--in my opinion one of the
+unjustest men towards Yugoslavia and Greece--"let us hope that
+Yugoslavia will understand that it is unworthy of her to contest the
+decision of the Ambassadors' Conference." It has given to the Yugoslavs
+a frontier that necessitates the presence of a considerable army, and
+this is precisely what suits the Italians. Seeing that in Italy there
+are men alive who can recall their struggles against the Austrian
+oppressor, it is sad that their own country should now be playing this
+very same rôle. The Ambassadors appear to have taken no notice of
+Italy's support of the Tirana Government, but to have been very drastic
+with respect to Yugoslavia's support of the Mirditi. They have punished
+the Yugoslavs by binding their hands in a district part of whose
+population long for the help of those hands in gaining some
+tranquillity, whereas the other part consists of persons against whom
+one must defend oneself.
+
+The politicians have acted as if all the border folk were as peaceful as
+they doubtless are themselves. In consequence, there will be panic and
+assassination till the politicians--unable to oppose the wishes of the
+majority of those who dwell in the frontier zone--proclaim that until
+further notice General Franchet d'Espérey's wise and prudent
+dispositions shall be honoured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That is the only method by which an Albania can be brought slowly into
+existence. At this moment the cartographers are printing the map of the
+Albanians' country in accordance with the Ambassadors' decision. They
+might spare themselves the trouble. The decision to recognize an
+Albania was as premature a project as, in Mr. Wells' opinion, is the
+League of Nations. A free, united Albania has been recognized, and in a
+little time the Ambassadors' Conference, perceiving that such a thing
+does not exist, will be relieved to see the North and the South taking
+the steps to which we have referred. It is wonderful that the
+Ambassadors' Conference and the League of Nations should imagine that a
+country, most of which is in the social state of the Gallic clans in the
+days of Vercingetorix, can suddenly become a modern nation by the simple
+contrivance of a parliament, which, as a matter of fact, has been the
+caricature of one. In the words of Lord Halsbury, when reversing a
+judgment of the Court of Appeal, I am bewildered by the absurdity of
+such a suggestion. Albania is in need of organizers, not of orators. A
+very competent French traveller,[111] one who believes that a future is
+reserved for this unquenchable people, warns the world against undue
+haste. After describing the deplorable state or the non-existence of
+Albanian schools, roads, ports, the monetary system and the organization
+of credit, he says that it is scarcely an exaggeration to assert that
+from the point of view of economic arrangement everything has to be
+created. This necessitates a Government which knows how to administer
+and which has funds at its command. But there is not the least
+likelihood of regular taxes being paid to a central Government until you
+have security of communication. And even then the native--except if
+force is used--will not pay before he sees the benefit which taxes
+produce. He who for the most part has never given obedience save to his
+village chief will require to see the local benefit. Therefore his whole
+outlook must be changed; slowly from being parochial it must become
+national.... There can be no greater folly than at this stage to aim at
+applying modern usages, equality of taxation, uniformity of judicial
+organization, and so forth. It must be a very slow advance, says M.
+Jaray, taking local traditions and the feudalism, both domestic and
+collective, into account. Even if a central Government had all the
+necessary qualifications, yet that would not cause the people to regard
+it with gratitude and loyalty. It is too remote. The clans have been
+accustomed to look no farther than their own chiefs. Only in serious
+circumstances and against an invasion have they united and chosen a
+common leader. To expect the Albanians rapidly to throw aside their
+clannishness is to prepare for oneself a disappointment. It is in the
+clan that they must be made fit for something more extensive. Let the
+country be recognized not as a nation, but as a collection of clans, and
+let these clans, with any outside assistance they themselves may choose,
+come gradually to understand the word "Albania." ... And what are the
+chances that this will come to pass? No country is more feudal; yet only
+the most thoroughgoing peasant reforms will lay a sure foundation for
+the State.
+
+
+(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER
+
+The frontier with Greece has undergone no alteration as a result of the
+War. It is inconvenient in certain details; it runs, for example, at
+such a very short distance to the south of the town of Ghevgeli that the
+prefect has little chance of frustrating those who actively object to
+the payment of import duties. Rather a large number of Slavs, some say
+300,000, live on the Greek side of the frontier, while a far smaller
+number of Greeks live in Monastir. Both the Slavs and the Greeks have
+made sundry complaints, which are more or less justified, against the
+alien authority which governs them. However, during 1919 and 1920, the
+two Governments resolved, in the furtherance of their good
+understanding, to raise none of these questions, neither the claims of
+the derelict Slavs, who are mostly Exarchists, nor of the Monastir
+Greeks, who are mostly hellenized Vlachs. The two countries, while
+Venizelos was in power, were acting on the principles of the Serbo-Greek
+friendship that used to be advocated by _L'Hellénisme_, the newspaper
+which Sir Anastasius Adossides, under Venizelos the enlightened
+Governor-General of Salonica, published for several years before the
+first Balkan War in Paris. Yugoslavia was to have every facility given
+her in Salonica, which course would naturally be the most beneficial to
+that place. And among the minor advantages of really amicable relations
+would be the impossibility of such a state of things as once prevailed
+at Doiran, where the masters of the Greek and Bulgarian schools were
+neither of them in a position to chastise their peccant pupils, who
+could always have the last word by threatening to transfer themselves to
+the rival establishment. It was, I believe, the custom of these young
+scoundrels to remain at one or other of the two schools on the
+understanding that the teacher gave them a retaining fee of so many
+chocolates.... One rather felt, during 1919 and 1920, that the
+Yugoslavs, in their willingness to take the hand of Greece, which had so
+shamefully refused to act upon its obligations in the first half of the
+War, were behaving as if Venizelos would henceforward be retained in
+power by his countrymen. Should the Serbs find themselves hampered in
+their use of the "Free Zone" at Salonica, a moment might arrive when
+they and the Bulgars would, to their mutual advantage, make an
+arrangement with regard to Salonica and her hinterland.
+
+
+(_c_) THE BULGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+There have been various modifications in the frontier line between
+Serbia and Bulgaria. The Bulgars acknowledge that in the case of the
+Struma salient, of the part near Vranja and of the villages on the bank
+of the Timok, it was clearly for the purpose of safeguarding the
+railways; and few people would be found to say that Serbia has been
+other than modest in her demands. Compare the Italian position on the
+Brenner with the Yugoslav frontier against Bulgaria and in the Baranja:
+against Bulgars and Magyars the Yugoslavs only secure a sound defensive
+frontier, whereas Italy obtains a capacity for the offensive against
+Austria.[112] It is rather different with regard to Tsaribrod, on the
+main line between Niš and Sofia. So good a friend of the Yugoslavs as
+Dr. Seton-Watson has deplored the cession of this small place, since it
+appears likely to imperil a future friendship between Serbia and
+Bulgaria. As a matter of fact the Yugoslav Peace Delegates requested,
+for strategic purposes, a still more southerly frontier on the Dragoman
+Pass, which was denied to them. But Tsaribrod, which is dominated by the
+heights of Dragoman, is anyhow a place of minor importance. It is much
+to be hoped that the inhabitants will not imitate those of the Pirot
+_intelligentsia_ who in 1878 shook off the dust of their town when it
+became Serbian and migrated to Sofia, where they never wearied of
+anti-Serbian agitation. One must do one's best not to retard the arrival
+of that day when it will be almost a matter of indifference as to
+whether a village is situated in Serbia or in Bulgaria. Mr.
+Stanojević, the deputy for Zaje�a, which is not far from the
+frontier, proposed in the Skupština that Tsaribrod should be left to
+the Bulgars in exchange for a sum of money. This suggestion was opposed
+by the Radicals, and the far-seeing Yugoslav statesmen who would gladly
+have adopted it were left hoping that the Skupština would some day
+decide in its favour.... This moderation on the part of the Serbs has
+been less in evidence at Bucharest and still less at Athens. The Peace
+Conference which felt itself unable to deprive its Ally of southern
+Dobrudja, and unable to resist the persuasive eloquence of M. Venizelos,
+does not seem to have contributed towards a lasting Balkan peace. A
+reviewer in the _Observer_, while approving of Mr. Leland Buxton's hope
+of a Serb-Bulgar reconciliation, asks why this should be effected to the
+exclusion and obvious detriment of Greece. "Why not a Balkan
+Federation?" he asks. In view of the very different races which inhabit
+the Balkans, he might just as well ask, "Why not a European Federation?"
+And the statesmen of the non-Slav Balkan countries do not seem to have
+made serious efforts to prevent the coming of a purely Slav Federation.
+It remains to be seen whether, when that comes to pass, the Greek and
+Roumanian people will have achieved such statesmanship as to make an
+equally small effort to keep under their control their large Slav
+territories.... "We should no longer think of Thrace," said M. Venizelos
+in the Greek Chamber in 1913, "for it is impossible to include in the
+Greek State all those parts where Greeks have lived; we ought to be
+modest and contented with what is most righteous and attainable; we
+ought not to let ourselves be carried away by our imagination."
+
+
+(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER
+
+THE STATE OF THE ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA
+
+A new frontier between Yugoslavia and Roumania has been drawn by the
+Allied Powers in the Banat. But before we consider its merits and
+absurdities we must examine the Serbo-Roumanian question in the several
+departments of eastern Serbia. During 1919 one heard a good deal, in
+Bucharest and in Paris, of the pitiful Roumanians whom the Serbs had
+always deprived of their own national schools and churches. It was
+claimed, chiefly by a certain Dr. Athanasius Popovitch, that the
+Roumanians in Serbia were longing for the day of their redemption. On
+March 8, 1919, two deputations of Roumanians from the Timok and from
+Macedonia, who had lately arrived in Paris in order to plead before the
+Conference, presented themselves to the Roumanian colony at 114 Avenue
+des Champs-Elysees. We are told that in consequence of their moving
+narrative, and on account of the loud appeal made by them to all their
+free brothers, the Roumanian colony founded, with great enthusiasm, a
+national league for their delivery. The Vice-President of the league was
+announced to be Dr. Athanasius Popovici. In a pamphlet called _Les
+Roumains de Serbie_ (Paris, 1919), Dr. Draghicesco, a Roumanian Senator,
+denounces the Serb authorities for having obliged Dr. Athanasius, while
+he was a schoolboy, to change his surname into the purely Serbian one of
+Popovitch. "Not being able to endure this régime of violence," we are
+informed, "he expatriated himself and established himself in Roumania."
+But if Dr. Athanasius felt so strongly with regard to his name when he
+was a mere schoolboy, one is puzzled to understand why, being an adult
+and a pamphleteer in 1919, he should be hesitating between Popovitch,
+which is Serbian, and Popovici, which is Roumanian. The Senator does not
+seem to be well informed as to the early years of Dr. Athanasius, who so
+far from expatriating himself as an indignant schoolboy, remained in
+Serbia, where he went through five classes of the gymnasium in Belgrade,
+after which he studied theology in the same town, with a view to
+succeeding his father, who was a priest at Dušanovac in eastern
+Serbia. Later on Athanasius performed his military service at Zaje�a,
+where he married--so one of his sisters told me--one Mileva, the
+daughter of Yovan Stan�ević, a merchant. After his marriage he
+went to Jena, in order to continue his studies, and there he became a
+Doctor of Letters. It may be that while he was at Jena he became
+conscious of the régime of violence to which the Roumanians in Serbia
+are subjected; at any rate he decided not to return to that country,
+where his wife and three sisters are well satisfied to live. He launched
+himself into a furious anti-Serbian propaganda in favour of those who,
+in the words of Dr. Draghicesco, are profoundly sad and full of grief at
+being neither Serbian nor Roumanian, who when they meet a Roumanian
+brother listen to him with pleasure and, with their eyes full of tears,
+murmur: "How happy we should be to be with you." ... When I travelled
+through those parts with a view to verifying Dr. Athanasius's
+assertions, I was invariably told by persons of Roumanian origin that
+they had no complaint whatever against the Serbs, and that the last
+thing they desired was to be politically united to the Roumanians of the
+kingdom. Dr. Athanasius might reply that his wretched compatriots were
+impelled by fear to give such answers. But what do they fear?--one finds
+that among these people are deputies, priests, army officers and so
+forth. "To-day," says Dr. Athanasius, "all the peoples who are reduced
+to slavery by other people secure the right to return to their
+fatherland." The Roumanians of Serbia would have to be a good deal more
+miserable before wishing to have anything to do with Roumania. Milan
+Soldatović, ex-mayor of the great mining village of Bor and himself
+of Roumanian origin, said that he had never heard of any one who went to
+work in Roumania. No doubt the present generation of Roumanian
+landowners deeply deplore the misdeeds of their ancestors, who drove the
+ancestors of these peasants away from Roumania. "The peasant hovels were
+merely dark burrows, called _bordei_, holes dug in the ground and
+roofed with poles covered with earth, rising scarcely above the level of
+the plain.... The interior was indescribable. Neither furniture nor
+utensils, with the exception of the boards which served as beds or seats
+and the pot for cooking the _mamaliga_"[113]--his sole food, a paste
+consisting of maize meal cooked in water. And one cannot be astonished
+if the Roumanians in Serbia are chary of believing that their native
+land has changed for the better. "If," said a Roumanian peasant before
+an Agricultural Commission in 1848, "if the boyar could have laid hands
+upon the sun, he would have seized it and sold God's light and warmth to
+the peasant for money." Even in 1919 the peasant still had much reason
+to be dissatisfied, for where the owner parted with his land it was
+usually--no doubt as a stage in the transaction--made over to the
+village as a whole. And if the boyar no longer has the monopoly of the
+sale of alcohol, if he has so far improved that Vallachia is not now
+losing its inhabitants as it was after the Regulations of 1831, when we
+read that "in vain the rivers are assiduously watched, as if in a state
+of siege; the emigrants cross at the places which are clear of troops.
+Emigration is especially rife in winter, when the frozen Danube presents
+an ever-open bridge," yet among the Roumanians of Serbia it has been
+handed down from father to son what happened in the reign of Prince
+Miloš. To take one case out of many such that are preserved in the
+National Archives at Belgrade, a dispatch was sent on February 11, 1831,
+by Vule Gligoriević, his representative in those parts, to Prince
+Miloš, who was at Kragujevac, enclosing a supplication from the
+priests and other inhabitants of the large Roumanian island called
+Veliko Ostrvo, in the middle of the Danube, praying that they might be
+allowed to cross to Serbia. "We are in great misery," they wrote, "and
+have boyars who are very bad, and we cannot bear the misery in which we
+find ourselves, and in the greatest grief we beg your Highness to let us
+come to Serbia with our wives and children." The Prince had a special
+sympathy for Roumania and was therefore most reluctant to intervene in
+her internal affairs. He adopted a very cautious attitude in this
+matter, but when Gligoriević sent him petition after petition he was
+finally so touched by the recital of their woes that he permitted them
+to cross the river; and one night, with the help of the Serbian
+authorities, the whole island crossed over, to wit 57 families, with 186
+oxen, 70 horses, 694 sheep and 87 pigs. Miloš made them a free grant
+of land for the building of a village, together with a vast stretch of
+territory for pasture and stock-raising; at his own expense he built
+them a church and extended to them all the liberties and advantages
+enjoyed in Serbia by the Serbs themselves. As a token of their gratitude
+these Roumanian emigrants called their village Mihailovac, after the
+name of Michael, the Prince's son. This village is the birthplace of our
+friend Dr. Athanasius, whose sentiments appear to have placed him in a
+minority of one. When his pamphlet came into the hands of Jorge
+Kornić, the mayor of Mihailovac and a Roumanian by origin, he brought
+it to the prefect at Negotin saying that he wished to have nothing to do
+"with any devil's work."
+
+As Dr. Athanasius and his chauvinist friends give a pretty lurid picture
+of the Roumanian villager who lives in Serbia, I visited a few places
+where the population is wholly Roumanian or Serbo-Roumanian. The 766
+inhabitants of Ostralje are all of Roumanian descent, the mayor being
+one Velimir Mišković, a sergeant of reserves who has been
+transferred from the army in order to carry on his municipal duties. All
+the inhabitants speak Serbian and Vlach. "We were always Serbs," they
+said. "Nobody told us that we had migrated to this place." And amongst
+those who assembled to talk with us at the schoolmaster's house there
+was only one who, in the Roumanian fashion, had drawn his socks over his
+white trousers. The 2221 inhabitants of the village of Grljan are about
+two-thirds of Roumanian and one-third of Serbian origin. Formerly they
+each had their own part of the village, but now they are intermingled
+both in the village and in the cemetery. They intermarry freely; thus
+Jon Jonović, the most notable person, who used to represent this
+district in the Skupština at Belgrade, has three Serbian
+daughters-in-law. He was a member of the Opposition Liberal group of
+Ribarac. "And did you ever request that your fellow-countrymen should
+have their own Roumanian schools and churches?" we asked. This is one of
+the chief demands of Dr. Athanasius. "I was not the only Roumanian who
+was a deputy," said the old man of the furrowed face. "There was Novak
+Dobromirović of Zlot; there was Jorge Stanković, for instance; but
+we never thought of asking for such a thing, since we had no need for
+it." The son of the wealthy Sima Yovanović at Bor observed with a
+smile that the first business of Roumanian schools would have to be the
+teaching of Roumanian. "My father sent me to be educated at Vienna," he
+said, "and when I met some boys from Bucharest we found that our
+language was so different that we had to talk to one another in German.
+And now when a commercial traveller comes here from Roumania I have to
+talk German to him, as I would otherwise have to converse with my hands
+and feet." The French mining officials, by the way, at Bor testified
+that they had never heard of any tension between men of Serbian and
+those of Roumanian origin; the Roumanians, who prefer agricultural work,
+are more attracted to the mines in winter, when over 40 per cent. of the
+1500 employés are Roumanians.
+
+Dr. Athanasius and his friends are agitated, as one would imagine, when
+they discuss with you the numbers of their countrymen. In _Le Temps_ of
+April 22, 1919, they declared that they could produce 500,000, for they
+realized that their previous claim of between 250,000 and 350,000 was
+not large enough to give the Roumanians in Serbia the benefit of the
+principle of nationality. But even this more modest figure will be
+found, on examination, to be exaggerated. In the four north-eastern
+counties of Serbia there were 159,510 Roumanians in 1895; 120,628 in
+1900, and in 1910 a little over 90,000. This diminution, say the
+chauvinists, is due to a falsifying of statistics, for those, they say,
+who have attended a Serbian school are inscribed as Serbs. The truth is
+that everyone is entered according to his mother-tongue. And history
+knows countless instances of a gradual decrease in the case of people
+placed in foreign surroundings and exposed to foreign influences. Like
+the Illyrians who people Dalmatia, the Thracians of ancient Dacia and
+the Serbs who emigrated to Russia in the seventeenth century, the
+Roumanians of Serbia are undergoing this process and are inevitably
+becoming Serbicized. Frequently we noticed that men possessing no
+Serbian blood did not care to admit their Roumanian origin, which,
+however, is no secret to their neighbours in spite of the Serbian
+termination "ić" that, in the course of years, has been affixed to
+their names. An allusion to their origin is clearly regarded as lacking
+in delicacy. "Well, my ancestors were Roumanian," is often as much as
+they will admit. And when some enterprising agitators came over from
+Roumania to the department of Požarevac in 1919, the Roumanians of
+those parts gave up to the authorities all those who did not manage to
+escape. For ten years Lieut.-Colonel Gjorge Marković commanded the
+9th Regiment, which is chiefly formed of Roumanians from that region.
+They used to tell him that they wanted to have nothing to do with the
+Roumanian boyars. "Here we are boyars ourselves," they said. All of them
+speak Serbian, many of them write it; and on winter evenings they have
+for years received instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic and
+singing, which compares favourably with Roumania's army, in which, as I
+was told at Bucharest, the plan of starting any education had to be
+postponed in consequence of the outbreak of the Great War. Together with
+the unwillingness of these people to acknowledge their origin, one
+observes a general vagueness as to the home of their forefathers.
+Apparently these came over from southern Hungary, whence the name
+Ungureani,[114] or from Tara Rumaneasca, _i.e._ the Roumanian land,
+whence the name Tarani. Others again are descended from Roumanized Serbs
+who came from Kossovo and other Serb regions of the south, lived in the
+Banat and Transylvania among the Roumanian villages, acquired the
+Roumanian language and then crossed over to Serbia. These three classes
+have all come to Serbia in recent times. Any attempt on the part of Dr.
+Athanasius and his friends to drag in the Romans can be answered by the
+undoubted fact that the ancient Roman colonists had completely
+disappeared from Serbia as far back as the fifteenth century, leaving no
+trace at all, and there is no connection between them and the present
+Roumanian population of Serbia. No memories remain of the old Roman
+colonists, save certain place-names which, as Professor Georgević
+remarks, strike one as surprising in the midst of a purely Serbian
+population. It is interesting to note that these ancient Roman
+place-names are very rare in the regions inhabited to-day by men of
+Roumanian origin.
+
+It would not have been worth whole devoting so much space to the
+activities of Dr. Athanasius and his adherents but for the fact that
+European public opinion, which has concerned itself extremely little
+with the Roumanians of Serbia, might possibly imagine that their
+advocate deserves to be taken seriously.
+
+
+2. THE BANAT
+
+Anyone who looks at an ethnological map of the Banat will recognize how
+difficult it is to partition that province among two or three claimants.
+No matter by whom the map is painted, it must have the appearance of
+mosaic, with few solid masses of colour. This fact was quickly used by
+the Roumanians, who argued that as the Banat had never been divided,
+neither politically nor economically, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Roumanian flag. The Magyars haughtily pointed
+out that as the Banat had never been divided, but had for a thousand
+years lived under the crown of St. Stephen, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Hungarian flag. The Roumanians contended that
+the indivisibility of the Banat was designed by Nature, since the
+mountainous eastern part could not exist if separated from the fertile
+west. The Magyars asserted that it was altogether wrong to think of the
+radical remodelling and complete dismemberment of a territory which
+Nature had predestined to be one. The Yugoslavs agreed with both parties
+that it was not easy to draw a satisfactory frontier, but they asked
+that, as far as possible, the predominantly Roumanian parts should be
+joined to Roumania, the Slav populations to them and the Magyars to
+Hungary. As a matter of fact the Paris Conference did attempt to make an
+ethnical division, between these three States, of the Banat. Roumania
+tried to demonstrate the impossibility of this by turning off the water
+in the Bega Canal when the Serbs evacuated Temešvar and were taking
+their heavily-laden barges from that town. There will have to be a
+central, international organization to control the network of waterways.
+As soon as the Paris Conference had decided on this division it was told
+by the Magyars, the Roumanians and the Yugoslavs that all the numerous
+Germans of the Banat wished to belong to Hungary, to Roumania and to
+Yugoslavia. A great many of the Germans were indifferent, so long as
+they could peaceably carry on their prosperous agricultural operations.
+Not much political solidarity is apparent among the Germans of the
+Banat, and seeing that both Yugoslavia and Roumania, now the principal
+possessors of this land, have elsewhere within their boundaries large
+German populations, their respective Banat Germans will be able to ally
+themselves with these in the Parliaments of Belgrade and Bucharest. The
+Banat Germans who are discontented with the Paris decisions are firstly
+those, among the aristocratic and commercial classes, who were
+accustomed to enjoy under the Magyars a favoured position, and secondly
+those who, with more or less justification, say that Roumania has yet to
+show that she will treat her subject minorities in a truly liberal
+fashion. It is for this reason that the Germans of Veršac and Bela
+Crkva--in which towns they are about as numerous as the total of
+Yugoslavs, Roumanians and Magyars--would give a majority in favour of
+Yugoslavia if they were asked to vote as to Yugoslav or Roumanian
+citizenship. _Adeverul_, which is one of the least chauvinist of
+Bucharest newspapers, claimed for Roumania at least the railway line:
+Temešvar, Veršac, Bela Crkva, Bazias--an argument thought to be
+conclusive being that the two central towns are neither Roumanian nor
+Serbian but German. This railway line was, as a matter of fact, bestowed
+by the Peace Conference on Roumania, and it required some strenuous
+work before this decision was modified. The French were suspected in
+Yugoslavia of leaning unduly towards the Roumanians, through sympathy
+with the Latin strain in their blood; yet it was the French who were for
+giving to Yugoslavia not only Bazias but the villages on the Danube down
+to Old Moldava, seeing that in those districts the Slavs are certainly
+in a majority. The Roumanian case was not assisted by Professor
+Candrea's ethnographical map, for in the debated country around Bela
+Crkva that gentleman, who told me that he had omitted every place whose
+population was less than a hundred, has unfortunately forgotten to
+include Zlatica, a village of 1346 inhabitants, which was founded at the
+gate of a monastery six hundred and sixty years ago. The population is
+according to the Hungarian census of 1910, at which time all the 1346
+were Serbs, with the exception of 220 Czechs and a few gipsies.
+Professor Candrea has forgotten Sokolavac, a nourishing place about two
+hundred and fifty years old with 1800 inhabitants and practically all of
+them Serbs, as the Transylvanian Minister of Education admitted. Palanka
+with 1400 inhabitants, most Serbs; Fabian with about 1000, mostly
+Czechs; Duplaja with 1204, all Serbs but for 10 Slovenes; Crvena Crkva
+with 1108 (1048 Serbs, 34 Slovaks, 17 Germans and 9 Magyars), are every
+one omitted. Lescovac, with 977 inhabitants, the Professor marks as
+Roumanian. When I was at this picturesquely situated place I was
+received in the mayor's office by half a dozen burly peasants in the
+Serbian national costume who asserted that, with the exception of the
+tailor (a Roumanian emigrant) and one or two other persons, the village
+was wholly Serb. But Lescovac was then within the Serbian sphere of
+occupation, and possibly if I were to go there now I would be told an
+appropriate story by other, or the same, peasants in Roumanian attire.
+One must try to find some surer indication of nationality, and Professor
+Candrea told me that twenty-five years ago he took down a pure Roumanian
+text at that place, where the Roumanian language is the most antique in
+the Banat. On the other hand, the village must have contained many
+Serbs, for when the late notary, a powerful Magyar with Roumanian
+sympathies, prevented the school being conducted, as it always had
+been, in the Serbian language, and installed a teacher--he stayed for
+eight years--who could only speak Magyar and Roumanian, the villagers at
+their own expense procured a Serbian school-mistress. She was expelled
+by the notary.... This illustrates the difficulties which the Peace
+Conference, in its desire to trace an ethnical frontier, was confronted
+with. And there was no map which did not make it obvious that Serbian
+villages would have to remain to the east and Roumanian villages to the
+west of any possible line. They did right, I think, to revise their
+decision as to the towns of Veršac and Bela Crkva, for there the
+Yugoslavs and their German friends have a large and unquestioned
+preponderance. Bazias, with about three miles of the railway, was given
+to Roumania so that she should have, for the exportation of her wood and
+iron-ore, the only harbour in that region of the Danube which is capable
+of development. However, with no railway over Roumanian soil from Bazias
+to the mines, this port is perfectly useless, and it is to be hoped that
+Roumania will give it up, for compensation elsewhere, to the Yugoslavs.
+The latter would otherwise be compelled to build three or four miles of
+railway, from Bela Crkva to Palanka, which, unless a great deal of money
+be spent on it, will always be one of the worst ports on the river. With
+a little more difficulty than to Bazias the Roumanians could construct a
+railway to Moldava, which also is a very good port; and in return for
+this accommodation, whereby the wines of Bela Crkva could be shipped
+from Bazias, their natural port, the Yugoslavs would be ready to make
+over to Roumania one or two villages whose population far exceeds that
+of little Bazias. We may also hope that facilities will be given by the
+two Governments for the emigration of those who wish to cross the new
+frontier line. Formerly the people of the Banat had no strenuous
+objections to being moved, lock, stock and barrel, from one district to
+another and without the inducement of coming under the rule of their own
+race. Thus the village of Zsam, to the north of Veršac, was, like
+many others, very sparsely inhabited when the Turks withdrew in 1716;
+some villages had only three or four occupied houses. So the Government
+in 1722 collected into one village the people of several others, and in
+this way Zsam, which had hitherto been Slav, became Roumanian, the Serbs
+being established in the neighbouring Središte. In 1809 the
+Roumanians were transplanted from Zsam to Petrovasela, between Veršac
+and Pan�evo, where they entered the Pan�evo Frontier Regiment;
+their place at Zsam was taken by Germans, who, being more industrious,
+were preferred by the landowners.
+
+Some of the delineators of this frontier--French and British--have told
+me that they were guided throughout by the ethnical principle. But
+various unfortunate exceptions seem to have been made: for instance, at
+Ko�a it runs through a certain house in such a way that the lavatory
+alone is in Roumania; and in another village there lives a man who,
+since his stables are situated in Roumania, would have had his horses
+requisitioned if he had not been able to bring them into the other part
+of the house. Another village has its cemetery in Roumania, so that the
+Yugoslavs carry their dead friends over during the night. Perhaps the
+Entente officials, perceiving that their ambitious resolution to divide
+the country on ethnic principles was not feasible--there would always be
+alien islands to the right and to the left of any line--perhaps they in
+despair drew an arbitrary line upon a map and hoped the poor inhabitants
+would make the best of it. But this was rendered more difficult by the
+Yugoslav and Roumanian authorities, for the people who desire to cross
+the line are put to endless trouble. Apart from the expense, it usually
+involves a delay of three weeks before permission can be obtained, so
+that the frontier is rarely traversed save by smugglers and by those
+who, like the afore-mentioned man of Ko�a, have been driven into
+chronic lawlessness.
+
+The first line agreed upon after the War, which temporarily bestowed the
+eastern county on Roumania, the western on Yugoslavia and the chief
+parts of the central (or Temešvar) county also on Yugoslavia--with
+French co-operation--did not find favour in Paris; whether or not this
+decision was influenced by the frequent journeys of the Queen of
+Roumania and her fascinating daughters to that town I do not know. At
+all events another boundary was made which included the large town of
+Temešvar and all the northern part of that county in Roumania. It is
+true that there are Roumanian villages in the neighbourhood of this
+German-Magyar-Jewish town, which is by far the largest place in the
+Banat. And the Roumanians, who have already annexed enormous Magyar and
+German populations in Transylvania, do not boggle at another 80,000
+foreigners. One could, however, find very few Yugoslavs who want
+Temešvar to be restored to them; they know that they and the
+Roumanians, whatever (as regards themselves) may have been the case in
+other days, form, each of them, only about one-thirtieth of the total
+population. But they are sorry that the Allies asked them to share in
+occupying the town, because the local Serbs, who are interested in
+politics, were so enthusiastic, that on the arrival of the Roumanians
+they were forced to leave their businesses and go to live in Yugoslavia.
+Since neither Serbs nor Roumanians have any ethnical claim to the town
+one would suppose that, as the spoil had fallen to Roumania, the Entente
+would have endeavoured to give the Yugoslavs some compensation: what
+they did was to take away from them a good deal of that which they
+had--a considerable slice of their western county--which also was
+presented to the Roumanians. Again, the delineators excused themselves
+by invoking their ethnical motives, but as a matter of fact in that part
+of Torontal the people are predominantly German and they should have
+been allotted to Yugoslavia, not merely because the Temešvar Germans
+were given to Roumania but on account of their economic existence, which
+certainly in the case of the departments of Nagyszentmiklós, Perjámos
+and Csene (to retain the Magyar spelling) is bound up with Zsombolya,
+their market-town, and Kikinda. According to the census that was taken
+in 1919, the population of these three departments now allotted to
+Roumania consisted of 41,109 Germans, 13,638 Yugoslavs and 19,270
+Roumanians. Further, to the south-east of Torontal, in the departments
+of Párdány, Módos and Bánlak, there is not so intimate a connection with
+the market-town; here the population consists of 12,209 Germans, 11,102
+Yugoslavs and 8808 Roumanians. But there seems to be little reason why
+the whole of Torontal, following the wishes of the majority of its
+inhabitants, should not be given to Yugoslavia; and this would also
+reduce to a minimum the inconveniences produced by any frontier. For
+many long years there has been a county frontier between Torontal and
+Temešvar, each of which was under an official who looked direct to
+Buda-Pest. The adoption of this ancient county frontier as that of the
+two countries would put an end to the present absurd and unjust, not to
+say dangerous, situation. It should, therefore, be brought about as soon
+as possible.
+
+A similar rectification is needed in the country to the north and
+north-west. The three German villages of Komloš, Mariafeld and St.
+Mikloš have their fields near Velika Kikinda, in Yugoslavia, whereas
+they are themselves in Roumania. To bring home his maize from the land a
+farmer was obliged to pay, at the most favourable rate, up to 200 crowns
+a pound. Considering that this part of the country is an absolute plain
+with no river flowing through it, one would suppose that a rectification
+could easily be made. If these Germans had been consulted they would
+naturally have opted for Yugoslavia. The Peace Conference officials
+might, also have studied Velika Kikinda, a place with a very creditable
+past, which--as I was told by a Serb professional man of that town--will
+be completely ruined if she loses the custom of these German villages
+and has to depend upon the Serb peasants who make one embroidered suit
+and one pair of sandals last them for ten years.... It will be necessary
+for the Yugoslav authorities in the Banat not only to endeavour to raise
+their countrymen's standard of living but also in the southerly
+districts, where the standard is higher, to persuade them not to persist
+in limiting their families. The Serbs in the old kingdom have been one
+of the most prolific of European races--they would otherwise have been
+incapable of carrying on their twenty-six years of war during this last
+century--but in the south and south-east of the Banat, perhaps through
+mere love of comfort, perhaps through Magyar oppression, there has been
+a marked tendency not to increase. The Magyars and Germans have had
+normal families, the Roumanians have increased by assimilation (a woman
+marrying into a Serbian family will often cause them all to speak her
+easier language). The Serbs, however, will in their part of the Banat
+absorb the others if they show political understanding and a liberal
+spirit. "We will give the Germans," said Pribi�ević to one of them
+at Veršac--"we will give them everything up to a university."
+
+The north-west corner of the Banat, which has a considerable Magyar
+population, has been ascribed to Hungary. Opposite the apex of this
+triangular tract of country lies Szeged, the second city of Hungary
+(118,328 inhabitants, of whom 113,380 are Magyars) and the chief centre
+of the grain trade of the rich southern plains. As was pointed out in
+_The New Europe_,[115] Szeged, which lies in flat country, would be even
+more defenceless than Belgrade if the lands on the other side of the
+river were under alien rule. If one draws a strategical frontier the
+nationality of the people is, of course, disregarded; it is, therefore,
+beside the point to mention that there seem to be far more Serbs in the
+angle opposite Szeged than there were Magyars in the lands opposite
+Belgrade. The Entente has simply made up its mind to be generous to
+Szeged, and let us hope that we have not left this region to Hungary on
+account of the activities of the extremely intelligent Baroness
+Gerliczy--a Roumanian lady married to a Magyar--who owns a large estate
+there and was much in Paris during the critical period.
+
+The other imperfections in the Paris arrangements, whether with regard
+to villages or fields, are not incapable of amendment. One presumes that
+the Roumanians, who have no lack of other international problems, will
+be wise enough to discard certain dicta of their Liberal party and of
+Bratiano, its self-satisfied leader, to whom all subjects seem great if
+they have passed through his mind. One particular dictum which the
+Roumanians ought to cast aside is that which insists upon the
+indivisibility of the Banat. Another Roumanian statesman, Take Jonescu,
+was more sagacious when he, during the War, drew up a memorandum whose
+object was that Greece, Serbia, Roumania and the Czecho-Slovak
+Governments should work in harmony. This idea of presenting a single
+diplomatic front was to the liking of Mr. Balfour, who observed to M.
+Jonescu that it would be better for these States and better for Europe.
+As regards an understanding between Roumania and Serbia in the Banat:
+"I," said Pašić--"I speak for Serbia. Can you speak for Roumania?"
+
+And Jonescu unfortunately had to shake his head.
+
+In the fatuous policy of crying for the whole Banat--they even require
+the little island in the Danube between Semlin and Belgrade--Bratiano is
+assisted by the aged Marghiloman, who is the chief of a branch of the
+Conservative party. But the relations between these two do not seem
+destined to be cordial, since Bratiano is married to Marghiloman's
+divorced wife.
+
+May the Roumanian people become reconciled to Yugoslavia's righteous
+possession of part of the Banat. It would be a pity if these two
+neighbours were to live together on such terms as, in the eastern county
+of the Banat, Caras-Severin, do the Bufani and the other Roumanians. The
+Bufani came from Roumania some hundred and fifty or two hundred years
+ago, on account of the taxes which they found intolerable; and they have
+not been able to arrive at amicable relations with those countrymen of
+theirs who are the descendants of earlier emigrants. Very seldom do the
+Bufani and the others intermarry. These Bufani, so say the others, are
+like ivy. "They called out," complain the others, "they called out:
+'Little brother, be good to us!' and then they strangled us." The
+Bufani, who are easily recognizable by their dialect, frequent the same
+church and have one priest with the others, but they have a separate
+cemetery.
+
+
+(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+North of the town of Subotica the frontier between Yugoslavia and
+Hungary is almost a natural one, as it runs over vast hills of shifting
+sand which are still partly in motion. Neither on foot nor on horseback,
+still less with loaded carts, is it possible to travel through these
+hills. But to the east and to the west of them the frontier is no better
+than that which separates Yugoslavia from Roumania, and when it came to
+the delimitation the Magyars thought it would be preferable if this
+work were done with their assistance. Otherwise, so they urged, there
+would be no check upon the wicked intolerance of their neighbours. It is
+true that they themselves had in the past been in favour of
+centralization, but against this one must remember that the "subject
+nationalities" were inferior beings. The Yugoslavs, the Roumanians and
+the Slovaks could not claim a glorious descent from Attila, of whom a
+fresco decorates the House of Parliament at Buda-Pest, and thus the
+Magyars had always thought it seemly that, by various devices, a limit
+should be put to the number of Yugoslav, Roumanian and Slovak deputies.
+Count Apponyi and his colleagues told the Peace Conference very frankly
+at the beginning of 1920 that it really ought to take their word for it,
+and not persist in looking on the Yugoslavs, etc., as if they were as
+good as any Magyar. Surely it was obvious that Yugoslavia, Greater
+Roumania and Czecho-Slovakia would be "artificial and improvised
+creations, devoid of the traditions of political solidarity and
+incapable of producing any." But if the Supreme Council was resolved to
+allow certain Magyar territories to join themselves, if they desired, to
+these ephemeral States it would be necessary to ascertain by means of a
+plebiscite what were the real wishes of the people in these territories;
+and Count Apponyi was kind enough to tell the Council very definitely
+how this plebiscite should be conducted. The principal Allies were to
+arrange, in accordance with the Magyar Government, as to the districts
+in which a plebiscite was to be held, and the secret voting was to be
+controlled by neutral commissions and delegates of the interested
+Governments. This may sound rather rash on the part of the Magyars,
+since a plebiscite, no matter how it was arranged and controlled, would
+presumably detach a good many jewels from the crown of St. Stephen, and
+it was not astonishing that Count Apponyi and his friends proposed that
+the Magyars should be safeguarded by further Commissions which, if
+requisite, would override the results of the voting. These results would
+indeed, as between the Magyars and the Yugoslavs, have given our Allies
+a larger dominion than they have actually obtained. The triangle south
+of Szeged, to which we have alluded, would certainly, if there had been
+a plebiscite, have gone to Yugoslavia. In Baranja the Yugoslavs have
+claimed that the census of 1910, which indicated 36,000 Serbo-Croats,
+should have given them 70,000; but this does not take account of the
+large number of Å okci--Slavs whose ancestors were forcibly converted
+to Catholicism and who came to consider themselves as one with the
+Catholic Magyars. This widespread phenomenon of race being superseded by
+religion may be noticed, for example, at Janjevo in the district of Old
+Serbia; it is inhabited by the descendants of Dubrovnik colonists who,
+being Catholic, have come to look upon themselves as Albanians. In
+Hungary the dominant Magyar minority was wont to clasp the subject races
+to its bosom, not with bonds of love but of religion. Thus in 1914 at
+Marmoros-Sziget they charged 100 persons with high treason, because it
+was their wish to leave the Uniate Church, in communion with Rome, and
+return to the Orthodox faith. The same charge would have been preferred
+against certain Ruthenians who were just as unwilling to be members of
+the Uniate Church; but in the case of these humble, backward people the
+conversion had been effected by their priests, who would thereby procure
+for themselves a better situation, and the Ruthenians, who had not been
+told of this occurrence, were under the impression that they were still
+Orthodox. Professor Cvijić believes that, with the help of the
+Catholic religion, no less than 113,000 Serbo-Croats have in Baranja
+been lost by their Yugoslav brethren.... When the Yugoslavs were asked
+by the Supreme Council to evacuate most of Baranja they did so. A
+republic, under the presidency of one Dobrović, a well-known cubist
+painter, a native of those parts, was formed by Yugoslavs and the
+Magyars whose freedom had been safeguarded under their rule. But as this
+republic was not assisted by the Yugoslav Government it only lasted for
+a week.
+
+Farther to the west is the Prekomurdje, that interesting Slovene
+district which extends for about 25 miles along the Mur. The rich plain
+that adjoins the river is mostly in the possession of large landowners,
+while the hilly country to the north sustains a scattered and poor
+population of Calvinists. There are in the whole Prekomurdje some
+120,000 Yugoslavs, who are descendants of the old Pannonian Slovenes.
+This healthy, honest people has indeed eighteen Catholic and eight
+Protestant priests, but is otherwise almost destitute of an
+_intelligentsia_. They speak nothing but Slovene, and yet the Magyars
+had for ten years previous to the War been so imperialist that only
+Magyar schools were tolerated. Thus it happened that the children, like
+so many others in the Magyar schools, were at a loss to understand what
+they were writing, and if their teacher chanced to learn the Slovene
+language he was there and then transferred to Transylvania or the Slovak
+country or some other province where he had to teach his pupils in the
+Magyar which they did not know. He was supposed to make the children
+feel the vast superiority of all things Magyar, so that they should be
+ashamed to walk with their own fathers in the streets and speak another
+tongue. We are told occasionally in the _Morning Post_ that
+consideration should be shown to the Magyars since they are a proud
+people, but would they not merit more consideration if they were a
+grateful people, grateful that the rest of Europe, overlooking their
+Mongolian origin, has accepted them as equals? The Magyars were so
+thoroughly persuaded of their own pre-eminence that when the devotees of
+Haydn founded in his honour a society at Eisenstadt, where he had
+worked, it was allowed on the condition that the statutes and the name
+of the society and so forth should be in the Magyar language, although
+Haydn was a German. Evidently the poor Slovenes of the Prekomurdje would
+be swamped unless they showed exceptional vigour. And when they managed
+to survive until after the War the Americans in Paris were for handing
+them to Hungary on the ground that the frontier would, if it included
+them in Yugoslavia, be an awkward one. Such is also the opinion of Mr.
+A. H. E. Taylor in his _The Future of the Southern Slavs_; this author
+advocates that Yugoslavia should be bounded by the Mur, albeit in
+another part of the same book he says that "a small river is not usually
+a good frontier, except on the map"; and the Mur is so narrow that when
+Dr. Gaston Reverdy, of the French army, and I arrived at Ljutomir we
+found that a crowd of these men and boys had waded across the stream in
+order to lay their cause before the doctor, who represented the Entente
+in that region. The Bolševik Magyars were just then threatening to
+set all Prekomurdje on fire, and the pleasant-looking, rather shy men
+who stood in rows before us begged the doctor to procure them
+weapons--they would be able to defend themselves. It is satisfactory to
+know that most of this portion of the Yugoslav lands has, after all, not
+been lost to the mother country.
+
+
+(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER
+
+A considerable part of the frontier between Yugoslavia and Austria has
+been determined by a plebiscite which was held, under French, British
+and Italian control, in the autumn of 1920. The Slovenes during the
+previous year had pointed out that while they could no longer claim so
+wide a territory now that Austria had been drawn towards the Adriatic,
+yet the rural population of Carinthia had remained Slovene, thanks to
+the notable qualities of that people. The German-Austrians, on the other
+hand, maintained that country districts are the appanages of a town, so
+that the wishes of a rural population are of secondary importance. While
+these questions were being debated in 1919 by the two interested
+parties--and debated, very often, by their rifles--the Italians
+intervened. Sonnino's paper, the _Epoca_, made a great outcry over
+Klagenfurt (Celovec) which, if given to the Yugoslavs, would be an
+insurmountable barrier, it said, to the trade between Triest and Vienna,
+although it was clear that the railway connection through Tarvis
+remained in the hands of the Italians. (There is not a single Italian
+civilian in Tarvis--but no matter.) Meanwhile the French Press noted
+that the Italians--presumably not as traders but as benefactors--were
+seeing to it that the Austrians did not run short of arms and munitions.
+For many months a large area was in a condition of uncertainty and
+turmoil, till at last the Peace Conference ordered a plebiscite.
+
+Two zones in Carinthia--"A" to the south-east, with its centre at
+Velikovec (Völkermarkt), and "B" to the north-west, with its centre at
+Klagenfurt (Celovec)--were mapped out, and it was agreed that if the
+voting in "A," the larger zone, were favourable to Austria, then the
+other zone would automatically fall to that country. For several months
+before the voting day this area--a region of beautiful and prosperous
+valleys watered by the broad Drave and surrounded by magnificent
+mountain ranges--for several months this area was the scene of great
+activity. German-Austrians and Yugoslavs no longer, as in 1919, attacked
+each other with the implements of war, but with pamphlet, broadsheet,
+with eloquence and bribery. Austrian and Yugoslav officials took up
+their headquarters at various places and saw to it that every voter
+should be posted as to the moral and material advantage he would reap by
+helping to make the land Austrian or Yugoslav, as the case might be. All
+those were entitled to vote who, being twenty years of age in January
+1919, had their habitual residence in this area; or, if not born in the
+district, had belonged to it or had their habitual residence there from,
+at least, January 1, 1912. The larger zone "A" was left under Yugoslav
+administration, while zone "B" was under the Austrian authorities; and
+the Inter-Allied officials exercised a very close supervision in order,
+for example, to protect the partisans of either side from undue
+repression at the hands of their opponents. Neither the Austrians nor
+the Yugoslavs lost any opportunities for saying in public that the
+Inter-Allied Commissions were honestly making every effort to be
+impartial. It was, however, unfortunate that Italy should have sent as
+her chief representative Prince Livio Borghese, who may have been as
+impartial as his colleagues, but whose reputation, whether merited or
+otherwise, could scarcely commend itself to the Yugoslavs. They believed
+that his activities in Buda-Pest, under the Bolševik régime, and
+afterwards in Vienna, had been very hostile to themselves. Each of the
+three allied commissioners had a staff of some fifty or sixty officials,
+whose upkeep and expenses were paid by the two interested countries.
+
+If an average person had been asked to foretell the result of the
+plebiscite I suppose he would have said that in zone "A" the Yugoslavs
+and in zone "B" the Austrians would be successful. We have seen how the
+Slovene renaissance of the nineteenth century was met by the central
+authorities in Vienna (particularly after the German victory of 1871),
+and how the local functionaries assisted them. They argued that Austria
+with her miscellaneous races could only survive if one of them was
+supreme. Therefore they looked askance on every one who regarded himself
+as a Slovene; if he rose to be an official it had to be in another part
+of the Monarchy, while for the maintenance of Austria (oblivious to the
+argument that Austria was a perfectly unnatural affair) they favoured
+all those who announced themselves to be on the side of the predominant
+race. From 1903 onwards the Slovene language was barred from the courts
+of Carinthia, and if a person did not understand the language of the
+German magistrates he had to use an interpreter. The land was invaded by
+the German _intelligentsia_: professors, masters in primary and
+secondary schools, doctors, lawyers and so forth, excise officials and
+railway officials--in 1912 Carinthia possessed about 5000 of these and
+only 1½ per cent. were Slovenes. Those among the Slovenes who were
+capable of serving in such positions were dispatched to Carniola,
+Dalmatia or preferably to the German-speaking lands of the Empire. A
+provincial agricultural authority was set up in 1910 which was
+recognized by the State and which enjoyed a monopoly. Its object was to
+aid the progress of agriculture by establishing and supporting
+agricultural schools, sending experts to the farmer, distributing
+subsidies for the purchase of machinery, artificial manure and so on.
+The council consisted of twenty-one members, of whom only one was a
+Slovene; the subsidies were given to those who were recognized as
+Germanophils, while requests were not permitted in the Slovene tongue.
+As for the electoral districts, they were so manipulated that one deputy
+represented 120,000 Slovenes and another represented 27,000 Germans.
+Constituencies in which there was a German majority were allowed to send
+two members, while the others only sent one. The German railway
+employees worked so thoroughly for pan-Germanism that various Slovenes
+were arrested--among them the mayor of a large village who wanted to
+travel from Celovec--for asking in the Slovene language for a ticket.
+With regard to schools, there were throughout Carinthia in 1860 some 28
+Slovene and 56 Slovene-German foundations, whereas in 1914 there were 2
+Slovene, 30 German and 84 mixed schools, where the two languages were
+supposed to co-exist; they were indeed the home of two languages, for
+the children were nearly all Slovene, whereas the teacher and the
+language he used were German. Among 230 masters only 20 could read and
+write Slovene. Qualified teachers who could satisfy this test were, as
+we have mentioned, sent to other parts of the Empire. So far did the
+system go that Slovene peasants upon whom the Government had forced a
+German education speedily forgot the two hundred words which they had
+learned, but as they had been taught no other script than the German
+they were accustomed to write the Slovene language with German Gothic
+characters. These peasants were fairly impervious to Germanization;
+their strong sense of national consciousness was supported by the books,
+religious and otherwise, which they received every year from some such
+society as that of St. Hermagoras at Celovec, which distributed half a
+million books a year among its 90,000 members.
+
+But that which principally guided the peasant was the voice of his
+priest, and the vast majority of priests in zone "A" were Slovenes. This
+agricultural zone possesses no more than one or two small towns, where
+the priest is less regarded. The traders and artisans frequently look
+upon themselves as too highly cultured for the Church; they affect the
+"Los von Rom" and the Socialist movements. By holding these menaces over
+the Bishop's head a good deal of pressure could be brought to bear, and
+this was done by the Germans, who were of opinion that the Church
+unfairly encouraged the Slovenes. The Bishop of Celovec had both the
+zones in his diocese until some months before the plebiscite, when a
+temporary arrangement was made under which zone "A" was administered by
+a vicar. But in bygone years the Bishop, with these threats hanging over
+him, was wont to counsel prudence and to ask his clergy not to agitate
+their flock, whom they were merely telling of their rights. In zone
+"B," which mostly consists of the town of Celovec, the Church would
+naturally be more susceptible to German influence, apart from the fact
+that the Bishop himself is a Bavarian. For personal reasons--he is very
+imperfectly acquainted with the Slovene language--he wished even the
+clergy of zone "A" to correspond with him in German; but the priests
+pointed out that their faithful parishioners wanted to follow this
+correspondence and by far the greater number of them have no German....
+In fact the Church has in each zone brought its help to the more
+powerful party--the Slovene peasants in zone "A" and the German or
+Germanophil townsfolk in zone "B"; and it appeared probable before the
+plebiscite that in both cases she would be on the victorious side.
+
+In foretelling the result of the plebiscite one would not pay much
+attention to the census which the German-Austrian officials used to
+take. A person was inscribed according to the language he ordinarily
+employed, and this was, more often than not, considered to be German if
+his superior was a German. Before the census of 1910 the _Grazer
+Tagblatt_, which is the Germans' chief organ in those parts, proclaimed
+that the official census was a portion of the national propaganda. All
+the propagandist societies were entreated to do their utmost to induce
+the people to declare German as their usual language. Very humorous
+results were obtained. On December 18, 1910, the provincial council of
+public instruction gave out the number of German and Slovene children
+respectively in thirty Slovene parishes. Amongst them were the
+following:
+
+                                German Children.       Slovene Children.
+Borovlje (Ferlach)                31 per cent.            69 per cent.
+Grabštajn (Grafenstein)           10·6    "               89·4    "
+Žrelc (Ebenthal)                  24·4    "               75·6    "
+Pokr�e (Poggersdorf)               1·3    "               98·7    "
+Bistrica (Feistritz)              16·2    "               82·8    "
+
+And twelve days later the official census gave these results:
+
+                                      Germans.            Slovenes.
+Borovlje                            90 per cent.        10 per cent.
+Grabštajn                           50·1    "           49·9    "
+Žrelc                               49·2    "           50·8    "
+Pokr�e                              41·1    "           58·9    "
+Bistrica                            44·4    "           55·6    "
+
+Far more trustworthy is the almanac issued every year by the Church,
+wherein a person's "usual language" is taken to be that in which he
+listens to the word of God. These ecclesiastical lists were published by
+German bishops, and according to them we find that the region we are
+considering held in 1910 some 40,000 Germans and 123,000 Slovenes.
+
+We have seen that Celovec, like the smaller towns in this area, leans
+more to the Austrians than to the Yugoslavs. This is partly the effect
+of the Austrian Government's policy and partly of the various pan-German
+societies (_e.g._ the "Kärntner Bauernbund," the "Verein der
+Alldeutschen," the "Deutscher Volksverein," etc. etc.), which, as was
+admitted, drew their funds to a considerable extent from Germany
+herself.
+
+The German Republic was very lavish in assisting her smaller Austrian
+sister during the period before the plebiscite, pouring both goods and
+cash into the district; and after the opening of the demarcation line
+between the two zones at the beginning of August they were able to
+introduce their supplies quite openly into zone "A." Very few Germans of
+the north believe that the German-Austrian Republic will permanently
+remain separated from themselves.... Both Yugoslavs and Austrians
+circulated vast quantities of printed matter; for the Yugoslavs the most
+convincing argument lay in Austria's apparently hopeless economic
+position and the undesirability of belonging to a State which had to pay
+so huge a debt; the Austrian pamphlets denounced the Serbs as a military
+race, though even such a dealer in false evidence as the eminent
+Austrian historian, Dr. Friedjung, would find it difficult to sustain
+the thesis that the wars engaged in by the Serbs during the last hundred
+years were more of an offensive than of a defensive character. In
+several prettily prepared handbooks the voters were implored by the
+Austrians not to be so old-fashioned as to plump for a monarchy when
+they had such a chance of becoming republicans; one could almost see the
+writer of these scornful phrases stop to wipe his over-heated brow after
+having pushed back his old Imperial and Royal headgear. You might
+imagine that the Austrians in their deplorable economic condition would
+have avoided this topic; on the contrary, they proclaimed that several
+commodities which were lacking in Yugoslavia could be furnished by them
+in abundance. One of these, they said, was salt; and certainly the
+Yugoslavs purchased a good deal of it, but that was only when they did
+not know that it was German salt, which the Austrians bought in that
+country and on which they made an adequate profit. When the Yugoslavs
+wanted to get their supplies direct from Germany the Austrians
+introduced a transit tax of 1000 crowns--not the nearly worthless
+Austrian but Yugoslav crowns--per waggon. Later on when the Danube was
+thrown open and this tax could not be levied, salt was considerably
+cheaper in Yugoslavia than in Austria. So with plums--in 1919 Austria
+bought nearly the whole of the exports from Yugoslavia at six crowns per
+kilo and sold them to Germany at eleven to twelve crowns, the profit
+going, so the authorities said, to the poor.
+
+As the day of the plebiscite approached, the Yugoslavs seemed to be more
+confident than the Austrians. The staunch peasants of zone "A" were not
+greatly impressed by the numerous appeals to their heart and brain which
+were handed to them by the Austrians in the Slovene language. And they
+were not much alarmed at the idea of being joined to their countrymen of
+the south, those unmitigated Serbs who thrived, if one was to believe
+the Austrian propaganda, on atrocities. But this warning was ridiculed
+by the Austrians themselves--on a market day at Velikovec you could see
+the Austrophils wearing their colours, which they would scarcely have
+done if they had been afraid of possible reprisals--and zone "A" was
+generally presumed to have a Yugoslav majority. On such a market day one
+saw very few Yugoslav colours in the farmers' button-holes, for it was
+the wish of their leaders to avoid anything which might give rise to
+unnecessary conflict. The day drew near and the Austrians thought that
+they were making insufficient progress; for one thing, they were at a
+disadvantage owing to the very low value of their money. They hoped that
+Germany would come with more zeal than ever to the rescue, and they
+hoped that something fatal would occur to Yugoslavia. So they asked the
+Inter-Allied Commissions to put it to their Governments that it would
+be advisable if the plebiscite were to be postponed for several months,
+say until May 1921. But it was reported that the French and British
+representatives declined to countenance the scheme. They may also have
+feared that if the period of canvassing were to be so long drawn out,
+the same passions would come to the surface as in the plebiscite in east
+and west Prussia, where in many places the Poles could not display their
+sympathies except at great personal risk. But in that particular
+plebiscite it must be noted that the Allies were very imprudent in
+confiding the maintenance of order to the rebaptized German Security
+Police, a body which was entirely in the hands of the reactionary
+clique. Yet the military precautions of zone "A" in Carinthia were not
+what they should have been, for when the Yugoslavs had lost the
+plebiscite an unrestrained horde of Austrian sympathizers, some of them
+from that zone and some from outside it, some of them civilians and some
+of them soldiers in mufti who made for certain places where supplies of
+weapons had been hidden, swarmed across the land and terrorized the
+Yugoslavs in such a fashion that a Yugoslav military force had to come
+in to protect them. "But how barbaric are these Yugoslavs," sneered
+their enemies, "for they refuse to recognize the result of the
+plebiscite." More than one diplomat in Belgrade was ordered to present
+himself at the Foreign Office and demand an answer why, etc. But the
+Yugoslavs had no intention of imitating d'Annunzio.
+
+Those who were not in the zone at the time of the voting might well be
+astounded at the result, which was an Austrian victory by 22,025 votes
+against 15,278 for Yugoslavia. In view of the undoubted Yugoslav
+majority, it was felt that something more than active propaganda, before
+and during the election, had been brought to bear. For example, in the
+commune of Grabštajn (Grafenstein) the Germans are said to have
+inscribed on the electoral list 180 persons from Celovec and Styria who
+had no right to vote; they also asked that seventy strangers should be
+inscribed. On submitting these claims to the judgment of the district
+council the German leaders, even as the Yugoslavs, were required to
+initial each request; it is alleged that these initialled papers, which
+were attached to the claims, were left overnight in a room the key of
+which was in the keeping of the German secretary, Schwarz. He is charged
+with having removed the initialled papers from the Slovene claims and
+affixed them to the German claims. There was a large amount of more
+usual corruption. Thus it is known that twenty-eight Slovene servants at
+an important landowner's were unable to resist the material arguments
+and voted for the Germans. And if it is true that a number of people
+voted twice and even three times the Inter-Allied Commission fell short
+of its duties. It is said that the voting was so lax that if a stranger
+had been inscribed and did not turn up to vote, his legitimation was
+used by a native. Thus we are told of one Helena Rozenzoph, aged
+seventy-five, who was inscribed at Grabštajn. This woman had never
+existed; there had been a certain Barbara Rozenzoph who died in 1919,
+and her vote was used by Marjeta Hanzio, aged twenty-two years. The case
+was so flagrant that the Commission discovered it and the woman
+confessed to having acted on a note which she had received from the
+special Austrian _gendarmerie_ force, the Heimatsdienst. The Commission
+seems to have been reluctant to take any steps against these frauds and
+it is not astonishing that the commune of Grabštajn registered 1290
+votes for the Austrian Republic and only 380 for Yugoslavia, although in
+this commune of 3440 inhabitants there are no more than sixteen German
+families. A German majority was thus obtained in a province which Dr.
+Renner, the Austrian Chancellor, had acknowledged to be Slovene. It
+seems incredible that the Commission should have so completely broken
+down and the mystery may yet be cleared up, if as the Yugoslavia
+delegate requested, all the voting papers have been preserved.... But
+the _Hrvat_, the organ of the Narodny Club in Croatia (the
+decentralizing but strongly national party) blames Monsignor Korošec,
+the leader of the Slovene clericals, for the disastrous plebiscite
+result. He would have been better employed, it says, in organizing his
+people than in gadding about Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia
+for the purpose of extending his party. He had boasted that the Slovenes
+were so well organized that they were perfectly confident as to the
+issue. It would seem, however, says the _Hrvat_, that an unexpectedly
+large proportion of them are partly or entirely Germanized. And this,
+more than the above-mentioned irregularities, may be chiefly responsible
+for Yugoslavia's loss. One must also remember that many a Slovene would
+shrink from garrison duty in Macedonia, while it would be very natural
+for the Carinthian farmer to look up at the mountains that separated him
+from Carniola and then to recollect that Celovec (Klagenfurt), the
+economic centre of the whole area, would be Austrian. Nevertheless if
+zone "A" had been smaller--and more completely Slav--it is probable that
+the population would have risen superior to the various doubts which
+assailed them. What we have said about the Slovenes who have become
+Germanized is borne out by the _Koroski Slovenec_, a newspaper which
+appears in Vienna and which, though since its formation has been
+essentially hostile to the Austrians, tells us that after the plebiscite
+the Slovenes have only suffered real oppression from their
+denationalized compatriots. Difficulties arose with regard to the
+closing of Slovene schools, but this was largely due to the fact that
+many of the Slovene schoolmasters fled to Yugoslavia.
+
+
+(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER
+
+A Yugoslav barrister from Pola had gone to a neighbouring village--this
+was in 1920--for the purpose of encouraging the natives, who were all
+Southern Slavs. He asked them, in the event of their part of Istria
+being allotted to the Italians, not to lose heart but to wait for the
+day when justice would come by her own. In the middle of his
+exhortations a jovial old farmer approached him and slapped him on the
+back. "Cheer up, young man!" he exclaimed. "What is it that you are
+afraid of?" ... The Slav population of Istria and Gorica-Gradišca,
+even as that of Dalmatia, has endured a great many things and is
+prepared to endure a great many more. Kindness would have gone a long
+way towards disarming them. If the Italians on the eastern Adriatic had
+been exponents of the Mazzini spirit rather than--which too often has
+been the case--of the direst Nationalist, then the Yugoslavs would have
+accepted--mournfully, no doubt, but _faute de mieux_--the frontier from
+the river Arša in Istria which President Wilson suggested. This would
+have been a compromise frontier, by which 400,000 Slovenes and Croats
+would fall to Italy and a very much smaller number of Italians would
+fall to Yugoslavia. It would have satisfied the great sensible mass of
+the Italian people, but unfortunately was rejected by Baron Sonnino and
+his myrmidons. Far more was claimed by him, and the succeeding Italian
+Governments have had to struggle with the passions he so recklessly
+aroused. They have been unable to persuade the country that with the
+Arša frontier they would be getting by no means a bad bargain. By the
+Treaty of Rapallo the Italians have obtained much more: the whole of
+Gorica-Gradišca, portions of Carniola, the whole of Istria and
+contiguity with Rieka (which is made a free town), the islands of
+Lussin, Cres and Unie, sovereignty over a strip of five miles which
+includes Zadar (and a few adjacent islands), finally the southern island
+of Lastovo and Pelagosa which lies in the middle of the Adriatic.
+
+In November 1920 all the outside world was congratulating the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs on having, after many fruitless efforts of their
+statesmen, come to this agreement. The opinion was expressed that both
+of the contracting parties would henceforth be satisfied, since each of
+them was conscious that the other had accepted something less than his
+desires. It was noted that the Yugoslavs exhibited more generosity, as
+they gave up some half a million of their countrymen, while the Italians
+yielded in Dalmatia that to which they had no right. The Yugoslavs had,
+in the past two years, shown so much more forbearance than was usually
+expected of a vigorous young nation that the commentators for the most
+part fancied they would not waste any time in grieving over these
+inevitable sacrifices. It is freely said that if a liberal spirit is
+displayed by the Italians at the various points where they and
+Yugoslavia are in contact, both people will settle down, with no
+afterthoughts, to friendly and neighbourly relations. But it would be
+foolish to close our eyes to the fact that the position at Rieka and
+Zadar, not to speak of any other places, bristles with difficulties. At
+Rieka one hopes that the largest and wisest party, the Autonomists, will
+now come into their rights; no doubt a good many of those opportunist
+citizens who, at the time of the Italian occupation, developed into
+Italianissimi, after having previously been known as more or less
+platonic lovers of Italy, Hungary, or Croatia with ambitions chiefly
+centred on their native town, will presently assure you that in the Free
+State they are convinced Free Staters; but the local politicians have
+been living for so long in such a thoroughly oppressive atmosphere that
+most of those who have been prominent should for a season now retire. It
+will be difficult enough for this harassed port to settle down to
+business. As for the Zadar enclave, it is not easy to understand why an
+Italian majority in this little town should bring it under the Italian
+flag while the overwhelming Slav majorities of central and eastern
+Istria have been ignored. And with all the goodwill in the world the
+existence of this minute colony encircled by Yugoslav lands will
+scarcely make more easy the conduct of relations between Yugoslavia and
+Italy. It is naturally to the interest of both countries that
+misunderstandings and suspicions should be swept away. And from this
+point of view it is very doubtful whether the Italians were well advised
+in taking Zadar into their possession. Presumably the Government was
+forced to do so by the state of public feeling. They withstood this
+feeling with regard to the magnificent harbour of Vis, which even
+President Wilson suggested they should have, and contented themselves
+with the smaller Yugoslav island of Lastovo (Lagosta). The pity is that
+the Nationalists should have forced into their hands anything which may
+turn and sting them.
+
+It may be thought that we are excessively pessimistic in pointing rather
+to the dangers which the Treaty places on the tapis than to the good
+sense of those who will deal with them. We do not say that the Italians
+would have permitted their Government to solve the Adriatic question in
+a safer and more philosophic manner; but we cannot look forward with
+that confidence we should have had if more sagacious counsels had
+prevailed.
+
+An arrangement most agreeable to the bulk of the interested population
+would have been effected if two Free States, instead of one, had been
+created: the small one of Rieka, and a larger one embracing Triest and
+the western part of Istria. There would be in each of these two States a
+mixed population, who would think with a shudder of the time when the
+grass was growing on their quays. Italians and Slavs, prosperous as of
+old, would very cordially agree that the experiment of being included in
+Italy had been at any rate a commercial disaster. [D'Annunzio's
+administration was, of course, a mere camouflage. Without the support of
+the Italian Government, which paid his troops though calling them
+rebels, the poet-adventurer could scarcely have lasted for a day; and
+the swarm of officers, many of them worse adventurers than himself,
+would have deserted him. Nor would the population of Rieka have listened
+to his glowing periods if the Italian Government had not, under cover of
+the Red Cross, sent an adequate supply of food into the town.] Both
+Rieka and Triest were, therefore, living under practically the same
+conditions, separated from their natural hinterland, and knowing very
+well that as Italian towns their prospects were lamentable. It was
+significant that the Italian Government should after a time have studied
+the scheme of constructing a canal from Triest to the Save. Before the
+War one-third of the urban population (and all the surrounding country)
+was Yugoslav; and now, when so many Yugoslavs have departed and so many
+Italians have arrived, even now it is certain that in a plebiscite not
+10 per cent. would vote for Italy--and this minority would be largely
+made up of those _leccapiatini_ (the "plate-lickers") who were the
+humbler servants of Austria during the War and are now begging for
+Italian plates. When the offices of the Socialist newspaper _Il
+Lavoratore_--the Socialists are by far the most important party in
+Triest--were taken by storm and gutted, the American Consul, Mr. Joseph
+Haven, and the Paris correspondent of the _New York Herald_, Mr. Eyre,
+happened to be in the building. They afterwards said that the attack by
+those ultra-nationalist bands, the fascisti--very young men,
+demobilized junior officers and so forth--was entirely unprovoked. The
+carabinieri gazed indifferently at the scene. Such is life in Triest,
+where the labour movement is gaining in strength every day. Its old
+prosperity has departed--there is hardly any trade or water or gas,
+since most of the coal was consumed, by order of the Italian
+authorities, in making electric light for illuminations. These were
+intended to show the city's irrepressible enthusiasm at being
+incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants know very well
+that being one of Italy's many ports is worse than being the only port
+of Austria; they know that the most direct railways to Austria pass
+through Yugoslav territory, that henceforward the Danube will be much
+more largely used by Austria, Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary (none of whom
+had a seaboard) and that Rieka will now be a more formidable rival than
+of old.... So, too, at Pola we find that a majority of the population do
+not wish their town to be retained in Italy; a number of Italian workmen
+fled from the idle shipbuilding yards and actually came in 1919 and 1920
+with the Slovene refugees, their fellow-townsmen, to Ljubljana in search
+of employment. There are not sufficient orders to go round among such
+yards in Italy where, owing to the absence of coal and iron, this
+particular industry labours under great disadvantages. But if Rome
+considers that the retention of Pola is strategically essential, then in
+order to meet her wishes this town might be taken out of the
+Triest-Istrian Free State--maybe the Italians will be able to do
+something that will cause the citizens to cease regretting those good
+days of old when, as Austria's chief naval base, she flourished on the
+largesse of officers and men. But what can she do, and what could
+anybody do? Hundreds of houses are deserted; and for the year 1920 the
+owners of the theatre--which did not engage expensive actors but relied
+mainly on cinema--were faced with a deficit of 12,000 lire.
+
+The Triest-Istrian Free State would approximately contain, without Pola,
+some 300,000 inhabitants, half Italian and half Yugoslav. The formation
+of this State would be less advantageous to the Yugoslavs, for most of
+the big landowners and the shop-keepers are Italians who live on the
+Yugoslav peasants; but Yugoslavia, for the sake of peace, would be glad
+to see the State come into existence. Eastern and central Istria,
+forming a part of Yugoslavia and lying between the two Free States,
+should extend to Porto di Bado, which would cause it to possess about
+3,000 Italians and 280,000 Yugoslavs. If it were to be bounded by the
+Arša it would make the Italians in the Triest-Istrian State become a
+minority.
+
+With respect to the indisputable Slav districts east of the Isonzo,
+_i.e._ the territory of Gorica-Gradišca and an appreciable part of
+Carniola, which have been adjudged to Italy and which long to be joined
+to the Yugoslav State, there are two possible solutions. (In passing we
+may observe that there is no country where the national frontier is more
+clearly indicated. The linguistic frontier is so strictly defined that
+the peasant on one side of it does not speak Italian and his neighbour
+on the other side does not understand the Slovene tongue. Nevertheless,
+Signor Colajanni, the venerable leader of the Italian Republicans, took
+up an undemocratic point of view and declined to admit the argument of
+the superiority of numbers, when he alluded to this frontier in a speech
+to the Republican Congress at Naples. Waving numbers aside, he preferred
+to appeal to history and culture, though he should have known that the
+mass of the Slovene people is much better educated than the Italian
+peasant.) The true ethnographical boundary would be the Isonzo--not many
+Yugoslavs live to the west and not many Italians to the east of that
+river. Only in the town of Gorica do we find Italians. In 1910 at the
+census the Italian municipal authorities attempted to show that their
+town was almost entirely Italian; at a subsequent census the Austrians
+found that the returns had been largely falsified, and that in reality
+Gorica contained 14,000 Italians and 12,000 Slovenes, while it is common
+knowledge that if you go 500 yards from the town you meet nothing but
+Slovenes. The prosperity of Gorica was mostly based on the export of
+fruit and vegetables from the Slovene countryside. In 1898 the Slovenes
+awakened, formed societies, started in business on a large scale and
+boycotted the Italian merchants, who found themselves obliged to learn
+the Slovene language. Suppose that, for the sake of meeting the wishes
+of the Italian Nationalists, one half of the town were given to Italy,
+then that portion would be faced with ruin. It would, therefore, be
+advisable that the whole town should remain with its hinterland, and
+that Italy and Yugoslavia should be divided from each other by the
+Isonzo. But if this solution is impossible, then a large district east
+of the Isonzo should be entirely and permanently neutralized, which
+would not endanger the security of either State. Very different in
+character is the line Triglav-Idria-Sneznik, which the Italians hold
+ostensibly as a means of defence, but which is an offensive line against
+Yugoslavia, and primarily against Ljubljana and Karlovac.
+
+No doubt as the Italians in the eastern Adriatic have obtained a regular
+position by the Treaty of Rapallo they will henceforth do their best to
+win the love of their new subjects. They will disavow such officers as
+that one on the sandy isle of Unie who accused the Slav priest of
+propaganda, and in fact, as we have mentioned elsewhere, expelled him
+for the reason that inside his church, where they had been for many
+years, stood monuments of the two Slav apostles, SS. Cyril and Methodus.
+St. Methodus was the wise administrator of these two--but even if he
+takes the rulers of the eastern Adriatic under his particular protection
+one must be prepared for them to fail in smothering, by their
+enlightened rule, the discontent which in the last three years has grown
+among the Yugoslavs to such acute proportions. It began, as we have
+noted, under the ægis of Baron Sonnino; the old neighbour,
+Austria-Hungary, had been Italy's hereditary foe, and the Baron's school
+could not bring itself to regard the new neighbours in a friendly light,
+although their house was so much less populated than that of their
+predecessors, not to mention that of the Italians themselves.
+
+There have been times during the last three years when a war between
+Italy and Yugoslavia seemed scarcely avoidable--the natives of the
+districts most concerned were looking forward to it with eagerness. At a
+Yugoslav assembly held in Triest in the summer of 1919 the other
+delegates were electrified by two priests from Istria who declared that
+their people were straining at the leash, anxious for the word to snatch
+up their weapons. (Many of these weapons, by the way, were of Italian
+origin, as there had been no great difficulty in purchasing them from
+the more pacific or the more Socialistic Italian soldiers; the usual
+price was ten lire for a rifle and a hundred rounds.) If there should
+come about a war between Italy and Yugoslavia, then it is to be supposed
+that the Yugoslavs will afterwards take as their western frontier the
+old frontier of Austria (except for the Friuli district, south of
+Cormons, which they do not covet, since they look upon this ancient race
+as Italian.)
+
+By signing the Treaty of Rapallo the Yugoslav Government has shown that
+it is ready to go to very great lengths in order to establish, as
+securely as may be, an era of peace. It would be just as creditable on
+the part of the Italians if they will consent to Istria being
+partitioned in the way we have suggested, for they have been wrongly
+taught to think themselves entitled to this country, and to believe that
+the inhabitants, as a whole, are glad to be Italian subjects. "You may
+suppose we are unpatriotic," the Austrian railway officials of Italian
+nationality used to say, "but as Austria gives much better pay than we
+should receive from Italy, we prefer that this part of the world should
+be Austrian."
+
+The relations between Italy and Yugoslavia have been treated at some
+length, for it would require but little to bring a gathering of
+storm-clouds to the sky. One even hears of Roman Catholics in Istria and
+elsewhere abjuring their Church and--for the national cause--adopting
+the Serbian Orthodox faith. Twenty years ago it happened that two
+Istrian villages, Ricmanje and Log, went over to the Uniate and thence
+to the Orthodox Church. This was on account of a quarrel with the Bishop
+of Triest, who wanted, against the wishes of the people, to remove their
+priest, Dr. Pojar. But now we have priests in the provinces given to
+Italy who are openly calling on their flock to go over with them to
+their Orthodox brothers; and this is a movement which, it is thought,
+will merely be postponed by the introduction of the Slav liturgy. To
+take a single sermon out of many, we may mention one which in the summer
+of 1920 was preached in a church of the Vipava valley. The clergyman,
+after lamenting that the chief dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church
+are Italians, gave it as his opinion that there was nothing to choose in
+point of goodness between that particular Church and the Orthodox
+Church. "And," said an old peasant who came to Triest with the story of
+what had happened, "never in my life did I hear so fine a sermon and one
+that did me so much good."
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 72: The Italians had originally landed a "hygienic
+    mission" at Valona early in the European War, and this of
+    course developed into something else. That ingenuous
+    propagandist, Mr. H. E. Goad, tells us (in the _Fortnightly
+    Review_ of May 1922) that while Nature had made the innumerable
+    deep-water harbours on the eastern coast of the Adriatic
+    practically immune from Italy's attack, a landing or raid from
+    one of them at Ancona, Bari or Barletta would be a vital blow
+    at Italy, severing vital communications. He therefore justifies
+    Italy's landing at Valona in that it was a purely defensive
+    step, made to ensure that its harbour should not be used
+    against her. He may hold that the seizure of one town is better
+    than the seizure of none, but from the strategic and political
+    point of view it would seem that Mr. Goad is an injudicious
+    advocate.]
+
+    [Footnote 73: _Albaniens Zukunft._ Munich, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 74: _La Sera_, August 6, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 75: _Giornale delle Puglie_, September 6-7, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 76: The delegates of the League of Nations were told,
+    at the beginning of 1922, by the authorities in southern
+    Albania that it was iniquitous to believe that they would
+    employ this kind of punishment for political refugees. Did they
+    not advertise an amnesty to all those who returned within
+    forty-five days? And in what newspaper, they indignantly
+    asked--in what newspaper had they published the slightest
+    threat of arson?]
+
+    [Footnote 77: In the winter of 1921 this gentleman was expelled
+    from his country.]
+
+    [Footnote 78: _Albanesische Studien._ Jena, 1854.]
+
+    [Footnote 79: _Albanien und die Albanesen._]
+
+    [Footnote 80: But this is less rigorously upheld in the towns
+    if it is a question of their honour or of cash. When, to give
+    an example, Scutari was occupied by the Montenegrins at the
+    beginning of the Great War, a Catholic Albanian merchant came
+    to a Montenegrin lawyer and asked him to institute proceedings
+    against another merchant who had gravely and publicly insulted
+    him. The lawyer drew up the complaint, for which he charged the
+    small sum of 20 perpers (= francs), but although his client was
+    a wealthy man this fee appalled him; he resolved to take no
+    further steps. In general, the Scutarenes prefer to suffer
+    imprisonment rather than part with any money. And the
+    willingness of the Albanians not to look a gift-horse in the
+    mouth could often be observed at Podgorica between the years
+    1909 and 1912, when Nicholas of Montenegro would occasionally
+    appear in the market-place with a supply of caps and other
+    articles for the Albanians. These he would distribute, having
+    first exclaimed: "Ka�ak Karadak Kralj Nikola barabar!" (that
+    is to say, "The Albanian and the Montenegrin are equal in the
+    eyes of King Nicholas!"). Ka�ak is a word meaning a brigand,
+    an outlaw; the Montenegrins apply it to their neighbours, and
+    these latter, throwing their new caps in the air and cheering
+    for Nikita, did not mind what he called them.]
+
+    [Footnote 81: _Turkey in Europe._ London, 1900.]
+
+    [Footnote 82: _Ein Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen._
+    Vienna, 1905.]
+
+    [Footnote 83: _Italy in the Balkans at this Hour._ Naples,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 84: _L'Albanie Independente_, by Dukagjin-Zadeh Basri
+    Bey. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 85: Cf. the _New Statesman_, February 5, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 86: When the Serbian troops arrived at Priština in
+    the Balkan War they discovered among the inhabitants of that
+    place a man who had not left his house for some fourteen years.
+    We are told (in _The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
+    Ireland_, etc., vol. v. London, 1921) of my Lord Eyre of
+    Eyrescourt in County Galway "that not one of the windows of his
+    castle was made to open, but luckily he had no liking for fresh
+    air." Yet probably his lordship's countenance had not the
+    pallor of the man of Priština, because "from an early dinner
+    to the hour of rest he never left his chair, nor did the claret
+    ever quit the table."]
+
+    [Footnote 87: When this account of the incident was published
+    in my small book, _A Difficult Frontier_, it caused a reviewer,
+    one I. M., in _The Near East_ to observe, that I "can be
+    jubilant when a Montenegrin in Yugoslav pay insults a British
+    officer, Captain Brodie." Since the Editor permits such
+    hopeless nonsense to appear in his columns one may be excused,
+    I think, for not taking _The Near East_ very seriously. It is
+    not worth while informing them how General Phillips of Scutari
+    dealt with Captain Brodie.]
+
+    [Footnote 88: Referring in the _Nation and Athenæum_ to Sir
+    Charles's latest work, _Hinduism and Buddhism_ (3 vols.), Mr.
+    Edwyn Bevan says that "for a lonely student, who had done
+    nothing in his life but study, the book would have been a
+    sufficiently remarkable achievement. That a man who has been an
+    active public servant and held high and responsible offices
+    should have found time for the studies which this book
+    presupposes is marvellous. It is a masterly survey.... There
+    can be few men who have Sir Charles's gift of linguistic
+    accomplishments, who can not only read Sanskrit and Pali, but
+    know enough of the Dravidian languages of Southern India to
+    check statements by reference to the original writings, and add
+    to this a knowledge of Chinese and Tibetan."]
+
+    [Footnote 89: Cf. pp. 72-73, Vol. I.]
+
+    [Footnote 90: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, February 28, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 91: Cf. _A Political Escapade: The Story of Fiume and
+    D'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. London, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 92: Cf. _Tribune de Genève_, October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 93: Those who are curious as to the gentleman's
+    antecedents may like to refer to my book, _Under the
+    Acroceraunian Mountains_.]
+
+    [Footnote 94: Cf. _La Suisse_ (of Geneva), October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 95: Cf. _Journal des Débats_, October 15, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 96: This would be about 18,000 lb. avoirdupois.]
+
+    [Footnote 97: Cf. p. 283, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 98: Cf. _Morning Post_ of December 14, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Cf. _Le Temps_, November 11, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 100: "Who is this anonymous idiot?... He really ought
+    to have known better than that," says a reviewer in _The Near
+    East_. I quite agree. It is pleasant now and then to be able to
+    agree with a paper which is so one-sided as to admit pro-Nikita
+    and anti-Serbian diatribes by Mr. Devine, but which refuses to
+    insert a letter on the other side. "Let us not mix ourselves up
+    in their domestic affairs," said the Editor to me after an
+    hour's conversation. And though it is a matter of no
+    importance, I may mention that he employs a reviewer who,
+    referring to the map in my book, _A Difficult Frontier_
+    (Yugoslavs and Albanians)--a map which is most conspicuously
+    printed opposite the title-page--observes that it "is hidden in
+    one unostentatious page, which at first sight escapes the
+    reader's attention altogether."]
+
+    [Footnote 101: In the _Samouprava_ of November 12 the whole
+    case was discussed with his usual lucidity by Dr. Lazar
+    Marković, one of the ablest and most philosophic men in
+    Yugoslavia. This ex-Professor of Law is now the Minister of
+    Justice, and it is to be hoped that he will eventually succeed
+    in the place of Pašić.]
+
+    [Footnote 102: Those who like to hold the Serbs up to contumely
+    have not a very strong case when they denounce them for now
+    being on friendly terms with the Christian Mirditi, whereas
+    they used to be the friends of Essad Pasha; this personage was
+    at that time the man whose national Albanian policy had the
+    greatest chance of success. He was the one man who then
+    appeared capable of establishing a State in which Christians
+    and Moslems would be fairly represented. But now too many of
+    the Moslem--and not only they--have adopted an Italophil
+    attitude which is sadly anti-national.]
+
+    [Footnote 103: A later phase was for the Government to
+    recognize that what Albania must have is the friendship of
+    Yugoslavia, so that the eyes of the most powerful Ministers
+    were turned from Rome to Belgrade. Thereupon the Italians, loth
+    to lose their footing in the country, gave their patronage to
+    the anti-Governmental parties. It was pleasant to hear in the
+    summer of 1922 that when the boundary commissioners had left a
+    lamentable neutral zone between the two countries the Albanian
+    Government suggested to the very willing Government of
+    Yugoslavia that they should co-operate in cleansing that zone
+    of its brigand population.]
+
+    [Footnote 104: December 16, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 105: According to the Geographical-Statistical Atlas
+    recently published by the German Professor Hickmann the average
+    loss among the belligerent countries, in killed, wounded and
+    through diminution of the birth-rate, was 6·5 per cent. At one
+    end of the list of suffering nations is the United States with
+    a percentage of 0·4, Great Britain with 3·7, and Belgium with
+    4·7. Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey are all between 6 and
+    6·5 per cent. France has a percentage of 8·5, Russia has 9,
+    Germany 9·3 and Austria 11. Above them all comes Serbia with
+    the appalling percentage of 23.]
+
+    [Footnote 106: November 24, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 107: Cf. "Géographie Humaine de la France" in the
+    _Histoire de la Nation Française_. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 108: Cf. _L'histoire illustrée de la guerre de
+    1914_.]
+
+    [Footnote 109: _L'Albanie en 1921._ Paris, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 110: _Under the Acroceraunian Mountains._]
+
+    [Footnote 111: M. Gabriel Louis Jaray. Cf. his _Les Albanais_
+    (Paris, 1920) and his other writings on the Albanians.]
+
+    [Footnote 112: Cf. _A History of the Peace Conference of
+    Paris_. Edited by H. W. V. Temperley, vols. iv. and v. London,
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 113: Elias Regnault, _Histoire politique et sociale
+    des Principautés Danubiennes_. Paris, 1885.]
+
+    [Footnote 114: The more advanced Roumanians of the plain also
+    apply this term to their countrymen who live among the
+    Roumanian mountains or, in Serbia, amid the heights of
+    Požarevac and Kraina. It signifies a stupid fellow, one from
+    the wilderness.]
+
+    [Footnote 115: February 13, 1919.]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS--THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS--THE CROATS
+AND THE SERBS--SERB AND BULGAR.
+
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS
+
+Those who, for some reason or other, do not love the Yugoslavs will have
+said to themselves, before taking up this book, that they would
+certainly supply that searching criticism of this people which the
+author would omit. They knew it was unlikely that a man would write at
+such excessive length about the Southern Slavs if he had not a weakness
+for them, and if he predicted for their State the virtue of cohesion or
+more than very moderate tranquillity, his prejudice would have to be
+discounted. "The Yugoslavs," said an Italian lady to me in London, and
+her beautiful lips looked as if they could scarcely bring themselves to
+pronounce the name, "the Yugoslavs," she said, "are very wild and
+black." If I have given the impression in this book that they are white,
+my fault will be much greater than the lady's, since I am not quite a
+stranger to them. Slovenes, Croats, Serbs and Bulgars--they have good
+and evil qualities so different that one must take them separately, and
+perhaps it will be more instructive to compare them with each other. The
+Slovenes need not detain us; they are a small people occupying a
+surprisingly large area; if they were less well organized they would
+have been long ago swallowed up. They shine as workers in the field and
+mine and forest much more than as military men. They have never been
+hereditary soldiers, like so many of the Croats, and it is perhaps this
+want of confidence in their own military prowess which has caused them
+to take measures that are sometimes too severe against the Austrians who
+are under them. The Bosnian Moslems assert that, as all their links with
+Turkey are now broken, they are the best Yugoslavs. But the Slovenes are
+also the best Yugoslavs, because they recognize that in Yugoslavia is
+their sole salvation. Some of us may regret that their tenacity so far
+outstrips their idealism. They are a careful people, as may be seen from
+Order No. 17024 which was issued, on December 4, 1920, by the Prefecture
+of Ljutomir. Referring to sequestered property, it enjoined that the
+Austrian owner should be allowed so much that he could live on it, but
+not so much as to enable him to be extravagant. They are also a
+relatively well-educated people; according to official statistics of
+1910, 85·34 per cent. of the Slovene population know how to read and
+write, while their neighbours to the east, the Magyars, can only reckon
+62 per cent. and the Italians of pre-war Italy, 62·4 per cent. The most
+backward part of the Slovene race, those of Istria, have 46·6 per cent.
+of illiterates, while there are Italian provinces where the illiterates
+amount even to 85 per cent. Rome itself counts 65 per cent.[116]
+
+
+THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS
+
+It will be profitable to compare the Montenegrins with the Serbs,
+because in our impatience with those persons who would keep them
+separate we may have seemed to imply that we believe them identical. The
+Serbs who maintained themselves in those mountains developed certain
+characteristics which differentiate them from their brothers. The Serb
+of the old kingdom walks, the Serb of the mountain struts. The
+magnificent Serbian warrior of the kingdom is so disciplined that
+although a Field-Marshal will sit down openly in a café and drink wine
+with some old comrade who is in the ranks, yet when the soldier is on
+duty his obedience is perfect. But if the Montenegrin private thinks
+that his officer has rebuked him unjustly, he will not hesitate to kill
+him. The Serb has a great respect for the national heroes, while every
+Montenegrin (for the sake of brevity we will use this term instead of
+"Serb of Montenegro," and imply, when using the word Serb, a Serb of the
+old kingdom)--as we have said, a Serb respects the national heroes,
+while every Montenegrin has a knowledge of his own ancestors for at
+least a hundred years. He is a chivalrous person who wishes to be
+treated as at least your equal. It was the Serbs' disregard of this
+sentiment which now and then gave umbrage to those Montenegrins who had
+expected that their union with the Serbs would cause an immediate return
+of the golden age. This was almost as offensive to the Montenegrins as
+the request that they would now contribute towards the support of the
+army. They had always left this to the Tzar--"We and the Russians," they
+used to say, "are 150 millions." Not all the Montenegrins have managed
+to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of the clan. An amusing
+example of this was a major at Peć who belonged to the great
+Vasojević family. He gave two of us a large lorry, which was the only
+car he had, and advised us to start very early and to take no one with
+us, except a guard, as the road to Mitrovica was in a soft condition. We
+started off with about twenty passengers, but only one of them, a Turk,
+had any luggage to speak of; and after we had gone a good part of the
+way we were held up at a military post. A Montenegrin captain, also a
+member of the Vasojević, had overslept himself and ordered us by
+telephone to return for him. The Serbian lieutenant--who had risen from
+the ranks--asked at once if that order would come in writing, and when
+he received a negative answer he cut off the communication and wished us
+a happy journey. The Montenegrins also differ from the Serbs in their
+cultivation of the arts. They have no liking for songs of love, but say
+that men should only listen to the guslar and to hero-songs. They are
+severer and more dignified than the Serbs, and it will be some time
+before the average Montenegrin throws back his head in a railway
+carriage and rolls out a joyous song, as I once heard a Serb do in the
+Banat, whereupon another Serb in the far corner--they obviously had
+never met--joined in the song with great heartiness. The Montenegrin
+says that the Serb chatters like a gipsy (though we must not forget
+that, as Miss Durham remarked,[117] he is hurt if things Serbian are
+criticized by an outsider); he has been told that the Englishman is
+grave, like himself, and therefore he appreciates him from afar. But not
+many Englishmen (or Serbs) would care to indulge, like the Montenegrins,
+in the ceaseless recapitulation of time-honoured exploits. The younger
+folk are not so faithful to these ancient stories, but it is in
+Montenegro that performers on the one-stringed, monotonous guslar can
+most easily find an audience. The Serbs of the kingdom have become more
+eclectic in musical matters, though even with them the popular taste is
+in favour of the man who snores, on the grounds that he is hearty and
+robust. In so far as foreign influence is concerned, the Montenegrin has
+been to some extent affected by Italian culture, while that of Greece
+and Germany has acted on the Serb. But the Great War had an equally
+unfortunate influence on both of them. One must, however, mention that
+long before the War, and owing partly to Albanian influence, partly to
+their own struggle for existence and partly to other causes, the
+Montenegrins had shown themselves defective in straightforwardness.
+Undoubtedly they had deteriorated under the example of Nikita, but this
+unfortunate trait can also be discerned between the lines of the great
+poem, the "Gorski Venac," written in the first half of the nineteenth
+century. There used to be a certain amount of what we call theft in
+Montenegro, but the natives of that country, as of Albania, cherished
+rather communistic ideas; it seemed to them that they had a sort of
+right to that which another possessed, particularly if he was a near
+relative. After the War the Montenegrin was so much impoverished that he
+stole more freely, and the Serb, whose hands had hitherto been
+remarkably clean, took to the same habits and often in a very amateur
+fashion. Thus in a Macedonian village where a British army store had
+been rifled, the officers turned to the local priest, who was indignant
+with his people and conducted the officers into every house. Nothing was
+discovered, and the priest proposed that his own house should be
+searched. He was told that this was unnecessary, but he insisted; and
+when his careless wife led the way up a ladder into the loft a British
+officer perceived at any rate one pair of khaki breeches. The patients
+of the Scottish Women's Hospital at Belgrade were so unpractised in the
+art of stealing that one of them--a typical case--returned one day to
+have her leg attended to, and in raising her skirt revealed on the
+petticoat, which had once been a tablecloth, a large "S.W.H." These
+felonious ways are in contrast with the usual Serb candour. One
+afternoon in Belgrade I was searching for a small street in a district
+which I had not visited before. When at last, after many inquiries, I
+came to within fifty yards of it I found a policeman--but it is only
+fair to say that the majority of the force consisted at this time of
+soldiers recently disbanded. When I asked him where the street might be,
+the good man thought a while and then, throwing back his open hand and
+giving up the problem in despair, said, "My God, I know not."
+
+The wave of crime has manifested itself differently among the Serbs and
+the Montenegrins, in that the latter have been more primitive and have
+consummated their plundering by assassination--and this in a country
+where between 1895 and 1913 only two men were murdered for their money.
+In Serbia the people, even in the terrible distress after the War, did
+not go to such lengths. During the first half-year, the only two cases
+of unnatural death in the whole district of Ča�ak, where I spent a
+couple of months, were both of them suicides, an old man hanging himself
+on account of the death of his last remaining soldier son, and an
+officer's wife, who had been too friendly to an Austrian, throwing
+herself into a well on her husband's return. A certain village of the
+same district is an instance of the frequency of all those minor
+peccadilloes, such as drunkenness and rowdiness and so forth, which the
+Serbs permit themselves. There is a law which lays it down that the
+mayor must be a native and must be a man who never has been lodged in
+gaol. But that unhappy village in the Ča�ak region is unable to
+produce a single adult man with such a record.... If the Serb of the old
+kingdom is a more easy-going individual than his brother of the
+mountains it is quite erroneous to think that they dislike each other or
+have not resolved to come together.
+
+
+THE CROATS AND THE SERBS
+
+Some of Yugoslavia's neighbours were anxious, during the months which
+followed the War, that we should learn how Serb and Croat were
+continually at each other's throat. The dissensions between the two
+branches of the Yugoslav family would have been much more serious and
+more prolonged if their neighbours had paid less attention to them. It
+is true that "our Serbian customs," in the words of Jaša Tomić,
+"come from the village, while those of the Croats come from the nobles."
+The humbler Croat, one may say, was an employee in a big store, while
+the Serb was a small trader. The Croat would naturally like to introduce
+the big-store system into Yugoslavia, but this the Serb does not
+understand. He has a greater sense of responsibility and is more careful
+with regard to the expenses. To the Croat, in the old Empire, it was
+immaterial whether the officials were more or less costly. The bill was
+paid by Austria, who was the foe. For some time the Croat found himself
+forgetting that he was in Yugoslavia. When Cardinal Bourne came to
+Zagreb in the spring of 1919 and the town-hall was decorated with the
+British, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene and the town flag, some one asked
+the mayor why the State flag had been omitted. He was horrified. "The
+State flag!" he cried. Then it dawned upon him.... Numbers of Croats
+have belonged to the governing class and--impelled by the Catholic
+religion--have displayed more devotion to the arts than to the freedom
+of their country. On the other hand the Serbs, a race of practical
+peasants, have a highly developed national consciousness. This they owe
+partly to their inborn political gifts and largely to their Church, for
+the Orthodox religion--one may say, I think, without injustice--has more
+frequently shown itself, so closely is it connected with the idea of the
+State, to be rather of this world than of another. One should say the
+Orthodox religion as it flourishes in the Balkans, for when the Russian
+General Bobrikoff, who was attached to the person of King Milan, came
+back with him to Belgrade after the Peace of San Stefano, he was
+scandalized to see that religion had no greater share in the national
+rejoicings. "Accustomed as I was in my own country," he said, "to see
+nothing done without prayers and the blessing of the Church, I was
+indeed astounded to observe that the priests played the part of
+officials even in the cathedral, and often were altogether absent." This
+reminds one of von Baernreiter, who wished to learn the Serbian
+language, so that he would be more eligible for the governorship of
+Bosnia. He asked his teacher at Vienna when one could hear sermons in
+the Serbian church, and was informed that these occurred but twice a
+year and that on those occasions everybody left the church. The Serb and
+the Bulgar have come to neglect our distinctions between that which is
+spiritual and that which is temporal; their religion is, in consequence
+of their history, so inherent a part of the nation's life that in losing
+it one would almost cease to be a Serb or a Bulgar. Their Church is as
+national as that of the Armenians.[118] This may not be an ideal state
+of things, but it prevailed in Spain under the Moorish oppression and in
+the France of Jeanne d'Arc. During the crisis of the Great War the
+churches in the West were everywhere national; and in Serbia it was
+calculated that 60 per cent. of the sermons had a pronounced national
+colouring....
+
+Now with these differences between the Croat and the Serb, does it not
+seem strange that the vast majority of them are for union, with a part
+of this majority in favour of a reasonable decentralization? But if we
+investigate the motives of the Serbs and Croats who would thwart this
+union, we will see that they have nothing of that faith which, after all
+these centuries, has moved the Yugoslav multitude. Some of the Serbs
+wish to keep aloof on the ground that Serbia in the last hundred years
+has borne the brunt of the battle--and this, whether they were or were
+not faced with a more difficult situation, is acknowledged by most of
+the Croats, who for that reason would never dream of wishing the more
+modern Zagreb to supplant Belgrade. Those few Croats who are not for
+Yugoslavia are moved by ecclesiastical prejudice or by their longing for
+the privileges which the Habsburgs granted them. But those who, for
+various reasons, criticize the central Government are by no means
+necessarily in favour of setting up a separate one. Whatever the
+impetuous Radić may have said, he is out for Yugoslavia. Still one
+cannot be astonished that he was sometimes misunderstood. The Zagreb
+students who, towards the end of 1918, came to Svetozar Pribi�ević
+with the request that he would let them kill the demagogue, were for
+expressing in this way what Dr. Dušan Popović, the well-known
+deputy, expressed in another. It was at the Zagreb Provincial Parliament
+that he exclaimed, in the summer of 1918, that "This idea will be
+victorious and therefore I say publicly, in the presence of the whole
+people, that I am a Croat, a Serb and a Slovene, or, if you prefer it,
+none of them but merely a Yugoslav." In 1914 when Stamboulüsky, the
+future Prime Minister of Bulgaria, was arrested and accused of
+Serbophilism, he declared: "I am neither Bulgar or Serb; I am a
+Yugoslav!" ... For at least a generation Zagreb will remain
+particularist, zealously preserving the differences--personal, social
+and religious--which distinguish her people from the dominant Serbs. The
+Croat officers who burned with shame at the Archduke's murder on Bosnian
+soil, the Croat regiments that in 1915 marched into Belgrade with bands
+playing and their colours flying, the Croat officials whose bread and
+salt came from the Habsburgs in administering Yugoslav countries during
+the War--all these will not forget a long, deep-rooted and honourable
+tradition. But Zagreb is now even as Munich was in 1866; after having
+been the Rome of the Yugoslav movement, the seat of its philosophy and
+the centre of its politics, the Croat capital has now an atmosphere of
+sad futility, for Belgrade is the beacon of the Yugoslav world. While
+comparing Zagreb with Rome one must add that she had also the misfortune
+to resemble Rome of the decadence--a good deal of outer polish was
+imparted by the Austrians, at the expense of their victims' backbone.
+The five centuries of Turkish domination had no such demoralizing
+influence upon the Serbs, especially not in the country places. In the
+opinion of a very close observer,[119] whom I quote, there is nothing
+that so thoroughly displays the dominance of Belgrade as the agrarian
+problem. The projected reforms, which have been based on the principle
+that no one should own more land than he can cultivate with the aid of
+his family, would dispossess large numbers of big landowners in Croatia
+and still larger numbers of men with moderate holdings, whose
+compensation would be "determined hereafter." The application of these
+reforms has been delayed for various reasons, but nowhere at any time
+has it been suggested that Croatia might reject them. In the old kingdom
+of Serbia, with much the greater part of the land in peasant possession,
+it may be said that there is no agrarian problem.... Those enemies of
+Yugoslavia, by the way, who have hoped that the particularism of Croatia
+would be something altogether different from what it is, should have
+mingled with the crowd at Zagreb on the evening of Prince Alexander's
+arrival in July 1920. The Prince interrupted his dinner, came out on to
+the balcony and made a speech. "Draga moja bratjo Hrvati," he
+said--"Croatians, my dear brothers." Not for a thousand years had a
+ruler of Croatia addressed his people in their own tongue. One immense
+roar of delight broke, as the _Morning Post's_ special correspondent
+tells us, from the assembled multitude; men fell on each other's necks,
+laughed, wept and kissed each other.... Such manifestations must not
+lead us to believe that all the internal problems of the young State are
+settled. Croatia (as also Slovenia) is jealous of her separate identity,
+suspicious to some extent of Serbia, her prestige and projects; she has
+no intention of allowing herself, after the hard fight against
+Magyarization, to be "Balkanized." But one thing was made clear by the
+Prince's visit: there can be no word or thought of separation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have spoken of the disaffection prevalent among the Croats, and on
+this the world has fixed its eyes, because of the large number of Croat
+deputies who have hitherto declined to come to Belgrade. Nevertheless
+there is a more general and more grievous discontent in Yugoslavia,
+since, after all, the Croats' attitude is of a temporary character--for
+it is probable that after the next general election their peculiar
+upbringing will not be so potent in determining their sentiments
+towards the State. More and more will they be ready to make common cause
+with Serbs and Slovenes; and their criticisms, which are now so
+negative, will be of a more useful kind. (They will recognize, for
+example, that if it costs 3000 dinars to open an inn in Serbia they were
+not justified in protesting when the fee in Croatia was raised from 5
+crowns to 5 dinars.) That Yugoslavia gives ground for criticism no one,
+least of all her well-wishers, deny. And those who pray that she will
+prosper do so for the reason that the scattered Southern Slavs have for
+the first time now been able--most of them at any rate--to link their
+arms together; and we hope that with high qualities outweighing their
+defects the Southern Slavs will permanently take their place among the
+nations. But this will not be brought about unless those ailments which
+they suffer from are now confronted. Serbs themselves are often saying
+that their little Serbia was better than this fine new country which is
+thrice as large. She had fewer problems, she had fewer parties, and if
+people were corrupt they were so on a smaller scale. Traditions which
+are deprecatingly called Balkan, but which were at that time suited to a
+Balkan country, should not be allowed to spread across a country which
+is so much more than Balkan. Merit does not everywhere in this imperfect
+world advance you automatically, but an effort is required in Yugoslavia
+to resist the calls of friendship in appointing men to offices. The army
+of officials is too numerous; yet many of them are so badly paid that
+even if a great reformer could reduce by half their numbers he would be
+inclined to lay no hand upon the total sum they now enjoy. But this
+necessity of cleansing the public services is not peculiar to
+Yugoslavia. The politicians must have courage to lay heavier taxes on
+the peasants: the strange phenomenon is seen of peasants who assert that
+they are quite prepared for this, and on the other hand of politicians
+who are frightened lest it lose them many votes. The peasants generally
+are so prosperous that some, for instance, whom I know of near
+Kragujevac, men occupied in growing cereals, find that the fowls which
+they keep rather as a hobby do not have to lay them golden eggs in order
+to pay all the taxes. In that region it is usual nowadays for peasants
+not to count their bank-notes, but to weigh them; recently a man
+disposed of certain fields for his own weight in notes of ten dinars.
+The peasants are not only dissatisfied with the two chief parties, the
+Radicals and the Democrats, for not taxing them sufficiently--so that at
+the next general election they may give a good deal more support than
+hitherto to their own Peasants' party--but they complain that their
+interests are neglected although, as we have seen, the lawyers and other
+townsfolk of the Radical and Democrat parties are so anxious with
+respect to peasants' votes.
+
+The difficult position of the Yugoslavs--observe how in the last year
+their exchange has fallen--is due in part to the deplorable activities
+of other peoples (vast amounts have had to be imported for
+reconstruction purposes, Rieka has been practically unavailable as a
+port, and conditions have been such that the Yugoslavs have had to keep
+a large army mobilized), partly their position is due to measures
+ill-advised but which they were compelled to take (such as their system
+of Agrarian Reform), partly to political inexperience and partly to
+their lack of organizing powers. Let us hope that from now onwards
+Yugoslavia will have to arm herself less heavily against the slings and
+arrows of the world, and that she will be able therefore to become a
+more proficient swimmer in this sea of troubles.
+
+
+SERB AND BULGAR
+
+A map of the Balkan migrations, with its curved lines leading almost
+everywhere, is a bewildering spectacle; but if we study the main
+clusters of lines we shall see that the people whose movements they
+chronicle have frequently preserved, in a remarkable fashion, certain
+common characteristics: thus a stream flowed from the south-west towards
+Valjevo in Serbia, and it is interesting to notice how the prominent men
+of that region, whose ancestors came from somewhere between Montenegro
+and the old frontiers of Serbia, have all of them certain
+characteristics--a talent for foreign languages, a subtlety of
+reasoning, originality but insufficient observation, and clever but
+fallacious minds. Similarly in the Bulgar there are qualities which even
+now can be ascribed to the Mongol blood. The Bulgar is more stolid than
+the Serb; he is less given to sympathy and on that account can be cruel.
+The Bulgar is benevolent because he is urged by kindliness, whereas the
+more impressionable Serb is under the influence both of sentiment,
+sentimentality and sympathy. These differences of temperament--and there
+are others, more or less distinguishable--do not seem to Balkan thinkers
+any reason why the two should keep apart. And a couple of months after
+the Great War, during which the Bulgars, as their best friends must
+acknowledge, were far from irreproachable in occupied Serbia--partly
+this was due to the vast number of new posts for which they had no
+suitable men--a few months afterwards a Bulgarian engineer was placidly
+working among the Serbs at Ča�ak railway station, wearing his own
+uniform. And a Serbian butcher who emigrated to Bulgaria settled down at
+Ferdinand just before the War and has lived there unmolested up to this
+day, and that in spite of his not being very highly esteemed--for, as
+the police president told me, he had married a woman with more wealth
+than good fame; the president had been among her lovers.... One would
+not suppose that the contrasting public morality of the two countries
+will keep them apart. It is easy enough for us to argue that this
+morality is on a pretty low level, because a Bulgarian War Minister saw
+fit to sue, under a _nom de guerre_, a French armament firm which
+omitted to send him the stipulated commission; because another Minister,
+incarcerated on account of felony, could be liberated by the grace of
+Tzar Ferdinand and become Premier; because a Serbian Minister used to
+buy himself corner-houses, while his Bulgarian colleagues seem to own
+most of the houses in Sofia. There was a minor Serbian official over
+against whom I took my meals for about a month; one of his ways was to
+produce a pocket-knife and cut his bread with it. Certain other parts of
+his ritual did not appeal to me, but who knows whether I did not disgust
+him by breaking my bread with my fingers? And who knows what sentiments
+were awakened some years ago at the Orthodox monastery of Gromirija, in
+Croatia, when a foreign guest proposed to wash himself in water, though
+by the joyous custom of that house there was no other liquid on the
+premises but wine? If there is in both countries, in Serbia and
+Bulgaria, a movement against the cynicism which does not clothe its
+corruption with a decent Western drapery, that is something; if there is
+a further movement in the direction of probity, that is something more.
+And, whatever some Serbs may tell you, it is undeniable that honesty has
+made important strides in the public life of that kingdom, even without
+having added to the Statute Book those rigorous proposals of the
+newly-formed Peasants' party, one of which would punish a peculating
+official with death. It is, however, apparent that this party has not
+arrived at a sense of discretion, for it wants to terminate the practice
+of allowing pensions to officials, so that each man is obliged to make
+his own provision for old age. Bulgaria, the younger country, has made a
+proportionate progress; there is trustworthy German evidence to the
+effect that the corrupt Radoslavoff Government was despised by the
+people, not in the hour of disaster but in 1916, when the Bulgarian
+soldiers changed the words of an anti-Serb song and instead of "Our old
+allies are brigands" proclaimed that "the Liberals are brigands." This
+German, Dr. Helmut von den Steinen, the correspondent of the
+_Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ (in which he was bound to speak
+favourably of Radoslavoff) used to deliver propaganda lectures in the
+Bulgarian language at Sofia during the War. He was very well acquainted
+with Bulgarian affairs and being summoned to Berlin at the end of 1917
+he made a speech[120] _in camera_ to a committee of German savants and
+artists. In the course of this he lamented that his country had attached
+herself to Radoslavoff, who, said he, was hated and would at the next
+elections be swept away.
+
+As one must repeat _ad nauseam_, the gulf between Serb and Bulgar has
+not been caused by an extreme divergence of their private or their
+public morals, academically considered, but by the various incidents
+which in the eyes of each of them testified to the other's depravity.
+And at the bottom of it all was Macedonia--Macedonia which now, being
+wisely administered, will be the foundation-stone of Yugoslavia.
+
+At the end of his book, _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, Mr. Noel
+Buxton agrees that such a Yugoslav Federation has become a practical
+possibility. But his two alternative proposals with respect to what
+should meanwhile be the fate of Macedonia would indefinitely postpone
+that Federation. We have already dealt with the proposal of autonomy,
+put forward also by Mr. Leland Buxton. As for what Mr. Noel Buxton calls
+the ideal solution--"a plebiscite conducted by an impartial
+international commission over the whole of the historical province of
+Macedonia"--this is aiming no higher than at a perpetuation of the two
+distinct countries, Serbia and Bulgaria. We should probably have had
+more plebiscites in Europe if more Allied armies had been available, but
+the campaign of intimidation and every sort of ruthlessness which
+occurred in Upper Silesia and Schleswig make us look rather askance upon
+this method of registering the popular will. Mr. Buxton airily asks for
+a plebiscite over the whole of the historical province of Macedonia,
+ignoring altogether the special difficulty that "Macedonia" means
+something quite different to the Serb, the Bulgar and the Greek. He
+dismisses likewise the universal difficulty of plebiscites, which is to
+be just in laying down the limits of the various regions. But there is
+really no need for Mr. Buxton to take us on to those quagmires, since he
+knows, and is good enough to tell us, what the result of the plebiscite
+will be. "The Bulgarian sympathies," says he, "of the mass of the
+Macedonian population are apparent to every inquiring traveller." If Mr.
+Buxton were to encounter one of those pretty lawless Karaka�an
+nomads, who from the Monastir district wander all over the Balkans, his
+recognition of the man's Roman and Thraco-Illyrian descent would be
+facilitated by the permanent cheesy odour which pervades his person.
+There is nothing so permanent about the Macedonian Slav. His
+sympathies, as is natural, have gone out to that Balkan country which
+cultivated him and since, as Dr. Milovanović, the Serbian statesman,
+says, "the Serbs did not begin to think about Macedonia till 1885," it
+would indeed have been extraordinary if the Macedonian Slavs--whose
+ethnical position, as scientists agree, is such a vague one--had been
+generally drawn to Serbia. One cannot help feeling that in this book Mr.
+Buxton does a serious disservice to his reputation as a Balkan expert.
+He says that Serbia until the accession of King Peter was Austrophil;
+which is, to put it mildly, a very sweeping remark--only that party
+which called itself Progressive was identified with Milan's views. He
+praises the Bulgars for being devoted to their national Church, and
+praises them for producing a large number of Protestants, whose
+sincerity, etc., so that one presumes he would have praised them still
+more if the whole nation, as was once on the cards, had joined the
+Protestant Church. Save me from my friends! the Bulgars might say. What
+is perfectly sincere about them is their patriotism; and while some of
+those who now change their religion have doubtless no ulterior, personal
+motive, the entire country would probably have as little reluctance as
+Japan in adopting any religion which, like the Exarchist Church of
+to-day, would be an instrument of the national cause. Mr. Buxton's
+knowledge of the Balkan protagonists has its limitations; for example,
+prior to Bulgaria's entry into the War he was all for the removal of the
+British Minister on account of his pro-Serbian sympathies, but he says
+no word about M. Savinsky, the Russian Minister, who was left by his
+Entente colleagues to play the first violin. This capricious gentleman
+was no diplomat, but a courtier. He did not even protest when German
+munitions for Turkey passed through Roumania, and far too much of his
+time was spent in motoring with pretty girls in the neighbourhood of
+Sofia. Many good observers were of opinion that with a more competent
+Russian representative, such as M. Nekludoff, who in 1914 was
+transferred to Stockholm, the situation would have been saved. In their
+memorandum submitted in January 1915 to Lord (then Sir Edward) Grey,
+Messrs. N. and C. R. Buxton said that their experience of fifteen years
+convinced them that the Bulgarian sentiment of the Macedonians could
+not in a short time be made to give way to another national sentiment.
+If we rule out, as being slaves of circumstance, all the Macedonians who
+now tell you that from Bulgar they have changed to Serb, there is no
+reason why we should not credit those who are so weary of the rival
+activities of both parties that they wish for peace and nothing else.
+They would follow, not the Messrs. Buxton, but the priest of the
+Bulgarian village of Chuprenia, who told me that he held that one might
+pray to God for the success of the Bulgarian arms, without saying
+whether they were in the right or in the wrong. After the end of the war
+this priest sent a telegram, which was perhaps a little indiscreet,
+advocating that the Bulgarian people should join in Yugoslavia.
+
+To prevent the Southern Slavs being torn by internal strife, it is
+necessary between Serbia and Bulgaria that one of them should for a time
+be paramount. We may be confident that Serbia will not abuse her
+position. In fact it is the opinion of a Roumanian lady at Monastir that
+the Serbs were uncommonly rash in taking into their service so many who
+once had called themselves Bulgars and now maintain that they are Serbs.
+But Serbia has become relatively so strong that she can be indulgent.
+She will even satisfy that Bulgarian professor who is said to have
+discussed the Macedonian question with the British military attaché.
+
+The attaché suggested a division between Serbia and Bulgaria.
+
+"No," said the professor; "let the country remain a whole, like the
+child before Solomon."
+
+"Would you be satisfied?" asked the attaché, "if this question were now
+decided once and for all?"
+
+"Yes," said the professor, "if the judge be another Solomon."
+
+Among the Bulgars who are looking forward to the day when their country
+will, in some form or other, join Yugoslavia, there are some who suggest
+that when comparative tranquillity has been assured upon the Macedonian
+frontiers (that is to say, between Macedonia and the Albanians) it would
+be as well to garrison the province with Croatian regiments, pending
+the employment in their own country of Macedonian troops. Gradually the
+time will come when, as one of the units of the Yugoslav State,
+Macedonia will enjoy the same amount of Home Rule as the other
+provinces. She will then, maybe, decide for herself such matters as the
+preservation of her dialects, local administration, police, etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going to sail from one of
+these countries to her neighbour with whom she had recently been at war,
+and some of the inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was
+presented, amongst other things, with an old gentleman's good wishes,
+which he had taken the trouble to express in French and in verse. I
+believe that he recited them, but there was a considerable tumult on the
+landing-stage. Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of my ears
+and began to tell me that they were for detaining him in this country;
+three or four natives of the country reported, simultaneously, into my
+other ear that he had been letting off his revolver and was altogether a
+dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail or not, and
+meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore. He waved his passport in my
+face. Both he and his opponents were gesticulating with great violence,
+and this they continued to do even after I filled their hands with most
+of the small and large bouquets which the friendly people had brought
+down for me. There was so much noise that the boat's whistle, which the
+captain started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly over
+those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself from those who
+encircled me I caught sight of the old gentleman of the poem--in
+appearance he was a smaller edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity;
+he was clearly nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he
+extended towards me, written on the back of one of his visiting-cards. I
+was just then being told by the agitated traveller that he had only been
+firing into the air because it was Easter, and that this was his
+invariable custom at midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so
+satisfactory that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he should sail
+and that they should send his revolver on to him by parcel post. They
+all shook hands with him. The two nationalities were on excellent terms.
+And we may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them and the
+other Yugoslavs:
+
+    Oh! la belle journée de votre bonheur,
+    Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-à-l'heure.
+    Couronné de grands succès du ciel je vous implore,
+    Allegrèsse, santé et prosperité je vous augure.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 116: Cf. _Modern Italy_, by Giovanni Borghese. Paris,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 117: Cf. _Through the Lands of the Serb_.]
+
+    [Footnote 118: Cf. _The Children of the Illuminator_, by Bishop
+    Nicholai Velimirović. London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 119: _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920 (anonymous).]
+
+    [Footnote 120: Subsequently printed as a pamphlet with the
+    title, _Die Ausgestaltung des deutschen Kultur-Einflusses in
+    Bulgarien_. This was printed by the Opposition parties in
+    Sofia, who to circumvent the censor gave out that it was
+    written by an Englishman against Bratiano.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF VOLUME II
+
+(_The Names of Books, Newspapers, and Ships are in Italics._)
+
+
+Abbazia, Conditions at, 72 _et seq._
+
+Achikou (Kol), brother of Anthony, 326.
+
+Achikou (Prof. Anthony), the Mirdite, 285, 327 _et seq._
+
+_Adeverul_, its claims, 363.
+
+Agrarian Reform in Czecho-Slovakia, 136.
+-- -- in Hungary, 135.
+-- -- in Yugoslavia, 132 _et seq._
+
+Ahmed Beg Mati, 282-3.
+
+_Albanais_, _Les_, quoted, 352.
+
+_Albanesische Studien_, quoted, 287.
+
+Albanians against Austrian army, 100.
+-- compared with Basques, 294.
+-- -- -- Kurds, 311.
+-- of Dalmatia, 38.
+-- and the land in Yugoslavia, 136-7.
+
+_Albanie Independente_, quoted, 292.
+
+_Albanien und die Albanesen_, quoted, 288.
+
+Alberti (Mario), his _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, 66.
+
+Alexander (King) and the Communists, 221.
+-- -- and the Croats, 400.
+-- -- on the Italians, 60, 120.
+
+Ambassadors' Conference, 273, 337 _et seq._, 349 _et seq._
+
+Ambris (A. di) and the British boots, 219.
+
+Anglo-Albanian Society, 296, 306, 323.
+
+Apponyi (Count), on Hungary's neighbours, 371.
+
+Asquith (H. H.) and Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Austrian activities in Albania, 277-8, 281, 286, 292, 303, 316-7, 320.
+
+Austrians in Montenegro, 97 _et seq._
+-- their hospitals, 97-8.
+
+Austrians, their parliamentary manners, 224.
+
+Autonomists, the old party, 29, 35-6, 45-6, 159 _et seq._
+--the Rieka party, 46, 54, 261.
+
+Avramović of the Peasants' party, 242.
+
+
+Badoglio (General) and the coal-supply, 215-6.
+
+Balkan Committee, 347.
+
+Banat, after the War, 124 _et seq._, 362 _et seq._
+
+Baroš, _see_ Rieka.
+
+Bartlett (C. A. H.) and Italy's rights, 139.
+
+Basri Bey, 292-3.
+
+Beaumont (A.), the correspondent, 47, 53, 55-6, 64.
+
+Belloc (H.), his curious ideas, 25-6, 35.
+
+_Bellum Gallicum_, quoted, 287.
+
+Bencivenga (General) and the Albanians, 280.
+
+Benelli (Sem), poet and warrior,
+140.
+
+Berati Bey, the delegate, 273.
+
+Berlin Congress and two villages, 304.
+
+_Bessa Shqyptare_, its existence, 285-6.
+
+Bib Doda, Prenk, 291, 324-5.
+
+Bissolati, the gallant Minister, 80 _et seq._, 85-6, 152.
+
+Blakeney, for Rieka, 268.
+
+Blood-vengeance, Monsignor Bumçi on, 285.
+-- Miss Durham on, 287.
+-- how it may be washed out, 298.
+-- its high-water mark, 288.
+-- its prevalence, 293, 330.
+-- its relative decline, 283.
+
+Bobrikoff (General), on religion in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Bogić (Dr.), the victim, 149 _et seq._
+
+Bojana, perilous for French boats, 96.
+
+Bojanić (Dom Ivo), his protest, 175.
+
+Borghese (Prince Livio), 375.
+
+Bosnia and Agrarian Reform, 132-3, 221.
+-- after the War, 106 _et seq._, 220-1.
+
+_Bosnische Post_, quoted, 95.
+
+Boxich (Dr.), the results of truthfulness, 164-5.
+
+Brodie (Captain), his exploit, 306 _et seq._
+
+Brunhes (Prof. Jean), cited, 350.
+
+Bryce (Roland), his Montenegrin report, 253 _et seq._
+
+Bufani, of the Banat, 370.
+
+Bukvich (Captain), the Intelligence Officer, 158 _et seq._
+
+Bulgars, some characteristics, 403-4.
+-- and the future, 405 _et seq._
+
+Bumçi (Monsignor), the mild Regent, 281, 283, 284, 285, 290-1.
+
+Buonfiglio (R.), the journalist, 176, 178, 182.
+
+Burić (V.), 193-4.
+
+Burrows (the late Prof.) and the Albanians, 276.
+
+Buxton (Noel), 347, 405 _et seq._
+-- -- his _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, 405.
+
+
+Cagni (Admiral) at Pola, 23-4, 44.
+
+Candrea (Prof.), his map, 364.
+
+Cappone (Colonel) of Å ibenik, 35, 145.
+
+Carducci, quoted, 83.
+
+Carinthia, hostilities, 124, 128 _et seq._
+-- the plebiscite, 374 _et seq._
+
+Cecil (Lord Robert) and the Albanians, 323, 327, 328-9.
+
+Čekonić (Count) and the Dobrovoljci, 135.
+
+Centurione, the deputy, 78.
+
+Chauvinism, Serbian lack of, 348-9, 384.
+
+_Chicago Tribune_, quoted, 198-9.
+
+Chimigò (Prof.) and the Italians, 282.
+
+Church in Albania, 291.
+-- -- in Croatia, 242-3, 245.
+-- -- in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Cicoli (Admiral) and Austria's collapse, 18-9.
+
+Clemenceau (G.), 23, 93, 199, 213 _et seq._, 284.
+
+ÄŒokorilo and his undesirable newspaper, 109 _et seq._
+
+Colajanni and the Slovenes, 388.
+
+Communists in Yugoslavia, 221 _et seq._, 238, 254.
+
+_Contemporary Review_, quoted, 15, 247-8.
+
+_Corriere d'Italia_ (and _see_ Buonfiglio), 215.
+
+Costume, Absence of, 287-8.
+
+Cres, Italian measures at, 42, 56 _et seq._
+
+Croats and Agrarian Reform, 133 _et seq._, 221.
+-- -- and Magyars, 246.
+-- -- their relations to the Serbs, 111 _et seq._, 220, 240 _et seq._,
+                                    244 _et seq._, 251-2, 397 _et seq._
+
+Crosse (Rev. E. C.), his _The Defeat of Austria_, 14.
+
+Cunnington (Captain Willett), his accusation, 306, 309.
+
+Cvijić (Prof.), his views, 275.
+
+
+_Daily Telegraph_, quoted, 47.
+
+Dalmatia, why demanded by Italians, 87 _et seq._
+-- -- deportations from, 152.
+-- -- population, 148-9, 230-1.
+-- -- how treated by Italians, 148 _et seq._
+
+_Dalmazia_, a newspaper, 171 _et seq._
+
+D'Annunzio, his absurdity, 86.
+-- -- the Holy Entry, 196.
+-- -- various exploits at Rieka, 208 _et seq._
+-- -- his invective, 83.
+-- -- his munificence, 280-1.
+-- -- in temporary possession, 198 _et seq._
+-- -- his thousand proclamations, 197.
+-- -- disapproves of Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5.
+
+Darković, the respected deputy, 96.
+
+Davidović, leader of Democrats, 225.
+
+Dell (Anthony) on the Italians, 15.
+
+Delonga (Jakov), his testimony, 76.
+
+Devine (A.) and his propaganda, 193-4, 227-8.
+
+Djakovica, 293, 298 _et seq._
+
+Djer Doucha, the villain, 307.
+
+Djoni (Mark), President of the Mirditi, 324, 325, 328, 342.
+
+Doci (Primo), the great Abbot, 324.
+
+Doday (Father Paul), 286.
+
+Doimi (Dr.) of Vis, 29.
+
+Domiakušić (Prof.) at Šibenik, 144.
+
+Donghi (Marchese), his assertions, 26-7.
+
+Draghicesco (Dr.), his _Les Roumains de Serbie_, 356.
+
+Drašković, his murder, 223-4.
+
+Drin, river, as a frontier, 279, 302, 304, 321.
+
+Durham (Edith), apologist, 289, 290.
+-- -- compared with Sir Charles Eliot, 310 _et seq._
+-- -- disgusted with Great Britain, 313.
+-- -- her _Through the Lands of the Serb_, 395.
+-- -- her _Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_, 310.
+-- -- her respect for Mr. Bottomley, 311.
+-- -- her wrath, 305.
+-- -- on Albanian medicine, 288.
+-- -- on the tyranny of Serbian schools, 297.
+
+
+_Echo de l'Adriatique_, its suppression, 62-3.
+
+_Edinburgh Review_, quoted, 230, 399.
+
+_Edinost_, quoted, 123.
+
+Eliot (Sir Charles), 274, 289, 310 _et seq._
+
+Entente, Little, 269 _et seq._
+
+_Epopea Shqyptare_, quoted, 284.
+
+Essad and Essadists, 292-3, 336, 342-3, 345.
+
+European War and the Albanians, 312-3, 317, 345-6.
+
+Evangheli (Pandeli), 345.
+
+Evans (Sir Arthur), 67, 184 _et seq._
+
+
+Fan Noli, the versatile, 327-8.
+
+Fascisti, 78, 217, 260 _et seq._
+
+Fichta (Father), 284, 293.
+
+Fisher (Rt. Hon. H. A. L.), 340 _et seq._
+
+Fiume, _see_ Rieka.
+
+Fodor (Prof. Dr.), on race, 8.
+
+_Fortnightly Review_, quoted, 20, 26, 269, 275, 280, 324, 333.
+
+Franchet d'Espérey (Marshal) and Albania, 274, 278-9, 350, 351.
+-- -- -- and Montenegro, 96, 103.
+
+Frank party in Croatia, 114.
+
+French, how they regarded the Italians, 63-4, 96, 199.
+-- how treated by the Italians, 42, 198-9.
+
+Freund (Leo), the secret agent, 281.
+
+Frontier, Yugoslav, with Albania, 273 _et seq._
+-- -- with Austria, 374 _et seq._
+-- -- with Bulgaria, 354-5.
+-- -- with Greece, 353-4.
+-- -- with Hungary, 370 _et seq._
+-- -- with Italy, 383 _et seq._
+-- -- with Roumania, 356 _et seq._
+
+
+Gaeta army, 187, 228.
+
+Gardner (E.), on Balkanic mentality, 236.
+
+Gauvain, the publicist, 90.
+
+Gavazzi (Dr. A.), on Rieka's population, 54.
+
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_, quoted, 197.
+
+"Géographie Humaine de la France," quoted, 350.
+
+Germans, in Banat, 363 _et seq._
+-- in Carinthia, 374 _et seq._
+
+Giglioli (Prof.), his claim, 79, 80.
+
+Giolitti, 78, 210, 219, 234.
+
+Giuratti, the patriot, 264-5.
+
+_Glasgow Herald_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Glomažić, the lame prefect, 105, 192.
+
+Goad (H. E.), his explanations, 90, 269, 275, 280, 325, 333.
+-- -- his wrath, 231, 324, 350.
+
+Godart (Justin), his work in Albania, 279, 334.
+-- -- his _L'Albanie en 1921_, 351.
+
+Gorica, its population, 388-9.
+
+Gothardi of Rieka, 46-7.
+
+_Grazer Tagblatt_, 378.
+
+Grazioli (General) at Rieka, 54, 62.
+
+Grossich (Dr.) of Rieka, 48, 140, 258-9.
+
+Grubišić and his flag, 260.
+
+Gusinje, its past and future, 304 _et seq._
+
+
+Hahn (Consul), his labours, 287.
+
+Halim Beg Derala, 285, 298.
+
+Hanotaux (Gabriel), 294, 351.
+
+Haumant (E.), his _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie_, 89.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), 288.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 257.
+-- -- his propaganda, 327.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), his request, 323.
+-- -- his testimony, 306.
+-- -- the 120 villages, 296.
+
+Hickmann (Prof.), cited, 346.
+
+_Histoire illustrée de la guerre de 1914_, quoted, 351.
+
+Hlaća (Karlo) of Cres, 56 _et seq._
+
+Horthy (Admiral) at Pola, 17 _et seq._, 270.
+
+_Hrvat_, on the Carinthian plebiscite, 382-3.
+
+_Humanité_, 76.
+
+_Hungarian Nation_, quoted, 8.
+
+Hvar, its interesting names, 32-3.
+-- the Italians land on, 32 _et seq._
+
+
+Imperiali (Marquis), his submission, 329.
+
+Islamism, Fanatic, of some Albanians, 299.
+-- Superficial, of other, 281.
+-- Treatment of, by Greek Church, 301.
+-- Treatment of, by Montenegrins, 302.
+
+Islands of Adriatic, demanded by Italy, 166 _et seq._
+-- -- -- visited, 165 _et seq._
+
+Istria, its population, 121, 386 _et seq._
+
+Italianists of Dalmatia and Rieka, 35, 39, 40, 54, 137 _et seq._, 158, 175.
+
+Italians (and _see_ Dalmatia) and Allied flags, 145, 155, 178.
+-- reprimanded by their Allies, 161-2.
+-- loyalty to Austria in the War, 159 _et seq._
+-- system of bribery, 156 _et seq._, 163, 170, 176.
+-- land in Dalmatia, 29 _et seq._
+-- discouragement in 1917, 11.
+-- conduct towards the French, 42, 52, 198-9.
+-- what they thought of the French, 94.
+-- generosity in Albania, 282, 328, 333, 344.
+-- Good and bad, on the islands, 168 _et seq._
+-- incapacity, 275, 278, 319.
+-- intrigues, 274, 279, 280 _et seq._, 292, 303, 305, 329, 337-8, 351.
+
+Italians land in Istria, 42 _et seq._
+-- and the Dalmatians' money, 37-8, 147-8, 153-4, 163.
+-- in Montenegro, 94 _et seq._, 105, 187 _et seq._, 194-5.
+-- naval enterprise, 123-4.
+-- naval enterprise, lack of, 16 _et seq._, 27-8.
+-- measures at Rab, 59, 60.
+-- measures against Rieka, 262 _et seq._
+-- measures at Rieka, 48, 52, 195 _et seq._
+-- against the Serbo-Croat language, 57.
+-- retreat from Slovenia, 61.
+-- what they had to face in 1918, 12 _et seq._
+-- how they regard the Yugoslavs, 16, 84.
+-- how they are regarded by the Yugoslavs, 15-6, 27-8, 201, 236-7.
+-- relations with Yugoslavs, 383 _et seq._
+-- steps against Yugoslav churches and schools, 44, 57 _et seq._, 146-7,
+                                                152-3, 184.
+
+_Italy in the Balkans at this Hour_, quoted, 292.
+
+
+Jaray (Gabriel Louis), 352.
+
+Jire�ek (Dr. C.), his _Die Handelsstrassen, etc._, 33.
+
+_Journal des Débats_, 76, 91, 329, 339.
+
+
+Kadri (Hodja), 283.
+
+Karl (ex-Emperor), his grand offer, 320.
+
+Karólyi (Count Michael), 125.
+
+Katarani (Prof.), 292.
+
+Klementi, 316 _et seq._
+
+Koch (Admiral), the active Slovene, 17 _et seq._
+
+Korac, the remarkable Socialist, 117-8.
+
+Kor�ula, Italians land on, 31-2.
+
+Korošec (Monsignor), 115, 117, 119, 382.
+
+_Koroski Slovenec_, 383.
+
+"Kossovo" Committee, 326.
+
+Kossovo in Yugoslavia, its condition, 287.
+
+Kovaćs (A.), turns to the Croats, 8.
+
+Krk, the persecuted Bishop, 40 _et seq._
+-- Proceedings at, 39 _et seq._
+
+
+_Labour Monthly_ on the "White Terror," 224.
+
+_Land and Water_, quoted, 25, 35.
+
+Language of Bosnia, 89.
+
+Laveleye (M. de), his _The Balkan Peninsula_, 203.
+
+_Lavoratore_, quoted, 217, 386.
+
+Lazari, his question, 187.
+
+League of Nations, 323, 337 _et seq._
+
+Leiper (R.), the shrewd observer, 104, 188-9, 242.
+
+Lenac (Dr.) of Rieka, 45, 50, 52.
+
+_Leonidas_, the American ship, 31-2.
+
+Lesina, _see_ Hvar.
+
+Leyland (John), the naval authority, 25.
+
+Liga Nazionale, its schools, 59, 158, 184, 318.
+
+Lin, a village, 342.
+
+Lincoln, quoted, 209.
+
+Lissa, _see_ Vis.
+
+Ljocha (Alush) and his house, 283-4.
+
+Lloyd George (D.) and the Adriatic, 93, 213-4.
+-- -- and the Serbo-Albanian frontier, 284, 336 _et seq._
+
+Lovrana, 73-4.
+
+Luzzatti, compares two civilizations, 172.
+
+
+Macchiedo (Dr.), liberated from Sardinia, 152.
+
+Macdonald (J. N.), his _A Political Escapade_, 199, 258, 327.
+
+Macedonia, and the Communists, 222-3.
+-- its progress and future, 137, 202, 405 _et seq._
+
+Magnanimity of the Serbs, 124 _et seq._, 270.
+
+Magyar hopes, 270.
+
+Mahnić (Bishop), _see_ Krk.
+
+_Manchester Guardian_, quoted, 21, 186, 236, 313.
+
+Mandirazza (F.) and his two masters, 84.
+
+Marković (Dr. Lazar), 337.
+
+Marković (Sima), the Communist, 223-4, 238.
+
+Martinić (Count), his ruthlessness, 98-9.
+
+Martinović (General), 346.
+
+Massingham (H. W.), 192.
+
+_Mattino_, quoted, 75.
+
+Maximović (Colonel) at Rieka, 51-2.
+
+Mazzini, and Vis, 82.
+
+_Mercure de France_, quoted, 123.
+
+Miletić (Captain), his murder, 195.
+
+Millo (Admiral), on Austrian currency, 153.
+-- -- on Dr. Boxich, 165.
+-- -- and d'Annunzio, 197, 209, 215.
+-- -- Homage to, 87.
+-- -- discourses on public order, 174.
+-- -- on the Slavs, 141 _et seq._
+
+Milovanović (Dr.), on Macedonia, 406.
+
+Minorities in Yugoslavia, 201 _et seq._
+
+Mirditi, 290, 323 _et seq._, 340 _et seq._
+
+M'Neill (Ronald, M.P.), champion of Montenegro, 95, 102, 191, 253 _et seq._
+
+Montaigne, quoted, 194.
+
+Montenegrins and Albanians, 136-7.
+-- and the Austrian army, 98 _et seq._
+-- their culture, 393 _et seq._
+-- their General Election, 253 _et seq._
+-- as migrants, 228.
+-- misled, 94, 187-8.
+
+Montesquieu, quoted, 90.
+
+Moretti (Dr.), his pacific efforts, 180-1.
+
+_Morning Post_, quoted, 88, 104, 188-9, 191, 218, 242, 257, 336, 400.
+
+Moslems in Bosnia, 119, 202-3, 220-1, 225, 393.
+
+Mousset (Albert), 339.
+
+Müller (Dr. Max) and Albanian affairs, 276 _et seq._
+
+
+Narodna Uprava, 127.
+
+_Nation_, quoted, 192, 267, 310.
+
+_Nazione_, quoted, 261.
+
+_Near East_, quoted, 257, 309, 337, 346-7.
+
+_Neue Freie Presse_, quoted, 124.
+
+_New Europe_, quoted, 79, 80, 84-5, 123, 369.
+
+_New Statesman_, quoted, 296, 309.
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his lack of courage, 9.
+-- -- deposed, 100 _et seq._
+-- -- his downfall, 255 _et seq._
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his methods with Albanians, 289.
+-- -- his methods with Europe, 304.
+-- -- and the Skupština, 106.
+
+Nikai (Dom Ndoc), 285.
+
+_Nineteenth Century and After_, quoted, 25, 95, 102, 256.
+
+Nitti and d'Annunzio, 196, 198, 201, 209, 210, 212-3, 215-6, 218.
+
+Nopsca (Baron), 274, 288.
+
+Novi Bazar, Sandjak, 108, 119, 316-7.
+
+
+Obradović (Dositej), 315.
+
+Obrovac, Divergent views concerning, 148.
+
+_Observer_, quoted, 340.
+
+_Obzor_, a newspaper, 115.
+
+Orlando, the Premier, 78, 80, 85-6, 91, 138, 185.
+
+
+Pact of Rome, 84 _et seq._, 185.
+
+Paolucci (Lieut.), and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Parkington (Sir R.), 194.
+
+Parties, Political, in Yugoslavia, 117 _et seq._
+
+Pašić, his astuteness, 85, 117, 240.
+-- his prudence, 133, 225.
+
+Patchoù (Dr.), of the triumvirate, 225, 282.
+
+Pavelić (Dr. A.), dentist and politician, 114-5, 117, 119.
+
+Peć, 293, 298.
+
+Pelagosa, its amenities, 167.
+
+Pericone (Captain) of Scutari, 280, 343.
+
+Pistuli (Notz), his mission, 328.
+
+Pivko (Prof.), his exploit, 13.
+
+Plamenac (J.) and the Gaeta army 187.
+-- -- his unpopularity, 94-5.
+
+Plav, 304 _et seq._
+
+Podgorica Skupština, 100 _et seq._
+
+Poggi (Lieut.), at Kor�ula, 31, 183.
+
+Pojar (Dr.), his case, 390.
+
+Pola, 16 _et seq._, 42, 44, 387-8.
+
+Pombara (Captain Binnos de), his feat, 27-8.
+
+Pommerol (Captain), on the islands, 165 _et seq._
+
+Popović (Dr. Dušan), 246-7, 399.
+
+Popovitch (Dr. A.), his curious
+career, 356 _et seq._
+
+_Posta e Shqypnis_, quoted, 284.
+
+_Pravda_, quoted, 336.
+
+_Pravi Dalmatinac_, 73.
+
+Prekomurdje, what happened there, 372 _et seq._
+
+Prênnushi (Father Vincent), 286, 344.
+
+Prezzolini (G.), on Dalmatia and Tripoli, 82.
+-- -- and Vis, 82.
+
+Pribi�ević (Svetozar), the Minister, 44, 117-8, 225-6, 240-1,
+                                     245 _et seq._, 399.
+
+_Primorske Novine_, quoted, 92.
+
+Priština, Horrid conditions at, 298.
+
+Protić, the statesman, 113, 225-6.
+
+
+_Quarterly Review_, on Yugoslavia, 226, 247.
+
+
+Race before religion, 390-1.
+
+Ra�ić (Pouniša), 278, 306 _et seq._, 330.
+
+Radić (S.) of Croatia, 111 _et seq._, 119, 135-6, 238 _et seq._, 399.
+-- -- his _Dom_, 242-3.
+
+Radošević (Dr.), 118.
+
+Radović (Andrija), 187-8.
+
+Raineri (Admiral), 49 _et seq._
+
+Rapallo, Treaty of, 83, 211, 232 _et seq._, 260 _et seq._, 384.
+
+Rapp, his testimonial, 125.
+
+_Rassegna Italiana_, quoted, 63.
+
+Re-Bartlett (Mrs.), on Dalmatia, 230-1.
+
+Red Cross, American, 189.
+-- -- International, 189.
+-- -- Italian, 216.
+
+Regnault (E.), his _Histoire politique, etc._, 358.
+
+Religion before race, 372.
+
+Rieka, _see_ D'Annunzio and Vio.
+-- Americans at, 52.
+-- the Austrian stores, 216 _et seq._
+-- Baroš harbour, 260, 268.
+-- the C.N.I., 45 _et seq._, 49, 54, 61-2, 140, 197, 212, 216 _et seq._,
+               258 _et seq._
+-- Croat mistakes, 48-9.
+-- Croat National Council, 45 _et seq._, 62-3.
+-- economic position, 66 _et seq._
+-- the frenzy, 137 _et seq._
+-- moribund under Italy, 259, 260.
+-- population analysed, 53 _et seq._
+-- a few scandals, 216 _et seq._
+
+Rieka and the Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5, 385 _et seq._
+
+_Rijeć_, quoted, 64.
+
+Ristić (Colonel) and the komitadjis, 194-5.
+
+Rossetti (Major) and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Roth (Dr.), Lord of Temešvar, 127-8.
+
+Roumanians in Banat, 9, 10, 362 _et seq._
+-- and their Jews, 203 _et seq._
+-- in Serbia, 356 _et seq._
+
+Rugovo, Reason for burning of, 305.
+
+Ryan (T. S.) of the _Chicago Tribune_, 198-9.
+
+
+Salis (Count de), his mission, 190-1.
+
+Salonica, and the Serbs, 353-4.
+
+Salvemini (Prof.), the anti-chauvinist, 87, 231-2, 234.
+
+Salvi (Dr.) of Split, 159 _et seq._
+
+_Samouprava_, quoted, 337.
+
+San Marzano (General di), 51-2, 54, 61.
+
+Sanctis (Lieut. de), his sanctions, 163.
+
+Saseno, 295.
+
+_Saturday Review_, 231.
+
+Savinsky, the Russian Minister, 406.
+
+Sazonov, and the Adriatic, 91-2.
+
+Schanzer (Signor), on Rieka, 264-5.
+
+Schools, _see_ Liga Nazionale.
+-- for Albanians, 300.
+-- in Carinthia, 377-8.
+-- at Cres, 57-8.
+-- in Dalmatia, 146-7.
+-- in Istria, 73-4.
+-- at Kor�ula, 184.
+-- Militant, at Borgo Erizzo, 38.
+-- in Montenegro, 257.
+-- at Pola, 44.
+-- at Rieka, 53.
+-- at Å ibenik, 144-5.
+-- at Zadar, 35.
+
+_Scotsman_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Scutari, its probable future, 296, 320, 335.
+
+Sebenico, _see_ Å ibenik.
+
+_Secolo_, on Montenegro, 257.
+-- on Treaty of London, 50.
+
+_Secours des Enfants Serbes_, _Au_, 27.
+
+Segré (General), his alleged request, 140.
+
+_Sera_, quoted, 280.
+
+Serbo-Croat Coalition, 245 _et seq._
+
+Serbs, in relation to Albanians, 295 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Croats (and _see_ Croats), 115 _et seq._, 397 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Montenegrins, 188-9, 192-3, 253 _et seq._, 393 _et seq._
+
+Sereggi (Archbishop), 281-4.
+
+Seton-Watson (Dr. R. W.), 236, 347, 354.
+
+Sforza (Count), his letter, 268.
+
+Å ibenik, 30, 33 _et seq._, 144-5.
+
+Siebertz, the traveller, 288, 291.
+
+Šimunović (M.) and the Italians, 32.
+
+Slovenes (_see_ Carinthia), their country, 120 _et seq._, 235-6, 245.
+-- their culture, 392-3.
+-- their political methods, 114-5, 374 _et seq._
+
+Socialists, Italian, and Rieka, 211-2.
+
+Å ojat (F.) and Dr. Vio, 69.
+
+Sonnino (Baron), 28, 75 _et seq._, 85-6, 93, 122, 138, 167, 185, 374, 384.
+
+_Spectator_, quoted, 230.
+
+Sportiello (Captain) at Vis, 30.
+
+Stadler (Lieut.-Colonel), the podestà, 74, 137.
+
+Stamboulüsky as a Yugoslav, 399.
+
+Stamps, at Zagreb, 72.
+
+Star�ević party in Croatia, 117, 119, 248.
+
+Steed (H. Wickham), his letter, 77.
+
+Steinen (Dr. H. von den) and the Bulgars, 404.
+
+Steinmetz, the traveller, 290.
+
+Štiglić and the poor officials, 63.
+
+Strossmayer, Radić on, 239.
+
+_Suisse_, _La_, quoted, 328.
+
+Supilo, of Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Sušak, 54-5.
+
+Susmel (Edoardo), the writer, 62.
+
+Å vegel (Ivan), on Italian shipping policy, 123-4.
+
+Svibić (Colonel) and the Italians, 61.
+
+Sydenham (Lord), his lack of discretion, 95, 188-9.
+
+Szeged, its position, 369.
+
+
+_Tablet_, quoted, 40.
+
+Tamaro (Dr. A.) and _Modern Italy_, 94.
+
+Tardieu, his suggestion concerning Rieka, 195.
+
+Taylor (A. H. E.), on Prekomurdje, 373.
+
+Temešvar in transition, 126 _et seq._, 367.
+
+Temperley (Major H. W. V.), on Albania, 338-9.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 254-5.
+-- -- his _A History of the Peace Conference_, 354.
+-- -- his _The Second Year of the League_, 338.
+
+_Tempo_, on the Rieka deputations, 212.
+
+_Temps_, quoted, 213, 336.
+
+Teslić (Colonel), 50-1.
+
+_Times_, quoted, 131, 344-5.
+
+Tittoni, and Rieka, 195, 199.
+
+Tomić (Jaša), the old-fashioned, 116, 397.
+
+Treaty of London, 28-9, 33, 50, 60, 75 _et seq._, 80, 82, 90 _et seq._,
+                  120, 213, 278.
+-- -- Rapallo, _see_ Rapallo.
+
+Trešić-Pavi�ić (Dr. A.), 19, 20.
+
+Trevelyan (G. M.), on the Italians in Dalmatia, 235.
+
+_Tribuna_, quoted, 75, 77.
+
+_Tribune de Genève_, quoted, 327.
+
+Triest, what is desirable, 122.
+-- its future, 44, 386 _et seq._
+-- Italians and Slovenes, 123.
+-- its population, 121.
+
+Trogir, the great invasion, 200-1.
+
+Trumbić (Dr. A.), 86, 252, 321.
+
+_Turkey in Europe_, quoted, 289.
+
+
+_Under the Acroceraunian Mountains_, 327, 351.
+
+_Unità_, quoted, 87.
+
+
+Veglia, _see_ Krk.
+
+Velika Kikinda, its necessities, 368.
+
+Velimirović (Bishop), his _The Children of the Illuminator_, 398.
+
+Venizelos and the Serbs, 353-4.
+-- and Thrace, 355.
+
+Veprinac, its population, 44.
+
+Verdinois (Major), his word, 179, 180.
+
+_Verrath bei Carzano_, _Der_, 13.
+
+Veršac, the former Bishop's declaration, 202.
+
+Veršac, scene of Roumanian activities, 10.
+
+Vesnić (Dr.) and the Italians, 233-4, 237.
+
+Vešović (General), his enterprises, 98, 228-9.
+
+Vio (Dr.) of Rieka, 29, 45-6, 48, 54-5, 68 _et seq._
+
+Vis, Italians land on, 29, 30.
+-- concerning its possession, 82-3.
+
+Vivante (A.), his _L'irredentismo adriatico_, 122.
+
+Vivian (H.), his ferocity, 191.
+
+Volosca, 73-4.
+
+_Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen_, quoted, 290.
+
+Vukotić (Voivoda), his answer, 103.
+
+Vuković (Admiral), his fate, 20 _et seq._
+
+
+Westlake (Prof.), his _International Law_, 139.
+
+Wied (Prince of), erstwhile Mpret, 276-7.
+-- (Princess of), her ladies criticized, 288.
+
+Wilson (President), 63, 92-3, 125, 138-9, 213-4.
+
+
+Xenia (Princess), 103.
+
+
+Yastrebow, the Russian authority, 287.
+
+Yugoslavia, conditions after the War, 226.
+-- her cohesion, 120, 229, 230, 249, 272.
+-- and the future, 236-7, 398-9.
+
+
+Zadar, reception of Italians, 35.
+-- Schools at, 35.
+-- and Treaty of Rapallo, 234, 236, 268-9, 385.
+-- Wild doings at, 37-8.
+
+Zagreb and the future, 398 _et seq._
+-- and the stamps, 72.
+
+_Zagreber Tagblatt_, 264-5.
+
+Zanella (Prof.), 69, 217, 261 _et seq._
+
+Zara, _see_ Zadar.
+
+Zarić (Bishop), and Wilson, 91-2.
+
+Zarić (Prof.), his removal, 169, 170.
+
+Zena Beg, 282-3, 285.
+
+Ziliotto (Dr.) of Zara, 36-7, 164-5.
+
+
+PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
+
+[Illustration: The Map of Yugoslavia]
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Fixed Issues
+
+page 007--inserted a missing apostrophe after 'Italians'
+page 009--typo fixed: changed 'weapoms' to 'weapons'
+page 014--typo fixed: changed 'as' to 'a'
+page 048--typo fixed: changed 'thay' to 'they'
+page 054--typo fixed: changed 'hold' to 'held'
+page 077--typo fixed: changed 'Corriera' to 'Corriere'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'repression'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a period to a comma after 'lend their men'
+page 146--typo fixed: changed 'aproached' to 'approached'
+page 147--typo fixed: changed 'permittep' to 'permitted'
+page 172--removed an extra opening bracket in front of 'There are places'
+page 181--typo fixed: changed 'If was' to 'It was'
+page 189--typo fixed: changed 'Montengrins' to 'Montenegrins'
+page 196--removed an extra opening quote in front of 'As for large'
+page 197--removed an extra closing bracket after '100 lire'
+page 209--typo fixed: inserted a missing period after 'per cent'
+page 222--typo fixed: 'YUGLOSLAVIA' changed to 'YUGOSLAVIA'
+page 317--typo fixed: changed 'irode' to 'rode'
+page 343--typo fixed: changed 'Yulgosav' to 'Yugoslav'
+page 371--typo fixed: changed 'persumably' to 'presumably'
+page 377--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'less regarded'
+page 408--typo fixed: changed 'preservaiton' to 'preservation'
+page 411--inserted a missing comma after 'Books'
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by Henry Baerlein
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2
+
+Author: Henry Baerlein
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2008 [EBook #24781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jason Isbell, Irma Spehar and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Obvious printer's errors have been fixed. See the end of the project
+for the more detailed list.
+
+The formatting of the project has been reproduced as true to the
+original images as possible.
+
+THE LEGEND FOR NON-LATIN-1 CHARACTERS
+
+['c], ['C]   c with acute
+[vc], [vC]   c with caron
+[vs], [vS]   s with caron
+[vz], [vZ]   z with caron
+d[vz], D[vz] d and z with caron
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF
+YUGOSLAVIA
+
+BY
+
+HENRY BAERLEIN
+
+VOLUME II
+
+LONDON
+LEONARD PARSONS
+DEVONSHIRE STREET
+
+_First Published 1922_
+_[All Rights Reserved]_
+
+LEONARD PARSONS LTD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  VI. YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY (AUTUMN 1918 TO AUTUMN 1919)   7
+
+ VII. FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL (1919-1921)                             208
+
+VIII. YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS (1921)                                   272
+
+ IX. CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS                       392
+
+     INDEX                                                            411
+
+     MAP OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD--ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES--THE ITALIAN FRAME OF
+MIND--SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY--AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL
+AFFAIR--WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA--THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS
+UNITIS"--HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA--THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS--WHO
+SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH--AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO
+PRECAUTIONS--ITALIANS' MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS--THEIR TRUCULENCE AT
+KOR[VC]ULA--AND ON HVAR--HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR--WHAT THEY DID
+THERE--PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK--UNHAPPY POLA--WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED--THE
+FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA--THE DRAMA BEGINS--THE I.N.C.--THE CROATS'
+BLUNDER--MELODRAMA--FARCE--PAROLE D'HONNEUR--THE POPULATION OF THE
+TOWN--THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES--RAB IS COMPLETELY
+CAPTURED--AVANTI SAVOIA!--THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA--A CANDID
+FRENCHMAN--ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS--THE TURNCOAT MAYOR--HIS
+FERVOUR--THREE PLEASANT PLACES--ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO--THE
+STATE OF THE CHAMBER--THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY--A FOUNTAIN IN THE
+SAND--THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME--GATHERING WINDS--WHY
+THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA--CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF
+LONDON--ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO--WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF
+THE AUSTRIANS THERE--AND OF THE NATIVES--NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED--THE
+ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM--NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS--THE
+STATE OF BOSNIA--RADI['C] AND HIS PEASANTS--THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH
+THE TIMES--THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES--THE SLOVENE QUESTION--THE
+SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST--MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT--TEME[VS]VAR IN
+TRANSITION--A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA--YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER
+HOUSE IN ORDER--THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM--FRENZY AT RIEKA--ADMIRAL
+MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION--HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT
+[VS]IBENIK--THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS--YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY
+NONCHALANT--ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS--SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS--A GLIMPSE OF THE
+OFFICIAL ROBBERIES--AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY--THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA
+BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR--CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY--ALLIED
+CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY--NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES--A VISIT
+TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS--WHICH THE ITALIANS TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT
+NOT DURING, THE WAR--OUR WELCOME TO JEL[VS]A--PROCEEDINGS AT
+STARIGRAD--THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR--FOUR MEN OF KOMI[VZ]A--THE WOMEN OF
+BI[VS]EVO--ON THE WAY TO BLATO--WHAT THE MAJOR SAID--THE PROTEST OF AN
+ITALIAN JOURNALIST--INTERESTING DELEGATES--A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR
+EVANS--THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO--ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS--VARIOUS
+BRITISH COMMENTATORS--THE MURDER OF MILETI['C]--D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO
+RIEKA--THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR--THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR
+MINORITIES--OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN
+ANTISEMITISM.
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD
+
+With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes saw that one other obstacle to their long-hoped-for union
+had vanished. The dream of centuries was now a little nearer towards
+fulfilment. But many obstacles remained. There would presumably be
+opposition on the part of the Italian and Roumanian Governments, for it
+was too much to hope that these would waive the treaties they had wrung
+from the Entente, and would consent to have their boundaries regulated
+by the wishes of the people living in disputed lands. Some individual
+Italians and Roumanians might even be less reasonable than their
+Governments. If Austria and Hungary were in too great a chaos to have
+any attitude as nations, there would be doubtless local opposition to
+the Yugoslavs. And as soon as the Magyars had found their feet they
+would be sure to bombard the Entente with protestations, setting forth
+that subject nationalities were intended by the Creator to be subject
+nationalities. A large pamphlet, _The Hungarian Nation_, was issued at
+Buda-Pest in February 1920. It displayed a very touching solicitude for
+the Croats, whom the Serbs would be sure to tyrannize most horribly. If
+only Croatia would remain in the Hungarian State, says Mr. A. Kovács,
+Ministerial Councillor in the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, then
+the Magyars would instantly bestow on her both Bosnia (which belonged to
+the Empire as a whole) and Dalmatia (which belonged to Austria). That is
+the worst of being a Ministerial Statistical Councillor. Another
+gentleman, Professor Dr. Fodor, has the bright idea that "the race is
+the multitude of individuals who inhabit one uniform region." ...
+Passing to Yugoslavia's domestic obstacles, it was impossible to think
+that all the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes would forthwith subscribe to
+the Declaration of Corfu and become excellent Yugoslavs. Some would be
+honestly unable to throw off what centuries had done to them, and
+realize that if they had been made so different from their brothers,
+they were brothers still. For ten days there was a partly domestic,
+partly foreign obstacle, but as the King of Montenegro did not take his
+courage in both hands and descend on the shores of that country with an
+Italian army, he lost his chance for ever.
+
+
+ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES
+
+There was indeed far less trouble from the Roumanian than from the
+Italian side. On October 29, 1918, one could say that all military power
+in the Banat was at an end. The Hungarian army took what food it wanted
+and made off, leaving everywhere, in barracks and in villages, guns,
+rifles, ammunition. Vainly did the officers attempt to keep their men
+together. And scenes like this were witnessed all over the Banat. Then
+suddenly, on Sunday, November 3, the Roumanians, that is the Roumanians
+living in the country, made attacks on many villages, and the Roumanians
+of Transylvania acted in a similar fashion. With the Hungarian equipment
+and with weapons of their own they started out to terrorize. Among their
+targets were the village notaries, in whom was vested the administrative
+authority. At Old Moldava, on the Danube, they decapitated the notary, a
+man called Kungel, and threw his head into the river. At a village near
+Anina they buried the notary except for his head, which they proceeded
+to kick until he died. Nor did they spare the notaries of Roumanian
+origin, which made it seem as if this outbreak of lawlessness--directed
+from who knows where--had the high political end of making the country
+appear to the Entente in such a desperate condition that an army must be
+introduced, and as the Serbs were thought to be a long way off, with the
+railways and the roads before them ruined by the Austrians, it looked as
+if Roumania's army was the only one available. On the Monday and the
+Tuesday these Roumanian freebooters, who had all risen on the same day
+in regions extending over hundreds of square kilometres, started
+plundering the large estates. Near Bela Crkva, on the property of Count
+Bissingen-Nippenburg, a German, they did damage to the sum of eight and
+a half million crowns. At the monastery of Me[vs]ica, near Ver[vs]ac,
+the Roumanians of a neighbouring village devastated the archimandrate's
+large library, sacked the chapel and smashed his bee-hives, so that they
+were not impelled by poverty and hunger. In the meantime there had been
+formed at Ver[vs]ac a National Roumanian Military Council. The placard,
+printed of course in Roumanian, is dated Ver[vs]ac, November 4, and is
+addressed to "The Roumanian Officers and Soldiers born in the Banat,"
+and announces that they have formed the National Council. It is a
+Council, we are told, in which one can have every confidence; moreover,
+it is prepared to co-operate in every way with a view to maintaining
+order _în l[)a]untra [s,]i în afar[)a]_ (both internal and external).
+The subjoined names of the committee are numerous; they range from
+Lieut.-Colonel Gavriil Mihailov and Major Petru Jucu downwards to a
+dozen privates. The archimandrate, who fortunately happened to be at his
+house in Ver[vs]ac, begged his friend Captain Singler of the
+_gendarmerie_ to take some steps. About twenty Hungarian officers
+undertook to go, with a machine gun, to the monastery on November 7; at
+eleven on the previous night Mihailov ordered the captain to come to see
+him; he wanted to know by whom this expedition had been authorized. The
+captain answered that Me[vs]ica was in his district, and that he had no
+animus against Roumanians but only against plunderers. After his arrival
+at Me[vs]ica the trouble was brought to an end. Nor was it long before
+the Serbian troops, riding up through their own country at a rate which
+no one had foreseen, crossed the Danube and occupied the Banat, in
+conjunction with the French. The rapidity of this advance astounded the
+Roumanians; they gaped like Lavengro when he wondered how the stones
+ever came to Stonehenge.... When the Serbian commandant at Ver[vs]ac
+invited these enterprising Roumanian officers to an interview he was
+asked by one of them, Major Iricu, whether or not they were to be
+interned. "What made you print that placard?" asked the commandant; and
+they replied that their object had been to preserve order. They had not
+imagined, so they said, that the Serbs would come so quickly. "I will be
+glad," said the commandant, "if you will not do this kind of thing any
+more."
+
+
+THE ITALIAN FRAME OF MIND
+
+Italy was not in a good humour. She was well aware that in the countries
+of her Allies there was a marked tendency to underestimate her
+overwhelming triumphs of the last days of the War. Perhaps those
+exploits would have been more difficult if Austria's army had not
+suffered a deterioration, but still one does not take 300,000 prisoners
+every day. Some faithful foreigners were praising Italy--and she
+deserved it--for having persevered at all after Caporetto. That disaster
+had been greatly due to filling certain regiments with several thousand
+munition workers who had taken part in a revolt at Turin, and then
+concentrating these regiments in the Caporetto salient, which was the
+most vulnerable sector in the eastern Italian front. How much of the
+disaster was due to the Vatican will perhaps never be known. But as for
+the uneducated, easily impressed peasants of the army, it was wonderful
+that all, except the second army and a small part of the third,
+retreated with such discipline in view of what they had been brooding on
+before the day of Caporetto. They had such vague ideas what they were
+fighting for, and if the Socialists kept saying that the English paid
+their masters to continue with the War--how were they to know what was
+the truth? The British regiments, who were received not merely with
+cigars and cigarettes and flowers and with little palm crosses which
+their trustful little weavers had blessed, but also with showers of
+stones as they passed through Italian villages in 1917, must have
+sometimes understood and pardoned. Then the troops were in distress
+about their relatives, for things were more and more expensive, and
+where would it end? In face of these discouragements it was most
+admirable that the army and the nation rallied and reconstituted their
+_morale_.
+
+
+SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY
+
+Of course one should not generalize regarding nations, except in vague
+or very guarded terms; but possibly it would not be unjust to say that
+the Italians, apart from those of northern provinces and of Sardinia,
+have too much imagination to make first-class soldiers. And they are too
+sensitive, as you could see in an Italian military hospital. Their task
+was also not a trifling one--to stand for all those months in territory
+so forbidding. And there would have been more sympathy with the Italians
+in the autumn of 1918 if they had not had such very crushing triumphs
+when the War was practically over. What was the condition of the
+Austrian army? About October 15, in one section of the front--35
+kilometres separating the extreme points from one another--the following
+incidents occurred: the Army Command at St. Vitto issued an order to the
+officers invariably to carry a revolver, since the men were now
+attacking them; a Magyar regiment revolted and marched away, under the
+command of a Second-Lieutenant whom they had elected; at Stino di
+Livenza, while the officers were having their evening meal, two hand
+grenades were thrown into the mess by soldiers; at Codroipo a regiment
+revolted, attacked the officers' mess, and wounded several of the people
+there, including the general in command. Such was the Austrian army in
+those days; and it was only human if comparisons were made--not making
+any allowances for Italy's economic difficulties, her coal, her social
+and her religious difficulties--but merely bald comparisons were made
+between these wholesale victories against the Austrians as they were in
+the autumn of 1918 and the scantier successes of the previous years. In
+September 1916 when the eighth or ninth Italian offensive had pierced
+the Austrian front and the Italians reached a place called Provachina,
+Marshal Boroevi['c] had only one reserve division. The heavy artillery
+was withdrawn, the light artillery was packed up, the company commanders
+having orders to retire in the night. Only a few rapid-fire batteries
+were left with a view to deceiving the enemy. But as the Italians
+appeared to the Austrians to have no heart to come on--there may have
+been other reasons--the artillery was unpacked and the Austrians
+returned to their old front. In May 1917, between Monte Gabriele and
+Doberdo, Boroevi['c] had no reserve battalion; his troops, in full
+marching kit, had to defend the whole front: they were able to do so by
+proceeding now to this sector and now to that. No army is immune from
+serious mistakes--"We won in 1871," said Bismarck, "although we made
+very many mistakes, because the French made even more"--but the
+Yugoslavs in the Austrian army could not forget such incidents as that
+connected with the name of Professor Pivko. This gentleman, who is now
+living at Maribor, was made the subject of a book, _Der Verrath bei
+Carzano_ ("The Treachery near Carzano"), which was published by the
+Austrian General Staff. His battalion commander was a certain
+Lieut.-Colonel Vidale, who was a first cousin of the C.O., General
+Vidale; and when an orderly overheard Pivko, who is a Slovene, and
+several Czech officers, discussing a plan which would open the front to
+the Italians, he ran all the way to the General's headquarters and gave
+the information. The General telephoned to his cousin, who said that the
+allegation was absurd and that Pivko was one of his best officers. The
+orderly was therefore thrown into prison, and Pivko, having turned off
+the electricity from the barbed wires and arranged matters with a
+Bosnian regiment, made his way to the Italians. The suggestion is that,
+owing to the lie of the land and the weak Austrian forces, it was
+possible for the Italians to reach Trent; anyhow the Austrians were
+amazed when they ceased to advance and the German regiment which was in
+Trent did not have to come out to defend it. Everyone in the Austrian
+army recognized that the Italian artillery was pre-eminent and that the
+officers were most gallant, especially in the early part of the War,
+when one would frequently find an officer lying dead with no men near
+him. But such episodes as the above-mentioned--it would be possible, but
+wearisome, to describe others--could not but have some effect on the
+opposing army, and would be recalled when the Italians sang their final
+panegyric. The reasons for the Austrian _débâcle_ on the Piave are as
+follows: when the Allied troops had reached Rann, Susegana, Ponte di
+Piave and Montiena, the Austrian High Command decided on October 24 to
+throw against them the 36th Croat division, the 21st Czech, the 44th
+Slovene, a German division and the 12th Croat Regiment of Uhlans.
+However, the 16th and 116th Croat, the 30th Regiment of Czech Landwehr
+and the 71st Slovene Landwehr Regiment declared that they would not
+fight against the French and English, and, instead of advancing,
+retired. The 78th Croat Regiment, as well as three other Czech
+Regiments, abandoned the front, after having made a similar declaration.
+At the same time the 96th and 135th Croat Regiments, in agreement with
+the Czech detachments, made a breach for the Italians on the left wing
+at Stino di Livenza, while Slav marching formations revolted at Udine.
+The Austro-Hungarian troops consequently had to retreat.... No one
+expects of the Italian army, as a whole, that it will be on a level
+with the best, but when the British officers who were with the Serbs on
+the Salonica front compare their reminiscences with those of the British
+officers on the Italian front, it is improbable that garlands will be
+strewn for the Italians. Towards the end of October a plan was adopted
+by the British and Italian staffs for capturing the island of Papadopoli
+in the Piave; this island, about three miles in length, formed the
+outpost line of the Austrian defences. On the night of October 23-24 an
+attack was to be made by the 2nd H.A.C., while three companies of the
+1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers were to act as reserve. This operation is most
+vividly described by the Senior Chaplain of the 7th Division, the Rev.
+E. C. Crosse, D.S.O., M.C.;[1] and he says nothing as to what occurred
+on that part of the island which was to be seized by the Italians. Well,
+nothing had occurred, for the Italians did not get across and when the
+water rose they said they could do nothing on that night. These are the
+words of Mr. Crosse's footnote: "The obvious question, 'What was going
+to be done with the farther half of the island?' we have purposely left
+undiscussed here. This half was outside the area of the 7th Division,
+and as such it falls outside the scope of this work for the time being.
+The subsequent capture of the whole island (on the following night) by
+the 7th Division was not part of the original plan." Afterwards, when a
+crossing was made to the mainland, the left flank was unsupported, as
+the Italians did not cross the river, and thus the 23rd Division had its
+flank exposed. A belief is entertained that the Italian cavalry is one
+of the best in the world; evidently it is not the best, for on that
+Piave front, where thousands of Italian cavalry were available, the only
+ones who put in their appearance early in the battle were three hundred
+very war-stained Northampton Yeomanry.
+
+"The record of the Italian troops in the field renders unnecessary an
+assertion of their courage," says Mr. Anthony Dell;[2] "for reckless
+bravery in assault none surpasses them." But when you have said that you
+have nearly summed up their military virtues, for discipline is not
+their strong suit, and they have little sense of responsibility. On the
+other hand, we must remember their admirable patience, but the great
+mass of the people have not attained the level of Christianity; they are
+savage both in heart and mind, with no outlook wider than that of the
+family. It is the Italian proletariat which is judged by the Yugoslavs,
+whose otherwise acute discernment has been warped by the unhappy
+circumstances of the time. Indifferent to the fact that he himself is a
+compound of physical energy and oriental mysticism, the Yugoslav has
+become inclined to contemplate merely the physical side of the Italian,
+and for the most part that portion of it which has to do with war. The
+Italian long-sightedness and prudence and business capacity are ignored
+save in so far as they delayed the country's entrance into the Great
+War. The sensitiveness and artistic attributes of the Italians, who gaze
+with aching hearts upon the glories of a sunset, are but rarely felt by
+Serbs, who gather brushwood for the fire that is to roast their
+sucking-pig and who sit down to watch the operation, haply with their
+backs turned to the sunset. The Yugoslav, especially the Serb, is a man
+from the Middle Ages brought suddenly into the twentieth century. With
+his heroic heart and his wonderful strength he fails to understand those
+people who, on account of one reason or another, have no passion for
+war. And as the military deeds of the Italians have had such effect upon
+the minds of the Yugoslavs, we have alluded to them at a greater length
+than would otherwise have been profitable. The Yugoslavs despise the
+Italians. Also the Italians, who concern themselves with diplomacy, are
+conscious that their keen wits and their long training in the wiles of
+the civilized world, their old traditions and their prestige give them a
+considerable advantage over the Yugoslav diplomat, so that this kind of
+Italian despises the Yugoslav. He knows very well that the French or
+British statesmen do not, amid the smoke of after-dinner cigars, esteem
+his case by the same standard as that which they apply to the case which
+the ordinary Yugoslav diplomat presents to them in office hours. As for
+the wider Italian circles, one must fear that the old hatred of Germany,
+because the Germans seemed to despise them, will henceforward colour the
+sentiments with which they regard the Yugoslavs. It is a state of things
+between these neighbours which other people cannot but view with
+apprehension.
+
+
+AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL AFFAIR
+
+There was in Yugoslav naval circles no very cordial feeling for the
+Italians. The Austrian dreadnought, _Viribus Unitis_, was torpedoed in a
+most ingenious fashion by two resolute officers, Lieutenant Raffaele
+Paolucci, a doctor, and Major Raffaele Rossetti. In October 1917 they
+independently invented a very small and light compressed-air motor which
+could be used to propel a mine into an enemy harbour. They submitted
+their schemes to the Naval Inventions Board, were given an opportunity
+of meeting, and after three months had brought their invention into a
+practical form. The naval authorities, however, refused to allow them to
+go on any expedition till they both were skilled long-distance swimmers.
+Six months had thus to be dedicated entirely to swimming. At the end of
+that time they were supplied with a motor-boat and two bombs of a
+suitable size for blowing up large airships. To these bombs were fixed
+the small motors by means of which they were to be propelled into the
+port of Pola, while the two men, swimming by their side, would control
+and guide them. Just after nightfall on October 31, 1918, the raiders
+arrived outside Pola.
+
+Were they aware that anything had happened in the Austro-Hungarian navy?
+On October 26 there appeared in the _Hrvatski List_ of Pola a summons to
+the Yugoslavs, made by the Executive Committee of Zagreb, which had been
+elected on the 23rd. This notice in the newspaper recommended the
+formation of local committees, and asked the Yugoslavs in the meantime
+to eschew all violence. When Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Methodius
+Koch--whose mother was an Englishwoman--read this at noon he thought it
+was high time to do something. Koch had always been one of the most
+patriotically Slovene officers of the Austrian navy. On various
+occasions during the War he had attempted to hand over his ships to the
+Italians, and when some other Austrian commander signalled to ask him
+why he was cruising so near to the Italian coast he invariably answered,
+"I have my orders." He found it, however, impossible to give himself up,
+as the Italians whom he sighted, no matter how numerous they were, would
+never allow him to come within signalling range. Koch had frequently
+spoken to his Slovene sailors, preparing them for the day of liberation,
+and he was naturally very popular among them. Let us not forget that
+such an officer, true to his own people, was in constant peril of being
+shot.
+
+
+WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA
+
+On the afternoon of that same day, October 26th, when the
+Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its army and navy, was collapsing, Admiral
+Horthy, an energetic, honest, if not brilliant Magyar, the Commander of
+the Fleet at Pola, called to his flag-ship, the _Viribus Unitis_, one
+officer representing each nationality of the Empire. Koch was there on
+behalf of the Slovenes. The Admiral announced that a wholesale mutiny
+had been planned for November 1st, during which the ships' treasuries
+would be robbed, and he asked these officers to collaborate with him in
+preventing it. Koch, at the Admiral's request, wrote out a speech that
+he would deliver to the Slovenes, and this document, with one or two
+notes in the Admiral's writing, is in Koch's possession. "If you will
+not listen to your Admirals, then," so ran the speech, "you should
+listen to our national leaders." He addressed himself to the men, of
+course in the Slovene language, as a fellow-countryman. He begged them
+to keep quiet. He deprecated all plundering, firstly in order that their
+good name should not be sullied, and also pointing out that the
+neighbouring population was overwhelmingly Slovene. Out of 45,000 men
+only 2000 could leave by rail; he therefore asked them all to stay
+peacefully at Pola. Meanwhile the local committee had been formed; Koch
+was, secretly, a member of it, and on the 28th, Rear-Admiral Cicoli, a
+kindly old gentleman who was port-commandant, advised Koch to join it as
+liaison-officer. It was on the 28th at eight in the morning that the
+officers who had been selected to calm the different nationalities
+started to go round the fleet. That officer who spoke to the Germans
+declared that one must not abandon hopes of victory, and that anyhow the
+War would soon be over. Count Thun, who discoursed to the Czechs, was
+ill-advised enough to make the Deity, their Kaiser and their oath the
+main subjects of his remarks, so that he was more than once in great
+danger of being thrown overboard. Koch went first of all to the _Viribus
+Unitis_, but the mutiny had begun; a bugle was sounded for a general
+assembly; it was ignored, and the crew let it be known that they were
+weary of the old game, which consisted of the officers egging on one
+nation against another. This mutiny had not yet spread to the remaining
+ships, and on them the speeches were delivered. At the National Assembly
+that evening Koch was chosen as chief of National Defence; he thereupon
+went to Cicoli and formally asked to be allowed to join the committee.
+When Vienna refused its assent, Koch resigned his commission. By this
+time all discipline had gone by the board, no one thought of such a
+thing as office work and, amid the chaos, sailors' councils appeared,
+with which Koch had to treat. The situation was made no easier by the
+presence of large numbers of Germans, Magyars and Italians, of whom the
+latter also formed a National Council. On the 30th, Koch, as chief of
+National Defence, asked Admirals Cicoli and Horthy to come at 9 p.m. to
+the Admiralty, with a view to the transference of the military power. At
+7.30, in the municipal building, there was a joint meeting of the
+Yugoslav and the Italian National Councils, and so many speeches were
+made that the Admirals had to be asked to postpone their appearance for
+two hours; and at eleven o'clock, with the street well guarded against a
+possible outbreak on the part of any loyal troops, the whole Yugoslav
+committee, accompanied by one member of the Italian committee, went to
+the Admiralty. Horthy had gone home, but Cicoli and his whole staff were
+waiting. The old gentleman was informed that he no longer had any power
+in his hands; he was asked to give up his post to Koch, and this he was
+prepared to do. "It is not so hard for me now," he said, "as I have
+meanwhile received a telegram from His Majesty, ordering me," and at
+this point he produced the paper, "to give up Pola to the Yugoslavs."
+The affair had apparently been settled between nine and eleven o'clock.
+Cicoli was ready to sign the protocol, but out of courtesy to a
+chivalrous old man this was left undone; after all there were witnesses
+enough.
+
+During the night of October 30th-31st, a radiogram, destined for President
+Wilson, was composed. "Together with the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles,
+and in understanding," it said, "with the Italians, we have taken over the
+fleet and Pola, the war-harbour, and the forts." It asked for the dispatch
+of representatives of such Entente States as were disinterested in the
+local national question. But now a telegram was received from Zagreb,
+announcing that Dr. Ante Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c], of the chief National
+Council, would be at Pola at 8 a.m. and that, pending his arrival, no
+wireless was to be sent out. Dr. Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c],[3] poet and
+deputy for the lower Dalmatian islands, had always been, in spite of his
+indifferent health, one of the most strenuous fighters for Yugoslavia. Two
+years of the War he spent in an Austrian prison, but on his release he
+managed to travel up and down Croatia and Dalmatia, inciting the Yugoslav
+sailors to revolt; many of them had already read a speech by this
+silver-tongued deputy in the Reichsrath, a speech of which the reading and
+circulation had been forbidden as a crime of high treason. About 9 a.m. of
+the 31st there was a meeting, on board the _Viribus Unitis_, between
+Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] and Koch. There was a brief ceremony, the leader of
+the Sailors' Council handing over the vessel to the deputy, as representing
+the National Council of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Admiral Horthy, in his
+cabin, likewise drew up a _procès-verbal_ to the same effect, saying that
+he was authorized to do this by the Emperor, and he supported his statement
+by the production of a wireless message. Koch urged on the doctor the
+necessity of sending the above-mentioned wireless to Wilson. "The news of
+this great event," says Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] in an article in the
+_Balkan Review_ (May 1919), "was dispatched to all the Powers by wireless."
+But unfortunately he seems, whether on his own responsibility or that of
+Zagreb, to have prevented Koch from sending it on that day. Captain Janko
+de Vukovi['c] Podkapelski was then placed in command of the fleet, though
+the Sailors' Council at first declined to accept him. He was at heart a
+patriot, but had taken no active part in Yugoslav propaganda and, unluckily
+for himself, he had been compelled to accompany Count Tisza in his recent
+ill-starred tour of Bosnia, when the Magyar leader made a last attempt to
+browbeat the local Slavs. Yet, as no other high officer was available, Koch
+told the Sailors' Council that they simply must acknowledge Vukovi['c], and
+at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav flag being hoisted on all
+the vessels simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the Croatian national
+anthem and the firing of salutes.
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS UNITIS"
+
+Three hours previously to this a torpedo-boat, with Paolucci and
+Rossetti on board, had sailed from Venice; and at ten o'clock in the
+evening, as Paolucci tells us,[4] he and his companion, after a certain
+amount of embracing, handshaking, saluting and loyal exclamations,
+plunged into the water. The first obstacle was a wooden pier upon which
+sentries were marching to and fro; this was safely passed by means of
+two hats shaped like bottles, which Paolucci and Rossetti now put on.
+The bombs were submerged, and thus the sentry saw nothing but a couple
+of bottles being tossed about by the waves. A row of wooden beams,
+bearing a thin electric wire, had then to be negotiated, and the last
+obstacle consisted of half a dozen steel nets which had laboriously to
+be disconnected from the cables which held them. It was now nearly six
+o'clock; the two men cautiously approached the _Viribus Unitis_ and
+fixed one of their bombs just below the water-line, underneath the
+ladder conducting to the deck. Paolucci simply records, without comment,
+that the ship was illuminated; perhaps he and his friend were too tired
+to make the obvious deduction that the hourly-expected end of the War
+had really arrived. A number of officers from other ships had remained
+on the _Viribus Unitis_ after the previous evening's ceremony; but the
+look-out, seeing the Italians in the water, must have thought it was
+eccentric of them to come swimming out at this hour to join in the
+festivities. A motor-launch soon picked them up and they were brought on
+board the flag-ship. "Viva l'Italia!" they shouted, for they were proud
+of dying for their country. "Viva l'Italia!" replied some of the crew to
+this pair of allied officers. When they were conducted to Captain
+Vukovi['c] they told him that his vessel would in a short time be blown
+up. The order was given to abandon ship, and Paolucci and his friend
+relate[5] that when they asked the captain if they might also try to
+save themselves he shook them both by the hand, saying that they were
+brave men and that they deserved to live. So they plunged into the water
+and swam rapidly away, but a few minutes later they were picked up by a
+launch and taken back, the captain having suddenly begun to suspect,
+they said, that the story of the bomb was untrue. They were again made
+to walk up the ladder, under which lay the explosives. It was then 6.28.
+The ladder was crowded with sailors who were also returning to their
+ship. "Run, run for your lives," shouted Paolucci. At last his foot
+touched the deck, and then he and Rossetti ran as fast as they could to
+the stern. Hardly had they got there than a terrific explosion rent the
+air, and a column of water shot three hundred feet straight up into the
+sky. Paolucci and Rossetti were again in the water, and looking back
+they saw a man scramble up the side of the vessel, which had now turned
+completely over, with her keel uppermost. There on the keel stood this
+man, with folded arms. It was Vukovi['c], who had insisted on going down
+with his ship. About fifty other men were killed.
+
+When Koch came out of his house, feeling that there must be no more
+delay in sending the radiogram to President Wilson, a young Italian
+Socialist ran up to him in the street and told him of the fate of the
+flagship. As the news spread everyone thought it must be the work of
+some Austrian officers. It was feared that they would explode the
+arsenal, and that would have meant the destruction of the whole town.
+Amid the uproar and chaos, Koch had placards distributed, saying that
+the _Viribus Unitis_ had been torpedoed by two Italians, who were in
+custody. And then the wireless was sent to Paris.
+
+The two officers were taken to the Admiralty and then placed on the
+dreadnought _Prince Eugene_, it being rumoured that the Italians of Pola
+intended to rescue them. Subsequently Koch and other officers, together
+with Dr. Stani['c], President of the Italian National Council, went out
+to see the prisoners. Stani['c] was left alone with them for as long as
+he wished. And when Koch saw them--he did not then shake hands--and
+asked if they knew what they had done, "I know it," replied Rossetti
+rather arrogantly. Paolucci's demeanour was more modest.
+
+"I was your friend all through the War," said Koch, "and now you sink
+our ships. I can only assume that you were ignorant of what had taken
+place."
+
+They said that that was so.
+
+"But if you had known," said the Admiral to Rossetti, "would you have
+done this?"
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I am an officer. I had my orders to blow up the
+ship and I would have obeyed them."
+
+Koch had undertaken that if it turned out that they were unaware of the
+ship's transference to the Yugoslavs he would kiss them both. He did so,
+and allowed them to communicate with Italy by wireless.
+
+Never, says Koch, will the unpleasant taste of those kisses leave his
+mouth. The men were officers; their words could not be doubted. But as
+they must surely have been in Venice for at least a day or two before
+October 31, it seems extraordinary that they did not hear, via Triest,
+of what the Emperor Charles was doing with his navy. If only they had
+perfected their invention and learned to swim a trifle sooner there
+would be no shadow cast on their achievement, but the Yugoslavs--who had
+never seen any sort of Italian naval attack on Pola during the
+War--could not be blamed for thinking that the disappearance of their
+_Viribus Unitis_ would be viewed with equanimity by the Italians....
+With regard to the other vessels, it was arranged in Paris that they
+should proceed, under the white flag, to Corfu with Yugoslav commanders;
+but this was found impossible, as they were undermanned. Part of the
+fleet arrived at Kotor and was placed at the disposal of the commander
+of the Yugoslav detachment of the Allied forces which had come from
+Macedonia. A serious episode occurred at Pola, where on November 5 an
+Italian squadron arrived and demanded the surrender of the ships. The
+Yugoslav commander succeeded in sending by wireless a strong protest to
+Paris against this barefaced violation of the agreement. The Italian
+commander, Admiral Cagni, likewise sent a protest, but Clemenceau upheld
+the Yugoslavs. They were absolutely masters of the ex-Austro-Hungarian
+fleet; it rested solely with them either to sink it or hand it over to
+the Allies in good condition. The Yugoslavs did not sink the fleet,
+because they wished to show their loyalty to, and confidence in, the
+justice of the Allies. They never suspected at that time that the ships
+would not be shared at least equally between themselves and the
+Italians. But in December 1919 the Supreme Council in Paris allotted to
+the Yugoslavs twelve disarmed torpedo-boats for policing and patrolling
+their coasts.
+
+
+HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA
+
+Admiral Cagni was invited by the Yugoslavs to enter the harbour of Pola.
+But for two and a half days he hesitated outside and heavily bombarded
+the hill-fortress of Barbarica, which had been abandoned. At last he
+made up his mind to risk a landing. The Italian girls of Pola, dressed
+in white, came down in a procession to the port; their arms were full of
+flowers for the Italian sailors. And the first men who disembarked were
+buried in flowers and kissed and kissed before the girls perceived that,
+by a prudent Italian arrangement, this advance guard consisted of men of
+the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The first care of the Italians at Pola was not
+to ascertain the whereabouts of the munition depots; they made for the
+naval museum, where trophies from the battle of Vis in 1866 were
+preserved. These they removed, as well as whatever took their fancy at
+the Arsenal. Among their booty was a silver dinner service which it had
+been customary to use on occasions of Imperial visits. An Italian
+officer appeared on the _Radetzky_. Very roughly he asked an officer who
+he was. "I am the commander," said this first-lieutenant. "No! no!" said
+the other, "I am that." But the Italians for the most part avoided going
+on board the ships.... Admiral Cagni himself was very ill at ease, but
+grew noticeably more confident as he observed the utter demoralization
+of Pola. His correspondence likewise underwent the appropriate changes.
+While Koch was in command of 45,000 men, Cagni wrote to "His Excellency
+the most illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when the numbers were reduced
+to 20,000 the style of address was "Illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when
+they fell to 10,000 it became "Al Signor Ammiraglio"; when only 5000
+remained a letter began with the word "Ammiraglio!" and when the last
+man had left Pola and Koch was alone, Cagni sent word through his
+adjutant that he knew no Admiral Koch but merely a Signor Koch.
+
+
+THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS
+
+Talking of numbers, one may mention that the Yugoslavs formed about 65
+per cent. of the Austro-Hungarian navy, as one would naturally expect
+from the sea-faring population of Dalmatia and Istria. In the technical
+branches of the service only about 40 per cent. were Yugoslavs, for a
+preference was given to Germans and Magyars. Out of 116 chief engineers
+only two were Yugoslavs. Serbo-Croat was an obligatory language; but
+German, as in the army, was the language of command. Thus one sees that,
+in spite of not being favoured, the Yugoslavs of the Adriatic, who are
+natural sailors, constituted more than half the personnel of the navy.
+"These Slav people," writes Mr. Hilaire Belloc,[6] who took the trouble
+to go to the Adriatic with a view to solving the local problems, "these
+Slav people have only tentatively approached the sea. Its traffic was
+never native to them." If he had continued a little way down the coast
+he would have seen many and many a neat little house whose owners are
+retired sea-captains. "They are not mariners," says Mr. Belloc. If he
+had made a small excursion into history he would have learned that
+Venice--since it was to her own advantage--made an exception of
+Dalmatia's shipping industry, and while she was placing obstacles along
+the roads that a Dalmatian might wish to take, allowed the time-honoured
+industries of the sea to be developed. Such fine sailors were the
+Dalmatians that Benedetto Pesaro, the Venetian Admiral against the Turks
+in the fifteenth century, deplored the fact that his galleys were not
+fully manned by them, instead of those "Lombardi" whom he despised.
+"They are," says Mr. John Leyland,[7] the naval authority--they are
+"pre-eminently a maritime race. The circumstances of their geography,
+and in a chief degree the wonderful configuration of their coast-line,
+with its sheltered waters and admirable anchorages, made them
+sea-farers.... The proud Venetians knew them as pirates and marauders
+long ago." And "there has never been a better seaman," adds Mr. Leyland,
+"than the pirate turned trader." In 1780 the island of Bra[vc] had forty
+vessels, Lussin a hundred, and Kotor, which in the second half of the
+eighteenth century quadrupled her mercantile marine, had a much larger
+fleet than either of them. The best-known dockyards were those at
+Kor[vc]ula and Trogir, while the great Overseas Sailing Ship Navigation
+Company at Peljesac (Sabioncello) occupied an important position in the
+world of trade. The company's fleet of large sailing vessels was of
+native construction; both crews and captains were natives of the
+country, so that it was in every way the best representative of the
+Dalmatian mercantile marine of the period. When the Treaty of Vienna in
+1815 gave Venice, Istria and the Eastern Adriatic to the Habsburgs the
+vessels plying in those waters were very largely Slav. And with the
+substitution of steam the Dalmatians are still holding their own, with
+this difference, that the ships are now built, even as they are manned,
+not by nobles and the wealthy _bourgeoisie_, but by men who come from
+modest sea-faring or peasant families. In the Austrian mercantile marine
+German capital formed 47·82 per cent., Italian capital 19·37 per cent.
+and Slav capital 31·80 per cent. One of these Dalmatian Slavs,
+Mihanovi['c], going out in poverty to the Argentine, has followed with
+such success the shipbuilding of his ancestors that he is now among the
+chief millionaires of Buenos Aires. With regard to fishing, there are
+along the Istrian and Dalmatian coast more than 5000 small vessels which
+give employment to 19,000 fishermen, of whom only 1000 are citizens of
+Italy. But Mr. Belloc says that these Slav people have only tentatively
+approached the sea, that its traffic was never native to them, and that
+they are not mariners. It is marvellous that you can be paid for writing
+that sort of stuff.... By Mr. Belloc's side is the Marchese Donghi, who
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ of June 1922 says: "It is superfluous to add
+that everything which has to do with navigation [in Dalmatia] is
+entirely in the hands of the Italians." But I think it is superfluous to
+contradict a gentleman who ingenuously believes that Dalmatia is largely
+Italian because on our maps we have hitherto used Italian place-names.
+Will he say that the population of Praha is not Czech because on our
+maps that capital is commonly called Prague? It pleases the Marchese to
+be facetious about what he describes as "that queer thing called the
+Srba Hrvata i Slovenca Kralji (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and
+Slovenes)"; he should have said "Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca."
+He says that in Serbia "no industry is possible," whereas in one single
+town, Lescovac, there are no less than eleven textile besides other
+factories. He says that one-third of the population of Dalmatia is
+Italian, and "almost exclusively the nobility and the upper
+_bourgeoisie_." I suppose that is why more than 700 of Dalmatia's
+leading citizens were deported by the Italians after the Great War. He
+says many other nonsensical things, and sums it all up by telling us of
+the "bewildered incomprehension" of the Adriatic problem!
+
+
+WHO SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH
+
+Whether rightly or wrongly, the Yugoslavs had formed their opinion of
+the Italian sailors, an opinion which dated from the time of Tegetthoff
+and had not undergone much modification by the incidents of this War.
+They remembered what had happened when they cruised outside Italian
+ports; they knew very probably that the British had on more than one
+occasion to break through the boom outside Taranto harbour, and they may
+have read[8] of the experience of some French ladies who came to the
+Albanian coast on the _Città di Bari_ towards the end of 1915 with 2000
+kilos of milk, clothing and medical supplies for the Serbian children
+who had struggled across the mountains. These ladies write that after
+the torpedoing of the _Brindisi_ their own crew ran up and down without
+appearing to see them; the crew had life-belts, those of the ladies were
+taken away. Ultimately they succeeded in having themselves put ashore,
+and the _Città di Bari_ fled in the night without landing the stores.
+And in Albania, the ladies say, one witnessed the "stoic endurance of
+the noble Serbian race, of which every day brought us more examples. In
+that procession of ghosts and of the dying there was no imploring look,
+there was no hand stretched out to beg." ... The Yugoslavs may have
+known what happened to Lieutenant (now Captain) Binnos de Pombara of the
+French navy. This officer, in command of the _Fourche_, had been
+escorting the _Città di Messina_ and, observing that she was torpedoed,
+had sent to her, perhaps a little imprudently, all his life-boats and
+belts. A few minutes later, when he was himself torpedoed, the Italians
+did not see him; anyhow they made for the shore. De Pombara encouraged
+his men by causing them to sing the Marseillaise and so forth; they
+were in the water, clinging to the wreckage, for several hours, until
+another boat came past. The next day at Brindisi, when he met the
+captain of the _Città di Messina_, this gentleman once more did not see
+him; but the French Government, although de Pombara was a very young
+man, created him an officer of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO PRECAUTIONS
+
+There was thus a certain amount of tension existing between the military
+and naval services of the Yugoslavs and those of Italy. Other Yugoslavs
+were apprehensive as to whether the Italians would not demand the
+enforcement of the Treaty of London. But the United States was not bound
+by that agreement, which was so completely at variance with Wilson's
+principle of self-determination. One presumed that, pending an
+examination of these matters, the disputed territories would be occupied
+by troops of all the Allies. But unfortunately this did not turn out to
+be the case. France, Britain and America stood by, while the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs took whatsoever they could lay their hands on. As the
+Yugoslav military forces had to come overland, while the Italians had
+command of the sea, it was natural that in most places the Italians got
+the better of the scramble; and where they found the Yugoslavs in
+possession, as at Rieka, they usually ousted them by diplomatic methods.
+And in one way or another they managed to make their holdings tally, as
+far as possible, with the Treaty of London, and even to go beyond it.
+Baron Sonnino declined to make a comprehensive statement as to the
+Italian programme. Of course he desired in the end to exchange
+Dalmatia--the seizure of which would entail a war with Yugoslavia--against
+Rieka. But as Italian public opinion had scarcely thought of Rieka
+during the War, he made it his business to cause them to yearn for that
+town. His compatriots were asking why Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points
+should be waived for France in the Sarre Basin, for Britain in Ireland
+and Egypt, but not for them. And some of his would-be ingenious
+compatriots pointed out--their contentions were embodied in the Italian
+Memorandum to the Supreme Council on January 10, 1920--that as the
+Treaty of London was based on the presumption that Montenegro, Serbia
+and Croatia would remain separate States, this instrument had been
+altogether upset by the merging of those Southern Slavs into one
+country, Yugoslavia; it followed, therefore, that the Treaty which
+attributed Rieka to the Croats could no longer be invoked. But the other
+parts of the Treaty which gave the Slav mainland and islands to Italy
+were absolutely unassailable. The reader will resent being troubled by
+this kind of balderdash, but Messrs. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George and Wilson
+may have resented it even more.
+
+
+ITALIAN MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS
+
+On November 3 the Italians arrived outside Vis (Lissa), the most
+westerly of the large islands, where the entire population of 11,000 is
+Slav, except for the family of an honoured inhabitant, Dr. Doimi, and
+three other families related to his. Dr. Doimi's people have lived for
+many years on this island--his father was mayor of the capital, which is
+also called Vis, for half a century--and now they have become so
+acclimatized that, as he told me, three of his four nephews prefer to
+call themselves Yugoslavs. This phenomenon can be seen all down the
+Adriatic coast. It has often, for example, been pointed out to Dr. Vio,
+the very Italian ex-mayor of Rieka, that he has a Croat father and
+several Croat brothers. Thus also the Duimi['c] family of the same town
+has one brother married to a Magyar lady and very fond of the Magyars, a
+second brother who is a Professor at Milan, and a third who lives above
+Rieka and is a Yugoslav. The terms "Yugoslav" and "Italian" have now
+come to signify not what a man is, but what he wants to be, applying
+thus the admirable principle of self-determination. Well, in the old
+days on the isle of Vis between two and three hundred people belonged to
+the Autonomist party, owing to their great regard for Dr. Doimi; but
+these say now that they are Yugoslavs, and the Italians--at all events
+Captain Sportiello, their chief officer at Vis--acknowledged that they
+must base their demand on strategic reasons. A day or two before the
+Italians arrived the population had arrested several Austrian
+functionaries, including the mayor and three gendarmes, who had
+maltreated them during the War. None of these persons were Italian; and
+when the Italian boats were sighted a committee went to meet them
+joyfully and brought the officers ashore upon their backs. The officers
+explained that they had come as representatives of the Entente and the
+United States, and for the object--which appeared superfluous--of
+protecting Vis from German submarines. If the Italians had been
+everywhere as inoffensive as at Vis, it would be more agreeable to write
+about their doings. Captain Sportiello, a naval officer, showed himself
+throughout the months of his administration to be sensible; he
+frequented Yugoslav houses. The greatest divergence occurred on June 1,
+1919, when the Italians planned to have a demonstration for their
+national holiday, and asked the inhabitants to come to the bioscope,
+where they would be regaled with cakes and sweets; the inhabitants
+replied that they preferred to have Yugoslavia.... But there is a
+monument in the cemetery at Vis to which I must refer. It is a very fine
+monument of white marble, erected by the Austrians to commemorate their
+victory in these waters over the Italian navy in 1866.[9] On the top
+there is a lion clutching the Italian flag, while on two of the sides
+there are inscriptions in the German language. One of them, some feet in
+length, relates that this memorial is placed there for the officers and
+men who on July 20, 1866, gave their lives in the service of their
+Emperor and country. The Italians screwed two marble slabs across the
+upper and the lower parts of this inscription, so that the German
+lettering of the central part remained visible; on the lower slab one
+read: "Novembre 1918" and on the upper one "Italia Vincitrice"
+(Victorious Italy). We were taken by several Italian officers to look
+at this. They were so proud of it that they presented us with
+photographs of the monument in its altered state. I fear that the
+Italian mentality escapes me. I should not have written anything about
+them.
+
+
+THEIR TRUCULENCE AT KOR[vC]ULA
+
+They landed on the same day, November 3, on the beautiful and prosperous
+island of Kor[vc]ula (Curzola), putting ashore at Velaluka, the western
+harbour. With the exception of five families, all the people are
+Yugoslavs; and the Italians, who sailed in under a white flag, announced
+that they had come as friends of the Yugoslavs and of the Entente, to
+preserve order and to protect them against submarines. On the 5th, they
+went to the town of Kor[vc]ula, where one of the two officers,
+Lieutenant Poggi, of the navy, put his assurances in writing, as he had
+done at Velaluka. He protested against the word "Occupation." On the 7th
+they returned to Velaluka and on the 12th went back, with about a
+hundred men, to Kor[vc]ula. Once more he wrote that he had not come to
+occupy the island; he added, though, that the district officials should
+act on the opposite peninsula of Sabioncello in the name of the
+Yugoslavs, but over Kor[vc]ula and the island of Lastovo (Lagosta) in
+the name of Italy--not of the Entente. He wanted to remove the Yugoslav
+flags from public buildings and substitute Italian flags. When he was
+reminded of what he had said with regard to the Entente, he exclaimed:
+"No, no! This is Italy!" The chief district official protested, and
+refused to carry out Lieut. Poggi's injunctions, nor were the Italians
+able to do so. This officer remained at Kor[vc]ula, requisitioning
+houses and hoisting as many Italian flags as he could. He issued an
+order that after 6.30 p.m. not more than three persons were allowed to
+come together in the streets. His men used to offer food to the women of
+the place, who declined it; after which the food was given to the
+children, who were previously photographed in an imploring attitude.
+There was some trouble on December 15 when the _Leonidas_, an American
+ship, came in with a number of mine-sweepers. Apparently the Yugoslavs
+contravened the Italian regulations by omitting to ask whether their
+band might play in the harbour, but, on the supposition that this would
+not be accorded to them, went down to the harbour just as if they were
+not living under regulations. They waved American, Serbian and Croatian
+flags, all of which the Italians attempted to seize; the most gorgeous
+one, a Yugoslav flag of silk with gilt fringes, they tore up and divided
+among themselves as a trophy. When the _Leonidas_ made fast, a
+lieutenant leaped ashore and placed himself, holding a revolver, in
+front of an American flag. The captain, according to some reports, had
+his men standing to their guns, while others of the crew are said to
+have been given hand-grenades; but whether by this method or another,
+the turbulence on shore was calmed and the Italians seem to have invited
+the captain to step off his boat. He preferred, however, to go to
+another port; the populace came overland. One need not say that there
+was jollification.... When the other American boats departed, a small
+one remained at Kor[vc]ula. One day a steamer came from Metkovi['c],
+having on board a few men of the Yugoslav Legion. The people of
+Kor[vc]ula, not being allowed to take the men to their houses, came down
+quietly to the harbour with coffee and bread, but the carabinieri drove
+them away. These legionaries were emigrants to Australia and Canada, who
+had come back to fight for the Entente, including Italy. The Italians
+wanted to arrest them all on account of a small Croatian flag which one
+of them was holding, but at the request of the American ship they
+refrained. A certain Marko [vS]imunovi['c], who had gone to Australia
+from the Kor[vc]ula village of Ra[vc]i[vs]ca, went over to speak to the
+sailors on the American boat. Because of this the carabinieri took him
+to the military headquarters. He was interned for several months in
+Italy.
+
+The long island of Hvar (Lesina) was not occupied until November 13. It
+is interesting, by the by, to note how this island came to have its
+names. In the time of the Greek colonists it was known as [Greek: ho
+pharos], which subsequently became Farra or Quarra, leading to the name
+Hvar, by which it is known to the Slavs. They also, in the thirteenth
+century, gave it an alternative name: Lesna, from the Slav word
+signifying "wooded," for the Venetians had not yet despoiled the island
+of many of its forests. Lesna was the popular and Hvar the literary
+name; and the Italians, taking the former of these, coined the word
+Lesina, the sound of which makes many of them and of other people think
+that this is an Italian island.[10] The question of Slav and Italian
+geographical names in Dalmatia has been carefully investigated by a
+student at Split. Taking the zone which was made over to the Italians by
+the Treaty of London, he found that with the exception of a reef called
+Maon, alongside the island of Pago, every island, village, mountain and
+river has a Slav name, whereas out of the total of 114 names there were
+64 which have no names in Italian; and this is giving the Italians
+credit for such words as Sebenico, Zemonico and so forth, which in the
+opinion of philologists are merely modifications of the original
+[vS]ibenik, Zemunik, etc.
+
+
+AND ON HVAR
+
+At Starigrad on Hvar the Italians also said that they were
+representatives of the Entente, but soon they prohibited the national
+colours. Being perhaps aware that in the whole island, with its
+population of about 20,000, there were before the War only four or five
+Italians who were engaged in selling fruit, their countrymen in November
+1918 did their best, by the distribution of other commodities--rice,
+flour and macaroni--to make some more Italians. They succeeded at
+Starigrad in obtaining fifteen or twenty recruits. And they made it
+obvious that it would be more comfortable to be an Italian than a
+Yugoslav. The local Reading-Rooms, whose committee had received no
+previous warning, fell so greatly under the displeasure of the Italians
+that one night after ten o'clock--at which time curfew sounded for the
+Yugoslavs; the Italians and their friends could stay out until any
+hour--the premises were sacked: knives were used against the pictures,
+furniture was taken by assault, and mirrors did not long resist the
+fine élan of the attacking party. Old vases, other ornaments and books
+were thrown into the harbour near the _Sirio_, the Italian destroyer
+which was anchored ten yards from the Reading-Rooms. Of course there was
+an inquiry; the result of it was that several Yugoslavs (and no others)
+were imprisoned. The _Sirio's_ commander was a gentleman of some
+activity; he sent a telegram to Rome and another one to Admiral Millo,
+the Italian Governor of the occupied parts of Dalmatia, saying that the
+people of the island longed for annexation. These telegrams he read
+aloud before the islanders, with all his carabinieri in attendance....
+The old-world capital of the island, which is a smaller place than
+Starigrad, was occupied on the same day. The first serious encounter
+took place on December 4, when the Italians, who were quartered on the
+upper floor of the Sokol or gymnastic club, observed that furniture was
+being taken from the rooms below them and was being carried out into the
+street. If they had asked the people what they were about they would
+have heard that these things had been stored in the gymnasium during the
+War and that the place was now to be devoted to its original purpose.
+What they did was to believe at once the yarn of a renegade, who told
+them that the people were preparing to blow up the house. The Italians
+opened fire, wounded several persons and killed one of their own
+carabinieri.
+
+
+HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR
+
+On the mainland the Italians were received at [vS]ibenik with some
+suspicion. They announced, however, that they came as representatives of
+the Allies, and begged for a pilot who would take them into [vS]ibenik's
+land-locked harbour, through the mine-field. The Yugoslavs consented,
+and after the Italians had installed themselves they requisitioned sixty
+Austrian merchant vessels which were lying in that harbour. (They left,
+as a matter of fact, to the Yugoslavs out of all the ex-Austrian
+mercantile fleet exactly four old boats--_Sebenico_, _Lussin_, _Mossor_
+and _Dinara_--with a total displacement of 390 tons.) On the other
+hand, at Zadar, they were received in a very friendly fashion. In this
+town, as it had been the seat of government, with numerous officials and
+their families, the Autonomist anti-Croat party had been, under Austria,
+more powerful than in any other town in Dalmatia. With converts coming
+in from the country, which is entirely Slav, the Autonomists in Zadar
+had become well over half the population,[11] which is about 14,000,
+that of the surrounding district being about 23,000. Zadar was thus a
+place apart from the rest of Dalmatia, and although the Dalmatian
+Autonomists were unable to claim any of the eleven deputies who went to
+Vienna, they managed to be represented in the provincial Chamber--the
+Landtag--by six out of the forty-one members. The Landtag was not
+elected on the basis of universal suffrage; four out of these six
+members were chosen by large landowners, one (Dr. Ziliotto, the mayor)
+by the town of Zadar and one by the Zadar chamber of commerce. Out of
+the eighty-six communes of Dalmatia, Zadar was the solitary one that was
+Autonomist. Some very few Autonomists were wont to say that they aspired
+to union with Italy, but it was generally thought that most of them
+agreed with Dr. Ziliotto when he said in the Landtag in 1906: "We,
+separated from Italy by the whole Adriatic--we a few thousand men,
+scattered, with no territorial links, among a population not of hundreds
+of thousands but of millions of Slavs, how could we think of union with
+Italy?" And Dr. Ziliotto was one of those who always regarded himself as
+an Italian. But whether the Zadar Autonomists were sincere or not when
+Austria ruled over them, the large majority of them hung out Italian
+colours after the War, and in this they were undoubtedly sincere,
+although the motives varied; in some it was the love of Italy, in some
+it was ambition and in some a thirst for vengeance.
+
+[Although both Yugoslavs and Italians criticize the Austrian figures, it
+is probable that they are pretty accurate. The census of 1910 gave for
+Dalmatia: 610,669 Serbo-Croats, 18,028 Italians, 3081 Germans and 1410
+Czecho-Slovaks. The Autonomist party claimed that they were not 18,028
+but 30,000; and that 150,000 persons in Dalmatia speak Italian. But the
+Orlando-Sonnino Government really did try its utmost to improve these
+figures. At the end of November 1918 the Italians, who had charge of the
+police at Constantinople, put up notices asking all Austrian subjects
+from Dalmatia to inscribe themselves with the authorities and thus
+receive protection. In addition to the ordinary large Yugoslav
+population, the Austrian army was still there, and two of its officers,
+in uniform, inscribed themselves. The Italians had to endure not a few
+rebuffs, for they applied to people at their houses--they had found the
+nationality lists at the police offices. The Dutch were looking after
+Yugoslav interests, but received no instructions.]
+
+
+WHAT THEY DID THERE
+
+It was thought at Zadar that the Italians would be followed in the
+course of days by the other Allies. Anyhow the Yugoslavs were in no
+carping spirit; about 5000 of them assembled to greet the Italian
+destroyer; they were, in fact, more numerous than the Italians. And
+perhaps one should record that on this memorable occasion--it was at an
+early hour--Dr. Ziliotto had to complete his toilette as he ran down to
+the quay. Soon the Italian captain, shouldered by the crowd, was
+flourishing two flags, the Italian and the Yugoslav--although his
+country had, of course, not recognized Yugoslavia. For a little time it
+was the colour of roses, and the worm that crept into this paradise
+seems to have been a Japanese warship in whose presence each of the two
+parties wished to demonstrate how powerful it was. The carabinieri
+resolved to maintain order, and as an inmate of the seminary made, they
+said, an unpolished gesture at them from a window they went off and,
+with some reinforcements, broke into the Slav Reading-Room and damaged
+it considerably. The Italian officers and men at Zadar went about their
+duties for some time without permitting themselves to be drawn into
+local politics, but they were told repeatedly that the Slavs are goats
+and barbarians, so that at last the men appear to have concluded that
+strong measures were required. Some of them mingled, in civilian
+clothes, with the unruly elements, and Zadar's narrow streets became
+most hazardous for Yugoslav pedestrians. Girls and men alike were
+roughly handled; thrice in one day, for example, a professor--Dr.
+Stoikevi['c]--had his ears boxed as he went to or was coming from his
+school. Yet Zadar is a dignified old place; the chief men of the town
+and the Italian officers did what they could to keep it so. But away
+from their control some deeds of truculence occurred. The prison
+warders, as the spirit moved them, forced the Slavs there to be quiet,
+or to shout "Viva Italia!" Most of the Slavs were in the gaol for having
+had in their possession Austrian paper money stamped by the Yugoslav
+authorities; these notes were subsequently declared by the Italians to
+be illegal; but if a man came from Croatia, for example, and had
+nothing else, it was a trifle harsh to lock him up and confiscate the
+money. Eight good people went to Zadar prison owing to the fact that
+near the ancient town of Biograd they had been sitting underneath the
+olive trees and singing Croat folk-songs. Nor was it much in keeping
+with Zadar's dignity when the "Ufficio Propaganda" put out a large red
+placard which invited boys between the ages of nine and seventeen to
+join in establishing a "Corpo Nazionale dei giovani esploratori"--that
+is to say, an association of boy scouts. It is superfluous to inquire as
+to why these boys were mustered.... When the Austrians collapsed, a few
+old rifles were seized by the Italians and the Croats, the latter having
+fifteen or twenty which they hid in various villages. A priest and a
+medical student were privy to this fearful crime. A hue and cry was
+raised by the carabinieri--the priest vanished, the student jumped out
+of a window of his house and also vanished. But the carabinieri would
+not be denied. They suspected that the Albanians of the neighbouring
+village of Borgo Erizzo were abetting the Slavs. It was necessary,
+therefore, to castigate them. The 2500 inhabitants of Borgo Erizzo,
+nearly all of them Albanians who speak their own language and
+Serbo-Croat, while 5 per cent. also speak Italian, used to be divided in
+their sympathies before the War--75 per cent. being adherents of the
+Slavs in Zadar and 25 per cent. of the Autonomists. Now they have,
+excepting 5 per cent., gone over to the Slavs, and as they have retained
+some of the habits of their ancestors, they were not going to let the
+hostile forces win an easy victory. A student marched in front of the
+Italians, then about ten carabinieri, then a few ranks of soldiers, and
+then the mob of Zadar. The Albanians were in two groups, twenty
+sheltering behind walls to the right of the road and twenty to the left;
+they were armed with stones, their women folk were bringing them relays
+of these. The encounter ended in three carabinieri and seven or eight
+soldiers being wounded. In order to avenge this defeat one Duka, who is
+by birth an Albanian and is a teacher at the Italian "Liga" school,
+which was built a few years ago at Borgo Erizzo, determined on the next
+afternoon to attack the Teachers' Institute, which is situated 400 steps
+from his own establishment, and which on the previous day had shown a
+strong defence. He led the attack in person, firing his revolver. But
+the casualties were light. The Teachers' Institute was, after this,
+occupied by the military, and Admiral Millo paid a complimentary visit
+to Duka at his school.
+
+
+PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK
+
+Proceeding up the Adriatic we come to the Quarnero Islands, of which the
+most considerable is Krk (Veglia). The whole district had, at the last
+census, 19,562 inhabitants whose ordinary language was Serbo-Croat, and
+1544 who commonly spoke Italian. Of these latter the capital, likewise
+called Krk, contained 1494, and only 644 who gave themselves out as
+Slavs. The town, with its tortuous, rather wistful streets, was the
+residence of the Venetian officials, and five or six of those old
+families remain. The rest of the 1494 are nearly all Italianized Slavs,
+who under Austria used to call themselves either Austrians of Italian
+tongue or else Istrians. However, if they wish to be Italians now, there
+is none to say them nay. They include five out of the twenty officials,
+and these five gentlemen seem to have boldly said before the War that it
+would please them if this island were to be included in the Kingdom of
+Italy. They did not give their Austrian rulers many sleepless nights;
+this confidence in them was justified, for during the War they placed
+themselves in the front rank of those who flung defiant words at Italy,
+and one of them enlarged his weapon, copying upon his typewriter some
+Songs of Hate, which probably were sent to him from Rieka or Triest.
+These typewritten sheets were then circulated in the island. One of
+them--"Con le teste degli Italiani"--had been specially composed for
+children and expressed the intention of playing bowls with Italian
+heads. The songs for adults were less blood-thirsty but not less cruel.
+The Yugoslavs of the island must have been engaged in other War work; no
+songs were provided for them.... When Austria collapsed, some youths
+came from Rieka, flourishing their flags and sticks, and crying, "Down
+with Austria!" "Long live Italy!" "Long live Yugoslavia!" "Long live
+King Peter!" There was, in fact general goodwill. A Croat National
+Council was formed, and was recognized by the Italian party; it
+introduced a censorship, but as the postmaster's allegiance was given to
+the minority he sent a telegram to Triest, asking for bread and
+protection; and on November 15 the _Stocco_ arrived. Other people soon
+departed; the Bishop's chancellor and his chaplain, two magistrates and
+a Custom-house official, were shipped off to Italy or Sardinia, while
+the owner of the typewriter flew off as a delegate to Paris, having
+persuaded the town council of the capital to vote a sum of 36,000 crowns
+for his expenses--but a crown was now worth less than half a franc.
+However, two members of the town council thought that it was a waste of
+money; but when they were threatened with internment in Sardinia they
+withdrew their active opposition, and the delegate set out. On the way
+he granted an interview to an Italian journalist, and depicted the
+spontaneous enthusiasm with which the islanders had called for Italy.
+But the journalist had heard of the National Council and he asked, very
+naturally, whether it shared these sentiments. "Ha parlato da Italiano!"
+("I have spoken as an Italian"), replied the delegate; and when the
+newspaper reached the island, this cryptic saying was interpreted in
+various ways, his critics pointing out that, as he had diverged from
+truthfulness, this was another little Song of Hate. The Bishop, Dr.
+Mahni['c],[12] did not go to Italy for several months. He was a learned
+Slovene, an ex-Professor of Gorica University, known also as a stern
+critic of any poetry which was not dogmatically religious. He gave vent
+to his dislike of the poetry of Gregor[vc]i['c] and A[vs]kerc, both of
+them priests. The former, being of a mild disposition, bowed before the
+storm; but A[vs]kerc wrote a cutting satire on his critic. The
+Austrians, disapproving of his religious and patriotic activities,
+thought they would smother him by this appointment to a rather
+out-of-the-way diocese. But his influence spread far beyond it, and in
+the islands he was so solicitous for the people's material welfare that,
+for example, he founded savings-banks, which were a great success. It
+was unavoidable, as he was a man of character, that he should come into
+conflict with the Italians, for their commanding officer, a naval
+captain of Hungarian origin, was not a suave administrator. He charged a
+priest with making Yugoslav propaganda because he catechized the little
+children in their own language; another priest on the island of Unie,
+which forms a part of the diocese, was accused of making propaganda,
+because he has had in his church two statues--which had been there for
+years--of SS. Cyril and Methodus. They were removed from the church, he
+put them back; finally he was himself expelled and Unie remained without
+a priest. The naval captain was irritated by the old Slavonic liturgy,
+which is used in all except four churches of the diocese, but if he
+could not alter this--Dr. Mahni['c] referring him to the Pope--he and
+the Admiral at Pola, Admiral Cagni, could manage with some trouble to
+rid themselves of the bishop. This gentleman, who was in his seventieth
+year and an invalid, said that he would perhaps go to Rome after Easter.
+On March 24 the captain told him that the admiral had settled he should
+sail in three days, but the bishop was ill. On the 26th the captain
+returned with a lieutenant of carabinieri to ask if the bishop was still
+ailing; the admiral, it seemed, had ordered that two other doctors--the
+officer of health for the district and an Italian army doctor--should
+verify the report of the bishop's own medical attendant. The three of
+them quarrelled for two hours, but finally they all signed a memorandum
+that the bishop was ill. On the 31st the captain came to say that a
+destroyer would arrive and that it would take the bishop wherever he
+wanted to go, for the Italians had made up their minds that go he must.
+He had objected far too vigorously to their methods--not approving, for
+example, of the written permit which was given in the autumn to the
+people of two villages in Krk, on which it stated that these people
+could supply themselves with timber at Grdnje. This was a State forest,
+rented by a certain man; but the Italians acknowledged that what they
+wanted was adherents, and these grateful villagers, if there should be a
+plebiscite, would vote for them. The man appealed to justice, but the
+judge received a verbal order not to act. The villagers were given a
+general amnesty on January 1, an Italian flag was hoisted at the judge's
+office--the judge had gone away. Another transaction which the bishop
+had resented was after a visit paid by the captain and another officer
+of the French warship _Annamite_ to the Yugoslav Reading-Rooms at
+Lo[vs]inj mali (Lussinpiccolo); a priest and two other gentlemen had
+escorted their guests to the harbour at 11 p.m.; during the night all
+three were arrested and the priest deported. When the _Annamite_ put in
+at the lofty island of Cres (Cherso) and a couple of officers went to
+the Franciscan monastery, it resulted in the monastery being closed and
+the monks removed. Their simple act of courtesy was, said the Italians,
+propaganda. From Lo[vs]inj mali and Cres five ladies were collected,
+four of them being teachers and one the wife of the pilot,
+Sindi[vc]i['c]. They were guilty of having greeted the French, and on
+account of this were taken to the prison at Pola. Afterwards in Venice
+they were kept for six weeks in the company of prostitutes and from
+there they passed to Sardinia, on which island they were retained for
+nine months. As for Dr. Mahni['c], he set sail on April 4 at 6 a.m.
+Being asked whither he would like to go, he said he wished to be put
+down at Zengg on the mainland. "Excellent," said the Italians; but after
+a few minutes they said they had received a radio from Pola that the
+bishop must be taken to Ancona. He was afterwards allowed to live in a
+monastery near Rome.
+
+
+UNHAPPY POLA
+
+The Italians had not been two days in Pola--in which arsenal town the
+population, unlike that of the country, mostly uses the Italian
+language--when they made themselves disliked by both parties. The
+President of the Italian National Council was told by the Admiral that
+an Austrian crown was to be worth forty Italian centesimi. This, said
+the Admiral, was an order from Rome. The President explained that this
+meant ruin for the people of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to
+Rome. "I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect. Thereupon
+the President and the colleagues who were with him said they would never
+come again to see the Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I
+will have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the next day red
+flags were flying on the arsenal and on the day after the Italian troops
+were taken elsewhere, while 10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola,
+in exchange for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
+off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal from their own
+native country, which rather places them at the mercy of the
+coal-producing lands, seems to be more their misfortune than anybody's
+fault, yet the Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
+against France and Great Britain. Those two countries ought, they said,
+in very decency, to correct the oversights of Providence; but no very
+practical suggestions were put forward.
+
+
+WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED
+
+According to the Austrian census of 1910 Istria contained 386,740
+inhabitants, of whom 218,854 (or 58·5 per cent.) habitually used the
+Serbo-Croat language, while 145,552 (or 38·9 per cent.) used Italian.
+The Yugoslavs cannot help regarding the Istrian statistics with
+suspicion, and believing that here, more than in Dalmatia, they were
+made to suffer on account of Austria's alliance with Italy and with the
+Vatican: one of the wrongs which Strossmayer fought against was that
+Istria had been entrusted to an Italian Dalmatian bishop who could not
+speak a word of Slav. This prelate appointed to vacant livings a number
+of Italian priests whom the people could not understand; a Slav coming
+to confess had to be supplied with an interpreter. As to the statistics
+in the commune of Krmed (Carmedo), for example, of the district of Pola,
+the census of 1900 gave 257 Croats against three Italians, whereas in
+1910 it was stated that 296 inhabitants spoke habitually Italian and six
+spoke Croatian. Nevertheless, if one accepts the Austrian figures, the
+58·5 per cent. should not be treated as if they did not exist. Perhaps
+the Italian officials could find no interpreters to translate their
+proclamations and decrees; if the Yugoslavs could not read them that was
+a defect in their education. If they were unable to write to the
+authorities or to send private telegrams in Italian, let them hold
+their peace. At any rate, said Vice-Admiral Cagni, we will not encourage
+the Croatian language, and on November 16, 1918, he commanded the
+Yugoslav schools to be shut at eleven places in the district and also
+two schools in the town. The Austrians had allowed these schools to
+remain open during the War; but of course if you wish to prevent people
+from learning a language this is one of the first steps you would take.
+Thirteen Yugoslav schoolmasters at Pola were thus deprived of their
+means of livelihood. The Admiral said that he really did not want to let
+matters remain in this condition, but all these schools had been at the
+expense of the State; let the Yugoslavs support their own schools. They
+were, as a matter of fact, entitled by reason of their numbers to have
+State-supported schools. Yet that was, of course, in the time of
+Austria; and why should Italy be bound by Austrian laws? Italy would do
+what she saw fit. In various places the teachers were, in the presence
+of Italian officers, compelled to use Italian for the instruction of
+purely Yugoslav children. Slav schoolmistresses were, in several cases,
+taken out of bed in the middle of the night and conducted on board
+Italian ships. The clergy were ordered to preach in Italian in churches,
+such as that of Veprinac, where the congregation is almost entirely
+Slav[13]--and so on, and so on. Well, there are several ways of
+governing a mixed population, and this is one of them.... "Zadar and
+Rieka," said Pribi[vc]evi['c] in November to an Italian interviewer at
+Zagreb--"Zadar and Rieka will enjoy all liberty of culture and municipal
+autonomy. And we are convinced that an equal treatment will be accorded
+to the Slav minorities who will be included in your territory. We
+understand and perfectly recognize your right to Triest and to Pola, and
+we would that in Italy our right to Rieka and Dalmatia were recognized
+with the same justice."[14]
+
+
+THE FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA
+
+Rieka is a place concerning which a good deal has been written, but I
+doubt if there have been two words more striking than the phrase which
+the Consiglio Nazionale Italiano applies in a pamphlet to the last
+Hungarian Governor. This official, appreciating that his presence in the
+town would serve no useful end, dissolved the State police on October
+28, 1918, and departed. "Hôte insalué, il disparut...." says the
+pamphlet. After all the years of kindness, all the million favours
+showered on the Autonomists by their beloved friends the Magyars, after
+all the dark electioneering tricks and gutter legislation which for
+years had been committed by the Magyars to the end that the Autonomists
+and they should have all the amenities of some one else's house, it
+surely is the acme of ingratitude to call this tottering benefactor
+"Hôte insalué." If the Autonomists did not desire to reap advantages
+from any Magyar corruption, they might at any time since November 17,
+1868, have torn the swindling piece of paper, the "krpitsa," from the
+Agreement made between the Magyars and the Croats. Then the Croat would
+not have been kept for all these years a slave in his own home.... But
+on October 28, 1918, the "krpitsa" had no more weight, the iniquitous
+Agreement was obsolete, the Croats came into possession of their own.
+The Compromise of 1868, which gave the administration of Rieka
+provisionally to the Magyars, was formally denounced on October 29, so
+that the _status quo ante_ returned, and Rieka was again an integral
+part of the Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian Government (that is, the
+National Council) had then every right to depute its adherents at Rieka
+to undertake the affairs of that town. Dr. Vio was too much of a lawyer
+to dispute the legality of any of these statements....
+
+
+THE DRAMA BEGINS
+
+Some of the leading citizens of Rieka formed themselves into a Croat
+National Council; Dr. Bakar[vc]i['c] and Dr. Lenac went up to the
+Governor's palace, and with them went Dr. Vio, as delegate of the town
+council. He said they recognized the Croatian Government, on condition
+that the town's municipal autonomy was guaranteed. To this they readily
+consented, with respect to the Italian language, to their schools and to
+the existing town administration, thus agreeing to every suggestion
+which Dr. Vio made. Moreover they gave him the town register (of births,
+etc.), which the Magyars had appropriated and which was now discovered
+at the palace. This was at 9 a.m. on October 30. Dr. Vio said that he
+was glad that everything had been arranged so amicably. But on the same
+evening the Italian National Council elected itself, for a large number
+of the Autonomist party had now become the Italian party. There still
+remained, however, an Autonomist party, which was no longer inspired,
+like the old Autonomists, by despotic sentiments towards the Croats, but
+by a feeling that in consequence of this long despotism the Croats were,
+as yet, not fit to govern such a place as Rieka. This is a matter of
+opinion. These Autonomists considered that, at any rate for several
+years, the town should not belong to Yugoslavia or to Italy, but be a
+free town under Allied, British or American, control. After five or six
+years there could be a plebiscite, and during that period the population
+would be encouraged to devote itself more to business and less to
+politics. This would tend to make them a united people, with the
+interests of the town at heart. But the Italian party, said the
+Autonomist leader, Mr. Gothardi, did not appear to think these interests
+important; when it was argued that Rieka would not flourish under Italy,
+because of the competition with Italy's other ports and especially
+Triest, because of the vast Italian debt, and for other reasons, the
+Italian party answered that even if the grass grew in Rieka's streets it
+must belong to Italy. "Very well," said the Slavs, "then we will develop
+the harbour at Bakar" a few miles away. "Infamous idea!" exclaimed the
+Italianists; "Rieka is the harbour for the hinterland." There the
+Autonomists agree with them, that the town should finally belong to the
+State which has the hinterland. Mr. Gothardi's party gathered strength
+and he himself became so obnoxious to the Italianists that when I saw
+him in the month of May 1919 he had been for several weeks a prisoner in
+his flat, on account of some thirty individuals with sticks who were
+lurking round the corner. His figures were as follows:
+
+          6,000 Socialists.
+          3,000 Autonomists.
+          1,500 Yugoslavs.
+          -----
+ That is, 10,000 voters out of 12-13,000.
+
+One may mention that he, like some others of his party, belongs to a
+family which has been at Rieka for two hundred years, whereas of the
+fifteen gentlemen who called themselves the Italian National Council,
+only one--a cousin of Mr. Gothardi's--is a member of an old Rieka
+family. Most of the others we are bound to call renegades.
+
+It may be asked why the Italian National Council was established, and
+why its members swore that they would give their lives if they could
+thus give Rieka to the "Madre Patria." Some of them believed, I am sure,
+that this was for Rieka's good, cultural and economical; others
+entertained the motives that we saw at Zadar--personal ambition and the
+desire to satisfy some animosities. And there were others who remembered
+what occurred in the great harbour warehouses. They hoped, they thought
+that if the town fell to the lot of Italy no questions would be
+asked.[15] There must also have been some who could not bear to
+contemplate the loss of their old privileged position.
+
+
+THE I.N.C.
+
+For a considerable time it was not known who were the members of the
+Italian National Council. From internal evidence one saw that they were
+not particularly logical people, for they made much play, in their
+announcements, with "democratic principles" in spite of the undemocratic
+fog in which they wrapped themselves. Of course they had not been
+elected by anyone except themselves; but there was a vast difference
+between them and the self-elected Croat National Council, since the
+latter derived their authority from the Croatian Government at Zagreb,
+which Dr. Vio, in the name of the Rieka municipality, had
+recognized--whereas the Italian National Council was destitute of any
+parent, though they would, had they been pressed, have claimed, no
+doubt, the blissfully unconscious "Madre Patria." Subsequently it turned
+out that the I.N.C. consisted of Dr. Vio and of fourteen persons who had
+hitherto not taken part in public life. They were fourteen worthies of
+the background, the most remarkable act in the life of their President,
+Dr. Grossich, for example, dating from twenty years ago when he was the
+medical attendant of the Archduchess Clothilde, and decorated, so they
+say, his consulting-room with black and yellow festoons. The I.N.C.
+appeared at its inception to be different from a Russian Soviet because
+it had no power.
+
+
+THE CROATS' BLUNDER
+
+A number of deplorable transactions ensued, and they were not all
+committed by the Italianists. The proclamations which were sent from
+Zagreb, exhorting the people to be tranquil, were printed in the two
+languages, but some Croat super-patriots at Rieka tried to make the town
+mono-lingual. At the railway station and the post office they removed
+the old Italian inscriptions and put up Croatian ones, they wrote to
+the mayor in Croat, which, although Dr. Vio has a Croat father and
+visited a Croat school and a Croat university, was tactless; they wrote
+that Croat would now be the language of the town, which was a foolish
+thing to do. They even seem to have demanded the evacuation of the town
+hall within twenty-four hours. And the irresponsible persons who made
+this demand were very properly snubbed by the municipal authorities.
+
+
+MELODRAMA
+
+These excited patriots, delirious with joy that at last their own town
+was in their hands, did not set Rieka on fire, nor did they murder women
+and children; but the Italianists forthwith sent wireless messages to
+Venice, screaming that all these enormities were taking place. A few of
+them rushed off in motors to Triest, where they made themselves into a
+Committee of Public Safety, picked up some Triest sympathizers and flew
+on to Venice, where they related breathless stories of foul deeds. One,
+which appeared in the Italian Press, was that three children of Rieka
+had been publicly committed to the flames.
+
+
+FARCE
+
+On November 4 an Italian destroyer, the _Stocco_, shortly followed by
+the _Emanuele Filiberto_, a cruiser, came on their errand of humanity.
+The I.N.C. at once organized a plebiscite--by which is meant not a dull
+giving and counting of votes in the usual election booths. A plebiscite,
+at all events a plebiscite at Rieka, signifies for the Italianists a mob
+assembled in a public thoroughfare; photographs of such assemblies
+illustrate their pamphlets and are entitled "plebiscito." At the harbour
+the Italian Admiral, whose name was Raineri, told the joyous I.N.C.--who
+now had flung aside their anonymity--that he had come to bring them a
+salute from Italy, and that he had been sent to shield Italians and to
+protect Italian interests. The plebiscite threw up its hats and waved
+its flags, and shouted its applause and sang its songs. Flowers fell
+upon the Admiral, and on his men and on the guns; the ships, as we are
+told, were changed to floating gardens. But the sailors did not
+disembark. Some ladies, members of the plebiscite, besought the Admiral
+to come ashore, and hoping to persuade the men, they climbed on board
+and playfully seized many sailors' caps, which in the town, they said,
+could be redeemed. Then shortly afterwards, the Yugoslav officials came
+to greet the Admiral, as did the commandant of the Yugoslav troops which
+had been for several days guarding the town. Meanwhile some unknown
+persons had been up in the old clock-tower and, for reasons known
+perhaps to themselves, had taken in both the Croatian and Italian flags;
+the Admiral drove up to see the Governor, Dr. Lenac, and requested that
+his country's flag should be rehoisted, which of course was done. And
+until November 17 the Admiral was nearly every day up at the Governor's
+palace, as a multitude of details had to be discussed. A French warship
+arrived on the 10th, followed by a British vessel on the 12th or 13th.
+Perfect calm prevailed. Croatian and Italian flags flew everywhere, as
+well as French ones, British and American. The name of the Hotel Deak
+was altered to Hotel Wilson.... But the men of the _Emanuele Filiberto_
+and the _Stocco_ did not land. Colonel Tesli['c] assured the Admiral
+that if anyone started to set fire to an Italianist child or to indulge
+in any other crime he would prevent it.
+
+
+PAROLE D'HONNEUR
+
+All this was very disconcerting to the I.N.C. They knew that on the
+hills outside Rieka were large numbers of Italian troops, which had come
+overland from Istria. But how to get them in? Rieka had not been
+ascribed to the Italians by the London Treaty.[16] ... On November 15 a
+detachment of Serbian troops arrived, under Colonel Maximovi['c], and
+were given a magnificent reception. Thousands of people accompanied
+them, and in front of the French destroyer there was a manifestation.
+Some of the Serbs, old warriors who had been under arms since the first
+Balkan War, were moved to tears. The Italianists were furious; Admiral
+Raineri called on the Governor for an explanation of the Serbs' arrival.
+A conference was held between the Admiral, the Colonel and two Yugoslav
+officers. If the Serbs remained at Rieka, said the Admiral, he would
+land his marines. Maximovi['c] said he had come in obedience to his
+orders, and that he would have to prevent by force the disembarkation of
+the Italians. At this moment a Serbian officer entered to announce that
+Italian armoured cars were approaching from Abbazia. Maximovi['c]
+immediately ordered his troops to mobilize, but the Admiral said a
+mistake had been made and that the cars would be sent back. (The
+Government Secretary, Dr. Ru[vz]i['c], had been told at three o'clock by
+a telephone operator that the Admiral had himself telephoned to Abbazia
+for the cars.) It was decided at this conference that on Sunday,
+November 17, the Yugoslav troops would evacuate the town, that it would
+be occupied by Serbian and American troops, and that, to mark the
+alliance, a small Italian detachment would be landed. As Admiral Cagni,
+of Pola, ordered that Italian troops should be disembarked at Rieka,
+another conference was held between Admiral Raineri, Colonel
+Maximovi['c], Colonel Tesli['c] and Captain Dvorski (of the Yugoslav
+navy), as well as French and British officers. It was arranged _sous
+parole d'honneur d'officier_ that at 4 p.m. the Serbian troops should
+leave Rieka and go to Porto Ré, an hour's sea journey, that the Yugoslav
+troops should remain, and that the Italians should not land. No other
+steps would be taken till November 20 at noon, and the Supreme Command
+would be asked to settle the difficulty. As soon as the Serbian troops
+were out at sea, the Italian army, under General di San Marzano
+(attended by a kinematograph), marched in from the hills, entering the
+town simultaneously from four directions, in accordance with a strategic
+plan. The General was told what Raineri had agreed to do; he replied
+that he was Raineri's senior, that the final decision rested with him,
+and that he intended to proceed into the town. (One of the British
+officers is said to have addressed him rather bluntly.) At 4.30 Raineri
+landed his marines, and afterwards he was dismissed from his post--not,
+indeed, for having broken his word given at the inter-Allied conference,
+but for having delayed so long before disembarking troops in the town.
+He said he had received a written order from the Entente; if only
+Maximovi['c] had not left he might have shown it him. With twenty
+carabinieri the General went to the Governor's palace and asked Dr.
+Lenac to vacate it. He was so excited that he almost pushed the doctor
+out. "There is no room for the two of us," he said. And that is how the
+Italian occupation began. The French and British brought some troops in
+at a later date, but when they had six hundred each the Italians had
+22,000. With the Italians came fifty Americans, so that the force might
+have an international appearance. These Americans were given
+broad-sheets, printed by the town Italianists in English; they welcomed
+the Americans as liberators, and informed them that the population had
+by plebiscite declared for annexation to the Motherland. On the same
+night the Yugoslav troops were turned out of their barracks into the
+street by the Italian army.... These are, I believe, the main facts as
+to the occupation which has been the subject of much heated argument. I
+had the facts from eye-witnesses and documents: I exposed the evidence
+of each side to the criticism of the other.
+
+Very soon the disorders began. On the evening of the occupation Italian
+troops ran through the town, accompanied by some of the plebiscite, and
+compelled the people to remove the Yugoslav colours from their
+button-holes. In cases they surrounded their victim and used force. When
+this was used against women, after the arrival of the French and
+British, it produced some serious international affrays. The Italians,
+who invariably outnumbered the others, did not scruple to employ their
+knives; thus in the middle of December two French soldiers were stabbed
+in the back and their murderers were never found.
+
+
+THE POPULATION OF THE TOWN
+
+But there had been at Rieka an Englishman for whom I have an almost
+inexpressible admiration. This was Mr. A. Beaumont who, a couple of days
+after the Italians occupied the town in the above-mentioned curious
+fashion, sent from Triest a long message to the _Daily Telegraph_. How
+can anyone not marvel at a gentleman who travels to a foreign town which
+is in the throes of unrest and who, undeterred by his infirmity, sits
+down to grasp the rather complicated features of the situation? I am not
+acquainted with Mr. Beaumont, but he must be blind, poor fellow, for he
+says that the Yugoslavs occupied with ill-concealed glee a town entirely
+inhabited by some 45,000 Italians. Perhaps somebody will read to him the
+following statistics made after the year 1868, when Rieka came under
+Magyar dominion. The statistics were made by the Magyars and Italianists
+combined, so that they do not err in favour of the Yugoslavs. He might
+also be told that the Magyar-Italian alliance closed the existing
+Yugoslav national schools for the 13,478 Yugoslavs in 1890, while they
+opened Italo-Magyar schools for the 13,012 "Italians" and Magyars. They
+would not even allow the Yugoslavs to have at Rieka an elementary school
+at their own expense. Everything possible was done during these decades
+to inculcate hatred and contempt for whatsoever was Slav, hoping thus to
+denationalize the citizens. In view of all this it speaks well for
+Yugoslav steadfastness that they were able to maintain themselves. Here
+are the figures:
+
+           YUGOSLAVS.       ITALIANS.       MAGYARS.
+
+1880       10,227 (49%)      9,237 (44%)      379  (2%)
+1890       13,478 (46%)     13,012 (44%)    1,062  (4%)
+1900       16,197 (42%)     17,354 (45%)    2,842  (7%)
+1910       15,692 (32%)     24,212 (49%)    6,493 (13%)
+
+Assuming for the moment that these figures are correct--and it is an
+enormous assumption[17]--are not the Autonomists to be found chiefly
+among the Italians and Magyars? It is claimed that the Autonomist,
+Socialist and Slav vote exceeds that of those who desire annexation to
+Italy. One need not treat _au sérieux_ the great procession organized by
+the Italianists, when they could not scrape together more than about
+4000 persons, including many schoolboys and girls, the municipal clerks,
+visitors from Italy, Triest and Zadar. One need not gibe the Italianists
+with the numbers who followed Dr. Vio on that famous day when, weary of
+palavering, he summoned round him his supporters and strode off to the
+Governor's palace, where General Grazioli, who had succeeded General di
+San Marzano, was installed.[18] Arrived there, Dr. Vio with a superb
+gesture begged the General to accept the town in the name of Italy. It
+is not often in the lifetime of a man that he has the opportunity of
+giving a whole town away. Dr. Vio made the most of that occasion; if the
+crowd which followed him was disappointing, there may be good
+explanations. The allegiance of a town, one may submit, should be
+settled in another fashion. The house-to-house inquiry, conducted in the
+spring of 1919 by the Autonomists--resulting in an anti-annexionist
+majority--was much impeded by the police; and it is of course the
+business of the authorities and not of any one party to hold elections
+in a town. Had the Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of
+Italian bayonets, held a real plebiscite--secret or otherwise--the
+result would doubtless have given them pain, but no surprise.... And
+this will happen even if the Magyar system of separating Rieka from the
+suburb of Su[vs]ak is perpetrated. Su[vs]ak contains about 12,500
+Yugoslavs and extremely few Italianists; and, by the way, to show how
+the Magyars and the Italianists worked together, it is worth mentioning
+that the Magyar railway officials who lived at Su[vs]ak were allowed a
+vote at Rieka, while if a Croat lived at Su[vs]ak and carried on his
+avocation at Rieka he could vote in Su[vs]ak only. One must not imagine
+that Su[vs]ak is a poor relation; most people would prefer to live
+there. Dr. Vio was intensely wrathful because the British General
+resided in a beautifully situated house there by the sea. Not only is
+Su[vs]ak about twenty yards, across a stream, from Rieka, but from a
+commercial point of view their separation seems absurd, since half the
+port, including the great wood depots, is in Su[vs]ak. One of these
+timber merchants presented an example of Italianization. His original
+name was E. R. Sarinich and this was painted on his business premises at
+Su[vs]ak, while in Rieka he called himself Sarini. It must have caused
+him many sleepless nights.... Counting Su[vs]ak with Rieka as one town,
+the total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per cent.
+Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent. Magyar. These Magyars,
+by the way, seem not to have been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were
+still a good number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
+consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with Hungary, had that
+State continued to exist as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she
+certainly never contemplated handing over"--["handing over" is rather
+humorous]--"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population to the
+Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch there is printed a
+semi-official statement, sent by Reuter, from Rome. "Yesterday
+afternoon," it says, "our troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which
+was made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in view not only
+of the urgent and legitimate demands of the Italian citizens of Fiume,
+but also of the insistent appeals of eminent foreigners...."
+
+
+THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES
+
+"Italy's reward," says Mr. Beaumont, "must be commensurate with her
+sacrifices, and this is the attitude assumed here. It is quite apart
+from the mere question as to whether the Jugo-Slavs are in a majority in
+certain districts or not. Those districts form a part of old Italian
+territory, of Italian lands once peopled and occupied by the Italian
+race and into which, with Austria's encouragement, Slav populations have
+filtered." [I should love to know what are Mr. Beaumont's sources.] "The
+question must not be left to local ambition and antipathies. It must be
+decided authoritatively and quickly in strong counsel to the Jugo-Slav
+leaders." ... Let us leave Rieka and see how the Italians decided
+authoritatively and quickly on the island of Cres (Cherso). It is a
+large but not thickly populated island; having 8162 inhabitants for 336
+square kilometres. The Yugoslavs, according to the census of 1910,
+number 5714 or 71·3 per cent., while the Italian-speaking population
+amounts to 2296 or 28 per cent. About the middle of November the Italian
+authorities placed in the village of Martin[vs]['c]ica, which is in the
+south-western part of the island, 17 soldiers, 3 carabinieri and a
+lieutenant. Let me say at once that I have never been to Cres, all my
+knowledge of this case comes from a Franciscan monk who lives there, the
+Rev. Ambrose Vlahov, Professor of Theology. At Martin[vs]['c]ica, he
+says, there is not a single Italianist; the entire village is Yugoslav.
+When the Italian military arrived the lieutenant insisted that the
+priest, Karlo Hla['c]a, should cease to sing the Mass in Old Slav, and
+that for the whole service he should use Italian, the only language,
+said the lieutenant, which he (the lieutenant) understood. It was futile
+for the priest to demonstrate what a ridiculous and unreasonable demand
+this was; the lieutenant always came back to the subject, being sometimes
+merely importunate and sometimes using menaces. As Hla['c]a was a model
+ecclesiastic, highly esteemed by his parishioners, the lieutenant
+comprehended that as long as this priest remained, he would be foiled in
+his endeavours; he therefore sought an opportunity to turn him out. On
+January 5, 1919, the priest had, by order of his bishop, to read during
+the service a pastoral letter on the duties of the faithful towards the
+Church and towards their fellow-men; he had also to add a simple and
+concise commentary. In this letter there was a passage dealing with
+schools, and the priest on that topic remarked that "by divine and human
+law every nation may ask that its children should be instructed in their
+mother tongue." When Mass was finished, the mayor of the village
+assembled the parishioners and notified them that henceforward, by order
+of the lieutenant, there would no longer be in the village a Croatian
+but an Italian school. And in order to mollify the people he added that
+the lieutenant proposed to give subsidies to such as stood in need; they
+had only to present themselves before that officer. But, though the
+people often found it hard to satisfy their simple wants and were at
+that period in very great distress, they walked away from this assembly
+without making one step in the lieutenant's direction. This incited him
+to such fury that he ran, accompanied by soldiers and carabinieri, to
+the priest, and publicly, in a loud voice, insulted him, calling him an
+intriguer, a rebel, an agitator. On the following day the lieutenant had
+him conducted to the village of Cres by two soldiers and a carabiniere,
+who were all armed.... At Cres the priest was brought before the
+commanding officer of the Quarnero Islands--our old acquaintance, the
+naval captain of Krk--who happened to be in this village. He started at
+once to bellow at the priest and, striking the table with his hand,
+exclaimed: "This is an Italian island, all Italian, nothing but Italian
+and evermore it will remain Italian." About a score of parishioners had
+come to Cres behind their priest and his escort; they begged the
+commandant to set him free. As an answer he harangued them with respect
+to the Italian character of the islands, told them that they would have
+to send their children to the Italian school and that the whole village
+would be Italianized and that _only in their homes_ would they be
+permitted to speak Croatian.... On January 8 the priest was taken from
+Cres to the island of Krk, where he was informed that he would have to
+leave his parish, but that he might go back there for a day or two to
+fetch a few necessities. It was raining in torrents when Father
+Hla['c]a, wet to the skin, arrived at his village on the 11th at seven
+o'clock in the evening. As he suffers from several chronic
+ailments--which was known to the lieutenant--this bad weather had a
+grave effect upon him. When he reached his house he went to bed at once
+with a very high temperature. After about a quarter of an hour the
+lieutenant appeared with two carabinieri and shouted at him that he must
+get up. This draconian injunction had to be obeyed, the more so as the
+lieutenant was labouring under great excitement. He looked at the
+priest's permit which allowed him to come back to the village, and said,
+"If I were in your shoes I wouldn't venture to come back here." These
+words gave Father Hla['c]a an impression that his life was in danger.
+The lieutenant then ordered him not to go out among the people, but to
+stop where he was until he was taken away. Five days after this the
+priest was taken to Rieka, so that the villagers were left with nobody
+to guard them against the violence and the temptations offered them by
+the Italians. The Croat inscription outside the school was replaced by
+one in Italian and, with the lieutenant acting as teacher, the doors
+were thrown open. But the only children who went there were those of the
+lieutenant himself and those of the mayor, who was a renegade in the pay
+of the Italians. It was announced that heavy fines would be inflicted if
+the other children did not come. The villagers were in great trouble and
+in fear, with nobody to give them advice or consolation.... There may be
+some who will be curious to know concerning the "Italian" population of
+this island, which, according to the 1910 census, reached the large
+figure of 28 per cent. At a place called Nere[vz]ine it was stated, in
+the census of 1880, that the commissioner had found 706 Italians and 340
+Yugoslavs. Consequently an Italian primary school was opened; but when
+it was discovered that the children of Nere[vz]ine knew not one traitor
+word of that language, the school was transformed into a Yugoslav
+establishment. This is one case out of many; the 28 per cent. would not
+bear much scrutiny.... But the Italian Government, at any rate the "Liga
+Nazionale" to whose endowment it contributes, had been taking in hand
+this question of elementary schools in Istria and Dalmatia among the
+Slav population. The "Liga" made gratuitous distribution of clothing, of
+boots, of school-books and so forth. Some indigent Slavs allowed
+themselves in this way to become denationalized.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, however, you examine the embroideries of these
+islands--particularly beautiful on Rab and on the island of wild olive
+trees, the neighbouring Pag--you will be sure that such an ancient
+national spirit as they show will not be easily seduced. The Magyars, by
+the way, whose culture is more modern, borrowed certain features that
+you find on these embroideries--the sun, for instance, and the cock,
+which have from immemorial times been thought appropriate by these
+people for the cloth a woman wears upon her head when she is bringing a
+new son into the world, whose dawn the cock announces. Older than the
+workers in wood, much older than those who carved in stone, are these
+island embroiderers. In this work the people reproduced their tears and
+laughter.
+
+
+RAB IS COMPLETELY CAPTURED
+
+What will it avail to put up "Liga" schools in these islands, where the
+population is 99·67 per cent. Yugoslav and 0·31 per cent.
+Italianist--that is, if we are content to accept the Austrian
+statistics? What ultimate advantage will accrue to Italy from the doings
+of her emissaries, in November 1918, on the isle of Rab? It was Tuesday,
+November 26, when the _Guglielmo Pepe_ of the Italian navy put in at the
+venerable town which is the capital of that island. The commander, with
+an Italianist deputy from Istria, climbed up to the town-hall with the
+old marble balcony and informed the mayor and the members of the local
+committee of the Yugoslav National Council that he had come in the name
+of the Entente and in virtue of the arrangements of the Armistice; he
+said that in the afternoon Italian troops would land, for the purpose of
+maintaining order. It was pointed out to him that no disturbance had
+arisen, and that, according to the terms of the Armistice, he had no
+right to occupy this island. The commander announced that he must
+disarm the national guard, but that the Yugoslav flags would not be
+interfered with; the Italian flag would only be hoisted on the
+harbour-master's office and the military headquarters. On the next day,
+after he had been unable to induce the town authorities to lower their
+national flag from the clock-tower, he sent a hundred men with a machine
+gun to carry out his wishes. Filled with confidence by this heroic deed,
+he marched into the mayor's office and dissolved the municipal council.
+Armed forces occupied the town-hall, over which an Italian flag was
+flown. An Italian officer was entrusted with the mayoral functions and
+with the municipal finances, while the post office was also captured and
+all private telegrams forbidden, not only those which one would have
+liked to dispatch, but those which came in from elsewhere--they were not
+delivered. All meetings and manifestations were made illegal. The
+commander, whose name was Captain Denti di ---- (the other part being
+illegible), sent a memorandum to the municipal council which explained
+that he dissolved it on account of their having grievously troubled the
+public order; he did this by virtue of the powers conferred upon him and
+in the name of the Allied Powers and the United States of America. The
+islanders did not pretend to be experts in international law, but they
+did not believe that he was in the right.
+
+"I have every confidence," said the Serbian Regent, when he was
+receiving a deputation of the Yugoslav National Council a few days after
+this--"I have every confidence that the operations for the freedom of
+the world will be accomplished, that large numbers of our brethren will
+be liberated from a foreign yoke. And I feel sure that this point of
+view will be adopted by the Government of the Kingdom of Italy, which
+was founded on these very principles. They were cherished in the hearts
+and executed in the deeds of great Italians in the nineteenth century.
+We can say frankly that in choosing to have us as their friends and good
+neighbours the Italian nation will find more benefit and a greater
+security than in the enforcement of the Treaty of London, which we never
+signed nor recognized, and which was made at a time when nobody foresaw
+the crumbling of Austria-Hungary."
+
+
+AVANTI SAVOIA!
+
+It would be tedious to chronicle a thousandth part of the outrages,
+crimes and stupidities committed on Yugoslav territory by the Italians.
+Where they were threatened with an armed resistance they yielded. Thus
+on November 14, when they had reached Vrhnica (Ober-Laibach) on their
+way to Ljubljana (Laibach), they were met by Colonel Svibi['c] with
+sixteen other officers who had just come out of an internment camp in
+Austria. Svibi['c] requested the Italians to leave Vrhnica. He said that
+he and the Serbian commander at Ljubljana would prevent the advance of
+the Italians into Yugoslav territory. They would be most reluctant to be
+obliged to resort to armed force should the Italians continue their
+advance, and they declined responsibility for any bloodshed which might
+ensue.... The colonel of the Italian regiment which had been stationed
+for some days at Vrhnica informed the mayor of that commune that he had
+received orders to depart; he retired to the line of demarcation fixed
+by the Armistice conditions.
+
+
+THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA
+
+It was ironical that a young State, struggling into life, should be
+hindered, not by former enemies but by friends of its friends. The
+Italians complained that the French, British and Americans were not
+fraternizing with them. In the first place, it was repugnant to the
+sense of justice of these nations when they saw that General di San
+Marzano, after having fraudulently seized the town of Rieka and turning
+its absolutely legal Governor into the street, did not ask the citizens
+to organize a temporary local government, in which all parties would be
+represented, but delivered, if you please, the town to fifteen
+gentlemen, the I.N.C., who--at the very utmost--represented half the
+population. On November 24, the local newspaper _Il Popolo_ announced in
+a non-official manner that the I.N.C., in full accord with the military
+command, had taken over the administration--_i poteri pubblici_. This,
+by the way, was never confirmed by the representatives of the other
+Allies. The I.N.C. furthermore declared null and of no effect any
+intervention of the Yugoslav National Council in the affairs of the
+authorities of the State of Rieka. When the Yugoslavs appealed to the
+French, British or Americans they were naturally met with sympathy and
+urged to have patience. Case after case of high-handed dealing was
+reported to these officers. They sometimes intervened with good effect;
+far more injustice would have happened; far more Croats and Autonomists,
+for instance, would have been deported if the Allies had not interceded.
+It was now, of course, impossible for Yugoslavs to wear their colours;
+nor could they prevent the C.N.I. from hanging vast Italian flags on
+Croat houses. One of the largest flags, I should imagine, in the world
+swayed to and fro between Rieka's chief hotel and the tall building on
+the opposite side of the square--and both these houses, mark you, were
+Croat property. But the Allied officers knew very well (and the C.N.I.
+knew that they knew) that more than thirty of the large buildings on the
+front belonged to Croats, whereas under half a dozen were the property
+of Italians or Italianists. The ineffable Mr. Edoardo Susmel, in one of
+his pro-Italian books, entreats certain French and British friends of
+the Yugoslavs to come for one hour to Rieka and judge for themselves.
+But twenty minutes would be ample for a man of average intelligence. In
+many ways the presence of the Allies grieved the C.N.I. The Allies
+looked without approval at the "Giovani Fiumani," an association of
+young rowdies of whose valuable services the C.N.I. availed itself. But
+if these hired bands could not be dispersed they could have limits
+placed upon their zeal. One of their ordinary methods was to sit in
+groups in cafés or in restaurants or other places where an orchestra was
+playing, then to shout for the Italian National Anthem and to make
+themselves as nasty as they dared to anyone who did not rise. If
+everybody rose, then they would wait a quarter of an hour and have the
+music played again. The Allied officers persuaded General Grazioli to
+prohibit any National Anthem in a public place. It was distasteful to
+the Allied officers when a local newspaper in French--_l'Echo de
+l'Adriatique_--which had been established to present the Yugoslav point
+of view, was continually being suppressed. For example, on December 14,
+it printed a short greeting from the Croat National Council to President
+Wilson. The most anti-Italian phrase in this that I could find was:
+"Their fondest hope is to justify to the world, to history and to you
+the great trust you have placed in them." This was refused publication.
+It is unnecessary to say that Yugoslav newspapers were confiscated and
+their sale forbidden--after all, one didn't buy German or Austrian
+newspapers in England during the War, and the Italians now regarded the
+Croats as very pernicious enemies. _La Rassegna Italiana_ of December 15
+called its first article--printed throughout in italics--"I Prussiani
+dell' Adriatico," and took to its bosom an "upright American citizen"
+returning from a visit to "Fiume nostra," who defined the Yugoslavs "on
+account of their greed and their brutality and their spirit of intrigue
+and their lack of candour as the Prussians of the Adriatic." Personally
+I should submit that the Prussian spirit was not wholly lacking in those
+two Italian officers who penetrated on November 25 into the dining-room
+at the quarters of the Custom-house officials and informed them that
+they wanted their piano. No discussion was permitted; the piano
+"transferred itself," as they say in some languages, to the Italian
+officers' mess. The Prussian spirit was not undeveloped in a certain Mr.
+[vS]tigli['c]--his name might cause his enemies to say he is a renegade,
+but as my knowledge of him is confined to other matters, we will say he
+is the noblest Roman of them all. He likewise had a dig at the
+Custom-house officials; I know not whether he was wiping off old scores.
+Appointed by the I.N.C. as director of the Excise office, he
+communicated with the resident officials--Franjo Jakov[vc]i['c], Ivan
+Mikuli[vc]i['c] and Grga Ma[vz]uran--on December 5, and told them to
+clear out by the following Saturday, they and their families, so that in
+the heart of winter forty-one persons were suddenly left homeless.
+
+
+A CANDID FRENCHMAN
+
+This and innumerable other manifestations of Prussianism were brought to
+the attention of the French, so that it was not surprising when a
+Frenchman made a few remarks in the _Rije['c]_ of Zagreb. His article,
+entitled "Mise au point," begins by a reference to the Yugoslav cockades
+which were sometimes worn by the French sailors. This, to the Italians,
+was as if an ally in the reconquered towns of Metz and Strasbourg had
+sported the colours of an enemy. "The cases are not parallel," says the
+Frenchman. "You have come to Rieka and to Pola as conquerors of towns
+that were exhausted, yielding to the simultaneous and gigantic pressure
+of the Allied armies. These towns gave themselves up. Are they on that
+account your property, and are we to consider as a dead-letter the
+clauses of the Armistice which settled that Pola should be occupied by
+the Allies? I am not so dexterous a diplomat as to be able to follow you
+along this track; let it be decided by others. But we who were present
+perceived that your occupation, which you had regulated in every detail,
+had a close resemblance to the entry of a circus into some provincial
+town, whose population is known beforehand to be of a hostile character.
+It is needless to say that this masquerade, these vibrating appeals to
+fraternity that were placarded upon the walls gave us in that grey,
+abandoned town an impression of complete fiasco." ["It is significant,"
+writes Mr. Beaumont the Italophil, "that the Slav population ... observe
+an attitude of strange reserve and diffidence. They are silent and
+almost sullen. When the Italian fleet first visited Pola there was
+hardly a cheer...."] "Now let me tell you," says the Frenchman, "that
+our entry into Alsace was different. Foch was not obliged to send
+emissaries in advance in order to decorate the houses with flags and to
+erect triumphal arches. The French cockades had not nestled in the dark
+hair of our Alsatian women since 1870, for forty-eight years the
+tricolors had been waiting, piously folded at the bottom of those wooden
+chests, waiting for us to float them in the wind of victory--nous
+rentrions chez nous tout simplement. Or, vous n'êtes pas chez vous ici,
+messieurs." ["Common reserve and decency should have induced the
+Jugo-Slavs to abstain," says Mr. Beaumont, "from rushing to take a place
+to which they were not invited ... an exclusively Italian city."]
+"Whatever you may assert," says the Frenchman, "everything seems to
+contradict it. Your actors play their parts with skill, but the public
+is frigid. Now the decorations are tattered and the torches on the
+ramparts have grown black.... Permit me, following your example, and
+with courtesy, to call back the glories of old Italy, to remind myself
+of the great figures that stride through your history and that give to
+the world an unexampled picture of the lofty works of man. Our sailors,
+who are simple and often uncultured men, have no remembrance of these
+things; the brutal facts, in this whirling age in which we live, have
+more power to strike their imagination. What is one to say to them when
+they see their comrades stabbed, slaughtered by your men as if they were
+noxious animals--yesterday at Venice, the day before that at Pola,
+to-day at Rieka. Englishmen and Americans, your Allies, receive your
+'sincere and fraternal hand' which holds a dagger. As a method of
+pacific penetration you will avow that this is rather rudimentary and
+that the laws of Romulus did not teach you such fraternity. We have also
+seen you striking women in the street and disembowelling a child. What
+are we to think of that, _fratelli d'Italia_? Excuse us, but we are not
+accustomed to such incidents. Is it not natural that the legendary,
+gallant spirit of our sailors should infect the crowd? Our bluejackets
+have looked in vain for the three colours which are dear to them and
+which you have excluded utterly from all your rows of flags. Well, in
+default of them, they had no choice but to array themselves in the
+cockades which dainty hands pinned on their uniforms.... And our
+'poilus,' in their faded, mud-smeared garments walk along 'your'
+streets, disdainfully regarded by your dazzling and pomaded Staff. Do
+you remember that these unshaven fellows who thrust back the Boche in
+1918 are the descendants of those who in 1793 conquered Italy and Europe
+with bare feet? Therefore do not strike your breasts if now and then a
+smile involuntarily appears upon their lips. O you who henceforth will
+be known as the immortal heroes of the Piave, if our fellows see to-day
+so many noble breasts, it was not seldom that they saw another portion
+of your bodies."
+
+
+ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
+
+"Yes, but that has nothing to do," some people will say, "with Rieka's
+economical position. We admit that Croatia has the historical right to
+the town, but we wish to be satisfied that the Croats are not moved by
+reasons that would cause Rieka's ruin. It may be nowadays, owing to the
+unholy alliance between Magyars and Italians, that the town, with
+respect to its trade, is more in the Italian sphere than in that of
+Yugoslavia." The answer to this is that Italy's share of the value of
+the imports into Rieka in 1911 was 7·5 per cent. of the total, while her
+share of the value of the exports amounted to 13 per cent., which proves
+that Italy depends commercially more on Rieka's hinterland than does
+that hinterland upon Italy. It seems to be of less significance that the
+millionaires of Rieka are mostly Croats, for they might conceivably have
+enriched themselves by trade with Italy. But of the nine banks, previous
+to the War the Italianists were in exclusive possession of none, while
+the Croats had four; of the eight shipping companies three were Croat,
+three were Magyar, one British, one German--not one Italian. It is true
+that some Italian writers lay it down that Rieka's progress should be
+co-ordinated with that of Venice, to say nothing of Triest, and should
+not be exploited by other States to the injury of the Italian Adriatic
+ports. Their point of view is not at all obscure. And all disguise is
+thrown to the winds in a book which has had a great success among the
+Italian imperialists: _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, by Mario Alberti
+(Milan, 1915--third edition). The author says that Italy, having annexed
+Triest and Rieka, will be "assured for ever"; her "economic penetration"
+of the Balkans "will no longer be threatened" by the projected
+Galatz-Scutari (Danube-Adriatic) railway; Italian agriculture which, he
+says, is already in peril, "will be rescued"; the Italian fisherman will
+no longer have the ports of Triest and Rieka closed (for exportation to
+Germany and Austria); the national wealth will be augmented by "several
+milliards"; new fields will be open to Italian industry; her economic
+(and military) domination over the Adriatic will be absolute. There
+will, he continues, be no more "disturbing" competition on the part of
+any foreign mercantile marine; the Adriatic will be the sole property of
+Italy, and so on. It would be worth while, as a study of expressions, to
+photograph a few Rieka Italianists in the act of reading these rapturous
+pages.... But lest it be imagined that I have searched for the most
+feeble pro-Italian arguments in order to have no difficulty in knocking
+them down, I will add that their strongest argument, taken as it is from
+the official report of the French Consul in 1909, appears to be that the
+commerce of Croatia amounted then to only 7 per cent. of the total trade
+of the port of Rieka. I am told by those who ought to know that wood
+alone, which comes almost exclusively from Croatia, Slavonia, etc.,
+represents 16 per cent. If other products, such as flour, wine, etc.,
+are considered, 50 per cent. of the total trade must be ascribed to
+Croatia, Slavonia, etc. And that does not take into account the western
+Banat and other Yugoslav territories. Serbia, too, would now take her
+part, so that there is no need to fear for the position of a Yugoslav
+Rieka based solely--omitting Hungary and the Ukraine altogether--on her
+Yugoslav hinterland. Rieka without Yugoslavia would be ruined and would
+degenerate into a fishing village, with a great past and a miserable
+future. This could very well be seen during the spring of 1919 when the
+communications were interrupted between Rieka and Yugoslavia. At Rieka
+during April eggs were 80 centimes apiece, while at Bakar, a few miles
+away, they cost 25 centimes; milk at Rieka was 6 crowns the litre and at
+Bakar one crown; beef was 30 crowns a kilo and at Bakar 8 crowns. Italy
+was calling Rieka her pearl--a pearl of great price; the Yugoslavs said
+it was the lung of their country. It is within the knowledge of the
+Italianists that the prosperity of Rieka would not be advanced by making
+her the last of a chain of Italian ports, but rather by making her the
+first port of Yugoslavia. What has Italy to offer in comparison with the
+Slovenes and the Croats? The maritime outlet of the Save valley, as well
+as of the plains of Hungary beyond it, is, as Sir Arthur Evans points
+out, the port of Rieka. And, in view of the mountainous nature of the
+country which lies for a great distance at the back of Split and of
+Dubrovnik, it would seem that Rieka--and especially when the railway
+line has been shortened--will be the natural port of Belgrade.
+
+
+THE TURNCOAT MAYOR
+
+One cannot expect in a place with Rieka's history that such
+considerations as these will be debated, calmly or otherwise, but at all
+events on their own merits. They will be approached with more than
+ordinary passion, since so many of the people of Rieka have been
+turncoats. Any man who changes sides in his religion or his nationality
+or politics--presuming, and I hope this mostly was so at Rieka, that his
+reasons were not base--that man will feel profoundly on these matters,
+more profoundly than the average person of his new religion, nationality
+or politics. He will observe the ritual, he will give utterance to his
+thoughts with such an emphasis that his old comrades will dislike him
+and his new associates be made uneasy. Thus a convert may not always be
+the most delightful creature in the garden, and he is abundant at Rieka.
+As an illustration we may study Dr. Vio. Many persons have repeated that
+he has a Croat father, yet they should in fairness add that his father's
+father came from Venice. But if he came from Lapland, that ought to be
+no reason why the present Dr. Vio should not, if he so desires, be an
+Italian. If he had, when he arrived at what is usually called the age of
+discretion, inscribed himself among the sons of Italy--_à la bonheur_.
+But he took no such step. He came out as a Croat of the Croats, for when
+he had finished his legal studies he became a town official, but
+discovered that his views--for he was known as an unbending
+Croat--hindered his advancement. The party in possession of the town
+council, the Autonomist party, would have none of him. At last he, in
+disgust, threw up his post and went into his father's office. He was
+entitled, after ten years' service, to a pension; the Autonomists
+refused to grant it for the reason that he was so dour a Croat. Very
+often, talking with his friends, did Dr. Vio mention this. He made a
+successful appeal to the Court at Buda-Pest and a certain yearly sum was
+conceded to him, which he may or may not be still obtaining. Then, to
+the amazement of the Croats, he renounced his nationality and
+became--no, not an Italian--a Magyar. He was now one of those who called
+Hungary his "Madre Patria," and as a weapon of the ruling Hungarian
+party he was employed against the Italianists. In the year 1913 the
+deputy for Rieka died and Dr. Vio was a candidate, his opponent being
+one of the Italianist party, Professor Zanella. Dr. Vio had the support
+of the Government officials, railway officials and so forth, and was
+elected. Now he was a Magyar of the Magyars: Hungarian police officials
+were introduced, and Magyar, disregarding the town statutes, was
+employed by them as sole official language. The citizens still speak of
+those police.... The War broke out, and Dr. Vio donned a uniform,
+serving chiefly on the railway line between Rieka and Zagreb. Gradually
+he seems to have acquired the feeling that it was unnatural for him to
+be a Magyar of the Magyars, even though he was compelled, like so many
+others, to wear this uniform. But one day in 1916 when his friend and
+fellow-officer, Fran [vS]ojat, teacher at the High School at Su[vs]ak,
+walked into his room at Meja, when he happened to be putting little
+flags upon a map, he prophesied--King Peter and the Tzar would have been
+glad to hear him. Presently, he had himself elected as the mayor, which
+enabled him to leave an army so distasteful to him. How long would he
+wait until he publicly became a Croat once again? He did not doubt that
+the Entente would win, and told that same friend [vS]ojat that Rieka on
+the next day would be Croat. To another gentleman in June of 1918 he
+said he hoped that he would be the first Yugoslav mayor of the town, and
+on that day, out hunting, he sang endless Croat songs. In September, to
+the mayor of Su[vs]ak, "You will see," he said, "how well we two as
+mayors will work together." When the Croat National Council entered into
+office at the end of October he again met Mr. [vS]ojat, just as he was
+going up to that interview in the Governor's Palace. "Jesam li ja onda
+imao pravo, jesi li sada zadovoljan?" he said. ("Was I not right that
+time? Are you satisfied now?") Joyfully he pressed Mr. [vS]ojat's hand
+and greeted the two other persons who were with him. And Mr. [vS]ojat
+was pleased to think that Vio would now be a good Croat, as of old. But
+on the following day he was an Italian.
+
+
+HIS FERVOUR
+
+When I went up to see this variegated gentleman--whose personal
+appearance is that of a bright yellow cat--he purred awhile upon the
+sofa and then started striding up and down the room. As he sketched the
+history of the town, which, he said, had always been Italian and would
+insist on being so, he spoke with horror of the days when Jella[vc]i['c]
+was in control, and then, remembering another trouble, he raised both
+his hands above his head and brought them down with such a crash upon
+the desk where I was writing his remarks that--but nobody burst in; the
+municipal officials were accustomed to his conversation. He was reviling
+at that moment certain Allied officers who had not seen fit to visit
+him. "I care not!" he yelled. "We are Italian! I tell you we are
+Italianissimi!" (He was glad enough, however, when his brother Hamlet,
+who had remained a Yugoslav and was on friendly terms with the chief of
+the carabinieri, managed to obtain for the mayor a passport to Italy,
+concerning which the carabinieri had said that they must first of all
+apply to Rome.) The doctor was sure that Yugoslavia would not live, for
+it had two religions; and another notable defect of the Croats--"I speak
+their language quite well," he said--was that in the whole of Rieka not
+one ancient document was in Croatian. I was going to mention that
+everywhere in Croatia until 1848 they were in Latin--but he saw what I
+was on the point of saying and--"Look here! look here!" he cried, "now
+look at this!" It was a type-written sheet in English, whereon was
+recounted how the mayor had offered to four Admirals, who came to Rieka
+on behalf of their four nations, how he had, in order to meet them in
+every way--"They asked me," he said, with blankness and indignation and
+forgiveness all joined in his expression--it was beautifully done--"they
+asked me, the Italian mayor of this Italian town, whether it was truly
+an Italian town!"--well, he had offered to take a real plebiscite, on
+the basis of the last census, and the Admirals, while appreciating his
+offer, had not availed themselves of it. (Maybe some one had told them
+how the census officials, chiefly members of the "Giovani Fiumani," had
+gone round, asking the people whether they spoke Italian and usually
+filling in the papers themselves. Presumably the mayor did not propose
+to allow anyone who had then been described as an Italian now to call
+himself Croat.) I was just calculating what he was in 1910 when he
+played a trump card and begged me to go up to the cemetery and take note
+of the language used for the epitaphs. Then let me return to him on the
+morrow and say what was the nationality of Rieka. There seemed to be the
+question if in such a town where Yugoslavs so often use Italian as the
+business language, many of them possibly might use it as the language of
+death; as it happened the first Yugoslav to whom I spoke about this
+point--a lawyer at whose flat I lunched the following day--produced a
+little book entitled _Regolamento del Cimitero comunale di Fiume_, and
+from it one could see that in the local cemetery the blessed principle
+of self-determination was in fetters. Chapter iii. lays down that all
+inscriptions must have the approval of the civic body. You are warned
+that they will not approve of sentences or words which are indecent, and
+that they prohibit all expressions and allusions that might give offence
+to anyone, to moral corporations, to religions, or which are notoriously
+false. No doubt, in practice, they waive the last stipulation, so that
+the survivors may give praise to famous or to infamous men; but I am
+told that they raised fewer difficulties for Italian wordings, and that
+the stones which many people used--those which the undertakers had in
+stock, with spaces left for cutting in the details--were invariably in
+Italian.... I hope I have not given an unsympathetic portrait of the
+mayor who has about him something lovable. Whatever Fate may have in
+store for Rieka, Dr. Vio is so magnificent an emotional actor that his
+future is assured. I trust it will be many years before a stone, in
+Croat, Magyar or Italian, is placed above the body of this volatile
+gentleman.... And then perhaps the deed of his administrative life that
+will be known more universally than any other will be the omission of
+an _I_ from certain postage stamps. When the old Hungarian stamps were
+surcharged with the word FIUME, the sixty-third one in every sheet of
+half an edition was defective and was stamped FUME.[19]
+
+
+THREE PLEASANT PLACES
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of Rieka, across the bay, lies Abbazia,
+which Nature and the Austrians have made into a charming spot. By the
+famous "Strandweg" that winds under rocks and palm and laurel, you go to
+Volosca in the easterly and to Lovrana in the westerly direction. Just
+at the back of all these pretty places stands the range of Istria's
+green mountains. More than twenty years ago a certain Dr. Krsti['c],
+from the neighbourhood of Zadar, conceived the happy thought of
+printing, in the peasant dialect, a newspaper which would discourse on
+Italy in articles no peasant could resist. He was given subsidies, and
+for some time the newspaper was published at Volosca. But perhaps the
+peasants did not read it any more than those near Zadar would take in
+the _Pravi Dalmatinac_ ("The Real Dalmatian"), which attempted a few
+years previous to the War to preach sectionalism to the Serbo-Croats.
+The Italians who came to the Abbazia district in November 1918 did not
+try such methods. In the combined commune of Volosca-Abbazia the
+population at the 1910 census consisted of 4309 Yugoslavs, 1534
+German-Austrians, and 418 Italians. Most of the 418 had never seen
+Italy; the only true Italians were some officials who had come from
+other parts of Istria. The official language was Italian, which was
+regarded as more elegant. The district doctor was Italian, but all the
+other 29 non-official doctors were either Germans, Czechs or Croats. At
+Volosca eighteen years ago there was no Croat school; when one was
+opened the Italian school at once lost half its membership and before
+the War had been reduced to 25 pupils. Before the War at Abbazia the
+Croat school had six classes, while the Italian had ceased for lack of
+patronage. The German school had 160 pupils; this has now been
+dissolved, the pupils being mostly sent to the re-opened Italian school.
+Thus it will be seen that efforts were required to Italianize these
+places. The efforts were continued even during the War, it is said by
+the ex-Empress Zita. At any rate the people who had altered their
+Italian names saw that they had been premature and reassumed their
+former ones. They reassumed the pre-war privileges: at Lovrana, for
+example, they "ran" the village, not having allowed any communal
+elections since 1905 and arranging that their Croat colleagues in the
+council should all be illiterate peasants. Some Italians were interned
+in 1915, as the Croats had been in 1914, but the council came again into
+their hands. At the meetings they had been obliged, owing to the
+council's composition, to talk Croatian; but their own predominance was
+undisturbed. On their return to power during the War they displayed more
+generosity, and admitted even educated Croats to the council. And if
+such out-and-out Italians as the Signori Grossmann, Pegan, etc. of
+Lovrana were kinder to the Yugoslavs than the Signori Grbac,
+Koro[vs]a['c] and Codri['c] of Rieka it may be because the gentle spirit
+of the place affected them. The leading families would even intermarry;
+Signor Gelletich, Lovrana's Italian potentate, gave his sister to the
+Croat chieftain. But, as we have said, idylls had to end when in
+November 1918 the Italian army came upon the scene. Abbazia and Volosca
+and Lovrana were painted thoroughly in the Italian colours. Public
+buildings, private houses--irrespective of their inmates--had patches of
+green, white and red bestowed upon them. Everything was painted--some
+occupation had to be found for the military, who appeared to be more
+numerous than the inhabitants. Meanwhile, their commanding officers had
+other brilliant ideas: an Italian kindergarten was opened at Volosca,
+and the peasant women of the hills around were promised that if they
+came with their children to the opening ceremony, every one of them
+would be rewarded with 1 lb. of sugar. So they came and were
+photographed--it looked extremely well to have so many women seizing
+this first opportunity of an Italian education for their babies. Some
+one at Rieka most unfortunately had forgotten to consign the sugar. The
+Italian officer who was appointed to discharge the functions of podestà,
+that is, mayor, of Abbazia was a certain Lieut.-Colonel Stadler. He sent
+to Rome and Paris various telegrams as to the people's ardent hope of
+being joined to Italy. The people's own telegrams to Paris went by a
+more circuitous route. But Stadler did not seem to care much for the
+French, nor yet for the English. About a dozen of the educated people,
+thinking that the French might also come to Abbazia and wishing to be
+able to converse with them, took lessons in that language; another
+dozen, with a similar motive, had a Mr. Po[vs]ci['c], a naturalized
+American subject, to give them English lessons. Away with these baubles,
+cried Stadler; on January 10 he stopped the lessons.
+
+
+ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO
+
+While the Italians were thus engaged, what was the state of opinion in
+their own country? Would Bissolati's organ, the _Secolo_, and the
+_Corriere della Sera_, which had been favourable to the Slavs since
+Caporetto, have it in their power to moderate the fury of the anti-Slav
+papers? Malagodi of the _Tribuna_ said on November 24 that the position
+at Rieka had been remedied. But was the public fully alive to what was
+happening at Zadar and [vS]ibenik? "While these cities have been
+nominally occupied by us and are under the protection of our flag, the
+Italian population has never been so terrorized by Croat brutality as at
+this moment." The _Mattino_ disclosed to its readers in flaring
+headlines that "Yugoslav oppression cuts the throats of the Italian
+population in Dalmatia and terrorizes them." Would the people of Italy
+rather listen to such thrills or to the _Secolo_, which deprecated the
+contemptuous writings of Italian journalists with regard to the
+Slavs--the _Gazzetta del Popolo's_ "little snakes" was one of the milder
+terms of opprobrium. The _Secolo_ recalled Italy's own illiterate herds
+and the fact that the Italian Risorgimento was judged, not by the
+indifferent and servile mass, but by its heroes. It explained that the
+Treaty of London was inspired by the belief that Austria would survive,
+and that for strategic reasons only it had given, not Rieka, but most of
+Dalmatia and the islands to Italy.
+
+It was calamitous for Italy that she was being governed at this moment
+not by prudent statesmen such as she more frequently produces in the
+north, but by southerners of the Orlando and Sonnino type. The _Giornale
+d'Italia_ would at a word from the Foreign Minister have damped the
+ardour of those journalists and other agitators who were fanning such a
+dangerous fire. Sonnino once himself told Radovi['c], the Montenegrin,
+that he could not acquiesce in any union of the Yugoslavs, for such a
+combination would be fraught with peril for Italians. And now that
+Southern Slavs were forming what he dreaded, their United States, it
+would have been sagacious--it was not too late--if he had set himself to
+win their friendship. Incidents of an untoward nature had occurred, such
+as those connected with the Austrian fleet; nine hundred Yugoslavs,
+after fighting side by side with the Italians, had actually been
+interned, many of them wearing Italian medals for bravery;[20] the
+Yugoslavs, in fact, by these and other monstrous methods had been
+provoked. But it was not too late. A Foreign Minister not blind to what
+was happening in foreign countries would have seen that if he valued the
+goodwill of France and England and America--and this goodwill was a
+necessity for the Italians--it was incumbent on him to modify his
+politics. The British Press was not unanimous--all the prominent
+publicists did not, like a gentleman a few months afterwards in the
+_Spectator_, say that "if the Yugoslavs contemplated a possible war
+against the Italians, by whose efforts and those of France and Great
+Britain they had so recently been liberated, then would the Southern
+Slavs be guilty of monstrous folly and ingratitude." Baron Sonnino might
+have apprehended that more knowledge of the Yugoslav-Italian situation
+would produce among the Allies more hostility; he should have known that
+average Frenchmen do not buy their favourite newspaper for what it says
+on foreign politics, and that the _Journal des Débats_ and the
+_Humanité_ have many followers who rarely read them. And, above all
+else, he should have seen that the Americans, who had not signed the
+Treaty of London, would decline to lend themselves to the enforcement of
+an antiquated pact which was so grievously incongruous with Justice, to
+say nothing of the Fourteen Points of Mr. Wilson. But Sonnino threw all
+these considerations to the winds. He should have reconciled himself to
+the fact that his London Treaty, if for no other reason than that it was
+a secret one, belonged to a different age and was really dead; his
+refusal to bury it was making him unpopular with the neighbours. One
+does not expect a politician to be quite consistent, and Baron Sonnino
+is, after all, not the same man who in 1881 declared that to claim
+Triest as a right would be an exaggeration of the principle of
+nationalities; but he should not in 1918 have been deaf to the words
+which he considered of such weight when he wrote them in 1915 that he
+caused them to be printed in a Green Book. "The monarchy of Savoy," he
+said in a telegram to the Duke of Avarna on February 15 of that year,
+"has its staunchest root in the fact that it personifies the national
+ideals." Baron Sonnino was rallying to the House of Karageorgevi['c]
+most of those among the Croats and Slovenes who, for some reason or
+other, had been hesitating; for King Peter personified the national
+ideals which the Baron was endeavouring to throttle. As Mr. Wickham
+Steed pointed out in a letter to the _Corriere della Sera_, the complete
+accord between Italians and Yugoslavs is not only possible and
+necessary, but constitutes a European interest of the first order; if it
+be not realized, the Adriatic would become not Italian nor Slav, but
+German; if, on the other hand, it were brought about, then the language
+and the culture, the commerce and the political influence of Italy would
+not merely be maintained but would spread along the eastern Adriatic
+coast and in the Balkans in a manner hitherto unhoped for; if no accord
+be reached, then the Italians would see their whole influence vanish
+from every place not occupied by overwhelming forces. But Sonnino, a
+descendant of rancorous Levantines and obstinate Scots, went recklessly
+ahead; it made you think that he was one of those unhappy people whom
+the gods have settled to destroy. He neglected the most elementary
+precautions; he ought to have requested, for example, that the French
+and British and Americans would everywhere be represented where Yugoslav
+territory was occupied. But, alas, he did not show that he disagreed
+with the _Tribuna's_ lack of wisdom when it said that "the Italian
+people could never tolerate that beside our flag should fly other
+flags, even if friendly, for this would imply a confession of weakness
+and incapacity."
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE CHAMBER
+
+The Government was in no very strong position, for the Chamber was now
+moribund and the many groups which had been formed, in the effort to
+create a war Chamber out of one that was elected in the days of peace,
+were now dissolving. An incident towards the end of November exhibited
+not only the contrivances by which these groups hoped to preserve
+themselves, but the eagerness with which the Government rushed to
+placate the powerful. A young deputy called Centurione, a member of the
+National Defence group (the Fascio), made a furious attack on Giolitti,
+under cover of a personal explanation. He had been accused of being a
+police spy. Well, after Caporetto, convinced that the defeat was partly
+due to the work of Socialists and Giolittians, he had disguised himself
+as a workman and taken part in Socialist meetings. He was proud to have
+played the spy for the good of his country, and he finished by accusing
+Giolitti and six others of treason. The whole Chamber--his own party not
+being strongly represented--seems to have made for Centurione who,
+amidst an indescribable uproar, continued to shout "Traitor!" to anyone
+who approached him. Sciorati, one of the accused, was at last able to
+make himself heard. He related how, at Turin, Centurione had made a fool
+of himself. (But if Lewis Carroll had been with us still he might have
+made himself immortal.) "I have seen him disguised," said Sciorati, "as
+an out-porter at the door of my own house." Giolitti appeared and
+demanded an immediate inquiry, with what was described as cold and
+menacing emphasis. And Orlando, the Prime Minister, flew up to the
+Chamber and parleyed with Giolitti in the most cordial fashion.
+Centurione's documents were at once investigated and no proofs of
+treason were found, no witnesses proposed by him being examined. He was
+expelled from the National Defence group for "indiscipline," his
+colleagues frustrating his attempts to sit next to them by repeatedly
+changing their seats. The attitude of the Fascio was humble and
+apologetic, and the other significant feature of the incident was the
+haste with which Orlando reacted to Giolitti's demand for an inquiry.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY
+
+Baron Sonnino had to take into account not only the unsteadiness of the
+ground on which the Government stood, owing to these parliamentary
+regroupings, but the general effects that would ensue from the country's
+financial position. When, in spite of the victory and the approach of
+peace, the exchange price of the lira dropped 2 to 3 points towards the
+end of November, this may have had, contrary to what was thought by
+many, no connection with a revolutionary movement. The fact that in
+Triest the authorities had been obliged to isolate Italian ex-prisoners
+on their return from Russia, since they were imbued with revolutionary
+principles, at any rate were uttering loud revolutionary cries, may have
+been the mere temporary infection caught from their environment. But
+that of which there was no doubt was the entire truth of Caroti's
+statement when that deputy declared at Milan that while Italy had been
+triumphant in the military sphere, she had been economically overthrown.
+Bankruptcy had not been announced, though it existed. Sonnino may
+therefore have been impelled not only by imperialism, by his inability
+to adjust himself to the new international situation, but by the hope
+that through his policy the new internal situation might be tided over.
+If the thoughts of his fellow-countrymen could be directed elsewhere
+than to bankruptcy and possible revolution, it might be that in the
+meantime adroit measures and good luck would brush away these
+disagreeable phenomena. And he would then be rightly looked upon as one
+who had deserved well of his country. So he set about the task with such
+a thoroughness that he turned not alone the thoughts of men, but their
+heads. Professor Italo Giglioli addressed a letter to _The New Europe_
+in which he said that he was claiming now not the territories given by
+the Treaty of London, but considerably more. He wanted all Dalmatia,
+down to Kotor. In foreign hands, he said, Dalmatia would be an eternal
+danger, and besides: "What in Dalmatia is not Italian is barbaric!" It
+was a melancholy spectacle to see a man of Giglioli's reputation saying
+that Dubrovnik, the refuge of Slav culture in the age of darkness and
+the place in which Slav literature so gloriously arose, was, forsooth,
+throughout its history always Italian in culture and in literature.
+"Among thinking people in Italy," proclaims the Professor, "there are
+indeed but few who will abandon to the Balkan processes a region and a
+people which have always been possessed by Italian culture and which
+constitute the necessary wall of Italy and Western Europe against the
+inroads of the half-barbaric East." He protests that it is ridiculous of
+_The New Europe_ to assert that the secret Treaty of London is supported
+by a tiny, discredited band of Italians; and indeed that Review has
+regretfully to acknowledge that many of his countrymen have been swept
+off their feet and carried onward in the gale of popular enthusiasm.
+Giglioli ends by asking that his name be removed from the list of _The
+New Europe's_ collaborators. In vain does the _The New Europe_ say that
+the Professor's programme must involve a war between Italians and
+Yugoslavs. "We must be prepared for a new war," said the _Secolo_ on
+January 12. "The Italians who absolutely demand the conquest of Dalmatia
+must have the courage to demand that the demobilization of our Army
+should be suspended, and to say so very clearly." And the _Corriere
+della Sera_ warned Orlando of the consequences if he took no steps to
+silence the mad voices. "No one knows better," it wrote, "than the
+Minister of the Interior, who is also Premier, that on the other coast
+Italy claims that part of Dalmatia which was assigned to her by the
+Treaty of London, but not more.... If the Government definitely claims
+and demands the whole of Dalmatia, then the agitation is justified; but
+if the Government does not demand it, then we repeat that to favour and
+not to curb the movement is the worst kind of Defeatism, for it creates
+among Italians a state of mind tending to transform the sense of a great
+victory into the sense of a great defeat ... quite apart from the
+intransigeance which this provokes in the Yugoslav camp." It was in
+vain. And when Bissolati, having resigned from office on the issue of
+Italo-Yugoslav relations, attempted to explain his attitude at the Scala
+in Milan on January 11, his meeting was wrecked, for though the body of
+the hall and the galleries were relatively quiet, if not very
+sympathetic--it was a ticket meeting--the large number of subscription
+boxes, which could not be closed to their ordinary tenants, had been
+packed by Bissolati's adversaries, who succeeded in preventing him from
+speaking. After a long delay he managed to read the opening passage, but
+when he came to the first "renunciation"--the Brenner for the
+Teutons--disturbance set in finally and he left the theatre. Afterwards
+the rioters adjourned to the _Corriere_ and _Secolo_ offices, where they
+broke the windows. And thus the first full statement of the war aims of
+any Italian statesman could not be uttered. It was spread abroad by the
+Press. Bissolati claimed to speak in the name of a multitude which had
+hitherto been silent.... The masses, he said, demanded, that their
+rulers should devote all their strength to "the divine blessing of
+freeing mankind from the slavery of war." ... "To those," he said, "who
+speak of the Society of Nations as an 'ideology' or 'Utopia' which has
+no hold over our people, we would reply: Have you been in the trenches
+among the soldiers waiting for the attack?" [Signor Bissolati had the
+unique record, among Allied or enemy statesmen, of having volunteered
+for active service, though past the fighting age, and of having served
+in the trenches for many months before entering the Orlando Cabinet.]
+
+
+A FOUNTAIN IN THE SAND
+
+The speech was an admirable expression of that new spirit which the
+Allies had been fighting for. "Each of the anti-German nations," he
+said, "must guard itself against any unconsciously German element in its
+soul, if only in order to have the right to combat any trace in others
+of the imperialism which had poisoned the outlook of the German people."
+With regard to the Adriatic: "Yugoslavia exists, and no one can undo
+this. But to the credit of Italy be it said, the attainment of unity and
+independence for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was and must be alike
+the reason and the certain issue of our War.... Italy felt that if
+Serbia had been swallowed up by that monstrous Empire--itself a vassal
+of the German Empire--her own economic expansion and political
+independence would have received a mortal blow. And so she was on
+Serbia's side, first in neutrality, then in intervention.... Those who
+only see, in the formation of the Yugoslav State, a sympathetic or
+antipathetic episode of the War, or a subsidiary effect of it, have
+failed to detect its inner meaning." As for the Treaty of London which
+was concluded against the enemy, it was not to be regarded as intangible
+against a friendly people. By special grants of autonomy, as at Zadar,
+or by arrangements between the two States, he would see the language and
+culture of all the trans-Adriatic sons of Italy assured. He warned his
+countrymen lest, in order to meet the peril of a German-Slav alliance
+against them, they should have to subordinate themselves to France and
+England, and be their protégés instead of their real Allies--a situation
+not unlike that of the Triple Alliance when Germany protected them
+against the ever-imminent attack of Austria.... "But perhaps the
+Yugoslavs will not be grateful or show an equal spirit of conciliation?
+Certainly they will then have no vital interests to push against Italy,
+and in the long run sentiments follow interests." There was, in fact,
+throughout the speech only one questionable passage, that in which he
+said that "if Italy renounced the annexation of Dalmatia she might
+obtain from Yugoslavia or from the Peace Conference the joy of pressing
+to her heart the most Italian city of Rieka, which the Treaty of London
+renounced." This may have been a sop to Cerberus. But Bissolati's
+appeals to justice and to wisdom fell upon the same stony ground as his
+demonstration that Dalmatia's strategic value is very slight from a
+defensive point of view to those who possess Pola, Valona and the outer
+islands. There is a school of reasonable Italians, such as Giuseppe
+Prezzolini, who for strategic reasons asked for the isle of Vis. Mazzini
+himself, after 1866, found it necessary, for the same reasons, that Vis
+should be Italian, since it is the key of the Adriatic. Some of us
+thought that it might have been feasible to follow the precedent of
+Port Mahon, which Great Britain occupied without exercising sovereignty
+over the rest of the island of Minorca. The magnificent harbour of Vis,
+perfectly protected against the bora, would have satisfied all the
+demands of the Italian navy. Vis is to-day practically as much Slav as
+Minorca was Spanish, and if the Slavs had been left in possession of the
+remainder of that island it would have proved the reverse of a danger to
+the Italians, since with a moderate amount of good sense the same
+relations would have existed as was the case upon Minorca.... The
+solution which was ultimately found in the Treaty of Rapallo was to
+allocate to the Italians in complete sovereignty not the island of Vis,
+but the smaller neighbouring island of Lastovo.
+
+While the vast majority of Italians would not listen to Bissolati they
+delighted in Gabriele d'Annunzio. The great poet Carducci[21] had his
+heart full when he thought about the ragged, starving Croat soldiers,
+pitiable victims of the Habsburgs, exploited by them all their lives and
+fighting for them in a foreign land--and they fought bravely; but as
+they were often clad in miserable garments, they were called by those
+who wanted to revile them "Croat dirt." And that is what they are to
+Gabriele d'Annunzio. When the controversies of to-day have long been
+buried and when d'Annunzio's works are read, his lovers will be stabbed
+by his _Lettera ai Dalmati_. And if the mob had to be told precisely
+what the Allies are, it did not need a lord of language to dilate upon
+"the thirty-two teeth of Wilson's undecipherable smile," to say that the
+French "drunk with victory, again fly all their plumes in the wind, tune
+up all their fanfares, quicken their pace in order to pass the most
+resolute and speedy--and we step aside to let them pass." No laurel will
+be added to his fame for having spoken of "the people of the five meals"
+[the English] which, "its bloody work hardly ended, reopens its jaws to
+devour as much as it can." All Italy resounded with the catchword that
+the Croats had been Austria's most faithful servants, although some
+Italians, such as Admiral Millo, as we shall see, when writing
+confidentially, did not say anything so foolish. Very frequently,
+however, as the Croats noticed, those who had been the most
+uncompromising wielders of Austria's despotism were taken on by Italy,
+the new despot. For example, at Split when the mayor and other Yugoslav
+leaders were arrested at the beginning of the War, one Francis
+Mandirazza was appointed as Government Commissary, after having filled
+the political post of district captain (Bezirkshauptmann) which was only
+given to those who were in the entire confidence of the Government. As
+soon as the Italians had possession of [vS]ibenik they took him into
+their service.
+
+
+THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME
+
+_The New Europe_, whose directors had taken a chief part in bringing the
+Italians and the Yugoslavs together, which congress had resulted in the
+Pact of Rome, of April 1918, pointed out that in those dark days of the
+high-water mark of the great German offensive, this Pact--which provided
+the framework of an agreement, on the principle of "live and let
+live"--was publicly approved of by the Italian Premier and his
+colleagues, but was rejected now when the danger was past and Austria
+was broken up. Those who brought about the Pact reminded Italy that she
+was bound to it by honour and that the South Slav statesmen never had
+withdrawn from the position which it placed them in with reference to
+Italy.... Everyone must sympathize with the disappointment of those
+gentlemen who--Messrs. Franklin-Bouillon, Wickham Steed and Seton-Watson
+were associated in this endeavour--had striven for a noble end, had
+achieved something in spite of many obstacles, and now saw that one
+party simply would not use the bridge which they had built for it. This
+party had, however, shown such reticence both while the bridge was being
+made and afterwards that one could scarcely be astonished at their
+attitude. The Congress at Rome was in no sense official, but a
+voluntary meeting of private persons, who were got together with a
+certain amount of trouble. So unofficial, in fact, was the Congress that
+those Serbs who worked with the representatives of the Yugoslav
+Committee belonged to the Opposition; the Serbian Government, then in
+Corfu, not giving their adhesion to the Congress, which was perhaps a
+very clever move on the part of Pa[vs]i['c]. Whether it be true or not
+that Signor Amendolla, the General Secretary--he is the political
+director of the _Corriere della Sera_--was asked by the Yugoslav
+Committee not to admit any Serbian deputies except those of the
+Opposition, it appears that no other Serbs took a part in the
+proceedings. The Italian Government adopted an ambiguous attitude, for
+while Orlando publicly endorsed the resolutions, as did several other
+Ministers, notably Bissolati, the Premier gave no confirmation to those
+who interpreted his attitude as implying the tacit abandonment of
+Italy's extreme territorial claims. Sonnino was so reserved that he took
+no share at all in the Congress and refused to receive the Yugoslavs. He
+made no secret of his determination to exact the London Treaty. Nothing
+was signed by the Italian Government; and if Orlando's honour was
+involved it certainly does not seem possible to say the same of Sonnino.
+It may be that Pa[vs]i['c] foresaw what would happen and was therefore
+unwilling to be implicated. He is an astute statesman of the old
+school--"too old," says _The New Europe_, which regards him as an
+Oriental sultan. But respecting the Pact of Rome they were rather at
+issue with the Italians. What the Italians gained was that the various
+clauses of the Pact were used as the basis for propaganda in the
+Austrian ranks on the Piave. And when once the Austrian peril had
+vanished the old rancour reappeared, particularly when, by the terms of
+the military armistice with Austria, Italy obtained the right to occupy
+a zone corresponding with what she was given by the London Treaty.
+Whereas in that instrument the frontiers were exactly indicated, there
+was in the Pact of Rome no more than a general agreement that the
+principles of nationality and self-determination should be applied, with
+due regard to other "vital interests." Bissolati's group was in favour
+of something more definite, but to this Orlando was not well disposed;
+and Trumbi['c], the President of the Yugoslav Committee, did not avail
+himself of the, perhaps rather useless, offer of some Serbs who were not
+participating in the Congress, but suggested that while he worked with
+the Government they would keep in touch with the Bissolati group; even
+as Bismarck who would work openly with a Government, and through his
+agents with the Opposition.
+
+
+GATHERING WINDS
+
+As the Serbian Society of Great Britain observed in a letter of welcome
+which they addressed to Baron Sonnino on the occasion of a visit to
+London, they were convinced "after a close study and experience of the
+Southern Slav question in all its aspects and some knowledge of the
+Adriatic problem as a whole, that there is no necessary or inevitable
+conflict between the aspiration of the Southern Slav people towards
+complete unity and the postulates of Italian national security and of
+the completion of Italian unity; but that, on the contrary, there exist
+strong grounds for Italo-Southern Slav co-operation and friendship." The
+Italian Government, however, had now got almost their whole country
+behind them, and in the months after the War so many Italians had become
+warlike that they were enchanted with the picture drawn by Gabriele
+d'Annunzio: "And what peace will in the end be imposed on us, poor
+little ones of Christ? A Gallic peace? A British peace? A star-spangled
+peace? Then, no! Enough! Victorious Italy--the most victorious of all
+the nations--victorious over herself and over the enemy--will have on
+the Alps and over her sea the _Pax Romana_, the sole peace that is
+fitting. If necessary we will meet the new plot in the fashion of the
+Arditi [units of volunteers employed on specially dangerous
+enterprises], a grenade in each hand and a knife between our teeth." It
+is true that the other poor little ones of Christ, the Franciscans, who
+are greatly beloved by the people of Dalmatia, from whom they are
+sprung, have hitherto preached a different _Pax Romana_. The Dalmatian
+clergy, who are patriotic, have been rather a stumbling-block in the
+way of the Italians. A very small percentage of them--about six in a
+thousand--have been anti-national and opportunist. At one place a priest
+whom his bishop had some years ago had occasion to expel, returned with
+the Italian army in November 1918 and informed the bishop that he had a
+letter from the Pope which reinstated him, but he refused to show this
+letter. He was anxious to preach on the following Sunday; the bishop
+declined to allow him. Then came unto the bishop the chief of the
+Italian soldiery and he said unto him: "Either thou shalt permit this
+man to preach or I will cause thine office to be taken from thee."
+Unfortunately the bishop yielded, and the sermon, as one would imagine,
+was devoted to the greater glory of the Italians. Sometimes the
+Italians, since their occupation, have made a more humorous if not more
+successful use of the Church. On Palm Sunday, after the service a number
+of peasants, in their best clothes, were walking through a village
+holding the usual palm leaves in their hands. They were photographed,
+and a popular Italian newspaper printed this as a full-page coloured
+illustration. It was entitled: "Dalmatian Peasants on their way to pay
+Homage to Admiral Millo."
+
+This policy of a grenade in each hand and a knife between the teeth
+makes a powerful appeal to the munition firms. And others who feed the
+flame of Italo-Slav hatred are, as Gaetano Salvemini, the
+anti-chauvinist, pointed out in the _Unità_ of Florence, those
+professional gladiators who would lose their job, those agents of the
+Italo-German-Levantine capitalism of the Triest Chamber of Commerce who
+want to be rid of the competition of Rieka and think that this can only
+be obtained by annexation, and also those Italian Nationalists who
+believe that the only path to national greatness is by acquiring
+territory everywhere. No light has come to them from the East; the same
+arguments which are now put forward by such societies as the "Pro
+Dalmatia" could be heard in Italy before she possessed herself of
+Tripoli. One heard the same talk of strategic necessities; one heard
+that nearly all the population was waiting with open arms for the
+Italians; one heard that from a business point of view nothing could be
+better; one heard that the Italians without Tripoli would be choked out
+of the Mediterranean. And what have been the fruits of the conquest of
+Tripoli? No economic advantages have been procured, as Prezzolini wrote,
+no sociological, no strategic, no diplomatic benefits. A great deal of
+money was thrown away, a vast amount of energy was wasted, and thousands
+of troops have to be stationed permanently in the wilderness. That
+expedition to Tripoli, which was one of the gravest errors of Italian
+politics, was preceded by clouds of forged documents, of absurdities, of
+partial extracts out of consular reports, of lying correspondence which
+succeeded in misleading the Italians.
+
+
+WHY THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA
+
+"The Italian Government," said the _Morning Post_,[22] "is well
+qualified to judge of the interests of its own people." Here the
+_Morning Post_ is not speaking of the Italian Government which dealt
+with Tripoli, but that which has been dealing with Dalmatia. The reasons
+which have been advanced for an Italian or a partly Italian Dalmatia are
+geographical, botanical, historical, ethnical, military, naval and
+economic. As for the geographical reasons: even in the schools of Italy
+they teach that the Italian natural frontier is determined by the point
+of division of the waters of the Alps and that this frontier falls at
+Porto Ré, a few miles to the south of Rieka--everything to the south of
+that belonging to the Balkan Peninsula. We may note the gallant
+patriotism of an Italian cartographer mentioned by Prezzolini; this
+worthy has inscribed a map of Dalmatia down to the Narenta with the
+pleasing words: "The new natural boundaries of Italy." As for the
+argument that the flora of Dalmatia resembles that of Italy, this can
+equally well be employed by those who would annex Italy to Dalmatia.
+Historically, we have seen that Venice, which held for many years the
+seacoast and the islands, did not alter the Slav character of the
+country. It is not now the question as to whether Venice deserved or did
+not deserve well of Dalmatia, but "the truth is," says M. Emile
+Haumant,[23] the learned and impartial French historian, "the truth is
+that when Marmont's Frenchmen arrived they found the Slav language
+everywhere, the Italian by its side on the islands and the coast,
+Italian customs and culture in the towns, and also the lively and
+sometimes affectionate remembrance of Venice; but nowhere did a
+Dalmatian tell them that he was an Italian. On the contrary, they all
+affirmed that they were brothers of the Slav beyond, in whose
+misfortunes they shared and whose successes they celebrated." The
+Italians themselves, in achieving their unity, were very right to set
+aside the undoubted historical claims of the Kingdom of the Two
+Sicilies, those of the House of Este and those of the Vatican, seeing
+that they were in opposition to the principle of nationality and the
+right of a people to determine its own political status. With regard to
+the ethnical reasons, we are flogging another dead horse, as the
+statistics--even those taken during the Italian occupation--prove to the
+meanest intellect; and now the pro-Italians, despairing to make anyone
+believe that the 97·5 per cent. of the people of Dalmatia are truly
+Italians who by some kink in their nature persist in calling themselves
+Slavs, have invented a brand new nationality, the Dalmatian, after the
+classic style of the late Professor Jagi['c] who at Vienna, under the
+pressure of the Austrian Government, began talking of the Bosnian
+language in order not to say that it is Serbo-Croat. He was drowned in
+laughter. With respect to the military reasons, the Dalmatian littoral
+cannot be defended by a State which is not in possession of the
+hinterland. In time of peace a very strong army would be needed; Italy
+would, in fact, have to double her army for the defence of a frontier
+700 kilometres long. And in the event of war it would be necessary
+either to abandon Dalmatia or to form two armies of operation, one on
+the frontiers of Julian Venetia, the other in Dalmatia, and without any
+liaison between them. From the military point of view it is incomparably
+more to the interest of Italy that she should live on friendly terms
+with the people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
+should maintain there an army out of all proportion to her military and
+economic resources--an army which in time of war would be worse than
+useless, since, as M. Gauvain observes, the submarines, which would find
+their nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
+communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if she had to fight on
+the eastern side of the Adriatic her sailors in the morning would have
+the sun in their eyes; but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped
+in the case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic reasons,
+the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee to the Germans and
+Magyars the commercial monopoly of the East, and Italy will perceive
+that she has paid very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
+by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce to penetrate to
+the Balkans is by concluding with a friendly Yugoslavia the requisite
+commercial treaties, which will grow more valuable with the construction
+of the lateral railways, running inland from the coast, which Austrians
+and Magyars so constantly impeded.
+
+
+CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON
+
+If, then, it is difficult to see where the Italian interests will be
+profited by the possession of Dalmatia, there remains the argument that,
+irrespective of the consequences, she must have a good deal of it since
+it was allotted to her by the Treaty of London,[24] although the
+engagements entered into by Italy, France and Great Britain when they
+signed the Treaty with Germany caused the earlier instrument to be
+subject to revision where its terms had been disregarded. Signor
+Orlando, in an interview granted in April 1918 to the _Journal des
+Débats_, eagerly insisted that the Treaty had been concluded against the
+Austrian enemy, not against the Yugoslav nation; and if this be more
+than a mere phrase it is clear that with the disappearance of
+Austria-Hungary the Treaty automatically fell to the ground. By this
+Treaty of April 1915, France and Great Britain are bound--if necessary,
+by force of arms--to assist Italy in appropriating what, I believe, will
+be acknowledged to be some one else's country, at all events a country
+the vast proportion of whose inhabitants have determined that on no
+account will they come under the Italians. Would it not have been
+advisable if those who signed this document had made a few not very
+recondite researches into eastern Adriatic questions? They must have
+felt some qualms at the cries of indignation and amazement which arose
+when the provisions of the Treaty were disclosed, for it did not remain
+a secret very long. They had imagined, on the whole, that as Dalmatia
+had been under alien rulers, Venetian, Austrian and so forth, for so
+many years it really would not matter to them very much if they were
+governed from Vienna or from Rome. Perhaps a statesman here and there
+had heard that the Dalmatian Diet had petitioned many times since 1870
+that they should be reunited to their brothers of Croatia and Slavonia
+in the Triune Kingdom. But all the calculations seem to have been made
+upon the basis that Austria-Hungary would survive, as a fairly
+formidable Power at any rate. The union of the Southern Slavs was too
+remote, and the Italians would be kindly masters. When the howl of
+indignation rose, the statesmen seem to have conceived the hope that the
+Italians would be generous and wise. The chief blame for the Treaty does
+not rest, however, on the Frenchmen and the Englishmen, but on the
+Russians; it was naturally felt that they should be more cognizant of
+Slav affairs, and if they were content to sign the Treaty, France and
+England might well follow their example. When Dr. Zari['c], the Bishop
+of Split, saw the former Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonov, in Paris
+in the spring of 1919, this gentleman was in a state of such dejection
+that the Bishop, out of pity, did not try to probe the matter.
+"Sometimes," said Sazonov, "sometimes the circumstances are too much
+opposed to you and you have to act against your inclinations."[25] The
+French and British statesmen gave the Bishop the impression that they
+were ashamed of the Treaty. He read to them in turn a memorandum in
+which he suggested that the whole Dalmatian question should be left to
+the arbitration of President Wilson, who was well informed, through
+experts, of the local conditions. And was it, in any case, just that an
+Italian, both claimant and judge, should sit on the Council of Four, to
+which no Yugoslav was admitted? To President Wilson the Bishop said,
+"You have come to fight for the just cause."
+
+The President made no reply.
+
+The Bishop, a native of the island of Hvar, a great linguist, was a man
+who made you think that a very distinguished mind had entered the body
+of the late Cardinal Vaughan. To him the most noticeable features of the
+President were the clear brow, the mystic eyes and the mouth which
+showed that he stood firmly on the ground.
+
+"You have come to work and fight for the peace," said the Bishop.
+
+"Yes, indeed, to fight," said Dr. Wilson. "And I will act with all my
+energy. You," he said, "you must help me."
+
+"I will help you," said the Bishop, "with my prayers."
+
+The Yugoslav Delegation in Paris had, on the authority of the Belgrade
+Cabinet, suggested that the question should be arbitrated.
+
+"The Italians have declined the arbitration," said Dr. Zari['c], "just
+as in the War Germany and Austria declined yours."
+
+The President nodded.
+
+"They have committed many disorders in our fair land," said the Bishop.
+
+"I know, I know," said the President.
+
+But, it will be asked, why did not Dr. Wilson insist on a just
+settlement of the Adriatic question, taking into his own hands that
+which Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau were so chary of touching?
+These two statesmen, with the London Treaty hanging over them, wanted
+Wilson's assent for matters in which British and French interests were
+more directly concerned, while they required Sonnino's co-operation in
+the Treaty with Germany. It would have suited them very well if Wilson
+had taken such energetic steps with Italy that they themselves could,
+suitably protesting to Sonnino, be swept along by the presidential
+righteousness. But Dr. Wilson was disappointing those who had--in the
+first place because of the lofty language of his Notes--awaited a really
+great man. He was seen to be out of his depth; strenuously he sought to
+rescue his Fourteen Points and to steer the Covenant of the League
+through the rocks and shallows of European diplomacy. Sonnino, playing
+for time, involved the good Wilson in a maze of confused negotiations,
+while nearly every organ of Italian official and unofficial opinion was
+defaming the President. On April 15 Dr. Wilson in a memorandum suggested
+the famous "Wilson Line" in Istria, which thrust the Italian frontier
+westwards, so that Rieka should be safeguarded from the threat of an
+Italian occupation of Monte Maggiore. Italy was to give up northern
+Dalmatia and all the islands, save Lussin and Vis; in return she was to
+be protected by measures limiting the naval and military powers of
+Yugoslavia. When Wilson appealed over the head of the Italian Government
+to the people, their passions had been excited to such a degree that
+much more harm was done than good. It is said that he had promised
+Messrs. Lloyd George and Clemenceau that he would not publish his letter
+for three hours, but that--pride of authorship triumphing over
+prudence--it was circulated to the Press two hours before this time was
+up, and a compromise which had been worked out by Mr. Lloyd George had
+perforce to be abandoned. This was one of the occasions when the
+President's impulsiveness burst out through his cold exterior, when his
+strength of purpose, his grim determination to fight for justice were
+undermined by his egotism.
+
+
+ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO
+
+For months the Italians had been consoling themselves with the thought
+that such a hybrid affair as Yugoslavia would never really come into
+existence. Some visionaries might attempt to join the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes, yet these must be as rare as Blake, who testified that
+"when others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the sons of
+God shouting for joy." One only had to listen, one could hear already
+how they were growling, how they were quarrelling, how they were killing
+each other. In Montenegro, for example, and Albania the Italians were
+greatly interested--not always as spectators. If you tell a hungry
+Montenegrin peasant in the winter that there is a chance of his
+obtaining flour and--well, that he may have to fight for it, but he will
+get good booty at Cetinje, he will go there. In January 1919 there was a
+battle. "The Montenegrin people rose in rebellion against the Serbians
+to recover their independence," said an Italian writer, one Dr. Attilio
+Tamaro in a weekly paper called _Modern Italy_, which was published in
+London. "This intensely popular revolt, animated by the heroically
+patriotic spirit of the Montenegrins, was relentlessly suffocated in
+blood. In the little city of Cetinje alone, where there are but a few
+thousand inhabitants, over 400 were killed and wounded. The Serbians and
+the French together accomplished this sanguinary repression. We repeat,
+it is painful to see the French lend their men, their blood and their
+glorious arms to the carrying out of the low intrigues of Balkan
+politics." The money and the arms that were found on the dead and
+captured rebels were Italian. If the schemes of the Italians had not
+been upset by the timely arrival of the Yugoslav forces, with the few
+Frenchmen, they would have occupied Cetinje and restored the traitor
+king. As it was, they occupied Antivari, from which place they smuggled
+arms and munitions into the country. They conspired with the adherents
+of the old régime, a very small body of men who were enormously alarmed
+at the loss of their privileged position. The chief of them was Jovan
+Plamenac, a former Minister whom the people at Podgorica had refused to
+hear, a few weeks previously, when he attempted to address them. He was
+hated on account of the most ruthless fashion in which, as Minister, he
+had executed certain of his master's critics at Kola[vs]in. There was a
+time, during the first Balkan War, when he advocated union with Serbia
+and on April 6, 1916, he wrote in the _Bosnische Post_ of Sarajevo that
+Nikita, owing to his flight, "may be regarded as no longer existing."
+But his unpopularity remained and, with vengeance burning in his heart,
+he went from Podgorica to the Italians. They concocted a nice plan--he
+was to raise an army of his countrymen and the Italians would bring
+their garrison from Scutari. On January 1 Plamenac and his partisans
+tried to seize Virpazar, on the Lake of Scutari--the Commandant of the
+Italian troops at Scutari, one Molinaro, had asked the chief of the
+Allied troops, three days before this attempt, whether he might dispatch
+two companies to that place for the purpose of suppressing the disorders
+which had not yet come to pass. Another rising was engineered at
+Cetinje, where twenty or thirty of the poor peasants who had let
+themselves be talked over by Plamenac were killed; the rest of the
+misguided fellows were sent home, only their leaders being detained.
+Plamenac himself escaped to Albania.[26] On the side of the Montenegrin
+Provisional Government no regular troops were available, as the Yugoslav
+soldiers who had lately arrived were engaged in policing other parts of
+the country. Volunteers were needed and a body of young men, mostly
+students, enrolled themselves. They were so busy that they omitted to
+inform Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that they really were Montenegrin
+students. That indignant gentleman insists that they were Serbs, armed
+with French and British rifles, against which, he tells us (in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, January 1921) the insurgents could not do much.
+Eleven of these volunteers were killed and they were buried underneath
+the tree where Nikita used to administer his brand of justice. All kinds
+of incriminating documents were found upon the dead and captured rebels,
+as also a significant letter from the Italian Minister accredited to
+Nikita, which was addressed to the chancellor of the Italian Legation at
+Cetinje. An inter-Allied Commission, over which General Franchet
+d'Espérey presided, issued their report on February 8 at Podgorica. "All
+the troops," it said, "in Montenegro are Yugoslavs and not Serbs; there
+are not more than 500 of them." It further stated that the rebellion had
+been provoked by certain agents of the ex-King, assisted by some Italian
+agents. As for the ridiculous Italian charge which I quoted, accusing
+the French of a share in the low intrigues of Balkan politics, this
+participation consisted in their General at Kotor demanding of
+Darkovi['c], the leader of the Montenegrin deputies, that his followers
+and the rebels should not come to blows. The reply, which annoyed the
+General, was to the effect that if the rebels made an attack, then
+Darkovi['c] with his scratch forces would defend himself--and the battle
+lasted for two or three days. A junior French officer, who had been in
+command of a small detachment at Cetinje, told me that the noise of
+firing had awakened him every night and he had not the least idea what
+it was all about. But the French had a pretty accurate idea of the
+nationality of the "brigands" who on December 29 fired on the SS.
+_Skroda_ and _Satyre_ near the village of Samouritch when it was
+carrying a cargo of flour up the Bojana for the Montenegrins. These
+vessels were sailing under the French flag and the "brigands," about
+fifty in number, were armed with machine guns. An International
+Commission established these facts, as also that the Italian ship
+_Vedeta_ passed up the river just before the outrage and the _Mafalda_
+just after it, and neither of them was molested. In consequence of what
+occurred and as practically all the supplies for Montenegro had at that
+time to be sent by the Bojana, General Dufour, in the absence of French
+troops, authorized the Serbs on February 12 to occupy the commanding
+position of Tarabosh.
+
+
+WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF THE AUSTRIANS THERE
+
+These Yugoslav troops had been detached from the left wing of the
+Salonica forces and had come overland in order to deal with the
+situation in Montenegro. The Austrians had been in a woeful plight; it
+was regarded as a punishment to serve in Montenegro and Albania, not
+only because of the lack of amenities and the unruly spirit of the
+people, but also for the reason that the officers who came there--many
+managed to avoid it--were too often causes of dissatisfaction. More
+complaints had gone up from this front than from any other. The supplies
+allotted by the High Command in Austria were ample, as the Rieka depots
+testified, but a great deal did not reach its proper destination. Some
+officers took down their wives or other ladies, loading up the army
+motor-cars with luxuries of food and grand pianos, while the men were
+forced to tramp enormous distances; if anyone fell out, the natives in
+Albania would emerge from where they had been hiding and would deprive
+the wretched man of his equipment and his clothing, and perhaps his
+life. The sanitary section of that Austrian army was not good; it
+happened frequently that victims of malaria and wounded men were told to
+walk--if they arrived, so much the better. These poor fellows did not
+know that if they ultimately got back to Vienna they might be the
+objects of Imperial solicitude--the least to be dreaded was the Archduke
+Salvator, who was wont to come to a hospital, with his wife, and to
+bestow on every man a coloured picture-postcard of their Imperial and
+Royal persons, with a sentence printed underneath respecting their
+paternal and maternal love; it was officially reported in Vienna, of
+another hospital, that those who lay there had been spending "happy
+hours" in "the circle of the exalted Family"--this referred to the
+Archduchess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions for the piano are said
+to be beyond all criticism; she herself did not play them, but would sit
+there while they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men. Not
+very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers who were taken to
+that hospital in Buda-Pest over which the Archduchess Augusta, a
+strikingly ugly woman, presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were
+allowed to be dressed until the Archduchess, arrayed in uniform and
+armed with a revolver, made her appearance of an evening. The officers
+were told that it was etiquette for them to broach a pleasant
+conversation with their benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg
+was the Archduchess Blanka, who was interested in medicine; she had
+thought out for herself a remedy which human ailments never would
+withstand, but which was more especially effective in cases of
+tuberculosis, of malaria and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the
+Kirchstetterngasse she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys. Her
+treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers; the patients were
+packed in these bandages and that was all that was done to them. With
+regard to the diet, there were no particular regulations. Some of the
+men were sent from there to another and less original hospital, but it
+was often too late.
+
+
+AND OF THE NATIVES
+
+The Montenegrins who had been for so long--some of them for three
+years--leading a congenial life among their rocks, descending now and
+then to kill an Austrian and to gather booty, were most active when the
+ill-starred Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians, for
+instance, took the road from Kola[vs]in with the intention of marching
+to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres. Thirty-five of them arrived
+there. Thus the population avenged such incidents as the hanging by the
+Austrian authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General
+Ve[vs]ovi['c],[27] the General having taken to the hills and his brother
+being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians had now to pay the
+penalty of ruthlessness; on September 1, 1917, Count Clam Martini['c],
+the Military Governor, issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: "In
+consequence of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that
+telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians, we make the
+following order:
+
+     "1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage will be
+     summarily shot, their houses will be razed to the ground and
+     their property confiscated by the Military Administration
+     Authorities.
+
+     "2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found, the
+     procedure will be as follows:--
+
+       "(_a_) The commune where the act of sabotage has taken place
+       will be condemned to a heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not
+       paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle will be seized.
+
+       "(_b_) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of sabotage
+       are repeated, will be executed in their commune."
+
+Life under the Austrians had become unendurable. Typhoid fever, marsh
+fever, typhus and dysentery assumed such proportions that in the towns
+and villages one saw--apart from such notices as Order No. 3110--no
+other bills posted up on the walls but those containing advice as to the
+correct way of nursing the sick. While poor wretches were dying of
+hunger in the hospitals and on the high road for want of bread, the
+authorities published a recipe for the making of wheat-butter, which was
+a recent discovery of German science, reputed to be very nourishing for
+debilitated organisms. But the price of a kilo (2 lb.) of wheat was 12
+crowns (about 10s.). When the epidemic of typhus, which broke out in
+Cetinje and in the Njegu[vs] clan, reached alarming proportions and
+spread to other districts, the medical authorities advertised that
+household effects and linen should be washed with water and potatoes. A
+kilo of potatoes, in the autumn of 1917, cost a price equivalent to 6s.,
+a quart of oil cost £2, 10s., a quart of milk 5s., a kilo of coffee £2,
+18s. 4d., a yard of cloth £4, 4s. to £6, 6s., a pair of boots £8, 7s. An
+average of 200 persons--mainly women and children--were dying every day
+of starvation.
+
+The Austrian army in retreat was incapable of action. It occupied a line
+east of Podgorica: Bioce-Tuzi-Lake of Scutari, with very few guns. The
+troops were scanty, they were weakened by malaria, etc.; but the
+Italians pursued them with great caution. The chief enemies were
+Albanians and Montenegrins. The wily Austrians gave rifles to the
+Albanians in order that they should attack the Montenegrins, but they
+were often used against their former owners. Then the contingents of the
+Salonica army came across the mountains, and when the Austrians went
+north, as best they could, the Yugoslavs of the Imperial and Royal
+army--Bosniaks were well represented--pinned on their tunics the
+national colours and were greeted by the inhabitants. Arriving at
+Cetinje they heard the incredible news that a Yugoslav State had been
+founded, that the Austrian navy had been handed over to the Yugoslavs,
+that French and Italians were already at Kotor. During the journey to
+that port the commanders were depressed, but the rank and file rejoiced
+at the idea of going home. Discipline was at an end. Thousands of
+rockets were fired into the air. It was the end of the Habsburg
+monarchy.
+
+
+NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED
+
+The next thing for the Montenegrins to do was to depose Nikita. By a
+futile proclamation that personage had tried in October to resist the
+union of the Yugoslavs; he had made a last desperate attempt to save his
+crown. "I am ready to do," he said, "what my people desires." He
+plaintively protested that all his life had been dedicated to their
+service and now he wanted to go back to ascertain precisely what they
+wished. "Montenegro," he had said, "belongs to a nation of heroes, who
+fought with honour for the highest ideals." But when on November 24 the
+Great National Skup[vs]tina met, and when on the 26th it unanimously
+deposed him--the old gentleman was wise enough to follow the advice of
+some French statesmen and remain where he was. "Here am I amongst you,
+dressed in our beautiful national costume," he said at Neuilly to his
+supporters, on one of the occasions when he denied that he had been a
+traitor or anything so dreadful. But being a prudent old gentleman he
+refrained from uttering these words at Podgorica, where the Skup[vs]tina
+had met; a better plan was to communicate with the Press Association, in
+the hope that many editors would print his words. If it was a final
+anti-climax for a mediæval prince--ah well, what is life but one long
+anti-climax? He would protest against the constitution of the
+Skup[vs]tina. He had by no means given his approval to the new election
+laws; and if, contrary to his own practice, the gendarmes were having
+nothing to do with the urns, that was merely in order to curry favour
+with the Western Powers. The deputies were chosen by the people
+indirectly--that is to say, every ten men elected a representative, and
+these in their turn elected the deputies. This was not done by ballot,
+for Montenegro, like Hungary, had never known the ballot. An absurd
+outcry was raised by Nikita's band of adventurers and their unhappy
+dupes in this country; they called the world to witness this most
+palpable iniquity on the part of the Serbs, whose armed forces had
+rushed across the mountains, and the moment they arrived in Montenegro
+had so overawed the population that this pro-Serb, pro-Yugoslav
+Skup[vs]tina was duly chosen. Go to! Of course it was a sad
+disappointment to Nikita that a Yugoslav instead of an Italian army
+should occupy Montenegro. He had telegraphed at the beginning of the War
+to Belgrade that: "Serbia may rely on the brotherly and unconditional
+support of Montenegro, in this moment on which depends the fate of the
+Serbian nation, as well as on any other occasion"; and since he knew,
+without any telegram, that Serbia would in her turn support
+Montenegro--but not the tiny pro-Nikita faction--he was reduced to the
+appalling straits of a plot to force himself upon his own people by
+means of a foreign army. Now the composition of the aforementioned
+Yugoslav forces should be noted--after more than six years of heroic
+fighting against the Turks, the Bulgars, the Austro-Germans, the
+Albanian blizzards, and again the Bulgars and the Austro-Germans there
+did not survive a very large number of the splendid veterans of Marshal
+Mi[vs]i['c], and in Macedonia the ranks were filled by Yugoslav
+volunteers from the United States. Many of these Yugoslavs (over half of
+them Dalmatians and Bosnians) were included, in the army which entered
+Montenegro. The whole force at the time of the National Skup[vs]tina
+consisted of about 200 men, ten of whom were Serbs from the old
+kingdom--and if anyone maintains that 200 men could impose their will
+upon a population of 350,000 which has arms enough and is skilful in the
+use of arms, he makes it clear that he knows little of the Montenegrins.
+
+
+THE ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM
+
+The Podgorica Skup[vs]tina was not elected by these troops. No one will
+pretend that in the excitement of those days the voting was conducted in
+a calm and methodical fashion. Here and there a dead man was elected;
+the proceedings--though they were not faked, as in Nikita's time--were
+rough-and-ready. But if the deputies had been selected in a more
+haphazard fashion, say according to the first letter of their surnames,
+the result would have been identical--they would, with a crushing
+majority, have deposed their King and voted for the merging of their
+country in the rest of Yugoslavia. If the former Skup[vs]tina had been
+convoked, as some people advocated--it would have most effectively
+nonplussed the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might even have
+silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who asserted[28] that this "packed
+assembly" consisted of "Serbian subjects and bought agents in about
+equal numbers")--but then two-fifths of the country--those territories
+acquired in the Balkan War--would not have been represented. Observe,
+however, that the Skup[vs]tina in Nikita's time was for union with
+Serbia. Even then--although of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14,
+while the other 62, of course, were people whom he pretty well approved
+of--even then they had passed resolutions in favour of an economic
+union, a common army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica
+Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were from the new areas. The
+Constitution did not provide for such an assembly; but Nikita's friends
+who clamoured for the Constitution evidently had forgotten that under
+Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and people is declared
+to have forfeited his legal rights. Those foolish partisans who cried
+that it was monstrous not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins
+had come back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of Nikita's Red
+Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused to take. Moreover,
+certain of them were elected, after their arrival, as vacancies
+occurred, and they were also represented among the dozen deputies whom
+the Skup[vs]tina chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders
+happened during the elections, the best available men were chosen--76 of
+them having enjoyed a university education. It is worthy of remark that
+while 20 of the Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former
+parliaments, another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out of
+the total number of past and present deputies (_i.e._ over 300), only 15
+declared for a kind of autonomy, but were in favour of Yugoslav union.
+The Metropolitan of Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war
+Premiers gave their unreserved support to the new régime. With them was
+the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen Vukoti['c], a grand-looking
+personage who has remained all his life a poor man; he was questioned by
+General Franchet d'Espérey as to whether he had also voted against his
+brother-in-law. "If I had seven heads and on each of them a crown,"
+answered the Voivoda, "I would give them all for the union of the
+Southern Slavs." ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia? "The Black
+Mountain," said Nikita at Neuilly--"the Black Mountain, as well as her
+national King, has always pursued the same path, the only one leading to
+the realization of our sacred ideal--that of National Unity." One might
+object that a national King should really not have written to his
+daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918, that he would propose a republic for
+all the Serbs and Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and
+the two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe for a republic,
+but that in advanced circles his suggestion would be enthusiastically
+received, and in a short time he would reap the benefit. "That," he
+wrote, "is my impression--it may be that I am wrong--but I do not know
+what else I can do." And a truly national King--but the world, as
+Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders, and nothing is more wonderful
+than man--a truly national King should not have supported those twenty
+Montenegrins who in the summer of 1919 assembled at the monastery of
+De[vc]ani with the design of establishing a Bol[vs]evik republic. Before
+the Yugoslav troops could reach the spot these men were surrounded by
+Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
+intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute
+representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found
+only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
+"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking
+'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived,
+and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....
+The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.
+Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest
+folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that
+sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had
+not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a
+rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack
+of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given
+them short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's
+panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted
+as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at
+least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his
+charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better
+days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.
+
+After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was
+issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began,
+"the great and bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
+Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....
+Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished
+themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
+sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....
+Let us reject all attempts which may be made to deprive us of our happy
+future and put us in a position of blind and miserable isolation
+henceforth to work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths. One
+is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future, the other is covered
+with dangerous and impenetrable brambles." If any disinterested and
+intelligent foreigner, say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought
+that it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she, like Croatia,
+Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself in the Yugoslav State or
+whether he considered that the sort of federation which the ex-King had
+suggested would assist more efficaciously the welfare--social,
+economical and national--of the Montenegrin, he would not have thanked
+you for asking so superfluous a question.... Nikita then asserted that
+those terrible Serbian bayonets had caused the Podgorica Skup[vs]tina to
+vote as it did. Anyone who has spoken to one of those Bocchesi or
+Dalmatian volunteers who were at that time in Montenegro will quite
+believe that they applauded the result, but to pretend that they drove
+the Skup[vs]tina with bayonets to do what every reasoning creature would
+have done is so farcical that one might have thought it would not even
+form (as it did form) the subject for questions in the British House of
+Commons.... The only part played by bayonets was when on November 7 (one
+day previous to that fixed for the elections) a detachment of the
+Italian army landed at Antivari and another marched to within about six
+kilometres of Cetinje, where they were met by the Montenegrin National
+Guard, were told that bigger forces, which it was difficult to restrain,
+would shortly arrive and were given one hour in which to depart. Of this
+they availed themselves, announcing that they were all Republicans. They
+left behind them an elderly man who was sick and requested the
+Montenegrins not to murder him. The Italians and Nikita's friends soon
+afterwards spread a report of horrible murders in Montenegro. Certain
+Allied officers went up to investigate the matter and found that the
+charges were baseless. They were told by Mr. Gloma[vz]ic, the prefect of
+Cetinje, that the Allies, apart from the Italians, could go anywhere in
+Montenegro, but that the Italians would be opposed by force of arms and
+that if the Allies came up together with the Italians, then they too
+would be attacked. Thereupon the Allied officers invited Mr. Gloma[vz]ic
+to lunch.
+
+
+NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS
+
+Nikita had no hopes that any good would come from such a Skup[vs]tina.
+In 1912 it had been different; with a budget of some 6,200,000 perpers
+(or francs), including the Russian subsidies and the revenues from the
+Italian tobacco monopoly, the royal civil-list comprised 11 per cent. of
+the expenses, while the police accounted for 12 per cent., agriculture
+and commerce 1½ per cent., public works 4 per cent. and education 5
+per cent. The Skup[vs]tina of that period had not caused him to pay more
+attention to the people's requirements. The darkness in which they lived
+was so profound that when Montenegro had to pay the interest on a
+six-million-franc loan from Great Britain no one in Cetinje could
+calculate how much was due; a telegram was therefore sent to London
+asking for this information and the date when payment should be made. If
+his people did not prevent him from allocating merely 11,000 francs to
+the Ministry of Justice for the increase of salaries and so forth, while
+the Ministry of the Interior received 700,000 francs for the work of
+spying, the expense of killing people and various propaganda--both these
+items being labelled "special expenses"--then Nikita had no fault to
+find with his Skup[vs]tina. Things were almost as satisfactory as before
+1907, when for the first time a budget was issued and the people were
+told how their contributions were spent. The personal property of the
+sovereign had indeed been formally separated from that of the State in
+1868; but Nikita's manipulations were so little supervised that, even
+when he had established the Skup[vs]tina, he could say with truth,
+"L'état c'est moi." The Skup[vs]tina of 1918 was going to make vast
+changes.
+
+
+THE STATE OF BOSNIA
+
+In Bosnia, for some time after the Austrian collapse, it was
+inconvenient to travel. If you went by rail you were fortunate if you
+secured a good berth on the roof of a carriage; by road you went less
+rapidly and therefore ran a greater risk of being waylaid by the
+so-called "Green Depot," who were deserters from the Austrian
+army--either through national or other reasons--with their headquarters
+in the forests. Some of them were simply men who had gone home on leave
+and stayed at home. Here and there a National Guard of peaceful
+citizens, irrespective of nationality, was formed against them. But it
+was some time before they were induced to lead a less romantic life.
+What happened afterwards in Bosnia between the Serbs, the Croats and the
+Moslems was so much a matter of routine that the Italians should not
+have run off with the idea that this imperilled Yugoslavia. Of the
+1,898,044 inhabitants in 1910 the proportions were as follows: Orthodox,
+who call themselves Serbs, 43·49 per cent.; Moslem, 32·25 per cent.; and
+Catholics, who call themselves Croats, 22·87 per cent. (The remainder
+are miscellaneous persons, such as 850,000 Jews, who speak the usual
+Balkan Spanish; they play an inconsiderable part in public life.) The
+Serbs, the Moslems and the Croats are identical in race and language,
+but have hitherto been much divided. Those who joined together in the
+Turkish days were led to do so as companions in distress; the rule of
+Austria, or to speak with greater accuracy the rule of Hungary--no one
+knew exactly who possessed the land, but the Magyars took it for granted
+that it was theirs--this rule, of course, did nothing to unite the
+various religions. The Moslems, especially after their complete
+isolation from Turkey, were the most favoured, while the Serbs, owing to
+the proximity of Serbia, were the most oppressed. And during the War it
+was the Serbian population which was chiefly tortured. Besides all those
+who were dragged away to such places as Arad, hundreds and hundreds were
+hanged in their own province. Not satisfied with using, as we see in so
+many of those ghastly photographs, their own army as the executioners,
+the Austro-Hungarians also organized local bands among the lower classes
+of the towns, and in so doing they availed themselves of any latent
+religious fanaticism among the Moslems. From the day of the Archduke's
+assassination it was the Serbs who suffered most; and many onlookers
+must have expected in the autumn of 1918 that they would take a very
+drastic revenge. For some weeks the people were left very much to their
+own devices, with no troops or police--the Austrian _gendarmerie_ having
+to be protected by the better classes, who explained to the peasants
+that it was not right to regard only the uniform of those who had so
+often maltreated them; yet the gendarmes took the earliest opportunity
+of getting into mufti. There was also for several months a dearth of
+detectives. Many of those who had worked under Austria and were more or
+less criminal, fled at the collapse; others continued to act, but in a
+half-hearted way. Sixty new detectives were taken on by the Yugoslav
+authorities, and fifty-six of them had to be dismissed. After all, if
+one can judge a person's character from his face, the detective who
+allowed you to do so would be so incompetent as not to warrant a trial.
+And after six or seven months of Yugoslav administration only
+thirty-three out of fifty-two detective appointments in Sarajevo had
+been definitely filled. So there was not much restriction on the
+peasants in their dealings with each other. A few of them were murdered.
+In Sarajevo the National Guard was largely composed of well-meaning
+street boys; the Serbian troops did not arrive until November 6, and in
+many parts of Bosnia not until the end of the month. And yet in the
+whole country, with people on the track of those who in the pay of
+Austria had denounced or murdered their relatives, and with the poor
+_kmet_ at last able to rise against the oppressive landlord, there were
+in the first six months under fifty murders, and these were mostly due
+to the desperate straits of the Montenegrins, who came across the
+frontier in search of provisions, during which forays they assassinated
+various people. In the Sandjak of Novi Bazar there was no doubt less
+security; but to anyone who knew, say the Rogatica district, under
+Austria's very capable administration, it will seem that Bosnia, after
+the collapse, was singularly tranquil. Anyhow the population, in the
+summer of 1919, were living on much more amicable terms with one another
+than for many years. The Government met with some criticism, for it was
+alleged to be reserving all the lucrative appointments for the Serbs;
+one had to take into account, however, that it was the Serbs who had
+been chiefly ruined by the War, and it was just that the concessions for
+the sale of tobacco, for the railway restaurants and so forth, should
+be, for the greater part, given to them. Nevertheless it may interest
+travellers to know that the restaurateurs at the stations of Ilid[vz]e
+and Zenica are Catholics--the Moslems are not yet very competent in such
+affairs. They are, as their own leaders sadly confess, the least
+cultured and the least progressive class. As elsewhere in Islam there
+has been a total lack of female education--the mothers of the Sarajevo
+Moslem _intelligentsia_ can neither read nor write, while their sons are
+cultivated people who speak several languages. A change is being
+made--there are already five Moslem lady teachers employed in the mixed
+Government schools; this a few years ago would have been thought
+impossible. It is to be deplored that these divisions into Moslem and
+Orthodox and Catholic should be perpetrated--the Moslem leaders look
+forward to the time, in a few years, when their deputies will no longer
+group themselves apart on account of their religion; but it is unwise to
+introduce too many simultaneous innovations, considering that the
+illiterates of Bosnia number about 90 per cent. of the population. The
+Yugoslav idea will prosper in this country; and, by the way, while you
+meet an occasional Serb who hankers for a Greater Serbia, an occasional
+Croat who would like a Greater Croatia, the Moslems have no aspirations
+save for Yugoslavia. [They speak of "our language," since the word
+"Serbian" has for them too much connection with the Orthodox religion,
+the word "Croatian" with Roman Catholicism.] They are not indifferent to
+the fact that to their own 600,000 in Bosnia they will add the 400,000
+of Macedonia and Old Serbia, together with the 200,000 of Montenegro and
+the Sandjak.... One was inclined to think that the least desirable
+person of the new era in Sarajevo was the editor of the _Srpski Zora_
+("Serbian Dawn"); his methods had a resemblance to those of Lenin, for
+he printed lists of persons whom he called upon the Government to
+prosecute, and when he was himself invited to appear in court and answer
+to some libel charges he declined to go, upon the ground that the laws
+were still Austrian and the judge a Magyar. He disapproved of such
+tolerance, he disapproved of the Croats because they declined to
+recognize that the Serbs had more merit than they, and as for
+Yugoslavia--it was a thing of emptiness--he laughed at it and called it
+Yugovina, the south wind. The only chance of life it had was if you
+left the whole affair to the Serbs and then in two years it would be a
+solid thing. It may be thought that the local Government, since they
+left him at large, endorsed his theories; but they were reluctant to
+give him a halo of martyrdom. They imagined that he was nervous because
+he was losing ground--they acknowledged, though, that he still gave
+pleasure to a great many Serbs, who were carried away by his appeals to
+their old prejudices. It is undeniable that with the peculiar traditions
+and customs of Bosnia, that province must for some years have a
+Government--whatever method is evolved for the other parts of
+Yugoslavia--whose eyes are not turned constantly to Belgrade. It might
+even be well to set up a local Chamber in which all classes would be
+represented. The Moslems and Croats would thus lose any lurking fear
+that they were being swamped, and by coming into contact with other
+political parties even the less cultured classes would gradually tend to
+discard these fatal religious, in favour of political, divisions. A
+somewhat primitive Balkan community cannot be expected of its own accord
+to love henceforward in the name of politics those whom hitherto it has
+hated in the name of religion. And as yet they are much more interested
+in the harvest than in politics; from day to day they change their
+views, according to the views of the last orator from Belgrade, Zagreb
+or Ljubljana. Only the Socialists appear to be well disciplined. Of
+course the present political parties in Yugoslavia are not wholly free
+from religious prejudices, an important party, for example, among the
+Slovenes being based on Roman Catholicism. But as the Slovenes are, as
+yet, the best upholders of the Yugoslav idea, it is obvious that
+education covers all things, and that with the increase of education in
+Bosnia the religious differences will be less important. Anything that
+can be done against this tyranny is beneficial, whether the St. George
+be a political orator or a schoolmaster. And as the effects produced by
+the former are more rapid, so should he be encouraged. He is, in fact,
+appearing in Bosnia, he will carry away, more or less, the _clientèle_
+of the _Srpski Zora_, and the shattered nervous organism of its editor,
+Mr. [vC]okorilo, will be, one trusts, reconstituted and devoted, as it
+can be, to a nobler purpose. One of its deplorable effects has been
+that the organ of the Croat party, a paper called _Jugoslavija_, has
+been compelled to write in a similar strain, whereas the editor, a
+dapper little priest, assures one that he would prefer a more elevated
+tone.
+
+
+RADI['C] AND HIS PEASANTS
+
+Those who wished that Yugoslavia would be an idle dream have had their
+hopes more centred in Croatia. They told the world that horrible affairs
+took place, that there has been a revolution, several revolutions, that
+castles have been sacked and that the statesman, Radi['c], was
+imprisoned. If you met this little pear-shaped man, who is a
+middle-aged, extremely short-sighted person, with a small, straggling
+beard, an engaging smile and a large forehead, you would say that surely
+he had spent a good many hours of his life in some university garden
+where the birds, knowing that he could not easily see them, were in the
+habit of alighting for their dinner on his outstretched hands. He is a
+very learned little man, who started his career by obtaining the first
+place at the famous École des Sciences Politiques in Paris. But Stephen
+Radi['c] happens also to be very much interested in politics and
+extremely impulsive, so that his wife and daughter have often had to
+look after the bookshop, since the Government--that of Austria-Hungary
+and afterwards that of Yugoslavia--had consigned him to prison. He
+probably expected nothing else, for his eloquence--and he is an orator
+in several languages--has frequently carried him along and swept him
+round and round, like a leaf, not only in a direction opposite to that
+which he previously travelled but flying sometimes in the face of the
+most puissant and august authorities. So, for example, he began to
+agitate in 1904 against the vast territorial possessions of the Church
+in Croatia. This resulted in the then Archbishop issuing an interdict
+against him and his meetings--a measure which, I believe, is still in
+force. He was described as Antichrist, with the consequence that his
+audiences, out of curiosity to see what such a personage might look
+like, became larger than ever. For many years he was the only Croat
+politician who gave himself the trouble to go amongst the peasants. "In
+politics," said Radi['c] to me--he said a great many other things in the
+course of our first conversation, which lasted for four hours, though it
+seemed a good deal shorter--"In politics," said he, "one should not, as
+in art, try to be original. One should interpret not only the living
+generation but the ancestors." The peasant, who feels what Radi['c]
+expresses, has repaid him well, for there is now no party in Yugoslavia
+which is more devoted to its leader. He has taken the place once
+occupied by the clergy--he is by no means hostile to the Roman Catholic
+Church, but he is the foe of clericalism. "Praised be Jesus Christ! Long
+live the Republic!" is the usual beginning of one of his orations, so
+that his enemies accuse him in the first place of being a hypocrite, and
+in the second of holding views which cannot possibly amalgamate with
+those of monarchical Serbia. But the reference to Christ appears
+perfectly natural to the Croat peasant--at an open-air meeting of 10,000
+of them I saw their heads uncovered, and all bowed in prayer for a few
+minutes on the stroke of noon. As for the Republic, this first came into
+the picture on July 25, 1918, when the cry was raised at a meeting of
+the Peasants' party. A large number of peasants had imbibed this idea in
+America--those who emigrated have been in the habit of returning, and
+even if their home is in the desolate parts of Zagorija or among the
+rocks of Primorija, the coastal region. And thousands of Croats had
+spent part of the War as prisoners in Russia--having deserted from the
+Austro-Hungarian army--so that they had seen how the Great White Tsar,
+previously regarded as an almost divine being, could be dethroned. Four
+months after this famous meeting a Convention was held, in the American
+fashion, with 2874 delegates, who represented some 100,000 people. They
+pronounced themselves to be Republicans and Yugoslavs. It is quite true
+that many of the farmers in Croatia have a pretty vague idea of the
+Republic. "Long live Mr. Republic!" has been heard before now at one of
+their meetings, while a landowner of my acquaintance was asked by two of
+his aged tenants whether in the event of this Republic being established
+they should choose as President King Peter or the Prince-Regent or King
+Charles. But we should remember that in 1907 a printing press was
+founded by the Peasants' party at Zagreb, and those who gave their money
+for this cause were, to a great extent, illiterate. The people are
+groping towards the light, and they are willing to be told by those they
+trust that they have much to learn as to the nature of the light.
+Republicanism was fanned into flame by Radi['c]'s imprisonment and other
+causes, so that he says he is uncertain whether he can now persuade them
+to modify their demands. But if he tells them that in his opinion a
+constitutional monarchy will meet the case, they will probably still
+consent to accept his view--and this has of late come to be his own
+opinion. It may very well be that he adopted the republican idea with no
+other purpose than to obtain for the peasants the social and economic
+legislation which they would otherwise not have secured. And, after all,
+there was something of a republican nature in Croatia's autonomy under
+the Magyars. As for his imprisonment, it was strange that the Belgrade
+Cabinet, who should have known their man, treated him as if he were a De
+Valera; and perhaps the conduct of a subsequent Cabinet, that of Mr.
+Proti['c], who came out for Croatian Home Rule, was also strange in
+appearance, for while Radi['c] was still in prison he was invited to
+decide as to whether the Ban, Croatia's Governor, should or should not
+remain in office. But Mr. Proti['c] understood that at this period
+Radi['c]'s republicanism was somewhat academic.
+
+His party had, in years gone by, been small enough in the Landtag; but
+the fact that his followers then numbered only two is anyhow of no
+importance, as his very real power was derived from the peasants, who
+were largely voteless. How often in his prison he must have yearned for
+those old Landtag days--apart from his advocacy of the peasants, he
+loves to speak. In two hours he would traverse the whole gamut of human
+thought, expressing opinions to which John Hampden and Jack Cade and
+Montaigne and Machiavelli would in turn assent. The words used to rush
+from his lips in a torrent, while to many of his faithful peasant
+followers he seemed, throughout his discourse, to be in direct contact
+with the Almighty. Next to the Almighty the Croatian peasant had been
+taught to revere Francis Joseph, so that when the heir to the throne
+was murdered in 1914 it was not very difficult to make the Croat
+peasants rise against this sacrilege by plundering the Serbian shops at
+Zagreb--Austrian officers coming with their children to look on--just as
+in other parts of Croatia and Bosnia. There is as yet within the Croat
+peasant a certain hostility against the Serb and for various reasons:
+one of them is that he was always taught by Austria to detest the
+adherents of the Orthodox religion, another reason is that for centuries
+they have had a different culture; and so, since Austria's collapse,
+when it has been explained to them what is a republic and what is a
+monarchy, they have often demanded the former for no better reason than
+that the Serbs prefer the latter. They were taught by Austria to look
+forward to a Greater Croatia, which would eliminate the Slovenes by
+delivering them to the Germans, for that celebrated corridor to the
+Adriatic. And it is from the Slovene Socialists that the peasants of
+Croatia might very profitably learn.... The Slovene influence, coming
+from a more highly organized province, would be beneficial both for
+Serbs and Croats, for the industrial workers and for the peasants. The
+nature of the Southern Slavs, say these Socialists, is democratic, and
+the State mechanism might be made more so. Now that the various parts of
+Yugoslavia have liberated or are liberating themselves from various
+yokes, they have approached one another with a different mentality; they
+will become much better known to one another. And it was hoped that when
+Mr. Radi['c] regained his freedom and his book-shop he would find that
+his devotees preferred to hear him not as a Croat Jack Cade but as a
+Yugoslav Hampden. In his absence the party was leaderless.
+
+As for the other Croats, only Frank's Clerical party, which numbered
+five or six deputies, and did not hide its persistent sympathies with
+the House of Habsburg, kept up Separatist tendencies. All the Coalition
+(now the Democrat) party and two-thirds of the so-called Party of
+Croatian Right were for a close union with Serbia and the regency of
+Prince Alexander. That is not to say that there was perfect unanimity
+with regard to the interior arrangements of this union; in fact Dr. Ante
+Paveli['c], one of the Vice-Presidents of the Yugoslav National Council,
+who was received in special audience by the Prince at Belgrade, is also
+the leader of the old Star[vc]evi['c] party and as such an opponent of
+complete centralization. The _Obzor_, Zagreb's oldest newspaper,
+maintains this point of view, not paying much attention to the form of
+the State, monarchic or republican, so long as it is organized in a
+manner which would prevent the Croats being subordinated. Zagreb, it
+thinks, is destined to play the New York to Belgrade's Washington--but
+nowadays it looks very much as if Zagreb's rôle were to be that of
+Yugoslavia's Boston.
+
+Among the Slovenes this anxiety for decentralization--which is very
+proper or exaggerated, according to the point of view--is less
+accentuated. It appears as if the Christian-Socialist party of Monsignor
+Koro[vs]ec[29] is rather centralist in its Belgrade words and
+decentralist in its Ljubljana deeds. This party has shed some of its
+extremist clerical members, who to the cry, "The Church is in danger!"
+were very good servants of the Habsburgs. Such of them as were unable to
+accept the new order of things--elderly priests, for the most
+part--retired from the political stage.
+
+
+THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH THE TIMES
+
+There remains the Voivodina (Banat, Ba[vc]ka, etc.) party, some of whom
+are as much frightened of Croat predominance as the _Obzor_, for
+instance, is of Serb. The argument of these Voivodina politicians is
+that Serbia has lost so many of her _intelligentsia_ during the War that
+she must have special protection; they also found it hard to swallow the
+old functionaries whom the State took over from Austria. Of course it
+does not follow that if a Slav has been a faithful servant of Austria he
+will be an unsatisfactory servant of the new State. Obviously the
+circumstances of each case must be considered; and, as a barrister, a
+dissentient member of this party told me at Osiek, one must often put
+personal feelings aside; he himself had been arbitrarily imprisoned
+during the War by an official who was then an Austrian and is now a
+Yugoslav functionary. The most extreme exponent of this anti-Croat party
+seems to be a well-known editor at Novi Sad, Mr. Ja[vs]a Tomi['c]. In
+his opinion you cannot join by means of a law in twenty-four hours
+people who have never been together; let it be a slower and a surer
+process. He is ready to die, he says, but he is not ready to lose his
+national name. Let the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes retain what is most
+precious to each of them. Let them not be asked to give up everything.
+In the matter of the flag Mr. Tomi['c] is justified, for now their
+former flag has been taken from each of them and a totally fresh one
+created, which is particularly hard on the Serbs after the sublime
+fashion in which their old colours were carried up the Macedonian
+mountains in the Great War. It would not have required much
+ingenuity--as they all three share the colours, red, white and blue,
+differently arranged--to have devised, not a mere new and unmeaning
+arrangement of the simple colours, but a method on the lines of the
+Union Jack or of the former Swedish-Norwegian flag, wherein all three
+would have remained visible. Mr. Tomi['c] believes that a real
+_intelligentsia_ would demand of the people what it can execute, and he
+regrets to think that at least two-thirds of the _intelligentsia_ want
+the people to call themselves Yugoslavs. But Mr. Tomi['c] has a far
+greater majority than two-thirds against him, because while his
+arguments would be admirable if the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes had no
+neighbours, they must be--and the vast majority of Yugoslavs feel that
+they must be--superseded on account of this imperfect world. By all
+means let each one of the three retain every single custom that will not
+interfere with the national security and will not interfere too much
+with the national welfare. If Mr. Tomi['c], who is much respected but
+generally looked upon as rather old-fashioned, is going to die sooner
+than give up something which the State considers essential he will be
+following in the footsteps of those whom Cavour, in the course of the
+welding of Italy, had to execute.
+
+It may be said without fear of contradiction--in fact I was given the
+figure by one of the decentralization leaders of Croatia--that at least
+90 per cent. of the Croat _intelligentsia_ wants the union with Serbia,
+and if a republic is decided upon they will mostly vote for King
+Alexander as President. While they discuss their internal
+organization--no simple matter when one considers their varied
+antecedents, their different legal systems and so forth--they will not
+let Yugoslavia go to pieces. The work of construction and of more or
+less strenuous, but necessary, criticism occupies by far the greater
+number of the politicians. They have not yet, all of them, given their
+adherence to this or that group, while new groups are arising--such as
+the Agrarian, which being far more interested in the peasant's material
+welfare than in anything else will give their alliance to that political
+party which is prepared to assist the villages towards improving their
+cleanliness and their manure.
+
+
+THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES
+
+The chief parties which in the new State's first two years evolved
+themselves out of those that previously existed in the various parts of
+Yugoslavia were:
+
+     (_a_) the Pa[vs]i['c] party, consisting chiefly of the Serbian
+     Old Radical party, together with Serbian parties from the
+     Voivodina and Bosnia.
+
+     (_b_) the Pribi[vc]evi['c] party, consisting chiefly of the
+     Croatian Coalition party, together with the Slovene Liberal
+     party and the Serbian parties in opposition to Pa[vs]i['c].
+
+     (_c_) the Christian Socialist party, under Koro[vs]ec,
+     consisting chiefly of Slovenes, together with a young group in
+     Croatia and other Clerical groups that are forming in Dalmatia
+     and Bosnia.
+
+     (_d_) the Star[vc]evi['c] party, under Paveli['c], consisting
+     of decentralizing parties in Croatia and Slavonia, and some
+     Croats in Bosnia.
+
+     (_e_) Socialists:
+
+         (1) the Slovene non-communistic Socialists.
+
+         (2) Korac's party, chiefly from Slavonia and Serbia.
+         This remarkable man, whose mind floats serenely in a body
+         that is paralysed, has twice been included in the Cabinet.
+         By many he is looked upon as too subversive, but he
+         believes that a revolution will come unless his department
+         acts in a revolutionary fashion. His programme includes
+         old-age pensions from the age of sixty--the people being
+         now enfeebled by the wars--and obligatory insurance with
+         regard to all those, including State employees in the
+         railway service and the post office, who do not enjoy an
+         independent existence, half the insurance being paid by
+         the employer and half by the employee, while with regard
+         to accidents the whole would be paid by the employer. He
+         has also very firm ideas for the safeguarding of the human
+         dignity of the pensioners.
+
+         (3) Dr. Rado[vs]evi['c]'s party. This gentleman was said
+         to adore Lenin, on whom he lectured. His party had no
+         strength except such as it derived as a protest against
+         any forced centralization.
+
+     (_f_) Republican party, consisting of 90,000 Croat peasants
+     under Radi['c].
+
+Of these by far the most important were the first two. In Serbian
+political parties the personal question used to be nearly always
+uppermost, and now, in the case of parties (_a_) and (_b_), it was most
+difficult to understand what aims the one had which the other did not
+share. One may say that each of them was a group under a wily politician
+who was able, not only to forge out of various elements a homogeneous
+group, but to persuade them that there was a fundamental difference
+between their group and any other. Here one has not so much the Western
+system, under which a man enters a Cabinet as the exponent of party
+principles, but the Eastern system under which a Minister uses his
+influence to found a party, which is based inevitably on the
+disappearing relics of the past. In the spring of 1919 many foreign
+observers fancied that new parties were surging up like mushrooms and
+proving, no doubt, that the people's vitality was strong, although one
+would have waited willingly for this evidence until the country's
+external and internal affairs were more settled. As a matter of fact
+these rather numerous parties, of which the outside world now heard for
+the first time, had been in existence or semi-existence for years. There
+was, however, a certain bewildering vacillation on the part of some of
+the deputies. The Bosnian Moslems, for instance, could not make up their
+minds whether they would be Serbs or Croats and belong to (_a_) or
+(_b_). Finally most of them settled down in (_b_), while two others
+formed an independent group. It must be remembered that they, like all
+the other deputies, were not really deputies but delegates, since it was
+not yet possible to hold elections. There would naturally be many
+changes after the first General Election; for one thing, the Moslems
+intend to join in one group with their brethren from Macedonia and Novi
+Bazar.... As we shall see, later on, the changes produced by the first
+General Election--which was the election held in November 1920, for the
+Constituent Assembly--were extremely sweeping. While the Radicals and
+Democrats returned with close on one hundred members each, the
+Koro[vs]e['c] party met with comparative disaster, and the Star[vc]evic
+group was overwhelmed. With about fifty members apiece, the Communist
+and the Radi['c] parties gave expression, roughly speaking, to the
+discontent produced by the unsettled conditions--unavoidable and
+avoidable--of the new State's first two years. The Moslems came back
+with nearly thirty members, and a healthy phenomenon for a country in
+which the peasant so largely predominates was the success, apart from
+the Radi['c] Peasant party, of the Agrarians with some thirty deputies,
+and the Independent Peasant party with eight.
+
+The Italian Press disposed in five lines of the historical Act of Union
+which occurred when the delegates of the Yugoslav National Council were
+received by the Prince at Belgrade on December 1, 1918. In the address,
+which was read by Dr. Paveli['c], it is recorded that "the National
+Council desires to join with Serbia and Montenegro in forming a United
+National State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which would embrace the
+whole inseparable ethnographical territory of the South Slavs.... In
+the period of transition, in our opinion, the conditions should be
+created for the final organization of our United State." And there is a
+dignified protest against the Treaty of London and the Italian
+encroachments which even went beyond that which the treaty gave them. In
+his reply the Prince, among other remarks, said that "in the name of His
+Majesty King Peter I now declare the union of Serbia with the provinces
+of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in an indivisible kingdom. This great
+moment should be a reward for the efforts of yourselves and your
+brothers, whereby you have cast off the alien yoke. This celebration
+should form a wreath for the officers and men who have fallen in the
+cause of freedom.... I assure you and the National Council that I shall
+always reign over my brothers and yours, and what constitutes the Serbs
+and their people, in a spirit of brotherly love.... The first task of
+the Government will be to arrange with your help and that of the whole
+people that the frontiers should comprise the whole nation. In
+conjunction with you I may well hope that our powerful friends and
+Allies will be able justly to appreciate our standpoint, because it
+corresponds with the principles which they themselves have proclaimed
+and for the achievement of which streams of their precious blood have
+been poured out...." The Prince spoke of Italy in phrases to which we
+have already alluded.[30] He reminded her of the Risorgimento and of the
+principles with which her great sons had then been inspired. But the
+Italian Press preferred to moralize in column after column on the
+variety of the political groups of Yugoslavia, with the object of
+showing to the world that they were a people of no cohesive capacities
+and of no real national consciousness.
+
+
+THE SLOVENE QUESTION
+
+This matter of the frontiers had been very lucidly set before the Allies
+with regard to Dalmatia and Rieka; it now remained for the Slovenes to
+formulate their case. From the statement given by Dr. Trumbi['c] to the
+Council of Ten in Paris we will take these extracts: "The province of
+Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca may be divided into two different parts, both from an
+ethnical and economic point of view. The western part, up to the line
+Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone, is economically self-supporting. If we
+estimate the population on a language basis, there are about 72,000
+Italians and 6000 Slovenes. Geographically it is simply the prolongation
+of the Venetian plain. We do not claim this territory called Friuli,
+which belongs ethnologically to the Italians. The rest of this province
+to the east and the north of the Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone line,
+which comprises the mountainous region, is inhabited by 148,500 Slovenes
+and 17,000 Italians, of whom 14,000 are in the town of Gorica, where
+they constitute half the population.... The Slovenes are an advanced and
+civilized people, acutely conscious of their racial solidarity with the
+other Yugoslav peoples. We therefore ask that this district should be
+reunited to our State.... Istria is inhabited by Slavs and Italians.
+According to the latest statistics, there were in it 223,318 Yugoslavs
+and 147,417 Italians. The Slavs inhabit central and eastern Istria in a
+compact mass. More Italians live on the western coast, particularly in
+the towns. They inhabit only five villages north of Pola, and their
+populations have no territorial unity. Istria is territorially linked
+with Carniola and Croatia, whereas it is separated from Italy by the
+Adriatic, and therefore it ought to belong to the Yugoslav State....
+Triest and its neighbourhood is geographically an integral part of
+purely Slav territories. The majority of this town--two-thirds,
+according to statistics--is Italian and the rest Slav. These statistics
+being on the language basis, include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc.,
+as Italian-speaking, among the Italians. The Slav element plays an
+important part in the commercial and economic life of Triest. If the
+town were ethnically in contact with Italy we would recognize the right
+of the majority. But all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet
+the commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly counts, and
+it is a port of world trade. As such it is the representative of its
+hinterland, which stretches as far as Bohemia, and chiefly of its
+Slovene hinterland, which forms a third of the whole trade of Triest
+and is inextricably linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
+would be politically separated from its trade hinterland, and would be
+prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since Austria has crumbled as a
+State, the natural solution of the problem of Triest is that it should
+be joined to our State."
+
+
+THE SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST
+
+It would be futile to talk of Triest without considering the relations
+between Italians and Germans. We have seen already how at the elections
+they combined against the "common enemy." But in commerce the Germans
+were in need of no alliance, for the Italians have relatively so little
+capital to dispose of that they were unable to keep the Germans from
+attaining that very dominant position in Italy. As the Italians have, as
+a general rule, a lack of initiative and enterprise with respect to
+modern industry, it was to German efforts that the great industrial and
+commercial awakening of Italy and of Triest were largely due. In that
+town the Italians were principally agents; and it is to be feared that
+if it ultimately falls into their hands it will become a German town
+under the Italian flag. It would be the object of the Italians to
+emancipate Austria from the Yugoslavs, giving them an outlet to Triest
+over Italian territory; and it would be to the Italian advantage if
+Austria were joined to Germany. Therefore it is preferable for all the
+Allies, except the Italians, that Triest should be international.
+Conditions could then be offered to the Austrians that would cause them
+to prefer these rather than to join themselves to Germany. But, in the
+opinion also of many enlightened Italians, it is not in that country's
+interest that she should hold Triest. Apart from the older publicists
+and statesmen, including Sonnino, who might wish to modify their
+opinions, one of the best-informed writers on Triest and Istria, A.
+Vivante, a native of Triest, in his _L'irredentismo adriatico_ (1912) is
+a most determined adversary to an Italian occupation of Istria or
+Triest; his book has been withdrawn from circulation by the Italian
+Government. Other resolute opponents have been all the inhabitants of
+Triest, except the extreme Nationalists. The town's prosperity dated
+from the time when the Habsburgs were driven out of Italy. Triest has
+not forgotten what occurred when she and Venice were under the same
+sceptre; and this it was which brought about, at Austria's collapse, the
+autonomous administration in which practically all the elements of the
+town participated. Only the Irridentists then thought that Triest's
+liberation need involve union with Italy and economic separation from
+the hinterland on which it depends.... When the occupation started, in
+November 1918, the Chief of the Italian police summoned before him the
+members of the Yugoslav National Council of Triest. Only two of them
+answered the summons, whereupon a lieutenant read them the following
+order from the Italian Governor: "In view of the fact that the Italians
+troops have occupied the line of demarcation and that traffic over this
+line is suspended for the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, it is
+ordered that, for strategical reasons, the South Slav National Council
+in Triest be dissolved and its offices closed." The Slovenes demanded a
+copy of this order, which, however, was refused. They were not allowed
+to depart until the books and national emblems had been removed from the
+premises of the National Council, the doors sealed and a guard
+stationed. "We others, Italians," an Italian writer had said in the
+_Edinost_, the Slovene paper of Triest, on August 18, 1918, "should
+understand that if we want our freedom we must see that this is likewise
+given to our neighbours." And the _Mercure de France_ of October
+remarked that these wise words would be listened to at Rome. In the
+realm of navigation the Italians were not idle. They started at once to
+negotiate with the Austrians for the sale to themselves of the Lloyd
+Steamship Company, the Austro-Americana and the Navigazione Libera, the
+three largest Austrian companies. By the end of February 1919, a Mr.
+Ivan [vS]vegel related in a well-informed article,[31] the Italians had,
+by acquiring a large portion of their shares, obtained the decisive
+influence in these companies. The deal which was carried through with
+the assistance of the Austrian Government and which, according to the
+_Neue Freie Presse_ of February 22, "fully satisfied the needs of
+Austrian commerce," was transacted during the Armistice and behind the
+back of public opinion. Surely the Austrian mercantile marine, to which
+the Yugoslavs contributed the majority of the personnel and which they,
+with the other nationalities of the late Empire, helped to build up with
+the aid of considerable subsidies, should not have been permitted to
+fall an easy prize into the lap of Italy, but ought rather to constitute
+an asset in the liquidation of the late Austrian State and a subject of
+public discussion.... In consequence of the Italian attitude towards
+Austria on the one hand and the Slovenes on the other, the Austrians
+made an attack from northern Carinthia near Christmas and despoiled the
+Slovenes of about half the territory they had occupied. An American
+mission asked both sides to cease from hostilities, saying that the
+question of frontiers would be decided by Paris in a few weeks. Two
+Americans, who unfortunately could speak neither German nor Slovene,
+motored through the country, made some inquiries, especially in the
+towns, and departed for Paris. It would have been as well if, like the
+French farther to the east, they had deliminated between the two people
+a neutral zone. Sooner or later the troubles were bound to recommence.
+
+
+MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT
+
+Meanwhile, of all the lands which the Yugoslavs were inheriting from
+Austro-Hungary, that which was passing through the period of transition
+with the least disturbance was the Banat. Those Magyars who stayed were
+saying wistfully that it had been Hungarian for a thousand years, but
+considering what they had done they could not have brought forward a
+worse reason for their reinstatement. Here and there at places near the
+frontier, such as Subotica, they waylaid and murdered lonely Serbian
+soldiers; after which, with the complicity of Magyar officials whom the
+Serbs had not removed, they managed to escape to Hungary. But as a rule
+they thought it wiser to stay peacefully in the Banat than seek their
+fortunes in a land so insecure as Hungary was then. While Count Michael
+Karólyi's Government was doing its utmost to cultivate good relations
+with France, England and America--printing in the newspapers cordial
+articles in French and English, surrounding the Entente officers even in
+their despite with the old, barbaric hypnotizing Magyar hospitality,
+assuming in a long wireless message to President Wilson that the
+Hungarians were among those happy people who at last had been liberated
+from the yoke of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire--("I beg you, Mr.
+President, to use your influence that no acts of inhumanity or abuses of
+authority may threaten our new-born democracy and freedom from any
+quarter. They would cruelly wound the soul of our people and hinder the
+maturing of that pure pacifism and that mutual understanding between the
+peoples without which there will never be peace and rest on earth.... We
+will not discredit or delay with acts of violence the new-born freedom
+of the peoples of Hungary or the triumph of your ideas....")--at a place
+called Nagylak the free Hungarian people requested the authorities to
+give them an official document permitting them to plunder for
+twenty-four hours; at a place called Szentes there was a car which had
+been stolen from a man at Arad, sixty miles away; hearing where it was
+he telegraphed to the authorities and nothing happened; so he hired
+another car and went himself to Szentes where the Magyar Commissary
+confiscated this one also. It was better to remain in the Banat if one
+had anything to lose. The treatment which the Magyars received was such
+that Mr. Rapp, Commissary of the Buda-Pest Government, published a
+proclamation on the generous conduct of the Serbian troops occupying
+southern Hungary: "Our nationals," he declared, "though vanquished and
+in a minority, are safe. The Serbian officers in command treat them in a
+most humane and chivalrous fashion."[32] At Pan[vc]evo, for example,
+the Magyar officials were placed, for their protection, on board a boat
+by the Serbian authorities and kept there, provided with food and
+cigars, for twelve hours, after which, as the danger was past, they were
+set at liberty. In the same town, forty years earlier, the language used
+in the law courts had been Serbian; no one, in fact, spoke Magyar,
+except the cab-drivers--if you spoke it people said you must have been
+in prison. Yet, although the Magyar judges had, to put it mildly, not
+been too considerate towards the Serbs, they were retained in office on
+the understanding that they would learn Serbian within a year; nor were
+they asked, as yet, to administer the law in the name of King Peter, but
+in the name of Justice. This magnanimity was not displayed because, as
+with the railway employees, the Serbs were short of people for those
+posts, since they had barristers well qualified to be employed, as they
+were, for example, at Sombor, in the position of temporary judges. Even
+the town advocate was not dismissed, although this healthy gentleman had
+superseded a Serb forty-two years of age, considerably older than
+himself, who had been compelled to join the army. Not alone were all
+these functionaries left in office, but the papers sent to them were in
+their own language, Magyar or German. And in return they generally were
+loyal to the Yugoslavs.
+
+
+TEME[vS]VAR IN TRANSITION
+
+An extraordinary state of things was to be seen at Teme[vs]var, where
+the Magyar mayor was one of the most worried men in Europe. Until
+February 1919 he was being asked to serve not two but several masters.
+Some uncertainty existed as to whether the town was under French or
+Serbian military command, but that was not a very serious question.
+There was at Novi Sad a temporary Government for all the Voivodina, this
+was the "Narodna Uprava" (National Government), consisting of eleven
+commissaries, each over a department, who had been appointed by the
+Voivodina Assembly of 690 Serbs, 12 Slovaks, 2 Magyars and 6
+Germans--one deputy for every thousand of the population. The mayor of
+Teme[vs]var could have reconciled the wishes of the Narodna Uprava and
+the military authorities, but there was a Magyar Jewish Socialist, a
+certain Dr. Roth, who had elected himself to be head of the "People's
+Government," and was subsequently appointed by telephone from Buda-Pest
+the representative of the Hungarian Government. Roth organized a civil
+guard, mostly of former Hungarian soldiers, who--although he paid them
+well (since Buda-Pest had given him 12 million crowns for propaganda
+purposes), yet had a way of borrowing a coat or cap from Serbian
+soldiers and, arrayed in these, holding up pedestrians after nightfall.
+Roth had therefore been granted the right to rule, but--save for the
+dubious guard--his power was only that which the Serbian or French
+authorities would give him. He issued many orders to the mayor, some of
+which were very questionable, as for instance when he sent provisions
+out of the Banat to Hungary. This produced so great a scarcity that the
+flour-mill employees thought it was the time to go on strike; they
+demanded 80 per cent. increase in wages, without undertaking to go back
+to work if they received it. "I am not a politician," said the harassed
+mayor, "I only want to save the town from starving." But the Narodna
+Uprava would send no food, since the town (that is to say Roth) would
+not acknowledge its authority. There were many rumours as to how Roth
+spent the sums from Buda-Pest, and a weekly Socialist sheet, which he
+himself had founded, but had now made over to a couple of his friends
+(likewise Magyar Jews), called Fürth and Isaac Gara, started to bring
+charges against its founder. Roth, whose previous resources were not
+large and were well known to Fürth and Gara, used now to frequent the
+fashionable café and indulge, night after night, in potations of
+champagne, inviting to his table not Fürth nor Gara, but the French
+General. This officer, in the advance through Serbia, had captured a
+great many prisoners and a very large number of guns, arousing
+everybody's enthusiasm by his personal bravery, his dashing tactics and
+the skill with which he executed them. He was a most original person,
+who would sometimes about midnight in that café at Teme[vs]var leap on
+to one of the marble tables and there perform a _pas de seul_. Dr. Roth
+succeeded in worming himself into this merry warrior's good graces, and
+Fürth and Gara looked with jaundiced eyes on the carouses of these two.
+And in their newspaper, the _Teme[vs]var_, they said very biting things.
+Thereupon Roth complained about them to the Serbian authorities, asking
+that they should be sent to Belgrade. When the Serbs did nothing he made
+application to the French, and they--not aware of all the
+circumstances--sent the couple under guard to Belgrade, where they were
+interned. The mayor continued to receive the orders of the various
+parties, and then suddenly Roth organized a strike which lasted for two
+days--the railways, the electric light, the water-supply and the shops
+all joining in the movement. There was even a Magyar flag on the town
+hall, and cries were raised by a procession for the Magyar Republic. But
+this time he had gone too far. An order came from Belgrade, from General
+Franchet d'Espérey, and Roth was taken in a car to Arad, where he was
+deposited on the other side of the line of demarcation.
+
+
+A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA
+
+But the German-Austrians in Carinthia, seeing how the Slovenes were
+being treated by the Italians, could not resist attacking on their own
+account; and here the most tragic feature was that in the German ranks
+were many Germanized Slovenes. This had been the case at Maribor in
+Styria, where the population rose against the 70 Slovene soldiers during
+the visit of an American mission. Many of those who were afterwards
+questioned were obliged to admit that they were of Slovene or of partly
+Slovene origin, but Austria had taken care of their national
+conscience. Had they been freely left to choose between the two
+nationalities, and had they, out of admiration for the German, selected
+that one--you would not endeavour now to make them Slovenes; but of
+course these people were never given the choice, and therefore every
+effort should be used to make to dance that portion of their blood which
+is Slovene, and sometimes all your efforts will be fruitless. That those
+who fought in Carinthia against the Slovene troops were of this origin
+can be seen by the names of the officers of the so-called
+"Volkswehralarmkompagnien" (_i.e._ the People's Emergency Defence
+Companies). A document, marked W. No. 101, and signed by a Captain
+Sandner, fell into Slovene hands on February 21. It gives very full
+arrangements for these companies in Wolfsberg and the neighbourhood. At
+St. Paul, for instance, men are to gather from three other regions, to
+wit 40 from St. Paul itself, 120 from Granitzthal, 60 from Lagerbuch and
+30 from Eitweg; the officers of this St. Paul contingent are called
+Kronegger, Andrec, Klötsch and Gritsch--the last three are of Slovene
+origin. These Defence Companies consisted largely of ex-soldiers, under
+the command, very often, of a schoolmaster or some such person; and if
+they had done nothing more than to defend their own soil, one would have
+less to say about them; but as a matter of fact they sent arms across to
+their adherents in the territory occupied by the Slovenes. Thus at
+Velikovec (Völkermarkt) and Donji Dravograd (Unter-Drauburg) shots were
+fired from houses which had been armed in this way. Incursions were made
+into Yugoslav territory, where the people were urged to rise; and as
+these Defence Companies did not wear any uniform their members could, if
+captured, protest their innocence. The officers were given 20 crowns a
+day, the men six crowns, with 5.44 a day for their keep during the time
+of emergency, and four crowns daily in addition if they went outside the
+garrison town. As it would not be possible to get the commissariat at
+once into working order the men were asked to bring at least sufficient
+bread with them for a few days. Most of the men had their own guns;
+those who had not would be lent one at the village office on the
+understanding that it was brought back there when the emergency was
+over. These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by 2000 of the
+proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway station before they started,
+were cheered by speeches on the subject of plunder; at Graz they were
+joined by some students who proposed to maintain order.... It was in
+April that the Germans began nearly every day to fire on the Yugoslav
+troops, regardless of the Americans, who said that any infringement of
+the Armistice would be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
+Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for several days with
+heavy artillery, and the local commander, on his own initiative, crossed
+the Armistice line in order to seize this artillery; he did, in fact,
+carry off some twenty pieces, with which he returned to his old
+positions. This caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
+telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the Yugoslavs for having
+flagrantly crossed the Armistice line by 10 kilometres (cf. _Le
+Journal_, for example, of May 5). In the same report they were held up
+as villains for having crossed the river Drave at several points and cut
+the railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at least 11
+kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the artillery, of course,
+still farther off. This railway line, which was the means of
+communication between Austrians and Italians, was the subject of very
+fierce talk on the part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered,
+the Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do not pretend
+that they approach the Serbs as combatants. After centuries of
+servitude--a more insidious servitude than if their masters had been
+Moslem--they have now awakened to devote themselves, and with great
+success, to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
+spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in them. Their
+opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon Celovec (Klagenfurt) and
+Beljak (Villach), where they had at their disposal the munitions of the
+entire 10th Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from Vienna,
+as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers, who were clothed as
+infantry privates. These officers were serving for the love of their
+country--up to May 1 at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The
+Slovene ranks were somewhat depleted by Bol[vs]evik tracts, telling
+them to go home, as there would be no more war; and yet at Gutenstein
+sixty men with three machine guns, under Lieut. Maglaj, a Slovene from
+Carinthia, kept 1500 men at bay from 9 a.m. till 3.30, after which they
+slowly withdrew until the fighting ceased at six; a corporal and two men
+of a machine-gun detachment were cut off and concealed themselves in the
+shrubs of a defile. Suddenly they heard a German company come down the
+road, singing as they marched. The three men opened fire--the Germans in
+perplexity stood still and then retired in disorder. The whole
+German-Austrian movement was checked by General Maister. And when the
+Serbian veterans, men of all ages, with uniforms of every shade, marched
+through the streets of Maribor, it was felt that there need be no more
+anxiety as to that particular frontier of Yugoslavia.
+
+
+YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER HOUSE IN ORDER
+
+It was not until now that Great Britain (on May 9) and France (on June
+5) formally recognized the new Serbo-Croat-Slovene State.[33] As the
+_Times_ said, two years afterwards,[34] "it was not the Allies who
+created Czecho-Slovakia or brought about the establishment of
+Yugo-Slavia. These events were the inevitable result of the previous
+history which the Allies could not, even if they had desired to do so,
+prevent." The Americans had not been so extremely considerate to Italy,
+for they had recognized the Yugoslav State on February 7, a few days
+after Norway and Switzerland.... And how necessary it was for the
+Yugoslavs to have some leisure for their home affairs, which presented
+so many complications. Here one system of laws and there another--with
+the best will in the world and waiving to the uttermost one's own
+idiosyncrasies, the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes were faced, at the
+beginning of their union, by most arduous problems. The Agrarian
+question was regarded generally as one of the most urgent. In Serbia
+itself, with practically the whole country in the hands of small peasant
+proprietors, this question did not arise; but in the provinces which had
+been lately under Austria-Hungary no time was to be lost, and yet a good
+deal of time would be needed to cope with a problem so full of
+complications. One difficulty was that each political party was inclined
+to solve this matter in accordance with its own interests. Among the
+three Slovene parties, for example, the Socialists would naturally work
+for their own principles, the Christian-Socialist party, whose
+supporters were chiefly the small farmers, would prefer to legislate for
+them, while the Liberal party, having in its ranks the larger
+landowners, would wish that all, except the very largest, should if
+possible be left intact; the very large landowners, moreover, will with
+the spread of democratic ideas lose their influence over the voters.
+There are several points on which all parties are agreed: thus, it is
+most undesirable that a man's holdings should, as now, be separated from
+each other, often by considerable distances, so that half his time may
+be spent in going to and from his fields and a good deal of the other
+half in the disputes which naturally spring from such a scattered
+ownership.... In Bosnia, where the Agrarian troubles had produced such
+frequent outbreaks and savage repression, the Austrians were given the
+mandate in 1878 in the hope that they would regulate this matter. They
+did not do very much; all that they really did was to modernize a
+little. They wrote down in a book who was the landlord and who were the
+kmets, and a copy of these details was available for each one of the
+kmets. He had the right to remain where he was--unless his conduct was
+exceptionally bad--and to retain two-thirds of the produce of the land.
+This kmet-right was not hereditary in the female line; but the kmet
+could buy his portion--this was an old right, which Austria
+regulated--and become a free man, a beg. He would sometimes be a free
+man in one place and a kmet in another. In Bosnia there are, of course,
+some extremely large landowners; but most of the begs are poor folk, who
+live on the third part of a few farms. It would be better if these men
+were not compensated with cash, but rather that they should be
+established on farms which they would work themselves, the distinction
+between the small begs and the kmets thus disappearing.
+
+
+THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM
+
+A special Ministry was created to supervise, throughout Yugoslavia, the
+question of Agrarian Reform; but the Cabinet was frequently engaged in
+discussing this important topic and, many months afterwards, when the
+ownership of a good deal of the land had been changed, it was
+acknowledged that the problem had been attacked more often than it had
+been solved. Mr. Pa[vs]i['c], who does not believe in hasty legislation,
+pointed out that the Austrians had in forty years done really very
+little in Bosnia. He was told, however, that in Croatia, for example,
+the revolutionary spirit at the end of the War was so intense that if
+the Government were to postpone the necessary reforms then the people
+would simply seize whatever land they wished to have. It is true that
+violence was rampant in those parts--the peasants believed that with
+Austria's collapse there would arrive the Earthly Paradise, and in order
+to bring this about they ravaged a good many fine estates and set fire
+to various castles. They were going to stand no nonsense. At a place
+called Lubi[vs]ica in Croatia--where the 350 families lived in 260
+houses--the landowner, out of the goodness of his heart, bestowed twenty
+"joch" of meadowland on the village in 1864. A law was passed which
+obliged him to devote a certain amount of land to the support of the
+church and the school--he gave the identical twenty joch. And at the end
+of the War the peasants maintained that at last this land was going to
+be restored to them; they drove their cattle on to it, but the priest
+with the help of _gendarmerie_ drove them off again. Once more the
+cattle came back and then the priest seized a gun; he fired at his
+parishioners and wounded in the head a sixteen-year-old boy, as well as
+three other persons. This so enraged the village that they went in a
+body and slew the priest.... And the authorities, although at that
+period they were faced with so many problems, attempted to settle right
+away this very complicated question. The Dobrovoljci--volunteers with
+the Yugoslav forces who had come home from the United States, Canada and
+Australia or who had managed to escape from the Austro-Hungarian
+army--had been promised so many acres, each of them, after the War. And
+these Dobrovoljci and the agitated peasants found that the land was, so
+to speak, thrust upon them. A lawyer-politician would take a map, would
+assign a certain area to A, another to B, and imagine he had done a good
+morning's work; but unhappily the lawyer often forgot that a farm, to be
+of any use to its tenant, must have a road leading to it, must have a
+well, a cart, a horse, some oxen and so forth--to say nothing of a
+dwelling-place. Thus it would happen that the new tenant would go to
+look at his holding and in disgust would go away, or--contrary to
+law--would sublet it or sell it back to the original owner. If, on the
+other hand, he remained the State would, from an economical point of
+view, only benefit in those regions where the land had hitherto been
+more or less uncultivated; where it had been cultivated by the
+moderately large or the very large landowner it always returned a
+harvest more considerable than that which the new tenant, insufficiently
+equipped and experienced, was able to achieve. Not only would there be
+this diminished production--frequently in the proportion of six to
+ten--but a large number of employees were thrown out of employment:
+sometimes a clever Czech overseer, whose family of six children had
+almost become Croat, and sometimes a native farmer whose house was
+wanted for the Dobrovoljci. The Czech would return to his own country
+and the dispossessed farmer would become a Communist. Yet these material
+and human losses to the State might have been endured if there had been
+a compensating political advantage, that is to say if the new tenants
+had been satisfied. But in far too many instances they were not. And one
+cannot help thinking that, in the vast majority of cases, they
+themselves would have preferred to wait until the Peasants' Co-operative
+Associations--such as flourish in Denmark--had been established. It need
+scarcely be said that, from the point of view of the peasant and of the
+State, these associations are an absolute necessity. The most deplorable
+example of the measures that were taken in such haste is seen, of
+course, in a model-property, such as that of Count [vC]ekoni['c] in the
+north of the Banat, where the new tenants, seeking as elsewhere to
+satisfy only their own wants and paying no heed to any possible exports,
+allow a highly developed property to go in a retrograde direction. If
+the Dobrovoljci had been skilled agriculturists there would have been no
+harm in settling them on this excellent estate; and with a Co-operative
+Association the 3000 joch of sugar that were grown there during the War
+would not now be reduced to 88 joch. But as it is, what with the
+unfortunate inexperience of most of the new tenants and their lack of
+means, and what with the stupidity of the local authorities who left to
+the previous owner one field here and one field there in the most absurd
+fashion, it would have been better both for Count [vC]ekoni['c] and for
+the State if he had simply presented to the Dobrovoljci half his land. A
+great many mistakes have been made in this question of Agrarian Reform,
+one of the most cardinal being--as Radi['c], the spokesman of the Croat
+peasants, has pointed out--to bestow the land not on people because they
+can farm it, but because they were heroes in the War.[35] It is a matter
+for congratulation that the measures now in force are not definite--the
+final dispositions will be taken in two or three years.[36] And perhaps
+then some part of the counsel of Radi['c] may be adopted--Radi['c],
+whose critics are never weary of denouncing him for being a demagogue, a
+firebrand and various other things, but who by that time may very likely
+be a Cabinet Minister. He advises that there should be a compromise,
+that the ownership of land in Yugoslavia should not be strictly
+individualist nor strictly communist, but that while preserving the
+spirit of the _zadruga_ (ownership by the community) there should also
+be the mobility of individual ownership.
+
+But in the field of Agrarian Reform there has been one excellent plan,
+the transference of men from the unfertile districts of Montenegro and
+Lika, also of landless men from the Banat and Ba[vc]ka, as also Serbs
+from Hungary and Slovenes from Istria, to those parts of Kossovo and
+Macedonia which were lying ownerless. The Albanians in Kossovo are
+mostly shepherds, and the land, which by Turkish law had belonged to
+"God and the Sultan," was now at the disposal of the Yugoslav
+authorities. Down to the spring of 1922 they had placed some 35,000
+persons in these regions, the Montenegrins being generally allocated to
+an Albanian neighbourhood, for they are accustomed to the idiosyncrasies
+of the Shqyptart. At first the Albanians viewed the new settlers with
+disfavour, but now so great a sympathy has developed between them that
+on various occasions the Montenegrins have remonstrated with the
+gendarmes for the excessive order they enforce and which, the
+Montenegrins say, you really cannot ask of an Albanian. Against the
+Montenegrins the Albanians do not care to use their rifles, since the
+custom of blood-vengeance is in the Montenegrin blood. In fact, these
+Albanians are very fair neighbours, the most unruly of them living in
+the mountains of the frontier. And the Montenegrins have been showing
+that when they are not compelled to live with weapons in their hand they
+can be quite industrious. There has, till now, been more colonization of
+Kossovo than of Macedonia; but there are wide tracts of country around
+Skoplje which will be settled, once they have been freed from malaria.
+The political consequences that this will have on Macedonia, by the
+stabilization of economic conditions, the supersession of the wooden
+plough by the steam plough--in fact, the advent of a new European spirit
+need scarcely be enlarged upon. In Serbian Macedonia, or South Serbia as
+it is now officially called, more than seven million acres of good soil
+are as yet not being used.
+
+
+FRENZY AT RIEKA
+
+As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists became more frantic.
+Their telegrams to Rome, in which they begged for instant annexation,
+were in vain, and after all, what was the use of adopting the system of
+Lieut.-Colonel Stadler, their energetic podestà at Abbazia, who would go
+into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct them that they must not
+say: "It will be settled by the Paris Conference," but rather--"It has
+been settled by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning what
+was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most important of these
+plaguy Allied officers had said that when he first came to the town he
+thought it was Italian, but he had soon perceived that it was all a
+comedy, and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda and
+statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris and that there was
+the faintest, awful possibility that one could say: "It has been
+settled by the Paris Conference." Everyone, alas! was studying the
+case--one heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being fêted at
+Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite intimate with Croatian
+history and to have discussed especially the story of Rieka. But by far
+the shrewdest blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What had
+his emissaries, who had listened with such care to everybody, told him?
+One must have a grand procession through the town to show the whole
+world what the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear the
+lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down with Wilson! down with
+redskins!" Some of the demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a
+donkey, a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion, that their
+enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of Austria, who was still alive.
+Another very good idea would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
+head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course, the Hotel Wilson
+must become the Hotel Orlando. Let them put a large black cross on all
+the Croat houses of Rieka--well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
+was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were too numerous; so
+let the soldiers rub them out again. And where the Croat names on banks
+and shops and elsewhere had been effaced, demolished--one could hide
+them by long strips of paper which they were so busy printing: "Either
+Italy or death!" "Viva Orlando!" "Viva Sonnino!"--those papers were the
+best reply to people who were asking if the entire Italian Cabinet was
+in harmony with Sonnino. Not merely in harmony--the Cabinet _was_
+Sonnino and more particularly Orlando was Sonnino. An Italian major came
+out on to a balcony one evening, in uniform, and opened his Italian
+heart to the crowd. What would the Allies say to that? The _Dante
+Alighieri_, the great dreadnought, manoeuvring with her searchlights,
+let them rest awhile upon the _Schley_, an American destroyer. What
+would the Yankees do? "Avanti Savoia!" Perhaps in the old days they
+would have sent a shot or two into the searchlights, just for luck, but
+now they did nothing. And what a scene at the Opera when _André Chenier_
+was performed and one of the singers came to the word "Traitor!" and
+some one shouted "Wilson!" and the whole house shouted "Wilson!" and the
+singer, forced to repeat the blessed word, added amid indescribable
+enthusiasm the name of the President, that ignominious President
+concerning whom it was revealed by one of their newspapers that he must
+obviously have pocketed Yugoslav money, perhaps a million, and who most
+probably had a Yugoslav mistress--when that opera-singer had emended the
+phrase, did that very exalted Italian officer leave his box? Why, no--he
+stayed until the end of the performance.... Did any Italian in Rieka
+read to the end a small and lucid American book, _Italy and the
+Yugoslavs, A Question of International Law_, by C. A. H. Bartlett of the
+New York and United States Federal Bar? "It is an admitted fact," says
+Mr. Bartlett, "that Italy at the outbreak of hostilities had no rights
+to, or in, the territory to which she now makes claim. Her title,
+therefore, has arisen since the commencement of the War, and must be
+founded on either effective possession legally acquired or on
+documentary evidence or some other right recognized by international
+law." And quoting Professor Westlake (_International Law_, Part I. p.
+91) as to the four grounds on which a State may vindicate its
+sovereignty over new domain, he discusses the position in the Adriatic,
+and concludes that Italy can claim no title by occupancy, cession,
+succession or self-determination. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Bartlett's
+commentary on the London Treaty, which is the instrument invoked by the
+Italians for their claims to Dalmatia. With regard to Rieka, which, as
+everybody knows, was not included even in the London Treaty, Mr.
+Bartlett says that while "admitting, for the purpose of argument, that
+the seizure has since resulted in an effective possession, yet, as that
+is not sufficient in itself to give title, it has no legal or effective
+force, but can be compared with nomads squatting on the roadside and
+then claiming a right to the soil. Italy was ashamed to assume the
+responsibility for the original appropriation of Rieka, which was made
+in violation of every legal right of those to whom it belongs, and she
+might well be, for a more audacious, unjustifiable proceeding in
+violation of every principle of international law it is difficult to
+imagine." ... As for the Italian National Council, listen to the
+stirring sentences of Mr. Grossich, its old President, after they had
+unanimously voted on May 17, and with passionate conviction, an order of
+the day directed to Orlando. In that order it was stated that they
+looked upon the plebiscite of October 30, 1918, as an indestructible,
+historical and legal fact. Grossich exposed the situation and was then
+for some instants mute. His voice was trembling when he spoke: "The
+sacrifice which circumstances may demand is tremendous, but if it is
+required by the supreme interests of Italy we will know how to support
+it. More than a citizen of Fiume, I feel myself an Italian" ("Primo che
+fiumano mi sento italiano"). At this point the old patriot broke into
+tears. "Fiume will defend herself with arms against all those who desire
+to violate her will, her national conscience. Seeing that her tenacious,
+indestructible Italianity is a grave impediment for Italy in the
+attaining of other objects, let Fiume be left to look after herself,
+sure as she is of her sons, prepared as she is, to-day more than ever,
+to sacrifice herself. She will defend herself against all and from
+wherever they come." Those who listened thought that this must mean that
+either the _Pester Lloyd_ of April 29 was lying when it printed an
+official message stating that General Segré, the Italian representative
+at Vienna, had in the name of his Government requested the Hungarian
+Soviet Republic to undertake the care of Italian subjects in Rieka, or
+else that the Magyars had told him that the 22,000 or 23,000 Italian
+soldiers in Rieka ought to be sufficient, as this was practically one
+soldier for every person who had been described as an Italian. But the
+I.N.C. had now resolved to take no risks; they entered into negotiations
+with Sem Benelli, a well-known poet of the school which some critics
+call enlivening and other critics call inflammatory. Anyhow, on the
+afternoon of June 13, Mr. Benelli was made a citizen of Rieka, a member
+of the central committee and was entrusted with the portfolio of
+Minister of War, that is to say Commissary for Defence. He thanked the
+I.N.C. in a long speech, and declared that his appointment was the
+wedding of Rieka and Italy. Then Dr. Vio proposed a law, respecting the
+defence to the uttermost of Italian rights--that an army should be
+created and that the expenses should be met by the issue of bonds for a
+hundred million lire. The citizen Benelli was asked to undertake the
+organization and the command of the army.
+
+
+ADMIRAL MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION
+
+Farther down the coast and on the islands the Italians seemed, with few
+exceptions, to have relinquished every effort to make themselves popular
+with the Slavs. Of course one naturally hears more of the cases of
+tension than of those where friendliness prevails; but in the towns or
+villages where the Slav _intelligentsia_ appreciated that an officer was
+doing his best, they were obliged invariably to add that he was doing it
+in spite of his men, and that his control of these men was more or less
+defective. Numbers of the soldiers, marines and carabinieri may have
+been animated, when they landed in Dalmatia, with excellent intentions,
+but their months amid an alien population had produced in them too often
+a deplorable effect. It must be taken into account that many of them had
+an almost insurmountable desire to be demobilized. At Gradi[vs]ca, where
+many Slovenes were interned, with fences round them but with no roof
+other than the sky, their guards with other soldiers had risen in
+revolt. This outbreak was suppressed, certain soldiers--some say sixty,
+but the number is doubtful--being shot; and all the others took an oath
+that on the first occasion of a deserter being shot at, they would, down
+to the last man, leave the barracks. This movement had been growing
+since the withdrawal of Bissolati from the Cabinet. As for the young
+officers, they had been exhorted, in a communication from Admiral Millo,
+the Governor, that they must realize the position they were in. The
+Admiral's memorial, which was marked with wisdom but also with a
+too-sweeping air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document: No. 558
+of Register P. Section of Propaganda. Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy
+was found by the Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed
+and replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the Croats the
+contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a lengthy and to us at times a
+rather rhetorical exposé, of which it will suffice to make some
+extracts. "The Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
+calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes which divide
+the sentiments of the local population. And in accounting,
+psychologically and historically, for the detestations and the
+aspirations of either party, he must regard the situation with the
+serene mind of a judge.... The position of officers is extremely
+delicate, more particularly in the small centres. It is known that
+outside the towns the population in its great majority and often its
+totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South, that is to say,
+Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people of another race, of that
+formidable Slav race which for centuries has been pressing against the
+West, athirst for liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a
+psychology, a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
+consciousness and a quite special individuality. This population is
+fundamentally good, good as simple and primitive people are. But the
+simple and primitive peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious
+and violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the officers from
+not taking these things into account and from letting themselves be
+guided solely by their Italian feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and
+an evenly-balanced mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
+of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment and a spirit
+of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on our part. The officer must
+... become an element of moderation and pacification, with the object of
+assuaging and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created and
+fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever; and of dissipating
+that hostility which, determined by a political situation and events,
+has been and is being incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
+artificially created campaign of interested parties (_da artificiose
+interessate campagna_).... It must be remembered that this is the first
+contact (_il primo contatto_) which the population, as yet primitive and
+uncultured in its mass, has had with Italy, where it instinctively sees
+the enemy and the new oppressor. We must do our best to make them see
+in Italy their friend and liberator.... It is evident and it leaps to
+the eyes of all how delicate and important is the moment of this first
+contact. Nothing more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances
+is needed for the officer to understand that in all his official and
+personal acts he must behave in such a manner that the population, which
+is primitive and simple and therefore all the more susceptible to
+suggestions, should regain the impression that Italy is a great country,
+the country of liberty and right, that its people is educated and
+civilized, that its officers and soldiers are here to fulfil a work of
+civilization and education, of love, in a country which must be Italian
+on account of historic rights and for the exigencies of Italy's defence:
+in which the Slavs, who have been introduced by the course of events and
+as an effect of the expansive potentiality of their race and the
+artifices of those who dominated the country, will find in the
+independence and development of their nationality a great fatherland
+which is civilized, powerful, humane and free.... In estimating the
+enmity of the Croats the fact must be taken into account that the
+Croatian world, I mean to say the Croat people, with its action in the
+interior of Austria while the Italian army was acting outside,
+resolutely and victoriously, has co-operated in precipitating the
+downfall of Austria and in freeing itself from a detested régime;
+particularly in the last year of the War this sentiment of nationality
+became accentuated with the fervent aspiration for liberty.... These are
+the circumstances which have determined a special psychology composed of
+joy and ecstasy--both elements which, in minds that are laden with all
+the influences of the East, produce a facile and dangerous excitement.
+On the other hand there survives in the Italian population the hatred
+against the Croatian supremacy, a hatred which is comprehensible but
+which in time must give place to other sentiments, rendering possible a
+fair coexistence of the two populations, whose aim should be common--the
+prosperity and development of Dalmatia, in the prosperity and for the
+prosperity, in the greatness and for the greatness of Italy. From this
+picture it must be instantly clear to every officer that his duty here
+is ... a truly lofty mission of civilization.... Especially the officer
+who is in charge of administrative work must awaken impressions that
+are naturally caused by the sense of justice for all; his severity must
+be good and his goodness must be severe, and from every act there must
+transpire the dignity which comes from the might and right of Italy, the
+kindness and generosity which come from the virtue of the race.... There
+is already an impression on the part of the Croats that the Italians are
+good, that Italy is strong. There must also be born and reinforced the
+other conviction that we are not oppressors but liberators.... The best
+propaganda, the most efficacious, because spontaneous and unexpected, is
+done by the officer and his men. The Italian officer ... with the
+harmony of manners which distinguishes him, obtains very easily the
+sympathies of this population, a sympathy, however, which for an
+optimist may become dangerous. Young officers must not forget that the
+propagators of the great Yugoslavia still exercise with their
+megalomania a potent influence over the primitive population and that a
+gesture of theirs, a word, an attitude, may even yet indirectly favour
+the Croat cause and make difficulties for us in exhibiting our mission
+of civilization."
+
+
+HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT [vS]IBENIK
+
+It is strange that this order should have been so scurvily treated in
+the town of [vS]ibenik, where it was issued and where the Admiral
+resided until the beginning of June, after which he transferred the seat
+of government to Zadar. At [vS]ibenik, by the way, the population
+comprises 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400 Italianists. On February 20, 1919,
+there arrived from Zadar, in consequence of an invitation from Admiral
+Millo, the Italian professor Domiaku[vs]i['c] who, according to the
+sixth clause of the Armistice, was justified in assuming the functions
+of school-controller, but was not authorized to become the inspector or
+in any way to interfere in didactic matters. Two inspectors existed in
+Dalmatia, one for the elementary and one for the secondary school, but
+the chief school authority of the province and the two inspectors under
+him were not informed of Professor Domiaku[vs]i['c]'s nomination. If the
+Governor intended him to abide by the stipulations of the Armistice, he
+must have been astonished at the schools being shut on the day after
+his arrival. And they remained shut, both the modern school and the
+middle-class girls' school for months, because the Professor's quite
+illegal attempt to usurp the inspectorship was resented. The secondary
+school was closed and the teachers who had come to [vS]ibenik with their
+families, but whose permanent domicile was elsewhere, received an order,
+delivered by carabinieri, that they would have to leave the town in four
+days. A few Italians were brought from Split and the school was
+reopened, but the attendance, which had been about 200, was now 24, and
+of these only two were the sons of Yugoslavs--but Yugoslavs who had
+taken office under the Italians, one as President of the Court of
+Justice and the other as prison inspector; these gentlemen took their
+boys by the hand and led them to school. Perhaps the Admiral was unaware
+of these transactions; but various Yugoslav officials, whose salaries
+had been withheld because they would not sign a paper asking to be made
+Italian officials, continued, notwithstanding, at their posts for two
+months; after which the Government perceived that by the clauses of the
+Armistice they were compelled to pay them. Each of them received exactly
+what was due, while some Italian teachers who had signed the paper were
+given a war bonus, extending over five months, of 80 per cent. Whether
+the Admiral knew of this or not, it does not harmonize with his exalted
+sentiments. And the town-commandant spoke very darkly[37] on various
+occasions to the leading citizens of what would come to pass if the
+Italians by any chance were told to leave the place. His brave fellows,
+the arditi, so he said, had plenty of machine guns and of ammunition.
+But this fair-haired German-looking officer was a rampageous sort of
+person who discharged, according to his lights, the Admiral's "truly
+lofty mission of civilization." It was not he, but another of the
+Admiral's subordinates at [vS]ibenik, who, when approached by a certain
+Mr. Iva[vs]a Zori['c] with the request that something might be done to
+release his son, a prisoner of war in Italy, replied: "Your son shall be
+released in eight days, provided that you declare, in writing, that you
+are content with the Italian occupation." On Mr. Zori['c] saying that he
+was unable to do this, "Very well," said the officer, "then your son
+will be one of the last to be set free."
+
+
+THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS
+
+Altogether one might say that the schoolmasters were being treated in a
+manner that was at variance with the Admiral's document. To give a few
+examples: Ivan Grbi['c], the schoolmaster at Sutomi[vs]cica, was
+arbitrarily imprisoned and was afterwards removed to another school at
+Privlaka. The Government school at the former place was closed, an
+Italian private institution being opened in the same building, with a
+teacher who was devoid of professional qualifications. The pupils of the
+school which had been dissolved were compelled by soldiers to attend the
+new Italian school. The elementary schools at Zemunik were likewise
+closed and the schoolmasters, after a period of imprisonment, taken to
+another village. If in the rather dreary little Zemunik, where there is
+not one Italian, the schoolmaster was very dangerous to the might of
+Italy, let us compare with this the conduct of the Slovene authorities
+who permitted more than one priest of the old régime to remain in
+office--one of them at a village four or five miles from
+Ljubljana--though they knew that these clergy were wont from the pulpit
+to utter disloyal sentiments. Maybe the Slovene Government was unwise,
+but they had scruples in removing a priest; and moreover, they had not
+given up the hope that these gentlemen would by and by change their
+opinions. On the island of Pag the schoolmaster Buratovi['c] and his
+wife, who was also a teacher, had to fly in order to escape
+imprisonment. The schoolmaster Grimani of the same place was obliged,
+with his wife, to follow the example of Buratovi['c], so that the school
+was necessarily closed; and an Italian school was started in this island
+with its 0·31 per cent. of Italians. The same edifying scenes must have
+taken place as in so many Magyar schools where the pupils--Serbs,
+Slovaks, Roumanians and so forth--did not understand what the teacher
+was saying. The Government of the occupied part of Dalmatia appointed to
+the elementary schools at Rogoznica and Primo[vs]ten two young Italian
+law-students from Zadar, who had no pedagogic qualifications; and
+whereas the legal annual salary was 1080 crowns, these lucky young men
+were in receipt of 625 crowns a month, which covered more than
+handsomely any depreciation in the currency. But now to another subject:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+ 1. Zadar                     with 80·25           with 18·61
+ 2. Hvar (Lesina)              "   92·94            "    6·75
+ 3. Kor[vc]ula (Curzola)       "   94·89            "    5·08
+ 4. [vS]ibenik (Sebenico)      "   95·66            "    1·31
+ 5. Starigrad (Cittavecchia)   "   97·98            "    1·91
+ 6. Vis (Lissa)                "   98·98            "    0·92
+ 7. Skradin (Scardona)         "   99·36            "    0·57
+ 8. Knin                       "   99·48            "    0·31
+ 9. Drni[vs] (Dernish)         "   99·49            "    0·41
+10. Benkovac                   "   99·60            "    0·30
+11. Tijesno (Stretto)          "   99·61            "    0·35
+12. Biograd (Zaravecchia)      "   99·66            "    0·23
+13. Pag (Pago)                 "   99·67            "    0·31
+14. Obrovac (Obrovazzo)        "   99·84            "    0·12
+15. Kistanje                   "   99·88            "    0·12
+16. Blato (Blatta)             "   99·93            "    0·05
+
+The London Treaty had conferred on Italy the foregoing Judiciary
+Districts, whose population, according to the last Austrian census, was
+as given on page 147.
+
+Italy was also to receive portions of the following Justiciary
+Districts:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+1. Trogir (Traù)              with 99·12           with 0·32
+2. Sinj                        "   99·29            "   0·24
+3. Imotski                     "   99·84            "   0·11
+4. Vrlika                      "   99·95            "   0·04
+
+In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized by a delegation
+which the representatives of the occupied communes elected at Split on
+January 11. According to the census of 1900 the occupied territory
+contained 35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181
+inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants, the census was
+prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated the results of the
+plebiscite in the commune of Obrovac.[38] The delegates were therefore
+successful in canvassing 95·07 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In 34
+communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia was over 90 per cent.,
+while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per cent. At Zadar (the town) out of
+14,056 inhabitants 6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in
+the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was 89·57 per cent.
+In the islands the majorities ranged from 96 per cent. to 100 per cent.
+And if any doubts were entertained as to these figures, the delegates
+were authorized to propose another plebiscite under the control of a
+disinterested Allied Power.
+
+
+YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT
+
+Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants, is not a wealthy
+province; and one would have supposed that if the Italians thought it
+necessary to occupy a country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably
+opposed to them, it would have been--to put it at the lowest--politic to
+hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood. Austria had established
+fourteen military fishing centres (besides others in Rieka, Istria,
+etc.), and these the Croats joined most willingly, as a means of
+avoiding service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets were
+worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with new ones. Owing to
+the conditions of the Triple Alliance, the Italians enjoyed the right to
+"high-sea" fishing, that is to say, the fishing up to three miles from
+the Dalmatian coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich
+fishing grounds among the northern islands. These dispossessed natives
+were originally more preoccupied with fish than with Italians. Is it
+strange that they refused to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral
+Millo, the friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss
+Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line for the
+exploitation of its forests; during the War this line was continued to
+Prijedor, and with great difficulty it had served for the transport of
+food-stuff and passengers from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to
+Sissak normal gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there to
+Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or [vS]ibenik narrow
+gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading between 30 per cent. and 50
+per cent. of the goods were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the
+inhabitants of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor hundreds of
+waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to be forwarded, and with Italy
+blocking the road at Knin they simply perished.
+
+
+ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS
+
+The Italian administration of Dalmatia--economically, politically,
+scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)--was
+thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence;
+it is impossible to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention of
+Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogi['c], who was deported to Sardinia for
+political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a
+Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to [vS]ibenik
+and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with
+nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the
+S.S. _Almissa_, bound for Ancona. Near [vS]ibenik the boat collided with
+the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of
+their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in
+their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the
+doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to
+stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were
+stolen--at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars.
+His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his
+fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The
+carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without
+unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey
+was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence--being all the time
+attached to one another--it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison
+doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogi['c] was ill, but as he declined
+to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to
+Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen.
+From Leghorn in the S.S. _Derna_ he was shipped to Sardinia, where he
+had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania,
+where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received
+2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor
+they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what
+he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000
+Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for
+more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line
+and--as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their
+release--letters some of which I read--they had very friendly
+recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of
+Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "bestially
+maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to
+Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on
+the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost
+exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin
+and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an
+absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered
+the doctor to dictate the whole affair and said that if nothing else
+could be done he would go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he
+struck the table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split
+and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and "Wir sind doch die
+grössten Schuften!" he exclaimed ("After all, it is we who are the
+biggest scoundrels!").... When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian
+Government at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald man, made
+a speech to the prisoners from the balcony of the town hall. He armed
+two of the Italians and ten French prisoners, whom he told off to guard
+the magazine. The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli)
+vanished after a couple of days; the French remained for a week, and
+when a French destroyer arrived at Split they were taken there, not as
+prisoners but as soldiers, bearing arms. Dr. Bogi['c] was a member of
+the National Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague at
+Drni[vs] to ask him whether the Italian troops were coming up from
+[vS]ibenik. This letter was his undoing. The reason he wrote it was
+because the population at Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective
+occupation and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He should have
+remembered, no doubt, that the Italians regarded this as enemy country
+and that to make inquiries with regard to the movement of troops was a
+crime. An officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he would
+kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the place which was
+indicated he found himself surrounded by carabinieri. Their captain, a
+certain Albano, said that he and two or three others must go to
+[vS]ibenik to undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return
+in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to take any money,
+clothes or linen. As a matter of fact the doctor had, on the previous
+day, been warned from Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but
+he laughed--he had done so much for them and he felt so innocent that
+it seemed absurd to run away. He could have gone, because he had a
+written permit issued to him on January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry
+regiment at Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever
+they wished, to Split.
+
+
+SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS
+
+During the winter and spring over seven hundred persons, chiefly
+belonging to the clerical, the legal and the medical professions, had
+been deported from Dalmatia. The leader of the Italian party at Zadar
+told me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra, saying that
+this, their place of interment, was a health resort and that they were
+getting fat. He scouted the idea that they were under any sort of
+compulsion when they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must
+anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia, as were the
+vast majority. Those who managed to return from that island--among them
+Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar, through the intervention of Bissolati, on
+account of Mrs. Macchiedo being at death's door--said that they found in
+Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment. Many priests
+were deported, on account of crimes which varied in enormity. A very
+frequent cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a
+congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One must say that the
+Italians exhibited no religious partiality, for they treated the Roman
+Catholic Church just the same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions
+were so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be due to a
+misunderstanding. To mention only one which came under my observation at
+Skradin, not far from [vS]ibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his
+sumptuous vestments had led his congregation out of the old town in
+order to perform an annual ceremony in connection with the fertility of
+the fields. In what way was the Italian cause assisted when carabinieri
+broke up that procession and refused even to allow the people to walk
+back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest and the
+other church officials with the sacred emblems, were forced to go back
+to Skradin as best they could by wading through the marshes?
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES
+
+An allusion has been made to the Italian financial methods. More than
+one Italian officer, including Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the
+Austrian currency, which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In
+Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had the Government
+stamp, and the Italians resolved that in the territories which they
+occupied the notes must have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But
+when some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation from Croatia
+or else landed somewhere in a boat the Italians were not making good
+propaganda for themselves when they seized the notes, tore them up and
+refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow whom I know of
+came with his mother along that wonderful road which the Austrians built
+over the mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious affection of
+the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar to consult an oculist. He took
+with him practically all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know
+what otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use of a bank.
+Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told him testily to go about
+his business. The same thing happened to the following persons:
+
+                                                                   Crowns.
+ 1. March 22, 1919. Bogdan Babovi['c], son of Radovan,
+                     of Montenegro,                   was robbed of 1,348
+ 2.   "   22,   "   Peter Luk[vs]i['c], son of Stephen of
+                     Spi['c],                          "      "     1,800
+ 3.   "   30,   "   Marijan [vS]evelj, of Tu[vc]epa,   "      "     3,530
+ 4.   "   31,   "   Frano Franki['c] and Ivanica
+                      Petri[vc]evi['c],                "      "    12,000
+ 5. April  8,   "   Stephen Vuku[vs]i['c], son of Peter,
+                      of Katuna,                       "      "     4,758
+ 6.   "    8,   "   Nikola Cike[vs], son of Mate, of
+                      [vZ]e[vz]evice,                  "      "     3,071
+ 7.   "    8,   "   Martinis Jozo, son of the late
+                      Nikola, of Komi[vz]a,            "      "     6,332
+ 8.   "    8,   "   Jure Rubi['c], son of the late Peter,
+                      of Zadvarje                      "      "     6,030
+ 9.   "    8,   "   Mato [vS]kari[vc]i['c], son of Stephen,
+                      of Podgrazza,                    "      "       500
+10. April  8, 1919. Mihovil [vS]arac, son of the late Crowns.
+                      Marko, of Split,                was robbed of   300
+11.   "   11,   "   Ilika Kutlja[vc]a, son of the late
+                      Peter, of [vC]ista,              "      "       600
+12.   "   13,   "   Marko [vC]aljku[vs]i['c], son of the
+                      late Ante, of [vS]estanova,      "      "    11,000
+13.   "   14,   "   Damjan Udovi[vc]i['c], son of Jakov,
+                      of Imotski,                      "      "     3,200
+14.   "   16,   "   Antun Radi['c], son of Peter, of
+                      Trogir,                          "      "    62,000
+15.   "   16,   "   Madalena Kugmi['c], widow of
+                      Nikola, of Split,                "      "     1,000
+16.   "   17,   "   Pero Juri['c], son of Abram, of
+                      Ostrozac,                        "      "     2,285
+17.   "   19,   "   Jakov Jurkovi['c], son of Mi[vs]ko "      "}
+18.   "   19,   "   Mate Raji['c], son of Ilija,       "      "}    8,140
+19.   "   19,   "   Jerko Reji['c], son of Luke,       "      "}
+20.   "   19,   "   Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko,
+                      of Livno,                        "      "    25,000
+21.   "   25,   "   Zorka Aljinovi['c], of Split,      "      "       600
+22.   "   28,   "   Ana [vZ]i[vz]ak, of Split,         "      "     1,900
+23.   "   29,   "   Nikolina Rastor, of Split,         "      "     1,800
+24.   "   30,   "   Antica Mili['c], of Split,         "      "     5,000
+25.   "   24,   "   Tomislav Novak, son of Mate,
+                      of Hvar,                         "      "     3,000
+26.   "   24,   "   Gjuran Arif, of Livno,             "      "     2,200
+                                                                   --------
+                                                             Total 136,794
+                                                                   --------
+
+These were the complaints over a period of a month, which were received
+by the Provincial (Yugoslav) Government at Split. One has to take their
+word for it that the list is not fictitious. I did not investigate any
+of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the list said that
+they were persuaded I would find that in every case the person culpable
+was an officious, ignorant N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a
+fragment. At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from the
+people, who were searched both on landing and on leaving, 40,000 crowns
+had been confiscated, and at first they had been told that the money
+should be stamped. A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few
+hours I was at Metkovi['c] told me that he had gone to the island of
+Kor[vc]ula to his brother and, on landing, had been relieved of 34,000
+crowns.
+
+
+AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY
+
+In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of the Allied policy of
+allowing a disputed zone to be occupied _ad interim_ solely by the
+troops of one interested country. The chronic state of war which
+followed the landing of the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the
+charges and the counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied
+Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was issued early in 1920
+and was signed by an American Admiral and French, Italian and British
+Generals, laid the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher
+Command. The Commission considered that an inter-Allied occupation was
+necessary, because the Greeks, instead of maintaining order, had given
+their position all the characteristics of a permanent occupation, the
+Turkish authorities being powerless. They also considered that order
+should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other than Greek.... No such
+Commission visited Dalmatia, chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of
+endless provocations, displayed greater self-control than the Turks. But
+an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that the Italian régime had
+not the marks of a permanent occupation simply because such methods
+could never be permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was
+forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat newspaper. On
+one island I found about fifteen gentlemen gathered round a table in a
+sort of dungeon, reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into
+their possession. This they had been doing for more than six months.
+Every letter was censored, all telegraphic and telephonic communication
+between the occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited. All
+flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed. Admiral Millo told
+us that this prohibition did not extend to the flags of France, Great
+Britain and the United States; considering that it is on record when and
+where the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians, ordered to
+be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence of Allied contingents, it
+seems scarcely worth saying that, as we were often told, the Admiral's
+permission, which was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded
+by his subordinates. Another thing that was very rigorously forbidden,
+especially on the islands, was for any Yugoslav to go down to the
+harbour, if a boat came in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on
+board. It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable and
+tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning of Yugoslav
+clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving them empty because they found
+they did not want them, the requisitioning of private houses, with no
+consideration for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of forests,
+the closing of law-courts, the demand that other courts should pronounce
+no judgment before first submitting it to them. But, above all, what the
+Yugoslav Government at Split complained of were the methods they
+employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food,
+clothing and money:
+
+
+I
+
+GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE CURZOLA
+ISLANDS
+
+SUBJECT: _Question of Food Supplies for the Civil Population._
+
+No. 43. _March_ 18, 1919.
+
+To all subject authorities:
+
+I have heard that several commanding officers who have to distribute
+food to the civilian population have, by virtue of an authorization that
+they may save part of the entered amounts for the purpose of using that
+sum for propaganda, saved a conspicuous quantity without having the
+possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained that the only
+effective means of propaganda is the distribution of food supplies ...
+amounts which are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary
+for purposes of propaganda.
+
+THE VICE-ADMIRAL
+THE GOVERNOR,
+E. MILLO.
+
+
+II
+
+ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE
+CURZOLA ISLANDS
+
+STAFF. SECTION OF PROPAGANDA, No. Prot. "P." SEBENICO, _April_ 18, 1919.
+
+The section of propaganda of the Government of Dalmatia, whose object is
+the rapid diffusion of Italianity in this noble region which gives at
+last to Italy the complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has
+set before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action ... it is
+therefore necessary to give these latter certain advantages ... it has
+been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ... that offices be
+opened for the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that
+presents be given to the indigent population, that fêtes and spectacles
+be organized.
+
+[Signature illegible.]
+
+
+These two documents give some indication of the plan of campaign. One
+might mention, by the bye, that during this period there was a great
+shortage of food-stuffs in Italy; large quantities were being sent from
+the United States. The Yugoslav Government at Split complained of the
+disastrous social and moral results of these proceedings. It gave rise
+to many abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had, for
+example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all they had to do was to
+go on board the _Puglia_, the Italian flagship, whether their parents
+allowed them or not, and there they were given both provisions and cash.
+As elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of idlers and
+scamps, who seized this opportunity; another class of person, who had
+erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to
+proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these
+people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return
+for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in
+that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists
+of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists
+numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.
+
+
+THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
+
+To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just
+before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer,
+Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the
+Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each
+other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing,
+attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great
+inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few
+exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of
+which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between
+the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over
+Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with
+the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
+happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of
+Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga
+Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
+famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the
+successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on
+September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an
+Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
+before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in
+their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents
+whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of
+the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position
+has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents
+received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc.,
+gratuitously."
+
+The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No
+doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before the Austrian
+collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done--three boxes,
+presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the
+flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on
+October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived,
+principally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metkovi['c] and Dubrovnik. In 1913
+Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was
+completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal
+people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the
+coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous
+instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all
+Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The
+chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven
+times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August
+19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and
+Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph
+celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a
+few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory
+conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian
+party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a
+big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary
+of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the
+chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr.
+Trumbi['c], Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr.
+Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance.
+On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who
+marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The attitude," he
+says, "of the Slav _intelligentsia_ was quite passive. The Italian band
+waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took
+place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called:
+'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down
+with the Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval
+lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the
+typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at
+Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury,
+how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation
+was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from
+following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians,
+he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with
+the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the
+"Società del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting
+club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a
+gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina,
+wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to
+offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per
+quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on
+August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will
+be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that
+this has caused the Slav _intelligentsia_ to be still more profoundly
+depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17,
+1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and
+smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had
+been driven out of Belgrade.
+
+When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians--I believe
+six from Zadar and two from Split--went to serve in the Italian army.
+Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these
+exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to
+the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged
+or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in
+charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their
+most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what
+the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became
+units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not
+incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura,"
+that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most assiduous in
+addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting
+all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular
+friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down
+with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the
+Slav _intelligentsia_. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr.
+Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.
+
+
+CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY
+
+One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the collapse of
+Austria, regarded the Italian party, and especially Dr. Salvi, with
+some suspicion. Since they had always placed themselves at Austria's
+disposal, it would be most natural if they attempted by a _coup d'état_
+to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment when they joined the Slavs
+and helped to turn the Austrians out. There was no notion then that the
+Italian army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until Christmas
+that this army tried to enter Split. When they proposed to come ashore
+they were prevented by the French, Americans and British; thereupon they
+threatened to come overland--although the town was not included in the
+London Treaty--but again they were prevented. In February, on the
+occasion of a conference between the four Admirals, there was a
+demonstration against Italy, the commandant of the _Puglia_ being struck
+and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was a widespread
+feeling of resentment at the way in which the _Puglia_ was, as we have
+seen, availing herself of the baser elements in the town for the
+furtherance of her propaganda; but what put the match to the bonfire was
+the omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian
+National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found that "officers
+belonging to an Allied nation have been molested." They announced that
+they would not tolerate a repetition of such acts, and that inter-Allied
+patrols, acting with Serbian troops and the local police force, would
+take measures to prevent them. On March 8, however, there was a renewal
+of the troubles; and again the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian
+member of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved of
+the findings and that he would present a special report.
+
+
+ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY
+
+"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at
+Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the
+future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially
+the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than
+diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few
+Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the
+incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths,
+sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were
+bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of
+arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the
+bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved
+by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered
+responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian
+soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were
+armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the
+Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting
+some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which
+they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the
+Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these
+authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian
+soldiers."
+
+
+NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES
+
+But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear
+of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the
+neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual
+prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities
+were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was
+to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the
+commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it
+than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the
+occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were
+deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with
+the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the
+Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government
+that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order,
+which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was
+not merely illegal--let alone inhumane--but was in contradiction with an
+earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout
+the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil
+employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to
+obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword:
+"Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the
+peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces,
+blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after
+night, and so on.... In the second half of February it was intended to
+conduct a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to Zadar, so
+that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced to be there, for the
+benefits which Italy had bestowed upon them. An officer who in this
+branch achieved particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the
+Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread and Italian
+promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken fisherfolk and
+peasants; they refused to take part in the ridiculous demonstration, and
+in order to avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and even
+went to the length of sinking their boats. In the possession of a
+peasant at Preko, [vS]ime [vS]ari['c] Mazi['c], were found some
+banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them and a very small French flag;
+for these transgressions de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive
+a box on the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison, and
+there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors afterwards certified,
+inflicted serious injuries upon his hands, which they beat with chains.
+For the same reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate
+Lon[vc]ar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet. On March 2 at Preko
+the Italians, enraged because the people had not come to their
+demonstration, dispersed with sticks all those who were assembled in
+front of the church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated. On
+March 29 the aforementioned Lon[vc]ar was condemned to three years'
+imprisonment because 11,780 crowns, unstamped notes, had been found on
+him; the notes, of course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way,
+were given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a discount of
+10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even the military used these
+forbidden notes, and compelled the peasants at the market to accept
+them. In the night of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of
+Zadar, who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their present
+misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested and deported to Italy;
+they included Mr. Joseph de Ton[vc]i['c], President of the Yugoslav Club
+and formerly the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two
+years of age and in precarious health. During this same night forty
+persons were deported from Knin, three from Drni[vs], three from
+Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine from [vS]ibenik and four from
+Benkovac.... On the populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected
+with the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant; here the
+Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still, bare-headed, when
+they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and
+forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba
+(Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
+seventy-five, called Lovrovi['c], were imprisoned. The latter had told
+his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent
+and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to
+Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
+nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at
+Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of
+meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin,
+highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
+party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If,
+he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not
+to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of
+his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the
+Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto,
+which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high
+Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged
+to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said,
+was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and
+betrayed Italy--so many of those who now called themselves good Italians
+had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
+Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with
+no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a
+Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked
+a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo
+that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the
+Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt
+for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased
+with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated,
+and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas;
+the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he
+said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home."
+... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the
+_Rije['c] S.H.S._, that Dr. Boxich, on account of having--exceptionally,
+the paper said--spoken the truth to a passing foreigner, had been
+deported to Italy.
+
+
+A VISIT TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS
+
+It was impossible to be at Split without meeting people who had fled
+from the occupied islands. It was also, in consequence of what they told
+one, impossible to set out with an unprejudiced mind. But, after all, we
+have our preconceived ideas on Heaven and Hell, and that will be no
+reason for us not to go there. I had become acquainted at Split with
+Captain Pommerol, of the British Army, a Mauritian of imposing physique
+and, as I was to see, of a lofty sense of justice. He had recently been
+spending several months in Hungary on a mission from the War Office.
+They had now dispatched him to Dalmatia and Bosnia with a very
+comprehensive programme; and, as I secured a little steamer, he came
+with me to the islands. [We hesitated to embark on this expedition,
+since the islanders whose national desires had been choked for so many
+months would probably display their sentiments in such a way as to bring
+down grave penalties upon themselves. But the Yugoslavs, both on the
+mainland and on the islands, were anxious that we should go; they
+doubted whether Western Europe had any knowledge of the Italian methods
+of administration. And if the immediate result of our journey would be
+to call down upon themselves--as indeed it did--a savage wind, they were
+optimistic enough to feel that it would eventually produce a whirlwind
+for their oppressors.] ... The S.S. _Porer_, 130 tons, was flying at the
+stern the temporary flag of white, blue, white in horizontal stripes
+which had been invented for the ships of the former Austro-Hungarian
+mercantile marine; on the second mast they displayed the flag of one of
+the Allies, and the _Porer_ happened to be sailing under the red ensign.
+She had a Dalmatian crew of eight, including the weather-beaten old
+captain and the still older and equally benevolent gentleman who
+combined the functions of cook and steward. In addition to Serbo-Croat,
+they had among them some knowledge of Italian, German and even English.
+The scholar was the mate who, having had his headquarters at Pola during
+the War, spoke Viennese-German. His wife had died at Split after an
+illness of several months, brought on by the idea that her husband had
+been killed at Pola in an air-raid.
+
+The large, rather waterless island of Bra['c], which is nearest to the
+mainland, seems to be chiefly remarkable on account of its
+chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder is produced; and the number
+of changes, no less than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the
+island from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress of
+Vienna. During that period it was sometimes under the Byzantines,
+sometimes the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire, its own autonomous
+Government, the Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one
+year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied by Italy after the
+end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did not ask for it when he was
+negotiating, before the War, with Austria.
+
+
+WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT NOT DURING, THE WAR
+
+The Italian Government put forward the question of the islands for the
+first time in April 11, 1915. There had been no previous discussion,
+passionate or otherwise, as in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But
+now they demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which were
+Hvar, Kor[vc]ula and Vis, with a total population (in 1910) of 57,954.
+The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April
+14, p. 133) that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince Bülow
+with respect to these islands had been extremely animated, and that
+Sonnino had pointed out that the Navy and the whole country expected of
+him that he would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic,
+where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable harbour, that
+is to say serviceable war-harbour. And Sonnino added that he thought
+this was an opportune moment in which to rectify that state of things.
+On April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides drawing the
+Italians' attention to the nationality of the islanders--1·62 per cent.
+calling themselves Italian--pointed out that not only would there no
+longer be any question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if
+Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent coast would
+always be threatened. On May 4, the Ambassador asked whether an
+arrangement with Italy would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to
+every one of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the value of
+these islands was in Austrian eyes. When Sonnino did not reply to this
+question, the Ambassador understood that Italy's participation in the
+War had been determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government made up
+its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its proximity to the Italian
+coast." As a matter of fact it lies 42 miles from Vis and 33 miles from
+the nearest point in Apulia. As a strategic base this group of rocks
+would have no value, since the water is too deep for the construction of
+a harbour, and the sirocco rages with such ferocity that it flings the
+foam over the top of the lighthouse, which is 360 feet in height. This
+inhospitable place, with its population of 13 human beings, some sheep
+and goats, was inhabited in prehistoric days; when the excavations were
+being made for the lighthouse a variety of implements from the Stone Age
+were discovered, including a stone arrow that was found between the ribs
+of a skeleton.... But the Austrian Ambassador let it be known at the
+same time that he would be prepared to make a further friendly
+examination of the Italian demands with reference to the other islands.
+His Government also on May 15 (Red Book, No. 185, p. 181) announced that
+they were quite disposed to reopen the discussion. However, on the 23rd
+of the month, Italy came into the War. The Italians had been explaining
+that if only Austria would give up these islands--which was as if you
+were to invite a person whose designs you suspected to come and camp in
+the hall of your house--then, said the Italians, there would be an
+excellent prospect of permanently amicable relations between the two
+States.
+
+
+OUR WELCOME TO JEL[vS]A
+
+As soon as the War was over, Italy disembarked on the islands which she
+had obtained by the Treaty of London. Something has been said on
+previous pages of the way in which she introduced herself and made
+herself at home. As we were sailing towards the pretty town of Jel[vs]a
+(Gelsa) on the island of Hvar, we left Vrbo[vs]ka on our right. The
+Bishop of Split had told me of a grievance which the Italian troops at
+that place had lodged with his brother, the mayor. Some of them had
+visited, for the fêtes of carnival, both the Yugoslav Club, where they
+found many persons who could speak Italian, and the Italian Club, where
+they were annoyed to find that it was spoken by very few. As we came
+into the little port of Jel[vs]a, with the green shutters of its white
+houses harmonizing with the foliage of the cypresses and oleanders, we
+could see a crowd of people running round--and carabinieri running with
+them--to that part of the harbour where we were unexpectedly going to
+stop. There was some confusion, the carabinieri pushing the people back,
+evidently to prevent them shaking hands with us; and one small boy who
+did not hear or did not understand what they were shouting received a
+terrific blow in the back from the fist of a furious Italian. Some cries
+were raised in honour of Yugoslavia, Wilson, France and England, which
+may have been imprudent; but when a place in which there is not one
+single Italian has been held down for months, has been forbidden to
+show the slightest joy on account of the birth of Yugoslavia, has been
+savagely punished for having a copy of a Yugoslav newspaper, has
+repeatedly been cursed and cuffed and ordered, at the bayonet's point,
+to execute some wish of the carabinieri--one cannot be astonished if in
+the presence of some non-Italian foreigners they could no longer repress
+their feelings. Some of the people had brought flowers with them, and as
+Pommerol and I plunged into the whirlpool and made our way towards the
+Italian commander's office, we had many flowers either thrust into our
+hands while the carabinieri were looking the other way or else we had
+them thrown at us, in which case some of them would usually descend upon
+the shoulders or the three-cornered hats of the carabinieri. Whenever
+anybody uttered one of the forbidden exclamations one or more of the
+carabinieri would fling themselves into the crowd and attempt, with the
+help of vigorous kicking, to reach the culprit. Thus, in the midst of a
+series of scrimmages, we got to the captain's quarters. We found him a
+very pleasant young man, keenly conscious of the difficulties of his
+position; as we afterwards heard, he was such an improvement on his
+predecessor that the carabinieri were convinced he was a Yugoslav and
+had been heard to mutter threats against his life. He had apologized to
+the inhabitants, and had dismissed one of his men who had hauled down a
+Yugoslav flag and blown his nose on it. For these men an extenuating
+circumstance was that they had been very drunk on the night before our
+arrival, as they had heard--it was in the first half of June 1919--that
+the islands had been definitely given to Italy, and this they had been
+celebrating. We knew that after an American and an Englishman had
+visited Jel[vs]a, in the time of the other commandant, some of the
+people were interned; the young captain assured us that he would do no
+such thing. And one could see that he would never imitate the brutality
+of his predecessor, who had caused a frail old man of sixty-six,
+Professor Zari['c], to be pulled out of his bed in the middle of a
+winter's night and taken across the hills on a donkey to Starigrad,
+afterwards on a destroyer to Split, from where--but for the intervention
+of the American Admiral--he would have been deported to Italy; and all
+on account of his having written, in English and French, a scientific
+ethnographical treatise on the islands.
+
+
+PROCEEDINGS AT STARIGRAD
+
+At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts looked like the
+scene of an opera, with an opening chorus of carabinieri. They were posted
+at various tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them
+advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to the office of the
+Commandant, a major who must have played a very modest part in the War, as
+I believe he only had three rows of ribbons.[39] He gave us some vermouth
+and informed us that the population was very quiet, very happy. When I said
+that I would like to see the mayor he sent an orderly, and in less than one
+minute his worship stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the major
+had said with regard to the population. In fact the picture which he drew
+brought back to memory the comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an
+American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that she lived at a place
+called Knoxville or Coxville in the States, replied "How nice!" The good
+Italians, quoth the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives,
+and with the exception of the Croat _intelligentsia_ they all wished for
+union with Italy. I asked him if he did not think that, looking at it from
+the economic point of view, there would be some difficulties when the
+island's exports--wine and oil and fish--would have to compete with the
+products of Italy. But he said that one must think of the other
+benefits--no longer would the island have to bear the hated Austrian. It
+was all the fault of Austria, he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad
+municipality had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their school
+and their orchestra. But now it would all be changed. He was clearly a
+product of the new dispensation; and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an
+Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else did this gentleman
+tell me, which was a pity, as in a message, presumably sent by him, to an
+Italian newspaper, _La Dalmazia_,[40] of Zadar, it was stated that in this
+conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local questions....
+Then we all stood up and the major said that he would accompany us down to
+the boat. I told him that I would join him there after I had seen some
+Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away with him while I went
+round the ancient little town--it even has some Cyclopæan walls--with
+certain Yugoslavs, two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out
+to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently taken a less active
+form than that of his successor, for he had only been an Austrian subject,
+while the actual mayor--Dr. Tama[vs]kovi['c]--had served, until the end of
+the War, in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the events of 1885,
+they told me that this was the time when the Croatian national
+consciousness awoke, so that an insufficient number of people had remained
+either to support an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the number
+of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600), and might increase if
+ice-creams were handed round in all the schools. One of my companions
+happened to live in the house of Hektorovi['c], the sixteenth-century poet,
+and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful garden with its
+palms and shady paths and bathing tank, like that one in the Alcazar at
+Seville. Then we went on to the harbour where a number of the people were
+collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of military and naval
+officers and civilians, these latter being partly visitors from Istria and
+Zadar. Suddenly a woman, standing near me, threw her head back and cried:
+"Viva Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled her efforts. I
+should say that about thirty people were gathered round the major, shouting
+for Italy, and he was obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of
+persons who had different sentiments began to shout for Wilson, Yugoslavia
+and so forth. The carabinieri rushed among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs.
+Politeo, who was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and trampled on.
+The lawyers and the doctor with whom I had been walking were all three
+struck over the head or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (_La
+Dalmazia_ wrote that I had been filling their heads with idle tales.)
+Children were screaming. I saw another woman, hatless, being dragged off by
+a couple of carabinieri--and a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly
+ordered them to let her go--and they obeyed reluctantly. Four Dominican
+monks were next attacked--they had not taken part in the demonstration; it
+was enough for the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party.
+One of them, Father Rabadan--an elderly gentleman with gold spectacles--was
+thrown down, struck until his face was covered with blood, and then dragged
+off to prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers--one of these
+I saw in the act of loading his rifle--and the noise was tremendous. Here
+one would see a Yugoslav trying to tell one of the warriors that he had
+done nothing; then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey: one or
+two of the officers looked awkward--one or two actually looked exultant. As
+we steamed out of the harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were
+running along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over the
+stone walls--apparently it was a man-hunt. "There are places in Dalmatia,"
+Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier, had been saying in the _Temps_,[41]
+"where Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that in those
+circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization should prevail. Italy in
+her relations with other races has continued the traditions of ancient
+Rome.... It is their palpitating desire [_i.e._ that of Fiume, Sebenico,
+Zara, Traù, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of Italy."
+And on the next day a telegram was sent to Split from the unoccupied island
+of Bra['c], giving the names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and
+the name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father Rabadan and
+continued: "The carabinieri are still looking for Yugoslavs. On the
+occasion of the arrestment of the clerk Nikola Pavi[vc]i['c], the musket of
+an ardito went off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavi[vc]i['c]. Great
+terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later message, to the
+newspaper _Jadran_ at Split, said that twenty-eight persons had been
+arrested and imprisoned in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the
+neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated, and for the first
+day being given nothing to eat. Everyone felt surprise that among the
+arrested was a certain Mr. Vladimir Vrankovi['c], as he was one of those
+who had betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this clumsiness
+on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and, by command of Major
+Penatta, he was released. All those who could get away from Starigrad were
+taking refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking for the
+intervention of the Entente, as the people's life was being made
+intolerable, and for the reason that they would not trample under foot
+everything which they regard as holy. But, according to _La Dalmazia_, the
+indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference a vibrating
+telegram, which begged for immediate annexation to Italy, and protested
+against those who in an unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's
+beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled at Zadar and
+condemned to terms that varied from four to eight months--seven of the
+accused, including Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving the
+severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian population dispatched,
+later on, a telegram of thanks to the Paris Conference for having ordered
+Yugoslavia to guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be left
+in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial interests in
+Dalmatia; while the half million Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to
+annex were not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It would be
+ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great, Liberal Power.
+
+After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching Hvar, the
+capital of the island, that our further progress was impeded. The pale
+Commandant of sinister aspect, this time a naval officer, Lieut.
+Vincenzo Villa, showed us a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at
+Kor[vc]ula, which said that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of
+the inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little
+difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities, which he
+visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in the morning our cook, who
+went ashore to see what he could buy, was immediately arrested by the
+carabinieri, who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi
+citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the citizens of Rome
+were at loggerheads with the Vatican, arrested and disarmed all those
+adherents of the Papacy who showed their noses outside the Vatican's
+portals. Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant, who allowed
+him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri. After that we returned
+to Split, and from there to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.
+
+One would like to know what the Admiral would have said if this
+interview had taken place a few months later when, in alliance with
+Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in open, armed revolt against the Government
+of Italy. The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had
+not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he
+courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing
+which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went
+back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact
+he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These
+islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you
+know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the
+right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the
+population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since
+the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers
+and cheer the name of Wilson--in view of what these crimes entailed--we
+suggested that a small number, four or five of each party--those who
+desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy--should in
+succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
+if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the
+Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.
+
+
+THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR
+
+The subordinate Admiral, from Kor[vc]ula, had come across on a destroyer
+and was kind enough to tell us at considerable length what were his
+views on local and international affairs. He frankly appealed to us--and
+his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness--to survey the whole
+matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion. But we were less ambitious; we
+desired merely to be the mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first
+came on board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be considered
+unfair if I employ this word rather than "Italians" for a body of men,
+most of whom are admittedly devoid of any Italian blood and whose
+Italian sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers 9 per
+cent. of the population of the town. Their chief point seemed to be that
+the Church was opposed to them, because there was no room for
+clericalism in Italy (!); and the only other point worth mentioning was
+that Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had played havoc with
+their vines. Among the Yugoslavs who succeeded these gentlemen there was
+an elderly priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri--no doubt
+in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken herself free from
+clerical obscurantism--entered the church while the bishop was
+officiating, and hoisted on the roof an Italian flag. This canon, Dom
+Ivo Bojani['c], could scarcely be blamed if the Italian innovations did
+not appeal to him. He chanced to be looking out of his window on a
+moonlit night and noticed that an agile policeman was climbing up to his
+balcony for the purpose of decorating it with an Italian flag. The old
+gentleman protested, and was thereupon taken to the barracks, where he
+remained for one day. The Yugoslavs told us that the state of things was
+worse than in Africa--but that was a figure of speech; the facts were
+that the different societies and clubs had been closed, that all persons
+going down to the harbour had been forbidden to speak their own language
+to their friends on board ship, that three Croat teachers had fled to
+escape being interned, while an Italian soldier who did not know a word
+of Croatian had been appointed in their place.
+
+
+FOUR MEN OF KOMI[vZ]A
+
+When we departed from Hvar the Admiral sent his destroyer to accompany
+us on our tour. She had on board a Roman journalist, Signor Roberto
+Buonfiglio, who was travelling in Dalmatia and the islands on behalf of
+the clerical _Corriere d'Italia_. The situation at Vis, the historic
+palm-shaded capital of the island of the same name, has already been
+described. The Italian Commandant, Sportiello, was a tactful and popular
+person; moreover the Yugoslavs were on the best of terms with Dr. Doimi,
+the head of one of the very rare Italian families. At Komi[vz]a, the
+other little town on that island, the relations between Yugoslavs and
+Italianists were not so cordial. But the deputation which represented
+the latter party comprised one man whom the Austrians had put in gaol
+for several years for forgery; a father and son, of whom the one had
+sold himself for the sake of rice, while the other had also been
+imprisoned by the Austrians for uttering false documents; the fourth and
+most innocent member--his name happened to be Innocent Buliani--had
+nothing to conceal except his fickleness, for in a short period he had
+called himself an Austrian, a Yugoslav and an Italian. None of these
+four was a native of the place, whereas the Yugoslavs who came to see us
+were natives who had risen to be the chief doctor, lawyer, priest and
+merchant. One of the Italianists, Antonio Spadoni, told us that the
+people were afraid of expressing their real wishes for union with Italy.
+This hypothesis might seem to demand some elucidation, but Signor
+Spadoni insisted on passing on to the "Workers' Society," which the
+young Commandant had founded for the purpose, according to Spadoni, of
+helping the people to find work and of looking after their interests. We
+were subsequently told by the Yugoslavs that the Commandant himself
+called the members his "Rice Italians," for many of them did not speak
+the language and did not even sympathize with Italy. But on joining they
+had committed themselves to something that was printed at the top of the
+paper, which part had been turned over. It really doesn't sound very
+worthy of a Great Power. When some of the members, discovering to what
+they were committed, sent in their resignation, it was refused. At
+Komi[vz]a all the municipal officers had been discharged by the
+Italians, the reading-rooms and places of amusement had been closed, and
+the Food Administrator at Split was forbidden to send any food, lest he
+should interfere with the Italians' object in distributing rice, etc.
+Once he was permitted to forward some American flour, and the people had
+to pay forty crowns of duty on each hundredweight.
+
+
+THE WOMEN OF BI[vS]EVO
+
+From Komi[vz]a, the next morning, we steamed over on the destroyer to
+the wonderful blue grotto of Bi[vs]evo (or Busi), which surpasses Capri.
+An Austrian Archduke, we were told, had once waited a week at Komi[vz]a,
+but had been compelled to leave without seeing the cave. We were more
+fortunate--the wind, the water and the sun were kind to us; we entered
+in a rowing-boat the little pearl-grey Gothic chapel which Nature has
+constructed underneath a hill, and as we gazed into the blue-green
+waters, through which from the rocks below a fountain of most brilliant
+blue was rising, every time an oar was dipped the waters painted it a
+silvery white. The population of Bi[vs]evo consists of about 150 people,
+who mostly live around the little church of Saint Sylvester, two hundred
+feet above the sea. They occupy themselves with sheep and fruit and bees
+and fish, and with the vines that are even more famous than those of
+Vis. A good part of the population had assembled on a grassy platform
+high above the entrance to the cave, and as we climbed out of the
+rowing-boat on to the destroyer a much larger rowing-boat came round a
+promontory. Sixteen women formed the crew. They sang their national
+Croatian songs, and when they approached us some of them stood up and,
+while the wind played with their straw-coloured and golden hair, they
+laughingly threw flowers at us. As we left Bi[vs]evo the men and women
+high above us and the women in the boat were waving their hands; some of
+them were singing, others were shouting a farewell. Here and there on
+the sunlit waters, rising and falling, were the flowers which had woven
+on the sea a gorgeous carpet. "Well," said the lieutenant-commander, "I
+admit that this is a Yugoslav island."
+
+I forget whether Signor Buonfiglio made any remark, but a few hours
+later at Velaluka he was most incensed. As our boat--we had returned to
+the old _Porer_ at Komi[vz]a--sailed into the harbour a huge Yugoslav
+flag was flying from the summit of a hill, with French, British and
+American flags around it. The destroyer had arrived before us and the
+burly journalist was striding up and down the quay. "I protest," he
+exclaimed, as he saw us, "and not as a journalist but as an Italian
+citizen! I protest!" Between us and the front row of houses, which
+included the town-major's office, there was a large empty space--the
+inhabitants could be descried up the side-streets and behind the
+windows. De Michaelis, the town-major, was evidently a superior young
+man; as he poured out the champagne he told us with perfect frankness
+that the educated people at Velaluka were Yugoslavs. Suddenly there was
+a terrific noise just underneath us. We hurried downstairs and found
+that the soldiers in their excitement had fired off a machine gun into
+the wall. Half an hour later the firing could be heard from the top of
+the hill, but we never ascertained whether anyone was wounded. In this
+place the Italianist party sent to us an ex-publican who had now joined
+the police, a small trader and a municipal clerk who had recently been
+imported from Zadar. The Yugoslavs were a large landowner, a doctor and
+a priest, who told us that the people for the most part were refusing to
+accept gratuitous food from the Italians.
+
+
+ON THE WAY TO BLATO
+
+We were anxious to visit Blato, an inland village of 8000 inhabitants.
+De Michaelis regretted very much that he had no carriage, but a Yugoslav
+had a quaint little car on which he was learning how to drive and he was
+kind enough to take us--for which he was afterwards deported to Italy.
+The good man made so much noise in changing his gears that our progress
+was advertised in the uttermost fields, and very few of those who bore
+down upon us came unprovided with flowers. Several of the bouquets hit
+Pommerol or myself in the eye, and the Dutch say that the best cause has
+need of a good pleader. But the people were so gay, waving their hats
+and running after us (they did not always have to run) and shouting for
+the various Allies and for President Wilson. I remember two small
+round-eyed boys who were not old enough to run; they were standing hand
+in hand by the side of the road, panting the magic word "Wilson! Wilson!
+Wilson!" There was a sudden contrast when we jerked into the village.
+People were not rushing towards us, but away from us--with furious
+carabinieri behind them. We got into the garden in front of the
+_gendarmerie_; one of the men was so enraged that he kept on muttering
+"Bestia! Bestia! Bestia!" In the Commandant's office we met Major
+Federico Verdinois, the town-major, who said that if he had only known
+of our coming this wretched scuffle would not have happened. Even as he
+spoke it started again; we leaned out of the window and saw two or three
+persons who were being prevented by soldiers from going down the street
+or from going anywhere. An officer was slashing with a riding-whip at a
+soldier who was particularly rough. "One can do nothing with the
+marines; they are brutal," said Major Verdinois. At last there was
+peace, and the major said that an Italian deputation would come to see
+us. It consisted of six individuals. The Austro-Hungarian census of 1910
+said that the Blato district contained 13,147 Serbo-Croats, 3 Germans
+and 6 Italians; but these six were not all in the deputation, for two of
+its members had come from Hvar, one from Zadar, two were ex-Austrian
+spies and one was a Yugoslav, who hoped in this way to help his people.
+One gentleman deplored that he had not been told about our journey; had
+he known he would have told his peasants to appear. Another gentleman
+assured us that the peasants were afraid of declaring their real wishes.
+Of course a country whose friends call it the most liberal in the world
+could not allow such a state of things to continue, and a short time
+after this the following Order was issued by the staff of the 66th
+Division of Infantry:
+
+
+No. 46. Confidential--Personal. VERY URGENT.
+
+_June_ 23, 1919.
+
+TO THE COMMANDERS AT BENKOVAC, OBROVAC,
+NOVIGRAD, ERVENIK, KISTANJE, SKRADIN,
+BIOGRAD, NIN, GJEVERSKE, SUKO[VS]AN AND
+KARIN.
+
+TO THE COMMAND OF THE ROYAL DIVISIONS.
+
+It is necessary to bring about, with no delay and very discreetly, the
+dispatch of messages to the Prime Minister Nitti and to the Minister of
+Foreign Affairs Tittoni from the mayor, from societies, etc., of this
+garrison, expressing the people's keen desire to be annexed to Italy.
+
+A copy of said telegram should be transmitted to me.
+
+THE MAJOR:     THE MAJOR-GENERAL:
+   FORESI.             SQUILLACE.
+
+
+To return to the events at Blato--while we were waiting for the
+Yugoslavs a woman made her way as far as the corridor, flung herself
+down on her knees and entreated us to protect her. Major Verdinois gave
+us his word of honour that no Yugoslav with whom we spoke would, for
+that reason, be arrested. Perhaps he was overruled by his superior
+officers--at all events he arrested and deported to Italy, in the night
+of June 19, no less than ten persons, that is, all the Yugoslavs who
+spoke to us at Blato, with two exceptions. [We cabled this to the Paris
+Conference, and after some delay the unfortunate men were repatriated.]
+
+
+WHAT THE MAJOR SAID
+
+For what happened before our arrival I am indebted to the chemist
+Radimiri, from whose report the following is an extract: "At ten in the
+morning Major Verdinois had summoned to his office the communal doctor,
+Moretti, and the secretary, Draguni['c], both of them Yugoslavs. He told
+them that two Englishmen who were cruising about in the _Porer_ would
+very likely be coming up that afternoon to Blato and he would permit no
+sort of demonstration. The doctor, he said, would be held responsible
+for any disorder; and as Moretti was about to make this known to the
+people, who were just coming out of church, the Italian adjutant
+approached him with a paper and ordered him to read it to the Yugoslavs.
+This document--it has been preserved--is in the Serbo-Croat language and
+was given to the doctor because the adjutant, who did not know the
+language, mistook it for another one. It was an exhortation to the
+people, urging them to have nothing more to do with the Yugoslav
+_intelligentsia_, which had made a great deal of money during the War.
+'And you have given your blood for four and a half years and what has
+been your benefit?' Dr. Moretti made a personal appeal for the
+maintenance of order, and the people, having called out 'Long live
+Wilson!' went their divers ways in peace. Nevertheless three platoons
+appeared, each with one officer and one N.C.O. The adjutant's platoon
+distinguished itself, for while the arditi attacked anyone they saw,
+including women and children, with the butt end of their muskets, Lieut.
+Giovanoni laid about him with a dog-whip. Several of the soldiers made
+for a group of four young fellows; three of them escaped and the fourth,
+Peter Kraljevi['c], was struck with a rifle so severely across the face
+that he was bathed in blood. As he tried to defend himself he was shot
+at from a distance of three paces: one bullet went through his nose,
+another wounded him in the forehead. He fell to the ground, and a
+teacher, Mrs. Maria Grubisi['c], who had witnessed the whole incident,
+sank down unconscious at his side and was covered with his blood.
+Various other people were injured--three little girls received rifle
+shots in their bodies. All the main streets were shut off and eight
+machine guns were placed in readiness. But the people were not to be
+intimidated, and when the Englishmen arrived their national
+consciousness was displayed. As a result Peter [vC]arap was knocked
+unconscious with a mighty blow of a musket, the fourteen-year-old Joseph
+Sule[vz]i['c] had a similar experience, and among many others who were
+assaulted we will only mention an ex-official, Anthony Pi[vz]tuli['c], a
+man of sixty, who was struck twice with a rifle on his stomach and then
+prevented from going home but chased out into the fields.... It seemed
+as if it would be impossible for our people to have a conversation with
+the Englishmen, but at last twenty men and twelve girls managed to reach
+that house...."
+
+
+THE PROTEST OF AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST
+
+I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from this island--it
+appeared in the _Corriere d'Italia_ of June 16--but more than
+three-quarters of it is devoted to an account of some Dalmatian
+delegates who were received, during the War, by Francis Joseph and
+expressed their loyalty. The deputation was introduced by Dr.
+Iv[vc]evi['c], a Croat; and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from
+this how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will have to give
+some other explanation for the very loyal speeches of his countryman,
+Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But I presume that his editor did not send Signor
+Buonfiglio on this journey to the end that he should write of what
+official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for the incidents we
+witnessed and the islanders' aspirations, he merely says that their
+welcome to us was an artificial affair which the Yugoslav committees,
+with extreme effort, had organized--and I don't think that that is a
+very illuminating observation.
+
+We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians dissolved the town
+council, on account of its incapacity to do the work. However, a
+military man to whom it was handed over gave his opinion that he had
+never seen a better administration.... Out of all that we were told, I
+will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were playing football,
+and when they kicked the ball into a maize-field and continued to play
+amid the maize, the farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty
+men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and when finally the
+major commanded them to stop, they dragged them to the barracks and
+thrashed them so that the people in adjacent houses heard them all the
+night.
+
+On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where the _Porer_ was
+waiting for us, we had a repetition of the scenes enacted between
+Velaluka and Blato; and a number of young men, heedless of the risks
+they ran, rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts.
+In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as our escorting
+destroyer. We therefore had to leave without delay, lest the young
+patriots should come into contact with the carabinieri. So very hastily
+and in a very illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on
+November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of Velaluka: "We
+Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka as the friends of Yugoslavia
+and of the Entente. We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such
+I ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together with that of
+Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent we will keep it there until
+the question of the general peace is definitely arranged, according to
+your and our ... according to the principles of ..." The two missing
+words are illegible.
+
+
+INTERESTING DELEGATES
+
+Lying off Kor[vc]ula, that evening, we received the usual delegates. One
+of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a trembling, tearful voice that
+the Italians were far too good. And while we were hearing from one of
+his colleagues what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr.
+Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come! I wish I had not
+come!" He considered that it was outrageous of us to allude to
+plebiscites. The Yugoslavs did not tell us anything very thrilling; the
+Italian authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian, of
+which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity that this is not
+their most serious fault! A barrister called Dr. Pero Cvili[vc]evi['c]
+came, with a companion, to see us the next day, before breakfast. He
+said that they, like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and
+his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was, he said, a
+righteous, though rather a small party, as the island had been gravely
+handicapped by the support which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he
+added--it seemed a trifle illogical--"the people are all very contented.
+Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered the information that
+the law was being administered in the name of the Entente and the United
+States. It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we asked
+him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets were being applied
+under the same sanction.... When we paid our formal visit to the
+Commandant at his office on the quay he did not ask if we would care to
+go to one of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made a
+speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken to a school at
+Kor[vc]ula, how the mistress had allowed him to ask the children if they
+knew Italian, how they had raised their hands, and how this had
+convinced him that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that
+journalist had not been told that prior to the War this town of some
+2000 inhabitants was provided with five schools in which not a single
+child spoke Italian, and with one school subsidized by the Liga
+Nazionale which--as in Albania--lured its pupils by gifts of clothing,
+books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not a word of
+Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of Italian. But not very much
+harm was done, as the population considered it shameful to attend this
+school, and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than thirty
+pupils, even when money was paid to the parents. This institution was
+reopened by the Italian army after the War, and presumably it is the one
+which the American visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress,
+forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat that a
+gentleman would come and say something in Italian, whereupon they would
+hold up their hands.
+
+
+A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR EVANS
+
+Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these months, had not been
+solved but on the contrary had been allowed to spread its poison more
+and more, one naturally wonders what was being done in Paris. The
+Conference was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the
+Armistice, the famous ethnologist and archæologist Sir Arthur Evans.
+This gentleman, whose distinctions are too numerous to mention (Fellow
+of Brasenose; twice President of the British Association; Keeper during
+twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; D.Litt.; LL.D.;
+F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many years devoted himself to the
+eastern Adriatic--the second edition of his _Through Bosnia and the
+Herzegovina on Foot_ appeared in 1877, his _Illyrian Letters_ in 1878,
+his _Slavs and European Civilization_ in the same year. He never ceased
+from that time onward to study these matters. "I think," he says in a
+letter to me from Youlbury, near Oxford, of which he kindly permits me
+to make any use I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak on
+the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman, as Dalmatia was my
+headquarters for some years. Neither did I approach the question with
+any anti-Italian prejudices. I was so far recognized as a competent and
+moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal Geographical Society to
+give them a paper on the subject.... Anxious, with others friendly to
+both sides, to secure an equitable agreement between the Italians and
+Yugoslavs, I took part in a series of private conferences in London
+which led to a preliminary Agreement forming the basis on which the
+Congress at Rome approached the question. There the Agreement was
+ratified and publicly approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try
+to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the Armistice, as it
+happened) there was to have been a new Congress of Nationalities at
+Paris, which I was asked to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as
+matters were thought too critical, owing to the submission of Bulgaria.
+But I thought it would be useful if I went to Paris all the same, and I
+obtained from the Foreign Office, War Office, etc., a passport viséd
+'British War Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice
+was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure of Mr. Steed and
+Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally no one among our countrymen
+at Paris who knew the intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the
+relations of Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian
+difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked me to be his
+go-between, and I had an immense lot of work thrown on my shoulders. I
+had gone to the expense of taking a large salon at the Hotel
+Continental, where I had private Conferences--the Yugoslav and Roumanian
+leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier question, and
+the conciliatory proposals made no doubt furthered the final solution,
+with which they harmonized. When there was a serious danger of a clash
+between the Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing
+the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations to Lord
+D., which he forwarded to Balfour, that immediate pressure was exercised
+at Rome, and the Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to
+convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to let our Ambassador
+have a short précis almost daily of affairs connected with those
+regions.... With great trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav
+representatives to agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the
+neutralization of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken
+up by the Americans--Colonel House inviting me to an interview on the
+subject, in which he expressed his approval. A copy was also sent to the
+F.O., and for this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O.
+I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many friendly
+conversations with prominent Italians in Paris, and in every way
+ingeminated agreement between them and the Southern Slavs. But,
+meanwhile, I exposed the Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino
+was privy, in the _Manchester Guardian_. Finally I went, at the end of
+1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord Derby (with whom I always had
+the friendliest relations) giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however,
+early in January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had kept on
+my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my way. Italian intrigue had
+apparently been on foot. I was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I
+told him briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered or
+acknowledged my letter, and it was only by making urgent personal
+representations at the F.O. that I finally got the answer that they
+refused me a passport.... I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue
+but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.' And so they
+blundered on, and to this day"--the letter is dated July 17,
+1920--"nothing is settled on the Adriatic but unsettlement."
+
+
+THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO
+
+Meanwhile at intervals during this year there had been troubles in
+Montenegro. On three occasions the Italians at Antivari had endeavoured
+to extend their sphere of influence, but the armed civilian population
+had been equal to these emergencies and had each time thrust them back
+to the coast. At Gaeta, between Rome and Naples, a very well-paid corps
+was stationed--almost every man was either a commissioned or a
+non-commissioned officer. The Italian Government was asked by Signor
+Lazari, the Socialist deputy, for what purpose it allocated 300,000 lire
+a month to support these peculiar troops. They were mostly
+Montenegrins--relatives of Nikita, members of the five favoured
+families, persons who were stranded and so forth; likewise at Gaeta were
+a number of other Yugoslavs who had been liberated from their Italian
+internment camps, but many of them, when they discovered what was
+expected of them, revolted. Thirty or forty of them managed to escape to
+France, and others to Montenegro, as for example the man who for twelve
+years had been Nikita's porter. He and three others reached Cetinje one
+day in August 1920 when I was there. They had with them a picture-card
+of the sixty-nine officers of the Gaeta army. Every one knows every one
+else in Montenegro and only two of these officers had held a previous
+commission. According to Nikita's Premier, Jovan Plamenac, the Italian
+Government considered this as the Montenegrin army and regarded (rather
+optimistically) as a loan the money it contributed to keep it up. In
+driblets the non-revolting part of this Gaeta army was taken to the
+eastern shores of the Adriatic, for the purpose of making "incidents" in
+Montenegro. There was a regular scale--so much in cash for the murder of
+a prefect, so much for a deputy. One day the father of Andrija
+Radovi['c], a man of over seventy, was cut down; they waited until
+everyone had left the village to go to some fête in a neighbouring
+village, and the old man defended himself to the last.
+
+These emissaries from Gaeta, misguided Montenegrins, other Southern
+Slavs and Italians, made considerable use of the mischievous speeches
+that were sometimes heard in the British Parliament. They would explain
+to some poor, ignorant mountain-dweller that such great people in
+England were still discussing Nikita's return, and if he did return and
+they had listened to the voice of Radovi['c], woe be to them. Some of
+these wretched dupes would follow their seducers, who--I have no
+doubt--would not only have declined his decorations if they had been
+better informed, but would have placed the matter in the hands of their
+solicitor, as Gabriel Rossetti threatened to do if he were ever elected
+to the Royal Academy. And yet, after the character of the scoundrel King
+was fully exposed, his advocates, so far as I know, had not the grace to
+own their error. Of course there was in Montenegro a certain amount of
+uninstigated unrest; the wine of politics, which they were now for the
+first time freely quaffing, had gone to their heads--it was youth
+against age, the students were enthusiastic Democrats, the peasants were
+sturdy Radicals and they did not always restrict themselves to
+dialectical arguments. A certain number of people had gone to live "u
+shumi"--"in the woods." But the reasons that impelled them were not so
+much their devotion to the ex-King, as their own criminal past or their
+poverty. Others again had taken to this life for what may be called
+reasons of "honour."[42] Among the brigands was a man who was captured
+on the borders of Herzegovina, and before his execution--he had murdered
+seven people--he declared that he was a patriot and had done all this
+for the sake of King Nicholas, his victims being members of the
+domineering party. But when reminded that one of them was a baby, he
+hung his head and said no more.... There was discontent produced by the
+high cost of living--as the Italians not only held Antivari but even
+fired on French boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana, it
+was necessary to revictual all except the new parts of Montenegro from
+Kotor. The lack of petrol, from which even the American Red Cross units
+were suffering, compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons,
+which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it was the staff of
+another mission, calling itself the International Red Cross, which was
+to blame for adding to the country's troubles; after they had been
+installed for a month or two at Cetinje the people themselves, and not
+the authorities, turned them out, on the ground that they had used the
+Red Cross to conceal their machinations in Nikita's interest. The
+Yugoslav Government was held up to reprobation in the British Parliament
+and press for having hampered more than one British mission in the work
+of relieving the Montenegrins. The resources of these missions appeared
+to be moderate--the head of one of them had a meeting with Colonels
+Fairclough and Anderson of the American Red Cross and suggested that
+they should provide him with the wherewithal for carrying on. But even
+if their resources had been scantier their co-operation would have been
+very welcome if they had satisfied the authorities that they were as
+non-political as the Americans. It was curious that those who in the
+British press ventilated the grievances of these missions were the same
+people who championed Nikita.
+
+The Italians persevered in their manoeuvres--Nikola Kova[vc]evi['c],
+the police commissary of Grahovo, sent in the month of May a
+confidential man of his to the Italian General at Dobrota, near Kotor.
+This man, who speaks perfect Italian, told the General that ever since
+1916 he had haunted the forests as the leader of a band. Fifty persons,
+he said, had attached themselves to him; and he had now come in for a
+supply of arms and money, also for instructions. It would be impossible,
+said he, to endure the Serbian troops much longer in the country.
+
+
+ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS
+
+"You must hold out for a couple of months longer," said the General. "I
+can give you no money at present, but I can take you on a steamer to San
+Giovanni, where we have a camp of the King's friends; and from there you
+can easily go to Italy."
+
+"I have given my word of honour," said the man, "that I will not go
+without my people. So I must first of all go back to ask them."
+
+"In a military way," said the General, "the Serbs can now do nothing.
+They had tremendous losses in the war; and in two months the King of
+Montenegro will return or else there will be an Italian occupation. Work
+hard, my friend. I want you, in the first place, to set houses on fire;
+then to shoot officers and officials who are for Yugoslavia. You should
+also rob the transports."
+
+Thereupon the man returned to Grahovo and soon afterwards the French
+General Thaon, who happened to go there, spoke with him for two hours
+and invited him to his headquarters at Kotor.
+
+The disturbances in Montenegro did not cease; a country through which
+you could formerly drive with less risk than in Paris, was now infested
+by outlaws and those who pursued them. And Count de Salis, who had
+served as H.B.M.'s Minister at Cetinje, was sent back to Montenegro on a
+mission of inquiry. His report was not published, for the reason that he
+did not beat about the bush in his references to the Italians and for
+the further reason that he gave the names of those persons from whom he
+culled his information. This was a fine opportunity for the foreign
+busybodies who were thrusting their silly little knives into Yugoslavia.
+"Count de Salis reports clearly and unmistakably," said Mr. Ronald
+M'Neill in the House of Commons, "that in his judgment the wish of the
+Montenegrin people is to retain their own sovereign and their own
+independence." When Sir Hamar Greenwood subsequently, speaking for the
+Government, threw out a hint that this was not the case, it was amusing
+to see how the pro-Nikita party lost their interest in the report. A
+certain Mr. Herbert Vivian sent from Italy in April 1920 a most
+ferocious indictment against the Serbs in Montenegro to a London paper
+called the _British Citizen_. He said that the Countess de Salis, while
+at Cetinje, was in danger of her life. But the lady has been dead for
+many years. I presume this is the same Mr. Vivian who in a book,
+_Servia, the Poor Man's Paradise_, trembles with rage whenever a Serb
+speaks admiringly of Gladstone.
+
+
+VARIOUS BRITISH COMMENTATORS
+
+Count de Salis's impartial methods did not always please the population,
+which was by a large majority against the former king's return and--as
+he clearly stated--heart and soul for Yugoslavia. Balkan people do not
+yet, to any great extent, appreciate your desire for truth or even your
+honesty if you should give a hearing to their antagonists. The Cetinje
+public, therefore, organized a demonstration or two against the Count.
+They would have preferred that he should reach the afore-mentioned
+conclusions without such an exhaustive study of the case. He noted that
+there had been certain irregularities in the Yugoslav administration,
+but it was inevitable that in those unsettled times the inexperienced
+officials would not prove equal to every emergency. These officials, by
+the way, in 1919 were not Serbs from Serbia, but for the most part
+native Montenegrins. "The country is occupied and administered by
+foreigners," said[43] Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P. "Montenegro," said he,
+"is full of Serb officials." I suppose one must receive it more with
+sorrow than with anger if a man like Mr. Massingham of _The Nation_
+says that the Serbs "have deposed the Montenegrin judges, schoolmasters,
+doctors, chemists and local officials, and set up their own puppets."
+While he might have assumed that the long years of War had left the
+Serbs with a very inadequate supply of officials for the old kingdom, he
+would have ascertained, if his sources had been more trustworthy, that
+Gloma[vz]i['c], the very human prefect of Cetinje, is a native of
+Nik[vs]i['c], that Milo[vs] Ivanovi['c], the mayor, is from the Ku[vc]i,
+near Podgorica--and he was a magistrate under Nikita; that Bojovi['c],
+the prefect of Podgorica, is a barrister of the Piperi, while
+Radoni['c], the mayor, was an artillery officer, then a political
+prisoner and then the food administrator under Nikita; that
+Jaoukovi['c], the prefect of Nik[vs]i['c], was a magistrate under the
+old régime--he comes, I believe, from the Mora[vc]a; Zerovi['c], the
+mayor and an ex-magistrate, is a native of Nik[vs]i['c]; that the
+prefect of Antivari, Dr. Goini['c], is a doctor of law whose home is
+between Antivari and Virpazar; that Bo[vs]ko Bo[vs]kovi['c], the prefect
+of Kola[vc]in, won great fame as an officer under Nikita, while
+Mini['c], the mayor, was Nikita's chief of the Custom-house. As for the
+doctors who left the country, these consisted of Matanovi['c] and
+Vulanovi['c], who have gone to Novi Sad and Subotica respectively, as it
+is easier to make a living in those towns than in Montenegro. There are
+now three Yugoslav doctors at Cetinje (Odgerovi['c], Radovi['c]--both of
+whom were doctors in the time of Nikita--and Matanovi['c], a young man);
+they are all Montenegrins. So, too, with the chemists and the
+schoolmasters and the post and telegraph officials--I am sure that Mr.
+Massingham will excuse me if I do not mention all their names.
+
+Since there are quite a number of Montenegrins in the Serbian
+administration and army, all the officers and men, for example, of the
+2nd--the so-called "iron"--Regiment being of Montenegrin origin, one
+fails to see for what reason a Serb should be debarred from posts in
+Montenegro. It is unfortunate when people use the word "Montenegrin"
+without knowing that there is no separate Montenegrin nation, in the
+sense that there is a French or Italian nation. The Montenegrins are a
+small section of the Serbian nation, which sought a refuge among the
+bare, precipitous mountains and, unlike the other Serbs, maintained its
+independence. One should, therefore, to avoid confusion, speak of Serbs
+of Serbia and Serbs of Montenegro rather than of Serbs and Montenegrins.
+The purest Serbian is spoken in western Montenegro, on the borders of
+Herzegovina; those districts are ethnically different from the southern
+region, centring round Cetinje, which is the real old Montenegro, and
+the north and north-eastern parts, called the Brda, which in speech and
+customs are akin to the south. In western Montenegro, as in Herzegovina,
+the people, who live among their mountains on milk and its products, are
+very prolific, having families of eight or ten children. They are a very
+healthy, moral race.
+
+Another pro-Nikita, anti-Serbian writer, excusable only on account of
+his insignificance, is Mr. Devine, who teaches, I am told, at a school
+near Winchester and seems very unwilling to be taught. If he wishes, by
+producing a book on the subject, to show other people that he knows
+painfully little about Montenegro, that is his own affair. But he is
+just as ignorant with regard to his hero. He says that he "is in a
+position to state that there is not one single word of truth in the
+insinuations and charges impugning the absolute integrity and loyalty of
+King Nicholas towards his Allies." The King was, according to Mr.
+Devine, a defenceless old man whom it was very bad form to attack. But
+the King had been defending himself at considerable length not only in a
+harangue to his adherents in a Paris suburb, but also on various
+occasions in a newspaper, the _Journal Officiel_--and both the speech
+and long extracts from the newspaper are quoted, with approval, in Mr.
+Devine's book. This quaint person is so frantically keen to pour
+whitewash over Nikita that he has no time to listen to the main
+treacheries of Nikita's career. "Malicious falsehoods!" he
+splutters--and they can be traced to horrible pan-Serbians. He has
+reason to believe that they wish to make Serbia the Prussia of the new
+Federation; well, the Croats and the Slovenes and the Bosniaks and all
+the others cannot say that Mr. Devine has not warned them. My
+Montenegrin friend Mr. Buri['c] stated in the columns of the _Saturday
+Review_ that this odd gentleman had nourished the ambition of becoming
+Montenegrin Minister to the Court of St. James, but that the plan did
+not succeed. I never saw Mr. Devine's denial--perhaps it fell into the
+clutches of a ruthless pan-Serbian printer. Naturally, Mr. Devine would
+not care to be the diplomatic representative of a villain; therefore,
+when he is brought face to face with certain definite charges he
+persists in replying "not in detail, but from the broad point of view."
+He is so exceedingly broad that when an accusation is levelled against
+the King he sees in this an accusation against the entire country--a
+country which unfortunately, as he says, "alone of all the Allies has no
+diplomatic representative in this country." Mr. Devine continues
+unabashed to repeat and repeat his pro-Nikita stuff in various
+newspapers. "Il y debvroit avoir," says Montaigne, "quelque corection
+des loix contre les escrivains ineptes et inutiles, comme il y a contre
+les vagabonds et fainéants...." Not long ago I happened to see that this
+egregious person described himself as "Hon. Minister Plenipotentiary for
+Montenegro," but another gentleman, Sir Roper Parkington, a pompous
+wine-merchant, announced in the Press that he had become "Minister
+(Hon.) of Montenegro." Perhaps one of them has resigned, and our poor
+overworked Foreign Office will not be invited to decide between a
+Minister (Hon.) and an Hon. Minister.
+
+
+THE MURDER OF MILETI['C]
+
+The Italians' stay at Kotor was drawing to an end. "We have no
+aggressive intentions," said Signor Scialoja, the Foreign Minister, "and
+we shall be glad if we are able to establish with our neighbours on the
+other side of the Adriatic those amicable relations"--and so forth and
+so forth. This he said on December 21, but if the Government was imbued
+with the same principles in August it is unfortunate that it omitted to
+instruct the responsible officers in Dalmatia. The Yugoslav commander,
+Lieut.-Colonel Risti['c], heard one night that the Italian General at
+Dobrota was harbouring at his residence no less than twenty-one
+Montenegrin pro-Nikita komitadjis. They were clad in Italian uniforms,
+and, as a torpedo-boat and a motor-launch were always kept with steam
+up, could be shipped off at a moment's notice to Italy. Colonel
+Risti['c] sent his adjutant to make inquiries, and the Italians gave
+their word of honour that no Montenegrins were in the house. In order to
+avoid a conflict Colonel Risti['c] then requested the French General to
+send an officer; but this gentleman was not received by the Italians.
+Four or five Montenegrins, with an Italian lieutenant, came out of the
+house and fired at the twenty gendarmes who now encircled it. The fire
+was returned--all the Montenegrins and the Italian were killed. After
+this the French police disarmed the remaining Montenegrins and
+imprisoned them; and on the following day, much to his chagrin, the
+Italian General was told to take up other quarters at Mula, so that he
+was separated by the French and the Yugoslavs from Montenegrin
+territory.... Not long after this a certain Captain Mileti['c] was
+cycling late one afternoon on the road to Mula. Five or six Italian
+soldiers lay concealed, and so expertly did they murder him that his
+friends who were cycling a hundred paces ahead and other friends who
+were fishing very near the spot in a boat heard nothing whatsoever. It
+was eight days after this when the Italians had to go from Kotor and the
+neighbourhood.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO RIEKA
+
+The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The more suave Tittoni,
+who had succeeded Sonnino, was hoping with the help of France to hold
+his own against Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with a
+large strip of hinterland should become a separate independent State
+under the League of Nations. An arrangement was also proposed by which
+the city was to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
+have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations were still in
+a nebulous state, but certain proposals were going to be put into force
+which were suggested by the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With
+French, American, Italian and British representatives this commission
+had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations was to the effect that
+public order should be maintained by British and American police; on the
+very day (September 12) that the British military police were to
+inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took matters into his own
+hands. He rose, he tells us, from a bed of fever and, refusing to
+recognize the Nitti Government, he marched with the appropriate
+theatrical ceremonies, into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he called
+the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the _Santa Entrata_--the
+Holy Entry--was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of blood.
+Rieka, the stage of many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the
+quaintest in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of a
+General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command of the town and a
+rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to recognize his authority. They seemed
+to be on the best of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
+that he was still in supreme command. Being invited on the following
+morning to explain the situation at a conference on board the U.S.S.
+_Pittsburg_, at which were present the Allied naval and military
+commanders, General Pittaluga informed them that he would be responsible
+for the maintenance of order and that nothing was to be considered
+altered in the government of the town. Forty minutes later, without
+consulting the Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
+himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent message to
+the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing for the Allied occupation of
+Constantinople, d'Annunzio's Foreign Department informed him that "the
+Legionaries of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
+police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the tortured city."
+Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate was at that time acting in
+collusion with Rome--his defiance and their thunders being included in
+the stage directions--or whether he was a real rebel. We may assume that
+Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer and that if officers and
+civil servants diverted Government cargoes into his hands they were not
+acting as Government agents. As for large numbers of these officials,
+their secret understanding with d'Annunzio received many proofs. On
+September 29 the _Era Nuova_ reported that, two days before, Major
+Reina, d'Annunzio's Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had
+an interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps. Illuminating
+also is the report, in the _Era Nuova_ of October 27, of a test case at
+Genoa, when a sergeant was tried for leaving his regiment and going to
+Rieka. The prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
+The court accepted the plea of the defence, which was that the court
+could not condemn or dishonour a soldier who was only guilty of
+patriotic sentiment. Moreover, it transpired that those who returned
+from Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties, were
+granted three weeks' leave and a reward of 100 lire. One observed that
+when the S.S. _Danubio_ left [vS]ibenik for Rieka with sixty
+waggon-loads of coal, the captain received his sailing orders from the
+Royal Italian port-officer. When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on
+that same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by Vice-Admiral
+Millo, who was supposed to be governing Dalmatia in the name of the
+Entente.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which
+had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be
+joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
+regardless of that which happened to the mediæval one. The C.N.I. could
+now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of
+or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of
+issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a
+thousand. He did a great many other things--he ruined, for instance, the
+economic life of the town. Everything had for a time gone swimmingly.
+The Chief of the Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of
+numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great Italian patriot.
+Such was the feeling of the majority of the army and navy, so that the
+Government in Rome was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am
+telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent of the
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_. "I have received a call from a superior hidden
+force, and though the fever burns within me I am consoled, because the
+War has made me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this
+mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have anything to do with
+the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported by the Parliament and the more
+responsible people, was openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly
+by the profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold taxation
+programme, by which he hoped to bring 30 milliards of francs into the
+Exchequer. The Nationalists assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army;
+and in northern Italy there were many who realized that an army which
+can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day, rally to
+Bol[vs]evism. No other troops remained in Rieka, the small French and
+British detachments having been withdrawn. Before this happened there
+occurred a repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French
+soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors who greatly
+outnumbered them. Some of the French were Annamites, than whom no more
+harmless persons can be imagined.[44] And it was in order to avoid such
+untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were evacuated.
+D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka was one of the problems which
+the Peace Conference had failed to solve, and now they were in much the
+same inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned Turkey
+not to mobilize, since they would not allow the Balkan Confederation to
+make an attack, and after the attack gave it out that the Balkan States
+would not be permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme Council
+in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A little patience,"
+begged Tittoni, "and my Government will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we
+want," exclaimed Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"--and the
+Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it was not Italy
+which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which wanted Italy. They would do their
+best, although so many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would
+sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his
+administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether distasteful
+to certain intriguers who were interested in the future of Triest. There
+might also arise, to the satisfaction, of other intriguers, an armed
+conflict with the Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the
+Yugoslavs' attitude. Perhaps these barbarians--as they are often styled
+in Italy--were confident that justice would prevail. Perhaps they
+thought that they could bide their time, and certainly what happened at
+Trogir was not calculated to reassure the Italians.
+
+
+THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR
+
+The little, ancient town of Trogir lay some twelve miles to the south of
+the demarcation line. Its inhabitants, with the exception of five
+Italophil families, are Yugoslav; and in the month of September 1919 the
+Yugoslav army was represented by eight men. Truth compels us to mention
+that on a certain night these men, instead of doing patrol duty, were
+sleeping off the effects of a carouse; and when the townsfolk looked out
+of their windows in the morning they saw machine guns and Italian
+soldiers. At 4 a.m. they had crept into the town with the help of a
+certain Conte Nino di Fanfogna, who had assembled a National Guard of
+thirty peasants, the employees of those five families. Conte Nino was
+striding to and fro; he muttered threats of death. Some of the chief
+men, such as Dr. Marin Katalini['c], Dr. Peter Sentinella and others,
+came together and were at a loss for some effective means to chase out
+the Italians, since they had not even a revolver. An American boat
+appeared, but the captain, when appealed to, said that he was only
+cruising and could not come ashore. In the town hall Count Nino,
+labouring under some excitement, dismissed the mayor; and when Ferri,
+the mayor, told him to go about his business, he protested that he was
+the dictator and would, if necessary, use force. Outside in the square
+the Italians and the people stood face to face, and suddenly a few
+Yugoslav flags were fluttering, and then an old man, Dr. Sentinella's
+father, climbed up to the place in the town hall where the Italian flag
+had been hoisted. He tore it down. The soldiers were for shooting him,
+but the people began pulling the rifles out of their hands. Other
+soldiers, full of apprehension, dropped their rifles; the people picked
+them up, and those who were unacquainted with the mechanism cried out
+certain awe-inspiring sounds. Women and children--I fear this will not
+be believed; it is none the less true--women and children removed some
+of the men's helmets, and one group of children turned a helmet into a
+football. "I am a father of a family!" cried a soldier. "I am innocent,
+I have been deceived!" cried another. "O, Mama mia!" cried a third. They
+wept, they bolted into the courtyards, and the women showed them little
+mercy, for they tore off the men's belts and even struck them with their
+fists. A Mrs. Sunjara routed four men and went home with their machine
+gun on her back. In a few minutes the square was free of soldiers, and
+forty rifles were stacked in the town hall. Fifty soldiers on the quay
+were dealt with by a butcher who started firing at them; when they heard
+the shouts of the approaching crowd they threw down their weapons and
+fled. Two large motors escaped; the third was intercepted at the bridge,
+and although young Sentinella, who ordered them to stop, had forgotten
+his own rifle, they all--thirteen men and two officers--threw theirs
+away. It was suggested that the running soldiers should be pursued.
+"No," said an old man, "for we would kill them all. Let them rather go
+back without arms or helmets. It will frighten the others." ... Two
+hours later a party of Serbian soldiers arrived, but they were not
+needed, save for the protection of those who had thrown in their lot
+with the Italians. From Split, a few miles away, 1500 volunteers, who
+speedily assembled, came with knives or agricultural implements or any
+other weapon. "The Yugoslavs must realize," said Nitti, "that it is to
+their interest to maintain sincere relations of friendship with Italy."
+
+
+THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR MINORITIES
+
+The Yugoslav Government--as if it had not sufficient problems to
+solve--was ordered now by the Peace Conference to accept sundry
+regulations as to the rights of minorities, the transit of goods, and an
+equitable régime for international commerce. The other States which had
+inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them, faced with the same
+demands; and they objected that to sign such Articles was inconsistent
+with their sovereignty. The most onerous item--relating to the racial
+and religious minorities--had been imposed--at America's instance, owing
+to the manner in which the Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King
+Charles' promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller number of
+Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned only for the principle of
+independence. Not having persecuted the Jews they resented having to
+undertake that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit. "I
+will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the Orthodox Bishop of
+Ver[vs]ac to a deputation of Jews, when he made his formal entry into
+the town of Pan[vc]evo. And when they stared at him, "It is not
+tolerance that I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition
+in the Yugoslav Skup[vs]tina might have exhibited more kindliness in its
+attitude towards the Government and have refrained from rousing a storm
+against the signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government and the
+Opposition being practically of equal strength, the Ministers, who in a
+calm atmosphere could have explained the realities of the situation,
+found themselves at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that
+they would be assuming obligations which they had assumed already. In
+Macedonia, as any traveller could see, the time-honoured custom of
+persecuting him who happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the
+authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference between
+themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the difference consisted in
+praying for the Exarch instead of the Patriarch in the liturgy there was
+not the slightest persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to
+become Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new spirit which
+informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the Bulgarian army, afterwards
+came back to Macedonia. Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian
+Moslems were expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration
+was shown to them--at Ghevgeli, for instance, where building material
+was, after the War, so scarce that many of the inhabitants had nothing
+but a hole in the ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had
+been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.
+
+
+OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN ANTISEMITISM
+
+If the Serbs were to express their grievance against the Roumanian
+ruling class for having landed them in this position, the Roumanians
+would reply that the Serbs do not run the same risk as themselves of
+being swamped by the undesirable Galician Jew. The Roumanians argue that
+their peasants will go under if they are not shielded. "In our last
+great manoeuvres," said the late King Charles to M. de Laveleye,[45]
+"it was proposed to entrust the supply of food to Christians. On the
+first day the provisions came; on the second everything was late; on the
+third day the whole army was dying of hunger. I was forced to make a
+hasty appeal to the Jews. They have great qualities--they are
+intelligent, energetic, economical; but these very qualities make them
+dangerous to us on economic grounds." Roumanians acknowledge that the
+agrarian policy of a few vast landowners and a submerged peasantry did
+not admit of peasants being made more formidable by increased education,
+and they doubt whether their country-folk, so fond of music and dancing
+and drinking, have it in them to rival those Serbian non-commissioned
+officers who, early in 1919, became millionaires by skilful operations
+on the money market in the Banat. Yet the Serbs are as much addicted as
+anyone to the aforementioned delights, and it is probable that the
+Roumanian boyars do their own people an injustice. But while the people
+were favoured at the expense of the immigrants--not always very
+effectively: the Jews have been prohibited from owning land, yet a fifth
+of the whole of Moldavia belongs indirectly to a single Jew--one would
+suppose that some distinction might have been made between the more or
+less pernicious alien who is apt to get the village into his toils and
+that other Jew whose family has lived perhaps two hundred years in the
+country, who feels himself a Roumanian but is legally a foreigner. One
+Magder, a Jewish barrister, performed such exploits at the front during
+the Great War that he was mentioned in the communiqué, a distinction
+only conferred upon two other soldiers. For one and a half years the
+official publications insisted on Roumanizing his name into Magdeu,
+after which three Cabinet meetings occupied themselves with the subject
+and finally announced that the error was not intentional but
+typographical. A French officer wished the Roumanian Croix de Guerre to
+be given to him, but Headquarters refused the request on the ground that
+he was a Jew. One cannot blame the United States for taking the
+initiative in compelling the Roumanians to modify their legislation,
+since the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin were merely carried out to the
+extent of naturalizing a maximum of fifty Jews a year, each case having
+to undergo innumerable formalities, accompanied with payments to
+deputies and others that rose to 30,000 francs. Many Jews volunteered
+for the army in 1913 for the sake of thus obtaining the naturalization
+that was promised them as a reward; but these promises were frequently
+not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred during the Great War: the
+_Moniteur Officiel_, No. 261 (of February 2, 1918), printed a decree
+relating to one Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had
+been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous September.
+Kaufman was condemned to death, and the others to five years' hard
+labour. When the King was asked to deal more equitably with the three
+men, Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour without limit,"
+_i.e._ for life. It is superfluous to give many illustrations: at
+Falticeni seventy-two Jews were imprisoned without a trial for four
+months, though twelve of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of
+1877, while most of the others had sons at the front; at the village of
+Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out of their synagogue in
+order to listen to a speech in which he advised the Christian soldiers
+to watch them well, as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there
+were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was less than
+ardent--and who can blame them? In the 69th Regiment a special corps of
+Jews was clothed in the discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to
+the enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid 14 francs a month
+for spying on his Jewish comrades. At the battle of Savarat, to cover
+the retreat of three battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed--one
+hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second lieutenant; all but
+three of them were killed or wounded. After this retreat the General,
+who lost his head, commanded that the survivors should be killed
+wholesale on account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they were
+so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and only executed two Jews,
+Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha, _pour encourager les autres_. A young
+doctor, 2nd Lieutenant Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted typhus
+at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards he was sent to the 26th
+Regiment and kept under observation; it was most suspicious, said the
+authorities, that a Jew should return from France for his military
+service. A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could supply
+incriminating evidence against the doctor, but this was offered in vain.
+The Jews, by the way, were told that while they would be removed from
+menial positions in the hospitals they "would be tolerated" as
+doctors--and nearly a hundred of these doctors died on active service.
+
+The better class of Roumanians, such as Take Jonescu, is opposed to such
+methods--he was therefore charged with being in the pay of the Jews,
+although he was a wealthy man (a very successful barrister) whom
+politics made poorer. It remains to be seen whether the
+Roumanians--whose position with regard to the Jews is, partly through
+their own fault, not without peril--will be willing to put into effect
+those reforms to which the Supreme Council compelled them to subscribe.
+The Article in question will probably become a moral weapon, since the
+Roumanians regard themselves as on a higher level than the Balkan
+peoples, and will not desire that continual complaints should be made
+against them. One does not expect their prejudices and their
+apprehensions to be suddenly renounced--instead of judging each case
+individually, the railway administration, after the Government had
+agreed that the Jews _en bloc_ could become citizens, barred them _en
+bloc_ from that particular service by requiring that candidates should
+present their certificates of baptism. The Agricultural Syndicates have
+also introduced a statute which limits their organizations to Roumanian
+citizens who profess the Christian religion. Gradually--one hopes, for
+the sake of their country--the Roumanians will bring themselves to adopt
+a less timorous spirit, and to acknowledge that it is more dangerous to
+the Fatherland if a Jew as such is prevented than if he is permitted to
+hold the office of street-sweeper. From such lowly public offices, or
+from that of University Professor, no citizen should be excluded on
+religious grounds or admitted to them "by exceptional concession." And
+if a Jewish cab-driver at Bucharest is so severely flogged by his
+passengers outside the chief railway-station that he succumbs in the
+hospital to his injuries--a fate that overtook one Mendel Blumenthal, a
+man fifty-three years of age, in September 1919--one trusts that a
+newspaper article asking for an inquiry will henceforward not be
+censored. "It is true," said Dr. Vaida-Voevod, then the Prime Minister,
+"that the Jews still evince some reluctance to assimilate intellectually
+with our people or to identify their interests with those of the
+Roumanian State. But goodwill should be shown on both sides, and the
+overtures should be reciprocal." Thanks very largely to the former
+Liberal Premier, M. Bratiano, whose party was responsible for much
+illiberal legislation--one of his powerful brothers was popularly said
+to eat a Jew at every meal--the Supreme Council acted in such a manner
+as to produce a particularly unwanted crisis in the Yugoslav political
+world. Neither Roumanian nor Yugoslav need, in the opinion of Take
+Jonescu, have considered that their dignity was being slighted, for the
+tendency of the League of Nations is to limit the free will of each of
+them. The cardinal doctrine of the League, as Lord Robert Cecil has
+pointed out, is that its members are _not_ masters in their own house,
+but must obey the decision of the majority. However, the Opposition in
+the Belgrade Skup[vs]tina could not resist from using the delicate
+situation for what many of the deputies thought was a patriotic course
+of conduct, and nearly all of them regarded as an admirable party cry.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 1: _The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th
+    Division._ London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: _Contemporary Review_, February 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 3: Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at
+    Washington.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: _Fortnightly Review_, June 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, December 13, 1918.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: _Land and Water_, May 29, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: _Nineteenth Century and After_, November 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: _Au Secours des Enfants Serbes._ Paris, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: Several old wooden warships, such as the _Aurora_,
+    the _Schwartzenberg_ and the _Vulcan_, were lying for years in
+    [vS]ibenik harbour, where they were used as repair-ships,
+    store-ships, etc. When the Italians evacuated Dalmatia they
+    took these vessels with them, but whether on account of their
+    contents or their history we do not know.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: Cf. _Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von
+    Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters_, by Dr.
+    Constantin Jire[vc]ek. Prague, 1879.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: It is instructive to examine the attendance
+    figures at the schools of this the only Italian town of
+    Dalmatia, as the Italians call it. The figures are those of the
+    school year 1918-1919, and refer both to elementary and
+    secondary schools:
+
+                      YUGOSLAV SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 342
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     331
+    Combined Elementary School                "     222
+    Higher Elementary School for Girls        "     121
+    Teachers' Training College                "      70
+    Classical College                         "     469
+                                                   ----
+                         Total of Yugoslav Pupils, 1555
+                                                   ----
+
+                      ITALIAN SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 250
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     221
+    Higher Elementary School                  "      93
+    Classical College                         "     157
+    Technical College                         "     181
+                                                   ----
+                           Total of Italian Pupils, 902
+                                                   ----
+
+    I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by
+    Mr. Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations,
+    to inform the readers of _Land and Water_ (June 5, 1919) that
+    "Zara is quite Italian." He added that "Sebenia is Italian
+    too." If this be so, how comes it that in 1919 the Italian
+    authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
+    ([vS]ibenik)--which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers
+    to--with machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very
+    lurid threats of Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I
+    believe it is nearer the truth to say that the population of
+    this town consists of some 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400
+    _Italianists_.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless
+    patriotism, said the _Tablet_ (January 1, 1921), he "had
+    defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the
+    Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the
+    Italians."]
+
+    [Footnote 13: The population of Veprinac, according to the last
+    census, is: Yugoslavs, 2505 (83·7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0·8
+    per cent.); Germans, 422 (4·1 per cent.).]
+
+    [Footnote 14: Pribi[vc]evi['c] issued a statement to the effect
+    that the interviewer, Magrini, had put into his mouth the
+    precise opposite of what he had said with regard to Triest and
+    Pola. Pribi[vc]evi['c] had told him that the whole of Istria,
+    with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini that a
+    third person was present at the interview.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in
+    Albania had been concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded
+    by Yugoslav troops, as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had
+    disappeared, and the Russian prisoners employed there--about
+    500 men--had also vanished. In order to keep off nocturnal
+    plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to fire a few shots
+    now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the two
+    Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
+    night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their
+    injuries--is it not possible that they were out for plunder and
+    that this incident should not be used to illustrate what Mr.
+    Beaumont (of the _Daily Telegraph_) calls "the worst
+    characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the troops?
+    During the twenty days of the Yugoslav régime their authorities
+    sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these
+    warehouses to the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally
+    said in Rieka that the Italians in four days had given away six
+    million crowns' worth, that large quantities of flour were
+    removed until the British put a stop to this, and that the
+    robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
+    or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a
+    mysterious manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any
+    rate have been as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some
+    investigation. Since they failed to do so, it is natural that
+    gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the Italian
+    population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
+    waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the
+    stores of the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.]
+
+    [Footnote 16: Most people have assumed that this was done in
+    order that Rieka should be left to Austria-Hungary, although
+    they should have taken with some grains of salt this Italian
+    generosity which presented the Habsburgs with a good harbour
+    instead of one of those others in Croatia which the Italians of
+    to-day are never weary of extolling. The real reasons why Rieka
+    was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the _Secolo_
+    (January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
+    it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the
+    right of the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this
+    case the same principle must be admitted for the people of
+    Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing majority. But this is
+    precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."]
+
+    [Footnote 17: The Italianist employés of the Rieka town council
+    who took the census in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they
+    were acquainted with the Italian language; those from whom they
+    received an affirmative reply were put down as Italians. Had
+    they, on the other hand, asked the people if they spoke
+    Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes, there
+    would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have
+    remained not one single Italian--certainly not the members of
+    the Italian National Council--as everyone, he says, speaks and
+    knows Croat. This is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes
+    of Rieka are bound up with those of its suburbs and the
+    hinterland.]
+
+    [Footnote 18: Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals,
+    General Grazioli claimed supreme command of all the Allied
+    troops, but this the French General refused, maintaining--much
+    to the disgust of the Italians--that he was under the orders of
+    Franchet d'Espérey, who was then in command of the Army of the
+    Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve in their
+    own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
+    one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the
+    sole object of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to
+    General Grazioli should by chance be posted to the town. The
+    disrespectful Allies used to call Caneva "the man in the
+    cellar."]
+
+    [Footnote 19: The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's
+    collapse, was stirred the most profoundly by its postage stamps
+    was Zagreb. In order to commemorate the establishment of the
+    new State the Croatian Post Office published four stamps, which
+    were on sale on November 29. The whole edition consisted of
+    100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted to Zagreb, the
+    rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious that
+    there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
+    check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that
+    they should be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that
+    each purchaser would only be allowed to buy a limited quantity.
+    At 8 a.m. the sale began, but at seven many hundreds of people
+    were waiting outside the chief post office, the post office at
+    the station and another in the Upper Town. The face value of
+    the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At first they
+    were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
+    to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000
+    had been printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10
+    crowns for it, in order to complete their sets. At noon the
+    offices were all shut, as the rush was considered too
+    dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in the great hall at the
+    Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside. Nearly all
+    the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken. At
+    the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the
+    sentries. The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the
+    post offices had no stamps left (and citizens who had been
+    waiting all day to buy an ordinary stamp could not be served).
+    At 5 p.m. people who for the first time in their lives were
+    taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500 crowns from
+    collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
+    exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one
+    thousand crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers
+    were willing to give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of
+    boots, others were asking for sugar, coffee or petrol. The
+    price which was ultimately established was 250 crowns.]
+
+    [Footnote 20: Out of the hundreds of available documents it
+    will suffice if I print one. It is the report, given in his
+    words, of a Dalmatian, a native of Sinj, who having been an
+    emigrant could write in English. "On July 1915 I came to the
+    Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the lines and
+    deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
+    of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a
+    voluntary into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was
+    answered by Italian authorities in the negative. After the
+    Congress of Rome in 1918 I and some of my comrades who had
+    recently applied for admission were permitted to join the
+    Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away sent to the front
+    of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard bayonet
+    fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian
+    Commander for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own
+    request I was sent to the front, where I remained up to the
+    break-up of Austria or until we Yugoslav legion were disarmed
+    by Italians and as a reward for our participation in the war we
+    were interned as prisoners of war at Casale di Altamura in the
+    province of Bari. Four days after my internment I succeeded in
+    sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
+    Dalmatia. (Signed) JAKOV DELONGA."]
+
+    [Footnote 21:
+
+        "In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro
+         L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,
+         Perche piangi, o fratello croato,
+         Il figiul che in Italia mori."
+
+    ("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible
+    Habsburger has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother,
+    it weeps for the dear son who died in Italy.")]
+
+    [Footnote 22: April 23, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 23: Cf. _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie._ Paris,
+    1917.]
+
+    [Footnote 24: The Italians are very poorly served by some of
+    their advocates. For years they persisted in demanding the
+    execution of whatever in the Treaty or Pact of London was
+    obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded as obsolete another
+    clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
+    Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and--if I rightly
+    understand the Italophil Mr. H. E. Goad--they were justified
+    because, forsooth, Bulgaria had entered the War on the other
+    side. To say that the idea of this small Albania, with
+    corresponding compensations to the Serbs and Greeks, was held
+    out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a very wise
+    remark. However, "ne croyez pas le père Bonnet," said
+    Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-même lorsque
+    je dis du mal du père Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes
+    brouillés." Let the reader trust in nothing but the facts, and
+    I hope that those which I present are not an unfair selection.]
+
+    [Footnote 25: When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard
+    about the secret Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov.
+    The interview is said to have been stormy, for the Russian
+    Minister, according to the _Primorske Novine_ (April 23, 1919),
+    "had not the most elementary knowledge of the Slav nature of
+    Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
+    Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said
+    to have been no better informed than Sazonov.]
+
+    [Footnote 26: And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's
+    Prime Minister, was the central figure of a reception given by
+    Lord Sydenham at the Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship
+    I must add that in an hour's conversation he impressed me with
+    the fact that he was even less acquainted with Plamenac's
+    antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs, which
+    he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords,
+    endeavouring there--until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him--to play
+    the part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.]
+
+    [Footnote 27: We shall see that the subsequent history of this
+    officer was less laudable.]
+
+    [Footnote 28: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 29: This very able priest became Vice-President of
+    the Council of Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was
+    formed. When Cardinal Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of
+    1919 a Mass was celebrated by the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister,
+    the British Cardinal and a French priest who was an aviation
+    captain in the army. Monsignor Koro[vs]ec's position reminds
+    one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
+    was the Archbishop of Trnovo.]
+
+    [Footnote 30: Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 31: Cf. _The New Europe_, March 27, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 32: There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic
+    Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kova[vc]i[vc]a) who,
+    having lost something between his house and the post office,
+    insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest papers. But the
+    Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three years
+    after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
+    Debelyacsa--where the _intelligentsia_ called the sympathetic
+    Serbian notary by his Christian name--not one of the
+    inhabitants proposed to remove to Hungary. No doubt the
+    goodness of the soil had something to do with this decision,
+    but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No military
+    service was as yet exacted--all that the Magyars had been asked
+    to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of
+    war. The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary
+    before the War still exercised their functions, and--in
+    contrast with what had previously been the case--both the
+    Magyar and the Serbian language were taught, the latter from
+    the third class upwards. Altogether there was perfect harmony
+    between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was there the only
+    racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was the
+    resolve of their _intelligentsia_ to have, as centre-half in
+    the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish
+    player.]
+
+    [Footnote 33: The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that
+    the Foreign Office was bound to behave to Italy, one of the
+    Great Powers, with a certain deference. They also recognize
+    that the Foreign Office is not actuated by malevolence if she
+    treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of the
+    strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir
+    Richard Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a
+    series of diplomatic automata. After all, these automata, who
+    have spent more or less laborious years in the service, have to
+    be deposited somewhere. But if one does not demand of the
+    Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending to the
+    Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man
+    as the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched
+    too late to Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be
+    maintained--it has happened before now that we have been
+    represented in a Balkan country by a Minister who, some time
+    after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing with those
+    people and of which Great Britain was one of the high
+    contracting parties; when taxed with this omission the
+    aforesaid Minister hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.]
+
+    [Footnote 34: October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 35: This has been done, but to a much more limited
+    extent, in Hungary where several hundred men who distinguished
+    themselves in the European War have been granted the Gold Medal
+    for Bravery, which entitles each of them to a goodly portion of
+    land. This the recipient may not sell, but he need not leave it
+    to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested in
+    agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to
+    exhibit outside his house a notice which informs the world that
+    he possesses this most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our
+    eyes the strangest privilege the Medal carries with it is the
+    permission to write "Vitez" (which is the Hungarian for
+    "brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji Sandor is
+    decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
+    Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not
+    only is the honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all
+    his sons and by their sons. We might imagine that a man would
+    shrink from permanently calling himself Brave John Smith,
+    especially if he has been very brave, but the average Magyar
+    will not feel excessively awkward, since he is not altogether
+    repelled by that which is garish.]
+
+    [Footnote 36: The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be
+    the work of a generation. They are beginning on the very large
+    estates, those which run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in
+    calculating the price to be paid, 40 per cent. is deducted for
+    the State on properties of this size. On those of between
+    20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so on
+    down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the
+    holdings of from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the
+    Government's intention in Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such
+    properties as are badly administered, and, by a wise proviso,
+    when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for example, that
+    the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State is
+    suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various
+    political parties, go down to investigate. If they find that
+    the accusation is not justified and that the place is
+    satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge is
+    obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.]
+
+    [Footnote 37: The trouble arose at the end of May when a number
+    of citizens of [vS]ibenik, men and women, donned the American
+    colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warship
+    _Maddalena_, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The
+    [vS]ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on the words of
+    Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed that
+    any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
+    with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore
+    them off and explained that it was done by the General's order.
+    Italian officers did not interfere while ladies were being very
+    roughly handled. A certain Jakovljevi['c], a shopkeeper, who
+    had sold an American flag, was imprisoned. On the same evening
+    a number of prominent citizens were summoned before the town
+    commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows: "A Croat, a
+    Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
+    American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye,
+    the ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't
+    go to the _Maddalena_ to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall
+    prevent it! You are the leaders who will be responsible for
+    anything that happens to-morrow." [This was the eve of the
+    Italian national celebration of June 1.] "Our arditi are
+    blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of yours
+    receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
+    Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent
+    milliards and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr.
+    Mi[vs]e Ivanovi['c] remarked: "I beg your pardon, but the Paris
+    Conference has not yet decided the fate of these territories."
+    And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided! But even if we
+    had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we shall
+    destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and
+    40,000 men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by
+    the town commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was
+    testified by the signature of all those who were present....
+    When, in 1921, the Italians were leaving [vS]ibenik they
+    destroyed a large number of young trees in the park and
+    elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
+    millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian
+    purpose.]
+
+    [Footnote 38: In view of what the census said with regard to
+    this place it is superfluous to add that when an Italian
+    officer in my hearing asked one who was stationed there if
+    there was any social life, the other answered: "None at all;
+    the whole population is Slav." I find that _Modern Italy_
+    (published in London) quoted with approval the following
+    telegram which appeared, it said, in the _Tempo_ of May 9: "A
+    remarkably enthusiastic celebration took place at Obrovazzo.
+    Several thousands, including representatives of the
+    neighbouring villages, formed a procession and marched through
+    the town. In the principal piazza, the President of the
+    National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which
+    was enthusiastically applauded."]
+
+    [Footnote 39: It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but
+    one decoration, the highest among those to which they are
+    entitled. To illustrate this Serbian modesty regarding
+    honorifics, I might mention that one evening at the house of a
+    Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to whom he had
+    been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had won
+    the Obili['c] medal for bravery and several other decorations
+    which--and his case was typical--he had not troubled to
+    procure.]
+
+    [Footnote 40: June 24, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 41: May 15, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 42: Mr. Leiper in the _Morning Post_ (June 23, 1920)
+    scouts the idea of these malcontents being the supporters of
+    Nikita, who "were all laid by the heels or driven out of the
+    country long ago--largely by the inhabitants themselves." He
+    observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil--its
+    frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and
+    policies. The nations, he points out, are not two but one--one
+    in blood, in temperament, in habits, in tradition, in language;
+    round the fireside they tell their children the same stories,
+    sing them the same songs: the greatest poem in Serbian
+    literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
+    Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian
+    State came into existence it has been, he says, the constant,
+    burning desire of the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may
+    well rub our eyes at a letter in the same newspaper from Lord
+    Sydenham, who makes the perfectly inane remark that this
+    constant, burning desire was never probable. "Montenegro
+    already _is_ Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
+    in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set
+    himself up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro;
+    therefore he cannot countenance the Leiper articles, which give
+    him "pain and surprise." Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a
+    shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted with the language,
+    should disagree with him? "The great mass of the people," says
+    Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their determination that
+    Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham: "I am
+    afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been misled by
+    the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
+    familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed
+    correspondent of his in Montenegro who says that the people
+    there are terrified of speaking. It is much to be desired that
+    a little of this terror might invade a gentleman who plunges
+    headlong into matters which he does not understand.]
+
+    [Footnote 43: Cf. _Morning Post_, November 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 44: A most vivid account of this affair was
+    contributed to the _Chicago Tribune_ (July 13, 1919) by its
+    correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan, one of the two neutral
+    eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that as Italy was an
+    interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in the
+    decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her
+    forces were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In
+    alliance with the city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian
+    soldiers attacked the French: "I can state emphatically," says
+    Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards did nothing whatever to
+    provoke the assault, some details of which would blot the
+    escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France
+    killed, after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could
+    scarcely believe my ears when Italian officers rapped out the
+    order to load. But they seemed to remember that Frenchmen can
+    fight." However, he also saw an Italian officer who "prevented
+    this murder and held back the civilians who were trying to
+    reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of this
+    officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game
+    little soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers
+    of Italy!' I wish I knew this officer's name." At another part
+    of the harbour, "A British naval officer, fearing that the
+    wounded Frenchman would be stabbed inside the court to which he
+    was dragged, followed the body and defied the captain of
+    carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the close "I was
+    no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness. The
+    British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
+    the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken
+    part in the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The
+    British Admiral wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian
+    officer running and bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are
+    willing to explain all....' American naval officers of the
+    destroyer _Talbot_ were also among this post-mortem crowd. In a
+    French motor bearing two Italian officers who stood up to ward
+    off possible shots, came a French captain. He was of that calm,
+    splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard, a
+    knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
+    flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep
+    down in that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer
+    tell him that the French had started the most regrettable
+    affair by firing on the Italian ships. The officer spoke this
+    falsehood under the glazed stare of the French dead and the
+    protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain nodded his
+    head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only pick up
+    the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside
+    her child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking
+    episode is contained in _A Political Escapade: The Story of
+    Fiume and d'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London,
+    1921). His narrative is extremely well documented--he appears
+    to have been a member of the British Mission. "It is
+    incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men could attack
+    the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover, they
+    were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French
+    garrison was small and had no intention of putting up a
+    defence." One of the lesser outrages described by Father
+    Macdonald, since it was not attended with fatal results, was
+    that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who from his window
+    saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver an
+    unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
+    room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed
+    bayonets and they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard
+    tried to intervene and received a blow on the arm dealt with
+    the butt end of a rifle. At this juncture an Italian officer
+    appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come without further
+    delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside greeted
+    Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
+    street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse
+    against France and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he
+    was brought into the presence of an Italian officer to whom he
+    was personally known. This gentleman, looking very uneasy,
+    refused to give the name of his brother-officer, but caused the
+    Frenchman to be released.]
+
+    [Footnote 45: Cf. _The Balkan Peninsula_ (English translation).
+    London, 1887.]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF--THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM--THEIR WISH
+FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE--FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES--SOME OF
+RIEKA'S SCANDALS--PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA--DESPITE THE NEW
+PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM--THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN
+YUGOSLAVIA--OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH--THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA--A
+GENERAL--TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST--THE BELATED TREATY OF
+RAPALLO--ITS PROBABLE FRUITS--NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV
+PARLIAMENT--(_a_) MARKOVI['C], THE COMMUNIST--(_b_) RADI['C], THE
+MUCH-DISCUSSED--THE SERBS AND THE CROATS--THE SAD CASE OF
+PRIBI['C]EVI['C]--LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS--WHICH ONE
+GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE--MEDIÆVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA--THE STRICKEN
+TOWN--HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF
+
+When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan War, into the historic
+town of Prilep a certain soldier sent his family an interesting letter,
+which was found a few years afterwards at Ni[vs] and printed in a book.
+One passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point of
+mediæval history between the soldier and a chance acquaintance.
+"Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this town?" And the man of Prilep
+recognized at once that his catechist was not referring to the actual
+possessor but to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same question
+was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that Rieka was Italian then and
+for ever, and that he who proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a
+mutilated war-combatant. Most of the citizens, as time went on, began to
+think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's annexation to another
+land, which was the work of Nature. Those who did not entertain this
+view were the salaried assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who
+had bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as mistress of
+Rieka, would change them into lire, even if she did not give so good a
+rate as at Triest. The poet addressed himself to the France of Victor
+Hugo, the England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not to the
+business men of Rieka, who would have told him that 70 per cent. of the
+property, both movable and immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 per cent.
+was Italian and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to
+listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand men, to
+Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and won him over. Whether he
+would have persuaded Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must
+gravely doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we may take
+as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound to be true. I am not bound
+to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand
+with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right, and
+part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the wilful trespass
+committed by Italians on the property and rights of the Yugoslavs and
+the oft-repeated guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the
+American Government against such invasion, it is passing strange that
+d'Annunzio should have appealed to Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for
+Admiral Millo, he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his fortunes
+with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the populace a very fiery
+speech. It is not known whether he communicated with the France of
+Clemenceau, the England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson, whose
+representative he apparently continued to be for the rest of Dalmatia,
+while relinquishing that post with regard to Zadar, his residence.
+
+
+THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM
+
+If Admiral Millo's rebellion had been published in the press of November
+16th, it is most likely that 250, instead of 160, Socialists would have
+been successful at the General Election--an election which Signor
+Nitti, that very able parliamentarian, had brought about for the
+purpose, amongst other things, of testing the forces and popularity of
+the Nationalist party. The old Chamber had--voicing the wishes of the
+people--voted for the open annexation of Rieka, without war or violence;
+the Nationalists, in order to gain their ends, would seemingly have
+stopped at nothing. Military adventures, the breaking of alliances,
+agrarian and industrial upheaval--it was all the same to them. They
+scoffed at the common sense of the imperturbable Nitti when he said that
+the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, must return to the plough.
+Furiously they harped upon the facts that bread was dearer now, that
+coal was nearly unprocurable. And Giolitti, who in 1915 had strenuously
+tried to keep the country neutral, said in a great speech before this
+1919 election that the War had been waged between England and Germany
+for the supremacy of the survivor and that Italy should never have
+participated. He enlarged upon the fearful sufferings of his countrymen,
+and he compared the gains of Italy with those of her Allies. Nor was he
+deterred when Signor Salandra, the former Premier, called him Italy's
+evil spirit who, devoid of any patriotism, would have sold the
+Fatherland to the Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on
+whom 300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before the
+declaration of war, had good reason to know that even if Giolittism had
+melted away, the House had secretly remained Giolittian.
+
+A new electoral system was introduced, whereby the people voted for
+programmes and parties rather than directly for individual candidates.
+This, it was hoped, would render corruption more difficult by enclosing
+the individual within the framework of the list, and it was also hoped
+that there would be less violence than usual. As a matter of fact there
+probably was a diminution with respect to these two practices, but only
+because of the large number of abstentions--merely 29 per cent. voted in
+Rome, 38 per cent. in Naples, and in Turin scarcely more. The people
+were tired of the excessive complexity and dissimulation of Italian
+politics. There was a good deal of violence--in Milan, Florence, Bologna
+and Sicily the riots were sometimes fatal--and with such an electorate,
+more extensive than heretofore, so that symbols had often to be used
+instead of the printed word, it was to be expected that there would not
+be an atmosphere of even relatively calm discussion. At Naples 132
+candidates struggled for eleven seats--their meetings were
+indescribable. And it may be thought that in such conditions the
+victorious parties would not necessarily reflect the wishes of the
+country. The Nationalists were dispersed, the Giolittians were
+routed--the Socialists increased from 40 to 156, and the Catholics from
+30 to 101. Gabriele d'Annunzio had been the Socialists' chief elector.
+
+
+THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE
+
+There was now a fair hope that the Government would be in a position to
+solve the Adriatic problem. The Italian delegates in Paris had suggested
+that, in the independent buffer State, Rieka should have a separate
+municipal status, and that a narrow strip of land should join the buffer
+State to Italy. On December 9, a memorandum was signed by the
+representatives of Great Britain and America, which was the best
+compromise which anyone had yet proposed. The strip was dismissed as
+being "counter to every known consideration of geography, economics and
+territorial convenience." [Nevertheless this very dangerous expedient of
+the strip, after having been thus roundly rejected by the Allies, formed
+a part of the Treaty of Rapallo in November 1920--the Yugoslavs had most
+generously given way rather than leave this exasperating Adriatic
+problem still unsolved.] Rieka with her environment was to be a _corpus
+separatum_--and this was the chief point which made the proposals
+inacceptable to Italy. That Socialist group which is represented by the
+_Avanti_ seemed to be the only one whose attitude was not intransigeant.
+The question of Rieka, it argued, was not isolated, but should be
+considered as one of the numerous questions of Italian foreign politics.
+It laughed at those who every moment cry "Our Fiume," because there are
+in the town many people who speak Italian. Other groups of Socialists
+had altered very much from the day when the three delegates--Labriola,
+Raimundo and Cappa--spoke of the Adriatic at the Congress which Kerensky
+summoned to Petrograd. Labriola was considered the most arrogant and
+chauvinist of the trio, but not even he demanded Rieka--there was no
+question of it at the time. Still less did he dream of Zadar or
+[vS]ibenik; what he pleaded for was Triest, Istria and an island.... In
+December 1919 some Italian Socialist papers were printing reports on the
+economic life of Rieka, which was in a disastrous condition. But the
+great majority of Italians were so bent upon securing Rieka that they
+did not seem to care if by that time she were dead. And they threw a
+little dust into their eyes, if not into the eyes of the Entente, by
+declaring that if they did not annex Rieka that unhappy, faithful town
+would annex them. The self-appointed Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of
+Rieka was, however, at this time less preoccupied with the Madre Patria
+than with her own very troublesome affairs; she had no leisure to
+organize those patriotic deputations to Rome, which sailed so frequently
+across the Adriatic and which, as was revealed by Signor Nitti's organ
+_Il Tempo_,[46] were too often composed of speculators who liked to
+receive in Italy the sum of 60 centesimi for an unstamped Austrian paper
+crown that was barely worth ten. The disillusioned C.N.I. would have
+given a good many lire to be rid of d'Annunzio; the citizens were
+invited to vote on the following question: "Is it desirable to accept
+the proposal of the Italian Government, declared acceptable by the
+C.N.I. at its meeting of December 15, which absolves Gabriele d'Annunzio
+and his legionaries from their oath to hold Rieka until its annexation
+has been decreed and effected?" On December 21, in the Chamber, Signor
+Nitti announced that more than half the citizens had voted and that
+four-fifths of them were in favour of the suggestion of the C.N.I. But
+d'Annunzio, whose adherents by no means facilitated the plebiscite,
+proclaimed it null and void. Yet, after all, Italy had likewise, on
+every occasion when the Yugoslavs suggested a plebiscite under impartial
+control, refused to sanction it.
+
+
+FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES
+
+Then suddenly a ray of light shone through the clouds. The ever-cheerful
+Signor Nitti, after a conference with Lloyd George and Clemenceau--no
+Yugoslav being present, whereas Signor Nitti was both pleader and
+judge--was authorized to say that the December memorandum had been
+shelved. Terms more favourable to Italy were substituted and the
+Yugoslav Government were told they must accept them. One of these terms
+was to modify the Wilson line in Istria, ostensibly for the protection
+of Triest and in reality to dominate the railway line Rieka-St.
+Peter-Ljubljana; another of the terms was to present Italy with that
+narrow corridor which in December the Allies had so peremptorily
+disallowed. No wonder the American Ambassador in France gave his
+warning. "You are going," he said, "much too far and much too quickly.
+President Wilson cannot keep pace with you." The French Government was
+passing through a period of change, and these new proposals, as was
+underlined in the _Temps_,[47] emanated from London. Mr. Lloyd George,
+who may have wished for Signor Nitti's aid in his offensive against
+France in the Russian and Turkish questions, was this time very badly
+served by his intuition. The Yugoslavs were ordered to accept the new
+proposals or to submit to the application of the Treaty of London, that
+secret and abandoned instrument which--to mention only one of the
+objections against it--provided for complete Yugoslav sovereignty over
+Rieka, a solution that, in view of Italy's inflamed public opinion, was
+for the time being impracticable. And while the Yugoslavs were told that
+Rieka would, under the Treaty of London, fall to them, no details were
+given as to how d'Annunzio was to be removed. "Nous sommes dans
+l'incohérence," as Clemenceau used to say of the political condition of
+France before the war. Seeing that the Italian Government and the C.N.I.
+had shown themselves so powerless, were France and England going to turn
+the poet out? But Mr. Lloyd George was more fortunate than Disraeli,
+whose error in the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina had had such dire
+results; on February 13, a very firm note was issued by President
+Wilson, which compelled France and Great Britain to withdraw from the
+position they had taken up. Wilson would have nothing to do with the
+notorious corridor, though Clemenceau had said on January 13, to the
+Yugoslav delegates: "Si nous n'avions pas fait cette concession, nous
+n'avions pas eu le reste." "The American Government," said Wilson,
+"feels that it cannot sacrifice the principle for which it entered the
+war to gratify the improper ambition of one of its associates, Italy, to
+purchase a temporary appearance of calm in the Adriatic at the price of
+a future world conflagration." The rejoinder of the French and British
+Premiers was a trifle lame, and when they ventured to add that they
+could not believe that it was the purpose of the American people, as the
+President threatened, to retire from the treaty with Germany and the
+agreement of June 28, 1919, with France unless his point of view was
+adopted in this particular case, which, in their opinion, had "the
+appearance of being so inadequate," they were not caring to remember
+that while their own countries and Italy were suffering from a lack of
+food-stuffs and provisions were being imported at a disastrous rate of
+exchange from the United States, the products of Yugoslavia, such as
+meat and meal, could not be obtained because Rieka, which ought surely
+to serve its hinterland, was at that moment not available, owing to
+d'Annunzio. At the same time the President did not go to the opposite
+extreme of simply allocating the port to Yugoslavia, which the
+application of the Treaty of London would involve. He preferred to act
+on the principle that the differences between Italy and the Yugoslavs
+were inconsiderable, especially as compared with the magnitude of their
+common interests. And direct negotiations between the two parties were
+to be recommended, with the proviso that no use be made of France and
+Great Britain's immoral suggestion that an agreement be reached on "the
+basis of compensation elsewhere at the expense of nationals of a third
+Power." It had indeed been proposed that the Yugoslavs should be bribed
+by concessions in Albania, but this idea was very explicitly rejected
+and on more than one occasion by the Yugoslav delegates in Paris.
+
+While, in the following months, the Yugoslavs and the Italians
+negotiated, the task of their delegates was impeded by the occasional
+Cabinet crises in Belgrade and in Rome. It was made no easier by those
+Italians who clamorously objected to the remark of Clemenceau, when he
+said that both Yugoslavs and Italians had been compelled to fight in
+Austria's army. The _Corriere d'Italia_ told him that he displayed the
+zeal of a corporal to defend the Yugoslavs. After alluding to his
+"historical inexactitudes," it reminded him of the Italians who were
+slain at Reims and the Chemin des Dames, but as usual omitted to speak
+of the French soldiers who fell in Italy. And, while the negotiations
+were being carried on, Gabriele d'Annunzio clung to his town. The
+compromise of a mixed administration seemed to have small chance of
+being realized. It had been proposed by that Inter-Allied Commission
+which was set up to investigate the circumstances of the French
+massacre; and the Italian delegate, General di Robilant, not only said
+in his report[48] to the Senate that this compromise was most favourable
+for Italian aspirations but he is alleged also to have included some
+very drastic criticism of the actions of the high military authorities,
+whom he charged with unconstitutional interference. Nevertheless neither
+the poet nor the Premier were as yet in a tractable mood with regard to
+the Rieka problem. Signor Nitti, parading his bonhomie, championed the
+cause in a more statesmanlike fashion; he did not, like d'Annunzio,
+evoke the world's ridicule by his footlight attitudes and those of his
+faithful supporters who, when his "Admiral" Rizzo abandoned him, when
+Giorati his confidant withdrew, when even Millo advised moderation, took
+certain piratical steps in order to keep the garrison supplied with
+food,[49] and composed an anthem which on ceremonial occasions was
+chanted in the poet's honour. But when Signor Nitti observed, with the
+utmost affability, that Rieka had, after the fall of the Crown of St.
+Stephen, become mistress of her own fate and as such, regardless of the
+Treaty of London, asked for inclusion in Italy, he, the Prime Minister,
+was vying in recklessness with d'Annunzio. The prevailing sentiment both
+in Triest and Rieka, said the _Times_,[50] was that both these towns
+should become free ports in order to serve their hinterlands, which are
+not Italian. "Italy is neglecting Triest in favour of Venice," says the
+dispatch. In Rieka, where the situation was even worse, "an honest
+plebiscite, even if confined to the Italian part of the city, would give
+a startling result. The Italians of Rieka are convinced that their
+existence depends on good relations with the Yugoslavs. They wish the
+town and port to be independent under the sovereignty of the League of
+Nations. This I have recently been told by a large number of Italians in
+Rieka who are obliged, in public, to support d'Annunzio." Signor Nitti
+must have been aware that the voice of the C.N.I. was very far from
+being the voice of Rieka. The C.N.I. had reasons of their own for
+wishing to postpone the day when their arbitrary powers would come to an
+end and a legal Government, whether that of the League of Nations or of
+the people's will or of Italy or of Yugoslavia, be established.
+
+
+SOME OF RIEKA'S SCANDALS
+
+Owing to the complaints of innumerable citizens the C.N.I. had nominated
+a Commission to inquire into the pillage of the former Austrian stores
+at Rieka--this town, as we have mentioned, had been the base for the
+Albanian army--and the findings of that Commission displayed the
+culpability of the most prominent members of the C.N.I. This document
+was for a long time unknown to the general public, but was afterwards
+published in Italy by Signor Riccardo Zanella, himself an Italian and an
+ex-deputy and ex-mayor of Rieka. There was, by the way, an article in
+the Triest paper, _Il Lavoratore_, at the beginning of September 1920,
+wherein one Tercilio Borghese, a former member of d'Annunzio's army,
+confesses that on June 21, he was ordered by d'Annunzio, as also by
+Colonel Sani and Captain Baldassari, to get Signor Zanella in some way
+out of the world. Hinko Camero and Angelo Marzi['c], his fellow-workers,
+had likewise to be removed; and for this purpose Borghese says that the
+Colonel provided him with a revolver. He was also to try to seize any
+compromising documents. But he was forced by his conscience to reveal
+everything to Zanella.... Now this confession may be true or false, but
+the Triest "fascisti" (Nationalists) believed in it, for they issued a
+placard on which they called Borghese a traitor and threatened him with
+death. "He who after November 1918 returns to the martyred town," writes
+Signor Zanella, "is simply stupefied in beholding that those personages
+who now strut on the political scene, burning with the most ardent
+Italian patriotism, are the same who until the eve of Vittorio Veneto
+were the most unbending, the most eloquent and the most devoted
+partisans and servants of the reactionary Magyar régime." And around
+them a number of more or less questionable persons were assembled, whose
+conduct with regard to the disposal of the Austrian stores has now been
+so severely censured. That organization which, dependent on the C.N.I.,
+was supposed to administer the stores, was known as the Adriatic
+Commission. "We all knew," said the Commission of inquiry, "that the
+eyes of the whole world were gazing at our little town." It was,
+therefore, very desirable that nothing irregular should be done; whereas
+the judges give a most unfavourable verdict. Nobody, they say, would
+rejoice more than themselves if their conclusions should be shown to be
+completely or partly erroneous, for they are all of them penetrated with
+love for the fatherland Italy. But they relate, with chapter and verse,
+a large number of peculiar transactions which show that the goods were
+very improperly and very hastily auctioned, and that those who reaped
+the benefit were nearly always the same people. To give one instance,
+some of the wine, said to have been damaged, was sold at 260 crowns the
+thousand litres, while undamaged wine brought 320 crowns, and the firm
+of Riboli, the only one which appeared at the so-called auction, was
+only asked to pay 30 crowns. Thus a considerable number of people in
+Rieka were anxious that the town should not come under any Government
+which might punish the culprits or make them disgorge. And Nitti and
+d'Annunzio agreed with these interested parties in opposing a solution
+other than the overlordship of Italy. "The Yugoslavs should understand,"
+said the amiable Premier, "that Italy has no intention of acting in a
+manner distasteful to them, but is struggling for a national ideal." And
+meantime what of the conditions in the poor distracted town?
+"D'Annunzio," says an Italian paper, "is no longer the master of Rieka.
+He has become the prisoner of his own troops.... While he amuses himself
+and organizes the worst orgies, his troops quarrel in the streets and
+discharge their weapons.... A great many of them have their mistresses
+in the hospital, where they make themselves at home. When the doctors,
+after some time, protested, the arditi, with bombs in their hands,
+threatened to blow up the hospital if they were not allowed to enter
+it." On the other hand the pale, weary-looking poet succeeded in
+impressing on a special correspondent of the _Morning Post_ that he was
+"master of his job." He told this gentleman--and was apparently
+believed--that with the consent and approval of the C.N.I. he had had
+the whole place mined, city and harbour, and was prepared to blow it up
+at a moment's notice. The means by which d'Annunzio, according to his
+interviewer, worked on those who were depressed with gazing at the empty
+shops, the silent warehouses, the grass-grown wharves, so that the
+overwhelming majority of the town supported him, was by simply making to
+them an eloquent speech. D'Annunzio would indeed be the master of his
+job if with some rounded periods in Italian he could cause the very
+numerous hostile business men to forget so blissfully that they were
+men of business. Under his dispensation the town is said to have been
+turned into a place of debauchery. Accusations were brought against his
+sexual code, and with regard to men of commerce: "those who are not
+partisans of d'Annunzio are expelled, and their establishments handed
+over to friends of the ruling power.... Woe to him who dares to condemn
+the transactions of the poet's adherents. There and then he is
+pronounced to be a Yugoslav, is placed under surveillance and is
+persecuted." These Italian critics of the poet do not in the least
+exaggerate. One instance of his conduct towards a British firm will be
+sufficient. The "Anglo-Near East Trading Company" shipped sixty-seven
+cases (5292 pairs) of boots to private traders in Belgrade, and on the
+way they reached Rieka just before d'Annunzio. In March 1920 they were
+still detained there, and on the 13th of that month a certain Alcesde di
+Ambris, who described himself as the Chief of the Cabinet, wrote a
+letter saying that the boots were requisitioned, and that they would be
+paid for within thirty days at a price fixed on March 5 by experts of
+the local Chamber of Commerce. The company was offered forty lire a
+pair, but they declined to accept so inadequate a sum. Señor Meynia, the
+Spanish Consul, who was also representing Great Britain, attempted in
+various ways to help the firm; he was finally told by an officer that
+the "exceptional situation of Rieka compels the Authority to suspend the
+exportation or transport of such goods as are thoroughly needed here."
+And the Consul could do no more than protest. One might presume, from
+this officer's reply, that d'Annunzio required the boots for his army.
+As a matter of fact, they were simply sold to a couple of dealers, one
+Levy of Triest and Mailänder of Rieka. It is alleged that the prices
+paid by these receivers of stolen property was a good deal higher than
+forty lire. When Signor di Ambris travelled to Rome in the merry month
+of June and enjoyed a consultation with the Prime Minister, who by this
+time was Signor Giolitti, it was not in order to explain any such
+transactions as that one of the boots, but for the purpose, we are told,
+of offering the services of d'Annunzio and his legionaries in Albania.
+The regular Italian army was just then being roughly handled by the
+natives.... It may be that Signor di Ambris wanted guarantees that if
+the d'Annunzian troops were to come to the rescue, they would not suffer
+the fate of the Yugoslavs who in the Great War had managed to desert to
+Italy, had valiantly fought and won many decorations and--after the
+War--been ignominiously interned. And they had given no grounds for
+charges of financial frailty.
+
+
+PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA
+
+The months go by and Yugoslavia still survives. At the post-office of a
+large village in Syrmia, not far from Djakovo, where Bishop Strossmayer
+laboured during fifty-five years for the union of the Southern Slavs
+which he was destined not to see, a bulky farmer told me that in his
+opinion Yugoslavia, created in 1918, was now in 1920 "kaput." He deduced
+this from the fact that a telegram used to travel much more
+expeditiously in Austrian days; but he did not remember that the
+Yugoslavs, in the Serbian and in the Austro-Hungarian armies, had
+suffered enormous losses in the War, and that while French, Dutch and
+Swiss doctors have been obtained by the Belgrade Government, one cannot
+use telegraphists who are ignorant of the language. An excellent
+province in which Yugoslavia's solidity can be studied is Bosnia. At the
+outbreak of the War the Moslems and Croats were not imbued with the
+Yugoslav idea; it seemed to them that the Serbs, one of whom had slain
+the Archduke, were traitors to Southern Slavdom. During the War the
+Croats and Moslems were taught by their Slav officers to be good
+nationalists and were given frequent lessons in the art of going over to
+the enemy. After the Armistice one did not see every Serb, Croat and
+Moslem in Bosnia forthwith forgetting all the evil of the past. Among
+the less enlightened certain private acts of vengeance had to be
+performed; but these were not as numerous as one might have expected.
+And very soon the population of Bosnia came to be interested far less in
+the old religious differences--the two deputies Dr. D[vz]amonia and
+Professor Stanojevi['c] smilingly remembered the day when, as
+schoolboys at Sarajevo, they had been persuaded by the Austrians to pull
+out each other's hair for the reason that one was a Croat and one was a
+Serb--and now it was the engrossing subject of Agrarian Reform which
+claimed the attention of Catholic, Orthodox and Moslem. This is not a
+religious question, for while the landlords are mostly Muhammedan begs
+about half the peasants are of the same religion; and the negotiations
+have been marked by a notable absence of passion. Most of the begs
+acknowledge that the old régime was unprofitable, for with the peasant
+paying one-third to one-fifth of his production to the landlord the land
+only yielded, as compared with the sandy districts of East Prussia, in
+the proportion of five to twenty-two. Under the new order of things,
+with the State in support of the "usurping" peasant--so that there are
+said to be in Bosnia about a thousand peasants who are millionaires (in
+crowns)--there is no longer any dispute with regard to the "kmet" land,
+where the peasants with hereditary rights have become the owners; and
+with regard to the "begluk," which the beg used to let to anyone he
+pleased, it is only a question as to the degree of compensation. Thus,
+it is not among the landowners and the peasants that one must look in
+searching for an anti-national party. Bosnia contains various iron works
+and coal mines, where profession is made of Communism. But when the
+Prince-Regent was about to come to pay his first official visit in 1920
+to Sarajevo the Governor received a communication from the Communists of
+Zenica, which is on the railway line. They asked for permission to
+salute "our Prince" as he came past; and a deputation of these
+Communists, who are very like their colleagues in other parts of
+Yugoslavia, duly appeared and took part in a ceremony at the station.
+
+
+DESPITE THE NEW PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM
+
+Just as innocuous--whatever the enemies of Yugoslavia may say--are the
+Communists in the old kingdom of Serbia. Perhaps in the whole State of
+Yugoslavia they number 50,000 in a population of about 12,500,000. But
+they are so well organized that in the municipal elections of 1920 they
+were victorious in most of the towns. In Belgrade they secured 3600
+votes, as compared with 3200 for the Radicals, 2800 for the
+Democrats--both of whom were not only badly organized but very
+slack--and 605 for the Republicans. However, the Communists refused to
+swear the requisite oath, and in consequence were not permitted to take
+office, the Radicals and Democrats forming a union to carry on. It was
+agreed to have a new election and the other parties, being now awakened,
+determined that the Communists should not again top the poll. But in the
+provincial towns they have not by any means shown themselves a
+disintegrating influence. At Ni[vs], for example, they conducted the
+municipal affairs quite satisfactorily, while at [vC]uprija they
+perceived that it would be impossible to put into effect their entire
+programme, and so, after fourteen days, they resigned.
+
+
+THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN YUGOSLAVIA
+
+... As for the Communists in the Skup[vs]tina, it may be argued that
+though this party of over fifty members has ceased to exist we should
+have said not simply that they are innocuous but that they have been
+rendered so. They were in principle against any State which violated
+their somewhat hazy ideas on the subject of Capital: while professing to
+aim at the holding of wealth in common they secured a great deal of
+their success at the polls through the bait of more land for the
+individual, which they dangled before the eyes of the most ignorant
+classes. Some of the electors who supported them were prosperous farmers
+unable to resist the idea of a still larger farm; but the majority of
+their adherents were as ignorant as they were gullible. Yet one should
+remember that for most of them this was practically their first
+experience of an election: the constituencies which had formerly been in
+Austria-Hungary had always seen the booths under the supervision of the
+police, while the Macedonian voter (three Communists were returned for
+Skoplje) had only known the institutions of the Turkish Empire. Being
+told by the Communists that their box at the polling-station was really
+the box for the poor, the Fukara, all the gypsies and so forth of
+Skoplje, who had never voted in their lives, hastened to claim the
+privilege, under the impression that a Communist Government would
+liberate them from taxes and military service. Other reasons for the
+success of the Communists in Yugoslavia, an essentially non-industrial
+State, were the general discontent with post-war conditions, and the
+virus which so many of the voters had acquired in Russia or on the
+Dobrudja front during the War. The activity in the Skup[vs]tina of this
+very indigestible party--largely composed of Turks, Magyars, Albanians,
+Germans and others--their activity in and out of Parliament was not
+confined to words. In June 1920 they only refrained from throwing bombs
+in the Skup[vs]tina because one of their own members would have been in
+peril, and in December a plot against the Prince-Regent and some of the
+Ministers was foiled. Thereupon the Emergency Act of December 27, the
+so-called Obznana, came into existence. It suspended all Communist
+associations. This Act was issued for the good of the country, but was
+not previously presented to the Constituent Assembly or provided with
+the royal signature. How justified were the authorities in thus putting
+a stop to this party could be seen when some of the Communist deputies
+were interrogated, for either they were dangerous fanatics or else very
+ignorant individuals, who knew no more about any other question than
+about Communism, and had only been elected because they professed
+dissatisfaction with things in general. A few months later Mr.
+Dra[vs]kovi['c], the very able Minister of the Interior, who had drawn
+up the Obznana, but who by that time had laid down the seals of office,
+was murdered by Communists at a seaside resort in the presence of his
+wife and little children. The object of this particular outrage was to
+persuade the authorities in panic to withdraw the hated Obznana, whereas
+the previous attempts on various personages seem to have been greatly
+due to the desire to show some positive result in return for the cash
+which came to them from Moscow. (One of the leaders of the party, the
+ex-professor of mathematics, was arrested last summer in Vienna on his
+return from Moscow, with a large and very miscellaneous collection of
+English, French, American, Russian and other money.) After the murder of
+Mr. Dra[vs]kovi['c] the mandates of the Communist deputies were
+suppressed; seven or eight of them were detained, for speedy trial, and
+the rest were told to go to their homes. The Communist parliamentary
+party was at an end--it was established that their Committee room in the
+Skup[vs]tina had been used for highly improper purposes--but there was
+nothing to prevent these ex-deputies from being elected as members of
+any other party, and it was rather beside the mark for an English
+review, the _Labour Monthly_,[51] to talk of the "White Terror in
+Jugo-Slavia," as if there prevailed in that country anything comparable
+with Admiral Horthy's régime in Hungary.
+
+
+OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH
+
+The behaviour of the Communists was far from being the only clog in
+Yugoslavia's parliamentary machine. After the first General Election of
+November 1920--delayed until then on account of Italy's attitude, which
+made it impossible to demobilize the army--no single party nor even one
+of the large groups was possessed of a real working majority. Fierce and
+determined was the Opposition;[52] to carry on the business of
+government it became necessary to secure the coalition of several
+parties. The Radical and Democrat _bloc_ had to attract to its side one
+or two other parties, and it was truly difficult to make concessions to
+anyone of these without rousing the righteous or the envious wrath of
+another group. In principle it was proper that the Bosnian Moslems
+should receive compensation for their estates; the question is whether
+the very large sum was less in the nature of a fair price than of a
+bribe. The Radical party was no longer under its happy triumvirate of
+Pa[vs]i['c], the old diplomat, Proti['c], the executor of his ideas, and
+Patchoù, a medical man from Novi Sad, the real brain of the party. We
+shall give an example of Patchoù's prudence; the long views which he
+possessed may be illustrated by what occurred at a meeting of Radical
+deputies two days before the outbreak of the second Balkan War. The
+Tzar's proposed arbitration was being discussed and certain deputies,
+such as the late Dr. Pavlovi['c], who was the first speaker of the
+Yugoslav Parliament after the Great War, raised their voices in
+opposition; they were supported by the army. "Can we have Bitolje
+(Monastir)?" they asked. "It is not known what the Tzar will decide,"
+said Pa[vs]i['c]. "Then we can't accept arbitration," said Pavlovi['c].
+And Patchoù spoke. "I would be very glad to know," said he, "what Mr.
+Pavlovi['c] would say if we could get, by possibly now sacrificing
+Bitolje, not only Bosnia, but Dalmatia and other Slav countries." "All
+that," said Pavlovi['c], "is music of the future." "For you perhaps,"
+said Patchoù, "but not for us." And the vote in favour of arbitration
+was carried. Patchoù died in 1915 at Ni[vs]. Besides being an expert in
+finance and foreign affairs he was less arbitrary in his methods than
+Proti['c]. That very erudite man--no sooner does an important book
+appear in Western or Central Europe than a copy of it goes to his
+library--has not been much endowed with patience. This brought him into
+conflict with his Democratic colleague Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c], the most
+prominent man in that party. It would have been well if Dr.
+Davidovi['c], the gentle, tactful leader of the party, could have taken
+into his own composition one-half of his lieutenant's excessive
+combativeness. Pribi[vc]evi['c] and Proti['c] find it impossible to work
+together, and we can sympathize with both of them. One day at a more
+than usually disagreeable Cabinet meeting Pribi[vc]evi['c] reminded the
+then Prime Minister that he was the first among equals, a point of view
+which did not square with the methods of Proti['c], who gives his
+support to those Ministers who bend before him. And as Pribi[vc]evi['c]
+has hitherto insisted on being in every Cabinet, Proti['c] has withdrawn
+and has started a newspaper, the _Radical_, in which he attacks him with
+great violence and ability. One charge which he brings against this Serb
+from Croatia is perfectly true, for he has succeeded in alienating the
+Croats. Only two or three Democrat deputies come from Croatia, and they
+are elected by the Serbs who live in that province. It would seem that
+the Croats will remain in more or less active opposition so long as
+Pribi[vc]evi['c], the arch-centralizer who scorns to wear the velvet
+glove, stays in the Government. There is also much doubt as to whether
+Proti['c] can break down their particularism, which, of course, is not
+an anti-national movement. But luckily, through other men, it will be
+stayed. For other reasons one regrets that Mr. Proti['c] is not now in
+power; as the Finance Minister he knew how to introduce order,
+preferring the interests of the State to those of his party. Both
+Radicals and Democrats have been reluctant, for electoral purposes, to
+tax the farmer; and Mr. Proti['c] would probably have the courage to
+impose a direct tax, as the Radicals did, without losing popular favour,
+in the old days. In this respect and concerning the numerous posts that
+have been created for party reasons it is thought that Mr. Pa[vs]i['c]
+has not displayed sufficient energy.
+
+There was in Yugoslavia a heavy war deficit, both economic and
+financial. Communications were out of order and the State, owing to the
+adverse exchange (which was not justified by the economic potentialities
+of the country, but was probably caused by the unsettled conditions both
+internal and external), the State could not obtain the necessary raw
+products for industrial undertakings such as iron-works, tanneries,
+cloth factories, etc. The Yugoslavs did not borrow from abroad, as they
+might have done, in the form of raw materials. The agricultural products
+which were exported should have been sold for the needful manufacturers'
+material and not for articles of luxury and not for depreciated foreign,
+especially Austrian, currency.[53] The Yugoslav public is slow to learn
+economy, that it should restrict the importation of luxuries. What makes
+it particularly unhappy, in which frame of mind it listens to the voices
+prophesying woe for Yugoslavia, is the knowledge that for increased
+production and for many other necessary aims more capital is wanted,
+whereas under present conditions it has been difficult to borrow. But
+happily in this respect the corner has been turned, and in the spring of
+1922 a considerable loan was negotiated with an American syndicate.
+
+
+THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA
+
+However, the principal disintegrating force in Yugoslavia, we were often
+told in England, was Montenegro, where, it seems, the natives were
+yearning to cast off their yoke. The British devotees of the former king
+told us of the ghastly state of Montenegro, and our Foreign Office was
+bombarded with reports which ascribed these evils to the wretched
+Government of Yugoslavia. "There is nothing anywhere," says a memorandum
+from the ineffable Devine. "The shops are empty, the town markets are
+deserted. The peasants, who may not travel from one village to another
+without a Serbian 'permit' ... etc. etc." Well, I visited Cetinje market
+on a non-market day, and passing through the crowd of people I admired
+the produce of various parts of the country--melons, tomatoes, dried
+fish, onions, peaches, nuts and cheese, lemons from Antivari and so
+forth. I happened to ask a comely woman called Petrie[vc]evi['c] from
+near Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised at such a
+question. It is very true that the more mountainous parts of Montenegro
+are far from prosperous, but to insinuate that this is the fault of the
+Government is childish. Hampered by the lack of transport--practically
+everything has to be brought on ox-carts up by the tremendous road from
+Kotor--they have recently given away 38,000 kilos of wheat and many
+mountain horses at Cetinje. I suppose it was all in the game for Devine
+and his assistants to throw mud at the Yugoslav Government if they
+believed that they would--for the happiness of the Montenegrins and
+themselves--help to restore Nikita. But what was the use of saying that
+"the poor people have no money and have nothing to eat; they are said to
+be living on a herb of some sort that grows wild in the mountains"?... A
+very satisfactory feature of the past year has been the migration of
+7000 Montenegrins to more fertile parts of Yugoslavia. And as for
+Nikita's partisans, they were such small beer that when they wished to
+hold a meeting at Cetinje the Government had not the least objection; it
+also allowed them to sing the songs that Nikita wrote, but that was more
+than the population of Cetinje would stand. It is only at Cetinje, where
+he reigned for sixty years, and at Njegu[vs], where he was born, that
+Nikita has any adherents at all. As for his adherents at Gaeta, the
+Cetinje authorities were perfectly willing to give a passport to any
+woman who desired to spend some time in Italy with her husband or
+brother or son. She might stay there or come back, just as she pleased.
+And very likely when she got to Gaeta she would relate how in the
+cathedral, at the rock-bound monastery of Ostrog, and in other sacred
+places, one could see the Montenegrin women cursing their ex-king.
+
+
+A GENERAL
+
+The sinister shadow of d'Annunzio had fallen across Dalmatia and beyond
+it: for instance, on November 20, 1919, the King of Italy's name-day, a
+general holiday was proclaimed in the occupied districts. The director
+of the school at Zlosela, a Slav who had never been an Italian subject,
+gave--perhaps injudiciously--the usual lessons. He and his wife were
+arrested and for months they were in prison, their six-months-old child
+being left to the mercy of neighbours; and the local commandant, Major
+Gracco Golini, told Dr. Smol[vc]i['c], the President of the National
+Council, that the slightest action on the part of the Yugoslavs would
+provoke terrible measures on the part of d'Annunzio's arditi, who would
+spare neither women nor children.... The reader may remember the
+Montenegrin General Ve[vs]ovi['c], who took to the mountains and defied
+the Austrians. On the accession of the Emperor Karl he surrendered and,
+much to the surprise of his people, he travelled round the country
+recommending every one to offer no more opposition, to be quiet and
+obedient to the Austrians. When the war was over the authorities at
+Belgrade gave him, as they did to other Montenegrin generals, the same
+rank in the Yugoslav army; but the numerous Montenegrins who resented
+his unpatriotic behaviour persuaded the War Office, after two or three
+months, to remove him from the active list. This exasperated the
+ambitious man to such an extent that he withdrew to his own district and
+began to work against Yugoslavia. A major with a force of 200 gendarmes
+was sent to fetch him back and, after conversations that lasted ten
+days, induced him to return to Belgrade. There he was not molested; he
+used to sit for hours in the large café of the Hotel Moscow in civilian
+clothes. But one day a policeman at the harbour happened to observe him
+talking for a long time to a fisherman; he wondered what the two might
+have in common. When the fisherman was interrogated he refused at first
+to give any information, but he finally divulged that he had agreed, for
+1500 francs, to take the General down the Danube either to Bulgaria or
+Roumania. That evening at nine o'clock the General appeared, with his
+son and a servant; he was captured,[54] and among his documents were
+some which proved, it was alleged, that he was in communication with
+d'Annunzio.
+
+
+TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST
+
+Month follows month. The reading public and some of the statesmen of the
+world begin to recognize that, whatever may be the case on other
+portions of the new map, there is nothing unreal or impossible or
+artificial about Yugoslavia. This State is the result of a national
+movement, having its origins within and not without the peoples whose
+destiny it affects. The various Yugoslavs, after being kept apart for
+all these centuries, have now--roughly speaking--come to that stage
+which the Germans reached in 1866. They cannot rest until they reach
+the unity which came to the Germans after 1870. And here also, it seems,
+the unity will not be gained without the sacrifice of thousands of young
+men. "Go, my son," said Oxenstiern the Swedish Chancellor, "and observe
+by what imbeciles the world is governed." It is pitiable that the
+leaders of the nations, in declining month after month to give to
+Yugoslavia an equitable frontier, should apparently have been more
+impressed by the arguments of Mrs. Lucy Re-Bartlett[55] than by those of
+an anonymous philosopher in the _Edinburgh Review_.[56] "Nationality?"
+says the lady, speaking of the country people of Dalmatia, "nationality?
+These people of the country districts--the great mass of the
+population--are far too primitive to have any sense of nationality as
+yet, but if some day they call themselves Italian...." That is what she
+says of a people which through centuries of persecution and neglect have
+preserved their language, their traditions, their hopes; a people which,
+more than forty years ago, won their great victory against the Habsburg
+régime of Italian and Italianist officials, so that with one exception
+every mayor in Dalmatia and all the Imperial deputies and hundreds of
+societies of all kinds, such as 375 rural savings-banks, were
+exclusively Yugoslav. Out of nearly 150,000 votes at the last general
+election, which was held in 1911 on the basis of universal suffrage, the
+Yugoslav candidates received about 145,000 against 5000 to 6000 for the
+Italians. It is indisputable that the Dalmatian peasants are backward in
+many things, but one is really sorry for the person who declares in
+print that they possess no sense of nationality. Let her visit any house
+of theirs on Christmas Eve and watch them celebrate the "badnjak"; let
+her listen any evening to their songs. Let her think whether there is no
+sense of nationality among the priests, who almost to a man are the sons
+of Yugoslav peasants. And let her recollect that these are the days when
+the other Yugoslavs are at last uniting in their own free State. She has
+the hardihood to tell us of the poor Dalmatians who were being bribed
+with waterworks and bridges and gratuitous doctoring. I daresay that the
+little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering round the
+kindly Italian officer were glad enough to eat his chocolates,[57] but I
+think that we others should pay more attention to those secret
+societies, the _[vc]etasis_ (which is Slav for komitadjis), who have
+sworn to liberate all Istria from the Italians. We may also consider the
+proposals made by the Southern Slavs whom Signor Salvemini, the
+distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pisa, called "extreme
+Nationalists" (see his letter of September 11, 1916, to the editor of
+_La Serbie_, which was being published in Switzerland). Well, it appears
+that the "extreme Southern Slav Nationalists," as the utmost of their
+aspirations, claim the Southern Slav section of the province of Gorica
+with the town Triest and the whole of Istria, that is to say, a
+territory which, with a population the majority of whom are Slav,
+contains also 284,325 Italians, whereas the smallest programme ever
+proposed by moderate Italians, including Professor Salvemini, covets
+some 364,000 Southern Slavs. Thus the extreme Southern Slav elements, in
+their widest demands, are more moderate than the moderate Italians in
+their most limited programme. "Without distinction of tribe or creed,"
+says that Edinburgh reviewer, "all the Yugoslavs are waiting for their
+1870. This will fix and perpetuate their unity.... The preparation is
+going forward silently--almost sullenly--and without demur or
+qualification the Yugoslavs are accepting the Serb military chiefs'
+guidance and domination." He was much impressed by the silence and
+controlled power of the Serbian General Staff. There was in Europe a
+general war-weariness; but not in Yugoslavia. There was a hush in this
+part of Europe, broken only by the shrill screams of Italian
+propagandists and outbursts of suppressed passion on the other side.
+
+
+THE BELATED TREATY OF RAPALLO
+
+And the Rapallo Treaty of November 1920, when at last the statesmen of
+Italy and Yugoslavia came to terms regarding all their frontiers! This
+Treaty was received with much applause by the great majority of the
+French and British Press; in this country of compromise it was pointed
+out by many that as each party knew that the other had abated something
+of his desires the Treaty would probably remain in operation for a long
+time to come. And column after column of smug comment was written in
+various newspapers by the "Diplomatic Correspondent," whose knowledge of
+diplomacy may have been greater than his acquaintance with the Adriatic,
+since they followed one another, like a procession of sheep, in copying
+the mistake in a telegram which spoke of Eritto, the curious suburb of
+Zadar, instead of Borgo Erizzo. They noted that each side had yielded
+something, though it was true that the Yugoslavs had been the more
+generous in surrendering half a million of their compatriots, whereas
+the Italians had given up Dalmatia, to which they never had any
+right.[58] "The claim for Dalmatia was entirely unjustified," said
+Signor Colajanni in the Italian Chamber on November 23--yet it was not
+our business to weigh the profit and loss to the two interested parties.
+After all, it was they who had between themselves made this Agreement,
+and one might argue that it surely would be an impertinence if anybody
+else was more royalist than the king. These commentators held that it
+was inexpedient for anyone to ask why the Yugoslavs should now have
+accepted conditions that were, on the whole, considerably worse than
+those which President Wilson, with the approval of Great Britain and
+France, had laid down as a minimum, if they were to realize their
+national unity. And, of course, these writers deprecated any reference
+to the pressure which France and Great Britain brought to bear upon the
+Yugoslavs when the negotiations at Rapallo were in danger of falling
+through. If we take two Scottish newspapers, the _Scotsman_[59] was
+typical of this very bland attitude; it congratulated everyone on the
+harmonious close to a long, intricate and frequently dangerous
+controversy. The _Glasgow Herald_,[60] on the other hand, was one of the
+few newspapers which took a more than superficial view. "Monstrous," it
+said, "as such intervention seems, no student of the Adriatic White
+Paper--as lamentable a collection of documents as British diplomacy has
+to show--can deny its possibility, nay its probability. It is precisely
+the same game as was nearly successful in January 1920 and again in
+April 1920, but both times was frustrated by Wilson. We are entitled to
+ask, for the honour of our nation, if it has been played again; indeed
+if the whole mask of direct negotiation--a British suggestion--was not
+devised at San Remo with the express purpose of making the game succeed.
+If it be so--and if it is not so it is imperative that we are given
+frankly the full story of British policy in the Adriatic, for instance
+the dispatches so carefully omitted from the White Paper--then our
+forebodings for the future are more than justified.... It is
+emphatically a bad settlement."
+
+"We shall not establish friendly and normal relations with our neighbour
+Italy unless we reduce all causes of friction to a minimum," said M.
+Vesni['c], the Yugoslav Prime Minister, who during his long tenure of
+the Paris Legation was an active member of the Académie des Inscriptions
+et Belles-Lettres and other learned societies; he excelled in getting at
+the root of the worst difficulties in international law, and he was
+particularly admired for his ability to combine legal and historic
+knowledge. Because he studied history minutely--with a special fondness
+for Gambetta who, racially an Italian, had something of the generous and
+sacred fervour that distinguished the leaders of the Risorgimento--M.
+Vesni['c] could not bring himself to hate Italy, despite all that
+d'Annunzio and other Imperialists had made his countrymen suffer.
+"Neither the Government nor the elected representatives of the Serbs,
+Croats and Slovenes," said he courageously in his first speech as Prime
+Minister, "ought to look upon Italy as an enemy country. We have to
+settle important and difficult questions with Italy.... We must reduce
+all causes of friction to a minimum."
+
+The Treaty of Rapallo gives Zadar to Italy, because in that little town
+there is an Italian majority; but central and eastern Istria, with their
+overwhelming Slav majority, are not given to the Yugoslavs--a fact which
+Professor Salvemini deplored in the Roman Chamber. By the Treaty of
+Rapallo Rieka is given independence,[61] but with Italy in possession of
+Istria and the isle of Cres, she can at any moment choke the
+unprotected port, having very much the same grip of that place as
+Holland has for so long had of Antwerp; and the sole concession on
+Italy's part seems to be that in the south she gives up the large Slav
+islands of Hvar, Kor[vc]ula and Vis, and only appropriates the small one
+of Lastovo.... "It has cost Italy a pang," says Mr. George Trevelyan,
+"to consent, after victory, to leave the devoted and enthusiastic
+Italians of the Dalmatian coast towns (other than Zara) in foreign
+territory." The truth is that henceforward Yugoslavia will contain some
+5000 Italians (many of whom are Italianized Slavs), as against not less
+than 600,000 Slavs in Italy. And while the former are but tiny groups in
+towns which even under Venetian rule were predominantly Slav and are
+surrounded on all sides by purely Slav populations, the latter live for
+the most part in compact masses and include roughly one-third of the
+whole Slovene race, whose national sense is not only very acute, but who
+are also much less illiterate than their Italian neighbours. One cannot
+be astonished if the Slovenes think of this more than of Giotto,
+Leonardo, Galileo and Dante. But one may be a little surprised that
+such a man as Mr. Edmund Gardner should allow his reverence for the
+imperishable glories of Italy to becloud his view of the modern world.
+It is certainly a fact that the Slovenes are to-day less illiterate than
+the Italians, but because Dr. Seton-Watson alludes to this, Mr. Gardner
+(in the _Manchester Guardian_, of February 13, 1921) deplores the
+"Balkanic mentality that seems to afflict some Englishmen when dealing
+with these problems."
+
+
+ITS PROBABLE FRUITS
+
+Now it is obvious that the Treaty of Rapallo has placed between the
+Yugoslavs and the Italians all too many causes of friction. Zadar, like
+other such enclaves, will be dear to the heart of the smuggler. She
+cannot live without her Yugoslav hinterland--five miles away in
+Yugoslavia are the waterworks, and if these were not included, by a
+special arrangement, in her dominion, she would have no other liquid but
+her maraschino. She cannot die without her Yugoslav hinterland--but so
+that her inhabitants need not be carried out into a foreign land, the
+cemetery has also, by stretching a point, been included in the city
+boundaries. It remains to be seen how Zadar and the hinterland will
+serve two masters. We have alluded to the questionable arrangements at
+Rieka, in which town there had for those years been such an orgy of
+limelight and recrimination that even the most statesmanlike solution
+must have left a good deal of potential friction. In Istria the dangers
+of an outbreak are evident. Italy has now become the absolute mistress
+of the Adriatic and has gained a strategical frontier which could hardly
+be improved upon, while Yugoslavia has been placed in an economic
+position of much difficulty. Sooner or later, if matters are left _in
+situ_, trouble will arise. Perhaps an economic treaty between Italy and
+Yugoslavia, as favourable as possible to the weaker State, would
+introduce some sort of stability; but no good cause would be served by
+crying "Peace" where there is no peace, and while Yugoslavia has a
+grievance there will be trouble in the Balkans.
+
+The most serious phase of the Adriatic crisis is now ushered in, for a
+new Alsace has been created; and those who point this out cannot be
+charged with an excessive leaning towards the Yugoslavs. It also seems
+to me that one can scarcely say they are alarmists. If Yugoslavia, in
+defiance of that most immoral pressure, had declared for war, Vesni['c]
+at the general election would have swept the country with the cry of
+"War for Istria!" To his eternal honour he chose the harder path of
+loyalty to the new ideas which Serbian blood has shed so freely to make
+victorious. A momentary victory has now been gained by the Italians, but
+not one that makes for peace. It poisons by annexations fundamentally
+unjustifiable, however consecrated by treaty, the whole source of
+tranquillity in the Near East. "Paciencia!" [Have patience] you say, in
+refusing to give alms to a Portuguese beggar, and he follows your
+advice. But when the Yugoslavs ask for a revision of the Treaty--if the
+Italians do not wisely offer it themselves--it would be rash if in
+attempting to foretell the future we should base ourselves upon the
+premise that their patience will be everlasting. A new Alsace has been
+created, an Alsace to which, in the opinion of competent observers, all
+the Yugoslavs will turn until the day comes when it is honourable to set
+the standards forth on a campaign of liberation.
+
+
+NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT
+
+When the Yugoslavs were at last in a position, late in 1920, to hold the
+elections for the Constituent Assembly the Radicals and the Democrats
+were the most successful, but even if they made a Coalition they would
+still have no majority. [Now and then the Democrats asserted themselves
+against the Radicals, but when the Opposition thought they could
+perceive a rift the Democratic Press would write that the two parties
+were most intimately joined to one another, and especially the
+Democrats.] The small parties were very numerous, the smallest being
+that of M. Ribarac, the old Liberal leader, who found himself in the
+Skup[vs]tina with nobody to lead; the clericals of Slovenia came to
+grief, a fact which appeared to give general satisfaction, and a similar
+mishap befell the decentralizing parties of Croatia. On the other hand
+the Croat Peasants' party, whose decentralization ideas were more
+extreme, had a very considerable success, and the Communist party, whose
+fall we have already described, had come to the Skup[vs]tina with some
+fifty members.
+
+
+(_a_) MARKOVI['C] THE COMMUNIST
+
+The temporary triumph of the Communists was admittedly due to the
+exceptional position in which the country found itself. They had in Sima
+Markovi['c] an enthusiastic leader who has abandoned the teaching of
+mathematics in order to expound the gospel of Moscow, and in the
+Skup[vs]tina the shrill, voice of this kindly, bald-headed little man
+had to be raised to its uttermost capacity, for most of his
+fellow-members were unwilling to be taught. It so happens that he is
+Pa[vs]i['c]'s godson, and on one occasion when the little Communist was
+talking with great vehemence the old gentleman, who was turning over the
+pages of some document, was heard by an appreciative House to murmur:
+"Oh, be still, my child, be still!" But the most unfortunate episode in
+Markovi['c]'s oratory was when he expressed the hope that Communism
+would rage through the country like an epidemic, forgetting for the
+moment that those municipalities which had gone over to Communism had
+won general praise for their improvements in the sanitary sphere.
+Largely on account of this infelicitous simile he was replaced in the
+leadership by another, a less vigorous and less entertaining person. And
+this party stood in particular need of attractive champions.
+
+The Croat Peasants' party, or the Radi['c] party, as it came to be
+called, gave to its beloved chief more than half the seats in Croatia,
+forty-nine out of ninety-three; and the whole party refused to go to
+Belgrade.
+
+"Would it not have been better," I asked him, "if you had gone? The
+Constitution will be settled without you."
+
+
+(_b_) RADI['C], THE MUCH-DISCUSSED
+
+"We had various reasons," said he, "for not going. One of them was that
+the Assembly which laid down the Constitution was not sovereign. For
+example, it was not permitted to discuss whether Yugoslavia should be a
+monarchy or a republic. I admit that three-quarters of the members would
+very likely have voted for a monarchy, and in that case we should have
+accepted the situation very much as do the royalist deputies in the
+French Parliament."
+
+"What are your own views on this subject?"
+
+"Well," said he, "for this period of transition I believe--mark you,
+this only applies to myself--that a monarchy is not merely acceptable
+but preferable. On the other hand the Croat peasant was so badly treated
+by the Habsburgs that he will now hear of nothing but a republic."
+
+I ventured to say that this sudden conversion to republican ideas in one
+who for centuries had lived in a monarchy was peculiar, and Radi['c]
+acknowledged that when the first republican cries were raised at a
+meeting of the Peasants' party on July 25, 1918 they came to him as a
+revelation, one which he accepted.
+
+"You don't accept everything that your peasants shout for?"
+
+"I do not," said he. "There was a gentleman who asked them at a meeting
+whether they would kill him if he, elected as their representative, were
+to go to Belgrade. They shouted back that they would do so. And when the
+prospective candidate came to tell me this story, thinking that I would
+be delighted, I told him that a ship's captain cannot have his hands
+bound before undertaking a voyage and he must therefore withdraw his
+candidature.... When the time comes we will go to Belgrade."
+
+"And those who say that you are longing for the return of the
+Habsburgs?"
+
+He gripped my arm. "They are fools," said he. "We are looking forward as
+eagerly as the great Bishop Strossmayer to the union of the Southern
+Slavs. According to the spirit of his time he began at the top, with
+academies, picture galleries and so forth. We prefer to begin with
+elementary schools." And bubbling with enthusiasm he told me of the
+efforts his party was making. It was plain to see that what lies nearest
+to his heart is to improve their social and economic status. And those
+observers are probably in the right, who believe that he merely uses
+this republican cry as a weapon which he will conveniently drop when it
+has served its purpose.
+
+"If only Yugoslavia had a great statesman," said I, "who would weld the
+new State together, so that the Croats remain with the Serbs not alone
+for the reasons that they are both Southern Slavs and that they are
+surrounded by not over-friendly neighbours. The great statesman--perhaps
+it will be Pa[vs]i['c]--will make you all happy to come together."
+
+"From the bottom of my heart I hope he will succeed," said Radi['c],
+"and he will be remembered as our second and more fortunate
+Strossmayer."
+
+We generally imagine that the statesmen of South-Eastern Europe are a
+collection of rather swarthy, frock-coated personages who, when not
+engaged in decrying each other, are very busily occupied in feathering
+their own nests. If any one of them, at the outset of his career, had a
+sense of humour we suppose that in this heated atmosphere it must have
+long ago evaporated. But strangely enough, the two most prominent
+politicians in Yugoslavia, the venerable Pa[vs]i['c], the Prime Minister
+of this new State of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, even as he used for
+years to be the autocrat of Serbia, and his opponent Stephen Radi['c]
+are, both of them, by the grace of God, of a humorous disposition.
+Outwardly, there is not much resemblance between them: Pa[vs]i['c], the
+picture of a benevolent patriarch, letting fall in his deep voice a few
+casual words which bring down his critics' case, hopelessly down like a
+wounded aeroplane, and Radi['c] the fervid little orator, the learned
+man, whose life has been devoted to the Croat peasants and who is said
+to find it difficult to make a speech that is under eight hours in
+length. Last year when the vigorous Pribi[vc]evi['c], then Minister of
+the Interior, who is determined to compel the Serbs and the Croats
+straightway to live in the closest companionship, whereas Radi['c],
+supported by most of the Croat _intelligentsia_, argues that in view of
+their very different culture, the Serbs having enjoyed a Byzantine and
+the Croats an Austrian education, it would be advisable for these two
+branches of the South Slav nation to come gradually and not violently
+together,--last year when Radi['c] was lying in prison on account of his
+subversive ideas Pribi[vc]evi['c] sent a message to say that he was
+prepared to adopt half his programme. And Radi['c] sent back word
+regretting that the Minister could not adopt the whole of it and thus
+obtain for himself the Peasants' party. It is wrong to assert that this
+party is unpatriotic; the enemies of Yugoslavia, who welcome in Radi['c]
+a disruptive element, are totally in error. Years ago he was working for
+the eventual union of Serbs and Croats--the Austrians imprisoned him
+because in 1903 he went to Belgrade at the accession of King Peter and
+made an admirable speech to this effect--and his present attitude is due
+to the impatient manner in which Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c] and his friends
+are endeavouring to bring the union about. His peasants are a
+conservative people; they cannot instantly dispel the anti-Serb ideas
+which the Austrians for ever inculcated, nor the negative anti-Serb
+frame of mind which they learned from their own _intelligentsia_. It
+will take a little time before the Catholic peasant realizes that the
+Orthodox Serb is his brother and that now his military service will not
+be in an alien army, but in his own. "Let us go slowly," says Radi['c],
+"with our peasants"; and he knows them very well.... One is told that he
+changes his opinions from hour to hour; he is certainly very impetuous,
+very much under the influence of his emotions; but in one thing he has
+never varied--he has always struggled for the Croat peasant, and he has
+been rewarded by the unbounded devotion of that faithful, rather
+incoherent, creature.
+
+Now the Serbs are a democratic people; they are by their nature in
+opposition to any force, civil or military, which might attempt to make
+the monarchy more absolute. The wisest Serbs do not forget that in the
+peasant lies their principal wealth, and although as yet the Serbian
+Peasants' party does not hold many constituencies in the old kingdom,
+nevertheless it appears to have a brighter prospect than any other
+Serbian party, for in that country the revolt against the
+lawyer-politician is likely to be more efficacious than in France or
+England. One may look forward to an understanding between Radi['c] and
+this Serbian party, which is only two or three years old, although its
+founder, the excellent Avramovi['c]--an elderly gentleman who sits
+behind vast barricades of books in various languages--has devoted
+himself for many years to agrarian co-operative societies, of which in
+Serbia there are more than 1500.
+
+The most uncertain factors seem to be the moderating hold of Radi['c]
+over his peasants and over himself. No one doubts but that he has the
+interests of the peasant very much at heart, and if he succeeds in
+improving the peasant's lot then that grateful giant will presumably not
+sink again into the sleep which he enjoyed when he was under the
+Habsburgs. The circulation of Radi['c]'s weekly paper _Dom_[62] ("The
+Home") has risen from 2000 before the elections and 9000 during the
+elections to 30,000. One enterprising vendor, a Serb from the Banat,
+takes 500 copies a week and tramps over the countryside, disposing of
+his wares either for cash or for eggs, the latter of which he sells at
+the end of the week to a Zagreb hotel. The peasant is making great
+efforts to raise himself--a case has recently been brought to light of a
+farmer in Zagorija who, as a hobby, has taught more than 700 persons to
+read and write. The peasant perceives that he has been assisted far less
+by the Catholic Church than by the work of Radi['c]. It is not unfair to
+say that the Church desired, above all things, to keep the peasant
+under her control. If a parish priest was disliked by his flock, so a
+prominent Croatian priest tells me, that was all the more reason why the
+Bishop refused to remove him. And the clergy, except for an enlightened
+minority, have been very much opposed to Radi['c]'s policy of
+democratizing the Church.... In return for his unceasing labours he has
+now secured the peasant's love and confidence. He will retain them if he
+satisfies his client, and it seems to be within his power--gaining for
+him a better position and dissuading him from fantastic demands. He can
+be of immense assistance in the task of building up the State. But will
+the brilliant flame within him burn with steadiness? Has he got
+sufficient strength of will? With all his qualities of heart and brain
+he has not managed to discard his zig-zag impetuosity. The peasants, who
+recognize his talents, ask him to captain the ship; but he runs down too
+often into his cabin and leaves the unskilled sailors on the bridge.
+Down in the cabin he is feverishly and with great skill writing a
+contradiction of a pronouncement he made yesterday.
+
+Those who are openly sailing in Radi['c]'s boat are for the most part
+the hard-headed peasants. Yet a number of the _intelligentsia_ are
+coming on board--some of them, no doubt, with a view to their own
+advancement, but others on account of their convictions. And a still
+greater number of the Croat _intelligentsia_ look on him with
+sympathy--municipal officials, barristers, doctors, merchants,
+schoolmasters and military officers. It is most foolish to pretend that
+all these people are thinking regretfully of the old Habsburg days--they
+are, in the vast majority, sincere and loyal Yugoslavs who have certain
+grievances. They do not believe that Croatia has fared very well since
+the institution of the new State and it would seem wise to give them as
+much autonomy as is consonant with the interests of the whole country,
+for then they will only have themselves to blame if there is no
+improvement. Maybe they are unduly sensitive, but they were for many
+years in political warfare with the Magyars and this should be taken
+into consideration. Even if all the grievances are based on
+misconceptions, on the difficulties of the moment, on the circumstances
+of the fading past--the new generation of Croats, say their teachers,
+are growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs--yet an effort should be made
+to sweep them away.
+
+When Belgrade makes a statesmanlike gesture then Radi['c] will probably
+be able to persuade the peasants to abandon their republican
+slogan--both they and the _intelligentsia_ will abandon their reserved
+attitude towards the Government which they were far from entertaining
+when the State was first established. It seems as if the role of
+conciliator may well be filled by that wise old man, Nicholas
+Pa[vs]i['c], who is now no longer a mere Balkan Premier. When he was
+that he very properly used Balkan methods, despite the stern remarks of
+a few Western critics.
+
+
+THE SERBS AND THE CROATS
+
+We have alluded to the relations between Serbs and Croats. This is a
+subject of such importance that it will be well to consider it more
+fully. When Yugoslavia sprang into existence at the end of the War--70
+per cent. of this State having previously been under the rule of the
+House of Habsburg--it was met in various quarters with a grudging
+welcome. Soon, we were told, it would dissolve again, and every symptom
+of internal discontent was treated as a proof of this. On the other hand
+there were those who told us that the Southern Slavs, having come
+together after all these hundreds of years, were tightly clasped in each
+others' arms and that all reports to the contrary came from very
+interested parties.
+
+Little was said of the Slovenes; their language, as we have mentioned,
+is not the same as that spoken by Serbs and Croats, and--what is of
+still greater importance--they have Slovenia to themselves. If Croatia
+were equally immune from Serbs, then by this time the Southern Slavs
+would be a more united nation. Those people were wrong who fancied that
+the presence of the Serbs in Croatia--they form between one-fourth and
+one-third of the population--would be of service in welding together the
+new State. They forgot that for many years the Austro-Hungarian
+Government had in Croatia played off the Roman Catholic Croats against
+the Orthodox Serbs. The two Slav brothers were incited to mutual hatred,
+and though such a propaganda would naturally have more effect among the
+uneducated classes, yet all too often the _intelligentsia_ responded to
+these machinations. More favour, of course, was shown to the Croats,
+whose obedience could largely be secured by means of the Church, whereas
+no similar pressure could be brought to bear upon the Orthodox Serbs.
+Even if the Government approached the Orthodox clergy, these latter had
+only a very moderate control over their flock. A Serb is always ready to
+subscribe towards the erection of a new church, which he regards as most
+other nations regard their flag; but when it is built he rarely enters
+it. This being so, the Austro-Hungarian Government tyrannized over the
+Serbs in Croatia by measures taken against their schools, the Cyrillic
+alphabet and so forth. It was natural that the suffering Serbs were apt
+to compare these restrictions with those that were imposed upon the
+Croats. However, among the _intelligentsia_ an effort--a fairly
+successful effort--was made to nullify this dividing policy; the
+Serbo-Croat Coalition was formed, one of the protagonists being Svetozar
+Pribi[vc]evi['c], that very energetic Serb of Croatia, and in 1906 this
+party obtained no less than sixty-eight seats, while the power of the
+older Croat parties was correspondingly diminished and Radi['c] had his
+very small following in the Zagreb Lantag. [Those who represented
+Croatia in the central Parliament at Buda-Pest were chosen by the Ban,
+Khuen-Hedérváry. Those forty members had practically no acquaintance
+with the Magyar language, so that some of them drew their 8000 annual
+crowns and only went to Pest if an important division was expected,
+others who spent more time in the capital wasted their lives amid
+surroundings just as riotous as and more expensive than the Parliament,
+while only those did useful work who managed to confer, behind the
+scenes, with the authorities. To some extent this was done by
+Pribi[vc]evi['c] and to a greater extent by another Serb, Dr. Du[vs]an
+Popovi['c], who surpassed him in capacity and geniality. It was he, by
+the way, who demonstrated in the Buda-Pest Parliament that if the
+average Croat deputy was ignorant of the Magyar language, there was a
+greater ignorance of Serbo-Croatian on the part of the Magyars. One day
+when he had started on a speech in his native tongue he was howled down
+after he had explained that he was talking Serbian. He promised to
+continue in Croatian, and did so without being interrupted.]
+
+At Zagreb the fusion of the Croat and Serb _intelligentsia_ was still
+very incomplete at the outbreak of the War--the Croat Star[vc]evist
+party and others going their own way. During the War the
+Austro-Hungarian Government ruled by means of the Coalition party; but
+the latter had no choice, and throughout Croatia they were never charged
+with infidelity to the Slav cause. They did whatever their delicate
+situation permitted; and in October 1918, when the Slavs of Croatia and
+Slovenia threw off the yoke of centuries and joined with the Serbs of
+Serbia and Montenegro, one hoped that the simultaneous arrival in
+Belgrade of the Coalition and the Star[vc]evist leaders heralded in
+Croatia a cessation of the ancient hostility. Pribi[vc]evi['c] became
+Minister of the Interior in the new State, and very soon it was obvious
+that he meant to govern in a centralizing fashion, despite his earlier
+assurance that no such steps would be taken without the sanction of the
+Constituent Assembly. No doubt his motives were unimpeachable; he feared
+lest the negative, anti-Serb mentality, which for so long had flourished
+among the Croats, would not, except by drastic methods, be removed. He
+was met with opposition. Now you see, he cried, there are still in
+Croatia a number of disloyal Slavs, great landowners, Catholic clergy
+and others whom the Habsburgs used to favour. And he continued, with
+hundreds of edicts, to try to weld the State together. Consumed with
+patriotism, his great black eyes on flame amid the pallor of his
+face--his luminous and martyred face, to use the expression of his
+friends--he never for a moment relaxed his efforts; if those who opposed
+him were numerous it was all the more reason why he must be resolute.
+The rôle fitted him very well, for he is the dourest politician in
+Yugoslavia--a perfectly honest, upright, injudicious patriot. His
+Democratic party had now taken the place of the Serbo-Croat Coalition
+and it saw the other parties in Croatia gradually drifting back again
+from it or rather from the dominating man; if his place had been
+occupied by his afore-mentioned colleague, the burly and beloved
+Du[vs]an Popovi['c], there would have been in Zagreb a very much suaver
+atmosphere. But unfortunately Popovi['c] is a wealthy man, a highly
+successful lawyer who cares little for the tumult of politics.... It was
+a thorny problem, whether the State should be constituted on a federal
+or a centralized basis.[63] The federation of the United States depends
+on the centralization of political parties, whereas in Yugoslavia the
+parties have only just begun to combine. Feudalism in the German Empire
+rested on the predominance of Prussia, a position which the Serbs are,
+under present conditions, loth to occupy in Yugoslavia. In Germany,
+moreover, many of the States used to be independent, while in Yugoslavia
+this was only the case with Serbia and Montenegro. Centralism would tend
+to obliterate the tribal divisions, but on the other hand it brings in
+its train bureaucracy, which is slow, cumbrous and often corrupt; it
+demands unusually good central institutions and first-rate
+communications, neither of which are as yet in a satisfactory state. The
+constitution has arrived at a compromise between the federal and the
+centralized systems. A writer in the _Contemporary Review_ (November
+1921) said that the division of the whole of Yugoslavia into some
+twenty administrative areas [he should have said thirty-three] to
+replace the racial areas, was a very drastic proposal to put forward;
+and he added that when the historic provincial divisions of France were
+broken up into departments, the nation had been prepared by nearly 200
+years of centralization under the monarchy. It is a flaw in his argument
+to say that the previously existing areas were racial, whereas
+populations of identical race were divided from one another by the
+course of events. And in the proposed obliteration of these
+divisions--to be effected in a less arbitrary fashion than in France,
+where no account was taken of the former provinces--it can scarcely be
+maintained that, of itself, this part of the centralizing programme in
+Yugoslavia is so very drastic.
+
+Whatever one may think about the Balkan peoples it is a fact that the
+essential Serb, the Serb from [vS]umadia, is a pacific person, rather
+lazy perhaps, but certainly more devoted to dancing than to battle. And
+some of the wiser Serbs were dubious in 1919 and 1920 as to whether the
+most sagacious methods were being employed in Croatia. Radi['c] was in
+prison, but they were told that this impetuous demagogue was insisting
+on a republic, and the Croat _intelligentsia_ were far from happy. It is
+true that in the elections of November 1920 the National party, as the
+Star[vc]evists now called themselves, had no great success; but the
+Radi['c] party had more than half the seats. Surely this had not been
+brought about merely by the chief's imprisonment? There seemed to be in
+that province some wider, some growing dissatisfaction. And in the
+spring of 1921 most of the Catholic Croats, those within and those
+without the Radi['c] party, were nourishing a score of grievances. No
+doubt a large proportion of these were unavoidable (in view of the state
+of Central Europe) or were rather trivial (the mayor of an important
+town told me that he, who was under the Minister of the Interior, had
+received an order from the Belgrade Minister of War, with respect to the
+detention of deserters--conditions, said he, were not so primitive in
+the Austro-Hungarian monarchy) and sometimes the grievances were against
+the Habsburgs (for not having made them more fit to assume these new
+responsibilities), and sometimes they were against the Serbs for being
+less civilized--though they might be more moral--than themselves, and
+sometimes the grievances were personal: now and then after the Austrian
+collapse a Serbian officer or his men, uncertain of the feelings of the
+population, had acted with unwise, or rather with inexpedient,
+vigour--instead of shooting those who in the general anarchy were laying
+waste and plundering, they merely flogged them, and this was for a long
+time remembered against them, although the Croat _intelligentsia_ who
+had taken service in the police flogged in a far more wholesale fashion.
+But down at the bottom of all the grievances there is the fundamental
+fact that the Southern Slavs yearn to be comrades, to shake off the
+differences which in the course of ages have grown up between them.
+These fraternal sentiments may be crudely expressed--it has happened
+that a Slav from Bosnia (whose ancestors adopted Islam some centuries
+ago) finds himself in a Serbian village. He strikes up acquaintance with
+some native. "What is your name?" asks the latter. "Muhammed." The Serb
+has never heard of such a name; he is puzzled. "Well, never mind," says
+he, and takes his new friend back to dinner. They sit down to the
+sucking pig. Muhammed refuses to partake of it, and informs the Serb
+that Allah would be angry. "Don't be afraid," says the Serb; "I'll tell
+him that it's my fault," and after a time he overcomes the Bosniak's
+scruples.... In more cultured circles the wonderful union of the
+Southern Slavs is manifested after a different fashion, and those
+neighbours who imagine that the afore-mentioned grievances are going to
+dissolve the new State will one day see how much they are mistaken. The
+Southern Slavs intend to quarrel with each other, to quarrel like
+brothers.
+
+
+THE SAD CASE OF PRIBI[vC]EVI['C]
+
+As between the Catholic and the Orthodox in Croatia the sole uncertainty
+is whether this fusion will shortly take place or after an interval. It
+is agreed by the most malcontent schoolmasters that their pupils are
+growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs who will have no more fear of what
+they call "Serb hegemony" than have the Scots of that of England. As for
+the present generation of Croats and Serbs, if they were Occidentals
+they would be old enough to laugh at each others' peculiarities and each
+others' statesmen. But South-Eastern Europe is still under the morning
+clouds, and they are inclined to take seriously what we in the West make
+fun of. However, there is one man whose presence in the Cabinet the
+Croats cannot be expected to regard with good-humour or with
+nonchalance. The reconciliation of Croatia will be much more easily
+effected if Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c] resigns. His merits as a demagogue and
+political writer are undeniable. He would make an excellent Whip. But he
+prefers to be a Minister, and most unfortunately he is not a statesman.
+A zealous patriot, he is as yet unable to conceive that the business of
+the State could be more successfully managed without him. The sweets of
+office appear, if anything, to have made him more bitter; and even among
+the Serbs of the old kingdom his withdrawal is considered advisable. A
+friend of his has told me that in the middle of a laughing conversation
+he threw out a hint of this, and like a cloud blown suddenly across a
+summer sky, Pribi[vc]evi['c]'s face grew black. Unhappily he is not even
+Fortinbras and yet imagines he is Hamlet. A good many people in
+Yugoslavia call him _un homme fatal_, most of the others _l'homme
+fatal_. It is said that in the Democratic party he is actively supported
+by not more than ten deputies, but that the others, to preserve the
+party, take no steps. He himself, however, would probably have not the
+least hesitation in choosing another party, if he could otherwise not
+stay in the Cabinet; for his permanence in office is the one idea that
+crushes every other from his mind. If he cannot be Minister of the
+Interior--a post from which he has been more than once, and happily for
+Yugoslavia, ejected--then he insists on being Minister of Education.
+What are his qualifications? Years ago he gave instruction at a school
+for elementary teachers, and so faint a conception has he of the
+educational needs of his country that one day when a Professor of
+Belgrade University asked him if no steps could be taken to diminish the
+prohibitive cost of books, especially foreign books, the Minister
+simply stared at him as if he had been talking Chinese. And yet in a
+recent book of national verses, published by his brother Adam, we are
+told that:
+
+    "At the table also sat the sage Pribi[vc]evi['c],
+    Who can converse with Emperors...."
+
+There are some who, curiously, have compared Radi['c]'s party with the
+Sinn Feiners; Radi['c] may have announced that he would approach the
+Serbs as the representative of an independent country, but he never
+proposed, even when his views were most extreme, to realize them with
+physical force. At a great open-air meeting of his adherents the
+speeches were so mild that only twice did the Chief of Police, who was
+next to me, raise a warning finger, and on each occasion to keep the
+orator from very innocent digressions. Nevertheless, there is no
+concealing the fact that even in these unsatisfactory times--"It seems
+to me," said a philosophic peasant recently at Valjevo, in the heart of
+Serbia, "it seems to me that if we had a plebiscite then Valjevo might
+not wish to remain with Serbia!"--even in a world that is so awry the
+Croats are more reserved towards the union than is good for the State.
+Perhaps they would cherish fewer grievances if they had gained their
+freedom with greater difficulty; and surely they need have no more
+uneasiness than have the Scots that their name and nationality will be
+swamped, for what the Magyars were unable to do, that the Serbs do not
+wish to do. There are among the Serbs a few extremists, such as a
+pernicious editor or two, but their anti-Croat tirades find extremely
+little favour anywhere. Last autumn when the Prince-Regent (now King
+Alexander) visited the Croat capital his reception was most
+enthusiastic. "Let us keep him here!" cried the people, "and let King
+Peter stay in Belgrade!" The Prince by his tact brought the Croat out of
+his tent; he must not be allowed to go back again--let the Southern
+Slavs observe what each of their provinces can bring towards the common
+good. The Croats acknowledge that the military system of Serbia is more
+endurable--only one son is taken out of each family--and that whereas in
+Slovenia a lawsuit can be settled in fourteen days it has been wont in
+Croatia to take as many years. Unfortunately human nature, in Serbia,
+Croatia and everywhere else, finds that the bad points of other people
+are more worthy of comment than the good. When two brothers have been
+brought up in very different circumstances there will be so many points
+on which they differ; and when a Serb taking part in a technical
+discussion of scientists wishes to say that he differs from the previous
+speaker he will commonly observe that that person has made a fool of
+himself. When an editor alludes to a political opponent he may call him
+an assassin and be much astonished if this is resented. "Je suis un
+ours," said a Serbian savant of European repute; occasionally he behaves
+like one and is rather proud of it. The Serbs of Croatia have been
+imitating, nay exaggerating, the emphatic manners of their countrymen in
+the old kingdom. And Pribi[vc]evi['c], as Minister of Education, has not
+attempted to give the Croats a tactful course in courage, patriotism and
+morality, where they have much to learn from the less civilized Serbs,
+but scowling at them he has made up his mind that, in and out of school,
+they must straightway be the closest of companions.
+
+However, the Serbs and Croats have a man whose counsel is more worthy of
+attention. Dr. Trumbi['c], formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had
+been elected at the head of four different lists in his native Dalmatia
+but had entered the Constituent Assembly without giving his allegiance
+to any party. And in April 1921 he made a speech as memorable as it was
+long, for it occupied the whole of one sitting and was continued the
+next day. Careless of the applause and the antagonism which he excited,
+the serene orator pointed out that the conflict between Serbs and Croats
+was based on their different psychology. Croatia had had her independent
+life and must be considered as a factor in Yugoslavia; but having come
+in, like Montenegro, of her own accord, she had not wished to be a
+separate factor. Traditions should not be so lightly set aside; and
+while there was perhaps no people more homogeneous than the Yugoslavs it
+should be remembered that none was more ready to resist the application
+of force.
+
+
+LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS
+
+Except at Kola[vs]in, where a few friends of Nikita tried their brigand
+tactics, there was perfect calm in Montenegro during the elections. As
+elsewhere in Yugoslavia, there was a general amnesty and a prohibition,
+for the three preceding days, to sell wine or rakia. The ten elected
+candidates, all of them for the Yugoslav union and against Nikita, were
+equally divided between Radicals and Democrats on the one hand and
+Communists and Republicans on the other. The authorities took not the
+slightest step to favour any candidate; various prominent deputies, such
+as Dr. Yoyi['c], the Minister of Food Supply, were beaten. And in a
+letter to the Press we were told by Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that these
+elections were certainly both "farcical and fraudulent." He is
+contradicted by Mr. Roland Bryce, who, after his excellent work on the
+Allied Plebiscite Commission in Carinthia, was sent by the Foreign
+Office with Major L. E. Ottley to report on the Montenegrin elections.
+He says (in Command Paper I., 124) that "in actual practice the method
+of voting prescribed by the electoral law was found to ensure absolute
+secrecy (the system adopted being the only feasible one in a country
+where the proportion of illiterates is great), and the manner in which
+the ballot was supervised and carried out was unimpeachable and proof
+against the most exacting criticism." Mr. M'Neill is also contradicted
+by the Republican candidate, M. Gjonovi['c], who in a manifesto drawn up
+after the election declares that "none can say that the elections were
+not free, or that anyone who wished could not make up a list. At the
+elections only the lists and boxes of the Republicans, Democrats,
+Independents, Radicals and Communists were represented. All of these
+parties had in their programmes the motto 'The people and State union,'
+with, of course, different points of view and different opinions as to
+the organization of our national and State forces, except the
+Communists, who go further and desire the union of all peoples."
+
+
+WHICH ONE GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE
+
+It will thus be seen that the friends of Nikita were altogether wrong in
+suggesting that those who voted for the Republicans or Communists were
+opposed to the union with Serbia in Yugoslavia. Both Republicans and
+(paradoxical though it sounds) the Communists resented this insinuation
+very bitterly; and considering that the leaders of both parties are
+pronounced antagonists of the old régime, and were indeed severally
+condemned to death by Nikita, it would have been strange if they now
+supported him. Thus every single programme put forward by the different
+parties included, in some form or other, union with Serbia. The
+candidates themselves explicitly said so; but Mr. M'Neill knows better,
+and informs us how very hostile to the Serbs they really were. He is a
+wonderful man, Mr. M'Neill. Standing up in the House of Commons he
+directs his penetrating gaze upon the Black Mountain, and with such
+effect that he can see in the minds of Montenegrin politicians what they
+themselves had never dreamed of. Since we have such a man as Mr. M'Neill
+in the country, one would think that the Foreign Office might have saved
+itself the expense of sending out Mr. Bryce and Major Ottley.
+
+But since we have it, let us look at Mr. Bryce's very interesting and
+detailed report. After explaining that both Republicans and Communists
+were in favour of union with Serbia, he tells us how it happened that so
+many people voted for these two lists instead of for the orthodox
+Radical and Democratic parties. The Communists, according to Mr. Bryce,
+were benefited by a party organization, a vigorous canvass and a better
+discipline than that of any of their opponents. Their policy won the
+support of many ardent and very patriotic Nationalists, who voted in
+many cases for Communism on the ground that it was the Russian
+policy--out of gratitude for what the Tzars had done for Montenegro in
+the past! Major Temperley, assistant military attaché, in another report
+(Command Paper I., 123) observes that some local discontent had arisen
+in Montenegro because the native does not understand, and has never
+experienced before, a really efficient system of government, and
+because the introduction of conscription was not well adapted to the
+national tradition of lawless and untrained vigour. Major Temperley
+testifies that the Republican party gained the suffrages of numerous
+returned emigrants who admired the state of things in America. He shares
+Mr. Bryce's opinion as to the insignificance of the pro-Nikita party.
+"Even making large allowances," says he, "there seemed to me to be no
+doubt that the pro-Nicholas party were the weakest in Montenegro."
+Certain of his devotees were simply brigands who, like the Neapolitan
+miscreants after 1860, sought to cast a glamour over their depredations
+by affecting to be in arms on behalf of their former King. This
+personage himself was so well aware of his unpopularity that he was
+prudent enough to tell his supporters to abstain from voting. Those who
+did abstain were altogether only 32·69 per cent. of the electors, though
+one would have been justified in expecting a much higher proportion,
+since the people have not yet fully grasped their rights and duties with
+respect to the franchise; the distances to the booths were often very
+great, and the peasants were often indifferent as to whether one
+candidate or another with a very similar programme should be elected.
+The tribal or family system is still so prevalent in the villages that
+one member of a family would be sent to express the considered views of
+his fellows. The effect of the elections being held on a Sunday was to
+increase rather than diminish the number of abstainers, for although
+Sunday is a public holiday the Christian Montenegrin is under no
+obligation to hear Mass and for that reason travel to the village. The
+churches are practically deserted, for he is accustomed on that day to
+remain at home; while the Moslem voters largely declined to vote because
+there were no Moslem candidates. That is why it would appear that those
+of the 32·69 per cent. who abstained because they were in favour of
+Nikita were extremely few. Their simple-mindedness has its limits, while
+that of good Mr. M'Neill believes that because France, Great Britain and
+America undertook to restore Montenegrin independence, they were still
+obliged to do so after they perceived at the conclusion of the War that
+an overwhelming majority of Montenegrins did not desire it. This
+majority dethroned its traitor-king; but Mr. M'Neill maintains that
+France and England have dethroned "a monarch who was a friend and an
+ally."[64] Because M. Poincaré, in the days before the Montenegrins had
+rejected Nikita, addressed him as "Very Dear and Great Friend"--the
+ordinary form of words for a reigning monarch--Mr. M'Neill actually
+seems to think that France was for evermore compelled to clasp Nikita to
+her bosom. He clearly admires those who, since the end of the War, have
+risen in the cause of their old King; and I suppose that in consequence
+he disapproves of the Omladina, the voluntary association of men who
+banded themselves together to resist the terrorism of the pro-King
+komitadjis. If he had been in Montenegro during the years after the War
+he would possibly agree that komitadji is the proper name for the many
+lawless elements who have found the traditional fighting life more
+congenial than the thankless task of tilling their very barren land. The
+moral effect of opposing to these the Montenegrin Omladina instead of
+Serbian troops was to destroy all pretence of the movement being a
+national Montenegrin insurrection against the union, and the cessation
+of assistance from Italy resulted in the complete suppression of the
+movement. The few outlaws who still remain at large, said Mr. Bryce in
+December 1920, are in no sense political, but are merely bandits. And as
+the Omladina has now no _raison d'être_ they have disbanded themselves.
+Much now depends on the Constitution. If it gives them equal rights--and
+naturally it will--with the other inhabitants of Yugoslavia the
+Montenegrins will be content.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In August 1921 the _Secolo_ of Milan sent a famous correspondent to
+Montenegro. He came to much the same conclusions as Messrs. Bryce and
+Temperley. Not a single political prisoner was to be found, and not one
+of the ex-soldiers who returned from Gaeta had been molested. The
+correspondent thought that the Serbs had been ill-advised at the
+beginning to employ forcible methods against the pro-Nikita partisans
+who were opposed to Yugoslavia; they should, said he, have let the pear
+ripen spontaneously and fall into their lap. But now their policy had
+become one of conciliation: during the last two and a half years
+Montenegro had received from Belgrade for public works, pensions and
+subsidies, 93 million dinars, and had paid in taxes only 5 millions.
+Secondary education had been increased, and 700 Montenegrin students (of
+whom 500 are allotted a monthly grant) frequent Yugoslav universities.
+The fertile lands of Yugoslavia were open to Montenegrin emigration. In
+fact an isolated, independent Montenegro was no longer needed. With the
+disappearance of the Turk from all Serbian territory in 1913 a return to
+the union of the Serbs, as in the days of Stephen Du[vs]an, was only
+hindered by historical, sentimental and, above all, by dynastic reasons.
+It was sad, quoth the correspondent, that the glorious history of
+Montenegro should have come to such a tame end, but her historic mission
+was closed in 1913, even as that of Scotland in 1707, to the benefit of
+both parties. Now the Serbs were leaving them to manage their own
+affairs; many ex-Nikita officials had been confirmed in their posts,
+while officers were given their old rank in the Yugoslav army. It is
+unfortunate for itself that the "Near East" (of London) does not employ
+so discerning a correspondent. We should then hear no more of such folly
+as that which--to select one occasion out of many--caused it in November
+1921 to speak about "the forcible absorption of Montenegro." And the
+world may be pardoned if it is more ready to accept the observations
+made on the spot by an expert Italian correspondent rather than the
+futile remarks sent by the Hon. Aubrey Herbert from the House of
+Commons, also in November 1921, to the _Morning Post_. This gentleman
+informs us that "it was probably because the Yugoslav Government was
+allowed to annex the ancient principality of Montenegro, exile its King,
+and subjugate its people, without any interference from the Great
+Powers, that M. Pasitch thought that he could do as he liked in
+Albania." That is the sort of statement which one may treat with Matthew
+Arnold's "patient, deep disdain."
+
+
+MEDIÆVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA
+
+On July 14, 1920, a letter marked "urgent" (No. 2047) was written by
+Colonel Sani, the Chief of d'Annunzio's Cabinet, in which he confirmed
+the orders which he had already given verbally, to the effect that all
+the foreign elements, especially the Serbs and Croats, who "exercise an
+obnoxious political influence," should be expelled from Rieka at the
+earliest possible date; he mentions that this is the command of
+d'Annunzio, who is in full accord with the President of the Consiglio
+Nazionale. This was the continuation of a practice which the Italian
+authorities had carried on in a wholesale manner. Father J. N.
+Macdonald, in his unimpeachable little book, _A Political Escapade_
+(London, 1921), gives us numerous examples of persons who in the most
+wanton fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant called
+Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while talking to some English
+soldiers. After three days, spent under arrest, he was told that he
+would have to depart "from Italy" (_sic_). He was given a _faglio di via
+obligatorio_ by the carabinieri, according to which he was banished on
+the ground of being "unemployed." Yet this man had had a fixed residence
+in Rieka for thirty-six years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished
+with a regular industrial certificate.... His name had been found on one
+of the lists in favour of annexation to Yugoslavia. When the world in
+general turned its attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to
+think that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that an
+agreement had at last been reached and the poor harassed place was to be
+neutral, it presumed that those among her citizens who had been openly
+in arms against the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
+would have been astonished to be told that the notorious self-elected
+Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame President, Mr.
+Grossich, cheerfully remained in office. It is true that they now called
+themselves the "Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this change
+of title made a good deal more impression than upon the local Yugoslavs,
+whose treatment did not vary. A decree was printed on January 21, 1921,
+in the _Vedetta_, which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
+previous Government retained their force, but that appeals might be
+addressed to the Rector of the Interior. A deputation was received by
+this gentleman, and was told that the procedure would be so complicated
+and so lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until after
+the elections. These elections had been fixed for the end of April, and
+it seemed as if France and England were so blinded by the blessed words
+"Provisional Government" that they could see nothing else. That over
+2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from the d'Annunzian
+era or been since introduced was surely gossip, and how could anyone
+believe that those men had been granted citizenship on the simple
+declaration of a Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the
+applicant worked under him? These declarations, by the way, must have
+refrained from going into details, for there was an almost total lack of
+work--except in the political department of the police. Rieka was to all
+intents in the possession of Italy, and she was learning what that
+meant. The town was like a dead place, shops were only open in the
+morning, and if the shopkeepers had not been compelled by the
+authorities to remove their shutters they would have strolled down to
+the quays where the grass was growing--"but, thank Heaven," cried
+Grossich, "thank Heaven, it is Italian grass!" (If he ever recalls that
+long-distant day, when, as a student, he fought for his fellow-Croats,
+and when, as a young doctor, he was an enthusiastic official of the
+Croat Club at Castua near Rieka, perhaps this gentleman thanks his God
+for having led him to Rieka and turned him into an Italian.) Cut off
+from its Yugoslav hinterland the population of Rieka, which consisted
+more and more of arditi and fascisti, less and less of Yugoslavs, the
+population had nothing to do save to speculate in the rate of exchange
+(but not in the local notes which no one wanted) and to prepare for the
+elections. Thus, with time very heavy on their hands, there was a great
+deal of corruption; cocaine could be obtained at nearly all the cafés.
+The elections drew nearer, and one wondered whether the Entente was
+going to look at the lists of voters and to inquire how it came that
+many natives of the town were not inscribed. What was likely to happen
+if the place was delivered altogether to the C.N.I. could be seen when
+the harbour of Baro[vs], given by the Rapallo Treaty to Yugoslavia, was
+demanded, simply demanded, by the Italian Nationalists; those
+ultra-patriots the fascisti, in Italy and in Rieka, when they saw that
+in the "holocaust city" everything was going just as well for them as in
+the brave days of d'Annunzio, persisted loudly in claiming Baro[vs] as
+an integral part of Rieka. The Yugoslavs must be prevented, wherever
+possible, from approaching the Adriatic--this being the furious policy
+of the Italian capitalists who had succeeded in sweeping most of the
+Italian people off their feet. With Baro[vs], a port of limited
+possibilities, in the hands of the Yugoslavs, it would mean that the
+adjacent Rieka through its Yugoslav commerce would prosper; but anything
+that savoured of a Yugoslav Rieka was obnoxious to the capitalists and
+their wild followers, since they feared that in the first place it would
+raise a grievous obstacle to their penetration of the Balkans, and
+secondly it would involve the ruin of Triest, where German capital still
+plays a predominant part. So in their folly they strenuously fought for
+the Germans, spurred on by the terrible thought that Rieka might become
+predominantly Yugoslav. They refused to listen to their wiser men, who
+pointed out that the possession of an odd town or island was to Italy of
+not so much importance as friendship with their Slav neighbours. When,
+at the beginning of April 1921 a large sailing boat, the _Rad_ (Captain
+Vlaho Grubi[vs]i['c]) came into Baro[vs], the first ship to bring the
+Yugoslav flag to that port, there was intense commotion among the
+fascisti. Forty of them with weapons ran down to the harbour, but
+Grubi[vs]i['c] told them that he saw no reason why he should not fly the
+flag of his State. A number of workmen, Italians and Yugoslavs, then
+appeared and made common cause against the fascisti, so that the latter
+withdrew. And the captain of the Italian warship _Carlo Mirabello_ sent
+to ask Grubi[vs]i['c] if he had removed the flag. On hearing that he had
+not done so the captain said that he had acted perfectly correctly. It
+seems to be too much to hope that such honourable Italians as this
+captain and these workmen will be able, without certain measures on the
+part of France and England, to prevail over those elements who have
+dragged Rieka down to death and to dishonour.
+
+At last, on April 25, the elections were held. There were two parties,
+that of the C.N.I., swollen with arditi and fascisti, who would have
+nothing to do with the Treaty of Rapallo--their programme consisted in
+annexation to Italy--and the other party, whose object was to carry out
+the provisions of the Treaty. Professor Zanella was its chief. There did
+not seem to be much hope that it would be successful, although it
+contained what was left of the Autonomists, who in 1919 were the largest
+party--desiring that the town should be neither Yugoslav nor
+Italian--and these Autonomists were now reinforced by the Yugoslavs. But
+so numerous had been the expulsions that many of the survivors feared
+that it would be futile to vote, and on the other hand the Annexionist
+party was quite confident that it would win. During the afternoon of the
+election day, however, they perceived that the impossible was happening,
+and that Zanella was marching to victory. Thereupon the enraged fascisti
+had recourse to violence. "Zanella's victory was intolerable to these
+patriots," said _La Nazione_,[65] "because they remembered the two years
+of tenacity and of splendid Italian spirit and of suffering which the
+town had lived through." Most of the electors remembered the suffering.
+The fascisti seized a number of urns and made a bonfire of them; there
+was presented the spectacle of Signor Gigante, d'Annunzio's obedient
+mayor, bursting with armed companions into that room of the Palace of
+Justice where the votes were being scrutinized. "I yield to violence,"
+said the presiding official; and twenty minutes afterwards the contents
+of the urns were burning merrily. But these measures did not help the
+cause of the fascisti, no more than did their screams that they had been
+betrayed. And if Zanella had to fly from Rieka because, as the
+Nationalist paper put it, he could not stand up against the vehement
+indignation of so many of the citizens, yet he and his party have
+triumphed. "Fiume or Death," used to be the device dear to d'Annunzio.
+He placarded the long-suffering walls with it, and it was on the lapels
+of the coats of his adherents. "Fiume must belong to Italy or be blown
+up," cried the poet. But, strange to say, a majority of the inhabitants
+prefer that their town should continue to exist, and this it can only do
+if, in accordance with the Treaty of Rapallo, it becomes a neutral State
+on friendly terms with both its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia. The
+Italian Government desires, of course, to execute its Treaty
+obligations,[66] and if it finds too painful the task of moderating the
+ardours of its own super-patriots, it will no doubt be glad to have this
+done by an International force. That method, which was only prevented by
+d'Annunzio's arrival in 1919, offers the speediest and most efficacious
+solution of Rieka's troubles.
+
+
+THE STRICKEN TOWN
+
+If anyone imagined that they would be ended with the installation of
+Zanella he was wrong. At the municipal elections 90 per cent. voted for
+the Autonomist party, the Yugoslavs having had the good sense to join
+them. But the Italian Nationalists were not going to yield to
+moderation, and immediately after the elections Zanella was obliged to
+flee for his life, so that he was not installed in office until October
+5. He struggled manfully to clear away the chaos and to make such
+economic arrangements as would eventually convert Rieka into a
+prosperous port. This the fascisti of Triest and Venice could by no
+means tolerate, and on January 31 an unsuccessful attempt was made by
+them on his life as he was leaving the Constituent Assembly. On February
+16 the Anai (Assoziazione Nazionale fra gli Arditi d'Italia) sent out a
+very urgent message from their headquarters in the Via Macchiavelli in
+Triest. They informed the subsections that not only was Zanella
+preparing to deliver Rieka to the Croats, but that the army of the
+"globe-trotter" Wrangel was waiting in Su[vs]ak to seize the wretched
+town. Therefore Gabriele d'Annunzio had commanded that every loyal
+servant of the cause was to be mobilized. And after a few rhetorical
+sentences it continued, "I will give the marching orders by telegram as
+follows: 'Send the documents. Farina.' If only a small number of people
+are needed I will telegraph, 'Send ... Quintal. Farina.'" The men were
+to assemble at the Italian Labour Bureau, 9 Via Pozza Bianca in Triest.
+They were to be clad in mufti, to be armed so far as it was possible and
+to have with them three days' provender.... The subsections are asked to
+telegraph the approximate number of those on whom they can rely. And
+this memorandum should be acknowledged. It is signed, "With brotherly
+greetings. Farina Salvatore." About ten days later--between February 26
+and 28--there was a meeting at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, under the
+presidency of Vilim Stipeti['c], formerly a major of the Austrian
+General Staff. Some dissident Croats--among them Dr. Emanuel Gagliardi,
+Captains Cankl and Petri[vc]evi['c], Gjuro Kli[vs]uri['c], Josip Boldin
+and Major-General I[vs]tvanovi['c]--two dissident Montenegrins, Jovo
+Plamenac and Marko Petrovi['c], together with two Italian officers,
+adherents of d'Annunzio, Colonel Finzi of Triest and Major Ventura of
+Rome, ... assembled for the purpose of stirring up trouble for the
+Yugoslavs in the spring. They referred with pleasure to the presence of
+sundry Bulgarian komitadjis in Albania, Finzi declared that the Italian
+Government would satisfy the Croats and give them Rieka as soon as
+Croatia had achieved her independence and a less visionary promise was
+made of disturbances in Rieka. On March 1 the two Italian officers left
+for Triest and on March 3 Rieka was confronted with another _coup
+d'état_. The fascisti of Triest and of Gulia Venetia descended on the
+town in two special trains of the Italian State Railway. They had not
+the slightest confidence in Zanella, who was an honest man, working on
+the basis of the Treaty of Rapallo, whereby Italy and Yugoslavia
+recognized the Free State of Rieka. In their eyes it was a monstrous
+thing that Italy should be expected to observe this instrument. So let
+the town be freed, let Zanella be expelled. And as he only had at his
+disposal a force of about three hundred local gendarmes, with rifles but
+without munition, it was not particularly difficult for the fascisti
+heroes to accomplish their task. Zanella had to fly once more.
+
+"If Italy were to offend against the freedom and independence of the
+State of Rieka she would deprive herself," said Signor Schanzer, the
+Italian Foreign Secretary "she would deprive herself of the name of a
+Great Power and in the Society of Nations she would retain no
+authority." Thus did the successor of the relentless but unavailing
+della Torretta try, with eloquent and noble words, to wipe the blot from
+Italy's scutcheon. She could scarcely have the nations coming to the
+Congress of Genoa, there to debate with regard to the economic
+re-establishment of Europe, while her own conduct was so very much under
+suspicion. It would have been rather curious, so the _Zagreber
+Tagblatt_[67] pointed out, for a robber to invite you to his house with
+a view to taking steps against robbery. Something drastic had to be
+done, so that Europe would not look askance at the Italian Government.
+Zanella, it was true, had been thrown out--but why should not the world
+be told that this had been effected by the people of the town? A very
+excellent idea! And so a certain Lieut. Cabruna of the _gendarmerie_
+made a plan to get together the Constituent Assembly and then--well,
+there are always methods by which resolutions can be passed. Perhaps it
+would not even be necessary for a single rifle to be fired at the
+deputies from the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery. But most of the
+deputies succeeded in escaping from the town, although frantic efforts
+were made to prevent them. Out of the threescore only thirteen poor
+devils were held fast and came to the futile meeting. The others, with
+Zanella, assembled on Yugoslav territory at a place called Saint Anna.
+
+And Signor Schanzer went on talking. Officers and men of the Italian
+army and navy, said he, had shown perfect discipline. Signor Schanzer
+may not be an expert on discipline, but as a humorist he wins applause.
+One's ordinary notions of discipline do not include the seizure of a
+warship by a handful of bandits, the cannons of the vessel being
+afterwards directed against the Government palace of a neutral State.
+The fascisti, with the help of Italian troops and accompanied by several
+Italian deputies, eject the legal Government of Rieka. One of these
+deputies, Giuratti, is chosen by his friends to be President of the
+Free State--Giuratti of the fascisti, Giuratti who most barbarically had
+ill-treated the Istrian Slavs, but--for we will be just--this was when
+he believed they were barbarians, savages, quite common, brutal men;
+well, he had learned, he wrote,[68] that this was not the case, they had
+adopted Western culture, they had raised the revolutionary flag against
+the dynasty of Karageorgevi['c] and if Yugoslavia's dismemberment should
+ever come to pass, "then, as I confidently hope," said he, "the Croats
+with their righteous national aspirations will unite with their great
+neighbour Italy. We salute the Croat Revolution with sincerest
+sympathy..." and so on and so on. That was the kind of calm, impartial
+personage to have as Governor of the distracted Free State, where in one
+point anyhow most of the population think the same, and that is that
+their union with Italy would be an absolute disaster. Behold this
+Giuratti posing his candidature, Giuratti whose patriotism and idealism
+are, says the Italian Government, fully appreciated by them;
+nevertheless it has advised him to refuse the suggested honour. That he
+should be punished did not occur to them; but what would they have said
+if a Yugoslav--surely with more right than an Italian and certainly with
+a larger following of townsfolk--had been selected as President? "The
+proceedings of the Italian Government," said Schanzer, "are clear,
+speedy and determined." But did anything unpleasant happen to Commandant
+Castelli, an officer sent to make order, when he quite openly placed
+himself on the side of the fascisti? Would degradation be the lot of any
+officer or soldier who "mutinied" and joined the fascisti?... Apparently
+it was due to the unhappy political condition of Europe that the whole
+civilized world did not launch an indignant protest against the baseness
+and cynicism of the Italians. But how utterly they failed to persuade
+others that the wishes of Rieka were as they represented them! Rieka
+desires to remain independent and this desire the Italians will have to
+respect. And the later they make up their mind to keep their promises,
+so much the worse for them. The Yugoslavs can wait, for theirs is the
+future. A cartoonist in the Belgrade _Vreme_ depicted a rough old
+Serbian warrior holding on his open hand a very neat little Italian
+soldier. "Now listen to me," he was saying, "and I will tell you a
+story. Once upon a time there was a country called Austria...."
+
+There was a characteristic little affair at Saint Anna on March 23. A
+few minutes after Zanella had left the Lubi['c] Inn a suspicious-looking
+person appeared. He began observing the customers and their
+surroundings, when the Police-Commissary Per[vs]i['c] came up to him and
+asked for his passport. "Take yourself off!" shouted the intruder, as he
+pulled a bomb out of his trouser pocket. Per[vs]i['c] grappled with him
+and soon overpowered him. And outside the house four other fascisti,
+Armano Viola, Carpinelli, Bellia and Murolo, were captured. They claimed
+to be journalists, and it is quite true that Viola is on the staff of
+the notorious _Vedetta Italiana_; but when he comes into a foreign
+country as a special correspondent and is teaching others how to go
+about that business--for until then they had been otherwise engaged,
+Murolo being charged with numerous thefts and attempted murders, while
+Bellia and Carpinelli were accused of breaking into the Abbazia
+Casino--if Viola was teaching them how to be journalists he would on
+this occasion have been better advised if he had restricted them to the
+conventional tools of the profession instead of bombs, revolvers and
+daggers. Little use did they get out of them, for a trio of these armed
+individuals were seized and disarmed by one Yugoslav gendarme, who was
+himself very meagrely equipped. With tears in their eyes they begged for
+mercy. "Pietà, Pietà!" they exclaimed. So long as their own lives were
+spared they were very willing to forgo the 60,000 lire which had been
+put on Zanella's head.
+
+Unfortunately it seems obvious that this exploit, if not ordered by the
+Italian Government was, at any rate, permitted by them. How otherwise
+could the automobile containing these men have got past the sentries at
+the Su[vs]ak bridge and two other Italian sentry posts? Moreover, these
+men were in possession of documents which proved that official Italian
+circles at Rieka were privy to their undertaking, and that they proposed
+to investigate the Yugoslav military positions on the frontier....
+These five fascisti brigands--who were also lieutenants of the Italian
+army--would therefore have to be tried not only for attempted murder but
+for attempted espionage. They were put into a train and transported to
+the prison at Zagreb. "If once we begin to march," so the Italian
+soldiers at Rieka had over and over again been telling the Croats, "then
+we shall not halt before we come to Zagreb, your capital." Those five
+will perhaps some day explain to their comrades how quickly Zagreb can
+be reached.... As yet those whom they left behind them had not lost
+their bombast: a manifesto was issued by them which declared that five
+true patriots had sallied forth to Saint Anna, for the purpose of
+parleying with the Constituent Assembly, and that in a barbarous fashion
+they had been arrested, maltreated and possibly killed. Let the people
+avenge the shedding of such noble blood. Everything, everything must be
+done in order to liberate the captured brethren. And so, towards eleven
+at night, about sixty fascisti and legionaries came together. Armed to
+the teeth, they designed to cross over into Yugoslav territory, but when
+they noticed that the sentry posts had been strengthened they went home
+to bed.
+
+A number of American and European journalists rushed out to Belgrade,
+under the impression that the Yugoslav-Italian War could now no longer
+be avoided. But they did not realize how great a self-control the
+Yugoslavs possess. It may be, as a commentator put it in the
+_Nation_,[69] that Italy "is practically at war with Yugoslavia," for
+she is obsessed by the "Pan-Slav menace"; but if they insist on the
+arbitrament of arms they will have to wait until the Yugoslavs have time
+to deal with them.... The Free State of Rieka owes its existence to a
+Treaty between Italy and Yugoslavia; both of them should therefore
+guarantee its freedom. Italian and Yugoslav _gendarmerie_ and troops
+should resist together the incursions of fascisti; and if the two races
+cannot work in harmony, then let the administration of the town be
+entrusted to neutral troops; and as High Commissioner one would suggest
+Mr. Blakeney, the British Consul at Belgrade. If this imperturbable and
+most kindly man were to fail in the attempt at repeating in Rieka what
+has been accomplished in Danzig, then, indeed, one might despair; but he
+would brilliantly and placidly succeed. All the other qualifications are
+his; an intimate knowledge of every Near Eastern language--and, of
+course, Italian; a perfect acquaintance with the mentality of all those
+peoples; common sense of an uncommon order, and the whole-hearted
+confidence of those with whom he comes into contact. Great Britain and
+France compelled the Yugoslavs, at enormous sacrifices, to sign the
+Treaty of Rapallo; they are, therefore, morally obliged to see that it
+is executed. For too many months the Italians were saying that they
+would carry out their part of it and leave the third zone in Dalmatia if
+the Yugoslavs would agree to a few more concessions, commercial and
+territorial, that were not in the Treaty. During the Genoa Conference in
+the spring of 1922 the Italian authorities confessed to the Yugoslav
+delegates that their hands were bound by the fascisti. These elements
+would certainly object to the execution of that part of the Treaty of
+Rapallo which refers to the port of Baro[vs]. Accurately speaking, the
+arrangements with regard to Baro[vs] are embodied in a letter from Count
+Sforza, the then Foreign Secretary, and are added to the Treaty as an
+appendix. Both were signed on the same day, and apparently this plan of
+an appendix was adopted on account of the fascisti. Yet if Count Sforza
+had not signed that letter it is safe to say that the Yugoslavs would
+not have signed the main body of a Treaty which to them was the reverse
+of favourable. And at Genoa the Italians started haggling about a strip
+of land near Baro[vs], in the hope that some success would stay the zeal
+of the fascisti. Furthermore they pleaded that Zadar could not live if
+Yugoslavia did not, in addition to supplying it with water, give it
+railway communication with the interior. The Yugoslavs were thus invited
+to construct at great expense a railway to a foreign town which their
+own [vS]ibenik and other Adriatic towns did not possess. This,
+naturally, they refused to undertake, as also to agree to the Italian
+suggestion that a free zone of some twenty kilometres should be
+instituted at the back of Zadar. One might safely say that the Italian
+agents in this region would not have confined themselves to salutary
+measures for the welfare of the town. It is stated in the Treaty of
+Rapallo that in case of disagreement either party could invoke an
+arbitrator, and the Yugoslavs, who happen now to be the weaker party,
+have been contemplating application to the League of Nations. Well, in
+Genoa it was proposed by Italy that Yugoslavia should renounce the
+clause which deals with an eventual arbitration. If you make a large
+number of demands--never mind that they should be in opposition to a
+Treaty you have signed--then you may gain a few of them--and Italy was
+hoping that the Free State would repay the costs which she incurred
+there on account of her unruly son d'Annunzio, and, likewise, that the
+good Italianists who at the end of the Great War committed wholesale
+thefts from the State warehouses should not be made to pay for it. With
+all their guile and strength the Italians were endeavouring to avoid the
+execution of her Treaty of Rapallo. "Italy is the one Power in Europe,"
+says Mr. Harold Goad[70] who thrusts himself upon our notice, "Italy is
+the one Power in Europe that is most obviously and most consistently
+working for peace and conciliation in every field."
+
+
+HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE
+
+The complicated troubles, avoidable and unavoidable, that have been
+raging in Central Europe after the War are being met to some extent by
+the Little Entente, an association in the first place between Yugoslavia
+and the kindred Czecho-Slovakia, and afterwards between them and
+Roumania. The world was assured that this union had for its object the
+establishment of peace, security and normal economic activities in
+Central and Eastern Europe; no acquisitive purposes were in the
+background, and since these three States now recognized that if they try
+to swallow more of the late Austro-Hungarian monarchy they will suffer
+from chronic indigestion, we need not be suspicious of their altruism.
+It is perfectly true that the first impulse which moved the creators of
+the Little Entente was not constructive but defensive; their great
+Allies did not appear, in the opinion of the three Succession States, to
+be taking the necessary precautions against the elements of reaction.
+Otherwise they, especially France (which was naturally more determined
+that Austria should not join herself to Germany), would not have
+favoured the idea of a Danubian Federation, in which Austria and Hungary
+would play leading parts. The Great Powers would also, if they had been
+less exclusively concerned with their own interests, have handled with
+more resolution the attempts of Charles of Habsburg to place himself at
+the head of the present reactionary régime at Buda-Pest; and if it had
+not been for certain energetic measures taken by the members of the
+Little Entente it may well be doubted whether the Government of Admiral
+Horthy, which does not conceal the fact that it is royalist--the king
+being temporarily absent--would have required Charles to leave the
+country. The Little Entente pointed out to their great Allies what these
+had apparently overlooked, namely, that the return of the Habsburgs was
+not opposed by the Succession States out of pure malice but for the
+reason that it would inevitably strengthen the magnates and the high
+ecclesiastics in their desire to bring about the restoration of
+Hungary's old frontiers. As the frontiers are now drawn there dwell--and
+this could not be prevented--a number of Magyars in each of the three
+neighbouring States (the fewest being in Yugoslavia), just as the
+present Hungary includes a Czech-Slovak, Roumanian and Yugoslav
+population.[71] But the Great Powers agree that if this frontier is to
+be changed at all, every precaution should be taken against having it
+changed by force. It is no exaggeration to say that there can be no
+real peace in Central Europe until normal intercourse with Russia is
+re-established, but let it in the meantime be the task of the Little
+Entente to guard the temporary peace from being shattered.
+
+Apart from this defensive object the countries of the Little Entente
+have the positive aim of a resumption of normal economic conditions and
+the institution of a new order of things in accordance with the new
+political construction of Central and Eastern Europe. It is obvious that
+these three States have numerous interests in common which make their
+co-operation very natural, if not indeed indispensable.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 46: April 16, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 47: January 22, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 48: According to the Rome correspondent of the _Petit
+    Journal_.]
+
+    [Footnote 49: But the wind was considerably tempered for him:
+    vessels laden with his precise requirements sailed over from
+    Italy and said they had been captured by d'Annunzio's arditi.
+    General Badoglio, in command of the royal troops outside the
+    town, ascertained in November 1919 that Rieka's coal-supply was
+    nearly exhausted and 7000 tons per month were required for the
+    public services alone. He accordingly informed a syndicate of
+    coal merchants in Triest that he would be personally
+    responsible for the first consignment of coal to d'Annunzio. A
+    month earlier, when the town was supposed to be blockaded, it
+    was announced that a limited supply of food-stuffs would,
+    nevertheless, be introduced, through the Red Cross, for very
+    young children. This amounted, as a matter of fact, to 21
+    truckloads a week. It is significant that there was no rise in
+    the prices charged in the public restaurants of Rieka, and that
+    persons living outside the line of Armistice found it cheaper
+    to do their shopping in the besieged city.]
+
+    [Footnote 50: February 20, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 51: September 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 52: However, in the Yugoslav Parliament, although
+    some of the deputies have spent their lives in far-off,
+    primitive places--by no means all of those who represent the
+    Albanians can read and write--one does not hear such deplorable
+    language as that which, according to the _Grazer Volksblatt_ of
+    January 19, 1922, disgraced the Austrian Assembly. A certain
+    Dr. Waneck, of the Pan-German party, wished to criticize the
+    Minister of Finance, Professor Dr. Gürtler of the Christian
+    Socialists. He remarked that one could not expect this Minister
+    to be sober at four o'clock in the afternoon, and went on to
+    say that no less than five banks, whose names he would give,
+    had received early information from the Minister, which enabled
+    them to speculate successfully. He repeated this accusation
+    several times and with great violence, but when he was invited
+    to reveal the names of these banks--"No, sir!" he cried. "I
+    will not do so, because I don't want to."]
+
+    [Footnote 53: Cf. "The Tri-Une Kingdom," by Pavle Popovi['c]
+    and Jovan M. Jovanovi['c], in the _Quarterly Review_, October
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 54: He was kept for some time in confinement at
+    Mitrovica, in Syrmia, and in November 1920 he was liberated in
+    consequence of the great amnesty.]
+
+    [Footnote 55: Cf. _Spectator_, July 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 56: Cf. _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 57: A few months after this, in the course of a
+    little controversy in the _Saturday Review_ (which arose from
+    an unsigned and, I hoped, rather reasonable article of mine on
+    the Adriatic Settlement) I quoted from memory this passage of
+    Mrs. Re-Bartlett's and said that the Italian captain was giving
+    chocolates to the children at Kievo. Thereupon Mr. Harold W. E.
+    Goad of the British-Italian League wrote a highly indignant
+    letter to the editor, and in the course of it he denounced me
+    for having egregiously invented the chocolates "for the sole
+    purpose of throwing her testimony into ridicule.... What do
+    you, Sir, think of such methods as that?" And he concluded by
+    declaring that I wallowed in a "truly Balkan slough of
+    distortion and calumny." Well, on referring to Mrs.
+    Re-Bartlett's article I find that there is no mention of
+    chocolates, and I apologize; presumably the children were
+    crowding round their adored _Capitano_ in order to thank him
+    for the bridges and waterworks which were being built in
+    Dalmatia.]
+
+    [Footnote 58: During the Italian occupation, said Professor
+    Salvemini, teachers, doctors and priests were deported or
+    expelled from the country, while the Italian Government had to
+    dissolve 30 municipal councils out of 33, so that at the head
+    of the communes were Italian officials and not properly elected
+    mayors. Moreover, all liberties were suppressed. No Slav
+    newspapers, no Slav societies were permitted, and 32 out of 57
+    magistrates were dismissed--these methods being due not to
+    cruelty or folly, said the Professor, but to the necessity of
+    keeping order by forcible means in a country which was wholly
+    hostile.]
+
+    [Footnote 59: November 13, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 60: November 15, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 61: This, of course, did not meet with the approval
+    of Signor d'Annunzio. He made numerous pronouncements with
+    regard to his inflexible desires, saying that, if necessary, he
+    would offer up his bleeding corpse. And his resistance to the
+    Italian Government did not confine itself to rhetoric. During
+    his usurpation of Rieka this man had done his country grievous
+    harm. It was not only that he held her up to the smiles of the
+    malicious who said that she could not keep order in her own
+    house, but he was guiding the people back to barbarism. When
+    sailors of the royal navy deserted to his standard, he knelt
+    before them in the streets of Rieka at a time when from Russia
+    Lenin was inciting the Italian Communists to revolution and to
+    the conquest of the State. He refused to deal with Giolitti,
+    even as he had rejected the advances of Nitti. But the aged
+    Giolitti grasped the problem with more firmness, which was what
+    one might expect from the statesman who, after his return to
+    power, had leaned neither on the industrial magnates of Milan
+    nor on their Bol[vs]evik antagonists. Giolitti was resolved to
+    put an end to the nuisance of d'Annunzio; in no constitutional
+    State is there room for a Prime Minister and such a
+    swashbuckler. The Nationalists of Italy were furious when they
+    perceived that the Premier was in earnest and that force would
+    be employed against their idol. And it had to come to that, for
+    the utterly misguided man continued to resist--hoping doubtless
+    for wholesale desertions in the army and navy--with the
+    deplorable result that a good many Italians were slain by
+    Italians. Orders were issued by the Government that all
+    possible care should be taken of d'Annunzio's person; and
+    eventually when Rieka was taken by the royalist troops the poet
+    broke his oath that he would surely die; he announced that
+    Italy was not worth dying for and it was said that he had
+    sailed away on an aeroplane. He had accomplished none of his
+    desires; the town had not become Italian, though he had bathed
+    it in Italian blood. His overweening personal ambitions had
+    been shipwrecked on the rock of ridicule, for as he made his
+    inglorious exit he shouted at the world that he was "still
+    alive and inexorable." But yet he may have unconsciously
+    achieved something, for his seizure of what he loved to call
+    the "holocaust city" provided the extreme Nationalists with a
+    private stage where--in uniforms of their own design, in cloaks
+    and feathers and flowing black ties and with eccentric
+    arrangements of the hair--they could strut and caper and fling
+    bombastic insults at the authorities in Rome, until the
+    Government found it opportune to take them in hand. The
+    greatest Italian poet and one of the greatest imaginative
+    writers in Europe will now be able to devote himself--if his
+    rather morbid Muse has suffered no injury--to his predestined
+    task. Those--the comparatively few that read--whose
+    acquaintance with this writer's work usually caused them to
+    regret his methods, could not help admiring his personal
+    activities, his genius for leadership and his vital fire during
+    the War. But, once this was over, he relapsed; and expressing
+    himself very clearly in action, so that he became known to the
+    many instead of the few, he lived what he previously wrote, and
+    now it is generally recognized that Gabriel of the
+    Annunciation, as he calls himself, who produced a row of
+    obscene and histrionic novels, is a mountebank, a self-deceiver
+    and a most affected bore. When he came to Rieka he thought fit
+    to appeal to the England of Milton. And, like him, Milton lived
+    as he wrote. Milton, Dante and Sophocles--to mention no others
+    of the supreme writers--were as serious and responsible in
+    their public actions as in the pursuit of their art.]
+
+    [Footnote 62: Whatever be the limitations of the _Dom_ as a
+    newspaper--it is almost exclusively occupied with the person
+    and programme of Mr. Radi['c]--yet that brings with it the
+    virtue, most exceptional in Yugoslavia, of refusing to engage
+    in polemics. This would otherwise take up a good deal of its
+    space, as Radi['c] has become such a bogey-man that nothing is
+    too ridiculous for his opponents to believe. A Czech newspaper
+    not long ago informed the world that this monstrous personage
+    had told an interviewer that not only had Serbian soldiers in
+    Macedonia been murdering 200 children but that they had roasted
+    and consumed them. Furthermore Radi['c] had said that the
+    British Minister to Yugoslavia had called upon him and had
+    asked his advice with some persistence, not even wishing to
+    leave Radi['c] time to reflect, as to whether the Prince-Regent
+    should rule in Russia, while an English Prince should be
+    invited to occupy the Yugoslav throne. The first of these
+    remarks proved conclusively, said a number of Belgrade papers,
+    that Radi['c] was a knave and by the second he had demonstrated
+    that he was an imbecile. And my friend Mr. Leiper of the
+    _Morning Post_ speculated as to whether he was more likely to
+    end his days in a lunatic asylum or a prison. But Radi['c] was
+    caring about none of these things; his birthday happened at
+    about this time and some 30,000 of his adherents came to do him
+    honour at his birthplace, over 500 of them on decorated horses
+    having met him at Sisak station the previous evening. When I
+    asked him what he had to say about the two afore-mentioned
+    remarks he gave me an amusing account of how the interviewer
+    had appreciated the various samples of wine which he (Radi['c])
+    had just brought down from his vineyard. The conversation
+    lasted for about four hours, and in the course of it Radi['c]
+    mentioned that a certain Moslem deputy from Novi Bazar,
+    irritated by the fact that Mr. Dra[vs]kovi['c], Minister of the
+    Interior, found no pleasure in his continued presence on a
+    commission of inquiry in the region of Kossovo, had been
+    throwing out very dark hints about a child which he accused the
+    Serbs of killing in the stormy days of 1878, and then relating
+    to the Tsar that this dastardly deed had been committed by the
+    Turks. This was the basis of that part of the interview. As for
+    the other absurdity, it was mentioned that some courtiers had
+    told the Prince-Regent that he alone could establish an orderly
+    Government in Russia, whereupon Radi['c] observed that England
+    and France were not likely to allow one person to reign both
+    there and in Yugoslavia. And when I asked why he had not
+    published this explanation in his paper, he said that he
+    couldn't very well charge a guest with having liked his wine
+    too much.]
+
+    [Footnote 63: Cf. _The Quarterly Review_ (October 1921), in
+    which Messrs. Pavle Popovi['c] and Jovan M. Jovanovi['c]
+    published a very able survey of Yugoslav conditions.]
+
+    [Footnote 64: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 65: April 26, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 66: Unhappily it became apparent that the Italians
+    were not disposed to have the Treaty put in force]
+
+    [Footnote 67: March 23, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 68: Cf. an article in a fascisti newspaper, quoted by
+    the _Zagreber Tagblatt_ of May 14, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 69: Cf. "The Rise of the Little Entente," by Dorothy
+    Thompson. April 1, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 70: _Fortnightly Review_, May 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 71: The magnates of Hungary and their friends do not
+    grow weary of lamenting the sad fate of the Magyar minorities.
+    Whatever may be happening in Transylvania, they have a very
+    poor case against the Serbs. In the Voivodina there are,
+    according to Hungarian statistics, about 382,000 Magyars out of
+    1·4 million inhabitants. These Magyars have their primary and
+    secondary schools, their newspapers and so forth, whereas in
+    the spring of 1922 the schools in various Serbian villages near
+    Budapest were forcibly closed, the lady teachers being told
+    that if they stayed they would have to undergo the physical
+    examination which is applied to prostitutes.]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS
+
+INTRODUCTION--(_a_) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE ACTORS--2. THE
+AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE--3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS--4.
+THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE--5. A METHOD WHICH MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED
+IN ALBANIA--6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA--7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER
+MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION--8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN
+AUTHORITIES--9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS--10. DR. TRUMBI['C]'S
+PROPOSAL--11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE
+MIRDITI--12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE--13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE
+YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS--14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS
+HAVE RETIRED--15. THE PROSPECT--(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER--(_c_) THE
+BULGARIAN FRONTIER--(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE STATE OF THE
+ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA--2. THE BANAT--(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN
+FRONTIER--(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER--(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Nobody could have expected in the autumn of 1918 that the frontiers of
+the new State would be rapidly delimitated. Ethnological, economic,
+historic and strategical arguments--to mention no others--would be
+brought forward by either side, and the Supreme Council, which had to
+deliver judgment on these knotty problems, would be often more
+preoccupied with their own interests and their relation to each other.
+It would also happen that a member of the Supreme Council would be
+simultaneously judge and pleader. The mills of justice would therefore
+grind very slowly, for they would be conscious that the fruit of their
+efforts, evolved with much foreign material clogging the machinery and
+with parts of the machinery jerked out of their line of track, would be
+received with acute criticism. When more than two years had elapsed from
+the time of the Armistice a considerable part of Yugoslavia's frontiers
+remained undecided. We will travel along the frontier lines, starting
+with that between Yugoslavs and Albanians.
+
+
+(a) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER
+
+1. THE ACTORS
+
+Those who in old Turkish days lived in that wild border country which is
+dealt with on these pages would have been surprised to hear that they
+would be the objects of a great deal of discussion in the west of
+Europe. But in those days there was no Yugoslavia and no Albania and no
+League of Nations, and very few were the writers who took up this
+question. It is, undoubtedly, a question of importance, though some of
+these writers, remembering that the fate of the world was dependent on
+the fraction of an inch of Cleopatra's nose, seem almost to have
+imagined that it was proportionately more dependent on those several
+hundred kilometres of disputed frontier. It would not so much matter
+that they have introduced a good deal of passion into their arguments if
+they had not also exerted some influence on influential men--and this
+compels one to pay them what would otherwise be excessive attention.
+
+Let us consider the frontier which the Ambassadors' Conference in
+November 1921 assigned to Yugoslavia and the Albanians. We have already
+mentioned some of the previous points of contact between those Balkan
+neighbours who for centuries have been acquiring knowledge of each other
+and who, therefore, as Berati Bey, the Albanian delegate in Paris, very
+wisely said, should have been left to manage their own frontier
+question. A number of Western Europeans will exclaim that this could not
+be accomplished without the shedding of blood; but it is rather more
+than probable that the interference of Western Europe--partly
+philanthropic and partly otherwise--will be responsible for greater loss
+of life. If it could not be permitted that two of the less powerful
+peoples should attempt to settle their own affairs, then, at any rate,
+the most competent of alien judges should have sat on the tribunal. A
+frontier in that part of Europe should primarily take the peculiarities
+of the people into account, and I believe that if Sir Charles Eliot and
+Baron Nopsca with their unrivalled knowledge of the Albanians had been
+consulted it is probable they would, for some years to come, have
+thought desirable the frontier which is preferred by General Franchet
+d'Espérey, by a majority of the local Albanians, and by those who hope
+for peace in the Balkans.
+
+
+2. THE AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE
+
+A battle which took place near Tuzi, not far from Podgorica, in December
+1919, may assist the study of the difficult Albanian question. At the
+first attack about 150 Montenegrins, mostly young recruits, were killed
+or wounded; but in the counter-attack the Albanian losses were much
+greater, 167 of them being made prisoners. On all of these were found
+Italian rifles, ammunition, money and army rations. On the other hand, a
+few Montenegrins, with three officers, were also captured and were
+stripped and handed over, naked, to the Italians. But these declined to
+have them, saying that the conflict had been no concern of theirs, and
+the unfortunate men--with the exception of one who escaped--remained
+among the Albanians. The fact that Tuzi would be of no value to the
+Italians neither weakens nor strengthens the supposition that they were
+privy to the Albanian attack; but it may very well be that the natives
+had taken their Italian equipment by force of arms. It would, anyhow,
+seem that the Italians have little understanding of this people: during
+the War, when General Franchet d'Espérey was straightening his line, he
+paid some hundreds of Albanians to maintain his western flank, and they
+were very satisfactory. (It troubled them very little whether they were
+holding it against the Austrians or against other Albanians.) When Italy
+took over that part of the line she employed a whole Division, which--to
+the amusement, it is said, of Franchet d'Espérey--provided the local
+population with a great deal of booty, and in particular with mules.
+There was constant trouble in those regions of Albania which were
+occupied by the Italians,[72] and in June 1920 things had come to such a
+pass that the Italian garrisons, after being thrown out of the villages
+of Bestrovo and Selitza, were actually retiring with all the stores they
+could rescue to Valona. Their retreat, said Reuter, in a euphemistic
+message from Rome, was "attended by some loss." As Valona was their last
+stronghold in Albanian territory, it seemed that very few, if any, of
+the tribes were in favour of an Italian protectorate. And since it was
+calculated that during the first six months of 1920 the Italian
+Government was paying from 400 to 500 million lire a month for corn, and
+the year's deficit might be enough to lead the State to the very verge
+of bankruptcy, one was asking whether from an economic, apart from any
+other, point of view, it would not be advisable for the Italians to cut
+their losses in central Albania. And this they very wisely determined to
+do. Would that their subsequent policy in northern Albania had been as
+well-inspired.
+
+It would also seem as if the affair of Tuzi shows that the Albanians
+have no wish for a Yugoslav protectorate, and there are a good many
+Serbs, such as Professor Cviji['c], who view with uneasiness any
+extension of their sway over the Albanians. Many of the tribes are
+prepared, after very small provocation or none, to take up arms against
+anybody; and those who, in the north and north-east of the country, are
+in favour of a Yugoslav protectorate would undoubtedly have opposed to
+them a number of the natives, less because they are fired with the
+prospect of "Albania for the Albanians" than on account of their
+patriarchal views. We must, however, at the same time, acknowledge that
+those Albanians who are impelled by patriotic ideals, and who would like
+to see their countrymen within the 1913 frontiers, resolutely turn away
+from the various attractions which the Slavs undoubtedly exercise over
+many of them and combine in a brotherly fashion, under the guidance of a
+disinterested State, to work for an independent Albania--those idealists
+have every right to be heard. Their solution is, in fact, the one that
+would, as we have elsewhere said, be best for everyone concerned. The
+late Professor Burrows, who believed in the possibility of such an
+arrangement, thought that it would take generations for this people "to
+pass from blood feud and tribal jealousy to the good order of a unified
+State, unless they have tutorage in the art of self-government." There
+seem to be grave difficulties, both external and internal, in the way of
+setting up such a tutorage over the whole of the 1913 Albania; and if a
+majority of the northern and north-eastern tribes prefer to turn to
+Yugoslavia, rather than to join the frustrated patriots and the wilder
+brethren in turning away from it, they should not be sweepingly
+condemned as traitors to the national cause. The frame of mind which
+looks with deep suspicion on a road that links a tribe to its neighbour
+is not very promising for those who dream of an Albanian nation; it is a
+prevalent and fundamental frame of mind. "The Prince of Wied," we are
+told by his countryman, Dr. Max Müller, "succeeded in conquering the
+hearts of those Albanians who supported him and of gaining the highest
+respect of those who were his political opponents." No doubt they were
+flattered when they noticed that he had so far become an Albanian as to
+surround his residence at Durazzo with barbed-wire entanglements.
+
+Among the solutions of the Albanian problem was that which Dr. Müller
+very seriously, not to say ponderously, put forward in 1916.[73] This
+gentleman, with a first-hand knowledge of the country, which he gained
+during the War, did not minimize the task which would face the Prince of
+Wied on his return. Of that wooden potentate one may say that his work
+in Albania did not collapse for the reason that it was never started; a
+few miles from Durazzo, his capital, from which, I believe, he made only
+that one excursion whose end was undignified, a few miles away he
+excited the derision of his "subjects," and a few miles farther off they
+had not heard of him. Dr. Müller, after reproving us sternly for smiling
+at the national decoration, in several classes, with which his Highness
+on landing at the rickety pier was graciously pleased to gladden the
+meritorious natives, admits that at his second coming he will have to
+take various other steps. Austrians and Germans should be brought to
+colonize the country, and not peasants, forsooth, like those who have
+laboriously made good in the Banat, but merchants, manufacturers,
+engineers, doctors, officials and large landowners--not by any means
+without close inquiry, so as to admit only such as are in possession of
+a blameless repute and a certain amount of cash. Dr. Müller was resolved
+that, so far as lay with him, none but the very best Teutons should
+embark upon this splendid mission. He desired that, after landing, they
+should first of all remain at the harbour, there to undergo a course of
+tuition in the customs and peculiarities of the tribe among which they
+proposed to settle. His compatriots would be so tactful--apparently not
+criticizing any of the customs--that the hearts of the Albanians would
+incline towards them and by their beautiful example they would make
+these primitive, wild hearts beat not so much for local interests but
+very fervently for the Albanian fatherland. One cannot help a feeling of
+regret that circumstances have prevented us from seeing Dr. Müller's
+scheme put into action.
+
+
+3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS
+
+In 1913, after the Balkan War, the flags of the Powers were hoisted at
+Scutari, and a frontier dividing the Albanians from the Yugoslavs
+(Montenegrins and Serbs) was indicated by Austria and traced at the
+London Conference. This boundary was still awaiting its final
+demarcation by commissioners on the spot when the European War broke
+out. Then in the second year of the War disturbances were organized by
+the Austrians in Albania--their friend the miscreant ruler of Montenegro
+caused money to be sent for this purpose to the Austro-Hungarian Consul
+at Scutari--and in April and May of that year the Serbs were authorized
+by their Allies to protect themselves by occupying certain portions of
+the country. Various battles took place between those Albanians who were
+partisans of Austria and those who were disinclined to attack the Serbs
+in the rear. The Serbian Government opposed the Austrian propaganda by
+dispatching to that region the Montenegrin Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c], of
+whom we have much to say. He was accompanied by Smajo Ferovi['c], a
+Moslem sergeant of komitadjis. They explained to the Albanians that the
+Serbs had been offered a separate peace with numerous concessions, but
+that Mr. Pa[vs]i['c] had refused to treat. When the two Albanian parties
+discussed the situation by shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian
+officers made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came to an
+end.
+
+When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up from Macedonia, were
+requested by General Franchet d'Espérey to undertake a task which the
+Italians refused, and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of
+Albania. Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
+mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large part of Albania
+should be given up to their administration. The Serbs agreed and
+withdrew; they even took away their representative from Scutari, where
+the Allies had again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
+upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern Albania, but--save for
+a few misguided politicians--they were logical enough to reject the
+whole of the pernicious Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in
+Dalmatia and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods. Over and
+over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare in Paris that it was their
+wish to see established an independent Albania with the frontiers of
+1913. These, the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
+were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of thwarting the
+Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It is true that several towns
+with large Albanian majorities were made over to the Serbs--very much,
+as it turned out, to their subsequent advantage--yet, being separated
+from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless, if a free
+and united Albania could be constituted the Serbs were ready to accept
+this frontier, and even Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French
+Albanophile of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this attitude
+of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their honour. But before relative
+tranquillity reigns among the Albanians it is, as General Franchet
+d'Espérey perceived in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
+temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance for some miles
+into Albania, so that on the river Drin or on the mountain summits they
+might ward off attacks. These, by the way, had their origin far more in
+the border population's empty stomachs than in their animus against the
+Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people could regard the 1918
+frontier as unnecessary. The Albanians were themselves so much inclined
+to acquiesce that one must ask why, in the months which followed, there
+was a considerable amount of border fighting. What was it that caused
+the Albanians in the region of Scutari to make their violent onslaughts
+of December 1919 and January 1920, the renewed offensive of July 1920 at
+the same places--after which the Albanian Government forwarded to that
+of Belgrade an assurance of goodwill--and the organized thrust of August
+13 against Dibra, which was preceded on August 10 by a manifesto to the
+chancelleries of Europe falsely accusing the Serbs of having begun these
+operations, and which was followed by the Tirana Government promising to
+try to find the guilty persons? The 19th of the same month saw the
+Albanians delivering a further attack in the neighbourhood of Scutari,
+and then the Yugoslav Government decided that their army must occupy
+such defensive positions as would put a stop to these everlasting
+incidents. But a voice was whispering to the Albanians that they must
+not allow themselves to be so easily coerced. "You have thrown us out of
+all the land behind Valona," said the voice, "and out of Valona itself.
+You must, therefore, be the greatest warriors in the world, and we will
+be charmed to provide you with rifles and machine guns and munitions
+and uniforms and cash. We will gladly publish to the world that your
+Delegation at Rome has sent us an official Note demanding that the
+Yugoslav troops should retire to the 1913 line, pure and simple. Of
+course we, like the other Allies, agreed that they should occupy the
+more advanced positions which General Franchet d'Espérey assigned to
+them--and to show you how truly sorry we are for having done so, we
+propose to send you all the help you need. In dealing with us you will
+find that you have to do with honourable men, whereas the
+Yugoslavs--what are they but Yugoslavs?"
+
+Anyone who travelled about this time along the road from Scutari down to
+the port of San Giovanni di Medua would inevitably meet with processions
+of ancient cabs, ox-wagons and what not, laden with all kinds of
+military equipment. Some of these supplies had come direct from Italy,
+while others had been seized from the Italians near Valona. The
+detachment of Italian soldiers at San Giovanni, and the much larger
+detachment at Scutari, may have looked with mixed feelings at some of
+these commodities, but on the other hand they may have thought, with
+General Bencivenga,[74] that it was good business--"_un buon
+affare_"--in exchange for Valona to obtain a solid and secure friendship
+with the Albanians. Roads, as he pointed out, lead from Albania to the
+heart of Serbia, and for that reason a true brotherhood of arms between
+Italians and Albanians was, in case of hostilities, enormously to be
+desired. And so the Italians stationed at Scutari, under Captain
+Pericone of the Navy, may have felt that it was well that all those
+cannon captured from their countrymen were in such a good condition.
+They would now be turned by the Albanians against the hateful Yugoslavs.
+["Italy is the one Power in Europe," says her advocate, Mr. H. E. Goad,
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1922), "that is most obviously and most
+consistently working for peace and conciliation in every field."] ... A
+further supply of military material is said to have reached the
+Albanians from Gabriele d'Annunzio in the S.S. _Knin_. To the Irish, the
+Egyptians and the Turks the poet-filibuster had merely sent greetings.
+Some one may have told him that even the most lyrical greeting would
+not be valued by the Albanians half as much as a shipload of munitions.
+
+For a considerable time the more intelligent Italians had noticed that
+these two Balkan peoples were disposed to live in amicable terms with
+one another. Traditions that are so powerful with an illiterate
+people--under five per thousand of the Albanians who have stayed in
+their own country can read and write--numerous traditions speak of
+friendship with the Serbs: Lek, the great legislator, was related to
+Serbian princes; Skanderbeg was an ally of the Serbs; "Most of the
+celebrated leaders of northern Albania and Montenegro," says Miss
+Durham, "seem to have been of mixed Serbian-Albanian blood"; Mustapha
+Vezir Bushatli strove together with Prince Milo[vs] against the Turks,
+and the same cause united the Serbian authorities to the famous Vezir
+Mahmud Begovi['c] of Pe['c]. A primitive people like the Albanians
+admire the warlike attributes beyond all others, and the exploits of the
+Serbian army in the European War inclined the hearts of the Albanians
+towards their neighbours. Some of them remembered at this juncture that
+their great-grandfathers or grandfathers had only become Albanian after
+having accepted the Muhammedan religion; now the old ikons were taken
+from their hiding-places. And there was, in fact, between the two Balkan
+people a spirit of cordiality which gave terrible umbrage to the
+Italians. So they took the necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests
+had been in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners of Italy.
+Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to be anti-Turk but, as was
+evident when in 1911 he negotiated with Montenegro, he is not personally
+anti-Slav. Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary, and
+so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies, transferred from
+Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are willing to provide the cash--and
+nobody can blame him. Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and
+a great friend of Monsignor Bumçi, the Albanian bishop, was succeeded by
+an Italian. But, of course, the new almoner did not confine his gifts to
+those of his own faith. Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a
+monthly salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the Italians
+as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor country, and with no
+Austrian competition you found quite prominent personages deigning to
+accept a rather miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
+Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those mountain tribes are
+being paid?" "Well," he said, "I think that it is not improbable." ...
+At the time of the Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their
+Minister of Finance the sagacious Patchoù. The War Minister, a General,
+was strongly in favour of an instant declaration of war, and the Premier
+suggested that the matter should be discussed. He turned to the Minister
+of Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money for such an
+undertaking. Patchoù shook his head. "But our men are patriots! They
+will go without bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
+General. "The horses and mules are not patriots," said Patchoù, "and if
+you want them to march you'll have to feed them." The Albanians were so
+little inclined to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians had, in
+various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what did the Albanians think
+of these intrigues? At any rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth
+Professor Chimigò,[75] a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
+"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great nation.... The
+Albanian Government," said he, "has charged me to declare in public that
+Albania does not regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is
+convinced that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops from Valona,
+were obeying a sentiment of goodness and generosity." Such words would
+be likely to bring more plentiful supplies from Rome. And fortunately
+the Italians did not seem to suffer, like the Serbs, from any scruples
+as to the propriety of taking active steps against another "Allied and
+Associated Power." When Zena Beg Riza Beg of Djakovica came in the year
+1919 to his brother-in-law Ahmed Beg Mati, one of the Albanian leaders,
+he told him that the Belgrade Government, in pursuance of their policy
+"The Balkans for the Balkan peoples," would be glad if the Italians
+could be ousted from Albania. Zena Beg returned with a request for
+money, guns and so forth; but they were not sent.
+
+Ahmed Beg and Zena Beg are patriotic young Albanian noblemen of ancient
+family and great possessions. But Zena Beg has the advantage of living
+in Yugoslavia, outside the atmosphere of corruption which is darkening
+his native land. Ahmed Beg, who in 1920 was Minister of the Interior,
+Minister of War, Governor of Scutari and Director (in mufti) of the
+military operations against the Yugoslavs, did not accept Italian
+bribes, but he was surrounded by those who did, and thus the gentle and
+industrious young man was being led to work against his own country's
+interests. With him at Scutari was another of the six Ministers of the
+Tirana Government, in the person of the venerable Moslem priest Kadri,
+Minister of Justice, and one of the four Regents, Monsignor Bumçi. There
+was about it all an Oriental odour of the less desirable kind, which
+caused some observers to say that when Albania obtains her independence
+she will be a bad imitation of the old Turkey--a little Turkey without
+the external graces. When the thoughtful greybeard Kadri went limping
+down the main street, a protecting gendarme dawdled behind him, smoking
+a cigarette; but this endearing nonchalance was absent from the methods
+of government: any Albanian whose opinions did not coincide with those
+of the authorities could only express them at his peril. [Blood-vengeance
+is, to some extent, being deposed by party-vengeance--this having
+originated in the time of Wied, when the politicians were divided into
+Nationalists and Essadists, after which they became Italophils and
+Austrophils, who now have been succeeded by Italophils (who ask for an
+Italian mandate) and Serbophils and Grecophils (who desire that these
+countries should have no mandate, but should act in a friendly spirit
+towards an independent Albania). Meanwhile the Italophils, nearly all of
+them on Italy's pay-roll, were, till a few months ago, in the ascendant,
+and their attitude towards the other party was relentless.] One Alush
+Ljocha, for example, said that he thought it would be well if Yugoslavia
+and Albania lived on friendly terms with one another. Because of this--the
+Government having adopted other ideas--his house at Scutari was
+burned,[76] and when we were discussing the matter at the palace of the
+Metropolitan, Monsignor Sereggi, I found that His Grace was emphatically in
+accord with a fiery Franciscan poet, Father Fichta, with the more placid
+Monsignor Bumçi, and with two other ecclesiastics who were present. "We did
+well to burn his house, very well, I say!" exclaimed Father Fichta,
+"because Alush is only a private person and he has no business to concern
+himself with foreign countries." Of course, when Father Fichta made his
+comments on foreign countries it was not as a private person but as a
+responsible editor. Thus in the _Posta e Shqypnis_ during the War he
+denounced Clemenceau and Lloyd George as such foes of humanity that their
+proper destination was a cage of wild beasts, and, after having visited
+France during 1919 as secretary to the sincere and credulous Bumçi, he
+contributed anti-French and, I believe, anti-English poems to the _Epopea
+Shqyptare_.
+
+"I have been told," I said, "by an intelligent Albanian who was educated
+at Robert College at Constantinople that the greatest hope for the
+country lies, in his opinion, in the increase of American schools, such
+as that one at Elbasan and the admirable institution at Samakoff in
+Bulgaria, where the Americans--in order not to be accused of
+proselytism--teach everything except religion."
+
+"If I had my own way," cried Fichta, "I would shut up these irreligious
+American schools. Religion is the base of the social life of this
+country."
+
+"And you and the Muhammedans," I asked, "do you think that your
+co-operation has a good prospect of enduring? With a country of no more
+than one and a half million inhabitants it is essential that you should
+be united."
+
+"God in Heaven! Who can tolerate such things?" exclaimed the
+Metropolitan. That very corpulent old gentleman was bouncing with rage
+on his sofa. "Is it not horrible," he cried in Italian, "that this man
+should dare to come to my house and make propaganda against us?"
+
+"Really, sir, I am astonished," said Monsignor Bumçi, reproachfully, in
+French, "that you should ask such a question." [It was answered a few
+weeks later, when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg--who, being outside
+Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental opinions--said that they
+had not the slightest doubt but that the friendship between the fanatic
+Moslem and the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of them
+would again in the first place think of his religion, so that, as
+heretofore, they would regard themselves as Turkish and Latin people
+rather than as Albanian. This foible does not apply to the Orthodox
+Albanians of the South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
+the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship with the Moslem.
+They have been the domineering party, but all that is finished, and we
+are the best of friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
+Regents![77] Our Government of all the three religions is very good,
+and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his chair, "it insists on the
+Albanians obtaining justice in spite of our enemies."
+
+It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor of Theology and
+Philosophy, in the Franciscan church. Because his brother had had
+occasion to kill an editor in self-defence, this, perhaps the most
+enlightened, member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
+to remain for eight months in the church and its precincts, seeing that
+the Government was powerless to guarantee that he would not be overtaken
+by that national curse, the blood-vengeance.
+
+"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance," said the
+Monsignor.
+
+"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting on justice for the
+Albanians."
+
+And some time after this Professor Achikou and another prominent young
+priest were deported to Italy and, I believe, interned in that
+country.... With their fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a
+priest whose anti-Slav paper, the _Bessa Shqyptare_, is alleged to
+exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday, whom Italy insisted
+on installing as Provincial of all the Franciscans (after vetoing at
+Rome the appointment of Father Vincent Prênnushi, whom nearly all the
+Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday, it is interesting
+to note, is of Slav nationality, for he comes from Janjevo in Kossovo,
+but he studied in Italy, and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors.
+This town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia and a few
+Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized, still retains a costume that
+resembles the Dalmatian, as also a rather defective Dalmatian dialect.
+The Austrians for thirty years endeavoured to Albanize them, but the
+people resisted this and boycotted the church and school. The priest
+Lazar, who defended their Slav national conscience, was persecuted and
+forced to flee to Serbia--he is now Mayor of Janjevo. It usually
+happened, by the way, that the priests of this Catholic town came from
+Dalmatia; but the Slav idea could bridge over the difference between
+Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that if no Catholic priest was available
+his place would be taken by an Orthodox priest from a neighbouring
+village. Only a few of the natives are anti-nationalists, having been
+brought up, like Father Doday, in some Italian or Austrian seminary.
+There are in Albania to-day about ten such priests who come from
+Janjevo.... How well this Father Doday has served his masters may be
+seen in the case of the Franciscan priest in Shala, who, with the whole
+population of armed Catholics, resisted the Italian advance of 1920.
+Together with Lieut. Lek Marashi he organized komitadjis in Shala and
+elsewhere, his purpose being to liberate his country from the Italians.
+Since these latter could do nothing else against him they compelled the
+Bishop of Pulati to punish him; however, all that the Bishop did was to
+tell the patriot priest to go away. But Father Doday was more willing to
+work for the Italians; he excommunicated his fellow-countryman, on the
+ground that he would not come to Scutari, where his life would have been
+in danger.
+
+
+4. THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE
+
+But, you may say, one cannot in fairness expect the new Albanian
+Government to achieve in so short a time what the Serbian Government has
+effected among the Albanians of Kossovo, who are being persuaded to
+relinquish their devastating custom of blood-vengeance. Prior to March
+1921, over 400 of its devotees and of brigands had given themselves up
+in Kossovo--turning away from the old days when, as one of them
+expressed it, "a shot from my rifle was heard at a distance of three
+hours' travel"; one of the most eminent among them disdained to
+surrender to a local authority and made his way to Belgrade, where he
+presented himself one afternoon to the astonished officials at the
+Ministry of the Interior. "After all," as Miss Durham has written, "the
+most important fact in northern Albania is blood-vengeance." What we
+must set out to probe is whether the Albanians, if they are left to
+themselves, will be able after a time to administer their country in a
+reasonably satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a very
+low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs and several proverbs were
+all that Consul Hahn could collect for his monumental work,[78] though
+his researches, which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
+One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some idea of
+their æsthetic value; a lover, standing outside the house of his lady,
+invites her to come out to him immediately; he threatens that if she
+disobeys him he will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more,
+he will have it washed and then he will return, howling like a dog.
+Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians, by the way, stated that the
+social life of Cæsar's _Bellum Gallicum_ was applicable to the tribes
+which now inhabit southern Albania, those of the north not being equal
+to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known Russian Consul-General,
+tells us of the villages of Retsch and Tschidna, where in winter men and
+women clothe themselves with rags, in summer with no rags--so that in
+the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not to shock the
+natives, would take the precaution of depositing his clothes in some
+convenient cavern. On the other hand, when the ladies in waiting on the
+Princess of Wied drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather,
+the people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called the terrible
+behaviour of their Prince's harem. These mountain people live on maize
+and milk and cheese--salt is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
+by the few educated Albanians as the most competent foreign observer. He
+knew the language well and travelled everywhere. One custom he relates
+of the Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they suspect
+that treasure is buried; on the next morning they look to see what
+animal has left on the ashes the print of its feet, and this tells them
+what sacrifice the guardian of the treasure demands--sheep or hen or
+human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement and water is the sole
+emetic known to the Albanians; it is used in all cases of poisoning. But
+the Albanian's death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot. "In
+Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"--42 per cent. of
+the adults, according to Nopsca, dying a violent death. "It was her good
+government and her orderliness that obtained for her her admission to
+the League of Nations," said the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., in the
+_Morning Post_ of November 29, 1921. And the enthusiastic President of
+the Anglo-Albanian Society is modest enough to refrain from telling us
+how much she was indebted to his own championship. The evil eye is
+feared in Albania more than syphilis or typhus. Siebertz[79] mentions a
+favourite remedy, which is to spit at the patient. A ceremonial spitting
+is also used by anyone who sees two people engaged in close
+conversation; very likely they are plotting against the third party, and
+by his timely expectoration their wicked plans will be upset.
+
+Absurd as it may sound, there are not a few Albanian apologists who lay
+the entire blame upon the Turks. They assert--and it is true--that
+Constantinople left this distant province so completely almost to its
+own devices that the suzerain might just as well not have existed. A
+few Turkish officials lived in the towns, in the country they showed
+themselves when they were furtively travelling through it; and the chief
+officials, such as the Vali of Scutari, were wont to be Albanians. And,
+being left by the Turks to evolve their own salvation, they turned
+Albania into a region of utter darkness--at any rate, they did
+practically nothing to shake off the barbarism which they had inherited.
+They have certain alluring attributes, such as their unpolluted mediæval
+ideas on the sanctity of guests and the punctilious maintenance of their
+honour,[80] their readiness to die for freedom as well as for a quarrel
+about a sheep, and their not infrequent personal magnetism. They are
+very abstemious, their morals are pure, they have certain mental
+qualities, as yet undeveloped, and they are thrifty. But "they are so
+devoid of both originality and unity," says Sir Charles Eliot,[81] that
+acutest of observers, "that it is vain to seek for anything in politics,
+art, religion, literature or customs to which the name Albanian can be
+properly applied as denoting something common to the Albanian race."
+
+The apologists, such as Miss Durham, argue that the other Balkan peoples
+suffered from a good deal of internal tumult after they had set
+themselves up as independent countries. And it is submitted that the
+Albanians would gradually develop the same national spirit as their
+neighbours. But there are as yet, Miss Durham must acknowledge, very
+few signs that this will ever come to pass.
+
+"We are Albanians," said Monsignor Bumçi, "we ask for Albania! We demand
+it! Surely you can see that we are all marching together, men from all
+parts of Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are united."
+
+And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian army was returning
+from a foray into Yugoslavia. When they came into the territory of a
+certain tribe they were compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their
+booty. Such incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously the
+conditions still prevail that were described in 1905 by Karl
+Steinmetz,[82] an Austrian engineer who learned the language and
+travelled through the country in the disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The
+tribes cannot conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
+his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up the new State
+these tribal institutions should be used as much as possible. Except in
+the towns, which play a relatively small part in the country's life, the
+voting should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala meet," says
+he, "except for mutual destruction? Will a Mirdite for a nice word give
+up his bandit expeditions to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet
+far too great." More often than not you would find that the Albanians
+regard each other as at the time of the Balkan War, when, for example, a
+Serbian cavalry officer took the village of Puka and asked the mayor to
+lead him to the neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented, but
+after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped. "We are now midway
+between the two villages," he said, "and I can go no farther." "Unless
+you continue," said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
+"_Nukahaile_ [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is all the same to
+me whether I am killed by you or by the men of Duci, and I certainly
+shall be killed if I show myself there."
+
+"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is splendid!" said Monsignor
+Bumçi. "And we are not by any means fanatical--with us it is the
+country first and our religion afterwards."
+
+Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman as we have sometimes
+been led to believe. Prenk Bib Doda is said to have cherished the
+precepts of the Catholic Church with such devotion that he could not
+bring himself to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
+wife. We are told that his mother was animated with similar scruples,
+and that, to solve this awkward question the old lady one day seized a
+rifle and shot her daughter-in-law dead. There is not more truth in this
+tale than in that of the brigands who, on a certain Friday, overpowered
+and slew a caravan of merchants between Dibra and Prizren. On examining
+their spoil they are said to have discovered a large amount of meat,
+but, as it was Friday, to have refrained from consuming it. Prenk Bib
+Doda was, as a matter of fact, impotent; and his widow, Lucia Bib Doda,
+survives him.... One agrees with Monsignor Bumçi that the Albanian is
+not altogether so blindly a supporter of his Church as we have been
+told, and his murderous intentions against a neighbouring tribe will be
+not at all diminished if they happen to profess the same religion as
+himself.
+
+"Anyone can see," quoth the Monsignor, "that the Government is dear to
+us. Men are coming from all over the country, anxious to execute its
+wishes and to be enrolled against the Yugoslav."
+
+Yes, we saw numbers of men tramping up to Scutari, from boys to
+septuagenarians. They were going to fight--it pleased them enormously.
+But if the Tirana Government had ordered them to go back and work on
+their fields, if it had asked them to take some precautions against the
+ravages of syphilis, if it had expressed the hope that they would no
+longer sell their women for an old Martini, or that the village prefects
+would pay some regard to sanitary matters--in the whole of Albania, says
+Siebertz, there is only one W.C.--then they would have laughed at this
+Government which tried to lay a hand on their ancestral liberties.
+
+"The end of it all is," said the Monsignor, "we are Albanians. We demand
+the independence of our country."
+
+"As a Latin," writes Professor Katarani,[83] "I was fire and flame for
+Albania.... But after a few months I was forced not only to change my
+views about them, but to regret all that I had written in the _Mattino_
+and the _Tribuna_.... They are not a people, but tribes ... they are
+against every principle of public officials, they live the most
+primitive lives. I who know Albania from end to end, who have sacrificed
+myself for that country, am absolutely convinced that there could be no
+greater misfortune than if, in its present state, it were given autonomy
+or independence. Otherwise I confess that an Albania free from any
+foreign Power would be to the interest of Italy." And he concludes by
+saying that the Albanians have done nothing to deserve an independent
+State. It is well known that in the Albanian Societies that after May
+1913 were engaged at Constantinople and Sofia, at Rome and Vienna, in
+striving for the independence of the country it was not the Albanians
+themselves who had the chief word. Those who were initiated into secret
+Balkan policies were aware that Albania was the domain with which
+Article 7 of the old Triple Alliance was concerned.... The fiery
+Albanian patriot, Basri Bey, Prince of Dukagjin, also agrees that in the
+beginning an independent Albania would be productive of anarchy. "I
+greatly regret to acknowledge it," says he,[84] "but Albania is, so to
+speak, the classic type of a country which has never had a real
+government." Nevertheless, he is strongly in favour of independence, his
+reasons being because Albania is "at the same time the old mother and
+the youngest daughter of the Balkans." This flamboyant prince and doctor
+and deputy who denounces both Essad Pasha and his nephew Ahmed Beg Mati,
+has got his own panacea for the country, which is a Turkish army of
+occupation commanded by a French general. Basri Bey seems to confirm the
+remarks of his more enlightened co-religionists, Halim Beg Derala and
+Zena Beg, for whereas the Moslems can claim no more than a rather larger
+third of the inhabitants, he calmly assumes that the whole country is
+Moslem. Albania, he says, is now more than ever attached to Turkey, for
+the attachment is purely moral. ... The influence of this gentleman
+seems to be confined to Dibra, but he has a good opinion of his own
+importance. In 1915, in the days of the greatness of Essad Pasha, he set
+up a Government at Dibra with himself as Prime Minister and Essad Pasha
+as his Minister of the Interior! There does not seem to be much
+justification for Basri Bey to call himself a prince. He is a Pomak, for
+his ancestors were Bulgars who accepted Islam. His father was an
+official of the Turkish Government at Philippopolis.
+
+Father Fichta told me that his countrymen would do very well indeed if
+they could import from other parts of Europe financial help, technicians
+and judges. Some years ago the Turks settled to send two judges to
+Scutari; then the Albanians would no longer be able to charge them with
+not administering the law, so that each man was obliged to take it into
+his own hands. "It is entirely your fault," said the Albanians, "that we
+are driven to adopt the method of blood-vengeance." So thoroughly did
+they adopt it that the assassinations in the region of Prizren,
+Djakovica and Pe['c] amounted, according to Glück, to a total of about
+six hundred a year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
+Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were murdered.
+
+What memory have the Albanians of their own great men? One sultry
+afternoon, as we were driving in a mule cart from the quaint town of
+Alessio, the driver lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a
+mile of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the driver's
+mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms and bled profusely and was
+doctored by the fierce gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the
+wound, so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the remainder
+of the afternoon our mule went at a walking pace, and presently, to
+while away the time, we begged the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio,
+who was travelling with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
+Skanderbeg. They stared--their mouths were also shut. And finally the
+gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It dealt with Zeph, a man with
+sheep, and Mark who stole them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
+no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day, as he hid behind a
+wall, he fired at Mark and slew him. "That is the song," said the
+gendarme, "about the hero Zeph."
+
+To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb, I think it will be
+generally agreed that some régime other than unaided independence must,
+in the meantime, be established there. One hears of those who argue that
+Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because they are a gifted
+and a very ancient people. They are not more gifted than the Basques,
+and their antiquity is not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
+level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do the Basques as
+compared with theirs. Not many tears are shed by the Basques or by
+anyone else because those interesting men are all the subjects of France
+or Spain.
+
+
+5. A METHOD THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED IN ALBANIA
+
+If only the Albanian question would be taken in hand by
+humanitarians.... Here you have one and a half million of wild
+children.... Build them schools and roads, police their country--they
+themselves agree that the savage atmosphere in the northern mountains
+was radically altered by the Austrians when they occupied that country
+during the War. One has heard of numerous philanthropic societies in
+Great Britain whose object has been more remote and less deserving; if
+some such society would turn to Albania, their educational and economic
+labours might, after a time, be made self-supporting by the permission
+to exploit--of course, with due regard to Albania's future--the forests
+and mines. "To be master in Albania," says M. Gabriel Hanotaux, "one
+would have to dislodge the inhabitants from their eyries"--(another
+French statesman has used a less exalted simile: "Albania," M. Briand
+once said, "is an international lavatory")--and it goes without saying
+that any corporation which undertakes to civilize the Shqyptart would
+need to bring in a military force, on similar lines to the Swedish
+_gendarmerie_ in Persia. The Swedes, in fact, who are a military nation,
+might be glad to accept this mandate; the expenses could be met by an
+international fund. A certain number of Albanians would be admitted to
+the _gendarmerie_; and the more unruly natives would be dealt with as
+they were, for everybody's good, by Austria.... The Yugoslavs would then
+be delighted to accept the 1913 frontier, which is also what the
+Albanians ask for; and Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks would all retire
+from Albania. There is really no need for the Italians to demand Valona
+or Saseno, the island which lies in front of it. The Italian naval
+experts know very well that the possession of Pola, Lussin and Lagosta
+would not be made more valuable by the addition of an Albanian base.
+
+
+6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+But as Europe has not arrived at some such solution, and since the
+Albanian Government has been prematurely recognized by the Powers, then
+while the Albanians are engaged in the stormy process of working out
+their own salvation, it is only fair that Yugoslavia should be given a
+good defensive frontier. The 1913 frontier is only possible if the
+Albanians are pacific, but as it has now been thought wise to set up an
+unaided and independent Albanian State there is nothing more certain
+than the turmoil of which its borders will be the scene, and this will
+be so whether the Italians do or do not come to the Albanians'
+assistance. What hope is there of even a relative tranquillity on the
+Albanian border when so many of the natives, preferring Yugoslav rule to
+that of their own countrymen, will be waging a civil war? That this
+preference is fairly widespread one could see in 1920 by the number of
+refugees on the Yugoslav side of the frontier. [Of course, a large
+number of Albanians also fled to Scutari and elsewhere from the
+districts lately occupied by the Yugoslav army. In both cases the
+refugees were moved sometimes by hopes for a brighter future, sometimes
+by fears which were caused by their clouded past. To speak first of
+those who fled on account of a guilty conscience, it is evident that
+these were more numerous among the refugees in Albania than among those
+in Yugoslavia, for it was the Yugoslav authorities and not the Albanian
+who extended their sway. Mr. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., wrote[85] "that in
+the North the Yugoslavs had destroyed more than 120 Albanian villages."
+It would have been interesting if he had given us their names, because
+the Yugoslavs appear to have set about it so thoroughly that one cannot
+find anything like that number on the Austrian maps, which are the best
+pre-war maps for those regions. The Anglo-Albanian Society tells the
+British public, in November, 1920, of the 30,000 destitute refugees in
+Albania, and in such a way that the cause of their exodus is ascribed,
+without more ado, to the terrible Yugoslav. But as the names are known
+of a good many Albanians who did not wait for the Yugoslav army, on
+account of past troubles between themselves and Yugoslavs, as also
+between themselves and other Albanians, it would have been as well if
+the Anglo-Albanian Society had reminded the public that all who fly in
+those parts are not angels. It would, on the other hand, be just as rash
+to sing the undiluted praise of those Albanians who, at odds with the
+Tirana Government, thought it opportune to leave their native land; but
+one can safely say, I think, that among these wanderers there was a
+larger proportion of laudable men....] Yugoslavia attracts the Albanians
+for more than one reason--not so much because the ancestors of many of
+these Muhammedan Albanians were, and not so long ago, Christians, as
+because inclusion in Yugoslavia would be to their economic
+advantage--Scutari can scarcely exist without the Yugoslav hinterland,
+while the people of the mountains are longing for that railway which the
+Yugoslavs will only build over land which is moderately immune from
+depredation. Other causes which have made so many of the borderland
+Albanians--to speak only of them--turn their eyes to Yugoslavia are the
+admiration which any primitive people feels for military prowess and the
+knowledge of what has taken place in the Prizren-Pe['c]-Djakovica
+region since it came into possession of the Serbs in 1913. Let us in the
+first place see what sentiments are now entertained by the Albanian
+natives of that region towards their rulers. It goes without saying that
+these sentiments are perfectly well known to those Albanians who live
+outside the Yugoslav frontier.
+
+Well, at Suva Rieka, near Prizren, for example, I found that all the
+Muhammedan inhabitants of Serbian origin are aware that they used to
+celebrate the Serbian national custom of "Slava," still keep up the
+Serbian Christmas Eve customs and often practise the old Christian nine
+days' wailing for the dead. Some of us may think that this new
+pro-Serbian tendency is rather on account of utilitarian reasons; the
+great thing is that it should exist. With rare exceptions, the people of
+Suva Rieka used to live by plunder; now they are sending their children
+to the Serbian school, at any rate the boys, and for the study of
+religion the authorities have made arrangements with a local Moslem. It
+is to be regretted that Miss Edith Durham, whose writings were so
+pleasant in the days before she became a more uncompromising
+pro-Albanian than most of the Albanian leaders, says that if these
+children go to Serbian schools it merely shows to what lengths of
+coercion the Serbs will resort. In 1912-1913 Serbian and Montenegrin
+officers seem to have told her that severe measures would be employed
+against any recalcitrant Albanian parent who might decline to send his
+son to school. Assuming that these officers were not young subalterns,
+that they were quite sober and that they were not rudely "pulling Miss
+Durham's leg," it may be urged that even if the children be driven to
+school at the point of the bayonet, such conduct would compare
+favourably with that of the Albanians towards the Serbs in Turkish
+times. Talking of coercion, I suppose that the progress in agricultural
+methods which one sees around Prizren is only further evidence of
+Serbian tyranny. The _gendarmerie_ on the country roads is composed
+largely of Muhammedan Albanians--doubtless the Serbs have coerced them
+by some horrible threats. And if Miss Durham were to hear that Ramadan
+(_né_ Stojan) Stefanovi['c] of the village of Musotisti had decided to
+return to the Orthodox faith to which his brothers George and Ilja had
+been more faithful than himself--such variegated families are not
+uncommon--I believe, though I may be doing her an injustice, that her
+first impulse would be to write to the papers in drastic denunciation of
+the Serbian authorities. They have, like most of us, sufficient to
+regret--for example, the person whom they sent to Pe['c], when they
+wanted the land to be distributed, was King Peter's Master of the Horse.
+He was thoroughly unsuitable, and caused a great deal of
+dissatisfaction.
+
+There was a time at the rather gloomy town of Djakovica, when, owing to
+the blood-vengeance, the Merturi were unable for eight years to enter
+the place; now they come in, merely to gaze at the Serbian major who is
+in command. Halim Beg Derala, the aristocratic and wealthy ex-mayor, who
+as a pastime used to plan an occasional robbery in Turkish days, told
+me--he speaks a little French, in addition to Albanian, Turkish, Serbian
+and Greek--that citizens were often unable to leave their houses for two
+months at a time,[86] and although every house was provisioned for a
+siege, yet one frequently had to manage without bread. Now the
+candid-eyed, fair-bearded priest rides out with Ljuba Kujundji['c], the
+erstwhile leader of komitadji, in order to negotiate with the Albanian
+Zeph Voglia, at that personage's own request, for his surrender to the
+Serb authorities. Zeph has written from a forest that he feels uneasy,
+because he owes sixteen blood-vengeances. He asks that his affairs may
+be settled by the law, and those sixteen pursuing countrymen of his have
+signified that this will meet their views, since in the first place the
+Serbs are disinterested in the matters between them, and, secondly, the
+Serbian penalties are not so mild as theirs, not permitting that a
+murder shall be expiated by the payment of a moderate sum or that a
+guilty party may absent himself for three years and suffer no further
+loss than the devastation of his house. Another sphere in which the
+Serbs have gained Albanian sympathies is with regard to the disputed
+ownership of land. Even as the Moors have been in the habit of handing
+down, from father to son, the key of some Sevillan house that vanished
+centuries ago, the Montenegrins, more fortunate, have been appearing
+with the ancient title-deeds of lands that now are in Albanian
+possession. According to Serbian law it is the oldest document which
+prevails. And the Albanians are generously compensated.... Those who,
+with the highest motives, advocate "Albania for the Albanians," may
+argue that the mediæval activities of Riza Beg and Bairam Beg Zur--whose
+adherents started shooting at each other every evening after six o'clock
+in the refuse-laden streets of Djakovica--would have been concluded and
+would not have been continued by their sons even if the Serbs had not
+appeared. Let them, before proclaiming the modern reasonableness of the
+Albanians, recollect that in 1919 the Moslem Bosniak ex-prisoners
+required on the average three months in order to traverse central
+Albania, the country of their co-religionists. From village to village
+the Bosniaks made their way, earning a little and then being plundered
+at the next place. Eighty per cent. of this population believe, in their
+fanaticism, that the Sultan will again unfurl over them his flag and
+that the world will ultimately be converted to Muhammed. And if,
+entertaining such ideas, they are so rigorous towards their
+fellow-Moslems, what prospect is there that this 80 per cent. will
+assist the Orthodox and Catholic Albanians in building up a State? Their
+ferocity, in fact, is so profound that it thrives on a diet which is
+chiefly of milk.... Perhaps a day will come when the Albanian will
+submit to be ruled by a member of another tribe, when local politics
+will engage his attention less than the silver, iron, copper, arsenic
+and water-power of his country. Perhaps the day will come. Midway
+between Djakovica and the monastery of De[vc]ani there stand two large
+houses side by side. In 1909 a man belonging to one of them slew four
+men of the other house, and on account of this he fled beyond the Drin,
+together with thirteen other men of his family. There is no knowing how
+long these refugees would have stayed away if that part of the country
+had not come under Serbian rule, but in 1919 negotiations were set on
+foot which--to the satisfaction of the members of the other house--would
+enable the thirteen innocent refugees to return, while the criminal
+would be arrested.
+
+As evidence of the cordiality now prevailing between Albanian and Serb
+in Yugoslavia, one may mention those cases where the Albanians in 1919
+entered into a bond that for six months they would exact no
+blood-vengeance from their fellow-countrymen; the number of these debts
+which hitherto had been regarded as debts of honour was very
+considerable, for they were not only incurred by assassination but could
+also be in payment of a mere scowl or of your wife, from within the
+house, having heard the voice of another man raised in song. The Serbian
+authorities are hoping confidently that the Albanians who have thus for
+a season placed themselves under the law will be ready in the future to
+pledge themselves. They are beginning to see that in a place the size of
+Djakovica it should be possible to make a wheel, that one should be able
+to find a shop whose contents are worth more than 100 francs, that the
+breed of their cattle, of their sheep and goats and horses could be
+vastly improved, that if their land were sanely treated it could be
+rendered much more fertile, and that their system of fruit cultivation
+is absurdly primitive.... And with Djakovica and the whole region of
+Kossovo being treated as we have shown by the Yugoslavs I think it will
+be almost as great a surprise to the reader as it was to the local
+population when he learns that in a memorandum of April 26, 1921, the
+Tirana Government complained to the League of Nations that the Yugoslav
+civil and military officials were behaving in a very pitiless fashion
+towards the Albanians. Certainly they have not as yet established
+Albanian schools, but they propose to do so when there is accommodation
+and when teachers are available; and then, maybe, to the disgust of Miss
+Durham, Mr. Herbert, etc., the Albanians of the district will, with an
+eye to the future, prefer to visit the Yugoslav schools.
+
+
+7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION
+
+Having glanced at what the Serbs have done in such a very short
+time--most of the years since 1913 being years of war--to win the
+gratitude of their Albanian fellow-subjects, we shall, in following a
+possible frontier between Yugoslavia and the Albanians, at any rate
+believe that many Albanians of those thus coming under Yugoslav rule
+would regard the change, as well they may, with equanimity. Suppose,
+then, that the frontier were to run along the watershed at the top of
+the mountain range to the west of Lake Ochrida. The people living to the
+east of this line in that district would acknowledge their Serbian
+origin. Thence passing to the neighbourhood of the village of Lin and
+from there in a northwesterly direction, so as to include in Yugoslavia
+the Golo Brdo, the so-called Bald Mountains, whose thirty villages are
+inhabited by Islamized Serbs who only speak, with very rare exceptions,
+the Serbian language, one may say that not only would their inclusion in
+Yugoslavia be beneficial to these people, but that they would accept it
+with alacrity. No very deep impression has been made upon them by the
+religion to which, not long ago, they were converted. In the Golo Brdo
+it was in great measure due to the Greek Church which, about the middle
+of the nineteenth century, left the region without a single priest, so
+that children of the age of eight had not been christened, and the
+people in disgust went over to Islam. Near Ochrida, some of them were
+asked whether they frequented the mosque.
+
+"Never," they replied.
+
+"What is your religion?"
+
+"Well, it is very strange," they told us, "but we have none."
+
+"What religion did you formerly have?"
+
+"Well, we don't know."
+
+Their priest roams the mountains with his gun, and there has been a
+tendency, since a man in this position received his salary from the
+State, for many to persuade the mufti to appoint them, irrespective of
+whether they could read or write. The devout Moslem is, to the
+exclusion of everything else, a Moslem; but in these districts, where
+the faith was assumed in a moment of pique or as a protection, and where
+the Muhammedan clergy has been so negligent, the people are gladly
+cultivating their Christian relatives. In the district of Suva Rieka one
+hears of conversions to Christianity, and the functionaries bring no
+pressure to bear, unlike the misguided Montenegrin officials who in 1912
+rode into Pe['c], the old Patriarchate, and wanted in their delight to
+have everyone immediately to adopt the Orthodox faith. Now the
+authorities, with greater wisdom, do not interfere in these matters.
+They know that Yugoslavia will have no enemy in that house in the
+village of Brod, between Tetovo and Prizren, where two brothers are
+living together, of whom one went over to Islam. They know that the
+Muhammedan Krasnichi of Albania are proclaiming their kinship with the
+great Montenegrin clan of Vasojevi['c], that the Gashi are calling to
+the Piperi and the Berishi to the Ku[vc]i. The new cordiality will be
+impaired neither by the differences of religion nor by the similarity of
+costume. The average Albanian of Djakovica would not be any fonder of an
+Orthodox fellow-citizen if the latter continues to wear the Albanian
+dress which was generally adopted about a hundred years ago, and the
+Vasojevi['c] may please themselves as to the wearing of a costume which
+they once found so useful in the Middle Ages. They happened to be for
+ten days in the Hoti country for the purpose of wiping out a blood
+affair, and when they were about to fall into the Hoti's hands they
+shouted, "What do you want with us? We are Kastrati!" The Kastrati, to
+whom these Albanian-clad people were led, confirmed the statement, so
+that the Vasojevi['c] earned for themselves the nickname of
+Kastratovi['c].
+
+From the Golo Brdo the best frontier would pass north-eastwards to the
+Black Drin and along that river until it is joined by the White Drin.
+This is a poor country whose inhabitants are, for the most part,
+Moslemized Serbs. About a hundred men are now engaged in excavating the
+very finely decorated Serbian church at Pi[vs]kopalja on the Drin--much
+to the edification of the local Moslems. This church of their ancestors
+was covered in during the Middle Ages in order to conceal it from the
+Turks. Too often the natives' present occupation is brigandage; but from
+of old they have had economic relations with Prizren, to which old town
+of vine-arched, narrow, winding streets and picturesque bazaars these
+countryfolk have been accustomed to come every week. These Moslems (of
+whom there are some 100,000 in the department of Prizren, with 13,000
+Orthodox and 3000 Catholics) used to detest the Christians on account of
+their religion, although half of the Moslems could speak nothing but
+Serbian. The Serbs, it must be admitted, were not always blameless; in
+the early nineties, for example, they suspended a pig's head outside the
+mosque. And the amenities of Prizren were complicated by the hostility
+between Orthodox and Catholic. This was largely due to the fact that, by
+the intervention of the French Consul after the Crimean War, the
+Catholics--descendants of Ragusan emigrants of the Middle Ages--had
+secured the former Orthodox church of St. Demetrius, in which church, by
+the way, the services had come to be held in Albanian. When the Vatican,
+in the second half of the nineteenth century, sent a Serbian priest, the
+congregation had become so thoroughly Albanized that after a year he had
+to leave. The propaganda of Austria, Italy and Russia did nothing
+towards persuading the three religions of Prizren to regard each other
+in a more amicable fashion; while Italy and Austria gave exclusive
+assistance to the Catholics, whom they found in such distress that,
+forty years ago, most of them went barefoot, the presence of the Russian
+Consul was of such importance to the Orthodox that their position at
+Prizren was better than in their old patriarchal town of Pe['c].
+Nowadays, with Austrian and Russian propaganda deleted, there is only
+that of the Italians, whose proposal to create an independent Albania
+(under Italian protection) was at first applauded by some simple folk in
+1919. The Moslem took to accepting Italian money and then honourably
+informing the Yugoslav authorities that they had been appointed as
+agents of Italy; they offered to capture the Franciscan priests with
+whose help the Italians were trying to secure the Catholics; and as for
+the cash, it seems mostly to have been spent in a convivial fashion by
+the Moslems and the Serbs together. This friendship appears likely to
+continue, for the Serbian authorities, so far from countenancing such
+pranks as that of the pig's head, do not even propose to reconsecrate
+their ancient church of Petka. When this building was made into a
+mosque, the Moslem still permitted the Christian women to come and pray
+there, while if a Christian man was sick they let him leave a jar of
+water in the mosque all night, so that it might acquire certain
+medicinal properties. It is the intention of the Serbs not to restore
+the church to Christian worship, but to turn it into a museum.
+
+With the frontier then being drawn along the Drin, towards the Adriatic,
+the famous villages of Plav and Gusinje would definitely pass to
+Yugoslavia, in accordance with the wishes of a deputation sent by them
+to Belgrade in 1919. The well-meaning British champions of Gusinje, who
+maintain that this village is furiously antagonistic to the Slav and is
+ready to struggle to the uttermost rather than be incorporated in a Slav
+kingdom, these champions do not, I think, draw a sufficient distinction
+between Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Plav, with its mostly Christian
+population, and Gusinje, where the Moslem preponderates, refused at the
+time of the Berlin Congress to be given to Montenegro, with which they
+had certain local quarrels. Nicholas reported to the Powers which had
+awarded him these places that they were obdurate, for which reason he
+was given in their stead a much-desired strip of coast, down to
+Dulcigno, and nothing could have suited that astute monarch better.
+Nikita--to call him by his familiar name--imagined that the two villages
+would eventually fall to Montenegro, because of the formidable mountains
+which divide them from the rest of Albania; the road from Gusinje to
+Scutari is very long and very arduous. When Montenegro succeeded in
+capturing Plav in 1912, a certain Muhammedan priest of that place joined
+the Orthodox Church and was appointed a major in the Montenegrin army.
+He acted as the president of a court-martial, and in that capacity is
+reputed to have hanged or shot, some say, as many as five hundred of his
+former parishioners, because they declined to be baptized. He told them
+that their ancestors were all Serbs, and that therefore they should
+follow his example. Since the Montenegrins did not restrain this
+over-zealous man, the villagers were naturally not in favour of that
+country. Montenegro had a very small number of good officials, owing to
+Nikita's peculiar management which, in considering his favourites, did
+not regard illiteracy as a bar to the highest administrative or judicial
+post.... The people of Plav and Gusinje have, on the other hand, no
+hostility against Serbia. In November 1918 a detachment of thirty Serbs
+was stationed at Gusinje, what time certain Italian agents put it into
+the shallow minds of some Albanians that Albania desired to be
+independent under Italian protection. Nothing happened when a Serbian
+force came from Mitrovica, except that these agents and a few of their
+tools--be it noted that perhaps half the population is ignorant of the
+Albanian language--withdrew to the Rugovo district, where they tried to
+induce the people to fly with them, so that the world would hear how
+iniquitously the Serbs had acted. Those of Rugovo refused to accompany
+them; in consequence of which there was a fight, some houses were
+burned, some women and cattle were seized. And afterwards the men of
+Rugovo repaired to Gusinje and exacted a vengeance which, the most
+Serbophobe person will admit, had nothing to do with the Serbs. The
+luckless village of Gusinje was again laid waste in 1919 by the
+Montenegrins, but this came to pass as the result of the Montenegrin
+clan of Vasojevi['c] having their property ravaged by some Albanian
+marauders who were prompted by the same Great Power. The Vasojevi['c]
+believed that this evil deed was done by the men of Gusinje, so that
+they destroyed their houses. When the facts were explained to them, the
+Vasojevi['c] said that they were prepared to rebuild the village. And
+now Plav and Gusinje, who ask for Serbian and not Montenegrin officials,
+recognize that it is impossible for them to live except in union with
+Yugoslavia.... Miss Durham's wrath concerning an affair which happened
+during 1919 in this region shows to what lengths a partisan will go. She
+complained with great bitterness that the Serbs had actually arrested a
+British officer whose purpose it was to make investigations.
+
+The Serbs are human beings and are not immune from error; and Miss
+Durham is so determined to expose them that if all her charges were
+dealt with from Belgrade it would necessitate the appointment of one or
+two more officials. But in this particular case she is not the sole
+accuser. A Captain Willett Cunnington--who, according to the President
+of the Anglo-Albanian Society, the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., has
+several years' intimate experience of Albania--said in the _New
+Statesman_ that in consequence of what occurred to Captain Brodie the
+Serbian Government was compelled to apologize abjectly. Now I happen to
+be very well acquainted with the stalwart Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c], the
+Montenegrin who arrested Brodie. Albanians have told me that
+Pouni[vs]a's knowledge of the north and north-west of their country is
+not a matter of villages but of houses. And he has always observed the
+customs which prevail in those houses, so that when he is known to be
+approaching, the people who live at a distance of many hours will come
+to meet him, whether for the pure delight of discharging their firearms
+to his greater glory or for the purpose of seeking his advice. It is not
+because he has studied jurisprudence in Paris that they respect him in
+that bitter region, but because he does not disregard the laws that
+govern the wild hearts on both sides of the frontier. Yet I suppose
+Captain Brodie had never heard of him--poor Captain Brodie! unconscious
+of the great good luck which had brought him into the presence of this
+man who could have made his journey much more pleasant for himself and
+vastly more profitable for his superiors.
+
+This is what Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c] told me:
+
+"At the end of January and the beginning of February 1919, we were
+having a certain amount of trouble in the Gusinje and Plav district,
+where I was acting as delegate of the Belgrade Government. Travellers
+were being murdered, telephone wires were being cut, and so forth. In
+those parts, which I have known for so many years, it is a good deal
+easier to ascertain a criminal's name than to seize him, and I had not
+captured these malefactors when one day I had a message to say that a
+European Commission was approaching. Later on I was told that
+thirty-nine of its members were Albanians. I ordered my lieutenant to
+find out whether they were from our territory, in which case they were
+to be disarmed and brought to me; or from Albania, in which event they
+were to be received politely. A quarter of an hour after this I was told
+that they were all well-known brigands from our State, and there was one
+specially notorious person, Djer Doucha, who in 1912 was converted to
+Christianity and was made a gendarme at the court of King Nicholas; in
+1915, after the Austrian invasion, he was reconverted to Islam and
+became a sergeant of _gendarmerie_. In that position he killed fifty or
+sixty Serbs and Montenegrins, to say nothing of his other acts of
+violence. In 1918, for instance, he murdered seven school-children whom
+he met on the road.
+
+"I had some urgent business at Plav," continued Ra[vc]i['c], "and there
+all these people were brought before me. In addition to the thirty-nine
+Albanians there were three men in British uniforms. I was acquainted
+with one of them, a certain Perola, a Catholic of Pe['c], a former
+Austrian agent who had committed many crimes against the Serbs and had
+lately escaped from the prison at Pe['c]. One of the other two said that
+he was Captain Brodie, whom the London Government had sent as their
+delegate for Albania and Montenegro. I suppose the third man was his
+British orderly; I never heard him speak. But Brodie said many things.
+One of them (which was quite true) was that his Government had not yet
+recognized the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He demanded the
+instant release of his companions. 'Do you know who they are?' said I.
+'That is no concern of yours,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'they are
+criminals, and it is for the judges to say whether or not they are to be
+liberated.' 'I protest,' he exclaimed, 'in the name of England, against
+their arrest!' 'And I thank you,' said I, 'in the name of the Serbian
+police, for having brought them here.' 'You are a savage, a barbarous
+nation!' said he, 'and you don't deserve to be free and independent.'
+'Sir,' said I, 'if you are an Englishman you should know that we are
+your allies, that you and we have shed our blood for the common cause.
+We love England very much, and I am very surprised to hear a British
+officer speak in this way.' Again he demanded to be set free, he and all
+his people, so that he could continue his mission; but I told him that
+after what I had heard from him and what I had seen of his escort, I
+could not permit him to go on to other villages unless he could show me
+an authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Belgrade. 'I do
+not recognize the Belgrade Government,' said he. 'Whom, then,' I asked,
+'do you regard as the legitimate ruler of this country?' 'King
+Nicholas,' said he, 'and the Government of Montenegro.' So I advised him
+to get a visa from King Nicholas and to come back to perform his
+mission, when that visa would be honoured. 'Anyhow,' said he, 'the
+people of these parts are against Serbia.' Thereupon I sent for the
+chief men and told them to say quite candidly in front of this
+Englishman what they wanted. There were five Moslems, including Islam
+and Abdi Beg Rejepagi['c] (the leading family) and Ismael Omeragi['c],
+also two Christians, of whom I remember Stani[vc]a Turkovi['c]. 'Long
+live Serbia!' they shouted. 'Death to Nicholas and the Albanians!' On
+hearing this Captain Brodie was discontented; he told me that I was a
+savage and did not know how to esteem an Englishman. 'I esteem you very
+much,' said I, 'and because he is wearing a British uniform I won't
+arrest this interpreter of yours.' (By the way, Perola was not acting as
+interpreter in our conversation, as the captain and I were talking
+French.) 'He used to be an Austrian agent,' said I. 'You are a liar!'
+cried Brodie; 'I know this man; he was nothing of the sort.' I remained
+calm, but I told him that he must not speak to me again in such a way. I
+asked him how long he had known Perola, who had got away from our prison
+a month ago. 'I have known him for a month,' said Brodie. 'And now,'
+said I, 'will you please show me your documents?' 'I have none,' said
+he, 'and I do not require any, as I am a British officer.' 'But I have
+read in the papers,' said I, 'that your people arrested and shot several
+persons who were wearing the uniform of a British officer. If you have
+no documents to prove that you are not a spy and that you are a British
+officer I shall have to arrest you.' Then he showed me one with some
+Italian words on it, I think a permission to go somewhere on the Piave
+front. 'From now,' said I, 'you are arrested; no one can come to you and
+you cannot leave this house. Prepare yourself to start to-morrow or the
+day after, if you are tired, for Pe['c], and perhaps Skoplje, so that
+you may prove your identity.' He protested, and declared that he must
+see the people in the neighbouring villages. 'If you are a real
+Englishman,' said I, 'I could not allow you to go by yourself, since
+there are many Moslems in these parts who have been excited against
+England by their hodjas, owing to your war with Turkey. They might kill
+you, and I would be held responsible; so that even if you had the
+necessary documents I could only let you go if precautions were taken to
+guard you. I am sorry,' said I, 'that you should have spoken as you have
+done against the Serbs; in fact, it seems to me that you are doing a
+disservice to England, and that here in this village I am serving her
+more truly.' 'I decline to go to Pe['c],' said Brodie; 'I want to go to
+Scutari.' 'You must go to Pe['c],' said I. He said that I could
+telephone concerning him either to the Belgrade Government or to the
+General at Cetinje. 'Unfortunately,' said I, 'it is these people who are
+with you who cut the telephone wires two days ago.' After this I
+appointed a guard for him. I gave him my room, with soldiers to serve
+him, to keep the room warm and bring him whatever food we had. [Observe
+that the above-mentioned Captain Willett Cunnington wrote in the _New
+Statesman_ that Brodie was treated with "gross indignity."] 'Three
+horses were got ready,' said Ra[vc]i['c] in conclusion, 'and on these
+they rode to Pe['c], accompanied by a guard, both to prevent them from
+escaping and from coming to harm.'"[87]
+
+In its old Albanian days the village of Gusinje was perhaps the most
+inaccessible spot in Europe--it was rarely possible for anyone to obtain
+permission to approach it. Even to Miss Durham, friend of the
+Albanians, this people sent a decided refusal. But now, under the
+guidance of the Yugoslav authorities, they have abandoned these boorish
+ways; Miss Durham could go there at any time, but maybe the village no
+longer attracts her.
+
+
+8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN AUTHORITIES
+
+[We have more than once alluded to the writings of Miss Durham, since
+very few British authors have dealt with Albania, and she has come to be
+regarded as a trustworthy expert. But the flagrant partiality of her
+latest book (_Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_; London, 1920), which,
+moreover, is written with great bitterness, will make the public turn, I
+hope, to Sir Charles Eliot, who is a vastly better cicerone. The present
+ambassador in Japan is, of course, one of the foremost men of this
+generation. His Balkan studies are as supremely competent as his
+monumental work on British Nudibranchiate Mollusca, published by the Ray
+Society when Sir Charles, having resigned the Governorship of East
+Africa, was Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Equally admired are
+his researches into Chinese linguistics and his monograph, the first in
+the language, on that most obscure subject, Finnish grammar.[88] Will it
+be believed that in her account of the Balkan tangle Miss Durham does
+not quote Sir Charles Eliot, but Mr. Horatio Bottomley? It seems that
+Mr. Bottomley has not devoted much attention to the Balkans, since in
+November 1920 he poured the vials of his wrath upon the Serbs, who,
+according to his "latest reports from Montenegro," had destroyed no less
+than 4000 Montenegrin houses in the district of Dibra, a place which
+lies some 75 miles by road from the land of the Black Mountain and
+probably does not possess more than two or three Montenegrin houses; but
+he flings hard words against the Serbs, and that is good enough for Miss
+Durham. On the other hand, Sir Charles Eliot, who has travelled largely
+in Albania, wrote the simple facts about that people and they are
+obnoxious to this lady. "It is not surprising to find that there is no
+history of Albania, for there is no union between North and South, or
+between the different northern tribes and the different southern Beys,"
+said he in 1900, and such a people does not undergo a fundamental change
+in twenty years. "Only two names," says Eliot, "those of Skanderbeg and
+Ali Pasha of Janina, emerge from the confusion of justly unrecorded
+tribal quarrels.... Albania presents nothing but oppositions--North
+against South, tribe against tribe, Bey against Bey." (According to Miss
+Durham they are all aflame with the desire to form a nation.) "Even
+family ties seem to be somewhat weak," says Sir Charles, "for since
+European influence has diminished the African slave-trade, Albanians
+have taken to selling their female children to supply the want of
+negroes." (The Albanians are "enterprising and industrious," says Miss
+Durham.) "In many ways," says Eliot, "they are in Europe what the Kurds
+are in Asia. Both are wild and lawless tribes who inflict much damage on
+decent Turks and Christians alike. Both might be easily brought to
+reason by the exhibition of a little firmness.... Albanian patriotism is
+not a home product--had they ever been ready to combine against the Turk
+there seems to be no reason why they should not have preserved the same
+kind of independence as Montenegro; but from the first some of the
+tribes and clans endeavoured to secure an advantage over the others by
+siding with the invaders--papers and books on the national movement are
+written at Bucharest, Brussels and various Italian towns, but they are
+not read at Scutari or Janina. The stock grievance of this literature is
+that the Turks will not allow Albanian to be taught in the schools, and
+endeavour to ignore the existence of the language; but though the
+complaint is well-founded, I doubt if the mass of the people have much
+feeling on the subject." ... Those who are rash enough to assert,
+because Miss Durham says so, that in the last two decades the Albanians
+have made a progress of several centuries may be recommended to the
+testimony of Brailsford[89] (1906), of Katarani (1913), and of the
+Italian Press which, after the retreat of their army to Valona,
+published in 1920 the most ghastly particulars of what befell the
+hapless officers and men who were captured by the Albanians.
+
+Let the British public henceforth go to Sir Charles Eliot and not to
+this emotional lady for its picture of the unchanged Shqyptar. She
+reveals to us that more than one person in the Balkans said that her
+knowledge of those countries is enormous; she has knocked about the
+western Balkans and picked up a good deal of material, but her knowledge
+has its limitations: for example, she makes the old howler of ascribing
+Macedonian origin to Pa[vs]i['c], though his grandfather came not from
+Tetovo in Macedonia but from near Teteven in what is now Bulgaria. Miss
+Durham plumes herself for having sent back to Belgrade the Order of St.
+Sava, and seeing that it is bestowed for learning she did well. But even
+if her acquaintance with Balkan affairs were more adequate--her
+diagnosis of the Macedonian racial problem is extremely rough and
+ready--all the writings of Miss Durham are so warped with hatred for the
+Slav that they must be very carefully approached. Because she thinks it
+will incline her readers towards the Albanians she says[90] that they
+were early converts to Christianity. She omits to mention that the
+Moslem, on arriving in the Balkans, was able to spread his religion much
+more easily in Albania than anywhere else; and again, in the seventeenth
+century, when Constantinople offered many lucrative posts to the Moslem
+there occurred in Albania a great wave of apostasy. Miss Durham speaks
+with pride of the Albanians who during the Great War fought in the
+French, Italian and American ranks. Would it not be more straightforward
+if she added that large numbers were enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian
+army and _gendarmerie_? The special task of the latter was to dislodge
+from their mountain fastnesses those Montenegrins who continued to carry
+on a desperate guerilla warfare against the invader. To pretend that the
+Albanian has earned the freedom of his country by his glorious exploits
+in the War is an absurdity. He is a mediæval fellow, much more anxious
+to have a head to bash than to ascertain whom it belongs to. The Slavs
+have not always treated their raw neighbours with indulgence; in the
+Balkan War, when their army marched through Albania to the sea some very
+discreditable incidents occurred, whatever may have been the provocation
+they received from the sniping natives and however great be the excuse
+of their own state of nerves. Yet the first stone should be flung by
+that army of Western Europe which, in its passage through the territory
+of a treacherous and savage people, has done nothing which it would not
+willingly forget. And seriously to argue that the Slavs are of an almost
+undiluted blackness, while the Albanians are endearing creatures, is to
+take what anti-feminists would call a feminist view of history. Miss
+Durham tells us that some years ago she stood upon a height with an
+Albanian abbot and promised him that she would do all that lay in her
+power to bring a knowledge of Albania to the English. The worthy abbot
+may have glanced at her uneasily, but noticing her rapt expression
+reassured himself. And she appears to have believed that England,
+eagerly absorbing what she told them of this people, would in August
+1914 make her policy depend on their convenience. But to Miss Durham's
+horror and amazement, Great Britain turned aside from this clear and
+honourable duty. She entered the War as an ally of the Slav, bringing
+"shame and disgust" upon Miss Durham. "After that," says she, "I really
+did not care what happened. The cup of my humiliation was full."]
+
+
+9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS
+
+It is not as if Serbia never made mistakes in dealing with the
+Albanians. The Sultan used to govern them by sending in one year an army
+against them, and in the next year asking for no recruits or taxes. The
+Montenegrins, of whom the older generation was bored when it had no man
+to shoot at, used to be on very neighbourly terms with them. Both these
+systems the Albanians could understand. But they did not know why the
+Belgrade Government in 1878--and it was a mistaken policy--should expel
+a number of Albanians from the newly-won zones, thrusting them across
+the frontier and putting in their place a number of Serbs who were
+settled in Old Serbia. The twofold folly of this plan was not grasped at
+the moment; but for several years the Serbian frontier districts were
+regularly invaded and plundered. The following years of Turkish misrule,
+and especially the young Turkish policy of treacherous force, which
+resulted in Albanian risings every year, may possibly have caused many
+Albanians to be honestly glad when the Balkan War brought the Serbs into
+their country. But of these Albanians not a few would rejoice because
+they hoped that with the help of the Serbian army it would be possible
+to slay the members of some adjacent tribe against whom they happened to
+have a feud. Perhaps the Serbs were so eager to bathe their horses in
+the Adriatic that they did not notice such trifles as the destruction of
+a ford, this having been done to prevent a visit from undesirable
+neighbours. One might have imagined that Serbia, being well known as a
+land of small peasant proprietors--where there is even a law which
+forbids a peasant's house from being sold over his head; he is, under
+any circumstances, assured of so much as will enable him to eke out a
+livelihood--one would have thought that the Albanian _[vc]if[vc]ija_,
+who is nothing more than a slave of the feudal chief, would have
+rejoiced at the arrival of a liberator; and indeed, while the Serbian
+troops were in Albania the peasant refused to give his lord the
+customary third or half of what the land produced, and after the
+departure of the Serbs he was unapproachable for tax-collectors. Who
+knows whether this social readjustment, so auspiciously begun, might not
+have made Albania wipe out her grievances against the Serbs and remember
+only that in the Imperial days of Du[vs]an, even if he was not of the
+most ancient Balkan race, there was prosperity and happiness where now
+is desolation; busy merchants in the seaport towns of Albania, which
+now are ruins; ships sailing in from Venice with the luxuries of all
+the world and taking back with them all those good things, a half of
+which Albania has forgotten how to make? And after that there had been
+times of friendship with the Serb--Dositej Obradovi['c], the philologist
+(one of those amiable persons who invented for the Albanians an
+alphabet), tells us, for instance, how in his travels through Albania he
+was assured by natives that they and the Serbs lived together as if they
+were members of one family, while the Ku['c]i in eastern Montenegro had,
+by a gradual process of assimilation, become transformed from Catholic
+Albanians into Orthodox Montenegrins. It is told that in the wondrous
+hours when the _[vc]if[vc]ija_ gloried in the soil he was about to win,
+even the notoriously wild Klementi, filled with hunger for the land, ran
+down from their fastnesses. But, most unfortunately, at that moment the
+Great Powers decided that Albania was to be an autonomous, hereditary
+State. This interrupted the movement towards reconciliation with Serbia;
+and even now the Serbs will be told by many encouraging people that in
+their efforts to win the regard of Albanians they have an impossible
+task, that if some of them take a step towards you one day they will
+rush back a dozen on the day after. These people will repeat the legend
+that the Albanians have an invincible hatred for the Slavs; but the
+Albanians have not forgotten how, in the course of the Middle Ages, they
+were willingly open to Slav penetration--the Serbian language reached to
+beyond Alessio, the small Albanian dynasties intermarried with Slav
+ruling families, so that they preferred to speak Serbian, and down to
+this day two-thirds of the place-names of northern Albania are of Slav
+origin. One of the most important documents in this connection is a
+letter from the town of Dubrovnik to the Emperor Sigismund in the year
+1434. They inform the Emperor that Andria Topia, lord of the Albanian
+coast, has secretaries who know nothing but the Serbian language and
+alphabet. Thus when the Emperor sends him letters in Latin he is obliged
+to have them translated elsewhere, and the contents of the Imperial
+letters are not kept secret. So the Emperor was forced to write to Topia
+in Serbian.... Long memories are not always inconvenient, and Albanian
+memories are long because, until recent years, all that they knew came
+from tradition--Austria and Italy had not yet become so concerned about
+Albanian education that (forgetting their own illiterates in Bosnia and
+Calabria) the two Allies waved into existence boys' and girls' schools
+up and down the country; so desirous were they that these founts of
+knowledge should be patronized that both Italians and Austrians were
+prepared to pay good money and eke a supply of garments and a
+gaily-coloured picture of King or Emperor, as the case might be; and
+with respect to the cash, not only was each willing to pay but to pay
+more than the other. Yet the Albanian is most mindful of tradition, and
+he is aware that his approach to the Slav in the Middle Ages was blocked
+by the inopportune arrival of the Turks; it is in the nature of man that
+the Albanian was more impressed by the brilliant young States of the
+early princes, with that barbarically sumptuous residence at Scutari
+(the Catholics of Scutari also being in the diocese of Antivari, which
+was under Serb domination) than, centuries later, when he found himself
+confronted with the pitiable population of Old Serbia.
+
+In the Sandjak the task of Yugoslavia will be relatively simple; the
+Albanians who live there are not autochthonous, but arrived at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century on the plateau of Pechter. These
+Klementi--then very numerous--cared nothing for their Serbian origin, so
+that the Patriarch of Pe['c] had to protect himself against them by
+means of a janissary guard--which the Sultan permitted him to maintain
+at his own expense--whereas they were attentive to the teachings of
+their religion, in so far as they obeyed the Catholic missionaries who
+dwelt among them and requested that in their forays they should confine
+themselves to Muhammedan and Orthodox booty. One of the places they
+attacked was Plav, from which they drove the population, and themselves
+henceforward took to living on the fertile fields in summer, while they
+spent the winter in some mountain caverns. But after seven years a large
+proportion of this tribe went back to its ancestral stronghold in the
+Brdo range, from which the Turks had transplanted them to the Sandjak.
+This wish of theirs to go to their old home was gratified after they
+had beaten off the Turks triumphantly in various engagements on the way,
+and even pursued them to their trenches.... The Klementi who had stayed
+on the Pechter were further depleted a few years later, when their
+kinsfolk, answering the appeal of the Archbishop of Antivari, rode up
+there and carried off fifty families who were on the eve of renouncing
+their religion. The final group which remained became Moslem, and with
+such ardour that when the Serbs of Kara George reached the Sandjak they
+found that these Klementi were completely Islamized; they resisted the
+Serbian army with the utmost resolution. Subsequently they attempted to
+convert the Serbian population round them, but with mediocre success,
+for the Klementi themselves were not too strong; moreover, they were
+isolated from the other Muhammedan Albanians.
+
+And yet certain incidents which occurred in the Sandjak during the Great
+War seem to show that even there the task of dealing with the population
+is a troublous one. They are conservative; one sees, for example, a
+woman who has got up very early holding aloft a vessel against the sun.
+This is done with the object of preventing the cows of a certain man
+from giving any milk. But the man is on the alert. He shoots the vessel
+out of her hand and proceeds, with an easy mind, about his business.
+Frequently the Austrians disarmed these men, but it is their practice to
+have more rifles than shirts, although during the occupation a rifle
+cost twenty napoleons. It occurred to the Austrian Governor-General of
+Montenegro, Lieut. Field-Marshal von Weber, that these Albanians were
+children and, if treated well, would make useful volunteers. A party of
+them was thereupon sent to Graz, where they were told that they would be
+trained to fight on behalf of the Sultan. Their military education was a
+trifle agitated--for instance, on their second day at Graz they thrashed
+their officers--but when their training was considered adequate they
+were sent to the front, and there they immediately surrendered to the
+Italians. This was not the first time that a body of Albanians had gone
+to Austria. In 1912, for the Eucharistic Congress at Vienna, some two
+dozen of them, in their national costume and conducted by their
+priests, had taken part in the procession. It is said that the financier
+Rosenberg, of whom one has heard, bore a portion of the pretty large
+expenses of the deputation. His title of baron dates from this period.
+Austria's work among the school-children was no more successful than
+among the adults. Remembering that just outside Zadar lies Arbanasi, or
+Borgo Erizzo, a village of 2500 inhabitants, nearly all of whom are
+Albanians, it seemed good to the Austrian authorities to procure from
+that place a schoolmaster who would make suitable propaganda. There was
+at Arbanasi a teachers' institute, as also an Italian "Liga" school
+which was closed by the Austrians during the War, and when the
+schoolmaster arrived at Plav, where the people speak Serbian, he set
+about teaching the children Albanian and also making propaganda for
+Italy, as he was from the "Liga" school.... That fidelity of the five
+hundred men of Plav who clung, as we have related, to their religion,
+had its pendant when the Austrians were engaged in constructing a road.
+The custom was for a potentate of that district to procure for the
+Austrians a sufficient number of men, to whom three or four crowns a day
+would be paid. Any man who disregarded the potentate's summons was
+thrashed by him, and thrashed in such a way that for three days he was
+prostrate. The late Chief of Police at Sarajevo, Mr. Ljescovac, was
+(being a Bosnian subject) administering this district during the
+Austrian occupation. He tried frequently to get particulars from the men
+who had been so mercilessly flogged, with a view to opening an inquiry.
+Their invariable answer was: "I know nothing."
+
+In the days of Charles, another member of the Topia family, a copyist,
+who was in his service, was transcribing the Chronicle of George
+Hamartolos, and twice, thinking of his master, he inserts: "God, help
+Charles Topia." As we leave the Serb and the Albanian face to face,
+sensitive, imaginative, tenacious people, both with very ancient claims,
+we must hope that a happy solution will be found. After all Serbia,
+being in Yugoslavia, is now a Muhammedan and a Catholic Power. She has
+men at her disposal, such as Major Musakadi['c], a Bosnian Moslem who
+deserted from the Austrian army to the Serbs, fought with them on
+several fronts and received the highest decoration for valour, the Kara
+George; then, after the War, he was sent by the Government to command at
+Br['c]ko, a place in his native Bosnia where there is a Moslem majority.
+A few of the Orthodox protested energetically that they would not have a
+Moslem over them; they were received by the Minister of Justice in
+Belgrade. "Gentlemen," said he, "go back to Br['c]ko and when anyone of
+you has earned the Cross of Kara George I shall be glad to see him here
+again." ... As in the old days, the Serbian civilization is far
+superior, but this is not everything; that the Albanian is ready to meet
+it with peace or war he shows clearly as he glides along in his white
+skull-cap, his close-fitting white and black costume, with his
+panther-like tread and with several weapons and an umbrella.
+
+But for the various reasons to which we have alluded he is now much more
+inclined to live in peace with the Yugoslav. Very differently, except if
+they are charged with gifts, does he receive the Italians; even at the
+moment of accepting their gifts of military material and cash he regards
+them with a more or less concealed derision, for he is impressed, as we
+have pointed out, by nothing so much as by military prowess and the
+reverse, whereof the news is carried far and wide. At the end of
+September and beginning of October 1918 two weak Yugoslav battalions of
+about a thousand rifles accomplished at Tirana what the large Italian
+forces could not, at any rate did not, achieve. Ten thousand Austrians
+were in the town, and for three months the Italians had sat down outside
+it. Then the Serbs descended on the place from the mountains; their
+carts came by the ordinary road, and on arriving at the Italian lines
+the drivers asked for hay; but when they explained that the rest of
+their force was going round by the mountain trail the Italian commandant
+refused to give any supplies to such liars. (Later on, though, he gave
+them sufficient for five days.) When an Austrian officer who was
+stationed in a minaret saw the Serbs coming down from those terrible
+heights he was so astonished that he felt sure they must be robbers. And
+after they had captured the town and the Italians conducted themselves
+as if it were they who had conquered it, the Serbs took to thrashing
+their allies and ejecting them from the cafés. The Italians did not
+protest....
+
+
+10. DR. TRUMBI['C]'S PROPOSAL
+
+To sum up this part of our long and, I fear, rather tiring dissertation
+on the Yugoslav-Albanian frontier that is to be: the Yugoslav delegates
+at the Peace Conference invariably disclaimed any desire to have
+Albanian lands conferred on them against the wish of the inhabitants.
+According to Prince Sixte of Parma, the ex-Emperor Karl was disposed to
+offer to the Serbs as a basis of peace a Southern Slav kingdom
+consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and the whole of
+Albania. But this last item only made it clear that in his brief tenure
+of the throne the Emperor had grasped something of the grand generosity
+of European statesmen when they deal with the possessions of other
+people in the Near East. The Albanians are not Southern Slavs, and it is
+merely the voice of the thoughtless mob in Montenegro which has been
+claiming Scutari for the reason that they held it in the Middle
+Ages--several of their rulers are buried there--and because 20,000
+Montenegrins gave their lives to take it in the Balkan War. Responsible
+persons in Yugoslavia, such as Dr. Trumbi['c], the former Foreign
+Minister, do not believe that Scutari is a necessity for their
+State--whether Yugoslavia is a necessity for Scutari is another
+question--and they hold that it is quite possible to preserve the 1913
+frontier (perhaps with a minor rectification in Klementi) and live in
+friendship with their neighbours. This, of course, is under the
+assumption that these neighbours will "play the game"--and it is just
+this which the Albanians will be unable to do if they are left to their
+own slender resources. How could one expect so poor--or shall we say so
+unexploited?--a country to make any social progress without the help of
+others? It has become the habit of many Albanians to accept financial
+assistance from Italy; if an independent Albania is now established
+these subsidies will be increased--and he who pays the piper calls the
+tune. If, however, an arrangement could be made for helping the
+Albanians--and the country undertaking this would have to be devoid of
+Balkan ambitions on its own account--then the 1913 frontier would be
+possible. No doubt the cynics will say that the Yugoslavs are aware that
+this is an unlikely solution, and that failing a disinterested Power,
+whose supervision would cause the Albanians during the troublesome
+civilizing process to be moderately peaceable neighbours, failing such a
+Power the Yugoslavs would feel that they were justified in asking for
+the frontier of the Drin. But this frontier I have heard advocated less
+by Yugoslavs of any standing than by those Albanians who despair of the
+administrative capacities of their fellow-countrymen. The Yugoslavs have
+not the smallest wish to add to their commitments, and even if all the
+Albanians on the right bank of the Drin were anxious for Yugoslav
+overlordship--and this, naturally, is not the case--there would be
+serious hostility to be expected from some of those on the other bank.
+If no disinterested Power, such as Great Britain or Sweden, will take
+the matter in hand, then Dr. Trumbi['c] has an alternative proposal,
+which is for a free, independent Albania (with the 1913 frontier) which
+would exist on the Customs and on a loan made by the Great Powers, who
+would put in a Controller charged with seeing that the money were spent
+on roads, schools, etc. A police force, and not an army, would be
+maintained; while, if need be, the country could be neutralized; and Dr.
+Trumbi['c], within whose lifetime bandits and heiduks were roaming
+through Bosnia, believes that the Albanians would gradually discard
+their cherished system of feuds.... This would be the happiest solution,
+for it would leave the Balkans to the Balkan peoples, while it would aim
+at the development of whatever good qualities there are in the
+Albanians, and it would definitely recognize a Yugoslav-Albanian
+frontier which is acceptable to both countries.
+
+
+11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE MIRDITI
+
+While Europe in the year 1921 was either exhausted or belligerent, or
+both, she had a vague knowledge that hostilities were being carried on
+between the Serbs and the Albanians. Telegrams from Rome, Tirana and
+elsewhere appeared in the papers, saying that the Serbs continued to
+advance. Occasionally a Serbian statesman would declare that his
+Government desired the independence of Albania. Then some Albanian
+delegate in Geneva would make a protest and ask the League of Nations,
+of which Albania was now a member, to take this matter in hand. A
+Serbian delegate would also address the League. Again you would hear of
+the Serbian army pushing forward, that a good many soldiers had fallen.
+And no one seemed to know why the Serbs would want to shed their blood
+in order to add to their miscellaneous problems this very grave one of
+administering such a region inhabited by such a people. Why did they not
+content themselves with the frontier which the Powers temporarily
+assigned to them in 1918 and which, from the junction of the Black and
+White Drin, runs south along the rocky right bank of the river and then,
+crossing to the other side, passes along the top of a range of
+mountains? What more could they wish to have, presuming that it was not
+their intention to annex what lay between them and the Adriatic?
+
+Well, it appears that never once did they go beyond the aforementioned
+line to which they were legally entitled, except when for a short time
+they were in pursuit, towards Ljuria, of certain invaders. Not only were
+they legally entitled to take up their position on the mountains to the
+west of the Black Drin, but the Moslem tribes, the Malizi and the Ljuri,
+who dwell in that uninviting district, were most anxious that the Serbs
+should come and should remain. For this the tribes had two principal
+reasons: in the first place, they recognized that their compatriots in
+Djakovica and Prizren were immeasurably better off than before they came
+under Serbian rule; and secondly, they did not wish to be separated from
+these towns which are their markets. In fact, they had become so anxious
+to throw in their lot with the Slavs that they formed six battalions,
+which operated on both banks of the river, under the command of Bairam
+Ramadan, Mahmoud Rejeb and others. In opposition to these battalions
+were the troops of the so-called National Government, that of Tirana.
+This Government is repudiated by a great many Albanians on account of
+its reactionary methods, its subservience to the Italians, and its
+failure to do anything for the people. The battalions, then, were
+engaged in 1921, not against their immediate neighbours to the west, the
+Catholic Mirditi, of whom we shall speak anon, but against the more
+distant Government of Tirana. Thus the League of Nations beheld that the
+administration which they were about to confirm as the legitimate
+Government of Albania was violently opposed by compact masses of
+Catholics and Moslems. Perhaps some of the members of the League began
+to doubt whether they should have accepted the assurance of the
+Anglo-Albanian Society that the Tirana Government (containing Moslem,
+Catholic and Orthodox members) was really a national affair; perhaps
+they began to suspect that the two Christian elements were only there to
+throw a little dust in the eyes of Europe; and perhaps Lord Robert Cecil
+began to feel doubtful whether, at the urgent request of his friend Mr.
+Aubrey Herbert, President of the Anglo-Albanian Society, he had been
+well advised to bring about the admission into the League of a country
+which had two simultaneous Governments before it had a frontier. Perhaps
+one was beginning to recognize that there are Albanians but no Albania.
+
+The emissaries of Tirana might depict as of no importance the
+hostilities that were being waged against them by those Moslem tribes,
+they might tell the League of Nations that the Mirdite revolution was
+not worth considering. It is a fact that the Mirditi are not very
+numerous, but in close connection with their 18,000 people are the Shala
+with 500 houses and the Shoshi with 300. Tradition has it that they are
+descended from three brothers who set out from the arid village of
+Shiroka on Lake Scutari to seek their fortune. The most ancient, the
+most noble and important family of northern Albania is that of
+Gjomarkaj, whose seat is at Oroshi, the capital of the Mirditi. Despite
+enormous difficulties they succeeded in maintaining their own position
+and the prestige of the Mirditi. They refused to recognize the Turkish
+Government and clung so tenaciously to their own usages and laws, and
+were so famous for their courage that the Sultans were eager to grant
+them privileges and concessions. Thereafter they promised to assist the
+Sultan against external aggression, and always did so with great
+success. It was due to the Mirditi that the Albanian mountaineers
+preserved their nationality, their religion and their customs, for they
+were ever the leaders of the other Albanian tribes. The most prominent
+of the Mirditi in our time have been Prenk Bib Doda, who, after long
+years of exile, was assassinated in Albania; Mark Djoni, now the
+President of the Mirdite Republic; and, above all, the great Abbot
+Monsignor Primo Doci, a man of vast culture, who returned to his own
+country after serving the Vatican as a diplomat in various parts of the
+world. It is not surprising that the educational standard of his native
+land filled him with the determination to build schools and that, owing
+to his efforts, the Roman Catholic establishment of thirty native
+priests and of bishops who were nearly all foreigners has developed into
+a body of almost three hundred native priests with no foreign bishops. A
+poet himself, he founded the literary society, _Bashkimi l'unione_, in
+which all capable patriots were invited to collaborate. He constructed
+more than twenty strongholds in and around Oroshi, and when he died in
+February 1917 it was largely owing to the persecution which he suffered
+at the hands of the Austrians. What has latterly aroused his faithful
+people is the persecution levelled at them by the Moslem-Italian
+Government of Tirana.
+
+A certain amount of mystery envelopes the death of Bib Doda; an opinion
+widely held is that Italians were responsible, but Mr. H. E. Goad
+rebukes me in the _Fortnightly Review_ for not knowing that the Italians
+laid aside the crude methods of political murder centuries ago. Perhaps
+he doesn't regard the massacre of the helpless French soldiers at Rieka
+in 1919 as political murder, since they were only privates; perhaps he
+doesn't count that famous expedition of the five lieutenants to
+assassinate Zanella, because it was unsuccessful; but he may be right
+concerning Bib Doda. That personage had been to Durazzo to confer with
+the Italians; he had refused to accept an Italian protectorate in
+Albania, and on his return he was killed in his carriage before he could
+reach Scutari. The chief assailant was a Catholic of Klementi, believed
+to be an adherent of Essad Pasha and also an Italian "agent
+d'occasion." Yet as several Italian soldiers who accompanied Bib Doda
+were wounded it would seem that those, myself included, who believed
+that this affair had been arranged by the Italians were wrong.
+
+As for Bib Doda's fortune, Mr. Goad asserts that by Albanian law he did
+not have to leave it to his nearest kinsman, Marko Djoni. That is, I beg
+to say, precisely what he had to do according to the custom of their
+ancient family. Mr. Goad says that the cash went to the poor; I say that
+a good deal of it went into the pocket of a lady who was much younger
+than the dead man and was on excellent terms with an Italian major. If
+Mr. Goad had visited Albania at that time and had been interested in
+other things besides what he tells us of--the moonlight of Klisura and
+the splendid plane trees over the Vouissa and the sunrise reflected on
+the gleaming mountain-wall of the Nemorica--I would not have to tell him
+all this about Bib Doda's money. He says that Marko Djoni is a
+discredited, disgruntled person who became a tool of the Serbs and fled
+to Serbia. But he forgets that Bib Doda was killed in March 1919, and
+that until May 1921 Marko Djoni remained in Albania, enjoying the
+friendship of Italy rather than that of Serbia. In fact it was not easy
+for him to abandon this friendship, owing to various deals in connection
+with the Mirdite forests. No doubt he resented the loss of his heritage;
+but why in the name of goodness should not he and his followers fight
+for their liberty, and why should the Serbs not help them at a time when
+the frontiers of Albania had not been fixed nor the Government
+officially recognized? The Serbs were helping him to make war, says Mr.
+Goad, against his legitimate rulers. Yet we must be lenient with our Mr.
+Goad, for he himself admits that "few can write of Balkan politics
+without revealing symptoms of that partisan disease." He has made up his
+mind that the Serbs are the villains of the piece, and there, for him,
+is the end of it.
+
+A delegation from the Mirditi, consisting of the Rev. Professor Anthony
+Achikou and Captain Dod Lléche, came to Geneva in October 1921, and
+requested the League not to issue a confirmation of the Tirana
+Government. They showed that this Government had no other aim than to
+turn Albania into a small Turkey. No doubt the Moslems, as the most
+numerous element, had a right to have a majority in the Cabinet, but
+there was no justification in their appointment of pure Turks. (The
+Tirana Government proposed in the autumn of 1921 that any Albanian
+coming from Turkey, who has held a public office there, shall be refused
+admittance into the Albanian Administration until two years after his
+return. This is a proposal but not yet, I believe, an effective law.)
+The Minister of Justice has been old Hodja Kadri, and the Minister of
+War one Salah el Din Bey, an officer of Kemal Pasha, and neither of
+these was acquainted with the Albanian language. When the Mirditi
+started to show their dislike of this Government, the War Minister
+commanded his troops to slay without mercy anyone who dared to raise his
+voice. Thus it came about that the villages of Oroshi, Laci, Gomsice and
+Naraci were destroyed, while those of the inhabitants who could escape
+fled across the frontier to Serbia. As for particular cases of iniquity
+we may instance that of the Moslem officer, Chakir Nizami, who, as a
+manifestation of his hatred for the Christians, had violated at Scutari
+a girl of fourteen whose name was Chakya Hil Paloks. He was sentenced by
+the French military authorities and was liberated by the Minister of
+Justice as soon as the French had quitted Scutari. On the other hand,
+Kol Achikou, a brother of the delegate, had killed a Moslem in
+self-defence and been acquitted by the French court martial; after their
+departure he was taken to Tirana and sentenced to death. But apart from
+all such misdeeds the Mirditi complained that the Tirana Government,
+which could not openly wage war with Serbia, had organized the "Kossovo"
+Committee, whose object it was to foment trouble in Serbia and to send
+armed bands of marauders on to Serbian territory. At the very moment
+when the delegation was at Geneva, one of these bands (in the night
+between October 12 and 13) raided the village of Moji[vs]te, near
+Gostivar. Furnished with Italian machine guns and bombs they came over
+the mountains, set fire to the village and killed many of the people as
+they fled. They are accustomed on such expeditions to steal the children
+and hold them to ransom--a lucrative operation which d'Annunzio's
+arditi[91] may have copied from their Albanian colleagues. It would
+seem, then, according to the statement of the Mirditi, that in the
+conflict on the Black Drin, of which Europe had vaguely heard, the
+Tirana Government and not that of Serbia was the aggressor. Mr. Aubrey
+Herbert may write pathetic letters to the Press, Miss Durham may write
+letters of indignation, but how could their protégés of Tirana be said
+to be valiantly defending themselves against the wicked Serbs when the
+very villages which, said Mr. Herbert, were destroyed--Aras and Dardha
+and so forth--were situated in the district to which the Serbs were
+legally entitled?
+
+The Mirditi delegates had an interview in Geneva with Lord Robert Cecil.
+An attempt was made by the Tirana delegates to discredit Professor
+Achikou, by publishing a telegram from Monsignor Sereggi, the Archbishop
+of Scutari (but which the Professor accused the rival delegate, the
+bearded, bustling Father Fan Noli, of having composed himself),[92] and
+in that message it was stated that Achikou was expelled from Albania.
+This he did not deny; he was, he said, one of 4000 who had been driven
+out by an arbitrary Government and he hoped that they would soon be able
+to return. The message called Achikou a traitor; but that is a matter of
+opinion. It said that he was in the service of a foreign Power; he
+replied that the Mirditi had never concealed their wish to live in
+friendship with their neighbours, and the proof that they envisaged
+nothing more than friendship was that they were petitioning the League
+to recognize the Mirdite Republic. Among the other charges against
+Achikou was one which said that he was sailing under false colours. This
+was an absurd accusation, and one which enabled the reverend Father to
+mention that his opponent Monsignor, who was then being called Bishop,
+Fan Noli, was neither a bishop nor an Albanian, but a simple priest, a
+Greek from Adrianople, whose real name was Theophanus.[93] This clever
+man, who had decided to form an Orthodox Albanian Church and had
+apparently become its bishop without the formality of consecration, had
+enjoyed some success at Geneva owing to his knowledge of languages. He
+circulated a telegram from Tirana which purported to be a disavowal of
+the Mirditi delegation by a number of Mirditi notables; but a reply was
+sent by Mark Djoni, the President of the Mirdite Republic, an elderly
+man of great sagacity and experience, for in Turkish times he had been
+chief magistrate of the Mirditi. He pointed out that all the notables
+and all the tribal chieftains had gone, like himself, into exile, and
+that the names were those of insignificant persons who had acted under
+fear of death. Djoni did not in this telegram allude to the position of
+those Catholic priests and others in northern Albania who support the
+Tirana Government and its Italian paymasters; some of them may believe
+that they are acting in the interest of their country--to act otherwise
+would be perilous, and everyone seems to know the precise number of
+napoleons a month--ranging from the 150 of an ecclesiastical magnate
+down to 7½ (the pay of a simple gendarme)--which they are alleged to
+receive. Do they ever think of the starving Italian peasants?
+
+On October 7 another telegram was sent from Oroshi (the capital of the
+Mirditi) to the Tirana Delegation which "protested energetically against
+the activities of a certain Anthony Achikou." Yet, on October 9, an
+individual called Notz Pistuli, who had travelled specially from
+Scutari, presented himself at the Mirdite delegates' hotel, and in the
+name of the Scutari National Council asked whether a reconciliation
+could not be made between the Mirditi and the Tirana Government.[94]
+Being told that the Mirditi would have nothing to do with the Turkish
+Government of Tirana, he held out hopes that another Government more
+representative of Albania would soon be constituted. It was remarkable
+that Tirana should have dispatched this envoy after giving out that the
+Mirditi were traitors and that their delegates represented nobody.
+
+Lord Robert Cecil did not at first seem to think that their desire for a
+republic independent of Tirana could be gratified, but on being
+initiated into the facts of the case and told that definitely to reject
+them would look as if he were a foe to Christianity, Lord Robert said
+that such was far from being the case. He would do whatever he could to
+help them. And on the next day it was decided that, in accordance with
+the Mirdite request, a Commission should proceed to Albania.
+
+The Italian delegate, Marquis Imperiali, submitted that there was no
+need to hurry this Commission and Monsieur Djoni explained in a
+telegram[95] that if the Commission went forthwith it would discover in
+Albania cannons, rifles and other war material from Italy, that it would
+find numerous Turkish officers of the Kemalist army who had been brought
+from Asia Minor in Italian ships, and that it would perceive that the
+cannons, the Turkish Government of Tirana, the rifles, the Turkish
+officers, certain Catholic ecclesiastics--in a word, the whole of
+Albania such as it is to-day is nothing else, said he, but a masked
+Italian instrument of war against Serbia--while all the bloody
+consequences of this perpetual struggle have to be endured by the border
+population.... One afternoon, at the beginning of November, 650 Tirana
+soldiers, pursued by the Mirditi, gave themselves up to the Serbian
+authorities on the Black Drin. They had with them a dozen officers of
+whom two were Italians, and these accounted for themselves by saying
+that they had come out to organize and to lead the Albanian army.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, would this be the best solution of the Albanian problem, that the
+Mirdite Republic and that of Tirana should both be recognized, since it
+is quite clear that it would be immoral--and very useless--for Europe to
+try to persuade the Mirditi to place themselves under the Tirana régime?
+But there appears to be no doubt that the Moslems of northern
+Albania--however much they may now sympathize with the Mirditi in their
+attitude towards Tirana--would just as strenuously resist their own
+incorporation in a Christian Republic.... Down at the bottom of their
+hearts all the Albanian delegates who came to Geneva must know that if
+an Albanian State is larger than one tribe it will go to pieces.
+Whatever good qualities may be latent in the Albanian, he is as
+yet--with rare exceptions--in that stage of culture which has no idea of
+duty on the part of the State or of duty towards the State. As an
+example of his views on the exercise of authority we may instance the
+case of the 82 Albanians, led by Islam Aga Batusha (of the village of
+Voksha), who stopped Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c] and his companions in the
+summer of 1921 while they were riding one day from Djakovica to Pe['c].
+Pouni[vs]a enjoys the fullest confidence of the border tribes because he
+has never been known to break his word; they are very conscious that
+even their vaunted "besa" is not nowadays observed as it was, say fifty
+years ago, for the Austrian and Italian propaganda schools have had an
+unfortunate effect. Well, as the 82 sat round Pouni[vs]a and his friends
+in the courtyard of a mosque, where they spent the whole day
+confabulating, they said they hoped that he, a just and wise man, would
+help them; and their principal grievance was that the Serbian police no
+longer allowed them to kill each other. Why should the police interfere
+in their private affairs? Recently the police had arrested a man whom
+one of these protesters wanted to kill, and therefore he thought he
+would have to kill one of the police. Even those who have spent their
+lives in Serbia are too often at this stage of development--a few years
+ago, in the village of Prokuplje, an Albanian assassinated his neighbour
+and was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. The judge asked the
+dead man's brother if he was satisfied. "No, I am not," he answered,
+"because now I shall have to wait twenty years to kill him." Their
+ancient custom of blood-vengeance continues to flourish, though in
+Serbia the police and public opinion are against it; thus, at Luka, in
+the department of Pe['c], one Alil Mahmoud was murdered by a Berisha to
+avenge his uncle, so that now the sons of this Mahmoud propose to kill a
+Berisha--not the murderer, but one equal in rank to their late father,
+and in consequence Ahmed Beg, son of Murtezza Pasha, of Djakovica, is
+afraid to leave his house, which the Serbian police, at his request, is
+guarding.
+
+How much the Albanian conceives that he owes a duty to the State may be
+instanced by the application of a smuggler that he be granted a permit
+to go to Zagreb in order to dispose of 6000 oka[96] of tobacco which he
+had brought over the frontier. He was talking to a Serb who has the
+confidence of the Albanians because he does not treat them as if they
+were Serbs; and when this father confessor advised him to get rid of the
+tobacco locally (which he succeeded in doing) the Albanian objected that
+the excise officers gave him constant anxiety, they were thieves who
+insisted on payment being made to them if they came across his
+merchandise. And if it be said that this is too humble a case, we may
+mention that of Ali Riza, one of the chief officers of the Tirana army
+which was last year operating against the Serbs. So indifferent is he as
+to the uniform he bears that the year before last, in Vienna, he begged
+an influential Serb to recommend him for a lieutenancy in the Serbian
+army. (His request was not granted because it was ascertained that,
+besides being unable to read and write, his work as an Austrian gendarme
+had been more zealous than creditable.)
+
+
+12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE
+
+What, then, is Europe to do with these wild children of hers?... The
+tribes, Catholic and Moslem, who dwell between the Big Drin and the
+frontier allotted to Serbia in 1913, asked the aforesaid Pouni[vs]a in
+1919 to intervene in their quarrels; and the result was that a small
+number of Serbian soldiers were scattered about that country. They were
+placed at the disposal of the chief, whom they assisted in maintaining
+order. (Needless to say, they collected no taxes or recruits, and all
+their supplies came to them from Serbia.) The people were impressed not
+only by the uniform but by the men's conduct. Before going to these
+posts--where they were relieved every two or three months--the men were
+instructed with regard to Albanian customs, and no case occurred of any
+transgression. So rigidly did they enforce the precept that anyone who
+tried to violate or carry off a woman was, if he persisted, to be shot,
+that last year, at Tropolje in Gashi, when the girl in question was
+said to be not unwilling, they pursued the abductors, and in the
+subsequent battle there were fatalities on both sides. The Serbian
+soldiers, for whose safety the village was responsible, made themselves
+so popular that when the Tirana Government appointed one Niman Feriz to
+go to those parts as sub-prefect he was chased away by the people headed
+by the mayor of the Krasnichi, who is a nephew of Bairam Beg Zur, the
+illiterate ex-brigand and ex-Minister of War of the Tirana Government.
+
+Let this system of small Serbian posts be extended over the whole of
+northern Albania, that is to say, in those districts where the natives
+are willing to receive them. After all, the Serbs understand these
+neighbours of theirs. Telephones and roads will be built and eventually
+the railway along the Drin. The northern Albanians will then, for the
+first time, be on the high-road towards peace and prosperity; and if the
+rest of Albania has by then attained to anything like this condition
+everybody would be glad to see a free and independent Albania.
+
+Now what prospect is there of the rest of Albania taking any analogous
+steps? If the regions which at present submit to Tirana decline to
+modify their methods, it would seem that warfare between them and their
+kinsmen to the north and north-east must continue, and that the
+foundations of a united, free Albania will not yet be laid. One might
+presume, from their bellicose attitude, that the Tirana Government
+(extending to and including the town of Scutari) is all against a
+pacific solution; and if one argues that their attitude would be quite
+different without the support they receive from Italy, then the Italians
+would doubtless reply that they have as much right to assist the Tirana
+Albanians as Yugoslavia has to assist those of the north.
+
+But this is not the case. Between Italy and the Albanians there are no
+such ancient political and economic ties as between the Albanians and
+the Serbs. The mediæval connection with Venice has left with many
+Albanians a dolorous memory, for apart from the fact that Venice, as in
+Dalmatia, was pursuing a merely selfish policy, it was directly due to
+her that the Turkish Sultan, in the fifteenth century, was able to
+establish himself in Albania. Thrice his troops had been repelled by
+those of Skanderbeg when the arrangement was made for them to enter the
+fortress of Rosafat in Venetian uniforms, and then four hundred years
+elapsed before the Sultan's standard was pulled down. In recent times
+the Government of Italy has been furnishing the Shqyptart with schools,
+and these were not its only acts of benevolence towards that wretched
+people. They have given schools and rifles and munitions and gold. The
+Albanians were willing to accept this largesse; but that it forged a
+link between patron and client, that it conferred on the Italians any
+rights to occupy the country, they denied, and enforced this denial in
+1920 at the point of the bayonet. Mr. H. Goad said in the _Fortnightly
+Review_ that this remark of mine is quite unhistorical, since Italy,
+says he, "was in course of withdrawal when certain Albanians, stirred up
+as usual by Jugo-Slavs, attacked her retreating troops." If the
+Albanians had only known that Italy, despite her having been, says Mr.
+Goad, "supremely useful to Albania," had resolved to quit, they would
+perhaps have let them go with dignity. But if Mr. Goad will read some of
+the contemporary Italian newspapers he will see that my allusion to the
+bayonet was much too mild. Utterly regardless of the fact that the
+Italian evacuation was "according to plan," the Shqyptart treated them
+abominably--it brought up memories of Abyssinia--or does Mr. Goad deny
+that even a general officer was outraged and blew out his brains? This
+Albanian onslaught was so far from being stirred up by the Yugoslavs
+that, as we have seen,[97] the Belgrade Government refused to furnish
+them with munitions. This is not to say that they did not approve of the
+Albanian push, for they maintain, in spite of Mr. Goad, the principle of
+"The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples." If Italy, as our strange publicist
+asserts, has a mandate--presumably a moral one--to defend Albania
+against aggression he will find, I think, that the Yugoslavs heartily
+agree with this thesis and that they are also quite determined to defend
+Albania from aggression.... When he asserts that various ties existed
+between Italy and the Albanians--the Albanian language, the feudal
+architecture, much that is characteristic in Albanian art and so
+forth--I would refer him to M. Justin Godart, with whom I am glad for
+once to be in agreement. "There is no traditional or actual link," says
+he, "between the two countries; if, on account of this geographical
+position, they propose to have commercial relations, then everything has
+yet to be established. If there is to be a friendship, we believe that
+Italy must do her best to wipe out many memories.... She has not
+profited from the large number of Albanians in her southern provinces in
+order to have an Albanian policy."
+
+However, the magnanimous Italians came back, declaring that on this
+occasion they would not occupy the country (except the little island of
+Saseno); but that they really could not restrain themselves from
+bestowing the schools, the rifles, munitions and gold. Once more the
+Albanians agreed to accept them; they also accepted the Turkish officers
+and officials whom the Italian ships brought to them from Asia Minor,
+and when their Government became more and more Turkish and more
+intractable they found that they had excited the hostility of large
+numbers of their own compatriots. This developed during 1921 into
+violent conflicts; and the bountiful Italians provided the Tirana
+Government's army with expert tuition. Nevertheless, in the Albanians'
+opinion, there are no bonds between the two races, and if the Italians
+would retire from Albania, permitting the Balkans to be for the Balkan
+peoples, and if the fanatical Turks went back to Asia Minor, it would
+soon be seen that the present rage between northern and central Albania
+would peter out into the isolated murders which the Albanians have
+hitherto been unable to dispense with. Left to themselves the Albanians
+of Tirana would eventually ask for some such assistance from Serbia as
+the northern tribes have received; three months after the departure of
+the Italians from Scutari a plebiscite would show that this town, which
+has lately gone so far as to refuse--yes, even her Moslems have
+refused--to fill the depleted ranks of the Tirana forces, was anxious to
+come to a friendly settlement with her Albanian neighbours and the
+Yugoslavs. This would be a victory of Scutari's common sense over all
+those fanatics and intriguers whose activities involve her death; for
+she cannot possibly thrive if she persists in cutting herself off from
+the hinterland and from the benefits that will accrue from the
+canalization of the Bojana.
+
+However, the Italians--officially or unofficially--will not yet awhile
+leave Albania. And how will this retard or modify the reasonableness of
+those parts which acknowledge Tirana? As for the town of Scutari, it is
+probable that if she found herself permanently cut off by the Mirditi
+from direct communication with Tirana she would allow her incipient
+independence to come more to the surface. With Tirana less capable of
+enforcing her behests the Scutarenes would gradually venture to act in
+their own interests; they would aim at local autonomy within the sphere
+of Yugoslav influence and in the same sphere as their markets. It is to
+be hoped that Yugoslavia will be prepared for this, since she does not
+possess too many educated citizens who understand the Albanian
+mentality. A course of conduct which pays no attention to this would
+alienate even the Turks from Podgorica and Dulcigno, whose acquaintance
+with the very language of Albania is so limited. There seems, however,
+to be no reason why the mixed population of Albanian Moslems and
+Catholics, of Orthodox Serbs and of Moslems who declined to come under
+the all-too-patriarchal rule of Nicholas of Montenegro should not have
+the same happy experience as the inhabitants of Djakovica and Prizren.
+Later on the Scutarenes will be called upon to decide whether they
+prefer, like those other predominantly Albanian towns, to remain in
+Yugoslavia or whether they wish to throw in their lot with a free
+Albania, and in that case their town would become the capital of the
+country. Failing Scutari, the capital would most probably be Oroshi,
+which is now the capital of the Mirditi.
+
+And why, we may be asked, why should not Tirana be the capital? In the
+central parts of Albania, in the country round Tirana, where the natives
+are derisively called "llape" by the warriors of the north and by the
+cultured Albanians of the south, we believe that the assistance of Italy
+will be unable to prevent a collapse. (It must also be remembered that
+the people of the district of Tirana are, for the most part, in
+opposition to the present Tirana Government. This became clear when the
+partisans of Essad Pasha's policy[98] overthrew and imprisoned the
+Tirana Ministers.) Economically and morally Tirana will decline, until
+she is compelled to seek a union with the people of northern Albania,
+those of the south having meanwhile gravitated towards Greece. Then the
+moment will arrive when the north and the south, in their task of
+building up a free and united Albania, will admit the centre under
+various conditions. These will have to be of a rather stern character,
+or so at any rate they will seem to the folk of Tirana: taxes will have
+to be paid, military service or service in the _gendarmerie_ will have
+to be rendered, and schools will have to be established for both sexes.
+
+This, then, is the future country of Albania, which--if one is rash
+enough to prophesy--may exist in fifty years. But there is no risk
+whatever in asserting that a free, united Albania is in the immediate
+future quite impossible.
+
+
+13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS
+
+Berati Beg, Tirana's delegate in Paris, said in an interview with a
+representative of the Belgrade _Pravda_, at the beginning of November
+1921, that he regretted that European diplomats should interfere in the
+Serbo-Albanian question. "Are we not all," said he, "one large Balkan
+family? And if the Powers intervene they will not act in our interests,
+but in their own." He said that it used to be Austria which grasped at
+Albania, now it was Italy. So the delegate showed that he was a
+clear-sighted man; he also showed that in Tirana they are not unanimous
+in loving the Italians. But alas! the Great Powers, urged by Italy, made
+a most disastrous plunge; they actually, at least Great Britain, charged
+the Serbs, their allies, on November 7, with being guilty of
+overstepping the frontier, and on November 9 informed them where this
+frontier was. It is a pity that Mr. Lloyd George should have launched
+such a thunderbolt, the French Government not being consulted.[99] But
+the most probable explanation of this lack of courtesy towards the
+Serbs, and lack of the most elementary justice, is that the Prime
+Minister, with his numerous preoccupations, allowed some incapable
+person to act in his name.[100] The world was told, however, that Mr.
+Lloyd George had sent a peremptory demand for the convocation of the
+Council of the League of Nations so that a sanction should be applied
+against the Yugoslavs. Mr. Lloyd George's substitute was so little
+versed in the business that he did not even know that the League of
+Nations is not a gendarme to carry out the decisions of the Ambassadors'
+Conference. He should have been aware of the fact that this was a
+problem for the Allied States, to be settled by diplomatic or other
+measures, and he should also have known that the League of Nations does
+not--except if invited to arbitrate--concern itself with the
+unliquidated problems left by the War, such as the Turkish question.
+Perhaps that dangerous confusion in the mind of this unknown official
+would not have occurred if Albania had not been illogically admitted to
+the League of Nations. But now, in November 1921, not an instant was to
+be lost in settling this frontier question, which--as the _Temps_
+pointed out--would have been settled months before if Italy had not
+prevented it. (She wished as a preliminary step to have certain claims
+of her own in regard to Albania conceded.) So the Council of the League
+was to be invited to apply Article 16, which could scarcely be invoked
+unless Article 15, which defines a procedure of conciliation, had been
+found of no avail.[101] Thus the misguided person who spoke in the name
+of Mr. Lloyd George was apparently too impetuous to read the texts. And
+then the Serbs were told that they must withdraw practically to the
+frontier which Austria, their late enemy, had laid down in 1913. Well
+might Berati Beg deplore that Italy should take the place of Austria.
+But such commands achieve so little. Very soon, when the troubles in
+Albania continue, as they certainly will, Mr. Lloyd George will see that
+he was misled.... But here it should be stated that while Italy
+persisted throughout in demanding the 1913 frontier (with the
+ludicrously inconsistent proviso that she herself should have the island
+of Saseno, which in 1913 she had demanded for independent Albania), and
+France raised no finger against her, the actual improvements of the
+frontier adopted were entirely due to Great Britain. No one is more
+qualified to speak on this matter than Mr. Harold Temperley of
+Cambridge, who was one of our experts. In his illuminating little book,
+_The Second Year of the League_, he has pointed out that the new
+Albanian frontiers are an improvement on the old--than which, indeed,
+they cannot be worse--because they conform more to natural features,
+they take into account an important tribal boundary (leaving the Gora
+tribe in Yugoslavia), and restore to both parties freedom of
+communication--the road between the Serb towns of Struga and Dibra being
+given to the Serbs, while to Albania is given the road from Elbasan to
+the Serb town of Lin. The rectifications in the Kastrati and the Prizren
+area involve the substitution of natural boundaries for unnatural ones
+in order to protect the cities of Podgorica and Prizren. They confer no
+offensive advantage on the Serbs, nor do they enable them to menace any
+Albanian city.
+
+To any impartial observer it is quite unjust that the Yugoslavs should
+have had to plead against the frontier of 1913. They have not the least
+desire to plant their flag on those undelectable mountains. If the
+frontier of 1913 could be held with moderate efforts against these
+people they would not wish to go an inch beyond it. But those who drew
+this frontier, namely the Austrians, were not much concerned as to
+whether it afforded adequate protection to the Serbs; what they had in
+view was to keep them away from the Adriatic (for which reason an
+arbitrary line cut through the proposed railway which was to link Pe['c]
+to Podgorica and the sea) and to compel the Serbs to station in those
+districts a goodly portion of their army, to which end--so that the
+frontier should be weak--the towns of Djakovica and Prizren were
+separated from their hinterland. The Austrian plan likewise prevented
+the towns of Struga and Prizren from being joined by a road or by a
+railway along the Drin; to go from one to the other it became necessary
+to make an enormous detour. With the rectifications to which we have
+referred, the Ambassadors' Conference decided to insist on them
+returning to this miserable line, instead of permitting them to take up
+their position where General Franchet d'Espérey perceived in 1918 that
+they could be fairly comfortable. Monsieur Albert Mousset, the shrewd
+Balkan expert of the _Journal des Débats_, has remarked that on too many
+parts of the 1913 frontier it is as if one forced an honest man to sleep
+with his door open among a horde of bandits.... The Albanian Government,
+admitted to the League of Nations in December 1920, claimed that the
+international statute of 1913, creating a German prince, the Dutch
+_gendarmerie_ and the International Financial Commission--which happened
+to be inconvenient--was no longer in force; but that the international
+decisions as to the frontiers of Albania--which happened to be
+convenient--were still valid. However, during the War the country had
+been plunged in anarchy, and the Great Powers decided that Albania was,
+in Mr. Temperley's words, a _tabula rasa_, a piece of white paper on
+which they could write what they wished. In November 1921 the
+Ambassadors' Conference finally decided on the frontiers. The gravest
+violation of the ethnic principle was in the Argyrocastro area, where
+many thousands of Greeks and Grecophils were handed over to Albania; as
+for the Serbs, it was only through the efforts of some British experts
+that they obtained any satisfaction at all.
+
+Why did the Ambassadors' Conference arrive at this peculiar decision?
+For a long time the European Press had been publishing telegrams which
+told how the Serbs were ruthlessly invading Albania. Had they advanced
+about half the number of miles with which they were credited, they would
+have found themselves near to the offices of those Italian Press
+agencies. They were held up to vituperation for their conduct towards a
+feeble neighbour. The Mirditi, we were told, had to fly before them;
+whereas the truth was that the friendly Mirditi were driving the troops
+of Tirana helter-skelter towards the Black Drin, where the Serbs--not
+advancing an inch from the boundary which the Allies had for the time
+being assigned to them--received their prisoners. Again we were told
+that the piratical Serbs had seized the town of Alessio. It must have
+annoyed the Mirditi to have this exploit of theirs ascribed to other
+people. And if the newspapers contained too many telegrams of this kind
+they were strangely reticent with regard to what was taking place in the
+shallow Albanian harbours; but the two Italian vessels which--as I
+mentioned in a telegram to the _Observer_--were unloading, without the
+least concealment, munitions and rifles for the dear Albanians at San
+Giovanni di Medua in September 1920, were probably not the only ones
+with such a cargo. Europe and the Ambassadors' Conference were simply
+told that the truculent Serbs were destroying a poor, defenceless,
+pastoral nation. Therefore these Serbs must be ordered back, and
+whatever might be the merits of a hostile Austrian frontier as compared
+with a well-informed French one, at any rate the first of these was
+farther back, so let the Serbs be ordered thither.
+
+It was noticeable that when, on November 17, the British Minister of
+Education, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher (representing Mr. Lloyd George),
+explained before the Council of the League of Nations why Great Britain
+had thought it necessary to act in this Serbo-Albanian affair, he
+founded his case not on Article 16 but on Article 12, which obliges two
+conflicting nations who are members of the League to have their case
+examined by the League. Evidently the suggested application of Article
+16 was now acknowledged to have been a mistake. The blundering official
+in Whitehall should have seen the dignified sorrow with which Yugoslavia
+heard of her great Ally's unjustifiable procedure. So much faith have
+the Southern Slavs always had in the Entente's sense of justice that
+from 1914 to 1918 they continued to give their all, without making any
+agreement or stipulation; more than once the Serbian Government had the
+offer of terms from the Central Powers, but on each occasion, as for
+example during the dark days at Ni[vs] in 1915, they declined to betray
+their Allies.
+
+Mr. Fisher announced that the British Government's action was in no way
+caused by feelings of hostility against the Southern Slavs. All
+Englishmen, in fact, remembered the heroism and fortitude of the Serbs;
+they cherished for Yugoslavia the warmest sympathy. In Mr. Fisher's own
+case it might conceivably have been a little warmer--he was not ashamed
+to repeat the reasons which had induced Great Britain to summon the
+Council of the League. Yet he must have known the comment that he would
+arouse among his audience when they heard him base his arguments
+exclusively upon reports of the Tirana Government, while those of
+Belgrade were ignored; and in their place the delegate thought fit to
+bring up various extracts which had been collected from the Belgrade
+Press. If every organ of this Press were filled with a permanent sense
+of high responsibility, and if Mr. Fisher had made inquiries as to the
+existence in Belgrade of humorous and ironic writers, one is still
+rather at a loss to understand why these miscellaneous cuttings were
+placed before the League, which could scarcely be expected to treat them
+as evidence. The delegate added that he did not think a single nation
+was animated by unfriendly sentiments towards the Southern Slavs--so
+that Italy's unflagging efforts to strengthen the Tirana Government's
+army were prompted purely by the deep love which the Italians--despite
+their having been flung out of Valona--bear for the Shqyptart. Mr.
+Fisher proceeded to say that no better proof was needed of the general
+friendship for the Southern Slavs than the decision of the Ambassadors'
+Conference which, instead of allotting to Albania the frontiers of 1913,
+a method that would have been simpler, had resolved on several
+rectifications in favour of Yugoslavia, in order to prevent disturbances
+on Albania's northern frontier. After what Mr. Fisher had already had
+the heart to say we cannot really be astonished that he, or the people
+on behalf of whom he spoke, should have thought the enemy-drawn frontier
+of 1913 as worthy of the slightest consideration. We are all, I think,
+unanimous, said Mr. Fisher in effect, we are unanimous in our esteem for
+the Yugoslavs and could do nothing which that nation would find hard to
+bear. But after stating that some rectifications had been made in favour
+of Yugoslavia he should have referred to the village of Lin on Lake
+Ochrida whose transference to the Albanians will probably give rise to a
+great deal of trouble, since it is the most important centre for the
+fishing industry. A few of the best Belgrade papers, careless of the
+more than Governmental authority which they enjoyed in the eyes of Mr.
+Fisher, went so far as to allege that Lin's change of sovereignty was
+due to the formation on Lake Ochrida of a British fishing company.... We
+have said that the frontier rectifications were inadequate; but under
+the circumstances they were the best that could be obtained. They were
+most bitterly contested by the Italians, who demanded, as we have said
+above, that Yugoslavia should be given the 1913 frontier. France did
+nothing to help the Yugoslavs in this hour of need, and had it not been
+for the absolutely determined support of Great Britain the pernicious
+frontier of 1913 would have been adopted intact.
+
+Coming to the Mirdite revolt, Mr. Fisher's description is hardly what
+you would call felicitous. Mark Djoni and the other members of the
+Mirdite Government were compelled last July to seek refuge at Prizren in
+Yugoslavia, and since then they have conducted their affairs from that
+place. These circumstances, in Mr. Fisher's opinion, go to prove the
+existence of a Yugoslav plot whose aim it is to separate northern
+Albania from the Tirana Government. Again Mr. Fisher points an accusing
+finger at the Yugoslav officers who, in August, were helping the
+Mirditi; but is it not more natural that these officers should give
+their services to the Christian tribes for whom, as Mr. Bo[vs]kovi['c],
+the chief Yugoslav delegate, said, the Southern Slavs do not conceal
+their sympathy[102] nor the hope that they will gain the necessary
+autonomy--is not this more natural and more deserving of Mr. Fisher's
+approbation than the fact (of which he says no word) that the Moslem
+Government of Tirana has had the active assistance of Italian officers,
+such, for example, as Captain Guisardi, who, in the sector of Kljesh,
+has been in command of the artillery? A further proof that the Mirdite
+movement has been engineered by the Southern Slavs is, in Mr. Fisher's
+opinion, the damning fact that the Republic's Proclamation was composed
+in Yugoslavia and dated there--how brazen some people are! And the
+official Yugoslav Press Bureau has actually circulated the announcements
+of the Mirdite Republic. The question is whether the Yugoslav Government
+was more than benevolently neutral in thus assisting their guests at a
+time when these had not yet got their machinery into working order. When
+the Mirdite Government had made suitable arrangements it spoke to the
+world through its representatives at Geneva or through direct
+communications to the British and French Press. Surely, in considering
+whether the Yugoslav Government allowed themselves to exceed the limits
+of neutrality, one must remember that the Mirdite authorities at Prizren
+were out of all touch with their own army, which was engaged in a
+guerilla warfare. In conclusion, according to Mr. Fisher, the British
+Foreign Office was persuaded that the Mirdite Republic was nothing but
+an instrument of the Yugoslav Government, and that desire for Albanian
+unity extended also to the Christians of that country. The Foreign
+Office had, no doubt, been told that the Tirana Government received the
+support, at last spring's elections, of some north Albanian deputies;
+and possibly they gave no credence to the rumour that these gentlemen
+were much indebted to Italian support. It may have been mere harmless
+curiosity which kept Captain Pericone, the Italian commander, during all
+that day at the Scutari polling-booths, but what is certain is that,
+owing to the influx of Italian money, the value of a hundred silver
+crowns in the morning was 92 lire, and in the afternoon had fallen to
+75. It is likewise a fact that numerous Malissori, finding themselves
+for the first time in possession of bundles of paper and feeling far
+from confident that this was money, hurried off to the bazaar and spent
+it all. Thus were the four friends of the Moslem-Italian[103] Government
+elected, the four deputies who were in favour of Albanian unity under
+that Government; three of them are Christians (Messrs. Fichta, Andreas
+Miedia and Luigi Gurakuqi); one, Riza Dani, is a Moslem. How the latter
+travelled to Tirana I do not know, but the three Christians found that
+the population was so incensed against them that they could not go by
+the direct road; they were forced to sail down the Bojana on the Italian
+ship _Mafalda_, and then along the coast. This, I presume, will be
+considered sufficiently strong evidence that these deputies did not
+represent the people, and that their independence was not exactly of the
+sort ascribed to Gurakuqi by a writer in the _Times_;[104] one need not
+labour the point by mentioning what happened to Father Vincent Prênnushi
+whose candidature was vetoed in Rome, so that he was replaced by Father
+Fichta.
+
+This being the state of things one can scarcely argue that the people of
+the north are in favour of a united Albania, as it seemeth good to the
+Ambassadors' Conference, the League of Nations, etc. "We Germans,
+knowing Germany and France," said Treitschke in 1871, "know what is good
+for the Alsatians better than these unfortunates themselves.... Against
+their will we wish to restore them to themselves." The north Albanian
+deputies may join with those of the south and call themselves the group
+of "sacred union"; but they themselves are well aware that it is only in
+the south-central districts that the Government has a majority. That is
+one of the reasons why the seat of Government is Tirana in the central
+part of the country, for the Cabinet lives in apprehension of the
+followers of the late Essad Pasha, and by residing in that country they
+hope to be able to keep it quiet. How long will they be able to do so?
+Have they statesmanship enough to turn aside the animosity of their own
+countrymen? Does their Premier and Foreign Minister, Mr. Pandeli
+Evangheli, possess intellectual resources of a higher order than those
+which one commonly associates with the ownership of a small
+wine-shop?--that was his occupation till he came, some two years ago,
+from Bucharest. When this gentleman had a, perhaps temporary, fall from
+power, the _Times_ of December 16, 1921, wrote of him that "there is no
+Albanian public man with a better record for long disinterested service
+in his country's cause." Alas, poor Albania! We may surmise that Mr.
+Evangheli and his companions do not rely very greatly on their Western
+European patrons who, when it comes to the pinch, will do very little
+for them. I should be surprised to hear that they have caused the
+provisions of the Ambassadors' Conference to be traced in golden letters
+on a wall of their council chamber. And I doubt whether they take very
+great stock of a resolution signed in November 1921, by some twenty
+Members of Parliament and a few outside persons. These expressed their
+approval of Mr. Lloyd George's step in convoking the League of Nations
+for the settlement of the Serbo-Albanian question. If this resolution
+served no other purpose it showed, at any rate, that the signatories are
+such thoroughgoing friends of the Tirana Government that they rushed
+enthusiastically to their assistance, though their deep knowledge of
+affairs--without which, of course, they would never have signed--must
+have caused them to regard the Prime Minister's impulsive action with
+something more than misgiving. It is a minor point that the signatories
+sought to enlist the world's sympathy on the ground that a small
+"neutral State" had been wantonly attacked by the Serbs, because if this
+accusation were true it would not be worth objecting that the Albanians
+were scarcely a State (though some of them were trying to make one) and
+that their neutrality during the War consisted in the fact that they
+were to be found both in the armies of the Entente and--rather more of
+them, I believe--in those of Austria. But the accusation is untrue;
+there are, undoubtedly, a number of fire-eaters in Serbia, as everywhere
+else, yet the Government is not so childish as to wish to squander its
+resources in a region where there is so little to be gained. (The Tirana
+correspondent of _The Near East_ said on November 3, 1921, that the
+Serbian Government was reported to be committing unwarrantable acts,
+giving as an example that Commandant Martinovi['c] had had six million
+dinars placed at his disposal in order to recruit komitadjis and that he
+had himself promised 2500 dinars to each of his men if they succeeded in
+entering Scutari. But this gentleman, a retired officer, lives almost
+exclusively at Novi Sad, where his very beautiful daughter is married to
+M. Dunjarski, one of the wealthiest men in Yugoslavia. Yet neither his
+son-in-law nor the Serbian Government has ever given General
+Martinovi['c] the afore-mentioned sum or any sum at all for the
+afore-mentioned purpose. He goes at rare intervals to his old home in
+Montenegro, of which country he was once Prime Minister. It is natural
+that the numerous refugees from Albania should flock round him--in view
+of his own past prominence and of M. Dunjarski--begging for money and
+food.) The protesting British Members of Parliament registered their
+sorrow that the Serbs should have employed on their anti-Albanian
+enterprise "the strength and riches which they largely owed to the
+Allied and Associated Powers." I was under the impression that the Serbs
+had expended a far greater proportion of their strength and riches than
+any of the Allies,[105] that the Allies had, in 1915, left them in the
+lurch, and that the final success on the Macedonian front was due quite
+considerably to the genius of Marshal Mi[vs]i['c] and the valour of his
+veterans. As for the strength and riches which the Southern Slavs
+possessed in 1921, it surely would not need an expert to perceive what
+the Southern Slav children knew very well, namely, that they could be
+more profitably employed in many other directions. May better luck
+attend the future labours of these Members of Parliament.... A week or
+so before the publication of this foolish manifesto there had been
+issued an equally deplorable Memorandum by the Balkan Committee (of
+London), which, I am glad to say, caused Dr. Seton-Watson to resign from
+that body. This jejune and impudent Memorandum attempted to dictate the
+terms of the Constitution of the Triune Kingdom--an attempt very rightly
+reprobated by _The Near East_.[106] If the Yugoslav Government were to
+adopt the recommendations of the Balkan Committee they would, it seems,
+be in a fair way to solve the Albanian question. Likewise that of
+Macedonia--when will the Committee cease to trouble Macedonia? Their
+object, in the words of Mr. Noel Buxton, is to aim at allaying the
+unrest in the Balkans; it would--I say it in all kindliness--be a move
+in that direction if the other members were to follow Dr. Seton-Watson's
+example.
+
+
+14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS HAVE RETIRED
+
+What of the population which inhabits the zone between the two frontier
+lines? We have alluded to them as a horde of bandits, we have also
+spoken of the six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
+Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the bosom of most of
+us, it is equally true that in most of the Albanians a brigand survives.
+And if not a brigand, then a mediæval person with characteristics which
+are more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the Shqyptar, as
+he calls himself (which means the eagle's son) is not without his
+aspirations. Reference has been made to those northern tribes, such as
+the Merturi and the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian
+detachments which came in answer to their urgent wish. And on the Black
+Drin the six battalions have shown their fidelity. There would be no
+need to guard oneself against such people. But unfortunately the
+Albanian is so constituted that if, in a hamlet of ten houses, five of
+them are amicably disposed towards you, there is a strong tendency among
+the others to be hostile. When these torch-bearers of an ancient
+tradition come under the rule of an organized State, then they gradually
+feel inclined to discard some of their customs which the State frowns
+upon. This can be seen in the changes among the people of Kossovo since
+it came into Serbian hands. Were the country between the two frontier
+lines to remain under the Serbs it would not be long before some of the
+time-honoured sensitiveness of the Albanians towards each other and
+towards each others' friends would vanish--though it has been found that
+it takes a number of years before they cease observing or from desiring
+to observe the very deeply-rooted custom of blood-vengeance.
+
+A good many of the border Albanians have made it clear that they wish
+for some sort of association with their more cultured neighbours. But on
+this point they are by no means unanimous. The unregenerate part of the
+people will not be able to resist an occasional foray into Yugoslavia.
+And although the reputation which the Serbs have left behind them may
+induce the tribes to be, for the most part, good neighbours, yet they
+have not been long enough under the civilizing process, and the more
+advanced among them would agree with the Yugoslavs that it would have
+been better for that régime to have continued over them. You may object
+that the finest patriots of the Albanians would have preferred to remain
+outside Yugoslavia. But they know that there are many thousands of their
+contented countryfolk in the neighbouring Kossovo and, what is more,
+they know that the towns of Kossovo are their markets.
+
+The Yugoslavs have bowed to the decision of their Allies. And the
+official champions of the too-ambitious League of Nations--overjoyed,
+after various failures and after the Silesian award, to have really
+accomplished something, and something with whose merits the public was
+far less familiar than with the Silesian fiasco--performed a war-dance
+on the Yugoslavs. If that people had been as obstinate, say, as the
+Magyars in the case of Burgenland, no doubt it would have come to
+another Conference of Venice; and Yugoslavia would, like Hungary, have
+returned from there with something gained. But, of course, when it is an
+affair between Allies one scarcely likes to behave in that stubborn and
+unyielding manner which is apparently the right--at all events, the
+successful--conduct for a whilom foe. If the Yugoslavs, in simply
+accepting the judgment of their Allies, acted against their own ultimate
+advantage, they can, at any rate, believe that their complaisance, their
+extraordinary lack of chauvinism, will be recognized. It is true that
+when, on former occasions, such as during the prolonged d'Annunzio farce
+at Rieka, they displayed a similar and wonderful forbearance, they did
+not manage to free themselves from this foolish charge. There happen to
+be a good many people abroad who insist that the new States are, every
+one of them, chauvinist; they think it is the natural thing for a young
+country to be, and especially if part of it lies in the Balkans. But if
+Yugoslavia repeatedly acts in the most correct fashion the day may come
+when she will be able to put a lasting polish on to the reputation which
+her Allies have tarnished.
+
+
+15. THE PROSPECT
+
+We may look forward to seeing the majority of this frontier population
+resolved that the links between themselves and the Yugoslavs shall not
+be broken. Very little will they care for the edicts of European
+Ambassadors. It would not have been surprising to hear that on the
+withdrawal of the Yugoslavs to the prescribed frontier their resourceful
+friends beyond it had procured from Serbia a few volunteers to take the
+place of the official Serbs. And failing this, that rough-and-ready
+people might simply declare themselves to be in Yugoslavia. This time
+they will be unable to persuade the Yugoslav Government to move its
+excise posts more to the west. But if these tenacious men have made up
+their minds to join their brethren on the right bank of the Drin and
+enter Yugoslavia, the Ambassadors' Conference would preserve more of
+their dignity in accepting with a good grace that which they are
+powerless to hinder.... The minority of the border population will go
+raiding in Yugoslavia. If they had been consulted they would have drawn
+the frontier very much as it is. With large areas lying at their mercy
+they will keep the border villages in constant dread. And that is the
+other reason which should induce the Ambassadors' Conference to cancel
+their unwise decision.
+
+It is better when the politicians do not come with advice to the
+battlefield; and in those primitive regions, where part of the people
+cannot, as yet, be restrained from perpetual warfare, it would have been
+better if the politicians had done nothing but confirm the General's
+frontier. Franchet d'Espérey gave it to the Serbs "for the time being,"
+and that period should last until there is no longer any military need
+to hold it. "No General, however distinguished, could possibly have any
+authority whatever to give to any nation the territories of another,
+such as can only be transferred and delineated by treaties and
+international recognition." So says Mr. H. E. Goad, or Captain Goad as
+he has the right to call himself. But it is a pity that he does not
+appreciate the difference between that which is temporary and that which
+is not.
+
+Italy has been given against the Yugoslavs a purely strategic frontier,
+which places under her dominion over 500,000 unwilling Slovenes, whose
+culture is admittedly on a higher level than that of their Italian
+neighbours. And yet the Ambassadors' Conference (in which Italy plays a
+prominent part) has refused to give Yugoslavia a strategic frontier
+against a much more turbulent neighbour, which frontier, moreover, would
+include of alien subjects only a small fraction of the number which
+Italy has obtained. The Albanian frontier now imposed on Yugoslavia is
+very much like that which the treaties of 1815 gave to France, when the
+passage (_trouée_) of Couvin, often called erroneously the trouée of the
+Oise, at a short distance from Paris, was purposely opened. "Formerly,"
+says Professor Jean Brunhes,[107] "the sources of the Oise belonged to
+France, protected, far back, by the two enclaves of Philippeville and
+Marienbourg, both fortified by Vauban." And M. Gabriel Hanotaux[108]
+remarks that this opening of the trouée of Couvin was the reason why in
+1914 France lost the battle of Charleroi.
+
+The Ambassadors' Conference has committed a grave injustice. "Let us
+hope," says M. Justin Godart,[109] a French ex-Under Secretary of
+Hygiene, concerning whose very misguided mission to Albania we have
+written elsewhere,[110] "let us hope," says he--in my opinion one of the
+unjustest men towards Yugoslavia and Greece--"let us hope that
+Yugoslavia will understand that it is unworthy of her to contest the
+decision of the Ambassadors' Conference." It has given to the Yugoslavs
+a frontier that necessitates the presence of a considerable army, and
+this is precisely what suits the Italians. Seeing that in Italy there
+are men alive who can recall their struggles against the Austrian
+oppressor, it is sad that their own country should now be playing this
+very same rôle. The Ambassadors appear to have taken no notice of
+Italy's support of the Tirana Government, but to have been very drastic
+with respect to Yugoslavia's support of the Mirditi. They have punished
+the Yugoslavs by binding their hands in a district part of whose
+population long for the help of those hands in gaining some
+tranquillity, whereas the other part consists of persons against whom
+one must defend oneself.
+
+The politicians have acted as if all the border folk were as peaceful as
+they doubtless are themselves. In consequence, there will be panic and
+assassination till the politicians--unable to oppose the wishes of the
+majority of those who dwell in the frontier zone--proclaim that until
+further notice General Franchet d'Espérey's wise and prudent
+dispositions shall be honoured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That is the only method by which an Albania can be brought slowly into
+existence. At this moment the cartographers are printing the map of the
+Albanians' country in accordance with the Ambassadors' decision. They
+might spare themselves the trouble. The decision to recognize an
+Albania was as premature a project as, in Mr. Wells' opinion, is the
+League of Nations. A free, united Albania has been recognized, and in a
+little time the Ambassadors' Conference, perceiving that such a thing
+does not exist, will be relieved to see the North and the South taking
+the steps to which we have referred. It is wonderful that the
+Ambassadors' Conference and the League of Nations should imagine that a
+country, most of which is in the social state of the Gallic clans in the
+days of Vercingetorix, can suddenly become a modern nation by the simple
+contrivance of a parliament, which, as a matter of fact, has been the
+caricature of one. In the words of Lord Halsbury, when reversing a
+judgment of the Court of Appeal, I am bewildered by the absurdity of
+such a suggestion. Albania is in need of organizers, not of orators. A
+very competent French traveller,[111] one who believes that a future is
+reserved for this unquenchable people, warns the world against undue
+haste. After describing the deplorable state or the non-existence of
+Albanian schools, roads, ports, the monetary system and the organization
+of credit, he says that it is scarcely an exaggeration to assert that
+from the point of view of economic arrangement everything has to be
+created. This necessitates a Government which knows how to administer
+and which has funds at its command. But there is not the least
+likelihood of regular taxes being paid to a central Government until you
+have security of communication. And even then the native--except if
+force is used--will not pay before he sees the benefit which taxes
+produce. He who for the most part has never given obedience save to his
+village chief will require to see the local benefit. Therefore his whole
+outlook must be changed; slowly from being parochial it must become
+national.... There can be no greater folly than at this stage to aim at
+applying modern usages, equality of taxation, uniformity of judicial
+organization, and so forth. It must be a very slow advance, says M.
+Jaray, taking local traditions and the feudalism, both domestic and
+collective, into account. Even if a central Government had all the
+necessary qualifications, yet that would not cause the people to regard
+it with gratitude and loyalty. It is too remote. The clans have been
+accustomed to look no farther than their own chiefs. Only in serious
+circumstances and against an invasion have they united and chosen a
+common leader. To expect the Albanians rapidly to throw aside their
+clannishness is to prepare for oneself a disappointment. It is in the
+clan that they must be made fit for something more extensive. Let the
+country be recognized not as a nation, but as a collection of clans, and
+let these clans, with any outside assistance they themselves may choose,
+come gradually to understand the word "Albania." ... And what are the
+chances that this will come to pass? No country is more feudal; yet only
+the most thoroughgoing peasant reforms will lay a sure foundation for
+the State.
+
+
+(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER
+
+The frontier with Greece has undergone no alteration as a result of the
+War. It is inconvenient in certain details; it runs, for example, at
+such a very short distance to the south of the town of Ghevgeli that the
+prefect has little chance of frustrating those who actively object to
+the payment of import duties. Rather a large number of Slavs, some say
+300,000, live on the Greek side of the frontier, while a far smaller
+number of Greeks live in Monastir. Both the Slavs and the Greeks have
+made sundry complaints, which are more or less justified, against the
+alien authority which governs them. However, during 1919 and 1920, the
+two Governments resolved, in the furtherance of their good
+understanding, to raise none of these questions, neither the claims of
+the derelict Slavs, who are mostly Exarchists, nor of the Monastir
+Greeks, who are mostly hellenized Vlachs. The two countries, while
+Venizelos was in power, were acting on the principles of the Serbo-Greek
+friendship that used to be advocated by _L'Hellénisme_, the newspaper
+which Sir Anastasius Adossides, under Venizelos the enlightened
+Governor-General of Salonica, published for several years before the
+first Balkan War in Paris. Yugoslavia was to have every facility given
+her in Salonica, which course would naturally be the most beneficial to
+that place. And among the minor advantages of really amicable relations
+would be the impossibility of such a state of things as once prevailed
+at Doiran, where the masters of the Greek and Bulgarian schools were
+neither of them in a position to chastise their peccant pupils, who
+could always have the last word by threatening to transfer themselves to
+the rival establishment. It was, I believe, the custom of these young
+scoundrels to remain at one or other of the two schools on the
+understanding that the teacher gave them a retaining fee of so many
+chocolates.... One rather felt, during 1919 and 1920, that the
+Yugoslavs, in their willingness to take the hand of Greece, which had so
+shamefully refused to act upon its obligations in the first half of the
+War, were behaving as if Venizelos would henceforward be retained in
+power by his countrymen. Should the Serbs find themselves hampered in
+their use of the "Free Zone" at Salonica, a moment might arrive when
+they and the Bulgars would, to their mutual advantage, make an
+arrangement with regard to Salonica and her hinterland.
+
+
+(_c_) THE BULGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+There have been various modifications in the frontier line between
+Serbia and Bulgaria. The Bulgars acknowledge that in the case of the
+Struma salient, of the part near Vranja and of the villages on the bank
+of the Timok, it was clearly for the purpose of safeguarding the
+railways; and few people would be found to say that Serbia has been
+other than modest in her demands. Compare the Italian position on the
+Brenner with the Yugoslav frontier against Bulgaria and in the Baranja:
+against Bulgars and Magyars the Yugoslavs only secure a sound defensive
+frontier, whereas Italy obtains a capacity for the offensive against
+Austria.[112] It is rather different with regard to Tsaribrod, on the
+main line between Ni[vs] and Sofia. So good a friend of the Yugoslavs as
+Dr. Seton-Watson has deplored the cession of this small place, since it
+appears likely to imperil a future friendship between Serbia and
+Bulgaria. As a matter of fact the Yugoslav Peace Delegates requested,
+for strategic purposes, a still more southerly frontier on the Dragoman
+Pass, which was denied to them. But Tsaribrod, which is dominated by the
+heights of Dragoman, is anyhow a place of minor importance. It is much
+to be hoped that the inhabitants will not imitate those of the Pirot
+_intelligentsia_ who in 1878 shook off the dust of their town when it
+became Serbian and migrated to Sofia, where they never wearied of
+anti-Serbian agitation. One must do one's best not to retard the arrival
+of that day when it will be almost a matter of indifference as to
+whether a village is situated in Serbia or in Bulgaria. Mr.
+Stanojevi['c], the deputy for Zaje[vc]a, which is not far from the
+frontier, proposed in the Skup[vs]tina that Tsaribrod should be left to
+the Bulgars in exchange for a sum of money. This suggestion was opposed
+by the Radicals, and the far-seeing Yugoslav statesmen who would gladly
+have adopted it were left hoping that the Skup[vs]tina would some day
+decide in its favour.... This moderation on the part of the Serbs has
+been less in evidence at Bucharest and still less at Athens. The Peace
+Conference which felt itself unable to deprive its Ally of southern
+Dobrudja, and unable to resist the persuasive eloquence of M. Venizelos,
+does not seem to have contributed towards a lasting Balkan peace. A
+reviewer in the _Observer_, while approving of Mr. Leland Buxton's hope
+of a Serb-Bulgar reconciliation, asks why this should be effected to the
+exclusion and obvious detriment of Greece. "Why not a Balkan
+Federation?" he asks. In view of the very different races which inhabit
+the Balkans, he might just as well ask, "Why not a European Federation?"
+And the statesmen of the non-Slav Balkan countries do not seem to have
+made serious efforts to prevent the coming of a purely Slav Federation.
+It remains to be seen whether, when that comes to pass, the Greek and
+Roumanian people will have achieved such statesmanship as to make an
+equally small effort to keep under their control their large Slav
+territories.... "We should no longer think of Thrace," said M. Venizelos
+in the Greek Chamber in 1913, "for it is impossible to include in the
+Greek State all those parts where Greeks have lived; we ought to be
+modest and contented with what is most righteous and attainable; we
+ought not to let ourselves be carried away by our imagination."
+
+
+(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER
+
+THE STATE OF THE ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA
+
+A new frontier between Yugoslavia and Roumania has been drawn by the
+Allied Powers in the Banat. But before we consider its merits and
+absurdities we must examine the Serbo-Roumanian question in the several
+departments of eastern Serbia. During 1919 one heard a good deal, in
+Bucharest and in Paris, of the pitiful Roumanians whom the Serbs had
+always deprived of their own national schools and churches. It was
+claimed, chiefly by a certain Dr. Athanasius Popovitch, that the
+Roumanians in Serbia were longing for the day of their redemption. On
+March 8, 1919, two deputations of Roumanians from the Timok and from
+Macedonia, who had lately arrived in Paris in order to plead before the
+Conference, presented themselves to the Roumanian colony at 114 Avenue
+des Champs-Elysees. We are told that in consequence of their moving
+narrative, and on account of the loud appeal made by them to all their
+free brothers, the Roumanian colony founded, with great enthusiasm, a
+national league for their delivery. The Vice-President of the league was
+announced to be Dr. Athanasius Popovici. In a pamphlet called _Les
+Roumains de Serbie_ (Paris, 1919), Dr. Draghicesco, a Roumanian Senator,
+denounces the Serb authorities for having obliged Dr. Athanasius, while
+he was a schoolboy, to change his surname into the purely Serbian one of
+Popovitch. "Not being able to endure this régime of violence," we are
+informed, "he expatriated himself and established himself in Roumania."
+But if Dr. Athanasius felt so strongly with regard to his name when he
+was a mere schoolboy, one is puzzled to understand why, being an adult
+and a pamphleteer in 1919, he should be hesitating between Popovitch,
+which is Serbian, and Popovici, which is Roumanian. The Senator does not
+seem to be well informed as to the early years of Dr. Athanasius, who so
+far from expatriating himself as an indignant schoolboy, remained in
+Serbia, where he went through five classes of the gymnasium in Belgrade,
+after which he studied theology in the same town, with a view to
+succeeding his father, who was a priest at Du[vs]anovac in eastern
+Serbia. Later on Athanasius performed his military service at Zaje[vc]a,
+where he married--so one of his sisters told me--one Mileva, the
+daughter of Yovan Stan[vc]evi['c], a merchant. After his marriage he
+went to Jena, in order to continue his studies, and there he became a
+Doctor of Letters. It may be that while he was at Jena he became
+conscious of the régime of violence to which the Roumanians in Serbia
+are subjected; at any rate he decided not to return to that country,
+where his wife and three sisters are well satisfied to live. He launched
+himself into a furious anti-Serbian propaganda in favour of those who,
+in the words of Dr. Draghicesco, are profoundly sad and full of grief at
+being neither Serbian nor Roumanian, who when they meet a Roumanian
+brother listen to him with pleasure and, with their eyes full of tears,
+murmur: "How happy we should be to be with you." ... When I travelled
+through those parts with a view to verifying Dr. Athanasius's
+assertions, I was invariably told by persons of Roumanian origin that
+they had no complaint whatever against the Serbs, and that the last
+thing they desired was to be politically united to the Roumanians of the
+kingdom. Dr. Athanasius might reply that his wretched compatriots were
+impelled by fear to give such answers. But what do they fear?--one finds
+that among these people are deputies, priests, army officers and so
+forth. "To-day," says Dr. Athanasius, "all the peoples who are reduced
+to slavery by other people secure the right to return to their
+fatherland." The Roumanians of Serbia would have to be a good deal more
+miserable before wishing to have anything to do with Roumania. Milan
+Soldatovi['c], ex-mayor of the great mining village of Bor and himself
+of Roumanian origin, said that he had never heard of any one who went to
+work in Roumania. No doubt the present generation of Roumanian
+landowners deeply deplore the misdeeds of their ancestors, who drove the
+ancestors of these peasants away from Roumania. "The peasant hovels were
+merely dark burrows, called _bordei_, holes dug in the ground and
+roofed with poles covered with earth, rising scarcely above the level of
+the plain.... The interior was indescribable. Neither furniture nor
+utensils, with the exception of the boards which served as beds or seats
+and the pot for cooking the _mamaliga_"[113]--his sole food, a paste
+consisting of maize meal cooked in water. And one cannot be astonished
+if the Roumanians in Serbia are chary of believing that their native
+land has changed for the better. "If," said a Roumanian peasant before
+an Agricultural Commission in 1848, "if the boyar could have laid hands
+upon the sun, he would have seized it and sold God's light and warmth to
+the peasant for money." Even in 1919 the peasant still had much reason
+to be dissatisfied, for where the owner parted with his land it was
+usually--no doubt as a stage in the transaction--made over to the
+village as a whole. And if the boyar no longer has the monopoly of the
+sale of alcohol, if he has so far improved that Vallachia is not now
+losing its inhabitants as it was after the Regulations of 1831, when we
+read that "in vain the rivers are assiduously watched, as if in a state
+of siege; the emigrants cross at the places which are clear of troops.
+Emigration is especially rife in winter, when the frozen Danube presents
+an ever-open bridge," yet among the Roumanians of Serbia it has been
+handed down from father to son what happened in the reign of Prince
+Milo[vs]. To take one case out of many such that are preserved in the
+National Archives at Belgrade, a dispatch was sent on February 11, 1831,
+by Vule Gligorievi['c], his representative in those parts, to Prince
+Milo[vs], who was at Kragujevac, enclosing a supplication from the
+priests and other inhabitants of the large Roumanian island called
+Veliko Ostrvo, in the middle of the Danube, praying that they might be
+allowed to cross to Serbia. "We are in great misery," they wrote, "and
+have boyars who are very bad, and we cannot bear the misery in which we
+find ourselves, and in the greatest grief we beg your Highness to let us
+come to Serbia with our wives and children." The Prince had a special
+sympathy for Roumania and was therefore most reluctant to intervene in
+her internal affairs. He adopted a very cautious attitude in this
+matter, but when Gligorievi['c] sent him petition after petition he was
+finally so touched by the recital of their woes that he permitted them
+to cross the river; and one night, with the help of the Serbian
+authorities, the whole island crossed over, to wit 57 families, with 186
+oxen, 70 horses, 694 sheep and 87 pigs. Milo[vs] made them a free grant
+of land for the building of a village, together with a vast stretch of
+territory for pasture and stock-raising; at his own expense he built
+them a church and extended to them all the liberties and advantages
+enjoyed in Serbia by the Serbs themselves. As a token of their gratitude
+these Roumanian emigrants called their village Mihailovac, after the
+name of Michael, the Prince's son. This village is the birthplace of our
+friend Dr. Athanasius, whose sentiments appear to have placed him in a
+minority of one. When his pamphlet came into the hands of Jorge
+Korni['c], the mayor of Mihailovac and a Roumanian by origin, he brought
+it to the prefect at Negotin saying that he wished to have nothing to do
+"with any devil's work."
+
+As Dr. Athanasius and his chauvinist friends give a pretty lurid picture
+of the Roumanian villager who lives in Serbia, I visited a few places
+where the population is wholly Roumanian or Serbo-Roumanian. The 766
+inhabitants of Ostralje are all of Roumanian descent, the mayor being
+one Velimir Mi[vs]kovi['c], a sergeant of reserves who has been
+transferred from the army in order to carry on his municipal duties. All
+the inhabitants speak Serbian and Vlach. "We were always Serbs," they
+said. "Nobody told us that we had migrated to this place." And amongst
+those who assembled to talk with us at the schoolmaster's house there
+was only one who, in the Roumanian fashion, had drawn his socks over his
+white trousers. The 2221 inhabitants of the village of Grljan are about
+two-thirds of Roumanian and one-third of Serbian origin. Formerly they
+each had their own part of the village, but now they are intermingled
+both in the village and in the cemetery. They intermarry freely; thus
+Jon Jonovi['c], the most notable person, who used to represent this
+district in the Skup[vs]tina at Belgrade, has three Serbian
+daughters-in-law. He was a member of the Opposition Liberal group of
+Ribarac. "And did you ever request that your fellow-countrymen should
+have their own Roumanian schools and churches?" we asked. This is one of
+the chief demands of Dr. Athanasius. "I was not the only Roumanian who
+was a deputy," said the old man of the furrowed face. "There was Novak
+Dobromirovi['c] of Zlot; there was Jorge Stankovi['c], for instance; but
+we never thought of asking for such a thing, since we had no need for
+it." The son of the wealthy Sima Yovanovi['c] at Bor observed with a
+smile that the first business of Roumanian schools would have to be the
+teaching of Roumanian. "My father sent me to be educated at Vienna," he
+said, "and when I met some boys from Bucharest we found that our
+language was so different that we had to talk to one another in German.
+And now when a commercial traveller comes here from Roumania I have to
+talk German to him, as I would otherwise have to converse with my hands
+and feet." The French mining officials, by the way, at Bor testified
+that they had never heard of any tension between men of Serbian and
+those of Roumanian origin; the Roumanians, who prefer agricultural work,
+are more attracted to the mines in winter, when over 40 per cent. of the
+1500 employés are Roumanians.
+
+Dr. Athanasius and his friends are agitated, as one would imagine, when
+they discuss with you the numbers of their countrymen. In _Le Temps_ of
+April 22, 1919, they declared that they could produce 500,000, for they
+realized that their previous claim of between 250,000 and 350,000 was
+not large enough to give the Roumanians in Serbia the benefit of the
+principle of nationality. But even this more modest figure will be
+found, on examination, to be exaggerated. In the four north-eastern
+counties of Serbia there were 159,510 Roumanians in 1895; 120,628 in
+1900, and in 1910 a little over 90,000. This diminution, say the
+chauvinists, is due to a falsifying of statistics, for those, they say,
+who have attended a Serbian school are inscribed as Serbs. The truth is
+that everyone is entered according to his mother-tongue. And history
+knows countless instances of a gradual decrease in the case of people
+placed in foreign surroundings and exposed to foreign influences. Like
+the Illyrians who people Dalmatia, the Thracians of ancient Dacia and
+the Serbs who emigrated to Russia in the seventeenth century, the
+Roumanians of Serbia are undergoing this process and are inevitably
+becoming Serbicized. Frequently we noticed that men possessing no
+Serbian blood did not care to admit their Roumanian origin, which,
+however, is no secret to their neighbours in spite of the Serbian
+termination "i['c]" that, in the course of years, has been affixed to
+their names. An allusion to their origin is clearly regarded as lacking
+in delicacy. "Well, my ancestors were Roumanian," is often as much as
+they will admit. And when some enterprising agitators came over from
+Roumania to the department of Po[vz]arevac in 1919, the Roumanians of
+those parts gave up to the authorities all those who did not manage to
+escape. For ten years Lieut.-Colonel Gjorge Markovi['c] commanded the
+9th Regiment, which is chiefly formed of Roumanians from that region.
+They used to tell him that they wanted to have nothing to do with the
+Roumanian boyars. "Here we are boyars ourselves," they said. All of them
+speak Serbian, many of them write it; and on winter evenings they have
+for years received instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic and
+singing, which compares favourably with Roumania's army, in which, as I
+was told at Bucharest, the plan of starting any education had to be
+postponed in consequence of the outbreak of the Great War. Together with
+the unwillingness of these people to acknowledge their origin, one
+observes a general vagueness as to the home of their forefathers.
+Apparently these came over from southern Hungary, whence the name
+Ungureani,[114] or from Tara Rumaneasca, _i.e._ the Roumanian land,
+whence the name Tarani. Others again are descended from Roumanized Serbs
+who came from Kossovo and other Serb regions of the south, lived in the
+Banat and Transylvania among the Roumanian villages, acquired the
+Roumanian language and then crossed over to Serbia. These three classes
+have all come to Serbia in recent times. Any attempt on the part of Dr.
+Athanasius and his friends to drag in the Romans can be answered by the
+undoubted fact that the ancient Roman colonists had completely
+disappeared from Serbia as far back as the fifteenth century, leaving no
+trace at all, and there is no connection between them and the present
+Roumanian population of Serbia. No memories remain of the old Roman
+colonists, save certain place-names which, as Professor Georgevi['c]
+remarks, strike one as surprising in the midst of a purely Serbian
+population. It is interesting to note that these ancient Roman
+place-names are very rare in the regions inhabited to-day by men of
+Roumanian origin.
+
+It would not have been worth whole devoting so much space to the
+activities of Dr. Athanasius and his adherents but for the fact that
+European public opinion, which has concerned itself extremely little
+with the Roumanians of Serbia, might possibly imagine that their
+advocate deserves to be taken seriously.
+
+
+2. THE BANAT
+
+Anyone who looks at an ethnological map of the Banat will recognize how
+difficult it is to partition that province among two or three claimants.
+No matter by whom the map is painted, it must have the appearance of
+mosaic, with few solid masses of colour. This fact was quickly used by
+the Roumanians, who argued that as the Banat had never been divided,
+neither politically nor economically, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Roumanian flag. The Magyars haughtily pointed
+out that as the Banat had never been divided, but had for a thousand
+years lived under the crown of St. Stephen, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Hungarian flag. The Roumanians contended that
+the indivisibility of the Banat was designed by Nature, since the
+mountainous eastern part could not exist if separated from the fertile
+west. The Magyars asserted that it was altogether wrong to think of the
+radical remodelling and complete dismemberment of a territory which
+Nature had predestined to be one. The Yugoslavs agreed with both parties
+that it was not easy to draw a satisfactory frontier, but they asked
+that, as far as possible, the predominantly Roumanian parts should be
+joined to Roumania, the Slav populations to them and the Magyars to
+Hungary. As a matter of fact the Paris Conference did attempt to make an
+ethnical division, between these three States, of the Banat. Roumania
+tried to demonstrate the impossibility of this by turning off the water
+in the Bega Canal when the Serbs evacuated Teme[vs]var and were taking
+their heavily-laden barges from that town. There will have to be a
+central, international organization to control the network of waterways.
+As soon as the Paris Conference had decided on this division it was told
+by the Magyars, the Roumanians and the Yugoslavs that all the numerous
+Germans of the Banat wished to belong to Hungary, to Roumania and to
+Yugoslavia. A great many of the Germans were indifferent, so long as
+they could peaceably carry on their prosperous agricultural operations.
+Not much political solidarity is apparent among the Germans of the
+Banat, and seeing that both Yugoslavia and Roumania, now the principal
+possessors of this land, have elsewhere within their boundaries large
+German populations, their respective Banat Germans will be able to ally
+themselves with these in the Parliaments of Belgrade and Bucharest. The
+Banat Germans who are discontented with the Paris decisions are firstly
+those, among the aristocratic and commercial classes, who were
+accustomed to enjoy under the Magyars a favoured position, and secondly
+those who, with more or less justification, say that Roumania has yet to
+show that she will treat her subject minorities in a truly liberal
+fashion. It is for this reason that the Germans of Ver[vs]ac and Bela
+Crkva--in which towns they are about as numerous as the total of
+Yugoslavs, Roumanians and Magyars--would give a majority in favour of
+Yugoslavia if they were asked to vote as to Yugoslav or Roumanian
+citizenship. _Adeverul_, which is one of the least chauvinist of
+Bucharest newspapers, claimed for Roumania at least the railway line:
+Teme[vs]var, Ver[vs]ac, Bela Crkva, Bazias--an argument thought to be
+conclusive being that the two central towns are neither Roumanian nor
+Serbian but German. This railway line was, as a matter of fact, bestowed
+by the Peace Conference on Roumania, and it required some strenuous
+work before this decision was modified. The French were suspected in
+Yugoslavia of leaning unduly towards the Roumanians, through sympathy
+with the Latin strain in their blood; yet it was the French who were for
+giving to Yugoslavia not only Bazias but the villages on the Danube down
+to Old Moldava, seeing that in those districts the Slavs are certainly
+in a majority. The Roumanian case was not assisted by Professor
+Candrea's ethnographical map, for in the debated country around Bela
+Crkva that gentleman, who told me that he had omitted every place whose
+population was less than a hundred, has unfortunately forgotten to
+include Zlatica, a village of 1346 inhabitants, which was founded at the
+gate of a monastery six hundred and sixty years ago. The population is
+according to the Hungarian census of 1910, at which time all the 1346
+were Serbs, with the exception of 220 Czechs and a few gipsies.
+Professor Candrea has forgotten Sokolavac, a nourishing place about two
+hundred and fifty years old with 1800 inhabitants and practically all of
+them Serbs, as the Transylvanian Minister of Education admitted. Palanka
+with 1400 inhabitants, most Serbs; Fabian with about 1000, mostly
+Czechs; Duplaja with 1204, all Serbs but for 10 Slovenes; Crvena Crkva
+with 1108 (1048 Serbs, 34 Slovaks, 17 Germans and 9 Magyars), are every
+one omitted. Lescovac, with 977 inhabitants, the Professor marks as
+Roumanian. When I was at this picturesquely situated place I was
+received in the mayor's office by half a dozen burly peasants in the
+Serbian national costume who asserted that, with the exception of the
+tailor (a Roumanian emigrant) and one or two other persons, the village
+was wholly Serb. But Lescovac was then within the Serbian sphere of
+occupation, and possibly if I were to go there now I would be told an
+appropriate story by other, or the same, peasants in Roumanian attire.
+One must try to find some surer indication of nationality, and Professor
+Candrea told me that twenty-five years ago he took down a pure Roumanian
+text at that place, where the Roumanian language is the most antique in
+the Banat. On the other hand, the village must have contained many
+Serbs, for when the late notary, a powerful Magyar with Roumanian
+sympathies, prevented the school being conducted, as it always had
+been, in the Serbian language, and installed a teacher--he stayed for
+eight years--who could only speak Magyar and Roumanian, the villagers at
+their own expense procured a Serbian school-mistress. She was expelled
+by the notary.... This illustrates the difficulties which the Peace
+Conference, in its desire to trace an ethnical frontier, was confronted
+with. And there was no map which did not make it obvious that Serbian
+villages would have to remain to the east and Roumanian villages to the
+west of any possible line. They did right, I think, to revise their
+decision as to the towns of Ver[vs]ac and Bela Crkva, for there the
+Yugoslavs and their German friends have a large and unquestioned
+preponderance. Bazias, with about three miles of the railway, was given
+to Roumania so that she should have, for the exportation of her wood and
+iron-ore, the only harbour in that region of the Danube which is capable
+of development. However, with no railway over Roumanian soil from Bazias
+to the mines, this port is perfectly useless, and it is to be hoped that
+Roumania will give it up, for compensation elsewhere, to the Yugoslavs.
+The latter would otherwise be compelled to build three or four miles of
+railway, from Bela Crkva to Palanka, which, unless a great deal of money
+be spent on it, will always be one of the worst ports on the river. With
+a little more difficulty than to Bazias the Roumanians could construct a
+railway to Moldava, which also is a very good port; and in return for
+this accommodation, whereby the wines of Bela Crkva could be shipped
+from Bazias, their natural port, the Yugoslavs would be ready to make
+over to Roumania one or two villages whose population far exceeds that
+of little Bazias. We may also hope that facilities will be given by the
+two Governments for the emigration of those who wish to cross the new
+frontier line. Formerly the people of the Banat had no strenuous
+objections to being moved, lock, stock and barrel, from one district to
+another and without the inducement of coming under the rule of their own
+race. Thus the village of Zsam, to the north of Ver[vs]ac, was, like
+many others, very sparsely inhabited when the Turks withdrew in 1716;
+some villages had only three or four occupied houses. So the Government
+in 1722 collected into one village the people of several others, and in
+this way Zsam, which had hitherto been Slav, became Roumanian, the Serbs
+being established in the neighbouring Sredi[vs]te. In 1809 the
+Roumanians were transplanted from Zsam to Petrovasela, between Ver[vs]ac
+and Pan[vc]evo, where they entered the Pan[vc]evo Frontier Regiment;
+their place at Zsam was taken by Germans, who, being more industrious,
+were preferred by the landowners.
+
+Some of the delineators of this frontier--French and British--have told
+me that they were guided throughout by the ethnical principle. But
+various unfortunate exceptions seem to have been made: for instance, at
+Ko[vc]a it runs through a certain house in such a way that the lavatory
+alone is in Roumania; and in another village there lives a man who,
+since his stables are situated in Roumania, would have had his horses
+requisitioned if he had not been able to bring them into the other part
+of the house. Another village has its cemetery in Roumania, so that the
+Yugoslavs carry their dead friends over during the night. Perhaps the
+Entente officials, perceiving that their ambitious resolution to divide
+the country on ethnic principles was not feasible--there would always be
+alien islands to the right and to the left of any line--perhaps they in
+despair drew an arbitrary line upon a map and hoped the poor inhabitants
+would make the best of it. But this was rendered more difficult by the
+Yugoslav and Roumanian authorities, for the people who desire to cross
+the line are put to endless trouble. Apart from the expense, it usually
+involves a delay of three weeks before permission can be obtained, so
+that the frontier is rarely traversed save by smugglers and by those
+who, like the afore-mentioned man of Ko[vc]a, have been driven into
+chronic lawlessness.
+
+The first line agreed upon after the War, which temporarily bestowed the
+eastern county on Roumania, the western on Yugoslavia and the chief
+parts of the central (or Teme[vs]var) county also on Yugoslavia--with
+French co-operation--did not find favour in Paris; whether or not this
+decision was influenced by the frequent journeys of the Queen of
+Roumania and her fascinating daughters to that town I do not know. At
+all events another boundary was made which included the large town of
+Teme[vs]var and all the northern part of that county in Roumania. It is
+true that there are Roumanian villages in the neighbourhood of this
+German-Magyar-Jewish town, which is by far the largest place in the
+Banat. And the Roumanians, who have already annexed enormous Magyar and
+German populations in Transylvania, do not boggle at another 80,000
+foreigners. One could, however, find very few Yugoslavs who want
+Teme[vs]var to be restored to them; they know that they and the
+Roumanians, whatever (as regards themselves) may have been the case in
+other days, form, each of them, only about one-thirtieth of the total
+population. But they are sorry that the Allies asked them to share in
+occupying the town, because the local Serbs, who are interested in
+politics, were so enthusiastic, that on the arrival of the Roumanians
+they were forced to leave their businesses and go to live in Yugoslavia.
+Since neither Serbs nor Roumanians have any ethnical claim to the town
+one would suppose that, as the spoil had fallen to Roumania, the Entente
+would have endeavoured to give the Yugoslavs some compensation: what
+they did was to take away from them a good deal of that which they
+had--a considerable slice of their western county--which also was
+presented to the Roumanians. Again, the delineators excused themselves
+by invoking their ethnical motives, but as a matter of fact in that part
+of Torontal the people are predominantly German and they should have
+been allotted to Yugoslavia, not merely because the Teme[vs]var Germans
+were given to Roumania but on account of their economic existence, which
+certainly in the case of the departments of Nagyszentmiklós, Perjámos
+and Csene (to retain the Magyar spelling) is bound up with Zsombolya,
+their market-town, and Kikinda. According to the census that was taken
+in 1919, the population of these three departments now allotted to
+Roumania consisted of 41,109 Germans, 13,638 Yugoslavs and 19,270
+Roumanians. Further, to the south-east of Torontal, in the departments
+of Párdány, Módos and Bánlak, there is not so intimate a connection with
+the market-town; here the population consists of 12,209 Germans, 11,102
+Yugoslavs and 8808 Roumanians. But there seems to be little reason why
+the whole of Torontal, following the wishes of the majority of its
+inhabitants, should not be given to Yugoslavia; and this would also
+reduce to a minimum the inconveniences produced by any frontier. For
+many long years there has been a county frontier between Torontal and
+Teme[vs]var, each of which was under an official who looked direct to
+Buda-Pest. The adoption of this ancient county frontier as that of the
+two countries would put an end to the present absurd and unjust, not to
+say dangerous, situation. It should, therefore, be brought about as soon
+as possible.
+
+A similar rectification is needed in the country to the north and
+north-west. The three German villages of Komlo[vs], Mariafeld and St.
+Miklo[vs] have their fields near Velika Kikinda, in Yugoslavia, whereas
+they are themselves in Roumania. To bring home his maize from the land a
+farmer was obliged to pay, at the most favourable rate, up to 200 crowns
+a pound. Considering that this part of the country is an absolute plain
+with no river flowing through it, one would suppose that a rectification
+could easily be made. If these Germans had been consulted they would
+naturally have opted for Yugoslavia. The Peace Conference officials
+might, also have studied Velika Kikinda, a place with a very creditable
+past, which--as I was told by a Serb professional man of that town--will
+be completely ruined if she loses the custom of these German villages
+and has to depend upon the Serb peasants who make one embroidered suit
+and one pair of sandals last them for ten years.... It will be necessary
+for the Yugoslav authorities in the Banat not only to endeavour to raise
+their countrymen's standard of living but also in the southerly
+districts, where the standard is higher, to persuade them not to persist
+in limiting their families. The Serbs in the old kingdom have been one
+of the most prolific of European races--they would otherwise have been
+incapable of carrying on their twenty-six years of war during this last
+century--but in the south and south-east of the Banat, perhaps through
+mere love of comfort, perhaps through Magyar oppression, there has been
+a marked tendency not to increase. The Magyars and Germans have had
+normal families, the Roumanians have increased by assimilation (a woman
+marrying into a Serbian family will often cause them all to speak her
+easier language). The Serbs, however, will in their part of the Banat
+absorb the others if they show political understanding and a liberal
+spirit. "We will give the Germans," said Pribi[vc]evi['c] to one of them
+at Ver[vs]ac--"we will give them everything up to a university."
+
+The north-west corner of the Banat, which has a considerable Magyar
+population, has been ascribed to Hungary. Opposite the apex of this
+triangular tract of country lies Szeged, the second city of Hungary
+(118,328 inhabitants, of whom 113,380 are Magyars) and the chief centre
+of the grain trade of the rich southern plains. As was pointed out in
+_The New Europe_,[115] Szeged, which lies in flat country, would be even
+more defenceless than Belgrade if the lands on the other side of the
+river were under alien rule. If one draws a strategical frontier the
+nationality of the people is, of course, disregarded; it is, therefore,
+beside the point to mention that there seem to be far more Serbs in the
+angle opposite Szeged than there were Magyars in the lands opposite
+Belgrade. The Entente has simply made up its mind to be generous to
+Szeged, and let us hope that we have not left this region to Hungary on
+account of the activities of the extremely intelligent Baroness
+Gerliczy--a Roumanian lady married to a Magyar--who owns a large estate
+there and was much in Paris during the critical period.
+
+The other imperfections in the Paris arrangements, whether with regard
+to villages or fields, are not incapable of amendment. One presumes that
+the Roumanians, who have no lack of other international problems, will
+be wise enough to discard certain dicta of their Liberal party and of
+Bratiano, its self-satisfied leader, to whom all subjects seem great if
+they have passed through his mind. One particular dictum which the
+Roumanians ought to cast aside is that which insists upon the
+indivisibility of the Banat. Another Roumanian statesman, Take Jonescu,
+was more sagacious when he, during the War, drew up a memorandum whose
+object was that Greece, Serbia, Roumania and the Czecho-Slovak
+Governments should work in harmony. This idea of presenting a single
+diplomatic front was to the liking of Mr. Balfour, who observed to M.
+Jonescu that it would be better for these States and better for Europe.
+As regards an understanding between Roumania and Serbia in the Banat:
+"I," said Pa[vs]i['c]--"I speak for Serbia. Can you speak for Roumania?"
+
+And Jonescu unfortunately had to shake his head.
+
+In the fatuous policy of crying for the whole Banat--they even require
+the little island in the Danube between Semlin and Belgrade--Bratiano is
+assisted by the aged Marghiloman, who is the chief of a branch of the
+Conservative party. But the relations between these two do not seem
+destined to be cordial, since Bratiano is married to Marghiloman's
+divorced wife.
+
+May the Roumanian people become reconciled to Yugoslavia's righteous
+possession of part of the Banat. It would be a pity if these two
+neighbours were to live together on such terms as, in the eastern county
+of the Banat, Caras-Severin, do the Bufani and the other Roumanians. The
+Bufani came from Roumania some hundred and fifty or two hundred years
+ago, on account of the taxes which they found intolerable; and they have
+not been able to arrive at amicable relations with those countrymen of
+theirs who are the descendants of earlier emigrants. Very seldom do the
+Bufani and the others intermarry. These Bufani, so say the others, are
+like ivy. "They called out," complain the others, "they called out:
+'Little brother, be good to us!' and then they strangled us." The
+Bufani, who are easily recognizable by their dialect, frequent the same
+church and have one priest with the others, but they have a separate
+cemetery.
+
+
+(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+North of the town of Subotica the frontier between Yugoslavia and
+Hungary is almost a natural one, as it runs over vast hills of shifting
+sand which are still partly in motion. Neither on foot nor on horseback,
+still less with loaded carts, is it possible to travel through these
+hills. But to the east and to the west of them the frontier is no better
+than that which separates Yugoslavia from Roumania, and when it came to
+the delimitation the Magyars thought it would be preferable if this
+work were done with their assistance. Otherwise, so they urged, there
+would be no check upon the wicked intolerance of their neighbours. It is
+true that they themselves had in the past been in favour of
+centralization, but against this one must remember that the "subject
+nationalities" were inferior beings. The Yugoslavs, the Roumanians and
+the Slovaks could not claim a glorious descent from Attila, of whom a
+fresco decorates the House of Parliament at Buda-Pest, and thus the
+Magyars had always thought it seemly that, by various devices, a limit
+should be put to the number of Yugoslav, Roumanian and Slovak deputies.
+Count Apponyi and his colleagues told the Peace Conference very frankly
+at the beginning of 1920 that it really ought to take their word for it,
+and not persist in looking on the Yugoslavs, etc., as if they were as
+good as any Magyar. Surely it was obvious that Yugoslavia, Greater
+Roumania and Czecho-Slovakia would be "artificial and improvised
+creations, devoid of the traditions of political solidarity and
+incapable of producing any." But if the Supreme Council was resolved to
+allow certain Magyar territories to join themselves, if they desired, to
+these ephemeral States it would be necessary to ascertain by means of a
+plebiscite what were the real wishes of the people in these territories;
+and Count Apponyi was kind enough to tell the Council very definitely
+how this plebiscite should be conducted. The principal Allies were to
+arrange, in accordance with the Magyar Government, as to the districts
+in which a plebiscite was to be held, and the secret voting was to be
+controlled by neutral commissions and delegates of the interested
+Governments. This may sound rather rash on the part of the Magyars,
+since a plebiscite, no matter how it was arranged and controlled, would
+presumably detach a good many jewels from the crown of St. Stephen, and
+it was not astonishing that Count Apponyi and his friends proposed that
+the Magyars should be safeguarded by further Commissions which, if
+requisite, would override the results of the voting. These results would
+indeed, as between the Magyars and the Yugoslavs, have given our Allies
+a larger dominion than they have actually obtained. The triangle south
+of Szeged, to which we have alluded, would certainly, if there had been
+a plebiscite, have gone to Yugoslavia. In Baranja the Yugoslavs have
+claimed that the census of 1910, which indicated 36,000 Serbo-Croats,
+should have given them 70,000; but this does not take account of the
+large number of [vS]okci--Slavs whose ancestors were forcibly converted
+to Catholicism and who came to consider themselves as one with the
+Catholic Magyars. This widespread phenomenon of race being superseded by
+religion may be noticed, for example, at Janjevo in the district of Old
+Serbia; it is inhabited by the descendants of Dubrovnik colonists who,
+being Catholic, have come to look upon themselves as Albanians. In
+Hungary the dominant Magyar minority was wont to clasp the subject races
+to its bosom, not with bonds of love but of religion. Thus in 1914 at
+Marmoros-Sziget they charged 100 persons with high treason, because it
+was their wish to leave the Uniate Church, in communion with Rome, and
+return to the Orthodox faith. The same charge would have been preferred
+against certain Ruthenians who were just as unwilling to be members of
+the Uniate Church; but in the case of these humble, backward people the
+conversion had been effected by their priests, who would thereby procure
+for themselves a better situation, and the Ruthenians, who had not been
+told of this occurrence, were under the impression that they were still
+Orthodox. Professor Cviji['c] believes that, with the help of the
+Catholic religion, no less than 113,000 Serbo-Croats have in Baranja
+been lost by their Yugoslav brethren.... When the Yugoslavs were asked
+by the Supreme Council to evacuate most of Baranja they did so. A
+republic, under the presidency of one Dobrovi['c], a well-known cubist
+painter, a native of those parts, was formed by Yugoslavs and the
+Magyars whose freedom had been safeguarded under their rule. But as this
+republic was not assisted by the Yugoslav Government it only lasted for
+a week.
+
+Farther to the west is the Prekomurdje, that interesting Slovene
+district which extends for about 25 miles along the Mur. The rich plain
+that adjoins the river is mostly in the possession of large landowners,
+while the hilly country to the north sustains a scattered and poor
+population of Calvinists. There are in the whole Prekomurdje some
+120,000 Yugoslavs, who are descendants of the old Pannonian Slovenes.
+This healthy, honest people has indeed eighteen Catholic and eight
+Protestant priests, but is otherwise almost destitute of an
+_intelligentsia_. They speak nothing but Slovene, and yet the Magyars
+had for ten years previous to the War been so imperialist that only
+Magyar schools were tolerated. Thus it happened that the children, like
+so many others in the Magyar schools, were at a loss to understand what
+they were writing, and if their teacher chanced to learn the Slovene
+language he was there and then transferred to Transylvania or the Slovak
+country or some other province where he had to teach his pupils in the
+Magyar which they did not know. He was supposed to make the children
+feel the vast superiority of all things Magyar, so that they should be
+ashamed to walk with their own fathers in the streets and speak another
+tongue. We are told occasionally in the _Morning Post_ that
+consideration should be shown to the Magyars since they are a proud
+people, but would they not merit more consideration if they were a
+grateful people, grateful that the rest of Europe, overlooking their
+Mongolian origin, has accepted them as equals? The Magyars were so
+thoroughly persuaded of their own pre-eminence that when the devotees of
+Haydn founded in his honour a society at Eisenstadt, where he had
+worked, it was allowed on the condition that the statutes and the name
+of the society and so forth should be in the Magyar language, although
+Haydn was a German. Evidently the poor Slovenes of the Prekomurdje would
+be swamped unless they showed exceptional vigour. And when they managed
+to survive until after the War the Americans in Paris were for handing
+them to Hungary on the ground that the frontier would, if it included
+them in Yugoslavia, be an awkward one. Such is also the opinion of Mr.
+A. H. E. Taylor in his _The Future of the Southern Slavs_; this author
+advocates that Yugoslavia should be bounded by the Mur, albeit in
+another part of the same book he says that "a small river is not usually
+a good frontier, except on the map"; and the Mur is so narrow that when
+Dr. Gaston Reverdy, of the French army, and I arrived at Ljutomir we
+found that a crowd of these men and boys had waded across the stream in
+order to lay their cause before the doctor, who represented the Entente
+in that region. The Bol[vs]evik Magyars were just then threatening to
+set all Prekomurdje on fire, and the pleasant-looking, rather shy men
+who stood in rows before us begged the doctor to procure them
+weapons--they would be able to defend themselves. It is satisfactory to
+know that most of this portion of the Yugoslav lands has, after all, not
+been lost to the mother country.
+
+
+(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER
+
+A considerable part of the frontier between Yugoslavia and Austria has
+been determined by a plebiscite which was held, under French, British
+and Italian control, in the autumn of 1920. The Slovenes during the
+previous year had pointed out that while they could no longer claim so
+wide a territory now that Austria had been drawn towards the Adriatic,
+yet the rural population of Carinthia had remained Slovene, thanks to
+the notable qualities of that people. The German-Austrians, on the other
+hand, maintained that country districts are the appanages of a town, so
+that the wishes of a rural population are of secondary importance. While
+these questions were being debated in 1919 by the two interested
+parties--and debated, very often, by their rifles--the Italians
+intervened. Sonnino's paper, the _Epoca_, made a great outcry over
+Klagenfurt (Celovec) which, if given to the Yugoslavs, would be an
+insurmountable barrier, it said, to the trade between Triest and Vienna,
+although it was clear that the railway connection through Tarvis
+remained in the hands of the Italians. (There is not a single Italian
+civilian in Tarvis--but no matter.) Meanwhile the French Press noted
+that the Italians--presumably not as traders but as benefactors--were
+seeing to it that the Austrians did not run short of arms and munitions.
+For many months a large area was in a condition of uncertainty and
+turmoil, till at last the Peace Conference ordered a plebiscite.
+
+Two zones in Carinthia--"A" to the south-east, with its centre at
+Velikovec (Völkermarkt), and "B" to the north-west, with its centre at
+Klagenfurt (Celovec)--were mapped out, and it was agreed that if the
+voting in "A," the larger zone, were favourable to Austria, then the
+other zone would automatically fall to that country. For several months
+before the voting day this area--a region of beautiful and prosperous
+valleys watered by the broad Drave and surrounded by magnificent
+mountain ranges--for several months this area was the scene of great
+activity. German-Austrians and Yugoslavs no longer, as in 1919, attacked
+each other with the implements of war, but with pamphlet, broadsheet,
+with eloquence and bribery. Austrian and Yugoslav officials took up
+their headquarters at various places and saw to it that every voter
+should be posted as to the moral and material advantage he would reap by
+helping to make the land Austrian or Yugoslav, as the case might be. All
+those were entitled to vote who, being twenty years of age in January
+1919, had their habitual residence in this area; or, if not born in the
+district, had belonged to it or had their habitual residence there from,
+at least, January 1, 1912. The larger zone "A" was left under Yugoslav
+administration, while zone "B" was under the Austrian authorities; and
+the Inter-Allied officials exercised a very close supervision in order,
+for example, to protect the partisans of either side from undue
+repression at the hands of their opponents. Neither the Austrians nor
+the Yugoslavs lost any opportunities for saying in public that the
+Inter-Allied Commissions were honestly making every effort to be
+impartial. It was, however, unfortunate that Italy should have sent as
+her chief representative Prince Livio Borghese, who may have been as
+impartial as his colleagues, but whose reputation, whether merited or
+otherwise, could scarcely commend itself to the Yugoslavs. They believed
+that his activities in Buda-Pest, under the Bol[vs]evik régime, and
+afterwards in Vienna, had been very hostile to themselves. Each of the
+three allied commissioners had a staff of some fifty or sixty officials,
+whose upkeep and expenses were paid by the two interested countries.
+
+If an average person had been asked to foretell the result of the
+plebiscite I suppose he would have said that in zone "A" the Yugoslavs
+and in zone "B" the Austrians would be successful. We have seen how the
+Slovene renaissance of the nineteenth century was met by the central
+authorities in Vienna (particularly after the German victory of 1871),
+and how the local functionaries assisted them. They argued that Austria
+with her miscellaneous races could only survive if one of them was
+supreme. Therefore they looked askance on every one who regarded himself
+as a Slovene; if he rose to be an official it had to be in another part
+of the Monarchy, while for the maintenance of Austria (oblivious to the
+argument that Austria was a perfectly unnatural affair) they favoured
+all those who announced themselves to be on the side of the predominant
+race. From 1903 onwards the Slovene language was barred from the courts
+of Carinthia, and if a person did not understand the language of the
+German magistrates he had to use an interpreter. The land was invaded by
+the German _intelligentsia_: professors, masters in primary and
+secondary schools, doctors, lawyers and so forth, excise officials and
+railway officials--in 1912 Carinthia possessed about 5000 of these and
+only 1½ per cent. were Slovenes. Those among the Slovenes who were
+capable of serving in such positions were dispatched to Carniola,
+Dalmatia or preferably to the German-speaking lands of the Empire. A
+provincial agricultural authority was set up in 1910 which was
+recognized by the State and which enjoyed a monopoly. Its object was to
+aid the progress of agriculture by establishing and supporting
+agricultural schools, sending experts to the farmer, distributing
+subsidies for the purchase of machinery, artificial manure and so on.
+The council consisted of twenty-one members, of whom only one was a
+Slovene; the subsidies were given to those who were recognized as
+Germanophils, while requests were not permitted in the Slovene tongue.
+As for the electoral districts, they were so manipulated that one deputy
+represented 120,000 Slovenes and another represented 27,000 Germans.
+Constituencies in which there was a German majority were allowed to send
+two members, while the others only sent one. The German railway
+employees worked so thoroughly for pan-Germanism that various Slovenes
+were arrested--among them the mayor of a large village who wanted to
+travel from Celovec--for asking in the Slovene language for a ticket.
+With regard to schools, there were throughout Carinthia in 1860 some 28
+Slovene and 56 Slovene-German foundations, whereas in 1914 there were 2
+Slovene, 30 German and 84 mixed schools, where the two languages were
+supposed to co-exist; they were indeed the home of two languages, for
+the children were nearly all Slovene, whereas the teacher and the
+language he used were German. Among 230 masters only 20 could read and
+write Slovene. Qualified teachers who could satisfy this test were, as
+we have mentioned, sent to other parts of the Empire. So far did the
+system go that Slovene peasants upon whom the Government had forced a
+German education speedily forgot the two hundred words which they had
+learned, but as they had been taught no other script than the German
+they were accustomed to write the Slovene language with German Gothic
+characters. These peasants were fairly impervious to Germanization;
+their strong sense of national consciousness was supported by the books,
+religious and otherwise, which they received every year from some such
+society as that of St. Hermagoras at Celovec, which distributed half a
+million books a year among its 90,000 members.
+
+But that which principally guided the peasant was the voice of his
+priest, and the vast majority of priests in zone "A" were Slovenes. This
+agricultural zone possesses no more than one or two small towns, where
+the priest is less regarded. The traders and artisans frequently look
+upon themselves as too highly cultured for the Church; they affect the
+"Los von Rom" and the Socialist movements. By holding these menaces over
+the Bishop's head a good deal of pressure could be brought to bear, and
+this was done by the Germans, who were of opinion that the Church
+unfairly encouraged the Slovenes. The Bishop of Celovec had both the
+zones in his diocese until some months before the plebiscite, when a
+temporary arrangement was made under which zone "A" was administered by
+a vicar. But in bygone years the Bishop, with these threats hanging over
+him, was wont to counsel prudence and to ask his clergy not to agitate
+their flock, whom they were merely telling of their rights. In zone
+"B," which mostly consists of the town of Celovec, the Church would
+naturally be more susceptible to German influence, apart from the fact
+that the Bishop himself is a Bavarian. For personal reasons--he is very
+imperfectly acquainted with the Slovene language--he wished even the
+clergy of zone "A" to correspond with him in German; but the priests
+pointed out that their faithful parishioners wanted to follow this
+correspondence and by far the greater number of them have no German....
+In fact the Church has in each zone brought its help to the more
+powerful party--the Slovene peasants in zone "A" and the German or
+Germanophil townsfolk in zone "B"; and it appeared probable before the
+plebiscite that in both cases she would be on the victorious side.
+
+In foretelling the result of the plebiscite one would not pay much
+attention to the census which the German-Austrian officials used to
+take. A person was inscribed according to the language he ordinarily
+employed, and this was, more often than not, considered to be German if
+his superior was a German. Before the census of 1910 the _Grazer
+Tagblatt_, which is the Germans' chief organ in those parts, proclaimed
+that the official census was a portion of the national propaganda. All
+the propagandist societies were entreated to do their utmost to induce
+the people to declare German as their usual language. Very humorous
+results were obtained. On December 18, 1910, the provincial council of
+public instruction gave out the number of German and Slovene children
+respectively in thirty Slovene parishes. Amongst them were the
+following:
+
+                                German Children.       Slovene Children.
+Borovlje (Ferlach)                31 per cent.            69 per cent.
+Grab[vs]tajn (Grafenstein)        10·6    "               89·4    "
+[vZ]relc (Ebenthal)               24·4    "               75·6    "
+Pokr[vc]e (Poggersdorf)            1·3    "               98·7    "
+Bistrica (Feistritz)              16·2    "               82·8    "
+
+And twelve days later the official census gave these results:
+
+                                      Germans.            Slovenes.
+Borovlje                            90 per cent.        10 per cent.
+Grab[vs]tajn                        50·1    "           49·9    "
+[vZ]relc                            49·2    "           50·8    "
+Pokr[vc]e                           41·1    "           58·9    "
+Bistrica                            44·4    "           55·6    "
+
+Far more trustworthy is the almanac issued every year by the Church,
+wherein a person's "usual language" is taken to be that in which he
+listens to the word of God. These ecclesiastical lists were published by
+German bishops, and according to them we find that the region we are
+considering held in 1910 some 40,000 Germans and 123,000 Slovenes.
+
+We have seen that Celovec, like the smaller towns in this area, leans
+more to the Austrians than to the Yugoslavs. This is partly the effect
+of the Austrian Government's policy and partly of the various pan-German
+societies (_e.g._ the "Kärntner Bauernbund," the "Verein der
+Alldeutschen," the "Deutscher Volksverein," etc. etc.), which, as was
+admitted, drew their funds to a considerable extent from Germany
+herself.
+
+The German Republic was very lavish in assisting her smaller Austrian
+sister during the period before the plebiscite, pouring both goods and
+cash into the district; and after the opening of the demarcation line
+between the two zones at the beginning of August they were able to
+introduce their supplies quite openly into zone "A." Very few Germans of
+the north believe that the German-Austrian Republic will permanently
+remain separated from themselves.... Both Yugoslavs and Austrians
+circulated vast quantities of printed matter; for the Yugoslavs the most
+convincing argument lay in Austria's apparently hopeless economic
+position and the undesirability of belonging to a State which had to pay
+so huge a debt; the Austrian pamphlets denounced the Serbs as a military
+race, though even such a dealer in false evidence as the eminent
+Austrian historian, Dr. Friedjung, would find it difficult to sustain
+the thesis that the wars engaged in by the Serbs during the last hundred
+years were more of an offensive than of a defensive character. In
+several prettily prepared handbooks the voters were implored by the
+Austrians not to be so old-fashioned as to plump for a monarchy when
+they had such a chance of becoming republicans; one could almost see the
+writer of these scornful phrases stop to wipe his over-heated brow after
+having pushed back his old Imperial and Royal headgear. You might
+imagine that the Austrians in their deplorable economic condition would
+have avoided this topic; on the contrary, they proclaimed that several
+commodities which were lacking in Yugoslavia could be furnished by them
+in abundance. One of these, they said, was salt; and certainly the
+Yugoslavs purchased a good deal of it, but that was only when they did
+not know that it was German salt, which the Austrians bought in that
+country and on which they made an adequate profit. When the Yugoslavs
+wanted to get their supplies direct from Germany the Austrians
+introduced a transit tax of 1000 crowns--not the nearly worthless
+Austrian but Yugoslav crowns--per waggon. Later on when the Danube was
+thrown open and this tax could not be levied, salt was considerably
+cheaper in Yugoslavia than in Austria. So with plums--in 1919 Austria
+bought nearly the whole of the exports from Yugoslavia at six crowns per
+kilo and sold them to Germany at eleven to twelve crowns, the profit
+going, so the authorities said, to the poor.
+
+As the day of the plebiscite approached, the Yugoslavs seemed to be more
+confident than the Austrians. The staunch peasants of zone "A" were not
+greatly impressed by the numerous appeals to their heart and brain which
+were handed to them by the Austrians in the Slovene language. And they
+were not much alarmed at the idea of being joined to their countrymen of
+the south, those unmitigated Serbs who thrived, if one was to believe
+the Austrian propaganda, on atrocities. But this warning was ridiculed
+by the Austrians themselves--on a market day at Velikovec you could see
+the Austrophils wearing their colours, which they would scarcely have
+done if they had been afraid of possible reprisals--and zone "A" was
+generally presumed to have a Yugoslav majority. On such a market day one
+saw very few Yugoslav colours in the farmers' button-holes, for it was
+the wish of their leaders to avoid anything which might give rise to
+unnecessary conflict. The day drew near and the Austrians thought that
+they were making insufficient progress; for one thing, they were at a
+disadvantage owing to the very low value of their money. They hoped that
+Germany would come with more zeal than ever to the rescue, and they
+hoped that something fatal would occur to Yugoslavia. So they asked the
+Inter-Allied Commissions to put it to their Governments that it would
+be advisable if the plebiscite were to be postponed for several months,
+say until May 1921. But it was reported that the French and British
+representatives declined to countenance the scheme. They may also have
+feared that if the period of canvassing were to be so long drawn out,
+the same passions would come to the surface as in the plebiscite in east
+and west Prussia, where in many places the Poles could not display their
+sympathies except at great personal risk. But in that particular
+plebiscite it must be noted that the Allies were very imprudent in
+confiding the maintenance of order to the rebaptized German Security
+Police, a body which was entirely in the hands of the reactionary
+clique. Yet the military precautions of zone "A" in Carinthia were not
+what they should have been, for when the Yugoslavs had lost the
+plebiscite an unrestrained horde of Austrian sympathizers, some of them
+from that zone and some from outside it, some of them civilians and some
+of them soldiers in mufti who made for certain places where supplies of
+weapons had been hidden, swarmed across the land and terrorized the
+Yugoslavs in such a fashion that a Yugoslav military force had to come
+in to protect them. "But how barbaric are these Yugoslavs," sneered
+their enemies, "for they refuse to recognize the result of the
+plebiscite." More than one diplomat in Belgrade was ordered to present
+himself at the Foreign Office and demand an answer why, etc. But the
+Yugoslavs had no intention of imitating d'Annunzio.
+
+Those who were not in the zone at the time of the voting might well be
+astounded at the result, which was an Austrian victory by 22,025 votes
+against 15,278 for Yugoslavia. In view of the undoubted Yugoslav
+majority, it was felt that something more than active propaganda, before
+and during the election, had been brought to bear. For example, in the
+commune of Grab[vs]tajn (Grafenstein) the Germans are said to have
+inscribed on the electoral list 180 persons from Celovec and Styria who
+had no right to vote; they also asked that seventy strangers should be
+inscribed. On submitting these claims to the judgment of the district
+council the German leaders, even as the Yugoslavs, were required to
+initial each request; it is alleged that these initialled papers, which
+were attached to the claims, were left overnight in a room the key of
+which was in the keeping of the German secretary, Schwarz. He is charged
+with having removed the initialled papers from the Slovene claims and
+affixed them to the German claims. There was a large amount of more
+usual corruption. Thus it is known that twenty-eight Slovene servants at
+an important landowner's were unable to resist the material arguments
+and voted for the Germans. And if it is true that a number of people
+voted twice and even three times the Inter-Allied Commission fell short
+of its duties. It is said that the voting was so lax that if a stranger
+had been inscribed and did not turn up to vote, his legitimation was
+used by a native. Thus we are told of one Helena Rozenzoph, aged
+seventy-five, who was inscribed at Grab[vs]tajn. This woman had never
+existed; there had been a certain Barbara Rozenzoph who died in 1919,
+and her vote was used by Marjeta Hanzio, aged twenty-two years. The case
+was so flagrant that the Commission discovered it and the woman
+confessed to having acted on a note which she had received from the
+special Austrian _gendarmerie_ force, the Heimatsdienst. The Commission
+seems to have been reluctant to take any steps against these frauds and
+it is not astonishing that the commune of Grab[vs]tajn registered 1290
+votes for the Austrian Republic and only 380 for Yugoslavia, although in
+this commune of 3440 inhabitants there are no more than sixteen German
+families. A German majority was thus obtained in a province which Dr.
+Renner, the Austrian Chancellor, had acknowledged to be Slovene. It
+seems incredible that the Commission should have so completely broken
+down and the mystery may yet be cleared up, if as the Yugoslavia
+delegate requested, all the voting papers have been preserved.... But
+the _Hrvat_, the organ of the Narodny Club in Croatia (the
+decentralizing but strongly national party) blames Monsignor Koro[vs]ec,
+the leader of the Slovene clericals, for the disastrous plebiscite
+result. He would have been better employed, it says, in organizing his
+people than in gadding about Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia
+for the purpose of extending his party. He had boasted that the Slovenes
+were so well organized that they were perfectly confident as to the
+issue. It would seem, however, says the _Hrvat_, that an unexpectedly
+large proportion of them are partly or entirely Germanized. And this,
+more than the above-mentioned irregularities, may be chiefly responsible
+for Yugoslavia's loss. One must also remember that many a Slovene would
+shrink from garrison duty in Macedonia, while it would be very natural
+for the Carinthian farmer to look up at the mountains that separated him
+from Carniola and then to recollect that Celovec (Klagenfurt), the
+economic centre of the whole area, would be Austrian. Nevertheless if
+zone "A" had been smaller--and more completely Slav--it is probable that
+the population would have risen superior to the various doubts which
+assailed them. What we have said about the Slovenes who have become
+Germanized is borne out by the _Koroski Slovenec_, a newspaper which
+appears in Vienna and which, though since its formation has been
+essentially hostile to the Austrians, tells us that after the plebiscite
+the Slovenes have only suffered real oppression from their
+denationalized compatriots. Difficulties arose with regard to the
+closing of Slovene schools, but this was largely due to the fact that
+many of the Slovene schoolmasters fled to Yugoslavia.
+
+
+(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER
+
+A Yugoslav barrister from Pola had gone to a neighbouring village--this
+was in 1920--for the purpose of encouraging the natives, who were all
+Southern Slavs. He asked them, in the event of their part of Istria
+being allotted to the Italians, not to lose heart but to wait for the
+day when justice would come by her own. In the middle of his
+exhortations a jovial old farmer approached him and slapped him on the
+back. "Cheer up, young man!" he exclaimed. "What is it that you are
+afraid of?" ... The Slav population of Istria and Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca,
+even as that of Dalmatia, has endured a great many things and is
+prepared to endure a great many more. Kindness would have gone a long
+way towards disarming them. If the Italians on the eastern Adriatic had
+been exponents of the Mazzini spirit rather than--which too often has
+been the case--of the direst Nationalist, then the Yugoslavs would have
+accepted--mournfully, no doubt, but _faute de mieux_--the frontier from
+the river Ar[vs]a in Istria which President Wilson suggested. This would
+have been a compromise frontier, by which 400,000 Slovenes and Croats
+would fall to Italy and a very much smaller number of Italians would
+fall to Yugoslavia. It would have satisfied the great sensible mass of
+the Italian people, but unfortunately was rejected by Baron Sonnino and
+his myrmidons. Far more was claimed by him, and the succeeding Italian
+Governments have had to struggle with the passions he so recklessly
+aroused. They have been unable to persuade the country that with the
+Ar[vs]a frontier they would be getting by no means a bad bargain. By the
+Treaty of Rapallo the Italians have obtained much more: the whole of
+Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca, portions of Carniola, the whole of Istria and
+contiguity with Rieka (which is made a free town), the islands of
+Lussin, Cres and Unie, sovereignty over a strip of five miles which
+includes Zadar (and a few adjacent islands), finally the southern island
+of Lastovo and Pelagosa which lies in the middle of the Adriatic.
+
+In November 1920 all the outside world was congratulating the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs on having, after many fruitless efforts of their
+statesmen, come to this agreement. The opinion was expressed that both
+of the contracting parties would henceforth be satisfied, since each of
+them was conscious that the other had accepted something less than his
+desires. It was noted that the Yugoslavs exhibited more generosity, as
+they gave up some half a million of their countrymen, while the Italians
+yielded in Dalmatia that to which they had no right. The Yugoslavs had,
+in the past two years, shown so much more forbearance than was usually
+expected of a vigorous young nation that the commentators for the most
+part fancied they would not waste any time in grieving over these
+inevitable sacrifices. It is freely said that if a liberal spirit is
+displayed by the Italians at the various points where they and
+Yugoslavia are in contact, both people will settle down, with no
+afterthoughts, to friendly and neighbourly relations. But it would be
+foolish to close our eyes to the fact that the position at Rieka and
+Zadar, not to speak of any other places, bristles with difficulties. At
+Rieka one hopes that the largest and wisest party, the Autonomists, will
+now come into their rights; no doubt a good many of those opportunist
+citizens who, at the time of the Italian occupation, developed into
+Italianissimi, after having previously been known as more or less
+platonic lovers of Italy, Hungary, or Croatia with ambitions chiefly
+centred on their native town, will presently assure you that in the Free
+State they are convinced Free Staters; but the local politicians have
+been living for so long in such a thoroughly oppressive atmosphere that
+most of those who have been prominent should for a season now retire. It
+will be difficult enough for this harassed port to settle down to
+business. As for the Zadar enclave, it is not easy to understand why an
+Italian majority in this little town should bring it under the Italian
+flag while the overwhelming Slav majorities of central and eastern
+Istria have been ignored. And with all the goodwill in the world the
+existence of this minute colony encircled by Yugoslav lands will
+scarcely make more easy the conduct of relations between Yugoslavia and
+Italy. It is naturally to the interest of both countries that
+misunderstandings and suspicions should be swept away. And from this
+point of view it is very doubtful whether the Italians were well advised
+in taking Zadar into their possession. Presumably the Government was
+forced to do so by the state of public feeling. They withstood this
+feeling with regard to the magnificent harbour of Vis, which even
+President Wilson suggested they should have, and contented themselves
+with the smaller Yugoslav island of Lastovo (Lagosta). The pity is that
+the Nationalists should have forced into their hands anything which may
+turn and sting them.
+
+It may be thought that we are excessively pessimistic in pointing rather
+to the dangers which the Treaty places on the tapis than to the good
+sense of those who will deal with them. We do not say that the Italians
+would have permitted their Government to solve the Adriatic question in
+a safer and more philosophic manner; but we cannot look forward with
+that confidence we should have had if more sagacious counsels had
+prevailed.
+
+An arrangement most agreeable to the bulk of the interested population
+would have been effected if two Free States, instead of one, had been
+created: the small one of Rieka, and a larger one embracing Triest and
+the western part of Istria. There would be in each of these two States a
+mixed population, who would think with a shudder of the time when the
+grass was growing on their quays. Italians and Slavs, prosperous as of
+old, would very cordially agree that the experiment of being included in
+Italy had been at any rate a commercial disaster. [D'Annunzio's
+administration was, of course, a mere camouflage. Without the support of
+the Italian Government, which paid his troops though calling them
+rebels, the poet-adventurer could scarcely have lasted for a day; and
+the swarm of officers, many of them worse adventurers than himself,
+would have deserted him. Nor would the population of Rieka have listened
+to his glowing periods if the Italian Government had not, under cover of
+the Red Cross, sent an adequate supply of food into the town.] Both
+Rieka and Triest were, therefore, living under practically the same
+conditions, separated from their natural hinterland, and knowing very
+well that as Italian towns their prospects were lamentable. It was
+significant that the Italian Government should after a time have studied
+the scheme of constructing a canal from Triest to the Save. Before the
+War one-third of the urban population (and all the surrounding country)
+was Yugoslav; and now, when so many Yugoslavs have departed and so many
+Italians have arrived, even now it is certain that in a plebiscite not
+10 per cent. would vote for Italy--and this minority would be largely
+made up of those _leccapiatini_ (the "plate-lickers") who were the
+humbler servants of Austria during the War and are now begging for
+Italian plates. When the offices of the Socialist newspaper _Il
+Lavoratore_--the Socialists are by far the most important party in
+Triest--were taken by storm and gutted, the American Consul, Mr. Joseph
+Haven, and the Paris correspondent of the _New York Herald_, Mr. Eyre,
+happened to be in the building. They afterwards said that the attack by
+those ultra-nationalist bands, the fascisti--very young men,
+demobilized junior officers and so forth--was entirely unprovoked. The
+carabinieri gazed indifferently at the scene. Such is life in Triest,
+where the labour movement is gaining in strength every day. Its old
+prosperity has departed--there is hardly any trade or water or gas,
+since most of the coal was consumed, by order of the Italian
+authorities, in making electric light for illuminations. These were
+intended to show the city's irrepressible enthusiasm at being
+incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants know very well
+that being one of Italy's many ports is worse than being the only port
+of Austria; they know that the most direct railways to Austria pass
+through Yugoslav territory, that henceforward the Danube will be much
+more largely used by Austria, Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary (none of whom
+had a seaboard) and that Rieka will now be a more formidable rival than
+of old.... So, too, at Pola we find that a majority of the population do
+not wish their town to be retained in Italy; a number of Italian workmen
+fled from the idle shipbuilding yards and actually came in 1919 and 1920
+with the Slovene refugees, their fellow-townsmen, to Ljubljana in search
+of employment. There are not sufficient orders to go round among such
+yards in Italy where, owing to the absence of coal and iron, this
+particular industry labours under great disadvantages. But if Rome
+considers that the retention of Pola is strategically essential, then in
+order to meet her wishes this town might be taken out of the
+Triest-Istrian Free State--maybe the Italians will be able to do
+something that will cause the citizens to cease regretting those good
+days of old when, as Austria's chief naval base, she flourished on the
+largesse of officers and men. But what can she do, and what could
+anybody do? Hundreds of houses are deserted; and for the year 1920 the
+owners of the theatre--which did not engage expensive actors but relied
+mainly on cinema--were faced with a deficit of 12,000 lire.
+
+The Triest-Istrian Free State would approximately contain, without Pola,
+some 300,000 inhabitants, half Italian and half Yugoslav. The formation
+of this State would be less advantageous to the Yugoslavs, for most of
+the big landowners and the shop-keepers are Italians who live on the
+Yugoslav peasants; but Yugoslavia, for the sake of peace, would be glad
+to see the State come into existence. Eastern and central Istria,
+forming a part of Yugoslavia and lying between the two Free States,
+should extend to Porto di Bado, which would cause it to possess about
+3,000 Italians and 280,000 Yugoslavs. If it were to be bounded by the
+Ar[vs]a it would make the Italians in the Triest-Istrian State become a
+minority.
+
+With respect to the indisputable Slav districts east of the Isonzo,
+_i.e._ the territory of Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca and an appreciable part of
+Carniola, which have been adjudged to Italy and which long to be joined
+to the Yugoslav State, there are two possible solutions. (In passing we
+may observe that there is no country where the national frontier is more
+clearly indicated. The linguistic frontier is so strictly defined that
+the peasant on one side of it does not speak Italian and his neighbour
+on the other side does not understand the Slovene tongue. Nevertheless,
+Signor Colajanni, the venerable leader of the Italian Republicans, took
+up an undemocratic point of view and declined to admit the argument of
+the superiority of numbers, when he alluded to this frontier in a speech
+to the Republican Congress at Naples. Waving numbers aside, he preferred
+to appeal to history and culture, though he should have known that the
+mass of the Slovene people is much better educated than the Italian
+peasant.) The true ethnographical boundary would be the Isonzo--not many
+Yugoslavs live to the west and not many Italians to the east of that
+river. Only in the town of Gorica do we find Italians. In 1910 at the
+census the Italian municipal authorities attempted to show that their
+town was almost entirely Italian; at a subsequent census the Austrians
+found that the returns had been largely falsified, and that in reality
+Gorica contained 14,000 Italians and 12,000 Slovenes, while it is common
+knowledge that if you go 500 yards from the town you meet nothing but
+Slovenes. The prosperity of Gorica was mostly based on the export of
+fruit and vegetables from the Slovene countryside. In 1898 the Slovenes
+awakened, formed societies, started in business on a large scale and
+boycotted the Italian merchants, who found themselves obliged to learn
+the Slovene language. Suppose that, for the sake of meeting the wishes
+of the Italian Nationalists, one half of the town were given to Italy,
+then that portion would be faced with ruin. It would, therefore, be
+advisable that the whole town should remain with its hinterland, and
+that Italy and Yugoslavia should be divided from each other by the
+Isonzo. But if this solution is impossible, then a large district east
+of the Isonzo should be entirely and permanently neutralized, which
+would not endanger the security of either State. Very different in
+character is the line Triglav-Idria-Sneznik, which the Italians hold
+ostensibly as a means of defence, but which is an offensive line against
+Yugoslavia, and primarily against Ljubljana and Karlovac.
+
+No doubt as the Italians in the eastern Adriatic have obtained a regular
+position by the Treaty of Rapallo they will henceforth do their best to
+win the love of their new subjects. They will disavow such officers as
+that one on the sandy isle of Unie who accused the Slav priest of
+propaganda, and in fact, as we have mentioned elsewhere, expelled him
+for the reason that inside his church, where they had been for many
+years, stood monuments of the two Slav apostles, SS. Cyril and Methodus.
+St. Methodus was the wise administrator of these two--but even if he
+takes the rulers of the eastern Adriatic under his particular protection
+one must be prepared for them to fail in smothering, by their
+enlightened rule, the discontent which in the last three years has grown
+among the Yugoslavs to such acute proportions. It began, as we have
+noted, under the ægis of Baron Sonnino; the old neighbour,
+Austria-Hungary, had been Italy's hereditary foe, and the Baron's school
+could not bring itself to regard the new neighbours in a friendly light,
+although their house was so much less populated than that of their
+predecessors, not to mention that of the Italians themselves.
+
+There have been times during the last three years when a war between
+Italy and Yugoslavia seemed scarcely avoidable--the natives of the
+districts most concerned were looking forward to it with eagerness. At a
+Yugoslav assembly held in Triest in the summer of 1919 the other
+delegates were electrified by two priests from Istria who declared that
+their people were straining at the leash, anxious for the word to snatch
+up their weapons. (Many of these weapons, by the way, were of Italian
+origin, as there had been no great difficulty in purchasing them from
+the more pacific or the more Socialistic Italian soldiers; the usual
+price was ten lire for a rifle and a hundred rounds.) If there should
+come about a war between Italy and Yugoslavia, then it is to be supposed
+that the Yugoslavs will afterwards take as their western frontier the
+old frontier of Austria (except for the Friuli district, south of
+Cormons, which they do not covet, since they look upon this ancient race
+as Italian.)
+
+By signing the Treaty of Rapallo the Yugoslav Government has shown that
+it is ready to go to very great lengths in order to establish, as
+securely as may be, an era of peace. It would be just as creditable on
+the part of the Italians if they will consent to Istria being
+partitioned in the way we have suggested, for they have been wrongly
+taught to think themselves entitled to this country, and to believe that
+the inhabitants, as a whole, are glad to be Italian subjects. "You may
+suppose we are unpatriotic," the Austrian railway officials of Italian
+nationality used to say, "but as Austria gives much better pay than we
+should receive from Italy, we prefer that this part of the world should
+be Austrian."
+
+The relations between Italy and Yugoslavia have been treated at some
+length, for it would require but little to bring a gathering of
+storm-clouds to the sky. One even hears of Roman Catholics in Istria and
+elsewhere abjuring their Church and--for the national cause--adopting
+the Serbian Orthodox faith. Twenty years ago it happened that two
+Istrian villages, Ricmanje and Log, went over to the Uniate and thence
+to the Orthodox Church. This was on account of a quarrel with the Bishop
+of Triest, who wanted, against the wishes of the people, to remove their
+priest, Dr. Pojar. But now we have priests in the provinces given to
+Italy who are openly calling on their flock to go over with them to
+their Orthodox brothers; and this is a movement which, it is thought,
+will merely be postponed by the introduction of the Slav liturgy. To
+take a single sermon out of many, we may mention one which in the summer
+of 1920 was preached in a church of the Vipava valley. The clergyman,
+after lamenting that the chief dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church
+are Italians, gave it as his opinion that there was nothing to choose in
+point of goodness between that particular Church and the Orthodox
+Church. "And," said an old peasant who came to Triest with the story of
+what had happened, "never in my life did I hear so fine a sermon and one
+that did me so much good."
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 72: The Italians had originally landed a "hygienic
+    mission" at Valona early in the European War, and this of
+    course developed into something else. That ingenuous
+    propagandist, Mr. H. E. Goad, tells us (in the _Fortnightly
+    Review_ of May 1922) that while Nature had made the innumerable
+    deep-water harbours on the eastern coast of the Adriatic
+    practically immune from Italy's attack, a landing or raid from
+    one of them at Ancona, Bari or Barletta would be a vital blow
+    at Italy, severing vital communications. He therefore justifies
+    Italy's landing at Valona in that it was a purely defensive
+    step, made to ensure that its harbour should not be used
+    against her. He may hold that the seizure of one town is better
+    than the seizure of none, but from the strategic and political
+    point of view it would seem that Mr. Goad is an injudicious
+    advocate.]
+
+    [Footnote 73: _Albaniens Zukunft._ Munich, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 74: _La Sera_, August 6, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 75: _Giornale delle Puglie_, September 6-7, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 76: The delegates of the League of Nations were told,
+    at the beginning of 1922, by the authorities in southern
+    Albania that it was iniquitous to believe that they would
+    employ this kind of punishment for political refugees. Did they
+    not advertise an amnesty to all those who returned within
+    forty-five days? And in what newspaper, they indignantly
+    asked--in what newspaper had they published the slightest
+    threat of arson?]
+
+    [Footnote 77: In the winter of 1921 this gentleman was expelled
+    from his country.]
+
+    [Footnote 78: _Albanesische Studien._ Jena, 1854.]
+
+    [Footnote 79: _Albanien und die Albanesen._]
+
+    [Footnote 80: But this is less rigorously upheld in the towns
+    if it is a question of their honour or of cash. When, to give
+    an example, Scutari was occupied by the Montenegrins at the
+    beginning of the Great War, a Catholic Albanian merchant came
+    to a Montenegrin lawyer and asked him to institute proceedings
+    against another merchant who had gravely and publicly insulted
+    him. The lawyer drew up the complaint, for which he charged the
+    small sum of 20 perpers (= francs), but although his client was
+    a wealthy man this fee appalled him; he resolved to take no
+    further steps. In general, the Scutarenes prefer to suffer
+    imprisonment rather than part with any money. And the
+    willingness of the Albanians not to look a gift-horse in the
+    mouth could often be observed at Podgorica between the years
+    1909 and 1912, when Nicholas of Montenegro would occasionally
+    appear in the market-place with a supply of caps and other
+    articles for the Albanians. These he would distribute, having
+    first exclaimed: "Ka[vc]ak Karadak Kralj Nikola barabar!" (that
+    is to say, "The Albanian and the Montenegrin are equal in the
+    eyes of King Nicholas!"). Ka[vc]ak is a word meaning a brigand,
+    an outlaw; the Montenegrins apply it to their neighbours, and
+    these latter, throwing their new caps in the air and cheering
+    for Nikita, did not mind what he called them.]
+
+    [Footnote 81: _Turkey in Europe._ London, 1900.]
+
+    [Footnote 82: _Ein Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen._
+    Vienna, 1905.]
+
+    [Footnote 83: _Italy in the Balkans at this Hour._ Naples,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 84: _L'Albanie Independente_, by Dukagjin-Zadeh Basri
+    Bey. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 85: Cf. the _New Statesman_, February 5, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 86: When the Serbian troops arrived at Pri[vs]tina in
+    the Balkan War they discovered among the inhabitants of that
+    place a man who had not left his house for some fourteen years.
+    We are told (in _The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
+    Ireland_, etc., vol. v. London, 1921) of my Lord Eyre of
+    Eyrescourt in County Galway "that not one of the windows of his
+    castle was made to open, but luckily he had no liking for fresh
+    air." Yet probably his lordship's countenance had not the
+    pallor of the man of Pri[vs]tina, because "from an early dinner
+    to the hour of rest he never left his chair, nor did the claret
+    ever quit the table."]
+
+    [Footnote 87: When this account of the incident was published
+    in my small book, _A Difficult Frontier_, it caused a reviewer,
+    one I. M., in _The Near East_ to observe, that I "can be
+    jubilant when a Montenegrin in Yugoslav pay insults a British
+    officer, Captain Brodie." Since the Editor permits such
+    hopeless nonsense to appear in his columns one may be excused,
+    I think, for not taking _The Near East_ very seriously. It is
+    not worth while informing them how General Phillips of Scutari
+    dealt with Captain Brodie.]
+
+    [Footnote 88: Referring in the _Nation and Athenæum_ to Sir
+    Charles's latest work, _Hinduism and Buddhism_ (3 vols.), Mr.
+    Edwyn Bevan says that "for a lonely student, who had done
+    nothing in his life but study, the book would have been a
+    sufficiently remarkable achievement. That a man who has been an
+    active public servant and held high and responsible offices
+    should have found time for the studies which this book
+    presupposes is marvellous. It is a masterly survey.... There
+    can be few men who have Sir Charles's gift of linguistic
+    accomplishments, who can not only read Sanskrit and Pali, but
+    know enough of the Dravidian languages of Southern India to
+    check statements by reference to the original writings, and add
+    to this a knowledge of Chinese and Tibetan."]
+
+    [Footnote 89: Cf. pp. 72-73, Vol. I.]
+
+    [Footnote 90: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, February 28, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 91: Cf. _A Political Escapade: The Story of Fiume and
+    D'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. London, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 92: Cf. _Tribune de Genève_, October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 93: Those who are curious as to the gentleman's
+    antecedents may like to refer to my book, _Under the
+    Acroceraunian Mountains_.]
+
+    [Footnote 94: Cf. _La Suisse_ (of Geneva), October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 95: Cf. _Journal des Débats_, October 15, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 96: This would be about 18,000 lb. avoirdupois.]
+
+    [Footnote 97: Cf. p. 283, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 98: Cf. _Morning Post_ of December 14, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Cf. _Le Temps_, November 11, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 100: "Who is this anonymous idiot?... He really ought
+    to have known better than that," says a reviewer in _The Near
+    East_. I quite agree. It is pleasant now and then to be able to
+    agree with a paper which is so one-sided as to admit pro-Nikita
+    and anti-Serbian diatribes by Mr. Devine, but which refuses to
+    insert a letter on the other side. "Let us not mix ourselves up
+    in their domestic affairs," said the Editor to me after an
+    hour's conversation. And though it is a matter of no
+    importance, I may mention that he employs a reviewer who,
+    referring to the map in my book, _A Difficult Frontier_
+    (Yugoslavs and Albanians)--a map which is most conspicuously
+    printed opposite the title-page--observes that it "is hidden in
+    one unostentatious page, which at first sight escapes the
+    reader's attention altogether."]
+
+    [Footnote 101: In the _Samouprava_ of November 12 the whole
+    case was discussed with his usual lucidity by Dr. Lazar
+    Markovi['c], one of the ablest and most philosophic men in
+    Yugoslavia. This ex-Professor of Law is now the Minister of
+    Justice, and it is to be hoped that he will eventually succeed
+    in the place of Pa[vs]i['c].]
+
+    [Footnote 102: Those who like to hold the Serbs up to contumely
+    have not a very strong case when they denounce them for now
+    being on friendly terms with the Christian Mirditi, whereas
+    they used to be the friends of Essad Pasha; this personage was
+    at that time the man whose national Albanian policy had the
+    greatest chance of success. He was the one man who then
+    appeared capable of establishing a State in which Christians
+    and Moslems would be fairly represented. But now too many of
+    the Moslem--and not only they--have adopted an Italophil
+    attitude which is sadly anti-national.]
+
+    [Footnote 103: A later phase was for the Government to
+    recognize that what Albania must have is the friendship of
+    Yugoslavia, so that the eyes of the most powerful Ministers
+    were turned from Rome to Belgrade. Thereupon the Italians, loth
+    to lose their footing in the country, gave their patronage to
+    the anti-Governmental parties. It was pleasant to hear in the
+    summer of 1922 that when the boundary commissioners had left a
+    lamentable neutral zone between the two countries the Albanian
+    Government suggested to the very willing Government of
+    Yugoslavia that they should co-operate in cleansing that zone
+    of its brigand population.]
+
+    [Footnote 104: December 16, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 105: According to the Geographical-Statistical Atlas
+    recently published by the German Professor Hickmann the average
+    loss among the belligerent countries, in killed, wounded and
+    through diminution of the birth-rate, was 6·5 per cent. At one
+    end of the list of suffering nations is the United States with
+    a percentage of 0·4, Great Britain with 3·7, and Belgium with
+    4·7. Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey are all between 6 and
+    6·5 per cent. France has a percentage of 8·5, Russia has 9,
+    Germany 9·3 and Austria 11. Above them all comes Serbia with
+    the appalling percentage of 23.]
+
+    [Footnote 106: November 24, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 107: Cf. "Géographie Humaine de la France" in the
+    _Histoire de la Nation Française_. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 108: Cf. _L'histoire illustrée de la guerre de
+    1914_.]
+
+    [Footnote 109: _L'Albanie en 1921._ Paris, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 110: _Under the Acroceraunian Mountains._]
+
+    [Footnote 111: M. Gabriel Louis Jaray. Cf. his _Les Albanais_
+    (Paris, 1920) and his other writings on the Albanians.]
+
+    [Footnote 112: Cf. _A History of the Peace Conference of
+    Paris_. Edited by H. W. V. Temperley, vols. iv. and v. London,
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 113: Elias Regnault, _Histoire politique et sociale
+    des Principautés Danubiennes_. Paris, 1885.]
+
+    [Footnote 114: The more advanced Roumanians of the plain also
+    apply this term to their countrymen who live among the
+    Roumanian mountains or, in Serbia, amid the heights of
+    Po[vz]arevac and Kraina. It signifies a stupid fellow, one from
+    the wilderness.]
+
+    [Footnote 115: February 13, 1919.]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS--THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS--THE CROATS
+AND THE SERBS--SERB AND BULGAR.
+
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS
+
+Those who, for some reason or other, do not love the Yugoslavs will have
+said to themselves, before taking up this book, that they would
+certainly supply that searching criticism of this people which the
+author would omit. They knew it was unlikely that a man would write at
+such excessive length about the Southern Slavs if he had not a weakness
+for them, and if he predicted for their State the virtue of cohesion or
+more than very moderate tranquillity, his prejudice would have to be
+discounted. "The Yugoslavs," said an Italian lady to me in London, and
+her beautiful lips looked as if they could scarcely bring themselves to
+pronounce the name, "the Yugoslavs," she said, "are very wild and
+black." If I have given the impression in this book that they are white,
+my fault will be much greater than the lady's, since I am not quite a
+stranger to them. Slovenes, Croats, Serbs and Bulgars--they have good
+and evil qualities so different that one must take them separately, and
+perhaps it will be more instructive to compare them with each other. The
+Slovenes need not detain us; they are a small people occupying a
+surprisingly large area; if they were less well organized they would
+have been long ago swallowed up. They shine as workers in the field and
+mine and forest much more than as military men. They have never been
+hereditary soldiers, like so many of the Croats, and it is perhaps this
+want of confidence in their own military prowess which has caused them
+to take measures that are sometimes too severe against the Austrians who
+are under them. The Bosnian Moslems assert that, as all their links with
+Turkey are now broken, they are the best Yugoslavs. But the Slovenes are
+also the best Yugoslavs, because they recognize that in Yugoslavia is
+their sole salvation. Some of us may regret that their tenacity so far
+outstrips their idealism. They are a careful people, as may be seen from
+Order No. 17024 which was issued, on December 4, 1920, by the Prefecture
+of Ljutomir. Referring to sequestered property, it enjoined that the
+Austrian owner should be allowed so much that he could live on it, but
+not so much as to enable him to be extravagant. They are also a
+relatively well-educated people; according to official statistics of
+1910, 85·34 per cent. of the Slovene population know how to read and
+write, while their neighbours to the east, the Magyars, can only reckon
+62 per cent. and the Italians of pre-war Italy, 62·4 per cent. The most
+backward part of the Slovene race, those of Istria, have 46·6 per cent.
+of illiterates, while there are Italian provinces where the illiterates
+amount even to 85 per cent. Rome itself counts 65 per cent.[116]
+
+
+THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS
+
+It will be profitable to compare the Montenegrins with the Serbs,
+because in our impatience with those persons who would keep them
+separate we may have seemed to imply that we believe them identical. The
+Serbs who maintained themselves in those mountains developed certain
+characteristics which differentiate them from their brothers. The Serb
+of the old kingdom walks, the Serb of the mountain struts. The
+magnificent Serbian warrior of the kingdom is so disciplined that
+although a Field-Marshal will sit down openly in a café and drink wine
+with some old comrade who is in the ranks, yet when the soldier is on
+duty his obedience is perfect. But if the Montenegrin private thinks
+that his officer has rebuked him unjustly, he will not hesitate to kill
+him. The Serb has a great respect for the national heroes, while every
+Montenegrin (for the sake of brevity we will use this term instead of
+"Serb of Montenegro," and imply, when using the word Serb, a Serb of the
+old kingdom)--as we have said, a Serb respects the national heroes,
+while every Montenegrin has a knowledge of his own ancestors for at
+least a hundred years. He is a chivalrous person who wishes to be
+treated as at least your equal. It was the Serbs' disregard of this
+sentiment which now and then gave umbrage to those Montenegrins who had
+expected that their union with the Serbs would cause an immediate return
+of the golden age. This was almost as offensive to the Montenegrins as
+the request that they would now contribute towards the support of the
+army. They had always left this to the Tzar--"We and the Russians," they
+used to say, "are 150 millions." Not all the Montenegrins have managed
+to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of the clan. An amusing
+example of this was a major at Pe['c] who belonged to the great
+Vasojevi['c] family. He gave two of us a large lorry, which was the only
+car he had, and advised us to start very early and to take no one with
+us, except a guard, as the road to Mitrovica was in a soft condition. We
+started off with about twenty passengers, but only one of them, a Turk,
+had any luggage to speak of; and after we had gone a good part of the
+way we were held up at a military post. A Montenegrin captain, also a
+member of the Vasojevi['c], had overslept himself and ordered us by
+telephone to return for him. The Serbian lieutenant--who had risen from
+the ranks--asked at once if that order would come in writing, and when
+he received a negative answer he cut off the communication and wished us
+a happy journey. The Montenegrins also differ from the Serbs in their
+cultivation of the arts. They have no liking for songs of love, but say
+that men should only listen to the guslar and to hero-songs. They are
+severer and more dignified than the Serbs, and it will be some time
+before the average Montenegrin throws back his head in a railway
+carriage and rolls out a joyous song, as I once heard a Serb do in the
+Banat, whereupon another Serb in the far corner--they obviously had
+never met--joined in the song with great heartiness. The Montenegrin
+says that the Serb chatters like a gipsy (though we must not forget
+that, as Miss Durham remarked,[117] he is hurt if things Serbian are
+criticized by an outsider); he has been told that the Englishman is
+grave, like himself, and therefore he appreciates him from afar. But not
+many Englishmen (or Serbs) would care to indulge, like the Montenegrins,
+in the ceaseless recapitulation of time-honoured exploits. The younger
+folk are not so faithful to these ancient stories, but it is in
+Montenegro that performers on the one-stringed, monotonous guslar can
+most easily find an audience. The Serbs of the kingdom have become more
+eclectic in musical matters, though even with them the popular taste is
+in favour of the man who snores, on the grounds that he is hearty and
+robust. In so far as foreign influence is concerned, the Montenegrin has
+been to some extent affected by Italian culture, while that of Greece
+and Germany has acted on the Serb. But the Great War had an equally
+unfortunate influence on both of them. One must, however, mention that
+long before the War, and owing partly to Albanian influence, partly to
+their own struggle for existence and partly to other causes, the
+Montenegrins had shown themselves defective in straightforwardness.
+Undoubtedly they had deteriorated under the example of Nikita, but this
+unfortunate trait can also be discerned between the lines of the great
+poem, the "Gorski Venac," written in the first half of the nineteenth
+century. There used to be a certain amount of what we call theft in
+Montenegro, but the natives of that country, as of Albania, cherished
+rather communistic ideas; it seemed to them that they had a sort of
+right to that which another possessed, particularly if he was a near
+relative. After the War the Montenegrin was so much impoverished that he
+stole more freely, and the Serb, whose hands had hitherto been
+remarkably clean, took to the same habits and often in a very amateur
+fashion. Thus in a Macedonian village where a British army store had
+been rifled, the officers turned to the local priest, who was indignant
+with his people and conducted the officers into every house. Nothing was
+discovered, and the priest proposed that his own house should be
+searched. He was told that this was unnecessary, but he insisted; and
+when his careless wife led the way up a ladder into the loft a British
+officer perceived at any rate one pair of khaki breeches. The patients
+of the Scottish Women's Hospital at Belgrade were so unpractised in the
+art of stealing that one of them--a typical case--returned one day to
+have her leg attended to, and in raising her skirt revealed on the
+petticoat, which had once been a tablecloth, a large "S.W.H." These
+felonious ways are in contrast with the usual Serb candour. One
+afternoon in Belgrade I was searching for a small street in a district
+which I had not visited before. When at last, after many inquiries, I
+came to within fifty yards of it I found a policeman--but it is only
+fair to say that the majority of the force consisted at this time of
+soldiers recently disbanded. When I asked him where the street might be,
+the good man thought a while and then, throwing back his open hand and
+giving up the problem in despair, said, "My God, I know not."
+
+The wave of crime has manifested itself differently among the Serbs and
+the Montenegrins, in that the latter have been more primitive and have
+consummated their plundering by assassination--and this in a country
+where between 1895 and 1913 only two men were murdered for their money.
+In Serbia the people, even in the terrible distress after the War, did
+not go to such lengths. During the first half-year, the only two cases
+of unnatural death in the whole district of [vC]a[vc]ak, where I spent a
+couple of months, were both of them suicides, an old man hanging himself
+on account of the death of his last remaining soldier son, and an
+officer's wife, who had been too friendly to an Austrian, throwing
+herself into a well on her husband's return. A certain village of the
+same district is an instance of the frequency of all those minor
+peccadilloes, such as drunkenness and rowdiness and so forth, which the
+Serbs permit themselves. There is a law which lays it down that the
+mayor must be a native and must be a man who never has been lodged in
+gaol. But that unhappy village in the [vC]a[vc]ak region is unable to
+produce a single adult man with such a record.... If the Serb of the old
+kingdom is a more easy-going individual than his brother of the
+mountains it is quite erroneous to think that they dislike each other or
+have not resolved to come together.
+
+
+THE CROATS AND THE SERBS
+
+Some of Yugoslavia's neighbours were anxious, during the months which
+followed the War, that we should learn how Serb and Croat were
+continually at each other's throat. The dissensions between the two
+branches of the Yugoslav family would have been much more serious and
+more prolonged if their neighbours had paid less attention to them. It
+is true that "our Serbian customs," in the words of Ja[vs]a Tomi['c],
+"come from the village, while those of the Croats come from the nobles."
+The humbler Croat, one may say, was an employee in a big store, while
+the Serb was a small trader. The Croat would naturally like to introduce
+the big-store system into Yugoslavia, but this the Serb does not
+understand. He has a greater sense of responsibility and is more careful
+with regard to the expenses. To the Croat, in the old Empire, it was
+immaterial whether the officials were more or less costly. The bill was
+paid by Austria, who was the foe. For some time the Croat found himself
+forgetting that he was in Yugoslavia. When Cardinal Bourne came to
+Zagreb in the spring of 1919 and the town-hall was decorated with the
+British, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene and the town flag, some one asked
+the mayor why the State flag had been omitted. He was horrified. "The
+State flag!" he cried. Then it dawned upon him.... Numbers of Croats
+have belonged to the governing class and--impelled by the Catholic
+religion--have displayed more devotion to the arts than to the freedom
+of their country. On the other hand the Serbs, a race of practical
+peasants, have a highly developed national consciousness. This they owe
+partly to their inborn political gifts and largely to their Church, for
+the Orthodox religion--one may say, I think, without injustice--has more
+frequently shown itself, so closely is it connected with the idea of the
+State, to be rather of this world than of another. One should say the
+Orthodox religion as it flourishes in the Balkans, for when the Russian
+General Bobrikoff, who was attached to the person of King Milan, came
+back with him to Belgrade after the Peace of San Stefano, he was
+scandalized to see that religion had no greater share in the national
+rejoicings. "Accustomed as I was in my own country," he said, "to see
+nothing done without prayers and the blessing of the Church, I was
+indeed astounded to observe that the priests played the part of
+officials even in the cathedral, and often were altogether absent." This
+reminds one of von Baernreiter, who wished to learn the Serbian
+language, so that he would be more eligible for the governorship of
+Bosnia. He asked his teacher at Vienna when one could hear sermons in
+the Serbian church, and was informed that these occurred but twice a
+year and that on those occasions everybody left the church. The Serb and
+the Bulgar have come to neglect our distinctions between that which is
+spiritual and that which is temporal; their religion is, in consequence
+of their history, so inherent a part of the nation's life that in losing
+it one would almost cease to be a Serb or a Bulgar. Their Church is as
+national as that of the Armenians.[118] This may not be an ideal state
+of things, but it prevailed in Spain under the Moorish oppression and in
+the France of Jeanne d'Arc. During the crisis of the Great War the
+churches in the West were everywhere national; and in Serbia it was
+calculated that 60 per cent. of the sermons had a pronounced national
+colouring....
+
+Now with these differences between the Croat and the Serb, does it not
+seem strange that the vast majority of them are for union, with a part
+of this majority in favour of a reasonable decentralization? But if we
+investigate the motives of the Serbs and Croats who would thwart this
+union, we will see that they have nothing of that faith which, after all
+these centuries, has moved the Yugoslav multitude. Some of the Serbs
+wish to keep aloof on the ground that Serbia in the last hundred years
+has borne the brunt of the battle--and this, whether they were or were
+not faced with a more difficult situation, is acknowledged by most of
+the Croats, who for that reason would never dream of wishing the more
+modern Zagreb to supplant Belgrade. Those few Croats who are not for
+Yugoslavia are moved by ecclesiastical prejudice or by their longing for
+the privileges which the Habsburgs granted them. But those who, for
+various reasons, criticize the central Government are by no means
+necessarily in favour of setting up a separate one. Whatever the
+impetuous Radi['c] may have said, he is out for Yugoslavia. Still one
+cannot be astonished that he was sometimes misunderstood. The Zagreb
+students who, towards the end of 1918, came to Svetozar Pribi[vc]evi['c]
+with the request that he would let them kill the demagogue, were for
+expressing in this way what Dr. Du[vs]an Popovi['c], the well-known
+deputy, expressed in another. It was at the Zagreb Provincial Parliament
+that he exclaimed, in the summer of 1918, that "This idea will be
+victorious and therefore I say publicly, in the presence of the whole
+people, that I am a Croat, a Serb and a Slovene, or, if you prefer it,
+none of them but merely a Yugoslav." In 1914 when Stamboulüsky, the
+future Prime Minister of Bulgaria, was arrested and accused of
+Serbophilism, he declared: "I am neither Bulgar or Serb; I am a
+Yugoslav!" ... For at least a generation Zagreb will remain
+particularist, zealously preserving the differences--personal, social
+and religious--which distinguish her people from the dominant Serbs. The
+Croat officers who burned with shame at the Archduke's murder on Bosnian
+soil, the Croat regiments that in 1915 marched into Belgrade with bands
+playing and their colours flying, the Croat officials whose bread and
+salt came from the Habsburgs in administering Yugoslav countries during
+the War--all these will not forget a long, deep-rooted and honourable
+tradition. But Zagreb is now even as Munich was in 1866; after having
+been the Rome of the Yugoslav movement, the seat of its philosophy and
+the centre of its politics, the Croat capital has now an atmosphere of
+sad futility, for Belgrade is the beacon of the Yugoslav world. While
+comparing Zagreb with Rome one must add that she had also the misfortune
+to resemble Rome of the decadence--a good deal of outer polish was
+imparted by the Austrians, at the expense of their victims' backbone.
+The five centuries of Turkish domination had no such demoralizing
+influence upon the Serbs, especially not in the country places. In the
+opinion of a very close observer,[119] whom I quote, there is nothing
+that so thoroughly displays the dominance of Belgrade as the agrarian
+problem. The projected reforms, which have been based on the principle
+that no one should own more land than he can cultivate with the aid of
+his family, would dispossess large numbers of big landowners in Croatia
+and still larger numbers of men with moderate holdings, whose
+compensation would be "determined hereafter." The application of these
+reforms has been delayed for various reasons, but nowhere at any time
+has it been suggested that Croatia might reject them. In the old kingdom
+of Serbia, with much the greater part of the land in peasant possession,
+it may be said that there is no agrarian problem.... Those enemies of
+Yugoslavia, by the way, who have hoped that the particularism of Croatia
+would be something altogether different from what it is, should have
+mingled with the crowd at Zagreb on the evening of Prince Alexander's
+arrival in July 1920. The Prince interrupted his dinner, came out on to
+the balcony and made a speech. "Draga moja bratjo Hrvati," he
+said--"Croatians, my dear brothers." Not for a thousand years had a
+ruler of Croatia addressed his people in their own tongue. One immense
+roar of delight broke, as the _Morning Post's_ special correspondent
+tells us, from the assembled multitude; men fell on each other's necks,
+laughed, wept and kissed each other.... Such manifestations must not
+lead us to believe that all the internal problems of the young State are
+settled. Croatia (as also Slovenia) is jealous of her separate identity,
+suspicious to some extent of Serbia, her prestige and projects; she has
+no intention of allowing herself, after the hard fight against
+Magyarization, to be "Balkanized." But one thing was made clear by the
+Prince's visit: there can be no word or thought of separation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have spoken of the disaffection prevalent among the Croats, and on
+this the world has fixed its eyes, because of the large number of Croat
+deputies who have hitherto declined to come to Belgrade. Nevertheless
+there is a more general and more grievous discontent in Yugoslavia,
+since, after all, the Croats' attitude is of a temporary character--for
+it is probable that after the next general election their peculiar
+upbringing will not be so potent in determining their sentiments
+towards the State. More and more will they be ready to make common cause
+with Serbs and Slovenes; and their criticisms, which are now so
+negative, will be of a more useful kind. (They will recognize, for
+example, that if it costs 3000 dinars to open an inn in Serbia they were
+not justified in protesting when the fee in Croatia was raised from 5
+crowns to 5 dinars.) That Yugoslavia gives ground for criticism no one,
+least of all her well-wishers, deny. And those who pray that she will
+prosper do so for the reason that the scattered Southern Slavs have for
+the first time now been able--most of them at any rate--to link their
+arms together; and we hope that with high qualities outweighing their
+defects the Southern Slavs will permanently take their place among the
+nations. But this will not be brought about unless those ailments which
+they suffer from are now confronted. Serbs themselves are often saying
+that their little Serbia was better than this fine new country which is
+thrice as large. She had fewer problems, she had fewer parties, and if
+people were corrupt they were so on a smaller scale. Traditions which
+are deprecatingly called Balkan, but which were at that time suited to a
+Balkan country, should not be allowed to spread across a country which
+is so much more than Balkan. Merit does not everywhere in this imperfect
+world advance you automatically, but an effort is required in Yugoslavia
+to resist the calls of friendship in appointing men to offices. The army
+of officials is too numerous; yet many of them are so badly paid that
+even if a great reformer could reduce by half their numbers he would be
+inclined to lay no hand upon the total sum they now enjoy. But this
+necessity of cleansing the public services is not peculiar to
+Yugoslavia. The politicians must have courage to lay heavier taxes on
+the peasants: the strange phenomenon is seen of peasants who assert that
+they are quite prepared for this, and on the other hand of politicians
+who are frightened lest it lose them many votes. The peasants generally
+are so prosperous that some, for instance, whom I know of near
+Kragujevac, men occupied in growing cereals, find that the fowls which
+they keep rather as a hobby do not have to lay them golden eggs in order
+to pay all the taxes. In that region it is usual nowadays for peasants
+not to count their bank-notes, but to weigh them; recently a man
+disposed of certain fields for his own weight in notes of ten dinars.
+The peasants are not only dissatisfied with the two chief parties, the
+Radicals and the Democrats, for not taxing them sufficiently--so that at
+the next general election they may give a good deal more support than
+hitherto to their own Peasants' party--but they complain that their
+interests are neglected although, as we have seen, the lawyers and other
+townsfolk of the Radical and Democrat parties are so anxious with
+respect to peasants' votes.
+
+The difficult position of the Yugoslavs--observe how in the last year
+their exchange has fallen--is due in part to the deplorable activities
+of other peoples (vast amounts have had to be imported for
+reconstruction purposes, Rieka has been practically unavailable as a
+port, and conditions have been such that the Yugoslavs have had to keep
+a large army mobilized), partly their position is due to measures
+ill-advised but which they were compelled to take (such as their system
+of Agrarian Reform), partly to political inexperience and partly to
+their lack of organizing powers. Let us hope that from now onwards
+Yugoslavia will have to arm herself less heavily against the slings and
+arrows of the world, and that she will be able therefore to become a
+more proficient swimmer in this sea of troubles.
+
+
+SERB AND BULGAR
+
+A map of the Balkan migrations, with its curved lines leading almost
+everywhere, is a bewildering spectacle; but if we study the main
+clusters of lines we shall see that the people whose movements they
+chronicle have frequently preserved, in a remarkable fashion, certain
+common characteristics: thus a stream flowed from the south-west towards
+Valjevo in Serbia, and it is interesting to notice how the prominent men
+of that region, whose ancestors came from somewhere between Montenegro
+and the old frontiers of Serbia, have all of them certain
+characteristics--a talent for foreign languages, a subtlety of
+reasoning, originality but insufficient observation, and clever but
+fallacious minds. Similarly in the Bulgar there are qualities which even
+now can be ascribed to the Mongol blood. The Bulgar is more stolid than
+the Serb; he is less given to sympathy and on that account can be cruel.
+The Bulgar is benevolent because he is urged by kindliness, whereas the
+more impressionable Serb is under the influence both of sentiment,
+sentimentality and sympathy. These differences of temperament--and there
+are others, more or less distinguishable--do not seem to Balkan thinkers
+any reason why the two should keep apart. And a couple of months after
+the Great War, during which the Bulgars, as their best friends must
+acknowledge, were far from irreproachable in occupied Serbia--partly
+this was due to the vast number of new posts for which they had no
+suitable men--a few months afterwards a Bulgarian engineer was placidly
+working among the Serbs at [vC]a[vc]ak railway station, wearing his own
+uniform. And a Serbian butcher who emigrated to Bulgaria settled down at
+Ferdinand just before the War and has lived there unmolested up to this
+day, and that in spite of his not being very highly esteemed--for, as
+the police president told me, he had married a woman with more wealth
+than good fame; the president had been among her lovers.... One would
+not suppose that the contrasting public morality of the two countries
+will keep them apart. It is easy enough for us to argue that this
+morality is on a pretty low level, because a Bulgarian War Minister saw
+fit to sue, under a _nom de guerre_, a French armament firm which
+omitted to send him the stipulated commission; because another Minister,
+incarcerated on account of felony, could be liberated by the grace of
+Tzar Ferdinand and become Premier; because a Serbian Minister used to
+buy himself corner-houses, while his Bulgarian colleagues seem to own
+most of the houses in Sofia. There was a minor Serbian official over
+against whom I took my meals for about a month; one of his ways was to
+produce a pocket-knife and cut his bread with it. Certain other parts of
+his ritual did not appeal to me, but who knows whether I did not disgust
+him by breaking my bread with my fingers? And who knows what sentiments
+were awakened some years ago at the Orthodox monastery of Gromirija, in
+Croatia, when a foreign guest proposed to wash himself in water, though
+by the joyous custom of that house there was no other liquid on the
+premises but wine? If there is in both countries, in Serbia and
+Bulgaria, a movement against the cynicism which does not clothe its
+corruption with a decent Western drapery, that is something; if there is
+a further movement in the direction of probity, that is something more.
+And, whatever some Serbs may tell you, it is undeniable that honesty has
+made important strides in the public life of that kingdom, even without
+having added to the Statute Book those rigorous proposals of the
+newly-formed Peasants' party, one of which would punish a peculating
+official with death. It is, however, apparent that this party has not
+arrived at a sense of discretion, for it wants to terminate the practice
+of allowing pensions to officials, so that each man is obliged to make
+his own provision for old age. Bulgaria, the younger country, has made a
+proportionate progress; there is trustworthy German evidence to the
+effect that the corrupt Radoslavoff Government was despised by the
+people, not in the hour of disaster but in 1916, when the Bulgarian
+soldiers changed the words of an anti-Serb song and instead of "Our old
+allies are brigands" proclaimed that "the Liberals are brigands." This
+German, Dr. Helmut von den Steinen, the correspondent of the
+_Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ (in which he was bound to speak
+favourably of Radoslavoff) used to deliver propaganda lectures in the
+Bulgarian language at Sofia during the War. He was very well acquainted
+with Bulgarian affairs and being summoned to Berlin at the end of 1917
+he made a speech[120] _in camera_ to a committee of German savants and
+artists. In the course of this he lamented that his country had attached
+herself to Radoslavoff, who, said he, was hated and would at the next
+elections be swept away.
+
+As one must repeat _ad nauseam_, the gulf between Serb and Bulgar has
+not been caused by an extreme divergence of their private or their
+public morals, academically considered, but by the various incidents
+which in the eyes of each of them testified to the other's depravity.
+And at the bottom of it all was Macedonia--Macedonia which now, being
+wisely administered, will be the foundation-stone of Yugoslavia.
+
+At the end of his book, _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, Mr. Noel
+Buxton agrees that such a Yugoslav Federation has become a practical
+possibility. But his two alternative proposals with respect to what
+should meanwhile be the fate of Macedonia would indefinitely postpone
+that Federation. We have already dealt with the proposal of autonomy,
+put forward also by Mr. Leland Buxton. As for what Mr. Noel Buxton calls
+the ideal solution--"a plebiscite conducted by an impartial
+international commission over the whole of the historical province of
+Macedonia"--this is aiming no higher than at a perpetuation of the two
+distinct countries, Serbia and Bulgaria. We should probably have had
+more plebiscites in Europe if more Allied armies had been available, but
+the campaign of intimidation and every sort of ruthlessness which
+occurred in Upper Silesia and Schleswig make us look rather askance upon
+this method of registering the popular will. Mr. Buxton airily asks for
+a plebiscite over the whole of the historical province of Macedonia,
+ignoring altogether the special difficulty that "Macedonia" means
+something quite different to the Serb, the Bulgar and the Greek. He
+dismisses likewise the universal difficulty of plebiscites, which is to
+be just in laying down the limits of the various regions. But there is
+really no need for Mr. Buxton to take us on to those quagmires, since he
+knows, and is good enough to tell us, what the result of the plebiscite
+will be. "The Bulgarian sympathies," says he, "of the mass of the
+Macedonian population are apparent to every inquiring traveller." If Mr.
+Buxton were to encounter one of those pretty lawless Karaka[vc]an
+nomads, who from the Monastir district wander all over the Balkans, his
+recognition of the man's Roman and Thraco-Illyrian descent would be
+facilitated by the permanent cheesy odour which pervades his person.
+There is nothing so permanent about the Macedonian Slav. His
+sympathies, as is natural, have gone out to that Balkan country which
+cultivated him and since, as Dr. Milovanovi['c], the Serbian statesman,
+says, "the Serbs did not begin to think about Macedonia till 1885," it
+would indeed have been extraordinary if the Macedonian Slavs--whose
+ethnical position, as scientists agree, is such a vague one--had been
+generally drawn to Serbia. One cannot help feeling that in this book Mr.
+Buxton does a serious disservice to his reputation as a Balkan expert.
+He says that Serbia until the accession of King Peter was Austrophil;
+which is, to put it mildly, a very sweeping remark--only that party
+which called itself Progressive was identified with Milan's views. He
+praises the Bulgars for being devoted to their national Church, and
+praises them for producing a large number of Protestants, whose
+sincerity, etc., so that one presumes he would have praised them still
+more if the whole nation, as was once on the cards, had joined the
+Protestant Church. Save me from my friends! the Bulgars might say. What
+is perfectly sincere about them is their patriotism; and while some of
+those who now change their religion have doubtless no ulterior, personal
+motive, the entire country would probably have as little reluctance as
+Japan in adopting any religion which, like the Exarchist Church of
+to-day, would be an instrument of the national cause. Mr. Buxton's
+knowledge of the Balkan protagonists has its limitations; for example,
+prior to Bulgaria's entry into the War he was all for the removal of the
+British Minister on account of his pro-Serbian sympathies, but he says
+no word about M. Savinsky, the Russian Minister, who was left by his
+Entente colleagues to play the first violin. This capricious gentleman
+was no diplomat, but a courtier. He did not even protest when German
+munitions for Turkey passed through Roumania, and far too much of his
+time was spent in motoring with pretty girls in the neighbourhood of
+Sofia. Many good observers were of opinion that with a more competent
+Russian representative, such as M. Nekludoff, who in 1914 was
+transferred to Stockholm, the situation would have been saved. In their
+memorandum submitted in January 1915 to Lord (then Sir Edward) Grey,
+Messrs. N. and C. R. Buxton said that their experience of fifteen years
+convinced them that the Bulgarian sentiment of the Macedonians could
+not in a short time be made to give way to another national sentiment.
+If we rule out, as being slaves of circumstance, all the Macedonians who
+now tell you that from Bulgar they have changed to Serb, there is no
+reason why we should not credit those who are so weary of the rival
+activities of both parties that they wish for peace and nothing else.
+They would follow, not the Messrs. Buxton, but the priest of the
+Bulgarian village of Chuprenia, who told me that he held that one might
+pray to God for the success of the Bulgarian arms, without saying
+whether they were in the right or in the wrong. After the end of the war
+this priest sent a telegram, which was perhaps a little indiscreet,
+advocating that the Bulgarian people should join in Yugoslavia.
+
+To prevent the Southern Slavs being torn by internal strife, it is
+necessary between Serbia and Bulgaria that one of them should for a time
+be paramount. We may be confident that Serbia will not abuse her
+position. In fact it is the opinion of a Roumanian lady at Monastir that
+the Serbs were uncommonly rash in taking into their service so many who
+once had called themselves Bulgars and now maintain that they are Serbs.
+But Serbia has become relatively so strong that she can be indulgent.
+She will even satisfy that Bulgarian professor who is said to have
+discussed the Macedonian question with the British military attaché.
+
+The attaché suggested a division between Serbia and Bulgaria.
+
+"No," said the professor; "let the country remain a whole, like the
+child before Solomon."
+
+"Would you be satisfied?" asked the attaché, "if this question were now
+decided once and for all?"
+
+"Yes," said the professor, "if the judge be another Solomon."
+
+Among the Bulgars who are looking forward to the day when their country
+will, in some form or other, join Yugoslavia, there are some who suggest
+that when comparative tranquillity has been assured upon the Macedonian
+frontiers (that is to say, between Macedonia and the Albanians) it would
+be as well to garrison the province with Croatian regiments, pending
+the employment in their own country of Macedonian troops. Gradually the
+time will come when, as one of the units of the Yugoslav State,
+Macedonia will enjoy the same amount of Home Rule as the other
+provinces. She will then, maybe, decide for herself such matters as the
+preservation of her dialects, local administration, police, etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going to sail from one of
+these countries to her neighbour with whom she had recently been at war,
+and some of the inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was
+presented, amongst other things, with an old gentleman's good wishes,
+which he had taken the trouble to express in French and in verse. I
+believe that he recited them, but there was a considerable tumult on the
+landing-stage. Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of my ears
+and began to tell me that they were for detaining him in this country;
+three or four natives of the country reported, simultaneously, into my
+other ear that he had been letting off his revolver and was altogether a
+dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail or not, and
+meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore. He waved his passport in my
+face. Both he and his opponents were gesticulating with great violence,
+and this they continued to do even after I filled their hands with most
+of the small and large bouquets which the friendly people had brought
+down for me. There was so much noise that the boat's whistle, which the
+captain started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly over
+those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself from those who
+encircled me I caught sight of the old gentleman of the poem--in
+appearance he was a smaller edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity;
+he was clearly nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he
+extended towards me, written on the back of one of his visiting-cards. I
+was just then being told by the agitated traveller that he had only been
+firing into the air because it was Easter, and that this was his
+invariable custom at midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so
+satisfactory that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he should sail
+and that they should send his revolver on to him by parcel post. They
+all shook hands with him. The two nationalities were on excellent terms.
+And we may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them and the
+other Yugoslavs:
+
+    Oh! la belle journée de votre bonheur,
+    Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-à-l'heure.
+    Couronné de grands succès du ciel je vous implore,
+    Allegrèsse, santé et prosperité je vous augure.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 116: Cf. _Modern Italy_, by Giovanni Borghese. Paris,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 117: Cf. _Through the Lands of the Serb_.]
+
+    [Footnote 118: Cf. _The Children of the Illuminator_, by Bishop
+    Nicholai Velimirovi['c]. London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 119: _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920 (anonymous).]
+
+    [Footnote 120: Subsequently printed as a pamphlet with the
+    title, _Die Ausgestaltung des deutschen Kultur-Einflusses in
+    Bulgarien_. This was printed by the Opposition parties in
+    Sofia, who to circumvent the censor gave out that it was
+    written by an Englishman against Bratiano.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF VOLUME II
+
+(_The Names of Books, Newspapers, and Ships are in Italics._)
+
+
+Abbazia, Conditions at, 72 _et seq._
+
+Achikou (Kol), brother of Anthony, 326.
+
+Achikou (Prof. Anthony), the Mirdite, 285, 327 _et seq._
+
+_Adeverul_, its claims, 363.
+
+Agrarian Reform in Czecho-Slovakia, 136.
+-- -- in Hungary, 135.
+-- -- in Yugoslavia, 132 _et seq._
+
+Ahmed Beg Mati, 282-3.
+
+_Albanais_, _Les_, quoted, 352.
+
+_Albanesische Studien_, quoted, 287.
+
+Albanians against Austrian army, 100.
+-- compared with Basques, 294.
+-- -- -- Kurds, 311.
+-- of Dalmatia, 38.
+-- and the land in Yugoslavia, 136-7.
+
+_Albanie Independente_, quoted, 292.
+
+_Albanien und die Albanesen_, quoted, 288.
+
+Alberti (Mario), his _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, 66.
+
+Alexander (King) and the Communists, 221.
+-- -- and the Croats, 400.
+-- -- on the Italians, 60, 120.
+
+Ambassadors' Conference, 273, 337 _et seq._, 349 _et seq._
+
+Ambris (A. di) and the British boots, 219.
+
+Anglo-Albanian Society, 296, 306, 323.
+
+Apponyi (Count), on Hungary's neighbours, 371.
+
+Asquith (H. H.) and Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Austrian activities in Albania, 277-8, 281, 286, 292, 303, 316-7, 320.
+
+Austrians in Montenegro, 97 _et seq._
+-- their hospitals, 97-8.
+
+Austrians, their parliamentary manners, 224.
+
+Autonomists, the old party, 29, 35-6, 45-6, 159 _et seq._
+--the Rieka party, 46, 54, 261.
+
+Avramovi['c] of the Peasants' party, 242.
+
+
+Badoglio (General) and the coal-supply, 215-6.
+
+Balkan Committee, 347.
+
+Banat, after the War, 124 _et seq._, 362 _et seq._
+
+Baro[vs], _see_ Rieka.
+
+Bartlett (C. A. H.) and Italy's rights, 139.
+
+Basri Bey, 292-3.
+
+Beaumont (A.), the correspondent, 47, 53, 55-6, 64.
+
+Belloc (H.), his curious ideas, 25-6, 35.
+
+_Bellum Gallicum_, quoted, 287.
+
+Bencivenga (General) and the Albanians, 280.
+
+Benelli (Sem), poet and warrior,
+140.
+
+Berati Bey, the delegate, 273.
+
+Berlin Congress and two villages, 304.
+
+_Bessa Shqyptare_, its existence, 285-6.
+
+Bib Doda, Prenk, 291, 324-5.
+
+Bissolati, the gallant Minister, 80 _et seq._, 85-6, 152.
+
+Blakeney, for Rieka, 268.
+
+Blood-vengeance, Monsignor Bumçi on, 285.
+-- Miss Durham on, 287.
+-- how it may be washed out, 298.
+-- its high-water mark, 288.
+-- its prevalence, 293, 330.
+-- its relative decline, 283.
+
+Bobrikoff (General), on religion in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Bogi['c] (Dr.), the victim, 149 _et seq._
+
+Bojana, perilous for French boats, 96.
+
+Bojani['c] (Dom Ivo), his protest, 175.
+
+Borghese (Prince Livio), 375.
+
+Bosnia and Agrarian Reform, 132-3, 221.
+-- after the War, 106 _et seq._, 220-1.
+
+_Bosnische Post_, quoted, 95.
+
+Boxich (Dr.), the results of truthfulness, 164-5.
+
+Brodie (Captain), his exploit, 306 _et seq._
+
+Brunhes (Prof. Jean), cited, 350.
+
+Bryce (Roland), his Montenegrin report, 253 _et seq._
+
+Bufani, of the Banat, 370.
+
+Bukvich (Captain), the Intelligence Officer, 158 _et seq._
+
+Bulgars, some characteristics, 403-4.
+-- and the future, 405 _et seq._
+
+Bumçi (Monsignor), the mild Regent, 281, 283, 284, 285, 290-1.
+
+Buonfiglio (R.), the journalist, 176, 178, 182.
+
+Buri['c] (V.), 193-4.
+
+Burrows (the late Prof.) and the Albanians, 276.
+
+Buxton (Noel), 347, 405 _et seq._
+-- -- his _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, 405.
+
+
+Cagni (Admiral) at Pola, 23-4, 44.
+
+Candrea (Prof.), his map, 364.
+
+Cappone (Colonel) of [vS]ibenik, 35, 145.
+
+Carducci, quoted, 83.
+
+Carinthia, hostilities, 124, 128 _et seq._
+-- the plebiscite, 374 _et seq._
+
+Cecil (Lord Robert) and the Albanians, 323, 327, 328-9.
+
+[vC]ekoni['c] (Count) and the Dobrovoljci, 135.
+
+Centurione, the deputy, 78.
+
+Chauvinism, Serbian lack of, 348-9, 384.
+
+_Chicago Tribune_, quoted, 198-9.
+
+Chimigò (Prof.) and the Italians, 282.
+
+Church in Albania, 291.
+-- -- in Croatia, 242-3, 245.
+-- -- in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Cicoli (Admiral) and Austria's collapse, 18-9.
+
+Clemenceau (G.), 23, 93, 199, 213 _et seq._, 284.
+
+[vC]okorilo and his undesirable newspaper, 109 _et seq._
+
+Colajanni and the Slovenes, 388.
+
+Communists in Yugoslavia, 221 _et seq._, 238, 254.
+
+_Contemporary Review_, quoted, 15, 247-8.
+
+_Corriere d'Italia_ (and _see_ Buonfiglio), 215.
+
+Costume, Absence of, 287-8.
+
+Cres, Italian measures at, 42, 56 _et seq._
+
+Croats and Agrarian Reform, 133 _et seq._, 221.
+-- -- and Magyars, 246.
+-- -- their relations to the Serbs, 111 _et seq._, 220, 240 _et seq._,
+                                    244 _et seq._, 251-2, 397 _et seq._
+
+Crosse (Rev. E. C.), his _The Defeat of Austria_, 14.
+
+Cunnington (Captain Willett), his accusation, 306, 309.
+
+Cviji['c] (Prof.), his views, 275.
+
+
+_Daily Telegraph_, quoted, 47.
+
+Dalmatia, why demanded by Italians, 87 _et seq._
+-- -- deportations from, 152.
+-- -- population, 148-9, 230-1.
+-- -- how treated by Italians, 148 _et seq._
+
+_Dalmazia_, a newspaper, 171 _et seq._
+
+D'Annunzio, his absurdity, 86.
+-- -- the Holy Entry, 196.
+-- -- various exploits at Rieka, 208 _et seq._
+-- -- his invective, 83.
+-- -- his munificence, 280-1.
+-- -- in temporary possession, 198 _et seq._
+-- -- his thousand proclamations, 197.
+-- -- disapproves of Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5.
+
+Darkovi['c], the respected deputy, 96.
+
+Davidovi['c], leader of Democrats, 225.
+
+Dell (Anthony) on the Italians, 15.
+
+Delonga (Jakov), his testimony, 76.
+
+Devine (A.) and his propaganda, 193-4, 227-8.
+
+Djakovica, 293, 298 _et seq._
+
+Djer Doucha, the villain, 307.
+
+Djoni (Mark), President of the Mirditi, 324, 325, 328, 342.
+
+Doci (Primo), the great Abbot, 324.
+
+Doday (Father Paul), 286.
+
+Doimi (Dr.) of Vis, 29.
+
+Domiaku[vs]i['c] (Prof.) at [vS]ibenik, 144.
+
+Donghi (Marchese), his assertions, 26-7.
+
+Draghicesco (Dr.), his _Les Roumains de Serbie_, 356.
+
+Dra[vs]kovi['c], his murder, 223-4.
+
+Drin, river, as a frontier, 279, 302, 304, 321.
+
+Durham (Edith), apologist, 289, 290.
+-- -- compared with Sir Charles Eliot, 310 _et seq._
+-- -- disgusted with Great Britain, 313.
+-- -- her _Through the Lands of the Serb_, 395.
+-- -- her _Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_, 310.
+-- -- her respect for Mr. Bottomley, 311.
+-- -- her wrath, 305.
+-- -- on Albanian medicine, 288.
+-- -- on the tyranny of Serbian schools, 297.
+
+
+_Echo de l'Adriatique_, its suppression, 62-3.
+
+_Edinburgh Review_, quoted, 230, 399.
+
+_Edinost_, quoted, 123.
+
+Eliot (Sir Charles), 274, 289, 310 _et seq._
+
+Entente, Little, 269 _et seq._
+
+_Epopea Shqyptare_, quoted, 284.
+
+Essad and Essadists, 292-3, 336, 342-3, 345.
+
+European War and the Albanians, 312-3, 317, 345-6.
+
+Evangheli (Pandeli), 345.
+
+Evans (Sir Arthur), 67, 184 _et seq._
+
+
+Fan Noli, the versatile, 327-8.
+
+Fascisti, 78, 217, 260 _et seq._
+
+Fichta (Father), 284, 293.
+
+Fisher (Rt. Hon. H. A. L.), 340 _et seq._
+
+Fiume, _see_ Rieka.
+
+Fodor (Prof. Dr.), on race, 8.
+
+_Fortnightly Review_, quoted, 20, 26, 269, 275, 280, 324, 333.
+
+Franchet d'Espérey (Marshal) and Albania, 274, 278-9, 350, 351.
+-- -- -- and Montenegro, 96, 103.
+
+Frank party in Croatia, 114.
+
+French, how they regarded the Italians, 63-4, 96, 199.
+-- how treated by the Italians, 42, 198-9.
+
+Freund (Leo), the secret agent, 281.
+
+Frontier, Yugoslav, with Albania, 273 _et seq._
+-- -- with Austria, 374 _et seq._
+-- -- with Bulgaria, 354-5.
+-- -- with Greece, 353-4.
+-- -- with Hungary, 370 _et seq._
+-- -- with Italy, 383 _et seq._
+-- -- with Roumania, 356 _et seq._
+
+
+Gaeta army, 187, 228.
+
+Gardner (E.), on Balkanic mentality, 236.
+
+Gauvain, the publicist, 90.
+
+Gavazzi (Dr. A.), on Rieka's population, 54.
+
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_, quoted, 197.
+
+"Géographie Humaine de la France," quoted, 350.
+
+Germans, in Banat, 363 _et seq._
+-- in Carinthia, 374 _et seq._
+
+Giglioli (Prof.), his claim, 79, 80.
+
+Giolitti, 78, 210, 219, 234.
+
+Giuratti, the patriot, 264-5.
+
+_Glasgow Herald_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Gloma[vz]i['c], the lame prefect, 105, 192.
+
+Goad (H. E.), his explanations, 90, 269, 275, 280, 325, 333.
+-- -- his wrath, 231, 324, 350.
+
+Godart (Justin), his work in Albania, 279, 334.
+-- -- his _L'Albanie en 1921_, 351.
+
+Gorica, its population, 388-9.
+
+Gothardi of Rieka, 46-7.
+
+_Grazer Tagblatt_, 378.
+
+Grazioli (General) at Rieka, 54, 62.
+
+Grossich (Dr.) of Rieka, 48, 140, 258-9.
+
+Grubi[vs]i['c] and his flag, 260.
+
+Gusinje, its past and future, 304 _et seq._
+
+
+Hahn (Consul), his labours, 287.
+
+Halim Beg Derala, 285, 298.
+
+Hanotaux (Gabriel), 294, 351.
+
+Haumant (E.), his _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie_, 89.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), 288.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 257.
+-- -- his propaganda, 327.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), his request, 323.
+-- -- his testimony, 306.
+-- -- the 120 villages, 296.
+
+Hickmann (Prof.), cited, 346.
+
+_Histoire illustrée de la guerre de 1914_, quoted, 351.
+
+Hla['c]a (Karlo) of Cres, 56 _et seq._
+
+Horthy (Admiral) at Pola, 17 _et seq._, 270.
+
+_Hrvat_, on the Carinthian plebiscite, 382-3.
+
+_Humanité_, 76.
+
+_Hungarian Nation_, quoted, 8.
+
+Hvar, its interesting names, 32-3.
+-- the Italians land on, 32 _et seq._
+
+
+Imperiali (Marquis), his submission, 329.
+
+Islamism, Fanatic, of some Albanians, 299.
+-- Superficial, of other, 281.
+-- Treatment of, by Greek Church, 301.
+-- Treatment of, by Montenegrins, 302.
+
+Islands of Adriatic, demanded by Italy, 166 _et seq._
+-- -- -- visited, 165 _et seq._
+
+Istria, its population, 121, 386 _et seq._
+
+Italianists of Dalmatia and Rieka, 35, 39, 40, 54, 137 _et seq._, 158, 175.
+
+Italians (and _see_ Dalmatia) and Allied flags, 145, 155, 178.
+-- reprimanded by their Allies, 161-2.
+-- loyalty to Austria in the War, 159 _et seq._
+-- system of bribery, 156 _et seq._, 163, 170, 176.
+-- land in Dalmatia, 29 _et seq._
+-- discouragement in 1917, 11.
+-- conduct towards the French, 42, 52, 198-9.
+-- what they thought of the French, 94.
+-- generosity in Albania, 282, 328, 333, 344.
+-- Good and bad, on the islands, 168 _et seq._
+-- incapacity, 275, 278, 319.
+-- intrigues, 274, 279, 280 _et seq._, 292, 303, 305, 329, 337-8, 351.
+
+Italians land in Istria, 42 _et seq._
+-- and the Dalmatians' money, 37-8, 147-8, 153-4, 163.
+-- in Montenegro, 94 _et seq._, 105, 187 _et seq._, 194-5.
+-- naval enterprise, 123-4.
+-- naval enterprise, lack of, 16 _et seq._, 27-8.
+-- measures at Rab, 59, 60.
+-- measures against Rieka, 262 _et seq._
+-- measures at Rieka, 48, 52, 195 _et seq._
+-- against the Serbo-Croat language, 57.
+-- retreat from Slovenia, 61.
+-- what they had to face in 1918, 12 _et seq._
+-- how they regard the Yugoslavs, 16, 84.
+-- how they are regarded by the Yugoslavs, 15-6, 27-8, 201, 236-7.
+-- relations with Yugoslavs, 383 _et seq._
+-- steps against Yugoslav churches and schools, 44, 57 _et seq._, 146-7,
+                                                152-3, 184.
+
+_Italy in the Balkans at this Hour_, quoted, 292.
+
+
+Jaray (Gabriel Louis), 352.
+
+Jire[vc]ek (Dr. C.), his _Die Handelsstrassen, etc._, 33.
+
+_Journal des Débats_, 76, 91, 329, 339.
+
+
+Kadri (Hodja), 283.
+
+Karl (ex-Emperor), his grand offer, 320.
+
+Karólyi (Count Michael), 125.
+
+Katarani (Prof.), 292.
+
+Klementi, 316 _et seq._
+
+Koch (Admiral), the active Slovene, 17 _et seq._
+
+Korac, the remarkable Socialist, 117-8.
+
+Kor[vc]ula, Italians land on, 31-2.
+
+Koro[vs]ec (Monsignor), 115, 117, 119, 382.
+
+_Koroski Slovenec_, 383.
+
+"Kossovo" Committee, 326.
+
+Kossovo in Yugoslavia, its condition, 287.
+
+Kova['c]s (A.), turns to the Croats, 8.
+
+Krk, the persecuted Bishop, 40 _et seq._
+-- Proceedings at, 39 _et seq._
+
+
+_Labour Monthly_ on the "White Terror," 224.
+
+_Land and Water_, quoted, 25, 35.
+
+Language of Bosnia, 89.
+
+Laveleye (M. de), his _The Balkan Peninsula_, 203.
+
+_Lavoratore_, quoted, 217, 386.
+
+Lazari, his question, 187.
+
+League of Nations, 323, 337 _et seq._
+
+Leiper (R.), the shrewd observer, 104, 188-9, 242.
+
+Lenac (Dr.) of Rieka, 45, 50, 52.
+
+_Leonidas_, the American ship, 31-2.
+
+Lesina, _see_ Hvar.
+
+Leyland (John), the naval authority, 25.
+
+Liga Nazionale, its schools, 59, 158, 184, 318.
+
+Lin, a village, 342.
+
+Lincoln, quoted, 209.
+
+Lissa, _see_ Vis.
+
+Ljocha (Alush) and his house, 283-4.
+
+Lloyd George (D.) and the Adriatic, 93, 213-4.
+-- -- and the Serbo-Albanian frontier, 284, 336 _et seq._
+
+Lovrana, 73-4.
+
+Luzzatti, compares two civilizations, 172.
+
+
+Macchiedo (Dr.), liberated from Sardinia, 152.
+
+Macdonald (J. N.), his _A Political Escapade_, 199, 258, 327.
+
+Macedonia, and the Communists, 222-3.
+-- its progress and future, 137, 202, 405 _et seq._
+
+Magnanimity of the Serbs, 124 _et seq._, 270.
+
+Magyar hopes, 270.
+
+Mahni['c] (Bishop), _see_ Krk.
+
+_Manchester Guardian_, quoted, 21, 186, 236, 313.
+
+Mandirazza (F.) and his two masters, 84.
+
+Markovi['c] (Dr. Lazar), 337.
+
+Markovi['c] (Sima), the Communist, 223-4, 238.
+
+Martini['c] (Count), his ruthlessness, 98-9.
+
+Martinovi['c] (General), 346.
+
+Massingham (H. W.), 192.
+
+_Mattino_, quoted, 75.
+
+Maximovi['c] (Colonel) at Rieka, 51-2.
+
+Mazzini, and Vis, 82.
+
+_Mercure de France_, quoted, 123.
+
+Mileti['c] (Captain), his murder, 195.
+
+Millo (Admiral), on Austrian currency, 153.
+-- -- on Dr. Boxich, 165.
+-- -- and d'Annunzio, 197, 209, 215.
+-- -- Homage to, 87.
+-- -- discourses on public order, 174.
+-- -- on the Slavs, 141 _et seq._
+
+Milovanovi['c] (Dr.), on Macedonia, 406.
+
+Minorities in Yugoslavia, 201 _et seq._
+
+Mirditi, 290, 323 _et seq._, 340 _et seq._
+
+M'Neill (Ronald, M.P.), champion of Montenegro, 95, 102, 191, 253 _et seq._
+
+Montaigne, quoted, 194.
+
+Montenegrins and Albanians, 136-7.
+-- and the Austrian army, 98 _et seq._
+-- their culture, 393 _et seq._
+-- their General Election, 253 _et seq._
+-- as migrants, 228.
+-- misled, 94, 187-8.
+
+Montesquieu, quoted, 90.
+
+Moretti (Dr.), his pacific efforts, 180-1.
+
+_Morning Post_, quoted, 88, 104, 188-9, 191, 218, 242, 257, 336, 400.
+
+Moslems in Bosnia, 119, 202-3, 220-1, 225, 393.
+
+Mousset (Albert), 339.
+
+Müller (Dr. Max) and Albanian affairs, 276 _et seq._
+
+
+Narodna Uprava, 127.
+
+_Nation_, quoted, 192, 267, 310.
+
+_Nazione_, quoted, 261.
+
+_Near East_, quoted, 257, 309, 337, 346-7.
+
+_Neue Freie Presse_, quoted, 124.
+
+_New Europe_, quoted, 79, 80, 84-5, 123, 369.
+
+_New Statesman_, quoted, 296, 309.
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his lack of courage, 9.
+-- -- deposed, 100 _et seq._
+-- -- his downfall, 255 _et seq._
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his methods with Albanians, 289.
+-- -- his methods with Europe, 304.
+-- -- and the Skup[vs]tina, 106.
+
+Nikai (Dom Ndoc), 285.
+
+_Nineteenth Century and After_, quoted, 25, 95, 102, 256.
+
+Nitti and d'Annunzio, 196, 198, 201, 209, 210, 212-3, 215-6, 218.
+
+Nopsca (Baron), 274, 288.
+
+Novi Bazar, Sandjak, 108, 119, 316-7.
+
+
+Obradovi['c] (Dositej), 315.
+
+Obrovac, Divergent views concerning, 148.
+
+_Observer_, quoted, 340.
+
+_Obzor_, a newspaper, 115.
+
+Orlando, the Premier, 78, 80, 85-6, 91, 138, 185.
+
+
+Pact of Rome, 84 _et seq._, 185.
+
+Paolucci (Lieut.), and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Parkington (Sir R.), 194.
+
+Parties, Political, in Yugoslavia, 117 _et seq._
+
+Pa[vs]i['c], his astuteness, 85, 117, 240.
+-- his prudence, 133, 225.
+
+Patchoù (Dr.), of the triumvirate, 225, 282.
+
+Paveli['c] (Dr. A.), dentist and politician, 114-5, 117, 119.
+
+Pe['c], 293, 298.
+
+Pelagosa, its amenities, 167.
+
+Pericone (Captain) of Scutari, 280, 343.
+
+Pistuli (Notz), his mission, 328.
+
+Pivko (Prof.), his exploit, 13.
+
+Plamenac (J.) and the Gaeta army 187.
+-- -- his unpopularity, 94-5.
+
+Plav, 304 _et seq._
+
+Podgorica Skup[vs]tina, 100 _et seq._
+
+Poggi (Lieut.), at Kor[vc]ula, 31, 183.
+
+Pojar (Dr.), his case, 390.
+
+Pola, 16 _et seq._, 42, 44, 387-8.
+
+Pombara (Captain Binnos de), his feat, 27-8.
+
+Pommerol (Captain), on the islands, 165 _et seq._
+
+Popovi['c] (Dr. Du[vs]an), 246-7, 399.
+
+Popovitch (Dr. A.), his curious
+career, 356 _et seq._
+
+_Posta e Shqypnis_, quoted, 284.
+
+_Pravda_, quoted, 336.
+
+_Pravi Dalmatinac_, 73.
+
+Prekomurdje, what happened there, 372 _et seq._
+
+Prênnushi (Father Vincent), 286, 344.
+
+Prezzolini (G.), on Dalmatia and Tripoli, 82.
+-- -- and Vis, 82.
+
+Pribi[vc]evi['c] (Svetozar), the Minister, 44, 117-8, 225-6, 240-1,
+                                           245 _et seq._, 399.
+
+_Primorske Novine_, quoted, 92.
+
+Pri[vs]tina, Horrid conditions at, 298.
+
+Proti['c], the statesman, 113, 225-6.
+
+
+_Quarterly Review_, on Yugoslavia, 226, 247.
+
+
+Race before religion, 390-1.
+
+Ra[vc]i['c] (Pouni[vs]a), 278, 306 _et seq._, 330.
+
+Radi['c] (S.) of Croatia, 111 _et seq._, 119, 135-6, 238 _et seq._, 399.
+-- -- his _Dom_, 242-3.
+
+Rado[vs]evi['c] (Dr.), 118.
+
+Radovi['c] (Andrija), 187-8.
+
+Raineri (Admiral), 49 _et seq._
+
+Rapallo, Treaty of, 83, 211, 232 _et seq._, 260 _et seq._, 384.
+
+Rapp, his testimonial, 125.
+
+_Rassegna Italiana_, quoted, 63.
+
+Re-Bartlett (Mrs.), on Dalmatia, 230-1.
+
+Red Cross, American, 189.
+-- -- International, 189.
+-- -- Italian, 216.
+
+Regnault (E.), his _Histoire politique, etc._, 358.
+
+Religion before race, 372.
+
+Rieka, _see_ D'Annunzio and Vio.
+-- Americans at, 52.
+-- the Austrian stores, 216 _et seq._
+-- Baro[vs] harbour, 260, 268.
+-- the C.N.I., 45 _et seq._, 49, 54, 61-2, 140, 197, 212, 216 _et seq._,
+               258 _et seq._
+-- Croat mistakes, 48-9.
+-- Croat National Council, 45 _et seq._, 62-3.
+-- economic position, 66 _et seq._
+-- the frenzy, 137 _et seq._
+-- moribund under Italy, 259, 260.
+-- population analysed, 53 _et seq._
+-- a few scandals, 216 _et seq._
+
+Rieka and the Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5, 385 _et seq._
+
+_Rije['c]_, quoted, 64.
+
+Risti['c] (Colonel) and the komitadjis, 194-5.
+
+Rossetti (Major) and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Roth (Dr.), Lord of Teme[vs]var, 127-8.
+
+Roumanians in Banat, 9, 10, 362 _et seq._
+-- and their Jews, 203 _et seq._
+-- in Serbia, 356 _et seq._
+
+Rugovo, Reason for burning of, 305.
+
+Ryan (T. S.) of the _Chicago Tribune_, 198-9.
+
+
+Salis (Count de), his mission, 190-1.
+
+Salonica, and the Serbs, 353-4.
+
+Salvemini (Prof.), the anti-chauvinist, 87, 231-2, 234.
+
+Salvi (Dr.) of Split, 159 _et seq._
+
+_Samouprava_, quoted, 337.
+
+San Marzano (General di), 51-2, 54, 61.
+
+Sanctis (Lieut. de), his sanctions, 163.
+
+Saseno, 295.
+
+_Saturday Review_, 231.
+
+Savinsky, the Russian Minister, 406.
+
+Sazonov, and the Adriatic, 91-2.
+
+Schanzer (Signor), on Rieka, 264-5.
+
+Schools, _see_ Liga Nazionale.
+-- for Albanians, 300.
+-- in Carinthia, 377-8.
+-- at Cres, 57-8.
+-- in Dalmatia, 146-7.
+-- in Istria, 73-4.
+-- at Kor[vc]ula, 184.
+-- Militant, at Borgo Erizzo, 38.
+-- in Montenegro, 257.
+-- at Pola, 44.
+-- at Rieka, 53.
+-- at [vS]ibenik, 144-5.
+-- at Zadar, 35.
+
+_Scotsman_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Scutari, its probable future, 296, 320, 335.
+
+Sebenico, _see_ [vS]ibenik.
+
+_Secolo_, on Montenegro, 257.
+-- on Treaty of London, 50.
+
+_Secours des Enfants Serbes_, _Au_, 27.
+
+Segré (General), his alleged request, 140.
+
+_Sera_, quoted, 280.
+
+Serbo-Croat Coalition, 245 _et seq._
+
+Serbs, in relation to Albanians, 295 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Croats (and _see_ Croats), 115 _et seq._, 397 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Montenegrins, 188-9, 192-3, 253 _et seq._, 393 _et seq._
+
+Sereggi (Archbishop), 281-4.
+
+Seton-Watson (Dr. R. W.), 236, 347, 354.
+
+Sforza (Count), his letter, 268.
+
+[vS]ibenik, 30, 33 _et seq._, 144-5.
+
+Siebertz, the traveller, 288, 291.
+
+[vS]imunovi['c] (M.) and the Italians, 32.
+
+Slovenes (_see_ Carinthia), their country, 120 _et seq._, 235-6, 245.
+-- their culture, 392-3.
+-- their political methods, 114-5, 374 _et seq._
+
+Socialists, Italian, and Rieka, 211-2.
+
+[vS]ojat (F.) and Dr. Vio, 69.
+
+Sonnino (Baron), 28, 75 _et seq._, 85-6, 93, 122, 138, 167, 185, 374, 384.
+
+_Spectator_, quoted, 230.
+
+Sportiello (Captain) at Vis, 30.
+
+Stadler (Lieut.-Colonel), the podestà, 74, 137.
+
+Stamboulüsky as a Yugoslav, 399.
+
+Stamps, at Zagreb, 72.
+
+Star[vc]evi['c] party in Croatia, 117, 119, 248.
+
+Steed (H. Wickham), his letter, 77.
+
+Steinen (Dr. H. von den) and the Bulgars, 404.
+
+Steinmetz, the traveller, 290.
+
+[vS]tigli['c] and the poor officials, 63.
+
+Strossmayer, Radi['c] on, 239.
+
+_Suisse_, _La_, quoted, 328.
+
+Supilo, of Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Su[vs]ak, 54-5.
+
+Susmel (Edoardo), the writer, 62.
+
+[vS]vegel (Ivan), on Italian shipping policy, 123-4.
+
+Svibi['c] (Colonel) and the Italians, 61.
+
+Sydenham (Lord), his lack of discretion, 95, 188-9.
+
+Szeged, its position, 369.
+
+
+_Tablet_, quoted, 40.
+
+Tamaro (Dr. A.) and _Modern Italy_, 94.
+
+Tardieu, his suggestion concerning Rieka, 195.
+
+Taylor (A. H. E.), on Prekomurdje, 373.
+
+Teme[vs]var in transition, 126 _et seq._, 367.
+
+Temperley (Major H. W. V.), on Albania, 338-9.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 254-5.
+-- -- his _A History of the Peace Conference_, 354.
+-- -- his _The Second Year of the League_, 338.
+
+_Tempo_, on the Rieka deputations, 212.
+
+_Temps_, quoted, 213, 336.
+
+Tesli['c] (Colonel), 50-1.
+
+_Times_, quoted, 131, 344-5.
+
+Tittoni, and Rieka, 195, 199.
+
+Tomi['c] (Ja[vs]a), the old-fashioned, 116, 397.
+
+Treaty of London, 28-9, 33, 50, 60, 75 _et seq._, 80, 82, 90 _et seq._,
+                  120, 213, 278.
+-- -- Rapallo, _see_ Rapallo.
+
+Tre[vs]i['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] (Dr. A.), 19, 20.
+
+Trevelyan (G. M.), on the Italians in Dalmatia, 235.
+
+_Tribuna_, quoted, 75, 77.
+
+_Tribune de Genève_, quoted, 327.
+
+Triest, what is desirable, 122.
+-- its future, 44, 386 _et seq._
+-- Italians and Slovenes, 123.
+-- its population, 121.
+
+Trogir, the great invasion, 200-1.
+
+Trumbi['c] (Dr. A.), 86, 252, 321.
+
+_Turkey in Europe_, quoted, 289.
+
+
+_Under the Acroceraunian Mountains_, 327, 351.
+
+_Unità_, quoted, 87.
+
+
+Veglia, _see_ Krk.
+
+Velika Kikinda, its necessities, 368.
+
+Velimirovi['c] (Bishop), his _The Children of the Illuminator_, 398.
+
+Venizelos and the Serbs, 353-4.
+-- and Thrace, 355.
+
+Veprinac, its population, 44.
+
+Verdinois (Major), his word, 179, 180.
+
+_Verrath bei Carzano_, _Der_, 13.
+
+Ver[vs]ac, the former Bishop's declaration, 202.
+
+Ver[vs]ac, scene of Roumanian activities, 10.
+
+Vesni['c] (Dr.) and the Italians, 233-4, 237.
+
+Ve[vs]ovi['c] (General), his enterprises, 98, 228-9.
+
+Vio (Dr.) of Rieka, 29, 45-6, 48, 54-5, 68 _et seq._
+
+Vis, Italians land on, 29, 30.
+-- concerning its possession, 82-3.
+
+Vivante (A.), his _L'irredentismo adriatico_, 122.
+
+Vivian (H.), his ferocity, 191.
+
+Volosca, 73-4.
+
+_Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen_, quoted, 290.
+
+Vukoti['c] (Voivoda), his answer, 103.
+
+Vukovi['c] (Admiral), his fate, 20 _et seq._
+
+
+Westlake (Prof.), his _International Law_, 139.
+
+Wied (Prince of), erstwhile Mpret, 276-7.
+-- (Princess of), her ladies criticized, 288.
+
+Wilson (President), 63, 92-3, 125, 138-9, 213-4.
+
+
+Xenia (Princess), 103.
+
+
+Yastrebow, the Russian authority, 287.
+
+Yugoslavia, conditions after the War, 226.
+-- her cohesion, 120, 229, 230, 249, 272.
+-- and the future, 236-7, 398-9.
+
+
+Zadar, reception of Italians, 35.
+-- Schools at, 35.
+-- and Treaty of Rapallo, 234, 236, 268-9, 385.
+-- Wild doings at, 37-8.
+
+Zagreb and the future, 398 _et seq._
+-- and the stamps, 72.
+
+_Zagreber Tagblatt_, 264-5.
+
+Zanella (Prof.), 69, 217, 261 _et seq._
+
+Zara, _see_ Zadar.
+
+Zari['c] (Bishop), and Wilson, 91-2.
+
+Zari['c] (Prof.), his removal, 169, 170.
+
+Zena Beg, 282-3, 285.
+
+Ziliotto (Dr.) of Zara, 36-7, 164-5.
+
+
+PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
+
+[Illustration: The Map of Yugoslavia]
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Fixed Issues
+
+page 007--inserted a missing apostrophe after 'Italians'
+page 009--typo fixed: changed 'weapoms' to 'weapons'
+page 014--typo fixed: changed 'as' to 'a'
+page 048--typo fixed: changed 'thay' to 'they'
+page 054--typo fixed: changed 'hold' to 'held'
+page 077--typo fixed: changed 'Corriera' to 'Corriere'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'repression'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a period to a comma after 'lend their men'
+page 146--typo fixed: changed 'aproached' to 'approached'
+page 147--typo fixed: changed 'permittep' to 'permitted'
+page 172--removed an extra opening bracket in front of 'There are places'
+page 181--typo fixed: changed 'If was' to 'It was'
+page 189--typo fixed: changed 'Montengrins' to 'Montenegrins'
+page 196--removed an extra opening quote in front of 'As for large'
+page 197--removed an extra closing bracket after '100 lire'
+page 209--typo fixed: inserted a missing period after 'per cent'
+page 222--typo fixed: 'YUGLOSLAVIA' changed to 'YUGOSLAVIA'
+page 317--typo fixed: changed 'irode' to 'rode'
+page 343--typo fixed: changed 'Yulgosav' to 'Yugoslav'
+page 371--typo fixed: changed 'persumably' to 'presumably'
+page 377--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'less regarded'
+page 408--typo fixed: changed 'preservaiton' to 'preservation'
+page 411--inserted a missing comma after 'Books'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by 
+Henry Baerlein
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by Henry Baerlein
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2
+
+Author: Henry Baerlein
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2008 [EBook #24781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jason Isbell, Irma Spehar and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>THE BIRTH OF<br />
+YUGOSLAVIA</h1>
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-top: 4em; font-weight: bold; font-size: 80%; text-indent: 0em">BY</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 110%; text-indent: 0em">HENRY BAERLEIN</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 80%; margin-top: 8em; text-indent: 0em">VOLUME II</p>
+
+<p class="publisher"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25ex">LONDON</span><br />
+LEONARD PARSONS<br />
+DEVONSHIRE STREET</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<i>First Published 1922</i><br />
+[<i>All Rights Reserved</i>]<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap" style="font-size: 80%">Leonard Parsons Ltd.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS_OF_VOLUME_II" id="CONTENTS_OF_VOLUME_II"></a>CONTENTS OF VOLUME II</h2>
+
+<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="ToC">
+
+<tr><td colspan="3" align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td><td align='left'><a href="#VI"><span class="smcap">Yugoslavia's First Year of Liberty</span> (<span class="smcap">Autumn 1918
+to Autumn 1919</span>)</a></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td><td align='left'><a href="#VII"><span class="smcap">Further Months of Trial</span> (1919-1921)</a></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td><td align='left'><a href="#VIII"><span class="smcap">Yugoslavia's Frontiers</span> (1921)</a></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td><td align='left'><a href="#IX"><span class="smcap">Conclusion: A Few National Characteristics</span></a></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_392">392</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><a href="#INDEX_OF_VOLUME_II"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></td><td class="rightalign"><a href="#Page_411">411</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><a href="#map"><span class="smcap">Map of Yugoslavia</span></a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h1><a name="THE_BIRTH_OF_YUGOSLAVIA" id="THE_BIRTH_OF_YUGOSLAVIA"></a>THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></h1>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3>YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY</h3>
+
+
+<p class="subtitle"><span class="smcap">New foes for old&mdash;Roumanian activities&mdash;The Italian frame of
+mind&mdash;Sensitiveness with respect to their army&mdash;An unfortunate
+naval affair&mdash;What was happening at Pola&mdash;The
+story of the "Viribus Unitis"&mdash;How the Italians landed at
+Pola&mdash;The sea-faring Yugoslavs&mdash;Who set a standard that
+was too high&mdash;An electrical atmosphere and no precautions&mdash;<ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Italians'">Italians'</ins>
+mildness on the Isle of Vis&mdash;Their truculence at
+Kor&#269;ula&mdash;And on Hvar&mdash;How they were received at Zadar&mdash;What
+they did there&mdash;Pretty doings at Krk&mdash;Unhappy
+Pola&mdash;What Istria endured&mdash;The famous town of Rieka&mdash;The
+drama begins&mdash;The I.N.C.&mdash;The Croats' blunder&mdash;Melodrama&mdash;Farce&mdash;Parole
+d'honneur&mdash;The population of the
+town&mdash;The tale continues on the northern isles&mdash;Rab is
+completely captured&mdash;Avanti Savoia!&mdash;The Entente at Rieka&mdash;A
+candid Frenchman&mdash;Economic considerations&mdash;The turncoat
+Mayor&mdash;His fervour&mdash;Three pleasant places&mdash;Italy is
+led astray by Sonnino&mdash;The state of the Chamber&mdash;The state
+of the country&mdash;A fountain in the sand&mdash;Those who held
+back from the Pact of Rome&mdash;Gathering winds&mdash;Why the
+Italians claimed Dalmatia&mdash;Consequences of the Treaty of
+London&mdash;Italian hopes in Montenegro&mdash;What had lately
+been the fate of the Austrians there&mdash;And of the natives&mdash;Now
+Nikita is deposed&mdash;The Assembly which deposed him&mdash;Nikita's
+sorrow for the good old days&mdash;The state of Bosnia&mdash;Radi&#263;
+and his peasants&mdash;Those who will not move with the
+times&mdash;The Yugoslav political parties&mdash;The Slovene question&mdash;The
+sentiments of Triest&mdash;Magnanimity in the Banat&mdash;Teme&#353;var
+in transition&mdash;A sort of war in Carinthia&mdash;Yugoslavia
+begins to put her house in order&mdash;The problem of
+Agrarian Reform&mdash;Frenzy at Rieka&mdash;Admiral Millo explains
+the situation&mdash;His misguided subordinates at &#352;ibenik&mdash;The
+Italians want to take no risks&mdash;Yet they are incredibly
+nonchalant&mdash;One of their victims&mdash;Seven hundred others&mdash;A
+glimpse of the official robberies&mdash;And harshness and
+bribery&mdash;The Italians in Dalmatia before and during the
+War&mdash;Consequent suspicion of this minority&mdash;Allied censure
+of the Italian navy&mdash;Nevertheless the tyranny continues&mdash;A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+visit to some of the islands&mdash;Which the Italians tried to
+obtain before, but not during, the War&mdash;Our welcome to
+Jel&#353;a&mdash;Proceedings at Starigrad&mdash;The affairs of Hvar&mdash;Four
+men of Komi&#382;a&mdash;The women of Bi&#353;evo&mdash;On the way to
+Blato&mdash;What the Major said&mdash;The protest of an Italian
+journalist&mdash;Interesting delegates&mdash;A digression on Sir
+Arthur Evans&mdash;The dupes of Nikita in Montenegro&mdash;Italian
+endeavours&mdash;Various British commentators&mdash;The murder of
+Mileti&#263;&mdash;D'Annunzio comes to Rieka&mdash;The great invasion of
+Trogir&mdash;The Succession States and their minorities&mdash;Obligations
+imposed on them because of Roumanian Antisemitism.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">NEW FOES FOR OLD</p>
+
+<p>With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian army,
+the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes saw that one other
+obstacle to their long-hoped-for union had vanished.
+The dream of centuries was now a little nearer towards
+fulfilment. But many obstacles remained. There would
+presumably be opposition on the part of the Italian and
+Roumanian Governments, for it was too much to hope
+that these would waive the treaties they had wrung from
+the Entente, and would consent to have their boundaries
+regulated by the wishes of the people living in disputed
+lands. Some individual Italians and Roumanians might
+even be less reasonable than their Governments. If
+Austria and Hungary were in too great a chaos to have any
+attitude as nations, there would be doubtless local opposition
+to the Yugoslavs. And as soon as the Magyars had
+found their feet they would be sure to bombard the
+Entente with protestations, setting forth that subject
+nationalities were intended by the Creator to be subject
+nationalities. A large pamphlet, <i>The Hungarian Nation</i>,
+was issued at Buda-Pest in February 1920. It displayed
+a very touching solicitude for the Croats, whom the Serbs
+would be sure to tyrannize most horribly. If only Croatia
+would remain in the Hungarian State, says Mr. A. Kov&aacute;cs,
+Ministerial Councillor in the Hungarian Central Statistical
+Office, then the Magyars would instantly bestow on
+her both Bosnia (which belonged to the Empire as a
+whole) and Dalmatia (which belonged to Austria). That
+is the worst of being a Ministerial Statistical Councillor.
+Another gentleman, Professor Dr. Fodor, has the bright
+idea that "the race is the multitude of individuals who
+inhabit one uniform region." ... Passing to Yugoslavia's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+domestic obstacles, it was impossible to think
+that all the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes would forthwith
+subscribe to the Declaration of Corfu and become excellent
+Yugoslavs. Some would be honestly unable to throw off
+what centuries had done to them, and realize that if they
+had been made so different from their brothers, they were
+brothers still. For ten days there was a partly domestic,
+partly foreign obstacle, but as the King of Montenegro
+did not take his courage in both hands and descend on the
+shores of that country with an Italian army, he lost his
+chance for ever.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES</p>
+
+<p>There was indeed far less trouble from the Roumanian
+than from the Italian side. On October 29, 1918, one
+could say that all military power in the Banat was at an
+end. The Hungarian army took what food it wanted
+and made off, leaving everywhere, in barracks and in
+villages, guns, rifles, ammunition. Vainly did the officers
+attempt to keep their men together. And scenes like
+this were witnessed all over the Banat. Then suddenly,
+on Sunday, November 3, the Roumanians, that is the
+Roumanians living in the country, made attacks on many
+villages, and the Roumanians of Transylvania acted in a
+similar fashion. With the Hungarian equipment and with
+<ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'weapoms'">weapons</ins> of their own they started out to terrorize.
+Among their targets were the village notaries, in whom was
+vested the administrative authority. At Old Moldava,
+on the Danube, they decapitated the notary, a man called
+Kungel, and threw his head into the river. At a village
+near Anina they buried the notary except for his head,
+which they proceeded to kick until he died. Nor did they
+spare the notaries of Roumanian origin, which made it
+seem as if this outbreak of lawlessness&mdash;directed from
+who knows where&mdash;had the high political end of making
+the country appear to the Entente in such a desperate
+condition that an army must be introduced, and as the
+Serbs were thought to be a long way off, with the railways
+and the roads before them ruined by the Austrians, it
+looked as if Roumania's army was the only one available.
+On the Monday and the Tuesday these Roumanian freebooters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+who had all risen on the same day in regions
+extending over hundreds of square kilometres, started
+plundering the large estates. Near Bela Crkva, on the
+property of Count Bissingen-Nippenburg, a German,
+they did damage to the sum of eight and a half million
+crowns. At the monastery of Me&#353;ica, near Ver&#353;ac, the
+Roumanians of a neighbouring village devastated the
+archimandrate's large library, sacked the chapel and
+smashed his bee-hives, so that they were not impelled
+by poverty and hunger. In the meantime there had been
+formed at Ver&#353;ac a National Roumanian Military Council.
+The placard, printed of course in Roumanian, is dated
+Ver&#353;ac, November 4, and is addressed to "The Roumanian
+Officers and Soldiers born in the Banat," and announces
+that they have formed the National Council. It is a
+Council, we are told, in which one can have every confidence;
+moreover, it is prepared to co-operate in every
+way with a view to maintaining order <i>&icirc;n l&#259;untra &#537;i &icirc;n afar&#259;</i>
+(both internal and external). The subjoined names of
+the committee are numerous; they range from Lieut.-Colonel
+Gavriil Mihailov and Major Petru Jucu downwards
+to a dozen privates. The archimandrate, who
+fortunately happened to be at his house in Ver&#353;ac, begged
+his friend Captain Singler of the <i>gendarmerie</i> to take some
+steps. About twenty Hungarian officers undertook to
+go, with a machine gun, to the monastery on November
+7; at eleven on the previous night Mihailov ordered the
+captain to come to see him; he wanted to know by whom
+this expedition had been authorized. The captain
+answered that Me&#353;ica was in his district, and that he
+had no animus against Roumanians but only against
+plunderers. After his arrival at Me&#353;ica the trouble was
+brought to an end. Nor was it long before the Serbian
+troops, riding up through their own country at a rate
+which no one had foreseen, crossed the Danube and
+occupied the Banat, in conjunction with the French.
+The rapidity of this advance astounded the Roumanians;
+they gaped like Lavengro when he wondered how the
+stones ever came to Stonehenge.... When the Serbian
+commandant at Ver&#353;ac invited these enterprising Roumanian
+officers to an interview he was asked by one of
+them, Major Iricu, whether or not they were to be interned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+"What made you print that placard?" asked
+the commandant; and they replied that their object
+had been to preserve order. They had not imagined,
+so they said, that the Serbs would come so quickly. "I
+will be glad," said the commandant, "if you will not do
+this kind of thing any more."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE ITALIAN FRAME OF MIND</p>
+
+<p>Italy was not in a good humour. She was well aware
+that in the countries of her Allies there was a marked
+tendency to underestimate her overwhelming triumphs
+of the last days of the War. Perhaps those exploits
+would have been more difficult if Austria's army had not
+suffered a deterioration, but still one does not take 300,000
+prisoners every day. Some faithful foreigners were
+praising Italy&mdash;and she deserved it&mdash;for having persevered
+at all after Caporetto. That disaster had been greatly
+due to filling certain regiments with several thousand
+munition workers who had taken part in a revolt at
+Turin, and then concentrating these regiments in the
+Caporetto salient, which was the most vulnerable sector
+in the eastern Italian front. How much of the disaster
+was due to the Vatican will perhaps never be known.
+But as for the uneducated, easily impressed peasants of
+the army, it was wonderful that all, except the second
+army and a small part of the third, retreated with such
+discipline in view of what they had been brooding on
+before the day of Caporetto. They had such vague ideas
+what they were fighting for, and if the Socialists kept
+saying that the English paid their masters to continue
+with the War&mdash;how were they to know what was the
+truth? The British regiments, who were received not
+merely with cigars and cigarettes and flowers and with
+little palm crosses which their trustful little weavers
+had blessed, but also with showers of stones as they
+passed through Italian villages in 1917, must have sometimes
+understood and pardoned. Then the troops were
+in distress about their relatives, for things were more and
+more expensive, and where would it end? In face of
+these discouragements it was most admirable that the
+army and the nation rallied and reconstituted their <i>morale</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY</p>
+
+<p>Of course one should not generalize regarding nations,
+except in vague or very guarded terms; but possibly it
+would not be unjust to say that the Italians, apart from
+those of northern provinces and of Sardinia, have too much
+imagination to make first-class soldiers. And they are
+too sensitive, as you could see in an Italian military
+hospital. Their task was also not a trifling one&mdash;to
+stand for all those months in territory so forbidding.
+And there would have been more sympathy with the
+Italians in the autumn of 1918 if they had not had such
+very crushing triumphs when the War was practically
+over. What was the condition of the Austrian army?
+About October 15, in one section of the front&mdash;35 kilometres
+separating the extreme points from one another&mdash;the
+following incidents occurred: the Army Command at
+St. Vitto issued an order to the officers invariably to carry
+a revolver, since the men were now attacking them; a
+Magyar regiment revolted and marched away, under
+the command of a Second-Lieutenant whom they had
+elected; at Stino di Livenza, while the officers were
+having their evening meal, two hand grenades were thrown
+into the mess by soldiers; at Codroipo a regiment revolted,
+attacked the officers' mess, and wounded several
+of the people there, including the general in command.
+Such was the Austrian army in those days; and it was
+only human if comparisons were made&mdash;not making any
+allowances for Italy's economic difficulties, her coal,
+her social and her religious difficulties&mdash;but merely bald
+comparisons were made between these wholesale victories
+against the Austrians as they were in the autumn of 1918
+and the scantier successes of the previous years. In
+September 1916 when the eighth or ninth Italian offensive
+had pierced the Austrian front and the Italians reached
+a place called Provachina, Marshal Boroevi&#263; had only
+one reserve division. The heavy artillery was withdrawn,
+the light artillery was packed up, the company commanders
+having orders to retire in the night. Only a
+few rapid-fire batteries were left with a view to deceiving
+the enemy. But as the Italians appeared to the Austrians
+to have no heart to come on&mdash;there may have been other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+reasons&mdash;the artillery was unpacked and the Austrians
+returned to their old front. In May 1917, between Monte
+Gabriele and Doberdo, Boroevi&#263; had no reserve battalion;
+his troops, in full marching kit, had to defend the whole
+front: they were able to do so by proceeding now to this
+sector and now to that. No army is immune from serious
+mistakes&mdash;"We won in 1871," said Bismarck, "although
+we made very many mistakes, because the French made
+even more"&mdash;but the Yugoslavs in the Austrian army
+could not forget such incidents as that connected with
+the name of Professor Pivko. This gentleman, who is
+now living at Maribor, was made the subject of a book,
+<i>Der Verrath bei Carzano</i> ("The Treachery near Carzano"),
+which was published by the Austrian General Staff. His
+battalion commander was a certain Lieut.-Colonel Vidale,
+who was a first cousin of the C.O., General Vidale; and
+when an orderly overheard Pivko, who is a Slovene, and
+several Czech officers, discussing a plan which would
+open the front to the Italians, he ran all the way to the
+General's headquarters and gave the information. The
+General telephoned to his cousin, who said that the allegation
+was absurd and that Pivko was one of his best officers.
+The orderly was therefore thrown into prison, and Pivko,
+having turned off the electricity from the barbed wires
+and arranged matters with a Bosnian regiment, made his
+way to the Italians. The suggestion is that, owing to
+the lie of the land and the weak Austrian forces, it was
+possible for the Italians to reach Trent; anyhow the
+Austrians were amazed when they ceased to advance and
+the German regiment which was in Trent did not have to
+come out to defend it. Everyone in the Austrian army
+recognized that the Italian artillery was pre-eminent
+and that the officers were most gallant, especially in the
+early part of the War, when one would frequently find
+an officer lying dead with no men near him. But such
+episodes as the above-mentioned&mdash;it would be possible,
+but wearisome, to describe others&mdash;could not but have
+some effect on the opposing army, and would be recalled
+when the Italians sang their final panegyric. The reasons
+for the Austrian <i>d&eacute;b&acirc;cle</i> on the Piave are as follows:
+when the Allied troops had reached Rann, Susegana,
+Ponte di Piave and Montiena, the Austrian High Command<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+decided on October 24 to throw against them the
+36th Croat division, the 21st Czech, the 44th Slovene, a
+German division and the 12th Croat Regiment of Uhlans.
+However, the 16th and 116th Croat, the 30th Regiment
+of Czech Landwehr and the 71st Slovene Landwehr Regiment
+declared that they would not fight against the French
+and English, and, instead of advancing, retired. The
+78th Croat Regiment, as well as three other Czech Regiments,
+abandoned the front, after having made a similar
+declaration. At the same time the 96th and 135th Croat
+Regiments, in agreement with the Czech detachments,
+made a breach for the Italians on the left wing at Stino
+di Livenza, while Slav marching formations revolted at
+Udine. The Austro-Hungarian troops consequently had
+to retreat.... No one expects of the Italian army, as
+<ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'as'">a</ins> whole, that it will be on a level with the best, but
+when the British officers who were with the Serbs on the
+Salonica front compare their reminiscences with those
+of the British officers on the Italian front, it is improbable
+that garlands will be strewn for the Italians. Towards
+the end of October a plan was adopted by the British
+and Italian staffs for capturing the island of Papadopoli in
+the Piave; this island, about three miles in length, formed
+the outpost line of the Austrian defences. On the night
+of October 23-24 an attack was to be made by the 2nd
+H.A.C., while three companies of the 1st Royal Welsh
+Fusiliers were to act as reserve. This operation is most
+vividly described by the Senior Chaplain of the 7th
+Division, the Rev. E.&nbsp;C. Crosse, D.S.O., M.C.;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and he
+says nothing as to what occurred on that part of the island
+which was to be seized by the Italians. Well, nothing
+had occurred, for the Italians did not get across and when
+the water rose they said they could do nothing on that
+night. These are the words of Mr. Crosse's footnote:
+"The obvious question, 'What was going to be done with
+the farther half of the island?' we have purposely left
+undiscussed here. This half was outside the area of the
+7th Division, and as such it falls outside the scope of this
+work for the time being. The subsequent capture of the
+whole island (on the following night) by the 7th Division
+was not part of the original plan." Afterwards, when a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>crossing was made to the mainland, the left flank was unsupported,
+as the Italians did not cross the river, and thus
+the 23rd Division had its flank exposed. A belief is
+entertained that the Italian cavalry is one of the best
+in the world; evidently it is not the best, for on that
+Piave front, where thousands of Italian cavalry were
+available, the only ones who put in their appearance
+early in the battle were three hundred very war-stained
+Northampton Yeomanry.</p>
+
+<p>"The record of the Italian troops in the field renders
+unnecessary an assertion of their courage," says Mr.
+Anthony Dell;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> "for reckless bravery in assault none
+surpasses them." But when you have said that you
+have nearly summed up their military virtues, for discipline
+is not their strong suit, and they have little sense
+of responsibility. On the other hand, we must remember
+their admirable patience, but the great mass of the people
+have not attained the level of Christianity; they are
+savage both in heart and mind, with no outlook wider
+than that of the family. It is the Italian proletariat
+which is judged by the Yugoslavs, whose otherwise acute
+discernment has been warped by the unhappy circumstances
+of the time. Indifferent to the fact that he
+himself is a compound of physical energy and oriental
+mysticism, the Yugoslav has become inclined to contemplate
+merely the physical side of the Italian, and for
+the most part that portion of it which has to do with war.
+The Italian long-sightedness and prudence and business
+capacity are ignored save in so far as they delayed the
+country's entrance into the Great War. The sensitiveness
+and artistic attributes of the Italians, who gaze with
+aching hearts upon the glories of a sunset, are but rarely
+felt by Serbs, who gather brushwood for the fire that is
+to roast their sucking-pig and who sit down to watch the
+operation, haply with their backs turned to the sunset.
+The Yugoslav, especially the Serb, is a man from the
+Middle Ages brought suddenly into the twentieth century.
+With his heroic heart and his wonderful strength he fails
+to understand those people who, on account of one
+reason or another, have no passion for war. And as the
+military deeds of the Italians have had such effect upon
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>the minds of the Yugoslavs, we have alluded to them at a
+greater length than would otherwise have been profitable.
+The Yugoslavs despise the Italians. Also the Italians,
+who concern themselves with diplomacy, are conscious
+that their keen wits and their long training in the wiles
+of the civilized world, their old traditions and their
+prestige give them a considerable advantage over the
+Yugoslav diplomat, so that this kind of Italian despises
+the Yugoslav. He knows very well that the French or
+British statesmen do not, amid the smoke of after-dinner
+cigars, esteem his case by the same standard as that
+which they apply to the case which the ordinary Yugoslav
+diplomat presents to them in office hours. As for the
+wider Italian circles, one must fear that the old hatred
+of Germany, because the Germans seemed to despise
+them, will henceforward colour the sentiments with which
+they regard the Yugoslavs. It is a state of things between
+these neighbours which other people cannot but view
+with apprehension.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL AFFAIR</p>
+
+<p>There was in Yugoslav naval circles no very cordial
+feeling for the Italians. The Austrian dreadnought,
+<i>Viribus Unitis</i>, was torpedoed in a most ingenious fashion
+by two resolute officers, Lieutenant Raffaele Paolucci,
+a doctor, and Major Raffaele Rossetti. In October 1917
+they independently invented a very small and light
+compressed-air motor which could be used to propel a
+mine into an enemy harbour. They submitted their
+schemes to the Naval Inventions Board, were given an
+opportunity of meeting, and after three months had brought
+their invention into a practical form. The naval authorities,
+however, refused to allow them to go on any expedition
+till they both were skilled long-distance swimmers.
+Six months had thus to be dedicated entirely to swimming.
+At the end of that time they were supplied with
+a motor-boat and two bombs of a suitable size for blowing
+up large airships. To these bombs were fixed the small
+motors by means of which they were to be propelled
+into the port of Pola, while the two men, swimming by
+their side, would control and guide them. Just after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+nightfall on October 31, 1918, the raiders arrived outside
+Pola.</p>
+
+<p>Were they aware that anything had happened in the
+Austro-Hungarian navy? On October 26 there appeared
+in the <i>Hrvatski List</i> of Pola a summons to the Yugoslavs,
+made by the Executive Committee of Zagreb, which had
+been elected on the 23rd. This notice in the newspaper
+recommended the formation of local committees, and
+asked the Yugoslavs in the meantime to eschew all
+violence. When Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Methodius
+Koch&mdash;whose mother was an Englishwoman&mdash;read this
+at noon he thought it was high time to do something.
+Koch had always been one of the most patriotically
+Slovene officers of the Austrian navy. On various
+occasions during the War he had attempted to hand over
+his ships to the Italians, and when some other Austrian
+commander signalled to ask him why he was cruising
+so near to the Italian coast he invariably answered, "I
+have my orders." He found it, however, impossible to
+give himself up, as the Italians whom he sighted, no matter
+how numerous they were, would never allow him to come
+within signalling range. Koch had frequently spoken
+to his Slovene sailors, preparing them for the day of
+liberation, and he was naturally very popular among
+them. Let us not forget that such an officer, true to his
+own people, was in constant peril of being shot.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of that same day, October 26th,
+when the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its army and
+navy, was collapsing, Admiral Horthy, an energetic,
+honest, if not brilliant Magyar, the Commander of the
+Fleet at Pola, called to his flag-ship, the <i>Viribus Unitis</i>,
+one officer representing each nationality of the Empire.
+Koch was there on behalf of the Slovenes. The Admiral
+announced that a wholesale mutiny had been planned
+for November 1st, during which the ships' treasuries
+would be robbed, and he asked these officers to collaborate
+with him in preventing it. Koch, at the Admiral's
+request, wrote out a speech that he would deliver to the
+Slovenes, and this document, with one or two notes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+the Admiral's writing, is in Koch's possession. "If you
+will not listen to your Admirals, then," so ran the speech,
+"you should listen to our national leaders." He
+addressed himself to the men, of course in the Slovene
+language, as a fellow-countryman. He begged them to
+keep quiet. He deprecated all plundering, firstly in
+order that their good name should not be sullied, and also
+pointing out that the neighbouring population was overwhelmingly
+Slovene. Out of 45,000 men only 2000
+could leave by rail; he therefore asked them all to stay
+peacefully at Pola. Meanwhile the local committee had
+been formed; Koch was, secretly, a member of it, and
+on the 28th, Rear-Admiral Cicoli, a kindly old gentleman
+who was port-commandant, advised Koch to join it as
+liaison-officer. It was on the 28th at eight in the morning
+that the officers who had been selected to calm the different
+nationalities started to go round the fleet. That officer
+who spoke to the Germans declared that one must not
+abandon hopes of victory, and that anyhow the War
+would soon be over. Count Thun, who discoursed to
+the Czechs, was ill-advised enough to make the Deity,
+their Kaiser and their oath the main subjects of his
+remarks, so that he was more than once in great danger
+of being thrown overboard. Koch went first of all to
+the <i>Viribus Unitis</i>, but the mutiny had begun; a bugle
+was sounded for a general assembly; it was ignored, and
+the crew let it be known that they were weary of the
+old game, which consisted of the officers egging on one
+nation against another. This mutiny had not yet spread
+to the remaining ships, and on them the speeches were
+delivered. At the National Assembly that evening Koch
+was chosen as chief of National Defence; he thereupon
+went to Cicoli and formally asked to be allowed to join
+the committee. When Vienna refused its assent, Koch
+resigned his commission. By this time all discipline
+had gone by the board, no one thought of such a thing
+as office work and, amid the chaos, sailors' councils
+appeared, with which Koch had to treat. The situation
+was made no easier by the presence of large numbers of
+Germans, Magyars and Italians, of whom the latter also
+formed a National Council. On the 30th, Koch, as chief
+of National Defence, asked Admirals Cicoli and Horthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+to come at 9 p.m. to the Admiralty, with a view to the
+transference of the military power. At 7.30, in the
+municipal building, there was a joint meeting of the
+Yugoslav and the Italian National Councils, and so many
+speeches were made that the Admirals had to be asked
+to postpone their appearance for two hours; and at
+eleven o'clock, with the street well guarded against a
+possible outbreak on the part of any loyal troops, the whole
+Yugoslav committee, accompanied by one member of
+the Italian committee, went to the Admiralty. Horthy
+had gone home, but Cicoli and his whole staff were
+waiting. The old gentleman was informed that he no
+longer had any power in his hands; he was asked to
+give up his post to Koch, and this he was prepared to do.
+"It is not so hard for me now," he said, "as I have
+meanwhile received a telegram from His Majesty, ordering
+me," and at this point he produced the paper, "to give
+up Pola to the Yugoslavs." The affair had apparently
+been settled between nine and eleven o'clock. Cicoli
+was ready to sign the protocol, but out of courtesy to a
+chivalrous old man this was left undone; after all there
+were witnesses enough.</p>
+
+<p>During the night of October 30th-31st, a radiogram,
+destined for President Wilson, was composed. "Together
+with the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles, and in understanding,"
+it said, "with the Italians, we have taken
+over the fleet and Pola, the war-harbour, and the forts."
+It asked for the dispatch of representatives of such
+Entente States as were disinterested in the local national
+question. But now a telegram was received from Zagreb,
+announcing that Dr. Ante Tresi&#263;-Pavi&#269;i&#263;, of the chief
+National Council, would be at Pola at 8 a.m. and that,
+pending his arrival, no wireless was to be sent out. Dr.
+Tresi&#263;-Pavi&#269;i&#263;,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> poet and deputy for the lower Dalmatian
+islands, had always been, in spite of his indifferent health,
+one of the most strenuous fighters for Yugoslavia. Two
+years of the War he spent in an Austrian prison, but on
+his release he managed to travel up and down Croatia
+and Dalmatia, inciting the Yugoslav sailors to revolt;
+many of them had already read a speech by this silver-tongued
+deputy in the Reichsrath, a speech of which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>the reading and circulation had been forbidden as a crime
+of high treason. About 9 a.m. of the 31st there was a
+meeting, on board the <i>Viribus Unitis</i>, between Tresi&#263;-Pavi&#269;i&#263;
+and Koch. There was a brief ceremony, the
+leader of the Sailors' Council handing over the vessel
+to the deputy, as representing the National Council of
+Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Admiral Horthy, in his
+cabin, likewise drew up a <i>proc&egrave;s-verbal</i> to the same
+effect, saying that he was authorized to do this by the
+Emperor, and he supported his statement by the production
+of a wireless message. Koch urged on the doctor
+the necessity of sending the above-mentioned wireless
+to Wilson. "The news of this great event," says Tresi&#263;-Pavi&#269;i&#263;
+in an article in the <i>Balkan Review</i> (May 1919),
+"was dispatched to all the Powers by wireless." But
+unfortunately he seems, whether on his own responsibility
+or that of Zagreb, to have prevented Koch from sending
+it on that day. Captain Janko de Vukovi&#263; Podkapelski
+was then placed in command of the fleet, though the
+Sailors' Council at first declined to accept him. He was
+at heart a patriot, but had taken no active part in Yugoslav
+propaganda and, unluckily for himself, he had been
+compelled to accompany Count Tisza in his recent ill-starred
+tour of Bosnia, when the Magyar leader made a
+last attempt to browbeat the local Slavs. Yet, as no
+other high officer was available, Koch told the Sailors'
+Council that they simply must acknowledge Vukovi&#263;,
+and at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav
+flag being hoisted on all the vessels simultaneously, to
+the accompaniment of the Croatian national anthem and
+the firing of salutes.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS UNITIS"</p>
+
+<p>Three hours previously to this a torpedo-boat, with
+Paolucci and Rossetti on board, had sailed from Venice;
+and at ten o'clock in the evening, as Paolucci tells us,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> he
+and his companion, after a certain amount of embracing,
+handshaking, saluting and loyal exclamations, plunged
+into the water. The first obstacle was a wooden pier
+upon which sentries were marching to and fro; this
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>was safely passed by means of two hats shaped like
+bottles, which Paolucci and Rossetti now put on. The
+bombs were submerged, and thus the sentry saw nothing
+but a couple of bottles being tossed about by the waves.
+A row of wooden beams, bearing a thin electric wire, had
+then to be negotiated, and the last obstacle consisted of
+half a dozen steel nets which had laboriously to be disconnected
+from the cables which held them. It was now
+nearly six o'clock; the two men cautiously approached
+the <i>Viribus Unitis</i> and fixed one of their bombs just
+below the water-line, underneath the ladder conducting
+to the deck. Paolucci simply records, without comment,
+that the ship was illuminated; perhaps he and his friend
+were too tired to make the obvious deduction that the
+hourly-expected end of the War had really arrived. A
+number of officers from other ships had remained on the
+<i>Viribus Unitis</i> after the previous evening's ceremony;
+but the look-out, seeing the Italians in the water, must
+have thought it was eccentric of them to come swimming
+out at this hour to join in the festivities. A motor-launch
+soon picked them up and they were brought on
+board the flag-ship. "Viva l'Italia!" they shouted,
+for they were proud of dying for their country. "Viva
+l'Italia!" replied some of the crew to this pair of allied
+officers. When they were conducted to Captain Vukovi&#263;
+they told him that his vessel would in a short time be
+blown up. The order was given to abandon ship, and
+Paolucci and his friend relate<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> that when they asked the
+captain if they might also try to save themselves he shook
+them both by the hand, saying that they were brave men
+and that they deserved to live. So they plunged into
+the water and swam rapidly away, but a few minutes
+later they were picked up by a launch and taken back,
+the captain having suddenly begun to suspect, they said,
+that the story of the bomb was untrue. They were
+again made to walk up the ladder, under which lay the
+explosives. It was then 6.28. The ladder was crowded
+with sailors who were also returning to their ship. "Run,
+run for your lives," shouted Paolucci. At last his foot
+touched the deck, and then he and Rossetti ran as fast
+as they could to the stern. Hardly had they got there
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>than a terrific explosion rent the air, and a column of
+water shot three hundred feet straight up into the sky.
+Paolucci and Rossetti were again in the water, and looking
+back they saw a man scramble up the side of the vessel,
+which had now turned completely over, with her keel
+uppermost. There on the keel stood this man, with
+folded arms. It was Vukovi&#263;, who had insisted on going
+down with his ship. About fifty other men were killed.</p>
+
+<p>When Koch came out of his house, feeling that there
+must be no more delay in sending the radiogram to
+President Wilson, a young Italian Socialist ran up to him
+in the street and told him of the fate of the flagship. As
+the news spread everyone thought it must be the work
+of some Austrian officers. It was feared that they would
+explode the arsenal, and that would have meant the
+destruction of the whole town. Amid the uproar and
+chaos, Koch had placards distributed, saying that the
+<i>Viribus Unitis</i> had been torpedoed by two Italians, who
+were in custody. And then the wireless was sent to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>The two officers were taken to the Admiralty and then
+placed on the dreadnought <i>Prince Eugene</i>, it being
+rumoured that the Italians of Pola intended to rescue
+them. Subsequently Koch and other officers, together
+with Dr. Stani&#263;, President of the Italian National Council,
+went out to see the prisoners. Stani&#263; was left alone with
+them for as long as he wished. And when Koch saw them&mdash;he
+did not then shake hands&mdash;and asked if they knew
+what they had done, "I know it," replied Rossetti rather
+arrogantly. Paolucci's demeanour was more modest.</p>
+
+<p>"I was your friend all through the War," said Koch,
+"and now you sink our ships. I can only assume that
+you were ignorant of what had taken place."</p>
+
+<p>They said that that was so.</p>
+
+<p>"But if you had known," said the Admiral to Rossetti,
+"would you have done this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered. "I am an officer. I had my
+orders to blow up the ship and I would have obeyed them."</p>
+
+<p>Koch had undertaken that if it turned out that they
+were unaware of the ship's transference to the Yugoslavs
+he would kiss them both. He did so, and allowed them
+to communicate with Italy by wireless.</p>
+
+<p>Never, says Koch, will the unpleasant taste of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+kisses leave his mouth. The men were officers; their
+words could not be doubted. But as they must surely
+have been in Venice for at least a day or two before
+October 31, it seems extraordinary that they did not
+hear, via Triest, of what the Emperor Charles was doing
+with his navy. If only they had perfected their invention
+and learned to swim a trifle sooner there would be
+no shadow cast on their achievement, but the Yugoslavs&mdash;who
+had never seen any sort of Italian naval attack
+on Pola during the War&mdash;could not be blamed for thinking
+that the disappearance of their <i>Viribus Unitis</i> would
+be viewed with equanimity by the Italians.... With
+regard to the other vessels, it was arranged in Paris that
+they should proceed, under the white flag, to Corfu with
+Yugoslav commanders; but this was found impossible,
+as they were undermanned. Part of the fleet arrived
+at Kotor and was placed at the disposal of the commander
+of the Yugoslav detachment of the Allied forces
+which had come from Macedonia. A serious episode
+occurred at Pola, where on November 5 an Italian squadron
+arrived and demanded the surrender of the ships. The
+Yugoslav commander succeeded in sending by wireless
+a strong protest to Paris against this barefaced violation
+of the agreement. The Italian commander, Admiral
+Cagni, likewise sent a protest, but Clemenceau upheld
+the Yugoslavs. They were absolutely masters of the
+ex-Austro-Hungarian fleet; it rested solely with them
+either to sink it or hand it over to the Allies in good
+condition. The Yugoslavs did not sink the fleet, because
+they wished to show their loyalty to, and confidence in,
+the justice of the Allies. They never suspected at that
+time that the ships would not be shared at least equally
+between themselves and the Italians. But in December
+1919 the Supreme Council in Paris allotted to the Yugoslavs
+twelve disarmed torpedo-boats for policing and
+patrolling their coasts.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA</p>
+
+<p>Admiral Cagni was invited by the Yugoslavs to enter
+the harbour of Pola. But for two and a half days he hesitated
+outside and heavily bombarded the hill-fortress of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+Barbarica, which had been abandoned. At last he made
+up his mind to risk a landing. The Italian girls of Pola,
+dressed in white, came down in a procession to the port;
+their arms were full of flowers for the Italian sailors.
+And the first men who disembarked were buried in flowers
+and kissed and kissed before the girls perceived that, by
+a prudent Italian arrangement, this advance guard consisted
+of men of the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The first
+care of the Italians at Pola was not to ascertain the
+whereabouts of the munition depots; they made for the
+naval museum, where trophies from the battle of Vis
+in 1866 were preserved. These they removed, as well
+as whatever took their fancy at the Arsenal. Among
+their booty was a silver dinner service which it had been
+customary to use on occasions of Imperial visits. An
+Italian officer appeared on the <i>Radetzky</i>. Very roughly
+he asked an officer who he was. "I am the commander,"
+said this first-lieutenant. "No! no!" said the other,
+"I am that." But the Italians for the most part avoided
+going on board the ships.... Admiral Cagni himself
+was very ill at ease, but grew noticeably more confident
+as he observed the utter demoralization of Pola. His
+correspondence likewise underwent the appropriate
+changes. While Koch was in command of 45,000 men,
+Cagni wrote to "His Excellency the most illustrious
+Signor Ammiraglio"; when the numbers were reduced
+to 20,000 the style of address was "Illustrious Signor
+Ammiraglio"; when they fell to 10,000 it became "Al
+Signor Ammiraglio"; when only 5000 remained a letter
+began with the word "Ammiraglio!" and when the
+last man had left Pola and Koch was alone, Cagni sent
+word through his adjutant that he knew no Admiral
+Koch but merely a Signor Koch.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS</p>
+
+<p>Talking of numbers, one may mention that the Yugoslavs
+formed about 65 per cent. of the Austro-Hungarian
+navy, as one would naturally expect from the sea-faring
+population of Dalmatia and Istria. In the technical
+branches of the service only about 40 per cent. were
+Yugoslavs, for a preference was given to Germans and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+Magyars. Out of 116 chief engineers only two were
+Yugoslavs. Serbo-Croat was an obligatory language;
+but German, as in the army, was the language of command.
+Thus one sees that, in spite of not being favoured,
+the Yugoslavs of the Adriatic, who are natural sailors,
+constituted more than half the personnel of the navy.
+"These Slav people," writes Mr. Hilaire Belloc,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> who
+took the trouble to go to the Adriatic with a view to
+solving the local problems, "these Slav people have only
+tentatively approached the sea. Its traffic was never
+native to them." If he had continued a little way down
+the coast he would have seen many and many a neat
+little house whose owners are retired sea-captains. "They
+are not mariners," says Mr. Belloc. If he had made a
+small excursion into history he would have learned that
+Venice&mdash;since it was to her own advantage&mdash;made an
+exception of Dalmatia's shipping industry, and while she
+was placing obstacles along the roads that a Dalmatian
+might wish to take, allowed the time-honoured industries
+of the sea to be developed. Such fine sailors were the
+Dalmatians that Benedetto Pesaro, the Venetian Admiral
+against the Turks in the fifteenth century, deplored the
+fact that his galleys were not fully manned by them,
+instead of those "Lombardi" whom he despised. "They
+are," says Mr. John Leyland,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> the naval authority&mdash;they
+are "pre-eminently a maritime race. The circumstances
+of their geography, and in a chief degree the wonderful
+configuration of their coast-line, with its sheltered
+waters and admirable anchorages, made them sea-farers....
+The proud Venetians knew them as pirates and
+marauders long ago." And "there has never been a
+better seaman," adds Mr. Leyland, "than the pirate
+turned trader." In 1780 the island of Bra&#269; had forty
+vessels, Lussin a hundred, and Kotor, which in the second
+half of the eighteenth century quadrupled her mercantile
+marine, had a much larger fleet than either of them.
+The best-known dockyards were those at Kor&#269;ula and
+Trogir, while the great Overseas Sailing Ship Navigation
+Company at Peljesac (Sabioncello) occupied an important
+position in the world of trade. The company's fleet of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>large sailing vessels was of native construction; both
+crews and captains were natives of the country, so that
+it was in every way the best representative of the Dalmatian
+mercantile marine of the period. When the
+Treaty of Vienna in 1815 gave Venice, Istria and the
+Eastern Adriatic to the Habsburgs the vessels plying in
+those waters were very largely Slav. And with the substitution
+of steam the Dalmatians are still holding their
+own, with this difference, that the ships are now built,
+even as they are manned, not by nobles and the wealthy
+<i>bourgeoisie</i>, but by men who come from modest sea-faring
+or peasant families. In the Austrian mercantile
+marine German capital formed 47&middot;82 per cent., Italian
+capital 19&middot;37 per cent. and Slav capital 31&middot;80 per cent.
+One of these Dalmatian Slavs, Mihanovi&#263;, going out in
+poverty to the Argentine, has followed with such success
+the shipbuilding of his ancestors that he is now among
+the chief millionaires of Buenos Aires. With regard to
+fishing, there are along the Istrian and Dalmatian coast
+more than 5000 small vessels which give employment
+to 19,000 fishermen, of whom only 1000 are citizens of
+Italy. But Mr. Belloc says that these Slav people have
+only tentatively approached the sea, that its traffic was
+never native to them, and that they are not mariners. It
+is marvellous that you can be paid for writing that sort of
+stuff.... By Mr. Belloc's side is the Marchese Donghi,
+who in the <i>Fortnightly Review</i> of June 1922 says: "It is
+superfluous to add that everything which has to do with
+navigation [in Dalmatia] is entirely in the hands of the
+Italians." But I think it is superfluous to contradict a
+gentleman who ingenuously believes that Dalmatia is
+largely Italian because on our maps we have hitherto
+used Italian place-names. Will he say that the population
+of Praha is not Czech because on our maps that
+capital is commonly called Prague? It pleases the
+Marchese to be facetious about what he describes as
+"that queer thing called the Srba Hrvata i Slovenca
+Kralji (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes)"; he
+should have said "Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca."
+He says that in Serbia "no industry is possible," whereas
+in one single town, Lescovac, there are no less than
+eleven textile besides other factories. He says that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+one-third of the population of Dalmatia is Italian, and
+"almost exclusively the nobility and the upper <i>bourgeoisie</i>."
+I suppose that is why more than 700 of Dalmatia's leading
+citizens were deported by the Italians after the Great
+War. He says many other nonsensical things, and sums
+it all up by telling us of the "bewildered incomprehension"
+of the Adriatic problem!</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHO SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH</p>
+
+<p>Whether rightly or wrongly, the Yugoslavs had formed
+their opinion of the Italian sailors, an opinion which dated
+from the time of Tegetthoff and had not undergone much
+modification by the incidents of this War. They remembered
+what had happened when they cruised outside
+Italian ports; they knew very probably that the British
+had on more than one occasion to break through the
+boom outside Taranto harbour, and they may have read<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+of the experience of some French ladies who came to the
+Albanian coast on the <i>Citt&agrave; di Bari</i> towards the end of
+1915 with 2000 kilos of milk, clothing and medical supplies
+for the Serbian children who had struggled across the
+mountains. These ladies write that after the torpedoing
+of the <i>Brindisi</i> their own crew ran up and down without
+appearing to see them; the crew had life-belts, those
+of the ladies were taken away. Ultimately they succeeded
+in having themselves put ashore, and the <i>Citt&agrave; di
+Bari</i> fled in the night without landing the stores. And
+in Albania, the ladies say, one witnessed the "stoic
+endurance of the noble Serbian race, of which every day
+brought us more examples. In that procession of ghosts
+and of the dying there was no imploring look, there was
+no hand stretched out to beg." ... The Yugoslavs may
+have known what happened to Lieutenant (now Captain)
+Binnos de Pombara of the French navy. This officer,
+in command of the <i>Fourche</i>, had been escorting the <i>Citt&agrave;
+di Messina</i> and, observing that she was torpedoed, had
+sent to her, perhaps a little imprudently, all his life-boats
+and belts. A few minutes later, when he was himself
+torpedoed, the Italians did not see him; anyhow they
+made for the shore. De Pombara encouraged his men
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>by causing them to sing the Marseillaise and so forth;
+they were in the water, clinging to the wreckage, for
+several hours, until another boat came past. The next
+day at Brindisi, when he met the captain of the <i>Citt&agrave; di
+Messina</i>, this gentleman once more did not see him;
+but the French Government, although de Pombara was
+a very young man, created him an officer of the Legion
+of Honour.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO PRECAUTIONS</p>
+
+<p>There was thus a certain amount of tension existing
+between the military and naval services of the Yugoslavs
+and those of Italy. Other Yugoslavs were apprehensive
+as to whether the Italians would not demand the enforcement
+of the Treaty of London. But the United
+States was not bound by that agreement, which was so
+completely at variance with Wilson's principle of self-determination.
+One presumed that, pending an examination
+of these matters, the disputed territories would be
+occupied by troops of all the Allies. But unfortunately
+this did not turn out to be the case. France, Britain
+and America stood by, while the Italians and the Yugoslavs
+took whatsoever they could lay their hands on. As the
+Yugoslav military forces had to come overland, while
+the Italians had command of the sea, it was natural
+that in most places the Italians got the better of the
+scramble; and where they found the Yugoslavs in possession,
+as at Rieka, they usually ousted them by diplomatic
+methods. And in one way or another they managed to
+make their holdings tally, as far as possible, with the
+Treaty of London, and even to go beyond it. Baron
+Sonnino declined to make a comprehensive statement
+as to the Italian programme. Of course he desired in
+the end to exchange Dalmatia&mdash;the seizure of which
+would entail a war with Yugoslavia&mdash;against Rieka.
+But as Italian public opinion had scarcely thought of
+Rieka during the War, he made it his business to cause
+them to yearn for that town. His compatriots were
+asking why Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points should be waived
+for France in the Sarre Basin, for Britain in Ireland and
+Egypt, but not for them. And some of his would-be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+ingenious compatriots pointed out&mdash;their contentions
+were embodied in the Italian Memorandum to the Supreme
+Council on January 10, 1920&mdash;that as the Treaty of London
+was based on the presumption that Montenegro, Serbia
+and Croatia would remain separate States, this instrument
+had been altogether upset by the merging of those
+Southern Slavs into one country, Yugoslavia; it followed,
+therefore, that the Treaty which attributed Rieka to
+the Croats could no longer be invoked. But the other
+parts of the Treaty which gave the Slav mainland and
+islands to Italy were absolutely unassailable. The
+reader will resent being troubled by this kind of balderdash,
+but Messrs. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George and Wilson
+may have resented it even more.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ITALIAN MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS</p>
+
+<p>On November 3 the Italians arrived outside Vis
+(Lissa), the most westerly of the large islands, where
+the entire population of 11,000 is Slav, except for the
+family of an honoured inhabitant, Dr. Doimi, and three
+other families related to his. Dr. Doimi's people have
+lived for many years on this island&mdash;his father was mayor
+of the capital, which is also called Vis, for half a century&mdash;and
+now they have become so acclimatized that, as
+he told me, three of his four nephews prefer to call themselves
+Yugoslavs. This phenomenon can be seen all
+down the Adriatic coast. It has often, for example,
+been pointed out to Dr. Vio, the very Italian ex-mayor
+of Rieka, that he has a Croat father and several Croat
+brothers. Thus also the Duimi&#263; family of the same town
+has one brother married to a Magyar lady and very fond
+of the Magyars, a second brother who is a Professor at
+Milan, and a third who lives above Rieka and is a Yugoslav.
+The terms "Yugoslav" and "Italian" have now come
+to signify not what a man is, but what he wants to be,
+applying thus the admirable principle of self-determination.
+Well, in the old days on the isle of Vis between
+two and three hundred people belonged to the Autonomist
+party, owing to their great regard for Dr. Doimi; but
+these say now that they are Yugoslavs, and the Italians&mdash;at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+all events Captain Sportiello, their chief officer at
+Vis&mdash;acknowledged that they must base their demand on
+strategic reasons. A day or two before the Italians
+arrived the population had arrested several Austrian
+functionaries, including the mayor and three gendarmes,
+who had maltreated them during the War. None of these
+persons were Italian; and when the Italian boats were
+sighted a committee went to meet them joyfully and
+brought the officers ashore upon their backs. The
+officers explained that they had come as representatives
+of the Entente and the United States, and for the object&mdash;which
+appeared superfluous&mdash;of protecting Vis from
+German submarines. If the Italians had been everywhere
+as inoffensive as at Vis, it would be more agreeable to
+write about their doings. Captain Sportiello, a naval
+officer, showed himself throughout the months of his
+administration to be sensible; he frequented Yugoslav
+houses. The greatest divergence occurred on June 1,
+1919, when the Italians planned to have a demonstration
+for their national holiday, and asked the inhabitants to
+come to the bioscope, where they would be regaled with
+cakes and sweets; the inhabitants replied that they
+preferred to have Yugoslavia.... But there is a monument
+in the cemetery at Vis to which I must refer. It
+is a very fine monument of white marble, erected by the
+Austrians to commemorate their victory in these waters
+over the Italian navy in 1866.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> On the top there is a
+lion clutching the Italian flag, while on two of the sides
+there are inscriptions in the German language. One of
+them, some feet in length, relates that this memorial is
+placed there for the officers and men who on July 20,
+1866, gave their lives in the service of their Emperor
+and country. The Italians screwed two marble slabs
+across the upper and the lower parts of this inscription, so
+that the German lettering of the central part remained
+visible; on the lower slab one read: "Novembre 1918"
+and on the upper one "Italia Vincitrice" (Victorious
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>Italy). We were taken by several Italian officers to look
+at this. They were so proud of it that they presented us
+with photographs of the monument in its altered state.
+I fear that the Italian mentality escapes me. I should
+not have written anything about them.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THEIR TRUCULENCE AT KOR&#268;ULA</p>
+
+<p>They landed on the same day, November 3, on the
+beautiful and prosperous island of Kor&#269;ula (Curzola),
+putting ashore at Velaluka, the western harbour. With
+the exception of five families, all the people are Yugoslavs;
+and the Italians, who sailed in under a white flag,
+announced that they had come as friends of the Yugoslavs
+and of the Entente, to preserve order and to protect
+them against submarines. On the 5th, they went to
+the town of Kor&#269;ula, where one of the two officers,
+Lieutenant Poggi, of the navy, put his assurances in
+writing, as he had done at Velaluka. He protested
+against the word "Occupation." On the 7th they returned
+to Velaluka and on the 12th went back, with
+about a hundred men, to Kor&#269;ula. Once more he wrote
+that he had not come to occupy the island; he added,
+though, that the district officials should act on the
+opposite peninsula of Sabioncello in the name of the Yugoslavs,
+but over Kor&#269;ula and the island of Lastovo (Lagosta)
+in the name of Italy&mdash;not of the Entente. He wanted
+to remove the Yugoslav flags from public buildings and
+substitute Italian flags. When he was reminded of what
+he had said with regard to the Entente, he exclaimed:
+"No, no! This is Italy!" The chief district official
+protested, and refused to carry out Lieut. Poggi's injunctions,
+nor were the Italians able to do so. This officer
+remained at Kor&#269;ula, requisitioning houses and hoisting
+as many Italian flags as he could. He issued an order
+that after 6.30 p.m. not more than three persons were
+allowed to come together in the streets. His men used
+to offer food to the women of the place, who declined it;
+after which the food was given to the children, who were
+previously photographed in an imploring attitude. There
+was some trouble on December 15 when the <i>Leonidas</i>,
+an American ship, came in with a number of mine-sweepers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+Apparently the Yugoslavs contravened the Italian regulations
+by omitting to ask whether their band might play
+in the harbour, but, on the supposition that this would
+not be accorded to them, went down to the harbour just
+as if they were not living under regulations. They
+waved American, Serbian and Croatian flags, all of which
+the Italians attempted to seize; the most gorgeous one,
+a Yugoslav flag of silk with gilt fringes, they tore up
+and divided among themselves as a trophy. When the
+<i>Leonidas</i> made fast, a lieutenant leaped ashore and
+placed himself, holding a revolver, in front of an American
+flag. The captain, according to some reports, had his
+men standing to their guns, while others of the crew are
+said to have been given hand-grenades; but whether
+by this method or another, the turbulence on shore was
+calmed and the Italians seem to have invited the captain
+to step off his boat. He preferred, however, to go to
+another port; the populace came overland. One need
+not say that there was jollification.... When the other
+American boats departed, a small one remained at
+Kor&#269;ula. One day a steamer came from Metkovi&#263;,
+having on board a few men of the Yugoslav Legion.
+The people of Kor&#269;ula, not being allowed to take the
+men to their houses, came down quietly to the harbour
+with coffee and bread, but the carabinieri drove them
+away. These legionaries were emigrants to Australia
+and Canada, who had come back to fight for the Entente,
+including Italy. The Italians wanted to arrest them all
+on account of a small Croatian flag which one of them
+was holding, but at the request of the American ship
+they refrained. A certain Marko &#352;imunovi&#263;, who had
+gone to Australia from the Kor&#269;ula village of Ra&#269;i&#353;ca,
+went over to speak to the sailors on the American boat.
+Because of this the carabinieri took him to the military
+headquarters. He was interned for several months in
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>The long island of Hvar (Lesina) was not occupied
+until November 13. It is interesting, by the by, to note
+how this island came to have its names. In the time of
+the Greek colonists it was known as &#8001; &#966;&#7937;&#961;&#959;&#962;, which subsequently
+became Farra or Quarra, leading to the name
+Hvar, by which it is known to the Slavs. They also,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+in the thirteenth century, gave it an alternative name:
+Lesna, from the Slav word signifying "wooded," for
+the Venetians had not yet despoiled the island of many of
+its forests. Lesna was the popular and Hvar the literary
+name; and the Italians, taking the former of these,
+coined the word Lesina, the sound of which makes many
+of them and of other people think that this is an Italian
+island.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The question of Slav and Italian geographical
+names in Dalmatia has been carefully investigated by a
+student at Split. Taking the zone which was made over
+to the Italians by the Treaty of London, he found that
+with the exception of a reef called Maon, alongside the
+island of Pago, every island, village, mountain and river
+has a Slav name, whereas out of the total of 114 names
+there were 64 which have no names in Italian; and
+this is giving the Italians credit for such words as Sebenico,
+Zemonico and so forth, which in the opinion of philologists
+are merely modifications of the original &#352;ibenik, Zemunik,
+etc.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">AND ON HVAR</p>
+
+<p>At Starigrad on Hvar the Italians also said that they
+were representatives of the Entente, but soon they prohibited
+the national colours. Being perhaps aware that
+in the whole island, with its population of about 20,000,
+there were before the War only four or five Italians who
+were engaged in selling fruit, their countrymen in November
+1918 did their best, by the distribution of other
+commodities&mdash;rice, flour and macaroni&mdash;to make some
+more Italians. They succeeded at Starigrad in obtaining
+fifteen or twenty recruits. And they made it obvious
+that it would be more comfortable to be an Italian than
+a Yugoslav. The local Reading-Rooms, whose committee
+had received no previous warning, fell so greatly under
+the displeasure of the Italians that one night after ten
+o'clock&mdash;at which time curfew sounded for the Yugoslavs;
+the Italians and their friends could stay out until
+any hour&mdash;the premises were sacked: knives were used
+against the pictures, furniture was taken by assault, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>mirrors did not long resist the fine &eacute;lan of the attacking
+party. Old vases, other ornaments and books were
+thrown into the harbour near the <i>Sirio</i>, the Italian destroyer
+which was anchored ten yards from the Reading-Rooms.
+Of course there was an inquiry; the result of
+it was that several Yugoslavs (and no others) were imprisoned.
+The <i>Sirio's</i> commander was a gentleman of
+some activity; he sent a telegram to Rome and another
+one to Admiral Millo, the Italian Governor of the occupied
+parts of Dalmatia, saying that the people of the island
+longed for annexation. These telegrams he read aloud
+before the islanders, with all his carabinieri in attendance....
+The old-world capital of the island, which is a
+smaller place than Starigrad, was occupied on the same
+day. The first serious encounter took place on December
+4, when the Italians, who were quartered on the upper
+floor of the Sokol or gymnastic club, observed that furniture
+was being taken from the rooms below them and was
+being carried out into the street. If they had asked the
+people what they were about they would have heard
+that these things had been stored in the gymnasium during
+the War and that the place was now to be devoted to its
+original purpose. What they did was to believe at once
+the yarn of a renegade, who told them that the people
+were preparing to blow up the house. The Italians
+opened fire, wounded several persons and killed one of
+their own carabinieri.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR</p>
+
+<p>On the mainland the Italians were received at &#352;ibenik
+with some suspicion. They announced, however, that
+they came as representatives of the Allies, and begged for
+a pilot who would take them into &#352;ibenik's land-locked
+harbour, through the mine-field. The Yugoslavs consented,
+and after the Italians had installed themselves
+they requisitioned sixty Austrian merchant vessels which
+were lying in that harbour. (They left, as a matter of
+fact, to the Yugoslavs out of all the ex-Austrian mercantile
+fleet exactly four old boats&mdash;<i>Sebenico</i>, <i>Lussin</i>, <i>Mossor</i>
+and <i>Dinara</i>&mdash;with a total displacement of 390 tons.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+On the other hand, at Zadar, they were received in a very
+friendly fashion. In this town, as it had been the seat
+of government, with numerous officials and their families,
+the Autonomist anti-Croat party had been, under Austria,
+more powerful than in any other town in Dalmatia. With
+converts coming in from the country, which is entirely
+Slav, the Autonomists in Zadar had become well over half
+the population,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> which is about 14,000, that of the surrounding
+district being about 23,000. Zadar was thus a
+place apart from the rest of Dalmatia, and although the
+Dalmatian Autonomists were unable to claim any of the
+eleven deputies who went to Vienna, they managed to be
+represented in the provincial Chamber&mdash;the Landtag&mdash;by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>six out of the forty-one members. The Landtag was not
+elected on the basis of universal suffrage; four out of these
+six members were chosen by large landowners, one (Dr.
+Ziliotto, the mayor) by the town of Zadar and one by
+the Zadar chamber of commerce. Out of the eighty-six
+communes of Dalmatia, Zadar was the solitary one that
+was Autonomist. Some very few Autonomists were wont
+to say that they aspired to union with Italy, but it was
+generally thought that most of them agreed with Dr.
+Ziliotto when he said in the Landtag in 1906: "We,
+separated from Italy by the whole Adriatic&mdash;we a few
+thousand men, scattered, with no territorial links, among
+a population not of hundreds of thousands but of millions
+of Slavs, how could we think of union with Italy?"
+And Dr. Ziliotto was one of those who always regarded
+himself as an Italian. But whether the Zadar Autonomists
+were sincere or not when Austria ruled over them, the
+large majority of them hung out Italian colours after the
+War, and in this they were undoubtedly sincere, although
+the motives varied; in some it was the love of Italy, in
+some it was ambition and in some a thirst for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>[Although both Yugoslavs and Italians criticize the
+Austrian figures, it is probable that they are pretty
+accurate. The census of 1910 gave for Dalmatia:
+610,669 Serbo-Croats, 18,028 Italians, 3081 Germans and
+1410 Czecho-Slovaks. The Autonomist party claimed
+that they were not 18,028 but 30,000; and that 150,000
+persons in Dalmatia speak Italian. But the Orlando-Sonnino
+Government really did try its utmost to improve
+these figures. At the end of November 1918 the Italians,
+who had charge of the police at Constantinople, put up
+notices asking all Austrian subjects from Dalmatia to
+inscribe themselves with the authorities and thus receive
+protection. In addition to the ordinary large Yugoslav
+population, the Austrian army was still there, and two
+of its officers, in uniform, inscribed themselves. The
+Italians had to endure not a few rebuffs, for they applied
+to people at their houses&mdash;they had found the nationality
+lists at the police offices. The Dutch were looking after
+Yugoslav interests, but received no instructions.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHAT THEY DID THERE</p>
+
+<p>It was thought at Zadar that the Italians would be
+followed in the course of days by the other Allies. Anyhow
+the Yugoslavs were in no carping spirit; about 5000
+of them assembled to greet the Italian destroyer; they
+were, in fact, more numerous than the Italians. And
+perhaps one should record that on this memorable occasion&mdash;it
+was at an early hour&mdash;Dr. Ziliotto had to complete
+his toilette as he ran down to the quay. Soon the Italian
+captain, shouldered by the crowd, was flourishing two
+flags, the Italian and the Yugoslav&mdash;although his country
+had, of course, not recognized Yugoslavia. For a little
+time it was the colour of roses, and the worm that crept
+into this paradise seems to have been a Japanese warship
+in whose presence each of the two parties wished to demonstrate
+how powerful it was. The carabinieri resolved
+to maintain order, and as an inmate of the seminary
+made, they said, an unpolished gesture at them from a
+window they went off and, with some reinforcements,
+broke into the Slav Reading-Room and damaged it considerably.
+The Italian officers and men at Zadar went
+about their duties for some time without permitting
+themselves to be drawn into local politics, but they were
+told repeatedly that the Slavs are goats and barbarians,
+so that at last the men appear to have concluded that
+strong measures were required. Some of them mingled,
+in civilian clothes, with the unruly elements, and Zadar's
+narrow streets became most hazardous for Yugoslav
+pedestrians. Girls and men alike were roughly handled;
+thrice in one day, for example, a professor&mdash;Dr. Stoikevi&#263;&mdash;had
+his ears boxed as he went to or was coming from his
+school. Yet Zadar is a dignified old place; the chief
+men of the town and the Italian officers did what they
+could to keep it so. But away from their control some
+deeds of truculence occurred. The prison warders, as
+the spirit moved them, forced the Slavs there to be quiet,
+or to shout "Viva Italia!" Most of the Slavs were in
+the gaol for having had in their possession Austrian paper
+money stamped by the Yugoslav authorities; these notes
+were subsequently declared by the Italians to be illegal;
+but if a man came from Croatia, for example, and had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+nothing else, it was a trifle harsh to lock him up and confiscate
+the money. Eight good people went to Zadar
+prison owing to the fact that near the ancient town of
+Biograd they had been sitting underneath the olive trees
+and singing Croat folk-songs. Nor was it much in keeping
+with Zadar's dignity when the "Ufficio Propaganda" put
+out a large red placard which invited boys between the
+ages of nine and seventeen to join in establishing a "Corpo
+Nazionale dei giovani esploratori"&mdash;that is to say, an association
+of boy scouts. It is superfluous to inquire as to
+why these boys were mustered.... When the Austrians
+collapsed, a few old rifles were seized by the Italians and
+the Croats, the latter having fifteen or twenty which they
+hid in various villages. A priest and a medical student
+were privy to this fearful crime. A hue and cry was
+raised by the carabinieri&mdash;the priest vanished, the student
+jumped out of a window of his house and also vanished.
+But the carabinieri would not be denied. They suspected
+that the Albanians of the neighbouring village of Borgo
+Erizzo were abetting the Slavs. It was necessary, therefore,
+to castigate them. The 2500 inhabitants of Borgo
+Erizzo, nearly all of them Albanians who speak their own
+language and Serbo-Croat, while 5 per cent. also speak
+Italian, used to be divided in their sympathies before the
+War&mdash;75 per cent. being adherents of the Slavs in Zadar
+and 25 per cent. of the Autonomists. Now they have,
+excepting 5 per cent., gone over to the Slavs, and as they
+have retained some of the habits of their ancestors, they
+were not going to let the hostile forces win an easy victory.
+A student marched in front of the Italians, then about
+ten carabinieri, then a few ranks of soldiers, and then the
+mob of Zadar. The Albanians were in two groups, twenty
+sheltering behind walls to the right of the road and twenty
+to the left; they were armed with stones, their women
+folk were bringing them relays of these. The encounter
+ended in three carabinieri and seven or eight soldiers
+being wounded. In order to avenge this defeat one
+Duka, who is by birth an Albanian and is a teacher at
+the Italian "Liga" school, which was built a few years
+ago at Borgo Erizzo, determined on the next afternoon to
+attack the Teachers' Institute, which is situated 400 steps
+from his own establishment, and which on the previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+day had shown a strong defence. He led the attack in
+person, firing his revolver. But the casualties were light.
+The Teachers' Institute was, after this, occupied by the
+military, and Admiral Millo paid a complimentary visit to
+Duka at his school.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding up the Adriatic we come to the Quarnero
+Islands, of which the most considerable is Krk (Veglia).
+The whole district had, at the last census, 19,562 inhabitants
+whose ordinary language was Serbo-Croat, and 1544 who
+commonly spoke Italian. Of these latter the capital,
+likewise called Krk, contained 1494, and only 644 who
+gave themselves out as Slavs. The town, with its tortuous,
+rather wistful streets, was the residence of the Venetian
+officials, and five or six of those old families remain. The
+rest of the 1494 are nearly all Italianized Slavs, who under
+Austria used to call themselves either Austrians of Italian
+tongue or else Istrians. However, if they wish to be
+Italians now, there is none to say them nay. They
+include five out of the twenty officials, and these five
+gentlemen seem to have boldly said before the War that
+it would please them if this island were to be included in
+the Kingdom of Italy. They did not give their Austrian
+rulers many sleepless nights; this confidence in them was
+justified, for during the War they placed themselves in
+the front rank of those who flung defiant words at Italy,
+and one of them enlarged his weapon, copying upon his
+typewriter some Songs of Hate, which probably were sent
+to him from Rieka or Triest. These typewritten sheets
+were then circulated in the island. One of them&mdash;"Con
+le teste degli Italiani"&mdash;had been specially composed for
+children and expressed the intention of playing bowls
+with Italian heads. The songs for adults were less blood-thirsty
+but not less cruel. The Yugoslavs of the island
+must have been engaged in other War work; no songs
+were provided for them.... When Austria collapsed,
+some youths came from Rieka, flourishing their flags and
+sticks, and crying, "Down with Austria!" "Long live
+Italy!" "Long live Yugoslavia!" "Long live King
+Peter!" There was, in fact general goodwill. A Croat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+National Council was formed, and was recognized by the
+Italian party; it introduced a censorship, but as the
+postmaster's allegiance was given to the minority he sent
+a telegram to Triest, asking for bread and protection;
+and on November 15 the <i>Stocco</i> arrived. Other people
+soon departed; the Bishop's chancellor and his chaplain,
+two magistrates and a Custom-house official, were shipped
+off to Italy or Sardinia, while the owner of the typewriter
+flew off as a delegate to Paris, having persuaded the town
+council of the capital to vote a sum of 36,000 crowns for
+his expenses&mdash;but a crown was now worth less than half a
+franc. However, two members of the town council thought
+that it was a waste of money; but when they were
+threatened with internment in Sardinia they withdrew
+their active opposition, and the delegate set out. On the
+way he granted an interview to an Italian journalist, and
+depicted the spontaneous enthusiasm with which the
+islanders had called for Italy. But the journalist had
+heard of the National Council and he asked, very naturally,
+whether it shared these sentiments. "Ha parlato da
+Italiano!" ("I have spoken as an Italian"), replied the
+delegate; and when the newspaper reached the island,
+this cryptic saying was interpreted in various ways, his
+critics pointing out that, as he had diverged from truthfulness,
+this was another little Song of Hate. The Bishop,
+Dr. Mahni&#263;,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> did not go to Italy for several months. He
+was a learned Slovene, an ex-Professor of Gorica University,
+known also as a stern critic of any poetry which was
+not dogmatically religious. He gave vent to his dislike
+of the poetry of Gregor&#269;i&#263; and A&#353;kerc, both of them
+priests. The former, being of a mild disposition, bowed
+before the storm; but A&#353;kerc wrote a cutting satire on
+his critic. The Austrians, disapproving of his religious
+and patriotic activities, thought they would smother him
+by this appointment to a rather out-of-the-way diocese.
+But his influence spread far beyond it, and in the islands
+he was so solicitous for the people's material welfare
+that, for example, he founded savings-banks, which were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>a great success. It was unavoidable, as he was a man of
+character, that he should come into conflict with the
+Italians, for their commanding officer, a naval captain
+of Hungarian origin, was not a suave administrator. He
+charged a priest with making Yugoslav propaganda
+because he catechized the little children in their own
+language; another priest on the island of Unie, which
+forms a part of the diocese, was accused of making propaganda,
+because he has had in his church two statues&mdash;which
+had been there for years&mdash;of SS. Cyril and
+Methodus. They were removed from the church, he put
+them back; finally he was himself expelled and Unie
+remained without a priest. The naval captain was
+irritated by the old Slavonic liturgy, which is used in all
+except four churches of the diocese, but if he could not
+alter this&mdash;Dr. Mahni&#263; referring him to the Pope&mdash;he and
+the Admiral at Pola, Admiral Cagni, could manage with
+some trouble to rid themselves of the bishop. This
+gentleman, who was in his seventieth year and an invalid,
+said that he would perhaps go to Rome after Easter.
+On March 24 the captain told him that the admiral had
+settled he should sail in three days, but the bishop was
+ill. On the 26th the captain returned with a lieutenant
+of carabinieri to ask if the bishop was still ailing; the
+admiral, it seemed, had ordered that two other doctors&mdash;the
+officer of health for the district and an Italian army
+doctor&mdash;should verify the report of the bishop's own
+medical attendant. The three of them quarrelled for
+two hours, but finally they all signed a memorandum that
+the bishop was ill. On the 31st the captain came to say
+that a destroyer would arrive and that it would take the
+bishop wherever he wanted to go, for the Italians had
+made up their minds that go he must. He had objected
+far too vigorously to their methods&mdash;not approving, for
+example, of the written permit which was given in the
+autumn to the people of two villages in Krk, on which it
+stated that these people could supply themselves with
+timber at Grdnje. This was a State forest, rented by a
+certain man; but the Italians acknowledged that what they
+wanted was adherents, and these grateful villagers, if
+there should be a plebiscite, would vote for them. The
+man appealed to justice, but the judge received a verbal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+order not to act. The villagers were given a general amnesty
+on January 1, an Italian flag was hoisted at the judge's
+office&mdash;the judge had gone away. Another transaction
+which the bishop had resented was after a visit paid by
+the captain and another officer of the French warship
+<i>Annamite</i> to the Yugoslav Reading-Rooms at Lo&#353;inj mali
+(Lussinpiccolo); a priest and two other gentlemen had
+escorted their guests to the harbour at 11 p.m.; during
+the night all three were arrested and the priest deported.
+When the <i>Annamite</i> put in at the lofty island of Cres
+(Cherso) and a couple of officers went to the Franciscan
+monastery, it resulted in the monastery being closed and
+the monks removed. Their simple act of courtesy was,
+said the Italians, propaganda. From Lo&#353;inj mali and
+Cres five ladies were collected, four of them being teachers
+and one the wife of the pilot, Sindi&#269;i&#263;. They were guilty
+of having greeted the French, and on account of this were
+taken to the prison at Pola. Afterwards in Venice they
+were kept for six weeks in the company of prostitutes
+and from there they passed to Sardinia, on which island
+they were retained for nine months. As for Dr. Mahni&#263;,
+he set sail on April 4 at 6 a.m. Being asked whither he
+would like to go, he said he wished to be put down at
+Zengg on the mainland. "Excellent," said the Italians;
+but after a few minutes they said they had received a
+radio from Pola that the bishop must be taken to Ancona.
+He was afterwards allowed to live in a monastery near
+Rome.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">UNHAPPY POLA</p>
+
+<p>The Italians had not been two days in Pola&mdash;in which
+arsenal town the population, unlike that of the country,
+mostly uses the Italian language&mdash;when they made
+themselves disliked by both parties. The President of
+the Italian National Council was told by the Admiral that
+an Austrian crown was to be worth forty Italian centesimi.
+This, said the Admiral, was an order from Rome. The
+President explained that this meant ruin for the people
+of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to Rome.
+"I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect.
+Thereupon the President and the colleagues who were
+with him said they would never come again to see the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I will
+have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the
+next day red flags were flying on the arsenal and on the
+day after the Italian troops were taken elsewhere, while
+10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola, in exchange
+for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
+off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal
+from their own native country, which rather places them
+at the mercy of the coal-producing lands, seems to be
+more their misfortune than anybody's fault, yet the
+Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
+against France and Great Britain. Those two countries
+ought, they said, in very decency, to correct the oversights
+of Providence; but no very practical suggestions
+were put forward.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED</p>
+
+<p>According to the Austrian census of 1910 Istria contained
+386,740 inhabitants, of whom 218,854 (or 58&middot;5 per
+cent.) habitually used the Serbo-Croat language, while
+145,552 (or 38&middot;9 per cent.) used Italian. The Yugoslavs
+cannot help regarding the Istrian statistics with suspicion,
+and believing that here, more than in Dalmatia, they were
+made to suffer on account of Austria's alliance with Italy
+and with the Vatican: one of the wrongs which Strossmayer
+fought against was that Istria had been entrusted
+to an Italian Dalmatian bishop who could not speak a
+word of Slav. This prelate appointed to vacant livings
+a number of Italian priests whom the people could not
+understand; a Slav coming to confess had to be supplied
+with an interpreter. As to the statistics in the commune
+of Krmed (Carmedo), for example, of the district of Pola,
+the census of 1900 gave 257 Croats against three Italians,
+whereas in 1910 it was stated that 296 inhabitants spoke
+habitually Italian and six spoke Croatian. Nevertheless,
+if one accepts the Austrian figures, the 58&middot;5 per cent.
+should not be treated as if they did not exist. Perhaps
+the Italian officials could find no interpreters to translate
+their proclamations and decrees; if the Yugoslavs could
+not read them that was a defect in their education. If
+they were unable to write to the authorities or to send<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+private telegrams in Italian, let them hold their peace.
+At any rate, said Vice-Admiral Cagni, we will not encourage
+the Croatian language, and on November 16, 1918,
+he commanded the Yugoslav schools to be shut at eleven
+places in the district and also two schools in the town.
+The Austrians had allowed these schools to remain open
+during the War; but of course if you wish to prevent
+people from learning a language this is one of the first
+steps you would take. Thirteen Yugoslav schoolmasters
+at Pola were thus deprived of their means of livelihood.
+The Admiral said that he really did not want to let matters
+remain in this condition, but all these schools had been
+at the expense of the State; let the Yugoslavs support
+their own schools. They were, as a matter of fact, entitled
+by reason of their numbers to have State-supported
+schools. Yet that was, of course, in the time of Austria;
+and why should Italy be bound by Austrian laws? Italy
+would do what she saw fit. In various places the teachers
+were, in the presence of Italian officers, compelled to use
+Italian for the instruction of purely Yugoslav children.
+Slav schoolmistresses were, in several cases, taken out of
+bed in the middle of the night and conducted on board
+Italian ships. The clergy were ordered to preach in
+Italian in churches, such as that of Veprinac, where the
+congregation is almost entirely Slav<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>&mdash;and so on, and so
+on. Well, there are several ways of governing a mixed
+population, and this is one of them.... "Zadar and
+Rieka," said Pribi&#269;evi&#263; in November to an Italian interviewer
+at Zagreb&mdash;"Zadar and Rieka will enjoy all liberty
+of culture and municipal autonomy. And we are convinced
+that an equal treatment will be accorded to the
+Slav minorities who will be included in your territory.
+We understand and perfectly recognize your right to Triest
+and to Pola, and we would that in Italy our right to Rieka
+and Dalmatia were recognized with the same justice."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+<p class="section">THE FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA</p>
+
+<p>Rieka is a place concerning which a good deal has
+been written, but I doubt if there have been two words
+more striking than the phrase which the Consiglio Nazionale
+Italiano applies in a pamphlet to the last Hungarian
+Governor. This official, appreciating that his presence
+in the town would serve no useful end, dissolved the State
+police on October 28, 1918, and departed. "H&ocirc;te
+insalu&eacute;, il disparut...." says the pamphlet. After all
+the years of kindness, all the million favours showered
+on the Autonomists by their beloved friends the Magyars,
+after all the dark electioneering tricks and gutter legislation
+which for years had been committed by the Magyars
+to the end that the Autonomists and they should have all
+the amenities of some one else's house, it surely is the
+acme of ingratitude to call this tottering benefactor
+"H&ocirc;te insalu&eacute;." If the Autonomists did not desire to
+reap advantages from any Magyar corruption, they might
+at any time since November 17, 1868, have torn the
+swindling piece of paper, the "krpitsa," from the Agreement
+made between the Magyars and the Croats. Then
+the Croat would not have been kept for all these years a
+slave in his own home.... But on October 28, 1918,
+the "krpitsa" had no more weight, the iniquitous Agreement
+was obsolete, the Croats came into possession of
+their own. The Compromise of 1868, which gave the
+administration of Rieka provisionally to the Magyars,
+was formally denounced on October 29, so that the
+<i>status quo ante</i> returned, and Rieka was again an integral
+part of the Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian Government
+(that is, the National Council) had then every right
+to depute its adherents at Rieka to undertake the affairs
+of that town. Dr. Vio was too much of a lawyer to dispute
+the legality of any of these statements....</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE DRAMA BEGINS</p>
+
+<p>Some of the leading citizens of Rieka formed themselves
+into a Croat National Council; Dr. Bakar&#269;i&#263; and
+Dr. Lenac went up to the Governor's palace, and with
+them went Dr. Vio, as delegate of the town council. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+said they recognized the Croatian Government, on condition
+that the town's municipal autonomy was guaranteed.
+To this they readily consented, with respect to the Italian
+language, to their schools and to the existing town administration,
+thus agreeing to every suggestion which Dr.
+Vio made. Moreover they gave him the town register
+(of births, etc.), which the Magyars had appropriated
+and which was now discovered at the palace. This was
+at 9 a.m. on October 30. Dr. Vio said that he was glad
+that everything had been arranged so amicably. But on
+the same evening the Italian National Council elected
+itself, for a large number of the Autonomist party had
+now become the Italian party. There still remained,
+however, an Autonomist party, which was no longer
+inspired, like the old Autonomists, by despotic sentiments
+towards the Croats, but by a feeling that in consequence
+of this long despotism the Croats were, as yet, not fit to
+govern such a place as Rieka. This is a matter of opinion.
+These Autonomists considered that, at any rate for several
+years, the town should not belong to Yugoslavia or to
+Italy, but be a free town under Allied, British or American,
+control. After five or six years there could be a plebiscite,
+and during that period the population would be encouraged
+to devote itself more to business and less to politics. This
+would tend to make them a united people, with the
+interests of the town at heart. But the Italian party,
+said the Autonomist leader, Mr. Gothardi, did not appear
+to think these interests important; when it was argued
+that Rieka would not flourish under Italy, because of
+the competition with Italy's other ports and especially
+Triest, because of the vast Italian debt, and for other
+reasons, the Italian party answered that even if the grass
+grew in Rieka's streets it must belong to Italy. "Very
+well," said the Slavs, "then we will develop the harbour
+at Bakar" a few miles away. "Infamous idea!"
+exclaimed the Italianists; "Rieka is the harbour for
+the hinterland." There the Autonomists agree with them,
+that the town should finally belong to the State which
+has the hinterland. Mr. Gothardi's party gathered strength
+and he himself became so obnoxious to the Italianists
+that when I saw him in the month of May 1919 he had
+been for several weeks a prisoner in his flat, on account<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+of some thirty individuals with sticks who were lurking
+round the corner. His figures were as follows:</p>
+
+
+<table summary="statistics">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right">6,000</td><td style="text-align: left">Socialists.</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right">3,000</td><td style="text-align: left">Autonomists.</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right">1,500</td><td style="text-align: left">Yugoslavs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right; line-height: 25%">&mdash;&mdash;</td><td style="line-height: 25%">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right">That is, 10,000</td><td>voters out of 12-13,000.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>One may mention that he, like some others of his party,
+belongs to a family which has been at Rieka for two
+hundred years, whereas of the fifteen gentlemen who
+called themselves the Italian National Council, only one&mdash;a
+cousin of Mr. Gothardi's&mdash;is a member of an old
+Rieka family. Most of the others we are bound to call
+renegades.</p>
+
+<p>It may be asked why the Italian National Council
+was established, and why its members swore that they
+would give their lives if they could thus give Rieka to
+the "Madre Patria." Some of them believed, I am sure,
+that this was for Rieka's good, cultural and economical;
+others entertained the motives that we saw at Zadar&mdash;personal
+ambition and the desire to satisfy some animosities.
+And there were others who remembered what
+occurred in the great harbour warehouses. They hoped,
+they thought that if the town fell to the lot of Italy no
+questions would be asked.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> There must also have been
+some who could not bear to contemplate the loss of their
+old privileged position.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section">THE I.N.C.</p>
+
+<p>For a considerable time it was not known who were
+the members of the Italian National Council. From
+internal evidence one saw that they were not particularly
+logical people, for they made much play, in their announcements,
+with "democratic principles" in spite of the
+undemocratic fog in which they wrapped themselves.
+Of course they had not been elected by anyone except
+themselves; but there was a vast difference between
+them and the self-elected Croat National Council, since
+the latter derived their authority from the Croatian
+Government at Zagreb, which Dr. Vio, in the name of the
+Rieka municipality, had recognized&mdash;whereas the Italian
+National Council was destitute of any parent, though they
+would, had they been pressed, have claimed, no doubt,
+the blissfully unconscious "Madre Patria." Subsequently
+it turned out that the I.N.C. consisted of Dr. Vio and of
+fourteen persons who had hitherto not taken part in
+public life. They were fourteen worthies of the background,
+the most remarkable act in the life of their President,
+Dr. Grossich, for example, dating from twenty
+years ago when he was the medical attendant of the
+Archduchess Clothilde, and decorated, so <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'thay'">they</ins> say, his
+consulting-room with black and yellow festoons. The
+I.N.C. appeared at its inception to be different from a
+Russian Soviet because it had no power.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE CROATS' BLUNDER</p>
+
+<p>A number of deplorable transactions ensued, and they
+were not all committed by the Italianists. The proclamations
+which were sent from Zagreb, exhorting the people
+to be tranquil, were printed in the two languages, but
+some Croat super-patriots at Rieka tried to make the
+town mono-lingual. At the railway station and the post
+office they removed the old Italian inscriptions and put
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>up Croatian ones, they wrote to the mayor in Croat,
+which, although Dr. Vio has a Croat father and visited a
+Croat school and a Croat university, was tactless; they
+wrote that Croat would now be the language of the town,
+which was a foolish thing to do. They even seem to have
+demanded the evacuation of the town hall within twenty-four
+hours. And the irresponsible persons who made
+this demand were very properly snubbed by the municipal
+authorities.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">MELODRAMA</p>
+
+<p>These excited patriots, delirious with joy that at
+last their own town was in their hands, did not set Rieka
+on fire, nor did they murder women and children; but the
+Italianists forthwith sent wireless messages to Venice,
+screaming that all these enormities were taking place.
+A few of them rushed off in motors to Triest, where they
+made themselves into a Committee of Public Safety,
+picked up some Triest sympathizers and flew on to Venice,
+where they related breathless stories of foul deeds. One,
+which appeared in the Italian Press, was that three
+children of Rieka had been publicly committed to the
+flames.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">FARCE</p>
+
+<p>On November 4 an Italian destroyer, the <i>Stocco</i>,
+shortly followed by the <i>Emanuele Filiberto</i>, a cruiser,
+came on their errand of humanity. The I.N.C. at once
+organized a plebiscite&mdash;by which is meant not a dull
+giving and counting of votes in the usual election booths.
+A plebiscite, at all events a plebiscite at Rieka, signifies
+for the Italianists a mob assembled in a public thoroughfare;
+photographs of such assemblies illustrate their
+pamphlets and are entitled "plebiscito." At the harbour
+the Italian Admiral, whose name was Raineri, told the
+joyous I.N.C.&mdash;who now had flung aside their anonymity&mdash;that
+he had come to bring them a salute from Italy,
+and that he had been sent to shield Italians and to protect
+Italian interests. The plebiscite threw up its hats and
+waved its flags, and shouted its applause and sang its
+songs. Flowers fell upon the Admiral, and on his men and
+on the guns; the ships, as we are told, were changed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+floating gardens. But the sailors did not disembark.
+Some ladies, members of the plebiscite, besought the
+Admiral to come ashore, and hoping to persuade the
+men, they climbed on board and playfully seized many
+sailors' caps, which in the town, they said, could be redeemed.
+Then shortly afterwards, the Yugoslav officials
+came to greet the Admiral, as did the commandant of
+the Yugoslav troops which had been for several days
+guarding the town. Meanwhile some unknown persons
+had been up in the old clock-tower and, for reasons known
+perhaps to themselves, had taken in both the Croatian
+and Italian flags; the Admiral drove up to see the
+Governor, Dr. Lenac, and requested that his country's
+flag should be rehoisted, which of course was done. And
+until November 17 the Admiral was nearly every day
+up at the Governor's palace, as a multitude of details had
+to be discussed. A French warship arrived on the 10th,
+followed by a British vessel on the 12th or 13th. Perfect
+calm prevailed. Croatian and Italian flags flew everywhere,
+as well as French ones, British and American.
+The name of the Hotel Deak was altered to Hotel Wilson....
+But the men of the <i>Emanuele Filiberto</i> and the
+<i>Stocco</i> did not land. Colonel Tesli&#263; assured the Admiral
+that if anyone started to set fire to an Italianist child or
+to indulge in any other crime he would prevent it.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">PAROLE D'HONNEUR</p>
+
+<p>All this was very disconcerting to the I.N.C. They
+knew that on the hills outside Rieka were large numbers of
+Italian troops, which had come overland from Istria. But
+how to get them in? Rieka had not been ascribed to the
+Italians by the London Treaty.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> ... On November 15
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>a detachment of Serbian troops arrived, under Colonel
+Maximovi&#263;, and were given a magnificent reception.
+Thousands of people accompanied them, and in front of
+the French destroyer there was a manifestation. Some
+of the Serbs, old warriors who had been under arms since
+the first Balkan War, were moved to tears. The Italianists
+were furious; Admiral Raineri called on the Governor
+for an explanation of the Serbs' arrival. A conference
+was held between the Admiral, the Colonel and two
+Yugoslav officers. If the Serbs remained at Rieka, said
+the Admiral, he would land his marines. Maximovi&#263;
+said he had come in obedience to his orders, and that he
+would have to prevent by force the disembarkation of the
+Italians. At this moment a Serbian officer entered to
+announce that Italian armoured cars were approaching
+from Abbazia. Maximovi&#263; immediately ordered his
+troops to mobilize, but the Admiral said a mistake had
+been made and that the cars would be sent back. (The
+Government Secretary, Dr. Ru&#382;i&#263;, had been told at
+three o'clock by a telephone operator that the Admiral
+had himself telephoned to Abbazia for the cars.) It was
+decided at this conference that on Sunday, November 17,
+the Yugoslav troops would evacuate the town, that it
+would be occupied by Serbian and American troops, and
+that, to mark the alliance, a small Italian detachment
+would be landed. As Admiral Cagni, of Pola, ordered
+that Italian troops should be disembarked at Rieka,
+another conference was held between Admiral Raineri,
+Colonel Maximovi&#263;, Colonel Tesli&#263; and Captain Dvorski
+(of the Yugoslav navy), as well as French and British
+officers. It was arranged <i>sous parole d'honneur d'officier</i>
+that at 4 p.m. the Serbian troops should leave Rieka
+and go to Porto R&eacute;, an hour's sea journey, that the
+Yugoslav troops should remain, and that the Italians
+should not land. No other steps would be taken till
+November 20 at noon, and the Supreme Command would
+be asked to settle the difficulty. As soon as the Serbian
+troops were out at sea, the Italian army, under General di
+San Marzano (attended by a kinematograph), marched
+in from the hills, entering the town simultaneously from
+four directions, in accordance with a strategic plan. The
+General was told what Raineri had agreed to do; he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+replied that he was Raineri's senior, that the final decision
+rested with him, and that he intended to proceed into
+the town. (One of the British officers is said to have
+addressed him rather bluntly.) At 4.30 Raineri landed
+his marines, and afterwards he was dismissed from his
+post&mdash;not, indeed, for having broken his word given at
+the inter-Allied conference, but for having delayed so
+long before disembarking troops in the town. He said
+he had received a written order from the Entente; if
+only Maximovi&#263; had not left he might have shown it
+him. With twenty carabinieri the General went to the
+Governor's palace and asked Dr. Lenac to vacate it.
+He was so excited that he almost pushed the doctor out.
+"There is no room for the two of us," he said. And that
+is how the Italian occupation began. The French and
+British brought some troops in at a later date, but when
+they had six hundred each the Italians had 22,000. With
+the Italians came fifty Americans, so that the force might
+have an international appearance. These Americans
+were given broad-sheets, printed by the town Italianists
+in English; they welcomed the Americans as liberators,
+and informed them that the population had by plebiscite
+declared for annexation to the Motherland. On the
+same night the Yugoslav troops were turned out of their
+barracks into the street by the Italian army.... These
+are, I believe, the main facts as to the occupation which
+has been the subject of much heated argument. I had
+the facts from eye-witnesses and documents: I exposed
+the evidence of each side to the criticism of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon the disorders began. On the evening of
+the occupation Italian troops ran through the town,
+accompanied by some of the plebiscite, and compelled
+the people to remove the Yugoslav colours from their
+button-holes. In cases they surrounded their victim
+and used force. When this was used against women,
+after the arrival of the French and British, it produced
+some serious international affrays. The Italians, who
+invariably outnumbered the others, did not scruple to
+employ their knives; thus in the middle of December
+two French soldiers were stabbed in the back and their
+murderers were never found.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE POPULATION OF THE TOWN</p>
+
+<p>But there had been at Rieka an Englishman for whom
+I have an almost inexpressible admiration. This was
+Mr. A. Beaumont who, a couple of days after the Italians
+occupied the town in the above-mentioned curious fashion,
+sent from Triest a long message to the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>.
+How can anyone not marvel at a gentleman who travels
+to a foreign town which is in the throes of unrest and
+who, undeterred by his infirmity, sits down to grasp
+the rather complicated features of the situation? I am
+not acquainted with Mr. Beaumont, but he must be
+blind, poor fellow, for he says that the Yugoslavs occupied
+with ill-concealed glee a town entirely inhabited by
+some 45,000 Italians. Perhaps somebody will read to
+him the following statistics made after the year 1868,
+when Rieka came under Magyar dominion. The statistics
+were made by the Magyars and Italianists combined, so
+that they do not err in favour of the Yugoslavs. He
+might also be told that the Magyar-Italian alliance closed
+the existing Yugoslav national schools for the 13,478
+Yugoslavs in 1890, while they opened Italo-Magyar
+schools for the 13,012 "Italians" and Magyars. They
+would not even allow the Yugoslavs to have at Rieka
+an elementary school at their own expense. Everything
+possible was done during these decades to inculcate hatred
+and contempt for whatsoever was Slav, hoping thus to
+denationalize the citizens. In view of all this it speaks
+well for Yugoslav steadfastness that they were able to
+maintain themselves. Here are the figures:</p>
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td><span class="smcap">Yugoslavs.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Italians.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">Magyars.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td style="padding-right: 1.5em">1880</td><td style="padding-right: 1em">10,227 (49%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">9,237 (44%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">379 (2%)</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="padding-right: 1.5em">1890</td><td style="padding-right: 1em">13,478 (46%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">13,012 (44%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">1,062 (4%)</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="padding-right: 1.5em">1900</td><td style="padding-right: 1em">16,197 (42%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">17,354 (45%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">2,842 (7%)</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="padding-right: 1.5em">1910</td><td style="padding-right: 1em">15,692 (32%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">24,212 (49%)</td><td style="padding-right: 1em; text-align: right">6,493 (13%)</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Assuming for the moment that these figures are correct&mdash;and
+it is an enormous assumption<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>&mdash;are not the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>Autonomists to be found chiefly among the Italians and
+Magyars? It is claimed that the Autonomist, Socialist
+and Slav vote exceeds that of those who desire annexation
+to Italy. One need not treat <i>au s&eacute;rieux</i> the great procession
+organized by the Italianists, when they could not
+scrape together more than about 4000 persons, including
+many schoolboys and girls, the municipal clerks, visitors
+from Italy, Triest and Zadar. One need not gibe the
+Italianists with the numbers who followed Dr. Vio on
+that famous day when, weary of palavering, he summoned
+round him his supporters and strode off to the Governor's
+palace, where General Grazioli, who had succeeded General
+di San Marzano, was installed.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Arrived there, Dr. Vio
+with a superb gesture begged the General to accept the
+town in the name of Italy. It is not often in the lifetime
+of a man that he has the opportunity of giving a whole
+town away. Dr. Vio made the most of that occasion;
+if the crowd which followed him was disappointing, there
+may be good explanations. The allegiance of a town,
+one may submit, should be settled in another fashion.
+The house-to-house inquiry, conducted in the spring of
+1919 by the Autonomists&mdash;resulting in an anti-annexionist
+majority&mdash;was much impeded by the police; and it is
+of course the business of the authorities and not of
+any one party to hold elections in a town. Had the
+Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of Italian
+bayonets, <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'hold'">held</ins> a real plebiscite&mdash;secret or otherwise&mdash;the
+result would doubtless have given them pain, but no
+surprise.... And this will happen even if the Magyar
+system of separating Rieka from the suburb of Su&#353;ak
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>is perpetrated. Su&#353;ak contains about 12,500 Yugoslavs
+and extremely few Italianists; and, by the way, to show
+how the Magyars and the Italianists worked together,
+it is worth mentioning that the Magyar railway officials
+who lived at Su&#353;ak were allowed a vote at Rieka, while
+if a Croat lived at Su&#353;ak and carried on his avocation
+at Rieka he could vote in Su&#353;ak only. One must not
+imagine that Su&#353;ak is a poor relation; most people
+would prefer to live there. Dr. Vio was intensely wrathful
+because the British General resided in a beautifully
+situated house there by the sea. Not only is Su&#353;ak
+about twenty yards, across a stream, from Rieka, but
+from a commercial point of view their separation seems
+absurd, since half the port, including the great wood
+depots, is in Su&#353;ak. One of these timber merchants
+presented an example of Italianization. His original
+name was E.&nbsp;R. Sarinich and this was painted on his
+business premises at Su&#353;ak, while in Rieka he called
+himself Sarini. It must have caused him many sleepless
+nights.... Counting Su&#353;ak with Rieka as one town, the
+total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per
+cent. Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent.
+Magyar. These Magyars, by the way, seem not to have
+been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were still a good
+number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
+consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with
+Hungary, had that State continued to exist as part of
+the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she certainly never contemplated
+handing over"&mdash;["handing over" is rather
+humorous]&mdash;"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population
+to the Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch
+there is printed a semi-official statement, sent by Reuter,
+from Rome. "Yesterday afternoon," it says, "our
+troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which was
+made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in
+view not only of the urgent and legitimate demands of the
+Italian citizens of Fiume, but also of the insistent appeals
+of eminent foreigners...."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES</p>
+
+<p>"Italy's reward," says Mr. Beaumont, "must be commensurate
+with her sacrifices, and this is the attitude
+assumed here. It is quite apart from the mere question
+as to whether the Jugo-Slavs are in a majority in certain
+districts or not. Those districts form a part of old Italian
+territory, of Italian lands once peopled and occupied
+by the Italian race and into which, with Austria's encouragement,
+Slav populations have filtered." [I should
+love to know what are Mr. Beaumont's sources.] "The
+question must not be left to local ambition and antipathies.
+It must be decided authoritatively and quickly
+in strong counsel to the Jugo-Slav leaders." ... Let us
+leave Rieka and see how the Italians decided authoritatively
+and quickly on the island of Cres (Cherso). It is
+a large but not thickly populated island; having 8162
+inhabitants for 336 square kilometres. The Yugoslavs,
+according to the census of 1910, number 5714 or 71&middot;3
+per cent., while the Italian-speaking population amounts
+to 2296 or 28 per cent. About the middle of November
+the Italian authorities placed in the village of Martin&#353;&#263;ica,
+which is in the south-western part of the island, 17 soldiers,
+3 carabinieri and a lieutenant. Let me say at once
+that I have never been to Cres, all my knowledge of this
+case comes from a Franciscan monk who lives there,
+the Rev. Ambrose Vlahov, Professor of Theology. At
+Martin&#353;&#263;ica, he says, there is not a single Italianist;
+the entire village is Yugoslav. When the Italian military
+arrived the lieutenant insisted that the priest, Karlo
+Hla&#263;a, should cease to sing the Mass in Old Slav, and that
+for the whole service he should use Italian, the only
+language, said the lieutenant, which he (the lieutenant)
+understood. It was futile for the priest to demonstrate
+what a ridiculous and unreasonable demand this was;
+the lieutenant always came back to the subject, being
+sometimes merely importunate and sometimes using
+menaces. As Hla&#263;a was a model ecclesiastic, highly
+esteemed by his parishioners, the lieutenant comprehended
+that as long as this priest remained, he would
+be foiled in his endeavours; he therefore sought an
+opportunity to turn him out. On January 5, 1919, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+priest had, by order of his bishop, to read during the
+service a pastoral letter on the duties of the faithful
+towards the Church and towards their fellow-men; he
+had also to add a simple and concise commentary. In
+this letter there was a passage dealing with schools, and
+the priest on that topic remarked that "by divine and
+human law every nation may ask that its children should
+be instructed in their mother tongue." When Mass
+was finished, the mayor of the village assembled the
+parishioners and notified them that henceforward, by
+order of the lieutenant, there would no longer be in the
+village a Croatian but an Italian school. And in order
+to mollify the people he added that the lieutenant proposed
+to give subsidies to such as stood in need; they
+had only to present themselves before that officer. But,
+though the people often found it hard to satisfy their simple
+wants and were at that period in very great distress,
+they walked away from this assembly without making
+one step in the lieutenant's direction. This incited him
+to such fury that he ran, accompanied by soldiers and
+carabinieri, to the priest, and publicly, in a loud voice,
+insulted him, calling him an intriguer, a rebel, an agitator.
+On the following day the lieutenant had him conducted
+to the village of Cres by two soldiers and a carabiniere,
+who were all armed.... At Cres the priest was brought
+before the commanding officer of the Quarnero Islands&mdash;our
+old acquaintance, the naval captain of Krk&mdash;who
+happened to be in this village. He started at once to
+bellow at the priest and, striking the table with his
+hand, exclaimed: "This is an Italian island, all Italian,
+nothing but Italian and evermore it will remain Italian."
+About a score of parishioners had come to Cres behind
+their priest and his escort; they begged the commandant
+to set him free. As an answer he harangued them with
+respect to the Italian character of the islands, told them
+that they would have to send their children to the Italian
+school and that the whole village would be Italianized
+and that <i>only in their homes</i> would they be permitted
+to speak Croatian.... On January 8 the priest was
+taken from Cres to the island of Krk, where he was informed
+that he would have to leave his parish, but that
+he might go back there for a day or two to fetch a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+necessities. It was raining in torrents when Father Hla&#263;a,
+wet to the skin, arrived at his village on the 11th at seven
+o'clock in the evening. As he suffers from several chronic
+ailments&mdash;which was known to the lieutenant&mdash;this bad
+weather had a grave effect upon him. When he reached
+his house he went to bed at once with a very high temperature.
+After about a quarter of an hour the lieutenant
+appeared with two carabinieri and shouted at him that
+he must get up. This draconian injunction had to be
+obeyed, the more so as the lieutenant was labouring
+under great excitement. He looked at the priest's
+permit which allowed him to come back to the village,
+and said, "If I were in your shoes I wouldn't venture
+to come back here." These words gave Father Hla&#263;a an
+impression that his life was in danger. The lieutenant
+then ordered him not to go out among the people, but
+to stop where he was until he was taken away. Five
+days after this the priest was taken to Rieka, so that
+the villagers were left with nobody to guard them against
+the violence and the temptations offered them by the
+Italians. The Croat inscription outside the school was
+replaced by one in Italian and, with the lieutenant acting
+as teacher, the doors were thrown open. But the only
+children who went there were those of the lieutenant
+himself and those of the mayor, who was a renegade in the
+pay of the Italians. It was announced that heavy fines
+would be inflicted if the other children did not come.
+The villagers were in great trouble and in fear, with
+nobody to give them advice or consolation.... There
+may be some who will be curious to know concerning
+the "Italian" population of this island, which, according
+to the 1910 census, reached the large figure of 28 per cent.
+At a place called Nere&#382;ine it was stated, in the census of
+1880, that the commissioner had found 706 Italians and
+340 Yugoslavs. Consequently an Italian primary school
+was opened; but when it was discovered that the children
+of Nere&#382;ine knew not one traitor word of that language,
+the school was transformed into a Yugoslav establishment.
+This is one case out of many; the 28 per cent.
+would not bear much scrutiny.... But the Italian
+Government, at any rate the "Liga Nazionale" to
+whose endowment it contributes, had been taking in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+hand this question of elementary schools in Istria and
+Dalmatia among the Slav population. The "Liga"
+made gratuitous distribution of clothing, of boots, of
+school-books and so forth. Some indigent Slavs allowed
+themselves in this way to become denationalized.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">When, however, you examine the embroideries of these
+islands&mdash;particularly beautiful on Rab and on the island
+of wild olive trees, the neighbouring Pag&mdash;you will be
+sure that such an ancient national spirit as they show
+will not be easily seduced. The Magyars, by the way,
+whose culture is more modern, borrowed certain features
+that you find on these embroideries&mdash;the sun, for instance,
+and the cock, which have from immemorial times been
+thought appropriate by these people for the cloth a
+woman wears upon her head when she is bringing a new
+son into the world, whose dawn the cock announces.
+Older than the workers in wood, much older than those
+who carved in stone, are these island embroiderers. In
+this work the people reproduced their tears and laughter.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">RAB IS COMPLETELY CAPTURED</p>
+
+<p>What will it avail to put up "Liga" schools in these
+islands, where the population is 99&middot;67 per cent. Yugoslav
+and 0&middot;31 per cent. Italianist&mdash;that is, if we are content
+to accept the Austrian statistics? What ultimate advantage
+will accrue to Italy from the doings of her
+emissaries, in November 1918, on the isle of Rab? It
+was Tuesday, November 26, when the <i>Guglielmo Pepe</i>
+of the Italian navy put in at the venerable town which
+is the capital of that island. The commander, with an
+Italianist deputy from Istria, climbed up to the town-hall
+with the old marble balcony and informed the mayor and
+the members of the local committee of the Yugoslav
+National Council that he had come in the name of the
+Entente and in virtue of the arrangements of the Armistice;
+he said that in the afternoon Italian troops would
+land, for the purpose of maintaining order. It was pointed
+out to him that no disturbance had arisen, and that,
+according to the terms of the Armistice, he had no right
+to occupy this island. The commander announced that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+he must disarm the national guard, but that the Yugoslav
+flags would not be interfered with; the Italian flag
+would only be hoisted on the harbour-master's office
+and the military headquarters. On the next day, after
+he had been unable to induce the town authorities to
+lower their national flag from the clock-tower, he sent a
+hundred men with a machine gun to carry out his wishes.
+Filled with confidence by this heroic deed, he marched
+into the mayor's office and dissolved the municipal
+council. Armed forces occupied the town-hall, over which
+an Italian flag was flown. An Italian officer was entrusted
+with the mayoral functions and with the municipal
+finances, while the post office was also captured and all
+private telegrams forbidden, not only those which one
+would have liked to dispatch, but those which came in
+from elsewhere&mdash;they were not delivered. All meetings
+and manifestations were made illegal. The commander,
+whose name was Captain Denti di &mdash;&mdash; (the other part
+being illegible), sent a memorandum to the municipal
+council which explained that he dissolved it on account of
+their having grievously troubled the public order; he did
+this by virtue of the powers conferred upon him and in
+the name of the Allied Powers and the United States of
+America. The islanders did not pretend to be experts
+in international law, but they did not believe that he
+was in the right.</p>
+
+<p>"I have every confidence," said the Serbian Regent,
+when he was receiving a deputation of the Yugoslav
+National Council a few days after this&mdash;"I have every
+confidence that the operations for the freedom of the world
+will be accomplished, that large numbers of our brethren
+will be liberated from a foreign yoke. And I feel sure
+that this point of view will be adopted by the Government
+of the Kingdom of Italy, which was founded on these
+very principles. They were cherished in the hearts and
+executed in the deeds of great Italians in the nineteenth
+century. We can say frankly that in choosing to have us
+as their friends and good neighbours the Italian nation
+will find more benefit and a greater security than in the
+enforcement of the Treaty of London, which we never
+signed nor recognized, and which was made at a time
+when nobody foresaw the crumbling of Austria-Hungary."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">AVANTI SAVOIA!</p>
+
+<p>It would be tedious to chronicle a thousandth part
+of the outrages, crimes and stupidities committed on
+Yugoslav territory by the Italians. Where they were
+threatened with an armed resistance they yielded. Thus
+on November 14, when they had reached Vrhnica (Ober-Laibach)
+on their way to Ljubljana (Laibach), they were
+met by Colonel Svibi&#263; with sixteen other officers who had
+just come out of an internment camp in Austria. Svibi&#263;
+requested the Italians to leave Vrhnica. He said that
+he and the Serbian commander at Ljubljana would prevent
+the advance of the Italians into Yugoslav territory.
+They would be most reluctant to be obliged to resort to
+armed force should the Italians continue their advance,
+and they declined responsibility for any bloodshed which
+might ensue.... The colonel of the Italian regiment
+which had been stationed for some days at Vrhnica
+informed the mayor of that commune that he had
+received orders to depart; he retired to the line of demarcation
+fixed by the Armistice conditions.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA</p>
+
+<p>It was ironical that a young State, struggling into
+life, should be hindered, not by former enemies but
+by friends of its friends. The Italians complained that
+the French, British and Americans were not fraternizing
+with them. In the first place, it was repugnant to the
+sense of justice of these nations when they saw that
+General di San Marzano, after having fraudulently seized
+the town of Rieka and turning its absolutely legal Governor
+into the street, did not ask the citizens to organize a
+temporary local government, in which all parties would be
+represented, but delivered, if you please, the town to fifteen
+gentlemen, the I.N.C., who&mdash;at the very utmost&mdash;represented
+half the population. On November 24, the local
+newspaper <i>Il Popolo</i> announced in a non-official manner
+that the I.N.C., in full accord with the military command,
+had taken over the administration&mdash;<i>i poteri pubblici</i>.
+This, by the way, was never confirmed by the representatives
+of the other Allies. The I.N.C. furthermore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+declared null and of no effect any intervention of the
+Yugoslav National Council in the affairs of the authorities
+of the State of Rieka. When the Yugoslavs appealed
+to the French, British or Americans they were naturally
+met with sympathy and urged to have patience. Case
+after case of high-handed dealing was reported to these
+officers. They sometimes intervened with good effect;
+far more injustice would have happened; far more
+Croats and Autonomists, for instance, would have been
+deported if the Allies had not interceded. It was now, of
+course, impossible for Yugoslavs to wear their colours;
+nor could they prevent the C.N.I. from hanging vast
+Italian flags on Croat houses. One of the largest flags,
+I should imagine, in the world swayed to and fro
+between Rieka's chief hotel and the tall building on the
+opposite side of the square&mdash;and both these houses,
+mark you, were Croat property. But the Allied officers
+knew very well (and the C.N.I. knew that they knew)
+that more than thirty of the large buildings on the front
+belonged to Croats, whereas under half a dozen were the
+property of Italians or Italianists. The ineffable Mr.
+Edoardo Susmel, in one of his pro-Italian books, entreats
+certain French and British friends of the Yugoslavs to
+come for one hour to Rieka and judge for themselves.
+But twenty minutes would be ample for a man of average
+intelligence. In many ways the presence of the Allies
+grieved the C.N.I. The Allies looked without approval at
+the "Giovani Fiumani," an association of young rowdies
+of whose valuable services the C.N.I. availed itself. But
+if these hired bands could not be dispersed they could have
+limits placed upon their zeal. One of their ordinary
+methods was to sit in groups in caf&eacute;s or in restaurants
+or other places where an orchestra was playing, then to
+shout for the Italian National Anthem and to make themselves
+as nasty as they dared to anyone who did not rise.
+If everybody rose, then they would wait a quarter of
+an hour and have the music played again. The Allied
+officers persuaded General Grazioli to prohibit any National
+Anthem in a public place. It was distasteful to the Allied
+officers when a local newspaper in French&mdash;<i>l'Echo de
+l'Adriatique</i>&mdash;which had been established to present the
+Yugoslav point of view, was continually being suppressed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+For example, on December 14, it printed a short greeting
+from the Croat National Council to President Wilson.
+The most anti-Italian phrase in this that I could find
+was: "Their fondest hope is to justify to the world,
+to history and to you the great trust you have placed in
+them." This was refused publication. It is unnecessary
+to say that Yugoslav newspapers were confiscated and
+their sale forbidden&mdash;after all, one didn't buy German or
+Austrian newspapers in England during the War, and the
+Italians now regarded the Croats as very pernicious
+enemies. <i>La Rassegna Italiana</i> of December 15 called
+its first article&mdash;printed throughout in italics&mdash;"I
+Prussiani dell' Adriatico," and took to its bosom an "upright
+American citizen" returning from a visit to "Fiume
+nostra," who defined the Yugoslavs "on account of their
+greed and their brutality and their spirit of intrigue and
+their lack of candour as the Prussians of the Adriatic."
+Personally I should submit that the Prussian spirit was
+not wholly lacking in those two Italian officers who penetrated
+on November 25 into the dining-room at the
+quarters of the Custom-house officials and informed them
+that they wanted their piano. No discussion was permitted;
+the piano "transferred itself," as they say in
+some languages, to the Italian officers' mess. The Prussian
+spirit was not undeveloped in a certain Mr. &#352;tigli&#263;&mdash;his
+name might cause his enemies to say he is a renegade,
+but as my knowledge of him is confined to other matters,
+we will say he is the noblest Roman of them all. He likewise
+had a dig at the Custom-house officials; I know not
+whether he was wiping off old scores. Appointed by the
+I.N.C. as director of the Excise office, he communicated
+with the resident officials&mdash;Franjo Jakov&#269;i&#263;, Ivan Mikuli&#269;i&#263;
+and Grga Ma&#382;uran&mdash;on December 5, and told them
+to clear out by the following Saturday, they and their
+families, so that in the heart of winter forty-one persons
+were suddenly left homeless.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A CANDID FRENCHMAN</p>
+
+<p>This and innumerable other manifestations of Prussianism
+were brought to the attention of the French,
+so that it was not surprising when a Frenchman made a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+few remarks in the <i>Rije&#263;</i> of Zagreb. His article, entitled
+"Mise au point," begins by a reference to the Yugoslav
+cockades which were sometimes worn by the French
+sailors. This, to the Italians, was as if an ally in the
+reconquered towns of Metz and Strasbourg had sported
+the colours of an enemy. "The cases are not parallel,"
+says the Frenchman. "You have come to Rieka and
+to Pola as conquerors of towns that were exhausted,
+yielding to the simultaneous and gigantic pressure of the
+Allied armies. These towns gave themselves up. Are
+they on that account your property, and are we to consider
+as a dead-letter the clauses of the Armistice which
+settled that Pola should be occupied by the Allies? I
+am not so dexterous a diplomat as to be able to follow
+you along this track; let it be decided by others. But
+we who were present perceived that your occupation,
+which you had regulated in every detail, had a close
+resemblance to the entry of a circus into some provincial
+town, whose population is known beforehand to be of a
+hostile character. It is needless to say that this masquerade,
+these vibrating appeals to fraternity that were
+placarded upon the walls gave us in that grey, abandoned
+town an impression of complete fiasco." ["It is significant,"
+writes Mr. Beaumont the Italophil, "that the
+Slav population ... observe an attitude of strange
+reserve and diffidence. They are silent and almost sullen.
+When the Italian fleet first visited Pola there was hardly
+a cheer...."] "Now let me tell you," says the Frenchman,
+"that our entry into Alsace was different. Foch
+was not obliged to send emissaries in advance in order to
+decorate the houses with flags and to erect triumphal
+arches. The French cockades had not nestled in the
+dark hair of our Alsatian women since 1870, for forty-eight
+years the tricolors had been waiting, piously folded
+at the bottom of those wooden chests, waiting for us to
+float them in the wind of victory&mdash;nous rentrions chez
+nous tout simplement. Or, vous n'&ecirc;tes pas chez vous
+ici, messieurs." ["Common reserve and decency should
+have induced the Jugo-Slavs to abstain," says Mr. Beaumont,
+"from rushing to take a place to which they were
+not invited ... an exclusively Italian city."] "Whatever
+you may assert," says the Frenchman, "everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+seems to contradict it. Your actors play their parts
+with skill, but the public is frigid. Now the decorations
+are tattered and the torches on the ramparts have grown
+black.... Permit me, following your example, and
+with courtesy, to call back the glories of old Italy, to
+remind myself of the great figures that stride through
+your history and that give to the world an unexampled
+picture of the lofty works of man. Our sailors, who are
+simple and often uncultured men, have no remembrance
+of these things; the brutal facts, in this whirling age in
+which we live, have more power to strike their imagination.
+What is one to say to them when they see their comrades
+stabbed, slaughtered by your men as if they were noxious
+animals&mdash;yesterday at Venice, the day before that at Pola,
+to-day at Rieka. Englishmen and Americans, your
+Allies, receive your 'sincere and fraternal hand' which
+holds a dagger. As a method of pacific penetration you
+will avow that this is rather rudimentary and that the
+laws of Romulus did not teach you such fraternity. We
+have also seen you striking women in the street and
+disembowelling a child. What are we to think of that,
+<i>fratelli d'Italia</i>? Excuse us, but we are not accustomed
+to such incidents. Is it not natural that the legendary,
+gallant spirit of our sailors should infect the crowd?
+Our bluejackets have looked in vain for the three colours
+which are dear to them and which you have excluded
+utterly from all your rows of flags. Well, in default of
+them, they had no choice but to array themselves in the
+cockades which dainty hands pinned on their uniforms....
+And our 'poilus,' in their faded, mud-smeared garments
+walk along 'your' streets, disdainfully regarded by your
+dazzling and pomaded Staff. Do you remember that
+these unshaven fellows who thrust back the Boche in 1918
+are the descendants of those who in 1793 conquered
+Italy and Europe with bare feet? Therefore do not
+strike your breasts if now and then a smile involuntarily
+appears upon their lips. O you who henceforth will be
+known as the immortal heroes of the Piave, if our fellows
+see to-day so many noble breasts, it was not seldom that
+they saw another portion of your bodies."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but that has nothing to do," some people will
+say, "with Rieka's economical position. We admit that
+Croatia has the historical right to the town, but we wish
+to be satisfied that the Croats are not moved by reasons
+that would cause Rieka's ruin. It may be nowadays,
+owing to the unholy alliance between Magyars and
+Italians, that the town, with respect to its trade, is more
+in the Italian sphere than in that of Yugoslavia." The
+answer to this is that Italy's share of the value of the
+imports into Rieka in 1911 was 7&middot;5 per cent. of the total,
+while her share of the value of the exports amounted to
+13 per cent., which proves that Italy depends commercially
+more on Rieka's hinterland than does that hinterland
+upon Italy. It seems to be of less significance that the
+millionaires of Rieka are mostly Croats, for they might
+conceivably have enriched themselves by trade with Italy.
+But of the nine banks, previous to the War the Italianists
+were in exclusive possession of none, while the Croats
+had four; of the eight shipping companies three were
+Croat, three were Magyar, one British, one German&mdash;not
+one Italian. It is true that some Italian writers lay
+it down that Rieka's progress should be co-ordinated with
+that of Venice, to say nothing of Triest, and should not
+be exploited by other States to the injury of the Italian
+Adriatic ports. Their point of view is not at all obscure.
+And all disguise is thrown to the winds in a book which
+has had a great success among the Italian imperialists:
+<i>L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo</i>, by Mario Alberti (Milan,
+1915&mdash;third edition). The author says that Italy, having
+annexed Triest and Rieka, will be "assured for ever";
+her "economic penetration" of the Balkans "will no
+longer be threatened" by the projected Galatz-Scutari
+(Danube-Adriatic) railway; Italian agriculture which,
+he says, is already in peril, "will be rescued"; the
+Italian fisherman will no longer have the ports of Triest
+and Rieka closed (for exportation to Germany and
+Austria); the national wealth will be augmented by
+"several milliards"; new fields will be open to Italian
+industry; her economic (and military) domination over
+the Adriatic will be absolute. There will, he continues,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+be no more "disturbing" competition on the part of any
+foreign mercantile marine; the Adriatic will be the sole
+property of Italy, and so on. It would be worth while,
+as a study of expressions, to photograph a few Rieka
+Italianists in the act of reading these rapturous pages....
+But lest it be imagined that I have searched for the most
+feeble pro-Italian arguments in order to have no difficulty
+in knocking them down, I will add that their strongest
+argument, taken as it is from the official report of the
+French Consul in 1909, appears to be that the commerce
+of Croatia amounted then to only 7 per cent. of the total
+trade of the port of Rieka. I am told by those who
+ought to know that wood alone, which comes almost
+exclusively from Croatia, Slavonia, etc., represents 16 per
+cent. If other products, such as flour, wine, etc., are
+considered, 50 per cent. of the total trade must be ascribed
+to Croatia, Slavonia, etc. And that does not take into
+account the western Banat and other Yugoslav territories.
+Serbia, too, would now take her part, so that
+there is no need to fear for the position of a Yugoslav
+Rieka based solely&mdash;omitting Hungary and the Ukraine
+altogether&mdash;on her Yugoslav hinterland. Rieka without
+Yugoslavia would be ruined and would degenerate into a
+fishing village, with a great past and a miserable future.
+This could very well be seen during the spring of 1919
+when the communications were interrupted between Rieka
+and Yugoslavia. At Rieka during April eggs were
+80 centimes apiece, while at Bakar, a few miles away,
+they cost 25 centimes; milk at Rieka was 6 crowns the
+litre and at Bakar one crown; beef was 30 crowns a
+kilo and at Bakar 8 crowns. Italy was calling Rieka
+her pearl&mdash;a pearl of great price; the Yugoslavs said
+it was the lung of their country. It is within the knowledge
+of the Italianists that the prosperity of Rieka would
+not be advanced by making her the last of a chain of
+Italian ports, but rather by making her the first port of
+Yugoslavia. What has Italy to offer in comparison with
+the Slovenes and the Croats? The maritime outlet
+of the Save valley, as well as of the plains of Hungary
+beyond it, is, as Sir Arthur Evans points out, the port of
+Rieka. And, in view of the mountainous nature of the
+country which lies for a great distance at the back of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+Split and of Dubrovnik, it would seem that Rieka&mdash;and
+especially when the railway line has been shortened&mdash;will
+be the natural port of Belgrade.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE TURNCOAT MAYOR</p>
+
+<p>One cannot expect in a place with Rieka's history
+that such considerations as these will be debated, calmly
+or otherwise, but at all events on their own merits. They
+will be approached with more than ordinary passion,
+since so many of the people of Rieka have been turncoats.
+Any man who changes sides in his religion or
+his nationality or politics&mdash;presuming, and I hope this
+mostly was so at Rieka, that his reasons were not base&mdash;that
+man will feel profoundly on these matters, more
+profoundly than the average person of his new religion,
+nationality or politics. He will observe the ritual, he
+will give utterance to his thoughts with such an emphasis
+that his old comrades will dislike him and his new associates
+be made uneasy. Thus a convert may not always
+be the most delightful creature in the garden, and he is
+abundant at Rieka. As an illustration we may study
+Dr. Vio. Many persons have repeated that he has a
+Croat father, yet they should in fairness add that his
+father's father came from Venice. But if he came from
+Lapland, that ought to be no reason why the present
+Dr. Vio should not, if he so desires, be an Italian. If
+he had, when he arrived at what is usually called the
+age of discretion, inscribed himself among the sons of
+Italy&mdash;<i>&agrave; la bonheur</i>. But he took no such step. He
+came out as a Croat of the Croats, for when he had finished
+his legal studies he became a town official, but discovered
+that his views&mdash;for he was known as an unbending
+Croat&mdash;hindered his advancement. The party in possession
+of the town council, the Autonomist party, would
+have none of him. At last he, in disgust, threw up his
+post and went into his father's office. He was entitled,
+after ten years' service, to a pension; the Autonomists
+refused to grant it for the reason that he was so dour a
+Croat. Very often, talking with his friends, did Dr. Vio
+mention this. He made a successful appeal to the Court
+at Buda-Pest and a certain yearly sum was conceded to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+him, which he may or may not be still obtaining. Then,
+to the amazement of the Croats, he renounced his nationality
+and became&mdash;no, not an Italian&mdash;a Magyar. He
+was now one of those who called Hungary his "Madre
+Patria," and as a weapon of the ruling Hungarian party
+he was employed against the Italianists. In the year
+1913 the deputy for Rieka died and Dr. Vio was a candidate,
+his opponent being one of the Italianist party,
+Professor Zanella. Dr. Vio had the support of the
+Government officials, railway officials and so forth, and
+was elected. Now he was a Magyar of the Magyars:
+Hungarian police officials were introduced, and Magyar,
+disregarding the town statutes, was employed by them
+as sole official language. The citizens still speak of those
+police.... The War broke out, and Dr. Vio donned a
+uniform, serving chiefly on the railway line between Rieka
+and Zagreb. Gradually he seems to have acquired the
+feeling that it was unnatural for him to be a Magyar of
+the Magyars, even though he was compelled, like so many
+others, to wear this uniform. But one day in 1916 when
+his friend and fellow-officer, Fran &#352;ojat, teacher at the
+High School at Su&#353;ak, walked into his room at Meja,
+when he happened to be putting little flags upon a map,
+he prophesied&mdash;King Peter and the Tzar would have
+been glad to hear him. Presently, he had himself elected
+as the mayor, which enabled him to leave an army so
+distasteful to him. How long would he wait until he
+publicly became a Croat once again? He did not doubt
+that the Entente would win, and told that same friend
+&#352;ojat that Rieka on the next day would be Croat. To
+another gentleman in June of 1918 he said he hoped
+that he would be the first Yugoslav mayor of the town,
+and on that day, out hunting, he sang endless Croat
+songs. In September, to the mayor of Su&#353;ak, "You will
+see," he said, "how well we two as mayors will work
+together." When the Croat National Council entered
+into office at the end of October he again met Mr. &#352;ojat,
+just as he was going up to that interview in the Governor's
+Palace. "Jesam li ja onda imao pravo, jesi li sada
+zadovoljan?" he said. ("Was I not right that time?
+Are you satisfied now?") Joyfully he pressed Mr.
+&#352;ojat's hand and greeted the two other persons who were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+with him. And Mr. &#352;ojat was pleased to think that Vio
+would now be a good Croat, as of old. But on the
+following day he was an Italian.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">HIS FERVOUR</p>
+
+<p>When I went up to see this variegated gentleman&mdash;whose
+personal appearance is that of a bright yellow cat&mdash;he
+purred awhile upon the sofa and then started striding
+up and down the room. As he sketched the history of
+the town, which, he said, had always been Italian and
+would insist on being so, he spoke with horror of the days
+when Jella&#269;i&#263; was in control, and then, remembering
+another trouble, he raised both his hands above his head
+and brought them down with such a crash upon the
+desk where I was writing his remarks that&mdash;but nobody
+burst in; the municipal officials were accustomed to his
+conversation. He was reviling at that moment certain
+Allied officers who had not seen fit to visit him. "I
+care not!" he yelled. "We are Italian! I tell you
+we are Italianissimi!" (He was glad enough, however,
+when his brother Hamlet, who had remained a Yugoslav
+and was on friendly terms with the chief of the carabinieri,
+managed to obtain for the mayor a passport to Italy,
+concerning which the carabinieri had said that they must
+first of all apply to Rome.) The doctor was sure that
+Yugoslavia would not live, for it had two religions;
+and another notable defect of the Croats&mdash;"I speak their
+language quite well," he said&mdash;was that in the whole of
+Rieka not one ancient document was in Croatian. I
+was going to mention that everywhere in Croatia until
+1848 they were in Latin&mdash;but he saw what I was on the
+point of saying and&mdash;"Look here! look here!" he cried,
+"now look at this!" It was a type-written sheet in
+English, whereon was recounted how the mayor had offered
+to four Admirals, who came to Rieka on behalf of their
+four nations, how he had, in order to meet them in every
+way&mdash;"They asked me," he said, with blankness and
+indignation and forgiveness all joined in his expression&mdash;it
+was beautifully done&mdash;"they asked me, the Italian
+mayor of this Italian town, whether it was truly an Italian
+town!"&mdash;well, he had offered to take a real plebiscite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+on the basis of the last census, and the Admirals, while
+appreciating his offer, had not availed themselves of it.
+(Maybe some one had told them how the census officials,
+chiefly members of the "Giovani Fiumani," had gone
+round, asking the people whether they spoke Italian
+and usually filling in the papers themselves. Presumably
+the mayor did not propose to allow anyone who had then
+been described as an Italian now to call himself Croat.)
+I was just calculating what he was in 1910 when he played
+a trump card and begged me to go up to the cemetery
+and take note of the language used for the epitaphs. Then
+let me return to him on the morrow and say what was the
+nationality of Rieka. There seemed to be the question
+if in such a town where Yugoslavs so often use Italian
+as the business language, many of them possibly might
+use it as the language of death; as it happened the first
+Yugoslav to whom I spoke about this point&mdash;a lawyer
+at whose flat I lunched the following day&mdash;produced a
+little book entitled <i>Regolamento del Cimitero comunale
+di Fiume</i>, and from it one could see that in the local
+cemetery the blessed principle of self-determination was
+in fetters. Chapter iii. lays down that all inscriptions
+must have the approval of the civic body. You are
+warned that they will not approve of sentences or words
+which are indecent, and that they prohibit all expressions
+and allusions that might give offence to anyone, to moral
+corporations, to religions, or which are notoriously false.
+No doubt, in practice, they waive the last stipulation,
+so that the survivors may give praise to famous or to
+infamous men; but I am told that they raised fewer
+difficulties for Italian wordings, and that the stones which
+many people used&mdash;those which the undertakers had in
+stock, with spaces left for cutting in the details&mdash;were
+invariably in Italian.... I hope I have not given an
+unsympathetic portrait of the mayor who has about
+him something lovable. Whatever Fate may have in
+store for Rieka, Dr. Vio is so magnificent an emotional
+actor that his future is assured. I trust it will be many
+years before a stone, in Croat, Magyar or Italian, is
+placed above the body of this volatile gentleman....
+And then perhaps the deed of his administrative life
+that will be known more universally than any other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+will be the omission of an <i>I</i> from certain postage stamps.
+When the old Hungarian stamps were surcharged with
+the word <span class="smcap">Fiume</span>, the sixty-third one in every sheet of
+half an edition was defective and was stamped <span class="smcap">Fume</span>.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THREE PLEASANT PLACES</p>
+
+<p>In the immediate neighbourhood of Rieka, across the
+bay, lies Abbazia, which Nature and the Austrians have
+made into a charming spot. By the famous "Strandweg"
+that winds under rocks and palm and laurel, you go to
+Volosca in the easterly and to Lovrana in the westerly
+direction. Just at the back of all these pretty places
+stands the range of Istria's green mountains. More than
+twenty years ago a certain Dr. Krsti&#263;, from the neighbourhood
+of Zadar, conceived the happy thought of
+printing, in the peasant dialect, a newspaper which would
+discourse on Italy in articles no peasant could resist.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>He was given subsidies, and for some time the newspaper
+was published at Volosca. But perhaps the peasants
+did not read it any more than those near Zadar would
+take in the <i>Pravi Dalmatinac</i> ("The Real Dalmatian"),
+which attempted a few years previous to the War to
+preach sectionalism to the Serbo-Croats. The Italians
+who came to the Abbazia district in November 1918
+did not try such methods. In the combined commune
+of Volosca-Abbazia the population at the 1910 census
+consisted of 4309 Yugoslavs, 1534 German-Austrians,
+and 418 Italians. Most of the 418 had never seen Italy;
+the only true Italians were some officials who had come
+from other parts of Istria. The official language was
+Italian, which was regarded as more elegant. The
+district doctor was Italian, but all the other 29 non-official
+doctors were either Germans, Czechs or Croats.
+At Volosca eighteen years ago there was no Croat school;
+when one was opened the Italian school at once lost half
+its membership and before the War had been reduced to
+25 pupils. Before the War at Abbazia the Croat school
+had six classes, while the Italian had ceased for lack of
+patronage. The German school had 160 pupils; this
+has now been dissolved, the pupils being mostly sent
+to the re-opened Italian school. Thus it will be seen
+that efforts were required to Italianize these places.
+The efforts were continued even during the War, it is
+said by the ex-Empress Zita. At any rate the people
+who had altered their Italian names saw that they had
+been premature and reassumed their former ones. They
+reassumed the pre-war privileges: at Lovrana, for
+example, they "ran" the village, not having allowed
+any communal elections since 1905 and arranging that
+their Croat colleagues in the council should all be illiterate
+peasants. Some Italians were interned in 1915, as the
+Croats had been in 1914, but the council came again
+into their hands. At the meetings they had been obliged,
+owing to the council's composition, to talk Croatian;
+but their own predominance was undisturbed. On their
+return to power during the War they displayed more
+generosity, and admitted even educated Croats to the
+council. And if such out-and-out Italians as the Signori
+Grossmann, Pegan, etc. of Lovrana were kinder to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+Yugoslavs than the Signori Grbac, Koro&#353;a&#263; and Codri&#263;
+of Rieka it may be because the gentle spirit of the place
+affected them. The leading families would even intermarry;
+Signor Gelletich, Lovrana's Italian potentate,
+gave his sister to the Croat chieftain. But, as we have
+said, idylls had to end when in November 1918 the
+Italian army came upon the scene. Abbazia and Volosca
+and Lovrana were painted thoroughly in the Italian
+colours. Public buildings, private houses&mdash;irrespective
+of their inmates&mdash;had patches of green, white and red
+bestowed upon them. Everything was painted&mdash;some
+occupation had to be found for the military, who appeared
+to be more numerous than the inhabitants. Meanwhile,
+their commanding officers had other brilliant ideas: an
+Italian kindergarten was opened at Volosca, and the
+peasant women of the hills around were promised that
+if they came with their children to the opening ceremony,
+every one of them would be rewarded with 1 lb. of sugar.
+So they came and were photographed&mdash;it looked extremely
+well to have so many women seizing this first
+opportunity of an Italian education for their babies.
+Some one at Rieka most unfortunately had forgotten to
+consign the sugar. The Italian officer who was appointed
+to discharge the functions of podest&agrave;, that is,
+mayor, of Abbazia was a certain Lieut.-Colonel Stadler.
+He sent to Rome and Paris various telegrams as to
+the people's ardent hope of being joined to Italy. The
+people's own telegrams to Paris went by a more circuitous
+route. But Stadler did not seem to care much
+for the French, nor yet for the English. About a dozen
+of the educated people, thinking that the French might
+also come to Abbazia and wishing to be able to converse
+with them, took lessons in that language; another dozen,
+with a similar motive, had a Mr. Po&#353;ci&#263;, a naturalized
+American subject, to give them English lessons. Away
+with these baubles, cried Stadler; on January 10 he
+stopped the lessons.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO</p>
+
+<p>While the Italians were thus engaged, what was the
+state of opinion in their own country? Would Bissolati's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+organ, the <i>Secolo</i>, and the <i>Corriere della Sera</i>, which had
+been favourable to the Slavs since Caporetto, have it
+in their power to moderate the fury of the anti-Slav
+papers? Malagodi of the <i>Tribuna</i> said on November 24
+that the position at Rieka had been remedied. But was
+the public fully alive to what was happening at Zadar
+and &#352;ibenik? "While these cities have been nominally
+occupied by us and are under the protection of our flag,
+the Italian population has never been so terrorized by
+Croat brutality as at this moment." The <i>Mattino</i> disclosed
+to its readers in flaring headlines that "Yugoslav
+oppression cuts the throats of the Italian population in
+Dalmatia and terrorizes them." Would the people of
+Italy rather listen to such thrills or to the <i>Secolo</i>,
+which deprecated the contemptuous writings of Italian
+journalists with regard to the Slavs&mdash;the <i>Gazzetta del
+Popolo's</i> "little snakes" was one of the milder terms
+of opprobrium. The <i>Secolo</i> recalled Italy's own illiterate
+herds and the fact that the Italian Risorgimento
+was judged, not by the indifferent and servile mass,
+but by its heroes. It explained that the Treaty of
+London was inspired by the belief that Austria would
+survive, and that for strategic reasons only it had
+given, not Rieka, but most of Dalmatia and the islands
+to Italy.</p>
+
+<p>It was calamitous for Italy that she was being governed
+at this moment not by prudent statesmen such as she
+more frequently produces in the north, but by southerners
+of the Orlando and Sonnino type. The <i>Giornale d'Italia</i>
+would at a word from the Foreign Minister have damped
+the ardour of those journalists and other agitators who
+were fanning such a dangerous fire. Sonnino once
+himself told Radovi&#263;, the Montenegrin, that he could
+not acquiesce in any union of the Yugoslavs, for such a
+combination would be fraught with peril for Italians.
+And now that Southern Slavs were forming what he
+dreaded, their United States, it would have been sagacious&mdash;it
+was not too late&mdash;if he had set himself to win their
+friendship. Incidents of an untoward nature had occurred,
+such as those connected with the Austrian fleet;
+nine hundred Yugoslavs, after fighting side by side with
+the Italians, had actually been interned, many of them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+wearing Italian medals for bravery;<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> the Yugoslavs, in
+fact, by these and other monstrous methods had been
+provoked. But it was not too late. A Foreign Minister
+not blind to what was happening in foreign countries
+would have seen that if he valued the goodwill of France
+and England and America&mdash;and this goodwill was a
+necessity for the Italians&mdash;it was incumbent on him to
+modify his politics. The British Press was not unanimous&mdash;all
+the prominent publicists did not, like a gentleman
+a few months afterwards in the <i>Spectator</i>, say that "if
+the Yugoslavs contemplated a possible war against the
+Italians, by whose efforts and those of France and Great
+Britain they had so recently been liberated, then would
+the Southern Slavs be guilty of monstrous folly and
+ingratitude." Baron Sonnino might have apprehended
+that more knowledge of the Yugoslav-Italian situation
+would produce among the Allies more hostility; he should
+have known that average Frenchmen do not buy their
+favourite newspaper for what it says on foreign politics,
+and that the <i>Journal des D&eacute;bats</i> and the <i>Humanit&eacute;</i> have
+many followers who rarely read them. And, above all
+else, he should have seen that the Americans, who had
+not signed the Treaty of London, would decline to lend
+themselves to the enforcement of an antiquated pact
+which was so grievously incongruous with Justice, to
+say nothing of the Fourteen Points of Mr. Wilson.
+But Sonnino threw all these considerations to the winds.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>He should have reconciled himself to the fact that
+his London Treaty, if for no other reason than that
+it was a secret one, belonged to a different age and was
+really dead; his refusal to bury it was making him
+unpopular with the neighbours. One does not expect a
+politician to be quite consistent, and Baron Sonnino is,
+after all, not the same man who in 1881 declared that
+to claim Triest as a right would be an exaggeration of
+the principle of nationalities; but he should not in 1918
+have been deaf to the words which he considered of such
+weight when he wrote them in 1915 that he caused them
+to be printed in a Green Book. "The monarchy of
+Savoy," he said in a telegram to the Duke of Avarna on
+February 15 of that year, "has its staunchest root in the
+fact that it personifies the national ideals." Baron Sonnino
+was rallying to the House of Karageorgevi&#263; most of those
+among the Croats and Slovenes who, for some reason or
+other, had been hesitating; for King Peter personified
+the national ideals which the Baron was endeavouring
+to throttle. As Mr. Wickham Steed pointed out in a
+letter to the <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Corriera'"><i>Corriere</i></ins> <i>della Sera</i>, the complete accord
+between Italians and Yugoslavs is not only possible and
+necessary, but constitutes a European interest of the
+first order; if it be not realized, the Adriatic would become
+not Italian nor Slav, but German; if, on the other hand,
+it were brought about, then the language and the culture,
+the commerce and the political influence of Italy would
+not merely be maintained but would spread along the
+eastern Adriatic coast and in the Balkans in a manner
+hitherto unhoped for; if no accord be reached, then the
+Italians would see their whole influence vanish from every
+place not occupied by overwhelming forces. But Sonnino,
+a descendant of rancorous Levantines and obstinate
+Scots, went recklessly ahead; it made you think that
+he was one of those unhappy people whom the gods
+have settled to destroy. He neglected the most elementary
+precautions; he ought to have requested, for
+example, that the French and British and Americans
+would everywhere be represented where Yugoslav territory
+was occupied. But, alas, he did not show that he
+disagreed with the <i>Tribuna's</i> lack of wisdom when it
+said that "the Italian people could never tolerate that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+beside our flag should fly other flags, even if friendly,
+for this would imply a confession of weakness and
+incapacity."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE STATE OF THE CHAMBER</p>
+
+<p>The Government was in no very strong position, for
+the Chamber was now moribund and the many groups
+which had been formed, in the effort to create a war
+Chamber out of one that was elected in the days of peace,
+were now dissolving. An incident towards the end of
+November exhibited not only the contrivances by which
+these groups hoped to preserve themselves, but the eagerness
+with which the Government rushed to placate the
+powerful. A young deputy called Centurione, a member
+of the National Defence group (the Fascio), made a furious
+attack on Giolitti, under cover of a personal explanation.
+He had been accused of being a police spy. Well, after
+Caporetto, convinced that the defeat was partly due to
+the work of Socialists and Giolittians, he had disguised
+himself as a workman and taken part in Socialist meetings.
+He was proud to have played the spy for the good of his
+country, and he finished by accusing Giolitti and six others
+of treason. The whole Chamber&mdash;his own party not being
+strongly represented&mdash;seems to have made for Centurione
+who, amidst an indescribable uproar, continued to shout
+"Traitor!" to anyone who approached him. Sciorati,
+one of the accused, was at last able to make himself heard.
+He related how, at Turin, Centurione had made a fool of
+himself. (But if Lewis Carroll had been with us still
+he might have made himself immortal.) "I have seen
+him disguised," said Sciorati, "as an out-porter at the
+door of my own house." Giolitti appeared and demanded
+an immediate inquiry, with what was described as cold
+and menacing emphasis. And Orlando, the Prime Minister,
+flew up to the Chamber and parleyed with Giolitti
+in the most cordial fashion. Centurione's documents
+were at once investigated and no proofs of treason were
+found, no witnesses proposed by him being examined.
+He was expelled from the National Defence group for
+"indiscipline," his colleagues frustrating his attempts
+to sit next to them by repeatedly changing their seats.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+The attitude of the Fascio was humble and apologetic,
+and the other significant feature of the incident was the
+haste with which Orlando reacted to Giolitti's demand for
+an inquiry.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY</p>
+
+<p>Baron Sonnino had to take into account not only the
+unsteadiness of the ground on which the Government
+stood, owing to these parliamentary regroupings, but the
+general effects that would ensue from the country's
+financial position. When, in spite of the victory and the
+approach of peace, the exchange price of the lira dropped
+2 to 3 points towards the end of November, this may have
+had, contrary to what was thought by many, no connection
+with a revolutionary movement. The fact that in
+Triest the authorities had been obliged to isolate Italian
+ex-prisoners on their return from Russia, since they were
+imbued with revolutionary principles, at any rate were
+uttering loud revolutionary cries, may have been the
+mere temporary infection caught from their environment.
+But that of which there was no doubt was the entire
+truth of Caroti's statement when that deputy declared
+at Milan that while Italy had been triumphant in the
+military sphere, she had been economically overthrown.
+Bankruptcy had not been announced, though it existed.
+Sonnino may therefore have been impelled not only by
+imperialism, by his inability to adjust himself to the new
+international situation, but by the hope that through his
+policy the new internal situation might be tided over.
+If the thoughts of his fellow-countrymen could be directed
+elsewhere than to bankruptcy and possible revolution, it
+might be that in the meantime adroit measures and good
+luck would brush away these disagreeable phenomena.
+And he would then be rightly looked upon as one who had
+deserved well of his country. So he set about the task
+with such a thoroughness that he turned not alone the
+thoughts of men, but their heads. Professor Italo Giglioli
+addressed a letter to <i>The New Europe</i> in which he said
+that he was claiming now not the territories given by the
+Treaty of London, but considerably more. He wanted
+all Dalmatia, down to Kotor. In foreign hands, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+said, Dalmatia would be an eternal danger, and besides:
+"What in Dalmatia is not Italian is barbaric!" It was
+a melancholy spectacle to see a man of Giglioli's reputation
+saying that Dubrovnik, the refuge of Slav culture in
+the age of darkness and the place in which Slav literature
+so gloriously arose, was, forsooth, throughout its history
+always Italian in culture and in literature. "Among
+thinking people in Italy," proclaims the Professor, "there
+are indeed but few who will abandon to the Balkan
+processes a region and a people which have always been
+possessed by Italian culture and which constitute the
+necessary wall of Italy and Western Europe against the
+inroads of the half-barbaric East." He protests that it
+is ridiculous of <i>The New Europe</i> to assert that the secret
+Treaty of London is supported by a tiny, discredited band
+of Italians; and indeed that Review has regretfully to
+acknowledge that many of his countrymen have been
+swept off their feet and carried onward in the gale of
+popular enthusiasm. Giglioli ends by asking that his
+name be removed from the list of <i>The New Europe's</i>
+collaborators. In vain does the <i>The New Europe</i> say that
+the Professor's programme must involve a war between
+Italians and Yugoslavs. "We must be prepared for a
+new war," said the <i>Secolo</i> on January 12. "The Italians
+who absolutely demand the conquest of Dalmatia must
+have the courage to demand that the demobilization of
+our Army should be suspended, and to say so very clearly."
+And the <i>Corriere della Sera</i> warned Orlando of the consequences
+if he took no steps to silence the mad voices.
+"No one knows better," it wrote, "than the Minister of
+the Interior, who is also Premier, that on the other coast
+Italy claims that part of Dalmatia which was assigned
+to her by the Treaty of London, but not more.... If
+the Government definitely claims and demands the whole
+of Dalmatia, then the agitation is justified; but if the
+Government does not demand it, then we repeat that to
+favour and not to curb the movement is the worst kind
+of Defeatism, for it creates among Italians a state of
+mind tending to transform the sense of a great victory
+into the sense of a great defeat ... quite apart from
+the intransigeance which this provokes in the Yugoslav
+camp." It was in vain. And when Bissolati, having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+resigned from office on the issue of Italo-Yugoslav relations,
+attempted to explain his attitude at the Scala in
+Milan on January 11, his meeting was wrecked, for
+though the body of the hall and the galleries were relatively
+quiet, if not very sympathetic&mdash;it was a ticket
+meeting&mdash;the large number of subscription boxes, which
+could not be closed to their ordinary tenants, had been
+packed by Bissolati's adversaries, who succeeded in preventing
+him from speaking. After a long delay he
+managed to read the opening passage, but when he
+came to the first "renunciation"&mdash;the Brenner for the
+Teutons&mdash;disturbance set in finally and he left the
+theatre. Afterwards the rioters adjourned to the <i>Corriere</i>
+and <i>Secolo</i> offices, where they broke the windows. And
+thus the first full statement of the war aims of any Italian
+statesman could not be uttered. It was spread abroad
+by the Press. Bissolati claimed to speak in the name of
+a multitude which had hitherto been silent.... The
+masses, he said, demanded, that their rulers should devote
+all their strength to "the divine blessing of freeing mankind
+from the slavery of war." ... "To those," he said,
+"who speak of the Society of Nations as an 'ideology'
+or 'Utopia' which has no hold over our people, we would
+reply: Have you been in the trenches among the soldiers
+waiting for the attack?" [Signor Bissolati had the
+unique record, among Allied or enemy statesmen, of
+having volunteered for active service, though past the
+fighting age, and of having served in the trenches for
+many months before entering the Orlando Cabinet.]</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A FOUNTAIN IN THE SAND</p>
+
+<p>The speech was an admirable expression of that new
+spirit which the Allies had been fighting for. "Each of
+the anti-German nations," he said, "must guard itself
+against any unconsciously German element in its soul,
+if only in order to have the right to combat any trace
+in others of the imperialism which had poisoned the outlook
+of the German people." With regard to the Adriatic:
+"Yugoslavia exists, and no one can undo this. But to
+the credit of Italy be it said, the attainment of unity and
+independence for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+must be alike the reason and the certain issue of our
+War.... Italy felt that if Serbia had been swallowed
+up by that monstrous Empire&mdash;itself a vassal of the
+German Empire&mdash;her own economic expansion and
+political independence would have received a mortal
+blow. And so she was on Serbia's side, first in neutrality,
+then in intervention.... Those who only see, in the
+formation of the Yugoslav State, a sympathetic or antipathetic
+episode of the War, or a subsidiary effect of it,
+have failed to detect its inner meaning." As for the
+Treaty of London which was concluded against the enemy,
+it was not to be regarded as intangible against a friendly
+people. By special grants of autonomy, as at Zadar, or
+by arrangements between the two States, he would see
+the language and culture of all the trans-Adriatic sons of
+Italy assured. He warned his countrymen lest, in order
+to meet the peril of a German-Slav alliance against them,
+they should have to subordinate themselves to France
+and England, and be their prot&eacute;g&eacute;s instead of their real
+Allies&mdash;a situation not unlike that of the Triple Alliance
+when Germany protected them against the ever-imminent
+attack of Austria.... "But perhaps the Yugoslavs
+will not be grateful or show an equal spirit of conciliation?
+Certainly they will then have no vital interests
+to push against Italy, and in the long run sentiments
+follow interests." There was, in fact, throughout the
+speech only one questionable passage, that in which he
+said that "if Italy renounced the annexation of Dalmatia
+she might obtain from Yugoslavia or from the Peace
+Conference the joy of pressing to her heart the most Italian
+city of Rieka, which the Treaty of London renounced."
+This may have been a sop to Cerberus. But Bissolati's
+appeals to justice and to wisdom fell upon the same stony
+ground as his demonstration that Dalmatia's strategic
+value is very slight from a defensive point of view to
+those who possess Pola, Valona and the outer islands.
+There is a school of reasonable Italians, such as Giuseppe
+Prezzolini, who for strategic reasons asked for the isle of
+Vis. Mazzini himself, after 1866, found it necessary,
+for the same reasons, that Vis should be Italian, since it
+is the key of the Adriatic. Some of us thought that it
+might have been feasible to follow the precedent of Port<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+Mahon, which Great Britain occupied without exercising
+sovereignty over the rest of the island of Minorca. The
+magnificent harbour of Vis, perfectly protected against
+the bora, would have satisfied all the demands of the
+Italian navy. Vis is to-day practically as much Slav
+as Minorca was Spanish, and if the Slavs had been left in
+possession of the remainder of that island it would have
+proved the reverse of a danger to the Italians, since with
+a moderate amount of good sense the same relations would
+have existed as was the case upon Minorca.... The
+solution which was ultimately found in the Treaty of
+Rapallo was to allocate to the Italians in complete sovereignty
+not the island of Vis, but the smaller neighbouring
+island of Lastovo.</p>
+
+<p>While the vast majority of Italians would not listen
+to Bissolati they delighted in Gabriele d'Annunzio. The
+great poet Carducci<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> had his heart full when he thought
+about the ragged, starving Croat soldiers, pitiable victims
+of the Habsburgs, exploited by them all their lives and
+fighting for them in a foreign land&mdash;and they fought
+bravely; but as they were often clad in miserable garments,
+they were called by those who wanted to revile
+them "Croat dirt." And that is what they are to
+Gabriele d'Annunzio. When the controversies of to-day
+have long been buried and when d'Annunzio's works are
+read, his lovers will be stabbed by his <i>Lettera ai Dalmati</i>.
+And if the mob had to be told precisely what the Allies
+are, it did not need a lord of language to dilate upon
+"the thirty-two teeth of Wilson's undecipherable smile,"
+to say that the French "drunk with victory, again fly
+all their plumes in the wind, tune up all their fanfares,
+quicken their pace in order to pass the most resolute
+and speedy&mdash;and we step aside to let them pass." No
+laurel will be added to his fame for having spoken of
+"the people of the five meals" [the English] which, "its
+bloody work hardly ended, reopens its jaws to devour
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>as much as it can." All Italy resounded with the catchword
+that the Croats had been Austria's most faithful
+servants, although some Italians, such as Admiral Millo,
+as we shall see, when writing confidentially, did not say
+anything so foolish. Very frequently, however, as the
+Croats noticed, those who had been the most uncompromising
+wielders of Austria's despotism were taken
+on by Italy, the new despot. For example, at Split
+when the mayor and other Yugoslav leaders were arrested
+at the beginning of the War, one Francis Mandirazza
+was appointed as Government Commissary, after having
+filled the political post of district captain (Bezirkshauptmann)
+which was only given to those who were in the
+entire confidence of the Government. As soon as the
+Italians had possession of &#352;ibenik they took him into their
+service.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME</p>
+
+<p><i>The New Europe</i>, whose directors had taken a chief
+part in bringing the Italians and the Yugoslavs together,
+which congress had resulted in the Pact of Rome, of April
+1918, pointed out that in those dark days of the high-water
+mark of the great German offensive, this Pact&mdash;which
+provided the framework of an agreement, on the
+principle of "live and let live"&mdash;was publicly approved
+of by the Italian Premier and his colleagues, but was
+rejected now when the danger was past and Austria was
+broken up. Those who brought about the Pact reminded
+Italy that she was bound to it by honour and that the
+South Slav statesmen never had withdrawn from the
+position which it placed them in with reference to Italy....
+Everyone must sympathize with the disappointment
+of those gentlemen who&mdash;Messrs. Franklin-Bouillon,
+Wickham Steed and Seton-Watson were associated
+in this endeavour&mdash;had striven for a noble end, had
+achieved something in spite of many obstacles, and now
+saw that one party simply would not use the bridge which
+they had built for it. This party had, however, shown
+such reticence both while the bridge was being made
+and afterwards that one could scarcely be astonished
+at their attitude. The Congress at Rome was in no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+sense official, but a voluntary meeting of private persons,
+who were got together with a certain amount of trouble.
+So unofficial, in fact, was the Congress that those Serbs
+who worked with the representatives of the Yugoslav
+Committee belonged to the Opposition; the Serbian
+Government, then in Corfu, not giving their adhesion to
+the Congress, which was perhaps a very clever move on
+the part of Pa&#353;i&#263;. Whether it be true or not that Signor
+Amendolla, the General Secretary&mdash;he is the political
+director of the <i>Corriere della Sera</i>&mdash;was asked by the
+Yugoslav Committee not to admit any Serbian deputies
+except those of the Opposition, it appears that no other
+Serbs took a part in the proceedings. The Italian Government
+adopted an ambiguous attitude, for while Orlando
+publicly endorsed the resolutions, as did several other
+Ministers, notably Bissolati, the Premier gave no confirmation
+to those who interpreted his attitude as implying
+the tacit abandonment of Italy's extreme territorial
+claims. Sonnino was so reserved that he took no share
+at all in the Congress and refused to receive the Yugoslavs.
+He made no secret of his determination to exact the
+London Treaty. Nothing was signed by the Italian
+Government; and if Orlando's honour was involved it
+certainly does not seem possible to say the same of
+Sonnino. It may be that Pa&#353;i&#263; foresaw what would
+happen and was therefore unwilling to be implicated.
+He is an astute statesman of the old school&mdash;"too old,"
+says <i>The New Europe</i>, which regards him as an Oriental
+sultan. But respecting the Pact of Rome they were
+rather at issue with the Italians. What the Italians
+gained was that the various clauses of the Pact were used
+as the basis for propaganda in the Austrian ranks on the
+Piave. And when once the Austrian peril had vanished
+the old rancour reappeared, particularly when, by the
+terms of the military armistice with Austria, Italy obtained
+the right to occupy a zone corresponding with
+what she was given by the London Treaty. Whereas in
+that instrument the frontiers were exactly indicated,
+there was in the Pact of Rome no more than a general
+agreement that the principles of nationality and self-determination
+should be applied, with due regard to other
+"vital interests." Bissolati's group was in favour of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+something more definite, but to this Orlando was not well
+disposed; and Trumbi&#263;, the President of the Yugoslav
+Committee, did not avail himself of the, perhaps rather
+useless, offer of some Serbs who were not participating
+in the Congress, but suggested that while he worked with
+the Government they would keep in touch with the
+Bissolati group; even as Bismarck who would work
+openly with a Government, and through his agents with
+the Opposition.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">GATHERING WINDS</p>
+
+<p>As the Serbian Society of Great Britain observed in
+a letter of welcome which they addressed to Baron Sonnino
+on the occasion of a visit to London, they were convinced
+"after a close study and experience of the Southern
+Slav question in all its aspects and some knowledge of
+the Adriatic problem as a whole, that there is no necessary
+or inevitable conflict between the aspiration of the
+Southern Slav people towards complete unity and the
+postulates of Italian national security and of the completion
+of Italian unity; but that, on the contrary, there
+exist strong grounds for Italo-Southern Slav co-operation
+and friendship." The Italian Government, however,
+had now got almost their whole country behind them,
+and in the months after the War so many Italians had
+become warlike that they were enchanted with the picture
+drawn by Gabriele d'Annunzio: "And what peace will
+in the end be imposed on us, poor little ones of Christ?
+A Gallic peace? A British peace? A star-spangled
+peace? Then, no! Enough! Victorious Italy&mdash;the
+most victorious of all the nations&mdash;victorious over herself
+and over the enemy&mdash;will have on the Alps and over her
+sea the <i>Pax Romana</i>, the sole peace that is fitting. If
+necessary we will meet the new plot in the fashion of the
+Arditi [units of volunteers employed on specially dangerous
+enterprises], a grenade in each hand and a knife between
+our teeth." It is true that the other poor little ones of
+Christ, the Franciscans, who are greatly beloved by the
+people of Dalmatia, from whom they are sprung, have
+hitherto preached a different <i>Pax Romana</i>. The Dalmatian
+clergy, who are patriotic, have been rather a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+stumbling-block in the way of the Italians. A very small
+percentage of them&mdash;about six in a thousand&mdash;have been
+anti-national and opportunist. At one place a priest
+whom his bishop had some years ago had occasion to
+expel, returned with the Italian army in November 1918
+and informed the bishop that he had a letter from the
+Pope which reinstated him, but he refused to show this
+letter. He was anxious to preach on the following Sunday;
+the bishop declined to allow him. Then came unto the
+bishop the chief of the Italian soldiery and he said unto
+him: "Either thou shalt permit this man to preach
+or I will cause thine office to be taken from thee." Unfortunately
+the bishop yielded, and the sermon, as one
+would imagine, was devoted to the greater glory of the
+Italians. Sometimes the Italians, since their occupation,
+have made a more humorous if not more successful use
+of the Church. On Palm Sunday, after the service a
+number of peasants, in their best clothes, were walking
+through a village holding the usual palm leaves in their
+hands. They were photographed, and a popular Italian
+newspaper printed this as a full-page coloured illustration.
+It was entitled: "Dalmatian Peasants on their
+way to pay Homage to Admiral Millo."</p>
+
+<p>This policy of a grenade in each hand and a knife
+between the teeth makes a powerful appeal to the munition
+firms. And others who feed the flame of Italo-Slav
+hatred are, as Gaetano Salvemini, the anti-chauvinist,
+pointed out in the <i>Unit&agrave;</i> of Florence, those professional
+gladiators who would lose their job, those agents of the
+Italo-German-Levantine capitalism of the Triest Chamber
+of Commerce who want to be rid of the competition of
+Rieka and think that this can only be obtained by annexation,
+and also those Italian Nationalists who believe that
+the only path to national greatness is by acquiring territory
+everywhere. No light has come to them from the
+East; the same arguments which are now put forward
+by such societies as the "Pro Dalmatia" could be heard
+in Italy before she possessed herself of Tripoli. One
+heard the same talk of strategic necessities; one heard
+that nearly all the population was waiting with open
+arms for the Italians; one heard that from a business
+point of view nothing could be better; one heard that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+the Italians without Tripoli would be choked out of the
+Mediterranean. And what have been the fruits of the
+conquest of Tripoli? No economic advantages have
+been procured, as Prezzolini wrote, no sociological, no
+strategic, no diplomatic benefits. A great deal of money
+was thrown away, a vast amount of energy was wasted,
+and thousands of troops have to be stationed permanently
+in the wilderness. That expedition to Tripoli, which was
+one of the gravest errors of Italian politics, was preceded
+by clouds of forged documents, of absurdities, of partial
+extracts out of consular reports, of lying correspondence
+which succeeded in misleading the Italians.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHY THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA</p>
+
+<p>"The Italian Government," said the <i>Morning Post</i>,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>
+"is well qualified to judge of the interests of its own
+people." Here the <i>Morning Post</i> is not speaking of the
+Italian Government which dealt with Tripoli, but that
+which has been dealing with Dalmatia. The reasons
+which have been advanced for an Italian or a partly
+Italian Dalmatia are geographical, botanical, historical,
+ethnical, military, naval and economic. As for the
+geographical reasons: even in the schools of Italy they
+teach that the Italian natural frontier is determined by
+the point of division of the waters of the Alps and that
+this frontier falls at Porto R&eacute;, a few miles to the south of
+Rieka&mdash;everything to the south of that belonging to the
+Balkan Peninsula. We may note the gallant patriotism
+of an Italian cartographer mentioned by Prezzolini;
+this worthy has inscribed a map of Dalmatia down to the
+Narenta with the pleasing words: "The new natural
+boundaries of Italy." As for the argument that the
+flora of Dalmatia resembles that of Italy, this can equally
+well be employed by those who would annex Italy to
+Dalmatia. Historically, we have seen that Venice,
+which held for many years the seacoast and the islands,
+did not alter the Slav character of the country. It is not
+now the question as to whether Venice deserved or did
+not deserve well of Dalmatia, but "the truth is," says
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>M. Emile Haumant,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> the learned and impartial French
+historian, "the truth is that when Marmont's Frenchmen
+arrived they found the Slav language everywhere, the
+Italian by its side on the islands and the coast, Italian
+customs and culture in the towns, and also the lively
+and sometimes affectionate remembrance of Venice;
+but nowhere did a Dalmatian tell them that he was an
+Italian. On the contrary, they all affirmed that they
+were brothers of the Slav beyond, in whose misfortunes
+they shared and whose successes they celebrated." The
+Italians themselves, in achieving their unity, were very
+right to set aside the undoubted historical claims of the
+Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, those of the House of Este
+and those of the Vatican, seeing that they were in opposition
+to the principle of nationality and the right of a
+people to determine its own political status. With regard
+to the ethnical reasons, we are flogging another dead
+horse, as the statistics&mdash;even those taken during the
+Italian occupation&mdash;prove to the meanest intellect; and
+now the pro-Italians, despairing to make anyone believe
+that the 97&middot;5 per cent. of the people of Dalmatia are
+truly Italians who by some kink in their nature persist
+in calling themselves Slavs, have invented a brand new
+nationality, the Dalmatian, after the classic style of the
+late Professor Jagi&#263; who at Vienna, under the pressure of
+the Austrian Government, began talking of the Bosnian
+language in order not to say that it is Serbo-Croat. He
+was drowned in laughter. With respect to the military
+reasons, the Dalmatian littoral cannot be defended by a
+State which is not in possession of the hinterland. In
+time of peace a very strong army would be needed;
+Italy would, in fact, have to double her army for the
+defence of a frontier 700 kilometres long. And in the
+event of war it would be necessary either to abandon
+Dalmatia or to form two armies of operation, one on the
+frontiers of Julian Venetia, the other in Dalmatia, and
+without any liaison between them. From the military
+point of view it is incomparably more to the interest of
+Italy that she should live on friendly terms with the
+people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
+should maintain there an army out of all proportion to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>her military and economic resources&mdash;an army which in
+time of war would be worse than useless, since, as M. Gauvain
+observes, the submarines, which would find their
+nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
+communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if
+she had to fight on the eastern side of the Adriatic her
+sailors in the morning would have the sun in their eyes;
+but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped in the
+case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic
+reasons, the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee
+to the Germans and Magyars the commercial monopoly
+of the East, and Italy will perceive that she has paid
+very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
+by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce
+to penetrate to the Balkans is by concluding with a
+friendly Yugoslavia the requisite commercial treaties,
+which will grow more valuable with the construction of
+the lateral railways, running inland from the coast,
+which Austrians and Magyars so constantly impeded.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON</p>
+
+<p>If, then, it is difficult to see where the Italian interests
+will be profited by the possession of Dalmatia, there
+remains the argument that, irrespective of the consequences,
+she must have a good deal of it since it was
+allotted to her by the Treaty of London,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> although
+the engagements entered into by Italy, France and
+Great Britain when they signed the Treaty with
+Germany caused the earlier instrument to be subject to
+revision where its terms had been disregarded. Signor
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>Orlando, in an interview granted in April 1918 to the
+<i>Journal des D&eacute;bats</i>, eagerly insisted that the Treaty
+had been concluded against the Austrian enemy, not
+against the Yugoslav nation; and if this be more than
+a mere phrase it is clear that with the disappearance of
+Austria-Hungary the Treaty automatically fell to the
+ground. By this Treaty of April 1915, France and Great
+Britain are bound&mdash;if necessary, by force of arms&mdash;to
+assist Italy in appropriating what, I believe, will be
+acknowledged to be some one else's country, at all events
+a country the vast proportion of whose inhabitants have
+determined that on no account will they come under the
+Italians. Would it not have been advisable if those
+who signed this document had made a few not very
+recondite researches into eastern Adriatic questions?
+They must have felt some qualms at the cries of indignation
+and amazement which arose when the provisions of
+the Treaty were disclosed, for it did not remain a secret
+very long. They had imagined, on the whole, that as
+Dalmatia had been under alien rulers, Venetian, Austrian
+and so forth, for so many years it really would not matter
+to them very much if they were governed from Vienna or
+from Rome. Perhaps a statesman here and there had
+heard that the Dalmatian Diet had petitioned many times
+since 1870 that they should be reunited to their brothers
+of Croatia and Slavonia in the Triune Kingdom. But all
+the calculations seem to have been made upon the basis
+that Austria-Hungary would survive, as a fairly formidable
+Power at any rate. The union of the Southern
+Slavs was too remote, and the Italians would be kindly
+masters. When the howl of indignation rose, the statesmen
+seem to have conceived the hope that the Italians
+would be generous and wise. The chief blame for the
+Treaty does not rest, however, on the Frenchmen and the
+Englishmen, but on the Russians; it was naturally felt
+that they should be more cognizant of Slav affairs, and
+if they were content to sign the Treaty, France and
+England might well follow their example. When Dr.
+Zari&#263;, the Bishop of Split, saw the former Russian Foreign
+Minister, M. Sazonov, in Paris in the spring of 1919, this
+gentleman was in a state of such dejection that the Bishop,
+out of pity, did not try to probe the matter. "Sometimes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+said Sazonov, "sometimes the circumstances are
+too much opposed to you and you have to act against
+your inclinations."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The French and British statesmen
+gave the Bishop the impression that they were ashamed
+of the Treaty. He read to them in turn a memorandum
+in which he suggested that the whole Dalmatian question
+should be left to the arbitration of President Wilson, who
+was well informed, through experts, of the local conditions.
+And was it, in any case, just that an Italian, both claimant
+and judge, should sit on the Council of Four, to which no
+Yugoslav was admitted? To President Wilson the
+Bishop said, "You have come to fight for the just cause."</p>
+
+<p>The President made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop, a native of the island of Hvar, a great
+linguist, was a man who made you think that a very
+distinguished mind had entered the body of the late
+Cardinal Vaughan. To him the most noticeable features
+of the President were the clear brow, the mystic eyes
+and the mouth which showed that he stood firmly on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You have come to work and fight for the peace,"
+said the Bishop.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, to fight," said Dr. Wilson. "And I
+will act with all my energy. You," he said, "you must
+help me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will help you," said the Bishop, "with my prayers."</p>
+
+<p>The Yugoslav Delegation in Paris had, on the authority
+of the Belgrade Cabinet, suggested that the question
+should be arbitrated.</p>
+
+<p>"The Italians have declined the arbitration," said
+Dr. Zari&#263;, "just as in the War Germany and Austria
+declined yours."</p>
+
+<p>The President nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"They have committed many disorders in our fair
+land," said the Bishop.</p>
+
+<p>"I know, I know," said the President.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+<p>But, it will be asked, why did not Dr. Wilson insist
+on a just settlement of the Adriatic question, taking into
+his own hands that which Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau
+were so chary of touching? These two statesmen,
+with the London Treaty hanging over them, wanted
+Wilson's assent for matters in which British and French
+interests were more directly concerned, while they required
+Sonnino's co-operation in the Treaty with Germany. It
+would have suited them very well if Wilson had taken
+such energetic steps with Italy that they themselves
+could, suitably protesting to Sonnino, be swept along by
+the presidential righteousness. But Dr. Wilson was
+disappointing those who had&mdash;in the first place because
+of the lofty language of his Notes&mdash;awaited a really great
+man. He was seen to be out of his depth; strenuously
+he sought to rescue his Fourteen Points and to steer the
+Covenant of the League through the rocks and shallows
+of European diplomacy. Sonnino, playing for time,
+involved the good Wilson in a maze of confused negotiations,
+while nearly every organ of Italian official and
+unofficial opinion was defaming the President. On
+April 15 Dr. Wilson in a memorandum suggested the
+famous "Wilson Line" in Istria, which thrust the Italian
+frontier westwards, so that Rieka should be safeguarded
+from the threat of an Italian occupation of Monte Maggiore.
+Italy was to give up northern Dalmatia and all the
+islands, save Lussin and Vis; in return she was to be
+protected by measures limiting the naval and military
+powers of Yugoslavia. When Wilson appealed over the
+head of the Italian Government to the people, their
+passions had been excited to such a degree that much
+more harm was done than good. It is said that he had
+promised Messrs. Lloyd George and Clemenceau that he
+would not publish his letter for three hours, but that&mdash;pride
+of authorship triumphing over prudence&mdash;it was
+circulated to the Press two hours before this time was
+up, and a compromise which had been worked out by Mr.
+Lloyd George had perforce to be abandoned. This was
+one of the occasions when the President's impulsiveness
+burst out through his cold exterior, when his strength of
+purpose, his grim determination to fight for justice were
+undermined by his egotism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO</p>
+
+<p>For months the Italians had been consoling themselves
+with the thought that such a hybrid affair as Yugoslavia
+would never really come into existence. Some visionaries
+might attempt to join the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes,
+yet these must be as rare as Blake, who testified that
+"when others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I
+see the sons of God shouting for joy." One only had to
+listen, one could hear already how they were growling,
+how they were quarrelling, how they were killing each
+other. In Montenegro, for example, and Albania the
+Italians were greatly interested&mdash;not always as spectators.
+If you tell a hungry Montenegrin peasant in the winter
+that there is a chance of his obtaining flour and&mdash;well,
+that he may have to fight for it, but he will get good
+booty at Cetinje, he will go there. In January 1919
+there was a battle. "The Montenegrin people rose in rebellion
+against the Serbians to recover their independence,"
+said an Italian writer, one Dr. Attilio Tamaro in a weekly
+paper called <i>Modern Italy</i>, which was published in London.
+"This intensely popular revolt, animated by the heroically
+patriotic spirit of the Montenegrins, was relentlessly
+suffocated in blood. In the little city of Cetinje alone,
+where there are but a few thousand inhabitants, over
+400 were killed and wounded. The Serbians and the
+French together accomplished this sanguinary <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'repression,'">repression.</ins>
+We repeat, it is painful to see the French lend their <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'men.'">men,</ins>
+their blood and their glorious arms to the carrying out of
+the low intrigues of Balkan politics." The money and
+the arms that were found on the dead and captured
+rebels were Italian. If the schemes of the Italians had
+not been upset by the timely arrival of the Yugoslav
+forces, with the few Frenchmen, they would have occupied
+Cetinje and restored the traitor king. As it was, they
+occupied Antivari, from which place they smuggled arms
+and munitions into the country. They conspired with the
+adherents of the old r&eacute;gime, a very small body of men
+who were enormously alarmed at the loss of their privileged
+position. The chief of them was Jovan Plamenac, a
+former Minister whom the people at Podgorica had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+refused to hear, a few weeks previously, when he attempted
+to address them. He was hated on account of the most
+ruthless fashion in which, as Minister, he had executed
+certain of his master's critics at Kola&#353;in. There was a
+time, during the first Balkan War, when he advocated
+union with Serbia and on April 6, 1916, he wrote in the
+<i>Bosnische Post</i> of Sarajevo that Nikita, owing to his flight,
+"may be regarded as no longer existing." But his unpopularity
+remained and, with vengeance burning in his
+heart, he went from Podgorica to the Italians. They
+concocted a nice plan&mdash;he was to raise an army of his
+countrymen and the Italians would bring their garrison
+from Scutari. On January 1 Plamenac and his partisans
+tried to seize Virpazar, on the Lake of Scutari&mdash;the Commandant
+of the Italian troops at Scutari, one Molinaro,
+had asked the chief of the Allied troops, three days before
+this attempt, whether he might dispatch two companies
+to that place for the purpose of suppressing the disorders
+which had not yet come to pass. Another rising was
+engineered at Cetinje, where twenty or thirty of the poor
+peasants who had let themselves be talked over by Plamenac
+were killed; the rest of the misguided fellows
+were sent home, only their leaders being detained. Plamenac
+himself escaped to Albania.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> On the side of the
+Montenegrin Provisional Government no regular troops
+were available, as the Yugoslav soldiers who had lately
+arrived were engaged in policing other parts of the country.
+Volunteers were needed and a body of young men, mostly
+students, enrolled themselves. They were so busy that
+they omitted to inform Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that
+they really were Montenegrin students. That indignant
+gentleman insists that they were Serbs, armed with
+French and British rifles, against which, he tells us (in
+the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, January 1921) the insurgents
+could not do much. Eleven of these volunteers were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>killed and they were buried underneath the tree where
+Nikita used to administer his brand of justice. All kinds
+of incriminating documents were found upon the dead
+and captured rebels, as also a significant letter from the
+Italian Minister accredited to Nikita, which was addressed
+to the chancellor of the Italian Legation at Cetinje. An
+inter-Allied Commission, over which General Franchet
+d'Esp&eacute;rey presided, issued their report on February 8
+at Podgorica. "All the troops," it said, "in Montenegro
+are Yugoslavs and not Serbs; there are not more than
+500 of them." It further stated that the rebellion had
+been provoked by certain agents of the ex-King, assisted
+by some Italian agents. As for the ridiculous Italian
+charge which I quoted, accusing the French of a share
+in the low intrigues of Balkan politics, this participation
+consisted in their General at Kotor demanding of Darkovi&#263;,
+the leader of the Montenegrin deputies, that his followers
+and the rebels should not come to blows. The reply,
+which annoyed the General, was to the effect that if the
+rebels made an attack, then Darkovi&#263; with his scratch
+forces would defend himself&mdash;and the battle lasted for
+two or three days. A junior French officer, who had been
+in command of a small detachment at Cetinje, told me
+that the noise of firing had awakened him every night
+and he had not the least idea what it was all about. But
+the French had a pretty accurate idea of the nationality
+of the "brigands" who on December 29 fired on the
+<small>ss.</small> <i>Skroda</i> and <i>Satyre</i> near the village of Samouritch
+when it was carrying a cargo of flour up the Bojana for
+the Montenegrins. These vessels were sailing under the
+French flag and the "brigands," about fifty in number,
+were armed with machine guns. An International Commission
+established these facts, as also that the Italian
+ship <i>Vedeta</i> passed up the river just before the outrage
+and the <i>Mafalda</i> just after it, and neither of them was
+molested. In consequence of what occurred and as
+practically all the supplies for Montenegro had at that
+time to be sent by the Bojana, General Dufour, in the
+absence of French troops, authorized the Serbs on
+February 12 to occupy the commanding position of
+Tarabosh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF THE AUSTRIANS
+THERE</p>
+
+<p>These Yugoslav troops had been detached from the
+left wing of the Salonica forces and had come overland
+in order to deal with the situation in Montenegro. The
+Austrians had been in a woeful plight; it was regarded
+as a punishment to serve in Montenegro and Albania,
+not only because of the lack of amenities and the unruly
+spirit of the people, but also for the reason that the officers
+who came there&mdash;many managed to avoid it&mdash;were too
+often causes of dissatisfaction. More complaints had
+gone up from this front than from any other. The
+supplies allotted by the High Command in Austria were
+ample, as the Rieka depots testified, but a great deal did
+not reach its proper destination. Some officers took
+down their wives or other ladies, loading up the army
+motor-cars with luxuries of food and grand pianos, while
+the men were forced to tramp enormous distances; if
+anyone fell out, the natives in Albania would emerge
+from where they had been hiding and would deprive the
+wretched man of his equipment and his clothing, and
+perhaps his life. The sanitary section of that Austrian
+army was not good; it happened frequently that victims
+of malaria and wounded men were told to walk&mdash;if they
+arrived, so much the better. These poor fellows did not
+know that if they ultimately got back to Vienna they
+might be the objects of Imperial solicitude&mdash;the least
+to be dreaded was the Archduke Salvator, who was wont
+to come to a hospital, with his wife, and to bestow on
+every man a coloured picture-postcard of their Imperial
+and Royal persons, with a sentence printed underneath
+respecting their paternal and maternal love; it was
+officially reported in Vienna, of another hospital, that
+those who lay there had been spending "happy hours"
+in "the circle of the exalted Family"&mdash;this referred
+to the Archduchess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions
+for the piano are said to be beyond all criticism;
+she herself did not play them, but would sit there while
+they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men.
+Not very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+who were taken to that hospital in Buda-Pest over which
+the Archduchess Augusta, a strikingly ugly woman,
+presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were
+allowed to be dressed until the Archduchess, arrayed in
+uniform and armed with a revolver, made her appearance
+of an evening. The officers were told that it was etiquette
+for them to broach a pleasant conversation with their
+benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg was
+the Archduchess Blanka, who was interested in medicine;
+she had thought out for herself a remedy which human
+ailments never would withstand, but which was more
+especially effective in cases of tuberculosis, of malaria
+and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the Kirchstetterngasse
+she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys.
+Her treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers;
+the patients were packed in these bandages and that was
+all that was done to them. With regard to the diet,
+there were no particular regulations. Some of the men
+were sent from there to another and less original hospital,
+but it was often too late.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">AND OF THE NATIVES</p>
+
+<p>The Montenegrins who had been for so long&mdash;some of
+them for three years&mdash;leading a congenial life among their
+rocks, descending now and then to kill an Austrian and
+to gather booty, were most active when the ill-starred
+Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians,
+for instance, took the road from Kola&#353;in with the intention
+of marching to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres.
+Thirty-five of them arrived there. Thus the population
+avenged such incidents as the hanging by the Austrian
+authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General
+Ve&#353;ovi&#263;,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> the General having taken to the hills and his
+brother being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians
+had now to pay the penalty of ruthlessness; on September
+1, 1917, Count Clam Martini&#263;, the Military Governor,
+issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: "In consequence
+of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians,
+we make the following order:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage
+will be summarily shot, their houses will be razed
+to the ground and their property confiscated by the
+Military Administration Authorities.</p>
+
+<p>"2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found,
+the procedure will be as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%; text-indent: 0em">"(<i>a</i>) The commune where the act of sabotage
+has taken place will be condemned to a
+heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not
+paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle
+will be seized.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%; text-indent: 0em">"(<i>b</i>) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of
+sabotage are repeated, will be executed in
+their commune."</p></div>
+
+<p>Life under the Austrians had become unendurable.
+Typhoid fever, marsh fever, typhus and dysentery assumed
+such proportions that in the towns and villages one saw&mdash;apart
+from such notices as Order No. 3110&mdash;no other
+bills posted up on the walls but those containing advice
+as to the correct way of nursing the sick. While poor
+wretches were dying of hunger in the hospitals and on the
+high road for want of bread, the authorities published
+a recipe for the making of wheat-butter, which was a
+recent discovery of German science, reputed to be very
+nourishing for debilitated organisms. But the price of
+a kilo (2 lb.) of wheat was 12 crowns (about 10s.). When
+the epidemic of typhus, which broke out in Cetinje and
+in the Njegu&#353; clan, reached alarming proportions and
+spread to other districts, the medical authorities advertised
+that household effects and linen should be washed with
+water and potatoes. A kilo of potatoes, in the autumn of
+1917, cost a price equivalent to 6s., a quart of oil cost
+&pound;2, 10s., a quart of milk 5s., a kilo of coffee &pound;2, 18s. 4d.,
+a yard of cloth &pound;4, 4s. to &pound;6, 6s., a pair of boots &pound;8, 7s.
+An average of 200 persons&mdash;mainly women and children&mdash;were
+dying every day of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>The Austrian army in retreat was incapable of action.
+It occupied a line east of Podgorica: Bioce-Tuzi-Lake
+of Scutari, with very few guns. The troops were scanty,
+they were weakened by malaria, etc.; but the Italians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+pursued them with great caution. The chief enemies
+were Albanians and Montenegrins. The wily Austrians
+gave rifles to the Albanians in order that they should
+attack the Montenegrins, but they were often used against
+their former owners. Then the contingents of the
+Salonica army came across the mountains, and when the
+Austrians went north, as best they could, the Yugoslavs
+of the Imperial and Royal army&mdash;Bosniaks were well
+represented&mdash;pinned on their tunics the national colours
+and were greeted by the inhabitants. Arriving at Cetinje
+they heard the incredible news that a Yugoslav State
+had been founded, that the Austrian navy had been
+handed over to the Yugoslavs, that French and Italians
+were already at Kotor. During the journey to that port
+the commanders were depressed, but the rank and file
+rejoiced at the idea of going home. Discipline was at
+an end. Thousands of rockets were fired into the air.
+It was the end of the Habsburg monarchy.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED</p>
+
+<p>The next thing for the Montenegrins to do was to
+depose Nikita. By a futile proclamation that personage
+had tried in October to resist the union of the Yugoslavs;
+he had made a last desperate attempt to save his crown.
+"I am ready to do," he said, "what my people desires."
+He plaintively protested that all his life had been dedicated
+to their service and now he wanted to go back to
+ascertain precisely what they wished. "Montenegro,"
+he had said, "belongs to a nation of heroes, who fought
+with honour for the highest ideals." But when on
+November 24 the Great National Skup&#353;tina met, and
+when on the 26th it unanimously deposed him&mdash;the old
+gentleman was wise enough to follow the advice of some
+French statesmen and remain where he was. "Here am
+I amongst you, dressed in our beautiful national costume,"
+he said at Neuilly to his supporters, on one of the occasions
+when he denied that he had been a traitor or anything
+so dreadful. But being a prudent old gentleman he refrained
+from uttering these words at Podgorica, where
+the Skup&#353;tina had met; a better plan was to communicate
+with the Press Association, in the hope that many editors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+would print his words. If it was a final anti-climax for
+a medi&aelig;val prince&mdash;ah well, what is life but one long
+anti-climax? He would protest against the constitution
+of the Skup&#353;tina. He had by no means given his approval
+to the new election laws; and if, contrary to his own
+practice, the gendarmes were having nothing to do with
+the urns, that was merely in order to curry favour with
+the Western Powers. The deputies were chosen by the
+people indirectly&mdash;that is to say, every ten men elected a
+representative, and these in their turn elected the deputies.
+This was not done by ballot, for Montenegro, like Hungary,
+had never known the ballot. An absurd outcry was
+raised by Nikita's band of adventurers and their unhappy
+dupes in this country; they called the world to
+witness this most palpable iniquity on the part of the Serbs,
+whose armed forces had rushed across the mountains,
+and the moment they arrived in Montenegro had so
+overawed the population that this pro-Serb, pro-Yugoslav
+Skup&#353;tina was duly chosen. Go to! Of course it was a
+sad disappointment to Nikita that a Yugoslav instead
+of an Italian army should occupy Montenegro. He had
+telegraphed at the beginning of the War to Belgrade
+that: "Serbia may rely on the brotherly and unconditional
+support of Montenegro, in this moment on which
+depends the fate of the Serbian nation, as well as on any
+other occasion"; and since he knew, without any
+telegram, that Serbia would in her turn support Montenegro&mdash;but
+not the tiny pro-Nikita faction&mdash;he was
+reduced to the appalling straits of a plot to force himself
+upon his own people by means of a foreign army. Now
+the composition of the aforementioned Yugoslav forces
+should be noted&mdash;after more than six years of heroic
+fighting against the Turks, the Bulgars, the Austro-Germans,
+the Albanian blizzards, and again the Bulgars
+and the Austro-Germans there did not survive a very large
+number of the splendid veterans of Marshal Mi&#353;i&#263;, and in
+Macedonia the ranks were filled by Yugoslav volunteers
+from the United States. Many of these Yugoslavs
+(over half of them Dalmatians and Bosnians) were included,
+in the army which entered Montenegro. The
+whole force at the time of the National Skup&#353;tina consisted
+of about 200 men, ten of whom were Serbs from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+the old kingdom&mdash;and if anyone maintains that 200 men
+could impose their will upon a population of 350,000
+which has arms enough and is skilful in the use of arms,
+he makes it clear that he knows little of the Montenegrins.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM</p>
+
+<p>The Podgorica Skup&#353;tina was not elected by these
+troops. No one will pretend that in the excitement of
+those days the voting was conducted in a calm and
+methodical fashion. Here and there a dead man was
+elected; the proceedings&mdash;though they were not faked,
+as in Nikita's time&mdash;were rough-and-ready. But if the
+deputies had been selected in a more haphazard fashion,
+say according to the first letter of their surnames, the
+result would have been identical&mdash;they would, with a
+crushing majority, have deposed their King and voted
+for the merging of their country in the rest of Yugoslavia.
+If the former Skup&#353;tina had been convoked, as some
+people advocated&mdash;it would have most effectively nonplussed
+the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might
+even have silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who asserted<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+that this "packed assembly" consisted of "Serbian
+subjects and bought agents in about equal numbers")&mdash;but
+then two-fifths of the country&mdash;those territories
+acquired in the Balkan War&mdash;would not have been
+represented. Observe, however, that the Skup&#353;tina in
+Nikita's time was for union with Serbia. Even then&mdash;although
+of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14,
+while the other 62, of course, were people whom he
+pretty well approved of&mdash;even then they had passed
+resolutions in favour of an economic union, a common
+army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica
+Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were
+from the new areas. The Constitution did not provide
+for such an assembly; but Nikita's friends who clamoured
+for the Constitution evidently had forgotten that under
+Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and
+people is declared to have forfeited his legal rights.
+Those foolish partisans who cried that it was monstrous
+not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins had come
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of
+Nikita's Red Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused
+to take. Moreover, certain of them were elected, after
+their arrival, as vacancies occurred, and they were also
+represented among the dozen deputies whom the Skup&#353;tina
+chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders
+happened during the elections, the best available men
+were chosen&mdash;76 of them having enjoyed a university
+education. It is worthy of remark that while 20 of the
+Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former parliaments,
+another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out
+of the total number of past and present deputies (<i>i.e.</i>
+over 300), only 15 declared for a kind of autonomy, but
+were in favour of Yugoslav union. The Metropolitan of
+Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war Premiers
+gave their unreserved support to the new r&eacute;gime. With
+them was the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen
+Vukoti&#263;, a grand-looking personage who has remained
+all his life a poor man; he was questioned by General
+Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey as to whether he had also voted
+against his brother-in-law. "If I had seven heads and
+on each of them a crown," answered the Voivoda, "I
+would give them all for the union of the Southern
+Slavs." ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia?
+"The Black Mountain," said Nikita at Neuilly&mdash;"the
+Black Mountain, as well as her national King, has always
+pursued the same path, the only one leading to the
+realization of our sacred ideal&mdash;that of National Unity."
+One might object that a national King should really not
+have written to his daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918,
+that he would propose a republic for all the Serbs and
+Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and the
+two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe
+for a republic, but that in advanced circles his suggestion
+would be enthusiastically received, and in a short time
+he would reap the benefit. "That," he wrote, "is my
+impression&mdash;it may be that I am wrong&mdash;but I do not
+know what else I can do." And a truly national King&mdash;but
+the world, as Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders,
+and nothing is more wonderful than man&mdash;a truly national
+King should not have supported those twenty Montenegrins
+who in the summer of 1919 assembled at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+monastery of De&#269;ani with the design of establishing a
+Bol&#353;evik republic. Before the Yugoslav troops could
+reach the spot these men were surrounded by Albanians
+and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
+intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the
+<i>Morning Post's</i> acute representative, was in Montenegro
+during the summer of 1920 he found only one person
+in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
+"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient,
+wild-looking 'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as
+the crags among which he lived, and long, straggling
+hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace.... The
+talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times
+and morals. Food was scarce, the wicked flourished
+like green bay trees, honest folks were oppressed, starved,
+neglected; for example, his own self that sat before me&mdash;would
+I believe it?&mdash;after forty years' service he had
+not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate....
+They were a rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe
+for hanging, every man-jack of them. And oh for the
+days of good King Nicholas, who would have given them
+short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that
+Nikita's panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of
+Macedonia, where he acted as agent and decoy of the
+then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at least, for
+which he received a good sum of money, could be laid
+to his charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping
+no doubt for better days, and meanwhile winked at by
+the tolerant authorities.</p>
+
+<p>After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a
+proclamation was issued by the joyous Montenegrins at
+Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began, "the great and
+bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
+Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right
+has triumphed.... Montenegrin arms and the heroic
+deeds of our Homeland have distinguished themselves
+for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
+sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy
+Yugoslavia.... Let us reject all attempts which may
+be made to deprive us of our happy future and put us in
+a position of blind and miserable isolation henceforth to
+work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+One is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future,
+the other is covered with dangerous and impenetrable
+brambles." If any disinterested and intelligent foreigner,
+say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought that
+it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she,
+like Croatia, Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself
+in the Yugoslav State or whether he considered that the
+sort of federation which the ex-King had suggested would
+assist more efficaciously the welfare&mdash;social, economical
+and national&mdash;of the Montenegrin, he would not have
+thanked you for asking so superfluous a question....
+Nikita then asserted that those terrible Serbian bayonets
+had caused the Podgorica Skup&#353;tina to vote as it did.
+Anyone who has spoken to one of those Bocchesi or
+Dalmatian volunteers who were at that time in Montenegro
+will quite believe that they applauded the result, but to
+pretend that they drove the Skup&#353;tina with bayonets to
+do what every reasoning creature would have done is
+so farcical that one might have thought it would not
+even form (as it did form) the subject for questions in
+the British House of Commons.... The only part
+played by bayonets was when on November 7 (one day
+previous to that fixed for the elections) a detachment of
+the Italian army landed at Antivari and another marched
+to within about six kilometres of Cetinje, where they were
+met by the Montenegrin National Guard, were told that
+bigger forces, which it was difficult to restrain, would
+shortly arrive and were given one hour in which to depart.
+Of this they availed themselves, announcing that they
+were all Republicans. They left behind them an elderly
+man who was sick and requested the Montenegrins not
+to murder him. The Italians and Nikita's friends soon
+afterwards spread a report of horrible murders in Montenegro.
+Certain Allied officers went up to investigate
+the matter and found that the charges were baseless.
+They were told by Mr. Gloma&#382;ic, the prefect of Cetinje,
+that the Allies, apart from the Italians, could go anywhere
+in Montenegro, but that the Italians would be opposed
+by force of arms and that if the Allies came up together
+with the Italians, then they too would be attacked.
+Thereupon the Allied officers invited Mr. Gloma&#382;ic to
+lunch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS</p>
+
+<p>Nikita had no hopes that any good would come from
+such a Skup&#353;tina. In 1912 it had been different; with a
+budget of some 6,200,000 perpers (or francs), including
+the Russian subsidies and the revenues from the Italian
+tobacco monopoly, the royal civil-list comprised 11 per
+cent. of the expenses, while the police accounted for 12 per
+cent., agriculture and commerce 1&frac12; per cent., public works
+4 per cent. and education 5 per cent. The Skup&#353;tina of
+that period had not caused him to pay more attention to
+the people's requirements. The darkness in which they
+lived was so profound that when Montenegro had to pay
+the interest on a six-million-franc loan from Great Britain
+no one in Cetinje could calculate how much was due; a
+telegram was therefore sent to London asking for this
+information and the date when payment should be made.
+If his people did not prevent him from allocating merely
+11,000 francs to the Ministry of Justice for the increase
+of salaries and so forth, while the Ministry of the Interior
+received 700,000 francs for the work of spying, the expense
+of killing people and various propaganda&mdash;both
+these items being labelled "special expenses"&mdash;then
+Nikita had no fault to find with his Skup&#353;tina. Things
+were almost as satisfactory as before 1907, when for the
+first time a budget was issued and the people were told
+how their contributions were spent. The personal
+property of the sovereign had indeed been formally
+separated from that of the State in 1868; but Nikita's
+manipulations were so little supervised that, even when he
+had established the Skup&#353;tina, he could say with truth,
+"L'&eacute;tat c'est moi." The Skup&#353;tina of 1918 was going
+to make vast changes.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE STATE OF BOSNIA</p>
+
+<p>In Bosnia, for some time after the Austrian collapse,
+it was inconvenient to travel. If you went by rail you
+were fortunate if you secured a good berth on the roof of
+a carriage; by road you went less rapidly and therefore
+ran a greater risk of being waylaid by the so-called "Green
+Depot," who were deserters from the Austrian army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>&mdash;either
+through national or other reasons&mdash;with their
+headquarters in the forests. Some of them were simply
+men who had gone home on leave and stayed at home.
+Here and there a National Guard of peaceful citizens,
+irrespective of nationality, was formed against them.
+But it was some time before they were induced to lead a
+less romantic life. What happened afterwards in Bosnia
+between the Serbs, the Croats and the Moslems was so
+much a matter of routine that the Italians should not
+have run off with the idea that this imperilled Yugoslavia.
+Of the 1,898,044 inhabitants in 1910 the proportions were
+as follows: Orthodox, who call themselves Serbs, 43&middot;49
+per cent.; Moslem, 32&middot;25 per cent.; and Catholics, who
+call themselves Croats, 22&middot;87 per cent. (The remainder
+are miscellaneous persons, such as 850,000 Jews, who speak
+the usual Balkan Spanish; they play an inconsiderable
+part in public life.) The Serbs, the Moslems and the
+Croats are identical in race and language, but have hitherto
+been much divided. Those who joined together in the
+Turkish days were led to do so as companions in distress;
+the rule of Austria, or to speak with greater accuracy
+the rule of Hungary&mdash;no one knew exactly who possessed
+the land, but the Magyars took it for granted that it was
+theirs&mdash;this rule, of course, did nothing to unite the
+various religions. The Moslems, especially after their
+complete isolation from Turkey, were the most favoured,
+while the Serbs, owing to the proximity of Serbia, were
+the most oppressed. And during the War it was the
+Serbian population which was chiefly tortured. Besides
+all those who were dragged away to such places as Arad,
+hundreds and hundreds were hanged in their own province.
+Not satisfied with using, as we see in so many of those
+ghastly photographs, their own army as the executioners,
+the Austro-Hungarians also organized local bands among
+the lower classes of the towns, and in so doing they availed
+themselves of any latent religious fanaticism among the
+Moslems. From the day of the Archduke's assassination
+it was the Serbs who suffered most; and many onlookers
+must have expected in the autumn of 1918 that they would
+take a very drastic revenge. For some weeks the people
+were left very much to their own devices, with no troops
+or police&mdash;the Austrian <i>gendarmerie</i> having to be protected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+by the better classes, who explained to the peasants that
+it was not right to regard only the uniform of those who
+had so often maltreated them; yet the gendarmes took
+the earliest opportunity of getting into mufti. There was
+also for several months a dearth of detectives. Many of
+those who had worked under Austria and were more or
+less criminal, fled at the collapse; others continued to
+act, but in a half-hearted way. Sixty new detectives
+were taken on by the Yugoslav authorities, and fifty-six
+of them had to be dismissed. After all, if one can judge
+a person's character from his face, the detective who
+allowed you to do so would be so incompetent as not to
+warrant a trial. And after six or seven months of Yugoslav
+administration only thirty-three out of fifty-two detective
+appointments in Sarajevo had been definitely filled.
+So there was not much restriction on the peasants in their
+dealings with each other. A few of them were murdered.
+In Sarajevo the National Guard was largely composed
+of well-meaning street boys; the Serbian troops did not
+arrive until November 6, and in many parts of Bosnia not
+until the end of the month. And yet in the whole country,
+with people on the track of those who in the pay of Austria
+had denounced or murdered their relatives, and with the
+poor <i>kmet</i> at last able to rise against the oppressive landlord,
+there were in the first six months under fifty murders,
+and these were mostly due to the desperate straits of the
+Montenegrins, who came across the frontier in search of
+provisions, during which forays they assassinated various
+people. In the Sandjak of Novi Bazar there was no doubt
+less security; but to anyone who knew, say the Rogatica
+district, under Austria's very capable administration, it
+will seem that Bosnia, after the collapse, was singularly
+tranquil. Anyhow the population, in the summer of
+1919, were living on much more amicable terms with one
+another than for many years. The Government met
+with some criticism, for it was alleged to be reserving all
+the lucrative appointments for the Serbs; one had to
+take into account, however, that it was the Serbs who
+had been chiefly ruined by the War, and it was just that
+the concessions for the sale of tobacco, for the railway
+restaurants and so forth, should be, for the greater part,
+given to them. Nevertheless it may interest travellers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+to know that the restaurateurs at the stations of Ilid&#382;e
+and Zenica are Catholics&mdash;the Moslems are not yet very
+competent in such affairs. They are, as their own leaders
+sadly confess, the least cultured and the least progressive
+class. As elsewhere in Islam there has been a total lack
+of female education&mdash;the mothers of the Sarajevo Moslem
+<i>intelligentsia</i> can neither read nor write, while their sons
+are cultivated people who speak several languages. A
+change is being made&mdash;there are already five Moslem lady
+teachers employed in the mixed Government schools;
+this a few years ago would have been thought impossible.
+It is to be deplored that these divisions into Moslem
+and Orthodox and Catholic should be perpetrated&mdash;the
+Moslem leaders look forward to the time, in a few years,
+when their deputies will no longer group themselves
+apart on account of their religion; but it is unwise to
+introduce too many simultaneous innovations, considering
+that the illiterates of Bosnia number about 90 per cent.
+of the population. The Yugoslav idea will prosper in
+this country; and, by the way, while you meet an occasional
+Serb who hankers for a Greater Serbia, an occasional
+Croat who would like a Greater Croatia, the Moslems have
+no aspirations save for Yugoslavia. [They speak of "our
+language," since the word "Serbian" has for them too
+much connection with the Orthodox religion, the word
+"Croatian" with Roman Catholicism.] They are not
+indifferent to the fact that to their own 600,000 in Bosnia
+they will add the 400,000 of Macedonia and Old Serbia,
+together with the 200,000 of Montenegro and the Sandjak....
+One was inclined to think that the least desirable
+person of the new era in Sarajevo was the editor of the
+<i>Srpski Zora</i> ("Serbian Dawn"); his methods had a resemblance
+to those of Lenin, for he printed lists of persons
+whom he called upon the Government to prosecute, and
+when he was himself invited to appear in court and answer
+to some libel charges he declined to go, upon the ground
+that the laws were still Austrian and the judge a Magyar.
+He disapproved of such tolerance, he disapproved of the
+Croats because they declined to recognize that the Serbs
+had more merit than they, and as for Yugoslavia&mdash;it was
+a thing of emptiness&mdash;he laughed at it and called it Yugovina,
+the south wind. The only chance of life it had was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+if you left the whole affair to the Serbs and then in two
+years it would be a solid thing. It may be thought that
+the local Government, since they left him at large, endorsed
+his theories; but they were reluctant to give him
+a halo of martyrdom. They imagined that he was nervous
+because he was losing ground&mdash;they acknowledged,
+though, that he still gave pleasure to a great many Serbs,
+who were carried away by his appeals to their old prejudices.
+It is undeniable that with the peculiar traditions
+and customs of Bosnia, that province must for some
+years have a Government&mdash;whatever method is evolved
+for the other parts of Yugoslavia&mdash;whose eyes are not
+turned constantly to Belgrade. It might even be well
+to set up a local Chamber in which all classes would be
+represented. The Moslems and Croats would thus lose
+any lurking fear that they were being swamped, and by
+coming into contact with other political parties even the
+less cultured classes would gradually tend to discard
+these fatal religious, in favour of political, divisions. A
+somewhat primitive Balkan community cannot be expected
+of its own accord to love henceforward in the name of
+politics those whom hitherto it has hated in the name of
+religion. And as yet they are much more interested in
+the harvest than in politics; from day to day they change
+their views, according to the views of the last orator
+from Belgrade, Zagreb or Ljubljana. Only the Socialists
+appear to be well disciplined. Of course the present
+political parties in Yugoslavia are not wholly free from religious
+prejudices, an important party, for example, among
+the Slovenes being based on Roman Catholicism. But
+as the Slovenes are, as yet, the best upholders of the
+Yugoslav idea, it is obvious that education covers all
+things, and that with the increase of education in Bosnia
+the religious differences will be less important. Anything
+that can be done against this tyranny is beneficial, whether
+the St. George be a political orator or a schoolmaster.
+And as the effects produced by the former are more rapid,
+so should he be encouraged. He is, in fact, appearing
+in Bosnia, he will carry away, more or less, the <i>client&egrave;le</i>
+of the <i>Srpski Zora</i>, and the shattered nervous organism
+of its editor, Mr. &#268;okorilo, will be, one trusts, reconstituted
+and devoted, as it can be, to a nobler purpose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+One of its deplorable effects has been that the organ of
+the Croat party, a paper called <i>Jugoslavija</i>, has been
+compelled to write in a similar strain, whereas the editor,
+a dapper little priest, assures one that he would prefer
+a more elevated tone.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">RADI&#262; AND HIS PEASANTS</p>
+
+<p>Those who wished that Yugoslavia would be an idle
+dream have had their hopes more centred in Croatia.
+They told the world that horrible affairs took place, that
+there has been a revolution, several revolutions, that
+castles have been sacked and that the statesman, Radi&#263;,
+was imprisoned. If you met this little pear-shaped man,
+who is a middle-aged, extremely short-sighted person,
+with a small, straggling beard, an engaging smile and a
+large forehead, you would say that surely he had spent
+a good many hours of his life in some university garden
+where the birds, knowing that he could not easily see
+them, were in the habit of alighting for their dinner on
+his outstretched hands. He is a very learned little man,
+who started his career by obtaining the first place at the
+famous &Eacute;cole des Sciences Politiques in Paris. But
+Stephen Radi&#263; happens also to be very much interested in
+politics and extremely impulsive, so that his wife and
+daughter have often had to look after the bookshop,
+since the Government&mdash;that of Austria-Hungary and
+afterwards that of Yugoslavia&mdash;had consigned him to
+prison. He probably expected nothing else, for his eloquence&mdash;and
+he is an orator in several languages&mdash;has
+frequently carried him along and swept him round and
+round, like a leaf, not only in a direction opposite to that
+which he previously travelled but flying sometimes in
+the face of the most puissant and august authorities.
+So, for example, he began to agitate in 1904 against the
+vast territorial possessions of the Church in Croatia.
+This resulted in the then Archbishop issuing an interdict
+against him and his meetings&mdash;a measure which, I believe,
+is still in force. He was described as Antichrist, with
+the consequence that his audiences, out of curiosity to see
+what such a personage might look like, became larger
+than ever. For many years he was the only Croat politician<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+who gave himself the trouble to go amongst the peasants.
+"In politics," said Radi&#263; to me&mdash;he said a great many
+other things in the course of our first conversation, which
+lasted for four hours, though it seemed a good deal shorter&mdash;"In
+politics," said he, "one should not, as in art, try
+to be original. One should interpret not only the living
+generation but the ancestors." The peasant, who feels
+what Radi&#263; expresses, has repaid him well, for there is
+now no party in Yugoslavia which is more devoted to its
+leader. He has taken the place once occupied by the
+clergy&mdash;he is by no means hostile to the Roman Catholic
+Church, but he is the foe of clericalism. "Praised be
+Jesus Christ! Long live the Republic!" is the usual
+beginning of one of his orations, so that his enemies accuse
+him in the first place of being a hypocrite, and in the second
+of holding views which cannot possibly amalgamate
+with those of monarchical Serbia. But the reference to
+Christ appears perfectly natural to the Croat peasant&mdash;at
+an open-air meeting of 10,000 of them I saw their heads
+uncovered, and all bowed in prayer for a few minutes on
+the stroke of noon. As for the Republic, this first came
+into the picture on July 25, 1918, when the cry was raised
+at a meeting of the Peasants' party. A large number of
+peasants had imbibed this idea in America&mdash;those who
+emigrated have been in the habit of returning, and even
+if their home is in the desolate parts of Zagorija or among
+the rocks of Primorija, the coastal region. And thousands
+of Croats had spent part of the War as prisoners in Russia&mdash;having
+deserted from the Austro-Hungarian army&mdash;so
+that they had seen how the Great White Tsar, previously
+regarded as an almost divine being, could be dethroned.
+Four months after this famous meeting a Convention
+was held, in the American fashion, with 2874 delegates,
+who represented some 100,000 people. They pronounced
+themselves to be Republicans and Yugoslavs. It is quite
+true that many of the farmers in Croatia have a pretty
+vague idea of the Republic. "Long live Mr. Republic!"
+has been heard before now at one of their meetings, while
+a landowner of my acquaintance was asked by two of his
+aged tenants whether in the event of this Republic being
+established they should choose as President King Peter
+or the Prince-Regent or King Charles. But we should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+remember that in 1907 a printing press was founded by
+the Peasants' party at Zagreb, and those who gave their
+money for this cause were, to a great extent, illiterate.
+The people are groping towards the light, and they are
+willing to be told by those they trust that they have much
+to learn as to the nature of the light. Republicanism was
+fanned into flame by Radi&#263;'s imprisonment and other
+causes, so that he says he is uncertain whether he can
+now persuade them to modify their demands. But if
+he tells them that in his opinion a constitutional monarchy
+will meet the case, they will probably still consent to
+accept his view&mdash;and this has of late come to be his
+own opinion. It may very well be that he adopted the
+republican idea with no other purpose than to obtain
+for the peasants the social and economic legislation which
+they would otherwise not have secured. And, after all,
+there was something of a republican nature in Croatia's
+autonomy under the Magyars. As for his imprisonment,
+it was strange that the Belgrade Cabinet, who should
+have known their man, treated him as if he were a De
+Valera; and perhaps the conduct of a subsequent Cabinet,
+that of Mr. Proti&#263;, who came out for Croatian Home
+Rule, was also strange in appearance, for while Radi&#263;
+was still in prison he was invited to decide as to whether
+the Ban, Croatia's Governor, should or should not remain
+in office. But Mr. Proti&#263; understood that at this period
+Radi&#263;'s republicanism was somewhat academic.</p>
+
+<p>His party had, in years gone by, been small enough
+in the Landtag; but the fact that his followers then
+numbered only two is anyhow of no importance, as his
+very real power was derived from the peasants, who were
+largely voteless. How often in his prison he must have
+yearned for those old Landtag days&mdash;apart from his
+advocacy of the peasants, he loves to speak. In two hours
+he would traverse the whole gamut of human thought,
+expressing opinions to which John Hampden and Jack
+Cade and Montaigne and Machiavelli would in turn
+assent. The words used to rush from his lips in a torrent,
+while to many of his faithful peasant followers he seemed,
+throughout his discourse, to be in direct contact with the
+Almighty. Next to the Almighty the Croatian peasant
+had been taught to revere Francis Joseph, so that when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+heir to the throne was murdered in 1914 it was not very
+difficult to make the Croat peasants rise against this
+sacrilege by plundering the Serbian shops at Zagreb&mdash;Austrian
+officers coming with their children to look on&mdash;just
+as in other parts of Croatia and Bosnia. There is as
+yet within the Croat peasant a certain hostility against the
+Serb and for various reasons: one of them is that he was
+always taught by Austria to detest the adherents of the
+Orthodox religion, another reason is that for centuries
+they have had a different culture; and so, since Austria's
+collapse, when it has been explained to them what is a
+republic and what is a monarchy, they have often demanded
+the former for no better reason than that the
+Serbs prefer the latter. They were taught by Austria to
+look forward to a Greater Croatia, which would eliminate
+the Slovenes by delivering them to the Germans, for that
+celebrated corridor to the Adriatic. And it is from the
+Slovene Socialists that the peasants of Croatia might very
+profitably learn.... The Slovene influence, coming
+from a more highly organized province, would be beneficial
+both for Serbs and Croats, for the industrial workers and
+for the peasants. The nature of the Southern Slavs, say
+these Socialists, is democratic, and the State mechanism
+might be made more so. Now that the various parts of
+Yugoslavia have liberated or are liberating themselves
+from various yokes, they have approached one another
+with a different mentality; they will become much better
+known to one another. And it was hoped that when Mr.
+Radi&#263; regained his freedom and his book-shop he would
+find that his devotees preferred to hear him not as a
+Croat Jack Cade but as a Yugoslav Hampden. In his
+absence the party was leaderless.</p>
+
+<p>As for the other Croats, only Frank's Clerical party,
+which numbered five or six deputies, and did not hide its
+persistent sympathies with the House of Habsburg, kept
+up Separatist tendencies. All the Coalition (now the
+Democrat) party and two-thirds of the so-called Party of
+Croatian Right were for a close union with Serbia and the
+regency of Prince Alexander. That is not to say that there
+was perfect unanimity with regard to the interior arrangements
+of this union; in fact Dr. Ante Paveli&#263;, one of the
+Vice-Presidents of the Yugoslav National Council, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+was received in special audience by the Prince at Belgrade,
+is also the leader of the old Star&#269;evi&#263; party and as such an
+opponent of complete centralization. The <i>Obzor</i>, Zagreb's
+oldest newspaper, maintains this point of view, not paying
+much attention to the form of the State, monarchic or
+republican, so long as it is organized in a manner which
+would prevent the Croats being subordinated. Zagreb,
+it thinks, is destined to play the New York to Belgrade's
+Washington&mdash;but nowadays it looks very much as if
+Zagreb's r&ocirc;le were to be that of Yugoslavia's Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Among the Slovenes this anxiety for decentralization&mdash;which
+is very proper or exaggerated, according to the
+point of view&mdash;is less accentuated. It appears as if the
+Christian-Socialist party of Monsignor Koro&#353;ec<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> is rather
+centralist in its Belgrade words and decentralist in its
+Ljubljana deeds. This party has shed some of its extremist
+clerical members, who to the cry, "The Church is
+in danger!" were very good servants of the Habsburgs.
+Such of them as were unable to accept the new order of
+things&mdash;elderly priests, for the most part&mdash;retired from
+the political stage.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH THE TIMES</p>
+
+<p>There remains the Voivodina (Banat, Ba&#269;ka, etc.) party,
+some of whom are as much frightened of Croat predominance
+as the <i>Obzor</i>, for instance, is of Serb. The
+argument of these Voivodina politicians is that Serbia has
+lost so many of her <i>intelligentsia</i> during the War that she
+must have special protection; they also found it hard to
+swallow the old functionaries whom the State took over
+from Austria. Of course it does not follow that if a Slav
+has been a faithful servant of Austria he will be an unsatisfactory
+servant of the new State. Obviously the
+circumstances of each case must be considered; and, as a
+barrister, a dissentient member of this party told me at
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>Osiek, one must often put personal feelings aside; he
+himself had been arbitrarily imprisoned during the War
+by an official who was then an Austrian and is now a
+Yugoslav functionary. The most extreme exponent of
+this anti-Croat party seems to be a well-known editor at
+Novi Sad, Mr. Ja&#353;a Tomi&#263;. In his opinion you cannot
+join by means of a law in twenty-four hours people who
+have never been together; let it be a slower and a surer
+process. He is ready to die, he says, but he is not ready
+to lose his national name. Let the Serbs and Croats and
+Slovenes retain what is most precious to each of them.
+Let them not be asked to give up everything. In the
+matter of the flag Mr. Tomi&#263; is justified, for now their
+former flag has been taken from each of them and a totally
+fresh one created, which is particularly hard on the Serbs
+after the sublime fashion in which their old colours were
+carried up the Macedonian mountains in the Great War.
+It would not have required much ingenuity&mdash;as they all
+three share the colours, red, white and blue, differently
+arranged&mdash;to have devised, not a mere new and unmeaning
+arrangement of the simple colours, but a method on the
+lines of the Union Jack or of the former Swedish-Norwegian
+flag, wherein all three would have remained visible. Mr.
+Tomi&#263; believes that a real <i>intelligentsia</i> would demand of
+the people what it can execute, and he regrets to think
+that at least two-thirds of the <i>intelligentsia</i> want the
+people to call themselves Yugoslavs. But Mr. Tomi&#263;
+has a far greater majority than two-thirds against him,
+because while his arguments would be admirable if the
+Serbs and Croats and Slovenes had no neighbours, they
+must be&mdash;and the vast majority of Yugoslavs feel that they
+must be&mdash;superseded on account of this imperfect world.
+By all means let each one of the three retain every single
+custom that will not interfere with the national security
+and will not interfere too much with the national welfare.
+If Mr. Tomi&#263;, who is much respected but generally looked
+upon as rather old-fashioned, is going to die sooner than
+give up something which the State considers essential he
+will be following in the footsteps of those whom Cavour,
+in the course of the welding of Italy, had to execute.</p>
+
+<p>It may be said without fear of contradiction&mdash;in fact
+I was given the figure by one of the decentralization leaders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+of Croatia&mdash;that at least 90 per cent. of the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i>
+wants the union with Serbia, and if a republic is
+decided upon they will mostly vote for King Alexander
+as President. While they discuss their internal organization&mdash;no
+simple matter when one considers their varied
+antecedents, their different legal systems and so forth&mdash;they
+will not let Yugoslavia go to pieces. The work of
+construction and of more or less strenuous, but necessary,
+criticism occupies by far the greater number of the
+politicians. They have not yet, all of them, given their
+adherence to this or that group, while new groups are
+arising&mdash;such as the Agrarian, which being far more
+interested in the peasant's material welfare than in anything
+else will give their alliance to that political party
+which is prepared to assist the villages towards improving
+their cleanliness and their manure.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES</p>
+
+<p>The chief parties which in the new State's first two
+years evolved themselves out of those that previously
+existed in the various parts of Yugoslavia were:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>(<i>a</i>) the Pa&#353;i&#263; party, consisting chiefly of the
+Serbian Old Radical party, together with Serbian
+parties from the Voivodina and Bosnia.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>b</i>) the Pribi&#269;evi&#263; party, consisting chiefly of the
+Croatian Coalition party, together with the Slovene
+Liberal party and the Serbian parties in opposition
+to Pa&#353;i&#263;.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>c</i>) the Christian Socialist party, under Koro&#353;ec,
+consisting chiefly of Slovenes, together with a young
+group in Croatia and other Clerical groups that are
+forming in Dalmatia and Bosnia.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>d</i>) the Star&#269;evi&#263; party, under Paveli&#263;, consisting
+of decentralizing parties in Croatia and Slavonia, and
+some Croats in Bosnia.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>e</i>) Socialists:</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 1em">(1) the Slovene non-communistic Socialists.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 4em; text-indent: -3em">(2) Korac's party, chiefly from Slavonia and
+Serbia. This remarkable man, whose
+mind floats serenely in a body that is
+paralysed, has twice been included in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+Cabinet. By many he is looked upon as
+too subversive, but he believes that a
+revolution will come unless his department
+acts in a revolutionary fashion.
+His programme includes old-age pensions
+from the age of sixty&mdash;the people being
+now enfeebled by the wars&mdash;and obligatory
+insurance with regard to all those, including
+State employees in the railway
+service and the post office, who do not
+enjoy an independent existence, half the
+insurance being paid by the employer and
+half by the employee, while with regard
+to accidents the whole would be paid by
+the employer. He has also very firm
+ideas for the safeguarding of the human
+dignity of the pensioners.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 4em; text-indent: -3em">(3) Dr. Rado&#353;evi&#263;'s party. This gentleman was
+said to adore Lenin, on whom he lectured.
+His party had no strength except such
+as it derived as a protest against any
+forced centralization.</p>
+
+<p>(<i>f</i>) Republican party, consisting of 90,000 Croat
+peasants under Radi&#263;.</p></div>
+
+<p>Of these by far the most important were the first two.
+In Serbian political parties the personal question used to
+be nearly always uppermost, and now, in the case of
+parties (<i>a</i>) and (<i>b</i>), it was most difficult to understand
+what aims the one had which the other did not share.
+One may say that each of them was a group under a wily
+politician who was able, not only to forge out of various
+elements a homogeneous group, but to persuade them
+that there was a fundamental difference between their
+group and any other. Here one has not so much the
+Western system, under which a man enters a Cabinet as
+the exponent of party principles, but the Eastern system
+under which a Minister uses his influence to found a
+party, which is based inevitably on the disappearing
+relics of the past. In the spring of 1919 many foreign
+observers fancied that new parties were surging up like
+mushrooms and proving, no doubt, that the people's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+vitality was strong, although one would have waited
+willingly for this evidence until the country's external
+and internal affairs were more settled. As a matter of
+fact these rather numerous parties, of which the outside
+world now heard for the first time, had been in existence
+or semi-existence for years. There was, however, a
+certain bewildering vacillation on the part of some of the
+deputies. The Bosnian Moslems, for instance, could not
+make up their minds whether they would be Serbs or
+Croats and belong to (<i>a</i>) or (<i>b</i>). Finally most of them
+settled down in (<i>b</i>), while two others formed an independent
+group. It must be remembered that they, like
+all the other deputies, were not really deputies but delegates,
+since it was not yet possible to hold elections.
+There would naturally be many changes after the first
+General Election; for one thing, the Moslems intend to
+join in one group with their brethren from Macedonia and
+Novi Bazar.... As we shall see, later on, the changes
+produced by the first General Election&mdash;which was
+the election held in November 1920, for the Constituent
+Assembly&mdash;were extremely sweeping. While the
+Radicals and Democrats returned with close on one
+hundred members each, the Koro&#353;e&#263; party met with
+comparative disaster, and the Star&#269;evic group was overwhelmed.
+With about fifty members apiece, the Communist
+and the Radi&#263; parties gave expression, roughly
+speaking, to the discontent produced by the unsettled
+conditions&mdash;unavoidable and avoidable&mdash;of the new
+State's first two years. The Moslems came back with
+nearly thirty members, and a healthy phenomenon for a
+country in which the peasant so largely predominates
+was the success, apart from the Radi&#263; Peasant party, of
+the Agrarians with some thirty deputies, and the Independent
+Peasant party with eight.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian Press disposed in five lines of the historical
+Act of Union which occurred when the delegates of the
+Yugoslav National Council were received by the Prince
+at Belgrade on December 1, 1918. In the address, which
+was read by Dr. Paveli&#263;, it is recorded that "the National
+Council desires to join with Serbia and Montenegro in
+forming a United National State of Slovenes, Croats and
+Serbs, which would embrace the whole inseparable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+ethnographical territory of the South Slavs.... In the
+period of transition, in our opinion, the conditions should
+be created for the final organization of our United State."
+And there is a dignified protest against the Treaty of
+London and the Italian encroachments which even went
+beyond that which the treaty gave them. In his reply
+the Prince, among other remarks, said that "in the name
+of His Majesty King Peter I now declare the union of
+Serbia with the provinces of the Slovenes, Croats and
+Serbs in an indivisible kingdom. This great moment
+should be a reward for the efforts of yourselves and your
+brothers, whereby you have cast off the alien yoke.
+This celebration should form a wreath for the officers
+and men who have fallen in the cause of freedom....
+I assure you and the National Council that I shall always
+reign over my brothers and yours, and what constitutes
+the Serbs and their people, in a spirit of brotherly love....
+The first task of the Government will be to arrange
+with your help and that of the whole people that the
+frontiers should comprise the whole nation. In conjunction
+with you I may well hope that our powerful
+friends and Allies will be able justly to appreciate our
+standpoint, because it corresponds with the principles
+which they themselves have proclaimed and for the
+achievement of which streams of their precious blood
+have been poured out...." The Prince spoke of Italy
+in phrases to which we have already alluded.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> He
+reminded her of the Risorgimento and of the principles
+with which her great sons had then been inspired. But
+the Italian Press preferred to moralize in column after
+column on the variety of the political groups of Yugoslavia,
+with the object of showing to the world that they
+were a people of no cohesive capacities and of no real
+national consciousness.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SLOVENE QUESTION</p>
+
+<p>This matter of the frontiers had been very lucidly set
+before the Allies with regard to Dalmatia and Rieka; it
+now remained for the Slovenes to formulate their case.
+From the statement given by Dr. Trumbi&#263; to the Council
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>of Ten in Paris we will take these extracts: "The province
+of Gorica-Gradi&#353;ca may be divided into two different
+parts, both from an ethnical and economic point of
+view. The western part, up to the line Cormons-Gradi&#353;ca-Monfalcone,
+is economically self-supporting. If
+we estimate the population on a language basis, there are
+about 72,000 Italians and 6000 Slovenes. Geographically
+it is simply the prolongation of the Venetian plain.
+We do not claim this territory called Friuli, which belongs
+ethnologically to the Italians. The rest of this province
+to the east and the north of the Cormons-Gradi&#353;ca-Monfalcone
+line, which comprises the mountainous region,
+is inhabited by 148,500 Slovenes and 17,000 Italians, of
+whom 14,000 are in the town of Gorica, where they
+constitute half the population.... The Slovenes are
+an advanced and civilized people, acutely conscious of
+their racial solidarity with the other Yugoslav peoples.
+We therefore ask that this district should be reunited to
+our State.... Istria is inhabited by Slavs and Italians.
+According to the latest statistics, there were in it 223,318
+Yugoslavs and 147,417 Italians. The Slavs inhabit
+central and eastern Istria in a compact mass. More
+Italians live on the western coast, particularly in the
+towns. They inhabit only five villages north of Pola,
+and their populations have no territorial unity. Istria
+is territorially linked with Carniola and Croatia, whereas
+it is separated from Italy by the Adriatic, and therefore
+it ought to belong to the Yugoslav State.... Triest and
+its neighbourhood is geographically an integral part of
+purely Slav territories. The majority of this town&mdash;two-thirds,
+according to statistics&mdash;is Italian and the
+rest Slav. These statistics being on the language basis,
+include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc., as Italian-speaking,
+among the Italians. The Slav element plays
+an important part in the commercial and economic life
+of Triest. If the town were ethnically in contact with
+Italy we would recognize the right of the majority. But
+all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet the
+commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly
+counts, and it is a port of world trade. As such it is the
+representative of its hinterland, which stretches as far as
+Bohemia, and chiefly of its Slovene hinterland, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+forms a third of the whole trade of Triest and is inextricably
+linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
+would be politically separated from its trade hinterland,
+and would be prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since
+Austria has crumbled as a State, the natural solution
+of the problem of Triest is that it should be joined to our
+State."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST</p>
+
+<p>It would be futile to talk of Triest without considering
+the relations between Italians and Germans. We have
+seen already how at the elections they combined against
+the "common enemy." But in commerce the Germans
+were in need of no alliance, for the Italians have relatively
+so little capital to dispose of that they were unable to
+keep the Germans from attaining that very dominant
+position in Italy. As the Italians have, as a general
+rule, a lack of initiative and enterprise with respect to
+modern industry, it was to German efforts that the great
+industrial and commercial awakening of Italy and of
+Triest were largely due. In that town the Italians were
+principally agents; and it is to be feared that if it
+ultimately falls into their hands it will become a
+German town under the Italian flag. It would be the
+object of the Italians to emancipate Austria from the
+Yugoslavs, giving them an outlet to Triest over Italian
+territory; and it would be to the Italian advantage if
+Austria were joined to Germany. Therefore it is preferable
+for all the Allies, except the Italians, that
+Triest should be international. Conditions could then
+be offered to the Austrians that would cause them to
+prefer these rather than to join themselves to Germany.
+But, in the opinion also of many enlightened Italians,
+it is not in that country's interest that she should hold
+Triest. Apart from the older publicists and statesmen,
+including Sonnino, who might wish to modify their
+opinions, one of the best-informed writers on Triest and
+Istria, A. Vivante, a native of Triest, in his <i>L'irredentismo
+adriatico</i> (1912) is a most determined adversary to an
+Italian occupation of Istria or Triest; his book has been
+withdrawn from circulation by the Italian Government.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+Other resolute opponents have been all the inhabitants
+of Triest, except the extreme Nationalists. The town's
+prosperity dated from the time when the Habsburgs
+were driven out of Italy. Triest has not forgotten what
+occurred when she and Venice were under the same
+sceptre; and this it was which brought about, at Austria's
+collapse, the autonomous administration in which practically
+all the elements of the town participated. Only
+the Irridentists then thought that Triest's liberation need
+involve union with Italy and economic separation from
+the hinterland on which it depends.... When the
+occupation started, in November 1918, the Chief of the
+Italian police summoned before him the members of the
+Yugoslav National Council of Triest. Only two of them
+answered the summons, whereupon a lieutenant read
+them the following order from the Italian Governor:
+"In view of the fact that the Italians troops have occupied
+the line of demarcation and that traffic over this line is
+suspended for the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy,
+it is ordered that, for strategical reasons, the South Slav
+National Council in Triest be dissolved and its offices
+closed." The Slovenes demanded a copy of this order,
+which, however, was refused. They were not allowed to
+depart until the books and national emblems had been
+removed from the premises of the National Council, the
+doors sealed and a guard stationed. "We others,
+Italians," an Italian writer had said in the <i>Edinost</i>, the
+Slovene paper of Triest, on August 18, 1918, "should
+understand that if we want our freedom we must see
+that this is likewise given to our neighbours." And the
+<i>Mercure de France</i> of October remarked that these wise
+words would be listened to at Rome. In the realm of
+navigation the Italians were not idle. They started at
+once to negotiate with the Austrians for the sale to themselves
+of the Lloyd Steamship Company, the Austro-Americana
+and the Navigazione Libera, the three largest
+Austrian companies. By the end of February 1919, a
+Mr. Ivan &#352;vegel related in a well-informed article,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> the
+Italians had, by acquiring a large portion of their shares,
+obtained the decisive influence in these companies. The
+deal which was carried through with the assistance of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>Austrian Government and which, according to the
+<i>Neue Freie Presse</i> of February 22, "fully satisfied the
+needs of Austrian commerce," was transacted during
+the Armistice and behind the back of public opinion.
+Surely the Austrian mercantile marine, to which the
+Yugoslavs contributed the majority of the personnel
+and which they, with the other nationalities of the late
+Empire, helped to build up with the aid of considerable
+subsidies, should not have been permitted to fall an easy
+prize into the lap of Italy, but ought rather to constitute
+an asset in the liquidation of the late Austrian State and
+a subject of public discussion.... In consequence of
+the Italian attitude towards Austria on the one hand
+and the Slovenes on the other, the Austrians made
+an attack from northern Carinthia near Christmas and
+despoiled the Slovenes of about half the territory they
+had occupied. An American mission asked both sides
+to cease from hostilities, saying that the question of
+frontiers would be decided by Paris in a few weeks. Two
+Americans, who unfortunately could speak neither German
+nor Slovene, motored through the country, made some
+inquiries, especially in the towns, and departed for Paris.
+It would have been as well if, like the French farther
+to the east, they had deliminated between the two people
+a neutral zone. Sooner or later the troubles were bound
+to recommence.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, of all the lands which the Yugoslavs were
+inheriting from Austro-Hungary, that which was passing
+through the period of transition with the least disturbance
+was the Banat. Those Magyars who stayed were saying
+wistfully that it had been Hungarian for a thousand
+years, but considering what they had done they could not
+have brought forward a worse reason for their reinstatement.
+Here and there at places near the frontier, such
+as Subotica, they waylaid and murdered lonely Serbian
+soldiers; after which, with the complicity of Magyar
+officials whom the Serbs had not removed, they managed to
+escape to Hungary. But as a rule they thought it wiser
+to stay peacefully in the Banat than seek their fortunes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+in a land so insecure as Hungary was then. While Count
+Michael Kar&oacute;lyi's Government was doing its utmost to
+cultivate good relations with France, England and America&mdash;printing
+in the newspapers cordial articles in French
+and English, surrounding the Entente officers even in
+their despite with the old, barbaric hypnotizing Magyar
+hospitality, assuming in a long wireless message to
+President Wilson that the Hungarians were among those
+happy people who at last had been liberated from the
+yoke of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire&mdash;("I
+beg you, Mr. President, to use your influence that no acts
+of inhumanity or abuses of authority may threaten our
+new-born democracy and freedom from any quarter.
+They would cruelly wound the soul of our people and
+hinder the maturing of that pure pacifism and that
+mutual understanding between the peoples without which
+there will never be peace and rest on earth.... We will
+not discredit or delay with acts of violence the new-born
+freedom of the peoples of Hungary or the triumph of your
+ideas....")&mdash;at a place called Nagylak the free Hungarian
+people requested the authorities to give them an official
+document permitting them to plunder for twenty-four
+hours; at a place called Szentes there was a car which
+had been stolen from a man at Arad, sixty miles away;
+hearing where it was he telegraphed to the authorities
+and nothing happened; so he hired another car and went
+himself to Szentes where the Magyar Commissary confiscated
+this one also. It was better to remain in the
+Banat if one had anything to lose. The treatment which
+the Magyars received was such that Mr. Rapp, Commissary
+of the Buda-Pest Government, published a proclamation
+on the generous conduct of the Serbian troops
+occupying southern Hungary: "Our nationals," he
+declared, "though vanquished and in a minority, are
+safe. The Serbian officers in command treat them in a
+most humane and chivalrous fashion."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> At Pan&#269;evo,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>for example, the Magyar officials were placed, for their
+protection, on board a boat by the Serbian authorities
+and kept there, provided with food and cigars, for twelve
+hours, after which, as the danger was past, they were set
+at liberty. In the same town, forty years earlier, the
+language used in the law courts had been Serbian; no
+one, in fact, spoke Magyar, except the cab-drivers&mdash;if you
+spoke it people said you must have been in prison. Yet,
+although the Magyar judges had, to put it mildly, not
+been too considerate towards the Serbs, they were retained
+in office on the understanding that they would learn
+Serbian within a year; nor were they asked, as yet, to
+administer the law in the name of King Peter, but in the
+name of Justice. This magnanimity was not displayed
+because, as with the railway employees, the Serbs were
+short of people for those posts, since they had barristers
+well qualified to be employed, as they were, for example,
+at Sombor, in the position of temporary judges. Even
+the town advocate was not dismissed, although this
+healthy gentleman had superseded a Serb forty-two years
+of age, considerably older than himself, who had been
+compelled to join the army. Not alone were all these
+functionaries left in office, but the papers sent to them
+were in their own language, Magyar or German. And in
+return they generally were loyal to the Yugoslavs.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">TEME&#352;VAR IN TRANSITION</p>
+
+<p>An extraordinary state of things was to be seen at
+Teme&#353;var, where the Magyar mayor was one of the most
+worried men in Europe. Until February 1919 he was
+being asked to serve not two but several masters. Some
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>uncertainty existed as to whether the town was under
+French or Serbian military command, but that was not
+a very serious question. There was at Novi Sad a temporary
+Government for all the Voivodina, this was the
+"Narodna Uprava" (National Government), consisting
+of eleven commissaries, each over a department, who had
+been appointed by the Voivodina Assembly of 690 Serbs,
+12 Slovaks, 2 Magyars and 6 Germans&mdash;one deputy for
+every thousand of the population. The mayor of Teme&#353;var
+could have reconciled the wishes of the Narodna
+Uprava and the military authorities, but there was a
+Magyar Jewish Socialist, a certain Dr. Roth, who had
+elected himself to be head of the "People's Government,"
+and was subsequently appointed by telephone from
+Buda-Pest the representative of the Hungarian Government.
+Roth organized a civil guard, mostly of former
+Hungarian soldiers, who&mdash;although he paid them well (since
+Buda-Pest had given him 12 million crowns for propaganda
+purposes), yet had a way of borrowing a coat or
+cap from Serbian soldiers and, arrayed in these, holding
+up pedestrians after nightfall. Roth had therefore been
+granted the right to rule, but&mdash;save for the dubious
+guard&mdash;his power was only that which the Serbian or
+French authorities would give him. He issued many
+orders to the mayor, some of which were very questionable,
+as for instance when he sent provisions out of the
+Banat to Hungary. This produced so great a scarcity
+that the flour-mill employees thought it was the time to
+go on strike; they demanded 80 per cent. increase in
+wages, without undertaking to go back to work if they
+received it. "I am not a politician," said the harassed
+mayor, "I only want to save the town from starving."
+But the Narodna Uprava would send no food, since the
+town (that is to say Roth) would not acknowledge its
+authority. There were many rumours as to how Roth
+spent the sums from Buda-Pest, and a weekly Socialist
+sheet, which he himself had founded, but had now made
+over to a couple of his friends (likewise Magyar Jews),
+called F&uuml;rth and Isaac Gara, started to bring charges
+against its founder. Roth, whose previous resources
+were not large and were well known to F&uuml;rth and Gara,
+used now to frequent the fashionable caf&eacute; and indulge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+night after night, in potations of champagne, inviting
+to his table not F&uuml;rth nor Gara, but the French General.
+This officer, in the advance through Serbia, had captured
+a great many prisoners and a very large number of guns,
+arousing everybody's enthusiasm by his personal bravery,
+his dashing tactics and the skill with which he executed
+them. He was a most original person, who would sometimes
+about midnight in that caf&eacute; at Teme&#353;var leap on to
+one of the marble tables and there perform a <i>pas de seul</i>.
+Dr. Roth succeeded in worming himself into this merry
+warrior's good graces, and F&uuml;rth and Gara looked with
+jaundiced eyes on the carouses of these two. And in their
+newspaper, the <i>Teme&#353;var</i>, they said very biting things.
+Thereupon Roth complained about them to the Serbian
+authorities, asking that they should be sent to Belgrade.
+When the Serbs did nothing he made application to
+the French, and they&mdash;not aware of all the circumstances&mdash;sent
+the couple under guard to Belgrade, where they
+were interned. The mayor continued to receive the
+orders of the various parties, and then suddenly Roth
+organized a strike which lasted for two days&mdash;the railways,
+the electric light, the water-supply and the shops
+all joining in the movement. There was even a Magyar
+flag on the town hall, and cries were raised by a procession
+for the Magyar Republic. But this time he had gone
+too far. An order came from Belgrade, from General
+Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey, and Roth was taken in a car to Arad,
+where he was deposited on the other side of the line of
+demarcation.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA</p>
+
+<p>But the German-Austrians in Carinthia, seeing how the
+Slovenes were being treated by the Italians, could not
+resist attacking on their own account; and here the most
+tragic feature was that in the German ranks were many
+Germanized Slovenes. This had been the case at Maribor
+in Styria, where the population rose against the 70
+Slovene soldiers during the visit of an American mission.
+Many of those who were afterwards questioned were
+obliged to admit that they were of Slovene or of partly
+Slovene origin, but Austria had taken care of their national<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+conscience. Had they been freely left to choose between
+the two nationalities, and had they, out of admiration for
+the German, selected that one&mdash;you would not endeavour
+now to make them Slovenes; but of course these people
+were never given the choice, and therefore every effort
+should be used to make to dance that portion of their
+blood which is Slovene, and sometimes all your efforts
+will be fruitless. That those who fought in Carinthia
+against the Slovene troops were of this origin can be seen
+by the names of the officers of the so-called "Volkswehralarmkompagnien"
+(<i>i.e.</i> the People's Emergency Defence
+Companies). A document, marked W. No. 101, and
+signed by a Captain Sandner, fell into Slovene hands on
+February 21. It gives very full arrangements for these
+companies in Wolfsberg and the neighbourhood. At
+St. Paul, for instance, men are to gather from three other
+regions, to wit 40 from St. Paul itself, 120 from Granitzthal,
+60 from Lagerbuch and 30 from Eitweg; the officers
+of this St. Paul contingent are called Kronegger, Andrec,
+Kl&ouml;tsch and Gritsch&mdash;the last three are of Slovene origin.
+These Defence Companies consisted largely of ex-soldiers,
+under the command, very often, of a schoolmaster or some
+such person; and if they had done nothing more than to
+defend their own soil, one would have less to say about
+them; but as a matter of fact they sent arms across to
+their adherents in the territory occupied by the Slovenes.
+Thus at Velikovec (V&ouml;lkermarkt) and Donji Dravograd
+(Unter-Drauburg) shots were fired from houses which
+had been armed in this way. Incursions were made
+into Yugoslav territory, where the people were urged
+to rise; and as these Defence Companies did not wear
+any uniform their members could, if captured, protest
+their innocence. The officers were given 20 crowns a
+day, the men six crowns, with 5.44 a day for their keep
+during the time of emergency, and four crowns daily in
+addition if they went outside the garrison town. As it
+would not be possible to get the commissariat at once into
+working order the men were asked to bring at least
+sufficient bread with them for a few days. Most of the
+men had their own guns; those who had not would be
+lent one at the village office on the understanding that
+it was brought back there when the emergency was over.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by
+2000 of the proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway
+station before they started, were cheered by speeches on
+the subject of plunder; at Graz they were joined by some
+students who proposed to maintain order.... It was
+in April that the Germans began nearly every day to
+fire on the Yugoslav troops, regardless of the Americans,
+who said that any infringement of the Armistice would
+be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
+Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for
+several days with heavy artillery, and the local commander,
+on his own initiative, crossed the Armistice line in order to
+seize this artillery; he did, in fact, carry off some twenty
+pieces, with which he returned to his old positions. This
+caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
+telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the
+Yugoslavs for having flagrantly crossed the Armistice line
+by 10 kilometres (cf. <i>Le Journal</i>, for example, of May 5).
+In the same report they were held up as villains for having
+crossed the river Drave at several points and cut the
+railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at
+least 11 kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the
+artillery, of course, still farther off. This railway line,
+which was the means of communication between Austrians
+and Italians, was the subject of very fierce talk on the
+part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered, the
+Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do
+not pretend that they approach the Serbs as combatants.
+After centuries of servitude&mdash;a more insidious servitude
+than if their masters had been Moslem&mdash;they have now
+awakened to devote themselves, and with great success,
+to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
+spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in
+them. Their opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon
+Celovec (Klagenfurt) and Beljak (Villach), where they
+had at their disposal the munitions of the entire 10th
+Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from
+Vienna, as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers,
+who were clothed as infantry privates. These officers
+were serving for the love of their country&mdash;up to May 1
+at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The Slovene
+ranks were somewhat depleted by Bol&#353;evik tracts, telling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+them to go home, as there would be no more war; and
+yet at Gutenstein sixty men with three machine guns,
+under Lieut. Maglaj, a Slovene from Carinthia, kept
+1500 men at bay from 9 a.m. till 3.30, after which they
+slowly withdrew until the fighting ceased at six; a
+corporal and two men of a machine-gun detachment were
+cut off and concealed themselves in the shrubs of a defile.
+Suddenly they heard a German company come down the
+road, singing as they marched. The three men opened
+fire&mdash;the Germans in perplexity stood still and then
+retired in disorder. The whole German-Austrian movement
+was checked by General Maister. And when the
+Serbian veterans, men of all ages, with uniforms of every
+shade, marched through the streets of Maribor, it was felt
+that there need be no more anxiety as to that particular
+frontier of Yugoslavia.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER HOUSE IN ORDER</p>
+
+<p>It was not until now that Great Britain (on May 9)
+and France (on June 5) formally recognized the new
+Serbo-Croat-Slovene State.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> As the <i>Times</i> said, two
+years afterwards,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> "it was not the Allies who created
+Czecho-Slovakia or brought about the establishment of
+Yugo-Slavia. These events were the inevitable result
+of the previous history which the Allies could not, even
+if they had desired to do so, prevent." The Americans
+had not been so extremely considerate to Italy, for they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>had recognized the Yugoslav State on February 7, a few
+days after Norway and Switzerland.... And how
+necessary it was for the Yugoslavs to have some leisure
+for their home affairs, which presented so many complications.
+Here one system of laws and there another&mdash;with
+the best will in the world and waiving to the
+uttermost one's own idiosyncrasies, the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes were faced, at the beginning of their union,
+by most arduous problems. The Agrarian question was
+regarded generally as one of the most urgent. In Serbia
+itself, with practically the whole country in the hands of
+small peasant proprietors, this question did not arise;
+but in the provinces which had been lately under Austria-Hungary
+no time was to be lost, and yet a good deal of
+time would be needed to cope with a problem so full of
+complications. One difficulty was that each political
+party was inclined to solve this matter in accordance
+with its own interests. Among the three Slovene parties,
+for example, the Socialists would naturally work for their
+own principles, the Christian-Socialist party, whose
+supporters were chiefly the small farmers, would prefer
+to legislate for them, while the Liberal party, having in
+its ranks the larger landowners, would wish that all,
+except the very largest, should if possible be left intact;
+the very large landowners, moreover, will with the spread
+of democratic ideas lose their influence over the voters.
+There are several points on which all parties are agreed:
+thus, it is most undesirable that a man's holdings should,
+as now, be separated from each other, often by considerable
+distances, so that half his time may be spent in
+going to and from his fields and a good deal of the other
+half in the disputes which naturally spring from such a
+scattered ownership.... In Bosnia, where the Agrarian
+troubles had produced such frequent outbreaks and
+savage repression, the Austrians were given the mandate
+in 1878 in the hope that they would regulate this matter.
+They did not do very much; all that they really did
+was to modernize a little. They wrote down in a book
+who was the landlord and who were the kmets, and a
+copy of these details was available for each one of the
+kmets. He had the right to remain where he was&mdash;unless
+his conduct was exceptionally bad&mdash;and to retain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+two-thirds of the produce of the land. This kmet-right
+was not hereditary in the female line; but the kmet
+could buy his portion&mdash;this was an old right, which
+Austria regulated&mdash;and become a free man, a beg. He
+would sometimes be a free man in one place and a kmet
+in another. In Bosnia there are, of course, some extremely
+large landowners; but most of the begs are
+poor folk, who live on the third part of a few farms.
+It would be better if these men were not compensated
+with cash, but rather that they should be established on
+farms which they would work themselves, the distinction
+between the small begs and the kmets thus disappearing.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM</p>
+
+<p>A special Ministry was created to supervise, throughout
+Yugoslavia, the question of Agrarian Reform; but
+the Cabinet was frequently engaged in discussing this
+important topic and, many months afterwards, when
+the ownership of a good deal of the land had been changed,
+it was acknowledged that the problem had been attacked
+more often than it had been solved. Mr. Pa&#353;i&#263;, who
+does not believe in hasty legislation, pointed out that
+the Austrians had in forty years done really very little
+in Bosnia. He was told, however, that in Croatia, for
+example, the revolutionary spirit at the end of the War
+was so intense that if the Government were to postpone
+the necessary reforms then the people would simply
+seize whatever land they wished to have. It is true
+that violence was rampant in those parts&mdash;the peasants
+believed that with Austria's collapse there would arrive
+the Earthly Paradise, and in order to bring this about
+they ravaged a good many fine estates and set fire to
+various castles. They were going to stand no nonsense.
+At a place called Lubi&#353;ica in Croatia&mdash;where the 350
+families lived in 260 houses&mdash;the landowner, out of the
+goodness of his heart, bestowed twenty "joch" of meadowland
+on the village in 1864. A law was passed which
+obliged him to devote a certain amount of land to the
+support of the church and the school&mdash;he gave the
+identical twenty joch. And at the end of the War the
+peasants maintained that at last this land was going to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+be restored to them; they drove their cattle on to it,
+but the priest with the help of <i>gendarmerie</i> drove them
+off again. Once more the cattle came back and then the
+priest seized a gun; he fired at his parishioners and
+wounded in the head a sixteen-year-old boy, as well as
+three other persons. This so enraged the village that
+they went in a body and slew the priest.... And the
+authorities, although at that period they were faced with
+so many problems, attempted to settle right away this
+very complicated question. The Dobrovoljci&mdash;volunteers
+with the Yugoslav forces who had come home from the
+United States, Canada and Australia or who had managed
+to escape from the Austro-Hungarian army&mdash;had been
+promised so many acres, each of them, after the War.
+And these Dobrovoljci and the agitated peasants found
+that the land was, so to speak, thrust upon them. A
+lawyer-politician would take a map, would assign a
+certain area to A, another to B, and imagine he had done
+a good morning's work; but unhappily the lawyer often
+forgot that a farm, to be of any use to its tenant, must
+have a road leading to it, must have a well, a cart, a horse,
+some oxen and so forth&mdash;to say nothing of a dwelling-place.
+Thus it would happen that the new tenant would
+go to look at his holding and in disgust would go away,
+or&mdash;contrary to law&mdash;would sublet it or sell it back to
+the original owner. If, on the other hand, he remained
+the State would, from an economical point of view, only
+benefit in those regions where the land had hitherto
+been more or less uncultivated; where it had been
+cultivated by the moderately large or the very large
+landowner it always returned a harvest more considerable
+than that which the new tenant, insufficiently
+equipped and experienced, was able to achieve. Not
+only would there be this diminished production&mdash;frequently
+in the proportion of six to ten&mdash;but a large
+number of employees were thrown out of employment:
+sometimes a clever Czech overseer, whose family of six
+children had almost become Croat, and sometimes a
+native farmer whose house was wanted for the Dobrovoljci.
+The Czech would return to his own country and
+the dispossessed farmer would become a Communist.
+Yet these material and human losses to the State might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+have been endured if there had been a compensating
+political advantage, that is to say if the new tenants
+had been satisfied. But in far too many instances they
+were not. And one cannot help thinking that, in the
+vast majority of cases, they themselves would have
+preferred to wait until the Peasants' Co-operative Associations&mdash;such
+as flourish in Denmark&mdash;had been established.
+It need scarcely be said that, from the point of view of
+the peasant and of the State, these associations are an
+absolute necessity. The most deplorable example of the
+measures that were taken in such haste is seen, of course,
+in a model-property, such as that of Count &#268;ekoni&#263; in
+the north of the Banat, where the new tenants, seeking
+as elsewhere to satisfy only their own wants and paying
+no heed to any possible exports, allow a highly developed
+property to go in a retrograde direction. If the Dobrovoljci
+had been skilled agriculturists there would have
+been no harm in settling them on this excellent estate;
+and with a Co-operative Association the 3000 joch of
+sugar that were grown there during the War would not
+now be reduced to 88 joch. But as it is, what with the
+unfortunate inexperience of most of the new tenants
+and their lack of means, and what with the stupidity of
+the local authorities who left to the previous owner one
+field here and one field there in the most absurd fashion,
+it would have been better both for Count &#268;ekoni&#263; and
+for the State if he had simply presented to the Dobrovoljci
+half his land. A great many mistakes have been made
+in this question of Agrarian Reform, one of the most
+cardinal being&mdash;as Radi&#263;, the spokesman of the Croat
+peasants, has pointed out&mdash;to bestow the land not on
+people because they can farm it, but because they were
+heroes in the War.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> It is a matter for congratulation
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>that the measures now in force are not definite&mdash;the final
+dispositions will be taken in two or three years.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> And
+perhaps then some part of the counsel of Radi&#263; may be
+adopted&mdash;Radi&#263;, whose critics are never weary of denouncing
+him for being a demagogue, a firebrand and
+various other things, but who by that time may very
+likely be a Cabinet Minister. He advises that there
+should be a compromise, that the ownership of land in
+Yugoslavia should not be strictly individualist nor
+strictly communist, but that while preserving the spirit
+of the <i>zadruga</i> (ownership by the community) there
+should also be the mobility of individual ownership.</p>
+
+<p>But in the field of Agrarian Reform there has been
+one excellent plan, the transference of men from the
+unfertile districts of Montenegro and Lika, also of landless
+men from the Banat and Ba&#269;ka, as also Serbs from Hungary
+and Slovenes from Istria, to those parts of Kossovo and
+Macedonia which were lying ownerless. The Albanians
+in Kossovo are mostly shepherds, and the land, which by
+Turkish law had belonged to "God and the Sultan,"
+was now at the disposal of the Yugoslav authorities.
+Down to the spring of 1922 they had placed some 35,000
+persons in these regions, the Montenegrins being generally
+allocated to an Albanian neighbourhood, for they are
+accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the Shqyptart. At
+first the Albanians viewed the new settlers with disfavour,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>but now so great a sympathy has developed between
+them that on various occasions the Montenegrins have
+remonstrated with the gendarmes for the excessive order
+they enforce and which, the Montenegrins say, you
+really cannot ask of an Albanian. Against the Montenegrins
+the Albanians do not care to use their rifles, since
+the custom of blood-vengeance is in the Montenegrin
+blood. In fact, these Albanians are very fair neighbours,
+the most unruly of them living in the mountains of
+the frontier. And the Montenegrins have been showing
+that when they are not compelled to live with weapons
+in their hand they can be quite industrious. There has,
+till now, been more colonization of Kossovo than of
+Macedonia; but there are wide tracts of country around
+Skoplje which will be settled, once they have been freed
+from malaria. The political consequences that this will
+have on Macedonia, by the stabilization of economic
+conditions, the supersession of the wooden plough by
+the steam plough&mdash;in fact, the advent of a new European
+spirit need scarcely be enlarged upon. In Serbian
+Macedonia, or South Serbia as it is now officially called,
+more than seven million acres of good soil are as yet
+not being used.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">FRENZY AT RIEKA</p>
+
+<p>As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists
+became more frantic. Their telegrams to Rome, in which
+they begged for instant annexation, were in vain, and after
+all, what was the use of adopting the system of Lieut.-Colonel
+Stadler, their energetic podest&agrave; at Abbazia, who
+would go into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct
+them that they must not say: "It will be settled by the
+Paris Conference," but rather&mdash;"It has been settled
+by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning
+what was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most
+important of these plaguy Allied officers had said that
+when he first came to the town he thought it was Italian,
+but he had soon perceived that it was all a comedy,
+and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda
+and statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris
+and that there was the faintest, awful possibility that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+one could say: "It has been settled by the Paris Conference."
+Everyone, alas! was studying the case&mdash;one
+heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being f&ecirc;ted
+at Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite
+intimate with Croatian history and to have discussed
+especially the story of Rieka. But by far the shrewdest
+blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What
+had his emissaries, who had listened with such care to
+everybody, told him? One must have a grand procession
+through the town to show the whole world what
+the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear
+the lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down
+with Wilson! down with redskins!" Some of the
+demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a donkey,
+a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion,
+that their enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of
+Austria, who was still alive. Another very good idea
+would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
+head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course,
+the Hotel Wilson must become the Hotel Orlando. Let
+them put a large black cross on all the Croat houses of
+Rieka&mdash;well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
+was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were
+too numerous; so let the soldiers rub them out again.
+And where the Croat names on banks and shops and
+elsewhere had been effaced, demolished&mdash;one could hide
+them by long strips of paper which they were so busy
+printing: "Either Italy or death!" "Viva Orlando!"
+"Viva Sonnino!"&mdash;those papers were the best reply
+to people who were asking if the entire Italian Cabinet
+was in harmony with Sonnino. Not merely in harmony&mdash;the
+Cabinet <i>was</i> Sonnino and more particularly Orlando
+was Sonnino. An Italian major came out on to a balcony
+one evening, in uniform, and opened his Italian heart
+to the crowd. What would the Allies say to that?
+The <i>Dante Alighieri</i>, the great dreadnought, man&oelig;uvring
+with her searchlights, let them rest awhile upon the
+<i>Schley</i>, an American destroyer. What would the Yankees
+do? "Avanti Savoia!" Perhaps in the old days they
+would have sent a shot or two into the searchlights,
+just for luck, but now they did nothing. And what a
+scene at the Opera when <i>Andr&eacute; Chenier</i> was performed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+and one of the singers came to the word "Traitor!"
+and some one shouted "Wilson!" and the whole house
+shouted "Wilson!" and the singer, forced to repeat
+the blessed word, added amid indescribable enthusiasm
+the name of the President, that ignominious President
+concerning whom it was revealed by one of their newspapers
+that he must obviously have pocketed Yugoslav
+money, perhaps a million, and who most probably had
+a Yugoslav mistress&mdash;when that opera-singer had emended
+the phrase, did that very exalted Italian officer leave
+his box? Why, no&mdash;he stayed until the end of the
+performance.... Did any Italian in Rieka read to the
+end a small and lucid American book, <i>Italy and the
+Yugoslavs, A Question of International Law</i>, by C.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;H.
+Bartlett of the New York and United States Federal
+Bar? "It is an admitted fact," says Mr. Bartlett,
+"that Italy at the outbreak of hostilities had no rights
+to, or in, the territory to which she now makes claim.
+Her title, therefore, has arisen since the commencement
+of the War, and must be founded on either effective
+possession legally acquired or on documentary evidence
+or some other right recognized by international law."
+And quoting Professor Westlake (<i>International Law</i>,
+Part I. p. 91) as to the four grounds on which a State
+may vindicate its sovereignty over new domain, he discusses
+the position in the Adriatic, and concludes that
+Italy can claim no title by occupancy, cession, succession
+or self-determination. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Bartlett's
+commentary on the London Treaty, which is the instrument
+invoked by the Italians for their claims to Dalmatia.
+With regard to Rieka, which, as everybody knows, was
+not included even in the London Treaty, Mr. Bartlett
+says that while "admitting, for the purpose of argument,
+that the seizure has since resulted in an effective possession,
+yet, as that is not sufficient in itself to give title,
+it has no legal or effective force, but can be compared
+with nomads squatting on the roadside and then claiming
+a right to the soil. Italy was ashamed to assume the
+responsibility for the original appropriation of Rieka,
+which was made in violation of every legal right of those
+to whom it belongs, and she might well be, for a more
+audacious, unjustifiable proceeding in violation of every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+principle of international law it is difficult to imagine." ...
+As for the Italian National Council, listen to the stirring
+sentences of Mr. Grossich, its old President, after they
+had unanimously voted on May 17, and with passionate
+conviction, an order of the day directed to Orlando.
+In that order it was stated that they looked upon the
+plebiscite of October 30, 1918, as an indestructible,
+historical and legal fact. Grossich exposed the situation
+and was then for some instants mute. His voice was
+trembling when he spoke: "The sacrifice which circumstances
+may demand is tremendous, but if it is required
+by the supreme interests of Italy we will know how to
+support it. More than a citizen of Fiume, I feel myself
+an Italian" ("Primo che fiumano mi sento italiano").
+At this point the old patriot broke into tears. "Fiume
+will defend herself with arms against all those who desire
+to violate her will, her national conscience. Seeing that
+her tenacious, indestructible Italianity is a grave impediment
+for Italy in the attaining of other objects, let Fiume
+be left to look after herself, sure as she is of her sons,
+prepared as she is, to-day more than ever, to sacrifice
+herself. She will defend herself against all and from
+wherever they come." Those who listened thought
+that this must mean that either the <i>Pester Lloyd</i> of
+April 29 was lying when it printed an official message
+stating that General Segr&eacute;, the Italian representative
+at Vienna, had in the name of his Government requested
+the Hungarian Soviet Republic to undertake
+the care of Italian subjects in Rieka, or else that the
+Magyars had told him that the 22,000 or 23,000
+Italian soldiers in Rieka ought to be sufficient, as this
+was practically one soldier for every person who had
+been described as an Italian. But the I.N.C. had now
+resolved to take no risks; they entered into negotiations
+with Sem Benelli, a well-known poet of the school which
+some critics call enlivening and other critics call inflammatory.
+Anyhow, on the afternoon of June 13,
+Mr. Benelli was made a citizen of Rieka, a member of
+the central committee and was entrusted with the portfolio
+of Minister of War, that is to say Commissary for
+Defence. He thanked the I.N.C. in a long speech, and
+declared that his appointment was the wedding of Rieka<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+and Italy. Then Dr. Vio proposed a law, respecting
+the defence to the uttermost of Italian rights&mdash;that an
+army should be created and that the expenses should be
+met by the issue of bonds for a hundred million lire.
+The citizen Benelli was asked to undertake the organization
+and the command of the army.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ADMIRAL MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION</p>
+
+<p>Farther down the coast and on the islands the Italians
+seemed, with few exceptions, to have relinquished every
+effort to make themselves popular with the Slavs. Of
+course one naturally hears more of the cases of tension
+than of those where friendliness prevails; but in the
+towns or villages where the Slav <i>intelligentsia</i> appreciated
+that an officer was doing his best, they were obliged invariably
+to add that he was doing it in spite of his men,
+and that his control of these men was more or less defective.
+Numbers of the soldiers, marines and carabinieri may have
+been animated, when they landed in Dalmatia, with
+excellent intentions, but their months amid an alien population
+had produced in them too often a deplorable effect.
+It must be taken into account that many of them had
+an almost insurmountable desire to be demobilized. At
+Gradi&#353;ca, where many Slovenes were interned, with
+fences round them but with no roof other than the sky,
+their guards with other soldiers had risen in revolt. This
+outbreak was suppressed, certain soldiers&mdash;some say sixty,
+but the number is doubtful&mdash;being shot; and all the
+others took an oath that on the first occasion of a deserter
+being shot at, they would, down to the last man, leave
+the barracks. This movement had been growing since
+the withdrawal of Bissolati from the Cabinet. As for the
+young officers, they had been exhorted, in a communication
+from Admiral Millo, the Governor, that they must realize
+the position they were in. The Admiral's memorial,
+which was marked with wisdom but also with a too-sweeping
+air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document:
+No. 558 of Register P. Section of Propaganda.
+Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy was found by the
+Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed and
+replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+Croats the contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a
+lengthy and to us at times a rather rhetorical expos&eacute;,
+of which it will suffice to make some extracts. "The
+Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
+calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes
+which divide the sentiments of the local population. And
+in accounting, psychologically and historically, for the
+detestations and the aspirations of either party, he
+must regard the situation with the serene mind of a judge....
+The position of officers is extremely delicate, more
+particularly in the small centres. It is known that outside
+the towns the population in its great majority and often
+its totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South,
+that is to say, Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people
+of another race, of that formidable Slav race which for
+centuries has been pressing against the West, athirst for
+liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a psychology,
+a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
+consciousness and a quite special individuality. This
+population is fundamentally good, good as simple and
+primitive people are. But the simple and primitive
+peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious and
+violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the
+officers from not taking these things into account and
+from letting themselves be guided solely by their Italian
+feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and an evenly-balanced
+mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
+of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment
+and a spirit of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on
+our part. The officer must ... become an element of
+moderation and pacification, with the object of assuaging
+and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created
+and fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever;
+and of dissipating that hostility which, determined by
+a political situation and events, has been and is being
+incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
+artificially created campaign of interested parties (<i>da
+artificiose interessate campagna</i>).... It must be remembered
+that this is the first contact (<i>il primo contatto</i>)
+which the population, as yet primitive and uncultured in
+its mass, has had with Italy, where it instinctively sees the
+enemy and the new oppressor. We must do our best to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+make them see in Italy their friend and liberator.... It
+is evident and it leaps to the eyes of all how delicate and
+important is the moment of this first contact. Nothing
+more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances is
+needed for the officer to understand that in all his official
+and personal acts he must behave in such a manner that
+the population, which is primitive and simple and therefore
+all the more susceptible to suggestions, should
+regain the impression that Italy is a great country, the
+country of liberty and right, that its people is educated
+and civilized, that its officers and soldiers are here to fulfil
+a work of civilization and education, of love, in a country
+which must be Italian on account of historic rights and
+for the exigencies of Italy's defence: in which the Slavs,
+who have been introduced by the course of events and as
+an effect of the expansive potentiality of their race and the
+artifices of those who dominated the country, will find in
+the independence and development of their nationality
+a great fatherland which is civilized, powerful, humane
+and free.... In estimating the enmity of the Croats
+the fact must be taken into account that the Croatian
+world, I mean to say the Croat people, with its action in
+the interior of Austria while the Italian army was acting
+outside, resolutely and victoriously, has co-operated in
+precipitating the downfall of Austria and in freeing itself
+from a detested r&eacute;gime; particularly in the last year of
+the War this sentiment of nationality became accentuated
+with the fervent aspiration for liberty.... These are the
+circumstances which have determined a special psychology
+composed of joy and ecstasy&mdash;both elements which, in minds
+that are laden with all the influences of the East, produce
+a facile and dangerous excitement. On the other hand
+there survives in the Italian population the hatred against
+the Croatian supremacy, a hatred which is comprehensible
+but which in time must give place to other sentiments,
+rendering possible a fair coexistence of the two populations,
+whose aim should be common&mdash;the prosperity and
+development of Dalmatia, in the prosperity and for the
+prosperity, in the greatness and for the greatness of Italy.
+From this picture it must be instantly clear to every officer
+that his duty here is ... a truly lofty mission of civilization....
+Especially the officer who is in charge of administrative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+work must awaken impressions that are naturally
+caused by the sense of justice for all; his severity
+must be good and his goodness must be severe, and from
+every act there must transpire the dignity which comes
+from the might and right of Italy, the kindness and generosity
+which come from the virtue of the race.... There
+is already an impression on the part of the Croats that the
+Italians are good, that Italy is strong. There must also
+be born and reinforced the other conviction that we are
+not oppressors but liberators.... The best propaganda,
+the most efficacious, because spontaneous and unexpected,
+is done by the officer and his men. The Italian officer ...
+with the harmony of manners which distinguishes him,
+obtains very easily the sympathies of this population, a
+sympathy, however, which for an optimist may become
+dangerous. Young officers must not forget that the propagators
+of the great Yugoslavia still exercise with their
+megalomania a potent influence over the primitive population
+and that a gesture of theirs, a word, an attitude,
+may even yet indirectly favour the Croat cause and make
+difficulties for us in exhibiting our mission of civilization."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT &#352;IBENIK</p>
+
+<p>It is strange that this order should have been so
+scurvily treated in the town of &#352;ibenik, where it was
+issued and where the Admiral resided until the beginning
+of June, after which he transferred the seat of government
+to Zadar. At &#352;ibenik, by the way, the population comprises
+13,000 Yugoslavs and 400 Italianists. On February
+20, 1919, there arrived from Zadar, in consequence
+of an invitation from Admiral Millo, the Italian professor
+Domiaku&#353;i&#263; who, according to the sixth clause of the
+Armistice, was justified in assuming the functions of school-controller,
+but was not authorized to become the inspector
+or in any way to interfere in didactic matters. Two inspectors
+existed in Dalmatia, one for the elementary and
+one for the secondary school, but the chief school authority
+of the province and the two inspectors under him were
+not informed of Professor Domiaku&#353;i&#263;'s nomination. If
+the Governor intended him to abide by the stipulations
+of the Armistice, he must have been astonished at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+schools being shut on the day after his arrival. And
+they remained shut, both the modern school and the
+middle-class girls' school for months, because the Professor's
+quite illegal attempt to usurp the inspectorship
+was resented. The secondary school was closed and the
+teachers who had come to &#352;ibenik with their families,
+but whose permanent domicile was elsewhere, received an
+order, delivered by carabinieri, that they would have to
+leave the town in four days. A few Italians were brought
+from Split and the school was reopened, but the attendance,
+which had been about 200, was now 24, and of
+these only two were the sons of Yugoslavs&mdash;but Yugoslavs
+who had taken office under the Italians, one as President
+of the Court of Justice and the other as prison inspector;
+these gentlemen took their boys by the hand and led
+them to school. Perhaps the Admiral was unaware of
+these transactions; but various Yugoslav officials, whose
+salaries had been withheld because they would not sign
+a paper asking to be made Italian officials, continued,
+notwithstanding, at their posts for two months; after
+which the Government perceived that by the clauses of the
+Armistice they were compelled to pay them. Each of
+them received exactly what was due, while some Italian
+teachers who had signed the paper were given a war
+bonus, extending over five months, of 80 per cent.
+Whether the Admiral knew of this or not, it does not
+harmonize with his exalted sentiments. And the town-commandant
+spoke very darkly<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> on various occasions to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>the leading citizens of what would come to pass if the
+Italians by any chance were told to leave the place. His
+brave fellows, the arditi, so he said, had plenty of machine
+guns and of ammunition. But this fair-haired German-looking
+officer was a rampageous sort of person who discharged,
+according to his lights, the Admiral's "truly
+lofty mission of civilization." It was not he, but another
+of the Admiral's subordinates at &#352;ibenik, who, when <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'aproached'">approached</ins>
+by a certain Mr. Iva&#353;a Zori&#263; with the request
+that something might be done to release his son, a prisoner
+of war in Italy, replied: "Your son shall be released in
+eight days, provided that you declare, in writing, that you
+are content with the Italian occupation." On Mr. Zori&#263;
+saying that he was unable to do this, "Very well," said
+the officer, "then your son will be one of the last to be set
+free."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS</p>
+
+<p>Altogether one might say that the schoolmasters were
+being treated in a manner that was at variance with the
+Admiral's document. To give a few examples: Ivan
+Grbi&#263;, the schoolmaster at Sutomi&#353;cica, was arbitrarily
+imprisoned and was afterwards removed to another school
+at Privlaka. The Government school at the former
+place was closed, an Italian private institution being
+opened in the same building, with a teacher who was
+devoid of professional qualifications. The pupils of the
+school which had been dissolved were compelled by
+soldiers to attend the new Italian school. The elementary
+schools at Zemunik were likewise closed and the schoolmasters,
+after a period of imprisonment, taken to another
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>village. If in the rather dreary little Zemunik, where
+there is not one Italian, the schoolmaster was very
+dangerous to the might of Italy, let us compare with this
+the conduct of the Slovene authorities who <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'permittep'">permitted</ins>
+more than one priest of the old r&eacute;gime to remain in office&mdash;one
+of them at a village four or five miles from Ljubljana&mdash;though
+they knew that these clergy were wont from the
+pulpit to utter disloyal sentiments. Maybe the Slovene
+Government was unwise, but they had scruples in removing
+a priest; and moreover, they had not given up the hope
+that these gentlemen would by and by change their
+opinions. On the island of Pag the schoolmaster Buratovi&#263;
+and his wife, who was also a teacher, had to fly in order
+to escape imprisonment. The schoolmaster Grimani of
+the same place was obliged, with his wife, to follow the
+example of Buratovi&#263;, so that the school was necessarily
+closed; and an Italian school was started in this island
+with its 0&middot;31 per cent. of Italians. The same edifying
+scenes must have taken place as in so many Magyar
+schools where the pupils&mdash;Serbs, Slovaks, Roumanians
+and so forth&mdash;did not understand what the teacher
+was saying. The Government of the occupied part
+of Dalmatia appointed to the elementary schools at
+Rogoznica and Primo&#353;ten two young Italian law-students
+from Zadar, who had no pedagogic qualifications; and
+whereas the legal annual salary was 1080 crowns, these
+lucky young men were in receipt of 625 crowns a month,
+which covered more than handsomely any depreciation
+in the currency. But now to another subject:</p>
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%">
+<tr><td class="rightalign">&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Per cent. Yugoslavs.</td><td style="padding-left: 2em">Per cent. Italians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">1.</td><td class="leftalign">Zadar</td><td class="rightalign">with 80&middot;25</td><td class="rightalign">with 18&middot;61</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">2.</td><td class="leftalign">Hvar (Lesina)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 92&middot;94</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 6&middot;75</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">3.</td><td class="leftalign">Kor&#269;ula (Curzola)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 94&middot;89</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 5&middot;08</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">4.</td><td class="leftalign">&#352;ibenik (Sebenico)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 95&middot;66</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 1&middot;31</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">5.</td><td class="leftalign">Starigrad (Cittavecchia)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 97&middot;98</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 1&middot;91</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">6.</td><td class="leftalign">Vis (Lissa)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 98&middot;98</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;92</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">7.</td><td class="leftalign">Skradin (Scardona)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;36</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;57</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">8.</td><td class="leftalign">Knin</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;48</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;31</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">9.</td><td class="leftalign">Drni&#353; (Dernish)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;49</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;41</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">10.</td><td class="leftalign">Benkovac</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;60</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;30</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">11.</td><td class="leftalign">Tijesno (Stretto)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;61</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;35</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">12.</td><td class="leftalign">Biograd (Zaravecchia)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;66</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;23</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">13.</td><td class="leftalign">Pag (Pago)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;67</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;31</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">14.</td><td class="leftalign">Obrovac (Obrovazzo)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;84</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;12</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">15.</td><td class="leftalign">Kistanje</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;88</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;12</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">16.</td><td class="leftalign">Blato (Blatta)</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;93</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span> 0&middot;05</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The London Treaty had conferred on Italy the foregoing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+Judiciary Districts, whose population, according to
+the last Austrian census, was as given on page 147.</p>
+
+<p>Italy was also to receive portions of the following
+Justiciary Districts:</p>
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%">
+<tr><td class="rightalign">&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Per cent. Yugoslavs.</td><td style="padding-left: 2em">Per cent. Italians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">1.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 3em">Trogir (Tra&ugrave;)</td><td class="rightalign">with 99&middot;12</td><td class="rightalign">with 0&middot;32</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">2.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 3em">Sinj</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;29</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 0&middot;24</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">3.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 3em">Imotski</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;84</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 0&middot;11</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="rightalign">4.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 3em">Vrlika</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 99&middot;95</td><td class="rightalign"><span style="padding-right: 0.75em">"</span> 0&middot;04</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized
+by a delegation which the representatives of the occupied
+communes elected at Split on January 11. According
+to the census of 1900 the occupied territory contained
+35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181
+inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants,
+the census was prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated
+the results of the plebiscite in the commune of
+Obrovac.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The delegates were therefore successful in
+canvassing 95&middot;07 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In
+34 communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia
+was over 90 per cent., while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per
+cent. At Zadar (the town) out of 14,056 inhabitants
+6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in
+the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was
+89&middot;57 per cent. In the islands the majorities ranged from
+96 per cent. to 100 per cent. And if any doubts were
+entertained as to these figures, the delegates were authorized
+to propose another plebiscite under the control of a
+disinterested Allied Power.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT</p>
+
+<p>Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants,
+is not a wealthy province; and one would have supposed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>that if the Italians thought it necessary to occupy a
+country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably opposed
+to them, it would have been&mdash;to put it at the lowest&mdash;politic
+to hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood.
+Austria had established fourteen military fishing centres
+(besides others in Rieka, Istria, etc.), and these the
+Croats joined most willingly, as a means of avoiding
+service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets
+were worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with
+new ones. Owing to the conditions of the Triple Alliance,
+the Italians enjoyed the right to "high-sea" fishing, that
+is to say, the fishing up to three miles from the Dalmatian
+coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich
+fishing grounds among the northern islands. These
+dispossessed natives were originally more preoccupied with
+fish than with Italians. Is it strange that they refused
+to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral Millo, the
+friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss
+Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line
+for the exploitation of its forests; during the War this
+line was continued to Prijedor, and with great difficulty
+it had served for the transport of food-stuff and passengers
+from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to Sissak normal
+gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there
+to Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or
+&#352;ibenik narrow gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading
+between 30 per cent. and 50 per cent. of the goods
+were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the inhabitants
+of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor
+hundreds of waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to
+be forwarded, and with Italy blocking the road at Knin
+they simply perished.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS</p>
+
+<p>The Italian administration of Dalmatia&mdash;economically,
+politically, scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially
+(as we will show)&mdash;was thoroughly mistaken. Wherever
+one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence; it is impossible
+to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention
+of Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogi&#263;, who was deported
+to Sardinia for political reasons. On January 1 he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+arrested, together with a Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster
+and others, transported to &#352;ibenik and put into a cell
+devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with nothing
+to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken
+on to the <small>s.s.</small> <i>Almissa</i>, bound for Ancona. Near &#352;ibenik
+the boat collided with the isle of Zlarin; he and the other
+prisoners attempted to get out of their cabin, but carabinieri
+kept them there by flourishing revolvers in their
+faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn
+the doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his
+finger-prints taken, had to stand up to salute the warders,
+had to look on while his things were stolen&mdash;at Ancona,
+for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars. His
+wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his
+fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences.
+The carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on
+their knees and then, without unbinding the ropes, left
+them to eat it as best they could. The journey was very
+slow; thus from Perugia to Florence&mdash;being all the time
+attached to one another&mdash;it took sixteen hours. Dr.
+Conti, the prison doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogi&#263;
+was ill, but as he declined to give him a certificate the
+journey was resumed. From Florence to Leghorn he
+was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much
+swollen. From Leghorn in the <small>s.s.</small> <i>Derna</i> he was shipped
+to Sardinia, where he had experience of several prisons,
+including that of Terranuova-Pausania, where water
+flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He
+received 2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and
+although he is a doctor they refused to let him read any
+medical books. When I asked him of what he had been
+guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over
+6000 Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there
+as military doctor for more than two years. These
+Italians were employed on the railway line and&mdash;as is
+clear from the letters they wrote to him after their release&mdash;letters
+some of which I read&mdash;they had very friendly
+recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of
+1918 a group of Italians arrived who had been, in the
+doctor's words, "bestially maltreated at Zala-Egerseg
+by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to Knin,
+others while they were being got out of the station, others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+on the way to the hospital. They were nothing but
+skeletons, dressed almost exclusively in paper clothes.
+General Wucherer happened to be at Knin and to him
+the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in
+an absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a
+decent fellow, ordered the doctor to dictate the whole
+affair and said that if nothing else could be done he would
+go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he struck the
+table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split
+and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and
+"Wir sind doch die gr&ouml;ssten Schuften!" he exclaimed
+("After all, it is we who are the biggest scoundrels!")....
+When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian Government
+at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald
+man, made a speech to the prisoners from the balcony
+of the town hall. He armed two of the Italians and ten
+French prisoners, whom he told off to guard the magazine.
+The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli)
+vanished after a couple of days; the French remained
+for a week, and when a French destroyer arrived at Split
+they were taken there, not as prisoners but as soldiers,
+bearing arms. Dr. Bogi&#263; was a member of the National
+Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague
+at Drni&#353; to ask him whether the Italian troops were
+coming up from &#352;ibenik. This letter was his undoing.
+The reason he wrote it was because the population at
+Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective occupation
+and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He
+should have remembered, no doubt, that the Italians
+regarded this as enemy country and that to make inquiries
+with regard to the movement of troops was a crime. An
+officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he
+would kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the
+place which was indicated he found himself surrounded
+by carabinieri. Their captain, a certain Albano, said
+that he and two or three others must go to &#352;ibenik to
+undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return
+in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to
+take any money, clothes or linen. As a matter of fact
+the doctor had, on the previous day, been warned from
+Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but he laughed&mdash;he
+had done so much for them and he felt so innocent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+that it seemed absurd to run away. He could have
+gone, because he had a written permit issued to him on
+January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry regiment at
+Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever
+they wished, to Split.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS</p>
+
+<p>During the winter and spring over seven hundred
+persons, chiefly belonging to the clerical, the legal and
+the medical professions, had been deported from Dalmatia.
+The leader of the Italian party at Zadar told
+me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra,
+saying that this, their place of interment, was a health
+resort and that they were getting fat. He scouted the
+idea that they were under any sort of compulsion when
+they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must
+anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia,
+as were the vast majority. Those who managed to return
+from that island&mdash;among them Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar,
+through the intervention of Bissolati, on account of Mrs.
+Macchiedo being at death's door&mdash;said that they found
+in Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment.
+Many priests were deported, on account of
+crimes which varied in enormity. A very frequent
+cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a
+congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One
+must say that the Italians exhibited no religious partiality,
+for they treated the Roman Catholic Church just the
+same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions were
+so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be
+due to a misunderstanding. To mention only one which
+came under my observation at Skradin, not far from
+&#352;ibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his sumptuous
+vestments had led his congregation out of the old town
+in order to perform an annual ceremony in connection
+with the fertility of the fields. In what way was the
+Italian cause assisted when carabinieri broke up that
+procession and refused even to allow the people to walk
+back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest
+and the other church officials with the sacred emblems,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+were forced to go back to Skradin as best they could by
+wading through the marshes?</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES</p>
+
+<p>An allusion has been made to the Italian financial
+methods. More than one Italian officer, including
+Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the Austrian currency,
+which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In
+Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had
+the Government stamp, and the Italians resolved that
+in the territories which they occupied the notes must
+have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But when
+some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation
+from Croatia or else landed somewhere in a boat the
+Italians were not making good propaganda for themselves
+when they seized the notes, tore them up and
+refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow
+whom I know of came with his mother along that
+wonderful road which the Austrians built over the
+mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious
+affection of the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar
+to consult an oculist. He took with him practically
+all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know what
+otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use
+of a bank. Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told
+him testily to go about his business. The same thing
+happened to the following persons:</p>
+
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%" cellpadding="1">
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Crowns.</td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">1.</td><td> March</td><td class="rightalign"> 22,</td><td> 1919.</td><td class="leftalign"> Bogdan Babovi&#263;, son of Radovan,
+of Montenegro,</td><td> was robbed of</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 1,348</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">2.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 22,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Peter Luk&#353;i&#263;, son of Stephen of
+Spi&#263;,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span>"</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 1,800</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">3.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 30,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Marijan &#352;evelj, of Tu&#269;epa,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 3,530</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">4.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 31,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Frano Franki&#263; and Ivanica
+Petri&#269;evi&#263;,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 12,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">5.</td><td> April</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Stephen Vuku&#353;i&#263;, son of Peter,
+of Katuna,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 4,758</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">6.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Nikola Cike&#353;, son of Mate, of
+&#381;e&#382;evice,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 3,071</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">7.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Martinis Jozo, son of the late
+Nikola, of Komi&#382;a,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 6,332</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">8.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Jure Rubi&#263;, son of the late Peter,
+of Zadvarje</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 6,030</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">9.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Mato &#352;kari&#269;i&#263;, son of Stephen,
+of Podgrazza,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 500</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">10.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Mihovil &#352;arac, son of the late Crowns.
+Marko, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 300<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">11.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 11,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Ilika Kutlja&#269;a, son of the late
+Peter, of &#268;ista,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 600</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">12.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 13,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Marko &#268;aljku&#353;i&#263;, son of the
+late Ante, of &#352;estanova,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 11,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">13.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 14,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Damjan Udovi&#269;i&#263;, son of Jakov,
+of Imotski,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 3,200</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">14.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 16,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Antun Radi&#263;, son of Peter, of
+Trogir,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 62,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">15.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 16,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Madalena Kugmi&#263;, widow of
+Nikola, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 1,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">16.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 17,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Pero Juri&#263;, son of Abram, of
+Ostrozac,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 2,285</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">17.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 19,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Jakov Jurkovi&#263;, son of Mi&#353;ko</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td rowspan="3" style="text-align: left; width: 0.5em"><span style="font-size: 300%">&#65373;</span></td><td class="rightalign"></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">18.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 19,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Mate Raji&#263;, son of Ilija,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 8,140</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">19.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 19,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Jerko Reji&#263;, son of Luke,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td class="rightalign"></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">20.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 19,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko,
+of Livno,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 25,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">21.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 25,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Zorka Aljinovi&#263;, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 600</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">22.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 28,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Ana &#381;i&#382;ak, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 1,900</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">23.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 29,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Nikolina Rastor, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 1,800</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">24.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 30,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Antica Mili&#263;, of Split,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 5,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">25.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 24,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Tomislav Novak, son of Mate,
+of Hvar,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 3,000</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="rightalign">26.</td><td> "</td><td class="rightalign"> 24,</td><td> "</td><td class="leftalign"> Gjuran Arif, of Livno,</td><td><span style="padding-right: 2em">"</span> "</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="rightalign"> 2,200</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Total</td><td class="rightalign" style="border-top: solid black 1px; border-bottom: solid black 2px">136,794</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>These were the complaints over a period of a month,
+which were received by the Provincial (Yugoslav)
+Government at Split. One has to take their word for it
+that the list is not fictitious. I did not investigate any
+of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the
+list said that they were persuaded I would find that in
+every case the person culpable was an officious, ignorant
+N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a fragment.
+At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from
+the people, who were searched both on landing and on
+leaving, 40,000 crowns had been confiscated, and at first
+they had been told that the money should be stamped.
+A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few
+hours I was at Metkovi&#263; told me that he had gone to the
+island of Kor&#269;ula to his brother and, on landing, had been
+relieved of 34,000 crowns.</p>
+
+
+
+<p class="section">AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY</p>
+
+<p>In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of
+the Allied policy of allowing a disputed zone to be occupied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+<i>ad interim</i> solely by the troops of one interested country.
+The chronic state of war which followed the landing of
+the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the charges and the
+counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied
+Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was
+issued early in 1920 and was signed by an American
+Admiral and French, Italian and British Generals, laid
+the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher Command.
+The Commission considered that an inter-Allied
+occupation was necessary, because the Greeks, instead of
+maintaining order, had given their position all the characteristics
+of a permanent occupation, the Turkish
+authorities being powerless. They also considered that
+order should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other
+than Greek.... No such Commission visited Dalmatia,
+chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of endless provocations,
+displayed greater self-control than the Turks.
+But an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that
+the Italian r&eacute;gime had not the marks of a permanent
+occupation simply because such methods could never be
+permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was
+forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat
+newspaper. On one island I found about fifteen
+gentlemen gathered round a table in a sort of dungeon,
+reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into
+their possession. This they had been doing for more
+than six months. Every letter was censored, all telegraphic
+and telephonic communication between the
+occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited.
+All flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed.
+Admiral Millo told us that this prohibition did not extend
+to the flags of France, Great Britain and the United
+States; considering that it is on record when and where
+the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians,
+ordered to be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence
+of Allied contingents, it seems scarcely worth saying that,
+as we were often told, the Admiral's permission, which
+was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded
+by his subordinates. Another thing that was very
+rigorously forbidden, especially on the islands, was for
+any Yugoslav to go down to the harbour, if a boat came
+in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on board.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable
+and tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning
+of Yugoslav clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving
+them empty because they found they did not want them,
+the requisitioning of private houses, with no consideration
+for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of
+forests, the closing of law-courts, the demand that other
+courts should pronounce no judgment before first submitting
+it to them. But, above all, what the Yugoslav
+Government at Split complained of were the methods
+they employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous
+distribution of food, clothing and money:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">I</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Government of Dalmatia and of the Dalmatian
+Islands and of the Curzola Islands</span></p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0em"><span class="smcap">Subject:</span> <i>Question of Food Supplies for the
+Civil Population.</i><br />
+
+<span style="float: right; padding-right: 1.5em">No. 43. <i>March</i> 18, 1919.</span><br style="clear: both" /></p>
+
+<p>To all subject authorities:</p>
+
+<p>I have heard that several commanding officers who
+have to distribute food to the civilian population have,
+by virtue of an authorization that they may save part of
+the entered amounts for the purpose of using that sum for
+propaganda, saved a conspicuous quantity without having
+the possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained
+that the only effective means of propaganda is
+the distribution of food supplies ... amounts which
+are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary
+for purposes of propaganda.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 1em">The Vice-Admiral</span><br />
+<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 1em">The Governor,</span><br />
+E. Millo.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">II</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Royal Government of Dalmatia and of the Dalmatian
+Islands and of the Curzola Islands</span></p>
+
+<table summary="signature">
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 22em"><span class="smcap">Staff. <br />No. Prot. "P."</span></td>
+<td class="rightalign"><span class="smcap">Section of Propaganda</span>, <br /><span class="smcap">Sebenico</span>, <i>April</i> 18, 1919.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The section of propaganda of the Government of
+Dalmatia, whose object is the rapid diffusion of Italianity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+in this noble region which gives at last to Italy the
+complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has set
+before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action
+... it is therefore necessary to give
+these latter certain advantages ... it has
+been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ...
+that offices be opened for the gratuitous
+or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that presents be
+given to the indigent population, that f&ecirc;tes and spectacles
+be organized.</p>
+
+<p class="right">[Signature illegible.]</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These two documents give some indication of the
+plan of campaign. One might mention, by the bye,
+that during this period there was a great shortage of
+food-stuffs in Italy; large quantities were being sent
+from the United States. The Yugoslav Government
+at Split complained of the disastrous social and moral
+results of these proceedings. It gave rise to many
+abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had,
+for example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all
+they had to do was to go on board the <i>Puglia</i>, the Italian
+flagship, whether their parents allowed them or not, and
+there they were given both provisions and cash. As
+elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of
+idlers and scamps, who seized this opportunity; another
+class of person, who had erstwhile been regarded as
+Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to proclaim
+that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All
+these people were ready enough to give their signatures
+to anything in return for the Italian bounty, and to
+endeavour to persuade others to do so; in that way the
+Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists
+of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the
+Italianists numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than
+1000 signatures.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING
+THE WAR</p>
+
+<p>To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to
+the years just before the War. From the reports of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+Austrian Intelligence Officer, Captain Bukvich, we shall
+see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the Italianists
+respectively towards the Government, and hence towards
+each other. It may be that the very loyal, some would
+call it cringing, attitude of the Italianists was forced
+upon them by the great inferiority of their numbers.
+What they were aiming at, with very few exceptions,
+were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others
+of which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream,
+when between the smoke of his cigarette he saw the
+Italian tricolour flying over Dalmatia. If this lonely
+dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with the purpose
+of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
+happen, he would have found that most of the Italians
+had never heard of Dalmatia. But among those who
+had heard were the officials of the "Liga Nazionale,"
+which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
+famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668)
+which Padouch, the successor of Bukvich as Intelligence
+Officer, sent from Split on September 25, 1915, to the
+Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an Italian of
+this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
+before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly
+told me that in their Liga school one-third of the children,
+at the most, have parents whose nationality has always
+been Italian. The others are children of the people,
+of that class which on account of its humble social position
+has lost its national consciousness. He told me that
+the parents received subsidies and the children clothes,
+school-books, etc., gratuitously."</p>
+
+<p>The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his
+superiors at Mostar. No doubt a great many documents
+were destroyed just before the Austrian collapse, as the
+Government had ordered to be done&mdash;three boxes, presumably
+containing copies, are known to have been committed
+to the flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a
+wholesale destruction on October 31. Yet a fair number
+of interesting papers survived, principally at Mostar,
+Castelnuovo, Metkovi&#263; and Dubrovnik. In 1913 Captain
+Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was
+completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were
+the only loyal people. On September 16 he said that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+the inhabitants believe in the coming of a great Serbia,
+and he substantiates this with numerous instances.
+"The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are
+all Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State
+clerks.... The chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has
+been confiscated twenty-seven times between October
+1912 and September 1913." He reported on August 19,
+1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the
+Imperial and Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference
+to the Francis Joseph celebrations of the previous
+day: "... only the public buildings and a few other
+houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory
+conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous
+Italian party." On February 27, 1914 (Information
+No. 62), he narrates that a big dinner was given at the
+bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary of the incorporation
+of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all
+the chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the
+Croat deputies, Dr. Trumbi&#263;, Dr. Smodlaka and other
+Croats declined with thanks. Dr. Salvi, however, of the
+autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance. On
+July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized
+men who marched through the town and were put on
+board ship. "The attitude," he says, "of the Slav
+<i>intelligentsia</i> was quite passive. The Italian band waited
+for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations
+took place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous
+party, who called: 'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor!
+Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down with the
+Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian
+naval lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He
+made some notes for the typist, afterwards embodied in a
+report to the Military Command at Mostar and marked
+"Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury,
+how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the
+War proclamation was read, but walked away in the
+midst of the recital and refrained from following the band,
+which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians, he
+said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than
+that; for with the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting
+letter from the "Societ&agrave; del Tiro al Bersaglio" of
+Split, which called itself a shooting club, but was not in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a gymnastic
+society with a political object. The secretary,
+Luigi Puisina, wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to
+say that they had determined to offer themselves in uniform
+for any service of a military nature ("per quei
+qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported
+on August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the
+present these gymnasts will be used as special constables,
+and he adds, to one's astonishment, that this has caused
+the Slav <i>intelligentsia</i> to be still more profoundly depressed.
+Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December
+17, 1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets
+were winking and smiling at each other in consequence of
+the news that the Austrians had been driven out of Belgrade.</p>
+
+<p>When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian
+Italians&mdash;I believe six from Zadar and two from Split&mdash;went
+to serve in the Italian army. Five others, four of
+them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these
+exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much
+more faithful to the Austrian Empire than were the
+Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged or shot or lodged
+in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in charging
+the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of
+their most powerful arguments. They themselves in
+Split continued to do what the Austrians expected of
+them: those who were of military age became units of the
+army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not
+incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto
+di Lettura," that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was
+not only most assiduous in addressing letters of devotion
+and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting all kinds of
+patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular
+friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was
+wont to go down with him to the harbour and watch the
+embarkation, in chains, of the Slav <i>intelligentsia</i>. The
+only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr. Tocigl, with
+whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY</p>
+
+<p>One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the
+collapse of Austria, regarded the Italian party, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+especially Dr. Salvi, with some suspicion. Since they
+had always placed themselves at Austria's disposal, it
+would be most natural if they attempted by a <i>coup
+d'&eacute;tat</i> to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment
+when they joined the Slavs and helped to turn the
+Austrians out. There was no notion then that the Italian
+army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until
+Christmas that this army tried to enter Split. When
+they proposed to come ashore they were prevented by
+the French, Americans and British; thereupon they
+threatened to come overland&mdash;although the town was not
+included in the London Treaty&mdash;but again they were prevented.
+In February, on the occasion of a conference
+between the four Admirals, there was a demonstration
+against Italy, the commandant of the <i>Puglia</i> being struck
+and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was
+a widespread feeling of resentment at the way in which
+the <i>Puglia</i> was, as we have seen, availing herself of the
+baser elements in the town for the furtherance of her propaganda;
+but what put the match to the bonfire was the
+omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian
+National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found
+that "officers belonging to an Allied nation have been
+molested." They announced that they would not tolerate
+a repetition of such acts, and that inter-Allied patrols,
+acting with Serbian troops and the local police force,
+would take measures to prevent them. On March 8,
+however, there was a renewal of the troubles; and again
+the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian member
+of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved
+of the findings and that he would present a
+special report.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY</p>
+
+<p>"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing
+up, "there exist at Split two political parties which are in
+sharp contradiction as to the future status of Dalmatia.
+The presence of Allied ships, and especially the Italian
+ones, has increased this contradiction rather than
+diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out
+at Split a few Italian sailors had made a small demonstration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+a little before the incidents. Certain movements
+and words on the part of youths, sympathizers with
+Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were bold
+enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure
+of arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the
+great majority of the bystanders and was the actual
+cause of outrages. This act was approved by the Italian
+Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered
+responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians
+and Serbian soldiers were wounded." The report adds
+that some Italian sailors were armed with knives and revolvers,
+contrary to the regulations of the Italian Naval
+Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting
+some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an
+illegal act, which they carried out according to instructions
+that were given them by the Italian Naval Authorities.
+Accordingly the Commission considers these
+authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the
+Serbian soldiers."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES</p>
+
+<p>But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the
+Italians had no fear of such a Commission. Let us see
+what they had been doing in the neighbourhood of Zadar,
+the old capital. Apart from the usual prohibitions with
+respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities
+were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their
+first task was to introduce the Italian language and make
+it obligatory, although the commissary's own employees
+would often be not more acquainted with it than with
+Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants
+in the occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March
+and April 1919 they were deprived of their salaries because
+they had declined, in accordance with the existing laws
+and particularly in accordance with the terms of the
+Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional
+Government that they should be confirmed in their posts.
+This outrageous order, which left hundreds of families
+without the means of subsistence, was not merely illegal&mdash;let
+alone inhumane&mdash;but was in contradiction with an
+earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+throughout the territory and which confirmed in their
+posts all the civil employees. However, the Italians were
+unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain these signatures,
+though they did not abandon their watchword: "Either
+Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute
+the peasants of the surrounding country and islands.
+Commands, menaces, blows inflicted by carabinieri and
+officers, houses searched night after night, and so on....
+In the second half of February it was intended to conduct
+a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to
+Zadar, so that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced
+to be there, for the benefits which Italy had bestowed
+upon them. An officer who in this branch achieved
+particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the
+Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread
+and Italian promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken
+fisherfolk and peasants; they refused to take
+part in the ridiculous demonstration, and in order to
+avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and
+even went to the length of sinking their boats. In the
+possession of a peasant at Preko, &#352;ime &#352;ari&#263; Mazi&#263;, were
+found some banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them
+and a very small French flag; for these transgressions
+de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive a box on
+the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison,
+and there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors
+afterwards certified, inflicted serious injuries upon his
+hands, which they beat with chains. For the same
+reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate
+Lon&#269;ar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet.
+On March 2 at Preko the Italians, enraged because the
+people had not come to their demonstration, dispersed
+with sticks all those who were assembled in front of the
+church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated.
+On March 29 the aforementioned Lon&#269;ar was condemned
+to three years' imprisonment because 11,780 crowns,
+unstamped notes, had been found on him; the notes, of
+course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way, were
+given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a
+discount of 10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even
+the military used these forbidden notes, and compelled
+the peasants at the market to accept them. In the night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of Zadar,
+who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their
+present misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested
+and deported to Italy; they included Mr. Joseph de
+Ton&#269;i&#263;, President of the Yugoslav Club and formerly
+the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two
+years of age and in precarious health. During this
+same night forty persons were deported from Knin, three
+from Drni&#353;, three from Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine
+from &#352;ibenik and four from Benkovac.... On the
+populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected with
+the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant;
+here the Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still,
+bare-headed, when they passed; they would not allow
+anyone to leave the island, and forbade the peasants to
+speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba (Selve)
+the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
+seventy-five, called Lovrovi&#263;, were imprisoned. The latter
+had told his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to
+behave well during Lent and keep away from the Italian
+sailors. He was thereupon shipped to Zadar and thrust
+into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
+nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After
+having seen at Zadar a number of persons belonging to
+each party, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Boxich.
+It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin, highly-strung
+Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
+party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards
+the Slavs. If, he said, their peasants lacked education,
+one ought to assist them; not to do so was a sin against
+humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of his party,
+both before and during the War, to work openly against
+the Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian
+party, of Ziliotto, which feigned to be very pro-Austrian.
+While Ziliotto was receiving high Austrian decorations,
+he was an object of persecution, and was obliged to go
+away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto,
+he said, was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly
+deceived and betrayed Italy&mdash;so many of those who now
+called themselves good Italians had been very good
+Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
+Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+Ziliotto's party, with no idea of the world or of freedom.
+In fact, I thought that if a Yugoslav had listened to the
+doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked a recent
+lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral
+Millo that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was
+alleged by the Yugoslavs to have committed various dark
+deeds in connection with a hunt for hidden arms. The
+Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased with
+Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I
+am isolated, and I am proud of it. This is not the time
+to found a party of ideas; the atmosphere is too morbid,
+too passionate. This is the time," he said, "for an
+honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home." ...
+Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a
+Zagreb newspaper, the <i>Rije&#263; S.H.S.</i>, that Dr. Boxich,
+on account of having&mdash;exceptionally, the paper said&mdash;spoken
+the truth to a passing foreigner, had been deported
+to Italy.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A VISIT TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to be at Split without meeting
+people who had fled from the occupied islands. It was
+also, in consequence of what they told one, impossible
+to set out with an unprejudiced mind. But, after all,
+we have our preconceived ideas on Heaven and Hell, and
+that will be no reason for us not to go there. I had
+become acquainted at Split with Captain Pommerol, of the
+British Army, a Mauritian of imposing physique and, as
+I was to see, of a lofty sense of justice. He had recently
+been spending several months in Hungary on a mission
+from the War Office. They had now dispatched him to
+Dalmatia and Bosnia with a very comprehensive programme;
+and, as I secured a little steamer, he came
+with me to the islands. [We hesitated to embark on this
+expedition, since the islanders whose national desires had
+been choked for so many months would probably display
+their sentiments in such a way as to bring down grave
+penalties upon themselves. But the Yugoslavs, both on
+the mainland and on the islands, were anxious that we
+should go; they doubted whether Western Europe had
+any knowledge of the Italian methods of administration.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+And if the immediate result of our journey would be to
+call down upon themselves&mdash;as indeed it did&mdash;a savage
+wind, they were optimistic enough to feel that it would
+eventually produce a whirlwind for their oppressors.] ...
+The <small>s.s.</small> <i>Porer</i>, 130 tons, was flying at the stern the
+temporary flag of white, blue, white in horizontal stripes
+which had been invented for the ships of the former
+Austro-Hungarian mercantile marine; on the second
+mast they displayed the flag of one of the Allies, and the
+<i>Porer</i> happened to be sailing under the red ensign. She
+had a Dalmatian crew of eight, including the weather-beaten
+old captain and the still older and equally benevolent
+gentleman who combined the functions of cook and
+steward. In addition to Serbo-Croat, they had among
+them some knowledge of Italian, German and even
+English. The scholar was the mate who, having had
+his headquarters at Pola during the War, spoke Viennese-German.
+His wife had died at Split after an illness of
+several months, brought on by the idea that her husband
+had been killed at Pola in an air-raid.</p>
+
+<p>The large, rather waterless island of Bra&#263;, which is
+nearest to the mainland, seems to be chiefly remarkable
+on account of its chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder
+is produced; and the number of changes, no less
+than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the island
+from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress
+of Vienna. During that period it was sometimes
+under the Byzantines, sometimes the Venetians, the Holy
+Roman Empire, its own autonomous Government, the
+Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one
+year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied
+by Italy after the end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did
+not ask for it when he was negotiating, before the War,
+with Austria.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT
+NOT DURING, THE WAR</p>
+
+<p>The Italian Government put forward the question of
+the islands for the first time in April 11, 1915. There had
+been no previous discussion, passionate or otherwise, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But now they
+demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which
+were Hvar, Kor&#269;ula and Vis, with a total population (in
+1910) of 57,954. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador
+reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April 14, p. 133)
+that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince
+B&uuml;low with respect to these islands had been extremely
+animated, and that Sonnino had pointed out that the
+Navy and the whole country expected of him that he
+would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic,
+where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable
+harbour, that is to say serviceable war-harbour. And
+Sonnino added that he thought this was an opportune
+moment in which to rectify that state of things. On
+April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides
+drawing the Italians' attention to the nationality of the
+islanders&mdash;1&middot;62 per cent. calling themselves Italian&mdash;pointed
+out that not only would there no longer be any
+question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if
+Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent
+coast would always be threatened. On May 4, the
+Ambassador asked whether an arrangement with Italy
+would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to every one
+of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the
+value of these islands was in Austrian eyes. When
+Sonnino did not reply to this question, the Ambassador
+understood that Italy's participation in the War had been
+determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government
+made up its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its
+proximity to the Italian coast." As a matter of fact it
+lies 42 miles from Vis and 33 miles from the nearest point
+in Apulia. As a strategic base this group of rocks would
+have no value, since the water is too deep for the construction
+of a harbour, and the sirocco rages with such
+ferocity that it flings the foam over the top of the lighthouse,
+which is 360 feet in height. This inhospitable place,
+with its population of 13 human beings, some sheep and
+goats, was inhabited in prehistoric days; when the excavations
+were being made for the lighthouse a variety
+of implements from the Stone Age were discovered, including
+a stone arrow that was found between the ribs
+of a skeleton.... But the Austrian Ambassador let it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+be known at the same time that he would be prepared
+to make a further friendly examination of the Italian
+demands with reference to the other islands. His Government
+also on May 15 (Red Book, No. 185, p. 181) announced
+that they were quite disposed to reopen the
+discussion. However, on the 23rd of the month, Italy
+came into the War. The Italians had been explaining that
+if only Austria would give up these islands&mdash;which was
+as if you were to invite a person whose designs you suspected
+to come and camp in the hall of your house&mdash;then,
+said the Italians, there would be an excellent prospect of
+permanently amicable relations between the two States.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">OUR WELCOME TO JEL&#352;A</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the War was over, Italy disembarked on
+the islands which she had obtained by the Treaty of
+London. Something has been said on previous pages
+of the way in which she introduced herself and made
+herself at home. As we were sailing towards the pretty
+town of Jel&#353;a (Gelsa) on the island of Hvar, we left
+Vrbo&#353;ka on our right. The Bishop of Split had told me of
+a grievance which the Italian troops at that place had
+lodged with his brother, the mayor. Some of them had
+visited, for the f&ecirc;tes of carnival, both the Yugoslav Club,
+where they found many persons who could speak Italian,
+and the Italian Club, where they were annoyed to find
+that it was spoken by very few. As we came into the
+little port of Jel&#353;a, with the green shutters of its white
+houses harmonizing with the foliage of the cypresses and
+oleanders, we could see a crowd of people running round&mdash;and
+carabinieri running with them&mdash;to that part of
+the harbour where we were unexpectedly going to stop.
+There was some confusion, the carabinieri pushing the
+people back, evidently to prevent them shaking hands
+with us; and one small boy who did not hear or did not
+understand what they were shouting received a terrific
+blow in the back from the fist of a furious Italian. Some
+cries were raised in honour of Yugoslavia, Wilson, France
+and England, which may have been imprudent; but
+when a place in which there is not one single Italian has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+been held down for months, has been forbidden to show
+the slightest joy on account of the birth of Yugoslavia,
+has been savagely punished for having a copy of a Yugoslav
+newspaper, has repeatedly been cursed and cuffed and
+ordered, at the bayonet's point, to execute some wish of the
+carabinieri&mdash;one cannot be astonished if in the presence of
+some non-Italian foreigners they could no longer repress
+their feelings. Some of the people had brought flowers
+with them, and as Pommerol and I plunged into the whirlpool
+and made our way towards the Italian commander's
+office, we had many flowers either thrust into our hands
+while the carabinieri were looking the other way or else
+we had them thrown at us, in which case some of them
+would usually descend upon the shoulders or the three-cornered
+hats of the carabinieri. Whenever anybody
+uttered one of the forbidden exclamations one or more of
+the carabinieri would fling themselves into the crowd and
+attempt, with the help of vigorous kicking, to reach the
+culprit. Thus, in the midst of a series of scrimmages, we
+got to the captain's quarters. We found him a very pleasant
+young man, keenly conscious of the difficulties of his
+position; as we afterwards heard, he was such an improvement
+on his predecessor that the carabinieri were convinced
+he was a Yugoslav and had been heard to mutter
+threats against his life. He had apologized to the inhabitants,
+and had dismissed one of his men who had hauled
+down a Yugoslav flag and blown his nose on it. For these
+men an extenuating circumstance was that they had
+been very drunk on the night before our arrival, as they
+had heard&mdash;it was in the first half of June 1919&mdash;that the
+islands had been definitely given to Italy, and this they
+had been celebrating. We knew that after an American
+and an Englishman had visited Jel&#353;a, in the time of the
+other commandant, some of the people were interned;
+the young captain assured us that he would do no such
+thing. And one could see that he would never imitate
+the brutality of his predecessor, who had caused a frail
+old man of sixty-six, Professor Zari&#263;, to be pulled out
+of his bed in the middle of a winter's night and taken
+across the hills on a donkey to Starigrad, afterwards on a
+destroyer to Split, from where&mdash;but for the intervention
+of the American Admiral&mdash;he would have been deported<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+to Italy; and all on account of his having written, in
+English and French, a scientific ethnographical treatise on
+the islands.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">PROCEEDINGS AT STARIGRAD</p>
+
+<p>At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts
+looked like the scene of an opera, with an opening
+chorus of carabinieri. They were posted at various
+tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them
+advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to
+the office of the Commandant, a major who must have
+played a very modest part in the War, as I believe he only
+had three rows of ribbons.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> He gave us some vermouth
+and informed us that the population was very quiet, very
+happy. When I said that I would like to see the mayor
+he sent an orderly, and in less than one minute his worship
+stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the
+major had said with regard to the population. In fact
+the picture which he drew brought back to memory the
+comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an
+American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that
+she lived at a place called Knoxville or Coxville in the
+States, replied "How nice!" The good Italians, quoth
+the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives,
+and with the exception of the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i> they all
+wished for union with Italy. I asked him if he did not
+think that, looking at it from the economic point of view,
+there would be some difficulties when the island's exports&mdash;wine
+and oil and fish&mdash;would have to compete with the
+products of Italy. But he said that one must think of
+the other benefits&mdash;no longer would the island have to
+bear the hated Austrian. It was all the fault of Austria,
+he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad municipality
+had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their
+school and their orchestra. But now it would all be
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>changed. He was clearly a product of the new dispensation;
+and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an
+Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else
+did this gentleman tell me, which was a pity, as in a
+message, presumably sent by him, to an Italian newspaper,
+<i>La Dalmazia</i>,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> of Zadar, it was stated that in this
+conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local
+questions.... Then we all stood up and the major said
+that he would accompany us down to the boat. I told
+him that I would join him there after I had seen some
+Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away
+with him while I went round the ancient little town&mdash;it
+even has some Cyclop&aelig;an walls&mdash;with certain Yugoslavs,
+two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out
+to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently
+taken a less active form than that of his successor, for he
+had only been an Austrian subject, while the actual mayor&mdash;Dr.
+Tama&#353;kovi&#263;&mdash;had served, until the end of the War,
+in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the
+events of 1885, they told me that this was the time when
+the Croatian national consciousness awoke, so that an
+insufficient number of people had remained either to support
+an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the
+number of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600),
+and might increase if ice-creams were handed round in
+all the schools. One of my companions happened to live
+in the house of Hektorovi&#263;, the sixteenth-century poet,
+and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful
+garden with its palms and shady paths and bathing tank,
+like that one in the Alcazar at Seville. Then we went
+on to the harbour where a number of the people were
+collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of
+military and naval officers and civilians, these latter being
+partly visitors from Istria and Zadar. Suddenly a woman,
+standing near me, threw her head back and cried: "Viva
+Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled
+her efforts. I should say that about thirty people were
+gathered round the major, shouting for Italy, and he was
+obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of
+persons who had different sentiments began to shout for
+Wilson, Yugoslavia and so forth. The carabinieri rushed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs. Politeo, who
+was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and
+trampled on. The lawyers and the doctor with whom
+I had been walking were all three struck over the head
+or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (<i>La
+Dalmazia</i> wrote that I had been filling their heads with
+idle tales.) Children were screaming. I saw another
+woman, hatless, being dragged off by a couple of carabinieri&mdash;and
+a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly
+ordered them to let her go&mdash;and they obeyed reluctantly.
+Four Dominican monks were next attacked&mdash;they had
+not taken part in the demonstration; it was enough for
+the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party.
+One of them, Father Rabadan&mdash;an elderly gentleman
+with gold spectacles&mdash;was thrown down, struck until his
+face was covered with blood, and then dragged off to
+prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers&mdash;one
+of these I saw in the act of loading his rifle&mdash;and the
+noise was tremendous. Here one would see a Yugoslav
+trying to tell one of the warriors that he had done nothing;
+then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey:
+one or two of the officers looked awkward&mdash;one or two
+actually looked exultant. As we steamed out of the
+harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were running
+along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over
+the stone walls&mdash;apparently it was a man-hunt. <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads '(&#34;There'">"There</ins>
+are places in Dalmatia," Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier,
+had been saying in the <i>Temps</i>,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> "where
+Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that
+in those circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization
+should prevail. Italy in her relations with other races
+has continued the traditions of ancient Rome.... It is
+their palpitating desire [<i>i.e.</i> that of Fiume, Sebenico, Zara,
+Tra&ugrave;, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of
+Italy." And on the next day a telegram was sent to
+Split from the unoccupied island of Bra&#263;, giving the
+names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and the
+name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father
+Rabadan and continued: "The carabinieri are still
+looking for Yugoslavs. On the occasion of the arrestment
+of the clerk Nikola Pavi&#269;i&#263;, the musket of an ardito went
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavi&#269;i&#263;. Great
+terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later
+message, to the newspaper <i>Jadran</i> at Split, said that
+twenty-eight persons had been arrested and imprisoned
+in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the
+neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated,
+and for the first day being given nothing to eat. Everyone
+felt surprise that among the arrested was a certain
+Mr. Vladimir Vrankovi&#263;, as he was one of those who had
+betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this
+clumsiness on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and,
+by command of Major Penatta, he was released. All
+those who could get away from Starigrad were taking
+refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking
+for the intervention of the Entente, as the people's life
+was being made intolerable, and for the reason that they
+would not trample under foot everything which they
+regard as holy. But, according to <i>La Dalmazia</i>, the
+indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference
+a vibrating telegram, which begged for immediate annexation
+to Italy, and protested against those who in an
+unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's
+beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled
+at Zadar and condemned to terms that varied
+from four to eight months&mdash;seven of the accused, including
+Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving
+the severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian
+population dispatched, later on, a telegram of thanks to
+the Paris Conference for having ordered Yugoslavia to
+guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be
+left in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial
+interests in Dalmatia; while the half million
+Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to annex were
+not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It
+would be ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great,
+Liberal Power.</p>
+
+<p>After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching
+Hvar, the capital of the island, that our further progress
+was impeded. The pale Commandant of sinister aspect,
+this time a naval officer, Lieut. Vincenzo Villa, showed us
+a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at Kor&#269;ula, which said
+that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little
+difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities,
+which he visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in
+the morning our cook, who went ashore to see what he
+could buy, was immediately arrested by the carabinieri,
+who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi
+citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the
+citizens of Rome were at loggerheads with the Vatican,
+arrested and disarmed all those adherents of the Papacy
+who showed their noses outside the Vatican's portals.
+Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant,
+who allowed him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri.
+After that we returned to Split, and from there
+to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.</p>
+
+<p>One would like to know what the Admiral would have
+said if this interview had taken place a few months later
+when, in alliance with Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in
+open, armed revolt against the Government of Italy.
+The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the
+Kingdom, had not begun as yet to make that series of
+buccaneering speeches, and he courteously told us, more
+than once, that he could permit of nothing which would
+outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we
+went back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable
+scenes; in fact he could not let us go without an
+order from his Government. "These islands," he said,
+"are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you know,
+in the name of the Entente and the United States. You
+have the right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately,
+if you do, the population will give way, as they have done
+already, to excesses." Since the last thing that we wished
+was for the islanders to bring us flowers and cheer the
+name of Wilson&mdash;in view of what these crimes entailed&mdash;we
+suggested that a small number, four or five of each
+party&mdash;those who desired to be with Yugoslavia and
+those who preferred Italy&mdash;should in succession come
+to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
+if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged
+argument the Admiral agreed to this plan. We
+returned to Hvar.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR</p>
+
+<p>The subordinate Admiral, from Kor&#269;ula, had come
+across on a destroyer and was kind enough to tell us at
+considerable length what were his views on local and
+international affairs. He frankly appealed to us&mdash;and
+his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness&mdash;to
+survey the whole matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion.
+But we were less ambitious; we desired merely to be the
+mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first came on
+board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be
+considered unfair if I employ this word rather than
+"Italians" for a body of men, most of whom are admittedly
+devoid of any Italian blood and whose Italian
+sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers
+9 per cent. of the population of the town. Their chief
+point seemed to be that the Church was opposed to them,
+because there was no room for clericalism in Italy (!);
+and the only other point worth mentioning was that
+Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had
+played havoc with their vines. Among the Yugoslavs
+who succeeded these gentlemen there was an elderly
+priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri&mdash;no
+doubt in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken
+herself free from clerical obscurantism&mdash;entered the
+church while the bishop was officiating, and hoisted on the
+roof an Italian flag. This canon, Dom Ivo Bojani&#263;,
+could scarcely be blamed if the Italian innovations did
+not appeal to him. He chanced to be looking out of his
+window on a moonlit night and noticed that an agile
+policeman was climbing up to his balcony for the purpose
+of decorating it with an Italian flag. The old gentleman
+protested, and was thereupon taken to the barracks,
+where he remained for one day. The Yugoslavs told
+us that the state of things was worse than in Africa&mdash;but
+that was a figure of speech; the facts were that the
+different societies and clubs had been closed, that all
+persons going down to the harbour had been forbidden to
+speak their own language to their friends on board ship,
+that three Croat teachers had fled to escape being interned,
+while an Italian soldier who did not know a word
+of Croatian had been appointed in their place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">FOUR MEN OF KOMI&#381;A</p>
+
+<p>When we departed from Hvar the Admiral sent his
+destroyer to accompany us on our tour. She had on
+board a Roman journalist, Signor Roberto Buonfiglio,
+who was travelling in Dalmatia and the islands on behalf
+of the clerical <i>Corriere d'Italia</i>. The situation at Vis,
+the historic palm-shaded capital of the island of the same
+name, has already been described. The Italian Commandant,
+Sportiello, was a tactful and popular person;
+moreover the Yugoslavs were on the best of terms with
+Dr. Doimi, the head of one of the very rare Italian families.
+At Komi&#382;a, the other little town on that island, the relations
+between Yugoslavs and Italianists were not so
+cordial. But the deputation which represented the latter
+party comprised one man whom the Austrians had put in
+gaol for several years for forgery; a father and son, of
+whom the one had sold himself for the sake of rice, while
+the other had also been imprisoned by the Austrians for
+uttering false documents; the fourth and most innocent
+member&mdash;his name happened to be Innocent Buliani&mdash;had
+nothing to conceal except his fickleness, for in a
+short period he had called himself an Austrian, a Yugoslav
+and an Italian. None of these four was a native of the
+place, whereas the Yugoslavs who came to see us were
+natives who had risen to be the chief doctor, lawyer,
+priest and merchant. One of the Italianists, Antonio
+Spadoni, told us that the people were afraid of expressing
+their real wishes for union with Italy. This hypothesis
+might seem to demand some elucidation, but Signor
+Spadoni insisted on passing on to the "Workers' Society,"
+which the young Commandant had founded for the
+purpose, according to Spadoni, of helping the people to
+find work and of looking after their interests. We were
+subsequently told by the Yugoslavs that the Commandant
+himself called the members his "Rice Italians," for many
+of them did not speak the language and did not even
+sympathize with Italy. But on joining they had committed
+themselves to something that was printed at the
+top of the paper, which part had been turned over. It
+really doesn't sound very worthy of a Great Power.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+When some of the members, discovering to what they
+were committed, sent in their resignation, it was refused.
+At Komi&#382;a all the municipal officers had been discharged
+by the Italians, the reading-rooms and places of amusement
+had been closed, and the Food Administrator at
+Split was forbidden to send any food, lest he should interfere
+with the Italians' object in distributing rice, etc.
+Once he was permitted to forward some American flour,
+and the people had to pay forty crowns of duty on each
+hundredweight.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE WOMEN OF BI&#352;EVO</p>
+
+<p>From Komi&#382;a, the next morning, we steamed over on
+the destroyer to the wonderful blue grotto of Bi&#353;evo (or
+Busi), which surpasses Capri. An Austrian Archduke,
+we were told, had once waited a week at Komi&#382;a, but had
+been compelled to leave without seeing the cave. We
+were more fortunate&mdash;the wind, the water and the sun
+were kind to us; we entered in a rowing-boat the little
+pearl-grey Gothic chapel which Nature has constructed
+underneath a hill, and as we gazed into the blue-green
+waters, through which from the rocks below a fountain
+of most brilliant blue was rising, every time an oar was
+dipped the waters painted it a silvery white. The population
+of Bi&#353;evo consists of about 150 people, who mostly
+live around the little church of Saint Sylvester, two hundred
+feet above the sea. They occupy themselves with sheep
+and fruit and bees and fish, and with the vines that are
+even more famous than those of Vis. A good part of
+the population had assembled on a grassy platform high
+above the entrance to the cave, and as we climbed out of
+the rowing-boat on to the destroyer a much larger rowing-boat
+came round a promontory. Sixteen women formed
+the crew. They sang their national Croatian songs, and
+when they approached us some of them stood up and,
+while the wind played with their straw-coloured and
+golden hair, they laughingly threw flowers at us. As we
+left Bi&#353;evo the men and women high above us and the
+women in the boat were waving their hands; some of
+them were singing, others were shouting a farewell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+Here and there on the sunlit waters, rising and falling,
+were the flowers which had woven on the sea a gorgeous
+carpet. "Well," said the lieutenant-commander, "I
+admit that this is a Yugoslav island."</p>
+
+<p>I forget whether Signor Buonfiglio made any remark,
+but a few hours later at Velaluka he was most incensed.
+As our boat&mdash;we had returned to the old <i>Porer</i> at
+Komi&#382;a&mdash;sailed into the harbour a huge Yugoslav flag
+was flying from the summit of a hill, with French, British
+and American flags around it. The destroyer had arrived
+before us and the burly journalist was striding up and
+down the quay. "I protest," he exclaimed, as he saw
+us, "and not as a journalist but as an Italian citizen!
+I protest!" Between us and the front row of houses,
+which included the town-major's office, there was a large
+empty space&mdash;the inhabitants could be descried up the
+side-streets and behind the windows. De Michaelis,
+the town-major, was evidently a superior young man;
+as he poured out the champagne he told us with perfect
+frankness that the educated people at Velaluka were
+Yugoslavs. Suddenly there was a terrific noise just
+underneath us. We hurried downstairs and found that
+the soldiers in their excitement had fired off a machine
+gun into the wall. Half an hour later the firing could be
+heard from the top of the hill, but we never ascertained
+whether anyone was wounded. In this place the
+Italianist party sent to us an ex-publican who had now
+joined the police, a small trader and a municipal clerk
+who had recently been imported from Zadar. The
+Yugoslavs were a large landowner, a doctor and a priest,
+who told us that the people for the most part were refusing
+to accept gratuitous food from the Italians.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ON THE WAY TO BLATO</p>
+
+<p>We were anxious to visit Blato, an inland village of
+8000 inhabitants. De Michaelis regretted very much that
+he had no carriage, but a Yugoslav had a quaint little
+car on which he was learning how to drive and he was
+kind enough to take us&mdash;for which he was afterwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+deported to Italy. The good man made so much noise
+in changing his gears that our progress was advertised in
+the uttermost fields, and very few of those who bore
+down upon us came unprovided with flowers. Several
+of the bouquets hit Pommerol or myself in the eye, and
+the Dutch say that the best cause has need of a good
+pleader. But the people were so gay, waving their hats
+and running after us (they did not always have to run)
+and shouting for the various Allies and for President
+Wilson. I remember two small round-eyed boys who
+were not old enough to run; they were standing hand in
+hand by the side of the road, panting the magic word
+"Wilson! Wilson! Wilson!" There was a sudden
+contrast when we jerked into the village. People were
+not rushing towards us, but away from us&mdash;with furious
+carabinieri behind them. We got into the garden in
+front of the <i>gendarmerie</i>; one of the men was so enraged
+that he kept on muttering "Bestia! Bestia! Bestia!"
+In the Commandant's office we met Major Federico
+Verdinois, the town-major, who said that if he had only
+known of our coming this wretched scuffle would not have
+happened. Even as he spoke it started again; we leaned
+out of the window and saw two or three persons who were
+being prevented by soldiers from going down the street
+or from going anywhere. An officer was slashing with
+a riding-whip at a soldier who was particularly rough.
+"One can do nothing with the marines; they are brutal,"
+said Major Verdinois. At last there was peace, and the
+major said that an Italian deputation would come to see
+us. It consisted of six individuals. The Austro-Hungarian
+census of 1910 said that the Blato district contained
+13,147 Serbo-Croats, 3 Germans and 6 Italians; but these
+six were not all in the deputation, for two of its members
+had come from Hvar, one from Zadar, two were ex-Austrian
+spies and one was a Yugoslav, who hoped in
+this way to help his people. One gentleman deplored
+that he had not been told about our journey; had he
+known he would have told his peasants to appear. Another
+gentleman assured us that the peasants were afraid of
+declaring their real wishes. Of course a country whose
+friends call it the most liberal in the world could not
+allow such a state of things to continue, and a short time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+after this the following Order was issued by the staff of
+the 66th Division of Infantry:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+No. 46. Confidential&mdash; <span class="smcap" style="padding-left: 4em">Very Urgent.</span><br />
+<span style="padding-left: 4em">Personal.</span>
+<span style="float: right; padding-right: 1.5em;"><i>June</i> 23, 1919.</span><br style="clear: both" /></p>
+
+<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">To the Commanders at Benkovac, Obrovac,<br />
+Novigrad, Ervenik, Kistanje, Skradin,<br />
+Biograd, Nin, Gjeverske, Suko&#353;an And<br />
+Karin.</span></p>
+
+<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">To the Command of the Royal Divisions.</span></p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to bring about, with no delay and very
+discreetly, the dispatch of messages to the Prime Minister
+Nitti and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tittoni from
+the mayor, from societies, etc., of this garrison, expressing
+the people's keen desire to be annexed to Italy.</p>
+
+<p>A copy of said telegram should be transmitted to me.</p>
+
+<table summary="signature">
+<tr><td style="padding-right: 10em"><span class="smcap">The Major:</span><br /> <span class="smcap" style="padding-left: 6em">Foresi.</span></td><td><span class="smcap">The Major-General:</span><br /> <span class="smcap" style="padding-left: 8em">Squillace.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>To return to the events at Blato&mdash;while we were
+waiting for the Yugoslavs a woman made her way as far
+as the corridor, flung herself down on her knees and
+entreated us to protect her. Major Verdinois gave us his
+word of honour that no Yugoslav with whom we spoke
+would, for that reason, be arrested. Perhaps he was
+overruled by his superior officers&mdash;at all events he arrested
+and deported to Italy, in the night of June 19, no less than
+ten persons, that is, all the Yugoslavs who spoke to us at
+Blato, with two exceptions. [We cabled this to the Paris
+Conference, and after some delay the unfortunate men
+were repatriated.]</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHAT THE MAJOR SAID</p>
+
+<p>For what happened before our arrival I am indebted
+to the chemist Radimiri, from whose report the following
+is an extract: "At ten in the morning Major Verdinois
+had summoned to his office the communal doctor, Moretti,
+and the secretary, Draguni&#263;, both of them Yugoslavs.
+He told them that two Englishmen who were cruising
+about in the <i>Porer</i> would very likely be coming up that
+afternoon to Blato and he would permit no sort of demonstration.
+The doctor, he said, would be held responsible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+for any disorder; and as Moretti was about to make this
+known to the people, who were just coming out of church,
+the Italian adjutant approached him with a paper and
+ordered him to read it to the Yugoslavs. This document&mdash;it
+has been preserved&mdash;is in the Serbo-Croat language
+and was given to the doctor because the adjutant, who
+did not know the language, mistook it for another one.
+<ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'If was'">It was</ins> an exhortation to the people, urging them to
+have nothing more to do with the Yugoslav <i>intelligentsia</i>,
+which had made a great deal of money during the War.
+'And you have given your blood for four and a half years
+and what has been your benefit?' Dr. Moretti made a
+personal appeal for the maintenance of order, and the
+people, having called out 'Long live Wilson!' went their
+divers ways in peace. Nevertheless three platoons
+appeared, each with one officer and one N.C.O. The
+adjutant's platoon distinguished itself, for while the
+arditi attacked anyone they saw, including women and
+children, with the butt end of their muskets, Lieut.
+Giovanoni laid about him with a dog-whip. Several of
+the soldiers made for a group of four young fellows;
+three of them escaped and the fourth, Peter Kraljevi&#263;,
+was struck with a rifle so severely across the face that he
+was bathed in blood. As he tried to defend himself he
+was shot at from a distance of three paces: one bullet
+went through his nose, another wounded him in the
+forehead. He fell to the ground, and a teacher, Mrs.
+Maria Grubisi&#263;, who had witnessed the whole incident,
+sank down unconscious at his side and was covered with
+his blood. Various other people were injured&mdash;three
+little girls received rifle shots in their bodies. All the
+main streets were shut off and eight machine guns were
+placed in readiness. But the people were not to be
+intimidated, and when the Englishmen arrived their
+national consciousness was displayed. As a result Peter
+&#268;arap was knocked unconscious with a mighty blow of
+a musket, the fourteen-year-old Joseph Sule&#382;i&#263; had a
+similar experience, and among many others who were
+assaulted we will only mention an ex-official, Anthony
+Pi&#382;tuli&#263;, a man of sixty, who was struck twice with a
+rifle on his stomach and then prevented from going home
+but chased out into the fields.... It seemed as if it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+would be impossible for our people to have a conversation
+with the Englishmen, but at last twenty men and twelve
+girls managed to reach that house...."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE PROTEST OF AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST</p>
+
+<p>I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from
+this island&mdash;it appeared in the <i>Corriere d'Italia</i> of June 16&mdash;but
+more than three-quarters of it is devoted to an account
+of some Dalmatian delegates who were received, during
+the War, by Francis Joseph and expressed their loyalty.
+The deputation was introduced by Dr. Iv&#269;evi&#263;, a Croat;
+and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from this
+how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will
+have to give some other explanation for the very loyal
+speeches of his countryman, Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But
+I presume that his editor did not send Signor Buonfiglio
+on this journey to the end that he should write of what
+official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for
+the incidents we witnessed and the islanders' aspirations,
+he merely says that their welcome to us was an artificial
+affair which the Yugoslav committees, with extreme
+effort, had organized&mdash;and I don't think that that is a
+very illuminating observation.</p>
+
+<p>We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians
+dissolved the town council, on account of its incapacity
+to do the work. However, a military man to whom it was
+handed over gave his opinion that he had never seen a
+better administration.... Out of all that we were told,
+I will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were
+playing football, and when they kicked the ball into a
+maize-field and continued to play amid the maize, the
+farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty
+men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and
+when finally the major commanded them to stop, they
+dragged them to the barracks and thrashed them so that
+the people in adjacent houses heard them all the night.</p>
+
+<p>On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where
+the <i>Porer</i> was waiting for us, we had a repetition of the
+scenes enacted between Velaluka and Blato; and a
+number of young men, heedless of the risks they ran,
+rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as
+our escorting destroyer. We therefore had to leave without
+delay, lest the young patriots should come into contact
+with the carabinieri. So very hastily and in a very
+illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on
+November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of
+Velaluka: "We Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka
+as the friends of Yugoslavia and of the Entente.
+We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such I
+ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together
+with that of Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent
+we will keep it there until the question of the general
+peace is definitely arranged, according to your and our
+... according to the principles of ..." The two
+missing words are illegible.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">INTERESTING DELEGATES</p>
+
+<p>Lying off Kor&#269;ula, that evening, we received the usual
+delegates. One of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a
+trembling, tearful voice that the Italians were far too good.
+And while we were hearing from one of his colleagues
+what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr.
+Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come!
+I wish I had not come!" He considered that it was
+outrageous of us to allude to plebiscites. The Yugoslavs
+did not tell us anything very thrilling; the Italian
+authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian,
+of which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity
+that this is not their most serious fault! A barrister
+called Dr. Pero Cvili&#269;evi&#263; came, with a companion, to
+see us the next day, before breakfast. He said that they,
+like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and
+his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was,
+he said, a righteous, though rather a small party, as
+the island had been gravely handicapped by the support
+which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he added&mdash;it
+seemed a trifle illogical&mdash;"the people are all very contented.
+Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered
+the information that the law was being administered
+in the name of the Entente and the United States.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we
+asked him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets
+were being applied under the same sanction.... When
+we paid our formal visit to the Commandant at his office
+on the quay he did not ask if we would care to go to one
+of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made
+a speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken
+to a school at Kor&#269;ula, how the mistress had allowed
+him to ask the children if they knew Italian, how they
+had raised their hands, and how this had convinced him
+that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that
+journalist had not been told that prior to the War this
+town of some 2000 inhabitants was provided with five
+schools in which not a single child spoke Italian, and
+with one school subsidized by the Liga Nazionale which&mdash;as
+in Albania&mdash;lured its pupils by gifts of clothing,
+books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not
+a word of Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of
+Italian. But not very much harm was done, as the
+population considered it shameful to attend this school,
+and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than
+thirty pupils, even when money was paid to the parents.
+This institution was reopened by the Italian army after
+the War, and presumably it is the one which the American
+visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress,
+forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat
+that a gentleman would come and say something
+in Italian, whereupon they would hold up their hands.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR EVANS</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these
+months, had not been solved but on the contrary had been
+allowed to spread its poison more and more, one naturally
+wonders what was being done in Paris. The Conference
+was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the
+Armistice, the famous ethnologist and arch&aelig;ologist Sir
+Arthur Evans. This gentleman, whose distinctions are
+too numerous to mention (Fellow of Brasenose; twice
+President of the British Association; Keeper during
+twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+D.Litt.; LL.D.; F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many
+years devoted himself to the eastern Adriatic&mdash;the second
+edition of his <i>Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot</i>
+appeared in 1877, his <i>Illyrian Letters</i> in 1878, his <i>Slavs
+and European Civilization</i> in the same year. He never
+ceased from that time onward to study these matters.
+"I think," he says in a letter to me from Youlbury, near
+Oxford, of which he kindly permits me to make any use
+I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak
+on the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman,
+as Dalmatia was my headquarters for some years. Neither
+did I approach the question with any anti-Italian prejudices.
+I was so far recognized as a competent and
+moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal
+Geographical Society to give them a paper on the subject....
+Anxious, with others friendly to both sides, to secure
+an equitable agreement between the Italians and Yugoslavs,
+I took part in a series of private conferences in
+London which led to a preliminary Agreement forming
+the basis on which the Congress at Rome approached the
+question. There the Agreement was ratified and publicly
+approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try
+to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the
+Armistice, as it happened) there was to have been a new
+Congress of Nationalities at Paris, which I was asked
+to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as matters
+were thought too critical, owing to the submission of
+Bulgaria. But I thought it would be useful if I went to
+Paris all the same, and I obtained from the Foreign
+Office, War Office, etc., a passport vis&eacute;d 'British War
+Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice
+was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure
+of Mr. Steed and Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally
+no one among our countrymen at Paris who knew the
+intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the relations of
+Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian
+difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked
+me to be his go-between, and I had an immense lot of
+work thrown on my shoulders. I had gone to the expense
+of taking a large salon at the Hotel Continental, where I
+had private Conferences&mdash;the Yugoslav and Roumanian
+leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+question, and the conciliatory proposals made no doubt
+furthered the final solution, with which they harmonized.
+When there was a serious danger of a clash between the
+Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing
+the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations
+to Lord D., which he forwarded to Balfour,
+that immediate pressure was exercised at Rome, and the
+Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to
+convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to
+let our Ambassador have a short pr&eacute;cis almost daily of
+affairs connected with those regions.... With great
+trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav representatives to
+agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the neutralization
+of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken
+up by the Americans&mdash;Colonel House inviting me to
+an interview on the subject, in which he expressed his
+approval. A copy was also sent to the F.O., and for
+this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O.
+I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many
+friendly conversations with prominent Italians in Paris,
+and in every way ingeminated agreement between them
+and the Southern Slavs. But, meanwhile, I exposed the
+Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino was
+privy, in the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>. Finally I went, at
+the end of 1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord
+Derby (with whom I always had the friendliest relations)
+giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however, early in
+January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had
+kept on my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my
+way. Italian intrigue had apparently been on foot. I
+was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I told him
+briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered
+or acknowledged my letter, and it was only by
+making urgent personal representations at the F.O.
+that I finally got the answer that they refused me a passport....
+I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue
+but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.'
+And so they blundered on, and to this day"&mdash;the letter
+is dated July 17, 1920&mdash;"nothing is settled on the
+Adriatic but unsettlement."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile at intervals during this year there had
+been troubles in Montenegro. On three occasions the
+Italians at Antivari had endeavoured to extend their
+sphere of influence, but the armed civilian population
+had been equal to these emergencies and had each time
+thrust them back to the coast. At Gaeta, between Rome
+and Naples, a very well-paid corps was stationed&mdash;almost
+every man was either a commissioned or a non-commissioned
+officer. The Italian Government was
+asked by Signor Lazari, the Socialist deputy, for what
+purpose it allocated 300,000 lire a month to support these
+peculiar troops. They were mostly Montenegrins&mdash;relatives
+of Nikita, members of the five favoured families,
+persons who were stranded and so forth; likewise at
+Gaeta were a number of other Yugoslavs who had been
+liberated from their Italian internment camps, but many
+of them, when they discovered what was expected of
+them, revolted. Thirty or forty of them managed to
+escape to France, and others to Montenegro, as for
+example the man who for twelve years had been Nikita's
+porter. He and three others reached Cetinje one day in
+August 1920 when I was there. They had with them a
+picture-card of the sixty-nine officers of the Gaeta army.
+Every one knows every one else in Montenegro and only
+two of these officers had held a previous commission.
+According to Nikita's Premier, Jovan Plamenac, the
+Italian Government considered this as the Montenegrin
+army and regarded (rather optimistically) as a loan the
+money it contributed to keep it up. In driblets the non-revolting
+part of this Gaeta army was taken to the eastern
+shores of the Adriatic, for the purpose of making "incidents"
+in Montenegro. There was a regular scale&mdash;so
+much in cash for the murder of a prefect, so much for
+a deputy. One day the father of Andrija Radovi&#263;, a man
+of over seventy, was cut down; they waited until everyone
+had left the village to go to some f&ecirc;te in a neighbouring
+village, and the old man defended himself to
+the last.</p>
+
+<p>These emissaries from Gaeta, misguided Montenegrins,
+other Southern Slavs and Italians, made considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+use of the mischievous speeches that were sometimes
+heard in the British Parliament. They would explain
+to some poor, ignorant mountain-dweller that such great
+people in England were still discussing Nikita's return,
+and if he did return and they had listened to the voice of
+Radovi&#263;, woe be to them. Some of these wretched dupes
+would follow their seducers, who&mdash;I have no doubt&mdash;would
+not only have declined his decorations if they had been
+better informed, but would have placed the matter in the
+hands of their solicitor, as Gabriel Rossetti threatened to
+do if he were ever elected to the Royal Academy. And
+yet, after the character of the scoundrel King was fully
+exposed, his advocates, so far as I know, had not the grace
+to own their error. Of course there was in Montenegro
+a certain amount of uninstigated unrest; the wine of
+politics, which they were now for the first time freely
+quaffing, had gone to their heads&mdash;it was youth against
+age, the students were enthusiastic Democrats, the
+peasants were sturdy Radicals and they did not always
+restrict themselves to dialectical arguments. A certain
+number of people had gone to live "u shumi"&mdash;"in the
+woods." But the reasons that impelled them were not
+so much their devotion to the ex-King, as their own
+criminal past or their poverty. Others again had taken
+to this life for what may be called reasons of "honour."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>
+Among the brigands was a man who was captured on the
+borders of Herzegovina, and before his execution&mdash;he
+had murdered seven people&mdash;he declared that he was a
+patriot and had done all this for the sake of King Nicholas,
+his victims being members of the domineering party.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>But when reminded that one of them was a baby, he
+hung his head and said no more.... There was discontent
+produced by the high cost of living&mdash;as the
+Italians not only held Antivari but even fired on French
+boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana,
+it was necessary to revictual all except the new parts
+of Montenegro from Kotor. The lack of petrol, from
+which even the American Red Cross units were suffering,
+compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons,
+which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it
+was the staff of another mission, calling itself the International
+Red Cross, which was to blame for adding to the
+country's troubles; after they had been installed for a
+month or two at Cetinje the people themselves, and not the
+authorities, turned them out, on the ground that they
+had used the Red Cross to conceal their machinations
+in Nikita's interest. The Yugoslav Government was
+held up to reprobation in the British Parliament and
+press for having hampered more than one British
+mission in the work of relieving the <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Montengrins'">Montenegrins</ins>. The
+resources of these missions appeared to be moderate&mdash;the
+head of one of them had a meeting with Colonels
+Fairclough and Anderson of the American Red Cross
+and suggested that they should provide him with the
+wherewithal for carrying on. But even if their resources
+had been scantier their co-operation would have been
+very welcome if they had satisfied the authorities that
+they were as non-political as the Americans. It was
+curious that those who in the British press ventilated the
+grievances of these missions were the same people who
+championed Nikita.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p><p>The Italians persevered in their man&oelig;uvres&mdash;Nikola
+Kova&#269;evi&#263;, the police commissary of Grahovo, sent in
+the month of May a confidential man of his to the Italian
+General at Dobrota, near Kotor. This man, who speaks
+perfect Italian, told the General that ever since 1916 he
+had haunted the forests as the leader of a band. Fifty
+persons, he said, had attached themselves to him; and he
+had now come in for a supply of arms and money, also for
+instructions. It would be impossible, said he, to endure
+the Serbian troops much longer in the country.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS</p>
+
+<p>"You must hold out for a couple of months longer,"
+said the General. "I can give you no money at present,
+but I can take you on a steamer to San Giovanni, where
+we have a camp of the King's friends; and from there
+you can easily go to Italy."</p>
+
+<p>"I have given my word of honour," said the man,
+"that I will not go without my people. So I must
+first of all go back to ask them."</p>
+
+<p>"In a military way," said the General, "the Serbs can
+now do nothing. They had tremendous losses in the
+war; and in two months the King of Montenegro will
+return or else there will be an Italian occupation. Work
+hard, my friend. I want you, in the first place, to set
+houses on fire; then to shoot officers and officials who
+are for Yugoslavia. You should also rob the transports."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon the man returned to Grahovo and soon
+afterwards the French General Thaon, who happened to
+go there, spoke with him for two hours and invited him
+to his headquarters at Kotor.</p>
+
+<p>The disturbances in Montenegro did not cease; a
+country through which you could formerly drive with
+less risk than in Paris, was now infested by outlaws and
+those who pursued them. And Count de Salis, who had
+served as H.B.M.'s Minister at Cetinje, was sent back to
+Montenegro on a mission of inquiry. His report was not
+published, for the reason that he did not beat about the
+bush in his references to the Italians and for the further
+reason that he gave the names of those persons from
+whom he culled his information. This was a fine opportunity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+for the foreign busybodies who were thrusting
+their silly little knives into Yugoslavia. "Count de Salis
+reports clearly and unmistakably," said Mr. Ronald
+M'Neill in the House of Commons, "that in his judgment
+the wish of the Montenegrin people is to retain their
+own sovereign and their own independence." When
+Sir Hamar Greenwood subsequently, speaking for the
+Government, threw out a hint that this was not the case,
+it was amusing to see how the pro-Nikita party lost their
+interest in the report. A certain Mr. Herbert Vivian sent
+from Italy in April 1920 a most ferocious indictment
+against the Serbs in Montenegro to a London paper called
+the <i>British Citizen</i>. He said that the Countess de Salis,
+while at Cetinje, was in danger of her life. But the lady
+has been dead for many years. I presume this is the
+same Mr. Vivian who in a book, <i>Servia, the Poor Man's
+Paradise</i>, trembles with rage whenever a Serb speaks
+admiringly of Gladstone.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">VARIOUS BRITISH COMMENTATORS</p>
+
+<p>Count de Salis's impartial methods did not always
+please the population, which was by a large majority
+against the former king's return and&mdash;as he clearly
+stated&mdash;heart and soul for Yugoslavia. Balkan people
+do not yet, to any great extent, appreciate your desire
+for truth or even your honesty if you should give a hearing
+to their antagonists. The Cetinje public, therefore,
+organized a demonstration or two against the Count.
+They would have preferred that he should reach the
+afore-mentioned conclusions without such an exhaustive
+study of the case. He noted that there had been certain
+irregularities in the Yugoslav administration, but it was
+inevitable that in those unsettled times the inexperienced
+officials would not prove equal to every emergency.
+These officials, by the way, in 1919 were not Serbs from
+Serbia, but for the most part native Montenegrins.
+"The country is occupied and administered by foreigners,"
+said<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P. "Montenegro," said he,
+"is full of Serb officials." I suppose one must receive
+it more with sorrow than with anger if a man like Mr.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>Massingham of <i>The Nation</i> says that the Serbs "have
+deposed the Montenegrin judges, schoolmasters, doctors,
+chemists and local officials, and set up their own puppets."
+While he might have assumed that the long years of
+War had left the Serbs with a very inadequate supply of
+officials for the old kingdom, he would have ascertained,
+if his sources had been more trustworthy, that Gloma&#382;i&#263;,
+the very human prefect of Cetinje, is a native of Nik&#353;i&#263;,
+that Milo&#353; Ivanovi&#263;, the mayor, is from the Ku&#269;i, near
+Podgorica&mdash;and he was a magistrate under Nikita; that
+Bojovi&#263;, the prefect of Podgorica, is a barrister of the
+Piperi, while Radoni&#263;, the mayor, was an artillery officer,
+then a political prisoner and then the food administrator
+under Nikita; that Jaoukovi&#263;, the prefect of Nik&#353;i&#263;, was
+a magistrate under the old r&eacute;gime&mdash;he comes, I believe,
+from the Mora&#269;a; Zerovi&#263;, the mayor and an ex-magistrate,
+is a native of Nik&#353;i&#263;; that the prefect of Antivari, Dr.
+Goini&#263;, is a doctor of law whose home is between Antivari
+and Virpazar; that Bo&#353;ko Bo&#353;kovi&#263;, the prefect of
+Kola&#269;in, won great fame as an officer under Nikita, while
+Mini&#263;, the mayor, was Nikita's chief of the Custom-house.
+As for the doctors who left the country, these
+consisted of Matanovi&#263; and Vulanovi&#263;, who have gone
+to Novi Sad and Subotica respectively, as it is easier to
+make a living in those towns than in Montenegro. There
+are now three Yugoslav doctors at Cetinje (Odgerovi&#263;,
+Radovi&#263;&mdash;both of whom were doctors in the time of
+Nikita&mdash;and Matanovi&#263;, a young man); they are all
+Montenegrins. So, too, with the chemists and the schoolmasters
+and the post and telegraph officials&mdash;I am sure
+that Mr. Massingham will excuse me if I do not mention
+all their names.</p>
+
+<p>Since there are quite a number of Montenegrins in
+the Serbian administration and army, all the officers
+and men, for example, of the 2nd&mdash;the so-called
+"iron"&mdash;Regiment being of Montenegrin origin, one fails
+to see for what reason a Serb should be debarred from
+posts in Montenegro. It is unfortunate when people
+use the word "Montenegrin" without knowing that
+there is no separate Montenegrin nation, in the sense
+that there is a French or Italian nation. The Montenegrins
+are a small section of the Serbian nation, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+sought a refuge among the bare, precipitous mountains
+and, unlike the other Serbs, maintained its independence.
+One should, therefore, to avoid confusion, speak of Serbs
+of Serbia and Serbs of Montenegro rather than of Serbs
+and Montenegrins. The purest Serbian is spoken in
+western Montenegro, on the borders of Herzegovina;
+those districts are ethnically different from the southern
+region, centring round Cetinje, which is the real old
+Montenegro, and the north and north-eastern parts,
+called the Brda, which in speech and customs are akin
+to the south. In western Montenegro, as in Herzegovina,
+the people, who live among their mountains on milk
+and its products, are very prolific, having families of
+eight or ten children. They are a very healthy, moral
+race.</p>
+
+<p>Another pro-Nikita, anti-Serbian writer, excusable
+only on account of his insignificance, is Mr. Devine, who
+teaches, I am told, at a school near Winchester and seems
+very unwilling to be taught. If he wishes, by producing
+a book on the subject, to show other people that he knows
+painfully little about Montenegro, that is his own affair.
+But he is just as ignorant with regard to his hero. He
+says that he "is in a position to state that there is not
+one single word of truth in the insinuations and charges
+impugning the absolute integrity and loyalty of King
+Nicholas towards his Allies." The King was, according
+to Mr. Devine, a defenceless old man whom it was very
+bad form to attack. But the King had been defending
+himself at considerable length not only in a harangue
+to his adherents in a Paris suburb, but also on various
+occasions in a newspaper, the <i>Journal Officiel</i>&mdash;and both
+the speech and long extracts from the newspaper are
+quoted, with approval, in Mr. Devine's book. This
+quaint person is so frantically keen to pour whitewash
+over Nikita that he has no time to listen to the main
+treacheries of Nikita's career. "Malicious falsehoods!"
+he splutters&mdash;and they can be traced to horrible pan-Serbians.
+He has reason to believe that they wish to
+make Serbia the Prussia of the new Federation; well,
+the Croats and the Slovenes and the Bosniaks and all
+the others cannot say that Mr. Devine has not warned
+them. My Montenegrin friend Mr. Buri&#263; stated in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+columns of the <i>Saturday Review</i> that this odd gentleman
+had nourished the ambition of becoming Montenegrin
+Minister to the Court of St. James, but that the plan
+did not succeed. I never saw Mr. Devine's denial&mdash;perhaps
+it fell into the clutches of a ruthless pan-Serbian
+printer. Naturally, Mr. Devine would not care to be the
+diplomatic representative of a villain; therefore, when
+he is brought face to face with certain definite charges
+he persists in replying "not in detail, but from the broad
+point of view." He is so exceedingly broad that when
+an accusation is levelled against the King he sees in this
+an accusation against the entire country&mdash;a country
+which unfortunately, as he says, "alone of all the Allies
+has no diplomatic representative in this country." Mr.
+Devine continues unabashed to repeat and repeat his
+pro-Nikita stuff in various newspapers. "Il y debvroit
+avoir," says Montaigne, "quelque corection des loix
+contre les escrivains ineptes et inutiles, comme il y a
+contre les vagabonds et fain&eacute;ants...." Not long ago
+I happened to see that this egregious person described
+himself as "Hon. Minister Plenipotentiary for Montenegro,"
+but another gentleman, Sir Roper Parkington,
+a pompous wine-merchant, announced in the Press that
+he had become "Minister (Hon.) of Montenegro." Perhaps
+one of them has resigned, and our poor overworked
+Foreign Office will not be invited to decide between a
+Minister (Hon.) and an Hon. Minister.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE MURDER OF MILETI&#262;</p>
+
+<p>The Italians' stay at Kotor was drawing to an end.
+"We have no aggressive intentions," said Signor Scialoja,
+the Foreign Minister, "and we shall be glad if we are
+able to establish with our neighbours on the other side
+of the Adriatic those amicable relations"&mdash;and so forth
+and so forth. This he said on December 21, but if the
+Government was imbued with the same principles in
+August it is unfortunate that it omitted to instruct the
+responsible officers in Dalmatia. The Yugoslav commander,
+Lieut.-Colonel Risti&#263;, heard one night that the
+Italian General at Dobrota was harbouring at his residence
+no less than twenty-one Montenegrin pro-Nikita komitadjis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+They were clad in Italian uniforms, and, as a torpedo-boat
+and a motor-launch were always kept with steam up,
+could be shipped off at a moment's notice to Italy.
+Colonel Risti&#263; sent his adjutant to make inquiries, and
+the Italians gave their word of honour that no Montenegrins
+were in the house. In order to avoid a conflict
+Colonel Risti&#263; then requested the French General to
+send an officer; but this gentleman was not received
+by the Italians. Four or five Montenegrins, with an
+Italian lieutenant, came out of the house and fired at
+the twenty gendarmes who now encircled it. The fire
+was returned&mdash;all the Montenegrins and the Italian
+were killed. After this the French police disarmed the
+remaining Montenegrins and imprisoned them; and on
+the following day, much to his chagrin, the Italian
+General was told to take up other quarters at Mula, so
+that he was separated by the French and the Yugoslavs
+from Montenegrin territory.... Not long after this a
+certain Captain Mileti&#263; was cycling late one afternoon
+on the road to Mula. Five or six Italian soldiers lay
+concealed, and so expertly did they murder him that his
+friends who were cycling a hundred paces ahead and
+other friends who were fishing very near the spot in a
+boat heard nothing whatsoever. It was eight days after
+this when the Italians had to go from Kotor and the
+neighbourhood.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO RIEKA</p>
+
+<p>The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The
+more suave Tittoni, who had succeeded Sonnino, was
+hoping with the help of France to hold his own against
+Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with
+a large strip of hinterland should become a separate
+independent State under the League of Nations. An
+arrangement was also proposed by which the city was
+to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
+have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations
+were still in a nebulous state, but certain proposals were
+going to be put into force which were suggested by
+the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With French,
+American, Italian and British representatives this commission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations
+was to the effect that public order should be maintained
+by British and American police; on the very day
+(September 12) that the British military police were
+to inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took
+matters into his own hands. He rose, he tells us, from a
+bed of fever and, refusing to recognize the Nitti Government,
+he marched with the appropriate theatrical ceremonies,
+into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he
+called the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the <i>Santa
+Entrata</i>&mdash;the Holy Entry&mdash;was accomplished without
+the shedding of a drop of blood. Rieka, the stage of
+many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the quaintest
+in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of
+a General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command
+of the town and a rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to
+recognize his authority. They seemed to be on the best
+of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
+that he was still in supreme command. Being invited
+on the following morning to explain the situation at a
+conference on board the U.S.S. <i>Pittsburg</i>, at which were
+present the Allied naval and military commanders,
+General Pittaluga informed them that he would be
+responsible for the maintenance of order and that nothing
+was to be considered altered in the government of the
+town. Forty minutes later, without consulting the
+Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
+himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent
+message to the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing
+for the Allied occupation of Constantinople, d'Annunzio's
+Foreign Department informed him that "the Legionaries
+of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
+police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the
+tortured city." Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate
+was at that time acting in collusion with Rome&mdash;his
+defiance and their thunders being included in the stage
+directions&mdash;or whether he was a real rebel. We may
+assume that Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer
+and that if officers and civil servants diverted Government
+cargoes into his hands they were not acting as
+Government agents. <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads '(As for'">As for</ins> large numbers of these
+officials, their secret understanding with d'Annunzio<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+received many proofs. On September 29 the <i>Era Nuova</i>
+reported that, two days before, Major Reina, d'Annunzio's
+Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had an
+interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps.
+Illuminating also is the report, in the <i>Era Nuova</i> of
+October 27, of a test case at Genoa, when a sergeant was
+tried for leaving his regiment and going to Rieka. The
+prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
+The court accepted the plea of the defence,
+which was that the court could not condemn or dishonour
+a soldier who was only guilty of patriotic sentiment.
+Moreover, it transpired that those who returned from
+Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties,
+were granted three weeks' leave and a reward of <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads '100 lire.)'">100 lire.</ins>
+One observed that when the <small>s.s.</small> <i>Danubio</i> left &#352;ibenik
+for Rieka with sixty waggon-loads of coal, the captain
+received his sailing orders from the Royal Italian port-officer.
+When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on that
+same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by
+Vice-Admiral Millo, who was supposed to be governing
+Dalmatia in the name of the Entente.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected
+body which had so often told the world that
+Rieka was unshakeably determined to be joined to the
+Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
+regardless of that which happened to the medi&aelig;val one.
+The C.N.I. could now devote itself to serious executive
+work, for d'Annunzio&mdash;in spite of or because of his fever&mdash;relieved
+them of the rather exhausting task of issuing
+proclamations. In three months he sent out something
+like a thousand. He did a great many other things&mdash;he
+ruined, for instance, the economic life of the town. Everything
+had for a time gone swimmingly. The Chief of the
+Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of
+numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great
+Italian patriot. Such was the feeling of the majority of
+the army and navy, so that the Government in Rome
+was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am
+telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent
+of the <i>Gazzetta del Popolo</i>. "I have received a call from
+a superior hidden force, and though the fever burns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+within me I am consoled, because the War has made
+me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this
+mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have
+anything to do with the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported
+by the Parliament and the more responsible people, was
+openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly by the
+profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold
+taxation programme, by which he hoped to bring 30
+milliards of francs into the Exchequer. The Nationalists
+assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army; and in northern
+Italy there were many who realized that an army which
+can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day,
+rally to Bol&#353;evism. No other troops remained in Rieka,
+the small French and British detachments having been
+withdrawn. Before this happened there occurred a
+repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French
+soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors
+who greatly outnumbered them. Some of the French
+were Annamites, than whom no more harmless persons
+can be imagined.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> And it was in order to avoid such
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were
+evacuated. D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka
+was one of the problems which the Peace Conference had
+failed to solve, and now they were in much the same
+inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned
+Turkey not to mobilize, since they would not allow the
+Balkan Confederation to make an attack, and after the
+attack gave it out that the Balkan States would not be
+permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme
+Council in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A
+little patience," begged Tittoni, "and my Government
+will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we want," exclaimed
+Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"&mdash;and the
+Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it
+was not Italy which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which
+wanted Italy. They would do their best, although so
+many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his
+administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether
+distasteful to certain intriguers who were interested in
+the future of Triest. There might also arise, to the satisfaction,
+of other intriguers, an armed conflict with the
+Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the Yugoslavs'
+attitude. Perhaps these barbarians&mdash;as they are
+often styled in Italy&mdash;were confident that justice would
+prevail. Perhaps they thought that they could bide
+their time, and certainly what happened at Trogir was
+not calculated to reassure the Italians.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR</p>
+
+<p>The little, ancient town of Trogir lay some twelve
+miles to the south of the demarcation line. Its inhabitants,
+with the exception of five Italophil families, are Yugoslav;
+and in the month of September 1919 the Yugoslav army
+was represented by eight men. Truth compels us to
+mention that on a certain night these men, instead of
+doing patrol duty, were sleeping off the effects of a carouse;
+and when the townsfolk looked out of their windows in
+the morning they saw machine guns and Italian soldiers.
+At 4 a.m. they had crept into the town with the help of a
+certain Conte Nino di Fanfogna, who had assembled a
+National Guard of thirty peasants, the employees of those
+five families. Conte Nino was striding to and fro; he
+muttered threats of death. Some of the chief men, such
+as Dr. Marin Katalini&#263;, Dr. Peter Sentinella and others,
+came together and were at a loss for some effective means
+to chase out the Italians, since they had not even a revolver.
+An American boat appeared, but the captain, when appealed
+to, said that he was only cruising and could not
+come ashore. In the town hall Count Nino, labouring
+under some excitement, dismissed the mayor; and when
+Ferri, the mayor, told him to go about his business, he
+protested that he was the dictator and would, if necessary,
+use force. Outside in the square the Italians and the
+people stood face to face, and suddenly a few Yugoslav
+flags were fluttering, and then an old man, Dr. Sentinella's
+father, climbed up to the place in the town hall where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+the Italian flag had been hoisted. He tore it down.
+The soldiers were for shooting him, but the people began
+pulling the rifles out of their hands. Other soldiers, full
+of apprehension, dropped their rifles; the people picked
+them up, and those who were unacquainted with the
+mechanism cried out certain awe-inspiring sounds. Women
+and children&mdash;I fear this will not be believed; it is none
+the less true&mdash;women and children removed some of the
+men's helmets, and one group of children turned a helmet
+into a football. "I am a father of a family!" cried a
+soldier. "I am innocent, I have been deceived!" cried
+another. "O, Mama mia!" cried a third. They wept,
+they bolted into the courtyards, and the women showed
+them little mercy, for they tore off the men's belts and
+even struck them with their fists. A Mrs. Sunjara routed
+four men and went home with their machine gun on her
+back. In a few minutes the square was free of soldiers,
+and forty rifles were stacked in the town hall. Fifty
+soldiers on the quay were dealt with by a butcher who
+started firing at them; when they heard the shouts of
+the approaching crowd they threw down their weapons and
+fled. Two large motors escaped; the third was intercepted
+at the bridge, and although young Sentinella, who ordered
+them to stop, had forgotten his own rifle, they all&mdash;thirteen
+men and two officers&mdash;threw theirs away. It
+was suggested that the running soldiers should be pursued.
+"No," said an old man, "for we would kill them
+all. Let them rather go back without arms or helmets.
+It will frighten the others." ... Two hours later a party
+of Serbian soldiers arrived, but they were not needed,
+save for the protection of those who had thrown in their
+lot with the Italians. From Split, a few miles away,
+1500 volunteers, who speedily assembled, came with
+knives or agricultural implements or any other weapon.
+"The Yugoslavs must realize," said Nitti, "that it is to
+their interest to maintain sincere relations of friendship
+with Italy."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR MINORITIES</p>
+
+<p>The Yugoslav Government&mdash;as if it had not sufficient
+problems to solve&mdash;was ordered now by the Peace Conference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+to accept sundry regulations as to the rights of
+minorities, the transit of goods, and an equitable r&eacute;gime
+for international commerce. The other States which
+had inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them,
+faced with the same demands; and they objected that
+to sign such Articles was inconsistent with their
+sovereignty. The most onerous item&mdash;relating to the
+racial and religious minorities&mdash;had been imposed&mdash;at
+America's instance, owing to the manner in which the
+Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King Charles'
+promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller
+number of Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned
+only for the principle of independence. Not having
+persecuted the Jews they resented having to undertake
+that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit.
+"I will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the
+Orthodox Bishop of Ver&#353;ac to a deputation of Jews,
+when he made his formal entry into the town of Pan&#269;evo.
+And when they stared at him, "It is not tolerance that
+I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition
+in the Yugoslav Skup&#353;tina might have exhibited
+more kindliness in its attitude towards the Government
+and have refrained from rousing a storm against the
+signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government
+and the Opposition being practically of equal strength,
+the Ministers, who in a calm atmosphere could have
+explained the realities of the situation, found themselves
+at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that
+they would be assuming obligations which they had
+assumed already. In Macedonia, as any traveller could
+see, the time-honoured custom of persecuting him who
+happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the
+authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference
+between themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the
+difference consisted in praying for the Exarch instead of
+the Patriarch in the liturgy there was not the slightest
+persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to become
+Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new
+spirit which informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the
+Bulgarian army, afterwards came back to Macedonia.
+Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian Moslems were
+expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+was shown to them&mdash;at Ghevgeli, for instance, where
+building material was, after the War, so scarce that
+many of the inhabitants had nothing but a hole in the
+ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had
+been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN
+ANTISEMITISM</p>
+
+<p>If the Serbs were to express their grievance against
+the Roumanian ruling class for having landed them in
+this position, the Roumanians would reply that the Serbs
+do not run the same risk as themselves of being swamped
+by the undesirable Galician Jew. The Roumanians argue
+that their peasants will go under if they are not shielded.
+"In our last great man&oelig;uvres," said the late King
+Charles to M. de Laveleye,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> "it was proposed to entrust
+the supply of food to Christians. On the first day the
+provisions came; on the second everything was late;
+on the third day the whole army was dying of hunger.
+I was forced to make a hasty appeal to the Jews. They
+have great qualities&mdash;they are intelligent, energetic,
+economical; but these very qualities make them dangerous
+to us on economic grounds." Roumanians acknowledge
+that the agrarian policy of a few vast landowners and a
+submerged peasantry did not admit of peasants being
+made more formidable by increased education, and they
+doubt whether their country-folk, so fond of music and
+dancing and drinking, have it in them to rival those
+Serbian non-commissioned officers who, early in 1919,
+became millionaires by skilful operations on the money
+market in the Banat. Yet the Serbs are as much addicted
+as anyone to the aforementioned delights, and it is probable
+that the Roumanian boyars do their own people
+an injustice. But while the people were favoured at
+the expense of the immigrants&mdash;not always very effectively:
+the Jews have been prohibited from owning
+land, yet a fifth of the whole of Moldavia belongs indirectly
+to a single Jew&mdash;one would suppose that some distinction
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>might have been made between the more or less pernicious
+alien who is apt to get the village into his toils and that
+other Jew whose family has lived perhaps two hundred
+years in the country, who feels himself a Roumanian
+but is legally a foreigner. One Magder, a Jewish barrister,
+performed such exploits at the front during the Great
+War that he was mentioned in the communiqu&eacute;, a distinction
+only conferred upon two other soldiers. For
+one and a half years the official publications insisted on
+Roumanizing his name into Magdeu, after which three
+Cabinet meetings occupied themselves with the subject
+and finally announced that the error was not intentional
+but typographical. A French officer wished the
+Roumanian Croix de Guerre to be given to him, but
+Headquarters refused the request on the ground that he
+was a Jew. One cannot blame the United States for
+taking the initiative in compelling the Roumanians to
+modify their legislation, since the clauses of the Treaty
+of Berlin were merely carried out to the extent of naturalizing
+a maximum of fifty Jews a year, each case having
+to undergo innumerable formalities, accompanied with
+payments to deputies and others that rose to 30,000 francs.
+Many Jews volunteered for the army in 1913 for the
+sake of thus obtaining the naturalization that was promised
+them as a reward; but these promises were frequently
+not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred
+during the Great War: the <i>Moniteur Officiel</i>, No. 261
+(of February 2, 1918), printed a decree relating to one
+Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had
+been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous
+September. Kaufman was condemned to death, and
+the others to five years' hard labour. When the King
+was asked to deal more equitably with the three men,
+Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour
+without limit," <i>i.e.</i> for life. It is superfluous to give
+many illustrations: at Falticeni seventy-two Jews were
+imprisoned without a trial for four months, though twelve
+of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of 1877,
+while most of the others had sons at the front; at the
+village of Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out
+of their synagogue in order to listen to a speech in which
+he advised the Christian soldiers to watch them well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there
+were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was
+less than ardent&mdash;and who can blame them? In the
+69th Regiment a special corps of Jews was clothed in the
+discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to the
+enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid
+14 francs a month for spying on his Jewish comrades.
+At the battle of Savarat, to cover the retreat of three
+battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed&mdash;one
+hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second
+lieutenant; all but three of them were killed or wounded.
+After this retreat the General, who lost his head, commanded
+that the survivors should be killed wholesale on
+account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they
+were so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and
+only executed two Jews, Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha,
+<i>pour encourager les autres</i>. A young doctor, 2nd Lieutenant
+Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted
+typhus at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards
+he was sent to the 26th Regiment and kept under observation;
+it was most suspicious, said the authorities, that
+a Jew should return from France for his military service.
+A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could
+supply incriminating evidence against the doctor, but
+this was offered in vain. The Jews, by the way, were
+told that while they would be removed from menial
+positions in the hospitals they "would be tolerated" as
+doctors&mdash;and nearly a hundred of these doctors died on
+active service.</p>
+
+<p>The better class of Roumanians, such as Take Jonescu,
+is opposed to such methods&mdash;he was therefore charged with
+being in the pay of the Jews, although he was a wealthy
+man (a very successful barrister) whom politics made
+poorer. It remains to be seen whether the Roumanians&mdash;whose
+position with regard to the Jews is, partly through
+their own fault, not without peril&mdash;will be willing to put
+into effect those reforms to which the Supreme Council
+compelled them to subscribe. The Article in question
+will probably become a moral weapon, since the Roumanians
+regard themselves as on a higher level than
+the Balkan peoples, and will not desire that continual
+complaints should be made against them. One does not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+expect their prejudices and their apprehensions to be
+suddenly renounced&mdash;instead of judging each case individually,
+the railway administration, after the Government
+had agreed that the Jews <i>en bloc</i> could become
+citizens, barred them <i>en bloc</i> from that particular service
+by requiring that candidates should present their certificates
+of baptism. The Agricultural Syndicates have also
+introduced a statute which limits their organizations to
+Roumanian citizens who profess the Christian religion.
+Gradually&mdash;one hopes, for the sake of their country&mdash;the
+Roumanians will bring themselves to adopt a less
+timorous spirit, and to acknowledge that it is more dangerous
+to the Fatherland if a Jew as such is prevented than
+if he is permitted to hold the office of street-sweeper.
+From such lowly public offices, or from that of University
+Professor, no citizen should be excluded on religious
+grounds or admitted to them "by exceptional concession."
+And if a Jewish cab-driver at Bucharest is so
+severely flogged by his passengers outside the chief
+railway-station that he succumbs in the hospital to his
+injuries&mdash;a fate that overtook one Mendel Blumenthal,
+a man fifty-three years of age, in September 1919&mdash;one
+trusts that a newspaper article asking for an inquiry
+will henceforward not be censored. "It is true," said
+Dr. Vaida-Voevod, then the Prime Minister, "that the
+Jews still evince some reluctance to assimilate intellectually
+with our people or to identify their interests
+with those of the Roumanian State. But goodwill
+should be shown on both sides, and the overtures should
+be reciprocal." Thanks very largely to the former
+Liberal Premier, M. Bratiano, whose party was responsible
+for much illiberal legislation&mdash;one of his powerful brothers
+was popularly said to eat a Jew at every meal&mdash;the
+Supreme Council acted in such a manner as to produce
+a particularly unwanted crisis in the Yugoslav political
+world. Neither Roumanian nor Yugoslav need, in the
+opinion of Take Jonescu, have considered that their
+dignity was being slighted, for the tendency of the League
+of Nations is to limit the free will of each of them. The
+cardinal doctrine of the League, as Lord Robert Cecil
+has pointed out, is that its members are <i>not</i> masters in
+their own house, but must obey the decision of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+majority. However, the Opposition in the Belgrade
+Skup&#353;tina could not resist from using the delicate situation
+for what many of the deputies thought was a patriotic
+course of conduct, and nearly all of them regarded as an
+admirable party cry.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th Division.</i> London, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, February 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at Washington.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, June 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Cf. <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, December 13, 1918.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Land and Water</i>, May 29, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Nineteenth Century and After</i>, November 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Au Secours des Enfants Serbes.</i> Paris, 1916.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Several old wooden warships, such as the <i>Aurora</i>, the <i>Schwartzenberg</i>
+and the <i>Vulcan</i>, were lying for years in &#352;ibenik harbour, where they
+were used as repair-ships, store-ships, etc. When the Italians evacuated
+Dalmatia they took these vessels with them, but whether on account of
+their contents or their history we do not know.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Cf. <i>Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien
+wahrend des Mittelalters</i>, by Dr. Constantin Jire&#269;ek. Prague, 1879.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> It is instructive to examine the attendance figures at the schools
+of this the only Italian town of Dalmatia, as the Italians call it. The
+figures are those of the school year 1918-1919, and refer both to elementary
+and secondary schools:</p>
+
+<table summary="schools" style="padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em">
+<tr><td colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Yugoslav Schools.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Elementary School for Boys</td><td style="text-align: right">Pupils,</td><td style="text-align: right">342</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Elementary School for Girls</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">331</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Combined Elementary School</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">222</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Higher Elementary School for Girls</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">121</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Teachers' Training College</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">70</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Classical College</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right; border-bottom: solid black 1px">469</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Total of Yugoslav Pupils,</td><td style="text-align: right; border-bottom: solid black 2px">1555</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="3"><span class="smcap">Italian Schools.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Elementary School for Boys</td><td style="text-align: right">Pupils,</td><td>250</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Elementary School for Girls</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">221</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Higher Elementary School</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">93</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Classical College</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right">157</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="schoolentry">Technical College</td><td style="text-align: right"><span style="padding-right: 1em">"</span></td><td style="text-align: right; border-bottom: solid black 1px">181</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Total of Italian Pupils,</td><td style="text-align: right; border-bottom: solid black 2px">902</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by Mr.
+Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations, to inform
+the readers of <i>Land and Water</i> (June 5, 1919) that "Zara is quite Italian."
+He added that "Sebenia is Italian too." If this be so, how comes it
+that in 1919 the Italian authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
+(&#352;ibenik)&mdash;which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers to&mdash;with
+machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very lurid threats of
+Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I believe it is nearer the
+truth to say that the population of this town consists of some 13,000
+Yugoslavs and 400 <i>Italianists</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless patriotism, said
+the <i>Tablet</i> (January 1, 1921), he "had defended his flock from the Germanizing
+influence of the Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments
+of the Italians."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The population of Veprinac, according to the last census, is: Yugoslavs,
+2505 (83&middot;7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0&middot;8 per cent.); Germans, 422 (4&middot;1
+per cent.).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Pribi&#269;evi&#263; issued a statement to the effect that the interviewer,
+Magrini, had put into his mouth the precise opposite of what he had
+said with regard to Triest and Pola. Pribi&#269;evi&#263; had told him that the
+whole of Istria, with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini
+that a third person was present at the interview.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in Albania had been
+concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded by Yugoslav troops,
+as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had disappeared, and the Russian
+prisoners employed there&mdash;about 500 men&mdash;had also vanished. In
+order to keep off nocturnal plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to
+fire a few shots now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the
+two Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
+night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their injuries&mdash;is it
+not possible that they were out for plunder and that this incident should
+not be used to illustrate what Mr. Beaumont (of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>)
+calls "the worst characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the
+troops? During the twenty days of the Yugoslav r&eacute;gime their authorities
+sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these warehouses to
+the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally said in Rieka that the
+Italians in four days had given away six million crowns' worth, that large
+quantities of flour were removed until the British put a stop to this, and
+that the robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
+or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a mysterious
+manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any rate have been
+as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some investigation. Since they failed to
+do so, it is natural that gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the
+Italian population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
+waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the stores of
+the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Most people have assumed that this was done in order that Rieka
+should be left to Austria-Hungary, although they should have taken
+with some grains of salt this Italian generosity which presented the
+Habsburgs with a good harbour instead of one of those others in Croatia
+which the Italians of to-day are never weary of extolling. The real
+reasons why Rieka was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the
+<i>Secolo</i> (January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
+it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the right of
+the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this case the same principle
+must be admitted for the people of Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing
+majority. But this is precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The Italianist employ&eacute;s of the Rieka town council who took the census
+in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they were acquainted with the Italian
+language; those from whom they received an affirmative reply were
+put down as Italians. Had they, on the other hand, asked the people
+if they spoke Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes,
+there would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have remained
+not one single Italian&mdash;certainly not the members of the Italian
+National Council&mdash;as everyone, he says, speaks and knows Croat. This
+is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes of Rieka are bound up with
+those of its suburbs and the hinterland.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals, General Grazioli
+claimed supreme command of all the Allied troops, but this the French
+General refused, maintaining&mdash;much to the disgust of the Italians&mdash;that
+he was under the orders of Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey, who was then in command
+of the Army of the Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve
+in their own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
+one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the sole object
+of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to General Grazioli should
+by chance be posted to the town. The disrespectful Allies used to call
+Caneva "the man in the cellar."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's collapse, was stirred
+the most profoundly by its postage stamps was Zagreb. In order to
+commemorate the establishment of the new State the Croatian Post
+Office published four stamps, which were on sale on November 29. The
+whole edition consisted of 100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted
+to Zagreb, the rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious
+that there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
+check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that they should
+be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that each purchaser would
+only be allowed to buy a limited quantity. At 8 a.m. the sale began,
+but at seven many hundreds of people were waiting outside the chief
+post office, the post office at the station and another in the Upper Town.
+The face value of the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At
+first they were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
+to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000 had been
+printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10 crowns for it, in
+order to complete their sets. At noon the offices were all shut, as the
+rush was considered too dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in
+the great hall at the Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside.
+Nearly all the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken.
+At the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the sentries.
+The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the post offices had
+no stamps left (and citizens who had been waiting all day to buy an
+ordinary stamp could not be served). At 5 p.m. people who for the first
+time in their lives were taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500
+crowns from collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
+exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one thousand
+crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers were willing to
+give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of boots, others were asking
+for sugar, coffee or petrol. The price which was ultimately established
+was 250 crowns.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Out of the hundreds of available documents it will suffice if I print
+one. It is the report, given in his words, of a Dalmatian, a native of
+Sinj, who having been an emigrant could write in English. "On July
+1915 I came to the Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the
+lines and deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
+of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a voluntary
+into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was answered by Italian
+authorities in the negative. After the Congress of Rome in 1918 I and
+some of my comrades who had recently applied for admission were
+permitted to join the Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away
+sent to the front of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard
+bayonet fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian Commander
+for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own request I was
+sent to the front, where I remained up to the break-up of Austria or until
+we Yugoslav legion were disarmed by Italians and as a reward for our
+participation in the war we were interned as prisoners of war at Casale
+di Altamura in the province of Bari. Four days after my internment
+I succeeded in sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
+Dalmatia.
+<span style="float: right; padding-right: 1.5em;">(Signed) <span class="smcap">Jakov Delonga</span>."</span><br style="clear: both" /></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a>
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Perche piangi, o fratello croato,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Il figiul che in Italia mori."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p>
+("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible Habsburger
+has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother, it weeps
+for the dear son who died in Italy.")</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> April 23, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Cf. <i>La Slavisation de la Dalmatie.</i> Paris, 1917.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The Italians are very poorly served by some of their advocates.
+For years they persisted in demanding the execution of whatever in the
+Treaty or Pact of London was obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded
+as obsolete another clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
+Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and&mdash;if I rightly understand
+the Italophil Mr. H.&nbsp;E. Goad&mdash;they were justified because, forsooth,
+Bulgaria had entered the War on the other side. To say that the idea of
+this small Albania, with corresponding compensations to the Serbs and
+Greeks, was held out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a
+very wise remark. However, "ne croyez pas le p&egrave;re Bonnet," said
+Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-m&ecirc;me lorsque je dis
+du mal du p&egrave;re Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes brouill&eacute;s." Let the
+reader trust in nothing but the facts, and I hope that those which I
+present are not an unfair selection.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard about the secret
+Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov. The interview is said to
+have been stormy, for the Russian Minister, according to the <i>Primorske
+Novine</i> (April 23, 1919), "had not the most elementary knowledge of
+the Slav nature of Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
+Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said to have
+been no better informed than Sazonov.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's Prime Minister,
+was the central figure of a reception given by Lord Sydenham at the
+Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship I must add that in an hour's
+conversation he impressed me with the fact that he was even less acquainted
+with Plamenac's antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs,
+which he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords, endeavouring
+there&mdash;until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him&mdash;to play the
+part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> We shall see that the subsequent history of this officer was less
+laudable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Cf. <i>Nineteenth Century and After</i>, January 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> This very able priest became Vice-President of the Council of
+Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was formed. When Cardinal
+Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of 1919 a Mass was celebrated by
+the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister, the British Cardinal and a French priest
+who was an aviation captain in the army. Monsignor Koro&#353;ec's position
+reminds one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
+was the Archbishop of Trnovo.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Cf. <i>The New Europe</i>, March 27, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic Magyars, such as the
+man at Antanfalva (Kova&#269;i&#269;a) who, having lost something between his
+house and the post office, insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest
+papers. But the Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three
+years after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
+Debelyacsa&mdash;where the <i>intelligentsia</i> called the sympathetic Serbian
+notary by his Christian name&mdash;not one of the inhabitants proposed to
+remove to Hungary. No doubt the goodness of the soil had something
+to do with this decision, but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No
+military service was as yet exacted&mdash;all that the Magyars had been asked
+to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of war.
+The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary before the
+War still exercised their functions, and&mdash;in contrast with what had
+previously been the case&mdash;both the Magyar and the Serbian language
+were taught, the latter from the third class upwards. Altogether there
+was perfect harmony between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was
+there the only racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was
+the resolve of their <i>intelligentsia</i> to have, as centre-half in the football
+team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish player.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that the Foreign Office
+was bound to behave to Italy, one of the Great Powers, with a certain
+deference. They also recognize that the Foreign Office is not actuated by
+malevolence if she treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of
+the strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir Richard
+Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a series of diplomatic
+automata. After all, these automata, who have spent more or less laborious
+years in the service, have to be deposited somewhere. But if one does
+not demand of the Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending
+to the Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man as
+the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched too late to
+Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be maintained&mdash;it has happened
+before now that we have been represented in a Balkan country by a
+Minister who, some time after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing
+with those people and of which Great Britain was one of the high contracting
+parties; when taxed with this omission the aforesaid Minister
+hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> October 13, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> This has been done, but to a much more limited extent, in Hungary
+where several hundred men who distinguished themselves in the European
+War have been granted the Gold Medal for Bravery, which entitles each
+of them to a goodly portion of land. This the recipient may not sell,
+but he need not leave it to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested
+in agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to exhibit
+outside his house a notice which informs the world that he possesses this
+most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our eyes the strangest privilege
+the Medal carries with it is the permission to write "Vitez" (which is
+the Hungarian for "brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji
+Sandor is decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
+Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not only is the
+honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all his sons and by their
+sons. We might imagine that a man would shrink from permanently
+calling himself Brave John Smith, especially if he has been very brave,
+but the average Magyar will not feel excessively awkward, since he is
+not altogether repelled by that which is garish.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be the work of a
+generation. They are beginning on the very large estates, those which
+run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in calculating the price to be paid,
+40 per cent. is deducted for the State on properties of this size. On those
+of between 20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so
+on down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the holdings of
+from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the Government's intention in
+Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such properties as are badly administered,
+and, by a wise proviso, when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for
+example, that the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State
+is suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various political parties,
+go down to investigate. If they find that the accusation is not justified and
+that the place is satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge
+is obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The trouble arose at the end of May when a number of citizens of
+&#352;ibenik, men and women, donned the American colours as a compliment
+to the sailors of the U.S. warship <i>Maddalena</i>, who had taken to wearing
+those of Yugoslavia. The &#352;ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on
+the words of Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed
+that any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
+with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore them off
+and explained that it was done by the General's order. Italian officers
+did not interfere while ladies were being very roughly handled. A certain
+Jakovljevi&#263;, a shopkeeper, who had sold an American flag, was imprisoned.
+On the same evening a number of prominent citizens were summoned
+before the town commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows:
+"A Croat, a Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
+American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye, the
+ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't go to the
+<i>Maddalena</i> to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall prevent it! You
+are the leaders who will be responsible for anything that happens to-morrow."
+[This was the eve of the Italian national celebration of June 1.]
+"Our arditi are blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of
+yours receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
+Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent milliards
+and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr. Mi&#353;e Ivanovi&#263; remarked:
+"I beg your pardon, but the Paris Conference has not yet decided the
+fate of these territories." And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided!
+But even if we had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we
+shall destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and 40,000
+men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by the town
+commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was testified by the
+signature of all those who were present.... When, in 1921, the Italians
+were leaving &#352;ibenik they destroyed a large number of young trees in the
+park and elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
+millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian purpose.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> In view of what the census said with regard to this place it is superfluous
+to add that when an Italian officer in my hearing asked one who
+was stationed there if there was any social life, the other answered:
+"None at all; the whole population is Slav." I find that <i>Modern Italy</i>
+(published in London) quoted with approval the following telegram
+which appeared, it said, in the <i>Tempo</i> of May 9: "A remarkably enthusiastic
+celebration took place at Obrovazzo. Several thousands, including
+representatives of the neighbouring villages, formed a procession and
+marched through the town. In the principal piazza, the President of
+the National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which was
+enthusiastically applauded."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but one decoration, the
+highest among those to which they are entitled. To illustrate this
+Serbian modesty regarding honorifics, I might mention that one evening
+at the house of a Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to
+whom he had been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had
+won the Obili&#263; medal for bravery and several other decorations which&mdash;and
+his case was typical&mdash;he had not troubled to procure.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> June 24, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> May 15, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Mr. Leiper in the <i>Morning Post</i> (June 23, 1920) scouts the idea of
+these malcontents being the supporters of Nikita, who "were all laid by
+the heels or driven out of the country long ago&mdash;largely by the inhabitants
+themselves." He observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil&mdash;its
+frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and policies.
+The nations, he points out, are not two but one&mdash;one in blood, in temperament,
+in habits, in tradition, in language; round the fireside they tell
+their children the same stories, sing them the same songs: the greatest
+poem in Serbian literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
+Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian State
+came into existence it has been, he says, the constant, burning desire of
+the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may well rub our eyes at a letter
+in the same newspaper from Lord Sydenham, who makes the perfectly
+inane remark that this constant, burning desire was never probable.
+"Montenegro already <i>is</i> Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
+in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set himself
+up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro; therefore he cannot
+countenance the Leiper articles, which give him "pain and surprise."
+Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted
+with the language, should disagree with him? "The great
+mass of the people," says Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their
+determination that Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham:
+"I am afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been
+misled by the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
+familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed correspondent of
+his in Montenegro who says that the people there are terrified of speaking.
+It is much to be desired that a little of this terror might invade a gentleman
+who plunges headlong into matters which he does not understand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Cf. <i>Morning Post</i>, November 17, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> A most vivid account of this affair was contributed to the <i>Chicago
+Tribune</i> (July 13, 1919) by its correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan,
+one of the two neutral eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that
+as Italy was an interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in
+the decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her forces
+were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In alliance with the
+city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian soldiers attacked the French:
+"I can state emphatically," says Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards
+did nothing whatever to provoke the assault, some details of which would
+blot the escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France killed,
+after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could scarcely believe
+my ears when Italian officers rapped out the order to load. But they
+seemed to remember that Frenchmen can fight." However, he also saw
+an Italian officer who "prevented this murder and held back the civilians
+who were trying to reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of
+this officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game little
+soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers of Italy!' I
+wish I knew this officer's name." At another part of the harbour, "A
+British naval officer, fearing that the wounded Frenchman would be
+stabbed inside the court to which he was dragged, followed the body and
+defied the captain of carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the
+close "I was no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness.
+The British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
+the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken part in
+the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The British Admiral
+wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian officer running and
+bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are willing to explain all....'
+American naval officers of the destroyer <i>Talbot</i> were also among this
+post-mortem crowd. In a French motor bearing two Italian officers
+who stood up to ward off possible shots, came a French captain. He was
+of that calm, splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard,
+a knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
+flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep down in
+that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer tell him that the
+French had started the most regrettable affair by firing on the Italian
+ships. The officer spoke this falsehood under the glazed stare of the
+French dead and the protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain
+nodded his head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only
+pick up the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside her
+child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking episode
+is contained in <i>A Political Escapade: The Story of Fiume and d'Annunzio</i>,
+by J.&nbsp;N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London, 1921). His narrative is extremely
+well documented&mdash;he appears to have been a member of the British
+Mission. "It is incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men
+could attack the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover,
+they were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French garrison
+was small and had no intention of putting up a defence." One of the
+lesser outrages described by Father Macdonald, since it was not attended
+with fatal results, was that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who
+from his window saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver
+an unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
+room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed bayonets and
+they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard tried to intervene
+and received a blow on the arm dealt with the butt end of a rifle. At
+this juncture an Italian officer appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come
+without further delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside
+greeted Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
+street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse against France
+and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he was brought into the
+presence of an Italian officer to whom he was personally known. This
+gentleman, looking very uneasy, refused to give the name of his brother-officer,
+but caused the Frenchman to be released.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Cf. <i>The Balkan Peninsula</i> (English translation). London, 1887.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL</h3>
+
+<p class="subtitle"><span class="smcap">D'Annunzio spreads himself&mdash;The wave of Italian Imperialism&mdash;Their
+wish for Rieka, dead or alive&mdash;Fruitless efforts of
+Italy's allies&mdash;Some of Rieka's scandals&mdash;Progress of the
+Yugoslav idea&mdash;Despite the new phenomenon of Communism&mdash;The
+rise and fall of Communism in Yugoslavia&mdash;Other lions
+in the path&mdash;The nadir of Devine and Nikita&mdash;A General&mdash;Two
+comic pro-Italians in our midst&mdash;The belated Treaty of
+Rapallo&mdash;Its probable fruits&mdash;New forces in the first Yugoslav
+Parliament</span>&mdash;(<i>a</i>) <span class="smcap">Markovi&#263;, the Communist</span>&mdash;(<i>b</i>) <span class="smcap">Radi&#263;,
+the much-discussed&mdash;The Serbs and the Croats&mdash;The sad case
+of Pribi&#263;evi&#269;&mdash;Lessons of the Montenegrin Elections&mdash;Which
+one gentleman refuses to take&mdash;Medi&aelig;val doings at Rieka&mdash;The
+stricken town&mdash;Hopes in the Little Entente</span>.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF</p>
+
+<p>When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan
+War, into the historic town of Prilep a certain soldier sent
+his family an interesting letter, which was found a few
+years afterwards at Ni&#353; and printed in a book. One
+passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point
+of medi&aelig;val history between the soldier and a chance
+acquaintance. "Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this
+town?" And the man of Prilep recognized at once that
+his catechist was not referring to the actual possessor but
+to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same
+question was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that
+Rieka was Italian then and for ever, and that he who
+proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a mutilated war-combatant.
+Most of the citizens, as time went on, began
+to think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's
+annexation to another land, which was the work of Nature.
+Those who did not entertain this view were the salaried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who had
+bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as
+mistress of Rieka, would change them into lire, even if
+she did not give so good a rate as at Triest. The poet
+addressed himself to the France of Victor Hugo, the
+England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not
+to the business men of Rieka, who would have told him
+that 70 per cent. of the property, both movable and
+immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'per cent'">per cent.</ins> was Italian
+and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to
+listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand
+men, to Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and
+won him over. Whether he would have persuaded
+Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must gravely
+doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we
+may take as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound
+to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound
+to live up to what light I have. I must stand with anybody
+that stands right; stand with him while he is right,
+and part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the
+wilful trespass committed by Italians on the property
+and rights of the Yugoslavs and the oft-repeated
+guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the
+American Government against such invasion, it is passing
+strange that d'Annunzio should have appealed to
+Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for Admiral Millo,
+he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his
+fortunes with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the
+populace a very fiery speech. It is not known whether
+he communicated with the France of Clemenceau, the
+England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson,
+whose representative he apparently continued to be for
+the rest of Dalmatia, while relinquishing that post with
+regard to Zadar, his residence.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM</p>
+
+<p>If Admiral Millo's rebellion had been published in
+the press of November 16th, it is most likely that 250,
+instead of 160, Socialists would have been successful at
+the General Election&mdash;an election which Signor Nitti,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+that very able parliamentarian, had brought about for
+the purpose, amongst other things, of testing the forces
+and popularity of the Nationalist party. The old Chamber
+had&mdash;voicing the wishes of the people&mdash;voted for
+the open annexation of Rieka, without war or violence;
+the Nationalists, in order to gain their ends, would
+seemingly have stopped at nothing. Military adventures,
+the breaking of alliances, agrarian and industrial upheaval&mdash;it
+was all the same to them. They scoffed at the
+common sense of the imperturbable Nitti when he said
+that the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, must return
+to the plough. Furiously they harped upon the facts
+that bread was dearer now, that coal was nearly unprocurable.
+And Giolitti, who in 1915 had strenuously
+tried to keep the country neutral, said in a great speech
+before this 1919 election that the War had been waged
+between England and Germany for the supremacy of the
+survivor and that Italy should never have participated.
+He enlarged upon the fearful sufferings of his countrymen,
+and he compared the gains of Italy with those of her
+Allies. Nor was he deterred when Signor Salandra, the
+former Premier, called him Italy's evil spirit who, devoid
+of any patriotism, would have sold the Fatherland to the
+Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on whom
+300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before
+the declaration of war, had good reason to know that
+even if Giolittism had melted away, the House had
+secretly remained Giolittian.</p>
+
+<p>A new electoral system was introduced, whereby the
+people voted for programmes and parties rather than
+directly for individual candidates. This, it was hoped,
+would render corruption more difficult by enclosing the
+individual within the framework of the list, and it was
+also hoped that there would be less violence than usual.
+As a matter of fact there probably was a diminution with
+respect to these two practices, but only because of the
+large number of abstentions&mdash;merely 29 per cent. voted in
+Rome, 38 per cent. in Naples, and in Turin scarcely more.
+The people were tired of the excessive complexity and
+dissimulation of Italian politics. There was a good deal
+of violence&mdash;in Milan, Florence, Bologna and Sicily the
+riots were sometimes fatal&mdash;and with such an electorate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+more extensive than heretofore, so that symbols had
+often to be used instead of the printed word, it was to be
+expected that there would not be an atmosphere of even
+relatively calm discussion. At Naples 132 candidates
+struggled for eleven seats&mdash;their meetings were indescribable.
+And it may be thought that in such conditions
+the victorious parties would not necessarily
+reflect the wishes of the country. The Nationalists were
+dispersed, the Giolittians were routed&mdash;the Socialists
+increased from 40 to 156, and the Catholics from 30 to 101.
+Gabriele d'Annunzio had been the Socialists' chief elector.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE</p>
+
+<p>There was now a fair hope that the Government would
+be in a position to solve the Adriatic problem. The
+Italian delegates in Paris had suggested that, in the
+independent buffer State, Rieka should have a separate
+municipal status, and that a narrow strip of land should
+join the buffer State to Italy. On December 9, a memorandum
+was signed by the representatives of Great Britain
+and America, which was the best compromise which anyone
+had yet proposed. The strip was dismissed as being
+"counter to every known consideration of geography,
+economics and territorial convenience." [Nevertheless
+this very dangerous expedient of the strip, after having
+been thus roundly rejected by the Allies, formed a part
+of the Treaty of Rapallo in November 1920&mdash;the Yugoslavs
+had most generously given way rather than leave this
+exasperating Adriatic problem still unsolved.] Rieka
+with her environment was to be a <i>corpus separatum</i>&mdash;and
+this was the chief point which made the proposals inacceptable
+to Italy. That Socialist group which is
+represented by the <i>Avanti</i> seemed to be the only one
+whose attitude was not intransigeant. The question of
+Rieka, it argued, was not isolated, but should be considered
+as one of the numerous questions of Italian foreign
+politics. It laughed at those who every moment cry "Our
+Fiume," because there are in the town many people who
+speak Italian. Other groups of Socialists had altered very
+much from the day when the three delegates&mdash;Labriola,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+Raimundo and Cappa&mdash;spoke of the Adriatic at the
+Congress which Kerensky summoned to Petrograd.
+Labriola was considered the most arrogant and chauvinist
+of the trio, but not even he demanded Rieka&mdash;there was
+no question of it at the time. Still less did he dream of
+Zadar or &#352;ibenik; what he pleaded for was Triest, Istria
+and an island.... In December 1919 some Italian
+Socialist papers were printing reports on the economic
+life of Rieka, which was in a disastrous condition. But
+the great majority of Italians were so bent upon securing
+Rieka that they did not seem to care if by that time she
+were dead. And they threw a little dust into their eyes,
+if not into the eyes of the Entente, by declaring that if they
+did not annex Rieka that unhappy, faithful town would
+annex them. The self-appointed Consiglio Nazionale
+Italiano of Rieka was, however, at this time less preoccupied
+with the Madre Patria than with her own very
+troublesome affairs; she had no leisure to organize those
+patriotic deputations to Rome, which sailed so frequently
+across the Adriatic and which, as was revealed by Signor
+Nitti's organ <i>Il Tempo</i>,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> were too often composed of
+speculators who liked to receive in Italy the sum of
+60 centesimi for an unstamped Austrian paper crown
+that was barely worth ten. The disillusioned C.N.I.
+would have given a good many lire to be rid of d'Annunzio;
+the citizens were invited to vote on the following
+question: "Is it desirable to accept the proposal of
+the Italian Government, declared acceptable by the
+C.N.I. at its meeting of December 15, which absolves
+Gabriele d'Annunzio and his legionaries from their oath
+to hold Rieka until its annexation has been decreed and
+effected?" On December 21, in the Chamber, Signor
+Nitti announced that more than half the citizens had
+voted and that four-fifths of them were in favour of the
+suggestion of the C.N.I. But d'Annunzio, whose adherents
+by no means facilitated the plebiscite, proclaimed
+it null and void. Yet, after all, Italy had likewise, on
+every occasion when the Yugoslavs suggested a plebiscite
+under impartial control, refused to sanction it.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section">FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly a ray of light shone through the
+clouds. The ever-cheerful Signor Nitti, after a conference
+with Lloyd George and Clemenceau&mdash;no Yugoslav
+being present, whereas Signor Nitti was both pleader and
+judge&mdash;was authorized to say that the December memorandum
+had been shelved. Terms more favourable to
+Italy were substituted and the Yugoslav Government
+were told they must accept them. One of these terms
+was to modify the Wilson line in Istria, ostensibly for
+the protection of Triest and in reality to dominate the
+railway line Rieka-St. Peter-Ljubljana; another of
+the terms was to present Italy with that narrow corridor
+which in December the Allies had so peremptorily disallowed.
+No wonder the American Ambassador in
+France gave his warning. "You are going," he said,
+"much too far and much too quickly. President Wilson
+cannot keep pace with you." The French Government
+was passing through a period of change, and these new
+proposals, as was underlined in the <i>Temps</i>,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> emanated
+from London. Mr. Lloyd George, who may have wished
+for Signor Nitti's aid in his offensive against France in
+the Russian and Turkish questions, was this time very
+badly served by his intuition. The Yugoslavs were
+ordered to accept the new proposals or to submit to the
+application of the Treaty of London, that secret and
+abandoned instrument which&mdash;to mention only one of
+the objections against it&mdash;provided for complete Yugoslav
+sovereignty over Rieka, a solution that, in view of Italy's
+inflamed public opinion, was for the time being impracticable.
+And while the Yugoslavs were told that
+Rieka would, under the Treaty of London, fall to them,
+no details were given as to how d'Annunzio was to be
+removed. "Nous sommes dans l'incoh&eacute;rence," as
+Clemenceau used to say of the political condition of
+France before the war. Seeing that the Italian Government
+and the C.N.I. had shown themselves so powerless,
+were France and England going to turn the poet out?
+But Mr. Lloyd George was more fortunate than Disraeli,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>whose error in the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina
+had had such dire results; on February 13, a very firm
+note was issued by President Wilson, which compelled
+France and Great Britain to withdraw from the position
+they had taken up. Wilson would have nothing to do
+with the notorious corridor, though Clemenceau had said
+on January 13, to the Yugoslav delegates: "Si nous
+n'avions pas fait cette concession, nous n'avions pas eu
+le reste." "The American Government," said Wilson,
+"feels that it cannot sacrifice the principle for which it
+entered the war to gratify the improper ambition of one
+of its associates, Italy, to purchase a temporary appearance
+of calm in the Adriatic at the price of a future world
+conflagration." The rejoinder of the French and British
+Premiers was a trifle lame, and when they ventured to
+add that they could not believe that it was the purpose
+of the American people, as the President threatened, to
+retire from the treaty with Germany and the agreement
+of June 28, 1919, with France unless his point of view was
+adopted in this particular case, which, in their opinion,
+had "the appearance of being so inadequate," they were
+not caring to remember that while their own countries and
+Italy were suffering from a lack of food-stuffs and provisions
+were being imported at a disastrous rate of
+exchange from the United States, the products of Yugoslavia,
+such as meat and meal, could not be obtained
+because Rieka, which ought surely to serve its hinterland,
+was at that moment not available, owing to
+d'Annunzio. At the same time the President did not go
+to the opposite extreme of simply allocating the port to
+Yugoslavia, which the application of the Treaty of
+London would involve. He preferred to act on the
+principle that the differences between Italy and the
+Yugoslavs were inconsiderable, especially as compared
+with the magnitude of their common interests. And
+direct negotiations between the two parties were to be
+recommended, with the proviso that no use be made of
+France and Great Britain's immoral suggestion that an
+agreement be reached on "the basis of compensation
+elsewhere at the expense of nationals of a third Power."
+It had indeed been proposed that the Yugoslavs should
+be bribed by concessions in Albania, but this idea was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+very explicitly rejected and on more than one occasion
+by the Yugoslav delegates in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>While, in the following months, the Yugoslavs and
+the Italians negotiated, the task of their delegates was
+impeded by the occasional Cabinet crises in Belgrade
+and in Rome. It was made no easier by those Italians
+who clamorously objected to the remark of Clemenceau,
+when he said that both Yugoslavs and Italians had been
+compelled to fight in Austria's army. The <i>Corriere
+d'Italia</i> told him that he displayed the zeal of a corporal
+to defend the Yugoslavs. After alluding to his "historical
+inexactitudes," it reminded him of the Italians
+who were slain at Reims and the Chemin des Dames,
+but as usual omitted to speak of the French soldiers who
+fell in Italy. And, while the negotiations were being
+carried on, Gabriele d'Annunzio clung to his town. The
+compromise of a mixed administration seemed to have
+small chance of being realized. It had been proposed by
+that Inter-Allied Commission which was set up to investigate
+the circumstances of the French massacre; and
+the Italian delegate, General di Robilant, not only said
+in his report<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> to the Senate that this compromise was
+most favourable for Italian aspirations but he is alleged
+also to have included some very drastic criticism of the
+actions of the high military authorities, whom he charged
+with unconstitutional interference. Nevertheless neither
+the poet nor the Premier were as yet in a tractable
+mood with regard to the Rieka problem. Signor Nitti,
+parading his bonhomie, championed the cause in a more
+statesmanlike fashion; he did not, like d'Annunzio,
+evoke the world's ridicule by his footlight attitudes and
+those of his faithful supporters who, when his "Admiral"
+Rizzo abandoned him, when Giorati his confidant withdrew,
+when even Millo advised moderation, took certain
+piratical steps in order to keep the garrison supplied with
+food,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> and composed an anthem which on ceremonial
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>occasions was chanted in the poet's honour. But when
+Signor Nitti observed, with the utmost affability, that
+Rieka had, after the fall of the Crown of St. Stephen,
+become mistress of her own fate and as such, regardless
+of the Treaty of London, asked for inclusion in Italy,
+he, the Prime Minister, was vying in recklessness with
+d'Annunzio. The prevailing sentiment both in Triest
+and Rieka, said the <i>Times</i>,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> was that both these towns
+should become free ports in order to serve their hinterlands,
+which are not Italian. "Italy is neglecting Triest
+in favour of Venice," says the dispatch. In Rieka,
+where the situation was even worse, "an honest plebiscite,
+even if confined to the Italian part of the city, would give
+a startling result. The Italians of Rieka are convinced
+that their existence depends on good relations with the
+Yugoslavs. They wish the town and port to be independent
+under the sovereignty of the League of Nations.
+This I have recently been told by a large number of
+Italians in Rieka who are obliged, in public, to support
+d'Annunzio." Signor Nitti must have been aware that
+the voice of the C.N.I. was very far from being the
+voice of Rieka. The C.N.I. had reasons of their own
+for wishing to postpone the day when their arbitrary
+powers would come to an end and a legal Government,
+whether that of the League of Nations or of the people's
+will or of Italy or of Yugoslavia, be established.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">SOME OF RIEKA'S SCANDALS</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the complaints of innumerable citizens the
+C.N.I. had nominated a Commission to inquire into the
+pillage of the former Austrian stores at Rieka&mdash;this town,
+as we have mentioned, had been the base for the Albanian
+army&mdash;and the findings of that Commission displayed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>the culpability of the most prominent members of the
+C.N.I. This document was for a long time unknown
+to the general public, but was afterwards published in
+Italy by Signor Riccardo Zanella, himself an Italian
+and an ex-deputy and ex-mayor of Rieka. There was,
+by the way, an article in the Triest paper, <i>Il Lavoratore</i>,
+at the beginning of September 1920, wherein one Tercilio
+Borghese, a former member of d'Annunzio's army,
+confesses that on June 21, he was ordered by d'Annunzio,
+as also by Colonel Sani and Captain Baldassari, to get
+Signor Zanella in some way out of the world. Hinko
+Camero and Angelo Marzi&#263;, his fellow-workers, had
+likewise to be removed; and for this purpose Borghese
+says that the Colonel provided him with a revolver.
+He was also to try to seize any compromising documents.
+But he was forced by his conscience to reveal everything
+to Zanella.... Now this confession may be true or
+false, but the Triest "fascisti" (Nationalists) believed in
+it, for they issued a placard on which they called Borghese
+a traitor and threatened him with death. "He who
+after November 1918 returns to the martyred town,"
+writes Signor Zanella, "is simply stupefied in beholding
+that those personages who now strut on the political
+scene, burning with the most ardent Italian patriotism,
+are the same who until the eve of Vittorio Veneto were
+the most unbending, the most eloquent and the most
+devoted partisans and servants of the reactionary Magyar
+r&eacute;gime." And around them a number of more or less
+questionable persons were assembled, whose conduct with
+regard to the disposal of the Austrian stores has now
+been so severely censured. That organization which,
+dependent on the C.N.I., was supposed to administer
+the stores, was known as the Adriatic Commission. "We
+all knew," said the Commission of inquiry, "that the
+eyes of the whole world were gazing at our little town."
+It was, therefore, very desirable that nothing irregular
+should be done; whereas the judges give a most unfavourable
+verdict. Nobody, they say, would rejoice more
+than themselves if their conclusions should be shown to
+be completely or partly erroneous, for they are all of
+them penetrated with love for the fatherland Italy.
+But they relate, with chapter and verse, a large number<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+of peculiar transactions which show that the goods were
+very improperly and very hastily auctioned, and that
+those who reaped the benefit were nearly always the
+same people. To give one instance, some of the wine,
+said to have been damaged, was sold at 260 crowns the
+thousand litres, while undamaged wine brought 320
+crowns, and the firm of Riboli, the only one which appeared
+at the so-called auction, was only asked to pay 30 crowns.
+Thus a considerable number of people in Rieka were
+anxious that the town should not come under any
+Government which might punish the culprits or make
+them disgorge. And Nitti and d'Annunzio agreed with
+these interested parties in opposing a solution other
+than the overlordship of Italy. "The Yugoslavs should
+understand," said the amiable Premier, "that Italy has
+no intention of acting in a manner distasteful to them,
+but is struggling for a national ideal." And meantime
+what of the conditions in the poor distracted town?
+"D'Annunzio," says an Italian paper, "is no longer
+the master of Rieka. He has become the prisoner of
+his own troops.... While he amuses himself and
+organizes the worst orgies, his troops quarrel in the
+streets and discharge their weapons.... A great many
+of them have their mistresses in the hospital, where they
+make themselves at home. When the doctors, after
+some time, protested, the arditi, with bombs in their
+hands, threatened to blow up the hospital if they were
+not allowed to enter it." On the other hand the pale,
+weary-looking poet succeeded in impressing on a special
+correspondent of the <i>Morning Post</i> that he was "master
+of his job." He told this gentleman&mdash;and was apparently
+believed&mdash;that with the consent and approval of the
+C.N.I. he had had the whole place mined, city and
+harbour, and was prepared to blow it up at a moment's
+notice. The means by which d'Annunzio, according to
+his interviewer, worked on those who were depressed
+with gazing at the empty shops, the silent warehouses,
+the grass-grown wharves, so that the overwhelming
+majority of the town supported him, was by simply
+making to them an eloquent speech. D'Annunzio would
+indeed be the master of his job if with some rounded
+periods in Italian he could cause the very numerous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+hostile business men to forget so blissfully that they
+were men of business. Under his dispensation the town
+is said to have been turned into a place of debauchery.
+Accusations were brought against his sexual code, and
+with regard to men of commerce: "those who are not
+partisans of d'Annunzio are expelled, and their establishments
+handed over to friends of the ruling power....
+Woe to him who dares to condemn the transactions of
+the poet's adherents. There and then he is pronounced
+to be a Yugoslav, is placed under surveillance and is
+persecuted." These Italian critics of the poet do not
+in the least exaggerate. One instance of his conduct
+towards a British firm will be sufficient. The "Anglo-Near
+East Trading Company" shipped sixty-seven cases
+(5292 pairs) of boots to private traders in Belgrade, and
+on the way they reached Rieka just before d'Annunzio.
+In March 1920 they were still detained there, and on the
+13th of that month a certain Alcesde di Ambris, who
+described himself as the Chief of the Cabinet, wrote a
+letter saying that the boots were requisitioned, and that
+they would be paid for within thirty days at a price
+fixed on March 5 by experts of the local Chamber of
+Commerce. The company was offered forty lire a pair,
+but they declined to accept so inadequate a sum. Se&ntilde;or
+Meynia, the Spanish Consul, who was also representing
+Great Britain, attempted in various ways to help the
+firm; he was finally told by an officer that the "exceptional
+situation of Rieka compels the Authority to
+suspend the exportation or transport of such goods as
+are thoroughly needed here." And the Consul could do
+no more than protest. One might presume, from this
+officer's reply, that d'Annunzio required the boots for
+his army. As a matter of fact, they were simply sold
+to a couple of dealers, one Levy of Triest and Mail&auml;nder
+of Rieka. It is alleged that the prices paid by these
+receivers of stolen property was a good deal higher than
+forty lire. When Signor di Ambris travelled to Rome
+in the merry month of June and enjoyed a consultation
+with the Prime Minister, who by this time was Signor
+Giolitti, it was not in order to explain any such transactions
+as that one of the boots, but for the purpose, we
+are told, of offering the services of d'Annunzio and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+legionaries in Albania. The regular Italian army was
+just then being roughly handled by the natives....
+It may be that Signor di Ambris wanted guarantees
+that if the d'Annunzian troops were to come to the
+rescue, they would not suffer the fate of the Yugoslavs
+who in the Great War had managed to desert to Italy,
+had valiantly fought and won many decorations and&mdash;after
+the War&mdash;been ignominiously interned. And they
+had given no grounds for charges of financial frailty.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA</p>
+
+<p>The months go by and Yugoslavia still survives. At
+the post-office of a large village in Syrmia, not far from
+Djakovo, where Bishop Strossmayer laboured during
+fifty-five years for the union of the Southern Slavs which
+he was destined not to see, a bulky farmer told me that
+in his opinion Yugoslavia, created in 1918, was now in
+1920 "kaput." He deduced this from the fact that a
+telegram used to travel much more expeditiously in
+Austrian days; but he did not remember that the Yugoslavs,
+in the Serbian and in the Austro-Hungarian armies,
+had suffered enormous losses in the War, and that while
+French, Dutch and Swiss doctors have been obtained by
+the Belgrade Government, one cannot use telegraphists
+who are ignorant of the language. An excellent province
+in which Yugoslavia's solidity can be studied is Bosnia.
+At the outbreak of the War the Moslems and Croats
+were not imbued with the Yugoslav idea; it seemed
+to them that the Serbs, one of whom had slain the Archduke,
+were traitors to Southern Slavdom. During the
+War the Croats and Moslems were taught by their Slav
+officers to be good nationalists and were given frequent
+lessons in the art of going over to the enemy. After
+the Armistice one did not see every Serb, Croat and
+Moslem in Bosnia forthwith forgetting all the evil of the
+past. Among the less enlightened certain private acts
+of vengeance had to be performed; but these were not
+as numerous as one might have expected. And very
+soon the population of Bosnia came to be interested far
+less in the old religious differences&mdash;the two deputies
+Dr. D&#382;amonia and Professor Stanojevi&#263; smilingly remembered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+the day when, as schoolboys at Sarajevo,
+they had been persuaded by the Austrians to pull out
+each other's hair for the reason that one was a Croat
+and one was a Serb&mdash;and now it was the engrossing subject
+of Agrarian Reform which claimed the attention
+of Catholic, Orthodox and Moslem. This is not a religious
+question, for while the landlords are mostly Muhammedan
+begs about half the peasants are of the same religion;
+and the negotiations have been marked by a notable
+absence of passion. Most of the begs acknowledge that
+the old r&eacute;gime was unprofitable, for with the peasant
+paying one-third to one-fifth of his production to the
+landlord the land only yielded, as compared with the
+sandy districts of East Prussia, in the proportion of five
+to twenty-two. Under the new order of things, with the
+State in support of the "usurping" peasant&mdash;so that
+there are said to be in Bosnia about a thousand peasants
+who are millionaires (in crowns)&mdash;there is no longer any
+dispute with regard to the "kmet" land, where the
+peasants with hereditary rights have become the owners;
+and with regard to the "begluk," which the beg used
+to let to anyone he pleased, it is only a question as to
+the degree of compensation. Thus, it is not among the
+landowners and the peasants that one must look in
+searching for an anti-national party. Bosnia contains
+various iron works and coal mines, where profession is
+made of Communism. But when the Prince-Regent was
+about to come to pay his first official visit in 1920 to
+Sarajevo the Governor received a communication from
+the Communists of Zenica, which is on the railway line.
+They asked for permission to salute "our Prince" as
+he came past; and a deputation of these Communists,
+who are very like their colleagues in other parts of Yugoslavia,
+duly appeared and took part in a ceremony at
+the station.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">DESPITE THE NEW PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM</p>
+
+<p>Just as innocuous&mdash;whatever the enemies of Yugoslavia
+may say&mdash;are the Communists in the old kingdom
+of Serbia. Perhaps in the whole State of Yugoslavia
+they number 50,000 in a population of about 12,500,000.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+But they are so well organized that in the municipal
+elections of 1920 they were victorious in most of the
+towns. In Belgrade they secured 3600 votes, as compared
+with 3200 for the Radicals, 2800 for the Democrats&mdash;both
+of whom were not only badly organized but very
+slack&mdash;and 605 for the Republicans. However, the
+Communists refused to swear the requisite oath, and in
+consequence were not permitted to take office, the Radicals
+and Democrats forming a union to carry on. It was
+agreed to have a new election and the other parties,
+being now awakened, determined that the Communists
+should not again top the poll. But in the provincial
+towns they have not by any means shown themselves a
+disintegrating influence. At Ni&#353;, for example, they conducted
+the municipal affairs quite satisfactorily, while at
+&#268;uprija they perceived that it would be impossible to
+put into effect their entire programme, and so, after
+fourteen days, they resigned.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'YUGLOSLAVIA'">YUGOSLAVIA</ins></p>
+
+<p>... As for the Communists in the Skup&#353;tina, it
+may be argued that though this party of over fifty members
+has ceased to exist we should have said not simply that
+they are innocuous but that they have been rendered so.
+They were in principle against any State which violated
+their somewhat hazy ideas on the subject of Capital:
+while professing to aim at the holding of wealth in common
+they secured a great deal of their success at the polls
+through the bait of more land for the individual, which
+they dangled before the eyes of the most ignorant classes.
+Some of the electors who supported them were prosperous
+farmers unable to resist the idea of a still larger farm;
+but the majority of their adherents were as ignorant as
+they were gullible. Yet one should remember that for
+most of them this was practically their first experience
+of an election: the constituencies which had formerly
+been in Austria-Hungary had always seen the booths
+under the supervision of the police, while the Macedonian
+voter (three Communists were returned for Skoplje) had
+only known the institutions of the Turkish Empire.
+Being told by the Communists that their box at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+polling-station was really the box for the poor, the
+Fukara, all the gypsies and so forth of Skoplje, who had
+never voted in their lives, hastened to claim the privilege,
+under the impression that a Communist Government
+would liberate them from taxes and military service.
+Other reasons for the success of the Communists in Yugoslavia,
+an essentially non-industrial State, were the general
+discontent with post-war conditions, and the virus which
+so many of the voters had acquired in Russia or on the
+Dobrudja front during the War. The activity in the
+Skup&#353;tina of this very indigestible party&mdash;largely composed
+of Turks, Magyars, Albanians, Germans and others&mdash;their
+activity in and out of Parliament was not confined
+to words. In June 1920 they only refrained from throwing
+bombs in the Skup&#353;tina because one of their own
+members would have been in peril, and in December a
+plot against the Prince-Regent and some of the Ministers
+was foiled. Thereupon the Emergency Act of December
+27, the so-called Obznana, came into existence. It
+suspended all Communist associations. This Act was
+issued for the good of the country, but was not previously
+presented to the Constituent Assembly or provided with
+the royal signature. How justified were the authorities
+in thus putting a stop to this party could be seen when
+some of the Communist deputies were interrogated, for
+either they were dangerous fanatics or else very ignorant
+individuals, who knew no more about any other question
+than about Communism, and had only been elected
+because they professed dissatisfaction with things in
+general. A few months later Mr. Dra&#353;kovi&#263;, the very
+able Minister of the Interior, who had drawn up the
+Obznana, but who by that time had laid down the seals
+of office, was murdered by Communists at a seaside
+resort in the presence of his wife and little children.
+The object of this particular outrage was to persuade
+the authorities in panic to withdraw the hated Obznana,
+whereas the previous attempts on various personages
+seem to have been greatly due to the desire to show
+some positive result in return for the cash which came
+to them from Moscow. (One of the leaders of the party,
+the ex-professor of mathematics, was arrested last summer
+in Vienna on his return from Moscow, with a large and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+very miscellaneous collection of English, French, American,
+Russian and other money.) After the murder of Mr.
+Dra&#353;kovi&#263; the mandates of the Communist deputies
+were suppressed; seven or eight of them were detained,
+for speedy trial, and the rest were told to go to their
+homes. The Communist parliamentary party was at an
+end&mdash;it was established that their Committee room in
+the Skup&#353;tina had been used for highly improper purposes&mdash;but
+there was nothing to prevent these ex-deputies
+from being elected as members of any other party, and
+it was rather beside the mark for an English review, the
+<i>Labour Monthly</i>,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> to talk of the "White Terror in Jugo-Slavia,"
+as if there prevailed in that country anything
+comparable with Admiral Horthy's r&eacute;gime in Hungary.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH</p>
+
+<p>The behaviour of the Communists was far from being
+the only clog in Yugoslavia's parliamentary machine.
+After the first General Election of November 1920&mdash;delayed
+until then on account of Italy's attitude, which
+made it impossible to demobilize the army&mdash;no single
+party nor even one of the large groups was possessed of a
+real working majority. Fierce and determined was the
+Opposition;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> to carry on the business of government
+it became necessary to secure the coalition of several
+parties. The Radical and Democrat <i>bloc</i> had to attract
+to its side one or two other parties, and it was truly
+difficult to make concessions to anyone of these without
+rousing the righteous or the envious wrath of another
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>group. In principle it was proper that the Bosnian
+Moslems should receive compensation for their estates;
+the question is whether the very large sum was less in
+the nature of a fair price than of a bribe. The Radical
+party was no longer under its happy triumvirate of
+Pa&#353;i&#263;, the old diplomat, Proti&#263;, the executor of his ideas,
+and Patcho&ugrave;, a medical man from Novi Sad, the real
+brain of the party. We shall give an example of
+Patcho&ugrave;'s prudence; the long views which he possessed
+may be illustrated by what occurred at a meeting of
+Radical deputies two days before the outbreak of the
+second Balkan War. The Tzar's proposed arbitration
+was being discussed and certain deputies, such as the late
+Dr. Pavlovi&#263;, who was the first speaker of the Yugoslav
+Parliament after the Great War, raised their voices in
+opposition; they were supported by the army. "Can we
+have Bitolje (Monastir)?" they asked. "It is not known
+what the Tzar will decide," said Pa&#353;i&#263;. "Then we can't
+accept arbitration," said Pavlovi&#263;. And Patcho&ugrave; spoke.
+"I would be very glad to know," said he, "what Mr.
+Pavlovi&#263; would say if we could get, by possibly now
+sacrificing Bitolje, not only Bosnia, but Dalmatia and
+other Slav countries." "All that," said Pavlovi&#263;, "is
+music of the future." "For you perhaps," said Patcho&ugrave;,
+"but not for us." And the vote in favour of arbitration
+was carried. Patcho&ugrave; died in 1915 at Ni&#353;. Besides
+being an expert in finance and foreign affairs he was less
+arbitrary in his methods than Proti&#263;. That very erudite
+man&mdash;no sooner does an important book appear in Western
+or Central Europe than a copy of it goes to his library&mdash;has
+not been much endowed with patience. This brought
+him into conflict with his Democratic colleague Mr.
+Pribi&#269;evi&#263;, the most prominent man in that party. It
+would have been well if Dr. Davidovi&#263;, the gentle, tactful
+leader of the party, could have taken into his own composition
+one-half of his lieutenant's excessive combativeness.
+Pribi&#269;evi&#263; and Proti&#263; find it impossible to work
+together, and we can sympathize with both of them.
+One day at a more than usually disagreeable Cabinet
+meeting Pribi&#269;evi&#263; reminded the then Prime Minister
+that he was the first among equals, a point of view which
+did not square with the methods of Proti&#263;, who gives his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+support to those Ministers who bend before him. And as
+Pribi&#269;evi&#263; has hitherto insisted on being in every Cabinet,
+Proti&#263; has withdrawn and has started a newspaper, the
+<i>Radical</i>, in which he attacks him with great violence
+and ability. One charge which he brings against this
+Serb from Croatia is perfectly true, for he has succeeded
+in alienating the Croats. Only two or three Democrat
+deputies come from Croatia, and they are elected by the
+Serbs who live in that province. It would seem that the
+Croats will remain in more or less active opposition so
+long as Pribi&#269;evi&#263;, the arch-centralizer who scorns to
+wear the velvet glove, stays in the Government. There
+is also much doubt as to whether Proti&#263; can break down
+their particularism, which, of course, is not an anti-national
+movement. But luckily, through other men,
+it will be stayed. For other reasons one regrets that
+Mr. Proti&#263; is not now in power; as the Finance Minister
+he knew how to introduce order, preferring the interests
+of the State to those of his party. Both Radicals and
+Democrats have been reluctant, for electoral purposes,
+to tax the farmer; and Mr. Proti&#263; would probably have
+the courage to impose a direct tax, as the Radicals did,
+without losing popular favour, in the old days. In this
+respect and concerning the numerous posts that have been
+created for party reasons it is thought that Mr. Pa&#353;i&#263;
+has not displayed sufficient energy.</p>
+
+<p>There was in Yugoslavia a heavy war deficit, both
+economic and financial. Communications were out of
+order and the State, owing to the adverse exchange
+(which was not justified by the economic potentialities
+of the country, but was probably caused by the unsettled
+conditions both internal and external), the State could
+not obtain the necessary raw products for industrial
+undertakings such as iron-works, tanneries, cloth factories,
+etc. The Yugoslavs did not borrow from abroad, as
+they might have done, in the form of raw materials.
+The agricultural products which were exported should
+have been sold for the needful manufacturers' material
+and not for articles of luxury and not for depreciated
+foreign, especially Austrian, currency.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> The Yugoslav
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>public is slow to learn economy, that it should restrict
+the importation of luxuries. What makes it particularly
+unhappy, in which frame of mind it listens to the voices
+prophesying woe for Yugoslavia, is the knowledge that
+for increased production and for many other necessary
+aims more capital is wanted, whereas under present
+conditions it has been difficult to borrow. But happily in
+this respect the corner has been turned, and in the spring
+of 1922 a considerable loan was negotiated with an
+American syndicate.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA</p>
+
+<p>However, the principal disintegrating force in Yugoslavia,
+we were often told in England, was Montenegro,
+where, it seems, the natives were yearning to cast off
+their yoke. The British devotees of the former king
+told us of the ghastly state of Montenegro, and our
+Foreign Office was bombarded with reports which ascribed
+these evils to the wretched Government of Yugoslavia.
+"There is nothing anywhere," says a memorandum from
+the ineffable Devine. "The shops are empty, the town
+markets are deserted. The peasants, who may not travel
+from one village to another without a Serbian 'permit'
+... etc. etc." Well, I visited Cetinje market on a non-market
+day, and passing through the crowd of people
+I admired the produce of various parts of the country&mdash;melons,
+tomatoes, dried fish, onions, peaches, nuts and
+cheese, lemons from Antivari and so forth. I happened
+to ask a comely woman called Petrie&#269;evi&#263; from near
+Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised
+at such a question. It is very true that the more mountainous
+parts of Montenegro are far from prosperous,
+but to insinuate that this is the fault of the Government
+is childish. Hampered by the lack of transport&mdash;practically
+everything has to be brought on ox-carts up by the
+tremendous road from Kotor&mdash;they have recently given
+away 38,000 kilos of wheat and many mountain horses
+at Cetinje. I suppose it was all in the game for Devine
+and his assistants to throw mud at the Yugoslav Government
+if they believed that they would&mdash;for the happiness
+of the Montenegrins and themselves&mdash;help to restore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+Nikita. But what was the use of saying that "the poor
+people have no money and have nothing to eat; they
+are said to be living on a herb of some sort that grows
+wild in the mountains"?... A very satisfactory feature
+of the past year has been the migration of 7000 Montenegrins
+to more fertile parts of Yugoslavia. And as for
+Nikita's partisans, they were such small beer that when
+they wished to hold a meeting at Cetinje the Government
+had not the least objection; it also allowed them to sing
+the songs that Nikita wrote, but that was more than the
+population of Cetinje would stand. It is only at Cetinje,
+where he reigned for sixty years, and at Njegu&#353;, where
+he was born, that Nikita has any adherents at all. As for
+his adherents at Gaeta, the Cetinje authorities were
+perfectly willing to give a passport to any woman who
+desired to spend some time in Italy with her husband
+or brother or son. She might stay there or come back,
+just as she pleased. And very likely when she got to
+Gaeta she would relate how in the cathedral, at the rock-bound
+monastery of Ostrog, and in other sacred places,
+one could see the Montenegrin women cursing their ex-king.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">A GENERAL</p>
+
+<p>The sinister shadow of d'Annunzio had fallen across
+Dalmatia and beyond it: for instance, on November 20,
+1919, the King of Italy's name-day, a general holiday
+was proclaimed in the occupied districts. The director
+of the school at Zlosela, a Slav who had never been an
+Italian subject, gave&mdash;perhaps injudiciously&mdash;the usual
+lessons. He and his wife were arrested and for months
+they were in prison, their six-months-old child being left
+to the mercy of neighbours; and the local commandant,
+Major Gracco Golini, told Dr. Smol&#269;i&#263;, the President of
+the National Council, that the slightest action on the
+part of the Yugoslavs would provoke terrible measures
+on the part of d'Annunzio's arditi, who would spare
+neither women nor children.... The reader may remember
+the Montenegrin General Ve&#353;ovi&#263;, who took to
+the mountains and defied the Austrians. On the accession
+of the Emperor Karl he surrendered and, much to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+surprise of his people, he travelled round the country
+recommending every one to offer no more opposition, to
+be quiet and obedient to the Austrians. When the war
+was over the authorities at Belgrade gave him, as they
+did to other Montenegrin generals, the same rank in the
+Yugoslav army; but the numerous Montenegrins who
+resented his unpatriotic behaviour persuaded the War
+Office, after two or three months, to remove him from the
+active list. This exasperated the ambitious man to
+such an extent that he withdrew to his own district and
+began to work against Yugoslavia. A major with a
+force of 200 gendarmes was sent to fetch him back and,
+after conversations that lasted ten days, induced him to
+return to Belgrade. There he was not molested; he used
+to sit for hours in the large caf&eacute; of the Hotel Moscow in
+civilian clothes. But one day a policeman at the harbour
+happened to observe him talking for a long time to a
+fisherman; he wondered what the two might have in
+common. When the fisherman was interrogated he
+refused at first to give any information, but he finally
+divulged that he had agreed, for 1500 francs, to take the
+General down the Danube either to Bulgaria or Roumania.
+That evening at nine o'clock the General appeared, with
+his son and a servant; he was captured,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> and among his
+documents were some which proved, it was alleged, that
+he was in communication with d'Annunzio.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST</p>
+
+<p>Month follows month. The reading public and some
+of the statesmen of the world begin to recognize that,
+whatever may be the case on other portions of the new
+map, there is nothing unreal or impossible or artificial
+about Yugoslavia. This State is the result of a national
+movement, having its origins within and not without
+the peoples whose destiny it affects. The various Yugoslavs,
+after being kept apart for all these centuries, have
+now&mdash;roughly speaking&mdash;come to that stage which the
+Germans reached in 1866. They cannot rest until they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>reach the unity which came to the Germans after 1870.
+And here also, it seems, the unity will not be gained
+without the sacrifice of thousands of young men. "Go,
+my son," said Oxenstiern the Swedish Chancellor, "and
+observe by what imbeciles the world is governed." It
+is pitiable that the leaders of the nations, in declining
+month after month to give to Yugoslavia an equitable
+frontier, should apparently have been more impressed
+by the arguments of Mrs. Lucy Re-Bartlett<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> than by
+those of an anonymous philosopher in the <i>Edinburgh
+Review</i>.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> "Nationality?" says the lady, speaking of
+the country people of Dalmatia, "nationality? These
+people of the country districts&mdash;the great mass of the
+population&mdash;are far too primitive to have any sense of
+nationality as yet, but if some day they call themselves
+Italian...." That is what she says of a people which
+through centuries of persecution and neglect have preserved
+their language, their traditions, their hopes; a
+people which, more than forty years ago, won their great
+victory against the Habsburg r&eacute;gime of Italian and
+Italianist officials, so that with one exception every mayor
+in Dalmatia and all the Imperial deputies and hundreds
+of societies of all kinds, such as 375 rural savings-banks,
+were exclusively Yugoslav. Out of nearly 150,000 votes
+at the last general election, which was held in 1911 on the
+basis of universal suffrage, the Yugoslav candidates
+received about 145,000 against 5000 to 6000 for the
+Italians. It is indisputable that the Dalmatian peasants
+are backward in many things, but one is really sorry for
+the person who declares in print that they possess no
+sense of nationality. Let her visit any house of theirs on
+Christmas Eve and watch them celebrate the "badnjak";
+let her listen any evening to their songs. Let her think
+whether there is no sense of nationality among the priests,
+who almost to a man are the sons of Yugoslav peasants.
+And let her recollect that these are the days when the
+other Yugoslavs are at last uniting in their own free
+State. She has the hardihood to tell us of the poor
+Dalmatians who were being bribed with waterworks and
+bridges and gratuitous doctoring. I daresay that the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering
+round the kindly Italian officer were glad enough to
+eat his chocolates,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> but I think that we others should pay
+more attention to those secret societies, the <i>&#269;etasis</i> (which
+is Slav for komitadjis), who have sworn to liberate all
+Istria from the Italians. We may also consider the
+proposals made by the Southern Slavs whom Signor
+Salvemini, the distinguished Professor of Modern History
+at Pisa, called "extreme Nationalists" (see his letter
+of September 11, 1916, to the editor of <i>La Serbie</i>, which
+was being published in Switzerland). Well, it appears
+that the "extreme Southern Slav Nationalists," as the
+utmost of their aspirations, claim the Southern Slav
+section of the province of Gorica with the town Triest
+and the whole of Istria, that is to say, a territory which,
+with a population the majority of whom are Slav, contains
+also 284,325 Italians, whereas the smallest programme
+ever proposed by moderate Italians, including
+Professor Salvemini, covets some 364,000 Southern Slavs.
+Thus the extreme Southern Slav elements, in their widest
+demands, are more moderate than the moderate Italians
+in their most limited programme. "Without distinction
+of tribe or creed," says that Edinburgh reviewer, "all
+the Yugoslavs are waiting for their 1870. This will fix
+and perpetuate their unity.... The preparation is
+going forward silently&mdash;almost sullenly&mdash;and without
+demur or qualification the Yugoslavs are accepting the
+Serb military chiefs' guidance and domination." He
+was much impressed by the silence and controlled power
+of the Serbian General Staff. There was in Europe a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>general war-weariness; but not in Yugoslavia. There
+was a hush in this part of Europe, broken only by the shrill
+screams of Italian propagandists and outbursts of suppressed
+passion on the other side.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE BELATED TREATY OF RAPALLO</p>
+
+<p>And the Rapallo Treaty of November 1920, when at
+last the statesmen of Italy and Yugoslavia came to
+terms regarding all their frontiers! This Treaty was
+received with much applause by the great majority of
+the French and British Press; in this country of compromise
+it was pointed out by many that as each party
+knew that the other had abated something of his desires
+the Treaty would probably remain in operation for a
+long time to come. And column after column of smug
+comment was written in various newspapers by the
+"Diplomatic Correspondent," whose knowledge of diplomacy
+may have been greater than his acquaintance with
+the Adriatic, since they followed one another, like a
+procession of sheep, in copying the mistake in a telegram
+which spoke of Eritto, the curious suburb of Zadar,
+instead of Borgo Erizzo. They noted that each side had
+yielded something, though it was true that the Yugoslavs
+had been the more generous in surrendering half a million
+of their compatriots, whereas the Italians had given up
+Dalmatia, to which they never had any right.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> "The claim
+for Dalmatia was entirely unjustified," said Signor
+Colajanni in the Italian Chamber on November 23&mdash;yet
+it was not our business to weigh the profit and loss
+to the two interested parties. After all, it was they who
+had between themselves made this Agreement, and one
+might argue that it surely would be an impertinence if
+anybody else was more royalist than the king. These
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>commentators held that it was inexpedient for anyone
+to ask why the Yugoslavs should now have accepted
+conditions that were, on the whole, considerably worse
+than those which President Wilson, with the approval
+of Great Britain and France, had laid down as a minimum,
+if they were to realize their national unity. And, of
+course, these writers deprecated any reference to the
+pressure which France and Great Britain brought to
+bear upon the Yugoslavs when the negotiations at Rapallo
+were in danger of falling through. If we take two Scottish
+newspapers, the <i>Scotsman</i><a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> was typical of this very
+bland attitude; it congratulated everyone on the
+harmonious close to a long, intricate and frequently
+dangerous controversy. The <i>Glasgow Herald</i>,<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> on the
+other hand, was one of the few newspapers which took a
+more than superficial view. "Monstrous," it said, "as
+such intervention seems, no student of the Adriatic White
+Paper&mdash;as lamentable a collection of documents as British
+diplomacy has to show&mdash;can deny its possibility, nay its
+probability. It is precisely the same game as was nearly
+successful in January 1920 and again in April 1920, but
+both times was frustrated by Wilson. We are entitled
+to ask, for the honour of our nation, if it has been played
+again; indeed if the whole mask of direct negotiation&mdash;a
+British suggestion&mdash;was not devised at San Remo
+with the express purpose of making the game succeed.
+If it be so&mdash;and if it is not so it is imperative that we
+are given frankly the full story of British policy in the
+Adriatic, for instance the dispatches so carefully omitted
+from the White Paper&mdash;then our forebodings for the future
+are more than justified.... It is emphatically a bad
+settlement."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall not establish friendly and normal relations
+with our neighbour Italy unless we reduce all causes of
+friction to a minimum," said M. Vesni&#263;, the Yugoslav
+Prime Minister, who during his long tenure of the Paris
+Legation was an active member of the Acad&eacute;mie des
+Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and other learned societies;
+he excelled in getting at the root of the worst difficulties
+in international law, and he was particularly admired
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>for his ability to combine legal and historic knowledge.
+Because he studied history minutely&mdash;with a special
+fondness for Gambetta who, racially an Italian, had something
+of the generous and sacred fervour that distinguished
+the leaders of the Risorgimento&mdash;M. Vesni&#263; could not
+bring himself to hate Italy, despite all that d'Annunzio
+and other Imperialists had made his countrymen suffer.
+"Neither the Government nor the elected representatives
+of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes," said he courageously
+in his first speech as Prime Minister, "ought
+to look upon Italy as an enemy country. We have
+to settle important and difficult questions with Italy....
+We must reduce all causes of friction to a
+minimum."</p>
+
+<p>The Treaty of Rapallo gives Zadar to Italy, because
+in that little town there is an Italian majority; but
+central and eastern Istria, with their overwhelming Slav
+majority, are not given to the Yugoslavs&mdash;a fact which
+Professor Salvemini deplored in the Roman Chamber.
+By the Treaty of Rapallo Rieka is given independence,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a>
+but with Italy in possession of Istria and the isle of Cres,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>she can at any moment choke the unprotected port,
+having very much the same grip of that place as Holland
+has for so long had of Antwerp; and the sole concession
+on Italy's part seems to be that in the south she gives
+up the large Slav islands of Hvar, Kor&#269;ula and Vis, and
+only appropriates the small one of Lastovo.... "It
+has cost Italy a pang," says Mr. George Trevelyan,
+"to consent, after victory, to leave the devoted and
+enthusiastic Italians of the Dalmatian coast towns (other
+than Zara) in foreign territory." The truth is that
+henceforward Yugoslavia will contain some 5000 Italians
+(many of whom are Italianized Slavs), as against not less
+than 600,000 Slavs in Italy. And while the former are
+but tiny groups in towns which even under Venetian
+rule were predominantly Slav and are surrounded on all
+sides by purely Slav populations, the latter live for the
+most part in compact masses and include roughly one-third
+of the whole Slovene race, whose national sense is
+not only very acute, but who are also much less illiterate
+than their Italian neighbours. One cannot be astonished
+if the Slovenes think of this more than of Giotto, Leonardo,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>Galileo and Dante. But one may be a little surprised
+that such a man as Mr. Edmund Gardner should allow
+his reverence for the imperishable glories of Italy to
+becloud his view of the modern world. It is certainly a
+fact that the Slovenes are to-day less illiterate than the
+Italians, but because Dr. Seton-Watson alludes to this,
+Mr. Gardner (in the <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, of February
+13, 1921) deplores the "Balkanic mentality that
+seems to afflict some Englishmen when dealing with these
+problems."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">ITS PROBABLE FRUITS</p>
+
+<p>Now it is obvious that the Treaty of Rapallo has placed
+between the Yugoslavs and the Italians all too many
+causes of friction. Zadar, like other such enclaves, will
+be dear to the heart of the smuggler. She cannot live
+without her Yugoslav hinterland&mdash;five miles away in
+Yugoslavia are the waterworks, and if these were not
+included, by a special arrangement, in her dominion,
+she would have no other liquid but her maraschino. She
+cannot die without her Yugoslav hinterland&mdash;but so that
+her inhabitants need not be carried out into a foreign
+land, the cemetery has also, by stretching a point, been
+included in the city boundaries. It remains to be seen
+how Zadar and the hinterland will serve two masters.
+We have alluded to the questionable arrangements at
+Rieka, in which town there had for those years
+been such an orgy of limelight and recrimination that
+even the most statesmanlike solution must have left a
+good deal of potential friction. In Istria the dangers
+of an outbreak are evident. Italy has now become the
+absolute mistress of the Adriatic and has gained a
+strategical frontier which could hardly be improved upon,
+while Yugoslavia has been placed in an economic position
+of much difficulty. Sooner or later, if matters are left
+<i>in situ</i>, trouble will arise. Perhaps an economic treaty
+between Italy and Yugoslavia, as favourable as possible
+to the weaker State, would introduce some sort of stability;
+but no good cause would be served by crying "Peace"
+where there is no peace, and while Yugoslavia has a
+grievance there will be trouble in the Balkans.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The most serious phase of the Adriatic crisis is now
+ushered in, for a new Alsace has been created; and those
+who point this out cannot be charged with an excessive
+leaning towards the Yugoslavs. It also seems to me that
+one can scarcely say they are alarmists. If Yugoslavia,
+in defiance of that most immoral pressure, had declared
+for war, Vesni&#263; at the general election would have swept
+the country with the cry of "War for Istria!" To his
+eternal honour he chose the harder path of loyalty to the
+new ideas which Serbian blood has shed so freely to
+make victorious. A momentary victory has now been
+gained by the Italians, but not one that makes for peace.
+It poisons by annexations fundamentally unjustifiable,
+however consecrated by treaty, the whole source of
+tranquillity in the Near East. "Paciencia!" [Have
+patience] you say, in refusing to give alms to a Portuguese
+beggar, and he follows your advice. But when the
+Yugoslavs ask for a revision of the Treaty&mdash;if the Italians
+do not wisely offer it themselves&mdash;it would be rash if in
+attempting to foretell the future we should base ourselves
+upon the premise that their patience will be everlasting.
+A new Alsace has been created, an Alsace to which, in
+the opinion of competent observers, all the Yugoslavs
+will turn until the day comes when it is honourable to
+set the standards forth on a campaign of liberation.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT</p>
+
+<p>When the Yugoslavs were at last in a position, late
+in 1920, to hold the elections for the Constituent Assembly
+the Radicals and the Democrats were the most successful,
+but even if they made a Coalition they would still have
+no majority. [Now and then the Democrats asserted
+themselves against the Radicals, but when the Opposition
+thought they could perceive a rift the Democratic Press
+would write that the two parties were most intimately
+joined to one another, and especially the Democrats.]
+The small parties were very numerous, the smallest being
+that of M. Ribarac, the old Liberal leader, who found
+himself in the Skup&#353;tina with nobody to lead; the
+clericals of Slovenia came to grief, a fact which appeared
+to give general satisfaction, and a similar mishap befell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+the decentralizing parties of Croatia. On the other hand
+the Croat Peasants' party, whose decentralization ideas
+were more extreme, had a very considerable success,
+and the Communist party, whose fall we have already
+described, had come to the Skup&#353;tina with some fifty
+members.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>a</i>) MARKOVI&#262; THE COMMUNIST</p>
+
+<p>The temporary triumph of the Communists was admittedly
+due to the exceptional position in which the country
+found itself. They had in Sima Markovi&#263; an enthusiastic
+leader who has abandoned the teaching of mathematics
+in order to expound the gospel of Moscow, and in the
+Skup&#353;tina the shrill, voice of this kindly, bald-headed
+little man had to be raised to its uttermost capacity, for
+most of his fellow-members were unwilling to be taught.
+It so happens that he is Pa&#353;i&#263;'s godson, and on one occasion
+when the little Communist was talking with great vehemence
+the old gentleman, who was turning over the
+pages of some document, was heard by an appreciative
+House to murmur: "Oh, be still, my child, be still!"
+But the most unfortunate episode in Markovi&#263;'s oratory
+was when he expressed the hope that Communism would
+rage through the country like an epidemic, forgetting for
+the moment that those municipalities which had gone
+over to Communism had won general praise for their
+improvements in the sanitary sphere. Largely on account
+of this infelicitous simile he was replaced in the leadership
+by another, a less vigorous and less entertaining
+person. And this party stood in particular need of
+attractive champions.</p>
+
+<p>The Croat Peasants' party, or the Radi&#263; party, as it
+came to be called, gave to its beloved chief more than
+half the seats in Croatia, forty-nine out of ninety-three;
+and the whole party refused to go to Belgrade.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not have been better," I asked him, "if
+you had gone? The Constitution will be settled without
+you."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>b</i>) RADI&#262;, THE MUCH-DISCUSSED</p>
+
+<p>"We had various reasons," said he, "for not going.
+One of them was that the Assembly which laid down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+Constitution was not sovereign. For example, it was
+not permitted to discuss whether Yugoslavia should be
+a monarchy or a republic. I admit that three-quarters
+of the members would very likely have voted for a
+monarchy, and in that case we should have accepted
+the situation very much as do the royalist deputies in
+the French Parliament."</p>
+
+<p>"What are your own views on this subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "for this period of transition I
+believe&mdash;mark you, this only applies to myself&mdash;that a
+monarchy is not merely acceptable but preferable. On
+the other hand the Croat peasant was so badly treated
+by the Habsburgs that he will now hear of nothing but
+a republic."</p>
+
+<p>I ventured to say that this sudden conversion to
+republican ideas in one who for centuries had lived in a
+monarchy was peculiar, and Radi&#263; acknowledged that
+when the first republican cries were raised at a meeting
+of the Peasants' party on July 25, 1918 they came to him
+as a revelation, one which he accepted.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't accept everything that your peasants
+shout for?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not," said he. "There was a gentleman who
+asked them at a meeting whether they would kill him if
+he, elected as their representative, were to go to Belgrade.
+They shouted back that they would do so. And when
+the prospective candidate came to tell me this story,
+thinking that I would be delighted, I told him that a
+ship's captain cannot have his hands bound before undertaking
+a voyage and he must therefore withdraw his
+candidature.... When the time comes we will go to
+Belgrade."</p>
+
+<p>"And those who say that you are longing for the
+return of the Habsburgs?"</p>
+
+<p>He gripped my arm. "They are fools," said he.
+"We are looking forward as eagerly as the great Bishop
+Strossmayer to the union of the Southern Slavs. According
+to the spirit of his time he began at the top, with
+academies, picture galleries and so forth. We prefer
+to begin with elementary schools." And bubbling with
+enthusiasm he told me of the efforts his party was making.
+It was plain to see that what lies nearest to his heart is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+to improve their social and economic status. And those
+observers are probably in the right, who believe that he
+merely uses this republican cry as a weapon which he
+will conveniently drop when it has served its purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"If only Yugoslavia had a great statesman," said I,
+"who would weld the new State together, so that the
+Croats remain with the Serbs not alone for the reasons
+that they are both Southern Slavs and that they are
+surrounded by not over-friendly neighbours. The great
+statesman&mdash;perhaps it will be Pa&#353;i&#263;&mdash;will make you all
+happy to come together."</p>
+
+<p>"From the bottom of my heart I hope he will succeed,"
+said Radi&#263;, "and he will be remembered as our second
+and more fortunate Strossmayer."</p>
+
+<p>We generally imagine that the statesmen of South-Eastern
+Europe are a collection of rather swarthy, frock-coated
+personages who, when not engaged in decrying
+each other, are very busily occupied in feathering their
+own nests. If any one of them, at the outset of his
+career, had a sense of humour we suppose that in this
+heated atmosphere it must have long ago evaporated.
+But strangely enough, the two most prominent politicians
+in Yugoslavia, the venerable Pa&#353;i&#263;, the Prime Minister
+of this new State of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, even
+as he used for years to be the autocrat of Serbia, and his
+opponent Stephen Radi&#263; are, both of them, by the grace
+of God, of a humorous disposition. Outwardly, there
+is not much resemblance between them: Pa&#353;i&#263;, the
+picture of a benevolent patriarch, letting fall in his
+deep voice a few casual words which bring down his
+critics' case, hopelessly down like a wounded aeroplane,
+and Radi&#263; the fervid little orator, the learned man, whose
+life has been devoted to the Croat peasants and who is
+said to find it difficult to make a speech that is under
+eight hours in length. Last year when the vigorous
+Pribi&#269;evi&#263;, then Minister of the Interior, who is determined
+to compel the Serbs and the Croats straightway
+to live in the closest companionship, whereas Radi&#263;,
+supported by most of the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i>, argues
+that in view of their very different culture, the Serbs
+having enjoyed a Byzantine and the Croats an Austrian
+education, it would be advisable for these two branches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+of the South Slav nation to come gradually and not
+violently together,&mdash;last year when Radi&#263; was lying in
+prison on account of his subversive ideas Pribi&#269;evi&#263; sent
+a message to say that he was prepared to adopt half
+his programme. And Radi&#263; sent back word regretting
+that the Minister could not adopt the whole of it and thus
+obtain for himself the Peasants' party. It is wrong to
+assert that this party is unpatriotic; the enemies of
+Yugoslavia, who welcome in Radi&#263; a disruptive element,
+are totally in error. Years ago he was working for the
+eventual union of Serbs and Croats&mdash;the Austrians
+imprisoned him because in 1903 he went to Belgrade
+at the accession of King Peter and made an admirable
+speech to this effect&mdash;and his present attitude is due to
+the impatient manner in which Mr. Pribi&#269;evi&#263; and his
+friends are endeavouring to bring the union about. His
+peasants are a conservative people; they cannot instantly
+dispel the anti-Serb ideas which the Austrians for ever
+inculcated, nor the negative anti-Serb frame of mind
+which they learned from their own <i>intelligentsia</i>. It
+will take a little time before the Catholic peasant realizes
+that the Orthodox Serb is his brother and that now his
+military service will not be in an alien army, but in his
+own. "Let us go slowly," says Radi&#263;, "with our peasants";
+and he knows them very well.... One is told that he
+changes his opinions from hour to hour; he is certainly
+very impetuous, very much under the influence of his
+emotions; but in one thing he has never varied&mdash;he
+has always struggled for the Croat peasant, and he has
+been rewarded by the unbounded devotion of that faithful,
+rather incoherent, creature.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Serbs are a democratic people; they are by
+their nature in opposition to any force, civil or military,
+which might attempt to make the monarchy more absolute.
+The wisest Serbs do not forget that in the peasant
+lies their principal wealth, and although as yet the
+Serbian Peasants' party does not hold many constituencies
+in the old kingdom, nevertheless it appears to have
+a brighter prospect than any other Serbian party, for in
+that country the revolt against the lawyer-politician is
+likely to be more efficacious than in France or England.
+One may look forward to an understanding between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+Radi&#263; and this Serbian party, which is only two or three
+years old, although its founder, the excellent Avramovi&#263;&mdash;an
+elderly gentleman who sits behind vast barricades
+of books in various languages&mdash;has devoted himself
+for many years to agrarian co-operative societies, of
+which in Serbia there are more than 1500.</p>
+
+<p>The most uncertain factors seem to be the moderating
+hold of Radi&#263; over his peasants and over himself. No one
+doubts but that he has the interests of the peasant very
+much at heart, and if he succeeds in improving the
+peasant's lot then that grateful giant will presumably not
+sink again into the sleep which he enjoyed when he was
+under the Habsburgs. The circulation of Radi&#263;'s weekly
+paper <i>Dom</i><a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> ("The Home") has risen from 2000 before the
+elections and 9000 during the elections to 30,000. One
+enterprising vendor, a Serb from the Banat, takes 500
+copies a week and tramps over the countryside, disposing
+of his wares either for cash or for eggs, the latter of
+which he sells at the end of the week to a Zagreb hotel.
+The peasant is making great efforts to raise himself&mdash;a
+case has recently been brought to light of a farmer in
+Zagorija who, as a hobby, has taught more than 700
+persons to read and write. The peasant perceives that
+he has been assisted far less by the Catholic Church than
+by the work of Radi&#263;. It is not unfair to say that the
+Church desired, above all things, to keep the peasant
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>under her control. If a parish priest was disliked by his
+flock, so a prominent Croatian priest tells me, that was
+all the more reason why the Bishop refused to remove
+him. And the clergy, except for an enlightened minority,
+have been very much opposed to Radi&#263;'s policy of
+democratizing the Church.... In return for his unceasing
+labours he has now secured the peasant's love
+and confidence. He will retain them if he satisfies his
+client, and it seems to be within his power&mdash;gaining
+for him a better position and dissuading him from fantastic
+demands. He can be of immense assistance in the task
+of building up the State. But will the brilliant flame
+within him burn with steadiness? Has he got sufficient
+strength of will? With all his qualities of heart and
+brain he has not managed to discard his zig-zag impetuosity.
+The peasants, who recognize his talents, ask him
+to captain the ship; but he runs down too often into his
+cabin and leaves the unskilled sailors on the bridge.
+Down in the cabin he is feverishly and with great skill
+writing a contradiction of a pronouncement he made
+yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Those who are openly sailing in Radi&#263;'s boat are for
+the most part the hard-headed peasants. Yet a number
+of the <i>intelligentsia</i> are coming on board&mdash;some of them,
+no doubt, with a view to their own advancement, but
+others on account of their convictions. And a still
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>greater number of the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i> look on him
+with sympathy&mdash;municipal officials, barristers, doctors,
+merchants, schoolmasters and military officers. It is
+most foolish to pretend that all these people are thinking
+regretfully of the old Habsburg days&mdash;they are, in the
+vast majority, sincere and loyal Yugoslavs who have
+certain grievances. They do not believe that Croatia has
+fared very well since the institution of the new State
+and it would seem wise to give them as much autonomy
+as is consonant with the interests of the whole country,
+for then they will only have themselves to blame if there
+is no improvement. Maybe they are unduly sensitive,
+but they were for many years in political warfare with
+the Magyars and this should be taken into consideration.
+Even if all the grievances are based on misconceptions,
+on the difficulties of the moment, on the circumstances
+of the fading past&mdash;the new generation of Croats, say
+their teachers, are growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs&mdash;yet
+an effort should be made to sweep them away.</p>
+
+<p>When Belgrade makes a statesmanlike gesture then
+Radi&#263; will probably be able to persuade the peasants
+to abandon their republican slogan&mdash;both they and the
+<i>intelligentsia</i> will abandon their reserved attitude towards
+the Government which they were far from entertaining
+when the State was first established. It seems as if the
+role of conciliator may well be filled by that wise old
+man, Nicholas Pa&#353;i&#263;, who is now no longer a mere Balkan
+Premier. When he was that he very properly used
+Balkan methods, despite the stern remarks of a few
+Western critics.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SERBS AND THE CROATS</p>
+
+<p>We have alluded to the relations between Serbs and
+Croats. This is a subject of such importance that it
+will be well to consider it more fully. When Yugoslavia
+sprang into existence at the end of the War&mdash;70 per cent.
+of this State having previously been under the rule of
+the House of Habsburg&mdash;it was met in various quarters
+with a grudging welcome. Soon, we were told, it would
+dissolve again, and every symptom of internal discontent
+was treated as a proof of this. On the other hand there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+were those who told us that the Southern Slavs, having
+come together after all these hundreds of years, were
+tightly clasped in each others' arms and that all reports
+to the contrary came from very interested parties.</p>
+
+<p>Little was said of the Slovenes; their language, as
+we have mentioned, is not the same as that spoken
+by Serbs and Croats, and&mdash;what is of still greater importance&mdash;they
+have Slovenia to themselves. If Croatia
+were equally immune from Serbs, then by this time the
+Southern Slavs would be a more united nation. Those
+people were wrong who fancied that the presence of the
+Serbs in Croatia&mdash;they form between one-fourth and one-third
+of the population&mdash;would be of service in welding
+together the new State. They forgot that for many
+years the Austro-Hungarian Government had in Croatia
+played off the Roman Catholic Croats against the
+Orthodox Serbs. The two Slav brothers were incited
+to mutual hatred, and though such a propaganda would
+naturally have more effect among the uneducated classes,
+yet all too often the <i>intelligentsia</i> responded to these
+machinations. More favour, of course, was shown to
+the Croats, whose obedience could largely be secured by
+means of the Church, whereas no similar pressure could
+be brought to bear upon the Orthodox Serbs. Even if
+the Government approached the Orthodox clergy, these
+latter had only a very moderate control over their flock.
+A Serb is always ready to subscribe towards the erection
+of a new church, which he regards as most other nations
+regard their flag; but when it is built he rarely enters
+it. This being so, the Austro-Hungarian Government
+tyrannized over the Serbs in Croatia by measures taken
+against their schools, the Cyrillic alphabet and so forth.
+It was natural that the suffering Serbs were apt to compare
+these restrictions with those that were imposed
+upon the Croats. However, among the <i>intelligentsia</i> an
+effort&mdash;a fairly successful effort&mdash;was made to nullify
+this dividing policy; the Serbo-Croat Coalition was
+formed, one of the protagonists being Svetozar Pribi&#269;evi&#263;,
+that very energetic Serb of Croatia, and in 1906 this party
+obtained no less than sixty-eight seats, while the power
+of the older Croat parties was correspondingly diminished
+and Radi&#263; had his very small following in the Zagreb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+Lantag. [Those who represented Croatia in the central
+Parliament at Buda-Pest were chosen by the Ban, Khuen-Hed&eacute;rv&aacute;ry.
+Those forty members had practically no
+acquaintance with the Magyar language, so that some of
+them drew their 8000 annual crowns and only went to
+Pest if an important division was expected, others who
+spent more time in the capital wasted their lives amid
+surroundings just as riotous as and more expensive than
+the Parliament, while only those did useful work who
+managed to confer, behind the scenes, with the authorities.
+To some extent this was done by Pribi&#269;evi&#263; and to a
+greater extent by another Serb, Dr. Du&#353;an Popovi&#263;, who
+surpassed him in capacity and geniality. It was he,
+by the way, who demonstrated in the Buda-Pest Parliament
+that if the average Croat deputy was ignorant of
+the Magyar language, there was a greater ignorance of
+Serbo-Croatian on the part of the Magyars. One day
+when he had started on a speech in his native tongue he
+was howled down after he had explained that he was
+talking Serbian. He promised to continue in Croatian,
+and did so without being interrupted.]</p>
+
+<p>At Zagreb the fusion of the Croat and Serb <i>intelligentsia</i>
+was still very incomplete at the outbreak of the
+War&mdash;the Croat Star&#269;evist party and others going their
+own way. During the War the Austro-Hungarian
+Government ruled by means of the Coalition party; but
+the latter had no choice, and throughout Croatia they
+were never charged with infidelity to the Slav cause.
+They did whatever their delicate situation permitted;
+and in October 1918, when the Slavs of Croatia and
+Slovenia threw off the yoke of centuries and joined with
+the Serbs of Serbia and Montenegro, one hoped that the
+simultaneous arrival in Belgrade of the Coalition and the
+Star&#269;evist leaders heralded in Croatia a cessation of the
+ancient hostility. Pribi&#269;evi&#263; became Minister of the
+Interior in the new State, and very soon it was obvious
+that he meant to govern in a centralizing fashion, despite
+his earlier assurance that no such steps would be taken
+without the sanction of the Constituent Assembly. No
+doubt his motives were unimpeachable; he feared lest
+the negative, anti-Serb mentality, which for so long had
+flourished among the Croats, would not, except by drastic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+methods, be removed. He was met with opposition.
+Now you see, he cried, there are still in Croatia a number
+of disloyal Slavs, great landowners, Catholic clergy and
+others whom the Habsburgs used to favour. And he
+continued, with hundreds of edicts, to try to weld the
+State together. Consumed with patriotism, his great
+black eyes on flame amid the pallor of his face&mdash;his luminous
+and martyred face, to use the expression of his friends&mdash;he
+never for a moment relaxed his efforts; if those who
+opposed him were numerous it was all the more reason why
+he must be resolute. The r&ocirc;le fitted him very well, for he is
+the dourest politician in Yugoslavia&mdash;a perfectly honest, upright,
+injudicious patriot. His Democratic party had now
+taken the place of the Serbo-Croat Coalition and it saw the
+other parties in Croatia gradually drifting back again from
+it or rather from the dominating man; if his place had been
+occupied by his afore-mentioned colleague, the burly and
+beloved Du&#353;an Popovi&#263;, there would have been in Zagreb a
+very much suaver atmosphere. But unfortunately Popovi&#263;
+is a wealthy man, a highly successful lawyer who cares little
+for the tumult of politics.... It was a thorny problem,
+whether the State should be constituted on a federal
+or a centralized basis.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> The federation of the United
+States depends on the centralization of political parties,
+whereas in Yugoslavia the parties have only just begun
+to combine. Feudalism in the German Empire rested on
+the predominance of Prussia, a position which the Serbs
+are, under present conditions, loth to occupy in Yugoslavia.
+In Germany, moreover, many of the States used
+to be independent, while in Yugoslavia this was only the
+case with Serbia and Montenegro. Centralism would
+tend to obliterate the tribal divisions, but on the other
+hand it brings in its train bureaucracy, which is slow,
+cumbrous and often corrupt; it demands unusually good
+central institutions and first-rate communications, neither
+of which are as yet in a satisfactory state. The constitution
+has arrived at a compromise between the federal
+and the centralized systems. A writer in the <i>Contemporary
+Review</i> (November 1921) said that the division
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>of the whole of Yugoslavia into some twenty administrative
+areas [he should have said thirty-three] to
+replace the racial areas, was a very drastic proposal to
+put forward; and he added that when the historic
+provincial divisions of France were broken up into departments,
+the nation had been prepared by nearly 200 years
+of centralization under the monarchy. It is a flaw in his
+argument to say that the previously existing areas were
+racial, whereas populations of identical race were divided
+from one another by the course of events. And in the
+proposed obliteration of these divisions&mdash;to be effected
+in a less arbitrary fashion than in France, where no account
+was taken of the former provinces&mdash;it can scarcely be
+maintained that, of itself, this part of the centralizing
+programme in Yugoslavia is so very drastic.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever one may think about the Balkan peoples
+it is a fact that the essential Serb, the Serb from &#352;umadia,
+is a pacific person, rather lazy perhaps, but certainly
+more devoted to dancing than to battle. And some of
+the wiser Serbs were dubious in 1919 and 1920 as to
+whether the most sagacious methods were being employed
+in Croatia. Radi&#263; was in prison, but they were told that
+this impetuous demagogue was insisting on a republic,
+and the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i> were far from happy. It is
+true that in the elections of November 1920 the National
+party, as the Star&#269;evists now called themselves, had no
+great success; but the Radi&#263; party had more than half
+the seats. Surely this had not been brought about
+merely by the chief's imprisonment? There seemed to
+be in that province some wider, some growing dissatisfaction.
+And in the spring of 1921 most of the Catholic
+Croats, those within and those without the Radi&#263; party,
+were nourishing a score of grievances. No doubt a large
+proportion of these were unavoidable (in view of the state
+of Central Europe) or were rather trivial (the mayor of an
+important town told me that he, who was under the
+Minister of the Interior, had received an order from the
+Belgrade Minister of War, with respect to the detention
+of deserters&mdash;conditions, said he, were not so primitive in
+the Austro-Hungarian monarchy) and sometimes the
+grievances were against the Habsburgs (for not having
+made them more fit to assume these new responsibilities),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+and sometimes they were against the Serbs for being less
+civilized&mdash;though they might be more moral&mdash;than
+themselves, and sometimes the grievances were personal:
+now and then after the Austrian collapse a Serbian
+officer or his men, uncertain of the feelings of the population,
+had acted with unwise, or rather with inexpedient,
+vigour&mdash;instead of shooting those who in the general
+anarchy were laying waste and plundering, they merely
+flogged them, and this was for a long time remembered
+against them, although the Croat <i>intelligentsia</i> who had
+taken service in the police flogged in a far more wholesale
+fashion. But down at the bottom of all the grievances
+there is the fundamental fact that the Southern Slavs
+yearn to be comrades, to shake off the differences which
+in the course of ages have grown up between them.
+These fraternal sentiments may be crudely expressed&mdash;it
+has happened that a Slav from Bosnia (whose
+ancestors adopted Islam some centuries ago) finds himself
+in a Serbian village. He strikes up acquaintance with
+some native. "What is your name?" asks the latter.
+"Muhammed." The Serb has never heard of such a
+name; he is puzzled. "Well, never mind," says he, and
+takes his new friend back to dinner. They sit down to
+the sucking pig. Muhammed refuses to partake of it, and
+informs the Serb that Allah would be angry. "Don't be
+afraid," says the Serb; "I'll tell him that it's my fault,"
+and after a time he overcomes the Bosniak's scruples....
+In more cultured circles the wonderful union of the
+Southern Slavs is manifested after a different fashion, and
+those neighbours who imagine that the afore-mentioned
+grievances are going to dissolve the new State will one
+day see how much they are mistaken. The Southern
+Slavs intend to quarrel with each other, to quarrel like
+brothers.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SAD CASE OF PRIBI&#268;EVI&#262;</p>
+
+<p>As between the Catholic and the Orthodox in Croatia
+the sole uncertainty is whether this fusion will shortly
+take place or after an interval. It is agreed by the most
+malcontent schoolmasters that their pupils are growing
+up to be excellent Yugoslavs who will have no more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+fear of what they call "Serb hegemony" than have the
+Scots of that of England. As for the present generation
+of Croats and Serbs, if they were Occidentals they would
+be old enough to laugh at each others' peculiarities and
+each others' statesmen. But South-Eastern Europe is
+still under the morning clouds, and they are inclined to
+take seriously what we in the West make fun of. However,
+there is one man whose presence in the Cabinet
+the Croats cannot be expected to regard with good-humour
+or with nonchalance. The reconciliation of
+Croatia will be much more easily effected if Mr. Pribi&#269;evi&#263;
+resigns. His merits as a demagogue and political writer
+are undeniable. He would make an excellent Whip.
+But he prefers to be a Minister, and most unfortunately
+he is not a statesman. A zealous patriot, he is as yet
+unable to conceive that the business of the State could
+be more successfully managed without him. The sweets
+of office appear, if anything, to have made him more
+bitter; and even among the Serbs of the old kingdom
+his withdrawal is considered advisable. A friend of his
+has told me that in the middle of a laughing conversation
+he threw out a hint of this, and like a cloud blown suddenly
+across a summer sky, Pribi&#269;evi&#263;'s face grew black. Unhappily
+he is not even Fortinbras and yet imagines he is
+Hamlet. A good many people in Yugoslavia call him
+<i>un homme fatal</i>, most of the others <i>l'homme fatal</i>. It is
+said that in the Democratic party he is actively supported
+by not more than ten deputies, but that the others, to
+preserve the party, take no steps. He himself, however,
+would probably have not the least hesitation in choosing
+another party, if he could otherwise not stay in the
+Cabinet; for his permanence in office is the one idea
+that crushes every other from his mind. If he cannot
+be Minister of the Interior&mdash;a post from which he has
+been more than once, and happily for Yugoslavia, ejected&mdash;then
+he insists on being Minister of Education. What
+are his qualifications? Years ago he gave instruction
+at a school for elementary teachers, and so faint a conception
+has he of the educational needs of his country
+that one day when a Professor of Belgrade University
+asked him if no steps could be taken to diminish the
+prohibitive cost of books, especially foreign books, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+Minister simply stared at him as if he had been talking
+Chinese. And yet in a recent book of national verses,
+published by his brother Adam, we are told that:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"At the table also sat the sage Pribi&#269;evi&#263;,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who can converse with Emperors...."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There are some who, curiously, have compared
+Radi&#263;'s party with the Sinn Feiners; Radi&#263; may have
+announced that he would approach the Serbs as the
+representative of an independent country, but he never
+proposed, even when his views were most extreme, to
+realize them with physical force. At a great open-air
+meeting of his adherents the speeches were so mild that
+only twice did the Chief of Police, who was next to me,
+raise a warning finger, and on each occasion to keep the
+orator from very innocent digressions. Nevertheless,
+there is no concealing the fact that even in these unsatisfactory
+times&mdash;"It seems to me," said a philosophic
+peasant recently at Valjevo, in the heart of Serbia, "it
+seems to me that if we had a plebiscite then Valjevo
+might not wish to remain with Serbia!"&mdash;even in a
+world that is so awry the Croats are more reserved towards
+the union than is good for the State. Perhaps they
+would cherish fewer grievances if they had gained their
+freedom with greater difficulty; and surely they need
+have no more uneasiness than have the Scots that their
+name and nationality will be swamped, for what the
+Magyars were unable to do, that the Serbs do not wish
+to do. There are among the Serbs a few extremists,
+such as a pernicious editor or two, but their anti-Croat
+tirades find extremely little favour anywhere. Last
+autumn when the Prince-Regent (now King Alexander)
+visited the Croat capital his reception was most enthusiastic.
+"Let us keep him here!" cried the people, "and
+let King Peter stay in Belgrade!" The Prince by his
+tact brought the Croat out of his tent; he must not be
+allowed to go back again&mdash;let the Southern Slavs observe
+what each of their provinces can bring towards the
+common good. The Croats acknowledge that the military
+system of Serbia is more endurable&mdash;only one son is
+taken out of each family&mdash;and that whereas in Slovenia
+a lawsuit can be settled in fourteen days it has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+wont in Croatia to take as many years. Unfortunately
+human nature, in Serbia, Croatia and everywhere else,
+finds that the bad points of other people are more worthy
+of comment than the good. When two brothers have
+been brought up in very different circumstances there
+will be so many points on which they differ; and when a
+Serb taking part in a technical discussion of scientists
+wishes to say that he differs from the previous speaker
+he will commonly observe that that person has made a
+fool of himself. When an editor alludes to a political
+opponent he may call him an assassin and be much
+astonished if this is resented. "Je suis un ours," said
+a Serbian savant of European repute; occasionally he
+behaves like one and is rather proud of it. The Serbs
+of Croatia have been imitating, nay exaggerating, the
+emphatic manners of their countrymen in the old kingdom.
+And Pribi&#269;evi&#263;, as Minister of Education, has not attempted
+to give the Croats a tactful course in courage,
+patriotism and morality, where they have much to learn
+from the less civilized Serbs, but scowling at them he
+has made up his mind that, in and out of school, they
+must straightway be the closest of companions.</p>
+
+<p>However, the Serbs and Croats have a man whose
+counsel is more worthy of attention. Dr. Trumbi&#263;,
+formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had been elected
+at the head of four different lists in his native Dalmatia
+but had entered the Constituent Assembly without giving
+his allegiance to any party. And in April 1921 he made
+a speech as memorable as it was long, for it occupied
+the whole of one sitting and was continued the next day.
+Careless of the applause and the antagonism which he
+excited, the serene orator pointed out that the conflict
+between Serbs and Croats was based on their different
+psychology. Croatia had had her independent life and
+must be considered as a factor in Yugoslavia; but having
+come in, like Montenegro, of her own accord, she had not
+wished to be a separate factor. Traditions should not
+be so lightly set aside; and while there was perhaps no
+people more homogeneous than the Yugoslavs it should
+be remembered that none was more ready to resist the
+application of force.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS</p>
+
+<p>Except at Kola&#353;in, where a few friends of Nikita
+tried their brigand tactics, there was perfect calm in
+Montenegro during the elections. As elsewhere in Yugoslavia,
+there was a general amnesty and a prohibition,
+for the three preceding days, to sell wine or rakia. The
+ten elected candidates, all of them for the Yugoslav
+union and against Nikita, were equally divided between
+Radicals and Democrats on the one hand and Communists
+and Republicans on the other. The authorities took
+not the slightest step to favour any candidate; various
+prominent deputies, such as Dr. Yoyi&#263;, the Minister of
+Food Supply, were beaten. And in a letter to the Press
+we were told by Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that these
+elections were certainly both "farcical and fraudulent."
+He is contradicted by Mr. Roland Bryce, who, after his
+excellent work on the Allied Plebiscite Commission in
+Carinthia, was sent by the Foreign Office with Major
+L.&nbsp;E. Ottley to report on the Montenegrin elections.
+He says (in Command Paper I., 124) that "in actual
+practice the method of voting prescribed by the electoral
+law was found to ensure absolute secrecy (the system
+adopted being the only feasible one in a country where
+the proportion of illiterates is great), and the manner
+in which the ballot was supervised and carried out was
+unimpeachable and proof against the most exacting
+criticism." Mr. M'Neill is also contradicted by the
+Republican candidate, M. Gjonovi&#263;, who in a manifesto
+drawn up after the election declares that "none can say
+that the elections were not free, or that anyone who
+wished could not make up a list. At the elections only
+the lists and boxes of the Republicans, Democrats, Independents,
+Radicals and Communists were represented.
+All of these parties had in their programmes the motto
+'The people and State union,' with, of course, different
+points of view and different opinions as to the organization
+of our national and State forces, except the Communists,
+who go further and desire the union of all
+peoples."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">WHICH ONE GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE</p>
+
+<p>It will thus be seen that the friends of Nikita were
+altogether wrong in suggesting that those who voted
+for the Republicans or Communists were opposed to the
+union with Serbia in Yugoslavia. Both Republicans
+and (paradoxical though it sounds) the Communists
+resented this insinuation very bitterly; and considering
+that the leaders of both parties are pronounced antagonists
+of the old r&eacute;gime, and were indeed severally condemned to
+death by Nikita, it would have been strange if they now
+supported him. Thus every single programme put forward
+by the different parties included, in some form or other,
+union with Serbia. The candidates themselves explicitly
+said so; but Mr. M'Neill knows better, and informs
+us how very hostile to the Serbs they really were. He
+is a wonderful man, Mr. M'Neill. Standing up in the
+House of Commons he directs his penetrating gaze upon
+the Black Mountain, and with such effect that he can see
+in the minds of Montenegrin politicians what they themselves
+had never dreamed of. Since we have such a
+man as Mr. M'Neill in the country, one would think that
+the Foreign Office might have saved itself the expense
+of sending out Mr. Bryce and Major Ottley.</p>
+
+<p>But since we have it, let us look at Mr. Bryce's very
+interesting and detailed report. After explaining that
+both Republicans and Communists were in favour of
+union with Serbia, he tells us how it happened that so
+many people voted for these two lists instead of for the
+orthodox Radical and Democratic parties. The Communists,
+according to Mr. Bryce, were benefited by a
+party organization, a vigorous canvass and a better
+discipline than that of any of their opponents. Their
+policy won the support of many ardent and very patriotic
+Nationalists, who voted in many cases for Communism
+on the ground that it was the Russian policy&mdash;out of
+gratitude for what the Tzars had done for Montenegro
+in the past! Major Temperley, assistant military attach&eacute;,
+in another report (Command Paper I., 123) observes that
+some local discontent had arisen in Montenegro because
+the native does not understand, and has never experienced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+before, a really efficient system of government, and
+because the introduction of conscription was not well
+adapted to the national tradition of lawless and untrained
+vigour. Major Temperley testifies that the Republican
+party gained the suffrages of numerous returned emigrants
+who admired the state of things in America. He shares
+Mr. Bryce's opinion as to the insignificance of the pro-Nikita
+party. "Even making large allowances," says
+he, "there seemed to me to be no doubt that the pro-Nicholas
+party were the weakest in Montenegro." Certain
+of his devotees were simply brigands who, like the
+Neapolitan miscreants after 1860, sought to cast a glamour
+over their depredations by affecting to be in arms on
+behalf of their former King. This personage himself
+was so well aware of his unpopularity that he was prudent
+enough to tell his supporters to abstain from voting.
+Those who did abstain were altogether only 32&middot;69 per cent.
+of the electors, though one would have been justified
+in expecting a much higher proportion, since the people
+have not yet fully grasped their rights and duties with
+respect to the franchise; the distances to the booths were
+often very great, and the peasants were often indifferent
+as to whether one candidate or another with a very
+similar programme should be elected. The tribal or
+family system is still so prevalent in the villages that one
+member of a family would be sent to express the considered
+views of his fellows. The effect of the elections
+being held on a Sunday was to increase rather than
+diminish the number of abstainers, for although Sunday
+is a public holiday the Christian Montenegrin is under no
+obligation to hear Mass and for that reason travel to the
+village. The churches are practically deserted, for he
+is accustomed on that day to remain at home; while
+the Moslem voters largely declined to vote because there
+were no Moslem candidates. That is why it would appear
+that those of the 32&middot;69 per cent. who abstained because
+they were in favour of Nikita were extremely few. Their
+simple-mindedness has its limits, while that of good
+Mr. M'Neill believes that because France, Great Britain
+and America undertook to restore Montenegrin independence,
+they were still obliged to do so after they perceived
+at the conclusion of the War that an overwhelming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+majority of Montenegrins did not desire it. This majority
+dethroned its traitor-king; but Mr. M'Neill maintains
+that France and England have dethroned "a monarch
+who was a friend and an ally."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> Because M. Poincar&eacute;,
+in the days before the Montenegrins had rejected Nikita,
+addressed him as "Very Dear and Great Friend"&mdash;the
+ordinary form of words for a reigning monarch&mdash;Mr.
+M'Neill actually seems to think that France was for
+evermore compelled to clasp Nikita to her bosom. He
+clearly admires those who, since the end of the War,
+have risen in the cause of their old King; and I suppose
+that in consequence he disapproves of the Omladina,
+the voluntary association of men who banded themselves
+together to resist the terrorism of the pro-King komitadjis.
+If he had been in Montenegro during the years after the
+War he would possibly agree that komitadji is the proper
+name for the many lawless elements who have found
+the traditional fighting life more congenial than the
+thankless task of tilling their very barren land. The
+moral effect of opposing to these the Montenegrin Omladina
+instead of Serbian troops was to destroy all pretence of
+the movement being a national Montenegrin insurrection
+against the union, and the cessation of assistance from
+Italy resulted in the complete suppression of the movement.
+The few outlaws who still remain at large, said
+Mr. Bryce in December 1920, are in no sense political,
+but are merely bandits. And as the Omladina has now
+no <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i> they have disbanded themselves. Much
+now depends on the Constitution. If it gives them equal
+rights&mdash;and naturally it will&mdash;with the other inhabitants
+of Yugoslavia the Montenegrins will be content.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">In August 1921 the <i>Secolo</i> of Milan sent a famous
+correspondent to Montenegro. He came to much the
+same conclusions as Messrs. Bryce and Temperley. Not
+a single political prisoner was to be found, and not one
+of the ex-soldiers who returned from Gaeta had been
+molested. The correspondent thought that the Serbs
+had been ill-advised at the beginning to employ forcible
+methods against the pro-Nikita partisans who were
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>opposed to Yugoslavia; they should, said he, have let
+the pear ripen spontaneously and fall into their lap.
+But now their policy had become one of conciliation:
+during the last two and a half years Montenegro had
+received from Belgrade for public works, pensions and
+subsidies, 93 million dinars, and had paid in taxes only 5
+millions. Secondary education had been increased, and
+700 Montenegrin students (of whom 500 are allotted
+a monthly grant) frequent Yugoslav universities. The
+fertile lands of Yugoslavia were open to Montenegrin
+emigration. In fact an isolated, independent Montenegro
+was no longer needed. With the disappearance of the
+Turk from all Serbian territory in 1913 a return to the
+union of the Serbs, as in the days of Stephen Du&#353;an,
+was only hindered by historical, sentimental and, above
+all, by dynastic reasons. It was sad, quoth the correspondent,
+that the glorious history of Montenegro should
+have come to such a tame end, but her historic mission
+was closed in 1913, even as that of Scotland in 1707,
+to the benefit of both parties. Now the Serbs were
+leaving them to manage their own affairs; many ex-Nikita
+officials had been confirmed in their posts, while
+officers were given their old rank in the Yugoslav army.
+It is unfortunate for itself that the "Near East" (of
+London) does not employ so discerning a correspondent.
+We should then hear no more of such folly as that which&mdash;to
+select one occasion out of many&mdash;caused it in November
+1921 to speak about "the forcible absorption of Montenegro."
+And the world may be pardoned if it is more
+ready to accept the observations made on the spot by
+an expert Italian correspondent rather than the futile
+remarks sent by the Hon. Aubrey Herbert from the
+House of Commons, also in November 1921, to the
+<i>Morning Post</i>. This gentleman informs us that "it was
+probably because the Yugoslav Government was allowed
+to annex the ancient principality of Montenegro, exile
+its King, and subjugate its people, without any interference
+from the Great Powers, that M. Pasitch thought
+that he could do as he liked in Albania." That is the
+sort of statement which one may treat with Matthew
+Arnold's "patient, deep disdain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">MEDI&AElig;VAL DOINGS AT RIEKA</p>
+
+<p>On July 14, 1920, a letter marked "urgent" (No.
+2047) was written by Colonel Sani, the Chief of
+d'Annunzio's Cabinet, in which he confirmed the orders
+which he had already given verbally, to the effect that
+all the foreign elements, especially the Serbs and Croats,
+who "exercise an obnoxious political influence," should
+be expelled from Rieka at the earliest possible date; he
+mentions that this is the command of d'Annunzio, who
+is in full accord with the President of the Consiglio
+Nazionale. This was the continuation of a practice which
+the Italian authorities had carried on in a wholesale
+manner. Father J.&nbsp;N. Macdonald, in his unimpeachable
+little book, <i>A Political Escapade</i> (London, 1921), gives us
+numerous examples of persons who in the most wanton
+fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant
+called Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while
+talking to some English soldiers. After three days, spent
+under arrest, he was told that he would have to depart
+"from Italy" (<i>sic</i>). He was given a <i>faglio di via obligatorio</i>
+by the carabinieri, according to which he was
+banished on the ground of being "unemployed." Yet
+this man had had a fixed residence in Rieka for thirty-six
+years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished with a
+regular industrial certificate.... His name had been
+found on one of the lists in favour of annexation to
+Yugoslavia. When the world in general turned its
+attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to think
+that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that
+an agreement had at last been reached and the poor
+harassed place was to be neutral, it presumed that those
+among her citizens who had been openly in arms against
+the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
+would have been astonished to be told that the notorious
+self-elected Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame
+President, Mr. Grossich, cheerfully remained in
+office. It is true that they now called themselves the
+"Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this
+change of title made a good deal more impression than
+upon the local Yugoslavs, whose treatment did not vary.
+A decree was printed on January 21, 1921, in the <i>Vedetta</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
+previous Government retained their force, but that
+appeals might be addressed to the Rector of the Interior.
+A deputation was received by this gentleman, and was told
+that the procedure would be so complicated and so
+lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until
+after the elections. These elections had been fixed for
+the end of April, and it seemed as if France and England
+were so blinded by the blessed words "Provisional
+Government" that they could see nothing else. That
+over 2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from
+the d'Annunzian era or been since introduced was surely
+gossip, and how could anyone believe that those men had
+been granted citizenship on the simple declaration of a
+Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the applicant
+worked under him? These declarations, by the way,
+must have refrained from going into details, for there
+was an almost total lack of work&mdash;except in the political
+department of the police. Rieka was to all intents in
+the possession of Italy, and she was learning what that
+meant. The town was like a dead place, shops were only
+open in the morning, and if the shopkeepers had not been
+compelled by the authorities to remove their shutters
+they would have strolled down to the quays where the
+grass was growing&mdash;"but, thank Heaven," cried Grossich,
+"thank Heaven, it is Italian grass!" (If he ever recalls
+that long-distant day, when, as a student, he fought for
+his fellow-Croats, and when, as a young doctor, he was
+an enthusiastic official of the Croat Club at Castua near
+Rieka, perhaps this gentleman thanks his God for having
+led him to Rieka and turned him into an Italian.) Cut
+off from its Yugoslav hinterland the population of Rieka,
+which consisted more and more of arditi and fascisti, less
+and less of Yugoslavs, the population had nothing to
+do save to speculate in the rate of exchange (but not in
+the local notes which no one wanted) and to prepare for
+the elections. Thus, with time very heavy on their hands,
+there was a great deal of corruption; cocaine could be
+obtained at nearly all the caf&eacute;s. The elections drew
+nearer, and one wondered whether the Entente was going
+to look at the lists of voters and to inquire how it came
+that many natives of the town were not inscribed. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+was likely to happen if the place was delivered altogether
+to the C.N.I. could be seen when the harbour of
+Baro&#353;, given by the Rapallo Treaty to Yugoslavia, was
+demanded, simply demanded, by the Italian Nationalists;
+those ultra-patriots the fascisti, in Italy and in Rieka,
+when they saw that in the "holocaust city" everything
+was going just as well for them as in the brave days of
+d'Annunzio, persisted loudly in claiming Baro&#353; as an integral
+part of Rieka. The Yugoslavs must be prevented,
+wherever possible, from approaching the Adriatic&mdash;this
+being the furious policy of the Italian capitalists who had
+succeeded in sweeping most of the Italian people off their
+feet. With Baro&#353;, a port of limited possibilities, in the
+hands of the Yugoslavs, it would mean that the adjacent
+Rieka through its Yugoslav commerce would prosper;
+but anything that savoured of a Yugoslav Rieka was
+obnoxious to the capitalists and their wild followers,
+since they feared that in the first place it would raise a
+grievous obstacle to their penetration of the Balkans, and
+secondly it would involve the ruin of Triest, where German
+capital still plays a predominant part. So in their folly
+they strenuously fought for the Germans, spurred on by
+the terrible thought that Rieka might become predominantly
+Yugoslav. They refused to listen to their
+wiser men, who pointed out that the possession of an odd
+town or island was to Italy of not so much importance as
+friendship with their Slav neighbours. When, at the
+beginning of April 1921 a large sailing boat, the <i>Rad</i>
+(Captain Vlaho Grubi&#353;i&#263;) came into Baro&#353;, the first ship
+to bring the Yugoslav flag to that port, there was intense
+commotion among the fascisti. Forty of them with
+weapons ran down to the harbour, but Grubi&#353;i&#263; told them
+that he saw no reason why he should not fly the flag of
+his State. A number of workmen, Italians and Yugoslavs,
+then appeared and made common cause against the
+fascisti, so that the latter withdrew. And the captain
+of the Italian warship <i>Carlo Mirabello</i> sent to ask Grubi&#353;i&#263;
+if he had removed the flag. On hearing that he had not
+done so the captain said that he had acted perfectly
+correctly. It seems to be too much to hope that such
+honourable Italians as this captain and these workmen
+will be able, without certain measures on the part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+France and England, to prevail over those elements
+who have dragged Rieka down to death and to dishonour.</p>
+
+<p>At last, on April 25, the elections were held. There
+were two parties, that of the C.N.I., swollen with arditi
+and fascisti, who would have nothing to do with the
+Treaty of Rapallo&mdash;their programme consisted in annexation
+to Italy&mdash;and the other party, whose object was to
+carry out the provisions of the Treaty. Professor Zanella
+was its chief. There did not seem to be much hope that
+it would be successful, although it contained what was
+left of the Autonomists, who in 1919 were the largest
+party&mdash;desiring that the town should be neither Yugoslav
+nor Italian&mdash;and these Autonomists were now reinforced
+by the Yugoslavs. But so numerous had been the
+expulsions that many of the survivors feared that it
+would be futile to vote, and on the other hand the Annexionist
+party was quite confident that it would win.
+During the afternoon of the election day, however, they
+perceived that the impossible was happening, and that
+Zanella was marching to victory. Thereupon the enraged
+fascisti had recourse to violence. "Zanella's victory was
+intolerable to these patriots," said <i>La Nazione</i>,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> "because
+they remembered the two years of tenacity and of splendid
+Italian spirit and of suffering which the town had lived
+through." Most of the electors remembered the suffering.
+The fascisti seized a number of urns and made a bonfire
+of them; there was presented the spectacle of Signor
+Gigante, d'Annunzio's obedient mayor, bursting with
+armed companions into that room of the Palace of Justice
+where the votes were being scrutinized. "I yield to
+violence," said the presiding official; and twenty minutes
+afterwards the contents of the urns were burning merrily.
+But these measures did not help the cause of the fascisti,
+no more than did their screams that they had been
+betrayed. And if Zanella had to fly from Rieka because,
+as the Nationalist paper put it, he could not stand up
+against the vehement indignation of so many of the
+citizens, yet he and his party have triumphed. "Fiume
+or Death," used to be the device dear to d'Annunzio.
+He placarded the long-suffering walls with it, and it was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>on the lapels of the coats of his adherents. "Fiume must
+belong to Italy or be blown up," cried the poet. But,
+strange to say, a majority of the inhabitants prefer that
+their town should continue to exist, and this it can only
+do if, in accordance with the Treaty of Rapallo, it becomes
+a neutral State on friendly terms with both its neighbours,
+Italy and Yugoslavia. The Italian Government desires,
+of course, to execute its Treaty obligations,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> and if it finds
+too painful the task of moderating the ardours of its own
+super-patriots, it will no doubt be glad to have this done by
+an International force. That method, which was only
+prevented by d'Annunzio's arrival in 1919, offers the
+speediest and most efficacious solution of Rieka's troubles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE STRICKEN TOWN</p>
+
+<p>If anyone imagined that they would be ended with
+the installation of Zanella he was wrong. At the municipal
+elections 90 per cent. voted for the Autonomist
+party, the Yugoslavs having had the good sense to join
+them. But the Italian Nationalists were not going to
+yield to moderation, and immediately after the elections
+Zanella was obliged to flee for his life, so that he was
+not installed in office until October 5. He struggled
+manfully to clear away the chaos and to make such
+economic arrangements as would eventually convert
+Rieka into a prosperous port. This the fascisti of Triest
+and Venice could by no means tolerate, and on January 31
+an unsuccessful attempt was made by them on his life
+as he was leaving the Constituent Assembly. On February
+16 the Anai (Assoziazione Nazionale fra gli Arditi
+d'Italia) sent out a very urgent message from their headquarters
+in the Via Macchiavelli in Triest. They informed
+the subsections that not only was Zanella preparing
+to deliver Rieka to the Croats, but that the army of
+the "globe-trotter" Wrangel was waiting in Su&#353;ak to
+seize the wretched town. Therefore Gabriele d'Annunzio
+had commanded that every loyal servant of the cause
+was to be mobilized. And after a few rhetorical sentences
+it continued, "I will give the marching orders by telegram
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>as follows: 'Send the documents. Farina.' If only
+a small number of people are needed I will telegraph,
+'Send ... Quintal. Farina.'" The men were to
+assemble at the Italian Labour Bureau, 9 Via Pozza
+Bianca in Triest. They were to be clad in mufti, to be
+armed so far as it was possible and to have with them
+three days' provender.... The subsections are asked
+to telegraph the approximate number of those on whom
+they can rely. And this memorandum should be acknowledged.
+It is signed, "With brotherly greetings. Farina
+Salvatore." About ten days later&mdash;between February 26
+and 28&mdash;there was a meeting at the Hotel Imperial in
+Vienna, under the presidency of Vilim Stipeti&#263;, formerly
+a major of the Austrian General Staff. Some dissident
+Croats&mdash;among them Dr. Emanuel Gagliardi, Captains
+Cankl and Petri&#269;evi&#263;, Gjuro Kli&#353;uri&#263;, Josip Boldin and
+Major-General I&#353;tvanovi&#263;&mdash;two dissident Montenegrins,
+Jovo Plamenac and Marko Petrovi&#263;, together with two
+Italian officers, adherents of d'Annunzio, Colonel Finzi
+of Triest and Major Ventura of Rome, ... assembled
+for the purpose of stirring up trouble for the Yugoslavs
+in the spring. They referred with pleasure to the presence
+of sundry Bulgarian komitadjis in Albania, Finzi declared
+that the Italian Government would satisfy the Croats
+and give them Rieka as soon as Croatia had achieved
+her independence and a less visionary promise was made
+of disturbances in Rieka. On March 1 the two Italian
+officers left for Triest and on March 3 Rieka was confronted
+with another <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i>. The fascisti of Triest
+and of Gulia Venetia descended on the town in two
+special trains of the Italian State Railway. They had
+not the slightest confidence in Zanella, who was an honest
+man, working on the basis of the Treaty of Rapallo,
+whereby Italy and Yugoslavia recognized the Free State
+of Rieka. In their eyes it was a monstrous thing that
+Italy should be expected to observe this instrument.
+So let the town be freed, let Zanella be expelled. And
+as he only had at his disposal a force of about three
+hundred local gendarmes, with rifles but without munition,
+it was not particularly difficult for the fascisti heroes to
+accomplish their task. Zanella had to fly once more.</p>
+
+<p>"If Italy were to offend against the freedom and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+independence of the State of Rieka she would deprive
+herself," said Signor Schanzer, the Italian Foreign Secretary
+"she would deprive herself of the name of a Great
+Power and in the Society of Nations she would retain
+no authority." Thus did the successor of the relentless
+but unavailing della Torretta try, with eloquent and
+noble words, to wipe the blot from Italy's scutcheon.
+She could scarcely have the nations coming to the Congress
+of Genoa, there to debate with regard to the economic
+re-establishment of Europe, while her own conduct was
+so very much under suspicion. It would have been
+rather curious, so the <i>Zagreber Tagblatt</i><a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> pointed out,
+for a robber to invite you to his house with a view to
+taking steps against robbery. Something drastic had
+to be done, so that Europe would not look askance at
+the Italian Government. Zanella, it was true, had been
+thrown out&mdash;but why should not the world be told that
+this had been effected by the people of the town? A
+very excellent idea! And so a certain Lieut. Cabruna
+of the <i>gendarmerie</i> made a plan to get together the
+Constituent Assembly and then&mdash;well, there are always
+methods by which resolutions can be passed. Perhaps
+it would not even be necessary for a single rifle to be
+fired at the deputies from the Distinguished Strangers'
+Gallery. But most of the deputies succeeded in escaping
+from the town, although frantic efforts were made to
+prevent them. Out of the threescore only thirteen poor
+devils were held fast and came to the futile meeting.
+The others, with Zanella, assembled on Yugoslav territory
+at a place called Saint Anna.</p>
+
+<p>And Signor Schanzer went on talking. Officers and
+men of the Italian army and navy, said he, had shown
+perfect discipline. Signor Schanzer may not be an
+expert on discipline, but as a humorist he wins applause.
+One's ordinary notions of discipline do not include the
+seizure of a warship by a handful of bandits, the cannons
+of the vessel being afterwards directed against the Government
+palace of a neutral State. The fascisti, with the
+help of Italian troops and accompanied by several
+Italian deputies, eject the legal Government of Rieka.
+One of these deputies, Giuratti, is chosen by his friends
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>to be President of the Free State&mdash;Giuratti of the fascisti,
+Giuratti who most barbarically had ill-treated the Istrian
+Slavs, but&mdash;for we will be just&mdash;this was when he believed
+they were barbarians, savages, quite common, brutal
+men; well, he had learned, he wrote,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> that this was not
+the case, they had adopted Western culture, they had
+raised the revolutionary flag against the dynasty of
+Karageorgevi&#263; and if Yugoslavia's dismemberment
+should ever come to pass, "then, as I confidently hope,"
+said he, "the Croats with their righteous national aspirations
+will unite with their great neighbour Italy. We
+salute the Croat Revolution with sincerest sympathy..."
+and so on and so on. That was the kind of calm, impartial
+personage to have as Governor of the distracted Free
+State, where in one point anyhow most of the population
+think the same, and that is that their union with Italy
+would be an absolute disaster. Behold this Giuratti
+posing his candidature, Giuratti whose patriotism and
+idealism are, says the Italian Government, fully appreciated
+by them; nevertheless it has advised him to
+refuse the suggested honour. That he should be punished
+did not occur to them; but what would they have said
+if a Yugoslav&mdash;surely with more right than an Italian
+and certainly with a larger following of townsfolk&mdash;had
+been selected as President? "The proceedings of the
+Italian Government," said Schanzer, "are clear, speedy
+and determined." But did anything unpleasant happen
+to Commandant Castelli, an officer sent to make order,
+when he quite openly placed himself on the side of the
+fascisti? Would degradation be the lot of any officer
+or soldier who "mutinied" and joined the fascisti?...
+Apparently it was due to the unhappy political condition
+of Europe that the whole civilized world did not launch
+an indignant protest against the baseness and cynicism
+of the Italians. But how utterly they failed to persuade
+others that the wishes of Rieka were as they represented
+them! Rieka desires to remain independent and this
+desire the Italians will have to respect. And the later
+they make up their mind to keep their promises, so much
+the worse for them. The Yugoslavs can wait, for theirs
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>is the future. A cartoonist in the Belgrade <i>Vreme</i> depicted
+a rough old Serbian warrior holding on his open hand a
+very neat little Italian soldier. "Now listen to me,"
+he was saying, "and I will tell you a story. Once upon
+a time there was a country called Austria...."</p>
+
+<p>There was a characteristic little affair at Saint Anna
+on March 23. A few minutes after Zanella had left the
+Lubi&#263; Inn a suspicious-looking person appeared. He
+began observing the customers and their surroundings,
+when the Police-Commissary Per&#353;i&#263; came up to him and
+asked for his passport. "Take yourself off!" shouted
+the intruder, as he pulled a bomb out of his trouser
+pocket. Per&#353;i&#263; grappled with him and soon overpowered
+him. And outside the house four other fascisti, Armano
+Viola, Carpinelli, Bellia and Murolo, were captured.
+They claimed to be journalists, and it is quite true that
+Viola is on the staff of the notorious <i>Vedetta Italiana</i>;
+but when he comes into a foreign country as a special
+correspondent and is teaching others how to go about
+that business&mdash;for until then they had been otherwise
+engaged, Murolo being charged with numerous thefts
+and attempted murders, while Bellia and Carpinelli
+were accused of breaking into the Abbazia Casino&mdash;if
+Viola was teaching them how to be journalists he would
+on this occasion have been better advised if he had restricted
+them to the conventional tools of the profession
+instead of bombs, revolvers and daggers. Little use
+did they get out of them, for a trio of these armed individuals
+were seized and disarmed by one Yugoslav
+gendarme, who was himself very meagrely equipped.
+With tears in their eyes they begged for mercy. "Piet&agrave;,
+Piet&agrave;!" they exclaimed. So long as their own lives
+were spared they were very willing to forgo the 60,000
+lire which had been put on Zanella's head.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately it seems obvious that this exploit, if
+not ordered by the Italian Government was, at any rate,
+permitted by them. How otherwise could the automobile
+containing these men have got past the sentries
+at the Su&#353;ak bridge and two other Italian sentry posts?
+Moreover, these men were in possession of documents
+which proved that official Italian circles at Rieka were
+privy to their undertaking, and that they proposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+investigate the Yugoslav military positions on the frontier....
+These five fascisti brigands&mdash;who were also
+lieutenants of the Italian army&mdash;would therefore have
+to be tried not only for attempted murder but for
+attempted espionage. They were put into a train and
+transported to the prison at Zagreb. "If once we begin
+to march," so the Italian soldiers at Rieka had over
+and over again been telling the Croats, "then we shall
+not halt before we come to Zagreb, your capital." Those
+five will perhaps some day explain to their comrades how
+quickly Zagreb can be reached.... As yet those whom
+they left behind them had not lost their bombast: a
+manifesto was issued by them which declared that five
+true patriots had sallied forth to Saint Anna, for the
+purpose of parleying with the Constituent Assembly,
+and that in a barbarous fashion they had been arrested,
+maltreated and possibly killed. Let the people avenge
+the shedding of such noble blood. Everything, everything
+must be done in order to liberate the captured
+brethren. And so, towards eleven at night, about sixty
+fascisti and legionaries came together. Armed to the
+teeth, they designed to cross over into Yugoslav territory,
+but when they noticed that the sentry posts had been
+strengthened they went home to bed.</p>
+
+<p>A number of American and European journalists
+rushed out to Belgrade, under the impression that the
+Yugoslav-Italian War could now no longer be avoided.
+But they did not realize how great a self-control the
+Yugoslavs possess. It may be, as a commentator put
+it in the <i>Nation</i>,<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> that Italy "is practically at war with
+Yugoslavia," for she is obsessed by the "Pan-Slav
+menace"; but if they insist on the arbitrament of arms
+they will have to wait until the Yugoslavs have time to
+deal with them.... The Free State of Rieka owes its
+existence to a Treaty between Italy and Yugoslavia;
+both of them should therefore guarantee its freedom.
+Italian and Yugoslav <i>gendarmerie</i> and troops should
+resist together the incursions of fascisti; and if the two
+races cannot work in harmony, then let the administration
+of the town be entrusted to neutral troops; and as
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>High Commissioner one would suggest Mr. Blakeney,
+the British Consul at Belgrade. If this imperturbable
+and most kindly man were to fail in the attempt at
+repeating in Rieka what has been accomplished in Danzig,
+then, indeed, one might despair; but he would brilliantly
+and placidly succeed. All the other qualifications are
+his; an intimate knowledge of every Near Eastern
+language&mdash;and, of course, Italian; a perfect acquaintance
+with the mentality of all those peoples; common sense
+of an uncommon order, and the whole-hearted confidence
+of those with whom he comes into contact. Great
+Britain and France compelled the Yugoslavs, at enormous
+sacrifices, to sign the Treaty of Rapallo; they are, therefore,
+morally obliged to see that it is executed. For too
+many months the Italians were saying that they would
+carry out their part of it and leave the third zone in
+Dalmatia if the Yugoslavs would agree to a few more
+concessions, commercial and territorial, that were not
+in the Treaty. During the Genoa Conference in the spring
+of 1922 the Italian authorities confessed to the Yugoslav
+delegates that their hands were bound by the fascisti.
+These elements would certainly object to the execution
+of that part of the Treaty of Rapallo which refers to the
+port of Baro&#353;. Accurately speaking, the arrangements
+with regard to Baro&#353; are embodied in a letter from Count
+Sforza, the then Foreign Secretary, and are added to the
+Treaty as an appendix. Both were signed on the same
+day, and apparently this plan of an appendix was adopted
+on account of the fascisti. Yet if Count Sforza had not
+signed that letter it is safe to say that the Yugoslavs
+would not have signed the main body of a Treaty which
+to them was the reverse of favourable. And at Genoa
+the Italians started haggling about a strip of land near
+Baro&#353;, in the hope that some success would stay the zeal
+of the fascisti. Furthermore they pleaded that Zadar
+could not live if Yugoslavia did not, in addition to supplying
+it with water, give it railway communication with
+the interior. The Yugoslavs were thus invited to construct
+at great expense a railway to a foreign town which
+their own &#352;ibenik and other Adriatic towns did not
+possess. This, naturally, they refused to undertake,
+as also to agree to the Italian suggestion that a free<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+zone of some twenty kilometres should be instituted at
+the back of Zadar. One might safely say that the Italian
+agents in this region would not have confined themselves
+to salutary measures for the welfare of the town. It is
+stated in the Treaty of Rapallo that in case of disagreement
+either party could invoke an arbitrator, and the
+Yugoslavs, who happen now to be the weaker party,
+have been contemplating application to the League of
+Nations. Well, in Genoa it was proposed by Italy that
+Yugoslavia should renounce the clause which deals with
+an eventual arbitration. If you make a large number of
+demands&mdash;never mind that they should be in opposition
+to a Treaty you have signed&mdash;then you may gain a few
+of them&mdash;and Italy was hoping that the Free State
+would repay the costs which she incurred there on account
+of her unruly son d'Annunzio, and, likewise, that the good
+Italianists who at the end of the Great War committed
+wholesale thefts from the State warehouses should not
+be made to pay for it. With all their guile and strength
+the Italians were endeavouring to avoid the execution
+of her Treaty of Rapallo. "Italy is the one Power in
+Europe," says Mr. Harold Goad<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> who thrusts himself
+upon our notice, "Italy is the one Power in Europe
+that is most obviously and most consistently working
+for peace and conciliation in every field."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE</p>
+
+<p>The complicated troubles, avoidable and unavoidable,
+that have been raging in Central Europe after the War are
+being met to some extent by the Little Entente, an
+association in the first place between Yugoslavia and the
+kindred Czecho-Slovakia, and afterwards between them
+and Roumania. The world was assured that this union
+had for its object the establishment of peace, security
+and normal economic activities in Central and Eastern
+Europe; no acquisitive purposes were in the background,
+and since these three States now recognized that if
+they try to swallow more of the late Austro-Hungarian
+monarchy they will suffer from chronic indigestion, we
+need not be suspicious of their altruism. It is perfectly
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>true that the first impulse which moved the creators of
+the Little Entente was not constructive but defensive;
+their great Allies did not appear, in the opinion of the
+three Succession States, to be taking the necessary precautions
+against the elements of reaction. Otherwise
+they, especially France (which was naturally more determined
+that Austria should not join herself to Germany),
+would not have favoured the idea of a Danubian Federation,
+in which Austria and Hungary would play leading
+parts. The Great Powers would also, if they had been
+less exclusively concerned with their own interests, have
+handled with more resolution the attempts of Charles of
+Habsburg to place himself at the head of the present
+reactionary r&eacute;gime at Buda-Pest; and if it had not
+been for certain energetic measures taken by the members
+of the Little Entente it may well be doubted whether
+the Government of Admiral Horthy, which does not
+conceal the fact that it is royalist&mdash;the king being temporarily
+absent&mdash;would have required Charles to leave
+the country. The Little Entente pointed out to their
+great Allies what these had apparently overlooked,
+namely, that the return of the Habsburgs was not opposed
+by the Succession States out of pure malice but for the
+reason that it would inevitably strengthen the magnates
+and the high ecclesiastics in their desire to bring about the
+restoration of Hungary's old frontiers. As the frontiers
+are now drawn there dwell&mdash;and this could not be prevented&mdash;a
+number of Magyars in each of the three neighbouring
+States (the fewest being in Yugoslavia), just as
+the present Hungary includes a Czech-Slovak, Roumanian
+and Yugoslav population.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> But the Great Powers agree
+that if this frontier is to be changed at all, every precaution
+should be taken against having it changed by
+force. It is no exaggeration to say that there can be no
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>real peace in Central Europe until normal intercourse
+with Russia is re-established, but let it in the meantime
+be the task of the Little Entente to guard the temporary
+peace from being shattered.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from this defensive object the countries of the
+Little Entente have the positive aim of a resumption of
+normal economic conditions and the institution of a new
+order of things in accordance with the new political
+construction of Central and Eastern Europe. It is obvious
+that these three States have numerous interests in common
+which make their co-operation very natural, if not indeed
+indispensable.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> April 16, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> January 22, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> According to the Rome correspondent of the <i>Petit Journal</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> But the wind was considerably tempered for him: vessels laden
+with his precise requirements sailed over from Italy and said they had
+been captured by d'Annunzio's arditi. General Badoglio, in command of
+the royal troops outside the town, ascertained in November 1919 that
+Rieka's coal-supply was nearly exhausted and 7000 tons per month were
+required for the public services alone. He accordingly informed a
+syndicate of coal merchants in Triest that he would be personally responsible
+for the first consignment of coal to d'Annunzio. A month earlier,
+when the town was supposed to be blockaded, it was announced that a
+limited supply of food-stuffs would, nevertheless, be introduced, through
+the Red Cross, for very young children. This amounted, as a matter of
+fact, to 21 truckloads a week. It is significant that there was no rise
+in the prices charged in the public restaurants of Rieka, and that persons
+living outside the line of Armistice found it cheaper to do their shopping
+in the besieged city.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> February 20, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> September 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> However, in the Yugoslav Parliament, although some of the
+deputies have spent their lives in far-off, primitive places&mdash;by no means
+all of those who represent the Albanians can read and write&mdash;one does
+not hear such deplorable language as that which, according to the <i>Grazer
+Volksblatt</i> of January 19, 1922, disgraced the Austrian Assembly. A
+certain Dr. Waneck, of the Pan-German party, wished to criticize the
+Minister of Finance, Professor Dr. G&uuml;rtler of the Christian Socialists.
+He remarked that one could not expect this Minister to be sober at four
+o'clock in the afternoon, and went on to say that no less than five banks,
+whose names he would give, had received early information from the
+Minister, which enabled them to speculate successfully. He repeated
+this accusation several times and with great violence, but when he was
+invited to reveal the names of these banks&mdash;"No, sir!" he cried. "I
+will not do so, because I don't want to."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Cf. "The Tri-Une Kingdom," by Pavle Popovi&#263; and Jovan M.
+Jovanovi&#263;, in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, October 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> He was kept for some time in confinement at Mitrovica, in Syrmia, and
+in November 1920 he was liberated in consequence of the great amnesty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Cf. <i>Spectator</i>, July 17, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Cf. <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, July 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> A few months after this, in the course of a little controversy in the
+<i>Saturday Review</i> (which arose from an unsigned and, I hoped, rather
+reasonable article of mine on the Adriatic Settlement) I quoted from
+memory this passage of Mrs. Re-Bartlett's and said that the Italian
+captain was giving chocolates to the children at Kievo. Thereupon Mr.
+Harold W.&nbsp;E. Goad of the British-Italian League wrote a highly indignant
+letter to the editor, and in the course of it he denounced me for having
+egregiously invented the chocolates "for the sole purpose of throwing
+her testimony into ridicule.... What do you, Sir, think of such methods
+as that?" And he concluded by declaring that I wallowed in a "truly
+Balkan slough of distortion and calumny." Well, on referring to Mrs.
+Re-Bartlett's article I find that there is no mention of chocolates, and I
+apologize; presumably the children were crowding round their adored
+<i>Capitano</i> in order to thank him for the bridges and waterworks which
+were being built in Dalmatia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> During the Italian occupation, said Professor Salvemini, teachers,
+doctors and priests were deported or expelled from the country, while
+the Italian Government had to dissolve 30 municipal councils out of
+33, so that at the head of the communes were Italian officials and
+not properly elected mayors. Moreover, all liberties were suppressed.
+No Slav newspapers, no Slav societies were permitted, and 32 out of
+57 magistrates were dismissed&mdash;these methods being due not to cruelty
+or folly, said the Professor, but to the necessity of keeping order by
+forcible means in a country which was wholly hostile.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> November 13, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> November 15, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> This, of course, did not meet with the approval of Signor d'Annunzio.
+He made numerous pronouncements with regard to his inflexible desires,
+saying that, if necessary, he would offer up his bleeding corpse. And
+his resistance to the Italian Government did not confine itself to rhetoric.
+During his usurpation of Rieka this man had done his country grievous
+harm. It was not only that he held her up to the smiles of the malicious
+who said that she could not keep order in her own house, but he was
+guiding the people back to barbarism. When sailors of the royal navy
+deserted to his standard, he knelt before them in the streets of Rieka at
+a time when from Russia Lenin was inciting the Italian Communists to
+revolution and to the conquest of the State. He refused to deal with
+Giolitti, even as he had rejected the advances of Nitti. But the aged
+Giolitti grasped the problem with more firmness, which was what one
+might expect from the statesman who, after his return to power, had
+leaned neither on the industrial magnates of Milan nor on their Bol&#353;evik
+antagonists. Giolitti was resolved to put an end to the nuisance of
+d'Annunzio; in no constitutional State is there room for a Prime Minister
+and such a swashbuckler. The Nationalists of Italy were furious when
+they perceived that the Premier was in earnest and that force would be
+employed against their idol. And it had to come to that, for the utterly
+misguided man continued to resist&mdash;hoping doubtless for wholesale
+desertions in the army and navy&mdash;with the deplorable result that a good
+many Italians were slain by Italians. Orders were issued by the Government
+that all possible care should be taken of d'Annunzio's person; and
+eventually when Rieka was taken by the royalist troops the poet broke
+his oath that he would surely die; he announced that Italy was not
+worth dying for and it was said that he had sailed away on an aeroplane.
+He had accomplished none of his desires; the town had not become
+Italian, though he had bathed it in Italian blood. His overweening
+personal ambitions had been shipwrecked on the rock of ridicule, for as
+he made his inglorious exit he shouted at the world that he was "still
+alive and inexorable." But yet he may have unconsciously achieved
+something, for his seizure of what he loved to call the "holocaust city"
+provided the extreme Nationalists with a private stage where&mdash;in uniforms
+of their own design, in cloaks and feathers and flowing black ties and
+with eccentric arrangements of the hair&mdash;they could strut and caper
+and fling bombastic insults at the authorities in Rome, until the Government
+found it opportune to take them in hand. The greatest Italian
+poet and one of the greatest imaginative writers in Europe will now be
+able to devote himself&mdash;if his rather morbid Muse has suffered no injury&mdash;to
+his predestined task. Those&mdash;the comparatively few that read&mdash;whose
+acquaintance with this writer's work usually caused them to regret
+his methods, could not help admiring his personal activities, his genius
+for leadership and his vital fire during the War. But, once this was over,
+he relapsed; and expressing himself very clearly in action, so that he
+became known to the many instead of the few, he lived what he previously
+wrote, and now it is generally recognized that Gabriel of the Annunciation,
+as he calls himself, who produced a row of obscene and histrionic
+novels, is a mountebank, a self-deceiver and a most affected bore. When
+he came to Rieka he thought fit to appeal to the England of Milton.
+And, like him, Milton lived as he wrote. Milton, Dante and Sophocles&mdash;to
+mention no others of the supreme writers&mdash;were as serious and responsible
+in their public actions as in the pursuit of their art.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Whatever be the limitations of the <i>Dom</i> as a newspaper&mdash;it is almost
+exclusively occupied with the person and programme of Mr. Radi&#263;&mdash;yet
+that brings with it the virtue, most exceptional in Yugoslavia, of refusing
+to engage in polemics. This would otherwise take up a good deal of its
+space, as Radi&#263; has become such a bogey-man that nothing is too ridiculous
+for his opponents to believe. A Czech newspaper not long ago informed
+the world that this monstrous personage had told an interviewer that not
+only had Serbian soldiers in Macedonia been murdering 200 children but
+that they had roasted and consumed them. Furthermore Radi&#263; had
+said that the British Minister to Yugoslavia had called upon him and
+had asked his advice with some persistence, not even wishing to leave
+Radi&#263; time to reflect, as to whether the Prince-Regent should rule in
+Russia, while an English Prince should be invited to occupy the Yugoslav
+throne. The first of these remarks proved conclusively, said a
+number of Belgrade papers, that Radi&#263; was a knave and by the second
+he had demonstrated that he was an imbecile. And my friend Mr.
+Leiper of the <i>Morning Post</i> speculated as to whether he was more likely
+to end his days in a lunatic asylum or a prison. But Radi&#263; was caring
+about none of these things; his birthday happened at about this time
+and some 30,000 of his adherents came to do him honour at his birthplace,
+over 500 of them on decorated horses having met him at Sisak
+station the previous evening. When I asked him what he had to say
+about the two afore-mentioned remarks he gave me an amusing account
+of how the interviewer had appreciated the various samples of wine
+which he (Radi&#263;) had just brought down from his vineyard. The conversation
+lasted for about four hours, and in the course of it Radi&#263; mentioned
+that a certain Moslem deputy from Novi Bazar, irritated by
+the fact that Mr. Dra&#353;kovi&#263;, Minister of the Interior, found no pleasure
+in his continued presence on a commission of inquiry in the region of
+Kossovo, had been throwing out very dark hints about a child which
+he accused the Serbs of killing in the stormy days of 1878, and then
+relating to the Tsar that this dastardly deed had been committed by the
+Turks. This was the basis of that part of the interview. As for the
+other absurdity, it was mentioned that some courtiers had told the
+Prince-Regent that he alone could establish an orderly Government in
+Russia, whereupon Radi&#263; observed that England and France were not
+likely to allow one person to reign both there and in Yugoslavia. And
+when I asked why he had not published this explanation in his paper,
+he said that he couldn't very well charge a guest with having liked his
+wine too much.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Cf. <i>The Quarterly Review</i> (October 1921), in which Messrs. Pavle
+Popovi&#263; and Jovan M. Jovanovi&#263; published a very able survey of Yugoslav
+conditions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Cf. <i>Nineteenth Century and After</i>, January 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> April 26, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Unhappily it became apparent that the Italians were not disposed
+to have the Treaty put in force</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> March 23, 1922.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Cf. an article in a fascisti newspaper, quoted by the <i>Zagreber Tagblatt</i>
+of May 14, 1922.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Cf. "The Rise of the Little Entente," by Dorothy Thompson. April 1,
+1922.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, May 1922.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> The magnates of Hungary and their friends do not grow weary of
+lamenting the sad fate of the Magyar minorities. Whatever may be
+happening in Transylvania, they have a very poor case against the Serbs.
+In the Voivodina there are, according to Hungarian statistics, about
+382,000 Magyars out of 1&middot;4 million inhabitants. These Magyars have
+their primary and secondary schools, their newspapers and so forth,
+whereas in the spring of 1922 the schools in various Serbian villages
+near Budapest were forcibly closed, the lady teachers being told that
+if they stayed they would have to undergo the physical examination
+which is applied to prostitutes.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS</h3>
+
+<p class="subtitle"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span>&mdash;(<i>a</i>) <span class="smcap">The Albanian Frontier</span>: 1. <span class="smcap">The Actors</span>&mdash;2. <span class="smcap">The
+audience rush the stage</span>&mdash;3. <span class="smcap">Serbs, Albanians and the Mischief-makers</span>&mdash;4.
+<span class="smcap">The State of Albanian culture</span>&mdash;5. <span class="smcap">A method
+which might have been tried in Albania</span>&mdash;6. <span class="smcap">The attraction
+of Yugoslavia</span>&mdash;7. <span class="smcap">Religious and other matters in the border
+region</span>&mdash;8. <span class="smcap">A digression on two rival Albanian authorities</span>&mdash;9.
+<span class="smcap">What faces the Yugoslavs</span>&mdash;10. <span class="smcap">Dr. Trumbi&#263;'s proposal</span>&mdash;11.
+<span class="smcap">The position in 1921: The Tirana Government and the
+Mirditi</span>&mdash;12. <span class="smcap">Serbia's good influence</span>&mdash;13. <span class="smcap">European measures
+against the Yugoslavs and their friends</span>&mdash;14. <span class="smcap">The region
+from which the Yugoslavs have retired</span>&mdash;15. <span class="smcap">The prospect</span>&mdash;(<i>b</i>)
+<span class="smcap">The Greek frontier</span>&mdash;(<i>c</i>) <span class="smcap">The Bulgarian frontier</span>&mdash;(<i>d</i>) <span class="smcap">The
+Roumanian frontier</span>: 1. <span class="smcap">The state of the Roumanians in
+eastern Serbia</span>&mdash;2. <span class="smcap">The Banat</span>&mdash;(<i>e</i>) <span class="smcap">The Hungarian frontier</span>&mdash;(<i>f</i>)
+<span class="smcap">The Austrian frontier</span>&mdash;(<i>g</i>) <span class="smcap">The Italian frontier</span>.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">INTRODUCTION</p>
+
+<p>Nobody could have expected in the autumn of 1918
+that the frontiers of the new State would be rapidly
+delimitated. Ethnological, economic, historic and
+strategical arguments&mdash;to mention no others&mdash;would be
+brought forward by either side, and the Supreme Council,
+which had to deliver judgment on these knotty problems,
+would be often more preoccupied with their own interests
+and their relation to each other. It would also happen
+that a member of the Supreme Council would be simultaneously
+judge and pleader. The mills of justice would
+therefore grind very slowly, for they would be conscious
+that the fruit of their efforts, evolved with much foreign
+material clogging the machinery and with parts of the
+machinery jerked out of their line of track, would be
+received with acute criticism. When more than two
+years had elapsed from the time of the Armistice a considerable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+part of Yugoslavia's frontiers remained undecided.
+We will travel along the frontier lines, starting
+with that between Yugoslavs and Albanians.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(a) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER</p>
+
+<p class="section">1. THE ACTORS</p>
+
+<p>Those who in old Turkish days lived in that wild
+border country which is dealt with on these pages would
+have been surprised to hear that they would be the objects
+of a great deal of discussion in the west of Europe. But
+in those days there was no Yugoslavia and no Albania
+and no League of Nations, and very few were the writers
+who took up this question. It is, undoubtedly, a question
+of importance, though some of these writers, remembering
+that the fate of the world was dependent on the fraction
+of an inch of Cleopatra's nose, seem almost to have
+imagined that it was proportionately more dependent on
+those several hundred kilometres of disputed frontier.
+It would not so much matter that they have introduced
+a good deal of passion into their arguments if they had
+not also exerted some influence on influential men&mdash;and
+this compels one to pay them what would otherwise be
+excessive attention.</p>
+
+<p>Let us consider the frontier which the Ambassadors'
+Conference in November 1921 assigned to Yugoslavia and
+the Albanians. We have already mentioned some of
+the previous points of contact between those Balkan
+neighbours who for centuries have been acquiring knowledge
+of each other and who, therefore, as Berati Bey,
+the Albanian delegate in Paris, very wisely said, should
+have been left to manage their own frontier question. A
+number of Western Europeans will exclaim that this
+could not be accomplished without the shedding of blood;
+but it is rather more than probable that the interference
+of Western Europe&mdash;partly philanthropic and partly
+otherwise&mdash;will be responsible for greater loss of life.
+If it could not be permitted that two of the less powerful
+peoples should attempt to settle their own affairs, then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+at any rate, the most competent of alien judges should
+have sat on the tribunal. A frontier in that part of
+Europe should primarily take the peculiarities of the
+people into account, and I believe that if Sir Charles Eliot
+and Baron Nopsca with their unrivalled knowledge of the
+Albanians had been consulted it is probable they would,
+for some years to come, have thought desirable the frontier
+which is preferred by General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey, by a
+majority of the local Albanians, and by those who hope
+for peace in the Balkans.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">2. THE AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE</p>
+
+<p>A battle which took place near Tuzi, not far from
+Podgorica, in December 1919, may assist the study of
+the difficult Albanian question. At the first attack
+about 150 Montenegrins, mostly young recruits, were
+killed or wounded; but in the counter-attack the Albanian
+losses were much greater, 167 of them being made
+prisoners. On all of these were found Italian rifles,
+ammunition, money and army rations. On the other
+hand, a few Montenegrins, with three officers, were also
+captured and were stripped and handed over, naked, to
+the Italians. But these declined to have them, saying
+that the conflict had been no concern of theirs, and the
+unfortunate men&mdash;with the exception of one who escaped&mdash;remained
+among the Albanians. The fact that Tuzi
+would be of no value to the Italians neither weakens
+nor strengthens the supposition that they were privy
+to the Albanian attack; but it may very well be that the
+natives had taken their Italian equipment by force of
+arms. It would, anyhow, seem that the Italians have
+little understanding of this people: during the War,
+when General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey was straightening his
+line, he paid some hundreds of Albanians to maintain
+his western flank, and they were very satisfactory. (It
+troubled them very little whether they were holding it
+against the Austrians or against other Albanians.) When
+Italy took over that part of the line she employed a whole
+Division, which&mdash;to the amusement, it is said, of Franchet
+d'Esp&eacute;rey&mdash;provided the local population with a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+deal of booty, and in particular with mules. There was
+constant trouble in those regions of Albania which were
+occupied by the Italians,<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> and in June 1920 things had
+come to such a pass that the Italian garrisons, after being
+thrown out of the villages of Bestrovo and Selitza, were
+actually retiring with all the stores they could rescue to
+Valona. Their retreat, said Reuter, in a euphemistic
+message from Rome, was "attended by some loss." As
+Valona was their last stronghold in Albanian territory,
+it seemed that very few, if any, of the tribes were in
+favour of an Italian protectorate. And since it was
+calculated that during the first six months of 1920 the
+Italian Government was paying from 400 to 500 million
+lire a month for corn, and the year's deficit might be
+enough to lead the State to the very verge of bankruptcy,
+one was asking whether from an economic, apart from
+any other, point of view, it would not be advisable for
+the Italians to cut their losses in central Albania. And
+this they very wisely determined to do. Would that
+their subsequent policy in northern Albania had been
+as well-inspired.</p>
+
+<p>It would also seem as if the affair of Tuzi shows that
+the Albanians have no wish for a Yugoslav protectorate,
+and there are a good many Serbs, such as Professor
+Cviji&#263;, who view with uneasiness any extension of their
+sway over the Albanians. Many of the tribes are prepared,
+after very small provocation or none, to take up
+arms against anybody; and those who, in the north
+and north-east of the country, are in favour of a Yugoslav
+protectorate would undoubtedly have opposed to them
+a number of the natives, less because they are fired with
+the prospect of "Albania for the Albanians" than on
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>account of their patriarchal views. We must, however,
+at the same time, acknowledge that those Albanians
+who are impelled by patriotic ideals, and who would
+like to see their countrymen within the 1913 frontiers,
+resolutely turn away from the various attractions which
+the Slavs undoubtedly exercise over many of them and
+combine in a brotherly fashion, under the guidance of a
+disinterested State, to work for an independent Albania&mdash;those
+idealists have every right to be heard. Their
+solution is, in fact, the one that would, as we have elsewhere
+said, be best for everyone concerned. The late
+Professor Burrows, who believed in the possibility of such
+an arrangement, thought that it would take generations
+for this people "to pass from blood feud and tribal
+jealousy to the good order of a unified State, unless they
+have tutorage in the art of self-government." There
+seem to be grave difficulties, both external and internal,
+in the way of setting up such a tutorage over the whole
+of the 1913 Albania; and if a majority of the northern
+and north-eastern tribes prefer to turn to Yugoslavia,
+rather than to join the frustrated patriots and the wilder
+brethren in turning away from it, they should not be
+sweepingly condemned as traitors to the national cause.
+The frame of mind which looks with deep suspicion on a
+road that links a tribe to its neighbour is not very promising
+for those who dream of an Albanian nation; it is a
+prevalent and fundamental frame of mind. "The Prince
+of Wied," we are told by his countryman, Dr. Max M&uuml;ller,
+"succeeded in conquering the hearts of those Albanians
+who supported him and of gaining the highest respect
+of those who were his political opponents." No doubt
+they were flattered when they noticed that he had so far
+become an Albanian as to surround his residence at
+Durazzo with barbed-wire entanglements.</p>
+
+<p>Among the solutions of the Albanian problem was that
+which Dr. M&uuml;ller very seriously, not to say ponderously,
+put forward in 1916.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> This gentleman, with a first-hand
+knowledge of the country, which he gained during
+the War, did not minimize the task which would face
+the Prince of Wied on his return. Of that wooden potentate
+one may say that his work in Albania did not collapse
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>for the reason that it was never started; a few miles
+from Durazzo, his capital, from which, I believe, he
+made only that one excursion whose end was undignified,
+a few miles away he excited the derision of his "subjects,"
+and a few miles farther off they had not heard of him.
+Dr. M&uuml;ller, after reproving us sternly for smiling at the
+national decoration, in several classes, with which his
+Highness on landing at the rickety pier was graciously
+pleased to gladden the meritorious natives, admits that
+at his second coming he will have to take various other
+steps. Austrians and Germans should be brought to
+colonize the country, and not peasants, forsooth, like
+those who have laboriously made good in the Banat,
+but merchants, manufacturers, engineers, doctors, officials
+and large landowners&mdash;not by any means without close
+inquiry, so as to admit only such as are in possession of
+a blameless repute and a certain amount of cash. Dr.
+M&uuml;ller was resolved that, so far as lay with him, none
+but the very best Teutons should embark upon this
+splendid mission. He desired that, after landing, they
+should first of all remain at the harbour, there to undergo
+a course of tuition in the customs and peculiarities of
+the tribe among which they proposed to settle. His
+compatriots would be so tactful&mdash;apparently not criticizing
+any of the customs&mdash;that the hearts of the Albanians
+would incline towards them and by their beautiful
+example they would make these primitive, wild hearts
+beat not so much for local interests but very fervently
+for the Albanian fatherland. One cannot help a feeling
+of regret that circumstances have prevented us from
+seeing Dr. M&uuml;ller's scheme put into action.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS</p>
+
+<p>In 1913, after the Balkan War, the flags of the Powers
+were hoisted at Scutari, and a frontier dividing the
+Albanians from the Yugoslavs (Montenegrins and Serbs)
+was indicated by Austria and traced at the London
+Conference. This boundary was still awaiting its final
+demarcation by commissioners on the spot when the
+European War broke out. Then in the second year of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+the War disturbances were organized by the Austrians
+in Albania&mdash;their friend the miscreant ruler of Montenegro
+caused money to be sent for this purpose to the Austro-Hungarian
+Consul at Scutari&mdash;and in April and May of
+that year the Serbs were authorized by their Allies to
+protect themselves by occupying certain portions of the
+country. Various battles took place between those
+Albanians who were partisans of Austria and those who
+were disinclined to attack the Serbs in the rear. The
+Serbian Government opposed the Austrian propaganda
+by dispatching to that region the Montenegrin Pouni&#353;a
+Ra&#269;i&#263;, of whom we have much to say. He was accompanied
+by Smajo Ferovi&#263;, a Moslem sergeant of komitadjis.
+They explained to the Albanians that the Serbs
+had been offered a separate peace with numerous concessions,
+but that Mr. Pa&#353;i&#263; had refused to treat. When
+the two Albanian parties discussed the situation by
+shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian officers
+made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came
+to an end.</p>
+
+<p>When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up
+from Macedonia, were requested by General Franchet
+d'Esp&eacute;rey to undertake a task which the Italians refused,
+and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of Albania.
+Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
+mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large
+part of Albania should be given up to their administration.
+The Serbs agreed and withdrew; they even took away
+their representative from Scutari, where the Allies had
+again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
+upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern
+Albania, but&mdash;save for a few misguided politicians&mdash;they
+were logical enough to reject the whole of the pernicious
+Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in Dalmatia
+and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods.
+Over and over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare
+in Paris that it was their wish to see established an
+independent Albania with the frontiers of 1913. These,
+the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
+were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of
+thwarting the Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It
+is true that several towns with large Albanian majorities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+were made over to the Serbs&mdash;very much, as it turned
+out, to their subsequent advantage&mdash;yet, being separated
+from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless,
+if a free and united Albania could be constituted
+the Serbs were ready to accept this frontier, and even
+Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French Albanophile
+of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this
+attitude of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their
+honour. But before relative tranquillity reigns among
+the Albanians it is, as General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey perceived
+in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
+temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance
+for some miles into Albania, so that on the river Drin or
+on the mountain summits they might ward off attacks.
+These, by the way, had their origin far more in the border
+population's empty stomachs than in their animus against
+the Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people
+could regard the 1918 frontier as unnecessary. The
+Albanians were themselves so much inclined to acquiesce
+that one must ask why, in the months which followed,
+there was a considerable amount of border fighting.
+What was it that caused the Albanians in the region of
+Scutari to make their violent onslaughts of December
+1919 and January 1920, the renewed offensive of July
+1920 at the same places&mdash;after which the Albanian
+Government forwarded to that of Belgrade an assurance
+of goodwill&mdash;and the organized thrust of August 13 against
+Dibra, which was preceded on August 10 by a manifesto
+to the chancelleries of Europe falsely accusing the
+Serbs of having begun these operations, and which was
+followed by the Tirana Government promising to try to
+find the guilty persons? The 19th of the same month
+saw the Albanians delivering a further attack in the
+neighbourhood of Scutari, and then the Yugoslav Government
+decided that their army must occupy such defensive
+positions as would put a stop to these everlasting incidents.
+But a voice was whispering to the Albanians
+that they must not allow themselves to be so easily
+coerced. "You have thrown us out of all the land behind
+Valona," said the voice, "and out of Valona itself. You
+must, therefore, be the greatest warriors in the world,
+and we will be charmed to provide you with rifles and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+machine guns and munitions and uniforms and cash.
+We will gladly publish to the world that your Delegation
+at Rome has sent us an official Note demanding that the
+Yugoslav troops should retire to the 1913 line, pure and
+simple. Of course we, like the other Allies, agreed that
+they should occupy the more advanced positions which
+General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey assigned to them&mdash;and to
+show you how truly sorry we are for having done so, we
+propose to send you all the help you need. In dealing
+with us you will find that you have to do with honourable
+men, whereas the Yugoslavs&mdash;what are they but Yugoslavs?"</p>
+
+<p>Anyone who travelled about this time along the road
+from Scutari down to the port of San Giovanni di Medua
+would inevitably meet with processions of ancient cabs,
+ox-wagons and what not, laden with all kinds of military
+equipment. Some of these supplies had come direct
+from Italy, while others had been seized from the Italians
+near Valona. The detachment of Italian soldiers at San
+Giovanni, and the much larger detachment at Scutari,
+may have looked with mixed feelings at some of these
+commodities, but on the other hand they may have
+thought, with General Bencivenga,<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> that it was good
+business&mdash;"<i>un buon affare</i>"&mdash;in exchange for Valona to
+obtain a solid and secure friendship with the Albanians.
+Roads, as he pointed out, lead from Albania to the heart
+of Serbia, and for that reason a true brotherhood of arms
+between Italians and Albanians was, in case of hostilities,
+enormously to be desired. And so the Italians stationed
+at Scutari, under Captain Pericone of the Navy, may
+have felt that it was well that all those cannon captured
+from their countrymen were in such a good condition.
+They would now be turned by the Albanians against the
+hateful Yugoslavs. ["Italy is the one Power in Europe,"
+says her advocate, Mr. H.&nbsp;E. Goad, in the <i>Fortnightly
+Review</i> (May 1922), "that is most obviously and most consistently
+working for peace and conciliation in every field."] ...
+A further supply of military material is said to have
+reached the Albanians from Gabriele d'Annunzio in the
+<small>s.s.</small> <i>Knin</i>. To the Irish, the Egyptians and the Turks
+the poet-filibuster had merely sent greetings. Some one
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>may have told him that even the most lyrical greeting
+would not be valued by the Albanians half as much as a
+shipload of munitions.</p>
+
+<p>For a considerable time the more intelligent Italians
+had noticed that these two Balkan peoples were disposed
+to live in amicable terms with one another. Traditions
+that are so powerful with an illiterate people&mdash;under
+five per thousand of the Albanians who have stayed in
+their own country can read and write&mdash;numerous traditions
+speak of friendship with the Serbs: Lek, the great
+legislator, was related to Serbian princes; Skanderbeg
+was an ally of the Serbs; "Most of the celebrated
+leaders of northern Albania and Montenegro," says
+Miss Durham, "seem to have been of mixed Serbian-Albanian
+blood"; Mustapha Vezir Bushatli strove
+together with Prince Milo&#353; against the Turks, and the
+same cause united the Serbian authorities to the famous
+Vezir Mahmud Begovi&#263; of Pe&#263;. A primitive people like
+the Albanians admire the warlike attributes beyond all
+others, and the exploits of the Serbian army in the
+European War inclined the hearts of the Albanians
+towards their neighbours. Some of them remembered
+at this juncture that their great-grandfathers or grandfathers
+had only become Albanian after having accepted
+the Muhammedan religion; now the old ikons were
+taken from their hiding-places. And there was, in fact,
+between the two Balkan people a spirit of cordiality which
+gave terrible umbrage to the Italians. So they took the
+necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests had been
+in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners
+of Italy. Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to
+be anti-Turk but, as was evident when in 1911 he negotiated
+with Montenegro, he is not personally anti-Slav.
+Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary,
+and so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies,
+transferred from Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are
+willing to provide the cash&mdash;and nobody can blame him.
+Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and a
+great friend of Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i, the Albanian bishop,
+was succeeded by an Italian. But, of course, the new
+almoner did not confine his gifts to those of his own faith.
+Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a monthly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the
+Italians as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor
+country, and with no Austrian competition you found
+quite prominent personages deigning to accept a rather
+miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
+Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those
+mountain tribes are being paid?" "Well," he said, "I
+think that it is not improbable." ... At the time of the
+Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their Minister
+of Finance the sagacious Patcho&ugrave;. The War Minister,
+a General, was strongly in favour of an instant declaration
+of war, and the Premier suggested that the matter
+should be discussed. He turned to the Minister of
+Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money
+for such an undertaking. Patcho&ugrave; shook his head.
+"But our men are patriots! They will go without
+bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
+General. "The horses and mules are not patriots,"
+said Patcho&ugrave;, "and if you want them to march you'll
+have to feed them." The Albanians were so little inclined
+to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians
+had, in various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what
+did the Albanians think of these intrigues? At any
+rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth Professor
+Chimig&ograve;,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
+"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great
+nation.... The Albanian Government," said he, "has
+charged me to declare in public that Albania does not
+regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is convinced
+that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops
+from Valona, were obeying a sentiment of goodness and
+generosity." Such words would be likely to bring more
+plentiful supplies from Rome. And fortunately the
+Italians did not seem to suffer, like the Serbs, from any
+scruples as to the propriety of taking active steps against
+another "Allied and Associated Power." When Zena
+Beg Riza Beg of Djakovica came in the year 1919 to his
+brother-in-law Ahmed Beg Mati, one of the Albanian
+leaders, he told him that the Belgrade Government, in
+pursuance of their policy "The Balkans for the Balkan
+peoples," would be glad if the Italians could be ousted
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>from Albania. Zena Beg returned with a request for
+money, guns and so forth; but they were not sent.</p>
+
+<p>Ahmed Beg and Zena Beg are patriotic young Albanian
+noblemen of ancient family and great possessions. But
+Zena Beg has the advantage of living in Yugoslavia,
+outside the atmosphere of corruption which is darkening
+his native land. Ahmed Beg, who in 1920 was Minister
+of the Interior, Minister of War, Governor of Scutari
+and Director (in mufti) of the military operations against
+the Yugoslavs, did not accept Italian bribes, but he was
+surrounded by those who did, and thus the gentle and
+industrious young man was being led to work against
+his own country's interests. With him at Scutari was
+another of the six Ministers of the Tirana Government,
+in the person of the venerable Moslem priest Kadri,
+Minister of Justice, and one of the four Regents, Monsignor
+Bum&ccedil;i. There was about it all an Oriental odour
+of the less desirable kind, which caused some observers
+to say that when Albania obtains her independence she
+will be a bad imitation of the old Turkey&mdash;a little Turkey
+without the external graces. When the thoughtful greybeard
+Kadri went limping down the main street, a protecting
+gendarme dawdled behind him, smoking a
+cigarette; but this endearing nonchalance was absent
+from the methods of government: any Albanian whose
+opinions did not coincide with those of the authorities
+could only express them at his peril. [Blood-vengeance
+is, to some extent, being deposed by party-vengeance&mdash;this
+having originated in the time of Wied, when the
+politicians were divided into Nationalists and Essadists,
+after which they became Italophils and Austrophils,
+who now have been succeeded by Italophils (who ask
+for an Italian mandate) and Serbophils and Grecophils
+(who desire that these countries should have no mandate,
+but should act in a friendly spirit towards an independent
+Albania). Meanwhile the Italophils, nearly all of them
+on Italy's pay-roll, were, till a few months ago, in the
+ascendant, and their attitude towards the other party
+was relentless.] One Alush Ljocha, for example, said
+that he thought it would be well if Yugoslavia and
+Albania lived on friendly terms with one another.
+Because of this&mdash;the Government having adopted other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+ideas&mdash;his house at Scutari was burned,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> and when we
+were discussing the matter at the palace of the Metropolitan,
+Monsignor Sereggi, I found that His Grace was
+emphatically in accord with a fiery Franciscan poet,
+Father Fichta, with the more placid Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i,
+and with two other ecclesiastics who were present. "We
+did well to burn his house, very well, I say!" exclaimed
+Father Fichta, "because Alush is only a private person
+and he has no business to concern himself with foreign
+countries." Of course, when Father Fichta made his
+comments on foreign countries it was not as a private
+person but as a responsible editor. Thus in the <i>Posta e
+Shqypnis</i> during the War he denounced Clemenceau and
+Lloyd George as such foes of humanity that their proper
+destination was a cage of wild beasts, and, after having
+visited France during 1919 as secretary to the sincere
+and credulous Bum&ccedil;i, he contributed anti-French and,
+I believe, anti-English poems to the <i>Epopea Shqyptare</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been told," I said, "by an intelligent Albanian
+who was educated at Robert College at Constantinople
+that the greatest hope for the country lies, in his opinion,
+in the increase of American schools, such as that one
+at Elbasan and the admirable institution at Samakoff
+in Bulgaria, where the Americans&mdash;in order not to be
+accused of proselytism&mdash;teach everything except
+religion."</p>
+
+<p>"If I had my own way," cried Fichta, "I would
+shut up these irreligious American schools. Religion is
+the base of the social life of this country."</p>
+
+<p>"And you and the Muhammedans," I asked, "do
+you think that your co-operation has a good prospect
+of enduring? With a country of no more than one and
+a half million inhabitants it is essential that you should
+be united."</p>
+
+<p>"God in Heaven! Who can tolerate such things?"
+exclaimed the Metropolitan. That very corpulent old
+gentleman was bouncing with rage on his sofa. "Is it
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>not horrible," he cried in Italian, "that this man should
+dare to come to my house and make propaganda against
+us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, sir, I am astonished," said Monsignor
+Bum&ccedil;i, reproachfully, in French, "that you should ask
+such a question." [It was answered a few weeks later,
+when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg&mdash;who, being outside
+Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental
+opinions&mdash;said that they had not the slightest doubt
+but that the friendship between the fanatic Moslem and
+the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of
+them would again in the first place think of his religion,
+so that, as heretofore, they would regard themselves as
+Turkish and Latin people rather than as Albanian. This
+foible does not apply to the Orthodox Albanians of the
+South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
+the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship
+with the Moslem. They have been the domineering
+party, but all that is finished, and we are the best of
+friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
+Regents!<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> Our Government of all the three religions is
+very good, and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his
+chair, "it insists on the Albanians obtaining justice in
+spite of our enemies."</p>
+
+<p>It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor
+of Theology and Philosophy, in the Franciscan church.
+Because his brother had had occasion to kill an editor
+in self-defence, this, perhaps the most enlightened,
+member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
+to remain for eight months in the church and its
+precincts, seeing that the Government was powerless to
+guarantee that he would not be overtaken by that national
+curse, the blood-vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance,"
+said the Monsignor.</p>
+
+<p>"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting
+on justice for the Albanians."</p>
+
+<p>And some time after this Professor Achikou and another
+prominent young priest were deported to Italy
+and, I believe, interned in that country.... With their
+fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a priest
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>whose anti-Slav paper, the <i>Bessa Shqyptare</i>, is alleged to
+exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday,
+whom Italy insisted on installing as Provincial of all
+the Franciscans (after vetoing at Rome the appointment
+of Father Vincent Pr&ecirc;nnushi, whom nearly all the
+Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday,
+it is interesting to note, is of Slav nationality, for he
+comes from Janjevo in Kossovo, but he studied in Italy,
+and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors. This
+town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia
+and a few Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized,
+still retains a costume that resembles the Dalmatian, as
+also a rather defective Dalmatian dialect. The Austrians
+for thirty years endeavoured to Albanize them, but the
+people resisted this and boycotted the church and school.
+The priest Lazar, who defended their Slav national
+conscience, was persecuted and forced to flee to Serbia&mdash;he
+is now Mayor of Janjevo. It usually happened, by
+the way, that the priests of this Catholic town came from
+Dalmatia; but the Slav idea could bridge over the
+difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that
+if no Catholic priest was available his place would
+be taken by an Orthodox priest from a neighbouring
+village. Only a few of the natives are anti-nationalists,
+having been brought up, like Father Doday, in some
+Italian or Austrian seminary. There are in Albania
+to-day about ten such priests who come from Janjevo....
+How well this Father Doday has served his masters
+may be seen in the case of the Franciscan priest in Shala,
+who, with the whole population of armed Catholics,
+resisted the Italian advance of 1920. Together with
+Lieut. Lek Marashi he organized komitadjis in Shala and
+elsewhere, his purpose being to liberate his country from
+the Italians. Since these latter could do nothing else
+against him they compelled the Bishop of Pulati to
+punish him; however, all that the Bishop did was to tell
+the patriot priest to go away. But Father Doday was
+more willing to work for the Italians; he excommunicated
+his fellow-countryman, on the ground that he would
+not come to Scutari, where his life would have been in
+danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">4. THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE</p>
+
+<p>But, you may say, one cannot in fairness expect the
+new Albanian Government to achieve in so short a time
+what the Serbian Government has effected among the
+Albanians of Kossovo, who are being persuaded to
+relinquish their devastating custom of blood-vengeance.
+Prior to March 1921, over 400 of its devotees and of
+brigands had given themselves up in Kossovo&mdash;turning
+away from the old days when, as one of them expressed it,
+"a shot from my rifle was heard at a distance of three
+hours' travel"; one of the most eminent among them
+disdained to surrender to a local authority and made
+his way to Belgrade, where he presented himself one
+afternoon to the astonished officials at the Ministry of the
+Interior. "After all," as Miss Durham has written, "the
+most important fact in northern Albania is blood-vengeance."
+What we must set out to probe is whether
+the Albanians, if they are left to themselves, will be able
+after a time to administer their country in a reasonably
+satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a
+very low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs
+and several proverbs were all that Consul Hahn could
+collect for his monumental work,<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> though his researches,
+which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
+One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some
+idea of their &aelig;sthetic value; a lover, standing outside
+the house of his lady, invites her to come out to him
+immediately; he threatens that if she disobeys him he
+will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more, he
+will have it washed and then he will return, howling like
+a dog. Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians,
+by the way, stated that the social life of C&aelig;sar's <i>Bellum
+Gallicum</i> was applicable to the tribes which now inhabit
+southern Albania, those of the north not being
+equal to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known
+Russian Consul-General, tells us of the villages of Retsch
+and Tschidna, where in winter men and women clothe
+themselves with rags, in summer with no rags&mdash;so that
+in the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>to shock the natives, would take the precaution of depositing
+his clothes in some convenient cavern. On the other
+hand, when the ladies in waiting on the Princess of Wied
+drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather, the
+people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called
+the terrible behaviour of their Prince's harem. These
+mountain people live on maize and milk and cheese&mdash;salt
+is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
+by the few educated Albanians as the most competent
+foreign observer. He knew the language well and
+travelled everywhere. One custom he relates of the
+Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they
+suspect that treasure is buried; on the next morning
+they look to see what animal has left on the ashes the
+print of its feet, and this tells them what sacrifice the
+guardian of the treasure demands&mdash;sheep or hen or
+human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement
+and water is the sole emetic known to the Albanians;
+it is used in all cases of poisoning. But the Albanian's
+death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot.
+"In Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"&mdash;42
+per cent. of the adults, according to Nopsca, dying
+a violent death. "It was her good government and her
+orderliness that obtained for her her admission to the
+League of Nations," said the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P.,
+in the <i>Morning Post</i> of November 29, 1921. And the
+enthusiastic President of the Anglo-Albanian Society is
+modest enough to refrain from telling us how much she
+was indebted to his own championship. The evil eye is
+feared in Albania more than syphilis or typhus. Siebertz<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a>
+mentions a favourite remedy, which is to spit at the
+patient. A ceremonial spitting is also used by anyone
+who sees two people engaged in close conversation; very
+likely they are plotting against the third party, and by
+his timely expectoration their wicked plans will be
+upset.</p>
+
+<p>Absurd as it may sound, there are not a few Albanian
+apologists who lay the entire blame upon the Turks.
+They assert&mdash;and it is true&mdash;that Constantinople left this
+distant province so completely almost to its own devices
+that the suzerain might just as well not have existed.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>A few Turkish officials lived in the towns, in the country
+they showed themselves when they were furtively
+travelling through it; and the chief officials, such as the
+Vali of Scutari, were wont to be Albanians. And, being
+left by the Turks to evolve their own salvation, they
+turned Albania into a region of utter darkness&mdash;at any
+rate, they did practically nothing to shake off the barbarism
+which they had inherited. They have certain
+alluring attributes, such as their unpolluted medi&aelig;val
+ideas on the sanctity of guests and the punctilious maintenance
+of their honour,<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> their readiness to die for freedom
+as well as for a quarrel about a sheep, and their not infrequent
+personal magnetism. They are very abstemious,
+their morals are pure, they have certain mental qualities,
+as yet undeveloped, and they are thrifty. But "they
+are so devoid of both originality and unity," says Sir
+Charles Eliot,<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> that acutest of observers, "that it is vain
+to seek for anything in politics, art, religion, literature
+or customs to which the name Albanian can be properly
+applied as denoting something common to the Albanian
+race."</p>
+
+<p>The apologists, such as Miss Durham, argue that the
+other Balkan peoples suffered from a good deal of internal
+tumult after they had set themselves up as independent
+countries. And it is submitted that the Albanians would
+gradually develop the same national spirit as their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>neighbours. But there are as yet, Miss Durham must
+acknowledge, very few signs that this will ever come to
+pass.</p>
+
+<p>"We are Albanians," said Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i, "we
+ask for Albania! We demand it! Surely you can see
+that we are all marching together, men from all parts of
+Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are
+united."</p>
+
+<p>And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian
+army was returning from a foray into Yugoslavia. When
+they came into the territory of a certain tribe they were
+compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their booty. Such
+incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously
+the conditions still prevail that were described in 1905
+by Karl Steinmetz,<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> an Austrian engineer who learned
+the language and travelled through the country in the
+disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The tribes cannot
+conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
+his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up
+the new State these tribal institutions should be used as
+much as possible. Except in the towns, which play a
+relatively small part in the country's life, the voting
+should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala
+meet," says he, "except for mutual destruction? Will
+a Mirdite for a nice word give up his bandit expeditions
+to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet far too
+great." More often than not you would find that the
+Albanians regard each other as at the time of the Balkan
+War, when, for example, a Serbian cavalry officer took the
+village of Puka and asked the mayor to lead him to the
+neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented,
+but after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped.
+"We are now midway between the two villages," he said,
+"and I can go no farther." "Unless you continue,"
+said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
+"<i>Nukahaile</i> [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is
+all the same to me whether I am killed by you or by the
+men of Duci, and I certainly shall be killed if I show
+myself there."</p>
+
+<p>"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is
+splendid!" said Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i. "And we are not by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>any means fanatical&mdash;with us it is the country first and
+our religion afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman
+as we have sometimes been led to believe. Prenk Bib
+Doda is said to have cherished the precepts of the Catholic
+Church with such devotion that he could not bring himself
+to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
+wife. We are told that his mother was animated with
+similar scruples, and that, to solve this awkward question
+the old lady one day seized a rifle and shot her daughter-in-law
+dead. There is not more truth in this tale than
+in that of the brigands who, on a certain Friday, overpowered
+and slew a caravan of merchants between Dibra
+and Prizren. On examining their spoil they are said to
+have discovered a large amount of meat, but, as it was
+Friday, to have refrained from consuming it. Prenk Bib
+Doda was, as a matter of fact, impotent; and his widow,
+Lucia Bib Doda, survives him.... One agrees with
+Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i that the Albanian is not altogether so
+blindly a supporter of his Church as we have been told,
+and his murderous intentions against a neighbouring
+tribe will be not at all diminished if they happen to profess
+the same religion as himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyone can see," quoth the Monsignor, "that the
+Government is dear to us. Men are coming from all over
+the country, anxious to execute its wishes and to be enrolled
+against the Yugoslav."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, we saw numbers of men tramping up to Scutari,
+from boys to septuagenarians. They were going to
+fight&mdash;it pleased them enormously. But if the Tirana
+Government had ordered them to go back and work on
+their fields, if it had asked them to take some precautions
+against the ravages of syphilis, if it had expressed the
+hope that they would no longer sell their women for an
+old Martini, or that the village prefects would pay some
+regard to sanitary matters&mdash;in the whole of Albania,
+says Siebertz, there is only one <small>w.c.</small>&mdash;then they would
+have laughed at this Government which tried to lay a
+hand on their ancestral liberties.</p>
+
+<p>"The end of it all is," said the Monsignor, "we
+are Albanians. We demand the independence of our
+country."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As a Latin," writes Professor Katarani,<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> "I was
+fire and flame for Albania.... But after a few months
+I was forced not only to change my views about them,
+but to regret all that I had written in the <i>Mattino</i> and the
+<i>Tribuna</i>.... They are not a people, but tribes ...
+they are against every principle of public officials, they
+live the most primitive lives. I who know Albania
+from end to end, who have sacrificed myself for that
+country, am absolutely convinced that there could be no
+greater misfortune than if, in its present state, it were
+given autonomy or independence. Otherwise I confess
+that an Albania free from any foreign Power would be
+to the interest of Italy." And he concludes by saying
+that the Albanians have done nothing to deserve an
+independent State. It is well known that in the Albanian
+Societies that after May 1913 were engaged at Constantinople
+and Sofia, at Rome and Vienna, in striving
+for the independence of the country it was not the
+Albanians themselves who had the chief word. Those
+who were initiated into secret Balkan policies were aware
+that Albania was the domain with which Article 7 of
+the old Triple Alliance was concerned.... The fiery
+Albanian patriot, Basri Bey, Prince of Dukagjin, also
+agrees that in the beginning an independent Albania
+would be productive of anarchy. "I greatly regret to
+acknowledge it," says he,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> "but Albania is, so to speak,
+the classic type of a country which has never had a real
+government." Nevertheless, he is strongly in favour of
+independence, his reasons being because Albania is "at
+the same time the old mother and the youngest daughter
+of the Balkans." This flamboyant prince and doctor
+and deputy who denounces both Essad Pasha and his
+nephew Ahmed Beg Mati, has got his own panacea for
+the country, which is a Turkish army of occupation
+commanded by a French general. Basri Bey seems to
+confirm the remarks of his more enlightened co-religionists,
+Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg, for whereas the
+Moslems can claim no more than a rather larger third of
+the inhabitants, he calmly assumes that the whole country
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>is Moslem. Albania, he says, is now more than ever
+attached to Turkey, for the attachment is purely moral.
+... The influence of this gentleman seems to be confined
+to Dibra, but he has a good opinion of his own importance.
+In 1915, in the days of the greatness of Essad
+Pasha, he set up a Government at Dibra with himself
+as Prime Minister and Essad Pasha as his Minister of
+the Interior! There does not seem to be much justification
+for Basri Bey to call himself a prince. He is a
+Pomak, for his ancestors were Bulgars who accepted
+Islam. His father was an official of the Turkish Government
+at Philippopolis.</p>
+
+<p>Father Fichta told me that his countrymen would do
+very well indeed if they could import from other parts
+of Europe financial help, technicians and judges. Some
+years ago the Turks settled to send two judges to Scutari;
+then the Albanians would no longer be able to charge
+them with not administering the law, so that each man
+was obliged to take it into his own hands. "It is
+entirely your fault," said the Albanians, "that we are
+driven to adopt the method of blood-vengeance." So
+thoroughly did they adopt it that the assassinations in
+the region of Prizren, Djakovica and Pe&#263; amounted,
+according to Gl&uuml;ck, to a total of about six hundred a
+year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
+Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were
+murdered.</p>
+
+<p>What memory have the Albanians of their own great
+men? One sultry afternoon, as we were driving in a
+mule cart from the quaint town of Alessio, the driver
+lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a mile
+of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the
+driver's mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms
+and bled profusely and was doctored by the fierce
+gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the wound,
+so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the
+remainder of the afternoon our mule went at a walking
+pace, and presently, to while away the time, we begged
+the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio, who was travelling
+with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
+Skanderbeg. They stared&mdash;their mouths were also shut.
+And finally the gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+dealt with Zeph, a man with sheep, and Mark who stole
+them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
+no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day,
+as he hid behind a wall, he fired at Mark and slew him.
+"That is the song," said the gendarme, "about the hero
+Zeph."</p>
+
+<p>To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb,
+I think it will be generally agreed that some r&eacute;gime
+other than unaided independence must, in the meantime,
+be established there. One hears of those who argue that
+Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because
+they are a gifted and a very ancient people. They are
+not more gifted than the Basques, and their antiquity is
+not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
+level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do
+the Basques as compared with theirs. Not many tears
+are shed by the Basques or by anyone else because those
+interesting men are all the subjects of France or Spain.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">5. A METHOD THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED IN
+ALBANIA</p>
+
+<p>If only the Albanian question would be taken in
+hand by humanitarians.... Here you have one and a
+half million of wild children.... Build them schools
+and roads, police their country&mdash;they themselves agree
+that the savage atmosphere in the northern mountains
+was radically altered by the Austrians when they occupied
+that country during the War. One has heard of numerous
+philanthropic societies in Great Britain whose object
+has been more remote and less deserving; if some such
+society would turn to Albania, their educational and
+economic labours might, after a time, be made self-supporting
+by the permission to exploit&mdash;of course, with
+due regard to Albania's future&mdash;the forests and mines.
+"To be master in Albania," says M. Gabriel Hanotaux,
+"one would have to dislodge the inhabitants from their
+eyries"&mdash;(another French statesman has used a less
+exalted simile: "Albania," M. Briand once said, "is
+an international lavatory")&mdash;and it goes without saying
+that any corporation which undertakes to civilize the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+Shqyptart would need to bring in a military force, on
+similar lines to the Swedish <i>gendarmerie</i> in Persia. The
+Swedes, in fact, who are a military nation, might be
+glad to accept this mandate; the expenses could be
+met by an international fund. A certain number
+of Albanians would be admitted to the <i>gendarmerie</i>;
+and the more unruly natives would be dealt with
+as they were, for everybody's good, by Austria....
+The Yugoslavs would then be delighted to accept the
+1913 frontier, which is also what the Albanians ask for;
+and Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks would all retire
+from Albania. There is really no need for the Italians
+to demand Valona or Saseno, the island which lies in
+front of it. The Italian naval experts know very well
+that the possession of Pola, Lussin and Lagosta would
+not be made more valuable by the addition of an Albanian
+base.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA</p>
+
+<p>But as Europe has not arrived at some such solution,
+and since the Albanian Government has been prematurely
+recognized by the Powers, then while the Albanians are
+engaged in the stormy process of working out their own
+salvation, it is only fair that Yugoslavia should be given
+a good defensive frontier. The 1913 frontier is only
+possible if the Albanians are pacific, but as it has now
+been thought wise to set up an unaided and independent
+Albanian State there is nothing more certain than the
+turmoil of which its borders will be the scene, and this
+will be so whether the Italians do or do not come to
+the Albanians' assistance. What hope is there of even
+a relative tranquillity on the Albanian border when so
+many of the natives, preferring Yugoslav rule to that of
+their own countrymen, will be waging a civil war? That
+this preference is fairly widespread one could see in 1920
+by the number of refugees on the Yugoslav side of the
+frontier. [Of course, a large number of Albanians also
+fled to Scutari and elsewhere from the districts lately
+occupied by the Yugoslav army. In both cases the
+refugees were moved sometimes by hopes for a brighter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+future, sometimes by fears which were caused by their
+clouded past. To speak first of those who fled on account
+of a guilty conscience, it is evident that these were more
+numerous among the refugees in Albania than among
+those in Yugoslavia, for it was the Yugoslav authorities
+and not the Albanian who extended their sway. Mr.
+Aubrey Herbert, M.P., wrote<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> "that in the North the
+Yugoslavs had destroyed more than 120 Albanian
+villages." It would have been interesting if he had given
+us their names, because the Yugoslavs appear to have
+set about it so thoroughly that one cannot find anything
+like that number on the Austrian maps, which are the
+best pre-war maps for those regions. The Anglo-Albanian
+Society tells the British public, in November,
+1920, of the 30,000 destitute refugees in Albania, and
+in such a way that the cause of their exodus is ascribed,
+without more ado, to the terrible Yugoslav. But as the
+names are known of a good many Albanians who did
+not wait for the Yugoslav army, on account of past
+troubles between themselves and Yugoslavs, as also
+between themselves and other Albanians, it would have
+been as well if the Anglo-Albanian Society had reminded
+the public that all who fly in those parts are not angels.
+It would, on the other hand, be just as rash to sing the
+undiluted praise of those Albanians who, at odds with
+the Tirana Government, thought it opportune to leave
+their native land; but one can safely say, I think, that
+among these wanderers there was a larger proportion of
+laudable men....] Yugoslavia attracts the Albanians
+for more than one reason&mdash;not so much because the
+ancestors of many of these Muhammedan Albanians
+were, and not so long ago, Christians, as because inclusion
+in Yugoslavia would be to their economic advantage&mdash;Scutari
+can scarcely exist without the Yugoslav hinterland,
+while the people of the mountains are longing for
+that railway which the Yugoslavs will only build over
+land which is moderately immune from depredation.
+Other causes which have made so many of the borderland
+Albanians&mdash;to speak only of them&mdash;turn their eyes
+to Yugoslavia are the admiration which any primitive
+people feels for military prowess and the knowledge of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>what has taken place in the Prizren-Pe&#263;-Djakovica
+region since it came into possession of the Serbs in 1913.
+Let us in the first place see what sentiments are now
+entertained by the Albanian natives of that region towards
+their rulers. It goes without saying that these
+sentiments are perfectly well known to those Albanians
+who live outside the Yugoslav frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Well, at Suva Rieka, near Prizren, for example, I
+found that all the Muhammedan inhabitants of Serbian
+origin are aware that they used to celebrate the Serbian
+national custom of "Slava," still keep up the Serbian
+Christmas Eve customs and often practise the old Christian
+nine days' wailing for the dead. Some of us may think
+that this new pro-Serbian tendency is rather on account
+of utilitarian reasons; the great thing is that it should
+exist. With rare exceptions, the people of Suva Rieka
+used to live by plunder; now they are sending their
+children to the Serbian school, at any rate the boys,
+and for the study of religion the authorities have made
+arrangements with a local Moslem. It is to be regretted
+that Miss Edith Durham, whose writings were so pleasant
+in the days before she became a more uncompromising
+pro-Albanian than most of the Albanian leaders, says
+that if these children go to Serbian schools it merely
+shows to what lengths of coercion the Serbs will resort.
+In 1912-1913 Serbian and Montenegrin officers seem to
+have told her that severe measures would be employed
+against any recalcitrant Albanian parent who might
+decline to send his son to school. Assuming that these
+officers were not young subalterns, that they were quite
+sober and that they were not rudely "pulling Miss
+Durham's leg," it may be urged that even if the children
+be driven to school at the point of the bayonet, such
+conduct would compare favourably with that of the
+Albanians towards the Serbs in Turkish times. Talking
+of coercion, I suppose that the progress in agricultural
+methods which one sees around Prizren is only further
+evidence of Serbian tyranny. The <i>gendarmerie</i> on the
+country roads is composed largely of Muhammedan
+Albanians&mdash;doubtless the Serbs have coerced them by
+some horrible threats. And if Miss Durham were to hear
+that Ramadan (<i>n&eacute;</i> Stojan) Stefanovi&#263; of the village of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+Musotisti had decided to return to the Orthodox faith
+to which his brothers George and Ilja had been more
+faithful than himself&mdash;such variegated families are not
+uncommon&mdash;I believe, though I may be doing her an
+injustice, that her first impulse would be to write to the
+papers in drastic denunciation of the Serbian authorities.
+They have, like most of us, sufficient to regret&mdash;for
+example, the person whom they sent to Pe&#263;, when they
+wanted the land to be distributed, was King Peter's
+Master of the Horse. He was thoroughly unsuitable,
+and caused a great deal of dissatisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>There was a time at the rather gloomy town of
+Djakovica, when, owing to the blood-vengeance, the
+Merturi were unable for eight years to enter the place;
+now they come in, merely to gaze at the Serbian major
+who is in command. Halim Beg Derala, the aristocratic
+and wealthy ex-mayor, who as a pastime used to plan
+an occasional robbery in Turkish days, told me&mdash;he speaks
+a little French, in addition to Albanian, Turkish, Serbian
+and Greek&mdash;that citizens were often unable to leave their
+houses for two months at a time,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> and although every
+house was provisioned for a siege, yet one frequently
+had to manage without bread. Now the candid-eyed,
+fair-bearded priest rides out with Ljuba Kujundji&#263;, the
+erstwhile leader of komitadji, in order to negotiate
+with the Albanian Zeph Voglia, at that personage's own
+request, for his surrender to the Serb authorities. Zeph
+has written from a forest that he feels uneasy, because
+he owes sixteen blood-vengeances. He asks that his
+affairs may be settled by the law, and those sixteen
+pursuing countrymen of his have signified that this will
+meet their views, since in the first place the Serbs are
+disinterested in the matters between them, and, secondly,
+the Serbian penalties are not so mild as theirs, not permitting
+that a murder shall be expiated by the payment
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>of a moderate sum or that a guilty party may absent
+himself for three years and suffer no further loss than the
+devastation of his house. Another sphere in which the
+Serbs have gained Albanian sympathies is with regard
+to the disputed ownership of land. Even as the Moors
+have been in the habit of handing down, from father to
+son, the key of some Sevillan house that vanished centuries
+ago, the Montenegrins, more fortunate, have been appearing
+with the ancient title-deeds of lands that now are
+in Albanian possession. According to Serbian law it is
+the oldest document which prevails. And the Albanians
+are generously compensated.... Those who, with the
+highest motives, advocate "Albania for the Albanians,"
+may argue that the medi&aelig;val activities of Riza Beg
+and Bairam Beg Zur&mdash;whose adherents started shooting
+at each other every evening after six o'clock in the refuse-laden
+streets of Djakovica&mdash;would have been concluded
+and would not have been continued by their sons even
+if the Serbs had not appeared. Let them, before proclaiming
+the modern reasonableness of the Albanians,
+recollect that in 1919 the Moslem Bosniak ex-prisoners
+required on the average three months in order to traverse
+central Albania, the country of their co-religionists.
+From village to village the Bosniaks made their way,
+earning a little and then being plundered at the next
+place. Eighty per cent. of this population believe, in
+their fanaticism, that the Sultan will again unfurl over
+them his flag and that the world will ultimately be converted
+to Muhammed. And if, entertaining such ideas,
+they are so rigorous towards their fellow-Moslems, what
+prospect is there that this 80 per cent. will assist the
+Orthodox and Catholic Albanians in building up a State?
+Their ferocity, in fact, is so profound that it thrives on a
+diet which is chiefly of milk.... Perhaps a day will
+come when the Albanian will submit to be ruled by a
+member of another tribe, when local politics will engage
+his attention less than the silver, iron, copper, arsenic
+and water-power of his country. Perhaps the day will
+come. Midway between Djakovica and the monastery
+of De&#269;ani there stand two large houses side by side.
+In 1909 a man belonging to one of them slew four men
+of the other house, and on account of this he fled beyond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+the Drin, together with thirteen other men of his family.
+There is no knowing how long these refugees would have
+stayed away if that part of the country had not come
+under Serbian rule, but in 1919 negotiations were set on
+foot which&mdash;to the satisfaction of the members of the
+other house&mdash;would enable the thirteen innocent refugees
+to return, while the criminal would be arrested.</p>
+
+<p>As evidence of the cordiality now prevailing between
+Albanian and Serb in Yugoslavia, one may mention
+those cases where the Albanians in 1919 entered into a
+bond that for six months they would exact no blood-vengeance
+from their fellow-countrymen; the number
+of these debts which hitherto had been regarded as debts
+of honour was very considerable, for they were not only
+incurred by assassination but could also be in payment
+of a mere scowl or of your wife, from within the house,
+having heard the voice of another man raised in song.
+The Serbian authorities are hoping confidently that the
+Albanians who have thus for a season placed themselves
+under the law will be ready in the future to pledge themselves.
+They are beginning to see that in a place the size
+of Djakovica it should be possible to make a wheel,
+that one should be able to find a shop whose contents
+are worth more than 100 francs, that the breed of their
+cattle, of their sheep and goats and horses could be
+vastly improved, that if their land were sanely treated
+it could be rendered much more fertile, and that their
+system of fruit cultivation is absurdly primitive....
+And with Djakovica and the whole region of Kossovo
+being treated as we have shown by the Yugoslavs I think
+it will be almost as great a surprise to the reader as it
+was to the local population when he learns that in a
+memorandum of April 26, 1921, the Tirana Government
+complained to the League of Nations that the Yugoslav
+civil and military officials were behaving in a very pitiless
+fashion towards the Albanians. Certainly they have not
+as yet established Albanian schools, but they propose
+to do so when there is accommodation and when teachers
+are available; and then, maybe, to the disgust of Miss
+Durham, Mr. Herbert, etc., the Albanians of the district
+will, with an eye to the future, prefer to visit the Yugoslav
+schools.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER MATTERS IN THE BORDER
+REGION</p>
+
+<p>Having glanced at what the Serbs have done in such
+a very short time&mdash;most of the years since 1913 being
+years of war&mdash;to win the gratitude of their Albanian
+fellow-subjects, we shall, in following a possible frontier
+between Yugoslavia and the Albanians, at any rate
+believe that many Albanians of those thus coming under
+Yugoslav rule would regard the change, as well they may,
+with equanimity. Suppose, then, that the frontier were
+to run along the watershed at the top of the mountain
+range to the west of Lake Ochrida. The people living
+to the east of this line in that district would acknowledge
+their Serbian origin. Thence passing to the neighbourhood
+of the village of Lin and from there in a northwesterly
+direction, so as to include in Yugoslavia the
+Golo Brdo, the so-called Bald Mountains, whose thirty
+villages are inhabited by Islamized Serbs who only speak,
+with very rare exceptions, the Serbian language, one
+may say that not only would their inclusion in Yugoslavia
+be beneficial to these people, but that they would accept
+it with alacrity. No very deep impression has been
+made upon them by the religion to which, not long ago,
+they were converted. In the Golo Brdo it was in great
+measure due to the Greek Church which, about the
+middle of the nineteenth century, left the region without
+a single priest, so that children of the age of eight had
+not been christened, and the people in disgust went
+over to Islam. Near Ochrida, some of them were asked
+whether they frequented the mosque.</p>
+
+<p>"Never," they replied.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your religion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is very strange," they told us, "but we have
+none."</p>
+
+<p>"What religion did you formerly have?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we don't know."</p>
+
+<p>Their priest roams the mountains with his gun, and
+there has been a tendency, since a man in this position
+received his salary from the State, for many to persuade
+the mufti to appoint them, irrespective of whether they
+could read or write. The devout Moslem is, to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+exclusion of everything else, a Moslem; but in these
+districts, where the faith was assumed in a moment
+of pique or as a protection, and where the Muhammedan
+clergy has been so negligent, the people are gladly cultivating
+their Christian relatives. In the district of Suva
+Rieka one hears of conversions to Christianity, and the
+functionaries bring no pressure to bear, unlike the misguided
+Montenegrin officials who in 1912 rode into Pe&#263;,
+the old Patriarchate, and wanted in their delight to have
+everyone immediately to adopt the Orthodox faith.
+Now the authorities, with greater wisdom, do not interfere
+in these matters. They know that Yugoslavia will have
+no enemy in that house in the village of Brod, between
+Tetovo and Prizren, where two brothers are living
+together, of whom one went over to Islam. They know
+that the Muhammedan Krasnichi of Albania are proclaiming
+their kinship with the great Montenegrin clan
+of Vasojevi&#263;, that the Gashi are calling to the Piperi
+and the Berishi to the Ku&#269;i. The new cordiality will be
+impaired neither by the differences of religion nor by
+the similarity of costume. The average Albanian of
+Djakovica would not be any fonder of an Orthodox
+fellow-citizen if the latter continues to wear the Albanian
+dress which was generally adopted about a hundred
+years ago, and the Vasojevi&#263; may please themselves as
+to the wearing of a costume which they once found so
+useful in the Middle Ages. They happened to be for ten
+days in the Hoti country for the purpose of wiping out
+a blood affair, and when they were about to fall into the
+Hoti's hands they shouted, "What do you want with
+us? We are Kastrati!" The Kastrati, to whom these
+Albanian-clad people were led, confirmed the statement,
+so that the Vasojevi&#263; earned for themselves the nickname
+of Kastratovi&#263;.</p>
+
+<p>From the Golo Brdo the best frontier would pass
+north-eastwards to the Black Drin and along that river
+until it is joined by the White Drin. This is a poor
+country whose inhabitants are, for the most part, Moslemized
+Serbs. About a hundred men are now engaged
+in excavating the very finely decorated Serbian church
+at Pi&#353;kopalja on the Drin&mdash;much to the edification of
+the local Moslems. This church of their ancestors was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>
+covered in during the Middle Ages in order to conceal it
+from the Turks. Too often the natives' present occupation
+is brigandage; but from of old they have had
+economic relations with Prizren, to which old town of
+vine-arched, narrow, winding streets and picturesque
+bazaars these countryfolk have been accustomed to come
+every week. These Moslems (of whom there are some
+100,000 in the department of Prizren, with 13,000
+Orthodox and 3000 Catholics) used to detest the
+Christians on account of their religion, although half of
+the Moslems could speak nothing but Serbian. The
+Serbs, it must be admitted, were not always blameless;
+in the early nineties, for example, they suspended a pig's
+head outside the mosque. And the amenities of Prizren
+were complicated by the hostility between Orthodox and
+Catholic. This was largely due to the fact that, by the
+intervention of the French Consul after the Crimean War,
+the Catholics&mdash;descendants of Ragusan emigrants of the
+Middle Ages&mdash;had secured the former Orthodox church
+of St. Demetrius, in which church, by the way, the services
+had come to be held in Albanian. When the Vatican, in
+the second half of the nineteenth century, sent a Serbian
+priest, the congregation had become so thoroughly
+Albanized that after a year he had to leave. The propaganda
+of Austria, Italy and Russia did nothing towards
+persuading the three religions of Prizren to regard each
+other in a more amicable fashion; while Italy and Austria
+gave exclusive assistance to the Catholics, whom they
+found in such distress that, forty years ago, most of them
+went barefoot, the presence of the Russian Consul was
+of such importance to the Orthodox that their position
+at Prizren was better than in their old patriarchal town
+of Pe&#263;. Nowadays, with Austrian and Russian propaganda
+deleted, there is only that of the Italians, whose
+proposal to create an independent Albania (under Italian
+protection) was at first applauded by some simple folk in
+1919. The Moslem took to accepting Italian money
+and then honourably informing the Yugoslav authorities
+that they had been appointed as agents of Italy; they
+offered to capture the Franciscan priests with whose
+help the Italians were trying to secure the Catholics; and
+as for the cash, it seems mostly to have been spent in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+convivial fashion by the Moslems and the Serbs together.
+This friendship appears likely to continue, for the Serbian
+authorities, so far from countenancing such pranks as
+that of the pig's head, do not even propose to reconsecrate
+their ancient church of Petka. When this building
+was made into a mosque, the Moslem still permitted
+the Christian women to come and pray there, while if a
+Christian man was sick they let him leave a jar of water
+in the mosque all night, so that it might acquire certain
+medicinal properties. It is the intention of the Serbs not
+to restore the church to Christian worship, but to turn it
+into a museum.</p>
+
+<p>With the frontier then being drawn along the Drin,
+towards the Adriatic, the famous villages of Plav and
+Gusinje would definitely pass to Yugoslavia, in accordance
+with the wishes of a deputation sent by them to
+Belgrade in 1919. The well-meaning British champions
+of Gusinje, who maintain that this village is furiously
+antagonistic to the Slav and is ready to struggle to the
+uttermost rather than be incorporated in a Slav kingdom,
+these champions do not, I think, draw a sufficient
+distinction between Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Plav,
+with its mostly Christian population, and Gusinje, where
+the Moslem preponderates, refused at the time of the
+Berlin Congress to be given to Montenegro, with which
+they had certain local quarrels. Nicholas reported to
+the Powers which had awarded him these places that they
+were obdurate, for which reason he was given in their
+stead a much-desired strip of coast, down to Dulcigno,
+and nothing could have suited that astute monarch
+better. Nikita&mdash;to call him by his familiar name&mdash;imagined
+that the two villages would eventually fall to
+Montenegro, because of the formidable mountains which
+divide them from the rest of Albania; the road from
+Gusinje to Scutari is very long and very arduous. When
+Montenegro succeeded in capturing Plav in 1912, a certain
+Muhammedan priest of that place joined the Orthodox
+Church and was appointed a major in the Montenegrin
+army. He acted as the president of a court-martial,
+and in that capacity is reputed to have hanged or shot,
+some say, as many as five hundred of his former
+parishioners, because they declined to be baptized. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+told them that their ancestors were all Serbs, and that
+therefore they should follow his example. Since the
+Montenegrins did not restrain this over-zealous man, the
+villagers were naturally not in favour of that country.
+Montenegro had a very small number of good officials,
+owing to Nikita's peculiar management which, in considering
+his favourites, did not regard illiteracy as a bar
+to the highest administrative or judicial post.... The
+people of Plav and Gusinje have, on the other hand, no
+hostility against Serbia. In November 1918 a detachment
+of thirty Serbs was stationed at Gusinje, what time
+certain Italian agents put it into the shallow minds of
+some Albanians that Albania desired to be independent
+under Italian protection. Nothing happened when a
+Serbian force came from Mitrovica, except that these
+agents and a few of their tools&mdash;be it noted that perhaps
+half the population is ignorant of the Albanian language&mdash;withdrew
+to the Rugovo district, where they tried to
+induce the people to fly with them, so that the world
+would hear how iniquitously the Serbs had acted. Those
+of Rugovo refused to accompany them; in consequence
+of which there was a fight, some houses were burned,
+some women and cattle were seized. And afterwards
+the men of Rugovo repaired to Gusinje and exacted a
+vengeance which, the most Serbophobe person will admit,
+had nothing to do with the Serbs. The luckless village
+of Gusinje was again laid waste in 1919 by the Montenegrins,
+but this came to pass as the result of the Montenegrin
+clan of Vasojevi&#263; having their property ravaged by
+some Albanian marauders who were prompted by the
+same Great Power. The Vasojevi&#263; believed that this
+evil deed was done by the men of Gusinje, so that they
+destroyed their houses. When the facts were explained
+to them, the Vasojevi&#263; said that they were prepared to
+rebuild the village. And now Plav and Gusinje, who ask
+for Serbian and not Montenegrin officials, recognize that
+it is impossible for them to live except in union with
+Yugoslavia.... Miss Durham's wrath concerning an
+affair which happened during 1919 in this region shows to
+what lengths a partisan will go. She complained with
+great bitterness that the Serbs had actually arrested a
+British officer whose purpose it was to make investigations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Serbs are human beings and are not immune
+from error; and Miss Durham is so determined to expose
+them that if all her charges were dealt with from Belgrade
+it would necessitate the appointment of one or two
+more officials. But in this particular case she is not the
+sole accuser. A Captain Willett Cunnington&mdash;who,
+according to the President of the Anglo-Albanian Society,
+the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., has several years'
+intimate experience of Albania&mdash;said in the <i>New Statesman</i>
+that in consequence of what occurred to Captain
+Brodie the Serbian Government was compelled to
+apologize abjectly. Now I happen to be very well
+acquainted with the stalwart Pouni&#353;a Ra&#269;i&#263;, the Montenegrin
+who arrested Brodie. Albanians have told me
+that Pouni&#353;a's knowledge of the north and north-west
+of their country is not a matter of villages but of houses.
+And he has always observed the customs which prevail
+in those houses, so that when he is known to be approaching,
+the people who live at a distance of many hours
+will come to meet him, whether for the pure delight of
+discharging their firearms to his greater glory or for the
+purpose of seeking his advice. It is not because he has
+studied jurisprudence in Paris that they respect him in
+that bitter region, but because he does not disregard the
+laws that govern the wild hearts on both sides of the
+frontier. Yet I suppose Captain Brodie had never heard
+of him&mdash;poor Captain Brodie! unconscious of the great
+good luck which had brought him into the presence of
+this man who could have made his journey much more
+pleasant for himself and vastly more profitable for his
+superiors.</p>
+
+<p>This is what Pouni&#353;a Ra&#269;i&#263; told me:</p>
+
+<p>"At the end of January and the beginning of
+February 1919, we were having a certain amount of
+trouble in the Gusinje and Plav district, where I
+was acting as delegate of the Belgrade Government.
+Travellers were being murdered, telephone wires were
+being cut, and so forth. In those parts, which I have
+known for so many years, it is a good deal easier to
+ascertain a criminal's name than to seize him, and I had
+not captured these malefactors when one day I had
+a message to say that a European Commission was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+approaching. Later on I was told that thirty-nine of its
+members were Albanians. I ordered my lieutenant to
+find out whether they were from our territory, in which
+case they were to be disarmed and brought to me; or
+from Albania, in which event they were to be received
+politely. A quarter of an hour after this I was told that
+they were all well-known brigands from our State, and
+there was one specially notorious person, Djer Doucha,
+who in 1912 was converted to Christianity and was made
+a gendarme at the court of King Nicholas; in 1915, after
+the Austrian invasion, he was reconverted to Islam and
+became a sergeant of <i>gendarmerie</i>. In that position he
+killed fifty or sixty Serbs and Montenegrins, to say
+nothing of his other acts of violence. In 1918, for instance,
+he murdered seven school-children whom he met on the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>"I had some urgent business at Plav," continued
+Ra&#269;i&#263;, "and there all these people were brought before
+me. In addition to the thirty-nine Albanians there were
+three men in British uniforms. I was acquainted with
+one of them, a certain Perola, a Catholic of Pe&#263;, a former
+Austrian agent who had committed many crimes against
+the Serbs and had lately escaped from the prison at Pe&#263;.
+One of the other two said that he was Captain Brodie,
+whom the London Government had sent as their delegate
+for Albania and Montenegro. I suppose the third man
+was his British orderly; I never heard him speak. But
+Brodie said many things. One of them (which was
+quite true) was that his Government had not yet recognized
+the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
+He demanded the instant release of his companions.
+'Do you know who they are?' said I. 'That is no
+concern of yours,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'they are
+criminals, and it is for the judges to say whether or not
+they are to be liberated.' 'I protest,' he exclaimed, 'in
+the name of England, against their arrest!' 'And I
+thank you,' said I, 'in the name of the Serbian police,
+for having brought them here.' 'You are a savage,
+a barbarous nation!' said he, 'and you don't deserve
+to be free and independent.' 'Sir,' said I, 'if you are an
+Englishman you should know that we are your allies,
+that you and we have shed our blood for the common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+cause. We love England very much, and I am very
+surprised to hear a British officer speak in this way.'
+Again he demanded to be set free, he and all his people,
+so that he could continue his mission; but I told him
+that after what I had heard from him and what I had
+seen of his escort, I could not permit him to go on to
+other villages unless he could show me an authorization
+from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Belgrade. 'I
+do not recognize the Belgrade Government,' said he.
+'Whom, then,' I asked, 'do you regard as the legitimate
+ruler of this country?' 'King Nicholas,' said he, 'and
+the Government of Montenegro.' So I advised him to
+get a visa from King Nicholas and to come back to perform
+his mission, when that visa would be honoured. 'Anyhow,'
+said he, 'the people of these parts are against
+Serbia.' Thereupon I sent for the chief men and told
+them to say quite candidly in front of this Englishman
+what they wanted. There were five Moslems, including
+Islam and Abdi Beg Rejepagi&#263; (the leading family) and
+Ismael Omeragi&#263;, also two Christians, of whom I remember
+Stani&#269;a Turkovi&#263;. 'Long live Serbia!' they
+shouted. 'Death to Nicholas and the Albanians!' On
+hearing this Captain Brodie was discontented; he told
+me that I was a savage and did not know how to esteem an
+Englishman. 'I esteem you very much,' said I, 'and
+because he is wearing a British uniform I won't arrest
+this interpreter of yours.' (By the way, Perola was not
+acting as interpreter in our conversation, as the captain
+and I were talking French.) 'He used to be an Austrian
+agent,' said I. 'You are a liar!' cried Brodie; 'I
+know this man; he was nothing of the sort.' I remained
+calm, but I told him that he must not speak to me again
+in such a way. I asked him how long he had known
+Perola, who had got away from our prison a month ago.
+'I have known him for a month,' said Brodie. 'And
+now,' said I, 'will you please show me your documents?'
+'I have none,' said he, 'and I do not require any, as I am
+a British officer.' 'But I have read in the papers,' said
+I, 'that your people arrested and shot several persons
+who were wearing the uniform of a British officer. If
+you have no documents to prove that you are not a spy
+and that you are a British officer I shall have to arrest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+you.' Then he showed me one with some Italian words
+on it, I think a permission to go somewhere on the Piave
+front. 'From now,' said I, 'you are arrested; no one
+can come to you and you cannot leave this house. Prepare
+yourself to start to-morrow or the day after, if you
+are tired, for Pe&#263;, and perhaps Skoplje, so that you may
+prove your identity.' He protested, and declared that
+he must see the people in the neighbouring villages. 'If
+you are a real Englishman,' said I, 'I could not allow
+you to go by yourself, since there are many Moslems in
+these parts who have been excited against England by
+their hodjas, owing to your war with Turkey. They
+might kill you, and I would be held responsible; so that
+even if you had the necessary documents I could only let
+you go if precautions were taken to guard you. I am
+sorry,' said I, 'that you should have spoken as you
+have done against the Serbs; in fact, it seems to me that
+you are doing a disservice to England, and that here in
+this village I am serving her more truly.' 'I decline
+to go to Pe&#263;,' said Brodie; 'I want to go to Scutari.'
+'You must go to Pe&#263;,' said I. He said that I could
+telephone concerning him either to the Belgrade Government
+or to the General at Cetinje. 'Unfortunately,' said
+I, 'it is these people who are with you who cut the telephone
+wires two days ago.' After this I appointed a
+guard for him. I gave him my room, with soldiers to
+serve him, to keep the room warm and bring him whatever
+food we had. [Observe that the above-mentioned
+Captain Willett Cunnington wrote in the <i>New Statesman</i>
+that Brodie was treated with "gross indignity."] 'Three
+horses were got ready,' said Ra&#269;i&#263; in conclusion, 'and on
+these they rode to Pe&#263;, accompanied by a guard, both to
+prevent them from escaping and from coming to harm.'"<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p>
+
+<p>In its old Albanian days the village of Gusinje was
+perhaps the most inaccessible spot in Europe&mdash;it was
+rarely possible for anyone to obtain permission to approach
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>it. Even to Miss Durham, friend of the Albanians, this
+people sent a decided refusal. But now, under the
+guidance of the Yugoslav authorities, they have abandoned
+these boorish ways; Miss Durham could go there
+at any time, but maybe the village no longer attracts
+her.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN AUTHORITIES</p>
+
+<p>[We have more than once alluded to the writings of
+Miss Durham, since very few British authors have dealt
+with Albania, and she has come to be regarded as a trustworthy
+expert. But the flagrant partiality of her latest
+book (<i>Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle</i>; London, 1920),
+which, moreover, is written with great bitterness, will
+make the public turn, I hope, to Sir Charles Eliot, who
+is a vastly better cicerone. The present ambassador in
+Japan is, of course, one of the foremost men of this generation.
+His Balkan studies are as supremely competent
+as his monumental work on British Nudibranchiate
+Mollusca, published by the Ray Society when Sir Charles,
+having resigned the Governorship of East Africa, was
+Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Equally admired
+are his researches into Chinese linguistics and his monograph,
+the first in the language, on that most obscure
+subject, Finnish grammar.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> Will it be believed that in
+her account of the Balkan tangle Miss Durham does not
+quote Sir Charles Eliot, but Mr. Horatio Bottomley?
+It seems that Mr. Bottomley has not devoted much attention
+to the Balkans, since in November 1920 he poured
+the vials of his wrath upon the Serbs, who, according to
+his "latest reports from Montenegro," had destroyed no
+less than 4000 Montenegrin houses in the district of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>Dibra, a place which lies some 75 miles by road from
+the land of the Black Mountain and probably does not
+possess more than two or three Montenegrin houses;
+but he flings hard words against the Serbs, and that is
+good enough for Miss Durham. On the other hand, Sir
+Charles Eliot, who has travelled largely in Albania, wrote
+the simple facts about that people and they are obnoxious
+to this lady. "It is not surprising to find that there is
+no history of Albania, for there is no union between
+North and South, or between the different northern
+tribes and the different southern Beys," said he in 1900,
+and such a people does not undergo a fundamental change
+in twenty years. "Only two names," says Eliot, "those
+of Skanderbeg and Ali Pasha of Janina, emerge from
+the confusion of justly unrecorded tribal quarrels....
+Albania presents nothing but oppositions&mdash;North against
+South, tribe against tribe, Bey against Bey." (According
+to Miss Durham they are all aflame with the desire
+to form a nation.) "Even family ties seem to be somewhat
+weak," says Sir Charles, "for since European
+influence has diminished the African slave-trade, Albanians
+have taken to selling their female children to supply
+the want of negroes." (The Albanians are "enterprising
+and industrious," says Miss Durham.) "In many
+ways," says Eliot, "they are in Europe what the Kurds
+are in Asia. Both are wild and lawless tribes who inflict
+much damage on decent Turks and Christians alike.
+Both might be easily brought to reason by the exhibition
+of a little firmness.... Albanian patriotism is not a
+home product&mdash;had they ever been ready to combine
+against the Turk there seems to be no reason why they
+should not have preserved the same kind of independence
+as Montenegro; but from the first some of the tribes
+and clans endeavoured to secure an advantage over the
+others by siding with the invaders&mdash;papers and books
+on the national movement are written at Bucharest,
+Brussels and various Italian towns, but they are not read
+at Scutari or Janina. The stock grievance of this literature
+is that the Turks will not allow Albanian to be
+taught in the schools, and endeavour to ignore the existence
+of the language; but though the complaint is well-founded,
+I doubt if the mass of the people have much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+feeling on the subject." ... Those who are rash enough
+to assert, because Miss Durham says so, that in the last
+two decades the Albanians have made a progress of
+several centuries may be recommended to the testimony
+of Brailsford<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> (1906), of Katarani (1913), and of the
+Italian Press which, after the retreat of their army to
+Valona, published in 1920 the most ghastly particulars
+of what befell the hapless officers and men who were
+captured by the Albanians.</p>
+
+<p>Let the British public henceforth go to Sir Charles
+Eliot and not to this emotional lady for its picture of the
+unchanged Shqyptar. She reveals to us that more than
+one person in the Balkans said that her knowledge of
+those countries is enormous; she has knocked about
+the western Balkans and picked up a good deal of material,
+but her knowledge has its limitations: for example, she
+makes the old howler of ascribing Macedonian origin to
+Pa&#353;i&#263;, though his grandfather came not from Tetovo in
+Macedonia but from near Teteven in what is now Bulgaria.
+Miss Durham plumes herself for having sent back to
+Belgrade the Order of St. Sava, and seeing that it is
+bestowed for learning she did well. But even if her
+acquaintance with Balkan affairs were more adequate&mdash;her
+diagnosis of the Macedonian racial problem is extremely
+rough and ready&mdash;all the writings of Miss Durham
+are so warped with hatred for the Slav that they must
+be very carefully approached. Because she thinks it
+will incline her readers towards the Albanians she says<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a>
+that they were early converts to Christianity. She
+omits to mention that the Moslem, on arriving in the
+Balkans, was able to spread his religion much more
+easily in Albania than anywhere else; and again, in the
+seventeenth century, when Constantinople offered many
+lucrative posts to the Moslem there occurred in Albania
+a great wave of apostasy. Miss Durham speaks with
+pride of the Albanians who during the Great War fought
+in the French, Italian and American ranks. Would it
+not be more straightforward if she added that large
+numbers were enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian army
+and <i>gendarmerie</i>? The special task of the latter was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>to dislodge from their mountain fastnesses those Montenegrins
+who continued to carry on a desperate guerilla
+warfare against the invader. To pretend that the Albanian
+has earned the freedom of his country by his glorious
+exploits in the War is an absurdity. He is a medi&aelig;val
+fellow, much more anxious to have a head to bash than
+to ascertain whom it belongs to. The Slavs have not
+always treated their raw neighbours with indulgence;
+in the Balkan War, when their army marched through
+Albania to the sea some very discreditable incidents
+occurred, whatever may have been the provocation they
+received from the sniping natives and however great be
+the excuse of their own state of nerves. Yet the first
+stone should be flung by that army of Western Europe
+which, in its passage through the territory of a treacherous
+and savage people, has done nothing which it would not
+willingly forget. And seriously to argue that the Slavs
+are of an almost undiluted blackness, while the Albanians
+are endearing creatures, is to take what anti-feminists
+would call a feminist view of history. Miss Durham tells
+us that some years ago she stood upon a height with an
+Albanian abbot and promised him that she would do all
+that lay in her power to bring a knowledge of Albania
+to the English. The worthy abbot may have glanced at
+her uneasily, but noticing her rapt expression reassured
+himself. And she appears to have believed that England,
+eagerly absorbing what she told them of this people,
+would in August 1914 make her policy depend on their
+convenience. But to Miss Durham's horror and amazement,
+Great Britain turned aside from this clear and
+honourable duty. She entered the War as an ally of
+the Slav, bringing "shame and disgust" upon Miss
+Durham. "After that," says she, "I really did not
+care what happened. The cup of my humiliation was
+full."]</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS</p>
+
+<p>It is not as if Serbia never made mistakes in dealing
+with the Albanians. The Sultan used to govern them by
+sending in one year an army against them, and in the
+next year asking for no recruits or taxes. The Montenegrins,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+of whom the older generation was bored when it
+had no man to shoot at, used to be on very neighbourly
+terms with them. Both these systems the Albanians
+could understand. But they did not know why the
+Belgrade Government in 1878&mdash;and it was a mistaken
+policy&mdash;should expel a number of Albanians from the
+newly-won zones, thrusting them across the frontier and
+putting in their place a number of Serbs who were settled
+in Old Serbia. The twofold folly of this plan was not
+grasped at the moment; but for several years the Serbian
+frontier districts were regularly invaded and plundered.
+The following years of Turkish misrule, and especially
+the young Turkish policy of treacherous force, which
+resulted in Albanian risings every year, may possibly have
+caused many Albanians to be honestly glad when the
+Balkan War brought the Serbs into their country. But of
+these Albanians not a few would rejoice because they
+hoped that with the help of the Serbian army it would be
+possible to slay the members of some adjacent tribe
+against whom they happened to have a feud. Perhaps
+the Serbs were so eager to bathe their horses in the
+Adriatic that they did not notice such trifles as the
+destruction of a ford, this having been done to prevent
+a visit from undesirable neighbours. One might have
+imagined that Serbia, being well known as a land of small
+peasant proprietors&mdash;where there is even a law which
+forbids a peasant's house from being sold over his head;
+he is, under any circumstances, assured of so much as will
+enable him to eke out a livelihood&mdash;one would have
+thought that the Albanian <i>&#269;if&#269;ija</i>, who is nothing more
+than a slave of the feudal chief, would have rejoiced at the
+arrival of a liberator; and indeed, while the Serbian troops
+were in Albania the peasant refused to give his lord the
+customary third or half of what the land produced, and
+after the departure of the Serbs he was unapproachable
+for tax-collectors. Who knows whether this social readjustment,
+so auspiciously begun, might not have made
+Albania wipe out her grievances against the Serbs and
+remember only that in the Imperial days of Du&#353;an, even
+if he was not of the most ancient Balkan race, there was
+prosperity and happiness where now is desolation; busy
+merchants in the seaport towns of Albania, which now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+are ruins; ships sailing in from Venice with the luxuries
+of all the world and taking back with them all those good
+things, a half of which Albania has forgotten how to
+make? And after that there had been times of friendship
+with the Serb&mdash;Dositej Obradovi&#263;, the philologist (one of
+those amiable persons who invented for the Albanians
+an alphabet), tells us, for instance, how in his travels
+through Albania he was assured by natives that they and
+the Serbs lived together as if they were members of one
+family, while the Ku&#263;i in eastern Montenegro had, by a
+gradual process of assimilation, become transformed from
+Catholic Albanians into Orthodox Montenegrins. It is
+told that in the wondrous hours when the <i>&#269;if&#269;ija</i> gloried
+in the soil he was about to win, even the notoriously
+wild Klementi, filled with hunger for the land, ran down
+from their fastnesses. But, most unfortunately, at that
+moment the Great Powers decided that Albania was to
+be an autonomous, hereditary State. This interrupted
+the movement towards reconciliation with Serbia; and
+even now the Serbs will be told by many encouraging
+people that in their efforts to win the regard of Albanians
+they have an impossible task, that if some of them take
+a step towards you one day they will rush back a dozen
+on the day after. These people will repeat the legend that
+the Albanians have an invincible hatred for the Slavs;
+but the Albanians have not forgotten how, in the course
+of the Middle Ages, they were willingly open to Slav
+penetration&mdash;the Serbian language reached to beyond
+Alessio, the small Albanian dynasties intermarried with
+Slav ruling families, so that they preferred to speak
+Serbian, and down to this day two-thirds of the place-names
+of northern Albania are of Slav origin. One of
+the most important documents in this connection is a
+letter from the town of Dubrovnik to the Emperor Sigismund
+in the year 1434. They inform the Emperor that
+Andria Topia, lord of the Albanian coast, has secretaries
+who know nothing but the Serbian language and alphabet.
+Thus when the Emperor sends him letters in Latin he is
+obliged to have them translated elsewhere, and the contents
+of the Imperial letters are not kept secret. So the
+Emperor was forced to write to Topia in Serbian....
+Long memories are not always inconvenient, and Albanian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+memories are long because, until recent years, all that
+they knew came from tradition&mdash;Austria and Italy had
+not yet become so concerned about Albanian education
+that (forgetting their own illiterates in Bosnia and
+Calabria) the two Allies waved into existence boys' and
+girls' schools up and down the country; so desirous
+were they that these founts of knowledge should be
+patronized that both Italians and Austrians were prepared
+to pay good money and eke a supply of garments and a
+gaily-coloured picture of King or Emperor, as the case
+might be; and with respect to the cash, not only was
+each willing to pay but to pay more than the other. Yet
+the Albanian is most mindful of tradition, and he is aware
+that his approach to the Slav in the Middle Ages was
+blocked by the inopportune arrival of the Turks; it is in
+the nature of man that the Albanian was more impressed
+by the brilliant young States of the early princes, with
+that barbarically sumptuous residence at Scutari (the
+Catholics of Scutari also being in the diocese of Antivari,
+which was under Serb domination) than, centuries later,
+when he found himself confronted with the pitiable
+population of Old Serbia.</p>
+
+<p>In the Sandjak the task of Yugoslavia will be relatively
+simple; the Albanians who live there are not
+autochthonous, but arrived at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century on the plateau of Pechter. These
+Klementi&mdash;then very numerous&mdash;cared nothing for their
+Serbian origin, so that the Patriarch of Pe&#263; had to protect
+himself against them by means of a janissary guard&mdash;which
+the Sultan permitted him to maintain at his own
+expense&mdash;whereas they were attentive to the teachings of
+their religion, in so far as they obeyed the Catholic
+missionaries who dwelt among them and requested that
+in their forays they should confine themselves to
+Muhammedan and Orthodox booty. One of the places
+they attacked was Plav, from which they drove the
+population, and themselves henceforward took to living
+on the fertile fields in summer, while they spent the winter
+in some mountain caverns. But after seven years a large
+proportion of this tribe went back to its ancestral stronghold
+in the Brdo range, from which the Turks had transplanted
+them to the Sandjak. This wish of theirs to go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+to their old home was gratified after they had beaten off
+the Turks triumphantly in various engagements on the
+way, and even pursued them to their trenches.... The
+Klementi who had stayed on the Pechter were further
+depleted a few years later, when their kinsfolk, answering
+the appeal of the Archbishop of Antivari, <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'irode'">rode</ins> up there
+and carried off fifty families who were on the eve of
+renouncing their religion. The final group which remained
+became Moslem, and with such ardour that when
+the Serbs of Kara George reached the Sandjak they found
+that these Klementi were completely Islamized; they
+resisted the Serbian army with the utmost resolution.
+Subsequently they attempted to convert the Serbian
+population round them, but with mediocre success, for
+the Klementi themselves were not too strong; moreover,
+they were isolated from the other Muhammedan Albanians.</p>
+
+<p>And yet certain incidents which occurred in the
+Sandjak during the Great War seem to show that even
+there the task of dealing with the population is a troublous
+one. They are conservative; one sees, for example, a
+woman who has got up very early holding aloft a vessel
+against the sun. This is done with the object of preventing
+the cows of a certain man from giving any milk.
+But the man is on the alert. He shoots the vessel out
+of her hand and proceeds, with an easy mind, about
+his business. Frequently the Austrians disarmed these
+men, but it is their practice to have more rifles than
+shirts, although during the occupation a rifle cost twenty
+napoleons. It occurred to the Austrian Governor-General
+of Montenegro, Lieut. Field-Marshal von Weber,
+that these Albanians were children and, if treated well,
+would make useful volunteers. A party of them was
+thereupon sent to Graz, where they were told that they
+would be trained to fight on behalf of the Sultan. Their
+military education was a trifle agitated&mdash;for instance,
+on their second day at Graz they thrashed their officers&mdash;but
+when their training was considered adequate they
+were sent to the front, and there they immediately
+surrendered to the Italians. This was not the first time
+that a body of Albanians had gone to Austria. In 1912,
+for the Eucharistic Congress at Vienna, some two dozen
+of them, in their national costume and conducted by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+their priests, had taken part in the procession. It is
+said that the financier Rosenberg, of whom one has
+heard, bore a portion of the pretty large expenses of the
+deputation. His title of baron dates from this period.
+Austria's work among the school-children was no more
+successful than among the adults. Remembering that
+just outside Zadar lies Arbanasi, or Borgo Erizzo, a
+village of 2500 inhabitants, nearly all of whom are
+Albanians, it seemed good to the Austrian authorities
+to procure from that place a schoolmaster who would
+make suitable propaganda. There was at Arbanasi a
+teachers' institute, as also an Italian "Liga" school
+which was closed by the Austrians during the War, and
+when the schoolmaster arrived at Plav, where the people
+speak Serbian, he set about teaching the children Albanian
+and also making propaganda for Italy, as he was from the
+"Liga" school.... That fidelity of the five hundred
+men of Plav who clung, as we have related, to their
+religion, had its pendant when the Austrians were engaged
+in constructing a road. The custom was for a potentate
+of that district to procure for the Austrians a sufficient
+number of men, to whom three or four crowns a day
+would be paid. Any man who disregarded the potentate's
+summons was thrashed by him, and thrashed in such a
+way that for three days he was prostrate. The late
+Chief of Police at Sarajevo, Mr. Ljescovac, was (being a
+Bosnian subject) administering this district during the
+Austrian occupation. He tried frequently to get particulars
+from the men who had been so mercilessly flogged,
+with a view to opening an inquiry. Their invariable
+answer was: "I know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>In the days of Charles, another member of the Topia
+family, a copyist, who was in his service, was transcribing
+the Chronicle of George Hamartolos, and twice, thinking
+of his master, he inserts: "God, help Charles Topia."
+As we leave the Serb and the Albanian face to face,
+sensitive, imaginative, tenacious people, both with very
+ancient claims, we must hope that a happy solution
+will be found. After all Serbia, being in Yugoslavia, is
+now a Muhammedan and a Catholic Power. She has
+men at her disposal, such as Major Musakadi&#263;, a Bosnian
+Moslem who deserted from the Austrian army to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+Serbs, fought with them on several fronts and received
+the highest decoration for valour, the Kara George; then,
+after the War, he was sent by the Government to command
+at Br&#263;ko, a place in his native Bosnia where there is a
+Moslem majority. A few of the Orthodox protested
+energetically that they would not have a Moslem over
+them; they were received by the Minister of Justice
+in Belgrade. "Gentlemen," said he, "go back to Br&#263;ko
+and when anyone of you has earned the Cross of Kara
+George I shall be glad to see him here again." ... As
+in the old days, the Serbian civilization is far superior,
+but this is not everything; that the Albanian is ready
+to meet it with peace or war he shows clearly as he glides
+along in his white skull-cap, his close-fitting white and
+black costume, with his panther-like tread and with
+several weapons and an umbrella.</p>
+
+<p>But for the various reasons to which we have alluded
+he is now much more inclined to live in peace with the
+Yugoslav. Very differently, except if they are charged
+with gifts, does he receive the Italians; even at the
+moment of accepting their gifts of military material and
+cash he regards them with a more or less concealed
+derision, for he is impressed, as we have pointed out, by
+nothing so much as by military prowess and the reverse,
+whereof the news is carried far and wide. At the end
+of September and beginning of October 1918 two weak
+Yugoslav battalions of about a thousand rifles accomplished
+at Tirana what the large Italian forces could
+not, at any rate did not, achieve. Ten thousand Austrians
+were in the town, and for three months the Italians had
+sat down outside it. Then the Serbs descended on the
+place from the mountains; their carts came by the
+ordinary road, and on arriving at the Italian lines the
+drivers asked for hay; but when they explained that
+the rest of their force was going round by the mountain
+trail the Italian commandant refused to give any supplies
+to such liars. (Later on, though, he gave them sufficient
+for five days.) When an Austrian officer who was
+stationed in a minaret saw the Serbs coming down from
+those terrible heights he was so astonished that he felt
+sure they must be robbers. And after they had captured
+the town and the Italians conducted themselves as if it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+were they who had conquered it, the Serbs took to
+thrashing their allies and ejecting them from the caf&eacute;s.
+The Italians did not protest....</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">10. DR. TRUMBI&#262;'S PROPOSAL</p>
+
+<p>To sum up this part of our long and, I fear, rather
+tiring dissertation on the Yugoslav-Albanian frontier that
+is to be: the Yugoslav delegates at the Peace Conference
+invariably disclaimed any desire to have Albanian lands
+conferred on them against the wish of the inhabitants.
+According to Prince Sixte of Parma, the ex-Emperor
+Karl was disposed to offer to the Serbs as a basis of peace
+a Southern Slav kingdom consisting of Serbia, Montenegro,
+Bosnia, Herzegovina and the whole of Albania. But
+this last item only made it clear that in his brief tenure
+of the throne the Emperor had grasped something of the
+grand generosity of European statesmen when they deal
+with the possessions of other people in the Near East.
+The Albanians are not Southern Slavs, and it is merely
+the voice of the thoughtless mob in Montenegro which has
+been claiming Scutari for the reason that they held it in
+the Middle Ages&mdash;several of their rulers are buried there&mdash;and
+because 20,000 Montenegrins gave their lives to take
+it in the Balkan War. Responsible persons in Yugoslavia,
+such as Dr. Trumbi&#263;, the former Foreign Minister, do not
+believe that Scutari is a necessity for their State&mdash;whether
+Yugoslavia is a necessity for Scutari is another question&mdash;and
+they hold that it is quite possible to preserve the 1913
+frontier (perhaps with a minor rectification in Klementi)
+and live in friendship with their neighbours. This, of
+course, is under the assumption that these neighbours
+will "play the game"&mdash;and it is just this which the
+Albanians will be unable to do if they are left to their own
+slender resources. How could one expect so poor&mdash;or
+shall we say so unexploited?&mdash;a country to make any
+social progress without the help of others? It has become
+the habit of many Albanians to accept financial assistance
+from Italy; if an independent Albania is now established
+these subsidies will be increased&mdash;and he who pays the
+piper calls the tune. If, however, an arrangement could
+be made for helping the Albanians&mdash;and the country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+undertaking this would have to be devoid of Balkan
+ambitions on its own account&mdash;then the 1913 frontier
+would be possible. No doubt the cynics will say that
+the Yugoslavs are aware that this is an unlikely solution,
+and that failing a disinterested Power, whose supervision
+would cause the Albanians during the troublesome civilizing
+process to be moderately peaceable neighbours,
+failing such a Power the Yugoslavs would feel that they
+were justified in asking for the frontier of the Drin. But
+this frontier I have heard advocated less by Yugoslavs of
+any standing than by those Albanians who despair of
+the administrative capacities of their fellow-countrymen.
+The Yugoslavs have not the smallest wish to add to their
+commitments, and even if all the Albanians on the right
+bank of the Drin were anxious for Yugoslav overlordship&mdash;and
+this, naturally, is not the case&mdash;there would be serious
+hostility to be expected from some of those on the other
+bank. If no disinterested Power, such as Great Britain
+or Sweden, will take the matter in hand, then Dr. Trumbi&#263;
+has an alternative proposal, which is for a free, independent
+Albania (with the 1913 frontier) which would exist on the
+Customs and on a loan made by the Great Powers, who
+would put in a Controller charged with seeing that the
+money were spent on roads, schools, etc. A police force,
+and not an army, would be maintained; while, if need
+be, the country could be neutralized; and Dr. Trumbi&#263;,
+within whose lifetime bandits and heiduks were roaming
+through Bosnia, believes that the Albanians would
+gradually discard their cherished system of feuds....
+This would be the happiest solution, for it would leave
+the Balkans to the Balkan peoples, while it would aim at
+the development of whatever good qualities there are in the
+Albanians, and it would definitely recognize a Yugoslav-Albanian
+frontier which is acceptable to both countries.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT
+AND THE MIRDITI</p>
+
+<p>While Europe in the year 1921 was either exhausted
+or belligerent, or both, she had a vague knowledge that
+hostilities were being carried on between the Serbs and the
+Albanians. Telegrams from Rome, Tirana and elsewhere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+appeared in the papers, saying that the Serbs continued to
+advance. Occasionally a Serbian statesman would declare
+that his Government desired the independence of Albania.
+Then some Albanian delegate in Geneva would make a
+protest and ask the League of Nations, of which Albania
+was now a member, to take this matter in hand. A
+Serbian delegate would also address the League. Again
+you would hear of the Serbian army pushing forward,
+that a good many soldiers had fallen. And no one seemed
+to know why the Serbs would want to shed their blood
+in order to add to their miscellaneous problems this very
+grave one of administering such a region inhabited by
+such a people. Why did they not content themselves
+with the frontier which the Powers temporarily assigned
+to them in 1918 and which, from the junction of the
+Black and White Drin, runs south along the rocky right
+bank of the river and then, crossing to the other side,
+passes along the top of a range of mountains? What
+more could they wish to have, presuming that it was not
+their intention to annex what lay between them and the
+Adriatic?</p>
+
+<p>Well, it appears that never once did they go beyond
+the aforementioned line to which they were legally entitled,
+except when for a short time they were in pursuit, towards
+Ljuria, of certain invaders. Not only were they legally
+entitled to take up their position on the mountains to the
+west of the Black Drin, but the Moslem tribes, the Malizi
+and the Ljuri, who dwell in that uninviting district, were
+most anxious that the Serbs should come and should
+remain. For this the tribes had two principal reasons:
+in the first place, they recognized that their compatriots
+in Djakovica and Prizren were immeasurably better off
+than before they came under Serbian rule; and secondly,
+they did not wish to be separated from these towns which
+are their markets. In fact, they had become so anxious
+to throw in their lot with the Slavs that they formed
+six battalions, which operated on both banks of the river,
+under the command of Bairam Ramadan, Mahmoud
+Rejeb and others. In opposition to these battalions were
+the troops of the so-called National Government, that of
+Tirana. This Government is repudiated by a great many
+Albanians on account of its reactionary methods, its subservience<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+to the Italians, and its failure to do anything
+for the people. The battalions, then, were engaged in
+1921, not against their immediate neighbours to the west,
+the Catholic Mirditi, of whom we shall speak anon, but
+against the more distant Government of Tirana. Thus
+the League of Nations beheld that the administration
+which they were about to confirm as the legitimate
+Government of Albania was violently opposed by compact
+masses of Catholics and Moslems. Perhaps some of the
+members of the League began to doubt whether they
+should have accepted the assurance of the Anglo-Albanian
+Society that the Tirana Government (containing Moslem,
+Catholic and Orthodox members) was really a national
+affair; perhaps they began to suspect that the two
+Christian elements were only there to throw a little dust
+in the eyes of Europe; and perhaps Lord Robert Cecil
+began to feel doubtful whether, at the urgent request of
+his friend Mr. Aubrey Herbert, President of the Anglo-Albanian
+Society, he had been well advised to bring
+about the admission into the League of a country which
+had two simultaneous Governments before it had a
+frontier. Perhaps one was beginning to recognize that
+there are Albanians but no Albania.</p>
+
+<p>The emissaries of Tirana might depict as of no importance
+the hostilities that were being waged against
+them by those Moslem tribes, they might tell the League
+of Nations that the Mirdite revolution was not worth
+considering. It is a fact that the Mirditi are not very
+numerous, but in close connection with their 18,000 people
+are the Shala with 500 houses and the Shoshi with 300.
+Tradition has it that they are descended from three
+brothers who set out from the arid village of Shiroka on
+Lake Scutari to seek their fortune. The most ancient,
+the most noble and important family of northern Albania
+is that of Gjomarkaj, whose seat is at Oroshi, the capital
+of the Mirditi. Despite enormous difficulties they succeeded
+in maintaining their own position and the prestige
+of the Mirditi. They refused to recognize the Turkish
+Government and clung so tenaciously to their own usages
+and laws, and were so famous for their courage that
+the Sultans were eager to grant them privileges and
+concessions. Thereafter they promised to assist the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+Sultan against external aggression, and always did so
+with great success. It was due to the Mirditi that the
+Albanian mountaineers preserved their nationality, their
+religion and their customs, for they were ever the leaders
+of the other Albanian tribes. The most prominent of
+the Mirditi in our time have been Prenk Bib Doda, who,
+after long years of exile, was assassinated in Albania; Mark
+Djoni, now the President of the Mirdite Republic; and,
+above all, the great Abbot Monsignor Primo Doci, a man
+of vast culture, who returned to his own country after
+serving the Vatican as a diplomat in various parts of
+the world. It is not surprising that the educational
+standard of his native land filled him with the determination
+to build schools and that, owing to his efforts, the
+Roman Catholic establishment of thirty native priests and
+of bishops who were nearly all foreigners has developed
+into a body of almost three hundred native priests with no
+foreign bishops. A poet himself, he founded the literary
+society, <i>Bashkimi l'unione</i>, in which all capable patriots
+were invited to collaborate. He constructed more than
+twenty strongholds in and around Oroshi, and when he
+died in February 1917 it was largely owing to the persecution
+which he suffered at the hands of the Austrians.
+What has latterly aroused his faithful people is the
+persecution levelled at them by the Moslem-Italian
+Government of Tirana.</p>
+
+<p>A certain amount of mystery envelopes the death of
+Bib Doda; an opinion widely held is that Italians were
+responsible, but Mr. H.&nbsp;E. Goad rebukes me in the
+<i>Fortnightly Review</i> for not knowing that the Italians laid
+aside the crude methods of political murder centuries ago.
+Perhaps he doesn't regard the massacre of the helpless
+French soldiers at Rieka in 1919 as political murder,
+since they were only privates; perhaps he doesn't count
+that famous expedition of the five lieutenants to
+assassinate Zanella, because it was unsuccessful; but he
+may be right concerning Bib Doda. That personage had
+been to Durazzo to confer with the Italians; he had
+refused to accept an Italian protectorate in Albania, and
+on his return he was killed in his carriage before he could
+reach Scutari. The chief assailant was a Catholic of
+Klementi, believed to be an adherent of Essad Pasha and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+also an Italian "agent d'occasion." Yet as several
+Italian soldiers who accompanied Bib Doda were wounded
+it would seem that those, myself included, who believed
+that this affair had been arranged by the Italians were
+wrong.</p>
+
+<p>As for Bib Doda's fortune, Mr. Goad asserts that by
+Albanian law he did not have to leave it to his nearest
+kinsman, Marko Djoni. That is, I beg to say, precisely
+what he had to do according to the custom of their ancient
+family. Mr. Goad says that the cash went to the poor;
+I say that a good deal of it went into the pocket of a lady
+who was much younger than the dead man and was on
+excellent terms with an Italian major. If Mr. Goad had
+visited Albania at that time and had been interested in
+other things besides what he tells us of&mdash;the moonlight
+of Klisura and the splendid plane trees over the Vouissa
+and the sunrise reflected on the gleaming mountain-wall
+of the Nemorica&mdash;I would not have to tell him all this
+about Bib Doda's money. He says that Marko Djoni is
+a discredited, disgruntled person who became a tool of
+the Serbs and fled to Serbia. But he forgets that Bib
+Doda was killed in March 1919, and that until May 1921
+Marko Djoni remained in Albania, enjoying the friendship
+of Italy rather than that of Serbia. In fact it was not
+easy for him to abandon this friendship, owing to various
+deals in connection with the Mirdite forests. No doubt
+he resented the loss of his heritage; but why in the name
+of goodness should not he and his followers fight for their
+liberty, and why should the Serbs not help them at a time
+when the frontiers of Albania had not been fixed nor the
+Government officially recognized? The Serbs were helping
+him to make war, says Mr. Goad, against his legitimate
+rulers. Yet we must be lenient with our Mr. Goad,
+for he himself admits that "few can write of Balkan
+politics without revealing symptoms of that partisan
+disease." He has made up his mind that the Serbs are the
+villains of the piece, and there, for him, is the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>A delegation from the Mirditi, consisting of the
+Rev. Professor Anthony Achikou and Captain Dod
+Ll&eacute;che, came to Geneva in October 1921, and requested
+the League not to issue a confirmation of the Tirana
+Government. They showed that this Government had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+no other aim than to turn Albania into a small Turkey.
+No doubt the Moslems, as the most numerous element,
+had a right to have a majority in the Cabinet, but there
+was no justification in their appointment of pure Turks.
+(The Tirana Government proposed in the autumn of 1921
+that any Albanian coming from Turkey, who has held a
+public office there, shall be refused admittance into
+the Albanian Administration until two years after his
+return. This is a proposal but not yet, I believe, an
+effective law.) The Minister of Justice has been old
+Hodja Kadri, and the Minister of War one Salah el Din
+Bey, an officer of Kemal Pasha, and neither of these
+was acquainted with the Albanian language. When the
+Mirditi started to show their dislike of this Government,
+the War Minister commanded his troops to slay without
+mercy anyone who dared to raise his voice. Thus it
+came about that the villages of Oroshi, Laci, Gomsice and
+Naraci were destroyed, while those of the inhabitants
+who could escape fled across the frontier to Serbia. As
+for particular cases of iniquity we may instance that of
+the Moslem officer, Chakir Nizami, who, as a manifestation
+of his hatred for the Christians, had violated at
+Scutari a girl of fourteen whose name was Chakya Hil
+Paloks. He was sentenced by the French military
+authorities and was liberated by the Minister of Justice as
+soon as the French had quitted Scutari. On the other
+hand, Kol Achikou, a brother of the delegate, had killed
+a Moslem in self-defence and been acquitted by the
+French court martial; after their departure he was
+taken to Tirana and sentenced to death. But apart
+from all such misdeeds the Mirditi complained that the
+Tirana Government, which could not openly wage war
+with Serbia, had organized the "Kossovo" Committee,
+whose object it was to foment trouble in Serbia and to
+send armed bands of marauders on to Serbian territory.
+At the very moment when the delegation was at Geneva,
+one of these bands (in the night between October 12 and
+13) raided the village of Moji&#353;te, near Gostivar. Furnished
+with Italian machine guns and bombs they came over
+the mountains, set fire to the village and killed many of
+the people as they fled. They are accustomed on such
+expeditions to steal the children and hold them to ransom&mdash;a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+lucrative operation which d'Annunzio's arditi<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> may
+have copied from their Albanian colleagues. It would
+seem, then, according to the statement of the Mirditi,
+that in the conflict on the Black Drin, of which Europe
+had vaguely heard, the Tirana Government and not that
+of Serbia was the aggressor. Mr. Aubrey Herbert may
+write pathetic letters to the Press, Miss Durham may
+write letters of indignation, but how could their prot&eacute;g&eacute;s
+of Tirana be said to be valiantly defending themselves
+against the wicked Serbs when the very villages which,
+said Mr. Herbert, were destroyed&mdash;Aras and Dardha and
+so forth&mdash;were situated in the district to which the Serbs
+were legally entitled?</p>
+
+<p>The Mirditi delegates had an interview in Geneva
+with Lord Robert Cecil. An attempt was made by the
+Tirana delegates to discredit Professor Achikou, by
+publishing a telegram from Monsignor Sereggi, the Archbishop
+of Scutari (but which the Professor accused the
+rival delegate, the bearded, bustling Father Fan Noli,
+of having composed himself),<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> and in that message it
+was stated that Achikou was expelled from Albania.
+This he did not deny; he was, he said, one of 4000 who
+had been driven out by an arbitrary Government and he
+hoped that they would soon be able to return. The
+message called Achikou a traitor; but that is a matter
+of opinion. It said that he was in the service of a
+foreign Power; he replied that the Mirditi had never
+concealed their wish to live in friendship with their
+neighbours, and the proof that they envisaged nothing
+more than friendship was that they were petitioning the
+League to recognize the Mirdite Republic. Among the
+other charges against Achikou was one which said that
+he was sailing under false colours. This was an absurd
+accusation, and one which enabled the reverend Father
+to mention that his opponent Monsignor, who was then
+being called Bishop, Fan Noli, was neither a bishop nor
+an Albanian, but a simple priest, a Greek from Adrianople,
+whose real name was Theophanus.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> This clever man,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>who had decided to form an Orthodox Albanian Church
+and had apparently become its bishop without the
+formality of consecration, had enjoyed some success at
+Geneva owing to his knowledge of languages. He circulated
+a telegram from Tirana which purported to be a
+disavowal of the Mirditi delegation by a number of
+Mirditi notables; but a reply was sent by Mark Djoni,
+the President of the Mirdite Republic, an elderly man of
+great sagacity and experience, for in Turkish times he
+had been chief magistrate of the Mirditi. He pointed
+out that all the notables and all the tribal chieftains had
+gone, like himself, into exile, and that the names were
+those of insignificant persons who had acted under fear
+of death. Djoni did not in this telegram allude to the
+position of those Catholic priests and others in northern
+Albania who support the Tirana Government and its
+Italian paymasters; some of them may believe that
+they are acting in the interest of their country&mdash;to act
+otherwise would be perilous, and everyone seems to know
+the precise number of napoleons a month&mdash;ranging from
+the 150 of an ecclesiastical magnate down to 7&frac12; (the pay
+of a simple gendarme)&mdash;which they are alleged to receive.
+Do they ever think of the starving Italian peasants?</p>
+
+<p>On October 7 another telegram was sent from Oroshi
+(the capital of the Mirditi) to the Tirana Delegation
+which "protested energetically against the activities of
+a certain Anthony Achikou." Yet, on October 9, an
+individual called Notz Pistuli, who had travelled specially
+from Scutari, presented himself at the Mirdite delegates'
+hotel, and in the name of the Scutari National Council
+asked whether a reconciliation could not be made between
+the Mirditi and the Tirana Government.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> Being told
+that the Mirditi would have nothing to do with the
+Turkish Government of Tirana, he held out hopes that
+another Government more representative of Albania
+would soon be constituted. It was remarkable that
+Tirana should have dispatched this envoy after giving
+out that the Mirditi were traitors and that their delegates
+represented nobody.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Robert Cecil did not at first seem to think that
+their desire for a republic independent of Tirana could be
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>gratified, but on being initiated into the facts of the
+case and told that definitely to reject them would look
+as if he were a foe to Christianity, Lord Robert said
+that such was far from being the case. He would do
+whatever he could to help them. And on the next day
+it was decided that, in accordance with the Mirdite
+request, a Commission should proceed to Albania.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian delegate, Marquis Imperiali, submitted
+that there was no need to hurry this Commission and
+Monsieur Djoni explained in a telegram<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> that if the
+Commission went forthwith it would discover in Albania
+cannons, rifles and other war material from Italy, that
+it would find numerous Turkish officers of the Kemalist
+army who had been brought from Asia Minor in Italian
+ships, and that it would perceive that the cannons, the
+Turkish Government of Tirana, the rifles, the Turkish
+officers, certain Catholic ecclesiastics&mdash;in a word, the
+whole of Albania such as it is to-day is nothing else, said
+he, but a masked Italian instrument of war against
+Serbia&mdash;while all the bloody consequences of this perpetual
+struggle have to be endured by the border population....
+One afternoon, at the beginning of November,
+650 Tirana soldiers, pursued by the Mirditi, gave themselves
+up to the Serbian authorities on the Black Drin.
+They had with them a dozen officers of whom two were
+Italians, and these accounted for themselves by saying
+that they had come out to organize and to lead the
+Albanian army.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">Now, would this be the best solution of the Albanian
+problem, that the Mirdite Republic and that of Tirana
+should both be recognized, since it is quite clear that it
+would be immoral&mdash;and very useless&mdash;for Europe to try
+to persuade the Mirditi to place themselves under the
+Tirana r&eacute;gime? But there appears to be no doubt
+that the Moslems of northern Albania&mdash;however much
+they may now sympathize with the Mirditi in their
+attitude towards Tirana&mdash;would just as strenuously resist
+their own incorporation in a Christian Republic....
+Down at the bottom of their hearts all the Albanian
+delegates who came to Geneva must know that if an
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>Albanian State is larger than one tribe it will go to pieces.
+Whatever good qualities may be latent in the Albanian,
+he is as yet&mdash;with rare exceptions&mdash;in that stage of culture
+which has no idea of duty on the part of the State or of
+duty towards the State. As an example of his views on
+the exercise of authority we may instance the case of the
+82 Albanians, led by Islam Aga Batusha (of the village
+of Voksha), who stopped Pouni&#353;a Ra&#269;i&#263; and his companions
+in the summer of 1921 while they were riding one
+day from Djakovica to Pe&#263;. Pouni&#353;a enjoys the fullest
+confidence of the border tribes because he has never been
+known to break his word; they are very conscious that
+even their vaunted "besa" is not nowadays observed
+as it was, say fifty years ago, for the Austrian and Italian
+propaganda schools have had an unfortunate effect.
+Well, as the 82 sat round Pouni&#353;a and his friends in the
+courtyard of a mosque, where they spent the whole day
+confabulating, they said they hoped that he, a just and
+wise man, would help them; and their principal grievance
+was that the Serbian police no longer allowed them to kill
+each other. Why should the police interfere in their
+private affairs? Recently the police had arrested a man
+whom one of these protesters wanted to kill, and therefore
+he thought he would have to kill one of the police. Even
+those who have spent their lives in Serbia are too often
+at this stage of development&mdash;a few years ago, in the
+village of Prokuplje, an Albanian assassinated his neighbour
+and was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude.
+The judge asked the dead man's brother if he was satisfied.
+"No, I am not," he answered, "because now I shall
+have to wait twenty years to kill him." Their ancient
+custom of blood-vengeance continues to flourish, though
+in Serbia the police and public opinion are against it;
+thus, at Luka, in the department of Pe&#263;, one Alil Mahmoud
+was murdered by a Berisha to avenge his uncle, so that
+now the sons of this Mahmoud propose to kill a Berisha&mdash;not
+the murderer, but one equal in rank to their late
+father, and in consequence Ahmed Beg, son of Murtezza
+Pasha, of Djakovica, is afraid to leave his house, which
+the Serbian police, at his request, is guarding.</p>
+
+<p>How much the Albanian conceives that he owes a
+duty to the State may be instanced by the application of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+a smuggler that he be granted a permit to go to Zagreb
+in order to dispose of 6000 oka<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> of tobacco which he had
+brought over the frontier. He was talking to a Serb
+who has the confidence of the Albanians because he does
+not treat them as if they were Serbs; and when this
+father confessor advised him to get rid of the tobacco
+locally (which he succeeded in doing) the Albanian
+objected that the excise officers gave him constant
+anxiety, they were thieves who insisted on payment
+being made to them if they came across his merchandise.
+And if it be said that this is too humble a case, we may
+mention that of Ali Riza, one of the chief officers of the
+Tirana army which was last year operating against the
+Serbs. So indifferent is he as to the uniform he bears that
+the year before last, in Vienna, he begged an influential
+Serb to recommend him for a lieutenancy in the Serbian
+army. (His request was not granted because it was
+ascertained that, besides being unable to read and write,
+his work as an Austrian gendarme had been more zealous
+than creditable.)</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is Europe to do with these wild children
+of hers?... The tribes, Catholic and Moslem, who
+dwell between the Big Drin and the frontier allotted to
+Serbia in 1913, asked the aforesaid Pouni&#353;a in 1919 to
+intervene in their quarrels; and the result was that a
+small number of Serbian soldiers were scattered about
+that country. They were placed at the disposal of the
+chief, whom they assisted in maintaining order. (Needless
+to say, they collected no taxes or recruits, and all
+their supplies came to them from Serbia.) The people
+were impressed not only by the uniform but by the
+men's conduct. Before going to these posts&mdash;where
+they were relieved every two or three months&mdash;the men
+were instructed with regard to Albanian customs, and
+no case occurred of any transgression. So rigidly did
+they enforce the precept that anyone who tried to violate
+or carry off a woman was, if he persisted, to be shot, that
+last year, at Tropolje in Gashi, when the girl in question
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>was said to be not unwilling, they pursued the abductors,
+and in the subsequent battle there were fatalities on
+both sides. The Serbian soldiers, for whose safety the
+village was responsible, made themselves so popular that
+when the Tirana Government appointed one Niman Feriz
+to go to those parts as sub-prefect he was chased away
+by the people headed by the mayor of the Krasnichi, who
+is a nephew of Bairam Beg Zur, the illiterate ex-brigand
+and ex-Minister of War of the Tirana Government.</p>
+
+<p>Let this system of small Serbian posts be extended
+over the whole of northern Albania, that is to say, in those
+districts where the natives are willing to receive them.
+After all, the Serbs understand these neighbours of theirs.
+Telephones and roads will be built and eventually the
+railway along the Drin. The northern Albanians will
+then, for the first time, be on the high-road towards peace
+and prosperity; and if the rest of Albania has by then
+attained to anything like this condition everybody would
+be glad to see a free and independent Albania.</p>
+
+<p>Now what prospect is there of the rest of Albania
+taking any analogous steps? If the regions which at
+present submit to Tirana decline to modify their methods,
+it would seem that warfare between them and their
+kinsmen to the north and north-east must continue, and
+that the foundations of a united, free Albania will not
+yet be laid. One might presume, from their bellicose
+attitude, that the Tirana Government (extending to and
+including the town of Scutari) is all against a pacific
+solution; and if one argues that their attitude would be
+quite different without the support they receive from
+Italy, then the Italians would doubtless reply that they
+have as much right to assist the Tirana Albanians as
+Yugoslavia has to assist those of the north.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the case. Between Italy and the
+Albanians there are no such ancient political and economic
+ties as between the Albanians and the Serbs. The
+medi&aelig;val connection with Venice has left with many
+Albanians a dolorous memory, for apart from the fact
+that Venice, as in Dalmatia, was pursuing a merely selfish
+policy, it was directly due to her that the Turkish Sultan,
+in the fifteenth century, was able to establish himself
+in Albania. Thrice his troops had been repelled by those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>
+of Skanderbeg when the arrangement was made for
+them to enter the fortress of Rosafat in Venetian uniforms,
+and then four hundred years elapsed before the Sultan's
+standard was pulled down. In recent times the Government
+of Italy has been furnishing the Shqyptart with
+schools, and these were not its only acts of benevolence
+towards that wretched people. They have given schools
+and rifles and munitions and gold. The Albanians were
+willing to accept this largesse; but that it forged a link
+between patron and client, that it conferred on the
+Italians any rights to occupy the country, they denied,
+and enforced this denial in 1920 at the point of the bayonet.
+Mr. H. Goad said in the <i>Fortnightly Review</i> that this
+remark of mine is quite unhistorical, since Italy, says he,
+"was in course of withdrawal when certain Albanians,
+stirred up as usual by Jugo-Slavs, attacked her retreating
+troops." If the Albanians had only known that Italy,
+despite her having been, says Mr. Goad, "supremely
+useful to Albania," had resolved to quit, they would
+perhaps have let them go with dignity. But if Mr.
+Goad will read some of the contemporary Italian newspapers
+he will see that my allusion to the bayonet was
+much too mild. Utterly regardless of the fact that the
+Italian evacuation was "according to plan," the Shqyptart
+treated them abominably&mdash;it brought up memories
+of Abyssinia&mdash;or does Mr. Goad deny that even a general
+officer was outraged and blew out his brains? This
+Albanian onslaught was so far from being stirred up by
+the Yugoslavs that, as we have seen,<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> the Belgrade
+Government refused to furnish them with munitions.
+This is not to say that they did not approve of the Albanian
+push, for they maintain, in spite of Mr. Goad, the principle
+of "The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples." If Italy, as our
+strange publicist asserts, has a mandate&mdash;presumably a
+moral one&mdash;to defend Albania against aggression he will
+find, I think, that the Yugoslavs heartily agree with
+this thesis and that they are also quite determined to
+defend Albania from aggression.... When he asserts
+that various ties existed between Italy and the Albanians&mdash;the
+Albanian language, the feudal architecture, much
+that is characteristic in Albanian art and so forth&mdash;I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>would refer him to M. Justin Godart, with whom I am
+glad for once to be in agreement. "There is no traditional
+or actual link," says he, "between the two countries;
+if, on account of this geographical position, they propose
+to have commercial relations, then everything has yet
+to be established. If there is to be a friendship, we
+believe that Italy must do her best to wipe out many
+memories.... She has not profited from the large
+number of Albanians in her southern provinces in order
+to have an Albanian policy."</p>
+
+<p>However, the magnanimous Italians came back,
+declaring that on this occasion they would not occupy
+the country (except the little island of Saseno); but
+that they really could not restrain themselves from bestowing
+the schools, the rifles, munitions and gold. Once
+more the Albanians agreed to accept them; they also
+accepted the Turkish officers and officials whom the
+Italian ships brought to them from Asia Minor, and when
+their Government became more and more Turkish and
+more intractable they found that they had excited the
+hostility of large numbers of their own compatriots.
+This developed during 1921 into violent conflicts; and
+the bountiful Italians provided the Tirana Government's
+army with expert tuition. Nevertheless, in the Albanians'
+opinion, there are no bonds between the two
+races, and if the Italians would retire from Albania,
+permitting the Balkans to be for the Balkan peoples,
+and if the fanatical Turks went back to Asia Minor, it
+would soon be seen that the present rage between
+northern and central Albania would peter out into the
+isolated murders which the Albanians have hitherto been
+unable to dispense with. Left to themselves the Albanians
+of Tirana would eventually ask for some such assistance
+from Serbia as the northern tribes have received; three
+months after the departure of the Italians from Scutari
+a plebiscite would show that this town, which has lately
+gone so far as to refuse&mdash;yes, even her Moslems have
+refused&mdash;to fill the depleted ranks of the Tirana forces,
+was anxious to come to a friendly settlement with her
+Albanian neighbours and the Yugoslavs. This would be
+a victory of Scutari's common sense over all those fanatics
+and intriguers whose activities involve her death; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
+she cannot possibly thrive if she persists in cutting herself
+off from the hinterland and from the benefits that will
+accrue from the canalization of the Bojana.</p>
+
+<p>However, the Italians&mdash;officially or unofficially&mdash;will
+not yet awhile leave Albania. And how will this retard
+or modify the reasonableness of those parts which acknowledge
+Tirana? As for the town of Scutari, it is probable
+that if she found herself permanently cut off by the
+Mirditi from direct communication with Tirana she
+would allow her incipient independence to come more to
+the surface. With Tirana less capable of enforcing her
+behests the Scutarenes would gradually venture to act
+in their own interests; they would aim at local autonomy
+within the sphere of Yugoslav influence and in the same
+sphere as their markets. It is to be hoped that Yugoslavia
+will be prepared for this, since she does not possess
+too many educated citizens who understand the Albanian
+mentality. A course of conduct which pays no attention
+to this would alienate even the Turks from Podgorica
+and Dulcigno, whose acquaintance with the very language
+of Albania is so limited. There seems, however, to be
+no reason why the mixed population of Albanian Moslems
+and Catholics, of Orthodox Serbs and of Moslems who
+declined to come under the all-too-patriarchal rule of
+Nicholas of Montenegro should not have the same happy
+experience as the inhabitants of Djakovica and Prizren.
+Later on the Scutarenes will be called upon to decide
+whether they prefer, like those other predominantly
+Albanian towns, to remain in Yugoslavia or whether they
+wish to throw in their lot with a free Albania, and in
+that case their town would become the capital of the
+country. Failing Scutari, the capital would most probably
+be Oroshi, which is now the capital of the Mirditi.</p>
+
+<p>And why, we may be asked, why should not Tirana be
+the capital? In the central parts of Albania, in the
+country round Tirana, where the natives are derisively
+called "llape" by the warriors of the north and by the
+cultured Albanians of the south, we believe that the
+assistance of Italy will be unable to prevent a collapse.
+(It must also be remembered that the people of the
+district of Tirana are, for the most part, in opposition
+to the present Tirana Government. This became clear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>
+when the partisans of Essad Pasha's policy<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> overthrew
+and imprisoned the Tirana Ministers.) Economically
+and morally Tirana will decline, until she is compelled to
+seek a union with the people of northern Albania, those
+of the south having meanwhile gravitated towards
+Greece. Then the moment will arrive when the north
+and the south, in their task of building up a free and
+united Albania, will admit the centre under various
+conditions. These will have to be of a rather stern
+character, or so at any rate they will seem to the folk
+of Tirana: taxes will have to be paid, military service or
+service in the <i>gendarmerie</i> will have to be rendered, and
+schools will have to be established for both sexes.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, is the future country of Albania, which&mdash;if
+one is rash enough to prophesy&mdash;may exist in fifty years.
+But there is no risk whatever in asserting that a free,
+united Albania is in the immediate future quite impossible.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE YUGOSLAVS
+AND THEIR FRIENDS</p>
+
+<p>Berati Beg, Tirana's delegate in Paris, said in an
+interview with a representative of the Belgrade <i>Pravda</i>,
+at the beginning of November 1921, that he regretted
+that European diplomats should interfere in the Serbo-Albanian
+question. "Are we not all," said he, "one
+large Balkan family? And if the Powers intervene they
+will not act in our interests, but in their own." He said
+that it used to be Austria which grasped at Albania, now
+it was Italy. So the delegate showed that he was a clear-sighted
+man; he also showed that in Tirana they are
+not unanimous in loving the Italians. But alas! the
+Great Powers, urged by Italy, made a most disastrous
+plunge; they actually, at least Great Britain, charged
+the Serbs, their allies, on November 7, with being guilty
+of overstepping the frontier, and on November 9 informed
+them where this frontier was. It is a pity that Mr.
+Lloyd George should have launched such a thunderbolt,
+the French Government not being consulted.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> But the
+most probable explanation of this lack of courtesy towards
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>the Serbs, and lack of the most elementary justice, is that
+the Prime Minister, with his numerous preoccupations,
+allowed some incapable person to act in his name.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> The
+world was told, however, that Mr. Lloyd George had sent
+a peremptory demand for the convocation of the Council
+of the League of Nations so that a sanction should be
+applied against the Yugoslavs. Mr. Lloyd George's
+substitute was so little versed in the business that he did
+not even know that the League of Nations is not a gendarme
+to carry out the decisions of the Ambassadors'
+Conference. He should have been aware of the fact that
+this was a problem for the Allied States, to be settled by
+diplomatic or other measures, and he should also have
+known that the League of Nations does not&mdash;except if
+invited to arbitrate&mdash;concern itself with the unliquidated
+problems left by the War, such as the Turkish question.
+Perhaps that dangerous confusion in the mind of this
+unknown official would not have occurred if Albania had
+not been illogically admitted to the League of Nations.
+But now, in November 1921, not an instant was to be
+lost in settling this frontier question, which&mdash;as the <i>Temps</i>
+pointed out&mdash;would have been settled months before if
+Italy had not prevented it. (She wished as a preliminary
+step to have certain claims of her own in regard to Albania
+conceded.) So the Council of the League was to be invited
+to apply Article 16, which could scarcely be invoked
+unless Article 15, which defines a procedure of conciliation,
+had been found of no avail.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> Thus the misguided person
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>who spoke in the name of Mr. Lloyd George was apparently
+too impetuous to read the texts. And then the
+Serbs were told that they must withdraw practically to
+the frontier which Austria, their late enemy, had laid
+down in 1913. Well might Berati Beg deplore that Italy
+should take the place of Austria. But such commands
+achieve so little. Very soon, when the troubles in
+Albania continue, as they certainly will, Mr. Lloyd George
+will see that he was misled.... But here it should be
+stated that while Italy persisted throughout in demanding
+the 1913 frontier (with the ludicrously inconsistent
+proviso that she herself should have the island of Saseno,
+which in 1913 she had demanded for independent Albania),
+and France raised no finger against her, the actual improvements
+of the frontier adopted were entirely due to
+Great Britain. No one is more qualified to speak on this
+matter than Mr. Harold Temperley of Cambridge, who
+was one of our experts. In his illuminating little book,
+<i>The Second Year of the League</i>, he has pointed out that
+the new Albanian frontiers are an improvement on the
+old&mdash;than which, indeed, they cannot be worse&mdash;because
+they conform more to natural features, they
+take into account an important tribal boundary (leaving
+the Gora tribe in Yugoslavia), and restore to both
+parties freedom of communication&mdash;the road between the
+Serb towns of Struga and Dibra being given to the Serbs,
+while to Albania is given the road from Elbasan to the
+Serb town of Lin. The rectifications in the Kastrati
+and the Prizren area involve the substitution of natural
+boundaries for unnatural ones in order to protect the
+cities of Podgorica and Prizren. They confer no offensive
+advantage on the Serbs, nor do they enable them to menace
+any Albanian city.</p>
+
+<p>To any impartial observer it is quite unjust that
+the Yugoslavs should have had to plead against the
+frontier of 1913. They have not the least desire to plant
+their flag on those undelectable mountains. If the
+frontier of 1913 could be held with moderate efforts
+against these people they would not wish to go an inch
+beyond it. But those who drew this frontier, namely the
+Austrians, were not much concerned as to whether it
+afforded adequate protection to the Serbs; what they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+had in view was to keep them away from the Adriatic
+(for which reason an arbitrary line cut through the proposed
+railway which was to link Pe&#263; to Podgorica and the
+sea) and to compel the Serbs to station in those districts
+a goodly portion of their army, to which end&mdash;so that
+the frontier should be weak&mdash;the towns of Djakovica
+and Prizren were separated from their hinterland. The
+Austrian plan likewise prevented the towns of Struga and
+Prizren from being joined by a road or by a railway along
+the Drin; to go from one to the other it became necessary
+to make an enormous detour. With the rectifications
+to which we have referred, the Ambassadors' Conference
+decided to insist on them returning to this miserable line,
+instead of permitting them to take up their position where
+General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey perceived in 1918 that they
+could be fairly comfortable. Monsieur Albert Mousset,
+the shrewd Balkan expert of the <i>Journal des D&eacute;bats</i>, has
+remarked that on too many parts of the 1913 frontier it
+is as if one forced an honest man to sleep with his door
+open among a horde of bandits.... The Albanian
+Government, admitted to the League of Nations in
+December 1920, claimed that the international statute
+of 1913, creating a German prince, the Dutch <i>gendarmerie</i>
+and the International Financial Commission&mdash;which
+happened to be inconvenient&mdash;was no longer in force;
+but that the international decisions as to the frontiers of
+Albania&mdash;which happened to be convenient&mdash;were still
+valid. However, during the War the country had been
+plunged in anarchy, and the Great Powers decided that
+Albania was, in Mr. Temperley's words, a <i>tabula rasa</i>, a
+piece of white paper on which they could write what they
+wished. In November 1921 the Ambassadors' Conference
+finally decided on the frontiers. The gravest
+violation of the ethnic principle was in the Argyrocastro
+area, where many thousands of Greeks and Grecophils
+were handed over to Albania; as for the Serbs, it was
+only through the efforts of some British experts that
+they obtained any satisfaction at all.</p>
+
+<p>Why did the Ambassadors' Conference arrive at this
+peculiar decision? For a long time the European Press
+had been publishing telegrams which told how the Serbs
+were ruthlessly invading Albania. Had they advanced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+about half the number of miles with which they were
+credited, they would have found themselves near to the
+offices of those Italian Press agencies. They were held
+up to vituperation for their conduct towards a feeble
+neighbour. The Mirditi, we were told, had to fly before
+them; whereas the truth was that the friendly Mirditi
+were driving the troops of Tirana helter-skelter towards
+the Black Drin, where the Serbs&mdash;not advancing an inch
+from the boundary which the Allies had for the time being
+assigned to them&mdash;received their prisoners. Again we
+were told that the piratical Serbs had seized the town of
+Alessio. It must have annoyed the Mirditi to have this
+exploit of theirs ascribed to other people. And if the
+newspapers contained too many telegrams of this kind
+they were strangely reticent with regard to what was
+taking place in the shallow Albanian harbours; but the
+two Italian vessels which&mdash;as I mentioned in a telegram
+to the <i>Observer</i>&mdash;were unloading, without the least concealment,
+munitions and rifles for the dear Albanians at
+San Giovanni di Medua in September 1920, were probably
+not the only ones with such a cargo. Europe and the
+Ambassadors' Conference were simply told that the
+truculent Serbs were destroying a poor, defenceless,
+pastoral nation. Therefore these Serbs must be ordered
+back, and whatever might be the merits of a hostile
+Austrian frontier as compared with a well-informed
+French one, at any rate the first of these was farther back,
+so let the Serbs be ordered thither.</p>
+
+<p>It was noticeable that when, on November 17, the
+British Minister of Education, Mr. H.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;L. Fisher (representing
+Mr. Lloyd George), explained before the Council
+of the League of Nations why Great Britain had thought
+it necessary to act in this Serbo-Albanian affair, he
+founded his case not on Article 16 but on Article 12,
+which obliges two conflicting nations who are members
+of the League to have their case examined by the League.
+Evidently the suggested application of Article 16 was
+now acknowledged to have been a mistake. The blundering
+official in Whitehall should have seen the dignified
+sorrow with which Yugoslavia heard of her great Ally's
+unjustifiable procedure. So much faith have the Southern
+Slavs always had in the Entente's sense of justice that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>
+from 1914 to 1918 they continued to give their all, without
+making any agreement or stipulation; more than once
+the Serbian Government had the offer of terms from the
+Central Powers, but on each occasion, as for example
+during the dark days at Ni&#353; in 1915, they declined to
+betray their Allies.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fisher announced that the British Government's
+action was in no way caused by feelings of hostility
+against the Southern Slavs. All Englishmen, in fact,
+remembered the heroism and fortitude of the Serbs;
+they cherished for Yugoslavia the warmest sympathy.
+In Mr. Fisher's own case it might conceivably have been
+a little warmer&mdash;he was not ashamed to repeat the reasons
+which had induced Great Britain to summon the Council
+of the League. Yet he must have known the comment
+that he would arouse among his audience when they
+heard him base his arguments exclusively upon reports
+of the Tirana Government, while those of Belgrade were
+ignored; and in their place the delegate thought fit to
+bring up various extracts which had been collected from
+the Belgrade Press. If every organ of this Press were
+filled with a permanent sense of high responsibility, and
+if Mr. Fisher had made inquiries as to the existence in
+Belgrade of humorous and ironic writers, one is still
+rather at a loss to understand why these miscellaneous
+cuttings were placed before the League, which could
+scarcely be expected to treat them as evidence. The
+delegate added that he did not think a single nation was
+animated by unfriendly sentiments towards the Southern
+Slavs&mdash;so that Italy's unflagging efforts to strengthen
+the Tirana Government's army were prompted purely
+by the deep love which the Italians&mdash;despite their having
+been flung out of Valona&mdash;bear for the Shqyptart. Mr.
+Fisher proceeded to say that no better proof was needed
+of the general friendship for the Southern Slavs than
+the decision of the Ambassadors' Conference which,
+instead of allotting to Albania the frontiers of 1913, a
+method that would have been simpler, had resolved on
+several rectifications in favour of Yugoslavia, in order
+to prevent disturbances on Albania's northern frontier.
+After what Mr. Fisher had already had the heart to say
+we cannot really be astonished that he, or the people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+on behalf of whom he spoke, should have thought the
+enemy-drawn frontier of 1913 as worthy of the slightest
+consideration. We are all, I think, unanimous, said Mr.
+Fisher in effect, we are unanimous in our esteem for the
+Yugoslavs and could do nothing which that nation would
+find hard to bear. But after stating that some rectifications
+had been made in favour of Yugoslavia he should
+have referred to the village of Lin on Lake Ochrida
+whose transference to the Albanians will probably give
+rise to a great deal of trouble, since it is the most important
+centre for the fishing industry. A few of the best Belgrade
+papers, careless of the more than Governmental authority
+which they enjoyed in the eyes of Mr. Fisher, went so
+far as to allege that Lin's change of sovereignty was due
+to the formation on Lake Ochrida of a British fishing
+company.... We have said that the frontier rectifications
+were inadequate; but under the circumstances
+they were the best that could be obtained. They were
+most bitterly contested by the Italians, who demanded,
+as we have said above, that Yugoslavia should be given the
+1913 frontier. France did nothing to help the Yugoslavs
+in this hour of need, and had it not been for the absolutely
+determined support of Great Britain the pernicious frontier
+of 1913 would have been adopted intact.</p>
+
+<p>Coming to the Mirdite revolt, Mr. Fisher's description
+is hardly what you would call felicitous. Mark Djoni
+and the other members of the Mirdite Government were
+compelled last July to seek refuge at Prizren in Yugoslavia,
+and since then they have conducted their affairs
+from that place. These circumstances, in Mr. Fisher's
+opinion, go to prove the existence of a Yugoslav plot
+whose aim it is to separate northern Albania from the
+Tirana Government. Again Mr. Fisher points an accusing
+finger at the Yugoslav officers who, in August, were
+helping the Mirditi; but is it not more natural that
+these officers should give their services to the Christian
+tribes for whom, as Mr. Bo&#353;kovi&#263;, the chief Yugoslav
+delegate, said, the Southern Slavs do not conceal their
+sympathy<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> nor the hope that they will gain the necessary
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>autonomy&mdash;is not this more natural and more deserving
+of Mr. Fisher's approbation than the fact (of which he
+says no word) that the Moslem Government of Tirana
+has had the active assistance of Italian officers, such, for
+example, as Captain Guisardi, who, in the sector of
+Kljesh, has been in command of the artillery? A further
+proof that the Mirdite movement has been engineered
+by the Southern Slavs is, in Mr. Fisher's opinion, the
+damning fact that the Republic's Proclamation was
+composed in Yugoslavia and dated there&mdash;how brazen
+some people are! And the official Yugoslav Press
+Bureau has actually circulated the announcements of the
+Mirdite Republic. The question is whether the Yugoslav
+Government was more than benevolently neutral in thus
+assisting their guests at a time when these had not yet
+got their machinery into working order. When the
+Mirdite Government had made suitable arrangements it
+spoke to the world through its representatives at Geneva
+or through direct communications to the British and
+French Press. Surely, in considering whether the Yugoslav
+Government allowed themselves to exceed the
+limits of neutrality, one must remember that the Mirdite
+authorities at Prizren were out of all touch with their
+own army, which was engaged in a guerilla warfare. In
+conclusion, according to Mr. Fisher, the British Foreign
+Office was persuaded that the Mirdite Republic was
+nothing but an instrument of the <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Yuglosav'">Yugoslav</ins> Government,
+and that desire for Albanian unity extended also to the
+Christians of that country. The Foreign Office had, no
+doubt, been told that the Tirana Government received
+the support, at last spring's elections, of some north
+Albanian deputies; and possibly they gave no credence
+to the rumour that these gentlemen were much indebted
+to Italian support. It may have been mere harmless
+curiosity which kept Captain Pericone, the Italian commander,
+during all that day at the Scutari polling-booths,
+but what is certain is that, owing to the influx of Italian
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>money, the value of a hundred silver crowns in the
+morning was 92 lire, and in the afternoon had fallen to
+75. It is likewise a fact that numerous Malissori, finding
+themselves for the first time in possession of bundles of
+paper and feeling far from confident that this was money,
+hurried off to the bazaar and spent it all. Thus were
+the four friends of the Moslem-Italian<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> Government
+elected, the four deputies who were in favour of Albanian
+unity under that Government; three of them are
+Christians (Messrs. Fichta, Andreas Miedia and Luigi
+Gurakuqi); one, Riza Dani, is a Moslem. How the
+latter travelled to Tirana I do not know, but the three
+Christians found that the population was so incensed
+against them that they could not go by the direct road;
+they were forced to sail down the Bojana on the Italian
+ship <i>Mafalda</i>, and then along the coast. This, I presume,
+will be considered sufficiently strong evidence that these
+deputies did not represent the people, and that their
+independence was not exactly of the sort ascribed to
+Gurakuqi by a writer in the <i>Times</i>;<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> one need not labour
+the point by mentioning what happened to Father Vincent
+Pr&ecirc;nnushi whose candidature was vetoed in Rome, so
+that he was replaced by Father Fichta.</p>
+
+<p>This being the state of things one can scarcely argue
+that the people of the north are in favour of a united
+Albania, as it seemeth good to the Ambassadors' Conference,
+the League of Nations, etc. "We Germans,
+knowing Germany and France," said Treitschke in 1871,
+"know what is good for the Alsatians better than these
+unfortunates themselves.... Against their will we
+wish to restore them to themselves." The north
+Albanian deputies may join with those of the south
+and call themselves the group of "sacred union"; but
+they themselves are well aware that it is only in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>south-central districts that the Government has a
+majority. That is one of the reasons why the seat of
+Government is Tirana in the central part of the country,
+for the Cabinet lives in apprehension of the followers of
+the late Essad Pasha, and by residing in that country
+they hope to be able to keep it quiet. How long will
+they be able to do so? Have they statesmanship enough
+to turn aside the animosity of their own countrymen?
+Does their Premier and Foreign Minister, Mr. Pandeli
+Evangheli, possess intellectual resources of a higher
+order than those which one commonly associates with
+the ownership of a small wine-shop?&mdash;that was his
+occupation till he came, some two years ago, from
+Bucharest. When this gentleman had a, perhaps temporary,
+fall from power, the <i>Times</i> of December 16, 1921,
+wrote of him that "there is no Albanian public man
+with a better record for long disinterested service in his
+country's cause." Alas, poor Albania! We may surmise
+that Mr. Evangheli and his companions do not
+rely very greatly on their Western European patrons
+who, when it comes to the pinch, will do very little for
+them. I should be surprised to hear that they have
+caused the provisions of the Ambassadors' Conference
+to be traced in golden letters on a wall of their council
+chamber. And I doubt whether they take very great
+stock of a resolution signed in November 1921, by some
+twenty Members of Parliament and a few outside persons.
+These expressed their approval of Mr. Lloyd George's step
+in convoking the League of Nations for the settlement
+of the Serbo-Albanian question. If this resolution served
+no other purpose it showed, at any rate, that the signatories
+are such thoroughgoing friends of the Tirana
+Government that they rushed enthusiastically to their
+assistance, though their deep knowledge of affairs&mdash;without
+which, of course, they would never have signed&mdash;must
+have caused them to regard the Prime Minister's
+impulsive action with something more than misgiving.
+It is a minor point that the signatories sought to enlist
+the world's sympathy on the ground that a small "neutral
+State" had been wantonly attacked by the Serbs, because
+if this accusation were true it would not be worth objecting
+that the Albanians were scarcely a State (though some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
+of them were trying to make one) and that their neutrality
+during the War consisted in the fact that they were to be
+found both in the armies of the Entente and&mdash;rather more
+of them, I believe&mdash;in those of Austria. But the accusation
+is untrue; there are, undoubtedly, a number of
+fire-eaters in Serbia, as everywhere else, yet the Government
+is not so childish as to wish to squander its resources
+in a region where there is so little to be gained. (The
+Tirana correspondent of <i>The Near East</i> said on November 3,
+1921, that the Serbian Government was reported to be
+committing unwarrantable acts, giving as an example
+that Commandant Martinovi&#263; had had six million dinars
+placed at his disposal in order to recruit komitadjis and
+that he had himself promised 2500 dinars to each of
+his men if they succeeded in entering Scutari. But
+this gentleman, a retired officer, lives almost exclusively
+at Novi Sad, where his very beautiful daughter is married
+to M. Dunjarski, one of the wealthiest men in Yugoslavia.
+Yet neither his son-in-law nor the Serbian Government has
+ever given General Martinovi&#263; the afore-mentioned sum
+or any sum at all for the afore-mentioned purpose. He
+goes at rare intervals to his old home in Montenegro, of
+which country he was once Prime Minister. It is natural
+that the numerous refugees from Albania should flock
+round him&mdash;in view of his own past prominence and of
+M. Dunjarski&mdash;begging for money and food.) The
+protesting British Members of Parliament registered their
+sorrow that the Serbs should have employed on their
+anti-Albanian enterprise "the strength and riches which
+they largely owed to the Allied and Associated Powers."
+I was under the impression that the Serbs had expended
+a far greater proportion of their strength and riches
+than any of the Allies,<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> that the Allies had, in 1915, left
+them in the lurch, and that the final success on the Macedonian
+front was due quite considerably to the genius of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>Marshal Mi&#353;i&#263; and the valour of his veterans. As for
+the strength and riches which the Southern Slavs possessed
+in 1921, it surely would not need an expert to
+perceive what the Southern Slav children knew very well,
+namely, that they could be more profitably employed in
+many other directions. May better luck attend the
+future labours of these Members of Parliament.... A
+week or so before the publication of this foolish manifesto
+there had been issued an equally deplorable Memorandum
+by the Balkan Committee (of London), which,
+I am glad to say, caused Dr. Seton-Watson to resign from
+that body. This jejune and impudent Memorandum
+attempted to dictate the terms of the Constitution of the
+Triune Kingdom&mdash;an attempt very rightly reprobated
+by <i>The Near East</i>.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> If the Yugoslav Government were
+to adopt the recommendations of the Balkan Committee
+they would, it seems, be in a fair way to solve the Albanian
+question. Likewise that of Macedonia&mdash;when will the
+Committee cease to trouble Macedonia? Their object,
+in the words of Mr. Noel Buxton, is to aim at allaying the
+unrest in the Balkans; it would&mdash;I say it in all kindliness&mdash;be
+a move in that direction if the other members
+were to follow Dr. Seton-Watson's example.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS
+HAVE RETIRED</p>
+
+<p>What of the population which inhabits the zone
+between the two frontier lines? We have alluded to
+them as a horde of bandits, we have also spoken of the
+six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
+Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the
+bosom of most of us, it is equally true that in most of
+the Albanians a brigand survives. And if not a brigand,
+then a medi&aelig;val person with characteristics which are
+more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the
+Shqyptar, as he calls himself (which means the eagle's
+son) is not without his aspirations. Reference has been
+made to those northern tribes, such as the Merturi and
+the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian detachments
+which came in answer to their urgent wish. And
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>on the Black Drin the six battalions have shown their
+fidelity. There would be no need to guard oneself against
+such people. But unfortunately the Albanian is so constituted
+that if, in a hamlet of ten houses, five of them
+are amicably disposed towards you, there is a strong
+tendency among the others to be hostile. When these
+torch-bearers of an ancient tradition come under the rule
+of an organized State, then they gradually feel inclined
+to discard some of their customs which the State frowns
+upon. This can be seen in the changes among the people
+of Kossovo since it came into Serbian hands. Were
+the country between the two frontier lines to remain
+under the Serbs it would not be long before some of the
+time-honoured sensitiveness of the Albanians towards
+each other and towards each others' friends would vanish&mdash;though
+it has been found that it takes a number of
+years before they cease observing or from desiring to
+observe the very deeply-rooted custom of blood-vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>A good many of the border Albanians have made it
+clear that they wish for some sort of association with
+their more cultured neighbours. But on this point they
+are by no means unanimous. The unregenerate part of
+the people will not be able to resist an occasional foray
+into Yugoslavia. And although the reputation which
+the Serbs have left behind them may induce the tribes
+to be, for the most part, good neighbours, yet they have
+not been long enough under the civilizing process, and
+the more advanced among them would agree with the
+Yugoslavs that it would have been better for that r&eacute;gime
+to have continued over them. You may object that
+the finest patriots of the Albanians would have preferred
+to remain outside Yugoslavia. But they know that there
+are many thousands of their contented countryfolk in
+the neighbouring Kossovo and, what is more, they know
+that the towns of Kossovo are their markets.</p>
+
+<p>The Yugoslavs have bowed to the decision of their
+Allies. And the official champions of the too-ambitious
+League of Nations&mdash;overjoyed, after various failures
+and after the Silesian award, to have really accomplished
+something, and something with whose merits the public
+was far less familiar than with the Silesian fiasco&mdash;performed
+a war-dance on the Yugoslavs. If that people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>
+had been as obstinate, say, as the Magyars in the case
+of Burgenland, no doubt it would have come to another
+Conference of Venice; and Yugoslavia would, like
+Hungary, have returned from there with something
+gained. But, of course, when it is an affair between
+Allies one scarcely likes to behave in that stubborn and
+unyielding manner which is apparently the right&mdash;at all
+events, the successful&mdash;conduct for a whilom foe. If
+the Yugoslavs, in simply accepting the judgment of their
+Allies, acted against their own ultimate advantage, they
+can, at any rate, believe that their complaisance, their
+extraordinary lack of chauvinism, will be recognized.
+It is true that when, on former occasions, such as during
+the prolonged d'Annunzio farce at Rieka, they displayed
+a similar and wonderful forbearance, they did not manage
+to free themselves from this foolish charge. There
+happen to be a good many people abroad who insist
+that the new States are, every one of them, chauvinist;
+they think it is the natural thing for a young country to
+be, and especially if part of it lies in the Balkans. But
+if Yugoslavia repeatedly acts in the most correct fashion
+the day may come when she will be able to put a lasting
+polish on to the reputation which her Allies have tarnished.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">15. THE PROSPECT</p>
+
+<p>We may look forward to seeing the majority of this
+frontier population resolved that the links between themselves
+and the Yugoslavs shall not be broken. Very little
+will they care for the edicts of European Ambassadors.
+It would not have been surprising to hear that on the withdrawal
+of the Yugoslavs to the prescribed frontier their
+resourceful friends beyond it had procured from Serbia
+a few volunteers to take the place of the official Serbs.
+And failing this, that rough-and-ready people might
+simply declare themselves to be in Yugoslavia. This time
+they will be unable to persuade the Yugoslav Government
+to move its excise posts more to the west. But if these
+tenacious men have made up their minds to join their
+brethren on the right bank of the Drin and enter Yugoslavia,
+the Ambassadors' Conference would preserve more
+of their dignity in accepting with a good grace that which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+they are powerless to hinder.... The minority of the
+border population will go raiding in Yugoslavia. If
+they had been consulted they would have drawn the
+frontier very much as it is. With large areas lying at
+their mercy they will keep the border villages in constant
+dread. And that is the other reason which should induce
+the Ambassadors' Conference to cancel their unwise
+decision.</p>
+
+<p>It is better when the politicians do not come with
+advice to the battlefield; and in those primitive regions,
+where part of the people cannot, as yet, be restrained
+from perpetual warfare, it would have been better if the
+politicians had done nothing but confirm the General's
+frontier. Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey gave it to the Serbs "for
+the time being," and that period should last until there
+is no longer any military need to hold it. "No General,
+however distinguished, could possibly have any authority
+whatever to give to any nation the territories of another,
+such as can only be transferred and delineated by treaties
+and international recognition." So says Mr. H.&nbsp;E. Goad,
+or Captain Goad as he has the right to call himself. But
+it is a pity that he does not appreciate the difference
+between that which is temporary and that which is not.</p>
+
+<p>Italy has been given against the Yugoslavs a purely
+strategic frontier, which places under her dominion over
+500,000 unwilling Slovenes, whose culture is admittedly
+on a higher level than that of their Italian neighbours.
+And yet the Ambassadors' Conference (in which Italy
+plays a prominent part) has refused to give Yugoslavia
+a strategic frontier against a much more turbulent neighbour,
+which frontier, moreover, would include of alien
+subjects only a small fraction of the number which Italy
+has obtained. The Albanian frontier now imposed on
+Yugoslavia is very much like that which the treaties of
+1815 gave to France, when the passage (<i>trou&eacute;e</i>) of Couvin,
+often called erroneously the trou&eacute;e of the Oise, at a
+short distance from Paris, was purposely opened.
+"Formerly," says Professor Jean Brunhes,<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> "the sources
+of the Oise belonged to France, protected, far back, by
+the two enclaves of Philippeville and Marienbourg, both
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>fortified by Vauban." And M. Gabriel Hanotaux<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a>
+remarks that this opening of the trou&eacute;e of Couvin was
+the reason why in 1914 France lost the battle of
+Charleroi.</p>
+
+<p>The Ambassadors' Conference has committed a grave
+injustice. "Let us hope," says M. Justin Godart,<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> a
+French ex-Under Secretary of Hygiene, concerning whose
+very misguided mission to Albania we have written
+elsewhere,<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> "let us hope," says he&mdash;in my opinion one
+of the unjustest men towards Yugoslavia and Greece&mdash;"let
+us hope that Yugoslavia will understand that it is
+unworthy of her to contest the decision of the Ambassadors'
+Conference." It has given to the Yugoslavs a frontier
+that necessitates the presence of a considerable army,
+and this is precisely what suits the Italians. Seeing
+that in Italy there are men alive who can recall their
+struggles against the Austrian oppressor, it is sad that
+their own country should now be playing this very same
+r&ocirc;le. The Ambassadors appear to have taken no notice
+of Italy's support of the Tirana Government, but to
+have been very drastic with respect to Yugoslavia's
+support of the Mirditi. They have punished the Yugoslavs
+by binding their hands in a district part of whose
+population long for the help of those hands in gaining
+some tranquillity, whereas the other part consists of
+persons against whom one must defend oneself.</p>
+
+<p>The politicians have acted as if all the border folk
+were as peaceful as they doubtless are themselves. In
+consequence, there will be panic and assassination till
+the politicians&mdash;unable to oppose the wishes of the
+majority of those who dwell in the frontier zone&mdash;proclaim
+that until further notice General Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey's
+wise and prudent dispositions shall be honoured.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">That is the only method by which an Albania can
+be brought slowly into existence. At this moment the
+cartographers are printing the map of the Albanians'
+country in accordance with the Ambassadors' decision.
+They might spare themselves the trouble. The decision
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>to recognize an Albania was as premature a project as, in
+Mr. Wells' opinion, is the League of Nations. A free,
+united Albania has been recognized, and in a little time
+the Ambassadors' Conference, perceiving that such a
+thing does not exist, will be relieved to see the North and
+the South taking the steps to which we have referred.
+It is wonderful that the Ambassadors' Conference and the
+League of Nations should imagine that a country, most
+of which is in the social state of the Gallic clans in the
+days of Vercingetorix, can suddenly become a modern
+nation by the simple contrivance of a parliament, which,
+as a matter of fact, has been the caricature of one. In
+the words of Lord Halsbury, when reversing a judgment
+of the Court of Appeal, I am bewildered by the absurdity
+of such a suggestion. Albania is in need of organizers,
+not of orators. A very competent French traveller,<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a>
+one who believes that a future is reserved for this unquenchable
+people, warns the world against undue haste.
+After describing the deplorable state or the non-existence
+of Albanian schools, roads, ports, the monetary system
+and the organization of credit, he says that it is scarcely
+an exaggeration to assert that from the point of view of
+economic arrangement everything has to be created.
+This necessitates a Government which knows how to
+administer and which has funds at its command. But
+there is not the least likelihood of regular taxes being
+paid to a central Government until you have security
+of communication. And even then the native&mdash;except
+if force is used&mdash;will not pay before he sees the benefit
+which taxes produce. He who for the most part has
+never given obedience save to his village chief will require
+to see the local benefit. Therefore his whole outlook
+must be changed; slowly from being parochial it must
+become national.... There can be no greater folly than
+at this stage to aim at applying modern usages, equality
+of taxation, uniformity of judicial organization, and so
+forth. It must be a very slow advance, says M. Jaray,
+taking local traditions and the feudalism, both domestic
+and collective, into account. Even if a central Government
+had all the necessary qualifications, yet that would
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>not cause the people to regard it with gratitude and
+loyalty. It is too remote. The clans have been accustomed
+to look no farther than their own chiefs. Only
+in serious circumstances and against an invasion have
+they united and chosen a common leader. To expect
+the Albanians rapidly to throw aside their clannishness
+is to prepare for oneself a disappointment. It is in the
+clan that they must be made fit for something more
+extensive. Let the country be recognized not as a nation,
+but as a collection of clans, and let these clans, with any
+outside assistance they themselves may choose, come
+gradually to understand the word "Albania." ... And
+what are the chances that this will come to pass? No
+country is more feudal; yet only the most thoroughgoing
+peasant reforms will lay a sure foundation for the State.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>b</i>) <span class="smcap">The Greek Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p>The frontier with Greece has undergone no alteration
+as a result of the War. It is inconvenient in certain
+details; it runs, for example, at such a very short distance
+to the south of the town of Ghevgeli that the prefect has
+little chance of frustrating those who actively object to
+the payment of import duties. Rather a large number
+of Slavs, some say 300,000, live on the Greek side of the
+frontier, while a far smaller number of Greeks live in
+Monastir. Both the Slavs and the Greeks have made
+sundry complaints, which are more or less justified,
+against the alien authority which governs them. However,
+during 1919 and 1920, the two Governments resolved,
+in the furtherance of their good understanding,
+to raise none of these questions, neither the claims of the
+derelict Slavs, who are mostly Exarchists, nor of the
+Monastir Greeks, who are mostly hellenized Vlachs.
+The two countries, while Venizelos was in power, were
+acting on the principles of the Serbo-Greek friendship
+that used to be advocated by <i>L'Hell&eacute;nisme</i>, the newspaper
+which Sir Anastasius Adossides, under Venizelos the
+enlightened Governor-General of Salonica, published for
+several years before the first Balkan War in Paris. Yugoslavia
+was to have every facility given her in Salonica,
+which course would naturally be the most beneficial to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+that place. And among the minor advantages of really
+amicable relations would be the impossibility of such a
+state of things as once prevailed at Doiran, where the
+masters of the Greek and Bulgarian schools were neither
+of them in a position to chastise their peccant pupils,
+who could always have the last word by threatening to
+transfer themselves to the rival establishment. It was,
+I believe, the custom of these young scoundrels to
+remain at one or other of the two schools on the understanding
+that the teacher gave them a retaining fee
+of so many chocolates.... One rather felt, during
+1919 and 1920, that the Yugoslavs, in their willingness
+to take the hand of Greece, which had so shamefully
+refused to act upon its obligations in the first half of the
+War, were behaving as if Venizelos would henceforward
+be retained in power by his countrymen. Should the
+Serbs find themselves hampered in their use of the "Free
+Zone" at Salonica, a moment might arrive when they and
+the Bulgars would, to their mutual advantage, make an
+arrangement with regard to Salonica and her hinterland.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>c</i>) <span class="smcap">The Bulgarian Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p>There have been various modifications in the frontier
+line between Serbia and Bulgaria. The Bulgars acknowledge
+that in the case of the Struma salient, of the part
+near Vranja and of the villages on the bank of the Timok,
+it was clearly for the purpose of safeguarding the railways;
+and few people would be found to say that Serbia
+has been other than modest in her demands. Compare
+the Italian position on the Brenner with the Yugoslav
+frontier against Bulgaria and in the Baranja: against
+Bulgars and Magyars the Yugoslavs only secure a sound
+defensive frontier, whereas Italy obtains a capacity for
+the offensive against Austria.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> It is rather different
+with regard to Tsaribrod, on the main line between Ni&#353;
+and Sofia. So good a friend of the Yugoslavs as Dr.
+Seton-Watson has deplored the cession of this small
+place, since it appears likely to imperil a future friendship
+between Serbia and Bulgaria. As a matter of fact the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>Yugoslav Peace Delegates requested, for strategic purposes,
+a still more southerly frontier on the Dragoman
+Pass, which was denied to them. But Tsaribrod, which
+is dominated by the heights of Dragoman, is anyhow a
+place of minor importance. It is much to be hoped that
+the inhabitants will not imitate those of the Pirot <i>intelligentsia</i>
+who in 1878 shook off the dust of their town
+when it became Serbian and migrated to Sofia, where
+they never wearied of anti-Serbian agitation. One
+must do one's best not to retard the arrival of that day
+when it will be almost a matter of indifference as to
+whether a village is situated in Serbia or in Bulgaria.
+Mr. Stanojevi&#263;, the deputy for Zaje&#269;a, which is not far
+from the frontier, proposed in the Skup&#353;tina that Tsaribrod
+should be left to the Bulgars in exchange for a sum
+of money. This suggestion was opposed by the Radicals,
+and the far-seeing Yugoslav statesmen who would gladly
+have adopted it were left hoping that the Skup&#353;tina
+would some day decide in its favour.... This moderation
+on the part of the Serbs has been less in evidence at
+Bucharest and still less at Athens. The Peace Conference
+which felt itself unable to deprive its Ally of
+southern Dobrudja, and unable to resist the persuasive
+eloquence of M. Venizelos, does not seem to have contributed
+towards a lasting Balkan peace. A reviewer in
+the <i>Observer</i>, while approving of Mr. Leland Buxton's hope
+of a Serb-Bulgar reconciliation, asks why this should be
+effected to the exclusion and obvious detriment of Greece.
+"Why not a Balkan Federation?" he asks. In view of
+the very different races which inhabit the Balkans, he
+might just as well ask, "Why not a European Federation?"
+And the statesmen of the non-Slav Balkan
+countries do not seem to have made serious efforts to
+prevent the coming of a purely Slav Federation. It
+remains to be seen whether, when that comes to pass,
+the Greek and Roumanian people will have achieved such
+statesmanship as to make an equally small effort to keep
+under their control their large Slav territories.... "We
+should no longer think of Thrace," said M. Venizelos in
+the Greek Chamber in 1913, "for it is impossible to
+include in the Greek State all those parts where Greeks
+have lived; we ought to be modest and contented with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+what is most righteous and attainable; we ought not to
+let ourselves be carried away by our imagination."</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>d</i>) <span class="smcap">The Roumanian Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p class="section">THE STATE OF THE ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA</p>
+
+<p>A new frontier between Yugoslavia and Roumania
+has been drawn by the Allied Powers in the Banat.
+But before we consider its merits and absurdities we must
+examine the Serbo-Roumanian question in the several
+departments of eastern Serbia. During 1919 one heard
+a good deal, in Bucharest and in Paris, of the pitiful
+Roumanians whom the Serbs had always deprived of
+their own national schools and churches. It was claimed,
+chiefly by a certain Dr. Athanasius Popovitch, that the
+Roumanians in Serbia were longing for the day of their
+redemption. On March 8, 1919, two deputations of
+Roumanians from the Timok and from Macedonia, who
+had lately arrived in Paris in order to plead before the
+Conference, presented themselves to the Roumanian
+colony at 114 Avenue des Champs-Elysees. We are told
+that in consequence of their moving narrative, and on
+account of the loud appeal made by them to all their
+free brothers, the Roumanian colony founded, with
+great enthusiasm, a national league for their delivery.
+The Vice-President of the league was announced to be
+Dr. Athanasius Popovici. In a pamphlet called <i>Les
+Roumains de Serbie</i> (Paris, 1919), Dr. Draghicesco, a
+Roumanian Senator, denounces the Serb authorities for
+having obliged Dr. Athanasius, while he was a schoolboy,
+to change his surname into the purely Serbian one of
+Popovitch. "Not being able to endure this r&eacute;gime of
+violence," we are informed, "he expatriated himself and
+established himself in Roumania." But if Dr. Athanasius
+felt so strongly with regard to his name when
+he was a mere schoolboy, one is puzzled to understand
+why, being an adult and a pamphleteer in 1919, he should
+be hesitating between Popovitch, which is Serbian, and
+Popovici, which is Roumanian. The Senator does not
+seem to be well informed as to the early years of Dr.
+Athanasius, who so far from expatriating himself as an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>
+indignant schoolboy, remained in Serbia, where he went
+through five classes of the gymnasium in Belgrade, after
+which he studied theology in the same town, with a view
+to succeeding his father, who was a priest at Du&#353;anovac
+in eastern Serbia. Later on Athanasius performed his
+military service at Zaje&#269;a, where he married&mdash;so one of
+his sisters told me&mdash;one Mileva, the daughter of Yovan
+Stan&#269;evi&#263;, a merchant. After his marriage he went to
+Jena, in order to continue his studies, and there he became
+a Doctor of Letters. It may be that while he was at
+Jena he became conscious of the r&eacute;gime of violence to
+which the Roumanians in Serbia are subjected; at any
+rate he decided not to return to that country, where his
+wife and three sisters are well satisfied to live. He
+launched himself into a furious anti-Serbian propaganda in
+favour of those who, in the words of Dr. Draghicesco,
+are profoundly sad and full of grief at being neither
+Serbian nor Roumanian, who when they meet a
+Roumanian brother listen to him with pleasure and,
+with their eyes full of tears, murmur: "How happy
+we should be to be with you." ... When I travelled
+through those parts with a view to verifying Dr.
+Athanasius's assertions, I was invariably told by persons
+of Roumanian origin that they had no complaint whatever
+against the Serbs, and that the last thing they desired
+was to be politically united to the Roumanians of the
+kingdom. Dr. Athanasius might reply that his wretched
+compatriots were impelled by fear to give such answers.
+But what do they fear?&mdash;one finds that among these
+people are deputies, priests, army officers and so forth.
+"To-day," says Dr. Athanasius, "all the peoples who
+are reduced to slavery by other people secure the right
+to return to their fatherland." The Roumanians of
+Serbia would have to be a good deal more miserable before
+wishing to have anything to do with Roumania. Milan
+Soldatovi&#263;, ex-mayor of the great mining village of Bor
+and himself of Roumanian origin, said that he had never
+heard of any one who went to work in Roumania. No
+doubt the present generation of Roumanian landowners
+deeply deplore the misdeeds of their ancestors, who drove
+the ancestors of these peasants away from Roumania.
+"The peasant hovels were merely dark burrows, called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+<i>bordei</i>, holes dug in the ground and roofed with poles
+covered with earth, rising scarcely above the level of the
+plain.... The interior was indescribable. Neither furniture
+nor utensils, with the exception of the boards
+which served as beds or seats and the pot for cooking
+the <i>mamaliga</i>"<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a>&mdash;his sole food, a paste consisting of
+maize meal cooked in water. And one cannot be
+astonished if the Roumanians in Serbia are chary of
+believing that their native land has changed for the
+better. "If," said a Roumanian peasant before an Agricultural
+Commission in 1848, "if the boyar could have
+laid hands upon the sun, he would have seized it and
+sold God's light and warmth to the peasant for money."
+Even in 1919 the peasant still had much reason to be
+dissatisfied, for where the owner parted with his land it
+was usually&mdash;no doubt as a stage in the transaction&mdash;made
+over to the village as a whole. And if the boyar
+no longer has the monopoly of the sale of alcohol, if he
+has so far improved that Vallachia is not now losing its
+inhabitants as it was after the Regulations of 1831, when
+we read that "in vain the rivers are assiduously watched,
+as if in a state of siege; the emigrants cross at the places
+which are clear of troops. Emigration is especially rife
+in winter, when the frozen Danube presents an ever-open
+bridge," yet among the Roumanians of Serbia it
+has been handed down from father to son what happened
+in the reign of Prince Milo&#353;. To take one case out of
+many such that are preserved in the National Archives
+at Belgrade, a dispatch was sent on February 11, 1831,
+by Vule Gligorievi&#263;, his representative in those parts,
+to Prince Milo&#353;, who was at Kragujevac, enclosing a
+supplication from the priests and other inhabitants of the
+large Roumanian island called Veliko Ostrvo, in the
+middle of the Danube, praying that they might be allowed
+to cross to Serbia. "We are in great misery," they wrote,
+"and have boyars who are very bad, and we cannot bear
+the misery in which we find ourselves, and in the greatest
+grief we beg your Highness to let us come to Serbia with
+our wives and children." The Prince had a special
+sympathy for Roumania and was therefore most reluctant
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>to intervene in her internal affairs. He adopted
+a very cautious attitude in this matter, but when Gligorievi&#263;
+sent him petition after petition he was finally
+so touched by the recital of their woes that he permitted
+them to cross the river; and one night, with the help
+of the Serbian authorities, the whole island crossed over,
+to wit 57 families, with 186 oxen, 70 horses, 694 sheep
+and 87 pigs. Milo&#353; made them a free grant of land for
+the building of a village, together with a vast stretch
+of territory for pasture and stock-raising; at his own
+expense he built them a church and extended to them all
+the liberties and advantages enjoyed in Serbia by the
+Serbs themselves. As a token of their gratitude these
+Roumanian emigrants called their village Mihailovac, after
+the name of Michael, the Prince's son. This village is
+the birthplace of our friend Dr. Athanasius, whose
+sentiments appear to have placed him in a minority of
+one. When his pamphlet came into the hands of Jorge
+Korni&#263;, the mayor of Mihailovac and a Roumanian by
+origin, he brought it to the prefect at Negotin saying that
+he wished to have nothing to do "with any devil's work."</p>
+
+<p>As Dr. Athanasius and his chauvinist friends give a
+pretty lurid picture of the Roumanian villager who lives
+in Serbia, I visited a few places where the population
+is wholly Roumanian or Serbo-Roumanian. The 766
+inhabitants of Ostralje are all of Roumanian descent,
+the mayor being one Velimir Mi&#353;kovi&#263;, a sergeant of
+reserves who has been transferred from the army in
+order to carry on his municipal duties. All the inhabitants
+speak Serbian and Vlach. "We were always
+Serbs," they said. "Nobody told us that we had
+migrated to this place." And amongst those who
+assembled to talk with us at the schoolmaster's house
+there was only one who, in the Roumanian fashion, had
+drawn his socks over his white trousers. The 2221 inhabitants
+of the village of Grljan are about two-thirds of
+Roumanian and one-third of Serbian origin. Formerly
+they each had their own part of the village, but now they
+are intermingled both in the village and in the cemetery.
+They intermarry freely; thus Jon Jonovi&#263;, the most
+notable person, who used to represent this district in the
+Skup&#353;tina at Belgrade, has three Serbian daughters-in-law.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+He was a member of the Opposition Liberal
+group of Ribarac. "And did you ever request that your
+fellow-countrymen should have their own Roumanian
+schools and churches?" we asked. This is one of the
+chief demands of Dr. Athanasius. "I was not the only
+Roumanian who was a deputy," said the old man of the
+furrowed face. "There was Novak Dobromirovi&#263; of Zlot;
+there was Jorge Stankovi&#263;, for instance; but we never
+thought of asking for such a thing, since we had no need
+for it." The son of the wealthy Sima Yovanovi&#263; at Bor
+observed with a smile that the first business of Roumanian
+schools would have to be the teaching of Roumanian.
+"My father sent me to be educated at Vienna," he said,
+"and when I met some boys from Bucharest we found
+that our language was so different that we had to talk
+to one another in German. And now when a commercial
+traveller comes here from Roumania I have to talk
+German to him, as I would otherwise have to converse
+with my hands and feet." The French mining officials, by
+the way, at Bor testified that they had never heard of any
+tension between men of Serbian and those of Roumanian
+origin; the Roumanians, who prefer agricultural work, are
+more attracted to the mines in winter, when over 40 per
+cent. of the 1500 employ&eacute;s are Roumanians.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Athanasius and his friends are agitated, as one
+would imagine, when they discuss with you the numbers
+of their countrymen. In <i>Le Temps</i> of April 22, 1919,
+they declared that they could produce 500,000, for they
+realized that their previous claim of between 250,000 and
+350,000 was not large enough to give the Roumanians in
+Serbia the benefit of the principle of nationality. But
+even this more modest figure will be found, on examination,
+to be exaggerated. In the four north-eastern
+counties of Serbia there were 159,510 Roumanians in
+1895; 120,628 in 1900, and in 1910 a little over 90,000.
+This diminution, say the chauvinists, is due to a falsifying
+of statistics, for those, they say, who have attended
+a Serbian school are inscribed as Serbs. The truth is
+that everyone is entered according to his mother-tongue.
+And history knows countless instances of a gradual
+decrease in the case of people placed in foreign surroundings
+and exposed to foreign influences. Like the Illyrians who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+people Dalmatia, the Thracians of ancient Dacia and the
+Serbs who emigrated to Russia in the seventeenth century,
+the Roumanians of Serbia are undergoing this process
+and are inevitably becoming Serbicized. Frequently we
+noticed that men possessing no Serbian blood did not care
+to admit their Roumanian origin, which, however, is no
+secret to their neighbours in spite of the Serbian termination
+"i&#263;" that, in the course of years, has been affixed
+to their names. An allusion to their origin is clearly
+regarded as lacking in delicacy. "Well, my ancestors
+were Roumanian," is often as much as they will admit.
+And when some enterprising agitators came over from
+Roumania to the department of Po&#382;arevac in 1919, the
+Roumanians of those parts gave up to the authorities all
+those who did not manage to escape. For ten years
+Lieut.-Colonel Gjorge Markovi&#263; commanded the 9th
+Regiment, which is chiefly formed of Roumanians from
+that region. They used to tell him that they wanted
+to have nothing to do with the Roumanian boyars.
+"Here we are boyars ourselves," they said. All of them
+speak Serbian, many of them write it; and on winter
+evenings they have for years received instruction in
+reading, writing, arithmetic and singing, which compares
+favourably with Roumania's army, in which, as I was
+told at Bucharest, the plan of starting any education
+had to be postponed in consequence of the outbreak of
+the Great War. Together with the unwillingness of
+these people to acknowledge their origin, one observes
+a general vagueness as to the home of their forefathers.
+Apparently these came over from southern Hungary,
+whence the name Ungureani,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> or from Tara Rumaneasca,
+<i>i.e.</i> the Roumanian land, whence the name Tarani.
+Others again are descended from Roumanized Serbs
+who came from Kossovo and other Serb regions of the
+south, lived in the Banat and Transylvania among the
+Roumanian villages, acquired the Roumanian language
+and then crossed over to Serbia. These three classes have
+all come to Serbia in recent times. Any attempt on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>part of Dr. Athanasius and his friends to drag in the
+Romans can be answered by the undoubted fact that the
+ancient Roman colonists had completely disappeared
+from Serbia as far back as the fifteenth century, leaving
+no trace at all, and there is no connection between them
+and the present Roumanian population of Serbia. No
+memories remain of the old Roman colonists, save certain
+place-names which, as Professor Georgevi&#263; remarks,
+strike one as surprising in the midst of a purely Serbian
+population. It is interesting to note that these ancient
+Roman place-names are very rare in the regions inhabited
+to-day by men of Roumanian origin.</p>
+
+<p>It would not have been worth whole devoting so much
+space to the activities of Dr. Athanasius and his adherents
+but for the fact that European public opinion, which has
+concerned itself extremely little with the Roumanians
+of Serbia, might possibly imagine that their advocate
+deserves to be taken seriously.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">2. THE BANAT</p>
+
+<p>Anyone who looks at an ethnological map of the Banat
+will recognize how difficult it is to partition that province
+among two or three claimants. No matter by whom
+the map is painted, it must have the appearance of mosaic,
+with few solid masses of colour. This fact was quickly
+used by the Roumanians, who argued that as the Banat
+had never been divided, neither politically nor economically,
+it should still remain one whole&mdash;of course under
+the Roumanian flag. The Magyars haughtily pointed
+out that as the Banat had never been divided, but had
+for a thousand years lived under the crown of St. Stephen,
+it should still remain one whole&mdash;of course under the
+Hungarian flag. The Roumanians contended that the
+indivisibility of the Banat was designed by Nature,
+since the mountainous eastern part could not exist if
+separated from the fertile west. The Magyars asserted
+that it was altogether wrong to think of the radical
+remodelling and complete dismemberment of a territory
+which Nature had predestined to be one. The Yugoslavs
+agreed with both parties that it was not easy to draw a
+satisfactory frontier, but they asked that, as far as possible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+the predominantly Roumanian parts should be joined
+to Roumania, the Slav populations to them and the
+Magyars to Hungary. As a matter of fact the Paris
+Conference did attempt to make an ethnical division,
+between these three States, of the Banat. Roumania
+tried to demonstrate the impossibility of this by turning
+off the water in the Bega Canal when the Serbs evacuated
+Teme&#353;var and were taking their heavily-laden barges
+from that town. There will have to be a central, international
+organization to control the network of waterways.
+As soon as the Paris Conference had decided on
+this division it was told by the Magyars, the Roumanians
+and the Yugoslavs that all the numerous Germans of the
+Banat wished to belong to Hungary, to Roumania and
+to Yugoslavia. A great many of the Germans were
+indifferent, so long as they could peaceably carry on their
+prosperous agricultural operations. Not much political
+solidarity is apparent among the Germans of the Banat,
+and seeing that both Yugoslavia and Roumania, now
+the principal possessors of this land, have elsewhere
+within their boundaries large German populations, their
+respective Banat Germans will be able to ally themselves
+with these in the Parliaments of Belgrade and Bucharest.
+The Banat Germans who are discontented with the Paris
+decisions are firstly those, among the aristocratic and
+commercial classes, who were accustomed to enjoy under
+the Magyars a favoured position, and secondly those who,
+with more or less justification, say that Roumania has
+yet to show that she will treat her subject minorities in
+a truly liberal fashion. It is for this reason that the
+Germans of Ver&#353;ac and Bela Crkva&mdash;in which towns
+they are about as numerous as the total of Yugoslavs,
+Roumanians and Magyars&mdash;would give a majority in
+favour of Yugoslavia if they were asked to vote as to
+Yugoslav or Roumanian citizenship. <i>Adeverul</i>, which
+is one of the least chauvinist of Bucharest newspapers,
+claimed for Roumania at least the railway line: Teme&#353;var,
+Ver&#353;ac, Bela Crkva, Bazias&mdash;an argument thought to be
+conclusive being that the two central towns are neither
+Roumanian nor Serbian but German. This railway line
+was, as a matter of fact, bestowed by the Peace Conference
+on Roumania, and it required some strenuous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+work before this decision was modified. The French were
+suspected in Yugoslavia of leaning unduly towards the
+Roumanians, through sympathy with the Latin strain
+in their blood; yet it was the French who were for giving
+to Yugoslavia not only Bazias but the villages on the
+Danube down to Old Moldava, seeing that in those districts
+the Slavs are certainly in a majority. The Roumanian
+case was not assisted by Professor Candrea's ethnographical
+map, for in the debated country around Bela
+Crkva that gentleman, who told me that he had omitted
+every place whose population was less than a hundred,
+has unfortunately forgotten to include Zlatica, a village
+of 1346 inhabitants, which was founded at the gate of a
+monastery six hundred and sixty years ago. The population
+is according to the Hungarian census of 1910, at
+which time all the 1346 were Serbs, with the exception of
+220 Czechs and a few gipsies. Professor Candrea has
+forgotten Sokolavac, a nourishing place about two hundred
+and fifty years old with 1800 inhabitants and practically
+all of them Serbs, as the Transylvanian Minister of Education
+admitted. Palanka with 1400 inhabitants, most
+Serbs; Fabian with about 1000, mostly Czechs; Duplaja
+with 1204, all Serbs but for 10 Slovenes; Crvena Crkva
+with 1108 (1048 Serbs, 34 Slovaks, 17 Germans and 9
+Magyars), are every one omitted. Lescovac, with 977
+inhabitants, the Professor marks as Roumanian. When I
+was at this picturesquely situated place I was received
+in the mayor's office by half a dozen burly peasants in
+the Serbian national costume who asserted that, with
+the exception of the tailor (a Roumanian emigrant) and
+one or two other persons, the village was wholly Serb.
+But Lescovac was then within the Serbian sphere of
+occupation, and possibly if I were to go there now I would
+be told an appropriate story by other, or the same,
+peasants in Roumanian attire. One must try to find
+some surer indication of nationality, and Professor Candrea
+told me that twenty-five years ago he took down a pure
+Roumanian text at that place, where the Roumanian
+language is the most antique in the Banat. On the
+other hand, the village must have contained many Serbs,
+for when the late notary, a powerful Magyar with
+Roumanian sympathies, prevented the school being conducted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+as it always had been, in the Serbian language,
+and installed a teacher&mdash;he stayed for eight years&mdash;who
+could only speak Magyar and Roumanian, the villagers
+at their own expense procured a Serbian school-mistress.
+She was expelled by the notary.... This illustrates
+the difficulties which the Peace Conference, in its desire
+to trace an ethnical frontier, was confronted with. And
+there was no map which did not make it obvious that
+Serbian villages would have to remain to the east and
+Roumanian villages to the west of any possible line.
+They did right, I think, to revise their decision as to the
+towns of Ver&#353;ac and Bela Crkva, for there the Yugoslavs
+and their German friends have a large and unquestioned
+preponderance. Bazias, with about three miles of the
+railway, was given to Roumania so that she should have,
+for the exportation of her wood and iron-ore, the only
+harbour in that region of the Danube which is capable of
+development. However, with no railway over Roumanian
+soil from Bazias to the mines, this port is perfectly useless,
+and it is to be hoped that Roumania will give it up, for
+compensation elsewhere, to the Yugoslavs. The latter
+would otherwise be compelled to build three or four
+miles of railway, from Bela Crkva to Palanka, which,
+unless a great deal of money be spent on it, will always
+be one of the worst ports on the river. With a little more
+difficulty than to Bazias the Roumanians could construct
+a railway to Moldava, which also is a very good port;
+and in return for this accommodation, whereby the
+wines of Bela Crkva could be shipped from Bazias, their
+natural port, the Yugoslavs would be ready to make over
+to Roumania one or two villages whose population far
+exceeds that of little Bazias. We may also hope that
+facilities will be given by the two Governments for the
+emigration of those who wish to cross the new frontier
+line. Formerly the people of the Banat had no strenuous
+objections to being moved, lock, stock and barrel, from
+one district to another and without the inducement of
+coming under the rule of their own race. Thus the
+village of Zsam, to the north of Ver&#353;ac, was, like many
+others, very sparsely inhabited when the Turks withdrew
+in 1716; some villages had only three or four occupied
+houses. So the Government in 1722 collected into one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+village the people of several others, and in this way Zsam,
+which had hitherto been Slav, became Roumanian, the
+Serbs being established in the neighbouring Sredi&#353;te.
+In 1809 the Roumanians were transplanted from Zsam
+to Petrovasela, between Ver&#353;ac and Pan&#269;evo, where
+they entered the Pan&#269;evo Frontier Regiment; their
+place at Zsam was taken by Germans, who, being more
+industrious, were preferred by the landowners.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the delineators of this frontier&mdash;French and
+British&mdash;have told me that they were guided throughout
+by the ethnical principle. But various unfortunate
+exceptions seem to have been made: for instance, at
+Ko&#269;a it runs through a certain house in such a way that
+the lavatory alone is in Roumania; and in another village
+there lives a man who, since his stables are situated in
+Roumania, would have had his horses requisitioned if
+he had not been able to bring them into the other part of
+the house. Another village has its cemetery in Roumania,
+so that the Yugoslavs carry their dead friends over during
+the night. Perhaps the Entente officials, perceiving that
+their ambitious resolution to divide the country on
+ethnic principles was not feasible&mdash;there would always
+be alien islands to the right and to the left of any line&mdash;perhaps
+they in despair drew an arbitrary line upon a
+map and hoped the poor inhabitants would make the
+best of it. But this was rendered more difficult by the
+Yugoslav and Roumanian authorities, for the people who
+desire to cross the line are put to endless trouble. Apart
+from the expense, it usually involves a delay of three
+weeks before permission can be obtained, so that the
+frontier is rarely traversed save by smugglers and by
+those who, like the afore-mentioned man of Ko&#269;a, have
+been driven into chronic lawlessness.</p>
+
+<p>The first line agreed upon after the War, which
+temporarily bestowed the eastern county on Roumania,
+the western on Yugoslavia and the chief parts of the
+central (or Teme&#353;var) county also on Yugoslavia&mdash;with
+French co-operation&mdash;did not find favour in Paris;
+whether or not this decision was influenced by the frequent
+journeys of the Queen of Roumania and her fascinating
+daughters to that town I do not know. At all
+events another boundary was made which included the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+large town of Teme&#353;var and all the northern part of that
+county in Roumania. It is true that there are Roumanian
+villages in the neighbourhood of this German-Magyar-Jewish
+town, which is by far the largest place in the
+Banat. And the Roumanians, who have already annexed
+enormous Magyar and German populations in Transylvania,
+do not boggle at another 80,000 foreigners.
+One could, however, find very few Yugoslavs who want
+Teme&#353;var to be restored to them; they know that they
+and the Roumanians, whatever (as regards themselves)
+may have been the case in other days, form, each of them,
+only about one-thirtieth of the total population. But
+they are sorry that the Allies asked them to share in
+occupying the town, because the local Serbs, who are
+interested in politics, were so enthusiastic, that on the
+arrival of the Roumanians they were forced to leave
+their businesses and go to live in Yugoslavia. Since
+neither Serbs nor Roumanians have any ethnical claim
+to the town one would suppose that, as the spoil had
+fallen to Roumania, the Entente would have endeavoured
+to give the Yugoslavs some compensation: what they
+did was to take away from them a good deal of that
+which they had&mdash;a considerable slice of their western
+county&mdash;which also was presented to the Roumanians.
+Again, the delineators excused themselves by invoking
+their ethnical motives, but as a matter of fact in that
+part of Torontal the people are predominantly German
+and they should have been allotted to Yugoslavia, not
+merely because the Teme&#353;var Germans were given to
+Roumania but on account of their economic existence,
+which certainly in the case of the departments of
+Nagyszentmikl&oacute;s, Perj&aacute;mos and Csene (to retain the
+Magyar spelling) is bound up with Zsombolya, their
+market-town, and Kikinda. According to the census
+that was taken in 1919, the population of these three
+departments now allotted to Roumania consisted of
+41,109 Germans, 13,638 Yugoslavs and 19,270 Roumanians.
+Further, to the south-east of Torontal, in the
+departments of P&aacute;rd&aacute;ny, M&oacute;dos and B&aacute;nlak, there is not
+so intimate a connection with the market-town; here
+the population consists of 12,209 Germans, 11,102 Yugoslavs
+and 8808 Roumanians. But there seems to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+little reason why the whole of Torontal, following the
+wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, should not be
+given to Yugoslavia; and this would also reduce to a
+minimum the inconveniences produced by any frontier.
+For many long years there has been a county frontier
+between Torontal and Teme&#353;var, each of which was
+under an official who looked direct to Buda-Pest. The
+adoption of this ancient county frontier as that of the
+two countries would put an end to the present absurd
+and unjust, not to say dangerous, situation. It should,
+therefore, be brought about as soon as possible.</p>
+
+<p>A similar rectification is needed in the country to
+the north and north-west. The three German villages
+of Komlo&#353;, Mariafeld and St. Miklo&#353; have their fields
+near Velika Kikinda, in Yugoslavia, whereas they are
+themselves in Roumania. To bring home his maize
+from the land a farmer was obliged to pay, at the most
+favourable rate, up to 200 crowns a pound. Considering
+that this part of the country is an absolute plain with no
+river flowing through it, one would suppose that a rectification
+could easily be made. If these Germans had
+been consulted they would naturally have opted for
+Yugoslavia. The Peace Conference officials might, also
+have studied Velika Kikinda, a place with a very creditable
+past, which&mdash;as I was told by a Serb professional
+man of that town&mdash;will be completely ruined if she loses
+the custom of these German villages and has to depend
+upon the Serb peasants who make one embroidered suit
+and one pair of sandals last them for ten years.... It
+will be necessary for the Yugoslav authorities in the
+Banat not only to endeavour to raise their countrymen's
+standard of living but also in the southerly districts,
+where the standard is higher, to persuade them not to
+persist in limiting their families. The Serbs in the old
+kingdom have been one of the most prolific of European
+races&mdash;they would otherwise have been incapable of
+carrying on their twenty-six years of war during this last
+century&mdash;but in the south and south-east of the Banat,
+perhaps through mere love of comfort, perhaps through
+Magyar oppression, there has been a marked tendency
+not to increase. The Magyars and Germans have had
+normal families, the Roumanians have increased by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+assimilation (a woman marrying into a Serbian family
+will often cause them all to speak her easier language).
+The Serbs, however, will in their part of the Banat absorb
+the others if they show political understanding and a
+liberal spirit. "We will give the Germans," said Pribi&#269;evi&#263;
+to one of them at Ver&#353;ac&mdash;"we will give them everything
+up to a university."</p>
+
+<p>The north-west corner of the Banat, which has a
+considerable Magyar population, has been ascribed to
+Hungary. Opposite the apex of this triangular tract of
+country lies Szeged, the second city of Hungary (118,328
+inhabitants, of whom 113,380 are Magyars) and the chief
+centre of the grain trade of the rich southern plains.
+As was pointed out in <i>The New Europe</i>,<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> Szeged, which
+lies in flat country, would be even more defenceless than
+Belgrade if the lands on the other side of the river were
+under alien rule. If one draws a strategical frontier the
+nationality of the people is, of course, disregarded; it is,
+therefore, beside the point to mention that there seem
+to be far more Serbs in the angle opposite Szeged than
+there were Magyars in the lands opposite Belgrade.
+The Entente has simply made up its mind to be generous
+to Szeged, and let us hope that we have not left this
+region to Hungary on account of the activities of the
+extremely intelligent Baroness Gerliczy&mdash;a Roumanian
+lady married to a Magyar&mdash;who owns a large estate there
+and was much in Paris during the critical period.</p>
+
+<p>The other imperfections in the Paris arrangements,
+whether with regard to villages or fields, are not incapable
+of amendment. One presumes that the Roumanians,
+who have no lack of other international problems, will
+be wise enough to discard certain dicta of their Liberal
+party and of Bratiano, its self-satisfied leader, to whom
+all subjects seem great if they have passed through his
+mind. One particular dictum which the Roumanians
+ought to cast aside is that which insists upon the indivisibility
+of the Banat. Another Roumanian statesman,
+Take Jonescu, was more sagacious when he, during the
+War, drew up a memorandum whose object was that
+Greece, Serbia, Roumania and the Czecho-Slovak Governments
+should work in harmony. This idea of presenting
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>a single diplomatic front was to the liking of Mr. Balfour,
+who observed to M. Jonescu that it would be better for
+these States and better for Europe. As regards an understanding
+between Roumania and Serbia in the Banat:
+"I," said Pa&#353;i&#263;&mdash;"I speak for Serbia. Can you speak
+for Roumania?"</p>
+
+<p>And Jonescu unfortunately had to shake his head.</p>
+
+<p>In the fatuous policy of crying for the whole Banat&mdash;they
+even require the little island in the Danube between
+Semlin and Belgrade&mdash;Bratiano is assisted by the aged
+Marghiloman, who is the chief of a branch of the Conservative
+party. But the relations between these two
+do not seem destined to be cordial, since Bratiano is
+married to Marghiloman's divorced wife.</p>
+
+<p>May the Roumanian people become reconciled to
+Yugoslavia's righteous possession of part of the Banat.
+It would be a pity if these two neighbours were to live
+together on such terms as, in the eastern county of the
+Banat, Caras-Severin, do the Bufani and the other
+Roumanians. The Bufani came from Roumania some
+hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago, on account of
+the taxes which they found intolerable; and they have
+not been able to arrive at amicable relations with those
+countrymen of theirs who are the descendants of earlier
+emigrants. Very seldom do the Bufani and the others
+intermarry. These Bufani, so say the others, are like ivy.
+"They called out," complain the others, "they called
+out: 'Little brother, be good to us!' and then they
+strangled us." The Bufani, who are easily recognizable
+by their dialect, frequent the same church and have one
+priest with the others, but they have a separate cemetery.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>e</i>) <span class="smcap">The Hungarian Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p>North of the town of Subotica the frontier between
+Yugoslavia and Hungary is almost a natural one, as it
+runs over vast hills of shifting sand which are still partly
+in motion. Neither on foot nor on horseback, still less
+with loaded carts, is it possible to travel through these
+hills. But to the east and to the west of them the frontier
+is no better than that which separates Yugoslavia from
+Roumania, and when it came to the delimitation the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+Magyars thought it would be preferable if this work
+were done with their assistance. Otherwise, so they
+urged, there would be no check upon the wicked intolerance
+of their neighbours. It is true that they themselves
+had in the past been in favour of centralization, but
+against this one must remember that the "subject
+nationalities" were inferior beings. The Yugoslavs, the
+Roumanians and the Slovaks could not claim a glorious
+descent from Attila, of whom a fresco decorates the
+House of Parliament at Buda-Pest, and thus the Magyars
+had always thought it seemly that, by various devices,
+a limit should be put to the number of Yugoslav,
+Roumanian and Slovak deputies. Count Apponyi and
+his colleagues told the Peace Conference very frankly
+at the beginning of 1920 that it really ought to take their
+word for it, and not persist in looking on the Yugoslavs,
+etc., as if they were as good as any Magyar. Surely it
+was obvious that Yugoslavia, Greater Roumania and
+Czecho-Slovakia would be "artificial and improvised
+creations, devoid of the traditions of political solidarity
+and incapable of producing any." But if the Supreme
+Council was resolved to allow certain Magyar territories
+to join themselves, if they desired, to these ephemeral
+States it would be necessary to ascertain by means of a
+plebiscite what were the real wishes of the people in these
+territories; and Count Apponyi was kind enough to tell
+the Council very definitely how this plebiscite should be
+conducted. The principal Allies were to arrange, in
+accordance with the Magyar Government, as to the
+districts in which a plebiscite was to be held, and the
+secret voting was to be controlled by neutral commissions
+and delegates of the interested Governments. This may
+sound rather rash on the part of the Magyars, since a
+plebiscite, no matter how it was arranged and controlled,
+would <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'persumably'">presumably</ins> detach a good many jewels from the
+crown of St. Stephen, and it was not astonishing that
+Count Apponyi and his friends proposed that the Magyars
+should be safeguarded by further Commissions which,
+if requisite, would override the results of the voting.
+These results would indeed, as between the Magyars and
+the Yugoslavs, have given our Allies a larger dominion
+than they have actually obtained. The triangle south<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+of Szeged, to which we have alluded, would certainly,
+if there had been a plebiscite, have gone to Yugoslavia.
+In Baranja the Yugoslavs have claimed that
+the census of 1910, which indicated 36,000 Serbo-Croats,
+should have given them 70,000; but this does not take
+account of the large number of &#352;okci&mdash;Slavs whose
+ancestors were forcibly converted to Catholicism and
+who came to consider themselves as one with the Catholic
+Magyars. This widespread phenomenon of race being
+superseded by religion may be noticed, for example, at
+Janjevo in the district of Old Serbia; it is inhabited
+by the descendants of Dubrovnik colonists who, being
+Catholic, have come to look upon themselves as Albanians.
+In Hungary the dominant Magyar minority was wont
+to clasp the subject races to its bosom, not with bonds
+of love but of religion. Thus in 1914 at Marmoros-Sziget
+they charged 100 persons with high treason,
+because it was their wish to leave the Uniate Church, in
+communion with Rome, and return to the Orthodox
+faith. The same charge would have been preferred
+against certain Ruthenians who were just as unwilling
+to be members of the Uniate Church; but in the case of
+these humble, backward people the conversion had been
+effected by their priests, who would thereby procure for
+themselves a better situation, and the Ruthenians, who
+had not been told of this occurrence, were under the
+impression that they were still Orthodox. Professor
+Cviji&#263; believes that, with the help of the Catholic religion,
+no less than 113,000 Serbo-Croats have in Baranja been
+lost by their Yugoslav brethren.... When the Yugoslavs
+were asked by the Supreme Council to evacuate most of
+Baranja they did so. A republic, under the presidency
+of one Dobrovi&#263;, a well-known cubist painter, a native
+of those parts, was formed by Yugoslavs and the Magyars
+whose freedom had been safeguarded under their rule.
+But as this republic was not assisted by the Yugoslav
+Government it only lasted for a week.</p>
+
+<p>Farther to the west is the Prekomurdje, that interesting
+Slovene district which extends for about 25 miles
+along the Mur. The rich plain that adjoins the river
+is mostly in the possession of large landowners, while
+the hilly country to the north sustains a scattered and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+poor population of Calvinists. There are in the whole
+Prekomurdje some 120,000 Yugoslavs, who are descendants
+of the old Pannonian Slovenes. This healthy,
+honest people has indeed eighteen Catholic and eight
+Protestant priests, but is otherwise almost destitute of
+an <i>intelligentsia</i>. They speak nothing but Slovene, and
+yet the Magyars had for ten years previous to the War
+been so imperialist that only Magyar schools were tolerated.
+Thus it happened that the children, like so many
+others in the Magyar schools, were at a loss to understand
+what they were writing, and if their teacher chanced
+to learn the Slovene language he was there and then
+transferred to Transylvania or the Slovak country or some
+other province where he had to teach his pupils in the
+Magyar which they did not know. He was supposed to
+make the children feel the vast superiority of all things
+Magyar, so that they should be ashamed to walk with
+their own fathers in the streets and speak another tongue.
+We are told occasionally in the <i>Morning Post</i> that consideration
+should be shown to the Magyars since they are
+a proud people, but would they not merit more consideration
+if they were a grateful people, grateful that the rest
+of Europe, overlooking their Mongolian origin, has
+accepted them as equals? The Magyars were so
+thoroughly persuaded of their own pre-eminence that
+when the devotees of Haydn founded in his honour a
+society at Eisenstadt, where he had worked, it was
+allowed on the condition that the statutes and the name
+of the society and so forth should be in the Magyar
+language, although Haydn was a German. Evidently
+the poor Slovenes of the Prekomurdje would be swamped
+unless they showed exceptional vigour. And when they
+managed to survive until after the War the Americans
+in Paris were for handing them to Hungary on the ground
+that the frontier would, if it included them in Yugoslavia,
+be an awkward one. Such is also the opinion of Mr.
+A.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;E. Taylor in his <i>The Future of the Southern Slavs</i>;
+this author advocates that Yugoslavia should be bounded
+by the Mur, albeit in another part of the same book he
+says that "a small river is not usually a good frontier,
+except on the map"; and the Mur is so narrow that
+when Dr. Gaston Reverdy, of the French army, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+arrived at Ljutomir we found that a crowd of these men
+and boys had waded across the stream in order to lay
+their cause before the doctor, who represented the Entente
+in that region. The Bol&#353;evik Magyars were just then
+threatening to set all Prekomurdje on fire, and the pleasant-looking,
+rather shy men who stood in rows before us
+begged the doctor to procure them weapons&mdash;they would
+be able to defend themselves. It is satisfactory to know
+that most of this portion of the Yugoslav lands has, after
+all, not been lost to the mother country.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>f</i>) <span class="smcap">The Austrian Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p>A considerable part of the frontier between Yugoslavia
+and Austria has been determined by a plebiscite which
+was held, under French, British and Italian control, in
+the autumn of 1920. The Slovenes during the previous
+year had pointed out that while they could no longer
+claim so wide a territory now that Austria had been
+drawn towards the Adriatic, yet the rural population
+of Carinthia had remained Slovene, thanks to the notable
+qualities of that people. The German-Austrians, on the
+other hand, maintained that country districts are the
+appanages of a town, so that the wishes of a rural population
+are of secondary importance. While these questions
+were being debated in 1919 by the two interested parties&mdash;and
+debated, very often, by their rifles&mdash;the Italians
+intervened. Sonnino's paper, the <i>Epoca</i>, made a great
+outcry over Klagenfurt (Celovec) which, if given to the
+Yugoslavs, would be an insurmountable barrier, it said,
+to the trade between Triest and Vienna, although it was
+clear that the railway connection through Tarvis remained
+in the hands of the Italians. (There is not a single
+Italian civilian in Tarvis&mdash;but no matter.) Meanwhile
+the French Press noted that the Italians&mdash;presumably
+not as traders but as benefactors&mdash;were seeing to it that
+the Austrians did not run short of arms and munitions.
+For many months a large area was in a condition of
+uncertainty and turmoil, till at last the Peace Conference
+ordered a plebiscite.</p>
+
+<p>Two zones in Carinthia&mdash;"A" to the south-east,
+with its centre at Velikovec (V&ouml;lkermarkt), and "B" to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+the north-west, with its centre at Klagenfurt (Celovec)&mdash;were
+mapped out, and it was agreed that if the voting
+in "A," the larger zone, were favourable to Austria,
+then the other zone would automatically fall to that
+country. For several months before the voting day this
+area&mdash;a region of beautiful and prosperous valleys watered
+by the broad Drave and surrounded by magnificent
+mountain ranges&mdash;for several months this area was the
+scene of great activity. German-Austrians and Yugoslavs
+no longer, as in 1919, attacked each other with the
+implements of war, but with pamphlet, broadsheet,
+with eloquence and bribery. Austrian and Yugoslav
+officials took up their headquarters at various places and
+saw to it that every voter should be posted as to the moral
+and material advantage he would reap by helping to
+make the land Austrian or Yugoslav, as the case might
+be. All those were entitled to vote who, being twenty
+years of age in January 1919, had their habitual residence
+in this area; or, if not born in the district, had belonged
+to it or had their habitual residence there from, at least,
+January 1, 1912. The larger zone "A" was left under
+Yugoslav administration, while zone "B" was under
+the Austrian authorities; and the Inter-Allied officials
+exercised a very close supervision in order, for example,
+to protect the partisans of either side from undue repression
+at the hands of their opponents. Neither the
+Austrians nor the Yugoslavs lost any opportunities for
+saying in public that the Inter-Allied Commissions were
+honestly making every effort to be impartial. It was,
+however, unfortunate that Italy should have sent as her
+chief representative Prince Livio Borghese, who may
+have been as impartial as his colleagues, but whose
+reputation, whether merited or otherwise, could scarcely
+commend itself to the Yugoslavs. They believed that
+his activities in Buda-Pest, under the Bol&#353;evik r&eacute;gime,
+and afterwards in Vienna, had been very hostile to themselves.
+Each of the three allied commissioners had a staff
+of some fifty or sixty officials, whose upkeep and expenses
+were paid by the two interested countries.</p>
+
+<p>If an average person had been asked to foretell the
+result of the plebiscite I suppose he would have said
+that in zone "A" the Yugoslavs and in zone "B" the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+Austrians would be successful. We have seen how the
+Slovene renaissance of the nineteenth century was met
+by the central authorities in Vienna (particularly after
+the German victory of 1871), and how the local functionaries
+assisted them. They argued that Austria with her
+miscellaneous races could only survive if one of them
+was supreme. Therefore they looked askance on every
+one who regarded himself as a Slovene; if he rose to be
+an official it had to be in another part of the Monarchy,
+while for the maintenance of Austria (oblivious to the
+argument that Austria was a perfectly unnatural affair)
+they favoured all those who announced themselves to be
+on the side of the predominant race. From 1903 onwards
+the Slovene language was barred from the courts
+of Carinthia, and if a person did not understand the
+language of the German magistrates he had to use an
+interpreter. The land was invaded by the German
+<i>intelligentsia</i>: professors, masters in primary and
+secondary schools, doctors, lawyers and so forth, excise
+officials and railway officials&mdash;in 1912 Carinthia possessed
+about 5000 of these and only 1&frac12; per cent. were
+Slovenes. Those among the Slovenes who were capable
+of serving in such positions were dispatched to Carniola,
+Dalmatia or preferably to the German-speaking lands of
+the Empire. A provincial agricultural authority was set
+up in 1910 which was recognized by the State and which
+enjoyed a monopoly. Its object was to aid the progress
+of agriculture by establishing and supporting agricultural
+schools, sending experts to the farmer, distributing
+subsidies for the purchase of machinery, artificial manure
+and so on. The council consisted of twenty-one members,
+of whom only one was a Slovene; the subsidies were given
+to those who were recognized as Germanophils, while
+requests were not permitted in the Slovene tongue. As
+for the electoral districts, they were so manipulated that
+one deputy represented 120,000 Slovenes and another
+represented 27,000 Germans. Constituencies in which
+there was a German majority were allowed to send
+two members, while the others only sent one. The German
+railway employees worked so thoroughly for pan-Germanism
+that various Slovenes were arrested&mdash;among
+them the mayor of a large village who wanted to travel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+from Celovec&mdash;for asking in the Slovene language for a
+ticket. With regard to schools, there were throughout
+Carinthia in 1860 some 28 Slovene and 56 Slovene-German
+foundations, whereas in 1914 there were 2
+Slovene, 30 German and 84 mixed schools, where the two
+languages were supposed to co-exist; they were indeed
+the home of two languages, for the children were nearly
+all Slovene, whereas the teacher and the language he used
+were German. Among 230 masters only 20 could read
+and write Slovene. Qualified teachers who could satisfy
+this test were, as we have mentioned, sent to other parts
+of the Empire. So far did the system go that Slovene
+peasants upon whom the Government had forced a
+German education speedily forgot the two hundred words
+which they had learned, but as they had been taught no
+other script than the German they were accustomed to
+write the Slovene language with German Gothic characters.
+These peasants were fairly impervious to Germanization;
+their strong sense of national consciousness
+was supported by the books, religious and otherwise,
+which they received every year from some such
+society as that of St. Hermagoras at Celovec, which
+distributed half a million books a year among its 90,000
+members.</p>
+
+<p>But that which principally guided the peasant was
+the voice of his priest, and the vast majority of priests
+in zone "A" were Slovenes. This agricultural zone
+possesses no more than one or two small towns, where
+the priest is less <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'regarded,'">regarded.</ins> The traders and artisans
+frequently look upon themselves as too highly cultured
+for the Church; they affect the "Los von Rom" and
+the Socialist movements. By holding these menaces over
+the Bishop's head a good deal of pressure could be brought
+to bear, and this was done by the Germans, who were of
+opinion that the Church unfairly encouraged the Slovenes.
+The Bishop of Celovec had both the zones in his diocese
+until some months before the plebiscite, when a temporary
+arrangement was made under which zone "A"
+was administered by a vicar. But in bygone years the
+Bishop, with these threats hanging over him, was wont
+to counsel prudence and to ask his clergy not to agitate
+their flock, whom they were merely telling of their rights.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+In zone "B," which mostly consists of the town of
+Celovec, the Church would naturally be more susceptible
+to German influence, apart from the fact that the Bishop
+himself is a Bavarian. For personal reasons&mdash;he is very
+imperfectly acquainted with the Slovene language&mdash;he
+wished even the clergy of zone "A" to correspond with
+him in German; but the priests pointed out that their
+faithful parishioners wanted to follow this correspondence
+and by far the greater number of them have no
+German.... In fact the Church has in each zone brought
+its help to the more powerful party&mdash;the Slovene peasants
+in zone "A" and the German or Germanophil townsfolk in
+zone "B"; and it appeared probable before the plebiscite
+that in both cases she would be on the victorious side.</p>
+
+<p>In foretelling the result of the plebiscite one would not
+pay much attention to the census which the German-Austrian
+officials used to take. A person was inscribed
+according to the language he ordinarily employed, and
+this was, more often than not, considered to be German
+if his superior was a German. Before the census of
+1910 the <i>Grazer Tagblatt</i>, which is the Germans' chief
+organ in those parts, proclaimed that the official census
+was a portion of the national propaganda. All the
+propagandist societies were entreated to do their utmost
+to induce the people to declare German as their usual
+language. Very humorous results were obtained. On
+December 18, 1910, the provincial council of public
+instruction gave out the number of German and Slovene
+children respectively in thirty Slovene parishes. Amongst
+them were the following:</p>
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>German Children.</td><td style="padding-left: 2em">Slovene Children.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 4em">Borovlje (Ferlach)</td><td class="leftalign"> 31 per cent.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 69 per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 4em">Grab&#353;tajn (Grafenstein)</td><td class="leftalign"> 10&middot;6 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 89&middot;4<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 4em">&#381;relc (Ebenthal)</td><td class="leftalign"> 24&middot;4 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 75&middot;6<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 4em">Pokr&#269;e (Poggersdorf)</td><td class="leftalign"> &nbsp;&nbsp;1&middot;3 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 98&middot;7<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 4em">Bistrica (Feistritz)</td><td class="leftalign"> 16&middot;2 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 82&middot;8<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>And twelve days later the official census gave these
+results:</p>
+
+<table summary="statistics" style="font-size: 90%">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>Germans.</td><td style="padding-left: 2em">Slovenes.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 9em">Borovlje</td><td class="leftalign"> 90 per cent.</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 10 per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 9em">Grab&#353;tajn</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 2em"> 50&middot;1 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 49&middot;9<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 9em">&#381;relc</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 2em"> 49&middot;2 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 50&middot;8<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 9em">Pokr&#269;e</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 2em"> 41&middot;1 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 58&middot;9<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 9em">Bistrica</td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-right: 2em"> 44&middot;4 <span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td><td class="leftalign" style="padding-left: 2em"> 55&middot;6<span style="padding-left: 1em">"</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Far more trustworthy is the almanac issued every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+year by the Church, wherein a person's "usual language"
+is taken to be that in which he listens to the word of God.
+These ecclesiastical lists were published by German
+bishops, and according to them we find that the region
+we are considering held in 1910 some 40,000 Germans and
+123,000 Slovenes.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that Celovec, like the smaller towns in
+this area, leans more to the Austrians than to the Yugoslavs.
+This is partly the effect of the Austrian Government's
+policy and partly of the various pan-German
+societies (<i>e.g.</i> the "K&auml;rntner Bauernbund," the "Verein
+der Alldeutschen," the "Deutscher Volksverein," etc.
+etc.), which, as was admitted, drew their funds to a considerable
+extent from Germany herself.</p>
+
+<p>The German Republic was very lavish in assisting
+her smaller Austrian sister during the period before the
+plebiscite, pouring both goods and cash into the district;
+and after the opening of the demarcation line between
+the two zones at the beginning of August they were able
+to introduce their supplies quite openly into zone "A."
+Very few Germans of the north believe that the German-Austrian
+Republic will permanently remain separated
+from themselves.... Both Yugoslavs and Austrians
+circulated vast quantities of printed matter; for the
+Yugoslavs the most convincing argument lay in Austria's
+apparently hopeless economic position and the undesirability
+of belonging to a State which had to pay so huge
+a debt; the Austrian pamphlets denounced the Serbs
+as a military race, though even such a dealer in false
+evidence as the eminent Austrian historian, Dr. Friedjung,
+would find it difficult to sustain the thesis that the wars
+engaged in by the Serbs during the last hundred years
+were more of an offensive than of a defensive character.
+In several prettily prepared handbooks the voters were
+implored by the Austrians not to be so old-fashioned as
+to plump for a monarchy when they had such a chance of
+becoming republicans; one could almost see the writer
+of these scornful phrases stop to wipe his over-heated
+brow after having pushed back his old Imperial and
+Royal headgear. You might imagine that the Austrians
+in their deplorable economic condition would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+avoided this topic; on the contrary, they proclaimed
+that several commodities which were lacking in Yugoslavia
+could be furnished by them in abundance. One
+of these, they said, was salt; and certainly the Yugoslavs
+purchased a good deal of it, but that was only when
+they did not know that it was German salt, which the
+Austrians bought in that country and on which they
+made an adequate profit. When the Yugoslavs wanted
+to get their supplies direct from Germany the Austrians
+introduced a transit tax of 1000 crowns&mdash;not the nearly
+worthless Austrian but Yugoslav crowns&mdash;per waggon.
+Later on when the Danube was thrown open and this
+tax could not be levied, salt was considerably cheaper in
+Yugoslavia than in Austria. So with plums&mdash;in 1919
+Austria bought nearly the whole of the exports from
+Yugoslavia at six crowns per kilo and sold them to Germany
+at eleven to twelve crowns, the profit going, so the
+authorities said, to the poor.</p>
+
+<p>As the day of the plebiscite approached, the Yugoslavs
+seemed to be more confident than the Austrians. The
+staunch peasants of zone "A" were not greatly impressed
+by the numerous appeals to their heart and brain which
+were handed to them by the Austrians in the Slovene
+language. And they were not much alarmed at the
+idea of being joined to their countrymen of the south,
+those unmitigated Serbs who thrived, if one was to
+believe the Austrian propaganda, on atrocities. But
+this warning was ridiculed by the Austrians themselves&mdash;on
+a market day at Velikovec you could see the Austrophils
+wearing their colours, which they would scarcely
+have done if they had been afraid of possible reprisals&mdash;and
+zone "A" was generally presumed to have a Yugoslav
+majority. On such a market day one saw very few
+Yugoslav colours in the farmers' button-holes, for it
+was the wish of their leaders to avoid anything which
+might give rise to unnecessary conflict. The day drew
+near and the Austrians thought that they were making
+insufficient progress; for one thing, they were at a disadvantage
+owing to the very low value of their money.
+They hoped that Germany would come with more zeal
+than ever to the rescue, and they hoped that something
+fatal would occur to Yugoslavia. So they asked the Inter-Allied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+Commissions to put it to their Governments that
+it would be advisable if the plebiscite were to be postponed
+for several months, say until May 1921. But it was
+reported that the French and British representatives
+declined to countenance the scheme. They may also
+have feared that if the period of canvassing were to be so
+long drawn out, the same passions would come to the
+surface as in the plebiscite in east and west Prussia,
+where in many places the Poles could not display their
+sympathies except at great personal risk. But in that
+particular plebiscite it must be noted that the Allies
+were very imprudent in confiding the maintenance of
+order to the rebaptized German Security Police, a body
+which was entirely in the hands of the reactionary clique.
+Yet the military precautions of zone "A" in Carinthia
+were not what they should have been, for when the Yugoslavs
+had lost the plebiscite an unrestrained horde of
+Austrian sympathizers, some of them from that zone
+and some from outside it, some of them civilians and
+some of them soldiers in mufti who made for certain
+places where supplies of weapons had been hidden,
+swarmed across the land and terrorized the Yugoslavs
+in such a fashion that a Yugoslav military force had to
+come in to protect them. "But how barbaric are these
+Yugoslavs," sneered their enemies, "for they refuse
+to recognize the result of the plebiscite." More than
+one diplomat in Belgrade was ordered to present himself
+at the Foreign Office and demand an answer why,
+etc. But the Yugoslavs had no intention of imitating
+d'Annunzio.</p>
+
+<p>Those who were not in the zone at the time of
+the voting might well be astounded at the result, which
+was an Austrian victory by 22,025 votes against 15,278
+for Yugoslavia. In view of the undoubted Yugoslav
+majority, it was felt that something more than active
+propaganda, before and during the election, had been
+brought to bear. For example, in the commune of
+Grab&#353;tajn (Grafenstein) the Germans are said to have
+inscribed on the electoral list 180 persons from Celovec
+and Styria who had no right to vote; they also asked
+that seventy strangers should be inscribed. On submitting
+these claims to the judgment of the district<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+council the German leaders, even as the Yugoslavs, were
+required to initial each request; it is alleged that these
+initialled papers, which were attached to the claims, were
+left overnight in a room the key of which was in the
+keeping of the German secretary, Schwarz. He is charged
+with having removed the initialled papers from the Slovene
+claims and affixed them to the German claims. There
+was a large amount of more usual corruption. Thus it
+is known that twenty-eight Slovene servants at an important
+landowner's were unable to resist the material
+arguments and voted for the Germans. And if it is true
+that a number of people voted twice and even three
+times the Inter-Allied Commission fell short of its duties.
+It is said that the voting was so lax that if a stranger had
+been inscribed and did not turn up to vote, his legitimation
+was used by a native. Thus we are told of one
+Helena Rozenzoph, aged seventy-five, who was inscribed
+at Grab&#353;tajn. This woman had never existed; there had
+been a certain Barbara Rozenzoph who died in 1919, and
+her vote was used by Marjeta Hanzio, aged twenty-two
+years. The case was so flagrant that the Commission
+discovered it and the woman confessed to having acted
+on a note which she had received from the special Austrian
+<i>gendarmerie</i> force, the Heimatsdienst. The Commission
+seems to have been reluctant to take any steps against
+these frauds and it is not astonishing that the commune
+of Grab&#353;tajn registered 1290 votes for the Austrian
+Republic and only 380 for Yugoslavia, although in this
+commune of 3440 inhabitants there are no more than
+sixteen German families. A German majority was thus
+obtained in a province which Dr. Renner, the Austrian
+Chancellor, had acknowledged to be Slovene. It seems
+incredible that the Commission should have so completely
+broken down and the mystery may yet be cleared up,
+if as the Yugoslavia delegate requested, all the voting
+papers have been preserved.... But the <i>Hrvat</i>,
+the organ of the Narodny Club in Croatia (the decentralizing
+but strongly national party) blames Monsignor
+Koro&#353;ec, the leader of the Slovene clericals, for the
+disastrous plebiscite result. He would have been better
+employed, it says, in organizing his people than in
+gadding about Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+for the purpose of extending his party. He had
+boasted that the Slovenes were so well organized that
+they were perfectly confident as to the issue. It would
+seem, however, says the <i>Hrvat</i>, that an unexpectedly
+large proportion of them are partly or entirely Germanized.
+And this, more than the above-mentioned
+irregularities, may be chiefly responsible for Yugoslavia's
+loss. One must also remember that many a Slovene
+would shrink from garrison duty in Macedonia, while it
+would be very natural for the Carinthian farmer to look
+up at the mountains that separated him from Carniola
+and then to recollect that Celovec (Klagenfurt), the
+economic centre of the whole area, would be Austrian.
+Nevertheless if zone "A" had been smaller&mdash;and more
+completely Slav&mdash;it is probable that the population
+would have risen superior to the various doubts which
+assailed them. What we have said about the Slovenes
+who have become Germanized is borne out by the
+<i>Koroski Slovenec</i>, a newspaper which appears in Vienna
+and which, though since its formation has been essentially
+hostile to the Austrians, tells us that after the plebiscite
+the Slovenes have only suffered real oppression from
+their denationalized compatriots. Difficulties arose with
+regard to the closing of Slovene schools, but this was
+largely due to the fact that many of the Slovene schoolmasters
+fled to Yugoslavia.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">(<i>g</i>) <span class="smcap">The Italian Frontier</span></p>
+
+<p>A Yugoslav barrister from Pola had gone to a neighbouring
+village&mdash;this was in 1920&mdash;for the purpose of
+encouraging the natives, who were all Southern Slavs.
+He asked them, in the event of their part of Istria being
+allotted to the Italians, not to lose heart but to wait for
+the day when justice would come by her own. In the
+middle of his exhortations a jovial old farmer approached
+him and slapped him on the back. "Cheer up, young
+man!" he exclaimed. "What is it that you are afraid
+of?" ... The Slav population of Istria and Gorica-Gradi&#353;ca,
+even as that of Dalmatia, has endured a great
+many things and is prepared to endure a great many
+more. Kindness would have gone a long way towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
+disarming them. If the Italians on the eastern Adriatic
+had been exponents of the Mazzini spirit rather than&mdash;which
+too often has been the case&mdash;of the direst
+Nationalist, then the Yugoslavs would have accepted&mdash;mournfully,
+no doubt, but <i>faute de mieux</i>&mdash;the frontier
+from the river Ar&#353;a in Istria which President Wilson
+suggested. This would have been a compromise frontier,
+by which 400,000 Slovenes and Croats would fall to Italy
+and a very much smaller number of Italians would fall
+to Yugoslavia. It would have satisfied the great sensible
+mass of the Italian people, but unfortunately was rejected
+by Baron Sonnino and his myrmidons. Far more was
+claimed by him, and the succeeding Italian Governments
+have had to struggle with the passions he so recklessly
+aroused. They have been unable to persuade the country
+that with the Ar&#353;a frontier they would be getting by no
+means a bad bargain. By the Treaty of Rapallo the
+Italians have obtained much more: the whole of Gorica-Gradi&#353;ca,
+portions of Carniola, the whole of Istria and
+contiguity with Rieka (which is made a free town), the
+islands of Lussin, Cres and Unie, sovereignty over a strip
+of five miles which includes Zadar (and a few adjacent
+islands), finally the southern island of Lastovo and
+Pelagosa which lies in the middle of the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>In November 1920 all the outside world was congratulating
+the Italians and the Yugoslavs on having,
+after many fruitless efforts of their statesmen, come to
+this agreement. The opinion was expressed that both of
+the contracting parties would henceforth be satisfied,
+since each of them was conscious that the other had
+accepted something less than his desires. It was noted
+that the Yugoslavs exhibited more generosity, as they
+gave up some half a million of their countrymen, while
+the Italians yielded in Dalmatia that to which they had
+no right. The Yugoslavs had, in the past two years,
+shown so much more forbearance than was usually expected
+of a vigorous young nation that the commentators
+for the most part fancied they would not waste any time
+in grieving over these inevitable sacrifices. It is freely
+said that if a liberal spirit is displayed by the Italians at
+the various points where they and Yugoslavia are in
+contact, both people will settle down, with no afterthoughts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>
+to friendly and neighbourly relations. But it
+would be foolish to close our eyes to the fact that the
+position at Rieka and Zadar, not to speak of any other
+places, bristles with difficulties. At Rieka one hopes
+that the largest and wisest party, the Autonomists, will
+now come into their rights; no doubt a good many of
+those opportunist citizens who, at the time of the Italian
+occupation, developed into Italianissimi, after having
+previously been known as more or less platonic lovers of
+Italy, Hungary, or Croatia with ambitions chiefly centred
+on their native town, will presently assure you that in
+the Free State they are convinced Free Staters; but the
+local politicians have been living for so long in such a
+thoroughly oppressive atmosphere that most of those
+who have been prominent should for a season now retire.
+It will be difficult enough for this harassed port to settle
+down to business. As for the Zadar enclave, it is not
+easy to understand why an Italian majority in this little
+town should bring it under the Italian flag while the
+overwhelming Slav majorities of central and eastern Istria
+have been ignored. And with all the goodwill in the
+world the existence of this minute colony encircled by
+Yugoslav lands will scarcely make more easy the conduct
+of relations between Yugoslavia and Italy. It is naturally
+to the interest of both countries that misunderstandings
+and suspicions should be swept away. And from this
+point of view it is very doubtful whether the Italians
+were well advised in taking Zadar into their possession.
+Presumably the Government was forced to do so by the
+state of public feeling. They withstood this feeling with
+regard to the magnificent harbour of Vis, which even
+President Wilson suggested they should have, and contented
+themselves with the smaller Yugoslav island of
+Lastovo (Lagosta). The pity is that the Nationalists
+should have forced into their hands anything which may
+turn and sting them.</p>
+
+<p>It may be thought that we are excessively pessimistic
+in pointing rather to the dangers which the Treaty places
+on the tapis than to the good sense of those who will
+deal with them. We do not say that the Italians would
+have permitted their Government to solve the Adriatic
+question in a safer and more philosophic manner; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
+we cannot look forward with that confidence we should
+have had if more sagacious counsels had prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>An arrangement most agreeable to the bulk of the
+interested population would have been effected if two
+Free States, instead of one, had been created: the small
+one of Rieka, and a larger one embracing Triest and the
+western part of Istria. There would be in each of these
+two States a mixed population, who would think with a
+shudder of the time when the grass was growing on their
+quays. Italians and Slavs, prosperous as of old, would
+very cordially agree that the experiment of being included
+in Italy had been at any rate a commercial disaster.
+[D'Annunzio's administration was, of course, a mere
+camouflage. Without the support of the Italian Government,
+which paid his troops though calling them rebels,
+the poet-adventurer could scarcely have lasted for a day;
+and the swarm of officers, many of them worse adventurers
+than himself, would have deserted him. Nor
+would the population of Rieka have listened to his glowing
+periods if the Italian Government had not, under cover
+of the Red Cross, sent an adequate supply of food into
+the town.] Both Rieka and Triest were, therefore, living
+under practically the same conditions, separated from
+their natural hinterland, and knowing very well that
+as Italian towns their prospects were lamentable. It
+was significant that the Italian Government should after
+a time have studied the scheme of constructing a canal
+from Triest to the Save. Before the War one-third of
+the urban population (and all the surrounding country)
+was Yugoslav; and now, when so many Yugoslavs have
+departed and so many Italians have arrived, even now
+it is certain that in a plebiscite not 10 per cent. would
+vote for Italy&mdash;and this minority would be largely made
+up of those <i>leccapiatini</i> (the "plate-lickers") who were
+the humbler servants of Austria during the War and are
+now begging for Italian plates. When the offices of the
+Socialist newspaper <i>Il Lavoratore</i>&mdash;the Socialists are
+by far the most important party in Triest&mdash;were taken
+by storm and gutted, the American Consul, Mr. Joseph
+Haven, and the Paris correspondent of the <i>New York
+Herald</i>, Mr. Eyre, happened to be in the building. They
+afterwards said that the attack by those ultra-nationalist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
+bands, the fascisti&mdash;very young men, demobilized junior
+officers and so forth&mdash;was entirely unprovoked. The
+carabinieri gazed indifferently at the scene. Such is life
+in Triest, where the labour movement is gaining in
+strength every day. Its old prosperity has departed&mdash;there
+is hardly any trade or water or gas, since most of
+the coal was consumed, by order of the Italian authorities,
+in making electric light for illuminations. These were
+intended to show the city's irrepressible enthusiasm at
+being incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. But the
+inhabitants know very well that being one of Italy's
+many ports is worse than being the only port of Austria;
+they know that the most direct railways to Austria pass
+through Yugoslav territory, that henceforward the
+Danube will be much more largely used by Austria,
+Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary (none of whom had a seaboard)
+and that Rieka will now be a more formidable
+rival than of old.... So, too, at Pola we find that a
+majority of the population do not wish their town to be
+retained in Italy; a number of Italian workmen fled
+from the idle shipbuilding yards and actually came in
+1919 and 1920 with the Slovene refugees, their fellow-townsmen,
+to Ljubljana in search of employment. There
+are not sufficient orders to go round among such yards
+in Italy where, owing to the absence of coal and iron,
+this particular industry labours under great disadvantages.
+But if Rome considers that the retention of Pola is
+strategically essential, then in order to meet her wishes
+this town might be taken out of the Triest-Istrian Free
+State&mdash;maybe the Italians will be able to do something
+that will cause the citizens to cease regretting those
+good days of old when, as Austria's chief naval base, she
+flourished on the largesse of officers and men. But what
+can she do, and what could anybody do? Hundreds of
+houses are deserted; and for the year 1920 the owners
+of the theatre&mdash;which did not engage expensive actors
+but relied mainly on cinema&mdash;were faced with a deficit
+of 12,000 lire.</p>
+
+<p>The Triest-Istrian Free State would approximately
+contain, without Pola, some 300,000 inhabitants, half
+Italian and half Yugoslav. The formation of this State
+would be less advantageous to the Yugoslavs, for most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
+of the big landowners and the shop-keepers are Italians
+who live on the Yugoslav peasants; but Yugoslavia,
+for the sake of peace, would be glad to see the State
+come into existence. Eastern and central Istria, forming
+a part of Yugoslavia and lying between the two Free
+States, should extend to Porto di Bado, which would
+cause it to possess about 3,000 Italians and 280,000
+Yugoslavs. If it were to be bounded by the Ar&#353;a it
+would make the Italians in the Triest-Istrian State
+become a minority.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the indisputable Slav districts east
+of the Isonzo, <i>i.e.</i> the territory of Gorica-Gradi&#353;ca and
+an appreciable part of Carniola, which have been adjudged
+to Italy and which long to be joined to the Yugoslav
+State, there are two possible solutions. (In passing we
+may observe that there is no country where the national
+frontier is more clearly indicated. The linguistic frontier
+is so strictly defined that the peasant on one side of it
+does not speak Italian and his neighbour on the other side
+does not understand the Slovene tongue. Nevertheless,
+Signor Colajanni, the venerable leader of the Italian
+Republicans, took up an undemocratic point of view
+and declined to admit the argument of the superiority
+of numbers, when he alluded to this frontier in a speech
+to the Republican Congress at Naples. Waving numbers
+aside, he preferred to appeal to history and culture,
+though he should have known that the mass of the
+Slovene people is much better educated than the Italian
+peasant.) The true ethnographical boundary would be the
+Isonzo&mdash;not many Yugoslavs live to the west and not
+many Italians to the east of that river. Only in the town
+of Gorica do we find Italians. In 1910 at the census
+the Italian municipal authorities attempted to show that
+their town was almost entirely Italian; at a subsequent
+census the Austrians found that the returns had been
+largely falsified, and that in reality Gorica contained
+14,000 Italians and 12,000 Slovenes, while it is common
+knowledge that if you go 500 yards from the town you
+meet nothing but Slovenes. The prosperity of Gorica
+was mostly based on the export of fruit and vegetables
+from the Slovene countryside. In 1898 the Slovenes
+awakened, formed societies, started in business on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>
+large scale and boycotted the Italian merchants, who
+found themselves obliged to learn the Slovene language.
+Suppose that, for the sake of meeting the wishes of the
+Italian Nationalists, one half of the town were given to
+Italy, then that portion would be faced with ruin. It
+would, therefore, be advisable that the whole town
+should remain with its hinterland, and that Italy and
+Yugoslavia should be divided from each other by the
+Isonzo. But if this solution is impossible, then a large
+district east of the Isonzo should be entirely and permanently
+neutralized, which would not endanger the
+security of either State. Very different in character is
+the line Triglav-Idria-Sneznik, which the Italians hold
+ostensibly as a means of defence, but which is an offensive
+line against Yugoslavia, and primarily against Ljubljana
+and Karlovac.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt as the Italians in the eastern Adriatic have
+obtained a regular position by the Treaty of Rapallo
+they will henceforth do their best to win the love of
+their new subjects. They will disavow such officers as
+that one on the sandy isle of Unie who accused the
+Slav priest of propaganda, and in fact, as we have
+mentioned elsewhere, expelled him for the reason that
+inside his church, where they had been for many years,
+stood monuments of the two Slav apostles, SS. Cyril
+and Methodus. St. Methodus was the wise administrator
+of these two&mdash;but even if he takes the rulers of
+the eastern Adriatic under his particular protection one
+must be prepared for them to fail in smothering, by their
+enlightened rule, the discontent which in the last three
+years has grown among the Yugoslavs to such acute
+proportions. It began, as we have noted, under the
+&aelig;gis of Baron Sonnino; the old neighbour, Austria-Hungary,
+had been Italy's hereditary foe, and the Baron's
+school could not bring itself to regard the new neighbours
+in a friendly light, although their house was so much
+less populated than that of their predecessors, not to
+mention that of the Italians themselves.</p>
+
+<p>There have been times during the last three years
+when a war between Italy and Yugoslavia seemed scarcely
+avoidable&mdash;the natives of the districts most concerned
+were looking forward to it with eagerness. At a Yugoslav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>
+assembly held in Triest in the summer of 1919 the other
+delegates were electrified by two priests from Istria who
+declared that their people were straining at the leash,
+anxious for the word to snatch up their weapons. (Many
+of these weapons, by the way, were of Italian origin, as
+there had been no great difficulty in purchasing them
+from the more pacific or the more Socialistic Italian
+soldiers; the usual price was ten lire for a rifle and a
+hundred rounds.) If there should come about a war
+between Italy and Yugoslavia, then it is to be supposed
+that the Yugoslavs will afterwards take as their western
+frontier the old frontier of Austria (except for the Friuli
+district, south of Cormons, which they do not covet,
+since they look upon this ancient race as Italian.)</p>
+
+<p>By signing the Treaty of Rapallo the Yugoslav Government
+has shown that it is ready to go to very great lengths
+in order to establish, as securely as may be, an era of peace.
+It would be just as creditable on the part of the Italians
+if they will consent to Istria being partitioned in the way
+we have suggested, for they have been wrongly taught
+to think themselves entitled to this country, and to believe
+that the inhabitants, as a whole, are glad to be Italian
+subjects. "You may suppose we are unpatriotic," the
+Austrian railway officials of Italian nationality used to
+say, "but as Austria gives much better pay than we
+should receive from Italy, we prefer that this part of the
+world should be Austrian."</p>
+
+<p>The relations between Italy and Yugoslavia have been
+treated at some length, for it would require but little to
+bring a gathering of storm-clouds to the sky. One even
+hears of Roman Catholics in Istria and elsewhere abjuring
+their Church and&mdash;for the national cause&mdash;adopting the
+Serbian Orthodox faith. Twenty years ago it happened
+that two Istrian villages, Ricmanje and Log, went over
+to the Uniate and thence to the Orthodox Church. This
+was on account of a quarrel with the Bishop of Triest, who
+wanted, against the wishes of the people, to remove their
+priest, Dr. Pojar. But now we have priests in the provinces
+given to Italy who are openly calling on their
+flock to go over with them to their Orthodox brothers;
+and this is a movement which, it is thought, will merely
+be postponed by the introduction of the Slav liturgy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
+To take a single sermon out of many, we may mention
+one which in the summer of 1920 was preached in a church
+of the Vipava valley. The clergyman, after lamenting
+that the chief dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church
+are Italians, gave it as his opinion that there was nothing
+to choose in point of goodness between that particular
+Church and the Orthodox Church. "And," said an old
+peasant who came to Triest with the story of what had
+happened, "never in my life did I hear so fine a sermon
+and one that did me so much good."</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> The Italians had originally landed a "hygienic mission" at Valona
+early in the European War, and this of course developed into something
+else. That ingenuous propagandist, Mr. H.&nbsp;E. Goad, tells us (in the
+<i>Fortnightly Review</i> of May 1922) that while Nature had made the innumerable
+deep-water harbours on the eastern coast of the Adriatic practically
+immune from Italy's attack, a landing or raid from one of them at Ancona,
+Bari or Barletta would be a vital blow at Italy, severing vital communications.
+He therefore justifies Italy's landing at Valona in that it was a
+purely defensive step, made to ensure that its harbour should not be used
+against her. He may hold that the seizure of one town is better than
+the seizure of none, but from the strategic and political point of view
+it would seem that Mr. Goad is an injudicious advocate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Albaniens Zukunft.</i> Munich, 1916.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> <i>La Sera</i>, August 6, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> <i>Giornale delle Puglie</i>, September 6-7, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> The delegates of the League of Nations were told, at the beginning
+of 1922, by the authorities in southern Albania that it was iniquitous
+to believe that they would employ this kind of punishment for political
+refugees. Did they not advertise an amnesty to all those who returned
+within forty-five days? And in what newspaper, they indignantly asked&mdash;in
+what newspaper had they published the slightest threat of arson?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> In the winter of 1921 this gentleman was expelled from his country.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> <i>Albanesische Studien.</i> Jena, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Albanien und die Albanesen.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> But this is less rigorously upheld in the towns if it is a question of
+their honour or of cash. When, to give an example, Scutari was occupied
+by the Montenegrins at the beginning of the Great War, a Catholic Albanian
+merchant came to a Montenegrin lawyer and asked him to institute
+proceedings against another merchant who had gravely and publicly
+insulted him. The lawyer drew up the complaint, for which he charged
+the small sum of 20 perpers (= francs), but although his client was a
+wealthy man this fee appalled him; he resolved to take no further steps.
+In general, the Scutarenes prefer to suffer imprisonment rather than
+part with any money. And the willingness of the Albanians not to look
+a gift-horse in the mouth could often be observed at Podgorica between
+the years 1909 and 1912, when Nicholas of Montenegro would occasionally
+appear in the market-place with a supply of caps and other articles for the
+Albanians. These he would distribute, having first exclaimed: "Ka&#269;ak
+Karadak Kralj Nikola barabar!" (that is to say, "The Albanian and
+the Montenegrin are equal in the eyes of King Nicholas!"). Ka&#269;ak is
+a word meaning a brigand, an outlaw; the Montenegrins apply it to
+their neighbours, and these latter, throwing their new caps in the air
+and cheering for Nikita, did not mind what he called them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> <i>Turkey in Europe.</i> London, 1900.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>Ein Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen.</i> Vienna, 1905.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> <i>Italy in the Balkans at this Hour.</i> Naples, 1913.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>L'Albanie Independente</i>, by Dukagjin-Zadeh Basri Bey. Paris,
+1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Cf. the <i>New Statesman</i>, February 5, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> When the Serbian troops arrived at Pri&#353;tina in the Balkan War
+they discovered among the inhabitants of that place a man who had not
+left his house for some fourteen years. We are told (in <i>The Complete
+Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland</i>, etc., vol. v. London, 1921) of my
+Lord Eyre of Eyrescourt in County Galway "that not one of the windows
+of his castle was made to open, but luckily he had no liking for fresh air."
+Yet probably his lordship's countenance had not the pallor of the man
+of Pri&#353;tina, because "from an early dinner to the hour of rest he never
+left his chair, nor did the claret ever quit the table."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> When this account of the incident was published in my small book,
+<i>A Difficult Frontier</i>, it caused a reviewer, one I.&nbsp;M., in <i>The Near East</i> to
+observe, that I "can be jubilant when a Montenegrin in Yugoslav pay
+insults a British officer, Captain Brodie." Since the Editor permits such
+hopeless nonsense to appear in his columns one may be excused, I think,
+for not taking <i>The Near East</i> very seriously. It is not worth while informing
+them how General Phillips of Scutari dealt with Captain Brodie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Referring in the <i>Nation and Athen&aelig;um</i> to Sir Charles's latest work,
+<i>Hinduism and Buddhism</i> (3 vols.), Mr. Edwyn Bevan says that "for a
+lonely student, who had done nothing in his life but study, the book would
+have been a sufficiently remarkable achievement. That a man who has
+been an active public servant and held high and responsible offices
+should have found time for the studies which this book presupposes is
+marvellous. It is a masterly survey.... There can be few men who
+have Sir Charles's gift of linguistic accomplishments, who can not only
+read Sanskrit and Pali, but know enough of the Dravidian languages of
+Southern India to check statements by reference to the original writings,
+and add to this a knowledge of Chinese and Tibetan."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Cf. pp. 72-73, Vol. I.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Cf. <i>Manchester Guardian</i>, February 28, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Cf. <i>A Political Escapade: The Story of Fiume and D'Annunzio</i>, by
+J.&nbsp;N. Macdonald, O.S.B. London, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Cf. <i>Tribune de Gen&egrave;ve</i>, October 13, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> Those who are curious as to the gentleman's antecedents may like to
+refer to my book, <i>Under the Acroceraunian Mountains</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Cf. <i>La Suisse</i> (of Geneva), October 13, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Cf. <i>Journal des D&eacute;bats</i>, October 15, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> This would be about 18,000 lb. avoirdupois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Cf. p. 283, Vol. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Cf. <i>Morning Post</i> of December 14, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> Cf. <i>Le Temps</i>, November 11, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> "Who is this anonymous idiot?... He really ought to have known
+better than that," says a reviewer in <i>The Near East</i>. I quite agree. It is
+pleasant now and then to be able to agree with a paper which is so one-sided
+as to admit pro-Nikita and anti-Serbian diatribes by Mr. Devine,
+but which refuses to insert a letter on the other side. "Let us not mix
+ourselves up in their domestic affairs," said the Editor to me after an
+hour's conversation. And though it is a matter of no importance, I may
+mention that he employs a reviewer who, referring to the map in my
+book, <i>A Difficult Frontier</i> (Yugoslavs and Albanians)&mdash;a map which is most
+conspicuously printed opposite the title-page&mdash;observes that it "is hidden
+in one unostentatious page, which at first sight escapes the reader's
+attention altogether."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> In the <i>Samouprava</i> of November 12 the whole case was discussed
+with his usual lucidity by Dr. Lazar Markovi&#263;, one of the ablest and most
+philosophic men in Yugoslavia. This ex-Professor of Law is now the
+Minister of Justice, and it is to be hoped that he will eventually succeed
+in the place of Pa&#353;i&#263;.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Those who like to hold the Serbs up to contumely have not a very
+strong case when they denounce them for now being on friendly terms
+with the Christian Mirditi, whereas they used to be the friends of Essad
+Pasha; this personage was at that time the man whose national Albanian
+policy had the greatest chance of success. He was the one man who
+then appeared capable of establishing a State in which Christians and
+Moslems would be fairly represented. But now too many of the Moslem&mdash;and
+not only they&mdash;have adopted an Italophil attitude which is sadly
+anti-national.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> A later phase was for the Government to recognize that what Albania
+must have is the friendship of Yugoslavia, so that the eyes of the most
+powerful Ministers were turned from Rome to Belgrade. Thereupon the
+Italians, loth to lose their footing in the country, gave their patronage to
+the anti-Governmental parties. It was pleasant to hear in the summer
+of 1922 that when the boundary commissioners had left a lamentable
+neutral zone between the two countries the Albanian Government suggested
+to the very willing Government of Yugoslavia that they should
+co-operate in cleansing that zone of its brigand population.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> December 16, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> According to the Geographical-Statistical Atlas recently published
+by the German Professor Hickmann the average loss among the belligerent
+countries, in killed, wounded and through diminution of the birth-rate,
+was 6&middot;5 per cent. At one end of the list of suffering nations is the United
+States with a percentage of 0&middot;4, Great Britain with 3&middot;7, and Belgium with
+4&middot;7. Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey are all between 6 and 6&middot;5
+per cent. France has a percentage of 8&middot;5, Russia has 9, Germany 9&middot;3 and
+Austria 11. Above them all comes Serbia with the appalling percentage
+of 23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> November 24, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Cf. "G&eacute;ographie Humaine de la France" in the <i>Histoire de la Nation
+Fran&ccedil;aise</i>. Paris, 1920.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Cf. <i>L'histoire illustr&eacute;e de la guerre de 1914</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> <i>L'Albanie en 1921.</i> Paris, 1922.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> <i>Under the Acroceraunian Mountains.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> M. Gabriel Louis Jaray. Cf. his <i>Les Albanais</i> (Paris, 1920) and his
+other writings on the Albanians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Cf. <i>A History of the Peace Conference of Paris</i>. Edited by H.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;V.
+Temperley, vols. iv. and v. London, 1921.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Elias Regnault, <i>Histoire politique et sociale des Principaut&eacute;s Danubiennes</i>.
+Paris, 1885.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> The more advanced Roumanians of the plain also apply this term
+to their countrymen who live among the Roumanian mountains or, in
+Serbia, amid the heights of Po&#382;arevac and Kraina. It signifies a stupid
+fellow, one from the wilderness.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> February 13, 1919.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL
+CHARACTERISTICS</h3>
+
+<p class="subtitle"><span class="smcap">The Slovenes and the Serbs&mdash;The Montenegrins and the Serbs&mdash;The
+Croats and the Serbs&mdash;Serb and Bulgar.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS</p>
+
+<p>Those who, for some reason or other, do not love the
+Yugoslavs will have said to themselves, before taking up
+this book, that they would certainly supply that searching
+criticism of this people which the author would omit.
+They knew it was unlikely that a man would write at such
+excessive length about the Southern Slavs if he had not a
+weakness for them, and if he predicted for their State the
+virtue of cohesion or more than very moderate tranquillity,
+his prejudice would have to be discounted. "The Yugoslavs,"
+said an Italian lady to me in London, and her
+beautiful lips looked as if they could scarcely bring themselves
+to pronounce the name, "the Yugoslavs," she
+said, "are very wild and black." If I have given the
+impression in this book that they are white, my fault will
+be much greater than the lady's, since I am not quite a
+stranger to them. Slovenes, Croats, Serbs and Bulgars&mdash;they
+have good and evil qualities so different that one
+must take them separately, and perhaps it will be more
+instructive to compare them with each other. The
+Slovenes need not detain us; they are a small people
+occupying a surprisingly large area; if they were less well
+organized they would have been long ago swallowed up.
+They shine as workers in the field and mine and forest
+much more than as military men. They have never
+been hereditary soldiers, like so many of the Croats, and
+it is perhaps this want of confidence in their own military<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
+prowess which has caused them to take measures that are
+sometimes too severe against the Austrians who are under
+them. The Bosnian Moslems assert that, as all their
+links with Turkey are now broken, they are the best
+Yugoslavs. But the Slovenes are also the best Yugoslavs,
+because they recognize that in Yugoslavia is their
+sole salvation. Some of us may regret that their tenacity
+so far outstrips their idealism. They are a careful people,
+as may be seen from Order No. 17024 which was issued,
+on December 4, 1920, by the Prefecture of Ljutomir.
+Referring to sequestered property, it enjoined that the
+Austrian owner should be allowed so much that he could
+live on it, but not so much as to enable him to be extravagant.
+They are also a relatively well-educated people;
+according to official statistics of 1910, 85&middot;34 per cent. of
+the Slovene population know how to read and write, while
+their neighbours to the east, the Magyars, can only
+reckon 62 per cent. and the Italians of pre-war Italy,
+62&middot;4 per cent. The most backward part of the Slovene
+race, those of Istria, have 46&middot;6 per cent. of illiterates,
+while there are Italian provinces where the illiterates
+amount even to 85 per cent. Rome itself counts 65 per
+cent.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS</p>
+
+<p>It will be profitable to compare the Montenegrins with
+the Serbs, because in our impatience with those persons
+who would keep them separate we may have seemed to
+imply that we believe them identical. The Serbs who
+maintained themselves in those mountains developed
+certain characteristics which differentiate them from their
+brothers. The Serb of the old kingdom walks, the Serb
+of the mountain struts. The magnificent Serbian warrior
+of the kingdom is so disciplined that although a Field-Marshal
+will sit down openly in a caf&eacute; and drink wine
+with some old comrade who is in the ranks, yet when the
+soldier is on duty his obedience is perfect. But if the
+Montenegrin private thinks that his officer has rebuked
+him unjustly, he will not hesitate to kill him. The Serb
+has a great respect for the national heroes, while every
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>Montenegrin (for the sake of brevity we will use this term
+instead of "Serb of Montenegro," and imply, when using
+the word Serb, a Serb of the old kingdom)&mdash;as we have
+said, a Serb respects the national heroes, while every
+Montenegrin has a knowledge of his own ancestors for at
+least a hundred years. He is a chivalrous person who
+wishes to be treated as at least your equal. It was the
+Serbs' disregard of this sentiment which now and then
+gave umbrage to those Montenegrins who had expected
+that their union with the Serbs would cause an immediate
+return of the golden age. This was almost as offensive
+to the Montenegrins as the request that they would now
+contribute towards the support of the army. They had
+always left this to the Tzar&mdash;"We and the Russians,"
+they used to say, "are 150 millions." Not all the
+Montenegrins have managed to emancipate themselves
+from the thraldom of the clan. An amusing example of
+this was a major at Pe&#263; who belonged to the great Vasojevi&#263;
+family. He gave two of us a large lorry, which
+was the only car he had, and advised us to start very early
+and to take no one with us, except a guard, as the road
+to Mitrovica was in a soft condition. We started off with
+about twenty passengers, but only one of them, a Turk,
+had any luggage to speak of; and after we had gone a
+good part of the way we were held up at a military post.
+A Montenegrin captain, also a member of the Vasojevi&#263;,
+had overslept himself and ordered us by telephone to
+return for him. The Serbian lieutenant&mdash;who had risen
+from the ranks&mdash;asked at once if that order would come in
+writing, and when he received a negative answer he cut off
+the communication and wished us a happy journey. The
+Montenegrins also differ from the Serbs in their cultivation
+of the arts. They have no liking for songs of love, but
+say that men should only listen to the guslar and to hero-songs.
+They are severer and more dignified than the
+Serbs, and it will be some time before the average Montenegrin
+throws back his head in a railway carriage and
+rolls out a joyous song, as I once heard a Serb do in the
+Banat, whereupon another Serb in the far corner&mdash;they
+obviously had never met&mdash;joined in the song with great
+heartiness. The Montenegrin says that the Serb chatters
+like a gipsy (though we must not forget that, as Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+Durham remarked,<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> he is hurt if things Serbian are
+criticized by an outsider); he has been told that the
+Englishman is grave, like himself, and therefore he
+appreciates him from afar. But not many Englishmen
+(or Serbs) would care to indulge, like the Montenegrins,
+in the ceaseless recapitulation of time-honoured exploits.
+The younger folk are not so faithful to these ancient
+stories, but it is in Montenegro that performers on the
+one-stringed, monotonous guslar can most easily find an
+audience. The Serbs of the kingdom have become more
+eclectic in musical matters, though even with them the
+popular taste is in favour of the man who snores, on the
+grounds that he is hearty and robust. In so far as foreign
+influence is concerned, the Montenegrin has been to some
+extent affected by Italian culture, while that of Greece
+and Germany has acted on the Serb. But the Great War
+had an equally unfortunate influence on both of them.
+One must, however, mention that long before the War,
+and owing partly to Albanian influence, partly to their
+own struggle for existence and partly to other causes,
+the Montenegrins had shown themselves defective in
+straightforwardness. Undoubtedly they had deteriorated
+under the example of Nikita, but this unfortunate trait
+can also be discerned between the lines of the great poem,
+the "Gorski Venac," written in the first half of the
+nineteenth century. There used to be a certain amount
+of what we call theft in Montenegro, but the natives of
+that country, as of Albania, cherished rather communistic
+ideas; it seemed to them that they had a sort of right to
+that which another possessed, particularly if he was a
+near relative. After the War the Montenegrin was so
+much impoverished that he stole more freely, and the Serb,
+whose hands had hitherto been remarkably clean, took to
+the same habits and often in a very amateur fashion.
+Thus in a Macedonian village where a British army store
+had been rifled, the officers turned to the local priest, who
+was indignant with his people and conducted the officers
+into every house. Nothing was discovered, and the priest
+proposed that his own house should be searched. He
+was told that this was unnecessary, but he insisted; and
+when his careless wife led the way up a ladder into the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>loft a British officer perceived at any rate one pair of khaki
+breeches. The patients of the Scottish Women's Hospital
+at Belgrade were so unpractised in the art of stealing
+that one of them&mdash;a typical case&mdash;returned one day to
+have her leg attended to, and in raising her skirt revealed
+on the petticoat, which had once been a tablecloth, a
+large "S.W.H." These felonious ways are in contrast
+with the usual Serb candour. One afternoon in Belgrade
+I was searching for a small street in a district which I
+had not visited before. When at last, after many
+inquiries, I came to within fifty yards of it I found a
+policeman&mdash;but it is only fair to say that the majority
+of the force consisted at this time of soldiers recently
+disbanded. When I asked him where the street might be,
+the good man thought a while and then, throwing back
+his open hand and giving up the problem in despair, said,
+"My God, I know not."</p>
+
+<p>The wave of crime has manifested itself differently
+among the Serbs and the Montenegrins, in that the latter
+have been more primitive and have consummated their
+plundering by assassination&mdash;and this in a country where
+between 1895 and 1913 only two men were murdered for
+their money. In Serbia the people, even in the terrible
+distress after the War, did not go to such lengths. During
+the first half-year, the only two cases of unnatural death
+in the whole district of &#268;a&#269;ak, where I spent a couple of
+months, were both of them suicides, an old man hanging
+himself on account of the death of his last remaining
+soldier son, and an officer's wife, who had been too friendly
+to an Austrian, throwing herself into a well on her
+husband's return. A certain village of the same district
+is an instance of the frequency of all those minor peccadilloes,
+such as drunkenness and rowdiness and so forth,
+which the Serbs permit themselves. There is a law which
+lays it down that the mayor must be a native and must
+be a man who never has been lodged in gaol. But
+that unhappy village in the &#268;a&#269;ak region is unable to
+produce a single adult man with such a record.... If
+the Serb of the old kingdom is a more easy-going individual
+than his brother of the mountains it is quite erroneous to
+think that they dislike each other or have not resolved to
+come together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="section">THE CROATS AND THE SERBS</p>
+
+<p>Some of Yugoslavia's neighbours were anxious, during
+the months which followed the War, that we should learn
+how Serb and Croat were continually at each other's
+throat. The dissensions between the two branches of
+the Yugoslav family would have been much more serious
+and more prolonged if their neighbours had paid less
+attention to them. It is true that "our Serbian customs,"
+in the words of Ja&#353;a Tomi&#263;, "come from the village, while
+those of the Croats come from the nobles." The humbler
+Croat, one may say, was an employee in a big store, while
+the Serb was a small trader. The Croat would naturally
+like to introduce the big-store system into Yugoslavia,
+but this the Serb does not understand. He has a greater
+sense of responsibility and is more careful with regard to
+the expenses. To the Croat, in the old Empire, it was
+immaterial whether the officials were more or less costly.
+The bill was paid by Austria, who was the foe. For some
+time the Croat found himself forgetting that he was in
+Yugoslavia. When Cardinal Bourne came to Zagreb in
+the spring of 1919 and the town-hall was decorated with
+the British, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene and the town
+flag, some one asked the mayor why the State flag had
+been omitted. He was horrified. "The State flag!"
+he cried. Then it dawned upon him.... Numbers of
+Croats have belonged to the governing class and&mdash;impelled
+by the Catholic religion&mdash;have displayed more
+devotion to the arts than to the freedom of their country.
+On the other hand the Serbs, a race of practical peasants,
+have a highly developed national consciousness. This
+they owe partly to their inborn political gifts and largely
+to their Church, for the Orthodox religion&mdash;one may
+say, I think, without injustice&mdash;has more frequently
+shown itself, so closely is it connected with the idea of the
+State, to be rather of this world than of another. One
+should say the Orthodox religion as it flourishes in the
+Balkans, for when the Russian General Bobrikoff, who
+was attached to the person of King Milan, came back
+with him to Belgrade after the Peace of San Stefano, he
+was scandalized to see that religion had no greater share
+in the national rejoicings. "Accustomed as I was in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
+own country," he said, "to see nothing done without
+prayers and the blessing of the Church, I was indeed
+astounded to observe that the priests played the part of
+officials even in the cathedral, and often were altogether
+absent." This reminds one of von Baernreiter, who
+wished to learn the Serbian language, so that he would
+be more eligible for the governorship of Bosnia. He
+asked his teacher at Vienna when one could hear sermons
+in the Serbian church, and was informed that these
+occurred but twice a year and that on those occasions
+everybody left the church. The Serb and the Bulgar
+have come to neglect our distinctions between that which
+is spiritual and that which is temporal; their religion is,
+in consequence of their history, so inherent a part of the
+nation's life that in losing it one would almost cease to
+be a Serb or a Bulgar. Their Church is as national as
+that of the Armenians.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> This may not be an ideal state
+of things, but it prevailed in Spain under the Moorish
+oppression and in the France of Jeanne d'Arc. During
+the crisis of the Great War the churches in the West
+were everywhere national; and in Serbia it was calculated
+that 60 per cent. of the sermons had a pronounced national
+colouring....</p>
+
+<p>Now with these differences between the Croat and
+the Serb, does it not seem strange that the vast majority
+of them are for union, with a part of this majority in
+favour of a reasonable decentralization? But if we
+investigate the motives of the Serbs and Croats who
+would thwart this union, we will see that they have
+nothing of that faith which, after all these centuries, has
+moved the Yugoslav multitude. Some of the Serbs wish
+to keep aloof on the ground that Serbia in the last hundred
+years has borne the brunt of the battle&mdash;and this, whether
+they were or were not faced with a more difficult situation,
+is acknowledged by most of the Croats, who for that
+reason would never dream of wishing the more modern
+Zagreb to supplant Belgrade. Those few Croats who are
+not for Yugoslavia are moved by ecclesiastical prejudice
+or by their longing for the privileges which the Habsburgs
+granted them. But those who, for various reasons,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>criticize the central Government are by no means necessarily
+in favour of setting up a separate one. Whatever the
+impetuous Radi&#263; may have said, he is out for Yugoslavia.
+Still one cannot be astonished that he was sometimes
+misunderstood. The Zagreb students who, towards the
+end of 1918, came to Svetozar Pribi&#269;evi&#263; with the request
+that he would let them kill the demagogue, were for
+expressing in this way what Dr. Du&#353;an Popovi&#263;, the well-known
+deputy, expressed in another. It was at the
+Zagreb Provincial Parliament that he exclaimed, in the
+summer of 1918, that "This idea will be victorious and
+therefore I say publicly, in the presence of the whole
+people, that I am a Croat, a Serb and a Slovene, or, if
+you prefer it, none of them but merely a Yugoslav."
+In 1914 when Stamboul&uuml;sky, the future Prime Minister of
+Bulgaria, was arrested and accused of Serbophilism, he
+declared: "I am neither Bulgar or Serb; I am a Yugoslav!" ...
+For at least a generation Zagreb will remain
+particularist, zealously preserving the differences&mdash;personal,
+social and religious&mdash;which distinguish her
+people from the dominant Serbs. The Croat officers who
+burned with shame at the Archduke's murder on Bosnian
+soil, the Croat regiments that in 1915 marched into
+Belgrade with bands playing and their colours flying, the
+Croat officials whose bread and salt came from the Habsburgs
+in administering Yugoslav countries during the
+War&mdash;all these will not forget a long, deep-rooted and
+honourable tradition. But Zagreb is now even as Munich
+was in 1866; after having been the Rome of the Yugoslav
+movement, the seat of its philosophy and the centre
+of its politics, the Croat capital has now an atmosphere
+of sad futility, for Belgrade is the beacon of the Yugoslav
+world. While comparing Zagreb with Rome one must
+add that she had also the misfortune to resemble Rome
+of the decadence&mdash;a good deal of outer polish was imparted
+by the Austrians, at the expense of their victims' backbone.
+The five centuries of Turkish domination had no
+such demoralizing influence upon the Serbs, especially
+not in the country places. In the opinion of a very close
+observer,<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> whom I quote, there is nothing that so
+thoroughly displays the dominance of Belgrade as the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span>agrarian problem. The projected reforms, which have
+been based on the principle that no one should own more
+land than he can cultivate with the aid of his family,
+would dispossess large numbers of big landowners in
+Croatia and still larger numbers of men with moderate
+holdings, whose compensation would be "determined
+hereafter." The application of these reforms has been
+delayed for various reasons, but nowhere at any time
+has it been suggested that Croatia might reject them.
+In the old kingdom of Serbia, with much the greater
+part of the land in peasant possession, it may be said
+that there is no agrarian problem.... Those enemies
+of Yugoslavia, by the way, who have hoped that the
+particularism of Croatia would be something altogether
+different from what it is, should have mingled with the
+crowd at Zagreb on the evening of Prince Alexander's
+arrival in July 1920. The Prince interrupted his dinner,
+came out on to the balcony and made a speech. "Draga
+moja bratjo Hrvati," he said&mdash;"Croatians, my dear
+brothers." Not for a thousand years had a ruler of
+Croatia addressed his people in their own tongue. One
+immense roar of delight broke, as the <i>Morning Post's</i>
+special correspondent tells us, from the assembled multitude;
+men fell on each other's necks, laughed, wept
+and kissed each other.... Such manifestations must
+not lead us to believe that all the internal problems of
+the young State are settled. Croatia (as also Slovenia)
+is jealous of her separate identity, suspicious to some
+extent of Serbia, her prestige and projects; she has no
+intention of allowing herself, after the hard fight against
+Magyarization, to be "Balkanized." But one thing was
+made clear by the Prince's visit: there can be no word or
+thought of separation.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">We have spoken of the disaffection prevalent among
+the Croats, and on this the world has fixed its eyes,
+because of the large number of Croat deputies who have
+hitherto declined to come to Belgrade. Nevertheless
+there is a more general and more grievous discontent in
+Yugoslavia, since, after all, the Croats' attitude is of a
+temporary character&mdash;for it is probable that after the
+next general election their peculiar upbringing will not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+be so potent in determining their sentiments towards
+the State. More and more will they be ready to make
+common cause with Serbs and Slovenes; and their
+criticisms, which are now so negative, will be of a more
+useful kind. (They will recognize, for example, that if it
+costs 3000 dinars to open an inn in Serbia they were
+not justified in protesting when the fee in Croatia was
+raised from 5 crowns to 5 dinars.) That Yugoslavia
+gives ground for criticism no one, least of all her well-wishers,
+deny. And those who pray that she will prosper
+do so for the reason that the scattered Southern Slavs
+have for the first time now been able&mdash;most of them at
+any rate&mdash;to link their arms together; and we hope
+that with high qualities outweighing their defects the
+Southern Slavs will permanently take their place among
+the nations. But this will not be brought about unless
+those ailments which they suffer from are now confronted.
+Serbs themselves are often saying that their little Serbia
+was better than this fine new country which is thrice as
+large. She had fewer problems, she had fewer parties,
+and if people were corrupt they were so on a smaller
+scale. Traditions which are deprecatingly called Balkan,
+but which were at that time suited to a Balkan country,
+should not be allowed to spread across a country which
+is so much more than Balkan. Merit does not everywhere
+in this imperfect world advance you automatically,
+but an effort is required in Yugoslavia to resist the calls
+of friendship in appointing men to offices. The army of
+officials is too numerous; yet many of them are so badly
+paid that even if a great reformer could reduce by half
+their numbers he would be inclined to lay no hand upon
+the total sum they now enjoy. But this necessity of
+cleansing the public services is not peculiar to Yugoslavia.
+The politicians must have courage to lay heavier taxes
+on the peasants: the strange phenomenon is seen of
+peasants who assert that they are quite prepared for
+this, and on the other hand of politicians who are frightened
+lest it lose them many votes. The peasants generally
+are so prosperous that some, for instance, whom I know
+of near Kragujevac, men occupied in growing cereals,
+find that the fowls which they keep rather as a hobby
+do not have to lay them golden eggs in order to pay all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
+the taxes. In that region it is usual nowadays for
+peasants not to count their bank-notes, but to weigh
+them; recently a man disposed of certain fields for his
+own weight in notes of ten dinars. The peasants are not
+only dissatisfied with the two chief parties, the Radicals
+and the Democrats, for not taxing them sufficiently&mdash;so
+that at the next general election they may give a good
+deal more support than hitherto to their own Peasants'
+party&mdash;but they complain that their interests are neglected
+although, as we have seen, the lawyers and other townsfolk
+of the Radical and Democrat parties are so anxious
+with respect to peasants' votes.</p>
+
+<p>The difficult position of the Yugoslavs&mdash;observe how
+in the last year their exchange has fallen&mdash;is due in part
+to the deplorable activities of other peoples (vast amounts
+have had to be imported for reconstruction purposes,
+Rieka has been practically unavailable as a port, and
+conditions have been such that the Yugoslavs have had
+to keep a large army mobilized), partly their position
+is due to measures ill-advised but which they were compelled
+to take (such as their system of Agrarian Reform),
+partly to political inexperience and partly to their lack
+of organizing powers. Let us hope that from now onwards
+Yugoslavia will have to arm herself less heavily
+against the slings and arrows of the world, and that she
+will be able therefore to become a more proficient swimmer
+in this sea of troubles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="section">SERB AND BULGAR</p>
+
+<p>A map of the Balkan migrations, with its curved
+lines leading almost everywhere, is a bewildering spectacle;
+but if we study the main clusters of lines we shall see
+that the people whose movements they chronicle have
+frequently preserved, in a remarkable fashion, certain
+common characteristics: thus a stream flowed from the
+south-west towards Valjevo in Serbia, and it is interesting
+to notice how the prominent men of that region, whose
+ancestors came from somewhere between Montenegro
+and the old frontiers of Serbia, have all of them certain
+characteristics&mdash;a talent for foreign languages, a subtlety
+of reasoning, originality but insufficient observation, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+clever but fallacious minds. Similarly in the Bulgar
+there are qualities which even now can be ascribed to
+the Mongol blood. The Bulgar is more stolid than the
+Serb; he is less given to sympathy and on that account
+can be cruel. The Bulgar is benevolent because he is
+urged by kindliness, whereas the more impressionable
+Serb is under the influence both of sentiment, sentimentality
+and sympathy. These differences of temperament&mdash;and
+there are others, more or less distinguishable&mdash;do
+not seem to Balkan thinkers any reason why the two
+should keep apart. And a couple of months after the
+Great War, during which the Bulgars, as their best friends
+must acknowledge, were far from irreproachable in
+occupied Serbia&mdash;partly this was due to the vast number
+of new posts for which they had no suitable men&mdash;a few
+months afterwards a Bulgarian engineer was placidly
+working among the Serbs at &#268;a&#269;ak railway station,
+wearing his own uniform. And a Serbian butcher who
+emigrated to Bulgaria settled down at Ferdinand just
+before the War and has lived there unmolested up to
+this day, and that in spite of his not being very highly
+esteemed&mdash;for, as the police president told me, he had
+married a woman with more wealth than good fame;
+the president had been among her lovers.... One would
+not suppose that the contrasting public morality of the
+two countries will keep them apart. It is easy enough for
+us to argue that this morality is on a pretty low level,
+because a Bulgarian War Minister saw fit to sue, under a
+<i>nom de guerre</i>, a French armament firm which omitted to
+send him the stipulated commission; because another
+Minister, incarcerated on account of felony, could be
+liberated by the grace of Tzar Ferdinand and become
+Premier; because a Serbian Minister used to buy himself
+corner-houses, while his Bulgarian colleagues seem to own
+most of the houses in Sofia. There was a minor Serbian
+official over against whom I took my meals for about a
+month; one of his ways was to produce a pocket-knife
+and cut his bread with it. Certain other parts of his
+ritual did not appeal to me, but who knows whether I
+did not disgust him by breaking my bread with my
+fingers? And who knows what sentiments were awakened
+some years ago at the Orthodox monastery of Gromirija,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+in Croatia, when a foreign guest proposed to wash himself
+in water, though by the joyous custom of that house
+there was no other liquid on the premises but wine?
+If there is in both countries, in Serbia and Bulgaria, a
+movement against the cynicism which does not clothe
+its corruption with a decent Western drapery, that is
+something; if there is a further movement in the direction
+of probity, that is something more. And, whatever
+some Serbs may tell you, it is undeniable that honesty
+has made important strides in the public life of that
+kingdom, even without having added to the Statute
+Book those rigorous proposals of the newly-formed
+Peasants' party, one of which would punish a peculating
+official with death. It is, however, apparent that this
+party has not arrived at a sense of discretion, for it wants
+to terminate the practice of allowing pensions to officials,
+so that each man is obliged to make his own provision
+for old age. Bulgaria, the younger country, has made
+a proportionate progress; there is trustworthy German
+evidence to the effect that the corrupt Radoslavoff
+Government was despised by the people, not in the hour
+of disaster but in 1916, when the Bulgarian soldiers
+changed the words of an anti-Serb song and instead of
+"Our old allies are brigands" proclaimed that "the
+Liberals are brigands." This German, Dr. Helmut von
+den Steinen, the correspondent of the <i>Nordeutsche
+Allgemeine Zeitung</i> (in which he was bound to speak
+favourably of Radoslavoff) used to deliver propaganda
+lectures in the Bulgarian language at Sofia during the
+War. He was very well acquainted with Bulgarian
+affairs and being summoned to Berlin at the end of 1917
+he made a speech<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> <i>in camera</i> to a committee of German
+savants and artists. In the course of this he lamented
+that his country had attached herself to Radoslavoff,
+who, said he, was hated and would at the next elections
+be swept away.</p>
+
+<p>As one must repeat <i>ad nauseam</i>, the gulf between
+Serb and Bulgar has not been caused by an extreme
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>divergence of their private or their public morals, academically
+considered, but by the various incidents which in
+the eyes of each of them testified to the other's depravity.
+And at the bottom of it all was Macedonia&mdash;Macedonia
+which now, being wisely administered, will be the foundation-stone
+of Yugoslavia.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of his book, <i>Balkan Problems and European
+Peace</i>, Mr. Noel Buxton agrees that such a Yugoslav
+Federation has become a practical possibility. But his
+two alternative proposals with respect to what should
+meanwhile be the fate of Macedonia would indefinitely
+postpone that Federation. We have already dealt with
+the proposal of autonomy, put forward also by Mr.
+Leland Buxton. As for what Mr. Noel Buxton calls
+the ideal solution&mdash;"a plebiscite conducted by an impartial
+international commission over the whole of the
+historical province of Macedonia"&mdash;this is aiming no
+higher than at a perpetuation of the two distinct
+countries, Serbia and Bulgaria. We should probably
+have had more plebiscites in Europe if more Allied
+armies had been available, but the campaign of intimidation
+and every sort of ruthlessness which occurred in
+Upper Silesia and Schleswig make us look rather askance
+upon this method of registering the popular will. Mr.
+Buxton airily asks for a plebiscite over the whole of the
+historical province of Macedonia, ignoring altogether the
+special difficulty that "Macedonia" means something
+quite different to the Serb, the Bulgar and the Greek.
+He dismisses likewise the universal difficulty of plebiscites,
+which is to be just in laying down the limits of the various
+regions. But there is really no need for Mr. Buxton to
+take us on to those quagmires, since he knows, and is good
+enough to tell us, what the result of the plebiscite will be.
+"The Bulgarian sympathies," says he, "of the mass of
+the Macedonian population are apparent to every inquiring
+traveller." If Mr. Buxton were to encounter
+one of those pretty lawless Karaka&#269;an nomads, who
+from the Monastir district wander all over the Balkans,
+his recognition of the man's Roman and Thraco-Illyrian
+descent would be facilitated by the permanent cheesy
+odour which pervades his person. There is nothing so
+permanent about the Macedonian Slav. His sympathies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+as is natural, have gone out to that Balkan country which
+cultivated him and since, as Dr. Milovanovi&#263;, the Serbian
+statesman, says, "the Serbs did not begin to think about
+Macedonia till 1885," it would indeed have been extraordinary
+if the Macedonian Slavs&mdash;whose ethnical
+position, as scientists agree, is such a vague one&mdash;had
+been generally drawn to Serbia. One cannot help feeling
+that in this book Mr. Buxton does a serious disservice to
+his reputation as a Balkan expert. He says that Serbia
+until the accession of King Peter was Austrophil; which
+is, to put it mildly, a very sweeping remark&mdash;only that
+party which called itself Progressive was identified with
+Milan's views. He praises the Bulgars for being devoted
+to their national Church, and praises them for producing
+a large number of Protestants, whose sincerity, etc.,
+so that one presumes he would have praised them still
+more if the whole nation, as was once on the cards, had
+joined the Protestant Church. Save me from my
+friends! the Bulgars might say. What is perfectly
+sincere about them is their patriotism; and while some
+of those who now change their religion have doubtless
+no ulterior, personal motive, the entire country would
+probably have as little reluctance as Japan in adopting
+any religion which, like the Exarchist Church of to-day,
+would be an instrument of the national cause. Mr.
+Buxton's knowledge of the Balkan protagonists has its
+limitations; for example, prior to Bulgaria's entry into
+the War he was all for the removal of the British Minister
+on account of his pro-Serbian sympathies, but he says
+no word about M. Savinsky, the Russian Minister, who
+was left by his Entente colleagues to play the first violin.
+This capricious gentleman was no diplomat, but a courtier.
+He did not even protest when German munitions for
+Turkey passed through Roumania, and far too much of
+his time was spent in motoring with pretty girls in the
+neighbourhood of Sofia. Many good observers were of
+opinion that with a more competent Russian representative,
+such as M. Nekludoff, who in 1914 was transferred
+to Stockholm, the situation would have been
+saved. In their memorandum submitted in January
+1915 to Lord (then Sir Edward) Grey, Messrs. N. and C.&nbsp;R.
+Buxton said that their experience of fifteen years convinced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>
+them that the Bulgarian sentiment of the Macedonians
+could not in a short time be made to give
+way to another national sentiment. If we rule out, as
+being slaves of circumstance, all the Macedonians who
+now tell you that from Bulgar they have changed to
+Serb, there is no reason why we should not credit those
+who are so weary of the rival activities of both parties
+that they wish for peace and nothing else. They would
+follow, not the Messrs. Buxton, but the priest of the
+Bulgarian village of Chuprenia, who told me that he held
+that one might pray to God for the success of the
+Bulgarian arms, without saying whether they were in
+the right or in the wrong. After the end of the war
+this priest sent a telegram, which was perhaps a little
+indiscreet, advocating that the Bulgarian people should
+join in Yugoslavia.</p>
+
+<p>To prevent the Southern Slavs being torn by internal
+strife, it is necessary between Serbia and Bulgaria that
+one of them should for a time be paramount. We may
+be confident that Serbia will not abuse her position. In
+fact it is the opinion of a Roumanian lady at Monastir
+that the Serbs were uncommonly rash in taking into
+their service so many who once had called themselves
+Bulgars and now maintain that they are Serbs. But
+Serbia has become relatively so strong that she can be
+indulgent. She will even satisfy that Bulgarian professor
+who is said to have discussed the Macedonian
+question with the British military attach&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>The attach&eacute; suggested a division between Serbia and
+Bulgaria.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the professor; "let the country remain a
+whole, like the child before Solomon."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be satisfied?" asked the attach&eacute;, "if this
+question were now decided once and for all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the professor, "if the judge be another
+Solomon."</p>
+
+<p>Among the Bulgars who are looking forward to the
+day when their country will, in some form or other,
+join Yugoslavia, there are some who suggest that when
+comparative tranquillity has been assured upon the
+Macedonian frontiers (that is to say, between Macedonia
+and the Albanians) it would be as well to garrison the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+province with Croatian regiments, pending the employment
+in their own country of Macedonian troops. Gradually
+the time will come when, as one of the units of the
+Yugoslav State, Macedonia will enjoy the same amount
+of Home Rule as the other provinces. She will then,
+maybe, decide for herself such matters as the <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'preservaiton'">preservation</ins>
+of her dialects, local administration, police, etc.</p>
+
+
+<p style="padding-top: 1.5em">Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going
+to sail from one of these countries to her neighbour with
+whom she had recently been at war, and some of the
+inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was presented,
+amongst other things, with an old gentleman's
+good wishes, which he had taken the trouble to express in
+French and in verse. I believe that he recited them,
+but there was a considerable tumult on the landing-stage.
+Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of
+my ears and began to tell me that they were for detaining
+him in this country; three or four natives of the country
+reported, simultaneously, into my other ear that he had
+been letting off his revolver and was altogether a
+dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail
+or not, and meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore.
+He waved his passport in my face. Both he and his
+opponents were gesticulating with great violence, and
+this they continued to do even after I filled their hands
+with most of the small and large bouquets which the
+friendly people had brought down for me. There was so
+much noise that the boat's whistle, which the captain
+started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly
+over those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself
+from those who encircled me I caught sight of the old
+gentleman of the poem&mdash;in appearance he was a smaller
+edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity; he was clearly
+nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he
+extended towards me, written on the back of one of his
+visiting-cards. I was just then being told by the agitated
+traveller that he had only been firing into the air because
+it was Easter, and that this was his invariable custom at
+midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so satisfactory
+that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he
+should sail and that they should send his revolver on to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>
+him by parcel post. They all shook hands with him.
+The two nationalities were on excellent terms. And we
+may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them
+and the other Yugoslavs:</p>
+
+<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Oh! la belle journ&eacute;e de votre bonheur,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-&agrave;-l'heure.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Couronn&eacute; de grands succ&egrave;s du ciel je vous implore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Allegr&egrave;sse, sant&eacute; et prosperit&eacute; je vous augure.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Cf. <i>Modern Italy</i>, by Giovanni Borghese. Paris, 1913.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Cf. <i>Through the Lands of the Serb</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Cf. <i>The Children of the Illuminator</i>, by Bishop Nicholai Velimirovi&#263;.
+London, 1919.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, July 1920 (anonymous).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Subsequently printed as a pamphlet with the title, <i>Die Ausgestaltung
+des deutschen Kultur-Einflusses in Bulgarien</i>. This was printed by the
+Opposition parties in Sofia, who to circumvent the censor gave out that
+it was written by an Englishman against Bratiano.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="INDEX_OF_VOLUME_II" id="INDEX_OF_VOLUME_II"></a>INDEX OF VOLUME II<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></h2>
+
+<p class="center">(<i>The Names of</i> <ins class="correction"
+title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Books'"><i>Books,</i></ins> <i>Newspapers, and Ships are in Italics.</i>)</p>
+
+
+<ul>
+<li>Abbazia, Conditions at, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Achikou (Kol), brother of Anthony, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Achikou (Prof. Anthony), the Mirdite, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>Adeverul</i>, its claims, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Agrarian Reform in Czecho-Slovakia, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; in Hungary, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; in Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Ahmed Beg Mati, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-<a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Albanais</i>, <i>Les</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Albanesische Studien</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Albanians against Austrian army, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; compared with Basques, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; Kurds, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; of Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and the land in Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Albanie Independente</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Albanien und die Albanesen</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alberti (Mario), his <i>L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo</i>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alexander (King) and the Communists, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and the Croats, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on the Italians, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ambassadors' Conference, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Ambris (A. di) and the British boots, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Anglo-Albanian Society, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Apponyi (Count), on Hungary's neighbours, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Asquith (H.&nbsp;H.) and Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Austrian activities in Albania, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>-<a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>-<a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Austrians in Montenegro, <a href="#Page_97">97</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; their hospitals, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-<a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Austrians, their parliamentary manners, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Autonomists, the old party, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Rieka party, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Avramovi&#263; of the Peasants' party, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Badoglio (General) and the coal-supply, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Balkan Committee, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Banat, after the War, <a href="#Page_124">124</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Baro&#353;, <i>see</i><a href="#Rieka"> Rieka</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bartlett (C.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;H.) and Italy's rights, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Basri Bey, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Beaumont (A.), the correspondent, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>-<a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Belloc (H.), his curious ideas, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>-<a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Bellum Gallicum</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bencivenga (General) and the Albanians, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Benelli (Sem), poet and warrior, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Berati Bey, the delegate, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Berlin Congress and two villages, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Bessa Shqyptare</i>, its existence, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>-<a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bib Doda, Prenk, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bissolati, the gallant Minister, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Blakeney, for Rieka, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Blood-vengeance, Monsignor Bum&ccedil;i on, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Miss Durham on, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; how it may be washed out, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its high-water mark, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its prevalence, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its relative decline, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bobrikoff (General), on religion in Serbia, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>-<a href="#Page_398">398</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Bogi&#263; (Dr.), the victim, <a href="#Page_149">149</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Bojana, perilous for French boats, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bojani&#263; (Dom Ivo), his protest, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Borghese (Prince Livio), <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bosnia and Agrarian Reform, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; after the War, <a href="#Page_106">106</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Bosnische Post</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Boxich (Dr.), the results of truthfulness, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Brodie (Captain), his exploit, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Brunhes (Prof. Jean), cited, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bryce (Roland), his Montenegrin report, <a href="#Page_253">253</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Bufani, of the Banat, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bukvich (Captain), the Intelligence Officer, <a href="#Page_158">158</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Bulgars, some characteristics, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-<a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and the future, <a href="#Page_405">405</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Bum&ccedil;i (Monsignor), the mild Regent, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>-<a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Buonfiglio" id="Buonfiglio"></a>Buonfiglio (R.), the journalist, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buri&#263; (V.), <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Burrows (the late Prof.) and the Albanians, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buxton (Noel), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his <i>Balkan Problems and European Peace</i>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Cagni (Admiral) at Pola, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Candrea (Prof.), his map, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cappone (Colonel) of &#352;ibenik, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Carducci, quoted, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Carinthia" id="Carinthia"></a>Carinthia, hostilities, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; the plebiscite, <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Cecil (Lord Robert) and the Albanians, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>-<a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#268;ekoni&#263; (Count) and the Dobrovoljci, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Centurione, the deputy, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chauvinism, Serbian lack of, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>-<a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Chicago Tribune</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chimig&ograve; (Prof.) and the Italians, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Church in Albania, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; in Croatia, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; in Serbia, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>-<a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cicoli (Admiral) and Austria's collapse, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>-<a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Clemenceau (G.), <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#268;okorilo and his undesirable newspaper, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Colajanni and the Slovenes, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Communists in Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Contemporary Review</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-<a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Corriere d'Italia</i> (and <i>see</i> <a href="#Buonfiglio">Buonfiglio</a>), <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Costume, Absence of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>-<a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cres, Italian measures at, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><a name="Croats" id="Croats"></a>Croats and Agrarian Reform, <a href="#Page_133">133</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and Magyars, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; their relations to the Serbs, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>-<a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Crosse (Rev. E.&nbsp;C.), his <i>The Defeat of Austria</i>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cunnington (Captain Willett), his accusation, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cviji&#263; (Prof.), his views, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Daily Telegraph</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Dalmatia" id="Dalmatia"></a>Dalmatia, why demanded by Italians, <a href="#Page_87">87</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; deportations from, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; population, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; how treated by Italians, <a href="#Page_148">148</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>Dalmazia</i>, a newspaper, <a href="#Page_171">171</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><a name="DAnnunzio" id="DAnnunzio"></a>D'Annunzio, his absurdity, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; the Holy Entry, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; various exploits at Rieka, <a href="#Page_208">208</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his invective, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his munificence, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>-<a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; in temporary possession, <a href="#Page_198">198</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his thousand proclamations, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; disapproves of Treaty of Rapallo, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-<a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Darkovi&#263;, the respected deputy, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Davidovi&#263;, leader of Democrats, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dell (Anthony) on the Italians, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Delonga (Jakov), his testimony, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Devine (A.) and his propaganda, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>-<a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-<a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Djakovica, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Djer Doucha, the villain, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Djoni (Mark), President of the Mirditi, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Doci (Primo), the great Abbot, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Doday (Father Paul), <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Doimi (Dr.) of Vis, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Domiaku&#353;i&#263; (Prof.) at &#352;ibenik, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Donghi (Marchese), his assertions, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>-<a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Draghicesco (Dr.), his <i>Les Roumains de Serbie</i>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dra&#353;kovi&#263;, his murder, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Drin, river, as a frontier, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Durham (Edith), apologist, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; compared with Sir Charles Eliot, <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; disgusted with Great Britain, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; her <i>Through the Lands of the Serb</i>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; her <i>Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle</i>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; her respect for Mr. Bottomley, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; her wrath, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on Albanian medicine, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on the tyranny of Serbian schools, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Echo de l'Adriatique</i>, its suppression, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Edinburgh Review</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Edinost</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eliot (Sir Charles), <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Entente, Little, <a href="#Page_269">269</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>Epopea Shqyptare</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Essad and Essadists, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>-<a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
+
+<li>European War and the Albanians, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>-<a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>-<a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Evangheli (Pandeli), <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Evans (Sir Arthur), <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a> <i>et seq.<br /><br /></i></li>
+
+
+<li>Fan Noli, the versatile, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>-<a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fascisti, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Fichta (Father), <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fisher (Rt. Hon. H.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;L.), <a href="#Page_340">340</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Fiume, <i>see</i> <a href="#Rieka">Rieka</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fodor (Prof. Dr.), on race, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Fortnightly Review</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Franchet d'Esp&eacute;rey (Marshal) and Albania, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>-<a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; and Montenegro, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Frank party in Croatia, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li>
+
+<li>French, how they regarded the Italians, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; how treated by the Italians, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Freund (Leo), the secret agent, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Frontier, Yugoslav, with Albania, <a href="#Page_273">273</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Austria, <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Bulgaria, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>-<a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Greece, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Hungary, <a href="#Page_370">370</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Italy, <a href="#Page_383">383</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; with Roumania, <a href="#Page_356">356</a> <i>et seq.<br /><br /></i></li>
+
+
+<li>Gaeta army, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gardner (E.), on Balkanic mentality, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gauvain, the publicist, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gavazzi (Dr. A.), on Rieka's population, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Gazzetta del Popolo</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+
+<li>"G&eacute;ographie Humaine de la France," quoted, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Germans, in Banat, <a href="#Page_363">363</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; in Carinthia, <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Giglioli (Prof.), his claim, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Giolitti, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Giuratti, the patriot, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Glasgow Herald</i>, on Treaty of Rapallo, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gloma&#382;i&#263;, the lame prefect, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Goad (H.&nbsp;E.), his explanations, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his wrath, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Godart (Justin), his work in Albania, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his <i>L'Albanie en 1921</i>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gorica, its population, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>-<a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gothardi of Rieka, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Grazer Tagblatt</i>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Grazioli (General) at Rieka, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Grossich (Dr.) of Rieka, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>-<a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Grubi&#353;i&#263; and his flag, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gusinje, its past and future, <a href="#Page_304">304</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Hahn (Consul), his labours, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Halim Beg Derala, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hanotaux (Gabriel), <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Haumant (E.), his <i>La Slavisation de la Dalmatie</i>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on Montenegro, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his propaganda, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), his request, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his testimony, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; the 120 villages, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hickmann (Prof.), cited, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Histoire illustr&eacute;e de la guerre de 1914</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hla&#263;a (Karlo) of Cres, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Horthy (Admiral) at Pola, <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Hrvat</i>, on the Carinthian plebiscite, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>-<a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Humanit&eacute;</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Hungarian Nation</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Hvar" id="Hvar"></a>Hvar, its interesting names, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-<a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; the Italians land on, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Imperiali (Marquis), his submission, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Islamism, Fanatic, of some Albanians, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Superficial, of other, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Treatment of, by Greek Church, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Treatment of, by Montenegrins, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Islands of Adriatic, demanded by Italy, <a href="#Page_166">166</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; visited, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Istria, its population, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Italianists of Dalmatia and Rieka, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Italians (and <i>see</i> <a href="#Dalmatia">Dalmatia</a>) and Allied flags, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; reprimanded by their Allies, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; loyalty to Austria in the War, <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; system of bribery, <a href="#Page_156">156</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; land in Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_29">29</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; discouragement in 1917, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; conduct towards the French, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; what they thought of the French, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; generosity in Albania, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Good and bad, on the islands, <a href="#Page_168">168</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; incapacity, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; intrigues, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>-<a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Italians land in Istria, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; and the Dalmatians' money, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; in Montenegro, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; naval enterprise, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; naval enterprise, lack of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; measures at Rab, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; measures against Rieka, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; measures at Rieka, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; against the Serbo-Croat language, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; retreat from Slovenia, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; what they had to face in 1918, <a href="#Page_12">12</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; how they regard the Yugoslavs, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; how they are regarded by the Yugoslavs, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; relations with Yugoslavs, <a href="#Page_383">383</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; steps against Yugoslav churches and schools, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Italy in the Balkans at this Hour</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Jaray (Gabriel Louis), <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jire&#269;ek (Dr. C.), his <i>Die Handelsstrassen, etc.</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Journal des D&eacute;bats</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Kadri (Hodja), <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Karl (ex-Emperor), his grand offer, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kar&oacute;lyi (Count Michael), <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Katarani (Prof.), <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Klementi, <a href="#Page_316">316</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Koch (Admiral), the active Slovene, <a href="#Page_17">17</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Korac, the remarkable Socialist, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>-<a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kor&#269;ula, Italians land on, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Koro&#353;ec (Monsignor), <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Koroski Slovenec</i>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li>
+
+<li>"Kossovo" Committee, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kossovo in Yugoslavia, its condition, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kova&#263;s (A.), turns to the Croats, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Krk" id="Krk"></a>Krk, the persecuted Bishop, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> <i>et seq.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></li>
+<li>&mdash; Proceedings at, <a href="#Page_39">39</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Labour Monthly</i> on the "White Terror," <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Land and Water</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Language of Bosnia, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Laveleye (M. de), his <i>The Balkan Peninsula</i>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Lavoratore</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lazari, his question, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+
+<li>League of Nations, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Leiper (R.), the shrewd observer, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lenac (Dr.) of Rieka, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Leonidas</i>, the American ship, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lesina, <i>see</i> <a href="#Hvar">Hvar</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Leyland (John), the naval authority, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Liga" id="Liga"></a>Liga Nazionale, its schools, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lin, a village, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lincoln, quoted, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lissa, <i>see</i> <a href="#Vis">Vis</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ljocha (Alush) and his house, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>-<a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lloyd George (D.) and the Adriatic, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and the Serbo-Albanian frontier, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Lovrana, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Luzzatti, compares two civilizations, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Macchiedo (Dr.), liberated from Sardinia, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Macdonald (J.&nbsp;N.), his <i>A Political Escapade</i>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Macedonia, and the Communists, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-<a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its progress and future, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Magnanimity of the Serbs, <a href="#Page_124">124</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Magyar hopes, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mahni&#263; (Bishop), <i>see</i> <a href="#Krk">Krk</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Manchester Guardian</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mandirazza (F.) and his two masters, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Markovi&#263; (Dr. Lazar), <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Markovi&#263; (Sima), the Communist, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Martini&#263; (Count), his ruthlessness, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-<a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Martinovi&#263; (General), <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Massingham (H.&nbsp;W.), <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Mattino</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Maximovi&#263; (Colonel) at Rieka, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mazzini, and Vis, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Mercure de France</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mileti&#263; (Captain), his murder, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Millo (Admiral), on Austrian currency, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on Dr. Boxich, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and d'Annunzio, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; Homage to, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; discourses on public order, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on the Slavs, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Milovanovi&#263; (Dr.), on Macedonia, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Minorities in Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_201">201</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Mirditi, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>M'Neill (Ronald, M.P.), champion of Montenegro, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Montaigne, quoted, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Montenegrins and Albanians, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and the Austrian army, <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; their culture, <a href="#Page_393">393</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; their General Election, <a href="#Page_253">253</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; as migrants, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; misled, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Montesquieu, quoted, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Moretti (Dr.), his pacific efforts, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>-<a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Morning Post</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Moslems in Bosnia, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-<a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mousset (Albert), <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+
+<li>M&uuml;ller (Dr. Max) and Albanian affairs, <a href="#Page_276">276</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Narodna Uprava, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Nation</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Nazione</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Near East</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>-<a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Neue Freie Presse</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>New Europe</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>New Statesman</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nicholas of Montenegro, his lack of courage, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; deposed, <a href="#Page_100">100</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his downfall, <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Nicholas of Montenegro, his methods with Albanians, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his methods with Europe, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and the Skup&#353;tina, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nikai (Dom Ndoc), <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Nineteenth Century and After</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nitti and d'Annunzio, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-<a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nopsca (Baron), <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Novi Bazar, Sandjak, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>-<a href="#Page_317">317</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Obradovi&#263; (Dositej), <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Obrovac, Divergent views concerning, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Observer</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Obzor</i>, a newspaper, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Orlando, the Premier, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Pact of Rome, <a href="#Page_84">84</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Paolucci (Lieut.), and the <i>Viribus Unitis</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Parkington (Sir R.), <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Parties, Political, in Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_117">117</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Pa&#353;i&#263;, his astuteness, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; his prudence, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Patcho&ugrave; (Dr.), of the triumvirate, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Paveli&#263; (Dr. A.), dentist and politician, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pe&#263;, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pelagosa, its amenities, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pericone (Captain) of Scutari, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pistuli (Notz), his mission, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pivko (Prof.), his exploit, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Plamenac (J.) and the Gaeta army <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his unpopularity, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Plav, <a href="#Page_304">304</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Podgorica Skup&#353;tina, <a href="#Page_100">100</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Poggi (Lieut.), at Kor&#269;ula, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pojar (Dr.), his case, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pola, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>-<a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pombara (Captain Binnos de), his feat, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pommerol (Captain), on the islands, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Popovi&#263; (Dr. Du&#353;an), <a href="#Page_246">246</a>-<a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Popovitch (Dr. A.), his curious
+career, <a href="#Page_356">356</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>Posta e Shqypnis</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Pravda</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Pravi Dalmatinac</i>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Prekomurdje, what happened there, <a href="#Page_372">372</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Pr&ecirc;nnushi (Father Vincent), <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Prezzolini (G.), on Dalmatia and Tripoli, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; and Vis, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pribi&#269;evi&#263; (Svetozar), the Minister, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>-<a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>-<a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Primorske Novine</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pri&#353;tina, Horrid conditions at, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Proti&#263;, the statesman, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>-<a href="#Page_226">226</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Quarterly Review</i>, on Yugoslavia, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Race before religion, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>-<a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ra&#269;i&#263; (Pouni&#353;a), <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Radi&#263; (S.) of Croatia, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his <i>Dom</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rado&#353;evi&#263; (Dr.), <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Radovi&#263; (Andrija), <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Raineri (Admiral), <a href="#Page_49">49</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><a name="Rapallo" id="Rapallo"></a>Rapallo, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rapp, his testimonial, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Rassegna Italiana</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Re-Bartlett (Mrs.), on Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Red Cross, American, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; International, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; Italian, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Regnault (E.), his <i>Histoire politique, etc.</i>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Religion before race, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Rieka" id="Rieka"></a>Rieka, <i>see</i> <a href="#DAnnunzio">D'Annunzio</a> and <a href="#Vio">Vio</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Americans at, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; the Austrian stores, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; Baro&#353; harbour, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; the C.N.I., <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>-<a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; Croat mistakes, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Croat National Council, <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; economic position, <a href="#Page_66">66</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; the frenzy, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; moribund under Italy, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; population analysed, <a href="#Page_53">53</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; a few scandals, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Rieka and the Treaty of Rapallo, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-<a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a> <i>et seq.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></li>
+
+<li><i>Rije&#263;</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Risti&#263; (Colonel) and the komitadjis, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-<a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rossetti (Major) and the <i>Viribus Unitis</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Roth (Dr.), Lord of Teme&#353;var, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Roumanians in Banat, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; and their Jews, <a href="#Page_203">203</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; in Serbia, <a href="#Page_356">356</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Rugovo, Reason for burning of, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ryan (T.&nbsp;S.) of the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Salis (Count de), his mission, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-<a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Salonica, and the Serbs, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Salvemini (Prof.), the anti-chauvinist, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Salvi (Dr.) of Split, <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><i>Samouprava</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
+
+<li>San Marzano (General di), <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sanctis (Lieut. de), his sanctions, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Saseno, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Saturday Review</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Savinsky, the Russian Minister, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sazonov, and the Adriatic, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Schanzer (Signor), on Rieka, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Schools, <i>see</i> <a href="#Liga">Liga Nazionale</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; for Albanians, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; in Carinthia, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>-<a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at Cres, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; in Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; in Istria, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at Kor&#269;ula, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Militant, at Borgo Erizzo, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; in Montenegro, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at Pola, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at Rieka, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at &#352;ibenik, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; at Zadar, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Scotsman</i>, on Treaty of Rapallo, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Scutari, its probable future, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sebenico, <i>see</i> <a href="#sibenik">&#352;ibenik</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Secolo</i>, on Montenegro, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; on Treaty of London, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Secours des Enfants Serbes</i>, <i>Au</i>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Segr&eacute; (General), his alleged request, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Sera</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Serbo-Croat Coalition, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Serbs, in relation to Albanians, <a href="#Page_295">295</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; Croats (and <i>see</i> <a href="#Croats">Croats</a>), <a href="#Page_115">115</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; &mdash; Montenegrins, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>-<a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Sereggi (Archbishop), <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-<a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Seton-Watson (Dr. R.&nbsp;W.), <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sforza (Count), his letter, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="sibenik" id="sibenik"></a>&#352;ibenik, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Siebertz, the traveller, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#352;imunovi&#263; (M.) and the Italians, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Slovenes (<i>see</i> <a href="#Carinthia">Carinthia</a>), their country, <a href="#Page_120">120</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-<a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; their culture, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>-<a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; their political methods, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Socialists, Italian, and Rieka, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>-<a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#352;ojat (F.) and Dr. Vio, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sonnino (Baron), <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Spectator</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sportiello (Captain) at Vis, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Stadler (Lieut.-Colonel), the podest&agrave;, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Stamboul&uuml;sky as a Yugoslav, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Stamps, at Zagreb, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Star&#269;evi&#263; party in Croatia, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Steed (H. Wickham), his letter, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Steinen (Dr. H. von den) and the Bulgars, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Steinmetz, the traveller, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#352;tigli&#263; and the poor officials, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Strossmayer, Radi&#263; on, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Suisse</i>, <i>La</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Supilo, of Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Su&#353;ak, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Susmel (Edoardo), the writer, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+<li>&#352;vegel (Ivan), on Italian shipping policy, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Svibi&#263; (Colonel) and the Italians, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sydenham (Lord), his lack of discretion, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Szeged, its position, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Tablet</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tamaro (Dr. A.) and <i>Modern Italy</i>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tardieu, his suggestion concerning Rieka, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Taylor (A.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;E.), on Prekomurdje, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Teme&#353;var in transition, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Temperley (Major H.&nbsp;W.&nbsp;V.), on Albania, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>-<a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; on Montenegro, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-<a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his <i>A History of the Peace Conference</i>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; his <i>The Second Year of the League</i>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Tempo</i>, on the Rieka deputations, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Temps</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tesli&#263; (Colonel), <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Times</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>-<a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tittoni, and Rieka, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tomi&#263; (Ja&#353;a), the old-fashioned, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Treaty of London, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; &mdash; Rapallo, <i>see</i> <a href="#Rapallo">Rapallo</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tre&#353;i&#263;-Pavi&#269;i&#263; (Dr. A.), <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Trevelyan (G.&nbsp;M.), on the Italians in Dalmatia, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Tribuna</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Tribune de Gen&egrave;ve</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Triest, what is desirable, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its future, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; Italians and Slovenes, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; its population, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Trogir, the great invasion, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Trumbi&#263; (Dr. A.), <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Turkey in Europe</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Under the Acroceraunian Mountains</i>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Unit&agrave;</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Veglia, <i>see</i> <a href="#Krk">Krk</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Velika Kikinda, its necessities, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Velimirovi&#263; (Bishop), his <i>The Children of the Illuminator</i>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Venizelos and the Serbs, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-<a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and Thrace, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Veprinac, its population, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Verdinois (Major), his word, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Verrath bei Carzano</i>, <i>Der</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ver&#353;ac, the former Bishop's declaration, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ver&#353;ac, scene of Roumanian activities, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vesni&#263; (Dr.) and the Italians, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>-<a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ve&#353;ovi&#263; (General), his enterprises, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-<a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Vio" id="Vio"></a>Vio (Dr.) of Rieka, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li><a name="Vis" id="Vis"></a>Vis, Italians land on, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; concerning its possession, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vivante (A.), his <i>L'irredentismo adriatico</i>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vivian (H.), his ferocity, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Volosca, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vukoti&#263; (Voivoda), his answer, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vukovi&#263; (Admiral), his fate, <a href="#Page_20">20</a> <i>et seq.</i><br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Westlake (Prof.), his <i>International Law</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wied (Prince of), erstwhile Mpret, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>-<a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; (Princess of), her ladies criticized, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wilson (President), <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-<a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-<a href="#Page_214">214</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Xenia (Princess), <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li>Yastrebow, the Russian authority, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yugoslavia, conditions after the War, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; her cohesion, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and the future, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>-<a href="#Page_399">399</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li><a name="Zadar" id="Zadar"></a>Zadar, reception of Italians, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Schools at, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; and Treaty of Rapallo, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>-<a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li>
+<li>&mdash; Wild doings at, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zagreb and the future, <a href="#Page_398">398</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash; and the stamps, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+
+<li><i>Zagreber Tagblatt</i>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-<a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zanella (Prof.), <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Zara, <i>see</i> <a href="#Zadar">Zadar</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zari&#263; (Bishop), and Wilson, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zari&#263; (Prof.), his removal, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zena Beg, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-<a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ziliotto (Dr.) of Zara, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-<a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size: 80%; padding-top: 1em; font-weight: bold">PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><a href="images/map-whole2.jpg"><img src="images/map-whole2_th.jpg"
+alt="Map of Yugoslavia" title="Map of Yugoslavia" /></a><a name="map" id="map"></a></p>
+
+<div class="note">
+
+<p>Please hover your mouse over the words with a thin dotted red line
+underneath them for seeing <ins class="correction"
+title="like this">what the original reads</ins>, or a transliteration
+of a Greek word.</p>
+
+<p>Obvious printer's errors have been fixed. See below for the more
+detailed list.</p>
+
+<p>The formatting of the project has been reproduced as true to the
+original images as possible.</p>
+
+<h3>Fixed issues</h3>
+
+<ul><li>page <a href="#Page_7">007</a>&mdash;inserted a missing apostrophe after 'Italians'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_9">009</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'weapoms' to 'weapons'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_14">014</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'as' to 'a'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_48">048</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'thay' to 'they'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_54">054</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'hold' to 'held'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_77">077</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'Corriera' to 'Corriere'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_94">094</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'repression'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_94">094</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed a period to a comma after 'lend their men'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_146">146</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'aproached' to 'approached'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_147">147</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'permittep' to 'permitted'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_172">172</a>&mdash;removed an extra opening bracket in front of 'There are places'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_181">181</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'If was' to 'It was'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_189">189</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'Montengrins' to 'Montenegrins'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_196">196</a>&mdash;removed an extra opening bracket in front of 'As for large'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_197">197</a>&mdash;removed an extra closing bracket after '100 lire'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_209">209</a>&mdash;typo fixed: inserted a missing period after 'per cent'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_222">222</a>&mdash;typo fixed: 'YUGLOSLAVIA' changed to 'YUGOSLAVIA'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_317">317</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'irode' to 'rode'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_343">343</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'Yulgosav' to 'Yugoslav'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_371">371</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'persumably' to 'presumably'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_377">377</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'less regarded'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_408">408</a>&mdash;typo fixed: changed 'preservaiton' to 'preservation'</li>
+<li>page <a href="#Page_411">411</a>&mdash;inserted a missing comma after 'Books'</li></ul>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by 
+Henry Baerlein
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by Henry Baerlein
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2
+
+Author: Henry Baerlein
+
+Release Date: March 8, 2008 [EBook #24781]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jason Isbell, Irma Spehar and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Obvious printer's errors have been fixed. See the end of the project
+for the more detailed list.
+
+The formatting of the project has been reproduced as true to the
+original images as possible.
+
+THE LEGEND FOR NON-LATIN-1 CHARACTERS
+
+['c], ['C]   c with acute
+[vc], [vC]   c with caron
+[vs], [vS]   s with caron
+[vz], [vZ]   z with caron
+d[vz], D[vz] d and z with caron
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF
+YUGOSLAVIA
+
+BY
+
+HENRY BAERLEIN
+
+VOLUME II
+
+LONDON
+LEONARD PARSONS
+DEVONSHIRE STREET
+
+_First Published 1922_
+_[All Rights Reserved]_
+
+LEONARD PARSONS LTD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  VI. YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY (AUTUMN 1918 TO AUTUMN 1919)   7
+
+ VII. FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL (1919-1921)                             208
+
+VIII. YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS (1921)                                   272
+
+ IX. CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS                       392
+
+     INDEX                                                            411
+
+     MAP OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FIRST YEAR OF LIBERTY
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD--ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES--THE ITALIAN FRAME OF
+MIND--SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY--AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL
+AFFAIR--WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA--THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS
+UNITIS"--HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA--THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS--WHO
+SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH--AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO
+PRECAUTIONS--ITALIANS' MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS--THEIR TRUCULENCE AT
+KOR[VC]ULA--AND ON HVAR--HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR--WHAT THEY DID
+THERE--PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK--UNHAPPY POLA--WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED--THE
+FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA--THE DRAMA BEGINS--THE I.N.C.--THE CROATS'
+BLUNDER--MELODRAMA--FARCE--PAROLE D'HONNEUR--THE POPULATION OF THE
+TOWN--THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES--RAB IS COMPLETELY
+CAPTURED--AVANTI SAVOIA!--THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA--A CANDID
+FRENCHMAN--ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS--THE TURNCOAT MAYOR--HIS
+FERVOUR--THREE PLEASANT PLACES--ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO--THE
+STATE OF THE CHAMBER--THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY--A FOUNTAIN IN THE
+SAND--THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME--GATHERING WINDS--WHY
+THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA--CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF
+LONDON--ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO--WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF
+THE AUSTRIANS THERE--AND OF THE NATIVES--NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED--THE
+ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM--NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS--THE
+STATE OF BOSNIA--RADI['C] AND HIS PEASANTS--THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH
+THE TIMES--THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES--THE SLOVENE QUESTION--THE
+SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST--MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT--TEME[VS]VAR IN
+TRANSITION--A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA--YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER
+HOUSE IN ORDER--THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM--FRENZY AT RIEKA--ADMIRAL
+MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION--HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT
+[VS]IBENIK--THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS--YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY
+NONCHALANT--ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS--SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS--A GLIMPSE OF THE
+OFFICIAL ROBBERIES--AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY--THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA
+BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR--CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY--ALLIED
+CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY--NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES--A VISIT
+TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS--WHICH THE ITALIANS TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT
+NOT DURING, THE WAR--OUR WELCOME TO JEL[VS]A--PROCEEDINGS AT
+STARIGRAD--THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR--FOUR MEN OF KOMI[VZ]A--THE WOMEN OF
+BI[VS]EVO--ON THE WAY TO BLATO--WHAT THE MAJOR SAID--THE PROTEST OF AN
+ITALIAN JOURNALIST--INTERESTING DELEGATES--A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR
+EVANS--THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO--ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS--VARIOUS
+BRITISH COMMENTATORS--THE MURDER OF MILETI['C]--D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO
+RIEKA--THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR--THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR
+MINORITIES--OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN
+ANTISEMITISM.
+
+
+NEW FOES FOR OLD
+
+With the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes saw that one other obstacle to their long-hoped-for union
+had vanished. The dream of centuries was now a little nearer towards
+fulfilment. But many obstacles remained. There would presumably be
+opposition on the part of the Italian and Roumanian Governments, for it
+was too much to hope that these would waive the treaties they had wrung
+from the Entente, and would consent to have their boundaries regulated
+by the wishes of the people living in disputed lands. Some individual
+Italians and Roumanians might even be less reasonable than their
+Governments. If Austria and Hungary were in too great a chaos to have
+any attitude as nations, there would be doubtless local opposition to
+the Yugoslavs. And as soon as the Magyars had found their feet they
+would be sure to bombard the Entente with protestations, setting forth
+that subject nationalities were intended by the Creator to be subject
+nationalities. A large pamphlet, _The Hungarian Nation_, was issued at
+Buda-Pest in February 1920. It displayed a very touching solicitude for
+the Croats, whom the Serbs would be sure to tyrannize most horribly. If
+only Croatia would remain in the Hungarian State, says Mr. A. Kovacs,
+Ministerial Councillor in the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, then
+the Magyars would instantly bestow on her both Bosnia (which belonged to
+the Empire as a whole) and Dalmatia (which belonged to Austria). That is
+the worst of being a Ministerial Statistical Councillor. Another
+gentleman, Professor Dr. Fodor, has the bright idea that "the race is
+the multitude of individuals who inhabit one uniform region." ...
+Passing to Yugoslavia's domestic obstacles, it was impossible to think
+that all the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes would forthwith subscribe to
+the Declaration of Corfu and become excellent Yugoslavs. Some would be
+honestly unable to throw off what centuries had done to them, and
+realize that if they had been made so different from their brothers,
+they were brothers still. For ten days there was a partly domestic,
+partly foreign obstacle, but as the King of Montenegro did not take his
+courage in both hands and descend on the shores of that country with an
+Italian army, he lost his chance for ever.
+
+
+ROUMANIAN ACTIVITIES
+
+There was indeed far less trouble from the Roumanian than from the
+Italian side. On October 29, 1918, one could say that all military power
+in the Banat was at an end. The Hungarian army took what food it wanted
+and made off, leaving everywhere, in barracks and in villages, guns,
+rifles, ammunition. Vainly did the officers attempt to keep their men
+together. And scenes like this were witnessed all over the Banat. Then
+suddenly, on Sunday, November 3, the Roumanians, that is the Roumanians
+living in the country, made attacks on many villages, and the Roumanians
+of Transylvania acted in a similar fashion. With the Hungarian equipment
+and with weapons of their own they started out to terrorize. Among their
+targets were the village notaries, in whom was vested the administrative
+authority. At Old Moldava, on the Danube, they decapitated the notary, a
+man called Kungel, and threw his head into the river. At a village near
+Anina they buried the notary except for his head, which they proceeded
+to kick until he died. Nor did they spare the notaries of Roumanian
+origin, which made it seem as if this outbreak of lawlessness--directed
+from who knows where--had the high political end of making the country
+appear to the Entente in such a desperate condition that an army must be
+introduced, and as the Serbs were thought to be a long way off, with the
+railways and the roads before them ruined by the Austrians, it looked as
+if Roumania's army was the only one available. On the Monday and the
+Tuesday these Roumanian freebooters, who had all risen on the same day
+in regions extending over hundreds of square kilometres, started
+plundering the large estates. Near Bela Crkva, on the property of Count
+Bissingen-Nippenburg, a German, they did damage to the sum of eight and
+a half million crowns. At the monastery of Me[vs]ica, near Ver[vs]ac,
+the Roumanians of a neighbouring village devastated the archimandrate's
+large library, sacked the chapel and smashed his bee-hives, so that they
+were not impelled by poverty and hunger. In the meantime there had been
+formed at Ver[vs]ac a National Roumanian Military Council. The placard,
+printed of course in Roumanian, is dated Ver[vs]ac, November 4, and is
+addressed to "The Roumanian Officers and Soldiers born in the Banat,"
+and announces that they have formed the National Council. It is a
+Council, we are told, in which one can have every confidence; moreover,
+it is prepared to co-operate in every way with a view to maintaining
+order _in l[)a]untra [s,]i in afar[)a]_ (both internal and external).
+The subjoined names of the committee are numerous; they range from
+Lieut.-Colonel Gavriil Mihailov and Major Petru Jucu downwards to a
+dozen privates. The archimandrate, who fortunately happened to be at his
+house in Ver[vs]ac, begged his friend Captain Singler of the
+_gendarmerie_ to take some steps. About twenty Hungarian officers
+undertook to go, with a machine gun, to the monastery on November 7; at
+eleven on the previous night Mihailov ordered the captain to come to see
+him; he wanted to know by whom this expedition had been authorized. The
+captain answered that Me[vs]ica was in his district, and that he had no
+animus against Roumanians but only against plunderers. After his arrival
+at Me[vs]ica the trouble was brought to an end. Nor was it long before
+the Serbian troops, riding up through their own country at a rate which
+no one had foreseen, crossed the Danube and occupied the Banat, in
+conjunction with the French. The rapidity of this advance astounded the
+Roumanians; they gaped like Lavengro when he wondered how the stones
+ever came to Stonehenge.... When the Serbian commandant at Ver[vs]ac
+invited these enterprising Roumanian officers to an interview he was
+asked by one of them, Major Iricu, whether or not they were to be
+interned. "What made you print that placard?" asked the commandant; and
+they replied that their object had been to preserve order. They had not
+imagined, so they said, that the Serbs would come so quickly. "I will be
+glad," said the commandant, "if you will not do this kind of thing any
+more."
+
+
+THE ITALIAN FRAME OF MIND
+
+Italy was not in a good humour. She was well aware that in the countries
+of her Allies there was a marked tendency to underestimate her
+overwhelming triumphs of the last days of the War. Perhaps those
+exploits would have been more difficult if Austria's army had not
+suffered a deterioration, but still one does not take 300,000 prisoners
+every day. Some faithful foreigners were praising Italy--and she
+deserved it--for having persevered at all after Caporetto. That disaster
+had been greatly due to filling certain regiments with several thousand
+munition workers who had taken part in a revolt at Turin, and then
+concentrating these regiments in the Caporetto salient, which was the
+most vulnerable sector in the eastern Italian front. How much of the
+disaster was due to the Vatican will perhaps never be known. But as for
+the uneducated, easily impressed peasants of the army, it was wonderful
+that all, except the second army and a small part of the third,
+retreated with such discipline in view of what they had been brooding on
+before the day of Caporetto. They had such vague ideas what they were
+fighting for, and if the Socialists kept saying that the English paid
+their masters to continue with the War--how were they to know what was
+the truth? The British regiments, who were received not merely with
+cigars and cigarettes and flowers and with little palm crosses which
+their trustful little weavers had blessed, but also with showers of
+stones as they passed through Italian villages in 1917, must have
+sometimes understood and pardoned. Then the troops were in distress
+about their relatives, for things were more and more expensive, and
+where would it end? In face of these discouragements it was most
+admirable that the army and the nation rallied and reconstituted their
+_morale_.
+
+
+SENSITIVENESS WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ARMY
+
+Of course one should not generalize regarding nations, except in vague
+or very guarded terms; but possibly it would not be unjust to say that
+the Italians, apart from those of northern provinces and of Sardinia,
+have too much imagination to make first-class soldiers. And they are too
+sensitive, as you could see in an Italian military hospital. Their task
+was also not a trifling one--to stand for all those months in territory
+so forbidding. And there would have been more sympathy with the Italians
+in the autumn of 1918 if they had not had such very crushing triumphs
+when the War was practically over. What was the condition of the
+Austrian army? About October 15, in one section of the front--35
+kilometres separating the extreme points from one another--the following
+incidents occurred: the Army Command at St. Vitto issued an order to the
+officers invariably to carry a revolver, since the men were now
+attacking them; a Magyar regiment revolted and marched away, under the
+command of a Second-Lieutenant whom they had elected; at Stino di
+Livenza, while the officers were having their evening meal, two hand
+grenades were thrown into the mess by soldiers; at Codroipo a regiment
+revolted, attacked the officers' mess, and wounded several of the people
+there, including the general in command. Such was the Austrian army in
+those days; and it was only human if comparisons were made--not making
+any allowances for Italy's economic difficulties, her coal, her social
+and her religious difficulties--but merely bald comparisons were made
+between these wholesale victories against the Austrians as they were in
+the autumn of 1918 and the scantier successes of the previous years. In
+September 1916 when the eighth or ninth Italian offensive had pierced
+the Austrian front and the Italians reached a place called Provachina,
+Marshal Boroevi['c] had only one reserve division. The heavy artillery
+was withdrawn, the light artillery was packed up, the company commanders
+having orders to retire in the night. Only a few rapid-fire batteries
+were left with a view to deceiving the enemy. But as the Italians
+appeared to the Austrians to have no heart to come on--there may have
+been other reasons--the artillery was unpacked and the Austrians
+returned to their old front. In May 1917, between Monte Gabriele and
+Doberdo, Boroevi['c] had no reserve battalion; his troops, in full
+marching kit, had to defend the whole front: they were able to do so by
+proceeding now to this sector and now to that. No army is immune from
+serious mistakes--"We won in 1871," said Bismarck, "although we made
+very many mistakes, because the French made even more"--but the
+Yugoslavs in the Austrian army could not forget such incidents as that
+connected with the name of Professor Pivko. This gentleman, who is now
+living at Maribor, was made the subject of a book, _Der Verrath bei
+Carzano_ ("The Treachery near Carzano"), which was published by the
+Austrian General Staff. His battalion commander was a certain
+Lieut.-Colonel Vidale, who was a first cousin of the C.O., General
+Vidale; and when an orderly overheard Pivko, who is a Slovene, and
+several Czech officers, discussing a plan which would open the front to
+the Italians, he ran all the way to the General's headquarters and gave
+the information. The General telephoned to his cousin, who said that the
+allegation was absurd and that Pivko was one of his best officers. The
+orderly was therefore thrown into prison, and Pivko, having turned off
+the electricity from the barbed wires and arranged matters with a
+Bosnian regiment, made his way to the Italians. The suggestion is that,
+owing to the lie of the land and the weak Austrian forces, it was
+possible for the Italians to reach Trent; anyhow the Austrians were
+amazed when they ceased to advance and the German regiment which was in
+Trent did not have to come out to defend it. Everyone in the Austrian
+army recognized that the Italian artillery was pre-eminent and that the
+officers were most gallant, especially in the early part of the War,
+when one would frequently find an officer lying dead with no men near
+him. But such episodes as the above-mentioned--it would be possible, but
+wearisome, to describe others--could not but have some effect on the
+opposing army, and would be recalled when the Italians sang their final
+panegyric. The reasons for the Austrian _debacle_ on the Piave are as
+follows: when the Allied troops had reached Rann, Susegana, Ponte di
+Piave and Montiena, the Austrian High Command decided on October 24 to
+throw against them the 36th Croat division, the 21st Czech, the 44th
+Slovene, a German division and the 12th Croat Regiment of Uhlans.
+However, the 16th and 116th Croat, the 30th Regiment of Czech Landwehr
+and the 71st Slovene Landwehr Regiment declared that they would not
+fight against the French and English, and, instead of advancing,
+retired. The 78th Croat Regiment, as well as three other Czech
+Regiments, abandoned the front, after having made a similar declaration.
+At the same time the 96th and 135th Croat Regiments, in agreement with
+the Czech detachments, made a breach for the Italians on the left wing
+at Stino di Livenza, while Slav marching formations revolted at Udine.
+The Austro-Hungarian troops consequently had to retreat.... No one
+expects of the Italian army, as a whole, that it will be on a level
+with the best, but when the British officers who were with the Serbs on
+the Salonica front compare their reminiscences with those of the British
+officers on the Italian front, it is improbable that garlands will be
+strewn for the Italians. Towards the end of October a plan was adopted
+by the British and Italian staffs for capturing the island of Papadopoli
+in the Piave; this island, about three miles in length, formed the
+outpost line of the Austrian defences. On the night of October 23-24 an
+attack was to be made by the 2nd H.A.C., while three companies of the
+1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers were to act as reserve. This operation is most
+vividly described by the Senior Chaplain of the 7th Division, the Rev.
+E. C. Crosse, D.S.O., M.C.;[1] and he says nothing as to what occurred
+on that part of the island which was to be seized by the Italians. Well,
+nothing had occurred, for the Italians did not get across and when the
+water rose they said they could do nothing on that night. These are the
+words of Mr. Crosse's footnote: "The obvious question, 'What was going
+to be done with the farther half of the island?' we have purposely left
+undiscussed here. This half was outside the area of the 7th Division,
+and as such it falls outside the scope of this work for the time being.
+The subsequent capture of the whole island (on the following night) by
+the 7th Division was not part of the original plan." Afterwards, when a
+crossing was made to the mainland, the left flank was unsupported, as
+the Italians did not cross the river, and thus the 23rd Division had its
+flank exposed. A belief is entertained that the Italian cavalry is one
+of the best in the world; evidently it is not the best, for on that
+Piave front, where thousands of Italian cavalry were available, the only
+ones who put in their appearance early in the battle were three hundred
+very war-stained Northampton Yeomanry.
+
+"The record of the Italian troops in the field renders unnecessary an
+assertion of their courage," says Mr. Anthony Dell;[2] "for reckless
+bravery in assault none surpasses them." But when you have said that you
+have nearly summed up their military virtues, for discipline is not
+their strong suit, and they have little sense of responsibility. On the
+other hand, we must remember their admirable patience, but the great
+mass of the people have not attained the level of Christianity; they are
+savage both in heart and mind, with no outlook wider than that of the
+family. It is the Italian proletariat which is judged by the Yugoslavs,
+whose otherwise acute discernment has been warped by the unhappy
+circumstances of the time. Indifferent to the fact that he himself is a
+compound of physical energy and oriental mysticism, the Yugoslav has
+become inclined to contemplate merely the physical side of the Italian,
+and for the most part that portion of it which has to do with war. The
+Italian long-sightedness and prudence and business capacity are ignored
+save in so far as they delayed the country's entrance into the Great
+War. The sensitiveness and artistic attributes of the Italians, who gaze
+with aching hearts upon the glories of a sunset, are but rarely felt by
+Serbs, who gather brushwood for the fire that is to roast their
+sucking-pig and who sit down to watch the operation, haply with their
+backs turned to the sunset. The Yugoslav, especially the Serb, is a man
+from the Middle Ages brought suddenly into the twentieth century. With
+his heroic heart and his wonderful strength he fails to understand those
+people who, on account of one reason or another, have no passion for
+war. And as the military deeds of the Italians have had such effect upon
+the minds of the Yugoslavs, we have alluded to them at a greater length
+than would otherwise have been profitable. The Yugoslavs despise the
+Italians. Also the Italians, who concern themselves with diplomacy, are
+conscious that their keen wits and their long training in the wiles of
+the civilized world, their old traditions and their prestige give them a
+considerable advantage over the Yugoslav diplomat, so that this kind of
+Italian despises the Yugoslav. He knows very well that the French or
+British statesmen do not, amid the smoke of after-dinner cigars, esteem
+his case by the same standard as that which they apply to the case which
+the ordinary Yugoslav diplomat presents to them in office hours. As for
+the wider Italian circles, one must fear that the old hatred of Germany,
+because the Germans seemed to despise them, will henceforward colour the
+sentiments with which they regard the Yugoslavs. It is a state of things
+between these neighbours which other people cannot but view with
+apprehension.
+
+
+AN UNFORTUNATE NAVAL AFFAIR
+
+There was in Yugoslav naval circles no very cordial feeling for the
+Italians. The Austrian dreadnought, _Viribus Unitis_, was torpedoed in a
+most ingenious fashion by two resolute officers, Lieutenant Raffaele
+Paolucci, a doctor, and Major Raffaele Rossetti. In October 1917 they
+independently invented a very small and light compressed-air motor which
+could be used to propel a mine into an enemy harbour. They submitted
+their schemes to the Naval Inventions Board, were given an opportunity
+of meeting, and after three months had brought their invention into a
+practical form. The naval authorities, however, refused to allow them to
+go on any expedition till they both were skilled long-distance swimmers.
+Six months had thus to be dedicated entirely to swimming. At the end of
+that time they were supplied with a motor-boat and two bombs of a
+suitable size for blowing up large airships. To these bombs were fixed
+the small motors by means of which they were to be propelled into the
+port of Pola, while the two men, swimming by their side, would control
+and guide them. Just after nightfall on October 31, 1918, the raiders
+arrived outside Pola.
+
+Were they aware that anything had happened in the Austro-Hungarian navy?
+On October 26 there appeared in the _Hrvatski List_ of Pola a summons to
+the Yugoslavs, made by the Executive Committee of Zagreb, which had been
+elected on the 23rd. This notice in the newspaper recommended the
+formation of local committees, and asked the Yugoslavs in the meantime
+to eschew all violence. When Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Methodius
+Koch--whose mother was an Englishwoman--read this at noon he thought it
+was high time to do something. Koch had always been one of the most
+patriotically Slovene officers of the Austrian navy. On various
+occasions during the War he had attempted to hand over his ships to the
+Italians, and when some other Austrian commander signalled to ask him
+why he was cruising so near to the Italian coast he invariably answered,
+"I have my orders." He found it, however, impossible to give himself up,
+as the Italians whom he sighted, no matter how numerous they were, would
+never allow him to come within signalling range. Koch had frequently
+spoken to his Slovene sailors, preparing them for the day of liberation,
+and he was naturally very popular among them. Let us not forget that
+such an officer, true to his own people, was in constant peril of being
+shot.
+
+
+WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT POLA
+
+On the afternoon of that same day, October 26th, when the
+Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its army and navy, was collapsing, Admiral
+Horthy, an energetic, honest, if not brilliant Magyar, the Commander of
+the Fleet at Pola, called to his flag-ship, the _Viribus Unitis_, one
+officer representing each nationality of the Empire. Koch was there on
+behalf of the Slovenes. The Admiral announced that a wholesale mutiny
+had been planned for November 1st, during which the ships' treasuries
+would be robbed, and he asked these officers to collaborate with him in
+preventing it. Koch, at the Admiral's request, wrote out a speech that
+he would deliver to the Slovenes, and this document, with one or two
+notes in the Admiral's writing, is in Koch's possession. "If you will
+not listen to your Admirals, then," so ran the speech, "you should
+listen to our national leaders." He addressed himself to the men, of
+course in the Slovene language, as a fellow-countryman. He begged them
+to keep quiet. He deprecated all plundering, firstly in order that their
+good name should not be sullied, and also pointing out that the
+neighbouring population was overwhelmingly Slovene. Out of 45,000 men
+only 2000 could leave by rail; he therefore asked them all to stay
+peacefully at Pola. Meanwhile the local committee had been formed; Koch
+was, secretly, a member of it, and on the 28th, Rear-Admiral Cicoli, a
+kindly old gentleman who was port-commandant, advised Koch to join it as
+liaison-officer. It was on the 28th at eight in the morning that the
+officers who had been selected to calm the different nationalities
+started to go round the fleet. That officer who spoke to the Germans
+declared that one must not abandon hopes of victory, and that anyhow the
+War would soon be over. Count Thun, who discoursed to the Czechs, was
+ill-advised enough to make the Deity, their Kaiser and their oath the
+main subjects of his remarks, so that he was more than once in great
+danger of being thrown overboard. Koch went first of all to the _Viribus
+Unitis_, but the mutiny had begun; a bugle was sounded for a general
+assembly; it was ignored, and the crew let it be known that they were
+weary of the old game, which consisted of the officers egging on one
+nation against another. This mutiny had not yet spread to the remaining
+ships, and on them the speeches were delivered. At the National Assembly
+that evening Koch was chosen as chief of National Defence; he thereupon
+went to Cicoli and formally asked to be allowed to join the committee.
+When Vienna refused its assent, Koch resigned his commission. By this
+time all discipline had gone by the board, no one thought of such a
+thing as office work and, amid the chaos, sailors' councils appeared,
+with which Koch had to treat. The situation was made no easier by the
+presence of large numbers of Germans, Magyars and Italians, of whom the
+latter also formed a National Council. On the 30th, Koch, as chief of
+National Defence, asked Admirals Cicoli and Horthy to come at 9 p.m. to
+the Admiralty, with a view to the transference of the military power. At
+7.30, in the municipal building, there was a joint meeting of the
+Yugoslav and the Italian National Councils, and so many speeches were
+made that the Admirals had to be asked to postpone their appearance for
+two hours; and at eleven o'clock, with the street well guarded against a
+possible outbreak on the part of any loyal troops, the whole Yugoslav
+committee, accompanied by one member of the Italian committee, went to
+the Admiralty. Horthy had gone home, but Cicoli and his whole staff were
+waiting. The old gentleman was informed that he no longer had any power
+in his hands; he was asked to give up his post to Koch, and this he was
+prepared to do. "It is not so hard for me now," he said, "as I have
+meanwhile received a telegram from His Majesty, ordering me," and at
+this point he produced the paper, "to give up Pola to the Yugoslavs."
+The affair had apparently been settled between nine and eleven o'clock.
+Cicoli was ready to sign the protocol, but out of courtesy to a
+chivalrous old man this was left undone; after all there were witnesses
+enough.
+
+During the night of October 30th-31st, a radiogram, destined for President
+Wilson, was composed. "Together with the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles,
+and in understanding," it said, "with the Italians, we have taken over the
+fleet and Pola, the war-harbour, and the forts." It asked for the dispatch
+of representatives of such Entente States as were disinterested in the
+local national question. But now a telegram was received from Zagreb,
+announcing that Dr. Ante Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c], of the chief National
+Council, would be at Pola at 8 a.m. and that, pending his arrival, no
+wireless was to be sent out. Dr. Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c],[3] poet and
+deputy for the lower Dalmatian islands, had always been, in spite of his
+indifferent health, one of the most strenuous fighters for Yugoslavia. Two
+years of the War he spent in an Austrian prison, but on his release he
+managed to travel up and down Croatia and Dalmatia, inciting the Yugoslav
+sailors to revolt; many of them had already read a speech by this
+silver-tongued deputy in the Reichsrath, a speech of which the reading and
+circulation had been forbidden as a crime of high treason. About 9 a.m. of
+the 31st there was a meeting, on board the _Viribus Unitis_, between
+Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] and Koch. There was a brief ceremony, the leader of
+the Sailors' Council handing over the vessel to the deputy, as representing
+the National Council of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Admiral Horthy, in his
+cabin, likewise drew up a _proces-verbal_ to the same effect, saying that
+he was authorized to do this by the Emperor, and he supported his statement
+by the production of a wireless message. Koch urged on the doctor the
+necessity of sending the above-mentioned wireless to Wilson. "The news of
+this great event," says Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] in an article in the
+_Balkan Review_ (May 1919), "was dispatched to all the Powers by wireless."
+But unfortunately he seems, whether on his own responsibility or that of
+Zagreb, to have prevented Koch from sending it on that day. Captain Janko
+de Vukovi['c] Podkapelski was then placed in command of the fleet, though
+the Sailors' Council at first declined to accept him. He was at heart a
+patriot, but had taken no active part in Yugoslav propaganda and, unluckily
+for himself, he had been compelled to accompany Count Tisza in his recent
+ill-starred tour of Bosnia, when the Magyar leader made a last attempt to
+browbeat the local Slavs. Yet, as no other high officer was available, Koch
+told the Sailors' Council that they simply must acknowledge Vukovi['c], and
+at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav flag being hoisted on all
+the vessels simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the Croatian national
+anthem and the firing of salutes.
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE "VIRIBUS UNITIS"
+
+Three hours previously to this a torpedo-boat, with Paolucci and
+Rossetti on board, had sailed from Venice; and at ten o'clock in the
+evening, as Paolucci tells us,[4] he and his companion, after a certain
+amount of embracing, handshaking, saluting and loyal exclamations,
+plunged into the water. The first obstacle was a wooden pier upon which
+sentries were marching to and fro; this was safely passed by means of
+two hats shaped like bottles, which Paolucci and Rossetti now put on.
+The bombs were submerged, and thus the sentry saw nothing but a couple
+of bottles being tossed about by the waves. A row of wooden beams,
+bearing a thin electric wire, had then to be negotiated, and the last
+obstacle consisted of half a dozen steel nets which had laboriously to
+be disconnected from the cables which held them. It was now nearly six
+o'clock; the two men cautiously approached the _Viribus Unitis_ and
+fixed one of their bombs just below the water-line, underneath the
+ladder conducting to the deck. Paolucci simply records, without comment,
+that the ship was illuminated; perhaps he and his friend were too tired
+to make the obvious deduction that the hourly-expected end of the War
+had really arrived. A number of officers from other ships had remained
+on the _Viribus Unitis_ after the previous evening's ceremony; but the
+look-out, seeing the Italians in the water, must have thought it was
+eccentric of them to come swimming out at this hour to join in the
+festivities. A motor-launch soon picked them up and they were brought on
+board the flag-ship. "Viva l'Italia!" they shouted, for they were proud
+of dying for their country. "Viva l'Italia!" replied some of the crew to
+this pair of allied officers. When they were conducted to Captain
+Vukovi['c] they told him that his vessel would in a short time be blown
+up. The order was given to abandon ship, and Paolucci and his friend
+relate[5] that when they asked the captain if they might also try to
+save themselves he shook them both by the hand, saying that they were
+brave men and that they deserved to live. So they plunged into the water
+and swam rapidly away, but a few minutes later they were picked up by a
+launch and taken back, the captain having suddenly begun to suspect,
+they said, that the story of the bomb was untrue. They were again made
+to walk up the ladder, under which lay the explosives. It was then 6.28.
+The ladder was crowded with sailors who were also returning to their
+ship. "Run, run for your lives," shouted Paolucci. At last his foot
+touched the deck, and then he and Rossetti ran as fast as they could to
+the stern. Hardly had they got there than a terrific explosion rent the
+air, and a column of water shot three hundred feet straight up into the
+sky. Paolucci and Rossetti were again in the water, and looking back
+they saw a man scramble up the side of the vessel, which had now turned
+completely over, with her keel uppermost. There on the keel stood this
+man, with folded arms. It was Vukovi['c], who had insisted on going down
+with his ship. About fifty other men were killed.
+
+When Koch came out of his house, feeling that there must be no more
+delay in sending the radiogram to President Wilson, a young Italian
+Socialist ran up to him in the street and told him of the fate of the
+flagship. As the news spread everyone thought it must be the work of
+some Austrian officers. It was feared that they would explode the
+arsenal, and that would have meant the destruction of the whole town.
+Amid the uproar and chaos, Koch had placards distributed, saying that
+the _Viribus Unitis_ had been torpedoed by two Italians, who were in
+custody. And then the wireless was sent to Paris.
+
+The two officers were taken to the Admiralty and then placed on the
+dreadnought _Prince Eugene_, it being rumoured that the Italians of Pola
+intended to rescue them. Subsequently Koch and other officers, together
+with Dr. Stani['c], President of the Italian National Council, went out
+to see the prisoners. Stani['c] was left alone with them for as long as
+he wished. And when Koch saw them--he did not then shake hands--and
+asked if they knew what they had done, "I know it," replied Rossetti
+rather arrogantly. Paolucci's demeanour was more modest.
+
+"I was your friend all through the War," said Koch, "and now you sink
+our ships. I can only assume that you were ignorant of what had taken
+place."
+
+They said that that was so.
+
+"But if you had known," said the Admiral to Rossetti, "would you have
+done this?"
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I am an officer. I had my orders to blow up the
+ship and I would have obeyed them."
+
+Koch had undertaken that if it turned out that they were unaware of the
+ship's transference to the Yugoslavs he would kiss them both. He did so,
+and allowed them to communicate with Italy by wireless.
+
+Never, says Koch, will the unpleasant taste of those kisses leave his
+mouth. The men were officers; their words could not be doubted. But as
+they must surely have been in Venice for at least a day or two before
+October 31, it seems extraordinary that they did not hear, via Triest,
+of what the Emperor Charles was doing with his navy. If only they had
+perfected their invention and learned to swim a trifle sooner there
+would be no shadow cast on their achievement, but the Yugoslavs--who had
+never seen any sort of Italian naval attack on Pola during the
+War--could not be blamed for thinking that the disappearance of their
+_Viribus Unitis_ would be viewed with equanimity by the Italians....
+With regard to the other vessels, it was arranged in Paris that they
+should proceed, under the white flag, to Corfu with Yugoslav commanders;
+but this was found impossible, as they were undermanned. Part of the
+fleet arrived at Kotor and was placed at the disposal of the commander
+of the Yugoslav detachment of the Allied forces which had come from
+Macedonia. A serious episode occurred at Pola, where on November 5 an
+Italian squadron arrived and demanded the surrender of the ships. The
+Yugoslav commander succeeded in sending by wireless a strong protest to
+Paris against this barefaced violation of the agreement. The Italian
+commander, Admiral Cagni, likewise sent a protest, but Clemenceau upheld
+the Yugoslavs. They were absolutely masters of the ex-Austro-Hungarian
+fleet; it rested solely with them either to sink it or hand it over to
+the Allies in good condition. The Yugoslavs did not sink the fleet,
+because they wished to show their loyalty to, and confidence in, the
+justice of the Allies. They never suspected at that time that the ships
+would not be shared at least equally between themselves and the
+Italians. But in December 1919 the Supreme Council in Paris allotted to
+the Yugoslavs twelve disarmed torpedo-boats for policing and patrolling
+their coasts.
+
+
+HOW THE ITALIANS LANDED AT POLA
+
+Admiral Cagni was invited by the Yugoslavs to enter the harbour of Pola.
+But for two and a half days he hesitated outside and heavily bombarded
+the hill-fortress of Barbarica, which had been abandoned. At last he
+made up his mind to risk a landing. The Italian girls of Pola, dressed
+in white, came down in a procession to the port; their arms were full of
+flowers for the Italian sailors. And the first men who disembarked were
+buried in flowers and kissed and kissed before the girls perceived that,
+by a prudent Italian arrangement, this advance guard consisted of men of
+the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The first care of the Italians at Pola was not
+to ascertain the whereabouts of the munition depots; they made for the
+naval museum, where trophies from the battle of Vis in 1866 were
+preserved. These they removed, as well as whatever took their fancy at
+the Arsenal. Among their booty was a silver dinner service which it had
+been customary to use on occasions of Imperial visits. An Italian
+officer appeared on the _Radetzky_. Very roughly he asked an officer who
+he was. "I am the commander," said this first-lieutenant. "No! no!" said
+the other, "I am that." But the Italians for the most part avoided going
+on board the ships.... Admiral Cagni himself was very ill at ease, but
+grew noticeably more confident as he observed the utter demoralization
+of Pola. His correspondence likewise underwent the appropriate changes.
+While Koch was in command of 45,000 men, Cagni wrote to "His Excellency
+the most illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when the numbers were reduced
+to 20,000 the style of address was "Illustrious Signor Ammiraglio"; when
+they fell to 10,000 it became "Al Signor Ammiraglio"; when only 5000
+remained a letter began with the word "Ammiraglio!" and when the last
+man had left Pola and Koch was alone, Cagni sent word through his
+adjutant that he knew no Admiral Koch but merely a Signor Koch.
+
+
+THE SEA-FARING YUGOSLAVS
+
+Talking of numbers, one may mention that the Yugoslavs formed about 65
+per cent. of the Austro-Hungarian navy, as one would naturally expect
+from the sea-faring population of Dalmatia and Istria. In the technical
+branches of the service only about 40 per cent. were Yugoslavs, for a
+preference was given to Germans and Magyars. Out of 116 chief engineers
+only two were Yugoslavs. Serbo-Croat was an obligatory language; but
+German, as in the army, was the language of command. Thus one sees that,
+in spite of not being favoured, the Yugoslavs of the Adriatic, who are
+natural sailors, constituted more than half the personnel of the navy.
+"These Slav people," writes Mr. Hilaire Belloc,[6] who took the trouble
+to go to the Adriatic with a view to solving the local problems, "these
+Slav people have only tentatively approached the sea. Its traffic was
+never native to them." If he had continued a little way down the coast
+he would have seen many and many a neat little house whose owners are
+retired sea-captains. "They are not mariners," says Mr. Belloc. If he
+had made a small excursion into history he would have learned that
+Venice--since it was to her own advantage--made an exception of
+Dalmatia's shipping industry, and while she was placing obstacles along
+the roads that a Dalmatian might wish to take, allowed the time-honoured
+industries of the sea to be developed. Such fine sailors were the
+Dalmatians that Benedetto Pesaro, the Venetian Admiral against the Turks
+in the fifteenth century, deplored the fact that his galleys were not
+fully manned by them, instead of those "Lombardi" whom he despised.
+"They are," says Mr. John Leyland,[7] the naval authority--they are
+"pre-eminently a maritime race. The circumstances of their geography,
+and in a chief degree the wonderful configuration of their coast-line,
+with its sheltered waters and admirable anchorages, made them
+sea-farers.... The proud Venetians knew them as pirates and marauders
+long ago." And "there has never been a better seaman," adds Mr. Leyland,
+"than the pirate turned trader." In 1780 the island of Bra[vc] had forty
+vessels, Lussin a hundred, and Kotor, which in the second half of the
+eighteenth century quadrupled her mercantile marine, had a much larger
+fleet than either of them. The best-known dockyards were those at
+Kor[vc]ula and Trogir, while the great Overseas Sailing Ship Navigation
+Company at Peljesac (Sabioncello) occupied an important position in the
+world of trade. The company's fleet of large sailing vessels was of
+native construction; both crews and captains were natives of the
+country, so that it was in every way the best representative of the
+Dalmatian mercantile marine of the period. When the Treaty of Vienna in
+1815 gave Venice, Istria and the Eastern Adriatic to the Habsburgs the
+vessels plying in those waters were very largely Slav. And with the
+substitution of steam the Dalmatians are still holding their own, with
+this difference, that the ships are now built, even as they are manned,
+not by nobles and the wealthy _bourgeoisie_, but by men who come from
+modest sea-faring or peasant families. In the Austrian mercantile marine
+German capital formed 47.82 per cent., Italian capital 19.37 per cent.
+and Slav capital 31.80 per cent. One of these Dalmatian Slavs,
+Mihanovi['c], going out in poverty to the Argentine, has followed with
+such success the shipbuilding of his ancestors that he is now among the
+chief millionaires of Buenos Aires. With regard to fishing, there are
+along the Istrian and Dalmatian coast more than 5000 small vessels which
+give employment to 19,000 fishermen, of whom only 1000 are citizens of
+Italy. But Mr. Belloc says that these Slav people have only tentatively
+approached the sea, that its traffic was never native to them, and that
+they are not mariners. It is marvellous that you can be paid for writing
+that sort of stuff.... By Mr. Belloc's side is the Marchese Donghi, who
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ of June 1922 says: "It is superfluous to add
+that everything which has to do with navigation [in Dalmatia] is
+entirely in the hands of the Italians." But I think it is superfluous to
+contradict a gentleman who ingenuously believes that Dalmatia is largely
+Italian because on our maps we have hitherto used Italian place-names.
+Will he say that the population of Praha is not Czech because on our
+maps that capital is commonly called Prague? It pleases the Marchese to
+be facetious about what he describes as "that queer thing called the
+Srba Hrvata i Slovenca Kralji (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and
+Slovenes)"; he should have said "Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca."
+He says that in Serbia "no industry is possible," whereas in one single
+town, Lescovac, there are no less than eleven textile besides other
+factories. He says that one-third of the population of Dalmatia is
+Italian, and "almost exclusively the nobility and the upper
+_bourgeoisie_." I suppose that is why more than 700 of Dalmatia's
+leading citizens were deported by the Italians after the Great War. He
+says many other nonsensical things, and sums it all up by telling us of
+the "bewildered incomprehension" of the Adriatic problem!
+
+
+WHO SET A STANDARD THAT WAS TOO HIGH
+
+Whether rightly or wrongly, the Yugoslavs had formed their opinion of
+the Italian sailors, an opinion which dated from the time of Tegetthoff
+and had not undergone much modification by the incidents of this War.
+They remembered what had happened when they cruised outside Italian
+ports; they knew very probably that the British had on more than one
+occasion to break through the boom outside Taranto harbour, and they may
+have read[8] of the experience of some French ladies who came to the
+Albanian coast on the _Citta di Bari_ towards the end of 1915 with 2000
+kilos of milk, clothing and medical supplies for the Serbian children
+who had struggled across the mountains. These ladies write that after
+the torpedoing of the _Brindisi_ their own crew ran up and down without
+appearing to see them; the crew had life-belts, those of the ladies were
+taken away. Ultimately they succeeded in having themselves put ashore,
+and the _Citta di Bari_ fled in the night without landing the stores.
+And in Albania, the ladies say, one witnessed the "stoic endurance of
+the noble Serbian race, of which every day brought us more examples. In
+that procession of ghosts and of the dying there was no imploring look,
+there was no hand stretched out to beg." ... The Yugoslavs may have
+known what happened to Lieutenant (now Captain) Binnos de Pombara of the
+French navy. This officer, in command of the _Fourche_, had been
+escorting the _Citta di Messina_ and, observing that she was torpedoed,
+had sent to her, perhaps a little imprudently, all his life-boats and
+belts. A few minutes later, when he was himself torpedoed, the Italians
+did not see him; anyhow they made for the shore. De Pombara encouraged
+his men by causing them to sing the Marseillaise and so forth; they
+were in the water, clinging to the wreckage, for several hours, until
+another boat came past. The next day at Brindisi, when he met the
+captain of the _Citta di Messina_, this gentleman once more did not see
+him; but the French Government, although de Pombara was a very young
+man, created him an officer of the Legion of Honour.
+
+
+AN ELECTRICAL ATMOSPHERE AND NO PRECAUTIONS
+
+There was thus a certain amount of tension existing between the military
+and naval services of the Yugoslavs and those of Italy. Other Yugoslavs
+were apprehensive as to whether the Italians would not demand the
+enforcement of the Treaty of London. But the United States was not bound
+by that agreement, which was so completely at variance with Wilson's
+principle of self-determination. One presumed that, pending an
+examination of these matters, the disputed territories would be occupied
+by troops of all the Allies. But unfortunately this did not turn out to
+be the case. France, Britain and America stood by, while the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs took whatsoever they could lay their hands on. As the
+Yugoslav military forces had to come overland, while the Italians had
+command of the sea, it was natural that in most places the Italians got
+the better of the scramble; and where they found the Yugoslavs in
+possession, as at Rieka, they usually ousted them by diplomatic methods.
+And in one way or another they managed to make their holdings tally, as
+far as possible, with the Treaty of London, and even to go beyond it.
+Baron Sonnino declined to make a comprehensive statement as to the
+Italian programme. Of course he desired in the end to exchange
+Dalmatia--the seizure of which would entail a war with Yugoslavia--against
+Rieka. But as Italian public opinion had scarcely thought of Rieka
+during the War, he made it his business to cause them to yearn for that
+town. His compatriots were asking why Mr. Wilson's Fourteen Points
+should be waived for France in the Sarre Basin, for Britain in Ireland
+and Egypt, but not for them. And some of his would-be ingenious
+compatriots pointed out--their contentions were embodied in the Italian
+Memorandum to the Supreme Council on January 10, 1920--that as the
+Treaty of London was based on the presumption that Montenegro, Serbia
+and Croatia would remain separate States, this instrument had been
+altogether upset by the merging of those Southern Slavs into one
+country, Yugoslavia; it followed, therefore, that the Treaty which
+attributed Rieka to the Croats could no longer be invoked. But the other
+parts of the Treaty which gave the Slav mainland and islands to Italy
+were absolutely unassailable. The reader will resent being troubled by
+this kind of balderdash, but Messrs. Clemenceau, Lloyd-George and Wilson
+may have resented it even more.
+
+
+ITALIAN MILDNESS ON THE ISLE OF VIS
+
+On November 3 the Italians arrived outside Vis (Lissa), the most
+westerly of the large islands, where the entire population of 11,000 is
+Slav, except for the family of an honoured inhabitant, Dr. Doimi, and
+three other families related to his. Dr. Doimi's people have lived for
+many years on this island--his father was mayor of the capital, which is
+also called Vis, for half a century--and now they have become so
+acclimatized that, as he told me, three of his four nephews prefer to
+call themselves Yugoslavs. This phenomenon can be seen all down the
+Adriatic coast. It has often, for example, been pointed out to Dr. Vio,
+the very Italian ex-mayor of Rieka, that he has a Croat father and
+several Croat brothers. Thus also the Duimi['c] family of the same town
+has one brother married to a Magyar lady and very fond of the Magyars, a
+second brother who is a Professor at Milan, and a third who lives above
+Rieka and is a Yugoslav. The terms "Yugoslav" and "Italian" have now
+come to signify not what a man is, but what he wants to be, applying
+thus the admirable principle of self-determination. Well, in the old
+days on the isle of Vis between two and three hundred people belonged to
+the Autonomist party, owing to their great regard for Dr. Doimi; but
+these say now that they are Yugoslavs, and the Italians--at all events
+Captain Sportiello, their chief officer at Vis--acknowledged that they
+must base their demand on strategic reasons. A day or two before the
+Italians arrived the population had arrested several Austrian
+functionaries, including the mayor and three gendarmes, who had
+maltreated them during the War. None of these persons were Italian; and
+when the Italian boats were sighted a committee went to meet them
+joyfully and brought the officers ashore upon their backs. The officers
+explained that they had come as representatives of the Entente and the
+United States, and for the object--which appeared superfluous--of
+protecting Vis from German submarines. If the Italians had been
+everywhere as inoffensive as at Vis, it would be more agreeable to write
+about their doings. Captain Sportiello, a naval officer, showed himself
+throughout the months of his administration to be sensible; he
+frequented Yugoslav houses. The greatest divergence occurred on June 1,
+1919, when the Italians planned to have a demonstration for their
+national holiday, and asked the inhabitants to come to the bioscope,
+where they would be regaled with cakes and sweets; the inhabitants
+replied that they preferred to have Yugoslavia.... But there is a
+monument in the cemetery at Vis to which I must refer. It is a very fine
+monument of white marble, erected by the Austrians to commemorate their
+victory in these waters over the Italian navy in 1866.[9] On the top
+there is a lion clutching the Italian flag, while on two of the sides
+there are inscriptions in the German language. One of them, some feet in
+length, relates that this memorial is placed there for the officers and
+men who on July 20, 1866, gave their lives in the service of their
+Emperor and country. The Italians screwed two marble slabs across the
+upper and the lower parts of this inscription, so that the German
+lettering of the central part remained visible; on the lower slab one
+read: "Novembre 1918" and on the upper one "Italia Vincitrice"
+(Victorious Italy). We were taken by several Italian officers to look
+at this. They were so proud of it that they presented us with
+photographs of the monument in its altered state. I fear that the
+Italian mentality escapes me. I should not have written anything about
+them.
+
+
+THEIR TRUCULENCE AT KOR[vC]ULA
+
+They landed on the same day, November 3, on the beautiful and prosperous
+island of Kor[vc]ula (Curzola), putting ashore at Velaluka, the western
+harbour. With the exception of five families, all the people are
+Yugoslavs; and the Italians, who sailed in under a white flag, announced
+that they had come as friends of the Yugoslavs and of the Entente, to
+preserve order and to protect them against submarines. On the 5th, they
+went to the town of Kor[vc]ula, where one of the two officers,
+Lieutenant Poggi, of the navy, put his assurances in writing, as he had
+done at Velaluka. He protested against the word "Occupation." On the 7th
+they returned to Velaluka and on the 12th went back, with about a
+hundred men, to Kor[vc]ula. Once more he wrote that he had not come to
+occupy the island; he added, though, that the district officials should
+act on the opposite peninsula of Sabioncello in the name of the
+Yugoslavs, but over Kor[vc]ula and the island of Lastovo (Lagosta) in
+the name of Italy--not of the Entente. He wanted to remove the Yugoslav
+flags from public buildings and substitute Italian flags. When he was
+reminded of what he had said with regard to the Entente, he exclaimed:
+"No, no! This is Italy!" The chief district official protested, and
+refused to carry out Lieut. Poggi's injunctions, nor were the Italians
+able to do so. This officer remained at Kor[vc]ula, requisitioning
+houses and hoisting as many Italian flags as he could. He issued an
+order that after 6.30 p.m. not more than three persons were allowed to
+come together in the streets. His men used to offer food to the women of
+the place, who declined it; after which the food was given to the
+children, who were previously photographed in an imploring attitude.
+There was some trouble on December 15 when the _Leonidas_, an American
+ship, came in with a number of mine-sweepers. Apparently the Yugoslavs
+contravened the Italian regulations by omitting to ask whether their
+band might play in the harbour, but, on the supposition that this would
+not be accorded to them, went down to the harbour just as if they were
+not living under regulations. They waved American, Serbian and Croatian
+flags, all of which the Italians attempted to seize; the most gorgeous
+one, a Yugoslav flag of silk with gilt fringes, they tore up and divided
+among themselves as a trophy. When the _Leonidas_ made fast, a
+lieutenant leaped ashore and placed himself, holding a revolver, in
+front of an American flag. The captain, according to some reports, had
+his men standing to their guns, while others of the crew are said to
+have been given hand-grenades; but whether by this method or another,
+the turbulence on shore was calmed and the Italians seem to have invited
+the captain to step off his boat. He preferred, however, to go to
+another port; the populace came overland. One need not say that there
+was jollification.... When the other American boats departed, a small
+one remained at Kor[vc]ula. One day a steamer came from Metkovi['c],
+having on board a few men of the Yugoslav Legion. The people of
+Kor[vc]ula, not being allowed to take the men to their houses, came down
+quietly to the harbour with coffee and bread, but the carabinieri drove
+them away. These legionaries were emigrants to Australia and Canada, who
+had come back to fight for the Entente, including Italy. The Italians
+wanted to arrest them all on account of a small Croatian flag which one
+of them was holding, but at the request of the American ship they
+refrained. A certain Marko [vS]imunovi['c], who had gone to Australia
+from the Kor[vc]ula village of Ra[vc]i[vs]ca, went over to speak to the
+sailors on the American boat. Because of this the carabinieri took him
+to the military headquarters. He was interned for several months in
+Italy.
+
+The long island of Hvar (Lesina) was not occupied until November 13. It
+is interesting, by the by, to note how this island came to have its
+names. In the time of the Greek colonists it was known as [Greek: ho
+pharos], which subsequently became Farra or Quarra, leading to the name
+Hvar, by which it is known to the Slavs. They also, in the thirteenth
+century, gave it an alternative name: Lesna, from the Slav word
+signifying "wooded," for the Venetians had not yet despoiled the island
+of many of its forests. Lesna was the popular and Hvar the literary
+name; and the Italians, taking the former of these, coined the word
+Lesina, the sound of which makes many of them and of other people think
+that this is an Italian island.[10] The question of Slav and Italian
+geographical names in Dalmatia has been carefully investigated by a
+student at Split. Taking the zone which was made over to the Italians by
+the Treaty of London, he found that with the exception of a reef called
+Maon, alongside the island of Pago, every island, village, mountain and
+river has a Slav name, whereas out of the total of 114 names there were
+64 which have no names in Italian; and this is giving the Italians
+credit for such words as Sebenico, Zemonico and so forth, which in the
+opinion of philologists are merely modifications of the original
+[vS]ibenik, Zemunik, etc.
+
+
+AND ON HVAR
+
+At Starigrad on Hvar the Italians also said that they were
+representatives of the Entente, but soon they prohibited the national
+colours. Being perhaps aware that in the whole island, with its
+population of about 20,000, there were before the War only four or five
+Italians who were engaged in selling fruit, their countrymen in November
+1918 did their best, by the distribution of other commodities--rice,
+flour and macaroni--to make some more Italians. They succeeded at
+Starigrad in obtaining fifteen or twenty recruits. And they made it
+obvious that it would be more comfortable to be an Italian than a
+Yugoslav. The local Reading-Rooms, whose committee had received no
+previous warning, fell so greatly under the displeasure of the Italians
+that one night after ten o'clock--at which time curfew sounded for the
+Yugoslavs; the Italians and their friends could stay out until any
+hour--the premises were sacked: knives were used against the pictures,
+furniture was taken by assault, and mirrors did not long resist the
+fine elan of the attacking party. Old vases, other ornaments and books
+were thrown into the harbour near the _Sirio_, the Italian destroyer
+which was anchored ten yards from the Reading-Rooms. Of course there was
+an inquiry; the result of it was that several Yugoslavs (and no others)
+were imprisoned. The _Sirio's_ commander was a gentleman of some
+activity; he sent a telegram to Rome and another one to Admiral Millo,
+the Italian Governor of the occupied parts of Dalmatia, saying that the
+people of the island longed for annexation. These telegrams he read
+aloud before the islanders, with all his carabinieri in attendance....
+The old-world capital of the island, which is a smaller place than
+Starigrad, was occupied on the same day. The first serious encounter
+took place on December 4, when the Italians, who were quartered on the
+upper floor of the Sokol or gymnastic club, observed that furniture was
+being taken from the rooms below them and was being carried out into the
+street. If they had asked the people what they were about they would
+have heard that these things had been stored in the gymnasium during the
+War and that the place was now to be devoted to its original purpose.
+What they did was to believe at once the yarn of a renegade, who told
+them that the people were preparing to blow up the house. The Italians
+opened fire, wounded several persons and killed one of their own
+carabinieri.
+
+
+HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED AT ZADAR
+
+On the mainland the Italians were received at [vS]ibenik with some
+suspicion. They announced, however, that they came as representatives of
+the Allies, and begged for a pilot who would take them into [vS]ibenik's
+land-locked harbour, through the mine-field. The Yugoslavs consented,
+and after the Italians had installed themselves they requisitioned sixty
+Austrian merchant vessels which were lying in that harbour. (They left,
+as a matter of fact, to the Yugoslavs out of all the ex-Austrian
+mercantile fleet exactly four old boats--_Sebenico_, _Lussin_, _Mossor_
+and _Dinara_--with a total displacement of 390 tons.) On the other
+hand, at Zadar, they were received in a very friendly fashion. In this
+town, as it had been the seat of government, with numerous officials and
+their families, the Autonomist anti-Croat party had been, under Austria,
+more powerful than in any other town in Dalmatia. With converts coming
+in from the country, which is entirely Slav, the Autonomists in Zadar
+had become well over half the population,[11] which is about 14,000,
+that of the surrounding district being about 23,000. Zadar was thus a
+place apart from the rest of Dalmatia, and although the Dalmatian
+Autonomists were unable to claim any of the eleven deputies who went to
+Vienna, they managed to be represented in the provincial Chamber--the
+Landtag--by six out of the forty-one members. The Landtag was not
+elected on the basis of universal suffrage; four out of these six
+members were chosen by large landowners, one (Dr. Ziliotto, the mayor)
+by the town of Zadar and one by the Zadar chamber of commerce. Out of
+the eighty-six communes of Dalmatia, Zadar was the solitary one that was
+Autonomist. Some very few Autonomists were wont to say that they aspired
+to union with Italy, but it was generally thought that most of them
+agreed with Dr. Ziliotto when he said in the Landtag in 1906: "We,
+separated from Italy by the whole Adriatic--we a few thousand men,
+scattered, with no territorial links, among a population not of hundreds
+of thousands but of millions of Slavs, how could we think of union with
+Italy?" And Dr. Ziliotto was one of those who always regarded himself as
+an Italian. But whether the Zadar Autonomists were sincere or not when
+Austria ruled over them, the large majority of them hung out Italian
+colours after the War, and in this they were undoubtedly sincere,
+although the motives varied; in some it was the love of Italy, in some
+it was ambition and in some a thirst for vengeance.
+
+[Although both Yugoslavs and Italians criticize the Austrian figures, it
+is probable that they are pretty accurate. The census of 1910 gave for
+Dalmatia: 610,669 Serbo-Croats, 18,028 Italians, 3081 Germans and 1410
+Czecho-Slovaks. The Autonomist party claimed that they were not 18,028
+but 30,000; and that 150,000 persons in Dalmatia speak Italian. But the
+Orlando-Sonnino Government really did try its utmost to improve these
+figures. At the end of November 1918 the Italians, who had charge of the
+police at Constantinople, put up notices asking all Austrian subjects
+from Dalmatia to inscribe themselves with the authorities and thus
+receive protection. In addition to the ordinary large Yugoslav
+population, the Austrian army was still there, and two of its officers,
+in uniform, inscribed themselves. The Italians had to endure not a few
+rebuffs, for they applied to people at their houses--they had found the
+nationality lists at the police offices. The Dutch were looking after
+Yugoslav interests, but received no instructions.]
+
+
+WHAT THEY DID THERE
+
+It was thought at Zadar that the Italians would be followed in the
+course of days by the other Allies. Anyhow the Yugoslavs were in no
+carping spirit; about 5000 of them assembled to greet the Italian
+destroyer; they were, in fact, more numerous than the Italians. And
+perhaps one should record that on this memorable occasion--it was at an
+early hour--Dr. Ziliotto had to complete his toilette as he ran down to
+the quay. Soon the Italian captain, shouldered by the crowd, was
+flourishing two flags, the Italian and the Yugoslav--although his
+country had, of course, not recognized Yugoslavia. For a little time it
+was the colour of roses, and the worm that crept into this paradise
+seems to have been a Japanese warship in whose presence each of the two
+parties wished to demonstrate how powerful it was. The carabinieri
+resolved to maintain order, and as an inmate of the seminary made, they
+said, an unpolished gesture at them from a window they went off and,
+with some reinforcements, broke into the Slav Reading-Room and damaged
+it considerably. The Italian officers and men at Zadar went about their
+duties for some time without permitting themselves to be drawn into
+local politics, but they were told repeatedly that the Slavs are goats
+and barbarians, so that at last the men appear to have concluded that
+strong measures were required. Some of them mingled, in civilian
+clothes, with the unruly elements, and Zadar's narrow streets became
+most hazardous for Yugoslav pedestrians. Girls and men alike were
+roughly handled; thrice in one day, for example, a professor--Dr.
+Stoikevi['c]--had his ears boxed as he went to or was coming from his
+school. Yet Zadar is a dignified old place; the chief men of the town
+and the Italian officers did what they could to keep it so. But away
+from their control some deeds of truculence occurred. The prison
+warders, as the spirit moved them, forced the Slavs there to be quiet,
+or to shout "Viva Italia!" Most of the Slavs were in the gaol for having
+had in their possession Austrian paper money stamped by the Yugoslav
+authorities; these notes were subsequently declared by the Italians to
+be illegal; but if a man came from Croatia, for example, and had
+nothing else, it was a trifle harsh to lock him up and confiscate the
+money. Eight good people went to Zadar prison owing to the fact that
+near the ancient town of Biograd they had been sitting underneath the
+olive trees and singing Croat folk-songs. Nor was it much in keeping
+with Zadar's dignity when the "Ufficio Propaganda" put out a large red
+placard which invited boys between the ages of nine and seventeen to
+join in establishing a "Corpo Nazionale dei giovani esploratori"--that
+is to say, an association of boy scouts. It is superfluous to inquire as
+to why these boys were mustered.... When the Austrians collapsed, a few
+old rifles were seized by the Italians and the Croats, the latter having
+fifteen or twenty which they hid in various villages. A priest and a
+medical student were privy to this fearful crime. A hue and cry was
+raised by the carabinieri--the priest vanished, the student jumped out
+of a window of his house and also vanished. But the carabinieri would
+not be denied. They suspected that the Albanians of the neighbouring
+village of Borgo Erizzo were abetting the Slavs. It was necessary,
+therefore, to castigate them. The 2500 inhabitants of Borgo Erizzo,
+nearly all of them Albanians who speak their own language and
+Serbo-Croat, while 5 per cent. also speak Italian, used to be divided in
+their sympathies before the War--75 per cent. being adherents of the
+Slavs in Zadar and 25 per cent. of the Autonomists. Now they have,
+excepting 5 per cent., gone over to the Slavs, and as they have retained
+some of the habits of their ancestors, they were not going to let the
+hostile forces win an easy victory. A student marched in front of the
+Italians, then about ten carabinieri, then a few ranks of soldiers, and
+then the mob of Zadar. The Albanians were in two groups, twenty
+sheltering behind walls to the right of the road and twenty to the left;
+they were armed with stones, their women folk were bringing them relays
+of these. The encounter ended in three carabinieri and seven or eight
+soldiers being wounded. In order to avenge this defeat one Duka, who is
+by birth an Albanian and is a teacher at the Italian "Liga" school,
+which was built a few years ago at Borgo Erizzo, determined on the next
+afternoon to attack the Teachers' Institute, which is situated 400 steps
+from his own establishment, and which on the previous day had shown a
+strong defence. He led the attack in person, firing his revolver. But
+the casualties were light. The Teachers' Institute was, after this,
+occupied by the military, and Admiral Millo paid a complimentary visit
+to Duka at his school.
+
+
+PRETTY DOINGS AT KRK
+
+Proceeding up the Adriatic we come to the Quarnero Islands, of which the
+most considerable is Krk (Veglia). The whole district had, at the last
+census, 19,562 inhabitants whose ordinary language was Serbo-Croat, and
+1544 who commonly spoke Italian. Of these latter the capital, likewise
+called Krk, contained 1494, and only 644 who gave themselves out as
+Slavs. The town, with its tortuous, rather wistful streets, was the
+residence of the Venetian officials, and five or six of those old
+families remain. The rest of the 1494 are nearly all Italianized Slavs,
+who under Austria used to call themselves either Austrians of Italian
+tongue or else Istrians. However, if they wish to be Italians now, there
+is none to say them nay. They include five out of the twenty officials,
+and these five gentlemen seem to have boldly said before the War that it
+would please them if this island were to be included in the Kingdom of
+Italy. They did not give their Austrian rulers many sleepless nights;
+this confidence in them was justified, for during the War they placed
+themselves in the front rank of those who flung defiant words at Italy,
+and one of them enlarged his weapon, copying upon his typewriter some
+Songs of Hate, which probably were sent to him from Rieka or Triest.
+These typewritten sheets were then circulated in the island. One of
+them--"Con le teste degli Italiani"--had been specially composed for
+children and expressed the intention of playing bowls with Italian
+heads. The songs for adults were less blood-thirsty but not less cruel.
+The Yugoslavs of the island must have been engaged in other War work; no
+songs were provided for them.... When Austria collapsed, some youths
+came from Rieka, flourishing their flags and sticks, and crying, "Down
+with Austria!" "Long live Italy!" "Long live Yugoslavia!" "Long live
+King Peter!" There was, in fact general goodwill. A Croat National
+Council was formed, and was recognized by the Italian party; it
+introduced a censorship, but as the postmaster's allegiance was given to
+the minority he sent a telegram to Triest, asking for bread and
+protection; and on November 15 the _Stocco_ arrived. Other people soon
+departed; the Bishop's chancellor and his chaplain, two magistrates and
+a Custom-house official, were shipped off to Italy or Sardinia, while
+the owner of the typewriter flew off as a delegate to Paris, having
+persuaded the town council of the capital to vote a sum of 36,000 crowns
+for his expenses--but a crown was now worth less than half a franc.
+However, two members of the town council thought that it was a waste of
+money; but when they were threatened with internment in Sardinia they
+withdrew their active opposition, and the delegate set out. On the way
+he granted an interview to an Italian journalist, and depicted the
+spontaneous enthusiasm with which the islanders had called for Italy.
+But the journalist had heard of the National Council and he asked, very
+naturally, whether it shared these sentiments. "Ha parlato da Italiano!"
+("I have spoken as an Italian"), replied the delegate; and when the
+newspaper reached the island, this cryptic saying was interpreted in
+various ways, his critics pointing out that, as he had diverged from
+truthfulness, this was another little Song of Hate. The Bishop, Dr.
+Mahni['c],[12] did not go to Italy for several months. He was a learned
+Slovene, an ex-Professor of Gorica University, known also as a stern
+critic of any poetry which was not dogmatically religious. He gave vent
+to his dislike of the poetry of Gregor[vc]i['c] and A[vs]kerc, both of
+them priests. The former, being of a mild disposition, bowed before the
+storm; but A[vs]kerc wrote a cutting satire on his critic. The
+Austrians, disapproving of his religious and patriotic activities,
+thought they would smother him by this appointment to a rather
+out-of-the-way diocese. But his influence spread far beyond it, and in
+the islands he was so solicitous for the people's material welfare that,
+for example, he founded savings-banks, which were a great success. It
+was unavoidable, as he was a man of character, that he should come into
+conflict with the Italians, for their commanding officer, a naval
+captain of Hungarian origin, was not a suave administrator. He charged a
+priest with making Yugoslav propaganda because he catechized the little
+children in their own language; another priest on the island of Unie,
+which forms a part of the diocese, was accused of making propaganda,
+because he has had in his church two statues--which had been there for
+years--of SS. Cyril and Methodus. They were removed from the church, he
+put them back; finally he was himself expelled and Unie remained without
+a priest. The naval captain was irritated by the old Slavonic liturgy,
+which is used in all except four churches of the diocese, but if he
+could not alter this--Dr. Mahni['c] referring him to the Pope--he and
+the Admiral at Pola, Admiral Cagni, could manage with some trouble to
+rid themselves of the bishop. This gentleman, who was in his seventieth
+year and an invalid, said that he would perhaps go to Rome after Easter.
+On March 24 the captain told him that the admiral had settled he should
+sail in three days, but the bishop was ill. On the 26th the captain
+returned with a lieutenant of carabinieri to ask if the bishop was still
+ailing; the admiral, it seemed, had ordered that two other doctors--the
+officer of health for the district and an Italian army doctor--should
+verify the report of the bishop's own medical attendant. The three of
+them quarrelled for two hours, but finally they all signed a memorandum
+that the bishop was ill. On the 31st the captain came to say that a
+destroyer would arrive and that it would take the bishop wherever he
+wanted to go, for the Italians had made up their minds that go he must.
+He had objected far too vigorously to their methods--not approving, for
+example, of the written permit which was given in the autumn to the
+people of two villages in Krk, on which it stated that these people
+could supply themselves with timber at Grdnje. This was a State forest,
+rented by a certain man; but the Italians acknowledged that what they
+wanted was adherents, and these grateful villagers, if there should be a
+plebiscite, would vote for them. The man appealed to justice, but the
+judge received a verbal order not to act. The villagers were given a
+general amnesty on January 1, an Italian flag was hoisted at the judge's
+office--the judge had gone away. Another transaction which the bishop
+had resented was after a visit paid by the captain and another officer
+of the French warship _Annamite_ to the Yugoslav Reading-Rooms at
+Lo[vs]inj mali (Lussinpiccolo); a priest and two other gentlemen had
+escorted their guests to the harbour at 11 p.m.; during the night all
+three were arrested and the priest deported. When the _Annamite_ put in
+at the lofty island of Cres (Cherso) and a couple of officers went to
+the Franciscan monastery, it resulted in the monastery being closed and
+the monks removed. Their simple act of courtesy was, said the Italians,
+propaganda. From Lo[vs]inj mali and Cres five ladies were collected,
+four of them being teachers and one the wife of the pilot,
+Sindi[vc]i['c]. They were guilty of having greeted the French, and on
+account of this were taken to the prison at Pola. Afterwards in Venice
+they were kept for six weeks in the company of prostitutes and from
+there they passed to Sardinia, on which island they were retained for
+nine months. As for Dr. Mahni['c], he set sail on April 4 at 6 a.m.
+Being asked whither he would like to go, he said he wished to be put
+down at Zengg on the mainland. "Excellent," said the Italians; but after
+a few minutes they said they had received a radio from Pola that the
+bishop must be taken to Ancona. He was afterwards allowed to live in a
+monastery near Rome.
+
+
+UNHAPPY POLA
+
+The Italians had not been two days in Pola--in which arsenal town the
+population, unlike that of the country, mostly uses the Italian
+language--when they made themselves disliked by both parties. The
+President of the Italian National Council was told by the Admiral that
+an Austrian crown was to be worth forty Italian centesimi. This, said
+the Admiral, was an order from Rome. The President explained that this
+meant ruin for the people of the town. He asked if he might telegraph to
+Rome. "I am Rome!" said the Admiral, or words to that effect. Thereupon
+the President and the colleagues who were with him said they would never
+come again to see the Admiral "If I want you," said the Admiral, "I
+will have you brought by a couple of carabinieri." On the next day red
+flags were flying on the arsenal and on the day after the Italian troops
+were taken elsewhere, while 10,000 fresh ones came from Italy. And Pola,
+in exchange for troops, gave coal. For some time the Italians carried
+off two trainloads of it every day. This absence of coal from their own
+native country, which rather places them at the mercy of the
+coal-producing lands, seems to be more their misfortune than anybody's
+fault, yet the Italian party of Rieka added this to their grievances
+against France and Great Britain. Those two countries ought, they said,
+in very decency, to correct the oversights of Providence; but no very
+practical suggestions were put forward.
+
+
+WHAT ISTRIA ENDURED
+
+According to the Austrian census of 1910 Istria contained 386,740
+inhabitants, of whom 218,854 (or 58.5 per cent.) habitually used the
+Serbo-Croat language, while 145,552 (or 38.9 per cent.) used Italian.
+The Yugoslavs cannot help regarding the Istrian statistics with
+suspicion, and believing that here, more than in Dalmatia, they were
+made to suffer on account of Austria's alliance with Italy and with the
+Vatican: one of the wrongs which Strossmayer fought against was that
+Istria had been entrusted to an Italian Dalmatian bishop who could not
+speak a word of Slav. This prelate appointed to vacant livings a number
+of Italian priests whom the people could not understand; a Slav coming
+to confess had to be supplied with an interpreter. As to the statistics
+in the commune of Krmed (Carmedo), for example, of the district of Pola,
+the census of 1900 gave 257 Croats against three Italians, whereas in
+1910 it was stated that 296 inhabitants spoke habitually Italian and six
+spoke Croatian. Nevertheless, if one accepts the Austrian figures, the
+58.5 per cent. should not be treated as if they did not exist. Perhaps
+the Italian officials could find no interpreters to translate their
+proclamations and decrees; if the Yugoslavs could not read them that was
+a defect in their education. If they were unable to write to the
+authorities or to send private telegrams in Italian, let them hold
+their peace. At any rate, said Vice-Admiral Cagni, we will not encourage
+the Croatian language, and on November 16, 1918, he commanded the
+Yugoslav schools to be shut at eleven places in the district and also
+two schools in the town. The Austrians had allowed these schools to
+remain open during the War; but of course if you wish to prevent people
+from learning a language this is one of the first steps you would take.
+Thirteen Yugoslav schoolmasters at Pola were thus deprived of their
+means of livelihood. The Admiral said that he really did not want to let
+matters remain in this condition, but all these schools had been at the
+expense of the State; let the Yugoslavs support their own schools. They
+were, as a matter of fact, entitled by reason of their numbers to have
+State-supported schools. Yet that was, of course, in the time of
+Austria; and why should Italy be bound by Austrian laws? Italy would do
+what she saw fit. In various places the teachers were, in the presence
+of Italian officers, compelled to use Italian for the instruction of
+purely Yugoslav children. Slav schoolmistresses were, in several cases,
+taken out of bed in the middle of the night and conducted on board
+Italian ships. The clergy were ordered to preach in Italian in churches,
+such as that of Veprinac, where the congregation is almost entirely
+Slav[13]--and so on, and so on. Well, there are several ways of
+governing a mixed population, and this is one of them.... "Zadar and
+Rieka," said Pribi[vc]evi['c] in November to an Italian interviewer at
+Zagreb--"Zadar and Rieka will enjoy all liberty of culture and municipal
+autonomy. And we are convinced that an equal treatment will be accorded
+to the Slav minorities who will be included in your territory. We
+understand and perfectly recognize your right to Triest and to Pola, and
+we would that in Italy our right to Rieka and Dalmatia were recognized
+with the same justice."[14]
+
+
+THE FAMOUS TOWN OF RIEKA
+
+Rieka is a place concerning which a good deal has been written, but I
+doubt if there have been two words more striking than the phrase which
+the Consiglio Nazionale Italiano applies in a pamphlet to the last
+Hungarian Governor. This official, appreciating that his presence in the
+town would serve no useful end, dissolved the State police on October
+28, 1918, and departed. "Hote insalue, il disparut...." says the
+pamphlet. After all the years of kindness, all the million favours
+showered on the Autonomists by their beloved friends the Magyars, after
+all the dark electioneering tricks and gutter legislation which for
+years had been committed by the Magyars to the end that the Autonomists
+and they should have all the amenities of some one else's house, it
+surely is the acme of ingratitude to call this tottering benefactor
+"Hote insalue." If the Autonomists did not desire to reap advantages
+from any Magyar corruption, they might at any time since November 17,
+1868, have torn the swindling piece of paper, the "krpitsa," from the
+Agreement made between the Magyars and the Croats. Then the Croat would
+not have been kept for all these years a slave in his own home.... But
+on October 28, 1918, the "krpitsa" had no more weight, the iniquitous
+Agreement was obsolete, the Croats came into possession of their own.
+The Compromise of 1868, which gave the administration of Rieka
+provisionally to the Magyars, was formally denounced on October 29, so
+that the _status quo ante_ returned, and Rieka was again an integral
+part of the Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian Government (that is, the
+National Council) had then every right to depute its adherents at Rieka
+to undertake the affairs of that town. Dr. Vio was too much of a lawyer
+to dispute the legality of any of these statements....
+
+
+THE DRAMA BEGINS
+
+Some of the leading citizens of Rieka formed themselves into a Croat
+National Council; Dr. Bakar[vc]i['c] and Dr. Lenac went up to the
+Governor's palace, and with them went Dr. Vio, as delegate of the town
+council. He said they recognized the Croatian Government, on condition
+that the town's municipal autonomy was guaranteed. To this they readily
+consented, with respect to the Italian language, to their schools and to
+the existing town administration, thus agreeing to every suggestion
+which Dr. Vio made. Moreover they gave him the town register (of births,
+etc.), which the Magyars had appropriated and which was now discovered
+at the palace. This was at 9 a.m. on October 30. Dr. Vio said that he
+was glad that everything had been arranged so amicably. But on the same
+evening the Italian National Council elected itself, for a large number
+of the Autonomist party had now become the Italian party. There still
+remained, however, an Autonomist party, which was no longer inspired,
+like the old Autonomists, by despotic sentiments towards the Croats, but
+by a feeling that in consequence of this long despotism the Croats were,
+as yet, not fit to govern such a place as Rieka. This is a matter of
+opinion. These Autonomists considered that, at any rate for several
+years, the town should not belong to Yugoslavia or to Italy, but be a
+free town under Allied, British or American, control. After five or six
+years there could be a plebiscite, and during that period the population
+would be encouraged to devote itself more to business and less to
+politics. This would tend to make them a united people, with the
+interests of the town at heart. But the Italian party, said the
+Autonomist leader, Mr. Gothardi, did not appear to think these interests
+important; when it was argued that Rieka would not flourish under Italy,
+because of the competition with Italy's other ports and especially
+Triest, because of the vast Italian debt, and for other reasons, the
+Italian party answered that even if the grass grew in Rieka's streets it
+must belong to Italy. "Very well," said the Slavs, "then we will develop
+the harbour at Bakar" a few miles away. "Infamous idea!" exclaimed the
+Italianists; "Rieka is the harbour for the hinterland." There the
+Autonomists agree with them, that the town should finally belong to the
+State which has the hinterland. Mr. Gothardi's party gathered strength
+and he himself became so obnoxious to the Italianists that when I saw
+him in the month of May 1919 he had been for several weeks a prisoner in
+his flat, on account of some thirty individuals with sticks who were
+lurking round the corner. His figures were as follows:
+
+          6,000 Socialists.
+          3,000 Autonomists.
+          1,500 Yugoslavs.
+          -----
+ That is, 10,000 voters out of 12-13,000.
+
+One may mention that he, like some others of his party, belongs to a
+family which has been at Rieka for two hundred years, whereas of the
+fifteen gentlemen who called themselves the Italian National Council,
+only one--a cousin of Mr. Gothardi's--is a member of an old Rieka
+family. Most of the others we are bound to call renegades.
+
+It may be asked why the Italian National Council was established, and
+why its members swore that they would give their lives if they could
+thus give Rieka to the "Madre Patria." Some of them believed, I am sure,
+that this was for Rieka's good, cultural and economical; others
+entertained the motives that we saw at Zadar--personal ambition and the
+desire to satisfy some animosities. And there were others who remembered
+what occurred in the great harbour warehouses. They hoped, they thought
+that if the town fell to the lot of Italy no questions would be
+asked.[15] There must also have been some who could not bear to
+contemplate the loss of their old privileged position.
+
+
+THE I.N.C.
+
+For a considerable time it was not known who were the members of the
+Italian National Council. From internal evidence one saw that they were
+not particularly logical people, for they made much play, in their
+announcements, with "democratic principles" in spite of the undemocratic
+fog in which they wrapped themselves. Of course they had not been
+elected by anyone except themselves; but there was a vast difference
+between them and the self-elected Croat National Council, since the
+latter derived their authority from the Croatian Government at Zagreb,
+which Dr. Vio, in the name of the Rieka municipality, had
+recognized--whereas the Italian National Council was destitute of any
+parent, though they would, had they been pressed, have claimed, no
+doubt, the blissfully unconscious "Madre Patria." Subsequently it turned
+out that the I.N.C. consisted of Dr. Vio and of fourteen persons who had
+hitherto not taken part in public life. They were fourteen worthies of
+the background, the most remarkable act in the life of their President,
+Dr. Grossich, for example, dating from twenty years ago when he was the
+medical attendant of the Archduchess Clothilde, and decorated, so they
+say, his consulting-room with black and yellow festoons. The I.N.C.
+appeared at its inception to be different from a Russian Soviet because
+it had no power.
+
+
+THE CROATS' BLUNDER
+
+A number of deplorable transactions ensued, and they were not all
+committed by the Italianists. The proclamations which were sent from
+Zagreb, exhorting the people to be tranquil, were printed in the two
+languages, but some Croat super-patriots at Rieka tried to make the town
+mono-lingual. At the railway station and the post office they removed
+the old Italian inscriptions and put up Croatian ones, they wrote to
+the mayor in Croat, which, although Dr. Vio has a Croat father and
+visited a Croat school and a Croat university, was tactless; they wrote
+that Croat would now be the language of the town, which was a foolish
+thing to do. They even seem to have demanded the evacuation of the town
+hall within twenty-four hours. And the irresponsible persons who made
+this demand were very properly snubbed by the municipal authorities.
+
+
+MELODRAMA
+
+These excited patriots, delirious with joy that at last their own town
+was in their hands, did not set Rieka on fire, nor did they murder women
+and children; but the Italianists forthwith sent wireless messages to
+Venice, screaming that all these enormities were taking place. A few of
+them rushed off in motors to Triest, where they made themselves into a
+Committee of Public Safety, picked up some Triest sympathizers and flew
+on to Venice, where they related breathless stories of foul deeds. One,
+which appeared in the Italian Press, was that three children of Rieka
+had been publicly committed to the flames.
+
+
+FARCE
+
+On November 4 an Italian destroyer, the _Stocco_, shortly followed by
+the _Emanuele Filiberto_, a cruiser, came on their errand of humanity.
+The I.N.C. at once organized a plebiscite--by which is meant not a dull
+giving and counting of votes in the usual election booths. A plebiscite,
+at all events a plebiscite at Rieka, signifies for the Italianists a mob
+assembled in a public thoroughfare; photographs of such assemblies
+illustrate their pamphlets and are entitled "plebiscito." At the harbour
+the Italian Admiral, whose name was Raineri, told the joyous I.N.C.--who
+now had flung aside their anonymity--that he had come to bring them a
+salute from Italy, and that he had been sent to shield Italians and to
+protect Italian interests. The plebiscite threw up its hats and waved
+its flags, and shouted its applause and sang its songs. Flowers fell
+upon the Admiral, and on his men and on the guns; the ships, as we are
+told, were changed to floating gardens. But the sailors did not
+disembark. Some ladies, members of the plebiscite, besought the Admiral
+to come ashore, and hoping to persuade the men, they climbed on board
+and playfully seized many sailors' caps, which in the town, they said,
+could be redeemed. Then shortly afterwards, the Yugoslav officials came
+to greet the Admiral, as did the commandant of the Yugoslav troops which
+had been for several days guarding the town. Meanwhile some unknown
+persons had been up in the old clock-tower and, for reasons known
+perhaps to themselves, had taken in both the Croatian and Italian flags;
+the Admiral drove up to see the Governor, Dr. Lenac, and requested that
+his country's flag should be rehoisted, which of course was done. And
+until November 17 the Admiral was nearly every day up at the Governor's
+palace, as a multitude of details had to be discussed. A French warship
+arrived on the 10th, followed by a British vessel on the 12th or 13th.
+Perfect calm prevailed. Croatian and Italian flags flew everywhere, as
+well as French ones, British and American. The name of the Hotel Deak
+was altered to Hotel Wilson.... But the men of the _Emanuele Filiberto_
+and the _Stocco_ did not land. Colonel Tesli['c] assured the Admiral
+that if anyone started to set fire to an Italianist child or to indulge
+in any other crime he would prevent it.
+
+
+PAROLE D'HONNEUR
+
+All this was very disconcerting to the I.N.C. They knew that on the
+hills outside Rieka were large numbers of Italian troops, which had come
+overland from Istria. But how to get them in? Rieka had not been
+ascribed to the Italians by the London Treaty.[16] ... On November 15 a
+detachment of Serbian troops arrived, under Colonel Maximovi['c], and
+were given a magnificent reception. Thousands of people accompanied
+them, and in front of the French destroyer there was a manifestation.
+Some of the Serbs, old warriors who had been under arms since the first
+Balkan War, were moved to tears. The Italianists were furious; Admiral
+Raineri called on the Governor for an explanation of the Serbs' arrival.
+A conference was held between the Admiral, the Colonel and two Yugoslav
+officers. If the Serbs remained at Rieka, said the Admiral, he would
+land his marines. Maximovi['c] said he had come in obedience to his
+orders, and that he would have to prevent by force the disembarkation of
+the Italians. At this moment a Serbian officer entered to announce that
+Italian armoured cars were approaching from Abbazia. Maximovi['c]
+immediately ordered his troops to mobilize, but the Admiral said a
+mistake had been made and that the cars would be sent back. (The
+Government Secretary, Dr. Ru[vz]i['c], had been told at three o'clock by
+a telephone operator that the Admiral had himself telephoned to Abbazia
+for the cars.) It was decided at this conference that on Sunday,
+November 17, the Yugoslav troops would evacuate the town, that it would
+be occupied by Serbian and American troops, and that, to mark the
+alliance, a small Italian detachment would be landed. As Admiral Cagni,
+of Pola, ordered that Italian troops should be disembarked at Rieka,
+another conference was held between Admiral Raineri, Colonel
+Maximovi['c], Colonel Tesli['c] and Captain Dvorski (of the Yugoslav
+navy), as well as French and British officers. It was arranged _sous
+parole d'honneur d'officier_ that at 4 p.m. the Serbian troops should
+leave Rieka and go to Porto Re, an hour's sea journey, that the Yugoslav
+troops should remain, and that the Italians should not land. No other
+steps would be taken till November 20 at noon, and the Supreme Command
+would be asked to settle the difficulty. As soon as the Serbian troops
+were out at sea, the Italian army, under General di San Marzano
+(attended by a kinematograph), marched in from the hills, entering the
+town simultaneously from four directions, in accordance with a strategic
+plan. The General was told what Raineri had agreed to do; he replied
+that he was Raineri's senior, that the final decision rested with him,
+and that he intended to proceed into the town. (One of the British
+officers is said to have addressed him rather bluntly.) At 4.30 Raineri
+landed his marines, and afterwards he was dismissed from his post--not,
+indeed, for having broken his word given at the inter-Allied conference,
+but for having delayed so long before disembarking troops in the town.
+He said he had received a written order from the Entente; if only
+Maximovi['c] had not left he might have shown it him. With twenty
+carabinieri the General went to the Governor's palace and asked Dr.
+Lenac to vacate it. He was so excited that he almost pushed the doctor
+out. "There is no room for the two of us," he said. And that is how the
+Italian occupation began. The French and British brought some troops in
+at a later date, but when they had six hundred each the Italians had
+22,000. With the Italians came fifty Americans, so that the force might
+have an international appearance. These Americans were given
+broad-sheets, printed by the town Italianists in English; they welcomed
+the Americans as liberators, and informed them that the population had
+by plebiscite declared for annexation to the Motherland. On the same
+night the Yugoslav troops were turned out of their barracks into the
+street by the Italian army.... These are, I believe, the main facts as
+to the occupation which has been the subject of much heated argument. I
+had the facts from eye-witnesses and documents: I exposed the evidence
+of each side to the criticism of the other.
+
+Very soon the disorders began. On the evening of the occupation Italian
+troops ran through the town, accompanied by some of the plebiscite, and
+compelled the people to remove the Yugoslav colours from their
+button-holes. In cases they surrounded their victim and used force. When
+this was used against women, after the arrival of the French and
+British, it produced some serious international affrays. The Italians,
+who invariably outnumbered the others, did not scruple to employ their
+knives; thus in the middle of December two French soldiers were stabbed
+in the back and their murderers were never found.
+
+
+THE POPULATION OF THE TOWN
+
+But there had been at Rieka an Englishman for whom I have an almost
+inexpressible admiration. This was Mr. A. Beaumont who, a couple of days
+after the Italians occupied the town in the above-mentioned curious
+fashion, sent from Triest a long message to the _Daily Telegraph_. How
+can anyone not marvel at a gentleman who travels to a foreign town which
+is in the throes of unrest and who, undeterred by his infirmity, sits
+down to grasp the rather complicated features of the situation? I am not
+acquainted with Mr. Beaumont, but he must be blind, poor fellow, for he
+says that the Yugoslavs occupied with ill-concealed glee a town entirely
+inhabited by some 45,000 Italians. Perhaps somebody will read to him the
+following statistics made after the year 1868, when Rieka came under
+Magyar dominion. The statistics were made by the Magyars and Italianists
+combined, so that they do not err in favour of the Yugoslavs. He might
+also be told that the Magyar-Italian alliance closed the existing
+Yugoslav national schools for the 13,478 Yugoslavs in 1890, while they
+opened Italo-Magyar schools for the 13,012 "Italians" and Magyars. They
+would not even allow the Yugoslavs to have at Rieka an elementary school
+at their own expense. Everything possible was done during these decades
+to inculcate hatred and contempt for whatsoever was Slav, hoping thus to
+denationalize the citizens. In view of all this it speaks well for
+Yugoslav steadfastness that they were able to maintain themselves. Here
+are the figures:
+
+           YUGOSLAVS.       ITALIANS.       MAGYARS.
+
+1880       10,227 (49%)      9,237 (44%)      379  (2%)
+1890       13,478 (46%)     13,012 (44%)    1,062  (4%)
+1900       16,197 (42%)     17,354 (45%)    2,842  (7%)
+1910       15,692 (32%)     24,212 (49%)    6,493 (13%)
+
+Assuming for the moment that these figures are correct--and it is an
+enormous assumption[17]--are not the Autonomists to be found chiefly
+among the Italians and Magyars? It is claimed that the Autonomist,
+Socialist and Slav vote exceeds that of those who desire annexation to
+Italy. One need not treat _au serieux_ the great procession organized by
+the Italianists, when they could not scrape together more than about
+4000 persons, including many schoolboys and girls, the municipal clerks,
+visitors from Italy, Triest and Zadar. One need not gibe the Italianists
+with the numbers who followed Dr. Vio on that famous day when, weary of
+palavering, he summoned round him his supporters and strode off to the
+Governor's palace, where General Grazioli, who had succeeded General di
+San Marzano, was installed.[18] Arrived there, Dr. Vio with a superb
+gesture begged the General to accept the town in the name of Italy. It
+is not often in the lifetime of a man that he has the opportunity of
+giving a whole town away. Dr. Vio made the most of that occasion; if the
+crowd which followed him was disappointing, there may be good
+explanations. The allegiance of a town, one may submit, should be
+settled in another fashion. The house-to-house inquiry, conducted in the
+spring of 1919 by the Autonomists--resulting in an anti-annexionist
+majority--was much impeded by the police; and it is of course the
+business of the authorities and not of any one party to hold elections
+in a town. Had the Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of
+Italian bayonets, held a real plebiscite--secret or otherwise--the
+result would doubtless have given them pain, but no surprise.... And
+this will happen even if the Magyar system of separating Rieka from the
+suburb of Su[vs]ak is perpetrated. Su[vs]ak contains about 12,500
+Yugoslavs and extremely few Italianists; and, by the way, to show how
+the Magyars and the Italianists worked together, it is worth mentioning
+that the Magyar railway officials who lived at Su[vs]ak were allowed a
+vote at Rieka, while if a Croat lived at Su[vs]ak and carried on his
+avocation at Rieka he could vote in Su[vs]ak only. One must not imagine
+that Su[vs]ak is a poor relation; most people would prefer to live
+there. Dr. Vio was intensely wrathful because the British General
+resided in a beautifully situated house there by the sea. Not only is
+Su[vs]ak about twenty yards, across a stream, from Rieka, but from a
+commercial point of view their separation seems absurd, since half the
+port, including the great wood depots, is in Su[vs]ak. One of these
+timber merchants presented an example of Italianization. His original
+name was E. R. Sarinich and this was painted on his business premises at
+Su[vs]ak, while in Rieka he called himself Sarini. It must have caused
+him many sleepless nights.... Counting Su[vs]ak with Rieka as one town,
+the total population in the autumn of 1918 was about 51 per cent.
+Yugoslav, 39 per cent. Italian and 10 per cent. Magyar. These Magyars,
+by the way, seem not to have been noticed by Mr. Beaumont. There were
+still a good number of them in the town. "Whilst Italy might have
+consented," says Mr. Beaumont, "to a compromise with Hungary, had that
+State continued to exist as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she
+certainly never contemplated handing over"--["handing over" is rather
+humorous]--"Fiume and its exclusively Italian population to the
+Jugo-Slavs." Underneath Mr. Beaumont's dispatch there is printed a
+semi-official statement, sent by Reuter, from Rome. "Yesterday
+afternoon," it says, "our troops occupied Fiume. The occupation, which
+was made for reasons of public order, was decided upon in view not only
+of the urgent and legitimate demands of the Italian citizens of Fiume,
+but also of the insistent appeals of eminent foreigners...."
+
+
+THE TALE CONTINUES ON THE NORTHERN ISLES
+
+"Italy's reward," says Mr. Beaumont, "must be commensurate with her
+sacrifices, and this is the attitude assumed here. It is quite apart
+from the mere question as to whether the Jugo-Slavs are in a majority in
+certain districts or not. Those districts form a part of old Italian
+territory, of Italian lands once peopled and occupied by the Italian
+race and into which, with Austria's encouragement, Slav populations have
+filtered." [I should love to know what are Mr. Beaumont's sources.] "The
+question must not be left to local ambition and antipathies. It must be
+decided authoritatively and quickly in strong counsel to the Jugo-Slav
+leaders." ... Let us leave Rieka and see how the Italians decided
+authoritatively and quickly on the island of Cres (Cherso). It is a
+large but not thickly populated island; having 8162 inhabitants for 336
+square kilometres. The Yugoslavs, according to the census of 1910,
+number 5714 or 71.3 per cent., while the Italian-speaking population
+amounts to 2296 or 28 per cent. About the middle of November the Italian
+authorities placed in the village of Martin[vs]['c]ica, which is in the
+south-western part of the island, 17 soldiers, 3 carabinieri and a
+lieutenant. Let me say at once that I have never been to Cres, all my
+knowledge of this case comes from a Franciscan monk who lives there, the
+Rev. Ambrose Vlahov, Professor of Theology. At Martin[vs]['c]ica, he
+says, there is not a single Italianist; the entire village is Yugoslav.
+When the Italian military arrived the lieutenant insisted that the
+priest, Karlo Hla['c]a, should cease to sing the Mass in Old Slav, and
+that for the whole service he should use Italian, the only language,
+said the lieutenant, which he (the lieutenant) understood. It was futile
+for the priest to demonstrate what a ridiculous and unreasonable demand
+this was; the lieutenant always came back to the subject, being sometimes
+merely importunate and sometimes using menaces. As Hla['c]a was a model
+ecclesiastic, highly esteemed by his parishioners, the lieutenant
+comprehended that as long as this priest remained, he would be foiled in
+his endeavours; he therefore sought an opportunity to turn him out. On
+January 5, 1919, the priest had, by order of his bishop, to read during
+the service a pastoral letter on the duties of the faithful towards the
+Church and towards their fellow-men; he had also to add a simple and
+concise commentary. In this letter there was a passage dealing with
+schools, and the priest on that topic remarked that "by divine and human
+law every nation may ask that its children should be instructed in their
+mother tongue." When Mass was finished, the mayor of the village
+assembled the parishioners and notified them that henceforward, by order
+of the lieutenant, there would no longer be in the village a Croatian
+but an Italian school. And in order to mollify the people he added that
+the lieutenant proposed to give subsidies to such as stood in need; they
+had only to present themselves before that officer. But, though the
+people often found it hard to satisfy their simple wants and were at
+that period in very great distress, they walked away from this assembly
+without making one step in the lieutenant's direction. This incited him
+to such fury that he ran, accompanied by soldiers and carabinieri, to
+the priest, and publicly, in a loud voice, insulted him, calling him an
+intriguer, a rebel, an agitator. On the following day the lieutenant had
+him conducted to the village of Cres by two soldiers and a carabiniere,
+who were all armed.... At Cres the priest was brought before the
+commanding officer of the Quarnero Islands--our old acquaintance, the
+naval captain of Krk--who happened to be in this village. He started at
+once to bellow at the priest and, striking the table with his hand,
+exclaimed: "This is an Italian island, all Italian, nothing but Italian
+and evermore it will remain Italian." About a score of parishioners had
+come to Cres behind their priest and his escort; they begged the
+commandant to set him free. As an answer he harangued them with respect
+to the Italian character of the islands, told them that they would have
+to send their children to the Italian school and that the whole village
+would be Italianized and that _only in their homes_ would they be
+permitted to speak Croatian.... On January 8 the priest was taken from
+Cres to the island of Krk, where he was informed that he would have to
+leave his parish, but that he might go back there for a day or two to
+fetch a few necessities. It was raining in torrents when Father
+Hla['c]a, wet to the skin, arrived at his village on the 11th at seven
+o'clock in the evening. As he suffers from several chronic
+ailments--which was known to the lieutenant--this bad weather had a
+grave effect upon him. When he reached his house he went to bed at once
+with a very high temperature. After about a quarter of an hour the
+lieutenant appeared with two carabinieri and shouted at him that he must
+get up. This draconian injunction had to be obeyed, the more so as the
+lieutenant was labouring under great excitement. He looked at the
+priest's permit which allowed him to come back to the village, and said,
+"If I were in your shoes I wouldn't venture to come back here." These
+words gave Father Hla['c]a an impression that his life was in danger.
+The lieutenant then ordered him not to go out among the people, but to
+stop where he was until he was taken away. Five days after this the
+priest was taken to Rieka, so that the villagers were left with nobody
+to guard them against the violence and the temptations offered them by
+the Italians. The Croat inscription outside the school was replaced by
+one in Italian and, with the lieutenant acting as teacher, the doors
+were thrown open. But the only children who went there were those of the
+lieutenant himself and those of the mayor, who was a renegade in the pay
+of the Italians. It was announced that heavy fines would be inflicted if
+the other children did not come. The villagers were in great trouble and
+in fear, with nobody to give them advice or consolation.... There may be
+some who will be curious to know concerning the "Italian" population of
+this island, which, according to the 1910 census, reached the large
+figure of 28 per cent. At a place called Nere[vz]ine it was stated, in
+the census of 1880, that the commissioner had found 706 Italians and 340
+Yugoslavs. Consequently an Italian primary school was opened; but when
+it was discovered that the children of Nere[vz]ine knew not one traitor
+word of that language, the school was transformed into a Yugoslav
+establishment. This is one case out of many; the 28 per cent. would not
+bear much scrutiny.... But the Italian Government, at any rate the "Liga
+Nazionale" to whose endowment it contributes, had been taking in hand
+this question of elementary schools in Istria and Dalmatia among the
+Slav population. The "Liga" made gratuitous distribution of clothing, of
+boots, of school-books and so forth. Some indigent Slavs allowed
+themselves in this way to become denationalized.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When, however, you examine the embroideries of these
+islands--particularly beautiful on Rab and on the island of wild olive
+trees, the neighbouring Pag--you will be sure that such an ancient
+national spirit as they show will not be easily seduced. The Magyars, by
+the way, whose culture is more modern, borrowed certain features that
+you find on these embroideries--the sun, for instance, and the cock,
+which have from immemorial times been thought appropriate by these
+people for the cloth a woman wears upon her head when she is bringing a
+new son into the world, whose dawn the cock announces. Older than the
+workers in wood, much older than those who carved in stone, are these
+island embroiderers. In this work the people reproduced their tears and
+laughter.
+
+
+RAB IS COMPLETELY CAPTURED
+
+What will it avail to put up "Liga" schools in these islands, where the
+population is 99.67 per cent. Yugoslav and 0.31 per cent.
+Italianist--that is, if we are content to accept the Austrian
+statistics? What ultimate advantage will accrue to Italy from the doings
+of her emissaries, in November 1918, on the isle of Rab? It was Tuesday,
+November 26, when the _Guglielmo Pepe_ of the Italian navy put in at the
+venerable town which is the capital of that island. The commander, with
+an Italianist deputy from Istria, climbed up to the town-hall with the
+old marble balcony and informed the mayor and the members of the local
+committee of the Yugoslav National Council that he had come in the name
+of the Entente and in virtue of the arrangements of the Armistice; he
+said that in the afternoon Italian troops would land, for the purpose of
+maintaining order. It was pointed out to him that no disturbance had
+arisen, and that, according to the terms of the Armistice, he had no
+right to occupy this island. The commander announced that he must
+disarm the national guard, but that the Yugoslav flags would not be
+interfered with; the Italian flag would only be hoisted on the
+harbour-master's office and the military headquarters. On the next day,
+after he had been unable to induce the town authorities to lower their
+national flag from the clock-tower, he sent a hundred men with a machine
+gun to carry out his wishes. Filled with confidence by this heroic deed,
+he marched into the mayor's office and dissolved the municipal council.
+Armed forces occupied the town-hall, over which an Italian flag was
+flown. An Italian officer was entrusted with the mayoral functions and
+with the municipal finances, while the post office was also captured and
+all private telegrams forbidden, not only those which one would have
+liked to dispatch, but those which came in from elsewhere--they were not
+delivered. All meetings and manifestations were made illegal. The
+commander, whose name was Captain Denti di ---- (the other part being
+illegible), sent a memorandum to the municipal council which explained
+that he dissolved it on account of their having grievously troubled the
+public order; he did this by virtue of the powers conferred upon him and
+in the name of the Allied Powers and the United States of America. The
+islanders did not pretend to be experts in international law, but they
+did not believe that he was in the right.
+
+"I have every confidence," said the Serbian Regent, when he was
+receiving a deputation of the Yugoslav National Council a few days after
+this--"I have every confidence that the operations for the freedom of
+the world will be accomplished, that large numbers of our brethren will
+be liberated from a foreign yoke. And I feel sure that this point of
+view will be adopted by the Government of the Kingdom of Italy, which
+was founded on these very principles. They were cherished in the hearts
+and executed in the deeds of great Italians in the nineteenth century.
+We can say frankly that in choosing to have us as their friends and good
+neighbours the Italian nation will find more benefit and a greater
+security than in the enforcement of the Treaty of London, which we never
+signed nor recognized, and which was made at a time when nobody foresaw
+the crumbling of Austria-Hungary."
+
+
+AVANTI SAVOIA!
+
+It would be tedious to chronicle a thousandth part of the outrages,
+crimes and stupidities committed on Yugoslav territory by the Italians.
+Where they were threatened with an armed resistance they yielded. Thus
+on November 14, when they had reached Vrhnica (Ober-Laibach) on their
+way to Ljubljana (Laibach), they were met by Colonel Svibi['c] with
+sixteen other officers who had just come out of an internment camp in
+Austria. Svibi['c] requested the Italians to leave Vrhnica. He said that
+he and the Serbian commander at Ljubljana would prevent the advance of
+the Italians into Yugoslav territory. They would be most reluctant to be
+obliged to resort to armed force should the Italians continue their
+advance, and they declined responsibility for any bloodshed which might
+ensue.... The colonel of the Italian regiment which had been stationed
+for some days at Vrhnica informed the mayor of that commune that he had
+received orders to depart; he retired to the line of demarcation fixed
+by the Armistice conditions.
+
+
+THE ENTENTE AT RIEKA
+
+It was ironical that a young State, struggling into life, should be
+hindered, not by former enemies but by friends of its friends. The
+Italians complained that the French, British and Americans were not
+fraternizing with them. In the first place, it was repugnant to the
+sense of justice of these nations when they saw that General di San
+Marzano, after having fraudulently seized the town of Rieka and turning
+its absolutely legal Governor into the street, did not ask the citizens
+to organize a temporary local government, in which all parties would be
+represented, but delivered, if you please, the town to fifteen
+gentlemen, the I.N.C., who--at the very utmost--represented half the
+population. On November 24, the local newspaper _Il Popolo_ announced in
+a non-official manner that the I.N.C., in full accord with the military
+command, had taken over the administration--_i poteri pubblici_. This,
+by the way, was never confirmed by the representatives of the other
+Allies. The I.N.C. furthermore declared null and of no effect any
+intervention of the Yugoslav National Council in the affairs of the
+authorities of the State of Rieka. When the Yugoslavs appealed to the
+French, British or Americans they were naturally met with sympathy and
+urged to have patience. Case after case of high-handed dealing was
+reported to these officers. They sometimes intervened with good effect;
+far more injustice would have happened; far more Croats and Autonomists,
+for instance, would have been deported if the Allies had not interceded.
+It was now, of course, impossible for Yugoslavs to wear their colours;
+nor could they prevent the C.N.I. from hanging vast Italian flags on
+Croat houses. One of the largest flags, I should imagine, in the world
+swayed to and fro between Rieka's chief hotel and the tall building on
+the opposite side of the square--and both these houses, mark you, were
+Croat property. But the Allied officers knew very well (and the C.N.I.
+knew that they knew) that more than thirty of the large buildings on the
+front belonged to Croats, whereas under half a dozen were the property
+of Italians or Italianists. The ineffable Mr. Edoardo Susmel, in one of
+his pro-Italian books, entreats certain French and British friends of
+the Yugoslavs to come for one hour to Rieka and judge for themselves.
+But twenty minutes would be ample for a man of average intelligence. In
+many ways the presence of the Allies grieved the C.N.I. The Allies
+looked without approval at the "Giovani Fiumani," an association of
+young rowdies of whose valuable services the C.N.I. availed itself. But
+if these hired bands could not be dispersed they could have limits
+placed upon their zeal. One of their ordinary methods was to sit in
+groups in cafes or in restaurants or other places where an orchestra was
+playing, then to shout for the Italian National Anthem and to make
+themselves as nasty as they dared to anyone who did not rise. If
+everybody rose, then they would wait a quarter of an hour and have the
+music played again. The Allied officers persuaded General Grazioli to
+prohibit any National Anthem in a public place. It was distasteful to
+the Allied officers when a local newspaper in French--_l'Echo de
+l'Adriatique_--which had been established to present the Yugoslav point
+of view, was continually being suppressed. For example, on December 14,
+it printed a short greeting from the Croat National Council to President
+Wilson. The most anti-Italian phrase in this that I could find was:
+"Their fondest hope is to justify to the world, to history and to you
+the great trust you have placed in them." This was refused publication.
+It is unnecessary to say that Yugoslav newspapers were confiscated and
+their sale forbidden--after all, one didn't buy German or Austrian
+newspapers in England during the War, and the Italians now regarded the
+Croats as very pernicious enemies. _La Rassegna Italiana_ of December 15
+called its first article--printed throughout in italics--"I Prussiani
+dell' Adriatico," and took to its bosom an "upright American citizen"
+returning from a visit to "Fiume nostra," who defined the Yugoslavs "on
+account of their greed and their brutality and their spirit of intrigue
+and their lack of candour as the Prussians of the Adriatic." Personally
+I should submit that the Prussian spirit was not wholly lacking in those
+two Italian officers who penetrated on November 25 into the dining-room
+at the quarters of the Custom-house officials and informed them that
+they wanted their piano. No discussion was permitted; the piano
+"transferred itself," as they say in some languages, to the Italian
+officers' mess. The Prussian spirit was not undeveloped in a certain Mr.
+[vS]tigli['c]--his name might cause his enemies to say he is a renegade,
+but as my knowledge of him is confined to other matters, we will say he
+is the noblest Roman of them all. He likewise had a dig at the
+Custom-house officials; I know not whether he was wiping off old scores.
+Appointed by the I.N.C. as director of the Excise office, he
+communicated with the resident officials--Franjo Jakov[vc]i['c], Ivan
+Mikuli[vc]i['c] and Grga Ma[vz]uran--on December 5, and told them to
+clear out by the following Saturday, they and their families, so that in
+the heart of winter forty-one persons were suddenly left homeless.
+
+
+A CANDID FRENCHMAN
+
+This and innumerable other manifestations of Prussianism were brought to
+the attention of the French, so that it was not surprising when a
+Frenchman made a few remarks in the _Rije['c]_ of Zagreb. His article,
+entitled "Mise au point," begins by a reference to the Yugoslav cockades
+which were sometimes worn by the French sailors. This, to the Italians,
+was as if an ally in the reconquered towns of Metz and Strasbourg had
+sported the colours of an enemy. "The cases are not parallel," says the
+Frenchman. "You have come to Rieka and to Pola as conquerors of towns
+that were exhausted, yielding to the simultaneous and gigantic pressure
+of the Allied armies. These towns gave themselves up. Are they on that
+account your property, and are we to consider as a dead-letter the
+clauses of the Armistice which settled that Pola should be occupied by
+the Allies? I am not so dexterous a diplomat as to be able to follow you
+along this track; let it be decided by others. But we who were present
+perceived that your occupation, which you had regulated in every detail,
+had a close resemblance to the entry of a circus into some provincial
+town, whose population is known beforehand to be of a hostile character.
+It is needless to say that this masquerade, these vibrating appeals to
+fraternity that were placarded upon the walls gave us in that grey,
+abandoned town an impression of complete fiasco." ["It is significant,"
+writes Mr. Beaumont the Italophil, "that the Slav population ... observe
+an attitude of strange reserve and diffidence. They are silent and
+almost sullen. When the Italian fleet first visited Pola there was
+hardly a cheer...."] "Now let me tell you," says the Frenchman, "that
+our entry into Alsace was different. Foch was not obliged to send
+emissaries in advance in order to decorate the houses with flags and to
+erect triumphal arches. The French cockades had not nestled in the dark
+hair of our Alsatian women since 1870, for forty-eight years the
+tricolors had been waiting, piously folded at the bottom of those wooden
+chests, waiting for us to float them in the wind of victory--nous
+rentrions chez nous tout simplement. Or, vous n'etes pas chez vous ici,
+messieurs." ["Common reserve and decency should have induced the
+Jugo-Slavs to abstain," says Mr. Beaumont, "from rushing to take a place
+to which they were not invited ... an exclusively Italian city."]
+"Whatever you may assert," says the Frenchman, "everything seems to
+contradict it. Your actors play their parts with skill, but the public
+is frigid. Now the decorations are tattered and the torches on the
+ramparts have grown black.... Permit me, following your example, and
+with courtesy, to call back the glories of old Italy, to remind myself
+of the great figures that stride through your history and that give to
+the world an unexampled picture of the lofty works of man. Our sailors,
+who are simple and often uncultured men, have no remembrance of these
+things; the brutal facts, in this whirling age in which we live, have
+more power to strike their imagination. What is one to say to them when
+they see their comrades stabbed, slaughtered by your men as if they were
+noxious animals--yesterday at Venice, the day before that at Pola,
+to-day at Rieka. Englishmen and Americans, your Allies, receive your
+'sincere and fraternal hand' which holds a dagger. As a method of
+pacific penetration you will avow that this is rather rudimentary and
+that the laws of Romulus did not teach you such fraternity. We have also
+seen you striking women in the street and disembowelling a child. What
+are we to think of that, _fratelli d'Italia_? Excuse us, but we are not
+accustomed to such incidents. Is it not natural that the legendary,
+gallant spirit of our sailors should infect the crowd? Our bluejackets
+have looked in vain for the three colours which are dear to them and
+which you have excluded utterly from all your rows of flags. Well, in
+default of them, they had no choice but to array themselves in the
+cockades which dainty hands pinned on their uniforms.... And our
+'poilus,' in their faded, mud-smeared garments walk along 'your'
+streets, disdainfully regarded by your dazzling and pomaded Staff. Do
+you remember that these unshaven fellows who thrust back the Boche in
+1918 are the descendants of those who in 1793 conquered Italy and Europe
+with bare feet? Therefore do not strike your breasts if now and then a
+smile involuntarily appears upon their lips. O you who henceforth will
+be known as the immortal heroes of the Piave, if our fellows see to-day
+so many noble breasts, it was not seldom that they saw another portion
+of your bodies."
+
+
+ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
+
+"Yes, but that has nothing to do," some people will say, "with Rieka's
+economical position. We admit that Croatia has the historical right to
+the town, but we wish to be satisfied that the Croats are not moved by
+reasons that would cause Rieka's ruin. It may be nowadays, owing to the
+unholy alliance between Magyars and Italians, that the town, with
+respect to its trade, is more in the Italian sphere than in that of
+Yugoslavia." The answer to this is that Italy's share of the value of
+the imports into Rieka in 1911 was 7.5 per cent. of the total, while her
+share of the value of the exports amounted to 13 per cent., which proves
+that Italy depends commercially more on Rieka's hinterland than does
+that hinterland upon Italy. It seems to be of less significance that the
+millionaires of Rieka are mostly Croats, for they might conceivably have
+enriched themselves by trade with Italy. But of the nine banks, previous
+to the War the Italianists were in exclusive possession of none, while
+the Croats had four; of the eight shipping companies three were Croat,
+three were Magyar, one British, one German--not one Italian. It is true
+that some Italian writers lay it down that Rieka's progress should be
+co-ordinated with that of Venice, to say nothing of Triest, and should
+not be exploited by other States to the injury of the Italian Adriatic
+ports. Their point of view is not at all obscure. And all disguise is
+thrown to the winds in a book which has had a great success among the
+Italian imperialists: _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, by Mario Alberti
+(Milan, 1915--third edition). The author says that Italy, having annexed
+Triest and Rieka, will be "assured for ever"; her "economic penetration"
+of the Balkans "will no longer be threatened" by the projected
+Galatz-Scutari (Danube-Adriatic) railway; Italian agriculture which, he
+says, is already in peril, "will be rescued"; the Italian fisherman will
+no longer have the ports of Triest and Rieka closed (for exportation to
+Germany and Austria); the national wealth will be augmented by "several
+milliards"; new fields will be open to Italian industry; her economic
+(and military) domination over the Adriatic will be absolute. There
+will, he continues, be no more "disturbing" competition on the part of
+any foreign mercantile marine; the Adriatic will be the sole property of
+Italy, and so on. It would be worth while, as a study of expressions, to
+photograph a few Rieka Italianists in the act of reading these rapturous
+pages.... But lest it be imagined that I have searched for the most
+feeble pro-Italian arguments in order to have no difficulty in knocking
+them down, I will add that their strongest argument, taken as it is from
+the official report of the French Consul in 1909, appears to be that the
+commerce of Croatia amounted then to only 7 per cent. of the total trade
+of the port of Rieka. I am told by those who ought to know that wood
+alone, which comes almost exclusively from Croatia, Slavonia, etc.,
+represents 16 per cent. If other products, such as flour, wine, etc.,
+are considered, 50 per cent. of the total trade must be ascribed to
+Croatia, Slavonia, etc. And that does not take into account the western
+Banat and other Yugoslav territories. Serbia, too, would now take her
+part, so that there is no need to fear for the position of a Yugoslav
+Rieka based solely--omitting Hungary and the Ukraine altogether--on her
+Yugoslav hinterland. Rieka without Yugoslavia would be ruined and would
+degenerate into a fishing village, with a great past and a miserable
+future. This could very well be seen during the spring of 1919 when the
+communications were interrupted between Rieka and Yugoslavia. At Rieka
+during April eggs were 80 centimes apiece, while at Bakar, a few miles
+away, they cost 25 centimes; milk at Rieka was 6 crowns the litre and at
+Bakar one crown; beef was 30 crowns a kilo and at Bakar 8 crowns. Italy
+was calling Rieka her pearl--a pearl of great price; the Yugoslavs said
+it was the lung of their country. It is within the knowledge of the
+Italianists that the prosperity of Rieka would not be advanced by making
+her the last of a chain of Italian ports, but rather by making her the
+first port of Yugoslavia. What has Italy to offer in comparison with the
+Slovenes and the Croats? The maritime outlet of the Save valley, as well
+as of the plains of Hungary beyond it, is, as Sir Arthur Evans points
+out, the port of Rieka. And, in view of the mountainous nature of the
+country which lies for a great distance at the back of Split and of
+Dubrovnik, it would seem that Rieka--and especially when the railway
+line has been shortened--will be the natural port of Belgrade.
+
+
+THE TURNCOAT MAYOR
+
+One cannot expect in a place with Rieka's history that such
+considerations as these will be debated, calmly or otherwise, but at all
+events on their own merits. They will be approached with more than
+ordinary passion, since so many of the people of Rieka have been
+turncoats. Any man who changes sides in his religion or his nationality
+or politics--presuming, and I hope this mostly was so at Rieka, that his
+reasons were not base--that man will feel profoundly on these matters,
+more profoundly than the average person of his new religion, nationality
+or politics. He will observe the ritual, he will give utterance to his
+thoughts with such an emphasis that his old comrades will dislike him
+and his new associates be made uneasy. Thus a convert may not always be
+the most delightful creature in the garden, and he is abundant at Rieka.
+As an illustration we may study Dr. Vio. Many persons have repeated that
+he has a Croat father, yet they should in fairness add that his father's
+father came from Venice. But if he came from Lapland, that ought to be
+no reason why the present Dr. Vio should not, if he so desires, be an
+Italian. If he had, when he arrived at what is usually called the age of
+discretion, inscribed himself among the sons of Italy--_a la bonheur_.
+But he took no such step. He came out as a Croat of the Croats, for when
+he had finished his legal studies he became a town official, but
+discovered that his views--for he was known as an unbending
+Croat--hindered his advancement. The party in possession of the town
+council, the Autonomist party, would have none of him. At last he, in
+disgust, threw up his post and went into his father's office. He was
+entitled, after ten years' service, to a pension; the Autonomists
+refused to grant it for the reason that he was so dour a Croat. Very
+often, talking with his friends, did Dr. Vio mention this. He made a
+successful appeal to the Court at Buda-Pest and a certain yearly sum was
+conceded to him, which he may or may not be still obtaining. Then, to
+the amazement of the Croats, he renounced his nationality and
+became--no, not an Italian--a Magyar. He was now one of those who called
+Hungary his "Madre Patria," and as a weapon of the ruling Hungarian
+party he was employed against the Italianists. In the year 1913 the
+deputy for Rieka died and Dr. Vio was a candidate, his opponent being
+one of the Italianist party, Professor Zanella. Dr. Vio had the support
+of the Government officials, railway officials and so forth, and was
+elected. Now he was a Magyar of the Magyars: Hungarian police officials
+were introduced, and Magyar, disregarding the town statutes, was
+employed by them as sole official language. The citizens still speak of
+those police.... The War broke out, and Dr. Vio donned a uniform,
+serving chiefly on the railway line between Rieka and Zagreb. Gradually
+he seems to have acquired the feeling that it was unnatural for him to
+be a Magyar of the Magyars, even though he was compelled, like so many
+others, to wear this uniform. But one day in 1916 when his friend and
+fellow-officer, Fran [vS]ojat, teacher at the High School at Su[vs]ak,
+walked into his room at Meja, when he happened to be putting little
+flags upon a map, he prophesied--King Peter and the Tzar would have been
+glad to hear him. Presently, he had himself elected as the mayor, which
+enabled him to leave an army so distasteful to him. How long would he
+wait until he publicly became a Croat once again? He did not doubt that
+the Entente would win, and told that same friend [vS]ojat that Rieka on
+the next day would be Croat. To another gentleman in June of 1918 he
+said he hoped that he would be the first Yugoslav mayor of the town, and
+on that day, out hunting, he sang endless Croat songs. In September, to
+the mayor of Su[vs]ak, "You will see," he said, "how well we two as
+mayors will work together." When the Croat National Council entered into
+office at the end of October he again met Mr. [vS]ojat, just as he was
+going up to that interview in the Governor's Palace. "Jesam li ja onda
+imao pravo, jesi li sada zadovoljan?" he said. ("Was I not right that
+time? Are you satisfied now?") Joyfully he pressed Mr. [vS]ojat's hand
+and greeted the two other persons who were with him. And Mr. [vS]ojat
+was pleased to think that Vio would now be a good Croat, as of old. But
+on the following day he was an Italian.
+
+
+HIS FERVOUR
+
+When I went up to see this variegated gentleman--whose personal
+appearance is that of a bright yellow cat--he purred awhile upon the
+sofa and then started striding up and down the room. As he sketched the
+history of the town, which, he said, had always been Italian and would
+insist on being so, he spoke with horror of the days when Jella[vc]i['c]
+was in control, and then, remembering another trouble, he raised both
+his hands above his head and brought them down with such a crash upon
+the desk where I was writing his remarks that--but nobody burst in; the
+municipal officials were accustomed to his conversation. He was reviling
+at that moment certain Allied officers who had not seen fit to visit
+him. "I care not!" he yelled. "We are Italian! I tell you we are
+Italianissimi!" (He was glad enough, however, when his brother Hamlet,
+who had remained a Yugoslav and was on friendly terms with the chief of
+the carabinieri, managed to obtain for the mayor a passport to Italy,
+concerning which the carabinieri had said that they must first of all
+apply to Rome.) The doctor was sure that Yugoslavia would not live, for
+it had two religions; and another notable defect of the Croats--"I speak
+their language quite well," he said--was that in the whole of Rieka not
+one ancient document was in Croatian. I was going to mention that
+everywhere in Croatia until 1848 they were in Latin--but he saw what I
+was on the point of saying and--"Look here! look here!" he cried, "now
+look at this!" It was a type-written sheet in English, whereon was
+recounted how the mayor had offered to four Admirals, who came to Rieka
+on behalf of their four nations, how he had, in order to meet them in
+every way--"They asked me," he said, with blankness and indignation and
+forgiveness all joined in his expression--it was beautifully done--"they
+asked me, the Italian mayor of this Italian town, whether it was truly
+an Italian town!"--well, he had offered to take a real plebiscite, on
+the basis of the last census, and the Admirals, while appreciating his
+offer, had not availed themselves of it. (Maybe some one had told them
+how the census officials, chiefly members of the "Giovani Fiumani," had
+gone round, asking the people whether they spoke Italian and usually
+filling in the papers themselves. Presumably the mayor did not propose
+to allow anyone who had then been described as an Italian now to call
+himself Croat.) I was just calculating what he was in 1910 when he
+played a trump card and begged me to go up to the cemetery and take note
+of the language used for the epitaphs. Then let me return to him on the
+morrow and say what was the nationality of Rieka. There seemed to be the
+question if in such a town where Yugoslavs so often use Italian as the
+business language, many of them possibly might use it as the language of
+death; as it happened the first Yugoslav to whom I spoke about this
+point--a lawyer at whose flat I lunched the following day--produced a
+little book entitled _Regolamento del Cimitero comunale di Fiume_, and
+from it one could see that in the local cemetery the blessed principle
+of self-determination was in fetters. Chapter iii. lays down that all
+inscriptions must have the approval of the civic body. You are warned
+that they will not approve of sentences or words which are indecent, and
+that they prohibit all expressions and allusions that might give offence
+to anyone, to moral corporations, to religions, or which are notoriously
+false. No doubt, in practice, they waive the last stipulation, so that
+the survivors may give praise to famous or to infamous men; but I am
+told that they raised fewer difficulties for Italian wordings, and that
+the stones which many people used--those which the undertakers had in
+stock, with spaces left for cutting in the details--were invariably in
+Italian.... I hope I have not given an unsympathetic portrait of the
+mayor who has about him something lovable. Whatever Fate may have in
+store for Rieka, Dr. Vio is so magnificent an emotional actor that his
+future is assured. I trust it will be many years before a stone, in
+Croat, Magyar or Italian, is placed above the body of this volatile
+gentleman.... And then perhaps the deed of his administrative life that
+will be known more universally than any other will be the omission of
+an _I_ from certain postage stamps. When the old Hungarian stamps were
+surcharged with the word FIUME, the sixty-third one in every sheet of
+half an edition was defective and was stamped FUME.[19]
+
+
+THREE PLEASANT PLACES
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of Rieka, across the bay, lies Abbazia,
+which Nature and the Austrians have made into a charming spot. By the
+famous "Strandweg" that winds under rocks and palm and laurel, you go to
+Volosca in the easterly and to Lovrana in the westerly direction. Just
+at the back of all these pretty places stands the range of Istria's
+green mountains. More than twenty years ago a certain Dr. Krsti['c],
+from the neighbourhood of Zadar, conceived the happy thought of
+printing, in the peasant dialect, a newspaper which would discourse on
+Italy in articles no peasant could resist. He was given subsidies, and
+for some time the newspaper was published at Volosca. But perhaps the
+peasants did not read it any more than those near Zadar would take in
+the _Pravi Dalmatinac_ ("The Real Dalmatian"), which attempted a few
+years previous to the War to preach sectionalism to the Serbo-Croats.
+The Italians who came to the Abbazia district in November 1918 did not
+try such methods. In the combined commune of Volosca-Abbazia the
+population at the 1910 census consisted of 4309 Yugoslavs, 1534
+German-Austrians, and 418 Italians. Most of the 418 had never seen
+Italy; the only true Italians were some officials who had come from
+other parts of Istria. The official language was Italian, which was
+regarded as more elegant. The district doctor was Italian, but all the
+other 29 non-official doctors were either Germans, Czechs or Croats. At
+Volosca eighteen years ago there was no Croat school; when one was
+opened the Italian school at once lost half its membership and before
+the War had been reduced to 25 pupils. Before the War at Abbazia the
+Croat school had six classes, while the Italian had ceased for lack of
+patronage. The German school had 160 pupils; this has now been
+dissolved, the pupils being mostly sent to the re-opened Italian school.
+Thus it will be seen that efforts were required to Italianize these
+places. The efforts were continued even during the War, it is said by
+the ex-Empress Zita. At any rate the people who had altered their
+Italian names saw that they had been premature and reassumed their
+former ones. They reassumed the pre-war privileges: at Lovrana, for
+example, they "ran" the village, not having allowed any communal
+elections since 1905 and arranging that their Croat colleagues in the
+council should all be illiterate peasants. Some Italians were interned
+in 1915, as the Croats had been in 1914, but the council came again into
+their hands. At the meetings they had been obliged, owing to the
+council's composition, to talk Croatian; but their own predominance was
+undisturbed. On their return to power during the War they displayed more
+generosity, and admitted even educated Croats to the council. And if
+such out-and-out Italians as the Signori Grossmann, Pegan, etc. of
+Lovrana were kinder to the Yugoslavs than the Signori Grbac,
+Koro[vs]a['c] and Codri['c] of Rieka it may be because the gentle spirit
+of the place affected them. The leading families would even intermarry;
+Signor Gelletich, Lovrana's Italian potentate, gave his sister to the
+Croat chieftain. But, as we have said, idylls had to end when in
+November 1918 the Italian army came upon the scene. Abbazia and Volosca
+and Lovrana were painted thoroughly in the Italian colours. Public
+buildings, private houses--irrespective of their inmates--had patches of
+green, white and red bestowed upon them. Everything was painted--some
+occupation had to be found for the military, who appeared to be more
+numerous than the inhabitants. Meanwhile, their commanding officers had
+other brilliant ideas: an Italian kindergarten was opened at Volosca,
+and the peasant women of the hills around were promised that if they
+came with their children to the opening ceremony, every one of them
+would be rewarded with 1 lb. of sugar. So they came and were
+photographed--it looked extremely well to have so many women seizing
+this first opportunity of an Italian education for their babies. Some
+one at Rieka most unfortunately had forgotten to consign the sugar. The
+Italian officer who was appointed to discharge the functions of podesta,
+that is, mayor, of Abbazia was a certain Lieut.-Colonel Stadler. He sent
+to Rome and Paris various telegrams as to the people's ardent hope of
+being joined to Italy. The people's own telegrams to Paris went by a
+more circuitous route. But Stadler did not seem to care much for the
+French, nor yet for the English. About a dozen of the educated people,
+thinking that the French might also come to Abbazia and wishing to be
+able to converse with them, took lessons in that language; another
+dozen, with a similar motive, had a Mr. Po[vs]ci['c], a naturalized
+American subject, to give them English lessons. Away with these baubles,
+cried Stadler; on January 10 he stopped the lessons.
+
+
+ITALY IS LED ASTRAY BY SONNINO
+
+While the Italians were thus engaged, what was the state of opinion in
+their own country? Would Bissolati's organ, the _Secolo_, and the
+_Corriere della Sera_, which had been favourable to the Slavs since
+Caporetto, have it in their power to moderate the fury of the anti-Slav
+papers? Malagodi of the _Tribuna_ said on November 24 that the position
+at Rieka had been remedied. But was the public fully alive to what was
+happening at Zadar and [vS]ibenik? "While these cities have been
+nominally occupied by us and are under the protection of our flag, the
+Italian population has never been so terrorized by Croat brutality as at
+this moment." The _Mattino_ disclosed to its readers in flaring
+headlines that "Yugoslav oppression cuts the throats of the Italian
+population in Dalmatia and terrorizes them." Would the people of Italy
+rather listen to such thrills or to the _Secolo_, which deprecated the
+contemptuous writings of Italian journalists with regard to the
+Slavs--the _Gazzetta del Popolo's_ "little snakes" was one of the milder
+terms of opprobrium. The _Secolo_ recalled Italy's own illiterate herds
+and the fact that the Italian Risorgimento was judged, not by the
+indifferent and servile mass, but by its heroes. It explained that the
+Treaty of London was inspired by the belief that Austria would survive,
+and that for strategic reasons only it had given, not Rieka, but most of
+Dalmatia and the islands to Italy.
+
+It was calamitous for Italy that she was being governed at this moment
+not by prudent statesmen such as she more frequently produces in the
+north, but by southerners of the Orlando and Sonnino type. The _Giornale
+d'Italia_ would at a word from the Foreign Minister have damped the
+ardour of those journalists and other agitators who were fanning such a
+dangerous fire. Sonnino once himself told Radovi['c], the Montenegrin,
+that he could not acquiesce in any union of the Yugoslavs, for such a
+combination would be fraught with peril for Italians. And now that
+Southern Slavs were forming what he dreaded, their United States, it
+would have been sagacious--it was not too late--if he had set himself to
+win their friendship. Incidents of an untoward nature had occurred, such
+as those connected with the Austrian fleet; nine hundred Yugoslavs,
+after fighting side by side with the Italians, had actually been
+interned, many of them wearing Italian medals for bravery;[20] the
+Yugoslavs, in fact, by these and other monstrous methods had been
+provoked. But it was not too late. A Foreign Minister not blind to what
+was happening in foreign countries would have seen that if he valued the
+goodwill of France and England and America--and this goodwill was a
+necessity for the Italians--it was incumbent on him to modify his
+politics. The British Press was not unanimous--all the prominent
+publicists did not, like a gentleman a few months afterwards in the
+_Spectator_, say that "if the Yugoslavs contemplated a possible war
+against the Italians, by whose efforts and those of France and Great
+Britain they had so recently been liberated, then would the Southern
+Slavs be guilty of monstrous folly and ingratitude." Baron Sonnino might
+have apprehended that more knowledge of the Yugoslav-Italian situation
+would produce among the Allies more hostility; he should have known that
+average Frenchmen do not buy their favourite newspaper for what it says
+on foreign politics, and that the _Journal des Debats_ and the
+_Humanite_ have many followers who rarely read them. And, above all
+else, he should have seen that the Americans, who had not signed the
+Treaty of London, would decline to lend themselves to the enforcement of
+an antiquated pact which was so grievously incongruous with Justice, to
+say nothing of the Fourteen Points of Mr. Wilson. But Sonnino threw all
+these considerations to the winds. He should have reconciled himself to
+the fact that his London Treaty, if for no other reason than that it was
+a secret one, belonged to a different age and was really dead; his
+refusal to bury it was making him unpopular with the neighbours. One
+does not expect a politician to be quite consistent, and Baron Sonnino
+is, after all, not the same man who in 1881 declared that to claim
+Triest as a right would be an exaggeration of the principle of
+nationalities; but he should not in 1918 have been deaf to the words
+which he considered of such weight when he wrote them in 1915 that he
+caused them to be printed in a Green Book. "The monarchy of Savoy," he
+said in a telegram to the Duke of Avarna on February 15 of that year,
+"has its staunchest root in the fact that it personifies the national
+ideals." Baron Sonnino was rallying to the House of Karageorgevi['c]
+most of those among the Croats and Slovenes who, for some reason or
+other, had been hesitating; for King Peter personified the national
+ideals which the Baron was endeavouring to throttle. As Mr. Wickham
+Steed pointed out in a letter to the _Corriere della Sera_, the complete
+accord between Italians and Yugoslavs is not only possible and
+necessary, but constitutes a European interest of the first order; if it
+be not realized, the Adriatic would become not Italian nor Slav, but
+German; if, on the other hand, it were brought about, then the language
+and the culture, the commerce and the political influence of Italy would
+not merely be maintained but would spread along the eastern Adriatic
+coast and in the Balkans in a manner hitherto unhoped for; if no accord
+be reached, then the Italians would see their whole influence vanish
+from every place not occupied by overwhelming forces. But Sonnino, a
+descendant of rancorous Levantines and obstinate Scots, went recklessly
+ahead; it made you think that he was one of those unhappy people whom
+the gods have settled to destroy. He neglected the most elementary
+precautions; he ought to have requested, for example, that the French
+and British and Americans would everywhere be represented where Yugoslav
+territory was occupied. But, alas, he did not show that he disagreed
+with the _Tribuna's_ lack of wisdom when it said that "the Italian
+people could never tolerate that beside our flag should fly other
+flags, even if friendly, for this would imply a confession of weakness
+and incapacity."
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE CHAMBER
+
+The Government was in no very strong position, for the Chamber was now
+moribund and the many groups which had been formed, in the effort to
+create a war Chamber out of one that was elected in the days of peace,
+were now dissolving. An incident towards the end of November exhibited
+not only the contrivances by which these groups hoped to preserve
+themselves, but the eagerness with which the Government rushed to
+placate the powerful. A young deputy called Centurione, a member of the
+National Defence group (the Fascio), made a furious attack on Giolitti,
+under cover of a personal explanation. He had been accused of being a
+police spy. Well, after Caporetto, convinced that the defeat was partly
+due to the work of Socialists and Giolittians, he had disguised himself
+as a workman and taken part in Socialist meetings. He was proud to have
+played the spy for the good of his country, and he finished by accusing
+Giolitti and six others of treason. The whole Chamber--his own party not
+being strongly represented--seems to have made for Centurione who,
+amidst an indescribable uproar, continued to shout "Traitor!" to anyone
+who approached him. Sciorati, one of the accused, was at last able to
+make himself heard. He related how, at Turin, Centurione had made a fool
+of himself. (But if Lewis Carroll had been with us still he might have
+made himself immortal.) "I have seen him disguised," said Sciorati, "as
+an out-porter at the door of my own house." Giolitti appeared and
+demanded an immediate inquiry, with what was described as cold and
+menacing emphasis. And Orlando, the Prime Minister, flew up to the
+Chamber and parleyed with Giolitti in the most cordial fashion.
+Centurione's documents were at once investigated and no proofs of
+treason were found, no witnesses proposed by him being examined. He was
+expelled from the National Defence group for "indiscipline," his
+colleagues frustrating his attempts to sit next to them by repeatedly
+changing their seats. The attitude of the Fascio was humble and
+apologetic, and the other significant feature of the incident was the
+haste with which Orlando reacted to Giolitti's demand for an inquiry.
+
+
+THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY
+
+Baron Sonnino had to take into account not only the unsteadiness of the
+ground on which the Government stood, owing to these parliamentary
+regroupings, but the general effects that would ensue from the country's
+financial position. When, in spite of the victory and the approach of
+peace, the exchange price of the lira dropped 2 to 3 points towards the
+end of November, this may have had, contrary to what was thought by
+many, no connection with a revolutionary movement. The fact that in
+Triest the authorities had been obliged to isolate Italian ex-prisoners
+on their return from Russia, since they were imbued with revolutionary
+principles, at any rate were uttering loud revolutionary cries, may have
+been the mere temporary infection caught from their environment. But
+that of which there was no doubt was the entire truth of Caroti's
+statement when that deputy declared at Milan that while Italy had been
+triumphant in the military sphere, she had been economically overthrown.
+Bankruptcy had not been announced, though it existed. Sonnino may
+therefore have been impelled not only by imperialism, by his inability
+to adjust himself to the new international situation, but by the hope
+that through his policy the new internal situation might be tided over.
+If the thoughts of his fellow-countrymen could be directed elsewhere
+than to bankruptcy and possible revolution, it might be that in the
+meantime adroit measures and good luck would brush away these
+disagreeable phenomena. And he would then be rightly looked upon as one
+who had deserved well of his country. So he set about the task with such
+a thoroughness that he turned not alone the thoughts of men, but their
+heads. Professor Italo Giglioli addressed a letter to _The New Europe_
+in which he said that he was claiming now not the territories given by
+the Treaty of London, but considerably more. He wanted all Dalmatia,
+down to Kotor. In foreign hands, he said, Dalmatia would be an eternal
+danger, and besides: "What in Dalmatia is not Italian is barbaric!" It
+was a melancholy spectacle to see a man of Giglioli's reputation saying
+that Dubrovnik, the refuge of Slav culture in the age of darkness and
+the place in which Slav literature so gloriously arose, was, forsooth,
+throughout its history always Italian in culture and in literature.
+"Among thinking people in Italy," proclaims the Professor, "there are
+indeed but few who will abandon to the Balkan processes a region and a
+people which have always been possessed by Italian culture and which
+constitute the necessary wall of Italy and Western Europe against the
+inroads of the half-barbaric East." He protests that it is ridiculous of
+_The New Europe_ to assert that the secret Treaty of London is supported
+by a tiny, discredited band of Italians; and indeed that Review has
+regretfully to acknowledge that many of his countrymen have been swept
+off their feet and carried onward in the gale of popular enthusiasm.
+Giglioli ends by asking that his name be removed from the list of _The
+New Europe's_ collaborators. In vain does the _The New Europe_ say that
+the Professor's programme must involve a war between Italians and
+Yugoslavs. "We must be prepared for a new war," said the _Secolo_ on
+January 12. "The Italians who absolutely demand the conquest of Dalmatia
+must have the courage to demand that the demobilization of our Army
+should be suspended, and to say so very clearly." And the _Corriere
+della Sera_ warned Orlando of the consequences if he took no steps to
+silence the mad voices. "No one knows better," it wrote, "than the
+Minister of the Interior, who is also Premier, that on the other coast
+Italy claims that part of Dalmatia which was assigned to her by the
+Treaty of London, but not more.... If the Government definitely claims
+and demands the whole of Dalmatia, then the agitation is justified; but
+if the Government does not demand it, then we repeat that to favour and
+not to curb the movement is the worst kind of Defeatism, for it creates
+among Italians a state of mind tending to transform the sense of a great
+victory into the sense of a great defeat ... quite apart from the
+intransigeance which this provokes in the Yugoslav camp." It was in
+vain. And when Bissolati, having resigned from office on the issue of
+Italo-Yugoslav relations, attempted to explain his attitude at the Scala
+in Milan on January 11, his meeting was wrecked, for though the body of
+the hall and the galleries were relatively quiet, if not very
+sympathetic--it was a ticket meeting--the large number of subscription
+boxes, which could not be closed to their ordinary tenants, had been
+packed by Bissolati's adversaries, who succeeded in preventing him from
+speaking. After a long delay he managed to read the opening passage, but
+when he came to the first "renunciation"--the Brenner for the
+Teutons--disturbance set in finally and he left the theatre. Afterwards
+the rioters adjourned to the _Corriere_ and _Secolo_ offices, where they
+broke the windows. And thus the first full statement of the war aims of
+any Italian statesman could not be uttered. It was spread abroad by the
+Press. Bissolati claimed to speak in the name of a multitude which had
+hitherto been silent.... The masses, he said, demanded, that their
+rulers should devote all their strength to "the divine blessing of
+freeing mankind from the slavery of war." ... "To those," he said, "who
+speak of the Society of Nations as an 'ideology' or 'Utopia' which has
+no hold over our people, we would reply: Have you been in the trenches
+among the soldiers waiting for the attack?" [Signor Bissolati had the
+unique record, among Allied or enemy statesmen, of having volunteered
+for active service, though past the fighting age, and of having served
+in the trenches for many months before entering the Orlando Cabinet.]
+
+
+A FOUNTAIN IN THE SAND
+
+The speech was an admirable expression of that new spirit which the
+Allies had been fighting for. "Each of the anti-German nations," he
+said, "must guard itself against any unconsciously German element in its
+soul, if only in order to have the right to combat any trace in others
+of the imperialism which had poisoned the outlook of the German people."
+With regard to the Adriatic: "Yugoslavia exists, and no one can undo
+this. But to the credit of Italy be it said, the attainment of unity and
+independence for the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was and must be alike
+the reason and the certain issue of our War.... Italy felt that if
+Serbia had been swallowed up by that monstrous Empire--itself a vassal
+of the German Empire--her own economic expansion and political
+independence would have received a mortal blow. And so she was on
+Serbia's side, first in neutrality, then in intervention.... Those who
+only see, in the formation of the Yugoslav State, a sympathetic or
+antipathetic episode of the War, or a subsidiary effect of it, have
+failed to detect its inner meaning." As for the Treaty of London which
+was concluded against the enemy, it was not to be regarded as intangible
+against a friendly people. By special grants of autonomy, as at Zadar,
+or by arrangements between the two States, he would see the language and
+culture of all the trans-Adriatic sons of Italy assured. He warned his
+countrymen lest, in order to meet the peril of a German-Slav alliance
+against them, they should have to subordinate themselves to France and
+England, and be their proteges instead of their real Allies--a situation
+not unlike that of the Triple Alliance when Germany protected them
+against the ever-imminent attack of Austria.... "But perhaps the
+Yugoslavs will not be grateful or show an equal spirit of conciliation?
+Certainly they will then have no vital interests to push against Italy,
+and in the long run sentiments follow interests." There was, in fact,
+throughout the speech only one questionable passage, that in which he
+said that "if Italy renounced the annexation of Dalmatia she might
+obtain from Yugoslavia or from the Peace Conference the joy of pressing
+to her heart the most Italian city of Rieka, which the Treaty of London
+renounced." This may have been a sop to Cerberus. But Bissolati's
+appeals to justice and to wisdom fell upon the same stony ground as his
+demonstration that Dalmatia's strategic value is very slight from a
+defensive point of view to those who possess Pola, Valona and the outer
+islands. There is a school of reasonable Italians, such as Giuseppe
+Prezzolini, who for strategic reasons asked for the isle of Vis. Mazzini
+himself, after 1866, found it necessary, for the same reasons, that Vis
+should be Italian, since it is the key of the Adriatic. Some of us
+thought that it might have been feasible to follow the precedent of
+Port Mahon, which Great Britain occupied without exercising sovereignty
+over the rest of the island of Minorca. The magnificent harbour of Vis,
+perfectly protected against the bora, would have satisfied all the
+demands of the Italian navy. Vis is to-day practically as much Slav as
+Minorca was Spanish, and if the Slavs had been left in possession of the
+remainder of that island it would have proved the reverse of a danger to
+the Italians, since with a moderate amount of good sense the same
+relations would have existed as was the case upon Minorca.... The
+solution which was ultimately found in the Treaty of Rapallo was to
+allocate to the Italians in complete sovereignty not the island of Vis,
+but the smaller neighbouring island of Lastovo.
+
+While the vast majority of Italians would not listen to Bissolati they
+delighted in Gabriele d'Annunzio. The great poet Carducci[21] had his
+heart full when he thought about the ragged, starving Croat soldiers,
+pitiable victims of the Habsburgs, exploited by them all their lives and
+fighting for them in a foreign land--and they fought bravely; but as
+they were often clad in miserable garments, they were called by those
+who wanted to revile them "Croat dirt." And that is what they are to
+Gabriele d'Annunzio. When the controversies of to-day have long been
+buried and when d'Annunzio's works are read, his lovers will be stabbed
+by his _Lettera ai Dalmati_. And if the mob had to be told precisely
+what the Allies are, it did not need a lord of language to dilate upon
+"the thirty-two teeth of Wilson's undecipherable smile," to say that the
+French "drunk with victory, again fly all their plumes in the wind, tune
+up all their fanfares, quicken their pace in order to pass the most
+resolute and speedy--and we step aside to let them pass." No laurel will
+be added to his fame for having spoken of "the people of the five meals"
+[the English] which, "its bloody work hardly ended, reopens its jaws to
+devour as much as it can." All Italy resounded with the catchword that
+the Croats had been Austria's most faithful servants, although some
+Italians, such as Admiral Millo, as we shall see, when writing
+confidentially, did not say anything so foolish. Very frequently,
+however, as the Croats noticed, those who had been the most
+uncompromising wielders of Austria's despotism were taken on by Italy,
+the new despot. For example, at Split when the mayor and other Yugoslav
+leaders were arrested at the beginning of the War, one Francis
+Mandirazza was appointed as Government Commissary, after having filled
+the political post of district captain (Bezirkshauptmann) which was only
+given to those who were in the entire confidence of the Government. As
+soon as the Italians had possession of [vS]ibenik they took him into
+their service.
+
+
+THOSE WHO HELD BACK FROM THE PACT OF ROME
+
+_The New Europe_, whose directors had taken a chief part in bringing the
+Italians and the Yugoslavs together, which congress had resulted in the
+Pact of Rome, of April 1918, pointed out that in those dark days of the
+high-water mark of the great German offensive, this Pact--which provided
+the framework of an agreement, on the principle of "live and let
+live"--was publicly approved of by the Italian Premier and his
+colleagues, but was rejected now when the danger was past and Austria
+was broken up. Those who brought about the Pact reminded Italy that she
+was bound to it by honour and that the South Slav statesmen never had
+withdrawn from the position which it placed them in with reference to
+Italy.... Everyone must sympathize with the disappointment of those
+gentlemen who--Messrs. Franklin-Bouillon, Wickham Steed and Seton-Watson
+were associated in this endeavour--had striven for a noble end, had
+achieved something in spite of many obstacles, and now saw that one
+party simply would not use the bridge which they had built for it. This
+party had, however, shown such reticence both while the bridge was being
+made and afterwards that one could scarcely be astonished at their
+attitude. The Congress at Rome was in no sense official, but a
+voluntary meeting of private persons, who were got together with a
+certain amount of trouble. So unofficial, in fact, was the Congress that
+those Serbs who worked with the representatives of the Yugoslav
+Committee belonged to the Opposition; the Serbian Government, then in
+Corfu, not giving their adhesion to the Congress, which was perhaps a
+very clever move on the part of Pa[vs]i['c]. Whether it be true or not
+that Signor Amendolla, the General Secretary--he is the political
+director of the _Corriere della Sera_--was asked by the Yugoslav
+Committee not to admit any Serbian deputies except those of the
+Opposition, it appears that no other Serbs took a part in the
+proceedings. The Italian Government adopted an ambiguous attitude, for
+while Orlando publicly endorsed the resolutions, as did several other
+Ministers, notably Bissolati, the Premier gave no confirmation to those
+who interpreted his attitude as implying the tacit abandonment of
+Italy's extreme territorial claims. Sonnino was so reserved that he took
+no share at all in the Congress and refused to receive the Yugoslavs. He
+made no secret of his determination to exact the London Treaty. Nothing
+was signed by the Italian Government; and if Orlando's honour was
+involved it certainly does not seem possible to say the same of Sonnino.
+It may be that Pa[vs]i['c] foresaw what would happen and was therefore
+unwilling to be implicated. He is an astute statesman of the old
+school--"too old," says _The New Europe_, which regards him as an
+Oriental sultan. But respecting the Pact of Rome they were rather at
+issue with the Italians. What the Italians gained was that the various
+clauses of the Pact were used as the basis for propaganda in the
+Austrian ranks on the Piave. And when once the Austrian peril had
+vanished the old rancour reappeared, particularly when, by the terms of
+the military armistice with Austria, Italy obtained the right to occupy
+a zone corresponding with what she was given by the London Treaty.
+Whereas in that instrument the frontiers were exactly indicated, there
+was in the Pact of Rome no more than a general agreement that the
+principles of nationality and self-determination should be applied, with
+due regard to other "vital interests." Bissolati's group was in favour
+of something more definite, but to this Orlando was not well disposed;
+and Trumbi['c], the President of the Yugoslav Committee, did not avail
+himself of the, perhaps rather useless, offer of some Serbs who were not
+participating in the Congress, but suggested that while he worked with
+the Government they would keep in touch with the Bissolati group; even
+as Bismarck who would work openly with a Government, and through his
+agents with the Opposition.
+
+
+GATHERING WINDS
+
+As the Serbian Society of Great Britain observed in a letter of welcome
+which they addressed to Baron Sonnino on the occasion of a visit to
+London, they were convinced "after a close study and experience of the
+Southern Slav question in all its aspects and some knowledge of the
+Adriatic problem as a whole, that there is no necessary or inevitable
+conflict between the aspiration of the Southern Slav people towards
+complete unity and the postulates of Italian national security and of
+the completion of Italian unity; but that, on the contrary, there exist
+strong grounds for Italo-Southern Slav co-operation and friendship." The
+Italian Government, however, had now got almost their whole country
+behind them, and in the months after the War so many Italians had become
+warlike that they were enchanted with the picture drawn by Gabriele
+d'Annunzio: "And what peace will in the end be imposed on us, poor
+little ones of Christ? A Gallic peace? A British peace? A star-spangled
+peace? Then, no! Enough! Victorious Italy--the most victorious of all
+the nations--victorious over herself and over the enemy--will have on
+the Alps and over her sea the _Pax Romana_, the sole peace that is
+fitting. If necessary we will meet the new plot in the fashion of the
+Arditi [units of volunteers employed on specially dangerous
+enterprises], a grenade in each hand and a knife between our teeth." It
+is true that the other poor little ones of Christ, the Franciscans, who
+are greatly beloved by the people of Dalmatia, from whom they are
+sprung, have hitherto preached a different _Pax Romana_. The Dalmatian
+clergy, who are patriotic, have been rather a stumbling-block in the
+way of the Italians. A very small percentage of them--about six in a
+thousand--have been anti-national and opportunist. At one place a priest
+whom his bishop had some years ago had occasion to expel, returned with
+the Italian army in November 1918 and informed the bishop that he had a
+letter from the Pope which reinstated him, but he refused to show this
+letter. He was anxious to preach on the following Sunday; the bishop
+declined to allow him. Then came unto the bishop the chief of the
+Italian soldiery and he said unto him: "Either thou shalt permit this
+man to preach or I will cause thine office to be taken from thee."
+Unfortunately the bishop yielded, and the sermon, as one would imagine,
+was devoted to the greater glory of the Italians. Sometimes the
+Italians, since their occupation, have made a more humorous if not more
+successful use of the Church. On Palm Sunday, after the service a number
+of peasants, in their best clothes, were walking through a village
+holding the usual palm leaves in their hands. They were photographed,
+and a popular Italian newspaper printed this as a full-page coloured
+illustration. It was entitled: "Dalmatian Peasants on their way to pay
+Homage to Admiral Millo."
+
+This policy of a grenade in each hand and a knife between the teeth
+makes a powerful appeal to the munition firms. And others who feed the
+flame of Italo-Slav hatred are, as Gaetano Salvemini, the
+anti-chauvinist, pointed out in the _Unita_ of Florence, those
+professional gladiators who would lose their job, those agents of the
+Italo-German-Levantine capitalism of the Triest Chamber of Commerce who
+want to be rid of the competition of Rieka and think that this can only
+be obtained by annexation, and also those Italian Nationalists who
+believe that the only path to national greatness is by acquiring
+territory everywhere. No light has come to them from the East; the same
+arguments which are now put forward by such societies as the "Pro
+Dalmatia" could be heard in Italy before she possessed herself of
+Tripoli. One heard the same talk of strategic necessities; one heard
+that nearly all the population was waiting with open arms for the
+Italians; one heard that from a business point of view nothing could be
+better; one heard that the Italians without Tripoli would be choked out
+of the Mediterranean. And what have been the fruits of the conquest of
+Tripoli? No economic advantages have been procured, as Prezzolini wrote,
+no sociological, no strategic, no diplomatic benefits. A great deal of
+money was thrown away, a vast amount of energy was wasted, and thousands
+of troops have to be stationed permanently in the wilderness. That
+expedition to Tripoli, which was one of the gravest errors of Italian
+politics, was preceded by clouds of forged documents, of absurdities, of
+partial extracts out of consular reports, of lying correspondence which
+succeeded in misleading the Italians.
+
+
+WHY THE ITALIANS CLAIMED DALMATIA
+
+"The Italian Government," said the _Morning Post_,[22] "is well
+qualified to judge of the interests of its own people." Here the
+_Morning Post_ is not speaking of the Italian Government which dealt
+with Tripoli, but that which has been dealing with Dalmatia. The reasons
+which have been advanced for an Italian or a partly Italian Dalmatia are
+geographical, botanical, historical, ethnical, military, naval and
+economic. As for the geographical reasons: even in the schools of Italy
+they teach that the Italian natural frontier is determined by the point
+of division of the waters of the Alps and that this frontier falls at
+Porto Re, a few miles to the south of Rieka--everything to the south of
+that belonging to the Balkan Peninsula. We may note the gallant
+patriotism of an Italian cartographer mentioned by Prezzolini; this
+worthy has inscribed a map of Dalmatia down to the Narenta with the
+pleasing words: "The new natural boundaries of Italy." As for the
+argument that the flora of Dalmatia resembles that of Italy, this can
+equally well be employed by those who would annex Italy to Dalmatia.
+Historically, we have seen that Venice, which held for many years the
+seacoast and the islands, did not alter the Slav character of the
+country. It is not now the question as to whether Venice deserved or did
+not deserve well of Dalmatia, but "the truth is," says M. Emile
+Haumant,[23] the learned and impartial French historian, "the truth is
+that when Marmont's Frenchmen arrived they found the Slav language
+everywhere, the Italian by its side on the islands and the coast,
+Italian customs and culture in the towns, and also the lively and
+sometimes affectionate remembrance of Venice; but nowhere did a
+Dalmatian tell them that he was an Italian. On the contrary, they all
+affirmed that they were brothers of the Slav beyond, in whose
+misfortunes they shared and whose successes they celebrated." The
+Italians themselves, in achieving their unity, were very right to set
+aside the undoubted historical claims of the Kingdom of the Two
+Sicilies, those of the House of Este and those of the Vatican, seeing
+that they were in opposition to the principle of nationality and the
+right of a people to determine its own political status. With regard to
+the ethnical reasons, we are flogging another dead horse, as the
+statistics--even those taken during the Italian occupation--prove to the
+meanest intellect; and now the pro-Italians, despairing to make anyone
+believe that the 97.5 per cent. of the people of Dalmatia are truly
+Italians who by some kink in their nature persist in calling themselves
+Slavs, have invented a brand new nationality, the Dalmatian, after the
+classic style of the late Professor Jagi['c] who at Vienna, under the
+pressure of the Austrian Government, began talking of the Bosnian
+language in order not to say that it is Serbo-Croat. He was drowned in
+laughter. With respect to the military reasons, the Dalmatian littoral
+cannot be defended by a State which is not in possession of the
+hinterland. In time of peace a very strong army would be needed; Italy
+would, in fact, have to double her army for the defence of a frontier
+700 kilometres long. And in the event of war it would be necessary
+either to abandon Dalmatia or to form two armies of operation, one on
+the frontiers of Julian Venetia, the other in Dalmatia, and without any
+liaison between them. From the military point of view it is incomparably
+more to the interest of Italy that she should live on friendly terms
+with the people of the eastern shore of the Adriatic than that she
+should maintain there an army out of all proportion to her military and
+economic resources--an army which in time of war would be worse than
+useless, since, as M. Gauvain observes, the submarines, which would find
+their nesting-places in the islands, would destroy the lines of
+communication. An Italian naval argument is, that if she had to fight on
+the eastern side of the Adriatic her sailors in the morning would have
+the sun in their eyes; but the Yugoslavs would be similarly handicapped
+in the case of an evening battle. With regard to the economic reasons,
+the longitudinal lines will continue to guarantee to the Germans and
+Magyars the commercial monopoly of the East, and Italy will perceive
+that she has paid very dearly for a blocked-up window. The sole method
+by which Italy can from the Adriatic cause her commerce to penetrate to
+the Balkans is by concluding with a friendly Yugoslavia the requisite
+commercial treaties, which will grow more valuable with the construction
+of the lateral railways, running inland from the coast, which Austrians
+and Magyars so constantly impeded.
+
+
+CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY OF LONDON
+
+If, then, it is difficult to see where the Italian interests will be
+profited by the possession of Dalmatia, there remains the argument that,
+irrespective of the consequences, she must have a good deal of it since
+it was allotted to her by the Treaty of London,[24] although the
+engagements entered into by Italy, France and Great Britain when they
+signed the Treaty with Germany caused the earlier instrument to be
+subject to revision where its terms had been disregarded. Signor
+Orlando, in an interview granted in April 1918 to the _Journal des
+Debats_, eagerly insisted that the Treaty had been concluded against the
+Austrian enemy, not against the Yugoslav nation; and if this be more
+than a mere phrase it is clear that with the disappearance of
+Austria-Hungary the Treaty automatically fell to the ground. By this
+Treaty of April 1915, France and Great Britain are bound--if necessary,
+by force of arms--to assist Italy in appropriating what, I believe, will
+be acknowledged to be some one else's country, at all events a country
+the vast proportion of whose inhabitants have determined that on no
+account will they come under the Italians. Would it not have been
+advisable if those who signed this document had made a few not very
+recondite researches into eastern Adriatic questions? They must have
+felt some qualms at the cries of indignation and amazement which arose
+when the provisions of the Treaty were disclosed, for it did not remain
+a secret very long. They had imagined, on the whole, that as Dalmatia
+had been under alien rulers, Venetian, Austrian and so forth, for so
+many years it really would not matter to them very much if they were
+governed from Vienna or from Rome. Perhaps a statesman here and there
+had heard that the Dalmatian Diet had petitioned many times since 1870
+that they should be reunited to their brothers of Croatia and Slavonia
+in the Triune Kingdom. But all the calculations seem to have been made
+upon the basis that Austria-Hungary would survive, as a fairly
+formidable Power at any rate. The union of the Southern Slavs was too
+remote, and the Italians would be kindly masters. When the howl of
+indignation rose, the statesmen seem to have conceived the hope that the
+Italians would be generous and wise. The chief blame for the Treaty does
+not rest, however, on the Frenchmen and the Englishmen, but on the
+Russians; it was naturally felt that they should be more cognizant of
+Slav affairs, and if they were content to sign the Treaty, France and
+England might well follow their example. When Dr. Zari['c], the Bishop
+of Split, saw the former Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonov, in Paris
+in the spring of 1919, this gentleman was in a state of such dejection
+that the Bishop, out of pity, did not try to probe the matter.
+"Sometimes," said Sazonov, "sometimes the circumstances are too much
+opposed to you and you have to act against your inclinations."[25] The
+French and British statesmen gave the Bishop the impression that they
+were ashamed of the Treaty. He read to them in turn a memorandum in
+which he suggested that the whole Dalmatian question should be left to
+the arbitration of President Wilson, who was well informed, through
+experts, of the local conditions. And was it, in any case, just that an
+Italian, both claimant and judge, should sit on the Council of Four, to
+which no Yugoslav was admitted? To President Wilson the Bishop said,
+"You have come to fight for the just cause."
+
+The President made no reply.
+
+The Bishop, a native of the island of Hvar, a great linguist, was a man
+who made you think that a very distinguished mind had entered the body
+of the late Cardinal Vaughan. To him the most noticeable features of the
+President were the clear brow, the mystic eyes and the mouth which
+showed that he stood firmly on the ground.
+
+"You have come to work and fight for the peace," said the Bishop.
+
+"Yes, indeed, to fight," said Dr. Wilson. "And I will act with all my
+energy. You," he said, "you must help me."
+
+"I will help you," said the Bishop, "with my prayers."
+
+The Yugoslav Delegation in Paris had, on the authority of the Belgrade
+Cabinet, suggested that the question should be arbitrated.
+
+"The Italians have declined the arbitration," said Dr. Zari['c], "just
+as in the War Germany and Austria declined yours."
+
+The President nodded.
+
+"They have committed many disorders in our fair land," said the Bishop.
+
+"I know, I know," said the President.
+
+But, it will be asked, why did not Dr. Wilson insist on a just
+settlement of the Adriatic question, taking into his own hands that
+which Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau were so chary of touching?
+These two statesmen, with the London Treaty hanging over them, wanted
+Wilson's assent for matters in which British and French interests were
+more directly concerned, while they required Sonnino's co-operation in
+the Treaty with Germany. It would have suited them very well if Wilson
+had taken such energetic steps with Italy that they themselves could,
+suitably protesting to Sonnino, be swept along by the presidential
+righteousness. But Dr. Wilson was disappointing those who had--in the
+first place because of the lofty language of his Notes--awaited a really
+great man. He was seen to be out of his depth; strenuously he sought to
+rescue his Fourteen Points and to steer the Covenant of the League
+through the rocks and shallows of European diplomacy. Sonnino, playing
+for time, involved the good Wilson in a maze of confused negotiations,
+while nearly every organ of Italian official and unofficial opinion was
+defaming the President. On April 15 Dr. Wilson in a memorandum suggested
+the famous "Wilson Line" in Istria, which thrust the Italian frontier
+westwards, so that Rieka should be safeguarded from the threat of an
+Italian occupation of Monte Maggiore. Italy was to give up northern
+Dalmatia and all the islands, save Lussin and Vis; in return she was to
+be protected by measures limiting the naval and military powers of
+Yugoslavia. When Wilson appealed over the head of the Italian Government
+to the people, their passions had been excited to such a degree that
+much more harm was done than good. It is said that he had promised
+Messrs. Lloyd George and Clemenceau that he would not publish his letter
+for three hours, but that--pride of authorship triumphing over
+prudence--it was circulated to the Press two hours before this time was
+up, and a compromise which had been worked out by Mr. Lloyd George had
+perforce to be abandoned. This was one of the occasions when the
+President's impulsiveness burst out through his cold exterior, when his
+strength of purpose, his grim determination to fight for justice were
+undermined by his egotism.
+
+
+ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO
+
+For months the Italians had been consoling themselves with the thought
+that such a hybrid affair as Yugoslavia would never really come into
+existence. Some visionaries might attempt to join the Serbs and Croats
+and Slovenes, yet these must be as rare as Blake, who testified that
+"when others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the sons of
+God shouting for joy." One only had to listen, one could hear already
+how they were growling, how they were quarrelling, how they were killing
+each other. In Montenegro, for example, and Albania the Italians were
+greatly interested--not always as spectators. If you tell a hungry
+Montenegrin peasant in the winter that there is a chance of his
+obtaining flour and--well, that he may have to fight for it, but he will
+get good booty at Cetinje, he will go there. In January 1919 there was a
+battle. "The Montenegrin people rose in rebellion against the Serbians
+to recover their independence," said an Italian writer, one Dr. Attilio
+Tamaro in a weekly paper called _Modern Italy_, which was published in
+London. "This intensely popular revolt, animated by the heroically
+patriotic spirit of the Montenegrins, was relentlessly suffocated in
+blood. In the little city of Cetinje alone, where there are but a few
+thousand inhabitants, over 400 were killed and wounded. The Serbians and
+the French together accomplished this sanguinary repression. We repeat,
+it is painful to see the French lend their men, their blood and their
+glorious arms to the carrying out of the low intrigues of Balkan
+politics." The money and the arms that were found on the dead and
+captured rebels were Italian. If the schemes of the Italians had not
+been upset by the timely arrival of the Yugoslav forces, with the few
+Frenchmen, they would have occupied Cetinje and restored the traitor
+king. As it was, they occupied Antivari, from which place they smuggled
+arms and munitions into the country. They conspired with the adherents
+of the old regime, a very small body of men who were enormously alarmed
+at the loss of their privileged position. The chief of them was Jovan
+Plamenac, a former Minister whom the people at Podgorica had refused to
+hear, a few weeks previously, when he attempted to address them. He was
+hated on account of the most ruthless fashion in which, as Minister, he
+had executed certain of his master's critics at Kola[vs]in. There was a
+time, during the first Balkan War, when he advocated union with Serbia
+and on April 6, 1916, he wrote in the _Bosnische Post_ of Sarajevo that
+Nikita, owing to his flight, "may be regarded as no longer existing."
+But his unpopularity remained and, with vengeance burning in his heart,
+he went from Podgorica to the Italians. They concocted a nice plan--he
+was to raise an army of his countrymen and the Italians would bring
+their garrison from Scutari. On January 1 Plamenac and his partisans
+tried to seize Virpazar, on the Lake of Scutari--the Commandant of the
+Italian troops at Scutari, one Molinaro, had asked the chief of the
+Allied troops, three days before this attempt, whether he might dispatch
+two companies to that place for the purpose of suppressing the disorders
+which had not yet come to pass. Another rising was engineered at
+Cetinje, where twenty or thirty of the poor peasants who had let
+themselves be talked over by Plamenac were killed; the rest of the
+misguided fellows were sent home, only their leaders being detained.
+Plamenac himself escaped to Albania.[26] On the side of the Montenegrin
+Provisional Government no regular troops were available, as the Yugoslav
+soldiers who had lately arrived were engaged in policing other parts of
+the country. Volunteers were needed and a body of young men, mostly
+students, enrolled themselves. They were so busy that they omitted to
+inform Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that they really were Montenegrin
+students. That indignant gentleman insists that they were Serbs, armed
+with French and British rifles, against which, he tells us (in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, January 1921) the insurgents could not do much.
+Eleven of these volunteers were killed and they were buried underneath
+the tree where Nikita used to administer his brand of justice. All kinds
+of incriminating documents were found upon the dead and captured rebels,
+as also a significant letter from the Italian Minister accredited to
+Nikita, which was addressed to the chancellor of the Italian Legation at
+Cetinje. An inter-Allied Commission, over which General Franchet
+d'Esperey presided, issued their report on February 8 at Podgorica. "All
+the troops," it said, "in Montenegro are Yugoslavs and not Serbs; there
+are not more than 500 of them." It further stated that the rebellion had
+been provoked by certain agents of the ex-King, assisted by some Italian
+agents. As for the ridiculous Italian charge which I quoted, accusing
+the French of a share in the low intrigues of Balkan politics, this
+participation consisted in their General at Kotor demanding of
+Darkovi['c], the leader of the Montenegrin deputies, that his followers
+and the rebels should not come to blows. The reply, which annoyed the
+General, was to the effect that if the rebels made an attack, then
+Darkovi['c] with his scratch forces would defend himself--and the battle
+lasted for two or three days. A junior French officer, who had been in
+command of a small detachment at Cetinje, told me that the noise of
+firing had awakened him every night and he had not the least idea what
+it was all about. But the French had a pretty accurate idea of the
+nationality of the "brigands" who on December 29 fired on the SS.
+_Skroda_ and _Satyre_ near the village of Samouritch when it was
+carrying a cargo of flour up the Bojana for the Montenegrins. These
+vessels were sailing under the French flag and the "brigands," about
+fifty in number, were armed with machine guns. An International
+Commission established these facts, as also that the Italian ship
+_Vedeta_ passed up the river just before the outrage and the _Mafalda_
+just after it, and neither of them was molested. In consequence of what
+occurred and as practically all the supplies for Montenegro had at that
+time to be sent by the Bojana, General Dufour, in the absence of French
+troops, authorized the Serbs on February 12 to occupy the commanding
+position of Tarabosh.
+
+
+WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF THE AUSTRIANS THERE
+
+These Yugoslav troops had been detached from the left wing of the
+Salonica forces and had come overland in order to deal with the
+situation in Montenegro. The Austrians had been in a woeful plight; it
+was regarded as a punishment to serve in Montenegro and Albania, not
+only because of the lack of amenities and the unruly spirit of the
+people, but also for the reason that the officers who came there--many
+managed to avoid it--were too often causes of dissatisfaction. More
+complaints had gone up from this front than from any other. The supplies
+allotted by the High Command in Austria were ample, as the Rieka depots
+testified, but a great deal did not reach its proper destination. Some
+officers took down their wives or other ladies, loading up the army
+motor-cars with luxuries of food and grand pianos, while the men were
+forced to tramp enormous distances; if anyone fell out, the natives in
+Albania would emerge from where they had been hiding and would deprive
+the wretched man of his equipment and his clothing, and perhaps his
+life. The sanitary section of that Austrian army was not good; it
+happened frequently that victims of malaria and wounded men were told to
+walk--if they arrived, so much the better. These poor fellows did not
+know that if they ultimately got back to Vienna they might be the
+objects of Imperial solicitude--the least to be dreaded was the Archduke
+Salvator, who was wont to come to a hospital, with his wife, and to
+bestow on every man a coloured picture-postcard of their Imperial and
+Royal persons, with a sentence printed underneath respecting their
+paternal and maternal love; it was officially reported in Vienna, of
+another hospital, that those who lay there had been spending "happy
+hours" in "the circle of the exalted Family"--this referred to the
+Archduchess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions for the piano are said
+to be beyond all criticism; she herself did not play them, but would sit
+there while they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men. Not
+very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers who were taken to
+that hospital in Buda-Pest over which the Archduchess Augusta, a
+strikingly ugly woman, presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were
+allowed to be dressed until the Archduchess, arrayed in uniform and
+armed with a revolver, made her appearance of an evening. The officers
+were told that it was etiquette for them to broach a pleasant
+conversation with their benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg
+was the Archduchess Blanka, who was interested in medicine; she had
+thought out for herself a remedy which human ailments never would
+withstand, but which was more especially effective in cases of
+tuberculosis, of malaria and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the
+Kirchstetterngasse she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys. Her
+treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers; the patients were
+packed in these bandages and that was all that was done to them. With
+regard to the diet, there were no particular regulations. Some of the
+men were sent from there to another and less original hospital, but it
+was often too late.
+
+
+AND OF THE NATIVES
+
+The Montenegrins who had been for so long--some of them for three
+years--leading a congenial life among their rocks, descending now and
+then to kill an Austrian and to gather booty, were most active when the
+ill-starred Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians, for
+instance, took the road from Kola[vs]in with the intention of marching
+to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres. Thirty-five of them arrived
+there. Thus the population avenged such incidents as the hanging by the
+Austrian authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General
+Ve[vs]ovi['c],[27] the General having taken to the hills and his brother
+being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians had now to pay the
+penalty of ruthlessness; on September 1, 1917, Count Clam Martini['c],
+the Military Governor, issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: "In
+consequence of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that
+telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians, we make the
+following order:
+
+     "1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage will be
+     summarily shot, their houses will be razed to the ground and
+     their property confiscated by the Military Administration
+     Authorities.
+
+     "2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found, the
+     procedure will be as follows:--
+
+       "(_a_) The commune where the act of sabotage has taken place
+       will be condemned to a heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not
+       paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle will be seized.
+
+       "(_b_) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of sabotage
+       are repeated, will be executed in their commune."
+
+Life under the Austrians had become unendurable. Typhoid fever, marsh
+fever, typhus and dysentery assumed such proportions that in the towns
+and villages one saw--apart from such notices as Order No. 3110--no
+other bills posted up on the walls but those containing advice as to the
+correct way of nursing the sick. While poor wretches were dying of
+hunger in the hospitals and on the high road for want of bread, the
+authorities published a recipe for the making of wheat-butter, which was
+a recent discovery of German science, reputed to be very nourishing for
+debilitated organisms. But the price of a kilo (2 lb.) of wheat was 12
+crowns (about 10s.). When the epidemic of typhus, which broke out in
+Cetinje and in the Njegu[vs] clan, reached alarming proportions and
+spread to other districts, the medical authorities advertised that
+household effects and linen should be washed with water and potatoes. A
+kilo of potatoes, in the autumn of 1917, cost a price equivalent to 6s.,
+a quart of oil cost L2, 10s., a quart of milk 5s., a kilo of coffee L2,
+18s. 4d., a yard of cloth L4, 4s. to L6, 6s., a pair of boots L8, 7s. An
+average of 200 persons--mainly women and children--were dying every day
+of starvation.
+
+The Austrian army in retreat was incapable of action. It occupied a line
+east of Podgorica: Bioce-Tuzi-Lake of Scutari, with very few guns. The
+troops were scanty, they were weakened by malaria, etc.; but the
+Italians pursued them with great caution. The chief enemies were
+Albanians and Montenegrins. The wily Austrians gave rifles to the
+Albanians in order that they should attack the Montenegrins, but they
+were often used against their former owners. Then the contingents of the
+Salonica army came across the mountains, and when the Austrians went
+north, as best they could, the Yugoslavs of the Imperial and Royal
+army--Bosniaks were well represented--pinned on their tunics the
+national colours and were greeted by the inhabitants. Arriving at
+Cetinje they heard the incredible news that a Yugoslav State had been
+founded, that the Austrian navy had been handed over to the Yugoslavs,
+that French and Italians were already at Kotor. During the journey to
+that port the commanders were depressed, but the rank and file rejoiced
+at the idea of going home. Discipline was at an end. Thousands of
+rockets were fired into the air. It was the end of the Habsburg
+monarchy.
+
+
+NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED
+
+The next thing for the Montenegrins to do was to depose Nikita. By a
+futile proclamation that personage had tried in October to resist the
+union of the Yugoslavs; he had made a last desperate attempt to save his
+crown. "I am ready to do," he said, "what my people desires." He
+plaintively protested that all his life had been dedicated to their
+service and now he wanted to go back to ascertain precisely what they
+wished. "Montenegro," he had said, "belongs to a nation of heroes, who
+fought with honour for the highest ideals." But when on November 24 the
+Great National Skup[vs]tina met, and when on the 26th it unanimously
+deposed him--the old gentleman was wise enough to follow the advice of
+some French statesmen and remain where he was. "Here am I amongst you,
+dressed in our beautiful national costume," he said at Neuilly to his
+supporters, on one of the occasions when he denied that he had been a
+traitor or anything so dreadful. But being a prudent old gentleman he
+refrained from uttering these words at Podgorica, where the Skup[vs]tina
+had met; a better plan was to communicate with the Press Association, in
+the hope that many editors would print his words. If it was a final
+anti-climax for a mediaeval prince--ah well, what is life but one long
+anti-climax? He would protest against the constitution of the
+Skup[vs]tina. He had by no means given his approval to the new election
+laws; and if, contrary to his own practice, the gendarmes were having
+nothing to do with the urns, that was merely in order to curry favour
+with the Western Powers. The deputies were chosen by the people
+indirectly--that is to say, every ten men elected a representative, and
+these in their turn elected the deputies. This was not done by ballot,
+for Montenegro, like Hungary, had never known the ballot. An absurd
+outcry was raised by Nikita's band of adventurers and their unhappy
+dupes in this country; they called the world to witness this most
+palpable iniquity on the part of the Serbs, whose armed forces had
+rushed across the mountains, and the moment they arrived in Montenegro
+had so overawed the population that this pro-Serb, pro-Yugoslav
+Skup[vs]tina was duly chosen. Go to! Of course it was a sad
+disappointment to Nikita that a Yugoslav instead of an Italian army
+should occupy Montenegro. He had telegraphed at the beginning of the War
+to Belgrade that: "Serbia may rely on the brotherly and unconditional
+support of Montenegro, in this moment on which depends the fate of the
+Serbian nation, as well as on any other occasion"; and since he knew,
+without any telegram, that Serbia would in her turn support
+Montenegro--but not the tiny pro-Nikita faction--he was reduced to the
+appalling straits of a plot to force himself upon his own people by
+means of a foreign army. Now the composition of the aforementioned
+Yugoslav forces should be noted--after more than six years of heroic
+fighting against the Turks, the Bulgars, the Austro-Germans, the
+Albanian blizzards, and again the Bulgars and the Austro-Germans there
+did not survive a very large number of the splendid veterans of Marshal
+Mi[vs]i['c], and in Macedonia the ranks were filled by Yugoslav
+volunteers from the United States. Many of these Yugoslavs (over half of
+them Dalmatians and Bosnians) were included, in the army which entered
+Montenegro. The whole force at the time of the National Skup[vs]tina
+consisted of about 200 men, ten of whom were Serbs from the old
+kingdom--and if anyone maintains that 200 men could impose their will
+upon a population of 350,000 which has arms enough and is skilful in the
+use of arms, he makes it clear that he knows little of the Montenegrins.
+
+
+THE ASSEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM
+
+The Podgorica Skup[vs]tina was not elected by these troops. No one will
+pretend that in the excitement of those days the voting was conducted in
+a calm and methodical fashion. Here and there a dead man was elected;
+the proceedings--though they were not faked, as in Nikita's time--were
+rough-and-ready. But if the deputies had been selected in a more
+haphazard fashion, say according to the first letter of their surnames,
+the result would have been identical--they would, with a crushing
+majority, have deposed their King and voted for the merging of their
+country in the rest of Yugoslavia. If the former Skup[vs]tina had been
+convoked, as some people advocated--it would have most effectively
+nonplussed the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might even have
+silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who asserted[28] that this "packed
+assembly" consisted of "Serbian subjects and bought agents in about
+equal numbers")--but then two-fifths of the country--those territories
+acquired in the Balkan War--would not have been represented. Observe,
+however, that the Skup[vs]tina in Nikita's time was for union with
+Serbia. Even then--although of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14,
+while the other 62, of course, were people whom he pretty well approved
+of--even then they had passed resolutions in favour of an economic
+union, a common army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica
+Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were from the new areas. The
+Constitution did not provide for such an assembly; but Nikita's friends
+who clamoured for the Constitution evidently had forgotten that under
+Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and people is declared
+to have forfeited his legal rights. Those foolish partisans who cried
+that it was monstrous not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins
+had come back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of Nikita's Red
+Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused to take. Moreover,
+certain of them were elected, after their arrival, as vacancies
+occurred, and they were also represented among the dozen deputies whom
+the Skup[vs]tina chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders
+happened during the elections, the best available men were chosen--76 of
+them having enjoyed a university education. It is worthy of remark that
+while 20 of the Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former
+parliaments, another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out of
+the total number of past and present deputies (_i.e._ over 300), only 15
+declared for a kind of autonomy, but were in favour of Yugoslav union.
+The Metropolitan of Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war
+Premiers gave their unreserved support to the new regime. With them was
+the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen Vukoti['c], a grand-looking
+personage who has remained all his life a poor man; he was questioned by
+General Franchet d'Esperey as to whether he had also voted against his
+brother-in-law. "If I had seven heads and on each of them a crown,"
+answered the Voivoda, "I would give them all for the union of the
+Southern Slavs." ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia? "The Black
+Mountain," said Nikita at Neuilly--"the Black Mountain, as well as her
+national King, has always pursued the same path, the only one leading to
+the realization of our sacred ideal--that of National Unity." One might
+object that a national King should really not have written to his
+daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918, that he would propose a republic for
+all the Serbs and Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and
+the two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe for a republic,
+but that in advanced circles his suggestion would be enthusiastically
+received, and in a short time he would reap the benefit. "That," he
+wrote, "is my impression--it may be that I am wrong--but I do not know
+what else I can do." And a truly national King--but the world, as
+Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders, and nothing is more wonderful
+than man--a truly national King should not have supported those twenty
+Montenegrins who in the summer of 1919 assembled at the monastery of
+De[vc]ani with the design of establishing a Bol[vs]evik republic. Before
+the Yugoslav troops could reach the spot these men were surrounded by
+Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
+intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute
+representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found
+only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
+"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking
+'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived,
+and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....
+The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.
+Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest
+folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that
+sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had
+not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a
+rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack
+of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given
+them short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's
+panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted
+as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at
+least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his
+charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better
+days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.
+
+After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was
+issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began,
+"the great and bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
+Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....
+Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished
+themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
+sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....
+Let us reject all attempts which may be made to deprive us of our happy
+future and put us in a position of blind and miserable isolation
+henceforth to work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths. One
+is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future, the other is covered
+with dangerous and impenetrable brambles." If any disinterested and
+intelligent foreigner, say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought
+that it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she, like Croatia,
+Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself in the Yugoslav State or
+whether he considered that the sort of federation which the ex-King had
+suggested would assist more efficaciously the welfare--social,
+economical and national--of the Montenegrin, he would not have thanked
+you for asking so superfluous a question.... Nikita then asserted that
+those terrible Serbian bayonets had caused the Podgorica Skup[vs]tina to
+vote as it did. Anyone who has spoken to one of those Bocchesi or
+Dalmatian volunteers who were at that time in Montenegro will quite
+believe that they applauded the result, but to pretend that they drove
+the Skup[vs]tina with bayonets to do what every reasoning creature would
+have done is so farcical that one might have thought it would not even
+form (as it did form) the subject for questions in the British House of
+Commons.... The only part played by bayonets was when on November 7 (one
+day previous to that fixed for the elections) a detachment of the
+Italian army landed at Antivari and another marched to within about six
+kilometres of Cetinje, where they were met by the Montenegrin National
+Guard, were told that bigger forces, which it was difficult to restrain,
+would shortly arrive and were given one hour in which to depart. Of this
+they availed themselves, announcing that they were all Republicans. They
+left behind them an elderly man who was sick and requested the
+Montenegrins not to murder him. The Italians and Nikita's friends soon
+afterwards spread a report of horrible murders in Montenegro. Certain
+Allied officers went up to investigate the matter and found that the
+charges were baseless. They were told by Mr. Gloma[vz]ic, the prefect of
+Cetinje, that the Allies, apart from the Italians, could go anywhere in
+Montenegro, but that the Italians would be opposed by force of arms and
+that if the Allies came up together with the Italians, then they too
+would be attacked. Thereupon the Allied officers invited Mr. Gloma[vz]ic
+to lunch.
+
+
+NIKITA'S SORROW FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS
+
+Nikita had no hopes that any good would come from such a Skup[vs]tina.
+In 1912 it had been different; with a budget of some 6,200,000 perpers
+(or francs), including the Russian subsidies and the revenues from the
+Italian tobacco monopoly, the royal civil-list comprised 11 per cent. of
+the expenses, while the police accounted for 12 per cent., agriculture
+and commerce 11/2 per cent., public works 4 per cent. and education 5
+per cent. The Skup[vs]tina of that period had not caused him to pay more
+attention to the people's requirements. The darkness in which they lived
+was so profound that when Montenegro had to pay the interest on a
+six-million-franc loan from Great Britain no one in Cetinje could
+calculate how much was due; a telegram was therefore sent to London
+asking for this information and the date when payment should be made. If
+his people did not prevent him from allocating merely 11,000 francs to
+the Ministry of Justice for the increase of salaries and so forth, while
+the Ministry of the Interior received 700,000 francs for the work of
+spying, the expense of killing people and various propaganda--both these
+items being labelled "special expenses"--then Nikita had no fault to
+find with his Skup[vs]tina. Things were almost as satisfactory as before
+1907, when for the first time a budget was issued and the people were
+told how their contributions were spent. The personal property of the
+sovereign had indeed been formally separated from that of the State in
+1868; but Nikita's manipulations were so little supervised that, even
+when he had established the Skup[vs]tina, he could say with truth,
+"L'etat c'est moi." The Skup[vs]tina of 1918 was going to make vast
+changes.
+
+
+THE STATE OF BOSNIA
+
+In Bosnia, for some time after the Austrian collapse, it was
+inconvenient to travel. If you went by rail you were fortunate if you
+secured a good berth on the roof of a carriage; by road you went less
+rapidly and therefore ran a greater risk of being waylaid by the
+so-called "Green Depot," who were deserters from the Austrian
+army--either through national or other reasons--with their headquarters
+in the forests. Some of them were simply men who had gone home on leave
+and stayed at home. Here and there a National Guard of peaceful
+citizens, irrespective of nationality, was formed against them. But it
+was some time before they were induced to lead a less romantic life.
+What happened afterwards in Bosnia between the Serbs, the Croats and the
+Moslems was so much a matter of routine that the Italians should not
+have run off with the idea that this imperilled Yugoslavia. Of the
+1,898,044 inhabitants in 1910 the proportions were as follows: Orthodox,
+who call themselves Serbs, 43.49 per cent.; Moslem, 32.25 per cent.; and
+Catholics, who call themselves Croats, 22.87 per cent. (The remainder
+are miscellaneous persons, such as 850,000 Jews, who speak the usual
+Balkan Spanish; they play an inconsiderable part in public life.) The
+Serbs, the Moslems and the Croats are identical in race and language,
+but have hitherto been much divided. Those who joined together in the
+Turkish days were led to do so as companions in distress; the rule of
+Austria, or to speak with greater accuracy the rule of Hungary--no one
+knew exactly who possessed the land, but the Magyars took it for granted
+that it was theirs--this rule, of course, did nothing to unite the
+various religions. The Moslems, especially after their complete
+isolation from Turkey, were the most favoured, while the Serbs, owing to
+the proximity of Serbia, were the most oppressed. And during the War it
+was the Serbian population which was chiefly tortured. Besides all those
+who were dragged away to such places as Arad, hundreds and hundreds were
+hanged in their own province. Not satisfied with using, as we see in so
+many of those ghastly photographs, their own army as the executioners,
+the Austro-Hungarians also organized local bands among the lower classes
+of the towns, and in so doing they availed themselves of any latent
+religious fanaticism among the Moslems. From the day of the Archduke's
+assassination it was the Serbs who suffered most; and many onlookers
+must have expected in the autumn of 1918 that they would take a very
+drastic revenge. For some weeks the people were left very much to their
+own devices, with no troops or police--the Austrian _gendarmerie_ having
+to be protected by the better classes, who explained to the peasants
+that it was not right to regard only the uniform of those who had so
+often maltreated them; yet the gendarmes took the earliest opportunity
+of getting into mufti. There was also for several months a dearth of
+detectives. Many of those who had worked under Austria and were more or
+less criminal, fled at the collapse; others continued to act, but in a
+half-hearted way. Sixty new detectives were taken on by the Yugoslav
+authorities, and fifty-six of them had to be dismissed. After all, if
+one can judge a person's character from his face, the detective who
+allowed you to do so would be so incompetent as not to warrant a trial.
+And after six or seven months of Yugoslav administration only
+thirty-three out of fifty-two detective appointments in Sarajevo had
+been definitely filled. So there was not much restriction on the
+peasants in their dealings with each other. A few of them were murdered.
+In Sarajevo the National Guard was largely composed of well-meaning
+street boys; the Serbian troops did not arrive until November 6, and in
+many parts of Bosnia not until the end of the month. And yet in the
+whole country, with people on the track of those who in the pay of
+Austria had denounced or murdered their relatives, and with the poor
+_kmet_ at last able to rise against the oppressive landlord, there were
+in the first six months under fifty murders, and these were mostly due
+to the desperate straits of the Montenegrins, who came across the
+frontier in search of provisions, during which forays they assassinated
+various people. In the Sandjak of Novi Bazar there was no doubt less
+security; but to anyone who knew, say the Rogatica district, under
+Austria's very capable administration, it will seem that Bosnia, after
+the collapse, was singularly tranquil. Anyhow the population, in the
+summer of 1919, were living on much more amicable terms with one another
+than for many years. The Government met with some criticism, for it was
+alleged to be reserving all the lucrative appointments for the Serbs;
+one had to take into account, however, that it was the Serbs who had
+been chiefly ruined by the War, and it was just that the concessions for
+the sale of tobacco, for the railway restaurants and so forth, should
+be, for the greater part, given to them. Nevertheless it may interest
+travellers to know that the restaurateurs at the stations of Ilid[vz]e
+and Zenica are Catholics--the Moslems are not yet very competent in such
+affairs. They are, as their own leaders sadly confess, the least
+cultured and the least progressive class. As elsewhere in Islam there
+has been a total lack of female education--the mothers of the Sarajevo
+Moslem _intelligentsia_ can neither read nor write, while their sons are
+cultivated people who speak several languages. A change is being
+made--there are already five Moslem lady teachers employed in the mixed
+Government schools; this a few years ago would have been thought
+impossible. It is to be deplored that these divisions into Moslem and
+Orthodox and Catholic should be perpetrated--the Moslem leaders look
+forward to the time, in a few years, when their deputies will no longer
+group themselves apart on account of their religion; but it is unwise to
+introduce too many simultaneous innovations, considering that the
+illiterates of Bosnia number about 90 per cent. of the population. The
+Yugoslav idea will prosper in this country; and, by the way, while you
+meet an occasional Serb who hankers for a Greater Serbia, an occasional
+Croat who would like a Greater Croatia, the Moslems have no aspirations
+save for Yugoslavia. [They speak of "our language," since the word
+"Serbian" has for them too much connection with the Orthodox religion,
+the word "Croatian" with Roman Catholicism.] They are not indifferent to
+the fact that to their own 600,000 in Bosnia they will add the 400,000
+of Macedonia and Old Serbia, together with the 200,000 of Montenegro and
+the Sandjak.... One was inclined to think that the least desirable
+person of the new era in Sarajevo was the editor of the _Srpski Zora_
+("Serbian Dawn"); his methods had a resemblance to those of Lenin, for
+he printed lists of persons whom he called upon the Government to
+prosecute, and when he was himself invited to appear in court and answer
+to some libel charges he declined to go, upon the ground that the laws
+were still Austrian and the judge a Magyar. He disapproved of such
+tolerance, he disapproved of the Croats because they declined to
+recognize that the Serbs had more merit than they, and as for
+Yugoslavia--it was a thing of emptiness--he laughed at it and called it
+Yugovina, the south wind. The only chance of life it had was if you
+left the whole affair to the Serbs and then in two years it would be a
+solid thing. It may be thought that the local Government, since they
+left him at large, endorsed his theories; but they were reluctant to
+give him a halo of martyrdom. They imagined that he was nervous because
+he was losing ground--they acknowledged, though, that he still gave
+pleasure to a great many Serbs, who were carried away by his appeals to
+their old prejudices. It is undeniable that with the peculiar traditions
+and customs of Bosnia, that province must for some years have a
+Government--whatever method is evolved for the other parts of
+Yugoslavia--whose eyes are not turned constantly to Belgrade. It might
+even be well to set up a local Chamber in which all classes would be
+represented. The Moslems and Croats would thus lose any lurking fear
+that they were being swamped, and by coming into contact with other
+political parties even the less cultured classes would gradually tend to
+discard these fatal religious, in favour of political, divisions. A
+somewhat primitive Balkan community cannot be expected of its own accord
+to love henceforward in the name of politics those whom hitherto it has
+hated in the name of religion. And as yet they are much more interested
+in the harvest than in politics; from day to day they change their
+views, according to the views of the last orator from Belgrade, Zagreb
+or Ljubljana. Only the Socialists appear to be well disciplined. Of
+course the present political parties in Yugoslavia are not wholly free
+from religious prejudices, an important party, for example, among the
+Slovenes being based on Roman Catholicism. But as the Slovenes are, as
+yet, the best upholders of the Yugoslav idea, it is obvious that
+education covers all things, and that with the increase of education in
+Bosnia the religious differences will be less important. Anything that
+can be done against this tyranny is beneficial, whether the St. George
+be a political orator or a schoolmaster. And as the effects produced by
+the former are more rapid, so should he be encouraged. He is, in fact,
+appearing in Bosnia, he will carry away, more or less, the _clientele_
+of the _Srpski Zora_, and the shattered nervous organism of its editor,
+Mr. [vC]okorilo, will be, one trusts, reconstituted and devoted, as it
+can be, to a nobler purpose. One of its deplorable effects has been
+that the organ of the Croat party, a paper called _Jugoslavija_, has
+been compelled to write in a similar strain, whereas the editor, a
+dapper little priest, assures one that he would prefer a more elevated
+tone.
+
+
+RADI['C] AND HIS PEASANTS
+
+Those who wished that Yugoslavia would be an idle dream have had their
+hopes more centred in Croatia. They told the world that horrible affairs
+took place, that there has been a revolution, several revolutions, that
+castles have been sacked and that the statesman, Radi['c], was
+imprisoned. If you met this little pear-shaped man, who is a
+middle-aged, extremely short-sighted person, with a small, straggling
+beard, an engaging smile and a large forehead, you would say that surely
+he had spent a good many hours of his life in some university garden
+where the birds, knowing that he could not easily see them, were in the
+habit of alighting for their dinner on his outstretched hands. He is a
+very learned little man, who started his career by obtaining the first
+place at the famous Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris. But Stephen
+Radi['c] happens also to be very much interested in politics and
+extremely impulsive, so that his wife and daughter have often had to
+look after the bookshop, since the Government--that of Austria-Hungary
+and afterwards that of Yugoslavia--had consigned him to prison. He
+probably expected nothing else, for his eloquence--and he is an orator
+in several languages--has frequently carried him along and swept him
+round and round, like a leaf, not only in a direction opposite to that
+which he previously travelled but flying sometimes in the face of the
+most puissant and august authorities. So, for example, he began to
+agitate in 1904 against the vast territorial possessions of the Church
+in Croatia. This resulted in the then Archbishop issuing an interdict
+against him and his meetings--a measure which, I believe, is still in
+force. He was described as Antichrist, with the consequence that his
+audiences, out of curiosity to see what such a personage might look
+like, became larger than ever. For many years he was the only Croat
+politician who gave himself the trouble to go amongst the peasants. "In
+politics," said Radi['c] to me--he said a great many other things in the
+course of our first conversation, which lasted for four hours, though it
+seemed a good deal shorter--"In politics," said he, "one should not, as
+in art, try to be original. One should interpret not only the living
+generation but the ancestors." The peasant, who feels what Radi['c]
+expresses, has repaid him well, for there is now no party in Yugoslavia
+which is more devoted to its leader. He has taken the place once
+occupied by the clergy--he is by no means hostile to the Roman Catholic
+Church, but he is the foe of clericalism. "Praised be Jesus Christ! Long
+live the Republic!" is the usual beginning of one of his orations, so
+that his enemies accuse him in the first place of being a hypocrite, and
+in the second of holding views which cannot possibly amalgamate with
+those of monarchical Serbia. But the reference to Christ appears
+perfectly natural to the Croat peasant--at an open-air meeting of 10,000
+of them I saw their heads uncovered, and all bowed in prayer for a few
+minutes on the stroke of noon. As for the Republic, this first came into
+the picture on July 25, 1918, when the cry was raised at a meeting of
+the Peasants' party. A large number of peasants had imbibed this idea in
+America--those who emigrated have been in the habit of returning, and
+even if their home is in the desolate parts of Zagorija or among the
+rocks of Primorija, the coastal region. And thousands of Croats had
+spent part of the War as prisoners in Russia--having deserted from the
+Austro-Hungarian army--so that they had seen how the Great White Tsar,
+previously regarded as an almost divine being, could be dethroned. Four
+months after this famous meeting a Convention was held, in the American
+fashion, with 2874 delegates, who represented some 100,000 people. They
+pronounced themselves to be Republicans and Yugoslavs. It is quite true
+that many of the farmers in Croatia have a pretty vague idea of the
+Republic. "Long live Mr. Republic!" has been heard before now at one of
+their meetings, while a landowner of my acquaintance was asked by two of
+his aged tenants whether in the event of this Republic being established
+they should choose as President King Peter or the Prince-Regent or King
+Charles. But we should remember that in 1907 a printing press was
+founded by the Peasants' party at Zagreb, and those who gave their money
+for this cause were, to a great extent, illiterate. The people are
+groping towards the light, and they are willing to be told by those they
+trust that they have much to learn as to the nature of the light.
+Republicanism was fanned into flame by Radi['c]'s imprisonment and other
+causes, so that he says he is uncertain whether he can now persuade them
+to modify their demands. But if he tells them that in his opinion a
+constitutional monarchy will meet the case, they will probably still
+consent to accept his view--and this has of late come to be his own
+opinion. It may very well be that he adopted the republican idea with no
+other purpose than to obtain for the peasants the social and economic
+legislation which they would otherwise not have secured. And, after all,
+there was something of a republican nature in Croatia's autonomy under
+the Magyars. As for his imprisonment, it was strange that the Belgrade
+Cabinet, who should have known their man, treated him as if he were a De
+Valera; and perhaps the conduct of a subsequent Cabinet, that of Mr.
+Proti['c], who came out for Croatian Home Rule, was also strange in
+appearance, for while Radi['c] was still in prison he was invited to
+decide as to whether the Ban, Croatia's Governor, should or should not
+remain in office. But Mr. Proti['c] understood that at this period
+Radi['c]'s republicanism was somewhat academic.
+
+His party had, in years gone by, been small enough in the Landtag; but
+the fact that his followers then numbered only two is anyhow of no
+importance, as his very real power was derived from the peasants, who
+were largely voteless. How often in his prison he must have yearned for
+those old Landtag days--apart from his advocacy of the peasants, he
+loves to speak. In two hours he would traverse the whole gamut of human
+thought, expressing opinions to which John Hampden and Jack Cade and
+Montaigne and Machiavelli would in turn assent. The words used to rush
+from his lips in a torrent, while to many of his faithful peasant
+followers he seemed, throughout his discourse, to be in direct contact
+with the Almighty. Next to the Almighty the Croatian peasant had been
+taught to revere Francis Joseph, so that when the heir to the throne
+was murdered in 1914 it was not very difficult to make the Croat
+peasants rise against this sacrilege by plundering the Serbian shops at
+Zagreb--Austrian officers coming with their children to look on--just as
+in other parts of Croatia and Bosnia. There is as yet within the Croat
+peasant a certain hostility against the Serb and for various reasons:
+one of them is that he was always taught by Austria to detest the
+adherents of the Orthodox religion, another reason is that for centuries
+they have had a different culture; and so, since Austria's collapse,
+when it has been explained to them what is a republic and what is a
+monarchy, they have often demanded the former for no better reason than
+that the Serbs prefer the latter. They were taught by Austria to look
+forward to a Greater Croatia, which would eliminate the Slovenes by
+delivering them to the Germans, for that celebrated corridor to the
+Adriatic. And it is from the Slovene Socialists that the peasants of
+Croatia might very profitably learn.... The Slovene influence, coming
+from a more highly organized province, would be beneficial both for
+Serbs and Croats, for the industrial workers and for the peasants. The
+nature of the Southern Slavs, say these Socialists, is democratic, and
+the State mechanism might be made more so. Now that the various parts of
+Yugoslavia have liberated or are liberating themselves from various
+yokes, they have approached one another with a different mentality; they
+will become much better known to one another. And it was hoped that when
+Mr. Radi['c] regained his freedom and his book-shop he would find that
+his devotees preferred to hear him not as a Croat Jack Cade but as a
+Yugoslav Hampden. In his absence the party was leaderless.
+
+As for the other Croats, only Frank's Clerical party, which numbered
+five or six deputies, and did not hide its persistent sympathies with
+the House of Habsburg, kept up Separatist tendencies. All the Coalition
+(now the Democrat) party and two-thirds of the so-called Party of
+Croatian Right were for a close union with Serbia and the regency of
+Prince Alexander. That is not to say that there was perfect unanimity
+with regard to the interior arrangements of this union; in fact Dr. Ante
+Paveli['c], one of the Vice-Presidents of the Yugoslav National Council,
+who was received in special audience by the Prince at Belgrade, is also
+the leader of the old Star[vc]evi['c] party and as such an opponent of
+complete centralization. The _Obzor_, Zagreb's oldest newspaper,
+maintains this point of view, not paying much attention to the form of
+the State, monarchic or republican, so long as it is organized in a
+manner which would prevent the Croats being subordinated. Zagreb, it
+thinks, is destined to play the New York to Belgrade's Washington--but
+nowadays it looks very much as if Zagreb's role were to be that of
+Yugoslavia's Boston.
+
+Among the Slovenes this anxiety for decentralization--which is very
+proper or exaggerated, according to the point of view--is less
+accentuated. It appears as if the Christian-Socialist party of Monsignor
+Koro[vs]ec[29] is rather centralist in its Belgrade words and
+decentralist in its Ljubljana deeds. This party has shed some of its
+extremist clerical members, who to the cry, "The Church is in danger!"
+were very good servants of the Habsburgs. Such of them as were unable to
+accept the new order of things--elderly priests, for the most
+part--retired from the political stage.
+
+
+THOSE WHO WILL NOT MOVE WITH THE TIMES
+
+There remains the Voivodina (Banat, Ba[vc]ka, etc.) party, some of whom
+are as much frightened of Croat predominance as the _Obzor_, for
+instance, is of Serb. The argument of these Voivodina politicians is
+that Serbia has lost so many of her _intelligentsia_ during the War that
+she must have special protection; they also found it hard to swallow the
+old functionaries whom the State took over from Austria. Of course it
+does not follow that if a Slav has been a faithful servant of Austria he
+will be an unsatisfactory servant of the new State. Obviously the
+circumstances of each case must be considered; and, as a barrister, a
+dissentient member of this party told me at Osiek, one must often put
+personal feelings aside; he himself had been arbitrarily imprisoned
+during the War by an official who was then an Austrian and is now a
+Yugoslav functionary. The most extreme exponent of this anti-Croat party
+seems to be a well-known editor at Novi Sad, Mr. Ja[vs]a Tomi['c]. In
+his opinion you cannot join by means of a law in twenty-four hours
+people who have never been together; let it be a slower and a surer
+process. He is ready to die, he says, but he is not ready to lose his
+national name. Let the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes retain what is most
+precious to each of them. Let them not be asked to give up everything.
+In the matter of the flag Mr. Tomi['c] is justified, for now their
+former flag has been taken from each of them and a totally fresh one
+created, which is particularly hard on the Serbs after the sublime
+fashion in which their old colours were carried up the Macedonian
+mountains in the Great War. It would not have required much
+ingenuity--as they all three share the colours, red, white and blue,
+differently arranged--to have devised, not a mere new and unmeaning
+arrangement of the simple colours, but a method on the lines of the
+Union Jack or of the former Swedish-Norwegian flag, wherein all three
+would have remained visible. Mr. Tomi['c] believes that a real
+_intelligentsia_ would demand of the people what it can execute, and he
+regrets to think that at least two-thirds of the _intelligentsia_ want
+the people to call themselves Yugoslavs. But Mr. Tomi['c] has a far
+greater majority than two-thirds against him, because while his
+arguments would be admirable if the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes had no
+neighbours, they must be--and the vast majority of Yugoslavs feel that
+they must be--superseded on account of this imperfect world. By all
+means let each one of the three retain every single custom that will not
+interfere with the national security and will not interfere too much
+with the national welfare. If Mr. Tomi['c], who is much respected but
+generally looked upon as rather old-fashioned, is going to die sooner
+than give up something which the State considers essential he will be
+following in the footsteps of those whom Cavour, in the course of the
+welding of Italy, had to execute.
+
+It may be said without fear of contradiction--in fact I was given the
+figure by one of the decentralization leaders of Croatia--that at least
+90 per cent. of the Croat _intelligentsia_ wants the union with Serbia,
+and if a republic is decided upon they will mostly vote for King
+Alexander as President. While they discuss their internal
+organization--no simple matter when one considers their varied
+antecedents, their different legal systems and so forth--they will not
+let Yugoslavia go to pieces. The work of construction and of more or
+less strenuous, but necessary, criticism occupies by far the greater
+number of the politicians. They have not yet, all of them, given their
+adherence to this or that group, while new groups are arising--such as
+the Agrarian, which being far more interested in the peasant's material
+welfare than in anything else will give their alliance to that political
+party which is prepared to assist the villages towards improving their
+cleanliness and their manure.
+
+
+THE YUGOSLAV POLITICAL PARTIES
+
+The chief parties which in the new State's first two years evolved
+themselves out of those that previously existed in the various parts of
+Yugoslavia were:
+
+     (_a_) the Pa[vs]i['c] party, consisting chiefly of the Serbian
+     Old Radical party, together with Serbian parties from the
+     Voivodina and Bosnia.
+
+     (_b_) the Pribi[vc]evi['c] party, consisting chiefly of the
+     Croatian Coalition party, together with the Slovene Liberal
+     party and the Serbian parties in opposition to Pa[vs]i['c].
+
+     (_c_) the Christian Socialist party, under Koro[vs]ec,
+     consisting chiefly of Slovenes, together with a young group in
+     Croatia and other Clerical groups that are forming in Dalmatia
+     and Bosnia.
+
+     (_d_) the Star[vc]evi['c] party, under Paveli['c], consisting
+     of decentralizing parties in Croatia and Slavonia, and some
+     Croats in Bosnia.
+
+     (_e_) Socialists:
+
+         (1) the Slovene non-communistic Socialists.
+
+         (2) Korac's party, chiefly from Slavonia and Serbia.
+         This remarkable man, whose mind floats serenely in a body
+         that is paralysed, has twice been included in the Cabinet.
+         By many he is looked upon as too subversive, but he
+         believes that a revolution will come unless his department
+         acts in a revolutionary fashion. His programme includes
+         old-age pensions from the age of sixty--the people being
+         now enfeebled by the wars--and obligatory insurance with
+         regard to all those, including State employees in the
+         railway service and the post office, who do not enjoy an
+         independent existence, half the insurance being paid by
+         the employer and half by the employee, while with regard
+         to accidents the whole would be paid by the employer. He
+         has also very firm ideas for the safeguarding of the human
+         dignity of the pensioners.
+
+         (3) Dr. Rado[vs]evi['c]'s party. This gentleman was said
+         to adore Lenin, on whom he lectured. His party had no
+         strength except such as it derived as a protest against
+         any forced centralization.
+
+     (_f_) Republican party, consisting of 90,000 Croat peasants
+     under Radi['c].
+
+Of these by far the most important were the first two. In Serbian
+political parties the personal question used to be nearly always
+uppermost, and now, in the case of parties (_a_) and (_b_), it was most
+difficult to understand what aims the one had which the other did not
+share. One may say that each of them was a group under a wily politician
+who was able, not only to forge out of various elements a homogeneous
+group, but to persuade them that there was a fundamental difference
+between their group and any other. Here one has not so much the Western
+system, under which a man enters a Cabinet as the exponent of party
+principles, but the Eastern system under which a Minister uses his
+influence to found a party, which is based inevitably on the
+disappearing relics of the past. In the spring of 1919 many foreign
+observers fancied that new parties were surging up like mushrooms and
+proving, no doubt, that the people's vitality was strong, although one
+would have waited willingly for this evidence until the country's
+external and internal affairs were more settled. As a matter of fact
+these rather numerous parties, of which the outside world now heard for
+the first time, had been in existence or semi-existence for years. There
+was, however, a certain bewildering vacillation on the part of some of
+the deputies. The Bosnian Moslems, for instance, could not make up their
+minds whether they would be Serbs or Croats and belong to (_a_) or
+(_b_). Finally most of them settled down in (_b_), while two others
+formed an independent group. It must be remembered that they, like all
+the other deputies, were not really deputies but delegates, since it was
+not yet possible to hold elections. There would naturally be many
+changes after the first General Election; for one thing, the Moslems
+intend to join in one group with their brethren from Macedonia and Novi
+Bazar.... As we shall see, later on, the changes produced by the first
+General Election--which was the election held in November 1920, for the
+Constituent Assembly--were extremely sweeping. While the Radicals and
+Democrats returned with close on one hundred members each, the
+Koro[vs]e['c] party met with comparative disaster, and the Star[vc]evic
+group was overwhelmed. With about fifty members apiece, the Communist
+and the Radi['c] parties gave expression, roughly speaking, to the
+discontent produced by the unsettled conditions--unavoidable and
+avoidable--of the new State's first two years. The Moslems came back
+with nearly thirty members, and a healthy phenomenon for a country in
+which the peasant so largely predominates was the success, apart from
+the Radi['c] Peasant party, of the Agrarians with some thirty deputies,
+and the Independent Peasant party with eight.
+
+The Italian Press disposed in five lines of the historical Act of Union
+which occurred when the delegates of the Yugoslav National Council were
+received by the Prince at Belgrade on December 1, 1918. In the address,
+which was read by Dr. Paveli['c], it is recorded that "the National
+Council desires to join with Serbia and Montenegro in forming a United
+National State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which would embrace the
+whole inseparable ethnographical territory of the South Slavs.... In
+the period of transition, in our opinion, the conditions should be
+created for the final organization of our United State." And there is a
+dignified protest against the Treaty of London and the Italian
+encroachments which even went beyond that which the treaty gave them. In
+his reply the Prince, among other remarks, said that "in the name of His
+Majesty King Peter I now declare the union of Serbia with the provinces
+of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in an indivisible kingdom. This great
+moment should be a reward for the efforts of yourselves and your
+brothers, whereby you have cast off the alien yoke. This celebration
+should form a wreath for the officers and men who have fallen in the
+cause of freedom.... I assure you and the National Council that I shall
+always reign over my brothers and yours, and what constitutes the Serbs
+and their people, in a spirit of brotherly love.... The first task of
+the Government will be to arrange with your help and that of the whole
+people that the frontiers should comprise the whole nation. In
+conjunction with you I may well hope that our powerful friends and
+Allies will be able justly to appreciate our standpoint, because it
+corresponds with the principles which they themselves have proclaimed
+and for the achievement of which streams of their precious blood have
+been poured out...." The Prince spoke of Italy in phrases to which we
+have already alluded.[30] He reminded her of the Risorgimento and of the
+principles with which her great sons had then been inspired. But the
+Italian Press preferred to moralize in column after column on the
+variety of the political groups of Yugoslavia, with the object of
+showing to the world that they were a people of no cohesive capacities
+and of no real national consciousness.
+
+
+THE SLOVENE QUESTION
+
+This matter of the frontiers had been very lucidly set before the Allies
+with regard to Dalmatia and Rieka; it now remained for the Slovenes to
+formulate their case. From the statement given by Dr. Trumbi['c] to the
+Council of Ten in Paris we will take these extracts: "The province of
+Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca may be divided into two different parts, both from an
+ethnical and economic point of view. The western part, up to the line
+Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone, is economically self-supporting. If we
+estimate the population on a language basis, there are about 72,000
+Italians and 6000 Slovenes. Geographically it is simply the prolongation
+of the Venetian plain. We do not claim this territory called Friuli,
+which belongs ethnologically to the Italians. The rest of this province
+to the east and the north of the Cormons-Gradi[vs]ca-Monfalcone line,
+which comprises the mountainous region, is inhabited by 148,500 Slovenes
+and 17,000 Italians, of whom 14,000 are in the town of Gorica, where
+they constitute half the population.... The Slovenes are an advanced and
+civilized people, acutely conscious of their racial solidarity with the
+other Yugoslav peoples. We therefore ask that this district should be
+reunited to our State.... Istria is inhabited by Slavs and Italians.
+According to the latest statistics, there were in it 223,318 Yugoslavs
+and 147,417 Italians. The Slavs inhabit central and eastern Istria in a
+compact mass. More Italians live on the western coast, particularly in
+the towns. They inhabit only five villages north of Pola, and their
+populations have no territorial unity. Istria is territorially linked
+with Carniola and Croatia, whereas it is separated from Italy by the
+Adriatic, and therefore it ought to belong to the Yugoslav State....
+Triest and its neighbourhood is geographically an integral part of
+purely Slav territories. The majority of this town--two-thirds,
+according to statistics--is Italian and the rest Slav. These statistics
+being on the language basis, include Germans, Greeks, Levantines, etc.,
+as Italian-speaking, among the Italians. The Slav element plays an
+important part in the commercial and economic life of Triest. If the
+town were ethnically in contact with Italy we would recognize the right
+of the majority. But all the hinterland of Triest is entirely Slav. Yet
+the commercial and maritime value of Triest is what chiefly counts, and
+it is a port of world trade. As such it is the representative of its
+hinterland, which stretches as far as Bohemia, and chiefly of its
+Slovene hinterland, which forms a third of the whole trade of Triest
+and is inextricably linked with it. Should Triest become Italian it
+would be politically separated from its trade hinterland, and would be
+prejudiced in a commercial respect. Since Austria has crumbled as a
+State, the natural solution of the problem of Triest is that it should
+be joined to our State."
+
+
+THE SENTIMENTS OF TRIEST
+
+It would be futile to talk of Triest without considering the relations
+between Italians and Germans. We have seen already how at the elections
+they combined against the "common enemy." But in commerce the Germans
+were in need of no alliance, for the Italians have relatively so little
+capital to dispose of that they were unable to keep the Germans from
+attaining that very dominant position in Italy. As the Italians have, as
+a general rule, a lack of initiative and enterprise with respect to
+modern industry, it was to German efforts that the great industrial and
+commercial awakening of Italy and of Triest were largely due. In that
+town the Italians were principally agents; and it is to be feared that
+if it ultimately falls into their hands it will become a German town
+under the Italian flag. It would be the object of the Italians to
+emancipate Austria from the Yugoslavs, giving them an outlet to Triest
+over Italian territory; and it would be to the Italian advantage if
+Austria were joined to Germany. Therefore it is preferable for all the
+Allies, except the Italians, that Triest should be international.
+Conditions could then be offered to the Austrians that would cause them
+to prefer these rather than to join themselves to Germany. But, in the
+opinion also of many enlightened Italians, it is not in that country's
+interest that she should hold Triest. Apart from the older publicists
+and statesmen, including Sonnino, who might wish to modify their
+opinions, one of the best-informed writers on Triest and Istria, A.
+Vivante, a native of Triest, in his _L'irredentismo adriatico_ (1912) is
+a most determined adversary to an Italian occupation of Istria or
+Triest; his book has been withdrawn from circulation by the Italian
+Government. Other resolute opponents have been all the inhabitants of
+Triest, except the extreme Nationalists. The town's prosperity dated
+from the time when the Habsburgs were driven out of Italy. Triest has
+not forgotten what occurred when she and Venice were under the same
+sceptre; and this it was which brought about, at Austria's collapse, the
+autonomous administration in which practically all the elements of the
+town participated. Only the Irridentists then thought that Triest's
+liberation need involve union with Italy and economic separation from
+the hinterland on which it depends.... When the occupation started, in
+November 1918, the Chief of the Italian police summoned before him the
+members of the Yugoslav National Council of Triest. Only two of them
+answered the summons, whereupon a lieutenant read them the following
+order from the Italian Governor: "In view of the fact that the Italians
+troops have occupied the line of demarcation and that traffic over this
+line is suspended for the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, it is
+ordered that, for strategical reasons, the South Slav National Council
+in Triest be dissolved and its offices closed." The Slovenes demanded a
+copy of this order, which, however, was refused. They were not allowed
+to depart until the books and national emblems had been removed from the
+premises of the National Council, the doors sealed and a guard
+stationed. "We others, Italians," an Italian writer had said in the
+_Edinost_, the Slovene paper of Triest, on August 18, 1918, "should
+understand that if we want our freedom we must see that this is likewise
+given to our neighbours." And the _Mercure de France_ of October
+remarked that these wise words would be listened to at Rome. In the
+realm of navigation the Italians were not idle. They started at once to
+negotiate with the Austrians for the sale to themselves of the Lloyd
+Steamship Company, the Austro-Americana and the Navigazione Libera, the
+three largest Austrian companies. By the end of February 1919, a Mr.
+Ivan [vS]vegel related in a well-informed article,[31] the Italians had,
+by acquiring a large portion of their shares, obtained the decisive
+influence in these companies. The deal which was carried through with
+the assistance of the Austrian Government and which, according to the
+_Neue Freie Presse_ of February 22, "fully satisfied the needs of
+Austrian commerce," was transacted during the Armistice and behind the
+back of public opinion. Surely the Austrian mercantile marine, to which
+the Yugoslavs contributed the majority of the personnel and which they,
+with the other nationalities of the late Empire, helped to build up with
+the aid of considerable subsidies, should not have been permitted to
+fall an easy prize into the lap of Italy, but ought rather to constitute
+an asset in the liquidation of the late Austrian State and a subject of
+public discussion.... In consequence of the Italian attitude towards
+Austria on the one hand and the Slovenes on the other, the Austrians
+made an attack from northern Carinthia near Christmas and despoiled the
+Slovenes of about half the territory they had occupied. An American
+mission asked both sides to cease from hostilities, saying that the
+question of frontiers would be decided by Paris in a few weeks. Two
+Americans, who unfortunately could speak neither German nor Slovene,
+motored through the country, made some inquiries, especially in the
+towns, and departed for Paris. It would have been as well if, like the
+French farther to the east, they had deliminated between the two people
+a neutral zone. Sooner or later the troubles were bound to recommence.
+
+
+MAGNANIMITY IN THE BANAT
+
+Meanwhile, of all the lands which the Yugoslavs were inheriting from
+Austro-Hungary, that which was passing through the period of transition
+with the least disturbance was the Banat. Those Magyars who stayed were
+saying wistfully that it had been Hungarian for a thousand years, but
+considering what they had done they could not have brought forward a
+worse reason for their reinstatement. Here and there at places near the
+frontier, such as Subotica, they waylaid and murdered lonely Serbian
+soldiers; after which, with the complicity of Magyar officials whom the
+Serbs had not removed, they managed to escape to Hungary. But as a rule
+they thought it wiser to stay peacefully in the Banat than seek their
+fortunes in a land so insecure as Hungary was then. While Count Michael
+Karolyi's Government was doing its utmost to cultivate good relations
+with France, England and America--printing in the newspapers cordial
+articles in French and English, surrounding the Entente officers even in
+their despite with the old, barbaric hypnotizing Magyar hospitality,
+assuming in a long wireless message to President Wilson that the
+Hungarians were among those happy people who at last had been liberated
+from the yoke of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire--("I beg you, Mr.
+President, to use your influence that no acts of inhumanity or abuses of
+authority may threaten our new-born democracy and freedom from any
+quarter. They would cruelly wound the soul of our people and hinder the
+maturing of that pure pacifism and that mutual understanding between the
+peoples without which there will never be peace and rest on earth.... We
+will not discredit or delay with acts of violence the new-born freedom
+of the peoples of Hungary or the triumph of your ideas....")--at a place
+called Nagylak the free Hungarian people requested the authorities to
+give them an official document permitting them to plunder for
+twenty-four hours; at a place called Szentes there was a car which had
+been stolen from a man at Arad, sixty miles away; hearing where it was
+he telegraphed to the authorities and nothing happened; so he hired
+another car and went himself to Szentes where the Magyar Commissary
+confiscated this one also. It was better to remain in the Banat if one
+had anything to lose. The treatment which the Magyars received was such
+that Mr. Rapp, Commissary of the Buda-Pest Government, published a
+proclamation on the generous conduct of the Serbian troops occupying
+southern Hungary: "Our nationals," he declared, "though vanquished and
+in a minority, are safe. The Serbian officers in command treat them in a
+most humane and chivalrous fashion."[32] At Pan[vc]evo, for example,
+the Magyar officials were placed, for their protection, on board a boat
+by the Serbian authorities and kept there, provided with food and
+cigars, for twelve hours, after which, as the danger was past, they were
+set at liberty. In the same town, forty years earlier, the language used
+in the law courts had been Serbian; no one, in fact, spoke Magyar,
+except the cab-drivers--if you spoke it people said you must have been
+in prison. Yet, although the Magyar judges had, to put it mildly, not
+been too considerate towards the Serbs, they were retained in office on
+the understanding that they would learn Serbian within a year; nor were
+they asked, as yet, to administer the law in the name of King Peter, but
+in the name of Justice. This magnanimity was not displayed because, as
+with the railway employees, the Serbs were short of people for those
+posts, since they had barristers well qualified to be employed, as they
+were, for example, at Sombor, in the position of temporary judges. Even
+the town advocate was not dismissed, although this healthy gentleman had
+superseded a Serb forty-two years of age, considerably older than
+himself, who had been compelled to join the army. Not alone were all
+these functionaries left in office, but the papers sent to them were in
+their own language, Magyar or German. And in return they generally were
+loyal to the Yugoslavs.
+
+
+TEME[vS]VAR IN TRANSITION
+
+An extraordinary state of things was to be seen at Teme[vs]var, where
+the Magyar mayor was one of the most worried men in Europe. Until
+February 1919 he was being asked to serve not two but several masters.
+Some uncertainty existed as to whether the town was under French or
+Serbian military command, but that was not a very serious question.
+There was at Novi Sad a temporary Government for all the Voivodina, this
+was the "Narodna Uprava" (National Government), consisting of eleven
+commissaries, each over a department, who had been appointed by the
+Voivodina Assembly of 690 Serbs, 12 Slovaks, 2 Magyars and 6
+Germans--one deputy for every thousand of the population. The mayor of
+Teme[vs]var could have reconciled the wishes of the Narodna Uprava and
+the military authorities, but there was a Magyar Jewish Socialist, a
+certain Dr. Roth, who had elected himself to be head of the "People's
+Government," and was subsequently appointed by telephone from Buda-Pest
+the representative of the Hungarian Government. Roth organized a civil
+guard, mostly of former Hungarian soldiers, who--although he paid them
+well (since Buda-Pest had given him 12 million crowns for propaganda
+purposes), yet had a way of borrowing a coat or cap from Serbian
+soldiers and, arrayed in these, holding up pedestrians after nightfall.
+Roth had therefore been granted the right to rule, but--save for the
+dubious guard--his power was only that which the Serbian or French
+authorities would give him. He issued many orders to the mayor, some of
+which were very questionable, as for instance when he sent provisions
+out of the Banat to Hungary. This produced so great a scarcity that the
+flour-mill employees thought it was the time to go on strike; they
+demanded 80 per cent. increase in wages, without undertaking to go back
+to work if they received it. "I am not a politician," said the harassed
+mayor, "I only want to save the town from starving." But the Narodna
+Uprava would send no food, since the town (that is to say Roth) would
+not acknowledge its authority. There were many rumours as to how Roth
+spent the sums from Buda-Pest, and a weekly Socialist sheet, which he
+himself had founded, but had now made over to a couple of his friends
+(likewise Magyar Jews), called Fuerth and Isaac Gara, started to bring
+charges against its founder. Roth, whose previous resources were not
+large and were well known to Fuerth and Gara, used now to frequent the
+fashionable cafe and indulge, night after night, in potations of
+champagne, inviting to his table not Fuerth nor Gara, but the French
+General. This officer, in the advance through Serbia, had captured a
+great many prisoners and a very large number of guns, arousing
+everybody's enthusiasm by his personal bravery, his dashing tactics and
+the skill with which he executed them. He was a most original person,
+who would sometimes about midnight in that cafe at Teme[vs]var leap on
+to one of the marble tables and there perform a _pas de seul_. Dr. Roth
+succeeded in worming himself into this merry warrior's good graces, and
+Fuerth and Gara looked with jaundiced eyes on the carouses of these two.
+And in their newspaper, the _Teme[vs]var_, they said very biting things.
+Thereupon Roth complained about them to the Serbian authorities, asking
+that they should be sent to Belgrade. When the Serbs did nothing he made
+application to the French, and they--not aware of all the
+circumstances--sent the couple under guard to Belgrade, where they were
+interned. The mayor continued to receive the orders of the various
+parties, and then suddenly Roth organized a strike which lasted for two
+days--the railways, the electric light, the water-supply and the shops
+all joining in the movement. There was even a Magyar flag on the town
+hall, and cries were raised by a procession for the Magyar Republic. But
+this time he had gone too far. An order came from Belgrade, from General
+Franchet d'Esperey, and Roth was taken in a car to Arad, where he was
+deposited on the other side of the line of demarcation.
+
+
+A SORT OF WAR IN CARINTHIA
+
+But the German-Austrians in Carinthia, seeing how the Slovenes were
+being treated by the Italians, could not resist attacking on their own
+account; and here the most tragic feature was that in the German ranks
+were many Germanized Slovenes. This had been the case at Maribor in
+Styria, where the population rose against the 70 Slovene soldiers during
+the visit of an American mission. Many of those who were afterwards
+questioned were obliged to admit that they were of Slovene or of partly
+Slovene origin, but Austria had taken care of their national
+conscience. Had they been freely left to choose between the two
+nationalities, and had they, out of admiration for the German, selected
+that one--you would not endeavour now to make them Slovenes; but of
+course these people were never given the choice, and therefore every
+effort should be used to make to dance that portion of their blood which
+is Slovene, and sometimes all your efforts will be fruitless. That those
+who fought in Carinthia against the Slovene troops were of this origin
+can be seen by the names of the officers of the so-called
+"Volkswehralarmkompagnien" (_i.e._ the People's Emergency Defence
+Companies). A document, marked W. No. 101, and signed by a Captain
+Sandner, fell into Slovene hands on February 21. It gives very full
+arrangements for these companies in Wolfsberg and the neighbourhood. At
+St. Paul, for instance, men are to gather from three other regions, to
+wit 40 from St. Paul itself, 120 from Granitzthal, 60 from Lagerbuch and
+30 from Eitweg; the officers of this St. Paul contingent are called
+Kronegger, Andrec, Kloetsch and Gritsch--the last three are of Slovene
+origin. These Defence Companies consisted largely of ex-soldiers, under
+the command, very often, of a schoolmaster or some such person; and if
+they had done nothing more than to defend their own soil, one would have
+less to say about them; but as a matter of fact they sent arms across to
+their adherents in the territory occupied by the Slovenes. Thus at
+Velikovec (Voelkermarkt) and Donji Dravograd (Unter-Drauburg) shots were
+fired from houses which had been armed in this way. Incursions were made
+into Yugoslav territory, where the people were urged to rise; and as
+these Defence Companies did not wear any uniform their members could, if
+captured, protest their innocence. The officers were given 20 crowns a
+day, the men six crowns, with 5.44 a day for their keep during the time
+of emergency, and four crowns daily in addition if they went outside the
+garrison town. As it would not be possible to get the commissariat at
+once into working order the men were asked to bring at least sufficient
+bread with them for a few days. Most of the men had their own guns;
+those who had not would be lent one at the village office on the
+understanding that it was brought back there when the emergency was
+over. These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by 2000 of the
+proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway station before they started,
+were cheered by speeches on the subject of plunder; at Graz they were
+joined by some students who proposed to maintain order.... It was in
+April that the Germans began nearly every day to fire on the Yugoslav
+troops, regardless of the Americans, who said that any infringement of
+the Armistice would be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
+Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for several days with
+heavy artillery, and the local commander, on his own initiative, crossed
+the Armistice line in order to seize this artillery; he did, in fact,
+carry off some twenty pieces, with which he returned to his old
+positions. This caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
+telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the Yugoslavs for having
+flagrantly crossed the Armistice line by 10 kilometres (cf. _Le
+Journal_, for example, of May 5). In the same report they were held up
+as villains for having crossed the river Drave at several points and cut
+the railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at least 11
+kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the artillery, of course,
+still farther off. This railway line, which was the means of
+communication between Austrians and Italians, was the subject of very
+fierce talk on the part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered,
+the Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do not pretend
+that they approach the Serbs as combatants. After centuries of
+servitude--a more insidious servitude than if their masters had been
+Moslem--they have now awakened to devote themselves, and with great
+success, to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
+spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in them. Their
+opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon Celovec (Klagenfurt) and
+Beljak (Villach), where they had at their disposal the munitions of the
+entire 10th Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from Vienna,
+as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers, who were clothed as
+infantry privates. These officers were serving for the love of their
+country--up to May 1 at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The
+Slovene ranks were somewhat depleted by Bol[vs]evik tracts, telling
+them to go home, as there would be no more war; and yet at Gutenstein
+sixty men with three machine guns, under Lieut. Maglaj, a Slovene from
+Carinthia, kept 1500 men at bay from 9 a.m. till 3.30, after which they
+slowly withdrew until the fighting ceased at six; a corporal and two men
+of a machine-gun detachment were cut off and concealed themselves in the
+shrubs of a defile. Suddenly they heard a German company come down the
+road, singing as they marched. The three men opened fire--the Germans in
+perplexity stood still and then retired in disorder. The whole
+German-Austrian movement was checked by General Maister. And when the
+Serbian veterans, men of all ages, with uniforms of every shade, marched
+through the streets of Maribor, it was felt that there need be no more
+anxiety as to that particular frontier of Yugoslavia.
+
+
+YUGOSLAVIA BEGINS TO PUT HER HOUSE IN ORDER
+
+It was not until now that Great Britain (on May 9) and France (on June
+5) formally recognized the new Serbo-Croat-Slovene State.[33] As the
+_Times_ said, two years afterwards,[34] "it was not the Allies who
+created Czecho-Slovakia or brought about the establishment of
+Yugo-Slavia. These events were the inevitable result of the previous
+history which the Allies could not, even if they had desired to do so,
+prevent." The Americans had not been so extremely considerate to Italy,
+for they had recognized the Yugoslav State on February 7, a few days
+after Norway and Switzerland.... And how necessary it was for the
+Yugoslavs to have some leisure for their home affairs, which presented
+so many complications. Here one system of laws and there another--with
+the best will in the world and waiving to the uttermost one's own
+idiosyncrasies, the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes were faced, at the
+beginning of their union, by most arduous problems. The Agrarian
+question was regarded generally as one of the most urgent. In Serbia
+itself, with practically the whole country in the hands of small peasant
+proprietors, this question did not arise; but in the provinces which had
+been lately under Austria-Hungary no time was to be lost, and yet a good
+deal of time would be needed to cope with a problem so full of
+complications. One difficulty was that each political party was inclined
+to solve this matter in accordance with its own interests. Among the
+three Slovene parties, for example, the Socialists would naturally work
+for their own principles, the Christian-Socialist party, whose
+supporters were chiefly the small farmers, would prefer to legislate for
+them, while the Liberal party, having in its ranks the larger
+landowners, would wish that all, except the very largest, should if
+possible be left intact; the very large landowners, moreover, will with
+the spread of democratic ideas lose their influence over the voters.
+There are several points on which all parties are agreed: thus, it is
+most undesirable that a man's holdings should, as now, be separated from
+each other, often by considerable distances, so that half his time may
+be spent in going to and from his fields and a good deal of the other
+half in the disputes which naturally spring from such a scattered
+ownership.... In Bosnia, where the Agrarian troubles had produced such
+frequent outbreaks and savage repression, the Austrians were given the
+mandate in 1878 in the hope that they would regulate this matter. They
+did not do very much; all that they really did was to modernize a
+little. They wrote down in a book who was the landlord and who were the
+kmets, and a copy of these details was available for each one of the
+kmets. He had the right to remain where he was--unless his conduct was
+exceptionally bad--and to retain two-thirds of the produce of the land.
+This kmet-right was not hereditary in the female line; but the kmet
+could buy his portion--this was an old right, which Austria
+regulated--and become a free man, a beg. He would sometimes be a free
+man in one place and a kmet in another. In Bosnia there are, of course,
+some extremely large landowners; but most of the begs are poor folk, who
+live on the third part of a few farms. It would be better if these men
+were not compensated with cash, but rather that they should be
+established on farms which they would work themselves, the distinction
+between the small begs and the kmets thus disappearing.
+
+
+THE PROBLEM OF AGRARIAN REFORM
+
+A special Ministry was created to supervise, throughout Yugoslavia, the
+question of Agrarian Reform; but the Cabinet was frequently engaged in
+discussing this important topic and, many months afterwards, when the
+ownership of a good deal of the land had been changed, it was
+acknowledged that the problem had been attacked more often than it had
+been solved. Mr. Pa[vs]i['c], who does not believe in hasty legislation,
+pointed out that the Austrians had in forty years done really very
+little in Bosnia. He was told, however, that in Croatia, for example,
+the revolutionary spirit at the end of the War was so intense that if
+the Government were to postpone the necessary reforms then the people
+would simply seize whatever land they wished to have. It is true that
+violence was rampant in those parts--the peasants believed that with
+Austria's collapse there would arrive the Earthly Paradise, and in order
+to bring this about they ravaged a good many fine estates and set fire
+to various castles. They were going to stand no nonsense. At a place
+called Lubi[vs]ica in Croatia--where the 350 families lived in 260
+houses--the landowner, out of the goodness of his heart, bestowed twenty
+"joch" of meadowland on the village in 1864. A law was passed which
+obliged him to devote a certain amount of land to the support of the
+church and the school--he gave the identical twenty joch. And at the end
+of the War the peasants maintained that at last this land was going to
+be restored to them; they drove their cattle on to it, but the priest
+with the help of _gendarmerie_ drove them off again. Once more the
+cattle came back and then the priest seized a gun; he fired at his
+parishioners and wounded in the head a sixteen-year-old boy, as well as
+three other persons. This so enraged the village that they went in a
+body and slew the priest.... And the authorities, although at that
+period they were faced with so many problems, attempted to settle right
+away this very complicated question. The Dobrovoljci--volunteers with
+the Yugoslav forces who had come home from the United States, Canada and
+Australia or who had managed to escape from the Austro-Hungarian
+army--had been promised so many acres, each of them, after the War. And
+these Dobrovoljci and the agitated peasants found that the land was, so
+to speak, thrust upon them. A lawyer-politician would take a map, would
+assign a certain area to A, another to B, and imagine he had done a good
+morning's work; but unhappily the lawyer often forgot that a farm, to be
+of any use to its tenant, must have a road leading to it, must have a
+well, a cart, a horse, some oxen and so forth--to say nothing of a
+dwelling-place. Thus it would happen that the new tenant would go to
+look at his holding and in disgust would go away, or--contrary to
+law--would sublet it or sell it back to the original owner. If, on the
+other hand, he remained the State would, from an economical point of
+view, only benefit in those regions where the land had hitherto been
+more or less uncultivated; where it had been cultivated by the
+moderately large or the very large landowner it always returned a
+harvest more considerable than that which the new tenant, insufficiently
+equipped and experienced, was able to achieve. Not only would there be
+this diminished production--frequently in the proportion of six to
+ten--but a large number of employees were thrown out of employment:
+sometimes a clever Czech overseer, whose family of six children had
+almost become Croat, and sometimes a native farmer whose house was
+wanted for the Dobrovoljci. The Czech would return to his own country
+and the dispossessed farmer would become a Communist. Yet these material
+and human losses to the State might have been endured if there had been
+a compensating political advantage, that is to say if the new tenants
+had been satisfied. But in far too many instances they were not. And one
+cannot help thinking that, in the vast majority of cases, they
+themselves would have preferred to wait until the Peasants' Co-operative
+Associations--such as flourish in Denmark--had been established. It need
+scarcely be said that, from the point of view of the peasant and of the
+State, these associations are an absolute necessity. The most deplorable
+example of the measures that were taken in such haste is seen, of
+course, in a model-property, such as that of Count [vC]ekoni['c] in the
+north of the Banat, where the new tenants, seeking as elsewhere to
+satisfy only their own wants and paying no heed to any possible exports,
+allow a highly developed property to go in a retrograde direction. If
+the Dobrovoljci had been skilled agriculturists there would have been no
+harm in settling them on this excellent estate; and with a Co-operative
+Association the 3000 joch of sugar that were grown there during the War
+would not now be reduced to 88 joch. But as it is, what with the
+unfortunate inexperience of most of the new tenants and their lack of
+means, and what with the stupidity of the local authorities who left to
+the previous owner one field here and one field there in the most absurd
+fashion, it would have been better both for Count [vC]ekoni['c] and for
+the State if he had simply presented to the Dobrovoljci half his land. A
+great many mistakes have been made in this question of Agrarian Reform,
+one of the most cardinal being--as Radi['c], the spokesman of the Croat
+peasants, has pointed out--to bestow the land not on people because they
+can farm it, but because they were heroes in the War.[35] It is a matter
+for congratulation that the measures now in force are not definite--the
+final dispositions will be taken in two or three years.[36] And perhaps
+then some part of the counsel of Radi['c] may be adopted--Radi['c],
+whose critics are never weary of denouncing him for being a demagogue, a
+firebrand and various other things, but who by that time may very likely
+be a Cabinet Minister. He advises that there should be a compromise,
+that the ownership of land in Yugoslavia should not be strictly
+individualist nor strictly communist, but that while preserving the
+spirit of the _zadruga_ (ownership by the community) there should also
+be the mobility of individual ownership.
+
+But in the field of Agrarian Reform there has been one excellent plan,
+the transference of men from the unfertile districts of Montenegro and
+Lika, also of landless men from the Banat and Ba[vc]ka, as also Serbs
+from Hungary and Slovenes from Istria, to those parts of Kossovo and
+Macedonia which were lying ownerless. The Albanians in Kossovo are
+mostly shepherds, and the land, which by Turkish law had belonged to
+"God and the Sultan," was now at the disposal of the Yugoslav
+authorities. Down to the spring of 1922 they had placed some 35,000
+persons in these regions, the Montenegrins being generally allocated to
+an Albanian neighbourhood, for they are accustomed to the idiosyncrasies
+of the Shqyptart. At first the Albanians viewed the new settlers with
+disfavour, but now so great a sympathy has developed between them that
+on various occasions the Montenegrins have remonstrated with the
+gendarmes for the excessive order they enforce and which, the
+Montenegrins say, you really cannot ask of an Albanian. Against the
+Montenegrins the Albanians do not care to use their rifles, since the
+custom of blood-vengeance is in the Montenegrin blood. In fact, these
+Albanians are very fair neighbours, the most unruly of them living in
+the mountains of the frontier. And the Montenegrins have been showing
+that when they are not compelled to live with weapons in their hand they
+can be quite industrious. There has, till now, been more colonization of
+Kossovo than of Macedonia; but there are wide tracts of country around
+Skoplje which will be settled, once they have been freed from malaria.
+The political consequences that this will have on Macedonia, by the
+stabilization of economic conditions, the supersession of the wooden
+plough by the steam plough--in fact, the advent of a new European spirit
+need scarcely be enlarged upon. In Serbian Macedonia, or South Serbia as
+it is now officially called, more than seven million acres of good soil
+are as yet not being used.
+
+
+FRENZY AT RIEKA
+
+As the months rolled on at Rieka the Italianists became more frantic.
+Their telegrams to Rome, in which they begged for instant annexation,
+were in vain, and after all, what was the use of adopting the system of
+Lieut.-Colonel Stadler, their energetic podesta at Abbazia, who would go
+into the hills, accost the peasants and instruct them that they must not
+say: "It will be settled by the Paris Conference," but rather--"It has
+been settled by the Paris Conference." All the world was learning what
+was the position of affairs at Rieka; one of the most important of these
+plaguy Allied officers had said that when he first came to the town he
+thought it was Italian, but he had soon perceived that it was all a
+comedy, and the Italianists were dreadfully afraid that memoranda and
+statistics and what not had been dispatched to Paris and that there was
+the faintest, awful possibility that one could say: "It has been
+settled by the Paris Conference." Everyone, alas! was studying the
+case--one heard that Cardinal Bourne, in the course of being feted at
+Zagreb, was reported to have shown himself quite intimate with Croatian
+history and to have discussed especially the story of Rieka. But by far
+the shrewdest blow to the Italianists was Wilson's Declaration. What had
+his emissaries, who had listened with such care to everybody, told him?
+One must have a grand procession through the town to show the whole
+world what the people wanted! As for Wilson, it was good to hear the
+lusty shouts of the "Giovani Fiumani": "Down with Wilson! down with
+redskins!" Some of the demonstrators, after shouting that Wilson was a
+donkey, a horse, a ruffian, would acclaim the new suggestion, that their
+enemy was not Wilson at all but Rudolf of Austria, who was still alive.
+Another very good idea would be to have great posters made with Wilson's
+head crowned by a German helmet, and now, of course, the Hotel Wilson
+must become the Hotel Orlando. Let them put a large black cross on all
+the Croat houses of Rieka--well, on second thoughts, next morning, that
+was not a very brilliant idea, because the crosses were too numerous; so
+let the soldiers rub them out again. And where the Croat names on banks
+and shops and elsewhere had been effaced, demolished--one could hide
+them by long strips of paper which they were so busy printing: "Either
+Italy or death!" "Viva Orlando!" "Viva Sonnino!"--those papers were the
+best reply to people who were asking if the entire Italian Cabinet was
+in harmony with Sonnino. Not merely in harmony--the Cabinet _was_
+Sonnino and more particularly Orlando was Sonnino. An Italian major came
+out on to a balcony one evening, in uniform, and opened his Italian
+heart to the crowd. What would the Allies say to that? The _Dante
+Alighieri_, the great dreadnought, manoeuvring with her searchlights,
+let them rest awhile upon the _Schley_, an American destroyer. What
+would the Yankees do? "Avanti Savoia!" Perhaps in the old days they
+would have sent a shot or two into the searchlights, just for luck, but
+now they did nothing. And what a scene at the Opera when _Andre Chenier_
+was performed and one of the singers came to the word "Traitor!" and
+some one shouted "Wilson!" and the whole house shouted "Wilson!" and the
+singer, forced to repeat the blessed word, added amid indescribable
+enthusiasm the name of the President, that ignominious President
+concerning whom it was revealed by one of their newspapers that he must
+obviously have pocketed Yugoslav money, perhaps a million, and who most
+probably had a Yugoslav mistress--when that opera-singer had emended the
+phrase, did that very exalted Italian officer leave his box? Why, no--he
+stayed until the end of the performance.... Did any Italian in Rieka
+read to the end a small and lucid American book, _Italy and the
+Yugoslavs, A Question of International Law_, by C. A. H. Bartlett of the
+New York and United States Federal Bar? "It is an admitted fact," says
+Mr. Bartlett, "that Italy at the outbreak of hostilities had no rights
+to, or in, the territory to which she now makes claim. Her title,
+therefore, has arisen since the commencement of the War, and must be
+founded on either effective possession legally acquired or on
+documentary evidence or some other right recognized by international
+law." And quoting Professor Westlake (_International Law_, Part I. p.
+91) as to the four grounds on which a State may vindicate its
+sovereignty over new domain, he discusses the position in the Adriatic,
+and concludes that Italy can claim no title by occupancy, cession,
+succession or self-determination. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Bartlett's
+commentary on the London Treaty, which is the instrument invoked by the
+Italians for their claims to Dalmatia. With regard to Rieka, which, as
+everybody knows, was not included even in the London Treaty, Mr.
+Bartlett says that while "admitting, for the purpose of argument, that
+the seizure has since resulted in an effective possession, yet, as that
+is not sufficient in itself to give title, it has no legal or effective
+force, but can be compared with nomads squatting on the roadside and
+then claiming a right to the soil. Italy was ashamed to assume the
+responsibility for the original appropriation of Rieka, which was made
+in violation of every legal right of those to whom it belongs, and she
+might well be, for a more audacious, unjustifiable proceeding in
+violation of every principle of international law it is difficult to
+imagine." ... As for the Italian National Council, listen to the
+stirring sentences of Mr. Grossich, its old President, after they had
+unanimously voted on May 17, and with passionate conviction, an order of
+the day directed to Orlando. In that order it was stated that they
+looked upon the plebiscite of October 30, 1918, as an indestructible,
+historical and legal fact. Grossich exposed the situation and was then
+for some instants mute. His voice was trembling when he spoke: "The
+sacrifice which circumstances may demand is tremendous, but if it is
+required by the supreme interests of Italy we will know how to support
+it. More than a citizen of Fiume, I feel myself an Italian" ("Primo che
+fiumano mi sento italiano"). At this point the old patriot broke into
+tears. "Fiume will defend herself with arms against all those who desire
+to violate her will, her national conscience. Seeing that her tenacious,
+indestructible Italianity is a grave impediment for Italy in the
+attaining of other objects, let Fiume be left to look after herself,
+sure as she is of her sons, prepared as she is, to-day more than ever,
+to sacrifice herself. She will defend herself against all and from
+wherever they come." Those who listened thought that this must mean that
+either the _Pester Lloyd_ of April 29 was lying when it printed an
+official message stating that General Segre, the Italian representative
+at Vienna, had in the name of his Government requested the Hungarian
+Soviet Republic to undertake the care of Italian subjects in Rieka, or
+else that the Magyars had told him that the 22,000 or 23,000 Italian
+soldiers in Rieka ought to be sufficient, as this was practically one
+soldier for every person who had been described as an Italian. But the
+I.N.C. had now resolved to take no risks; they entered into negotiations
+with Sem Benelli, a well-known poet of the school which some critics
+call enlivening and other critics call inflammatory. Anyhow, on the
+afternoon of June 13, Mr. Benelli was made a citizen of Rieka, a member
+of the central committee and was entrusted with the portfolio of
+Minister of War, that is to say Commissary for Defence. He thanked the
+I.N.C. in a long speech, and declared that his appointment was the
+wedding of Rieka and Italy. Then Dr. Vio proposed a law, respecting the
+defence to the uttermost of Italian rights--that an army should be
+created and that the expenses should be met by the issue of bonds for a
+hundred million lire. The citizen Benelli was asked to undertake the
+organization and the command of the army.
+
+
+ADMIRAL MILLO EXPLAINS THE SITUATION
+
+Farther down the coast and on the islands the Italians seemed, with few
+exceptions, to have relinquished every effort to make themselves popular
+with the Slavs. Of course one naturally hears more of the cases of
+tension than of those where friendliness prevails; but in the towns or
+villages where the Slav _intelligentsia_ appreciated that an officer was
+doing his best, they were obliged invariably to add that he was doing it
+in spite of his men, and that his control of these men was more or less
+defective. Numbers of the soldiers, marines and carabinieri may have
+been animated, when they landed in Dalmatia, with excellent intentions,
+but their months amid an alien population had produced in them too often
+a deplorable effect. It must be taken into account that many of them had
+an almost insurmountable desire to be demobilized. At Gradi[vs]ca, where
+many Slovenes were interned, with fences round them but with no roof
+other than the sky, their guards with other soldiers had risen in
+revolt. This outbreak was suppressed, certain soldiers--some say sixty,
+but the number is doubtful--being shot; and all the others took an oath
+that on the first occasion of a deserter being shot at, they would, down
+to the last man, leave the barracks. This movement had been growing
+since the withdrawal of Bissolati from the Cabinet. As for the young
+officers, they had been exhorted, in a communication from Admiral Millo,
+the Governor, that they must realize the position they were in. The
+Admiral's memorial, which was marked with wisdom but also with a
+too-sweeping air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document: No. 558
+of Register P. Section of Propaganda. Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy
+was found by the Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed
+and replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the Croats the
+contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a lengthy and to us at times a
+rather rhetorical expose, of which it will suffice to make some
+extracts. "The Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
+calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes which divide
+the sentiments of the local population. And in accounting,
+psychologically and historically, for the detestations and the
+aspirations of either party, he must regard the situation with the
+serene mind of a judge.... The position of officers is extremely
+delicate, more particularly in the small centres. It is known that
+outside the towns the population in its great majority and often its
+totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South, that is to say,
+Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people of another race, of that
+formidable Slav race which for centuries has been pressing against the
+West, athirst for liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a
+psychology, a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
+consciousness and a quite special individuality. This population is
+fundamentally good, good as simple and primitive people are. But the
+simple and primitive peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious
+and violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the officers from
+not taking these things into account and from letting themselves be
+guided solely by their Italian feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and
+an evenly-balanced mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
+of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment and a spirit
+of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on our part. The officer must
+... become an element of moderation and pacification, with the object of
+assuaging and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created and
+fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever; and of dissipating
+that hostility which, determined by a political situation and events,
+has been and is being incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
+artificially created campaign of interested parties (_da artificiose
+interessate campagna_).... It must be remembered that this is the first
+contact (_il primo contatto_) which the population, as yet primitive and
+uncultured in its mass, has had with Italy, where it instinctively sees
+the enemy and the new oppressor. We must do our best to make them see
+in Italy their friend and liberator.... It is evident and it leaps to
+the eyes of all how delicate and important is the moment of this first
+contact. Nothing more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances
+is needed for the officer to understand that in all his official and
+personal acts he must behave in such a manner that the population, which
+is primitive and simple and therefore all the more susceptible to
+suggestions, should regain the impression that Italy is a great country,
+the country of liberty and right, that its people is educated and
+civilized, that its officers and soldiers are here to fulfil a work of
+civilization and education, of love, in a country which must be Italian
+on account of historic rights and for the exigencies of Italy's defence:
+in which the Slavs, who have been introduced by the course of events and
+as an effect of the expansive potentiality of their race and the
+artifices of those who dominated the country, will find in the
+independence and development of their nationality a great fatherland
+which is civilized, powerful, humane and free.... In estimating the
+enmity of the Croats the fact must be taken into account that the
+Croatian world, I mean to say the Croat people, with its action in the
+interior of Austria while the Italian army was acting outside,
+resolutely and victoriously, has co-operated in precipitating the
+downfall of Austria and in freeing itself from a detested regime;
+particularly in the last year of the War this sentiment of nationality
+became accentuated with the fervent aspiration for liberty.... These are
+the circumstances which have determined a special psychology composed of
+joy and ecstasy--both elements which, in minds that are laden with all
+the influences of the East, produce a facile and dangerous excitement.
+On the other hand there survives in the Italian population the hatred
+against the Croatian supremacy, a hatred which is comprehensible but
+which in time must give place to other sentiments, rendering possible a
+fair coexistence of the two populations, whose aim should be common--the
+prosperity and development of Dalmatia, in the prosperity and for the
+prosperity, in the greatness and for the greatness of Italy. From this
+picture it must be instantly clear to every officer that his duty here
+is ... a truly lofty mission of civilization.... Especially the officer
+who is in charge of administrative work must awaken impressions that
+are naturally caused by the sense of justice for all; his severity must
+be good and his goodness must be severe, and from every act there must
+transpire the dignity which comes from the might and right of Italy, the
+kindness and generosity which come from the virtue of the race.... There
+is already an impression on the part of the Croats that the Italians are
+good, that Italy is strong. There must also be born and reinforced the
+other conviction that we are not oppressors but liberators.... The best
+propaganda, the most efficacious, because spontaneous and unexpected, is
+done by the officer and his men. The Italian officer ... with the
+harmony of manners which distinguishes him, obtains very easily the
+sympathies of this population, a sympathy, however, which for an
+optimist may become dangerous. Young officers must not forget that the
+propagators of the great Yugoslavia still exercise with their
+megalomania a potent influence over the primitive population and that a
+gesture of theirs, a word, an attitude, may even yet indirectly favour
+the Croat cause and make difficulties for us in exhibiting our mission
+of civilization."
+
+
+HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT [vS]IBENIK
+
+It is strange that this order should have been so scurvily treated in
+the town of [vS]ibenik, where it was issued and where the Admiral
+resided until the beginning of June, after which he transferred the seat
+of government to Zadar. At [vS]ibenik, by the way, the population
+comprises 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400 Italianists. On February 20, 1919,
+there arrived from Zadar, in consequence of an invitation from Admiral
+Millo, the Italian professor Domiaku[vs]i['c] who, according to the
+sixth clause of the Armistice, was justified in assuming the functions
+of school-controller, but was not authorized to become the inspector or
+in any way to interfere in didactic matters. Two inspectors existed in
+Dalmatia, one for the elementary and one for the secondary school, but
+the chief school authority of the province and the two inspectors under
+him were not informed of Professor Domiaku[vs]i['c]'s nomination. If the
+Governor intended him to abide by the stipulations of the Armistice, he
+must have been astonished at the schools being shut on the day after
+his arrival. And they remained shut, both the modern school and the
+middle-class girls' school for months, because the Professor's quite
+illegal attempt to usurp the inspectorship was resented. The secondary
+school was closed and the teachers who had come to [vS]ibenik with their
+families, but whose permanent domicile was elsewhere, received an order,
+delivered by carabinieri, that they would have to leave the town in four
+days. A few Italians were brought from Split and the school was
+reopened, but the attendance, which had been about 200, was now 24, and
+of these only two were the sons of Yugoslavs--but Yugoslavs who had
+taken office under the Italians, one as President of the Court of
+Justice and the other as prison inspector; these gentlemen took their
+boys by the hand and led them to school. Perhaps the Admiral was unaware
+of these transactions; but various Yugoslav officials, whose salaries
+had been withheld because they would not sign a paper asking to be made
+Italian officials, continued, notwithstanding, at their posts for two
+months; after which the Government perceived that by the clauses of the
+Armistice they were compelled to pay them. Each of them received exactly
+what was due, while some Italian teachers who had signed the paper were
+given a war bonus, extending over five months, of 80 per cent. Whether
+the Admiral knew of this or not, it does not harmonize with his exalted
+sentiments. And the town-commandant spoke very darkly[37] on various
+occasions to the leading citizens of what would come to pass if the
+Italians by any chance were told to leave the place. His brave fellows,
+the arditi, so he said, had plenty of machine guns and of ammunition.
+But this fair-haired German-looking officer was a rampageous sort of
+person who discharged, according to his lights, the Admiral's "truly
+lofty mission of civilization." It was not he, but another of the
+Admiral's subordinates at [vS]ibenik, who, when approached by a certain
+Mr. Iva[vs]a Zori['c] with the request that something might be done to
+release his son, a prisoner of war in Italy, replied: "Your son shall be
+released in eight days, provided that you declare, in writing, that you
+are content with the Italian occupation." On Mr. Zori['c] saying that he
+was unable to do this, "Very well," said the officer, "then your son
+will be one of the last to be set free."
+
+
+THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS
+
+Altogether one might say that the schoolmasters were being treated in a
+manner that was at variance with the Admiral's document. To give a few
+examples: Ivan Grbi['c], the schoolmaster at Sutomi[vs]cica, was
+arbitrarily imprisoned and was afterwards removed to another school at
+Privlaka. The Government school at the former place was closed, an
+Italian private institution being opened in the same building, with a
+teacher who was devoid of professional qualifications. The pupils of the
+school which had been dissolved were compelled by soldiers to attend the
+new Italian school. The elementary schools at Zemunik were likewise
+closed and the schoolmasters, after a period of imprisonment, taken to
+another village. If in the rather dreary little Zemunik, where there is
+not one Italian, the schoolmaster was very dangerous to the might of
+Italy, let us compare with this the conduct of the Slovene authorities
+who permitted more than one priest of the old regime to remain in
+office--one of them at a village four or five miles from
+Ljubljana--though they knew that these clergy were wont from the pulpit
+to utter disloyal sentiments. Maybe the Slovene Government was unwise,
+but they had scruples in removing a priest; and moreover, they had not
+given up the hope that these gentlemen would by and by change their
+opinions. On the island of Pag the schoolmaster Buratovi['c] and his
+wife, who was also a teacher, had to fly in order to escape
+imprisonment. The schoolmaster Grimani of the same place was obliged,
+with his wife, to follow the example of Buratovi['c], so that the school
+was necessarily closed; and an Italian school was started in this island
+with its 0.31 per cent. of Italians. The same edifying scenes must have
+taken place as in so many Magyar schools where the pupils--Serbs,
+Slovaks, Roumanians and so forth--did not understand what the teacher
+was saying. The Government of the occupied part of Dalmatia appointed to
+the elementary schools at Rogoznica and Primo[vs]ten two young Italian
+law-students from Zadar, who had no pedagogic qualifications; and
+whereas the legal annual salary was 1080 crowns, these lucky young men
+were in receipt of 625 crowns a month, which covered more than
+handsomely any depreciation in the currency. But now to another subject:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+ 1. Zadar                     with 80.25           with 18.61
+ 2. Hvar (Lesina)              "   92.94            "    6.75
+ 3. Kor[vc]ula (Curzola)       "   94.89            "    5.08
+ 4. [vS]ibenik (Sebenico)      "   95.66            "    1.31
+ 5. Starigrad (Cittavecchia)   "   97.98            "    1.91
+ 6. Vis (Lissa)                "   98.98            "    0.92
+ 7. Skradin (Scardona)         "   99.36            "    0.57
+ 8. Knin                       "   99.48            "    0.31
+ 9. Drni[vs] (Dernish)         "   99.49            "    0.41
+10. Benkovac                   "   99.60            "    0.30
+11. Tijesno (Stretto)          "   99.61            "    0.35
+12. Biograd (Zaravecchia)      "   99.66            "    0.23
+13. Pag (Pago)                 "   99.67            "    0.31
+14. Obrovac (Obrovazzo)        "   99.84            "    0.12
+15. Kistanje                   "   99.88            "    0.12
+16. Blato (Blatta)             "   99.93            "    0.05
+
+The London Treaty had conferred on Italy the foregoing Judiciary
+Districts, whose population, according to the last Austrian census, was
+as given on page 147.
+
+Italy was also to receive portions of the following Justiciary
+Districts:
+
+                        Per cent. Yugoslavs.     Per cent. Italians.
+1. Trogir (Trau)              with 99.12           with 0.32
+2. Sinj                        "   99.29            "   0.24
+3. Imotski                     "   99.84            "   0.11
+4. Vrlika                      "   99.95            "   0.04
+
+In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized by a delegation
+which the representatives of the occupied communes elected at Split on
+January 11. According to the census of 1900 the occupied territory
+contained 35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181
+inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants, the census was
+prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated the results of the
+plebiscite in the commune of Obrovac.[38] The delegates were therefore
+successful in canvassing 95.07 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In 34
+communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia was over 90 per cent.,
+while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per cent. At Zadar (the town) out of
+14,056 inhabitants 6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in
+the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was 89.57 per cent.
+In the islands the majorities ranged from 96 per cent. to 100 per cent.
+And if any doubts were entertained as to these figures, the delegates
+were authorized to propose another plebiscite under the control of a
+disinterested Allied Power.
+
+
+YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT
+
+Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants, is not a wealthy
+province; and one would have supposed that if the Italians thought it
+necessary to occupy a country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably
+opposed to them, it would have been--to put it at the lowest--politic to
+hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood. Austria had established
+fourteen military fishing centres (besides others in Rieka, Istria,
+etc.), and these the Croats joined most willingly, as a means of
+avoiding service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets were
+worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with new ones. Owing to
+the conditions of the Triple Alliance, the Italians enjoyed the right to
+"high-sea" fishing, that is to say, the fishing up to three miles from
+the Dalmatian coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich
+fishing grounds among the northern islands. These dispossessed natives
+were originally more preoccupied with fish than with Italians. Is it
+strange that they refused to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral
+Millo, the friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss
+Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line for the
+exploitation of its forests; during the War this line was continued to
+Prijedor, and with great difficulty it had served for the transport of
+food-stuff and passengers from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to
+Sissak normal gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there to
+Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or [vS]ibenik narrow
+gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading between 30 per cent. and 50
+per cent. of the goods were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the
+inhabitants of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor hundreds of
+waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to be forwarded, and with Italy
+blocking the road at Knin they simply perished.
+
+
+ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS
+
+The Italian administration of Dalmatia--economically, politically,
+scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)--was
+thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence;
+it is impossible to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention of
+Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogi['c], who was deported to Sardinia for
+political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a
+Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to [vS]ibenik
+and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with
+nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the
+S.S. _Almissa_, bound for Ancona. Near [vS]ibenik the boat collided with
+the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of
+their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in
+their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the
+doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to
+stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were
+stolen--at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars.
+His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his
+fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The
+carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without
+unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey
+was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence--being all the time
+attached to one another--it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison
+doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogi['c] was ill, but as he declined
+to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to
+Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen.
+From Leghorn in the S.S. _Derna_ he was shipped to Sardinia, where he
+had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania,
+where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received
+2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor
+they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what
+he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000
+Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for
+more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line
+and--as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their
+release--letters some of which I read--they had very friendly
+recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of
+Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "bestially
+maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to
+Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on
+the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost
+exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin
+and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an
+absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered
+the doctor to dictate the whole affair and said that if nothing else
+could be done he would go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he
+struck the table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split
+and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and "Wir sind doch die
+groessten Schuften!" he exclaimed ("After all, it is we who are the
+biggest scoundrels!").... When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian
+Government at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald man, made
+a speech to the prisoners from the balcony of the town hall. He armed
+two of the Italians and ten French prisoners, whom he told off to guard
+the magazine. The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli)
+vanished after a couple of days; the French remained for a week, and
+when a French destroyer arrived at Split they were taken there, not as
+prisoners but as soldiers, bearing arms. Dr. Bogi['c] was a member of
+the National Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague at
+Drni[vs] to ask him whether the Italian troops were coming up from
+[vS]ibenik. This letter was his undoing. The reason he wrote it was
+because the population at Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective
+occupation and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He should have
+remembered, no doubt, that the Italians regarded this as enemy country
+and that to make inquiries with regard to the movement of troops was a
+crime. An officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he would
+kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the place which was
+indicated he found himself surrounded by carabinieri. Their captain, a
+certain Albano, said that he and two or three others must go to
+[vS]ibenik to undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return
+in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to take any money,
+clothes or linen. As a matter of fact the doctor had, on the previous
+day, been warned from Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but
+he laughed--he had done so much for them and he felt so innocent that
+it seemed absurd to run away. He could have gone, because he had a
+written permit issued to him on January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry
+regiment at Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever
+they wished, to Split.
+
+
+SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS
+
+During the winter and spring over seven hundred persons, chiefly
+belonging to the clerical, the legal and the medical professions, had
+been deported from Dalmatia. The leader of the Italian party at Zadar
+told me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra, saying that
+this, their place of interment, was a health resort and that they were
+getting fat. He scouted the idea that they were under any sort of
+compulsion when they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must
+anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia, as were the
+vast majority. Those who managed to return from that island--among them
+Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar, through the intervention of Bissolati, on
+account of Mrs. Macchiedo being at death's door--said that they found in
+Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment. Many priests
+were deported, on account of crimes which varied in enormity. A very
+frequent cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a
+congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One must say that the
+Italians exhibited no religious partiality, for they treated the Roman
+Catholic Church just the same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions
+were so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be due to a
+misunderstanding. To mention only one which came under my observation at
+Skradin, not far from [vS]ibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his
+sumptuous vestments had led his congregation out of the old town in
+order to perform an annual ceremony in connection with the fertility of
+the fields. In what way was the Italian cause assisted when carabinieri
+broke up that procession and refused even to allow the people to walk
+back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest and the
+other church officials with the sacred emblems, were forced to go back
+to Skradin as best they could by wading through the marshes?
+
+
+A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES
+
+An allusion has been made to the Italian financial methods. More than
+one Italian officer, including Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the
+Austrian currency, which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In
+Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had the Government
+stamp, and the Italians resolved that in the territories which they
+occupied the notes must have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But
+when some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation from Croatia
+or else landed somewhere in a boat the Italians were not making good
+propaganda for themselves when they seized the notes, tore them up and
+refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow whom I know of
+came with his mother along that wonderful road which the Austrians built
+over the mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious affection of
+the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar to consult an oculist. He took
+with him practically all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know
+what otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use of a bank.
+Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told him testily to go about
+his business. The same thing happened to the following persons:
+
+                                                                   Crowns.
+ 1. March 22, 1919. Bogdan Babovi['c], son of Radovan,
+                     of Montenegro,                   was robbed of 1,348
+ 2.   "   22,   "   Peter Luk[vs]i['c], son of Stephen of
+                     Spi['c],                          "      "     1,800
+ 3.   "   30,   "   Marijan [vS]evelj, of Tu[vc]epa,   "      "     3,530
+ 4.   "   31,   "   Frano Franki['c] and Ivanica
+                      Petri[vc]evi['c],                "      "    12,000
+ 5. April  8,   "   Stephen Vuku[vs]i['c], son of Peter,
+                      of Katuna,                       "      "     4,758
+ 6.   "    8,   "   Nikola Cike[vs], son of Mate, of
+                      [vZ]e[vz]evice,                  "      "     3,071
+ 7.   "    8,   "   Martinis Jozo, son of the late
+                      Nikola, of Komi[vz]a,            "      "     6,332
+ 8.   "    8,   "   Jure Rubi['c], son of the late Peter,
+                      of Zadvarje                      "      "     6,030
+ 9.   "    8,   "   Mato [vS]kari[vc]i['c], son of Stephen,
+                      of Podgrazza,                    "      "       500
+10. April  8, 1919. Mihovil [vS]arac, son of the late Crowns.
+                      Marko, of Split,                was robbed of   300
+11.   "   11,   "   Ilika Kutlja[vc]a, son of the late
+                      Peter, of [vC]ista,              "      "       600
+12.   "   13,   "   Marko [vC]aljku[vs]i['c], son of the
+                      late Ante, of [vS]estanova,      "      "    11,000
+13.   "   14,   "   Damjan Udovi[vc]i['c], son of Jakov,
+                      of Imotski,                      "      "     3,200
+14.   "   16,   "   Antun Radi['c], son of Peter, of
+                      Trogir,                          "      "    62,000
+15.   "   16,   "   Madalena Kugmi['c], widow of
+                      Nikola, of Split,                "      "     1,000
+16.   "   17,   "   Pero Juri['c], son of Abram, of
+                      Ostrozac,                        "      "     2,285
+17.   "   19,   "   Jakov Jurkovi['c], son of Mi[vs]ko "      "}
+18.   "   19,   "   Mate Raji['c], son of Ilija,       "      "}    8,140
+19.   "   19,   "   Jerko Reji['c], son of Luke,       "      "}
+20.   "   19,   "   Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko,
+                      of Livno,                        "      "    25,000
+21.   "   25,   "   Zorka Aljinovi['c], of Split,      "      "       600
+22.   "   28,   "   Ana [vZ]i[vz]ak, of Split,         "      "     1,900
+23.   "   29,   "   Nikolina Rastor, of Split,         "      "     1,800
+24.   "   30,   "   Antica Mili['c], of Split,         "      "     5,000
+25.   "   24,   "   Tomislav Novak, son of Mate,
+                      of Hvar,                         "      "     3,000
+26.   "   24,   "   Gjuran Arif, of Livno,             "      "     2,200
+                                                                   --------
+                                                             Total 136,794
+                                                                   --------
+
+These were the complaints over a period of a month, which were received
+by the Provincial (Yugoslav) Government at Split. One has to take their
+word for it that the list is not fictitious. I did not investigate any
+of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the list said that
+they were persuaded I would find that in every case the person culpable
+was an officious, ignorant N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a
+fragment. At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from the
+people, who were searched both on landing and on leaving, 40,000 crowns
+had been confiscated, and at first they had been told that the money
+should be stamped. A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few
+hours I was at Metkovi['c] told me that he had gone to the island of
+Kor[vc]ula to his brother and, on landing, had been relieved of 34,000
+crowns.
+
+
+AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY
+
+In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of the Allied policy of
+allowing a disputed zone to be occupied _ad interim_ solely by the
+troops of one interested country. The chronic state of war which
+followed the landing of the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the
+charges and the counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied
+Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was issued early in 1920
+and was signed by an American Admiral and French, Italian and British
+Generals, laid the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher
+Command. The Commission considered that an inter-Allied occupation was
+necessary, because the Greeks, instead of maintaining order, had given
+their position all the characteristics of a permanent occupation, the
+Turkish authorities being powerless. They also considered that order
+should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other than Greek.... No such
+Commission visited Dalmatia, chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of
+endless provocations, displayed greater self-control than the Turks. But
+an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that the Italian regime had
+not the marks of a permanent occupation simply because such methods
+could never be permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was
+forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat newspaper. On
+one island I found about fifteen gentlemen gathered round a table in a
+sort of dungeon, reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into
+their possession. This they had been doing for more than six months.
+Every letter was censored, all telegraphic and telephonic communication
+between the occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited. All
+flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed. Admiral Millo told
+us that this prohibition did not extend to the flags of France, Great
+Britain and the United States; considering that it is on record when and
+where the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians, ordered to
+be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence of Allied contingents, it
+seems scarcely worth saying that, as we were often told, the Admiral's
+permission, which was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded
+by his subordinates. Another thing that was very rigorously forbidden,
+especially on the islands, was for any Yugoslav to go down to the
+harbour, if a boat came in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on
+board. It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable and
+tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning of Yugoslav
+clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving them empty because they found
+they did not want them, the requisitioning of private houses, with no
+consideration for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of forests,
+the closing of law-courts, the demand that other courts should pronounce
+no judgment before first submitting it to them. But, above all, what the
+Yugoslav Government at Split complained of were the methods they
+employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food,
+clothing and money:
+
+
+I
+
+GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE CURZOLA
+ISLANDS
+
+SUBJECT: _Question of Food Supplies for the Civil Population._
+
+No. 43. _March_ 18, 1919.
+
+To all subject authorities:
+
+I have heard that several commanding officers who have to distribute
+food to the civilian population have, by virtue of an authorization that
+they may save part of the entered amounts for the purpose of using that
+sum for propaganda, saved a conspicuous quantity without having the
+possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained that the only
+effective means of propaganda is the distribution of food supplies ...
+amounts which are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary
+for purposes of propaganda.
+
+THE VICE-ADMIRAL
+THE GOVERNOR,
+E. MILLO.
+
+
+II
+
+ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE
+CURZOLA ISLANDS
+
+STAFF. SECTION OF PROPAGANDA, No. Prot. "P." SEBENICO, _April_ 18, 1919.
+
+The section of propaganda of the Government of Dalmatia, whose object is
+the rapid diffusion of Italianity in this noble region which gives at
+last to Italy the complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has
+set before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action ... it is
+therefore necessary to give these latter certain advantages ... it has
+been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ... that offices be
+opened for the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that
+presents be given to the indigent population, that fetes and spectacles
+be organized.
+
+[Signature illegible.]
+
+
+These two documents give some indication of the plan of campaign. One
+might mention, by the bye, that during this period there was a great
+shortage of food-stuffs in Italy; large quantities were being sent from
+the United States. The Yugoslav Government at Split complained of the
+disastrous social and moral results of these proceedings. It gave rise
+to many abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had, for
+example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all they had to do was to
+go on board the _Puglia_, the Italian flagship, whether their parents
+allowed them or not, and there they were given both provisions and cash.
+As elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of idlers and
+scamps, who seized this opportunity; another class of person, who had
+erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to
+proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these
+people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return
+for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in
+that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists
+of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists
+numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.
+
+
+THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
+
+To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just
+before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer,
+Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the
+Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each
+other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing,
+attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great
+inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few
+exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of
+which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between
+the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over
+Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with
+the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
+happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of
+Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga
+Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
+famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the
+successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on
+September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an
+Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
+before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in
+their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents
+whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of
+the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position
+has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents
+received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc.,
+gratuitously."
+
+The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No
+doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before the Austrian
+collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done--three boxes,
+presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the
+flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on
+October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived,
+principally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metkovi['c] and Dubrovnik. In 1913
+Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was
+completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal
+people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the
+coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous
+instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all
+Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The
+chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven
+times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August
+19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and
+Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph
+celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a
+few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory
+conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian
+party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a
+big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary
+of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the
+chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr.
+Trumbi['c], Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr.
+Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance.
+On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who
+marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The attitude," he
+says, "of the Slav _intelligentsia_ was quite passive. The Italian band
+waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took
+place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called:
+'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down
+with the Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval
+lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the
+typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at
+Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury,
+how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation
+was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from
+following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians,
+he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with
+the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the
+"Societa del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting
+club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a
+gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina,
+wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to
+offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per
+quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on
+August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will
+be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that
+this has caused the Slav _intelligentsia_ to be still more profoundly
+depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17,
+1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and
+smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had
+been driven out of Belgrade.
+
+When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians--I believe
+six from Zadar and two from Split--went to serve in the Italian army.
+Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these
+exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to
+the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged
+or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in
+charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their
+most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what
+the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became
+units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not
+incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura,"
+that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most assiduous in
+addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting
+all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular
+friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down
+with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the
+Slav _intelligentsia_. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr.
+Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.
+
+
+CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY
+
+One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the collapse of
+Austria, regarded the Italian party, and especially Dr. Salvi, with
+some suspicion. Since they had always placed themselves at Austria's
+disposal, it would be most natural if they attempted by a _coup d'etat_
+to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment when they joined the Slavs
+and helped to turn the Austrians out. There was no notion then that the
+Italian army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until Christmas
+that this army tried to enter Split. When they proposed to come ashore
+they were prevented by the French, Americans and British; thereupon they
+threatened to come overland--although the town was not included in the
+London Treaty--but again they were prevented. In February, on the
+occasion of a conference between the four Admirals, there was a
+demonstration against Italy, the commandant of the _Puglia_ being struck
+and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was a widespread
+feeling of resentment at the way in which the _Puglia_ was, as we have
+seen, availing herself of the baser elements in the town for the
+furtherance of her propaganda; but what put the match to the bonfire was
+the omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian
+National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found that "officers
+belonging to an Allied nation have been molested." They announced that
+they would not tolerate a repetition of such acts, and that inter-Allied
+patrols, acting with Serbian troops and the local police force, would
+take measures to prevent them. On March 8, however, there was a renewal
+of the troubles; and again the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian
+member of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved of
+the findings and that he would present a special report.
+
+
+ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY
+
+"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at
+Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the
+future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially
+the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than
+diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few
+Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the
+incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths,
+sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were
+bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of
+arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the
+bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved
+by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered
+responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian
+soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were
+armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the
+Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting
+some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which
+they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the
+Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these
+authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian
+soldiers."
+
+
+NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES
+
+But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear
+of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the
+neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual
+prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities
+were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was
+to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the
+commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it
+than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the
+occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were
+deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with
+the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the
+Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government
+that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order,
+which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was
+not merely illegal--let alone inhumane--but was in contradiction with an
+earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout
+the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil
+employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to
+obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword:
+"Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the
+peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces,
+blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after
+night, and so on.... In the second half of February it was intended to
+conduct a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to Zadar, so
+that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced to be there, for the
+benefits which Italy had bestowed upon them. An officer who in this
+branch achieved particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the
+Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread and Italian
+promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken fisherfolk and
+peasants; they refused to take part in the ridiculous demonstration, and
+in order to avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and even
+went to the length of sinking their boats. In the possession of a
+peasant at Preko, [vS]ime [vS]ari['c] Mazi['c], were found some
+banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them and a very small French flag;
+for these transgressions de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive
+a box on the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison, and
+there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors afterwards certified,
+inflicted serious injuries upon his hands, which they beat with chains.
+For the same reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate
+Lon[vc]ar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet. On March 2 at Preko
+the Italians, enraged because the people had not come to their
+demonstration, dispersed with sticks all those who were assembled in
+front of the church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated. On
+March 29 the aforementioned Lon[vc]ar was condemned to three years'
+imprisonment because 11,780 crowns, unstamped notes, had been found on
+him; the notes, of course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way,
+were given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a discount of
+10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even the military used these
+forbidden notes, and compelled the peasants at the market to accept
+them. In the night of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of
+Zadar, who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their present
+misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested and deported to Italy;
+they included Mr. Joseph de Ton[vc]i['c], President of the Yugoslav Club
+and formerly the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two
+years of age and in precarious health. During this same night forty
+persons were deported from Knin, three from Drni[vs], three from
+Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine from [vS]ibenik and four from
+Benkovac.... On the populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected
+with the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant; here the
+Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still, bare-headed, when
+they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and
+forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba
+(Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
+seventy-five, called Lovrovi['c], were imprisoned. The latter had told
+his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent
+and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to
+Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
+nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at
+Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of
+meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin,
+highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
+party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If,
+he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not
+to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of
+his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the
+Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto,
+which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high
+Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged
+to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said,
+was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and
+betrayed Italy--so many of those who now called themselves good Italians
+had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
+Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with
+no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a
+Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked
+a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo
+that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the
+Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt
+for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased
+with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated,
+and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas;
+the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he
+said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home."
+... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the
+_Rije['c] S.H.S._, that Dr. Boxich, on account of having--exceptionally,
+the paper said--spoken the truth to a passing foreigner, had been
+deported to Italy.
+
+
+A VISIT TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS
+
+It was impossible to be at Split without meeting people who had fled
+from the occupied islands. It was also, in consequence of what they told
+one, impossible to set out with an unprejudiced mind. But, after all, we
+have our preconceived ideas on Heaven and Hell, and that will be no
+reason for us not to go there. I had become acquainted at Split with
+Captain Pommerol, of the British Army, a Mauritian of imposing physique
+and, as I was to see, of a lofty sense of justice. He had recently been
+spending several months in Hungary on a mission from the War Office.
+They had now dispatched him to Dalmatia and Bosnia with a very
+comprehensive programme; and, as I secured a little steamer, he came
+with me to the islands. [We hesitated to embark on this expedition,
+since the islanders whose national desires had been choked for so many
+months would probably display their sentiments in such a way as to bring
+down grave penalties upon themselves. But the Yugoslavs, both on the
+mainland and on the islands, were anxious that we should go; they
+doubted whether Western Europe had any knowledge of the Italian methods
+of administration. And if the immediate result of our journey would be
+to call down upon themselves--as indeed it did--a savage wind, they were
+optimistic enough to feel that it would eventually produce a whirlwind
+for their oppressors.] ... The S.S. _Porer_, 130 tons, was flying at the
+stern the temporary flag of white, blue, white in horizontal stripes
+which had been invented for the ships of the former Austro-Hungarian
+mercantile marine; on the second mast they displayed the flag of one of
+the Allies, and the _Porer_ happened to be sailing under the red ensign.
+She had a Dalmatian crew of eight, including the weather-beaten old
+captain and the still older and equally benevolent gentleman who
+combined the functions of cook and steward. In addition to Serbo-Croat,
+they had among them some knowledge of Italian, German and even English.
+The scholar was the mate who, having had his headquarters at Pola during
+the War, spoke Viennese-German. His wife had died at Split after an
+illness of several months, brought on by the idea that her husband had
+been killed at Pola in an air-raid.
+
+The large, rather waterless island of Bra['c], which is nearest to the
+mainland, seems to be chiefly remarkable on account of its
+chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder is produced; and the number
+of changes, no less than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the
+island from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress of
+Vienna. During that period it was sometimes under the Byzantines,
+sometimes the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire, its own autonomous
+Government, the Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one
+year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied by Italy after the
+end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did not ask for it when he was
+negotiating, before the War, with Austria.
+
+
+WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT NOT DURING, THE WAR
+
+The Italian Government put forward the question of the islands for the
+first time in April 11, 1915. There had been no previous discussion,
+passionate or otherwise, as in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But
+now they demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which were
+Hvar, Kor[vc]ula and Vis, with a total population (in 1910) of 57,954.
+The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April
+14, p. 133) that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince Buelow
+with respect to these islands had been extremely animated, and that
+Sonnino had pointed out that the Navy and the whole country expected of
+him that he would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic,
+where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable harbour, that
+is to say serviceable war-harbour. And Sonnino added that he thought
+this was an opportune moment in which to rectify that state of things.
+On April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides drawing the
+Italians' attention to the nationality of the islanders--1.62 per cent.
+calling themselves Italian--pointed out that not only would there no
+longer be any question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if
+Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent coast would
+always be threatened. On May 4, the Ambassador asked whether an
+arrangement with Italy would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to
+every one of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the value of
+these islands was in Austrian eyes. When Sonnino did not reply to this
+question, the Ambassador understood that Italy's participation in the
+War had been determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government made up
+its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its proximity to the Italian
+coast." As a matter of fact it lies 42 miles from Vis and 33 miles from
+the nearest point in Apulia. As a strategic base this group of rocks
+would have no value, since the water is too deep for the construction of
+a harbour, and the sirocco rages with such ferocity that it flings the
+foam over the top of the lighthouse, which is 360 feet in height. This
+inhospitable place, with its population of 13 human beings, some sheep
+and goats, was inhabited in prehistoric days; when the excavations were
+being made for the lighthouse a variety of implements from the Stone Age
+were discovered, including a stone arrow that was found between the ribs
+of a skeleton.... But the Austrian Ambassador let it be known at the
+same time that he would be prepared to make a further friendly
+examination of the Italian demands with reference to the other islands.
+His Government also on May 15 (Red Book, No. 185, p. 181) announced that
+they were quite disposed to reopen the discussion. However, on the 23rd
+of the month, Italy came into the War. The Italians had been explaining
+that if only Austria would give up these islands--which was as if you
+were to invite a person whose designs you suspected to come and camp in
+the hall of your house--then, said the Italians, there would be an
+excellent prospect of permanently amicable relations between the two
+States.
+
+
+OUR WELCOME TO JEL[vS]A
+
+As soon as the War was over, Italy disembarked on the islands which she
+had obtained by the Treaty of London. Something has been said on
+previous pages of the way in which she introduced herself and made
+herself at home. As we were sailing towards the pretty town of Jel[vs]a
+(Gelsa) on the island of Hvar, we left Vrbo[vs]ka on our right. The
+Bishop of Split had told me of a grievance which the Italian troops at
+that place had lodged with his brother, the mayor. Some of them had
+visited, for the fetes of carnival, both the Yugoslav Club, where they
+found many persons who could speak Italian, and the Italian Club, where
+they were annoyed to find that it was spoken by very few. As we came
+into the little port of Jel[vs]a, with the green shutters of its white
+houses harmonizing with the foliage of the cypresses and oleanders, we
+could see a crowd of people running round--and carabinieri running with
+them--to that part of the harbour where we were unexpectedly going to
+stop. There was some confusion, the carabinieri pushing the people back,
+evidently to prevent them shaking hands with us; and one small boy who
+did not hear or did not understand what they were shouting received a
+terrific blow in the back from the fist of a furious Italian. Some cries
+were raised in honour of Yugoslavia, Wilson, France and England, which
+may have been imprudent; but when a place in which there is not one
+single Italian has been held down for months, has been forbidden to
+show the slightest joy on account of the birth of Yugoslavia, has been
+savagely punished for having a copy of a Yugoslav newspaper, has
+repeatedly been cursed and cuffed and ordered, at the bayonet's point,
+to execute some wish of the carabinieri--one cannot be astonished if in
+the presence of some non-Italian foreigners they could no longer repress
+their feelings. Some of the people had brought flowers with them, and as
+Pommerol and I plunged into the whirlpool and made our way towards the
+Italian commander's office, we had many flowers either thrust into our
+hands while the carabinieri were looking the other way or else we had
+them thrown at us, in which case some of them would usually descend upon
+the shoulders or the three-cornered hats of the carabinieri. Whenever
+anybody uttered one of the forbidden exclamations one or more of the
+carabinieri would fling themselves into the crowd and attempt, with the
+help of vigorous kicking, to reach the culprit. Thus, in the midst of a
+series of scrimmages, we got to the captain's quarters. We found him a
+very pleasant young man, keenly conscious of the difficulties of his
+position; as we afterwards heard, he was such an improvement on his
+predecessor that the carabinieri were convinced he was a Yugoslav and
+had been heard to mutter threats against his life. He had apologized to
+the inhabitants, and had dismissed one of his men who had hauled down a
+Yugoslav flag and blown his nose on it. For these men an extenuating
+circumstance was that they had been very drunk on the night before our
+arrival, as they had heard--it was in the first half of June 1919--that
+the islands had been definitely given to Italy, and this they had been
+celebrating. We knew that after an American and an Englishman had
+visited Jel[vs]a, in the time of the other commandant, some of the
+people were interned; the young captain assured us that he would do no
+such thing. And one could see that he would never imitate the brutality
+of his predecessor, who had caused a frail old man of sixty-six,
+Professor Zari['c], to be pulled out of his bed in the middle of a
+winter's night and taken across the hills on a donkey to Starigrad,
+afterwards on a destroyer to Split, from where--but for the intervention
+of the American Admiral--he would have been deported to Italy; and all
+on account of his having written, in English and French, a scientific
+ethnographical treatise on the islands.
+
+
+PROCEEDINGS AT STARIGRAD
+
+At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts looked like the
+scene of an opera, with an opening chorus of carabinieri. They were posted
+at various tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them
+advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to the office of the
+Commandant, a major who must have played a very modest part in the War, as
+I believe he only had three rows of ribbons.[39] He gave us some vermouth
+and informed us that the population was very quiet, very happy. When I said
+that I would like to see the mayor he sent an orderly, and in less than one
+minute his worship stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the major
+had said with regard to the population. In fact the picture which he drew
+brought back to memory the comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an
+American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that she lived at a place
+called Knoxville or Coxville in the States, replied "How nice!" The good
+Italians, quoth the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives,
+and with the exception of the Croat _intelligentsia_ they all wished for
+union with Italy. I asked him if he did not think that, looking at it from
+the economic point of view, there would be some difficulties when the
+island's exports--wine and oil and fish--would have to compete with the
+products of Italy. But he said that one must think of the other
+benefits--no longer would the island have to bear the hated Austrian. It
+was all the fault of Austria, he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad
+municipality had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their school
+and their orchestra. But now it would all be changed. He was clearly a
+product of the new dispensation; and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an
+Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else did this gentleman
+tell me, which was a pity, as in a message, presumably sent by him, to an
+Italian newspaper, _La Dalmazia_,[40] of Zadar, it was stated that in this
+conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local questions....
+Then we all stood up and the major said that he would accompany us down to
+the boat. I told him that I would join him there after I had seen some
+Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away with him while I went
+round the ancient little town--it even has some Cyclopaean walls--with
+certain Yugoslavs, two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out
+to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently taken a less active
+form than that of his successor, for he had only been an Austrian subject,
+while the actual mayor--Dr. Tama[vs]kovi['c]--had served, until the end of
+the War, in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the events of 1885,
+they told me that this was the time when the Croatian national
+consciousness awoke, so that an insufficient number of people had remained
+either to support an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the number
+of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600), and might increase if
+ice-creams were handed round in all the schools. One of my companions
+happened to live in the house of Hektorovi['c], the sixteenth-century poet,
+and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful garden with its
+palms and shady paths and bathing tank, like that one in the Alcazar at
+Seville. Then we went on to the harbour where a number of the people were
+collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of military and naval
+officers and civilians, these latter being partly visitors from Istria and
+Zadar. Suddenly a woman, standing near me, threw her head back and cried:
+"Viva Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled her efforts. I
+should say that about thirty people were gathered round the major, shouting
+for Italy, and he was obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of
+persons who had different sentiments began to shout for Wilson, Yugoslavia
+and so forth. The carabinieri rushed among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs.
+Politeo, who was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and trampled on.
+The lawyers and the doctor with whom I had been walking were all three
+struck over the head or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (_La
+Dalmazia_ wrote that I had been filling their heads with idle tales.)
+Children were screaming. I saw another woman, hatless, being dragged off by
+a couple of carabinieri--and a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly
+ordered them to let her go--and they obeyed reluctantly. Four Dominican
+monks were next attacked--they had not taken part in the demonstration; it
+was enough for the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party.
+One of them, Father Rabadan--an elderly gentleman with gold spectacles--was
+thrown down, struck until his face was covered with blood, and then dragged
+off to prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers--one of these
+I saw in the act of loading his rifle--and the noise was tremendous. Here
+one would see a Yugoslav trying to tell one of the warriors that he had
+done nothing; then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey: one or
+two of the officers looked awkward--one or two actually looked exultant. As
+we steamed out of the harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were
+running along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over the
+stone walls--apparently it was a man-hunt. "There are places in Dalmatia,"
+Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier, had been saying in the _Temps_,[41]
+"where Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that in those
+circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization should prevail. Italy in
+her relations with other races has continued the traditions of ancient
+Rome.... It is their palpitating desire [_i.e._ that of Fiume, Sebenico,
+Zara, Trau, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of Italy."
+And on the next day a telegram was sent to Split from the unoccupied island
+of Bra['c], giving the names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and
+the name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father Rabadan and
+continued: "The carabinieri are still looking for Yugoslavs. On the
+occasion of the arrestment of the clerk Nikola Pavi[vc]i['c], the musket of
+an ardito went off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavi[vc]i['c]. Great
+terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later message, to the
+newspaper _Jadran_ at Split, said that twenty-eight persons had been
+arrested and imprisoned in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the
+neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated, and for the first
+day being given nothing to eat. Everyone felt surprise that among the
+arrested was a certain Mr. Vladimir Vrankovi['c], as he was one of those
+who had betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this clumsiness
+on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and, by command of Major
+Penatta, he was released. All those who could get away from Starigrad were
+taking refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking for the
+intervention of the Entente, as the people's life was being made
+intolerable, and for the reason that they would not trample under foot
+everything which they regard as holy. But, according to _La Dalmazia_, the
+indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference a vibrating
+telegram, which begged for immediate annexation to Italy, and protested
+against those who in an unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's
+beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled at Zadar and
+condemned to terms that varied from four to eight months--seven of the
+accused, including Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving the
+severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian population dispatched,
+later on, a telegram of thanks to the Paris Conference for having ordered
+Yugoslavia to guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be left
+in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial interests in
+Dalmatia; while the half million Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to
+annex were not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It would be
+ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great, Liberal Power.
+
+After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching Hvar, the
+capital of the island, that our further progress was impeded. The pale
+Commandant of sinister aspect, this time a naval officer, Lieut.
+Vincenzo Villa, showed us a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at
+Kor[vc]ula, which said that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of
+the inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little
+difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities, which he
+visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in the morning our cook, who
+went ashore to see what he could buy, was immediately arrested by the
+carabinieri, who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi
+citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the citizens of Rome
+were at loggerheads with the Vatican, arrested and disarmed all those
+adherents of the Papacy who showed their noses outside the Vatican's
+portals. Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant, who allowed
+him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri. After that we returned
+to Split, and from there to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.
+
+One would like to know what the Admiral would have said if this
+interview had taken place a few months later when, in alliance with
+Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in open, armed revolt against the Government
+of Italy. The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had
+not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he
+courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing
+which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went
+back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact
+he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These
+islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you
+know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the
+right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the
+population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since
+the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers
+and cheer the name of Wilson--in view of what these crimes entailed--we
+suggested that a small number, four or five of each party--those who
+desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy--should in
+succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
+if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the
+Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.
+
+
+THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR
+
+The subordinate Admiral, from Kor[vc]ula, had come across on a destroyer
+and was kind enough to tell us at considerable length what were his
+views on local and international affairs. He frankly appealed to us--and
+his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness--to survey the whole
+matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion. But we were less ambitious; we
+desired merely to be the mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first
+came on board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be considered
+unfair if I employ this word rather than "Italians" for a body of men,
+most of whom are admittedly devoid of any Italian blood and whose
+Italian sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers 9 per
+cent. of the population of the town. Their chief point seemed to be that
+the Church was opposed to them, because there was no room for
+clericalism in Italy (!); and the only other point worth mentioning was
+that Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had played havoc with
+their vines. Among the Yugoslavs who succeeded these gentlemen there was
+an elderly priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri--no doubt
+in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken herself free from
+clerical obscurantism--entered the church while the bishop was
+officiating, and hoisted on the roof an Italian flag. This canon, Dom
+Ivo Bojani['c], could scarcely be blamed if the Italian innovations did
+not appeal to him. He chanced to be looking out of his window on a
+moonlit night and noticed that an agile policeman was climbing up to his
+balcony for the purpose of decorating it with an Italian flag. The old
+gentleman protested, and was thereupon taken to the barracks, where he
+remained for one day. The Yugoslavs told us that the state of things was
+worse than in Africa--but that was a figure of speech; the facts were
+that the different societies and clubs had been closed, that all persons
+going down to the harbour had been forbidden to speak their own language
+to their friends on board ship, that three Croat teachers had fled to
+escape being interned, while an Italian soldier who did not know a word
+of Croatian had been appointed in their place.
+
+
+FOUR MEN OF KOMI[vZ]A
+
+When we departed from Hvar the Admiral sent his destroyer to accompany
+us on our tour. She had on board a Roman journalist, Signor Roberto
+Buonfiglio, who was travelling in Dalmatia and the islands on behalf of
+the clerical _Corriere d'Italia_. The situation at Vis, the historic
+palm-shaded capital of the island of the same name, has already been
+described. The Italian Commandant, Sportiello, was a tactful and popular
+person; moreover the Yugoslavs were on the best of terms with Dr. Doimi,
+the head of one of the very rare Italian families. At Komi[vz]a, the
+other little town on that island, the relations between Yugoslavs and
+Italianists were not so cordial. But the deputation which represented
+the latter party comprised one man whom the Austrians had put in gaol
+for several years for forgery; a father and son, of whom the one had
+sold himself for the sake of rice, while the other had also been
+imprisoned by the Austrians for uttering false documents; the fourth and
+most innocent member--his name happened to be Innocent Buliani--had
+nothing to conceal except his fickleness, for in a short period he had
+called himself an Austrian, a Yugoslav and an Italian. None of these
+four was a native of the place, whereas the Yugoslavs who came to see us
+were natives who had risen to be the chief doctor, lawyer, priest and
+merchant. One of the Italianists, Antonio Spadoni, told us that the
+people were afraid of expressing their real wishes for union with Italy.
+This hypothesis might seem to demand some elucidation, but Signor
+Spadoni insisted on passing on to the "Workers' Society," which the
+young Commandant had founded for the purpose, according to Spadoni, of
+helping the people to find work and of looking after their interests. We
+were subsequently told by the Yugoslavs that the Commandant himself
+called the members his "Rice Italians," for many of them did not speak
+the language and did not even sympathize with Italy. But on joining they
+had committed themselves to something that was printed at the top of the
+paper, which part had been turned over. It really doesn't sound very
+worthy of a Great Power. When some of the members, discovering to what
+they were committed, sent in their resignation, it was refused. At
+Komi[vz]a all the municipal officers had been discharged by the
+Italians, the reading-rooms and places of amusement had been closed, and
+the Food Administrator at Split was forbidden to send any food, lest he
+should interfere with the Italians' object in distributing rice, etc.
+Once he was permitted to forward some American flour, and the people had
+to pay forty crowns of duty on each hundredweight.
+
+
+THE WOMEN OF BI[vS]EVO
+
+From Komi[vz]a, the next morning, we steamed over on the destroyer to
+the wonderful blue grotto of Bi[vs]evo (or Busi), which surpasses Capri.
+An Austrian Archduke, we were told, had once waited a week at Komi[vz]a,
+but had been compelled to leave without seeing the cave. We were more
+fortunate--the wind, the water and the sun were kind to us; we entered
+in a rowing-boat the little pearl-grey Gothic chapel which Nature has
+constructed underneath a hill, and as we gazed into the blue-green
+waters, through which from the rocks below a fountain of most brilliant
+blue was rising, every time an oar was dipped the waters painted it a
+silvery white. The population of Bi[vs]evo consists of about 150 people,
+who mostly live around the little church of Saint Sylvester, two hundred
+feet above the sea. They occupy themselves with sheep and fruit and bees
+and fish, and with the vines that are even more famous than those of
+Vis. A good part of the population had assembled on a grassy platform
+high above the entrance to the cave, and as we climbed out of the
+rowing-boat on to the destroyer a much larger rowing-boat came round a
+promontory. Sixteen women formed the crew. They sang their national
+Croatian songs, and when they approached us some of them stood up and,
+while the wind played with their straw-coloured and golden hair, they
+laughingly threw flowers at us. As we left Bi[vs]evo the men and women
+high above us and the women in the boat were waving their hands; some of
+them were singing, others were shouting a farewell. Here and there on
+the sunlit waters, rising and falling, were the flowers which had woven
+on the sea a gorgeous carpet. "Well," said the lieutenant-commander, "I
+admit that this is a Yugoslav island."
+
+I forget whether Signor Buonfiglio made any remark, but a few hours
+later at Velaluka he was most incensed. As our boat--we had returned to
+the old _Porer_ at Komi[vz]a--sailed into the harbour a huge Yugoslav
+flag was flying from the summit of a hill, with French, British and
+American flags around it. The destroyer had arrived before us and the
+burly journalist was striding up and down the quay. "I protest," he
+exclaimed, as he saw us, "and not as a journalist but as an Italian
+citizen! I protest!" Between us and the front row of houses, which
+included the town-major's office, there was a large empty space--the
+inhabitants could be descried up the side-streets and behind the
+windows. De Michaelis, the town-major, was evidently a superior young
+man; as he poured out the champagne he told us with perfect frankness
+that the educated people at Velaluka were Yugoslavs. Suddenly there was
+a terrific noise just underneath us. We hurried downstairs and found
+that the soldiers in their excitement had fired off a machine gun into
+the wall. Half an hour later the firing could be heard from the top of
+the hill, but we never ascertained whether anyone was wounded. In this
+place the Italianist party sent to us an ex-publican who had now joined
+the police, a small trader and a municipal clerk who had recently been
+imported from Zadar. The Yugoslavs were a large landowner, a doctor and
+a priest, who told us that the people for the most part were refusing to
+accept gratuitous food from the Italians.
+
+
+ON THE WAY TO BLATO
+
+We were anxious to visit Blato, an inland village of 8000 inhabitants.
+De Michaelis regretted very much that he had no carriage, but a Yugoslav
+had a quaint little car on which he was learning how to drive and he was
+kind enough to take us--for which he was afterwards deported to Italy.
+The good man made so much noise in changing his gears that our progress
+was advertised in the uttermost fields, and very few of those who bore
+down upon us came unprovided with flowers. Several of the bouquets hit
+Pommerol or myself in the eye, and the Dutch say that the best cause has
+need of a good pleader. But the people were so gay, waving their hats
+and running after us (they did not always have to run) and shouting for
+the various Allies and for President Wilson. I remember two small
+round-eyed boys who were not old enough to run; they were standing hand
+in hand by the side of the road, panting the magic word "Wilson! Wilson!
+Wilson!" There was a sudden contrast when we jerked into the village.
+People were not rushing towards us, but away from us--with furious
+carabinieri behind them. We got into the garden in front of the
+_gendarmerie_; one of the men was so enraged that he kept on muttering
+"Bestia! Bestia! Bestia!" In the Commandant's office we met Major
+Federico Verdinois, the town-major, who said that if he had only known
+of our coming this wretched scuffle would not have happened. Even as he
+spoke it started again; we leaned out of the window and saw two or three
+persons who were being prevented by soldiers from going down the street
+or from going anywhere. An officer was slashing with a riding-whip at a
+soldier who was particularly rough. "One can do nothing with the
+marines; they are brutal," said Major Verdinois. At last there was
+peace, and the major said that an Italian deputation would come to see
+us. It consisted of six individuals. The Austro-Hungarian census of 1910
+said that the Blato district contained 13,147 Serbo-Croats, 3 Germans
+and 6 Italians; but these six were not all in the deputation, for two of
+its members had come from Hvar, one from Zadar, two were ex-Austrian
+spies and one was a Yugoslav, who hoped in this way to help his people.
+One gentleman deplored that he had not been told about our journey; had
+he known he would have told his peasants to appear. Another gentleman
+assured us that the peasants were afraid of declaring their real wishes.
+Of course a country whose friends call it the most liberal in the world
+could not allow such a state of things to continue, and a short time
+after this the following Order was issued by the staff of the 66th
+Division of Infantry:
+
+
+No. 46. Confidential--Personal. VERY URGENT.
+
+_June_ 23, 1919.
+
+TO THE COMMANDERS AT BENKOVAC, OBROVAC,
+NOVIGRAD, ERVENIK, KISTANJE, SKRADIN,
+BIOGRAD, NIN, GJEVERSKE, SUKO[VS]AN AND
+KARIN.
+
+TO THE COMMAND OF THE ROYAL DIVISIONS.
+
+It is necessary to bring about, with no delay and very discreetly, the
+dispatch of messages to the Prime Minister Nitti and to the Minister of
+Foreign Affairs Tittoni from the mayor, from societies, etc., of this
+garrison, expressing the people's keen desire to be annexed to Italy.
+
+A copy of said telegram should be transmitted to me.
+
+THE MAJOR:     THE MAJOR-GENERAL:
+   FORESI.             SQUILLACE.
+
+
+To return to the events at Blato--while we were waiting for the
+Yugoslavs a woman made her way as far as the corridor, flung herself
+down on her knees and entreated us to protect her. Major Verdinois gave
+us his word of honour that no Yugoslav with whom we spoke would, for
+that reason, be arrested. Perhaps he was overruled by his superior
+officers--at all events he arrested and deported to Italy, in the night
+of June 19, no less than ten persons, that is, all the Yugoslavs who
+spoke to us at Blato, with two exceptions. [We cabled this to the Paris
+Conference, and after some delay the unfortunate men were repatriated.]
+
+
+WHAT THE MAJOR SAID
+
+For what happened before our arrival I am indebted to the chemist
+Radimiri, from whose report the following is an extract: "At ten in the
+morning Major Verdinois had summoned to his office the communal doctor,
+Moretti, and the secretary, Draguni['c], both of them Yugoslavs. He told
+them that two Englishmen who were cruising about in the _Porer_ would
+very likely be coming up that afternoon to Blato and he would permit no
+sort of demonstration. The doctor, he said, would be held responsible
+for any disorder; and as Moretti was about to make this known to the
+people, who were just coming out of church, the Italian adjutant
+approached him with a paper and ordered him to read it to the Yugoslavs.
+This document--it has been preserved--is in the Serbo-Croat language and
+was given to the doctor because the adjutant, who did not know the
+language, mistook it for another one. It was an exhortation to the
+people, urging them to have nothing more to do with the Yugoslav
+_intelligentsia_, which had made a great deal of money during the War.
+'And you have given your blood for four and a half years and what has
+been your benefit?' Dr. Moretti made a personal appeal for the
+maintenance of order, and the people, having called out 'Long live
+Wilson!' went their divers ways in peace. Nevertheless three platoons
+appeared, each with one officer and one N.C.O. The adjutant's platoon
+distinguished itself, for while the arditi attacked anyone they saw,
+including women and children, with the butt end of their muskets, Lieut.
+Giovanoni laid about him with a dog-whip. Several of the soldiers made
+for a group of four young fellows; three of them escaped and the fourth,
+Peter Kraljevi['c], was struck with a rifle so severely across the face
+that he was bathed in blood. As he tried to defend himself he was shot
+at from a distance of three paces: one bullet went through his nose,
+another wounded him in the forehead. He fell to the ground, and a
+teacher, Mrs. Maria Grubisi['c], who had witnessed the whole incident,
+sank down unconscious at his side and was covered with his blood.
+Various other people were injured--three little girls received rifle
+shots in their bodies. All the main streets were shut off and eight
+machine guns were placed in readiness. But the people were not to be
+intimidated, and when the Englishmen arrived their national
+consciousness was displayed. As a result Peter [vC]arap was knocked
+unconscious with a mighty blow of a musket, the fourteen-year-old Joseph
+Sule[vz]i['c] had a similar experience, and among many others who were
+assaulted we will only mention an ex-official, Anthony Pi[vz]tuli['c], a
+man of sixty, who was struck twice with a rifle on his stomach and then
+prevented from going home but chased out into the fields.... It seemed
+as if it would be impossible for our people to have a conversation with
+the Englishmen, but at last twenty men and twelve girls managed to reach
+that house...."
+
+
+THE PROTEST OF AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST
+
+I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from this island--it
+appeared in the _Corriere d'Italia_ of June 16--but more than
+three-quarters of it is devoted to an account of some Dalmatian
+delegates who were received, during the War, by Francis Joseph and
+expressed their loyalty. The deputation was introduced by Dr.
+Iv[vc]evi['c], a Croat; and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from
+this how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will have to give
+some other explanation for the very loyal speeches of his countryman,
+Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But I presume that his editor did not send Signor
+Buonfiglio on this journey to the end that he should write of what
+official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for the incidents we
+witnessed and the islanders' aspirations, he merely says that their
+welcome to us was an artificial affair which the Yugoslav committees,
+with extreme effort, had organized--and I don't think that that is a
+very illuminating observation.
+
+We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians dissolved the town
+council, on account of its incapacity to do the work. However, a
+military man to whom it was handed over gave his opinion that he had
+never seen a better administration.... Out of all that we were told, I
+will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were playing football,
+and when they kicked the ball into a maize-field and continued to play
+amid the maize, the farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty
+men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and when finally the
+major commanded them to stop, they dragged them to the barracks and
+thrashed them so that the people in adjacent houses heard them all the
+night.
+
+On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where the _Porer_ was
+waiting for us, we had a repetition of the scenes enacted between
+Velaluka and Blato; and a number of young men, heedless of the risks
+they ran, rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts.
+In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as our escorting
+destroyer. We therefore had to leave without delay, lest the young
+patriots should come into contact with the carabinieri. So very hastily
+and in a very illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on
+November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of Velaluka: "We
+Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka as the friends of Yugoslavia
+and of the Entente. We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such
+I ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together with that of
+Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent we will keep it there until
+the question of the general peace is definitely arranged, according to
+your and our ... according to the principles of ..." The two missing
+words are illegible.
+
+
+INTERESTING DELEGATES
+
+Lying off Kor[vc]ula, that evening, we received the usual delegates. One
+of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a trembling, tearful voice that
+the Italians were far too good. And while we were hearing from one of
+his colleagues what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr.
+Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come! I wish I had not
+come!" He considered that it was outrageous of us to allude to
+plebiscites. The Yugoslavs did not tell us anything very thrilling; the
+Italian authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian, of
+which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity that this is not
+their most serious fault! A barrister called Dr. Pero Cvili[vc]evi['c]
+came, with a companion, to see us the next day, before breakfast. He
+said that they, like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and
+his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was, he said, a
+righteous, though rather a small party, as the island had been gravely
+handicapped by the support which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he
+added--it seemed a trifle illogical--"the people are all very contented.
+Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered the information that
+the law was being administered in the name of the Entente and the United
+States. It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we asked
+him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets were being applied
+under the same sanction.... When we paid our formal visit to the
+Commandant at his office on the quay he did not ask if we would care to
+go to one of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made a
+speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken to a school at
+Kor[vc]ula, how the mistress had allowed him to ask the children if they
+knew Italian, how they had raised their hands, and how this had
+convinced him that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that
+journalist had not been told that prior to the War this town of some
+2000 inhabitants was provided with five schools in which not a single
+child spoke Italian, and with one school subsidized by the Liga
+Nazionale which--as in Albania--lured its pupils by gifts of clothing,
+books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not a word of
+Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of Italian. But not very much
+harm was done, as the population considered it shameful to attend this
+school, and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than thirty
+pupils, even when money was paid to the parents. This institution was
+reopened by the Italian army after the War, and presumably it is the one
+which the American visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress,
+forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat that a
+gentleman would come and say something in Italian, whereupon they would
+hold up their hands.
+
+
+A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR EVANS
+
+Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these months, had not been
+solved but on the contrary had been allowed to spread its poison more
+and more, one naturally wonders what was being done in Paris. The
+Conference was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the
+Armistice, the famous ethnologist and archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans.
+This gentleman, whose distinctions are too numerous to mention (Fellow
+of Brasenose; twice President of the British Association; Keeper during
+twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; D.Litt.; LL.D.;
+F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many years devoted himself to the
+eastern Adriatic--the second edition of his _Through Bosnia and the
+Herzegovina on Foot_ appeared in 1877, his _Illyrian Letters_ in 1878,
+his _Slavs and European Civilization_ in the same year. He never ceased
+from that time onward to study these matters. "I think," he says in a
+letter to me from Youlbury, near Oxford, of which he kindly permits me
+to make any use I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak on
+the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman, as Dalmatia was my
+headquarters for some years. Neither did I approach the question with
+any anti-Italian prejudices. I was so far recognized as a competent and
+moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal Geographical Society to
+give them a paper on the subject.... Anxious, with others friendly to
+both sides, to secure an equitable agreement between the Italians and
+Yugoslavs, I took part in a series of private conferences in London
+which led to a preliminary Agreement forming the basis on which the
+Congress at Rome approached the question. There the Agreement was
+ratified and publicly approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try
+to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the Armistice, as it
+happened) there was to have been a new Congress of Nationalities at
+Paris, which I was asked to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as
+matters were thought too critical, owing to the submission of Bulgaria.
+But I thought it would be useful if I went to Paris all the same, and I
+obtained from the Foreign Office, War Office, etc., a passport vised
+'British War Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice
+was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure of Mr. Steed and
+Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally no one among our countrymen
+at Paris who knew the intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the
+relations of Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian
+difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked me to be his
+go-between, and I had an immense lot of work thrown on my shoulders. I
+had gone to the expense of taking a large salon at the Hotel
+Continental, where I had private Conferences--the Yugoslav and Roumanian
+leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier question, and
+the conciliatory proposals made no doubt furthered the final solution,
+with which they harmonized. When there was a serious danger of a clash
+between the Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing
+the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations to Lord
+D., which he forwarded to Balfour, that immediate pressure was exercised
+at Rome, and the Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to
+convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to let our Ambassador
+have a short precis almost daily of affairs connected with those
+regions.... With great trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav
+representatives to agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the
+neutralization of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken
+up by the Americans--Colonel House inviting me to an interview on the
+subject, in which he expressed his approval. A copy was also sent to the
+F.O., and for this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O.
+I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many friendly
+conversations with prominent Italians in Paris, and in every way
+ingeminated agreement between them and the Southern Slavs. But,
+meanwhile, I exposed the Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino
+was privy, in the _Manchester Guardian_. Finally I went, at the end of
+1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord Derby (with whom I always had
+the friendliest relations) giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however,
+early in January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had kept on
+my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my way. Italian intrigue had
+apparently been on foot. I was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I
+told him briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered or
+acknowledged my letter, and it was only by making urgent personal
+representations at the F.O. that I finally got the answer that they
+refused me a passport.... I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue
+but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.' And so they
+blundered on, and to this day"--the letter is dated July 17,
+1920--"nothing is settled on the Adriatic but unsettlement."
+
+
+THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO
+
+Meanwhile at intervals during this year there had been troubles in
+Montenegro. On three occasions the Italians at Antivari had endeavoured
+to extend their sphere of influence, but the armed civilian population
+had been equal to these emergencies and had each time thrust them back
+to the coast. At Gaeta, between Rome and Naples, a very well-paid corps
+was stationed--almost every man was either a commissioned or a
+non-commissioned officer. The Italian Government was asked by Signor
+Lazari, the Socialist deputy, for what purpose it allocated 300,000 lire
+a month to support these peculiar troops. They were mostly
+Montenegrins--relatives of Nikita, members of the five favoured
+families, persons who were stranded and so forth; likewise at Gaeta were
+a number of other Yugoslavs who had been liberated from their Italian
+internment camps, but many of them, when they discovered what was
+expected of them, revolted. Thirty or forty of them managed to escape to
+France, and others to Montenegro, as for example the man who for twelve
+years had been Nikita's porter. He and three others reached Cetinje one
+day in August 1920 when I was there. They had with them a picture-card
+of the sixty-nine officers of the Gaeta army. Every one knows every one
+else in Montenegro and only two of these officers had held a previous
+commission. According to Nikita's Premier, Jovan Plamenac, the Italian
+Government considered this as the Montenegrin army and regarded (rather
+optimistically) as a loan the money it contributed to keep it up. In
+driblets the non-revolting part of this Gaeta army was taken to the
+eastern shores of the Adriatic, for the purpose of making "incidents" in
+Montenegro. There was a regular scale--so much in cash for the murder of
+a prefect, so much for a deputy. One day the father of Andrija
+Radovi['c], a man of over seventy, was cut down; they waited until
+everyone had left the village to go to some fete in a neighbouring
+village, and the old man defended himself to the last.
+
+These emissaries from Gaeta, misguided Montenegrins, other Southern
+Slavs and Italians, made considerable use of the mischievous speeches
+that were sometimes heard in the British Parliament. They would explain
+to some poor, ignorant mountain-dweller that such great people in
+England were still discussing Nikita's return, and if he did return and
+they had listened to the voice of Radovi['c], woe be to them. Some of
+these wretched dupes would follow their seducers, who--I have no
+doubt--would not only have declined his decorations if they had been
+better informed, but would have placed the matter in the hands of their
+solicitor, as Gabriel Rossetti threatened to do if he were ever elected
+to the Royal Academy. And yet, after the character of the scoundrel King
+was fully exposed, his advocates, so far as I know, had not the grace to
+own their error. Of course there was in Montenegro a certain amount of
+uninstigated unrest; the wine of politics, which they were now for the
+first time freely quaffing, had gone to their heads--it was youth
+against age, the students were enthusiastic Democrats, the peasants were
+sturdy Radicals and they did not always restrict themselves to
+dialectical arguments. A certain number of people had gone to live "u
+shumi"--"in the woods." But the reasons that impelled them were not so
+much their devotion to the ex-King, as their own criminal past or their
+poverty. Others again had taken to this life for what may be called
+reasons of "honour."[42] Among the brigands was a man who was captured
+on the borders of Herzegovina, and before his execution--he had murdered
+seven people--he declared that he was a patriot and had done all this
+for the sake of King Nicholas, his victims being members of the
+domineering party. But when reminded that one of them was a baby, he
+hung his head and said no more.... There was discontent produced by the
+high cost of living--as the Italians not only held Antivari but even
+fired on French boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana, it
+was necessary to revictual all except the new parts of Montenegro from
+Kotor. The lack of petrol, from which even the American Red Cross units
+were suffering, compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons,
+which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it was the staff of
+another mission, calling itself the International Red Cross, which was
+to blame for adding to the country's troubles; after they had been
+installed for a month or two at Cetinje the people themselves, and not
+the authorities, turned them out, on the ground that they had used the
+Red Cross to conceal their machinations in Nikita's interest. The
+Yugoslav Government was held up to reprobation in the British Parliament
+and press for having hampered more than one British mission in the work
+of relieving the Montenegrins. The resources of these missions appeared
+to be moderate--the head of one of them had a meeting with Colonels
+Fairclough and Anderson of the American Red Cross and suggested that
+they should provide him with the wherewithal for carrying on. But even
+if their resources had been scantier their co-operation would have been
+very welcome if they had satisfied the authorities that they were as
+non-political as the Americans. It was curious that those who in the
+British press ventilated the grievances of these missions were the same
+people who championed Nikita.
+
+The Italians persevered in their manoeuvres--Nikola Kova[vc]evi['c],
+the police commissary of Grahovo, sent in the month of May a
+confidential man of his to the Italian General at Dobrota, near Kotor.
+This man, who speaks perfect Italian, told the General that ever since
+1916 he had haunted the forests as the leader of a band. Fifty persons,
+he said, had attached themselves to him; and he had now come in for a
+supply of arms and money, also for instructions. It would be impossible,
+said he, to endure the Serbian troops much longer in the country.
+
+
+ITALIAN ENDEAVOURS
+
+"You must hold out for a couple of months longer," said the General. "I
+can give you no money at present, but I can take you on a steamer to San
+Giovanni, where we have a camp of the King's friends; and from there you
+can easily go to Italy."
+
+"I have given my word of honour," said the man, "that I will not go
+without my people. So I must first of all go back to ask them."
+
+"In a military way," said the General, "the Serbs can now do nothing.
+They had tremendous losses in the war; and in two months the King of
+Montenegro will return or else there will be an Italian occupation. Work
+hard, my friend. I want you, in the first place, to set houses on fire;
+then to shoot officers and officials who are for Yugoslavia. You should
+also rob the transports."
+
+Thereupon the man returned to Grahovo and soon afterwards the French
+General Thaon, who happened to go there, spoke with him for two hours
+and invited him to his headquarters at Kotor.
+
+The disturbances in Montenegro did not cease; a country through which
+you could formerly drive with less risk than in Paris, was now infested
+by outlaws and those who pursued them. And Count de Salis, who had
+served as H.B.M.'s Minister at Cetinje, was sent back to Montenegro on a
+mission of inquiry. His report was not published, for the reason that he
+did not beat about the bush in his references to the Italians and for
+the further reason that he gave the names of those persons from whom he
+culled his information. This was a fine opportunity for the foreign
+busybodies who were thrusting their silly little knives into Yugoslavia.
+"Count de Salis reports clearly and unmistakably," said Mr. Ronald
+M'Neill in the House of Commons, "that in his judgment the wish of the
+Montenegrin people is to retain their own sovereign and their own
+independence." When Sir Hamar Greenwood subsequently, speaking for the
+Government, threw out a hint that this was not the case, it was amusing
+to see how the pro-Nikita party lost their interest in the report. A
+certain Mr. Herbert Vivian sent from Italy in April 1920 a most
+ferocious indictment against the Serbs in Montenegro to a London paper
+called the _British Citizen_. He said that the Countess de Salis, while
+at Cetinje, was in danger of her life. But the lady has been dead for
+many years. I presume this is the same Mr. Vivian who in a book,
+_Servia, the Poor Man's Paradise_, trembles with rage whenever a Serb
+speaks admiringly of Gladstone.
+
+
+VARIOUS BRITISH COMMENTATORS
+
+Count de Salis's impartial methods did not always please the population,
+which was by a large majority against the former king's return and--as
+he clearly stated--heart and soul for Yugoslavia. Balkan people do not
+yet, to any great extent, appreciate your desire for truth or even your
+honesty if you should give a hearing to their antagonists. The Cetinje
+public, therefore, organized a demonstration or two against the Count.
+They would have preferred that he should reach the afore-mentioned
+conclusions without such an exhaustive study of the case. He noted that
+there had been certain irregularities in the Yugoslav administration,
+but it was inevitable that in those unsettled times the inexperienced
+officials would not prove equal to every emergency. These officials, by
+the way, in 1919 were not Serbs from Serbia, but for the most part
+native Montenegrins. "The country is occupied and administered by
+foreigners," said[43] Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P. "Montenegro," said he,
+"is full of Serb officials." I suppose one must receive it more with
+sorrow than with anger if a man like Mr. Massingham of _The Nation_
+says that the Serbs "have deposed the Montenegrin judges, schoolmasters,
+doctors, chemists and local officials, and set up their own puppets."
+While he might have assumed that the long years of War had left the
+Serbs with a very inadequate supply of officials for the old kingdom, he
+would have ascertained, if his sources had been more trustworthy, that
+Gloma[vz]i['c], the very human prefect of Cetinje, is a native of
+Nik[vs]i['c], that Milo[vs] Ivanovi['c], the mayor, is from the Ku[vc]i,
+near Podgorica--and he was a magistrate under Nikita; that Bojovi['c],
+the prefect of Podgorica, is a barrister of the Piperi, while
+Radoni['c], the mayor, was an artillery officer, then a political
+prisoner and then the food administrator under Nikita; that
+Jaoukovi['c], the prefect of Nik[vs]i['c], was a magistrate under the
+old regime--he comes, I believe, from the Mora[vc]a; Zerovi['c], the
+mayor and an ex-magistrate, is a native of Nik[vs]i['c]; that the
+prefect of Antivari, Dr. Goini['c], is a doctor of law whose home is
+between Antivari and Virpazar; that Bo[vs]ko Bo[vs]kovi['c], the prefect
+of Kola[vc]in, won great fame as an officer under Nikita, while
+Mini['c], the mayor, was Nikita's chief of the Custom-house. As for the
+doctors who left the country, these consisted of Matanovi['c] and
+Vulanovi['c], who have gone to Novi Sad and Subotica respectively, as it
+is easier to make a living in those towns than in Montenegro. There are
+now three Yugoslav doctors at Cetinje (Odgerovi['c], Radovi['c]--both of
+whom were doctors in the time of Nikita--and Matanovi['c], a young man);
+they are all Montenegrins. So, too, with the chemists and the
+schoolmasters and the post and telegraph officials--I am sure that Mr.
+Massingham will excuse me if I do not mention all their names.
+
+Since there are quite a number of Montenegrins in the Serbian
+administration and army, all the officers and men, for example, of the
+2nd--the so-called "iron"--Regiment being of Montenegrin origin, one
+fails to see for what reason a Serb should be debarred from posts in
+Montenegro. It is unfortunate when people use the word "Montenegrin"
+without knowing that there is no separate Montenegrin nation, in the
+sense that there is a French or Italian nation. The Montenegrins are a
+small section of the Serbian nation, which sought a refuge among the
+bare, precipitous mountains and, unlike the other Serbs, maintained its
+independence. One should, therefore, to avoid confusion, speak of Serbs
+of Serbia and Serbs of Montenegro rather than of Serbs and Montenegrins.
+The purest Serbian is spoken in western Montenegro, on the borders of
+Herzegovina; those districts are ethnically different from the southern
+region, centring round Cetinje, which is the real old Montenegro, and
+the north and north-eastern parts, called the Brda, which in speech and
+customs are akin to the south. In western Montenegro, as in Herzegovina,
+the people, who live among their mountains on milk and its products, are
+very prolific, having families of eight or ten children. They are a very
+healthy, moral race.
+
+Another pro-Nikita, anti-Serbian writer, excusable only on account of
+his insignificance, is Mr. Devine, who teaches, I am told, at a school
+near Winchester and seems very unwilling to be taught. If he wishes, by
+producing a book on the subject, to show other people that he knows
+painfully little about Montenegro, that is his own affair. But he is
+just as ignorant with regard to his hero. He says that he "is in a
+position to state that there is not one single word of truth in the
+insinuations and charges impugning the absolute integrity and loyalty of
+King Nicholas towards his Allies." The King was, according to Mr.
+Devine, a defenceless old man whom it was very bad form to attack. But
+the King had been defending himself at considerable length not only in a
+harangue to his adherents in a Paris suburb, but also on various
+occasions in a newspaper, the _Journal Officiel_--and both the speech
+and long extracts from the newspaper are quoted, with approval, in Mr.
+Devine's book. This quaint person is so frantically keen to pour
+whitewash over Nikita that he has no time to listen to the main
+treacheries of Nikita's career. "Malicious falsehoods!" he
+splutters--and they can be traced to horrible pan-Serbians. He has
+reason to believe that they wish to make Serbia the Prussia of the new
+Federation; well, the Croats and the Slovenes and the Bosniaks and all
+the others cannot say that Mr. Devine has not warned them. My
+Montenegrin friend Mr. Buri['c] stated in the columns of the _Saturday
+Review_ that this odd gentleman had nourished the ambition of becoming
+Montenegrin Minister to the Court of St. James, but that the plan did
+not succeed. I never saw Mr. Devine's denial--perhaps it fell into the
+clutches of a ruthless pan-Serbian printer. Naturally, Mr. Devine would
+not care to be the diplomatic representative of a villain; therefore,
+when he is brought face to face with certain definite charges he
+persists in replying "not in detail, but from the broad point of view."
+He is so exceedingly broad that when an accusation is levelled against
+the King he sees in this an accusation against the entire country--a
+country which unfortunately, as he says, "alone of all the Allies has no
+diplomatic representative in this country." Mr. Devine continues
+unabashed to repeat and repeat his pro-Nikita stuff in various
+newspapers. "Il y debvroit avoir," says Montaigne, "quelque corection
+des loix contre les escrivains ineptes et inutiles, comme il y a contre
+les vagabonds et faineants...." Not long ago I happened to see that this
+egregious person described himself as "Hon. Minister Plenipotentiary for
+Montenegro," but another gentleman, Sir Roper Parkington, a pompous
+wine-merchant, announced in the Press that he had become "Minister
+(Hon.) of Montenegro." Perhaps one of them has resigned, and our poor
+overworked Foreign Office will not be invited to decide between a
+Minister (Hon.) and an Hon. Minister.
+
+
+THE MURDER OF MILETI['C]
+
+The Italians' stay at Kotor was drawing to an end. "We have no
+aggressive intentions," said Signor Scialoja, the Foreign Minister, "and
+we shall be glad if we are able to establish with our neighbours on the
+other side of the Adriatic those amicable relations"--and so forth and
+so forth. This he said on December 21, but if the Government was imbued
+with the same principles in August it is unfortunate that it omitted to
+instruct the responsible officers in Dalmatia. The Yugoslav commander,
+Lieut.-Colonel Risti['c], heard one night that the Italian General at
+Dobrota was harbouring at his residence no less than twenty-one
+Montenegrin pro-Nikita komitadjis. They were clad in Italian uniforms,
+and, as a torpedo-boat and a motor-launch were always kept with steam
+up, could be shipped off at a moment's notice to Italy. Colonel
+Risti['c] sent his adjutant to make inquiries, and the Italians gave
+their word of honour that no Montenegrins were in the house. In order to
+avoid a conflict Colonel Risti['c] then requested the French General to
+send an officer; but this gentleman was not received by the Italians.
+Four or five Montenegrins, with an Italian lieutenant, came out of the
+house and fired at the twenty gendarmes who now encircled it. The fire
+was returned--all the Montenegrins and the Italian were killed. After
+this the French police disarmed the remaining Montenegrins and
+imprisoned them; and on the following day, much to his chagrin, the
+Italian General was told to take up other quarters at Mula, so that he
+was separated by the French and the Yugoslavs from Montenegrin
+territory.... Not long after this a certain Captain Mileti['c] was
+cycling late one afternoon on the road to Mula. Five or six Italian
+soldiers lay concealed, and so expertly did they murder him that his
+friends who were cycling a hundred paces ahead and other friends who
+were fishing very near the spot in a boat heard nothing whatsoever. It
+was eight days after this when the Italians had to go from Kotor and the
+neighbourhood.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO COMES TO RIEKA
+
+The question of Rieka had not yet been settled. The more suave Tittoni,
+who had succeeded Sonnino, was hoping with the help of France to hold
+his own against Wilson. Monsieur Tardieu thought that the town with a
+large strip of hinterland should become a separate independent State
+under the League of Nations. An arrangement was also proposed by which
+the city was to be administered by Italy, while the Yugoslavs should
+have a guarantee of access to the sea. These negotiations were still in
+a nebulous state, but certain proposals were going to be put into force
+which were suggested by the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry. With
+French, American, Italian and British representatives this commission
+had visited Rieka. One of the recommendations was to the effect that
+public order should be maintained by British and American police; on the
+very day (September 12) that the British military police were to
+inaugurate their service, Gabriele d'Annunzio took matters into his own
+hands. He rose, he tells us, from a bed of fever and, refusing to
+recognize the Nitti Government, he marched with the appropriate
+theatrical ceremonies, into his "pearl of the Adriatic." What he called
+the 15th Italian victory, or, alternatively, the _Santa Entrata_--the
+Holy Entry--was accomplished without the shedding of a drop of blood.
+Rieka, the stage of many fantastic scenes, witnessed one of the
+quaintest in the simultaneous arrival at the Governor's palace of a
+General to whom the Allies had entrusted the command of the town and a
+rebel Lieut.-Colonel who refused to recognize his authority. They seemed
+to be on the best of terms. The General (Pittaluga) informed the Allies
+that he was still in supreme command. Being invited on the following
+morning to explain the situation at a conference on board the U.S.S.
+_Pittsburg_, at which were present the Allied naval and military
+commanders, General Pittaluga informed them that he would be responsible
+for the maintenance of order and that nothing was to be considered
+altered in the government of the town. Forty minutes later, without
+consulting the Allies, he had handed over the town to a rebel and he
+himself, in his private car, had vanished. In a subsequent message to
+the Turkish Minister in Berne, sympathizing for the Allied occupation of
+Constantinople, d'Annunzio's Foreign Department informed him that "the
+Legionaries of the Commandant d'Annunzio put to flight the English
+police-bullies who were biding their time to snatch the tortured city."
+Opinions vary as to whether the poet-pirate was at that time acting in
+collusion with Rome--his defiance and their thunders being included in
+the stage directions--or whether he was a real rebel. We may assume that
+Signor Nitti did not countenance the buccaneer and that if officers and
+civil servants diverted Government cargoes into his hands they were not
+acting as Government agents. As for large numbers of these officials,
+their secret understanding with d'Annunzio received many proofs. On
+September 29 the _Era Nuova_ reported that, two days before, Major
+Reina, d'Annunzio's Chief of Staff, was invited to Abbazia, where he had
+an interview with the Chief of Staff of the 26th Corps. Illuminating
+also is the report, in the _Era Nuova_ of October 27, of a test case at
+Genoa, when a sergeant was tried for leaving his regiment and going to
+Rieka. The prosecutor demanded four months' detention and degradation.
+The court accepted the plea of the defence, which was that the court
+could not condemn or dishonour a soldier who was only guilty of
+patriotic sentiment. Moreover, it transpired that those who returned
+from Rieka, after receiving there a salary from both parties, were
+granted three weeks' leave and a reward of 100 lire. One observed that
+when the S.S. _Danubio_ left [vS]ibenik for Rieka with sixty
+waggon-loads of coal, the captain received his sailing orders from the
+Royal Italian port-officer. When d'Annunzio seized Rieka there was on
+that same night a solemn demonstration at Zadar, led by Vice-Admiral
+Millo, who was supposed to be governing Dalmatia in the name of the
+Entente.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which
+had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be
+joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi,
+regardless of that which happened to the mediaeval one. The C.N.I. could
+now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of
+or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of
+issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a
+thousand. He did a great many other things--he ruined, for instance, the
+economic life of the town. Everything had for a time gone swimmingly.
+The Chief of the Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of
+numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great Italian patriot.
+Such was the feeling of the majority of the army and navy, so that the
+Government in Rome was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am
+telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent of the
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_. "I have received a call from a superior hidden
+force, and though the fever burns within me I am consoled, because the
+War has made me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this
+mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have anything to do with
+the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported by the Parliament and the more
+responsible people, was openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly
+by the profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold taxation
+programme, by which he hoped to bring 30 milliards of francs into the
+Exchequer. The Nationalists assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army;
+and in northern Italy there were many who realized that an army which
+can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day, rally to
+Bol[vs]evism. No other troops remained in Rieka, the small French and
+British detachments having been withdrawn. Before this happened there
+occurred a repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French
+soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors who greatly
+outnumbered them. Some of the French were Annamites, than whom no more
+harmless persons can be imagined.[44] And it was in order to avoid such
+untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were evacuated.
+D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka was one of the problems which
+the Peace Conference had failed to solve, and now they were in much the
+same inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned Turkey
+not to mobilize, since they would not allow the Balkan Confederation to
+make an attack, and after the attack gave it out that the Balkan States
+would not be permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme Council
+in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A little patience,"
+begged Tittoni, "and my Government will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we
+want," exclaimed Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"--and the
+Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it was not Italy
+which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which wanted Italy. They would do their
+best, although so many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would
+sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his
+administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether distasteful
+to certain intriguers who were interested in the future of Triest. There
+might also arise, to the satisfaction, of other intriguers, an armed
+conflict with the Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the
+Yugoslavs' attitude. Perhaps these barbarians--as they are often styled
+in Italy--were confident that justice would prevail. Perhaps they
+thought that they could bide their time, and certainly what happened at
+Trogir was not calculated to reassure the Italians.
+
+
+THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR
+
+The little, ancient town of Trogir lay some twelve miles to the south of
+the demarcation line. Its inhabitants, with the exception of five
+Italophil families, are Yugoslav; and in the month of September 1919 the
+Yugoslav army was represented by eight men. Truth compels us to mention
+that on a certain night these men, instead of doing patrol duty, were
+sleeping off the effects of a carouse; and when the townsfolk looked out
+of their windows in the morning they saw machine guns and Italian
+soldiers. At 4 a.m. they had crept into the town with the help of a
+certain Conte Nino di Fanfogna, who had assembled a National Guard of
+thirty peasants, the employees of those five families. Conte Nino was
+striding to and fro; he muttered threats of death. Some of the chief
+men, such as Dr. Marin Katalini['c], Dr. Peter Sentinella and others,
+came together and were at a loss for some effective means to chase out
+the Italians, since they had not even a revolver. An American boat
+appeared, but the captain, when appealed to, said that he was only
+cruising and could not come ashore. In the town hall Count Nino,
+labouring under some excitement, dismissed the mayor; and when Ferri,
+the mayor, told him to go about his business, he protested that he was
+the dictator and would, if necessary, use force. Outside in the square
+the Italians and the people stood face to face, and suddenly a few
+Yugoslav flags were fluttering, and then an old man, Dr. Sentinella's
+father, climbed up to the place in the town hall where the Italian flag
+had been hoisted. He tore it down. The soldiers were for shooting him,
+but the people began pulling the rifles out of their hands. Other
+soldiers, full of apprehension, dropped their rifles; the people picked
+them up, and those who were unacquainted with the mechanism cried out
+certain awe-inspiring sounds. Women and children--I fear this will not
+be believed; it is none the less true--women and children removed some
+of the men's helmets, and one group of children turned a helmet into a
+football. "I am a father of a family!" cried a soldier. "I am innocent,
+I have been deceived!" cried another. "O, Mama mia!" cried a third. They
+wept, they bolted into the courtyards, and the women showed them little
+mercy, for they tore off the men's belts and even struck them with their
+fists. A Mrs. Sunjara routed four men and went home with their machine
+gun on her back. In a few minutes the square was free of soldiers, and
+forty rifles were stacked in the town hall. Fifty soldiers on the quay
+were dealt with by a butcher who started firing at them; when they heard
+the shouts of the approaching crowd they threw down their weapons and
+fled. Two large motors escaped; the third was intercepted at the bridge,
+and although young Sentinella, who ordered them to stop, had forgotten
+his own rifle, they all--thirteen men and two officers--threw theirs
+away. It was suggested that the running soldiers should be pursued.
+"No," said an old man, "for we would kill them all. Let them rather go
+back without arms or helmets. It will frighten the others." ... Two
+hours later a party of Serbian soldiers arrived, but they were not
+needed, save for the protection of those who had thrown in their lot
+with the Italians. From Split, a few miles away, 1500 volunteers, who
+speedily assembled, came with knives or agricultural implements or any
+other weapon. "The Yugoslavs must realize," said Nitti, "that it is to
+their interest to maintain sincere relations of friendship with Italy."
+
+
+THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR MINORITIES
+
+The Yugoslav Government--as if it had not sufficient problems to
+solve--was ordered now by the Peace Conference to accept sundry
+regulations as to the rights of minorities, the transit of goods, and an
+equitable regime for international commerce. The other States which had
+inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them, faced with the same
+demands; and they objected that to sign such Articles was inconsistent
+with their sovereignty. The most onerous item--relating to the racial
+and religious minorities--had been imposed--at America's instance, owing
+to the manner in which the Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King
+Charles' promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller number of
+Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned only for the principle of
+independence. Not having persecuted the Jews they resented having to
+undertake that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit. "I
+will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the Orthodox Bishop of
+Ver[vs]ac to a deputation of Jews, when he made his formal entry into
+the town of Pan[vc]evo. And when they stared at him, "It is not
+tolerance that I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition
+in the Yugoslav Skup[vs]tina might have exhibited more kindliness in its
+attitude towards the Government and have refrained from rousing a storm
+against the signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government and the
+Opposition being practically of equal strength, the Ministers, who in a
+calm atmosphere could have explained the realities of the situation,
+found themselves at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that
+they would be assuming obligations which they had assumed already. In
+Macedonia, as any traveller could see, the time-honoured custom of
+persecuting him who happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the
+authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference between
+themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the difference consisted in
+praying for the Exarch instead of the Patriarch in the liturgy there was
+not the slightest persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to
+become Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new spirit which
+informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the Bulgarian army, afterwards
+came back to Macedonia. Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian
+Moslems were expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration
+was shown to them--at Ghevgeli, for instance, where building material
+was, after the War, so scarce that many of the inhabitants had nothing
+but a hole in the ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had
+been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.
+
+
+OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN ANTISEMITISM
+
+If the Serbs were to express their grievance against the Roumanian
+ruling class for having landed them in this position, the Roumanians
+would reply that the Serbs do not run the same risk as themselves of
+being swamped by the undesirable Galician Jew. The Roumanians argue that
+their peasants will go under if they are not shielded. "In our last
+great manoeuvres," said the late King Charles to M. de Laveleye,[45]
+"it was proposed to entrust the supply of food to Christians. On the
+first day the provisions came; on the second everything was late; on the
+third day the whole army was dying of hunger. I was forced to make a
+hasty appeal to the Jews. They have great qualities--they are
+intelligent, energetic, economical; but these very qualities make them
+dangerous to us on economic grounds." Roumanians acknowledge that the
+agrarian policy of a few vast landowners and a submerged peasantry did
+not admit of peasants being made more formidable by increased education,
+and they doubt whether their country-folk, so fond of music and dancing
+and drinking, have it in them to rival those Serbian non-commissioned
+officers who, early in 1919, became millionaires by skilful operations
+on the money market in the Banat. Yet the Serbs are as much addicted as
+anyone to the aforementioned delights, and it is probable that the
+Roumanian boyars do their own people an injustice. But while the people
+were favoured at the expense of the immigrants--not always very
+effectively: the Jews have been prohibited from owning land, yet a fifth
+of the whole of Moldavia belongs indirectly to a single Jew--one would
+suppose that some distinction might have been made between the more or
+less pernicious alien who is apt to get the village into his toils and
+that other Jew whose family has lived perhaps two hundred years in the
+country, who feels himself a Roumanian but is legally a foreigner. One
+Magder, a Jewish barrister, performed such exploits at the front during
+the Great War that he was mentioned in the communique, a distinction
+only conferred upon two other soldiers. For one and a half years the
+official publications insisted on Roumanizing his name into Magdeu,
+after which three Cabinet meetings occupied themselves with the subject
+and finally announced that the error was not intentional but
+typographical. A French officer wished the Roumanian Croix de Guerre to
+be given to him, but Headquarters refused the request on the ground that
+he was a Jew. One cannot blame the United States for taking the
+initiative in compelling the Roumanians to modify their legislation,
+since the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin were merely carried out to the
+extent of naturalizing a maximum of fifty Jews a year, each case having
+to undergo innumerable formalities, accompanied with payments to
+deputies and others that rose to 30,000 francs. Many Jews volunteered
+for the army in 1913 for the sake of thus obtaining the naturalization
+that was promised them as a reward; but these promises were frequently
+not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred during the Great War: the
+_Moniteur Officiel_, No. 261 (of February 2, 1918), printed a decree
+relating to one Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had
+been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous September.
+Kaufman was condemned to death, and the others to five years' hard
+labour. When the King was asked to deal more equitably with the three
+men, Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour without limit,"
+_i.e._ for life. It is superfluous to give many illustrations: at
+Falticeni seventy-two Jews were imprisoned without a trial for four
+months, though twelve of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of
+1877, while most of the others had sons at the front; at the village of
+Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out of their synagogue in
+order to listen to a speech in which he advised the Christian soldiers
+to watch them well, as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there
+were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was less than
+ardent--and who can blame them? In the 69th Regiment a special corps of
+Jews was clothed in the discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to
+the enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid 14 francs a month
+for spying on his Jewish comrades. At the battle of Savarat, to cover
+the retreat of three battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed--one
+hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second lieutenant; all but
+three of them were killed or wounded. After this retreat the General,
+who lost his head, commanded that the survivors should be killed
+wholesale on account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they were
+so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and only executed two Jews,
+Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha, _pour encourager les autres_. A young
+doctor, 2nd Lieutenant Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted typhus
+at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards he was sent to the 26th
+Regiment and kept under observation; it was most suspicious, said the
+authorities, that a Jew should return from France for his military
+service. A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could supply
+incriminating evidence against the doctor, but this was offered in vain.
+The Jews, by the way, were told that while they would be removed from
+menial positions in the hospitals they "would be tolerated" as
+doctors--and nearly a hundred of these doctors died on active service.
+
+The better class of Roumanians, such as Take Jonescu, is opposed to such
+methods--he was therefore charged with being in the pay of the Jews,
+although he was a wealthy man (a very successful barrister) whom
+politics made poorer. It remains to be seen whether the
+Roumanians--whose position with regard to the Jews is, partly through
+their own fault, not without peril--will be willing to put into effect
+those reforms to which the Supreme Council compelled them to subscribe.
+The Article in question will probably become a moral weapon, since the
+Roumanians regard themselves as on a higher level than the Balkan
+peoples, and will not desire that continual complaints should be made
+against them. One does not expect their prejudices and their
+apprehensions to be suddenly renounced--instead of judging each case
+individually, the railway administration, after the Government had
+agreed that the Jews _en bloc_ could become citizens, barred them _en
+bloc_ from that particular service by requiring that candidates should
+present their certificates of baptism. The Agricultural Syndicates have
+also introduced a statute which limits their organizations to Roumanian
+citizens who profess the Christian religion. Gradually--one hopes, for
+the sake of their country--the Roumanians will bring themselves to adopt
+a less timorous spirit, and to acknowledge that it is more dangerous to
+the Fatherland if a Jew as such is prevented than if he is permitted to
+hold the office of street-sweeper. From such lowly public offices, or
+from that of University Professor, no citizen should be excluded on
+religious grounds or admitted to them "by exceptional concession." And
+if a Jewish cab-driver at Bucharest is so severely flogged by his
+passengers outside the chief railway-station that he succumbs in the
+hospital to his injuries--a fate that overtook one Mendel Blumenthal, a
+man fifty-three years of age, in September 1919--one trusts that a
+newspaper article asking for an inquiry will henceforward not be
+censored. "It is true," said Dr. Vaida-Voevod, then the Prime Minister,
+"that the Jews still evince some reluctance to assimilate intellectually
+with our people or to identify their interests with those of the
+Roumanian State. But goodwill should be shown on both sides, and the
+overtures should be reciprocal." Thanks very largely to the former
+Liberal Premier, M. Bratiano, whose party was responsible for much
+illiberal legislation--one of his powerful brothers was popularly said
+to eat a Jew at every meal--the Supreme Council acted in such a manner
+as to produce a particularly unwanted crisis in the Yugoslav political
+world. Neither Roumanian nor Yugoslav need, in the opinion of Take
+Jonescu, have considered that their dignity was being slighted, for the
+tendency of the League of Nations is to limit the free will of each of
+them. The cardinal doctrine of the League, as Lord Robert Cecil has
+pointed out, is that its members are _not_ masters in their own house,
+but must obey the decision of the majority. However, the Opposition in
+the Belgrade Skup[vs]tina could not resist from using the delicate
+situation for what many of the deputies thought was a patriotic course
+of conduct, and nearly all of them regarded as an admirable party cry.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 1: _The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th
+    Division._ London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 2: _Contemporary Review_, February 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 3: Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at
+    Washington.]
+
+    [Footnote 4: _Fortnightly Review_, June 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 5: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, December 13, 1918.]
+
+    [Footnote 6: _Land and Water_, May 29, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 7: _Nineteenth Century and After_, November 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 8: _Au Secours des Enfants Serbes._ Paris, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 9: Several old wooden warships, such as the _Aurora_,
+    the _Schwartzenberg_ and the _Vulcan_, were lying for years in
+    [vS]ibenik harbour, where they were used as repair-ships,
+    store-ships, etc. When the Italians evacuated Dalmatia they
+    took these vessels with them, but whether on account of their
+    contents or their history we do not know.]
+
+    [Footnote 10: Cf. _Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von
+    Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters_, by Dr.
+    Constantin Jire[vc]ek. Prague, 1879.]
+
+    [Footnote 11: It is instructive to examine the attendance
+    figures at the schools of this the only Italian town of
+    Dalmatia, as the Italians call it. The figures are those of the
+    school year 1918-1919, and refer both to elementary and
+    secondary schools:
+
+                      YUGOSLAV SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 342
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     331
+    Combined Elementary School                "     222
+    Higher Elementary School for Girls        "     121
+    Teachers' Training College                "      70
+    Classical College                         "     469
+                                                   ----
+                         Total of Yugoslav Pupils, 1555
+                                                   ----
+
+                      ITALIAN SCHOOLS.
+
+    Elementary School for Boys              Pupils, 250
+    Elementary School for Girls               "     221
+    Higher Elementary School                  "      93
+    Classical College                         "     157
+    Technical College                         "     181
+                                                   ----
+                           Total of Italian Pupils, 902
+                                                   ----
+
+    I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by
+    Mr. Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations,
+    to inform the readers of _Land and Water_ (June 5, 1919) that
+    "Zara is quite Italian." He added that "Sebenia is Italian
+    too." If this be so, how comes it that in 1919 the Italian
+    authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
+    ([vS]ibenik)--which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers
+    to--with machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very
+    lurid threats of Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I
+    believe it is nearer the truth to say that the population of
+    this town consists of some 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400
+    _Italianists_.]
+
+    [Footnote 12: This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless
+    patriotism, said the _Tablet_ (January 1, 1921), he "had
+    defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the
+    Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the
+    Italians."]
+
+    [Footnote 13: The population of Veprinac, according to the last
+    census, is: Yugoslavs, 2505 (83.7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0.8
+    per cent.); Germans, 422 (4.1 per cent.).]
+
+    [Footnote 14: Pribi[vc]evi['c] issued a statement to the effect
+    that the interviewer, Magrini, had put into his mouth the
+    precise opposite of what he had said with regard to Triest and
+    Pola. Pribi[vc]evi['c] had told him that the whole of Istria,
+    with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini that a
+    third person was present at the interview.]
+
+    [Footnote 15: The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in
+    Albania had been concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded
+    by Yugoslav troops, as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had
+    disappeared, and the Russian prisoners employed there--about
+    500 men--had also vanished. In order to keep off nocturnal
+    plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to fire a few shots
+    now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the two
+    Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
+    night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their
+    injuries--is it not possible that they were out for plunder and
+    that this incident should not be used to illustrate what Mr.
+    Beaumont (of the _Daily Telegraph_) calls "the worst
+    characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the troops?
+    During the twenty days of the Yugoslav regime their authorities
+    sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these
+    warehouses to the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally
+    said in Rieka that the Italians in four days had given away six
+    million crowns' worth, that large quantities of flour were
+    removed until the British put a stop to this, and that the
+    robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
+    or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a
+    mysterious manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any
+    rate have been as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some
+    investigation. Since they failed to do so, it is natural that
+    gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the Italian
+    population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
+    waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the
+    stores of the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.]
+
+    [Footnote 16: Most people have assumed that this was done in
+    order that Rieka should be left to Austria-Hungary, although
+    they should have taken with some grains of salt this Italian
+    generosity which presented the Habsburgs with a good harbour
+    instead of one of those others in Croatia which the Italians of
+    to-day are never weary of extolling. The real reasons why Rieka
+    was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the _Secolo_
+    (January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
+    it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the
+    right of the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this
+    case the same principle must be admitted for the people of
+    Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing majority. But this is
+    precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."]
+
+    [Footnote 17: The Italianist employes of the Rieka town council
+    who took the census in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they
+    were acquainted with the Italian language; those from whom they
+    received an affirmative reply were put down as Italians. Had
+    they, on the other hand, asked the people if they spoke
+    Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes, there
+    would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have
+    remained not one single Italian--certainly not the members of
+    the Italian National Council--as everyone, he says, speaks and
+    knows Croat. This is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes
+    of Rieka are bound up with those of its suburbs and the
+    hinterland.]
+
+    [Footnote 18: Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals,
+    General Grazioli claimed supreme command of all the Allied
+    troops, but this the French General refused, maintaining--much
+    to the disgust of the Italians--that he was under the orders of
+    Franchet d'Esperey, who was then in command of the Army of the
+    Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve in their
+    own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
+    one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the
+    sole object of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to
+    General Grazioli should by chance be posted to the town. The
+    disrespectful Allies used to call Caneva "the man in the
+    cellar."]
+
+    [Footnote 19: The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's
+    collapse, was stirred the most profoundly by its postage stamps
+    was Zagreb. In order to commemorate the establishment of the
+    new State the Croatian Post Office published four stamps, which
+    were on sale on November 29. The whole edition consisted of
+    100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted to Zagreb, the
+    rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious that
+    there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
+    check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that
+    they should be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that
+    each purchaser would only be allowed to buy a limited quantity.
+    At 8 a.m. the sale began, but at seven many hundreds of people
+    were waiting outside the chief post office, the post office at
+    the station and another in the Upper Town. The face value of
+    the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At first they
+    were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
+    to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000
+    had been printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10
+    crowns for it, in order to complete their sets. At noon the
+    offices were all shut, as the rush was considered too
+    dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in the great hall at the
+    Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside. Nearly all
+    the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken. At
+    the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the
+    sentries. The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the
+    post offices had no stamps left (and citizens who had been
+    waiting all day to buy an ordinary stamp could not be served).
+    At 5 p.m. people who for the first time in their lives were
+    taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500 crowns from
+    collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
+    exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one
+    thousand crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers
+    were willing to give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of
+    boots, others were asking for sugar, coffee or petrol. The
+    price which was ultimately established was 250 crowns.]
+
+    [Footnote 20: Out of the hundreds of available documents it
+    will suffice if I print one. It is the report, given in his
+    words, of a Dalmatian, a native of Sinj, who having been an
+    emigrant could write in English. "On July 1915 I came to the
+    Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the lines and
+    deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
+    of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a
+    voluntary into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was
+    answered by Italian authorities in the negative. After the
+    Congress of Rome in 1918 I and some of my comrades who had
+    recently applied for admission were permitted to join the
+    Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away sent to the front
+    of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard bayonet
+    fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian
+    Commander for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own
+    request I was sent to the front, where I remained up to the
+    break-up of Austria or until we Yugoslav legion were disarmed
+    by Italians and as a reward for our participation in the war we
+    were interned as prisoners of war at Casale di Altamura in the
+    province of Bari. Four days after my internment I succeeded in
+    sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
+    Dalmatia. (Signed) JAKOV DELONGA."]
+
+    [Footnote 21:
+
+        "In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro
+         L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,
+         Perche piangi, o fratello croato,
+         Il figiul che in Italia mori."
+
+    ("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible
+    Habsburger has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother,
+    it weeps for the dear son who died in Italy.")]
+
+    [Footnote 22: April 23, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 23: Cf. _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie._ Paris,
+    1917.]
+
+    [Footnote 24: The Italians are very poorly served by some of
+    their advocates. For years they persisted in demanding the
+    execution of whatever in the Treaty or Pact of London was
+    obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded as obsolete another
+    clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
+    Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and--if I rightly
+    understand the Italophil Mr. H. E. Goad--they were justified
+    because, forsooth, Bulgaria had entered the War on the other
+    side. To say that the idea of this small Albania, with
+    corresponding compensations to the Serbs and Greeks, was held
+    out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a very wise
+    remark. However, "ne croyez pas le pere Bonnet," said
+    Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-meme lorsque
+    je dis du mal du pere Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes
+    brouilles." Let the reader trust in nothing but the facts, and
+    I hope that those which I present are not an unfair selection.]
+
+    [Footnote 25: When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard
+    about the secret Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov.
+    The interview is said to have been stormy, for the Russian
+    Minister, according to the _Primorske Novine_ (April 23, 1919),
+    "had not the most elementary knowledge of the Slav nature of
+    Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
+    Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said
+    to have been no better informed than Sazonov.]
+
+    [Footnote 26: And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's
+    Prime Minister, was the central figure of a reception given by
+    Lord Sydenham at the Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship
+    I must add that in an hour's conversation he impressed me with
+    the fact that he was even less acquainted with Plamenac's
+    antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs, which
+    he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords,
+    endeavouring there--until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him--to play
+    the part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.]
+
+    [Footnote 27: We shall see that the subsequent history of this
+    officer was less laudable.]
+
+    [Footnote 28: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 29: This very able priest became Vice-President of
+    the Council of Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was
+    formed. When Cardinal Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of
+    1919 a Mass was celebrated by the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister,
+    the British Cardinal and a French priest who was an aviation
+    captain in the army. Monsignor Koro[vs]ec's position reminds
+    one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
+    was the Archbishop of Trnovo.]
+
+    [Footnote 30: Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 31: Cf. _The New Europe_, March 27, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 32: There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic
+    Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kova[vc]i[vc]a) who,
+    having lost something between his house and the post office,
+    insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest papers. But the
+    Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three years
+    after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
+    Debelyacsa--where the _intelligentsia_ called the sympathetic
+    Serbian notary by his Christian name--not one of the
+    inhabitants proposed to remove to Hungary. No doubt the
+    goodness of the soil had something to do with this decision,
+    but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No military
+    service was as yet exacted--all that the Magyars had been asked
+    to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of
+    war. The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary
+    before the War still exercised their functions, and--in
+    contrast with what had previously been the case--both the
+    Magyar and the Serbian language were taught, the latter from
+    the third class upwards. Altogether there was perfect harmony
+    between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was there the only
+    racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was the
+    resolve of their _intelligentsia_ to have, as centre-half in
+    the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish
+    player.]
+
+    [Footnote 33: The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that
+    the Foreign Office was bound to behave to Italy, one of the
+    Great Powers, with a certain deference. They also recognize
+    that the Foreign Office is not actuated by malevolence if she
+    treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of the
+    strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir
+    Richard Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a
+    series of diplomatic automata. After all, these automata, who
+    have spent more or less laborious years in the service, have to
+    be deposited somewhere. But if one does not demand of the
+    Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending to the
+    Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man
+    as the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched
+    too late to Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be
+    maintained--it has happened before now that we have been
+    represented in a Balkan country by a Minister who, some time
+    after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing with those
+    people and of which Great Britain was one of the high
+    contracting parties; when taxed with this omission the
+    aforesaid Minister hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.]
+
+    [Footnote 34: October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 35: This has been done, but to a much more limited
+    extent, in Hungary where several hundred men who distinguished
+    themselves in the European War have been granted the Gold Medal
+    for Bravery, which entitles each of them to a goodly portion of
+    land. This the recipient may not sell, but he need not leave it
+    to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested in
+    agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to
+    exhibit outside his house a notice which informs the world that
+    he possesses this most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our
+    eyes the strangest privilege the Medal carries with it is the
+    permission to write "Vitez" (which is the Hungarian for
+    "brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji Sandor is
+    decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
+    Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not
+    only is the honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all
+    his sons and by their sons. We might imagine that a man would
+    shrink from permanently calling himself Brave John Smith,
+    especially if he has been very brave, but the average Magyar
+    will not feel excessively awkward, since he is not altogether
+    repelled by that which is garish.]
+
+    [Footnote 36: The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be
+    the work of a generation. They are beginning on the very large
+    estates, those which run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in
+    calculating the price to be paid, 40 per cent. is deducted for
+    the State on properties of this size. On those of between
+    20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so on
+    down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the
+    holdings of from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the
+    Government's intention in Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such
+    properties as are badly administered, and, by a wise proviso,
+    when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for example, that
+    the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State is
+    suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various
+    political parties, go down to investigate. If they find that
+    the accusation is not justified and that the place is
+    satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge is
+    obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.]
+
+    [Footnote 37: The trouble arose at the end of May when a number
+    of citizens of [vS]ibenik, men and women, donned the American
+    colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warship
+    _Maddalena_, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The
+    [vS]ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on the words of
+    Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed that
+    any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
+    with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore
+    them off and explained that it was done by the General's order.
+    Italian officers did not interfere while ladies were being very
+    roughly handled. A certain Jakovljevi['c], a shopkeeper, who
+    had sold an American flag, was imprisoned. On the same evening
+    a number of prominent citizens were summoned before the town
+    commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows: "A Croat, a
+    Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
+    American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye,
+    the ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't
+    go to the _Maddalena_ to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall
+    prevent it! You are the leaders who will be responsible for
+    anything that happens to-morrow." [This was the eve of the
+    Italian national celebration of June 1.] "Our arditi are
+    blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of yours
+    receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
+    Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent
+    milliards and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr.
+    Mi[vs]e Ivanovi['c] remarked: "I beg your pardon, but the Paris
+    Conference has not yet decided the fate of these territories."
+    And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided! But even if we
+    had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we shall
+    destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and
+    40,000 men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by
+    the town commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was
+    testified by the signature of all those who were present....
+    When, in 1921, the Italians were leaving [vS]ibenik they
+    destroyed a large number of young trees in the park and
+    elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
+    millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian
+    purpose.]
+
+    [Footnote 38: In view of what the census said with regard to
+    this place it is superfluous to add that when an Italian
+    officer in my hearing asked one who was stationed there if
+    there was any social life, the other answered: "None at all;
+    the whole population is Slav." I find that _Modern Italy_
+    (published in London) quoted with approval the following
+    telegram which appeared, it said, in the _Tempo_ of May 9: "A
+    remarkably enthusiastic celebration took place at Obrovazzo.
+    Several thousands, including representatives of the
+    neighbouring villages, formed a procession and marched through
+    the town. In the principal piazza, the President of the
+    National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which
+    was enthusiastically applauded."]
+
+    [Footnote 39: It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but
+    one decoration, the highest among those to which they are
+    entitled. To illustrate this Serbian modesty regarding
+    honorifics, I might mention that one evening at the house of a
+    Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to whom he had
+    been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had won
+    the Obili['c] medal for bravery and several other decorations
+    which--and his case was typical--he had not troubled to
+    procure.]
+
+    [Footnote 40: June 24, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 41: May 15, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 42: Mr. Leiper in the _Morning Post_ (June 23, 1920)
+    scouts the idea of these malcontents being the supporters of
+    Nikita, who "were all laid by the heels or driven out of the
+    country long ago--largely by the inhabitants themselves." He
+    observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil--its
+    frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and
+    policies. The nations, he points out, are not two but one--one
+    in blood, in temperament, in habits, in tradition, in language;
+    round the fireside they tell their children the same stories,
+    sing them the same songs: the greatest poem in Serbian
+    literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
+    Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian
+    State came into existence it has been, he says, the constant,
+    burning desire of the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may
+    well rub our eyes at a letter in the same newspaper from Lord
+    Sydenham, who makes the perfectly inane remark that this
+    constant, burning desire was never probable. "Montenegro
+    already _is_ Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
+    in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set
+    himself up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro;
+    therefore he cannot countenance the Leiper articles, which give
+    him "pain and surprise." Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a
+    shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted with the language,
+    should disagree with him? "The great mass of the people," says
+    Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their determination that
+    Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham: "I am
+    afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been misled by
+    the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
+    familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed
+    correspondent of his in Montenegro who says that the people
+    there are terrified of speaking. It is much to be desired that
+    a little of this terror might invade a gentleman who plunges
+    headlong into matters which he does not understand.]
+
+    [Footnote 43: Cf. _Morning Post_, November 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 44: A most vivid account of this affair was
+    contributed to the _Chicago Tribune_ (July 13, 1919) by its
+    correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan, one of the two neutral
+    eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that as Italy was an
+    interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in the
+    decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her
+    forces were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In
+    alliance with the city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian
+    soldiers attacked the French: "I can state emphatically," says
+    Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards did nothing whatever to
+    provoke the assault, some details of which would blot the
+    escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France
+    killed, after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could
+    scarcely believe my ears when Italian officers rapped out the
+    order to load. But they seemed to remember that Frenchmen can
+    fight." However, he also saw an Italian officer who "prevented
+    this murder and held back the civilians who were trying to
+    reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of this
+    officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game
+    little soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers
+    of Italy!' I wish I knew this officer's name." At another part
+    of the harbour, "A British naval officer, fearing that the
+    wounded Frenchman would be stabbed inside the court to which he
+    was dragged, followed the body and defied the captain of
+    carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the close "I was
+    no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness. The
+    British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
+    the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken
+    part in the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The
+    British Admiral wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian
+    officer running and bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are
+    willing to explain all....' American naval officers of the
+    destroyer _Talbot_ were also among this post-mortem crowd. In a
+    French motor bearing two Italian officers who stood up to ward
+    off possible shots, came a French captain. He was of that calm,
+    splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard, a
+    knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
+    flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep
+    down in that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer
+    tell him that the French had started the most regrettable
+    affair by firing on the Italian ships. The officer spoke this
+    falsehood under the glazed stare of the French dead and the
+    protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain nodded his
+    head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only pick up
+    the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside
+    her child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking
+    episode is contained in _A Political Escapade: The Story of
+    Fiume and d'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London,
+    1921). His narrative is extremely well documented--he appears
+    to have been a member of the British Mission. "It is
+    incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men could attack
+    the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover, they
+    were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French
+    garrison was small and had no intention of putting up a
+    defence." One of the lesser outrages described by Father
+    Macdonald, since it was not attended with fatal results, was
+    that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who from his window
+    saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver an
+    unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
+    room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed
+    bayonets and they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard
+    tried to intervene and received a blow on the arm dealt with
+    the butt end of a rifle. At this juncture an Italian officer
+    appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come without further
+    delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside greeted
+    Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
+    street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse
+    against France and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he
+    was brought into the presence of an Italian officer to whom he
+    was personally known. This gentleman, looking very uneasy,
+    refused to give the name of his brother-officer, but caused the
+    Frenchman to be released.]
+
+    [Footnote 45: Cf. _The Balkan Peninsula_ (English translation).
+    London, 1887.]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF--THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM--THEIR WISH
+FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE--FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES--SOME OF
+RIEKA'S SCANDALS--PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA--DESPITE THE NEW
+PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM--THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN
+YUGOSLAVIA--OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH--THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA--A
+GENERAL--TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST--THE BELATED TREATY OF
+RAPALLO--ITS PROBABLE FRUITS--NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV
+PARLIAMENT--(_a_) MARKOVI['C], THE COMMUNIST--(_b_) RADI['C], THE
+MUCH-DISCUSSED--THE SERBS AND THE CROATS--THE SAD CASE OF
+PRIBI['C]EVI['C]--LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS--WHICH ONE
+GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE--MEDIAEVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA--THE STRICKEN
+TOWN--HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE.
+
+
+D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF
+
+When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan War, into the historic
+town of Prilep a certain soldier sent his family an interesting letter,
+which was found a few years afterwards at Ni[vs] and printed in a book.
+One passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point of
+mediaeval history between the soldier and a chance acquaintance.
+"Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this town?" And the man of Prilep
+recognized at once that his catechist was not referring to the actual
+possessor but to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same question
+was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that Rieka was Italian then and
+for ever, and that he who proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a
+mutilated war-combatant. Most of the citizens, as time went on, began to
+think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's annexation to another
+land, which was the work of Nature. Those who did not entertain this
+view were the salaried assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who
+had bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as mistress of
+Rieka, would change them into lire, even if she did not give so good a
+rate as at Triest. The poet addressed himself to the France of Victor
+Hugo, the England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not to the
+business men of Rieka, who would have told him that 70 per cent. of the
+property, both movable and immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 per cent.
+was Italian and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to
+listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand men, to
+Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and won him over. Whether he
+would have persuaded Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must
+gravely doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we may take
+as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound to be true. I am not bound
+to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand
+with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right, and
+part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the wilful trespass
+committed by Italians on the property and rights of the Yugoslavs and
+the oft-repeated guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the
+American Government against such invasion, it is passing strange that
+d'Annunzio should have appealed to Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for
+Admiral Millo, he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his fortunes
+with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the populace a very fiery
+speech. It is not known whether he communicated with the France of
+Clemenceau, the England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson, whose
+representative he apparently continued to be for the rest of Dalmatia,
+while relinquishing that post with regard to Zadar, his residence.
+
+
+THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM
+
+If Admiral Millo's rebellion had been published in the press of November
+16th, it is most likely that 250, instead of 160, Socialists would have
+been successful at the General Election--an election which Signor
+Nitti, that very able parliamentarian, had brought about for the
+purpose, amongst other things, of testing the forces and popularity of
+the Nationalist party. The old Chamber had--voicing the wishes of the
+people--voted for the open annexation of Rieka, without war or violence;
+the Nationalists, in order to gain their ends, would seemingly have
+stopped at nothing. Military adventures, the breaking of alliances,
+agrarian and industrial upheaval--it was all the same to them. They
+scoffed at the common sense of the imperturbable Nitti when he said that
+the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, must return to the plough.
+Furiously they harped upon the facts that bread was dearer now, that
+coal was nearly unprocurable. And Giolitti, who in 1915 had strenuously
+tried to keep the country neutral, said in a great speech before this
+1919 election that the War had been waged between England and Germany
+for the supremacy of the survivor and that Italy should never have
+participated. He enlarged upon the fearful sufferings of his countrymen,
+and he compared the gains of Italy with those of her Allies. Nor was he
+deterred when Signor Salandra, the former Premier, called him Italy's
+evil spirit who, devoid of any patriotism, would have sold the
+Fatherland to the Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on
+whom 300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before the
+declaration of war, had good reason to know that even if Giolittism had
+melted away, the House had secretly remained Giolittian.
+
+A new electoral system was introduced, whereby the people voted for
+programmes and parties rather than directly for individual candidates.
+This, it was hoped, would render corruption more difficult by enclosing
+the individual within the framework of the list, and it was also hoped
+that there would be less violence than usual. As a matter of fact there
+probably was a diminution with respect to these two practices, but only
+because of the large number of abstentions--merely 29 per cent. voted in
+Rome, 38 per cent. in Naples, and in Turin scarcely more. The people
+were tired of the excessive complexity and dissimulation of Italian
+politics. There was a good deal of violence--in Milan, Florence, Bologna
+and Sicily the riots were sometimes fatal--and with such an electorate,
+more extensive than heretofore, so that symbols had often to be used
+instead of the printed word, it was to be expected that there would not
+be an atmosphere of even relatively calm discussion. At Naples 132
+candidates struggled for eleven seats--their meetings were
+indescribable. And it may be thought that in such conditions the
+victorious parties would not necessarily reflect the wishes of the
+country. The Nationalists were dispersed, the Giolittians were
+routed--the Socialists increased from 40 to 156, and the Catholics from
+30 to 101. Gabriele d'Annunzio had been the Socialists' chief elector.
+
+
+THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE
+
+There was now a fair hope that the Government would be in a position to
+solve the Adriatic problem. The Italian delegates in Paris had suggested
+that, in the independent buffer State, Rieka should have a separate
+municipal status, and that a narrow strip of land should join the buffer
+State to Italy. On December 9, a memorandum was signed by the
+representatives of Great Britain and America, which was the best
+compromise which anyone had yet proposed. The strip was dismissed as
+being "counter to every known consideration of geography, economics and
+territorial convenience." [Nevertheless this very dangerous expedient of
+the strip, after having been thus roundly rejected by the Allies, formed
+a part of the Treaty of Rapallo in November 1920--the Yugoslavs had most
+generously given way rather than leave this exasperating Adriatic
+problem still unsolved.] Rieka with her environment was to be a _corpus
+separatum_--and this was the chief point which made the proposals
+inacceptable to Italy. That Socialist group which is represented by the
+_Avanti_ seemed to be the only one whose attitude was not intransigeant.
+The question of Rieka, it argued, was not isolated, but should be
+considered as one of the numerous questions of Italian foreign politics.
+It laughed at those who every moment cry "Our Fiume," because there are
+in the town many people who speak Italian. Other groups of Socialists
+had altered very much from the day when the three delegates--Labriola,
+Raimundo and Cappa--spoke of the Adriatic at the Congress which Kerensky
+summoned to Petrograd. Labriola was considered the most arrogant and
+chauvinist of the trio, but not even he demanded Rieka--there was no
+question of it at the time. Still less did he dream of Zadar or
+[vS]ibenik; what he pleaded for was Triest, Istria and an island.... In
+December 1919 some Italian Socialist papers were printing reports on the
+economic life of Rieka, which was in a disastrous condition. But the
+great majority of Italians were so bent upon securing Rieka that they
+did not seem to care if by that time she were dead. And they threw a
+little dust into their eyes, if not into the eyes of the Entente, by
+declaring that if they did not annex Rieka that unhappy, faithful town
+would annex them. The self-appointed Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of
+Rieka was, however, at this time less preoccupied with the Madre Patria
+than with her own very troublesome affairs; she had no leisure to
+organize those patriotic deputations to Rome, which sailed so frequently
+across the Adriatic and which, as was revealed by Signor Nitti's organ
+_Il Tempo_,[46] were too often composed of speculators who liked to
+receive in Italy the sum of 60 centesimi for an unstamped Austrian paper
+crown that was barely worth ten. The disillusioned C.N.I. would have
+given a good many lire to be rid of d'Annunzio; the citizens were
+invited to vote on the following question: "Is it desirable to accept
+the proposal of the Italian Government, declared acceptable by the
+C.N.I. at its meeting of December 15, which absolves Gabriele d'Annunzio
+and his legionaries from their oath to hold Rieka until its annexation
+has been decreed and effected?" On December 21, in the Chamber, Signor
+Nitti announced that more than half the citizens had voted and that
+four-fifths of them were in favour of the suggestion of the C.N.I. But
+d'Annunzio, whose adherents by no means facilitated the plebiscite,
+proclaimed it null and void. Yet, after all, Italy had likewise, on
+every occasion when the Yugoslavs suggested a plebiscite under impartial
+control, refused to sanction it.
+
+
+FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES
+
+Then suddenly a ray of light shone through the clouds. The ever-cheerful
+Signor Nitti, after a conference with Lloyd George and Clemenceau--no
+Yugoslav being present, whereas Signor Nitti was both pleader and
+judge--was authorized to say that the December memorandum had been
+shelved. Terms more favourable to Italy were substituted and the
+Yugoslav Government were told they must accept them. One of these terms
+was to modify the Wilson line in Istria, ostensibly for the protection
+of Triest and in reality to dominate the railway line Rieka-St.
+Peter-Ljubljana; another of the terms was to present Italy with that
+narrow corridor which in December the Allies had so peremptorily
+disallowed. No wonder the American Ambassador in France gave his
+warning. "You are going," he said, "much too far and much too quickly.
+President Wilson cannot keep pace with you." The French Government was
+passing through a period of change, and these new proposals, as was
+underlined in the _Temps_,[47] emanated from London. Mr. Lloyd George,
+who may have wished for Signor Nitti's aid in his offensive against
+France in the Russian and Turkish questions, was this time very badly
+served by his intuition. The Yugoslavs were ordered to accept the new
+proposals or to submit to the application of the Treaty of London, that
+secret and abandoned instrument which--to mention only one of the
+objections against it--provided for complete Yugoslav sovereignty over
+Rieka, a solution that, in view of Italy's inflamed public opinion, was
+for the time being impracticable. And while the Yugoslavs were told that
+Rieka would, under the Treaty of London, fall to them, no details were
+given as to how d'Annunzio was to be removed. "Nous sommes dans
+l'incoherence," as Clemenceau used to say of the political condition of
+France before the war. Seeing that the Italian Government and the C.N.I.
+had shown themselves so powerless, were France and England going to turn
+the poet out? But Mr. Lloyd George was more fortunate than Disraeli,
+whose error in the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina had had such dire
+results; on February 13, a very firm note was issued by President
+Wilson, which compelled France and Great Britain to withdraw from the
+position they had taken up. Wilson would have nothing to do with the
+notorious corridor, though Clemenceau had said on January 13, to the
+Yugoslav delegates: "Si nous n'avions pas fait cette concession, nous
+n'avions pas eu le reste." "The American Government," said Wilson,
+"feels that it cannot sacrifice the principle for which it entered the
+war to gratify the improper ambition of one of its associates, Italy, to
+purchase a temporary appearance of calm in the Adriatic at the price of
+a future world conflagration." The rejoinder of the French and British
+Premiers was a trifle lame, and when they ventured to add that they
+could not believe that it was the purpose of the American people, as the
+President threatened, to retire from the treaty with Germany and the
+agreement of June 28, 1919, with France unless his point of view was
+adopted in this particular case, which, in their opinion, had "the
+appearance of being so inadequate," they were not caring to remember
+that while their own countries and Italy were suffering from a lack of
+food-stuffs and provisions were being imported at a disastrous rate of
+exchange from the United States, the products of Yugoslavia, such as
+meat and meal, could not be obtained because Rieka, which ought surely
+to serve its hinterland, was at that moment not available, owing to
+d'Annunzio. At the same time the President did not go to the opposite
+extreme of simply allocating the port to Yugoslavia, which the
+application of the Treaty of London would involve. He preferred to act
+on the principle that the differences between Italy and the Yugoslavs
+were inconsiderable, especially as compared with the magnitude of their
+common interests. And direct negotiations between the two parties were
+to be recommended, with the proviso that no use be made of France and
+Great Britain's immoral suggestion that an agreement be reached on "the
+basis of compensation elsewhere at the expense of nationals of a third
+Power." It had indeed been proposed that the Yugoslavs should be bribed
+by concessions in Albania, but this idea was very explicitly rejected
+and on more than one occasion by the Yugoslav delegates in Paris.
+
+While, in the following months, the Yugoslavs and the Italians
+negotiated, the task of their delegates was impeded by the occasional
+Cabinet crises in Belgrade and in Rome. It was made no easier by those
+Italians who clamorously objected to the remark of Clemenceau, when he
+said that both Yugoslavs and Italians had been compelled to fight in
+Austria's army. The _Corriere d'Italia_ told him that he displayed the
+zeal of a corporal to defend the Yugoslavs. After alluding to his
+"historical inexactitudes," it reminded him of the Italians who were
+slain at Reims and the Chemin des Dames, but as usual omitted to speak
+of the French soldiers who fell in Italy. And, while the negotiations
+were being carried on, Gabriele d'Annunzio clung to his town. The
+compromise of a mixed administration seemed to have small chance of
+being realized. It had been proposed by that Inter-Allied Commission
+which was set up to investigate the circumstances of the French
+massacre; and the Italian delegate, General di Robilant, not only said
+in his report[48] to the Senate that this compromise was most favourable
+for Italian aspirations but he is alleged also to have included some
+very drastic criticism of the actions of the high military authorities,
+whom he charged with unconstitutional interference. Nevertheless neither
+the poet nor the Premier were as yet in a tractable mood with regard to
+the Rieka problem. Signor Nitti, parading his bonhomie, championed the
+cause in a more statesmanlike fashion; he did not, like d'Annunzio,
+evoke the world's ridicule by his footlight attitudes and those of his
+faithful supporters who, when his "Admiral" Rizzo abandoned him, when
+Giorati his confidant withdrew, when even Millo advised moderation, took
+certain piratical steps in order to keep the garrison supplied with
+food,[49] and composed an anthem which on ceremonial occasions was
+chanted in the poet's honour. But when Signor Nitti observed, with the
+utmost affability, that Rieka had, after the fall of the Crown of St.
+Stephen, become mistress of her own fate and as such, regardless of the
+Treaty of London, asked for inclusion in Italy, he, the Prime Minister,
+was vying in recklessness with d'Annunzio. The prevailing sentiment both
+in Triest and Rieka, said the _Times_,[50] was that both these towns
+should become free ports in order to serve their hinterlands, which are
+not Italian. "Italy is neglecting Triest in favour of Venice," says the
+dispatch. In Rieka, where the situation was even worse, "an honest
+plebiscite, even if confined to the Italian part of the city, would give
+a startling result. The Italians of Rieka are convinced that their
+existence depends on good relations with the Yugoslavs. They wish the
+town and port to be independent under the sovereignty of the League of
+Nations. This I have recently been told by a large number of Italians in
+Rieka who are obliged, in public, to support d'Annunzio." Signor Nitti
+must have been aware that the voice of the C.N.I. was very far from
+being the voice of Rieka. The C.N.I. had reasons of their own for
+wishing to postpone the day when their arbitrary powers would come to an
+end and a legal Government, whether that of the League of Nations or of
+the people's will or of Italy or of Yugoslavia, be established.
+
+
+SOME OF RIEKA'S SCANDALS
+
+Owing to the complaints of innumerable citizens the C.N.I. had nominated
+a Commission to inquire into the pillage of the former Austrian stores
+at Rieka--this town, as we have mentioned, had been the base for the
+Albanian army--and the findings of that Commission displayed the
+culpability of the most prominent members of the C.N.I. This document
+was for a long time unknown to the general public, but was afterwards
+published in Italy by Signor Riccardo Zanella, himself an Italian and an
+ex-deputy and ex-mayor of Rieka. There was, by the way, an article in
+the Triest paper, _Il Lavoratore_, at the beginning of September 1920,
+wherein one Tercilio Borghese, a former member of d'Annunzio's army,
+confesses that on June 21, he was ordered by d'Annunzio, as also by
+Colonel Sani and Captain Baldassari, to get Signor Zanella in some way
+out of the world. Hinko Camero and Angelo Marzi['c], his fellow-workers,
+had likewise to be removed; and for this purpose Borghese says that the
+Colonel provided him with a revolver. He was also to try to seize any
+compromising documents. But he was forced by his conscience to reveal
+everything to Zanella.... Now this confession may be true or false, but
+the Triest "fascisti" (Nationalists) believed in it, for they issued a
+placard on which they called Borghese a traitor and threatened him with
+death. "He who after November 1918 returns to the martyred town," writes
+Signor Zanella, "is simply stupefied in beholding that those personages
+who now strut on the political scene, burning with the most ardent
+Italian patriotism, are the same who until the eve of Vittorio Veneto
+were the most unbending, the most eloquent and the most devoted
+partisans and servants of the reactionary Magyar regime." And around
+them a number of more or less questionable persons were assembled, whose
+conduct with regard to the disposal of the Austrian stores has now been
+so severely censured. That organization which, dependent on the C.N.I.,
+was supposed to administer the stores, was known as the Adriatic
+Commission. "We all knew," said the Commission of inquiry, "that the
+eyes of the whole world were gazing at our little town." It was,
+therefore, very desirable that nothing irregular should be done; whereas
+the judges give a most unfavourable verdict. Nobody, they say, would
+rejoice more than themselves if their conclusions should be shown to be
+completely or partly erroneous, for they are all of them penetrated with
+love for the fatherland Italy. But they relate, with chapter and verse,
+a large number of peculiar transactions which show that the goods were
+very improperly and very hastily auctioned, and that those who reaped
+the benefit were nearly always the same people. To give one instance,
+some of the wine, said to have been damaged, was sold at 260 crowns the
+thousand litres, while undamaged wine brought 320 crowns, and the firm
+of Riboli, the only one which appeared at the so-called auction, was
+only asked to pay 30 crowns. Thus a considerable number of people in
+Rieka were anxious that the town should not come under any Government
+which might punish the culprits or make them disgorge. And Nitti and
+d'Annunzio agreed with these interested parties in opposing a solution
+other than the overlordship of Italy. "The Yugoslavs should understand,"
+said the amiable Premier, "that Italy has no intention of acting in a
+manner distasteful to them, but is struggling for a national ideal." And
+meantime what of the conditions in the poor distracted town?
+"D'Annunzio," says an Italian paper, "is no longer the master of Rieka.
+He has become the prisoner of his own troops.... While he amuses himself
+and organizes the worst orgies, his troops quarrel in the streets and
+discharge their weapons.... A great many of them have their mistresses
+in the hospital, where they make themselves at home. When the doctors,
+after some time, protested, the arditi, with bombs in their hands,
+threatened to blow up the hospital if they were not allowed to enter
+it." On the other hand the pale, weary-looking poet succeeded in
+impressing on a special correspondent of the _Morning Post_ that he was
+"master of his job." He told this gentleman--and was apparently
+believed--that with the consent and approval of the C.N.I. he had had
+the whole place mined, city and harbour, and was prepared to blow it up
+at a moment's notice. The means by which d'Annunzio, according to his
+interviewer, worked on those who were depressed with gazing at the empty
+shops, the silent warehouses, the grass-grown wharves, so that the
+overwhelming majority of the town supported him, was by simply making to
+them an eloquent speech. D'Annunzio would indeed be the master of his
+job if with some rounded periods in Italian he could cause the very
+numerous hostile business men to forget so blissfully that they were
+men of business. Under his dispensation the town is said to have been
+turned into a place of debauchery. Accusations were brought against his
+sexual code, and with regard to men of commerce: "those who are not
+partisans of d'Annunzio are expelled, and their establishments handed
+over to friends of the ruling power.... Woe to him who dares to condemn
+the transactions of the poet's adherents. There and then he is
+pronounced to be a Yugoslav, is placed under surveillance and is
+persecuted." These Italian critics of the poet do not in the least
+exaggerate. One instance of his conduct towards a British firm will be
+sufficient. The "Anglo-Near East Trading Company" shipped sixty-seven
+cases (5292 pairs) of boots to private traders in Belgrade, and on the
+way they reached Rieka just before d'Annunzio. In March 1920 they were
+still detained there, and on the 13th of that month a certain Alcesde di
+Ambris, who described himself as the Chief of the Cabinet, wrote a
+letter saying that the boots were requisitioned, and that they would be
+paid for within thirty days at a price fixed on March 5 by experts of
+the local Chamber of Commerce. The company was offered forty lire a
+pair, but they declined to accept so inadequate a sum. Senor Meynia, the
+Spanish Consul, who was also representing Great Britain, attempted in
+various ways to help the firm; he was finally told by an officer that
+the "exceptional situation of Rieka compels the Authority to suspend the
+exportation or transport of such goods as are thoroughly needed here."
+And the Consul could do no more than protest. One might presume, from
+this officer's reply, that d'Annunzio required the boots for his army.
+As a matter of fact, they were simply sold to a couple of dealers, one
+Levy of Triest and Mailaender of Rieka. It is alleged that the prices
+paid by these receivers of stolen property was a good deal higher than
+forty lire. When Signor di Ambris travelled to Rome in the merry month
+of June and enjoyed a consultation with the Prime Minister, who by this
+time was Signor Giolitti, it was not in order to explain any such
+transactions as that one of the boots, but for the purpose, we are told,
+of offering the services of d'Annunzio and his legionaries in Albania.
+The regular Italian army was just then being roughly handled by the
+natives.... It may be that Signor di Ambris wanted guarantees that if
+the d'Annunzian troops were to come to the rescue, they would not suffer
+the fate of the Yugoslavs who in the Great War had managed to desert to
+Italy, had valiantly fought and won many decorations and--after the
+War--been ignominiously interned. And they had given no grounds for
+charges of financial frailty.
+
+
+PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA
+
+The months go by and Yugoslavia still survives. At the post-office of a
+large village in Syrmia, not far from Djakovo, where Bishop Strossmayer
+laboured during fifty-five years for the union of the Southern Slavs
+which he was destined not to see, a bulky farmer told me that in his
+opinion Yugoslavia, created in 1918, was now in 1920 "kaput." He deduced
+this from the fact that a telegram used to travel much more
+expeditiously in Austrian days; but he did not remember that the
+Yugoslavs, in the Serbian and in the Austro-Hungarian armies, had
+suffered enormous losses in the War, and that while French, Dutch and
+Swiss doctors have been obtained by the Belgrade Government, one cannot
+use telegraphists who are ignorant of the language. An excellent
+province in which Yugoslavia's solidity can be studied is Bosnia. At the
+outbreak of the War the Moslems and Croats were not imbued with the
+Yugoslav idea; it seemed to them that the Serbs, one of whom had slain
+the Archduke, were traitors to Southern Slavdom. During the War the
+Croats and Moslems were taught by their Slav officers to be good
+nationalists and were given frequent lessons in the art of going over to
+the enemy. After the Armistice one did not see every Serb, Croat and
+Moslem in Bosnia forthwith forgetting all the evil of the past. Among
+the less enlightened certain private acts of vengeance had to be
+performed; but these were not as numerous as one might have expected.
+And very soon the population of Bosnia came to be interested far less in
+the old religious differences--the two deputies Dr. D[vz]amonia and
+Professor Stanojevi['c] smilingly remembered the day when, as
+schoolboys at Sarajevo, they had been persuaded by the Austrians to pull
+out each other's hair for the reason that one was a Croat and one was a
+Serb--and now it was the engrossing subject of Agrarian Reform which
+claimed the attention of Catholic, Orthodox and Moslem. This is not a
+religious question, for while the landlords are mostly Muhammedan begs
+about half the peasants are of the same religion; and the negotiations
+have been marked by a notable absence of passion. Most of the begs
+acknowledge that the old regime was unprofitable, for with the peasant
+paying one-third to one-fifth of his production to the landlord the land
+only yielded, as compared with the sandy districts of East Prussia, in
+the proportion of five to twenty-two. Under the new order of things,
+with the State in support of the "usurping" peasant--so that there are
+said to be in Bosnia about a thousand peasants who are millionaires (in
+crowns)--there is no longer any dispute with regard to the "kmet" land,
+where the peasants with hereditary rights have become the owners; and
+with regard to the "begluk," which the beg used to let to anyone he
+pleased, it is only a question as to the degree of compensation. Thus,
+it is not among the landowners and the peasants that one must look in
+searching for an anti-national party. Bosnia contains various iron works
+and coal mines, where profession is made of Communism. But when the
+Prince-Regent was about to come to pay his first official visit in 1920
+to Sarajevo the Governor received a communication from the Communists of
+Zenica, which is on the railway line. They asked for permission to
+salute "our Prince" as he came past; and a deputation of these
+Communists, who are very like their colleagues in other parts of
+Yugoslavia, duly appeared and took part in a ceremony at the station.
+
+
+DESPITE THE NEW PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM
+
+Just as innocuous--whatever the enemies of Yugoslavia may say--are the
+Communists in the old kingdom of Serbia. Perhaps in the whole State of
+Yugoslavia they number 50,000 in a population of about 12,500,000. But
+they are so well organized that in the municipal elections of 1920 they
+were victorious in most of the towns. In Belgrade they secured 3600
+votes, as compared with 3200 for the Radicals, 2800 for the
+Democrats--both of whom were not only badly organized but very
+slack--and 605 for the Republicans. However, the Communists refused to
+swear the requisite oath, and in consequence were not permitted to take
+office, the Radicals and Democrats forming a union to carry on. It was
+agreed to have a new election and the other parties, being now awakened,
+determined that the Communists should not again top the poll. But in the
+provincial towns they have not by any means shown themselves a
+disintegrating influence. At Ni[vs], for example, they conducted the
+municipal affairs quite satisfactorily, while at [vC]uprija they
+perceived that it would be impossible to put into effect their entire
+programme, and so, after fourteen days, they resigned.
+
+
+THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN YUGOSLAVIA
+
+... As for the Communists in the Skup[vs]tina, it may be argued that
+though this party of over fifty members has ceased to exist we should
+have said not simply that they are innocuous but that they have been
+rendered so. They were in principle against any State which violated
+their somewhat hazy ideas on the subject of Capital: while professing to
+aim at the holding of wealth in common they secured a great deal of
+their success at the polls through the bait of more land for the
+individual, which they dangled before the eyes of the most ignorant
+classes. Some of the electors who supported them were prosperous farmers
+unable to resist the idea of a still larger farm; but the majority of
+their adherents were as ignorant as they were gullible. Yet one should
+remember that for most of them this was practically their first
+experience of an election: the constituencies which had formerly been in
+Austria-Hungary had always seen the booths under the supervision of the
+police, while the Macedonian voter (three Communists were returned for
+Skoplje) had only known the institutions of the Turkish Empire. Being
+told by the Communists that their box at the polling-station was really
+the box for the poor, the Fukara, all the gypsies and so forth of
+Skoplje, who had never voted in their lives, hastened to claim the
+privilege, under the impression that a Communist Government would
+liberate them from taxes and military service. Other reasons for the
+success of the Communists in Yugoslavia, an essentially non-industrial
+State, were the general discontent with post-war conditions, and the
+virus which so many of the voters had acquired in Russia or on the
+Dobrudja front during the War. The activity in the Skup[vs]tina of this
+very indigestible party--largely composed of Turks, Magyars, Albanians,
+Germans and others--their activity in and out of Parliament was not
+confined to words. In June 1920 they only refrained from throwing bombs
+in the Skup[vs]tina because one of their own members would have been in
+peril, and in December a plot against the Prince-Regent and some of the
+Ministers was foiled. Thereupon the Emergency Act of December 27, the
+so-called Obznana, came into existence. It suspended all Communist
+associations. This Act was issued for the good of the country, but was
+not previously presented to the Constituent Assembly or provided with
+the royal signature. How justified were the authorities in thus putting
+a stop to this party could be seen when some of the Communist deputies
+were interrogated, for either they were dangerous fanatics or else very
+ignorant individuals, who knew no more about any other question than
+about Communism, and had only been elected because they professed
+dissatisfaction with things in general. A few months later Mr.
+Dra[vs]kovi['c], the very able Minister of the Interior, who had drawn
+up the Obznana, but who by that time had laid down the seals of office,
+was murdered by Communists at a seaside resort in the presence of his
+wife and little children. The object of this particular outrage was to
+persuade the authorities in panic to withdraw the hated Obznana, whereas
+the previous attempts on various personages seem to have been greatly
+due to the desire to show some positive result in return for the cash
+which came to them from Moscow. (One of the leaders of the party, the
+ex-professor of mathematics, was arrested last summer in Vienna on his
+return from Moscow, with a large and very miscellaneous collection of
+English, French, American, Russian and other money.) After the murder of
+Mr. Dra[vs]kovi['c] the mandates of the Communist deputies were
+suppressed; seven or eight of them were detained, for speedy trial, and
+the rest were told to go to their homes. The Communist parliamentary
+party was at an end--it was established that their Committee room in the
+Skup[vs]tina had been used for highly improper purposes--but there was
+nothing to prevent these ex-deputies from being elected as members of
+any other party, and it was rather beside the mark for an English
+review, the _Labour Monthly_,[51] to talk of the "White Terror in
+Jugo-Slavia," as if there prevailed in that country anything comparable
+with Admiral Horthy's regime in Hungary.
+
+
+OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH
+
+The behaviour of the Communists was far from being the only clog in
+Yugoslavia's parliamentary machine. After the first General Election of
+November 1920--delayed until then on account of Italy's attitude, which
+made it impossible to demobilize the army--no single party nor even one
+of the large groups was possessed of a real working majority. Fierce and
+determined was the Opposition;[52] to carry on the business of
+government it became necessary to secure the coalition of several
+parties. The Radical and Democrat _bloc_ had to attract to its side one
+or two other parties, and it was truly difficult to make concessions to
+anyone of these without rousing the righteous or the envious wrath of
+another group. In principle it was proper that the Bosnian Moslems
+should receive compensation for their estates; the question is whether
+the very large sum was less in the nature of a fair price than of a
+bribe. The Radical party was no longer under its happy triumvirate of
+Pa[vs]i['c], the old diplomat, Proti['c], the executor of his ideas, and
+Patchou, a medical man from Novi Sad, the real brain of the party. We
+shall give an example of Patchou's prudence; the long views which he
+possessed may be illustrated by what occurred at a meeting of Radical
+deputies two days before the outbreak of the second Balkan War. The
+Tzar's proposed arbitration was being discussed and certain deputies,
+such as the late Dr. Pavlovi['c], who was the first speaker of the
+Yugoslav Parliament after the Great War, raised their voices in
+opposition; they were supported by the army. "Can we have Bitolje
+(Monastir)?" they asked. "It is not known what the Tzar will decide,"
+said Pa[vs]i['c]. "Then we can't accept arbitration," said Pavlovi['c].
+And Patchou spoke. "I would be very glad to know," said he, "what Mr.
+Pavlovi['c] would say if we could get, by possibly now sacrificing
+Bitolje, not only Bosnia, but Dalmatia and other Slav countries." "All
+that," said Pavlovi['c], "is music of the future." "For you perhaps,"
+said Patchou, "but not for us." And the vote in favour of arbitration
+was carried. Patchou died in 1915 at Ni[vs]. Besides being an expert in
+finance and foreign affairs he was less arbitrary in his methods than
+Proti['c]. That very erudite man--no sooner does an important book
+appear in Western or Central Europe than a copy of it goes to his
+library--has not been much endowed with patience. This brought him into
+conflict with his Democratic colleague Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c], the most
+prominent man in that party. It would have been well if Dr.
+Davidovi['c], the gentle, tactful leader of the party, could have taken
+into his own composition one-half of his lieutenant's excessive
+combativeness. Pribi[vc]evi['c] and Proti['c] find it impossible to work
+together, and we can sympathize with both of them. One day at a more
+than usually disagreeable Cabinet meeting Pribi[vc]evi['c] reminded the
+then Prime Minister that he was the first among equals, a point of view
+which did not square with the methods of Proti['c], who gives his
+support to those Ministers who bend before him. And as Pribi[vc]evi['c]
+has hitherto insisted on being in every Cabinet, Proti['c] has withdrawn
+and has started a newspaper, the _Radical_, in which he attacks him with
+great violence and ability. One charge which he brings against this Serb
+from Croatia is perfectly true, for he has succeeded in alienating the
+Croats. Only two or three Democrat deputies come from Croatia, and they
+are elected by the Serbs who live in that province. It would seem that
+the Croats will remain in more or less active opposition so long as
+Pribi[vc]evi['c], the arch-centralizer who scorns to wear the velvet
+glove, stays in the Government. There is also much doubt as to whether
+Proti['c] can break down their particularism, which, of course, is not
+an anti-national movement. But luckily, through other men, it will be
+stayed. For other reasons one regrets that Mr. Proti['c] is not now in
+power; as the Finance Minister he knew how to introduce order,
+preferring the interests of the State to those of his party. Both
+Radicals and Democrats have been reluctant, for electoral purposes, to
+tax the farmer; and Mr. Proti['c] would probably have the courage to
+impose a direct tax, as the Radicals did, without losing popular favour,
+in the old days. In this respect and concerning the numerous posts that
+have been created for party reasons it is thought that Mr. Pa[vs]i['c]
+has not displayed sufficient energy.
+
+There was in Yugoslavia a heavy war deficit, both economic and
+financial. Communications were out of order and the State, owing to the
+adverse exchange (which was not justified by the economic potentialities
+of the country, but was probably caused by the unsettled conditions both
+internal and external), the State could not obtain the necessary raw
+products for industrial undertakings such as iron-works, tanneries,
+cloth factories, etc. The Yugoslavs did not borrow from abroad, as they
+might have done, in the form of raw materials. The agricultural products
+which were exported should have been sold for the needful manufacturers'
+material and not for articles of luxury and not for depreciated foreign,
+especially Austrian, currency.[53] The Yugoslav public is slow to learn
+economy, that it should restrict the importation of luxuries. What makes
+it particularly unhappy, in which frame of mind it listens to the voices
+prophesying woe for Yugoslavia, is the knowledge that for increased
+production and for many other necessary aims more capital is wanted,
+whereas under present conditions it has been difficult to borrow. But
+happily in this respect the corner has been turned, and in the spring of
+1922 a considerable loan was negotiated with an American syndicate.
+
+
+THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA
+
+However, the principal disintegrating force in Yugoslavia, we were often
+told in England, was Montenegro, where, it seems, the natives were
+yearning to cast off their yoke. The British devotees of the former king
+told us of the ghastly state of Montenegro, and our Foreign Office was
+bombarded with reports which ascribed these evils to the wretched
+Government of Yugoslavia. "There is nothing anywhere," says a memorandum
+from the ineffable Devine. "The shops are empty, the town markets are
+deserted. The peasants, who may not travel from one village to another
+without a Serbian 'permit' ... etc. etc." Well, I visited Cetinje market
+on a non-market day, and passing through the crowd of people I admired
+the produce of various parts of the country--melons, tomatoes, dried
+fish, onions, peaches, nuts and cheese, lemons from Antivari and so
+forth. I happened to ask a comely woman called Petrie[vc]evi['c] from
+near Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised at such a
+question. It is very true that the more mountainous parts of Montenegro
+are far from prosperous, but to insinuate that this is the fault of the
+Government is childish. Hampered by the lack of transport--practically
+everything has to be brought on ox-carts up by the tremendous road from
+Kotor--they have recently given away 38,000 kilos of wheat and many
+mountain horses at Cetinje. I suppose it was all in the game for Devine
+and his assistants to throw mud at the Yugoslav Government if they
+believed that they would--for the happiness of the Montenegrins and
+themselves--help to restore Nikita. But what was the use of saying that
+"the poor people have no money and have nothing to eat; they are said to
+be living on a herb of some sort that grows wild in the mountains"?... A
+very satisfactory feature of the past year has been the migration of
+7000 Montenegrins to more fertile parts of Yugoslavia. And as for
+Nikita's partisans, they were such small beer that when they wished to
+hold a meeting at Cetinje the Government had not the least objection; it
+also allowed them to sing the songs that Nikita wrote, but that was more
+than the population of Cetinje would stand. It is only at Cetinje, where
+he reigned for sixty years, and at Njegu[vs], where he was born, that
+Nikita has any adherents at all. As for his adherents at Gaeta, the
+Cetinje authorities were perfectly willing to give a passport to any
+woman who desired to spend some time in Italy with her husband or
+brother or son. She might stay there or come back, just as she pleased.
+And very likely when she got to Gaeta she would relate how in the
+cathedral, at the rock-bound monastery of Ostrog, and in other sacred
+places, one could see the Montenegrin women cursing their ex-king.
+
+
+A GENERAL
+
+The sinister shadow of d'Annunzio had fallen across Dalmatia and beyond
+it: for instance, on November 20, 1919, the King of Italy's name-day, a
+general holiday was proclaimed in the occupied districts. The director
+of the school at Zlosela, a Slav who had never been an Italian subject,
+gave--perhaps injudiciously--the usual lessons. He and his wife were
+arrested and for months they were in prison, their six-months-old child
+being left to the mercy of neighbours; and the local commandant, Major
+Gracco Golini, told Dr. Smol[vc]i['c], the President of the National
+Council, that the slightest action on the part of the Yugoslavs would
+provoke terrible measures on the part of d'Annunzio's arditi, who would
+spare neither women nor children.... The reader may remember the
+Montenegrin General Ve[vs]ovi['c], who took to the mountains and defied
+the Austrians. On the accession of the Emperor Karl he surrendered and,
+much to the surprise of his people, he travelled round the country
+recommending every one to offer no more opposition, to be quiet and
+obedient to the Austrians. When the war was over the authorities at
+Belgrade gave him, as they did to other Montenegrin generals, the same
+rank in the Yugoslav army; but the numerous Montenegrins who resented
+his unpatriotic behaviour persuaded the War Office, after two or three
+months, to remove him from the active list. This exasperated the
+ambitious man to such an extent that he withdrew to his own district and
+began to work against Yugoslavia. A major with a force of 200 gendarmes
+was sent to fetch him back and, after conversations that lasted ten
+days, induced him to return to Belgrade. There he was not molested; he
+used to sit for hours in the large cafe of the Hotel Moscow in civilian
+clothes. But one day a policeman at the harbour happened to observe him
+talking for a long time to a fisherman; he wondered what the two might
+have in common. When the fisherman was interrogated he refused at first
+to give any information, but he finally divulged that he had agreed, for
+1500 francs, to take the General down the Danube either to Bulgaria or
+Roumania. That evening at nine o'clock the General appeared, with his
+son and a servant; he was captured,[54] and among his documents were
+some which proved, it was alleged, that he was in communication with
+d'Annunzio.
+
+
+TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST
+
+Month follows month. The reading public and some of the statesmen of the
+world begin to recognize that, whatever may be the case on other
+portions of the new map, there is nothing unreal or impossible or
+artificial about Yugoslavia. This State is the result of a national
+movement, having its origins within and not without the peoples whose
+destiny it affects. The various Yugoslavs, after being kept apart for
+all these centuries, have now--roughly speaking--come to that stage
+which the Germans reached in 1866. They cannot rest until they reach
+the unity which came to the Germans after 1870. And here also, it seems,
+the unity will not be gained without the sacrifice of thousands of young
+men. "Go, my son," said Oxenstiern the Swedish Chancellor, "and observe
+by what imbeciles the world is governed." It is pitiable that the
+leaders of the nations, in declining month after month to give to
+Yugoslavia an equitable frontier, should apparently have been more
+impressed by the arguments of Mrs. Lucy Re-Bartlett[55] than by those of
+an anonymous philosopher in the _Edinburgh Review_.[56] "Nationality?"
+says the lady, speaking of the country people of Dalmatia, "nationality?
+These people of the country districts--the great mass of the
+population--are far too primitive to have any sense of nationality as
+yet, but if some day they call themselves Italian...." That is what she
+says of a people which through centuries of persecution and neglect have
+preserved their language, their traditions, their hopes; a people which,
+more than forty years ago, won their great victory against the Habsburg
+regime of Italian and Italianist officials, so that with one exception
+every mayor in Dalmatia and all the Imperial deputies and hundreds of
+societies of all kinds, such as 375 rural savings-banks, were
+exclusively Yugoslav. Out of nearly 150,000 votes at the last general
+election, which was held in 1911 on the basis of universal suffrage, the
+Yugoslav candidates received about 145,000 against 5000 to 6000 for the
+Italians. It is indisputable that the Dalmatian peasants are backward in
+many things, but one is really sorry for the person who declares in
+print that they possess no sense of nationality. Let her visit any house
+of theirs on Christmas Eve and watch them celebrate the "badnjak"; let
+her listen any evening to their songs. Let her think whether there is no
+sense of nationality among the priests, who almost to a man are the sons
+of Yugoslav peasants. And let her recollect that these are the days when
+the other Yugoslavs are at last uniting in their own free State. She has
+the hardihood to tell us of the poor Dalmatians who were being bribed
+with waterworks and bridges and gratuitous doctoring. I daresay that the
+little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering round the
+kindly Italian officer were glad enough to eat his chocolates,[57] but I
+think that we others should pay more attention to those secret
+societies, the _[vc]etasis_ (which is Slav for komitadjis), who have
+sworn to liberate all Istria from the Italians. We may also consider the
+proposals made by the Southern Slavs whom Signor Salvemini, the
+distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pisa, called "extreme
+Nationalists" (see his letter of September 11, 1916, to the editor of
+_La Serbie_, which was being published in Switzerland). Well, it appears
+that the "extreme Southern Slav Nationalists," as the utmost of their
+aspirations, claim the Southern Slav section of the province of Gorica
+with the town Triest and the whole of Istria, that is to say, a
+territory which, with a population the majority of whom are Slav,
+contains also 284,325 Italians, whereas the smallest programme ever
+proposed by moderate Italians, including Professor Salvemini, covets
+some 364,000 Southern Slavs. Thus the extreme Southern Slav elements, in
+their widest demands, are more moderate than the moderate Italians in
+their most limited programme. "Without distinction of tribe or creed,"
+says that Edinburgh reviewer, "all the Yugoslavs are waiting for their
+1870. This will fix and perpetuate their unity.... The preparation is
+going forward silently--almost sullenly--and without demur or
+qualification the Yugoslavs are accepting the Serb military chiefs'
+guidance and domination." He was much impressed by the silence and
+controlled power of the Serbian General Staff. There was in Europe a
+general war-weariness; but not in Yugoslavia. There was a hush in this
+part of Europe, broken only by the shrill screams of Italian
+propagandists and outbursts of suppressed passion on the other side.
+
+
+THE BELATED TREATY OF RAPALLO
+
+And the Rapallo Treaty of November 1920, when at last the statesmen of
+Italy and Yugoslavia came to terms regarding all their frontiers! This
+Treaty was received with much applause by the great majority of the
+French and British Press; in this country of compromise it was pointed
+out by many that as each party knew that the other had abated something
+of his desires the Treaty would probably remain in operation for a long
+time to come. And column after column of smug comment was written in
+various newspapers by the "Diplomatic Correspondent," whose knowledge of
+diplomacy may have been greater than his acquaintance with the Adriatic,
+since they followed one another, like a procession of sheep, in copying
+the mistake in a telegram which spoke of Eritto, the curious suburb of
+Zadar, instead of Borgo Erizzo. They noted that each side had yielded
+something, though it was true that the Yugoslavs had been the more
+generous in surrendering half a million of their compatriots, whereas
+the Italians had given up Dalmatia, to which they never had any
+right.[58] "The claim for Dalmatia was entirely unjustified," said
+Signor Colajanni in the Italian Chamber on November 23--yet it was not
+our business to weigh the profit and loss to the two interested parties.
+After all, it was they who had between themselves made this Agreement,
+and one might argue that it surely would be an impertinence if anybody
+else was more royalist than the king. These commentators held that it
+was inexpedient for anyone to ask why the Yugoslavs should now have
+accepted conditions that were, on the whole, considerably worse than
+those which President Wilson, with the approval of Great Britain and
+France, had laid down as a minimum, if they were to realize their
+national unity. And, of course, these writers deprecated any reference
+to the pressure which France and Great Britain brought to bear upon the
+Yugoslavs when the negotiations at Rapallo were in danger of falling
+through. If we take two Scottish newspapers, the _Scotsman_[59] was
+typical of this very bland attitude; it congratulated everyone on the
+harmonious close to a long, intricate and frequently dangerous
+controversy. The _Glasgow Herald_,[60] on the other hand, was one of the
+few newspapers which took a more than superficial view. "Monstrous," it
+said, "as such intervention seems, no student of the Adriatic White
+Paper--as lamentable a collection of documents as British diplomacy has
+to show--can deny its possibility, nay its probability. It is precisely
+the same game as was nearly successful in January 1920 and again in
+April 1920, but both times was frustrated by Wilson. We are entitled to
+ask, for the honour of our nation, if it has been played again; indeed
+if the whole mask of direct negotiation--a British suggestion--was not
+devised at San Remo with the express purpose of making the game succeed.
+If it be so--and if it is not so it is imperative that we are given
+frankly the full story of British policy in the Adriatic, for instance
+the dispatches so carefully omitted from the White Paper--then our
+forebodings for the future are more than justified.... It is
+emphatically a bad settlement."
+
+"We shall not establish friendly and normal relations with our neighbour
+Italy unless we reduce all causes of friction to a minimum," said M.
+Vesni['c], the Yugoslav Prime Minister, who during his long tenure of
+the Paris Legation was an active member of the Academie des Inscriptions
+et Belles-Lettres and other learned societies; he excelled in getting at
+the root of the worst difficulties in international law, and he was
+particularly admired for his ability to combine legal and historic
+knowledge. Because he studied history minutely--with a special fondness
+for Gambetta who, racially an Italian, had something of the generous and
+sacred fervour that distinguished the leaders of the Risorgimento--M.
+Vesni['c] could not bring himself to hate Italy, despite all that
+d'Annunzio and other Imperialists had made his countrymen suffer.
+"Neither the Government nor the elected representatives of the Serbs,
+Croats and Slovenes," said he courageously in his first speech as Prime
+Minister, "ought to look upon Italy as an enemy country. We have to
+settle important and difficult questions with Italy.... We must reduce
+all causes of friction to a minimum."
+
+The Treaty of Rapallo gives Zadar to Italy, because in that little town
+there is an Italian majority; but central and eastern Istria, with their
+overwhelming Slav majority, are not given to the Yugoslavs--a fact which
+Professor Salvemini deplored in the Roman Chamber. By the Treaty of
+Rapallo Rieka is given independence,[61] but with Italy in possession of
+Istria and the isle of Cres, she can at any moment choke the
+unprotected port, having very much the same grip of that place as
+Holland has for so long had of Antwerp; and the sole concession on
+Italy's part seems to be that in the south she gives up the large Slav
+islands of Hvar, Kor[vc]ula and Vis, and only appropriates the small one
+of Lastovo.... "It has cost Italy a pang," says Mr. George Trevelyan,
+"to consent, after victory, to leave the devoted and enthusiastic
+Italians of the Dalmatian coast towns (other than Zara) in foreign
+territory." The truth is that henceforward Yugoslavia will contain some
+5000 Italians (many of whom are Italianized Slavs), as against not less
+than 600,000 Slavs in Italy. And while the former are but tiny groups in
+towns which even under Venetian rule were predominantly Slav and are
+surrounded on all sides by purely Slav populations, the latter live for
+the most part in compact masses and include roughly one-third of the
+whole Slovene race, whose national sense is not only very acute, but who
+are also much less illiterate than their Italian neighbours. One cannot
+be astonished if the Slovenes think of this more than of Giotto,
+Leonardo, Galileo and Dante. But one may be a little surprised that
+such a man as Mr. Edmund Gardner should allow his reverence for the
+imperishable glories of Italy to becloud his view of the modern world.
+It is certainly a fact that the Slovenes are to-day less illiterate than
+the Italians, but because Dr. Seton-Watson alludes to this, Mr. Gardner
+(in the _Manchester Guardian_, of February 13, 1921) deplores the
+"Balkanic mentality that seems to afflict some Englishmen when dealing
+with these problems."
+
+
+ITS PROBABLE FRUITS
+
+Now it is obvious that the Treaty of Rapallo has placed between the
+Yugoslavs and the Italians all too many causes of friction. Zadar, like
+other such enclaves, will be dear to the heart of the smuggler. She
+cannot live without her Yugoslav hinterland--five miles away in
+Yugoslavia are the waterworks, and if these were not included, by a
+special arrangement, in her dominion, she would have no other liquid but
+her maraschino. She cannot die without her Yugoslav hinterland--but so
+that her inhabitants need not be carried out into a foreign land, the
+cemetery has also, by stretching a point, been included in the city
+boundaries. It remains to be seen how Zadar and the hinterland will
+serve two masters. We have alluded to the questionable arrangements at
+Rieka, in which town there had for those years been such an orgy of
+limelight and recrimination that even the most statesmanlike solution
+must have left a good deal of potential friction. In Istria the dangers
+of an outbreak are evident. Italy has now become the absolute mistress
+of the Adriatic and has gained a strategical frontier which could hardly
+be improved upon, while Yugoslavia has been placed in an economic
+position of much difficulty. Sooner or later, if matters are left _in
+situ_, trouble will arise. Perhaps an economic treaty between Italy and
+Yugoslavia, as favourable as possible to the weaker State, would
+introduce some sort of stability; but no good cause would be served by
+crying "Peace" where there is no peace, and while Yugoslavia has a
+grievance there will be trouble in the Balkans.
+
+The most serious phase of the Adriatic crisis is now ushered in, for a
+new Alsace has been created; and those who point this out cannot be
+charged with an excessive leaning towards the Yugoslavs. It also seems
+to me that one can scarcely say they are alarmists. If Yugoslavia, in
+defiance of that most immoral pressure, had declared for war, Vesni['c]
+at the general election would have swept the country with the cry of
+"War for Istria!" To his eternal honour he chose the harder path of
+loyalty to the new ideas which Serbian blood has shed so freely to make
+victorious. A momentary victory has now been gained by the Italians, but
+not one that makes for peace. It poisons by annexations fundamentally
+unjustifiable, however consecrated by treaty, the whole source of
+tranquillity in the Near East. "Paciencia!" [Have patience] you say, in
+refusing to give alms to a Portuguese beggar, and he follows your
+advice. But when the Yugoslavs ask for a revision of the Treaty--if the
+Italians do not wisely offer it themselves--it would be rash if in
+attempting to foretell the future we should base ourselves upon the
+premise that their patience will be everlasting. A new Alsace has been
+created, an Alsace to which, in the opinion of competent observers, all
+the Yugoslavs will turn until the day comes when it is honourable to set
+the standards forth on a campaign of liberation.
+
+
+NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT
+
+When the Yugoslavs were at last in a position, late in 1920, to hold the
+elections for the Constituent Assembly the Radicals and the Democrats
+were the most successful, but even if they made a Coalition they would
+still have no majority. [Now and then the Democrats asserted themselves
+against the Radicals, but when the Opposition thought they could
+perceive a rift the Democratic Press would write that the two parties
+were most intimately joined to one another, and especially the
+Democrats.] The small parties were very numerous, the smallest being
+that of M. Ribarac, the old Liberal leader, who found himself in the
+Skup[vs]tina with nobody to lead; the clericals of Slovenia came to
+grief, a fact which appeared to give general satisfaction, and a similar
+mishap befell the decentralizing parties of Croatia. On the other hand
+the Croat Peasants' party, whose decentralization ideas were more
+extreme, had a very considerable success, and the Communist party, whose
+fall we have already described, had come to the Skup[vs]tina with some
+fifty members.
+
+
+(_a_) MARKOVI['C] THE COMMUNIST
+
+The temporary triumph of the Communists was admittedly due to the
+exceptional position in which the country found itself. They had in Sima
+Markovi['c] an enthusiastic leader who has abandoned the teaching of
+mathematics in order to expound the gospel of Moscow, and in the
+Skup[vs]tina the shrill, voice of this kindly, bald-headed little man
+had to be raised to its uttermost capacity, for most of his
+fellow-members were unwilling to be taught. It so happens that he is
+Pa[vs]i['c]'s godson, and on one occasion when the little Communist was
+talking with great vehemence the old gentleman, who was turning over the
+pages of some document, was heard by an appreciative House to murmur:
+"Oh, be still, my child, be still!" But the most unfortunate episode in
+Markovi['c]'s oratory was when he expressed the hope that Communism
+would rage through the country like an epidemic, forgetting for the
+moment that those municipalities which had gone over to Communism had
+won general praise for their improvements in the sanitary sphere.
+Largely on account of this infelicitous simile he was replaced in the
+leadership by another, a less vigorous and less entertaining person. And
+this party stood in particular need of attractive champions.
+
+The Croat Peasants' party, or the Radi['c] party, as it came to be
+called, gave to its beloved chief more than half the seats in Croatia,
+forty-nine out of ninety-three; and the whole party refused to go to
+Belgrade.
+
+"Would it not have been better," I asked him, "if you had gone? The
+Constitution will be settled without you."
+
+
+(_b_) RADI['C], THE MUCH-DISCUSSED
+
+"We had various reasons," said he, "for not going. One of them was that
+the Assembly which laid down the Constitution was not sovereign. For
+example, it was not permitted to discuss whether Yugoslavia should be a
+monarchy or a republic. I admit that three-quarters of the members would
+very likely have voted for a monarchy, and in that case we should have
+accepted the situation very much as do the royalist deputies in the
+French Parliament."
+
+"What are your own views on this subject?"
+
+"Well," said he, "for this period of transition I believe--mark you,
+this only applies to myself--that a monarchy is not merely acceptable
+but preferable. On the other hand the Croat peasant was so badly treated
+by the Habsburgs that he will now hear of nothing but a republic."
+
+I ventured to say that this sudden conversion to republican ideas in one
+who for centuries had lived in a monarchy was peculiar, and Radi['c]
+acknowledged that when the first republican cries were raised at a
+meeting of the Peasants' party on July 25, 1918 they came to him as a
+revelation, one which he accepted.
+
+"You don't accept everything that your peasants shout for?"
+
+"I do not," said he. "There was a gentleman who asked them at a meeting
+whether they would kill him if he, elected as their representative, were
+to go to Belgrade. They shouted back that they would do so. And when the
+prospective candidate came to tell me this story, thinking that I would
+be delighted, I told him that a ship's captain cannot have his hands
+bound before undertaking a voyage and he must therefore withdraw his
+candidature.... When the time comes we will go to Belgrade."
+
+"And those who say that you are longing for the return of the
+Habsburgs?"
+
+He gripped my arm. "They are fools," said he. "We are looking forward as
+eagerly as the great Bishop Strossmayer to the union of the Southern
+Slavs. According to the spirit of his time he began at the top, with
+academies, picture galleries and so forth. We prefer to begin with
+elementary schools." And bubbling with enthusiasm he told me of the
+efforts his party was making. It was plain to see that what lies nearest
+to his heart is to improve their social and economic status. And those
+observers are probably in the right, who believe that he merely uses
+this republican cry as a weapon which he will conveniently drop when it
+has served its purpose.
+
+"If only Yugoslavia had a great statesman," said I, "who would weld the
+new State together, so that the Croats remain with the Serbs not alone
+for the reasons that they are both Southern Slavs and that they are
+surrounded by not over-friendly neighbours. The great statesman--perhaps
+it will be Pa[vs]i['c]--will make you all happy to come together."
+
+"From the bottom of my heart I hope he will succeed," said Radi['c],
+"and he will be remembered as our second and more fortunate
+Strossmayer."
+
+We generally imagine that the statesmen of South-Eastern Europe are a
+collection of rather swarthy, frock-coated personages who, when not
+engaged in decrying each other, are very busily occupied in feathering
+their own nests. If any one of them, at the outset of his career, had a
+sense of humour we suppose that in this heated atmosphere it must have
+long ago evaporated. But strangely enough, the two most prominent
+politicians in Yugoslavia, the venerable Pa[vs]i['c], the Prime Minister
+of this new State of Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, even as he used for
+years to be the autocrat of Serbia, and his opponent Stephen Radi['c]
+are, both of them, by the grace of God, of a humorous disposition.
+Outwardly, there is not much resemblance between them: Pa[vs]i['c], the
+picture of a benevolent patriarch, letting fall in his deep voice a few
+casual words which bring down his critics' case, hopelessly down like a
+wounded aeroplane, and Radi['c] the fervid little orator, the learned
+man, whose life has been devoted to the Croat peasants and who is said
+to find it difficult to make a speech that is under eight hours in
+length. Last year when the vigorous Pribi[vc]evi['c], then Minister of
+the Interior, who is determined to compel the Serbs and the Croats
+straightway to live in the closest companionship, whereas Radi['c],
+supported by most of the Croat _intelligentsia_, argues that in view of
+their very different culture, the Serbs having enjoyed a Byzantine and
+the Croats an Austrian education, it would be advisable for these two
+branches of the South Slav nation to come gradually and not violently
+together,--last year when Radi['c] was lying in prison on account of his
+subversive ideas Pribi[vc]evi['c] sent a message to say that he was
+prepared to adopt half his programme. And Radi['c] sent back word
+regretting that the Minister could not adopt the whole of it and thus
+obtain for himself the Peasants' party. It is wrong to assert that this
+party is unpatriotic; the enemies of Yugoslavia, who welcome in Radi['c]
+a disruptive element, are totally in error. Years ago he was working for
+the eventual union of Serbs and Croats--the Austrians imprisoned him
+because in 1903 he went to Belgrade at the accession of King Peter and
+made an admirable speech to this effect--and his present attitude is due
+to the impatient manner in which Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c] and his friends
+are endeavouring to bring the union about. His peasants are a
+conservative people; they cannot instantly dispel the anti-Serb ideas
+which the Austrians for ever inculcated, nor the negative anti-Serb
+frame of mind which they learned from their own _intelligentsia_. It
+will take a little time before the Catholic peasant realizes that the
+Orthodox Serb is his brother and that now his military service will not
+be in an alien army, but in his own. "Let us go slowly," says Radi['c],
+"with our peasants"; and he knows them very well.... One is told that he
+changes his opinions from hour to hour; he is certainly very impetuous,
+very much under the influence of his emotions; but in one thing he has
+never varied--he has always struggled for the Croat peasant, and he has
+been rewarded by the unbounded devotion of that faithful, rather
+incoherent, creature.
+
+Now the Serbs are a democratic people; they are by their nature in
+opposition to any force, civil or military, which might attempt to make
+the monarchy more absolute. The wisest Serbs do not forget that in the
+peasant lies their principal wealth, and although as yet the Serbian
+Peasants' party does not hold many constituencies in the old kingdom,
+nevertheless it appears to have a brighter prospect than any other
+Serbian party, for in that country the revolt against the
+lawyer-politician is likely to be more efficacious than in France or
+England. One may look forward to an understanding between Radi['c] and
+this Serbian party, which is only two or three years old, although its
+founder, the excellent Avramovi['c]--an elderly gentleman who sits
+behind vast barricades of books in various languages--has devoted
+himself for many years to agrarian co-operative societies, of which in
+Serbia there are more than 1500.
+
+The most uncertain factors seem to be the moderating hold of Radi['c]
+over his peasants and over himself. No one doubts but that he has the
+interests of the peasant very much at heart, and if he succeeds in
+improving the peasant's lot then that grateful giant will presumably not
+sink again into the sleep which he enjoyed when he was under the
+Habsburgs. The circulation of Radi['c]'s weekly paper _Dom_[62] ("The
+Home") has risen from 2000 before the elections and 9000 during the
+elections to 30,000. One enterprising vendor, a Serb from the Banat,
+takes 500 copies a week and tramps over the countryside, disposing of
+his wares either for cash or for eggs, the latter of which he sells at
+the end of the week to a Zagreb hotel. The peasant is making great
+efforts to raise himself--a case has recently been brought to light of a
+farmer in Zagorija who, as a hobby, has taught more than 700 persons to
+read and write. The peasant perceives that he has been assisted far less
+by the Catholic Church than by the work of Radi['c]. It is not unfair to
+say that the Church desired, above all things, to keep the peasant
+under her control. If a parish priest was disliked by his flock, so a
+prominent Croatian priest tells me, that was all the more reason why the
+Bishop refused to remove him. And the clergy, except for an enlightened
+minority, have been very much opposed to Radi['c]'s policy of
+democratizing the Church.... In return for his unceasing labours he has
+now secured the peasant's love and confidence. He will retain them if he
+satisfies his client, and it seems to be within his power--gaining for
+him a better position and dissuading him from fantastic demands. He can
+be of immense assistance in the task of building up the State. But will
+the brilliant flame within him burn with steadiness? Has he got
+sufficient strength of will? With all his qualities of heart and brain
+he has not managed to discard his zig-zag impetuosity. The peasants, who
+recognize his talents, ask him to captain the ship; but he runs down too
+often into his cabin and leaves the unskilled sailors on the bridge.
+Down in the cabin he is feverishly and with great skill writing a
+contradiction of a pronouncement he made yesterday.
+
+Those who are openly sailing in Radi['c]'s boat are for the most part
+the hard-headed peasants. Yet a number of the _intelligentsia_ are
+coming on board--some of them, no doubt, with a view to their own
+advancement, but others on account of their convictions. And a still
+greater number of the Croat _intelligentsia_ look on him with
+sympathy--municipal officials, barristers, doctors, merchants,
+schoolmasters and military officers. It is most foolish to pretend that
+all these people are thinking regretfully of the old Habsburg days--they
+are, in the vast majority, sincere and loyal Yugoslavs who have certain
+grievances. They do not believe that Croatia has fared very well since
+the institution of the new State and it would seem wise to give them as
+much autonomy as is consonant with the interests of the whole country,
+for then they will only have themselves to blame if there is no
+improvement. Maybe they are unduly sensitive, but they were for many
+years in political warfare with the Magyars and this should be taken
+into consideration. Even if all the grievances are based on
+misconceptions, on the difficulties of the moment, on the circumstances
+of the fading past--the new generation of Croats, say their teachers,
+are growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs--yet an effort should be made
+to sweep them away.
+
+When Belgrade makes a statesmanlike gesture then Radi['c] will probably
+be able to persuade the peasants to abandon their republican
+slogan--both they and the _intelligentsia_ will abandon their reserved
+attitude towards the Government which they were far from entertaining
+when the State was first established. It seems as if the role of
+conciliator may well be filled by that wise old man, Nicholas
+Pa[vs]i['c], who is now no longer a mere Balkan Premier. When he was
+that he very properly used Balkan methods, despite the stern remarks of
+a few Western critics.
+
+
+THE SERBS AND THE CROATS
+
+We have alluded to the relations between Serbs and Croats. This is a
+subject of such importance that it will be well to consider it more
+fully. When Yugoslavia sprang into existence at the end of the War--70
+per cent. of this State having previously been under the rule of the
+House of Habsburg--it was met in various quarters with a grudging
+welcome. Soon, we were told, it would dissolve again, and every symptom
+of internal discontent was treated as a proof of this. On the other hand
+there were those who told us that the Southern Slavs, having come
+together after all these hundreds of years, were tightly clasped in each
+others' arms and that all reports to the contrary came from very
+interested parties.
+
+Little was said of the Slovenes; their language, as we have mentioned,
+is not the same as that spoken by Serbs and Croats, and--what is of
+still greater importance--they have Slovenia to themselves. If Croatia
+were equally immune from Serbs, then by this time the Southern Slavs
+would be a more united nation. Those people were wrong who fancied that
+the presence of the Serbs in Croatia--they form between one-fourth and
+one-third of the population--would be of service in welding together the
+new State. They forgot that for many years the Austro-Hungarian
+Government had in Croatia played off the Roman Catholic Croats against
+the Orthodox Serbs. The two Slav brothers were incited to mutual hatred,
+and though such a propaganda would naturally have more effect among the
+uneducated classes, yet all too often the _intelligentsia_ responded to
+these machinations. More favour, of course, was shown to the Croats,
+whose obedience could largely be secured by means of the Church, whereas
+no similar pressure could be brought to bear upon the Orthodox Serbs.
+Even if the Government approached the Orthodox clergy, these latter had
+only a very moderate control over their flock. A Serb is always ready to
+subscribe towards the erection of a new church, which he regards as most
+other nations regard their flag; but when it is built he rarely enters
+it. This being so, the Austro-Hungarian Government tyrannized over the
+Serbs in Croatia by measures taken against their schools, the Cyrillic
+alphabet and so forth. It was natural that the suffering Serbs were apt
+to compare these restrictions with those that were imposed upon the
+Croats. However, among the _intelligentsia_ an effort--a fairly
+successful effort--was made to nullify this dividing policy; the
+Serbo-Croat Coalition was formed, one of the protagonists being Svetozar
+Pribi[vc]evi['c], that very energetic Serb of Croatia, and in 1906 this
+party obtained no less than sixty-eight seats, while the power of the
+older Croat parties was correspondingly diminished and Radi['c] had his
+very small following in the Zagreb Lantag. [Those who represented
+Croatia in the central Parliament at Buda-Pest were chosen by the Ban,
+Khuen-Hedervary. Those forty members had practically no acquaintance
+with the Magyar language, so that some of them drew their 8000 annual
+crowns and only went to Pest if an important division was expected,
+others who spent more time in the capital wasted their lives amid
+surroundings just as riotous as and more expensive than the Parliament,
+while only those did useful work who managed to confer, behind the
+scenes, with the authorities. To some extent this was done by
+Pribi[vc]evi['c] and to a greater extent by another Serb, Dr. Du[vs]an
+Popovi['c], who surpassed him in capacity and geniality. It was he, by
+the way, who demonstrated in the Buda-Pest Parliament that if the
+average Croat deputy was ignorant of the Magyar language, there was a
+greater ignorance of Serbo-Croatian on the part of the Magyars. One day
+when he had started on a speech in his native tongue he was howled down
+after he had explained that he was talking Serbian. He promised to
+continue in Croatian, and did so without being interrupted.]
+
+At Zagreb the fusion of the Croat and Serb _intelligentsia_ was still
+very incomplete at the outbreak of the War--the Croat Star[vc]evist
+party and others going their own way. During the War the
+Austro-Hungarian Government ruled by means of the Coalition party; but
+the latter had no choice, and throughout Croatia they were never charged
+with infidelity to the Slav cause. They did whatever their delicate
+situation permitted; and in October 1918, when the Slavs of Croatia and
+Slovenia threw off the yoke of centuries and joined with the Serbs of
+Serbia and Montenegro, one hoped that the simultaneous arrival in
+Belgrade of the Coalition and the Star[vc]evist leaders heralded in
+Croatia a cessation of the ancient hostility. Pribi[vc]evi['c] became
+Minister of the Interior in the new State, and very soon it was obvious
+that he meant to govern in a centralizing fashion, despite his earlier
+assurance that no such steps would be taken without the sanction of the
+Constituent Assembly. No doubt his motives were unimpeachable; he feared
+lest the negative, anti-Serb mentality, which for so long had flourished
+among the Croats, would not, except by drastic methods, be removed. He
+was met with opposition. Now you see, he cried, there are still in
+Croatia a number of disloyal Slavs, great landowners, Catholic clergy
+and others whom the Habsburgs used to favour. And he continued, with
+hundreds of edicts, to try to weld the State together. Consumed with
+patriotism, his great black eyes on flame amid the pallor of his
+face--his luminous and martyred face, to use the expression of his
+friends--he never for a moment relaxed his efforts; if those who opposed
+him were numerous it was all the more reason why he must be resolute.
+The role fitted him very well, for he is the dourest politician in
+Yugoslavia--a perfectly honest, upright, injudicious patriot. His
+Democratic party had now taken the place of the Serbo-Croat Coalition
+and it saw the other parties in Croatia gradually drifting back again
+from it or rather from the dominating man; if his place had been
+occupied by his afore-mentioned colleague, the burly and beloved
+Du[vs]an Popovi['c], there would have been in Zagreb a very much suaver
+atmosphere. But unfortunately Popovi['c] is a wealthy man, a highly
+successful lawyer who cares little for the tumult of politics.... It was
+a thorny problem, whether the State should be constituted on a federal
+or a centralized basis.[63] The federation of the United States depends
+on the centralization of political parties, whereas in Yugoslavia the
+parties have only just begun to combine. Feudalism in the German Empire
+rested on the predominance of Prussia, a position which the Serbs are,
+under present conditions, loth to occupy in Yugoslavia. In Germany,
+moreover, many of the States used to be independent, while in Yugoslavia
+this was only the case with Serbia and Montenegro. Centralism would tend
+to obliterate the tribal divisions, but on the other hand it brings in
+its train bureaucracy, which is slow, cumbrous and often corrupt; it
+demands unusually good central institutions and first-rate
+communications, neither of which are as yet in a satisfactory state. The
+constitution has arrived at a compromise between the federal and the
+centralized systems. A writer in the _Contemporary Review_ (November
+1921) said that the division of the whole of Yugoslavia into some
+twenty administrative areas [he should have said thirty-three] to
+replace the racial areas, was a very drastic proposal to put forward;
+and he added that when the historic provincial divisions of France were
+broken up into departments, the nation had been prepared by nearly 200
+years of centralization under the monarchy. It is a flaw in his argument
+to say that the previously existing areas were racial, whereas
+populations of identical race were divided from one another by the
+course of events. And in the proposed obliteration of these
+divisions--to be effected in a less arbitrary fashion than in France,
+where no account was taken of the former provinces--it can scarcely be
+maintained that, of itself, this part of the centralizing programme in
+Yugoslavia is so very drastic.
+
+Whatever one may think about the Balkan peoples it is a fact that the
+essential Serb, the Serb from [vS]umadia, is a pacific person, rather
+lazy perhaps, but certainly more devoted to dancing than to battle. And
+some of the wiser Serbs were dubious in 1919 and 1920 as to whether the
+most sagacious methods were being employed in Croatia. Radi['c] was in
+prison, but they were told that this impetuous demagogue was insisting
+on a republic, and the Croat _intelligentsia_ were far from happy. It is
+true that in the elections of November 1920 the National party, as the
+Star[vc]evists now called themselves, had no great success; but the
+Radi['c] party had more than half the seats. Surely this had not been
+brought about merely by the chief's imprisonment? There seemed to be in
+that province some wider, some growing dissatisfaction. And in the
+spring of 1921 most of the Catholic Croats, those within and those
+without the Radi['c] party, were nourishing a score of grievances. No
+doubt a large proportion of these were unavoidable (in view of the state
+of Central Europe) or were rather trivial (the mayor of an important
+town told me that he, who was under the Minister of the Interior, had
+received an order from the Belgrade Minister of War, with respect to the
+detention of deserters--conditions, said he, were not so primitive in
+the Austro-Hungarian monarchy) and sometimes the grievances were against
+the Habsburgs (for not having made them more fit to assume these new
+responsibilities), and sometimes they were against the Serbs for being
+less civilized--though they might be more moral--than themselves, and
+sometimes the grievances were personal: now and then after the Austrian
+collapse a Serbian officer or his men, uncertain of the feelings of the
+population, had acted with unwise, or rather with inexpedient,
+vigour--instead of shooting those who in the general anarchy were laying
+waste and plundering, they merely flogged them, and this was for a long
+time remembered against them, although the Croat _intelligentsia_ who
+had taken service in the police flogged in a far more wholesale fashion.
+But down at the bottom of all the grievances there is the fundamental
+fact that the Southern Slavs yearn to be comrades, to shake off the
+differences which in the course of ages have grown up between them.
+These fraternal sentiments may be crudely expressed--it has happened
+that a Slav from Bosnia (whose ancestors adopted Islam some centuries
+ago) finds himself in a Serbian village. He strikes up acquaintance with
+some native. "What is your name?" asks the latter. "Muhammed." The Serb
+has never heard of such a name; he is puzzled. "Well, never mind," says
+he, and takes his new friend back to dinner. They sit down to the
+sucking pig. Muhammed refuses to partake of it, and informs the Serb
+that Allah would be angry. "Don't be afraid," says the Serb; "I'll tell
+him that it's my fault," and after a time he overcomes the Bosniak's
+scruples.... In more cultured circles the wonderful union of the
+Southern Slavs is manifested after a different fashion, and those
+neighbours who imagine that the afore-mentioned grievances are going to
+dissolve the new State will one day see how much they are mistaken. The
+Southern Slavs intend to quarrel with each other, to quarrel like
+brothers.
+
+
+THE SAD CASE OF PRIBI[vC]EVI['C]
+
+As between the Catholic and the Orthodox in Croatia the sole uncertainty
+is whether this fusion will shortly take place or after an interval. It
+is agreed by the most malcontent schoolmasters that their pupils are
+growing up to be excellent Yugoslavs who will have no more fear of what
+they call "Serb hegemony" than have the Scots of that of England. As for
+the present generation of Croats and Serbs, if they were Occidentals
+they would be old enough to laugh at each others' peculiarities and each
+others' statesmen. But South-Eastern Europe is still under the morning
+clouds, and they are inclined to take seriously what we in the West make
+fun of. However, there is one man whose presence in the Cabinet the
+Croats cannot be expected to regard with good-humour or with
+nonchalance. The reconciliation of Croatia will be much more easily
+effected if Mr. Pribi[vc]evi['c] resigns. His merits as a demagogue and
+political writer are undeniable. He would make an excellent Whip. But he
+prefers to be a Minister, and most unfortunately he is not a statesman.
+A zealous patriot, he is as yet unable to conceive that the business of
+the State could be more successfully managed without him. The sweets of
+office appear, if anything, to have made him more bitter; and even among
+the Serbs of the old kingdom his withdrawal is considered advisable. A
+friend of his has told me that in the middle of a laughing conversation
+he threw out a hint of this, and like a cloud blown suddenly across a
+summer sky, Pribi[vc]evi['c]'s face grew black. Unhappily he is not even
+Fortinbras and yet imagines he is Hamlet. A good many people in
+Yugoslavia call him _un homme fatal_, most of the others _l'homme
+fatal_. It is said that in the Democratic party he is actively supported
+by not more than ten deputies, but that the others, to preserve the
+party, take no steps. He himself, however, would probably have not the
+least hesitation in choosing another party, if he could otherwise not
+stay in the Cabinet; for his permanence in office is the one idea that
+crushes every other from his mind. If he cannot be Minister of the
+Interior--a post from which he has been more than once, and happily for
+Yugoslavia, ejected--then he insists on being Minister of Education.
+What are his qualifications? Years ago he gave instruction at a school
+for elementary teachers, and so faint a conception has he of the
+educational needs of his country that one day when a Professor of
+Belgrade University asked him if no steps could be taken to diminish the
+prohibitive cost of books, especially foreign books, the Minister
+simply stared at him as if he had been talking Chinese. And yet in a
+recent book of national verses, published by his brother Adam, we are
+told that:
+
+    "At the table also sat the sage Pribi[vc]evi['c],
+    Who can converse with Emperors...."
+
+There are some who, curiously, have compared Radi['c]'s party with the
+Sinn Feiners; Radi['c] may have announced that he would approach the
+Serbs as the representative of an independent country, but he never
+proposed, even when his views were most extreme, to realize them with
+physical force. At a great open-air meeting of his adherents the
+speeches were so mild that only twice did the Chief of Police, who was
+next to me, raise a warning finger, and on each occasion to keep the
+orator from very innocent digressions. Nevertheless, there is no
+concealing the fact that even in these unsatisfactory times--"It seems
+to me," said a philosophic peasant recently at Valjevo, in the heart of
+Serbia, "it seems to me that if we had a plebiscite then Valjevo might
+not wish to remain with Serbia!"--even in a world that is so awry the
+Croats are more reserved towards the union than is good for the State.
+Perhaps they would cherish fewer grievances if they had gained their
+freedom with greater difficulty; and surely they need have no more
+uneasiness than have the Scots that their name and nationality will be
+swamped, for what the Magyars were unable to do, that the Serbs do not
+wish to do. There are among the Serbs a few extremists, such as a
+pernicious editor or two, but their anti-Croat tirades find extremely
+little favour anywhere. Last autumn when the Prince-Regent (now King
+Alexander) visited the Croat capital his reception was most
+enthusiastic. "Let us keep him here!" cried the people, "and let King
+Peter stay in Belgrade!" The Prince by his tact brought the Croat out of
+his tent; he must not be allowed to go back again--let the Southern
+Slavs observe what each of their provinces can bring towards the common
+good. The Croats acknowledge that the military system of Serbia is more
+endurable--only one son is taken out of each family--and that whereas in
+Slovenia a lawsuit can be settled in fourteen days it has been wont in
+Croatia to take as many years. Unfortunately human nature, in Serbia,
+Croatia and everywhere else, finds that the bad points of other people
+are more worthy of comment than the good. When two brothers have been
+brought up in very different circumstances there will be so many points
+on which they differ; and when a Serb taking part in a technical
+discussion of scientists wishes to say that he differs from the previous
+speaker he will commonly observe that that person has made a fool of
+himself. When an editor alludes to a political opponent he may call him
+an assassin and be much astonished if this is resented. "Je suis un
+ours," said a Serbian savant of European repute; occasionally he behaves
+like one and is rather proud of it. The Serbs of Croatia have been
+imitating, nay exaggerating, the emphatic manners of their countrymen in
+the old kingdom. And Pribi[vc]evi['c], as Minister of Education, has not
+attempted to give the Croats a tactful course in courage, patriotism and
+morality, where they have much to learn from the less civilized Serbs,
+but scowling at them he has made up his mind that, in and out of school,
+they must straightway be the closest of companions.
+
+However, the Serbs and Croats have a man whose counsel is more worthy of
+attention. Dr. Trumbi['c], formerly the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had
+been elected at the head of four different lists in his native Dalmatia
+but had entered the Constituent Assembly without giving his allegiance
+to any party. And in April 1921 he made a speech as memorable as it was
+long, for it occupied the whole of one sitting and was continued the
+next day. Careless of the applause and the antagonism which he excited,
+the serene orator pointed out that the conflict between Serbs and Croats
+was based on their different psychology. Croatia had had her independent
+life and must be considered as a factor in Yugoslavia; but having come
+in, like Montenegro, of her own accord, she had not wished to be a
+separate factor. Traditions should not be so lightly set aside; and
+while there was perhaps no people more homogeneous than the Yugoslavs it
+should be remembered that none was more ready to resist the application
+of force.
+
+
+LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS
+
+Except at Kola[vs]in, where a few friends of Nikita tried their brigand
+tactics, there was perfect calm in Montenegro during the elections. As
+elsewhere in Yugoslavia, there was a general amnesty and a prohibition,
+for the three preceding days, to sell wine or rakia. The ten elected
+candidates, all of them for the Yugoslav union and against Nikita, were
+equally divided between Radicals and Democrats on the one hand and
+Communists and Republicans on the other. The authorities took not the
+slightest step to favour any candidate; various prominent deputies, such
+as Dr. Yoyi['c], the Minister of Food Supply, were beaten. And in a
+letter to the Press we were told by Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that these
+elections were certainly both "farcical and fraudulent." He is
+contradicted by Mr. Roland Bryce, who, after his excellent work on the
+Allied Plebiscite Commission in Carinthia, was sent by the Foreign
+Office with Major L. E. Ottley to report on the Montenegrin elections.
+He says (in Command Paper I., 124) that "in actual practice the method
+of voting prescribed by the electoral law was found to ensure absolute
+secrecy (the system adopted being the only feasible one in a country
+where the proportion of illiterates is great), and the manner in which
+the ballot was supervised and carried out was unimpeachable and proof
+against the most exacting criticism." Mr. M'Neill is also contradicted
+by the Republican candidate, M. Gjonovi['c], who in a manifesto drawn up
+after the election declares that "none can say that the elections were
+not free, or that anyone who wished could not make up a list. At the
+elections only the lists and boxes of the Republicans, Democrats,
+Independents, Radicals and Communists were represented. All of these
+parties had in their programmes the motto 'The people and State union,'
+with, of course, different points of view and different opinions as to
+the organization of our national and State forces, except the
+Communists, who go further and desire the union of all peoples."
+
+
+WHICH ONE GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE
+
+It will thus be seen that the friends of Nikita were altogether wrong in
+suggesting that those who voted for the Republicans or Communists were
+opposed to the union with Serbia in Yugoslavia. Both Republicans and
+(paradoxical though it sounds) the Communists resented this insinuation
+very bitterly; and considering that the leaders of both parties are
+pronounced antagonists of the old regime, and were indeed severally
+condemned to death by Nikita, it would have been strange if they now
+supported him. Thus every single programme put forward by the different
+parties included, in some form or other, union with Serbia. The
+candidates themselves explicitly said so; but Mr. M'Neill knows better,
+and informs us how very hostile to the Serbs they really were. He is a
+wonderful man, Mr. M'Neill. Standing up in the House of Commons he
+directs his penetrating gaze upon the Black Mountain, and with such
+effect that he can see in the minds of Montenegrin politicians what they
+themselves had never dreamed of. Since we have such a man as Mr. M'Neill
+in the country, one would think that the Foreign Office might have saved
+itself the expense of sending out Mr. Bryce and Major Ottley.
+
+But since we have it, let us look at Mr. Bryce's very interesting and
+detailed report. After explaining that both Republicans and Communists
+were in favour of union with Serbia, he tells us how it happened that so
+many people voted for these two lists instead of for the orthodox
+Radical and Democratic parties. The Communists, according to Mr. Bryce,
+were benefited by a party organization, a vigorous canvass and a better
+discipline than that of any of their opponents. Their policy won the
+support of many ardent and very patriotic Nationalists, who voted in
+many cases for Communism on the ground that it was the Russian
+policy--out of gratitude for what the Tzars had done for Montenegro in
+the past! Major Temperley, assistant military attache, in another report
+(Command Paper I., 123) observes that some local discontent had arisen
+in Montenegro because the native does not understand, and has never
+experienced before, a really efficient system of government, and
+because the introduction of conscription was not well adapted to the
+national tradition of lawless and untrained vigour. Major Temperley
+testifies that the Republican party gained the suffrages of numerous
+returned emigrants who admired the state of things in America. He shares
+Mr. Bryce's opinion as to the insignificance of the pro-Nikita party.
+"Even making large allowances," says he, "there seemed to me to be no
+doubt that the pro-Nicholas party were the weakest in Montenegro."
+Certain of his devotees were simply brigands who, like the Neapolitan
+miscreants after 1860, sought to cast a glamour over their depredations
+by affecting to be in arms on behalf of their former King. This
+personage himself was so well aware of his unpopularity that he was
+prudent enough to tell his supporters to abstain from voting. Those who
+did abstain were altogether only 32.69 per cent. of the electors, though
+one would have been justified in expecting a much higher proportion,
+since the people have not yet fully grasped their rights and duties with
+respect to the franchise; the distances to the booths were often very
+great, and the peasants were often indifferent as to whether one
+candidate or another with a very similar programme should be elected.
+The tribal or family system is still so prevalent in the villages that
+one member of a family would be sent to express the considered views of
+his fellows. The effect of the elections being held on a Sunday was to
+increase rather than diminish the number of abstainers, for although
+Sunday is a public holiday the Christian Montenegrin is under no
+obligation to hear Mass and for that reason travel to the village. The
+churches are practically deserted, for he is accustomed on that day to
+remain at home; while the Moslem voters largely declined to vote because
+there were no Moslem candidates. That is why it would appear that those
+of the 32.69 per cent. who abstained because they were in favour of
+Nikita were extremely few. Their simple-mindedness has its limits, while
+that of good Mr. M'Neill believes that because France, Great Britain and
+America undertook to restore Montenegrin independence, they were still
+obliged to do so after they perceived at the conclusion of the War that
+an overwhelming majority of Montenegrins did not desire it. This
+majority dethroned its traitor-king; but Mr. M'Neill maintains that
+France and England have dethroned "a monarch who was a friend and an
+ally."[64] Because M. Poincare, in the days before the Montenegrins had
+rejected Nikita, addressed him as "Very Dear and Great Friend"--the
+ordinary form of words for a reigning monarch--Mr. M'Neill actually
+seems to think that France was for evermore compelled to clasp Nikita to
+her bosom. He clearly admires those who, since the end of the War, have
+risen in the cause of their old King; and I suppose that in consequence
+he disapproves of the Omladina, the voluntary association of men who
+banded themselves together to resist the terrorism of the pro-King
+komitadjis. If he had been in Montenegro during the years after the War
+he would possibly agree that komitadji is the proper name for the many
+lawless elements who have found the traditional fighting life more
+congenial than the thankless task of tilling their very barren land. The
+moral effect of opposing to these the Montenegrin Omladina instead of
+Serbian troops was to destroy all pretence of the movement being a
+national Montenegrin insurrection against the union, and the cessation
+of assistance from Italy resulted in the complete suppression of the
+movement. The few outlaws who still remain at large, said Mr. Bryce in
+December 1920, are in no sense political, but are merely bandits. And as
+the Omladina has now no _raison d'etre_ they have disbanded themselves.
+Much now depends on the Constitution. If it gives them equal rights--and
+naturally it will--with the other inhabitants of Yugoslavia the
+Montenegrins will be content.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In August 1921 the _Secolo_ of Milan sent a famous correspondent to
+Montenegro. He came to much the same conclusions as Messrs. Bryce and
+Temperley. Not a single political prisoner was to be found, and not one
+of the ex-soldiers who returned from Gaeta had been molested. The
+correspondent thought that the Serbs had been ill-advised at the
+beginning to employ forcible methods against the pro-Nikita partisans
+who were opposed to Yugoslavia; they should, said he, have let the pear
+ripen spontaneously and fall into their lap. But now their policy had
+become one of conciliation: during the last two and a half years
+Montenegro had received from Belgrade for public works, pensions and
+subsidies, 93 million dinars, and had paid in taxes only 5 millions.
+Secondary education had been increased, and 700 Montenegrin students (of
+whom 500 are allotted a monthly grant) frequent Yugoslav universities.
+The fertile lands of Yugoslavia were open to Montenegrin emigration. In
+fact an isolated, independent Montenegro was no longer needed. With the
+disappearance of the Turk from all Serbian territory in 1913 a return to
+the union of the Serbs, as in the days of Stephen Du[vs]an, was only
+hindered by historical, sentimental and, above all, by dynastic reasons.
+It was sad, quoth the correspondent, that the glorious history of
+Montenegro should have come to such a tame end, but her historic mission
+was closed in 1913, even as that of Scotland in 1707, to the benefit of
+both parties. Now the Serbs were leaving them to manage their own
+affairs; many ex-Nikita officials had been confirmed in their posts,
+while officers were given their old rank in the Yugoslav army. It is
+unfortunate for itself that the "Near East" (of London) does not employ
+so discerning a correspondent. We should then hear no more of such folly
+as that which--to select one occasion out of many--caused it in November
+1921 to speak about "the forcible absorption of Montenegro." And the
+world may be pardoned if it is more ready to accept the observations
+made on the spot by an expert Italian correspondent rather than the
+futile remarks sent by the Hon. Aubrey Herbert from the House of
+Commons, also in November 1921, to the _Morning Post_. This gentleman
+informs us that "it was probably because the Yugoslav Government was
+allowed to annex the ancient principality of Montenegro, exile its King,
+and subjugate its people, without any interference from the Great
+Powers, that M. Pasitch thought that he could do as he liked in
+Albania." That is the sort of statement which one may treat with Matthew
+Arnold's "patient, deep disdain."
+
+
+MEDIAEVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA
+
+On July 14, 1920, a letter marked "urgent" (No. 2047) was written by
+Colonel Sani, the Chief of d'Annunzio's Cabinet, in which he confirmed
+the orders which he had already given verbally, to the effect that all
+the foreign elements, especially the Serbs and Croats, who "exercise an
+obnoxious political influence," should be expelled from Rieka at the
+earliest possible date; he mentions that this is the command of
+d'Annunzio, who is in full accord with the President of the Consiglio
+Nazionale. This was the continuation of a practice which the Italian
+authorities had carried on in a wholesale manner. Father J. N.
+Macdonald, in his unimpeachable little book, _A Political Escapade_
+(London, 1921), gives us numerous examples of persons who in the most
+wanton fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant called
+Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while talking to some English
+soldiers. After three days, spent under arrest, he was told that he
+would have to depart "from Italy" (_sic_). He was given a _faglio di via
+obligatorio_ by the carabinieri, according to which he was banished on
+the ground of being "unemployed." Yet this man had had a fixed residence
+in Rieka for thirty-six years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished
+with a regular industrial certificate.... His name had been found on one
+of the lists in favour of annexation to Yugoslavia. When the world in
+general turned its attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to
+think that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that an
+agreement had at last been reached and the poor harassed place was to be
+neutral, it presumed that those among her citizens who had been openly
+in arms against the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
+would have been astonished to be told that the notorious self-elected
+Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame President, Mr.
+Grossich, cheerfully remained in office. It is true that they now called
+themselves the "Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this change
+of title made a good deal more impression than upon the local Yugoslavs,
+whose treatment did not vary. A decree was printed on January 21, 1921,
+in the _Vedetta_, which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
+previous Government retained their force, but that appeals might be
+addressed to the Rector of the Interior. A deputation was received by
+this gentleman, and was told that the procedure would be so complicated
+and so lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until after
+the elections. These elections had been fixed for the end of April, and
+it seemed as if France and England were so blinded by the blessed words
+"Provisional Government" that they could see nothing else. That over
+2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from the d'Annunzian
+era or been since introduced was surely gossip, and how could anyone
+believe that those men had been granted citizenship on the simple
+declaration of a Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the
+applicant worked under him? These declarations, by the way, must have
+refrained from going into details, for there was an almost total lack of
+work--except in the political department of the police. Rieka was to all
+intents in the possession of Italy, and she was learning what that
+meant. The town was like a dead place, shops were only open in the
+morning, and if the shopkeepers had not been compelled by the
+authorities to remove their shutters they would have strolled down to
+the quays where the grass was growing--"but, thank Heaven," cried
+Grossich, "thank Heaven, it is Italian grass!" (If he ever recalls that
+long-distant day, when, as a student, he fought for his fellow-Croats,
+and when, as a young doctor, he was an enthusiastic official of the
+Croat Club at Castua near Rieka, perhaps this gentleman thanks his God
+for having led him to Rieka and turned him into an Italian.) Cut off
+from its Yugoslav hinterland the population of Rieka, which consisted
+more and more of arditi and fascisti, less and less of Yugoslavs, the
+population had nothing to do save to speculate in the rate of exchange
+(but not in the local notes which no one wanted) and to prepare for the
+elections. Thus, with time very heavy on their hands, there was a great
+deal of corruption; cocaine could be obtained at nearly all the cafes.
+The elections drew nearer, and one wondered whether the Entente was
+going to look at the lists of voters and to inquire how it came that
+many natives of the town were not inscribed. What was likely to happen
+if the place was delivered altogether to the C.N.I. could be seen when
+the harbour of Baro[vs], given by the Rapallo Treaty to Yugoslavia, was
+demanded, simply demanded, by the Italian Nationalists; those
+ultra-patriots the fascisti, in Italy and in Rieka, when they saw that
+in the "holocaust city" everything was going just as well for them as in
+the brave days of d'Annunzio, persisted loudly in claiming Baro[vs] as
+an integral part of Rieka. The Yugoslavs must be prevented, wherever
+possible, from approaching the Adriatic--this being the furious policy
+of the Italian capitalists who had succeeded in sweeping most of the
+Italian people off their feet. With Baro[vs], a port of limited
+possibilities, in the hands of the Yugoslavs, it would mean that the
+adjacent Rieka through its Yugoslav commerce would prosper; but anything
+that savoured of a Yugoslav Rieka was obnoxious to the capitalists and
+their wild followers, since they feared that in the first place it would
+raise a grievous obstacle to their penetration of the Balkans, and
+secondly it would involve the ruin of Triest, where German capital still
+plays a predominant part. So in their folly they strenuously fought for
+the Germans, spurred on by the terrible thought that Rieka might become
+predominantly Yugoslav. They refused to listen to their wiser men, who
+pointed out that the possession of an odd town or island was to Italy of
+not so much importance as friendship with their Slav neighbours. When,
+at the beginning of April 1921 a large sailing boat, the _Rad_ (Captain
+Vlaho Grubi[vs]i['c]) came into Baro[vs], the first ship to bring the
+Yugoslav flag to that port, there was intense commotion among the
+fascisti. Forty of them with weapons ran down to the harbour, but
+Grubi[vs]i['c] told them that he saw no reason why he should not fly the
+flag of his State. A number of workmen, Italians and Yugoslavs, then
+appeared and made common cause against the fascisti, so that the latter
+withdrew. And the captain of the Italian warship _Carlo Mirabello_ sent
+to ask Grubi[vs]i['c] if he had removed the flag. On hearing that he had
+not done so the captain said that he had acted perfectly correctly. It
+seems to be too much to hope that such honourable Italians as this
+captain and these workmen will be able, without certain measures on the
+part of France and England, to prevail over those elements who have
+dragged Rieka down to death and to dishonour.
+
+At last, on April 25, the elections were held. There were two parties,
+that of the C.N.I., swollen with arditi and fascisti, who would have
+nothing to do with the Treaty of Rapallo--their programme consisted in
+annexation to Italy--and the other party, whose object was to carry out
+the provisions of the Treaty. Professor Zanella was its chief. There did
+not seem to be much hope that it would be successful, although it
+contained what was left of the Autonomists, who in 1919 were the largest
+party--desiring that the town should be neither Yugoslav nor
+Italian--and these Autonomists were now reinforced by the Yugoslavs. But
+so numerous had been the expulsions that many of the survivors feared
+that it would be futile to vote, and on the other hand the Annexionist
+party was quite confident that it would win. During the afternoon of the
+election day, however, they perceived that the impossible was happening,
+and that Zanella was marching to victory. Thereupon the enraged fascisti
+had recourse to violence. "Zanella's victory was intolerable to these
+patriots," said _La Nazione_,[65] "because they remembered the two years
+of tenacity and of splendid Italian spirit and of suffering which the
+town had lived through." Most of the electors remembered the suffering.
+The fascisti seized a number of urns and made a bonfire of them; there
+was presented the spectacle of Signor Gigante, d'Annunzio's obedient
+mayor, bursting with armed companions into that room of the Palace of
+Justice where the votes were being scrutinized. "I yield to violence,"
+said the presiding official; and twenty minutes afterwards the contents
+of the urns were burning merrily. But these measures did not help the
+cause of the fascisti, no more than did their screams that they had been
+betrayed. And if Zanella had to fly from Rieka because, as the
+Nationalist paper put it, he could not stand up against the vehement
+indignation of so many of the citizens, yet he and his party have
+triumphed. "Fiume or Death," used to be the device dear to d'Annunzio.
+He placarded the long-suffering walls with it, and it was on the lapels
+of the coats of his adherents. "Fiume must belong to Italy or be blown
+up," cried the poet. But, strange to say, a majority of the inhabitants
+prefer that their town should continue to exist, and this it can only do
+if, in accordance with the Treaty of Rapallo, it becomes a neutral State
+on friendly terms with both its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia. The
+Italian Government desires, of course, to execute its Treaty
+obligations,[66] and if it finds too painful the task of moderating the
+ardours of its own super-patriots, it will no doubt be glad to have this
+done by an International force. That method, which was only prevented by
+d'Annunzio's arrival in 1919, offers the speediest and most efficacious
+solution of Rieka's troubles.
+
+
+THE STRICKEN TOWN
+
+If anyone imagined that they would be ended with the installation of
+Zanella he was wrong. At the municipal elections 90 per cent. voted for
+the Autonomist party, the Yugoslavs having had the good sense to join
+them. But the Italian Nationalists were not going to yield to
+moderation, and immediately after the elections Zanella was obliged to
+flee for his life, so that he was not installed in office until October
+5. He struggled manfully to clear away the chaos and to make such
+economic arrangements as would eventually convert Rieka into a
+prosperous port. This the fascisti of Triest and Venice could by no
+means tolerate, and on January 31 an unsuccessful attempt was made by
+them on his life as he was leaving the Constituent Assembly. On February
+16 the Anai (Assoziazione Nazionale fra gli Arditi d'Italia) sent out a
+very urgent message from their headquarters in the Via Macchiavelli in
+Triest. They informed the subsections that not only was Zanella
+preparing to deliver Rieka to the Croats, but that the army of the
+"globe-trotter" Wrangel was waiting in Su[vs]ak to seize the wretched
+town. Therefore Gabriele d'Annunzio had commanded that every loyal
+servant of the cause was to be mobilized. And after a few rhetorical
+sentences it continued, "I will give the marching orders by telegram as
+follows: 'Send the documents. Farina.' If only a small number of people
+are needed I will telegraph, 'Send ... Quintal. Farina.'" The men were
+to assemble at the Italian Labour Bureau, 9 Via Pozza Bianca in Triest.
+They were to be clad in mufti, to be armed so far as it was possible and
+to have with them three days' provender.... The subsections are asked to
+telegraph the approximate number of those on whom they can rely. And
+this memorandum should be acknowledged. It is signed, "With brotherly
+greetings. Farina Salvatore." About ten days later--between February 26
+and 28--there was a meeting at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, under the
+presidency of Vilim Stipeti['c], formerly a major of the Austrian
+General Staff. Some dissident Croats--among them Dr. Emanuel Gagliardi,
+Captains Cankl and Petri[vc]evi['c], Gjuro Kli[vs]uri['c], Josip Boldin
+and Major-General I[vs]tvanovi['c]--two dissident Montenegrins, Jovo
+Plamenac and Marko Petrovi['c], together with two Italian officers,
+adherents of d'Annunzio, Colonel Finzi of Triest and Major Ventura of
+Rome, ... assembled for the purpose of stirring up trouble for the
+Yugoslavs in the spring. They referred with pleasure to the presence of
+sundry Bulgarian komitadjis in Albania, Finzi declared that the Italian
+Government would satisfy the Croats and give them Rieka as soon as
+Croatia had achieved her independence and a less visionary promise was
+made of disturbances in Rieka. On March 1 the two Italian officers left
+for Triest and on March 3 Rieka was confronted with another _coup
+d'etat_. The fascisti of Triest and of Gulia Venetia descended on the
+town in two special trains of the Italian State Railway. They had not
+the slightest confidence in Zanella, who was an honest man, working on
+the basis of the Treaty of Rapallo, whereby Italy and Yugoslavia
+recognized the Free State of Rieka. In their eyes it was a monstrous
+thing that Italy should be expected to observe this instrument. So let
+the town be freed, let Zanella be expelled. And as he only had at his
+disposal a force of about three hundred local gendarmes, with rifles but
+without munition, it was not particularly difficult for the fascisti
+heroes to accomplish their task. Zanella had to fly once more.
+
+"If Italy were to offend against the freedom and independence of the
+State of Rieka she would deprive herself," said Signor Schanzer, the
+Italian Foreign Secretary "she would deprive herself of the name of a
+Great Power and in the Society of Nations she would retain no
+authority." Thus did the successor of the relentless but unavailing
+della Torretta try, with eloquent and noble words, to wipe the blot from
+Italy's scutcheon. She could scarcely have the nations coming to the
+Congress of Genoa, there to debate with regard to the economic
+re-establishment of Europe, while her own conduct was so very much under
+suspicion. It would have been rather curious, so the _Zagreber
+Tagblatt_[67] pointed out, for a robber to invite you to his house with
+a view to taking steps against robbery. Something drastic had to be
+done, so that Europe would not look askance at the Italian Government.
+Zanella, it was true, had been thrown out--but why should not the world
+be told that this had been effected by the people of the town? A very
+excellent idea! And so a certain Lieut. Cabruna of the _gendarmerie_
+made a plan to get together the Constituent Assembly and then--well,
+there are always methods by which resolutions can be passed. Perhaps it
+would not even be necessary for a single rifle to be fired at the
+deputies from the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery. But most of the
+deputies succeeded in escaping from the town, although frantic efforts
+were made to prevent them. Out of the threescore only thirteen poor
+devils were held fast and came to the futile meeting. The others, with
+Zanella, assembled on Yugoslav territory at a place called Saint Anna.
+
+And Signor Schanzer went on talking. Officers and men of the Italian
+army and navy, said he, had shown perfect discipline. Signor Schanzer
+may not be an expert on discipline, but as a humorist he wins applause.
+One's ordinary notions of discipline do not include the seizure of a
+warship by a handful of bandits, the cannons of the vessel being
+afterwards directed against the Government palace of a neutral State.
+The fascisti, with the help of Italian troops and accompanied by several
+Italian deputies, eject the legal Government of Rieka. One of these
+deputies, Giuratti, is chosen by his friends to be President of the
+Free State--Giuratti of the fascisti, Giuratti who most barbarically had
+ill-treated the Istrian Slavs, but--for we will be just--this was when
+he believed they were barbarians, savages, quite common, brutal men;
+well, he had learned, he wrote,[68] that this was not the case, they had
+adopted Western culture, they had raised the revolutionary flag against
+the dynasty of Karageorgevi['c] and if Yugoslavia's dismemberment should
+ever come to pass, "then, as I confidently hope," said he, "the Croats
+with their righteous national aspirations will unite with their great
+neighbour Italy. We salute the Croat Revolution with sincerest
+sympathy..." and so on and so on. That was the kind of calm, impartial
+personage to have as Governor of the distracted Free State, where in one
+point anyhow most of the population think the same, and that is that
+their union with Italy would be an absolute disaster. Behold this
+Giuratti posing his candidature, Giuratti whose patriotism and idealism
+are, says the Italian Government, fully appreciated by them;
+nevertheless it has advised him to refuse the suggested honour. That he
+should be punished did not occur to them; but what would they have said
+if a Yugoslav--surely with more right than an Italian and certainly with
+a larger following of townsfolk--had been selected as President? "The
+proceedings of the Italian Government," said Schanzer, "are clear,
+speedy and determined." But did anything unpleasant happen to Commandant
+Castelli, an officer sent to make order, when he quite openly placed
+himself on the side of the fascisti? Would degradation be the lot of any
+officer or soldier who "mutinied" and joined the fascisti?... Apparently
+it was due to the unhappy political condition of Europe that the whole
+civilized world did not launch an indignant protest against the baseness
+and cynicism of the Italians. But how utterly they failed to persuade
+others that the wishes of Rieka were as they represented them! Rieka
+desires to remain independent and this desire the Italians will have to
+respect. And the later they make up their mind to keep their promises,
+so much the worse for them. The Yugoslavs can wait, for theirs is the
+future. A cartoonist in the Belgrade _Vreme_ depicted a rough old
+Serbian warrior holding on his open hand a very neat little Italian
+soldier. "Now listen to me," he was saying, "and I will tell you a
+story. Once upon a time there was a country called Austria...."
+
+There was a characteristic little affair at Saint Anna on March 23. A
+few minutes after Zanella had left the Lubi['c] Inn a suspicious-looking
+person appeared. He began observing the customers and their
+surroundings, when the Police-Commissary Per[vs]i['c] came up to him and
+asked for his passport. "Take yourself off!" shouted the intruder, as he
+pulled a bomb out of his trouser pocket. Per[vs]i['c] grappled with him
+and soon overpowered him. And outside the house four other fascisti,
+Armano Viola, Carpinelli, Bellia and Murolo, were captured. They claimed
+to be journalists, and it is quite true that Viola is on the staff of
+the notorious _Vedetta Italiana_; but when he comes into a foreign
+country as a special correspondent and is teaching others how to go
+about that business--for until then they had been otherwise engaged,
+Murolo being charged with numerous thefts and attempted murders, while
+Bellia and Carpinelli were accused of breaking into the Abbazia
+Casino--if Viola was teaching them how to be journalists he would on
+this occasion have been better advised if he had restricted them to the
+conventional tools of the profession instead of bombs, revolvers and
+daggers. Little use did they get out of them, for a trio of these armed
+individuals were seized and disarmed by one Yugoslav gendarme, who was
+himself very meagrely equipped. With tears in their eyes they begged for
+mercy. "Pieta, Pieta!" they exclaimed. So long as their own lives were
+spared they were very willing to forgo the 60,000 lire which had been
+put on Zanella's head.
+
+Unfortunately it seems obvious that this exploit, if not ordered by the
+Italian Government was, at any rate, permitted by them. How otherwise
+could the automobile containing these men have got past the sentries at
+the Su[vs]ak bridge and two other Italian sentry posts? Moreover, these
+men were in possession of documents which proved that official Italian
+circles at Rieka were privy to their undertaking, and that they proposed
+to investigate the Yugoslav military positions on the frontier....
+These five fascisti brigands--who were also lieutenants of the Italian
+army--would therefore have to be tried not only for attempted murder but
+for attempted espionage. They were put into a train and transported to
+the prison at Zagreb. "If once we begin to march," so the Italian
+soldiers at Rieka had over and over again been telling the Croats, "then
+we shall not halt before we come to Zagreb, your capital." Those five
+will perhaps some day explain to their comrades how quickly Zagreb can
+be reached.... As yet those whom they left behind them had not lost
+their bombast: a manifesto was issued by them which declared that five
+true patriots had sallied forth to Saint Anna, for the purpose of
+parleying with the Constituent Assembly, and that in a barbarous fashion
+they had been arrested, maltreated and possibly killed. Let the people
+avenge the shedding of such noble blood. Everything, everything must be
+done in order to liberate the captured brethren. And so, towards eleven
+at night, about sixty fascisti and legionaries came together. Armed to
+the teeth, they designed to cross over into Yugoslav territory, but when
+they noticed that the sentry posts had been strengthened they went home
+to bed.
+
+A number of American and European journalists rushed out to Belgrade,
+under the impression that the Yugoslav-Italian War could now no longer
+be avoided. But they did not realize how great a self-control the
+Yugoslavs possess. It may be, as a commentator put it in the
+_Nation_,[69] that Italy "is practically at war with Yugoslavia," for
+she is obsessed by the "Pan-Slav menace"; but if they insist on the
+arbitrament of arms they will have to wait until the Yugoslavs have time
+to deal with them.... The Free State of Rieka owes its existence to a
+Treaty between Italy and Yugoslavia; both of them should therefore
+guarantee its freedom. Italian and Yugoslav _gendarmerie_ and troops
+should resist together the incursions of fascisti; and if the two races
+cannot work in harmony, then let the administration of the town be
+entrusted to neutral troops; and as High Commissioner one would suggest
+Mr. Blakeney, the British Consul at Belgrade. If this imperturbable and
+most kindly man were to fail in the attempt at repeating in Rieka what
+has been accomplished in Danzig, then, indeed, one might despair; but he
+would brilliantly and placidly succeed. All the other qualifications are
+his; an intimate knowledge of every Near Eastern language--and, of
+course, Italian; a perfect acquaintance with the mentality of all those
+peoples; common sense of an uncommon order, and the whole-hearted
+confidence of those with whom he comes into contact. Great Britain and
+France compelled the Yugoslavs, at enormous sacrifices, to sign the
+Treaty of Rapallo; they are, therefore, morally obliged to see that it
+is executed. For too many months the Italians were saying that they
+would carry out their part of it and leave the third zone in Dalmatia if
+the Yugoslavs would agree to a few more concessions, commercial and
+territorial, that were not in the Treaty. During the Genoa Conference in
+the spring of 1922 the Italian authorities confessed to the Yugoslav
+delegates that their hands were bound by the fascisti. These elements
+would certainly object to the execution of that part of the Treaty of
+Rapallo which refers to the port of Baro[vs]. Accurately speaking, the
+arrangements with regard to Baro[vs] are embodied in a letter from Count
+Sforza, the then Foreign Secretary, and are added to the Treaty as an
+appendix. Both were signed on the same day, and apparently this plan of
+an appendix was adopted on account of the fascisti. Yet if Count Sforza
+had not signed that letter it is safe to say that the Yugoslavs would
+not have signed the main body of a Treaty which to them was the reverse
+of favourable. And at Genoa the Italians started haggling about a strip
+of land near Baro[vs], in the hope that some success would stay the zeal
+of the fascisti. Furthermore they pleaded that Zadar could not live if
+Yugoslavia did not, in addition to supplying it with water, give it
+railway communication with the interior. The Yugoslavs were thus invited
+to construct at great expense a railway to a foreign town which their
+own [vS]ibenik and other Adriatic towns did not possess. This,
+naturally, they refused to undertake, as also to agree to the Italian
+suggestion that a free zone of some twenty kilometres should be
+instituted at the back of Zadar. One might safely say that the Italian
+agents in this region would not have confined themselves to salutary
+measures for the welfare of the town. It is stated in the Treaty of
+Rapallo that in case of disagreement either party could invoke an
+arbitrator, and the Yugoslavs, who happen now to be the weaker party,
+have been contemplating application to the League of Nations. Well, in
+Genoa it was proposed by Italy that Yugoslavia should renounce the
+clause which deals with an eventual arbitration. If you make a large
+number of demands--never mind that they should be in opposition to a
+Treaty you have signed--then you may gain a few of them--and Italy was
+hoping that the Free State would repay the costs which she incurred
+there on account of her unruly son d'Annunzio, and, likewise, that the
+good Italianists who at the end of the Great War committed wholesale
+thefts from the State warehouses should not be made to pay for it. With
+all their guile and strength the Italians were endeavouring to avoid the
+execution of her Treaty of Rapallo. "Italy is the one Power in Europe,"
+says Mr. Harold Goad[70] who thrusts himself upon our notice, "Italy is
+the one Power in Europe that is most obviously and most consistently
+working for peace and conciliation in every field."
+
+
+HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE
+
+The complicated troubles, avoidable and unavoidable, that have been
+raging in Central Europe after the War are being met to some extent by
+the Little Entente, an association in the first place between Yugoslavia
+and the kindred Czecho-Slovakia, and afterwards between them and
+Roumania. The world was assured that this union had for its object the
+establishment of peace, security and normal economic activities in
+Central and Eastern Europe; no acquisitive purposes were in the
+background, and since these three States now recognized that if they try
+to swallow more of the late Austro-Hungarian monarchy they will suffer
+from chronic indigestion, we need not be suspicious of their altruism.
+It is perfectly true that the first impulse which moved the creators of
+the Little Entente was not constructive but defensive; their great
+Allies did not appear, in the opinion of the three Succession States, to
+be taking the necessary precautions against the elements of reaction.
+Otherwise they, especially France (which was naturally more determined
+that Austria should not join herself to Germany), would not have
+favoured the idea of a Danubian Federation, in which Austria and Hungary
+would play leading parts. The Great Powers would also, if they had been
+less exclusively concerned with their own interests, have handled with
+more resolution the attempts of Charles of Habsburg to place himself at
+the head of the present reactionary regime at Buda-Pest; and if it had
+not been for certain energetic measures taken by the members of the
+Little Entente it may well be doubted whether the Government of Admiral
+Horthy, which does not conceal the fact that it is royalist--the king
+being temporarily absent--would have required Charles to leave the
+country. The Little Entente pointed out to their great Allies what these
+had apparently overlooked, namely, that the return of the Habsburgs was
+not opposed by the Succession States out of pure malice but for the
+reason that it would inevitably strengthen the magnates and the high
+ecclesiastics in their desire to bring about the restoration of
+Hungary's old frontiers. As the frontiers are now drawn there dwell--and
+this could not be prevented--a number of Magyars in each of the three
+neighbouring States (the fewest being in Yugoslavia), just as the
+present Hungary includes a Czech-Slovak, Roumanian and Yugoslav
+population.[71] But the Great Powers agree that if this frontier is to
+be changed at all, every precaution should be taken against having it
+changed by force. It is no exaggeration to say that there can be no
+real peace in Central Europe until normal intercourse with Russia is
+re-established, but let it in the meantime be the task of the Little
+Entente to guard the temporary peace from being shattered.
+
+Apart from this defensive object the countries of the Little Entente
+have the positive aim of a resumption of normal economic conditions and
+the institution of a new order of things in accordance with the new
+political construction of Central and Eastern Europe. It is obvious that
+these three States have numerous interests in common which make their
+co-operation very natural, if not indeed indispensable.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 46: April 16, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 47: January 22, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 48: According to the Rome correspondent of the _Petit
+    Journal_.]
+
+    [Footnote 49: But the wind was considerably tempered for him:
+    vessels laden with his precise requirements sailed over from
+    Italy and said they had been captured by d'Annunzio's arditi.
+    General Badoglio, in command of the royal troops outside the
+    town, ascertained in November 1919 that Rieka's coal-supply was
+    nearly exhausted and 7000 tons per month were required for the
+    public services alone. He accordingly informed a syndicate of
+    coal merchants in Triest that he would be personally
+    responsible for the first consignment of coal to d'Annunzio. A
+    month earlier, when the town was supposed to be blockaded, it
+    was announced that a limited supply of food-stuffs would,
+    nevertheless, be introduced, through the Red Cross, for very
+    young children. This amounted, as a matter of fact, to 21
+    truckloads a week. It is significant that there was no rise in
+    the prices charged in the public restaurants of Rieka, and that
+    persons living outside the line of Armistice found it cheaper
+    to do their shopping in the besieged city.]
+
+    [Footnote 50: February 20, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 51: September 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 52: However, in the Yugoslav Parliament, although
+    some of the deputies have spent their lives in far-off,
+    primitive places--by no means all of those who represent the
+    Albanians can read and write--one does not hear such deplorable
+    language as that which, according to the _Grazer Volksblatt_ of
+    January 19, 1922, disgraced the Austrian Assembly. A certain
+    Dr. Waneck, of the Pan-German party, wished to criticize the
+    Minister of Finance, Professor Dr. Guertler of the Christian
+    Socialists. He remarked that one could not expect this Minister
+    to be sober at four o'clock in the afternoon, and went on to
+    say that no less than five banks, whose names he would give,
+    had received early information from the Minister, which enabled
+    them to speculate successfully. He repeated this accusation
+    several times and with great violence, but when he was invited
+    to reveal the names of these banks--"No, sir!" he cried. "I
+    will not do so, because I don't want to."]
+
+    [Footnote 53: Cf. "The Tri-Une Kingdom," by Pavle Popovi['c]
+    and Jovan M. Jovanovi['c], in the _Quarterly Review_, October
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 54: He was kept for some time in confinement at
+    Mitrovica, in Syrmia, and in November 1920 he was liberated in
+    consequence of the great amnesty.]
+
+    [Footnote 55: Cf. _Spectator_, July 17, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 56: Cf. _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 57: A few months after this, in the course of a
+    little controversy in the _Saturday Review_ (which arose from
+    an unsigned and, I hoped, rather reasonable article of mine on
+    the Adriatic Settlement) I quoted from memory this passage of
+    Mrs. Re-Bartlett's and said that the Italian captain was giving
+    chocolates to the children at Kievo. Thereupon Mr. Harold W. E.
+    Goad of the British-Italian League wrote a highly indignant
+    letter to the editor, and in the course of it he denounced me
+    for having egregiously invented the chocolates "for the sole
+    purpose of throwing her testimony into ridicule.... What do
+    you, Sir, think of such methods as that?" And he concluded by
+    declaring that I wallowed in a "truly Balkan slough of
+    distortion and calumny." Well, on referring to Mrs.
+    Re-Bartlett's article I find that there is no mention of
+    chocolates, and I apologize; presumably the children were
+    crowding round their adored _Capitano_ in order to thank him
+    for the bridges and waterworks which were being built in
+    Dalmatia.]
+
+    [Footnote 58: During the Italian occupation, said Professor
+    Salvemini, teachers, doctors and priests were deported or
+    expelled from the country, while the Italian Government had to
+    dissolve 30 municipal councils out of 33, so that at the head
+    of the communes were Italian officials and not properly elected
+    mayors. Moreover, all liberties were suppressed. No Slav
+    newspapers, no Slav societies were permitted, and 32 out of 57
+    magistrates were dismissed--these methods being due not to
+    cruelty or folly, said the Professor, but to the necessity of
+    keeping order by forcible means in a country which was wholly
+    hostile.]
+
+    [Footnote 59: November 13, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 60: November 15, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 61: This, of course, did not meet with the approval
+    of Signor d'Annunzio. He made numerous pronouncements with
+    regard to his inflexible desires, saying that, if necessary, he
+    would offer up his bleeding corpse. And his resistance to the
+    Italian Government did not confine itself to rhetoric. During
+    his usurpation of Rieka this man had done his country grievous
+    harm. It was not only that he held her up to the smiles of the
+    malicious who said that she could not keep order in her own
+    house, but he was guiding the people back to barbarism. When
+    sailors of the royal navy deserted to his standard, he knelt
+    before them in the streets of Rieka at a time when from Russia
+    Lenin was inciting the Italian Communists to revolution and to
+    the conquest of the State. He refused to deal with Giolitti,
+    even as he had rejected the advances of Nitti. But the aged
+    Giolitti grasped the problem with more firmness, which was what
+    one might expect from the statesman who, after his return to
+    power, had leaned neither on the industrial magnates of Milan
+    nor on their Bol[vs]evik antagonists. Giolitti was resolved to
+    put an end to the nuisance of d'Annunzio; in no constitutional
+    State is there room for a Prime Minister and such a
+    swashbuckler. The Nationalists of Italy were furious when they
+    perceived that the Premier was in earnest and that force would
+    be employed against their idol. And it had to come to that, for
+    the utterly misguided man continued to resist--hoping doubtless
+    for wholesale desertions in the army and navy--with the
+    deplorable result that a good many Italians were slain by
+    Italians. Orders were issued by the Government that all
+    possible care should be taken of d'Annunzio's person; and
+    eventually when Rieka was taken by the royalist troops the poet
+    broke his oath that he would surely die; he announced that
+    Italy was not worth dying for and it was said that he had
+    sailed away on an aeroplane. He had accomplished none of his
+    desires; the town had not become Italian, though he had bathed
+    it in Italian blood. His overweening personal ambitions had
+    been shipwrecked on the rock of ridicule, for as he made his
+    inglorious exit he shouted at the world that he was "still
+    alive and inexorable." But yet he may have unconsciously
+    achieved something, for his seizure of what he loved to call
+    the "holocaust city" provided the extreme Nationalists with a
+    private stage where--in uniforms of their own design, in cloaks
+    and feathers and flowing black ties and with eccentric
+    arrangements of the hair--they could strut and caper and fling
+    bombastic insults at the authorities in Rome, until the
+    Government found it opportune to take them in hand. The
+    greatest Italian poet and one of the greatest imaginative
+    writers in Europe will now be able to devote himself--if his
+    rather morbid Muse has suffered no injury--to his predestined
+    task. Those--the comparatively few that read--whose
+    acquaintance with this writer's work usually caused them to
+    regret his methods, could not help admiring his personal
+    activities, his genius for leadership and his vital fire during
+    the War. But, once this was over, he relapsed; and expressing
+    himself very clearly in action, so that he became known to the
+    many instead of the few, he lived what he previously wrote, and
+    now it is generally recognized that Gabriel of the
+    Annunciation, as he calls himself, who produced a row of
+    obscene and histrionic novels, is a mountebank, a self-deceiver
+    and a most affected bore. When he came to Rieka he thought fit
+    to appeal to the England of Milton. And, like him, Milton lived
+    as he wrote. Milton, Dante and Sophocles--to mention no others
+    of the supreme writers--were as serious and responsible in
+    their public actions as in the pursuit of their art.]
+
+    [Footnote 62: Whatever be the limitations of the _Dom_ as a
+    newspaper--it is almost exclusively occupied with the person
+    and programme of Mr. Radi['c]--yet that brings with it the
+    virtue, most exceptional in Yugoslavia, of refusing to engage
+    in polemics. This would otherwise take up a good deal of its
+    space, as Radi['c] has become such a bogey-man that nothing is
+    too ridiculous for his opponents to believe. A Czech newspaper
+    not long ago informed the world that this monstrous personage
+    had told an interviewer that not only had Serbian soldiers in
+    Macedonia been murdering 200 children but that they had roasted
+    and consumed them. Furthermore Radi['c] had said that the
+    British Minister to Yugoslavia had called upon him and had
+    asked his advice with some persistence, not even wishing to
+    leave Radi['c] time to reflect, as to whether the Prince-Regent
+    should rule in Russia, while an English Prince should be
+    invited to occupy the Yugoslav throne. The first of these
+    remarks proved conclusively, said a number of Belgrade papers,
+    that Radi['c] was a knave and by the second he had demonstrated
+    that he was an imbecile. And my friend Mr. Leiper of the
+    _Morning Post_ speculated as to whether he was more likely to
+    end his days in a lunatic asylum or a prison. But Radi['c] was
+    caring about none of these things; his birthday happened at
+    about this time and some 30,000 of his adherents came to do him
+    honour at his birthplace, over 500 of them on decorated horses
+    having met him at Sisak station the previous evening. When I
+    asked him what he had to say about the two afore-mentioned
+    remarks he gave me an amusing account of how the interviewer
+    had appreciated the various samples of wine which he (Radi['c])
+    had just brought down from his vineyard. The conversation
+    lasted for about four hours, and in the course of it Radi['c]
+    mentioned that a certain Moslem deputy from Novi Bazar,
+    irritated by the fact that Mr. Dra[vs]kovi['c], Minister of the
+    Interior, found no pleasure in his continued presence on a
+    commission of inquiry in the region of Kossovo, had been
+    throwing out very dark hints about a child which he accused the
+    Serbs of killing in the stormy days of 1878, and then relating
+    to the Tsar that this dastardly deed had been committed by the
+    Turks. This was the basis of that part of the interview. As for
+    the other absurdity, it was mentioned that some courtiers had
+    told the Prince-Regent that he alone could establish an orderly
+    Government in Russia, whereupon Radi['c] observed that England
+    and France were not likely to allow one person to reign both
+    there and in Yugoslavia. And when I asked why he had not
+    published this explanation in his paper, he said that he
+    couldn't very well charge a guest with having liked his wine
+    too much.]
+
+    [Footnote 63: Cf. _The Quarterly Review_ (October 1921), in
+    which Messrs. Pavle Popovi['c] and Jovan M. Jovanovi['c]
+    published a very able survey of Yugoslav conditions.]
+
+    [Footnote 64: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 65: April 26, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 66: Unhappily it became apparent that the Italians
+    were not disposed to have the Treaty put in force]
+
+    [Footnote 67: March 23, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 68: Cf. an article in a fascisti newspaper, quoted by
+    the _Zagreber Tagblatt_ of May 14, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 69: Cf. "The Rise of the Little Entente," by Dorothy
+    Thompson. April 1, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 70: _Fortnightly Review_, May 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 71: The magnates of Hungary and their friends do not
+    grow weary of lamenting the sad fate of the Magyar minorities.
+    Whatever may be happening in Transylvania, they have a very
+    poor case against the Serbs. In the Voivodina there are,
+    according to Hungarian statistics, about 382,000 Magyars out of
+    1.4 million inhabitants. These Magyars have their primary and
+    secondary schools, their newspapers and so forth, whereas in
+    the spring of 1922 the schools in various Serbian villages near
+    Budapest were forcibly closed, the lady teachers being told
+    that if they stayed they would have to undergo the physical
+    examination which is applied to prostitutes.]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+YUGOSLAVIA'S FRONTIERS
+
+INTRODUCTION--(_a_) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE ACTORS--2. THE
+AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE--3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS--4.
+THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE--5. A METHOD WHICH MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED
+IN ALBANIA--6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA--7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER
+MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION--8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN
+AUTHORITIES--9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS--10. DR. TRUMBI['C]'S
+PROPOSAL--11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE
+MIRDITI--12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE--13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE
+YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS--14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS
+HAVE RETIRED--15. THE PROSPECT--(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER--(_c_) THE
+BULGARIAN FRONTIER--(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER: 1. THE STATE OF THE
+ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA--2. THE BANAT--(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN
+FRONTIER--(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER--(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Nobody could have expected in the autumn of 1918 that the frontiers of
+the new State would be rapidly delimitated. Ethnological, economic,
+historic and strategical arguments--to mention no others--would be
+brought forward by either side, and the Supreme Council, which had to
+deliver judgment on these knotty problems, would be often more
+preoccupied with their own interests and their relation to each other.
+It would also happen that a member of the Supreme Council would be
+simultaneously judge and pleader. The mills of justice would therefore
+grind very slowly, for they would be conscious that the fruit of their
+efforts, evolved with much foreign material clogging the machinery and
+with parts of the machinery jerked out of their line of track, would be
+received with acute criticism. When more than two years had elapsed from
+the time of the Armistice a considerable part of Yugoslavia's frontiers
+remained undecided. We will travel along the frontier lines, starting
+with that between Yugoslavs and Albanians.
+
+
+(a) THE ALBANIAN FRONTIER
+
+1. THE ACTORS
+
+Those who in old Turkish days lived in that wild border country which is
+dealt with on these pages would have been surprised to hear that they
+would be the objects of a great deal of discussion in the west of
+Europe. But in those days there was no Yugoslavia and no Albania and no
+League of Nations, and very few were the writers who took up this
+question. It is, undoubtedly, a question of importance, though some of
+these writers, remembering that the fate of the world was dependent on
+the fraction of an inch of Cleopatra's nose, seem almost to have
+imagined that it was proportionately more dependent on those several
+hundred kilometres of disputed frontier. It would not so much matter
+that they have introduced a good deal of passion into their arguments if
+they had not also exerted some influence on influential men--and this
+compels one to pay them what would otherwise be excessive attention.
+
+Let us consider the frontier which the Ambassadors' Conference in
+November 1921 assigned to Yugoslavia and the Albanians. We have already
+mentioned some of the previous points of contact between those Balkan
+neighbours who for centuries have been acquiring knowledge of each other
+and who, therefore, as Berati Bey, the Albanian delegate in Paris, very
+wisely said, should have been left to manage their own frontier
+question. A number of Western Europeans will exclaim that this could not
+be accomplished without the shedding of blood; but it is rather more
+than probable that the interference of Western Europe--partly
+philanthropic and partly otherwise--will be responsible for greater loss
+of life. If it could not be permitted that two of the less powerful
+peoples should attempt to settle their own affairs, then, at any rate,
+the most competent of alien judges should have sat on the tribunal. A
+frontier in that part of Europe should primarily take the peculiarities
+of the people into account, and I believe that if Sir Charles Eliot and
+Baron Nopsca with their unrivalled knowledge of the Albanians had been
+consulted it is probable they would, for some years to come, have
+thought desirable the frontier which is preferred by General Franchet
+d'Esperey, by a majority of the local Albanians, and by those who hope
+for peace in the Balkans.
+
+
+2. THE AUDIENCE RUSH THE STAGE
+
+A battle which took place near Tuzi, not far from Podgorica, in December
+1919, may assist the study of the difficult Albanian question. At the
+first attack about 150 Montenegrins, mostly young recruits, were killed
+or wounded; but in the counter-attack the Albanian losses were much
+greater, 167 of them being made prisoners. On all of these were found
+Italian rifles, ammunition, money and army rations. On the other hand, a
+few Montenegrins, with three officers, were also captured and were
+stripped and handed over, naked, to the Italians. But these declined to
+have them, saying that the conflict had been no concern of theirs, and
+the unfortunate men--with the exception of one who escaped--remained
+among the Albanians. The fact that Tuzi would be of no value to the
+Italians neither weakens nor strengthens the supposition that they were
+privy to the Albanian attack; but it may very well be that the natives
+had taken their Italian equipment by force of arms. It would, anyhow,
+seem that the Italians have little understanding of this people: during
+the War, when General Franchet d'Esperey was straightening his line, he
+paid some hundreds of Albanians to maintain his western flank, and they
+were very satisfactory. (It troubled them very little whether they were
+holding it against the Austrians or against other Albanians.) When Italy
+took over that part of the line she employed a whole Division, which--to
+the amusement, it is said, of Franchet d'Esperey--provided the local
+population with a great deal of booty, and in particular with mules.
+There was constant trouble in those regions of Albania which were
+occupied by the Italians,[72] and in June 1920 things had come to such a
+pass that the Italian garrisons, after being thrown out of the villages
+of Bestrovo and Selitza, were actually retiring with all the stores they
+could rescue to Valona. Their retreat, said Reuter, in a euphemistic
+message from Rome, was "attended by some loss." As Valona was their last
+stronghold in Albanian territory, it seemed that very few, if any, of
+the tribes were in favour of an Italian protectorate. And since it was
+calculated that during the first six months of 1920 the Italian
+Government was paying from 400 to 500 million lire a month for corn, and
+the year's deficit might be enough to lead the State to the very verge
+of bankruptcy, one was asking whether from an economic, apart from any
+other, point of view, it would not be advisable for the Italians to cut
+their losses in central Albania. And this they very wisely determined to
+do. Would that their subsequent policy in northern Albania had been as
+well-inspired.
+
+It would also seem as if the affair of Tuzi shows that the Albanians
+have no wish for a Yugoslav protectorate, and there are a good many
+Serbs, such as Professor Cviji['c], who view with uneasiness any
+extension of their sway over the Albanians. Many of the tribes are
+prepared, after very small provocation or none, to take up arms against
+anybody; and those who, in the north and north-east of the country, are
+in favour of a Yugoslav protectorate would undoubtedly have opposed to
+them a number of the natives, less because they are fired with the
+prospect of "Albania for the Albanians" than on account of their
+patriarchal views. We must, however, at the same time, acknowledge that
+those Albanians who are impelled by patriotic ideals, and who would like
+to see their countrymen within the 1913 frontiers, resolutely turn away
+from the various attractions which the Slavs undoubtedly exercise over
+many of them and combine in a brotherly fashion, under the guidance of a
+disinterested State, to work for an independent Albania--those idealists
+have every right to be heard. Their solution is, in fact, the one that
+would, as we have elsewhere said, be best for everyone concerned. The
+late Professor Burrows, who believed in the possibility of such an
+arrangement, thought that it would take generations for this people "to
+pass from blood feud and tribal jealousy to the good order of a unified
+State, unless they have tutorage in the art of self-government." There
+seem to be grave difficulties, both external and internal, in the way of
+setting up such a tutorage over the whole of the 1913 Albania; and if a
+majority of the northern and north-eastern tribes prefer to turn to
+Yugoslavia, rather than to join the frustrated patriots and the wilder
+brethren in turning away from it, they should not be sweepingly
+condemned as traitors to the national cause. The frame of mind which
+looks with deep suspicion on a road that links a tribe to its neighbour
+is not very promising for those who dream of an Albanian nation; it is a
+prevalent and fundamental frame of mind. "The Prince of Wied," we are
+told by his countryman, Dr. Max Mueller, "succeeded in conquering the
+hearts of those Albanians who supported him and of gaining the highest
+respect of those who were his political opponents." No doubt they were
+flattered when they noticed that he had so far become an Albanian as to
+surround his residence at Durazzo with barbed-wire entanglements.
+
+Among the solutions of the Albanian problem was that which Dr. Mueller
+very seriously, not to say ponderously, put forward in 1916.[73] This
+gentleman, with a first-hand knowledge of the country, which he gained
+during the War, did not minimize the task which would face the Prince of
+Wied on his return. Of that wooden potentate one may say that his work
+in Albania did not collapse for the reason that it was never started; a
+few miles from Durazzo, his capital, from which, I believe, he made only
+that one excursion whose end was undignified, a few miles away he
+excited the derision of his "subjects," and a few miles farther off they
+had not heard of him. Dr. Mueller, after reproving us sternly for smiling
+at the national decoration, in several classes, with which his Highness
+on landing at the rickety pier was graciously pleased to gladden the
+meritorious natives, admits that at his second coming he will have to
+take various other steps. Austrians and Germans should be brought to
+colonize the country, and not peasants, forsooth, like those who have
+laboriously made good in the Banat, but merchants, manufacturers,
+engineers, doctors, officials and large landowners--not by any means
+without close inquiry, so as to admit only such as are in possession of
+a blameless repute and a certain amount of cash. Dr. Mueller was resolved
+that, so far as lay with him, none but the very best Teutons should
+embark upon this splendid mission. He desired that, after landing, they
+should first of all remain at the harbour, there to undergo a course of
+tuition in the customs and peculiarities of the tribe among which they
+proposed to settle. His compatriots would be so tactful--apparently not
+criticizing any of the customs--that the hearts of the Albanians would
+incline towards them and by their beautiful example they would make
+these primitive, wild hearts beat not so much for local interests but
+very fervently for the Albanian fatherland. One cannot help a feeling of
+regret that circumstances have prevented us from seeing Dr. Mueller's
+scheme put into action.
+
+
+3. SERBS, ALBANIANS AND THE MISCHIEF-MAKERS
+
+In 1913, after the Balkan War, the flags of the Powers were hoisted at
+Scutari, and a frontier dividing the Albanians from the Yugoslavs
+(Montenegrins and Serbs) was indicated by Austria and traced at the
+London Conference. This boundary was still awaiting its final
+demarcation by commissioners on the spot when the European War broke
+out. Then in the second year of the War disturbances were organized by
+the Austrians in Albania--their friend the miscreant ruler of Montenegro
+caused money to be sent for this purpose to the Austro-Hungarian Consul
+at Scutari--and in April and May of that year the Serbs were authorized
+by their Allies to protect themselves by occupying certain portions of
+the country. Various battles took place between those Albanians who were
+partisans of Austria and those who were disinclined to attack the Serbs
+in the rear. The Serbian Government opposed the Austrian propaganda by
+dispatching to that region the Montenegrin Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c], of
+whom we have much to say. He was accompanied by Smajo Ferovi['c], a
+Moslem sergeant of komitadjis. They explained to the Albanians that the
+Serbs had been offered a separate peace with numerous concessions, but
+that Mr. Pa[vs]i['c] had refused to treat. When the two Albanian parties
+discussed the situation by shooting at each other, the Austro-Hungarian
+officers made tracks for Kotor, and that particular intrigue came to an
+end.
+
+When the War was over, the Serbs, sweeping up from Macedonia, were
+requested by General Franchet d'Esperey to undertake a task which the
+Italians refused, and push the demoralized Austrian troops out of
+Albania. Some weeks after this had been accomplished, the Italians,
+mindful of the Treaty of London, demanded that a large part of Albania
+should be given up to their administration. The Serbs agreed and
+withdrew; they even took away their representative from Scutari, where
+the Allies had again installed themselves. The Treaty of London bestowed
+upon the Serbs a sphere of influence in northern Albania, but--save for
+a few misguided politicians--they were logical enough to reject the
+whole of the pernicious Treaty, both the clauses which robbed them in
+Dalmatia and those which in Albania gave them stolen goods. Over and
+over again did the Yugoslav delegates declare in Paris that it was their
+wish to see established an independent Albania with the frontiers of
+1913. These, the first frontiers which the Albanians had ever possessed,
+were laid down by Austria with the express purpose of thwarting the
+Serbs and facilitating Albanian raids. It is true that several towns
+with large Albanian majorities were made over to the Serbs--very much,
+as it turned out, to their subsequent advantage--yet, being separated
+from their hinterland, this was a doubtful gift. Nevertheless, if a free
+and united Albania could be constituted the Serbs were ready to accept
+this frontier, and even Monsieur Justin Godart, the strenuous French
+Albanophile of whom we speak elsewhere, cannot deny that this attitude
+of the Yugoslavs redounds very much to their honour. But before relative
+tranquillity reigns among the Albanians it is, as General Franchet
+d'Esperey perceived in 1918, an untenable line. He, therefore, drew a
+temporary frontier which permitted the Serbs to advance for some miles
+into Albania, so that on the river Drin or on the mountain summits they
+might ward off attacks. These, by the way, had their origin far more in
+the border population's empty stomachs than in their animus against the
+Slavs. And nobody with knowledge of this people could regard the 1918
+frontier as unnecessary. The Albanians were themselves so much inclined
+to acquiesce that one must ask why, in the months which followed, there
+was a considerable amount of border fighting. What was it that caused
+the Albanians in the region of Scutari to make their violent onslaughts
+of December 1919 and January 1920, the renewed offensive of July 1920 at
+the same places--after which the Albanian Government forwarded to that
+of Belgrade an assurance of goodwill--and the organized thrust of August
+13 against Dibra, which was preceded on August 10 by a manifesto to the
+chancelleries of Europe falsely accusing the Serbs of having begun these
+operations, and which was followed by the Tirana Government promising to
+try to find the guilty persons? The 19th of the same month saw the
+Albanians delivering a further attack in the neighbourhood of Scutari,
+and then the Yugoslav Government decided that their army must occupy
+such defensive positions as would put a stop to these everlasting
+incidents. But a voice was whispering to the Albanians that they must
+not allow themselves to be so easily coerced. "You have thrown us out of
+all the land behind Valona," said the voice, "and out of Valona itself.
+You must, therefore, be the greatest warriors in the world, and we will
+be charmed to provide you with rifles and machine guns and munitions
+and uniforms and cash. We will gladly publish to the world that your
+Delegation at Rome has sent us an official Note demanding that the
+Yugoslav troops should retire to the 1913 line, pure and simple. Of
+course we, like the other Allies, agreed that they should occupy the
+more advanced positions which General Franchet d'Esperey assigned to
+them--and to show you how truly sorry we are for having done so, we
+propose to send you all the help you need. In dealing with us you will
+find that you have to do with honourable men, whereas the
+Yugoslavs--what are they but Yugoslavs?"
+
+Anyone who travelled about this time along the road from Scutari down to
+the port of San Giovanni di Medua would inevitably meet with processions
+of ancient cabs, ox-wagons and what not, laden with all kinds of
+military equipment. Some of these supplies had come direct from Italy,
+while others had been seized from the Italians near Valona. The
+detachment of Italian soldiers at San Giovanni, and the much larger
+detachment at Scutari, may have looked with mixed feelings at some of
+these commodities, but on the other hand they may have thought, with
+General Bencivenga,[74] that it was good business--"_un buon
+affare_"--in exchange for Valona to obtain a solid and secure friendship
+with the Albanians. Roads, as he pointed out, lead from Albania to the
+heart of Serbia, and for that reason a true brotherhood of arms between
+Italians and Albanians was, in case of hostilities, enormously to be
+desired. And so the Italians stationed at Scutari, under Captain
+Pericone of the Navy, may have felt that it was well that all those
+cannon captured from their countrymen were in such a good condition.
+They would now be turned by the Albanians against the hateful Yugoslavs.
+["Italy is the one Power in Europe," says her advocate, Mr. H. E. Goad,
+in the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1922), "that is most obviously and most
+consistently working for peace and conciliation in every field."] ... A
+further supply of military material is said to have reached the
+Albanians from Gabriele d'Annunzio in the S.S. _Knin_. To the Irish, the
+Egyptians and the Turks the poet-filibuster had merely sent greetings.
+Some one may have told him that even the most lyrical greeting would
+not be valued by the Albanians half as much as a shipload of munitions.
+
+For a considerable time the more intelligent Italians had noticed that
+these two Balkan peoples were disposed to live in amicable terms with
+one another. Traditions that are so powerful with an illiterate
+people--under five per thousand of the Albanians who have stayed in
+their own country can read and write--numerous traditions speak of
+friendship with the Serbs: Lek, the great legislator, was related to
+Serbian princes; Skanderbeg was an ally of the Serbs; "Most of the
+celebrated leaders of northern Albania and Montenegro," says Miss
+Durham, "seem to have been of mixed Serbian-Albanian blood"; Mustapha
+Vezir Bushatli strove together with Prince Milo[vs] against the Turks,
+and the same cause united the Serbian authorities to the famous Vezir
+Mahmud Begovi['c] of Pe['c]. A primitive people like the Albanians
+admire the warlike attributes beyond all others, and the exploits of the
+Serbian army in the European War inclined the hearts of the Albanians
+towards their neighbours. Some of them remembered at this juncture that
+their great-grandfathers or grandfathers had only become Albanian after
+having accepted the Muhammedan religion; now the old ikons were taken
+from their hiding-places. And there was, in fact, between the two Balkan
+people a spirit of cordiality which gave terrible umbrage to the
+Italians. So they took the necessary steps: many of the Catholic priests
+had been in Austria's pay, and these now became the pensioners of Italy.
+Monsignor Sereggi, the Metropolitan, used to be anti-Turk but, as was
+evident when in 1911 he negotiated with Montenegro, he is not personally
+anti-Slav. Yet he must have money for his clergy, for his seminary, and
+so forth. His friendship would be easily, one fancies, transferred from
+Rome to Belgrade if the Serbs are willing to provide the cash--and
+nobody can blame him. Leo Freund, who had been Vienna's secret agent and
+a great friend of Monsignor Bumci, the Albanian bishop, was succeeded by
+an Italian. But, of course, the new almoner did not confine his gifts to
+those of his own faith. Many of the leading Moslems were in receipt of a
+monthly salary, and this was not so serious a burden for the Italians
+as one might suppose, since Albania is a poor country, and with no
+Austrian competition you found quite prominent personages deigning to
+accept a rather miserable wage. "And do you think," I asked of Musa
+Yuka, the courteous mayor of Scutari, "that those mountain tribes are
+being paid?" "Well," he said, "I think that it is not improbable." ...
+At the time of the Bosnian annexation crisis the Serbs had as their
+Minister of Finance the sagacious Patchou. The War Minister, a General,
+was strongly in favour of an instant declaration of war, and the Premier
+suggested that the matter should be discussed. He turned to the Minister
+of Finance and asked him whether he had sufficient money for such an
+undertaking. Patchou shook his head. "But our men are patriots! They
+will go without bread, they will go without everything!" exclaimed the
+General. "The horses and mules are not patriots," said Patchou, "and if
+you want them to march you'll have to feed them." The Albanians were so
+little inclined to go to war with Yugoslavia that the Italians had, in
+various ways, to feed them nearly all. And what did the Albanians think
+of these intrigues? At any rate, what did they say? "Italy," quoth
+Professor Chimigo,[75] a prominent Albanian who teaches at Bologna,
+"Italy is always respected and esteemed as a great nation.... The
+Albanian Government," said he, "has charged me to declare in public that
+Albania does not regard herself as victorious against Italy, but is
+convinced that the Italians, in withdrawing their troops from Valona,
+were obeying a sentiment of goodness and generosity." Such words would
+be likely to bring more plentiful supplies from Rome. And fortunately
+the Italians did not seem to suffer, like the Serbs, from any scruples
+as to the propriety of taking active steps against another "Allied and
+Associated Power." When Zena Beg Riza Beg of Djakovica came in the year
+1919 to his brother-in-law Ahmed Beg Mati, one of the Albanian leaders,
+he told him that the Belgrade Government, in pursuance of their policy
+"The Balkans for the Balkan peoples," would be glad if the Italians
+could be ousted from Albania. Zena Beg returned with a request for
+money, guns and so forth; but they were not sent.
+
+Ahmed Beg and Zena Beg are patriotic young Albanian noblemen of ancient
+family and great possessions. But Zena Beg has the advantage of living
+in Yugoslavia, outside the atmosphere of corruption which is darkening
+his native land. Ahmed Beg, who in 1920 was Minister of the Interior,
+Minister of War, Governor of Scutari and Director (in mufti) of the
+military operations against the Yugoslavs, did not accept Italian
+bribes, but he was surrounded by those who did, and thus the gentle and
+industrious young man was being led to work against his own country's
+interests. With him at Scutari was another of the six Ministers of the
+Tirana Government, in the person of the venerable Moslem priest Kadri,
+Minister of Justice, and one of the four Regents, Monsignor Bumci. There
+was about it all an Oriental odour of the less desirable kind, which
+caused some observers to say that when Albania obtains her independence
+she will be a bad imitation of the old Turkey--a little Turkey without
+the external graces. When the thoughtful greybeard Kadri went limping
+down the main street, a protecting gendarme dawdled behind him, smoking
+a cigarette; but this endearing nonchalance was absent from the methods
+of government: any Albanian whose opinions did not coincide with those
+of the authorities could only express them at his peril. [Blood-vengeance
+is, to some extent, being deposed by party-vengeance--this having
+originated in the time of Wied, when the politicians were divided into
+Nationalists and Essadists, after which they became Italophils and
+Austrophils, who now have been succeeded by Italophils (who ask for an
+Italian mandate) and Serbophils and Grecophils (who desire that these
+countries should have no mandate, but should act in a friendly spirit
+towards an independent Albania). Meanwhile the Italophils, nearly all of
+them on Italy's pay-roll, were, till a few months ago, in the ascendant,
+and their attitude towards the other party was relentless.] One Alush
+Ljocha, for example, said that he thought it would be well if Yugoslavia
+and Albania lived on friendly terms with one another. Because of this--the
+Government having adopted other ideas--his house at Scutari was
+burned,[76] and when we were discussing the matter at the palace of the
+Metropolitan, Monsignor Sereggi, I found that His Grace was emphatically in
+accord with a fiery Franciscan poet, Father Fichta, with the more placid
+Monsignor Bumci, and with two other ecclesiastics who were present. "We did
+well to burn his house, very well, I say!" exclaimed Father Fichta,
+"because Alush is only a private person and he has no business to concern
+himself with foreign countries." Of course, when Father Fichta made his
+comments on foreign countries it was not as a private person but as a
+responsible editor. Thus in the _Posta e Shqypnis_ during the War he
+denounced Clemenceau and Lloyd George as such foes of humanity that their
+proper destination was a cage of wild beasts, and, after having visited
+France during 1919 as secretary to the sincere and credulous Bumci, he
+contributed anti-French and, I believe, anti-English poems to the _Epopea
+Shqyptare_.
+
+"I have been told," I said, "by an intelligent Albanian who was educated
+at Robert College at Constantinople that the greatest hope for the
+country lies, in his opinion, in the increase of American schools, such
+as that one at Elbasan and the admirable institution at Samakoff in
+Bulgaria, where the Americans--in order not to be accused of
+proselytism--teach everything except religion."
+
+"If I had my own way," cried Fichta, "I would shut up these irreligious
+American schools. Religion is the base of the social life of this
+country."
+
+"And you and the Muhammedans," I asked, "do you think that your
+co-operation has a good prospect of enduring? With a country of no more
+than one and a half million inhabitants it is essential that you should
+be united."
+
+"God in Heaven! Who can tolerate such things?" exclaimed the
+Metropolitan. That very corpulent old gentleman was bouncing with rage
+on his sofa. "Is it not horrible," he cried in Italian, "that this man
+should dare to come to my house and make propaganda against us?"
+
+"Really, sir, I am astonished," said Monsignor Bumci, reproachfully, in
+French, "that you should ask such a question." [It was answered a few
+weeks later, when Halim Beg Derala and Zena Beg--who, being outside
+Albania, were free to utter non-Governmental opinions--said that they
+had not the slightest doubt but that the friendship between the fanatic
+Moslem and the fanatic Catholic would come to an end and each of them
+would again in the first place think of his religion, so that, as
+heretofore, they would regard themselves as Turkish and Latin people
+rather than as Albanian. This foible does not apply to the Orthodox
+Albanians of the South, who are more patriotic.] "I am astonished," said
+the Monsignor, "that you should question our friendship with the Moslem.
+They have been the domineering party, but all that is finished, and we
+are the best of friends. See, they have chosen me to be one of the
+Regents![77] Our Government of all the three religions is very good,
+and," said he, as he thumped the arm of his chair, "it insists on the
+Albanians obtaining justice in spite of our enemies."
+
+It chanced that I had met Father Achikou, Doctor of Theology and
+Philosophy, in the Franciscan church. Because his brother had had
+occasion to kill an editor in self-defence, this, perhaps the most
+enlightened, member of the Albanian Catholic clergy, had been compelled
+to remain for eight months in the church and its precincts, seeing that
+the Government was powerless to guarantee that he would not be overtaken
+by that national curse, the blood-vengeance.
+
+"Well, one cannot praise the custom of blood-vengeance," said the
+Monsignor.
+
+"You spoke," I said, "of your Government insisting on justice for the
+Albanians."
+
+And some time after this Professor Achikou and another prominent young
+priest were deported to Italy and, I believe, interned in that
+country.... With their fate we may compare that of Dom Ndoc Nikai, a
+priest whose anti-Slav paper, the _Bessa Shqyptare_, is alleged to
+exist on its Italian subsidy, and Father Paul Doday, whom Italy insisted
+on installing as Provincial of all the Franciscans (after vetoing at
+Rome the appointment of Father Vincent Prennushi, whom nearly all the
+Franciscans in Albania had voted for). Father Doday, it is interesting
+to note, is of Slav nationality, for he comes from Janjevo in Kossovo,
+but he studied in Italy, and has abandoned the ways of his ancestors.
+This town of some 500 houses, inhabited by Slavs from Dalmatia and a few
+Saxons who are now entirely Slavicized, still retains a costume that
+resembles the Dalmatian, as also a rather defective Dalmatian dialect.
+The Austrians for thirty years endeavoured to Albanize them, but the
+people resisted this and boycotted the church and school. The priest
+Lazar, who defended their Slav national conscience, was persecuted and
+forced to flee to Serbia--he is now Mayor of Janjevo. It usually
+happened, by the way, that the priests of this Catholic town came from
+Dalmatia; but the Slav idea could bridge over the difference between
+Catholicism and Orthodoxy, so that if no Catholic priest was available
+his place would be taken by an Orthodox priest from a neighbouring
+village. Only a few of the natives are anti-nationalists, having been
+brought up, like Father Doday, in some Italian or Austrian seminary.
+There are in Albania to-day about ten such priests who come from
+Janjevo.... How well this Father Doday has served his masters may be
+seen in the case of the Franciscan priest in Shala, who, with the whole
+population of armed Catholics, resisted the Italian advance of 1920.
+Together with Lieut. Lek Marashi he organized komitadjis in Shala and
+elsewhere, his purpose being to liberate his country from the Italians.
+Since these latter could do nothing else against him they compelled the
+Bishop of Pulati to punish him; however, all that the Bishop did was to
+tell the patriot priest to go away. But Father Doday was more willing to
+work for the Italians; he excommunicated his fellow-countryman, on the
+ground that he would not come to Scutari, where his life would have been
+in danger.
+
+
+4. THE STATE OF ALBANIAN CULTURE
+
+But, you may say, one cannot in fairness expect the new Albanian
+Government to achieve in so short a time what the Serbian Government has
+effected among the Albanians of Kossovo, who are being persuaded to
+relinquish their devastating custom of blood-vengeance. Prior to March
+1921, over 400 of its devotees and of brigands had given themselves up
+in Kossovo--turning away from the old days when, as one of them
+expressed it, "a shot from my rifle was heard at a distance of three
+hours' travel"; one of the most eminent among them disdained to
+surrender to a local authority and made his way to Belgrade, where he
+presented himself one afternoon to the astonished officials at the
+Ministry of the Interior. "After all," as Miss Durham has written, "the
+most important fact in northern Albania is blood-vengeance." What we
+must set out to probe is whether the Albanians, if they are left to
+themselves, will be able after a time to administer their country in a
+reasonably satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a very
+low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs and several proverbs were
+all that Consul Hahn could collect for his monumental work,[78] though
+his researches, which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
+One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some idea of
+their aesthetic value; a lover, standing outside the house of his lady,
+invites her to come out to him immediately; he threatens that if she
+disobeys him he will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more,
+he will have it washed and then he will return, howling like a dog.
+Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians, by the way, stated that the
+social life of Caesar's _Bellum Gallicum_ was applicable to the tribes
+which now inhabit southern Albania, those of the north not being equal
+to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known Russian Consul-General,
+tells us of the villages of Retsch and Tschidna, where in winter men and
+women clothe themselves with rags, in summer with no rags--so that in
+the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not to shock the
+natives, would take the precaution of depositing his clothes in some
+convenient cavern. On the other hand, when the ladies in waiting on the
+Princess of Wied drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather,
+the people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called the terrible
+behaviour of their Prince's harem. These mountain people live on maize
+and milk and cheese--salt is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
+by the few educated Albanians as the most competent foreign observer. He
+knew the language well and travelled everywhere. One custom he relates
+of the Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they suspect
+that treasure is buried; on the next morning they look to see what
+animal has left on the ashes the print of its feet, and this tells them
+what sacrifice the guardian of the treasure demands--sheep or hen or
+human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement and water is the sole
+emetic known to the Albanians; it is used in all cases of poisoning. But
+the Albanian's death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot. "In
+Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"--42 per cent. of
+the adults, according to Nopsca, dying a violent death. "It was her good
+government and her orderliness that obtained for her her admission to
+the League of Nations," said the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., in the
+_Morning Post_ of November 29, 1921. And the enthusiastic President of
+the Anglo-Albanian Society is modest enough to refrain from telling us
+how much she was indebted to his own championship. The evil eye is
+feared in Albania more than syphilis or typhus. Siebertz[79] mentions a
+favourite remedy, which is to spit at the patient. A ceremonial spitting
+is also used by anyone who sees two people engaged in close
+conversation; very likely they are plotting against the third party, and
+by his timely expectoration their wicked plans will be upset.
+
+Absurd as it may sound, there are not a few Albanian apologists who lay
+the entire blame upon the Turks. They assert--and it is true--that
+Constantinople left this distant province so completely almost to its
+own devices that the suzerain might just as well not have existed. A
+few Turkish officials lived in the towns, in the country they showed
+themselves when they were furtively travelling through it; and the chief
+officials, such as the Vali of Scutari, were wont to be Albanians. And,
+being left by the Turks to evolve their own salvation, they turned
+Albania into a region of utter darkness--at any rate, they did
+practically nothing to shake off the barbarism which they had inherited.
+They have certain alluring attributes, such as their unpolluted mediaeval
+ideas on the sanctity of guests and the punctilious maintenance of their
+honour,[80] their readiness to die for freedom as well as for a quarrel
+about a sheep, and their not infrequent personal magnetism. They are
+very abstemious, their morals are pure, they have certain mental
+qualities, as yet undeveloped, and they are thrifty. But "they are so
+devoid of both originality and unity," says Sir Charles Eliot,[81] that
+acutest of observers, "that it is vain to seek for anything in politics,
+art, religion, literature or customs to which the name Albanian can be
+properly applied as denoting something common to the Albanian race."
+
+The apologists, such as Miss Durham, argue that the other Balkan peoples
+suffered from a good deal of internal tumult after they had set
+themselves up as independent countries. And it is submitted that the
+Albanians would gradually develop the same national spirit as their
+neighbours. But there are as yet, Miss Durham must acknowledge, very
+few signs that this will ever come to pass.
+
+"We are Albanians," said Monsignor Bumci, "we ask for Albania! We demand
+it! Surely you can see that we are all marching together, men from all
+parts of Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are united."
+
+And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian army was returning
+from a foray into Yugoslavia. When they came into the territory of a
+certain tribe they were compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their
+booty. Such incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously the
+conditions still prevail that were described in 1905 by Karl
+Steinmetz,[82] an Austrian engineer who learned the language and
+travelled through the country in the disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The
+tribes cannot conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
+his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up the new State
+these tribal institutions should be used as much as possible. Except in
+the towns, which play a relatively small part in the country's life, the
+voting should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala meet," says
+he, "except for mutual destruction? Will a Mirdite for a nice word give
+up his bandit expeditions to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet
+far too great." More often than not you would find that the Albanians
+regard each other as at the time of the Balkan War, when, for example, a
+Serbian cavalry officer took the village of Puka and asked the mayor to
+lead him to the neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented, but
+after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped. "We are now midway
+between the two villages," he said, "and I can go no farther." "Unless
+you continue," said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
+"_Nukahaile_ [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is all the same to
+me whether I am killed by you or by the men of Duci, and I certainly
+shall be killed if I show myself there."
+
+"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is splendid!" said Monsignor
+Bumci. "And we are not by any means fanatical--with us it is the
+country first and our religion afterwards."
+
+Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman as we have sometimes
+been led to believe. Prenk Bib Doda is said to have cherished the
+precepts of the Catholic Church with such devotion that he could not
+bring himself to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
+wife. We are told that his mother was animated with similar scruples,
+and that, to solve this awkward question the old lady one day seized a
+rifle and shot her daughter-in-law dead. There is not more truth in this
+tale than in that of the brigands who, on a certain Friday, overpowered
+and slew a caravan of merchants between Dibra and Prizren. On examining
+their spoil they are said to have discovered a large amount of meat,
+but, as it was Friday, to have refrained from consuming it. Prenk Bib
+Doda was, as a matter of fact, impotent; and his widow, Lucia Bib Doda,
+survives him.... One agrees with Monsignor Bumci that the Albanian is
+not altogether so blindly a supporter of his Church as we have been
+told, and his murderous intentions against a neighbouring tribe will be
+not at all diminished if they happen to profess the same religion as
+himself.
+
+"Anyone can see," quoth the Monsignor, "that the Government is dear to
+us. Men are coming from all over the country, anxious to execute its
+wishes and to be enrolled against the Yugoslav."
+
+Yes, we saw numbers of men tramping up to Scutari, from boys to
+septuagenarians. They were going to fight--it pleased them enormously.
+But if the Tirana Government had ordered them to go back and work on
+their fields, if it had asked them to take some precautions against the
+ravages of syphilis, if it had expressed the hope that they would no
+longer sell their women for an old Martini, or that the village prefects
+would pay some regard to sanitary matters--in the whole of Albania, says
+Siebertz, there is only one W.C.--then they would have laughed at this
+Government which tried to lay a hand on their ancestral liberties.
+
+"The end of it all is," said the Monsignor, "we are Albanians. We demand
+the independence of our country."
+
+"As a Latin," writes Professor Katarani,[83] "I was fire and flame for
+Albania.... But after a few months I was forced not only to change my
+views about them, but to regret all that I had written in the _Mattino_
+and the _Tribuna_.... They are not a people, but tribes ... they are
+against every principle of public officials, they live the most
+primitive lives. I who know Albania from end to end, who have sacrificed
+myself for that country, am absolutely convinced that there could be no
+greater misfortune than if, in its present state, it were given autonomy
+or independence. Otherwise I confess that an Albania free from any
+foreign Power would be to the interest of Italy." And he concludes by
+saying that the Albanians have done nothing to deserve an independent
+State. It is well known that in the Albanian Societies that after May
+1913 were engaged at Constantinople and Sofia, at Rome and Vienna, in
+striving for the independence of the country it was not the Albanians
+themselves who had the chief word. Those who were initiated into secret
+Balkan policies were aware that Albania was the domain with which
+Article 7 of the old Triple Alliance was concerned.... The fiery
+Albanian patriot, Basri Bey, Prince of Dukagjin, also agrees that in the
+beginning an independent Albania would be productive of anarchy. "I
+greatly regret to acknowledge it," says he,[84] "but Albania is, so to
+speak, the classic type of a country which has never had a real
+government." Nevertheless, he is strongly in favour of independence, his
+reasons being because Albania is "at the same time the old mother and
+the youngest daughter of the Balkans." This flamboyant prince and doctor
+and deputy who denounces both Essad Pasha and his nephew Ahmed Beg Mati,
+has got his own panacea for the country, which is a Turkish army of
+occupation commanded by a French general. Basri Bey seems to confirm the
+remarks of his more enlightened co-religionists, Halim Beg Derala and
+Zena Beg, for whereas the Moslems can claim no more than a rather larger
+third of the inhabitants, he calmly assumes that the whole country is
+Moslem. Albania, he says, is now more than ever attached to Turkey, for
+the attachment is purely moral. ... The influence of this gentleman
+seems to be confined to Dibra, but he has a good opinion of his own
+importance. In 1915, in the days of the greatness of Essad Pasha, he set
+up a Government at Dibra with himself as Prime Minister and Essad Pasha
+as his Minister of the Interior! There does not seem to be much
+justification for Basri Bey to call himself a prince. He is a Pomak, for
+his ancestors were Bulgars who accepted Islam. His father was an
+official of the Turkish Government at Philippopolis.
+
+Father Fichta told me that his countrymen would do very well indeed if
+they could import from other parts of Europe financial help, technicians
+and judges. Some years ago the Turks settled to send two judges to
+Scutari; then the Albanians would no longer be able to charge them with
+not administering the law, so that each man was obliged to take it into
+his own hands. "It is entirely your fault," said the Albanians, "that we
+are driven to adopt the method of blood-vengeance." So thoroughly did
+they adopt it that the assassinations in the region of Prizren,
+Djakovica and Pe['c] amounted, according to Glueck, to a total of about
+six hundred a year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
+Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were murdered.
+
+What memory have the Albanians of their own great men? One sultry
+afternoon, as we were driving in a mule cart from the quaint town of
+Alessio, the driver lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a
+mile of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the driver's
+mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms and bled profusely and was
+doctored by the fierce gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the
+wound, so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the remainder
+of the afternoon our mule went at a walking pace, and presently, to
+while away the time, we begged the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio,
+who was travelling with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
+Skanderbeg. They stared--their mouths were also shut. And finally the
+gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It dealt with Zeph, a man with
+sheep, and Mark who stole them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
+no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day, as he hid behind a
+wall, he fired at Mark and slew him. "That is the song," said the
+gendarme, "about the hero Zeph."
+
+To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb, I think it will be
+generally agreed that some regime other than unaided independence must,
+in the meantime, be established there. One hears of those who argue that
+Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because they are a gifted
+and a very ancient people. They are not more gifted than the Basques,
+and their antiquity is not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
+level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do the Basques as
+compared with theirs. Not many tears are shed by the Basques or by
+anyone else because those interesting men are all the subjects of France
+or Spain.
+
+
+5. A METHOD THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED IN ALBANIA
+
+If only the Albanian question would be taken in hand by
+humanitarians.... Here you have one and a half million of wild
+children.... Build them schools and roads, police their country--they
+themselves agree that the savage atmosphere in the northern mountains
+was radically altered by the Austrians when they occupied that country
+during the War. One has heard of numerous philanthropic societies in
+Great Britain whose object has been more remote and less deserving; if
+some such society would turn to Albania, their educational and economic
+labours might, after a time, be made self-supporting by the permission
+to exploit--of course, with due regard to Albania's future--the forests
+and mines. "To be master in Albania," says M. Gabriel Hanotaux, "one
+would have to dislodge the inhabitants from their eyries"--(another
+French statesman has used a less exalted simile: "Albania," M. Briand
+once said, "is an international lavatory")--and it goes without saying
+that any corporation which undertakes to civilize the Shqyptart would
+need to bring in a military force, on similar lines to the Swedish
+_gendarmerie_ in Persia. The Swedes, in fact, who are a military nation,
+might be glad to accept this mandate; the expenses could be met by an
+international fund. A certain number of Albanians would be admitted to
+the _gendarmerie_; and the more unruly natives would be dealt with as
+they were, for everybody's good, by Austria.... The Yugoslavs would then
+be delighted to accept the 1913 frontier, which is also what the
+Albanians ask for; and Yugoslavs, Italians and Greeks would all retire
+from Albania. There is really no need for the Italians to demand Valona
+or Saseno, the island which lies in front of it. The Italian naval
+experts know very well that the possession of Pola, Lussin and Lagosta
+would not be made more valuable by the addition of an Albanian base.
+
+
+6. THE ATTRACTION OF YUGOSLAVIA
+
+But as Europe has not arrived at some such solution, and since the
+Albanian Government has been prematurely recognized by the Powers, then
+while the Albanians are engaged in the stormy process of working out
+their own salvation, it is only fair that Yugoslavia should be given a
+good defensive frontier. The 1913 frontier is only possible if the
+Albanians are pacific, but as it has now been thought wise to set up an
+unaided and independent Albanian State there is nothing more certain
+than the turmoil of which its borders will be the scene, and this will
+be so whether the Italians do or do not come to the Albanians'
+assistance. What hope is there of even a relative tranquillity on the
+Albanian border when so many of the natives, preferring Yugoslav rule to
+that of their own countrymen, will be waging a civil war? That this
+preference is fairly widespread one could see in 1920 by the number of
+refugees on the Yugoslav side of the frontier. [Of course, a large
+number of Albanians also fled to Scutari and elsewhere from the
+districts lately occupied by the Yugoslav army. In both cases the
+refugees were moved sometimes by hopes for a brighter future, sometimes
+by fears which were caused by their clouded past. To speak first of
+those who fled on account of a guilty conscience, it is evident that
+these were more numerous among the refugees in Albania than among those
+in Yugoslavia, for it was the Yugoslav authorities and not the Albanian
+who extended their sway. Mr. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., wrote[85] "that in
+the North the Yugoslavs had destroyed more than 120 Albanian villages."
+It would have been interesting if he had given us their names, because
+the Yugoslavs appear to have set about it so thoroughly that one cannot
+find anything like that number on the Austrian maps, which are the best
+pre-war maps for those regions. The Anglo-Albanian Society tells the
+British public, in November, 1920, of the 30,000 destitute refugees in
+Albania, and in such a way that the cause of their exodus is ascribed,
+without more ado, to the terrible Yugoslav. But as the names are known
+of a good many Albanians who did not wait for the Yugoslav army, on
+account of past troubles between themselves and Yugoslavs, as also
+between themselves and other Albanians, it would have been as well if
+the Anglo-Albanian Society had reminded the public that all who fly in
+those parts are not angels. It would, on the other hand, be just as rash
+to sing the undiluted praise of those Albanians who, at odds with the
+Tirana Government, thought it opportune to leave their native land; but
+one can safely say, I think, that among these wanderers there was a
+larger proportion of laudable men....] Yugoslavia attracts the Albanians
+for more than one reason--not so much because the ancestors of many of
+these Muhammedan Albanians were, and not so long ago, Christians, as
+because inclusion in Yugoslavia would be to their economic
+advantage--Scutari can scarcely exist without the Yugoslav hinterland,
+while the people of the mountains are longing for that railway which the
+Yugoslavs will only build over land which is moderately immune from
+depredation. Other causes which have made so many of the borderland
+Albanians--to speak only of them--turn their eyes to Yugoslavia are the
+admiration which any primitive people feels for military prowess and the
+knowledge of what has taken place in the Prizren-Pe['c]-Djakovica
+region since it came into possession of the Serbs in 1913. Let us in the
+first place see what sentiments are now entertained by the Albanian
+natives of that region towards their rulers. It goes without saying that
+these sentiments are perfectly well known to those Albanians who live
+outside the Yugoslav frontier.
+
+Well, at Suva Rieka, near Prizren, for example, I found that all the
+Muhammedan inhabitants of Serbian origin are aware that they used to
+celebrate the Serbian national custom of "Slava," still keep up the
+Serbian Christmas Eve customs and often practise the old Christian nine
+days' wailing for the dead. Some of us may think that this new
+pro-Serbian tendency is rather on account of utilitarian reasons; the
+great thing is that it should exist. With rare exceptions, the people of
+Suva Rieka used to live by plunder; now they are sending their children
+to the Serbian school, at any rate the boys, and for the study of
+religion the authorities have made arrangements with a local Moslem. It
+is to be regretted that Miss Edith Durham, whose writings were so
+pleasant in the days before she became a more uncompromising
+pro-Albanian than most of the Albanian leaders, says that if these
+children go to Serbian schools it merely shows to what lengths of
+coercion the Serbs will resort. In 1912-1913 Serbian and Montenegrin
+officers seem to have told her that severe measures would be employed
+against any recalcitrant Albanian parent who might decline to send his
+son to school. Assuming that these officers were not young subalterns,
+that they were quite sober and that they were not rudely "pulling Miss
+Durham's leg," it may be urged that even if the children be driven to
+school at the point of the bayonet, such conduct would compare
+favourably with that of the Albanians towards the Serbs in Turkish
+times. Talking of coercion, I suppose that the progress in agricultural
+methods which one sees around Prizren is only further evidence of
+Serbian tyranny. The _gendarmerie_ on the country roads is composed
+largely of Muhammedan Albanians--doubtless the Serbs have coerced them
+by some horrible threats. And if Miss Durham were to hear that Ramadan
+(_ne_ Stojan) Stefanovi['c] of the village of Musotisti had decided to
+return to the Orthodox faith to which his brothers George and Ilja had
+been more faithful than himself--such variegated families are not
+uncommon--I believe, though I may be doing her an injustice, that her
+first impulse would be to write to the papers in drastic denunciation of
+the Serbian authorities. They have, like most of us, sufficient to
+regret--for example, the person whom they sent to Pe['c], when they
+wanted the land to be distributed, was King Peter's Master of the Horse.
+He was thoroughly unsuitable, and caused a great deal of
+dissatisfaction.
+
+There was a time at the rather gloomy town of Djakovica, when, owing to
+the blood-vengeance, the Merturi were unable for eight years to enter
+the place; now they come in, merely to gaze at the Serbian major who is
+in command. Halim Beg Derala, the aristocratic and wealthy ex-mayor, who
+as a pastime used to plan an occasional robbery in Turkish days, told
+me--he speaks a little French, in addition to Albanian, Turkish, Serbian
+and Greek--that citizens were often unable to leave their houses for two
+months at a time,[86] and although every house was provisioned for a
+siege, yet one frequently had to manage without bread. Now the
+candid-eyed, fair-bearded priest rides out with Ljuba Kujundji['c], the
+erstwhile leader of komitadji, in order to negotiate with the Albanian
+Zeph Voglia, at that personage's own request, for his surrender to the
+Serb authorities. Zeph has written from a forest that he feels uneasy,
+because he owes sixteen blood-vengeances. He asks that his affairs may
+be settled by the law, and those sixteen pursuing countrymen of his have
+signified that this will meet their views, since in the first place the
+Serbs are disinterested in the matters between them, and, secondly, the
+Serbian penalties are not so mild as theirs, not permitting that a
+murder shall be expiated by the payment of a moderate sum or that a
+guilty party may absent himself for three years and suffer no further
+loss than the devastation of his house. Another sphere in which the
+Serbs have gained Albanian sympathies is with regard to the disputed
+ownership of land. Even as the Moors have been in the habit of handing
+down, from father to son, the key of some Sevillan house that vanished
+centuries ago, the Montenegrins, more fortunate, have been appearing
+with the ancient title-deeds of lands that now are in Albanian
+possession. According to Serbian law it is the oldest document which
+prevails. And the Albanians are generously compensated.... Those who,
+with the highest motives, advocate "Albania for the Albanians," may
+argue that the mediaeval activities of Riza Beg and Bairam Beg Zur--whose
+adherents started shooting at each other every evening after six o'clock
+in the refuse-laden streets of Djakovica--would have been concluded and
+would not have been continued by their sons even if the Serbs had not
+appeared. Let them, before proclaiming the modern reasonableness of the
+Albanians, recollect that in 1919 the Moslem Bosniak ex-prisoners
+required on the average three months in order to traverse central
+Albania, the country of their co-religionists. From village to village
+the Bosniaks made their way, earning a little and then being plundered
+at the next place. Eighty per cent. of this population believe, in their
+fanaticism, that the Sultan will again unfurl over them his flag and
+that the world will ultimately be converted to Muhammed. And if,
+entertaining such ideas, they are so rigorous towards their
+fellow-Moslems, what prospect is there that this 80 per cent. will
+assist the Orthodox and Catholic Albanians in building up a State? Their
+ferocity, in fact, is so profound that it thrives on a diet which is
+chiefly of milk.... Perhaps a day will come when the Albanian will
+submit to be ruled by a member of another tribe, when local politics
+will engage his attention less than the silver, iron, copper, arsenic
+and water-power of his country. Perhaps the day will come. Midway
+between Djakovica and the monastery of De[vc]ani there stand two large
+houses side by side. In 1909 a man belonging to one of them slew four
+men of the other house, and on account of this he fled beyond the Drin,
+together with thirteen other men of his family. There is no knowing how
+long these refugees would have stayed away if that part of the country
+had not come under Serbian rule, but in 1919 negotiations were set on
+foot which--to the satisfaction of the members of the other house--would
+enable the thirteen innocent refugees to return, while the criminal
+would be arrested.
+
+As evidence of the cordiality now prevailing between Albanian and Serb
+in Yugoslavia, one may mention those cases where the Albanians in 1919
+entered into a bond that for six months they would exact no
+blood-vengeance from their fellow-countrymen; the number of these debts
+which hitherto had been regarded as debts of honour was very
+considerable, for they were not only incurred by assassination but could
+also be in payment of a mere scowl or of your wife, from within the
+house, having heard the voice of another man raised in song. The Serbian
+authorities are hoping confidently that the Albanians who have thus for
+a season placed themselves under the law will be ready in the future to
+pledge themselves. They are beginning to see that in a place the size of
+Djakovica it should be possible to make a wheel, that one should be able
+to find a shop whose contents are worth more than 100 francs, that the
+breed of their cattle, of their sheep and goats and horses could be
+vastly improved, that if their land were sanely treated it could be
+rendered much more fertile, and that their system of fruit cultivation
+is absurdly primitive.... And with Djakovica and the whole region of
+Kossovo being treated as we have shown by the Yugoslavs I think it will
+be almost as great a surprise to the reader as it was to the local
+population when he learns that in a memorandum of April 26, 1921, the
+Tirana Government complained to the League of Nations that the Yugoslav
+civil and military officials were behaving in a very pitiless fashion
+towards the Albanians. Certainly they have not as yet established
+Albanian schools, but they propose to do so when there is accommodation
+and when teachers are available; and then, maybe, to the disgust of Miss
+Durham, Mr. Herbert, etc., the Albanians of the district will, with an
+eye to the future, prefer to visit the Yugoslav schools.
+
+
+7. RELIGIOUS AND OTHER MATTERS IN THE BORDER REGION
+
+Having glanced at what the Serbs have done in such a very short
+time--most of the years since 1913 being years of war--to win the
+gratitude of their Albanian fellow-subjects, we shall, in following a
+possible frontier between Yugoslavia and the Albanians, at any rate
+believe that many Albanians of those thus coming under Yugoslav rule
+would regard the change, as well they may, with equanimity. Suppose,
+then, that the frontier were to run along the watershed at the top of
+the mountain range to the west of Lake Ochrida. The people living to the
+east of this line in that district would acknowledge their Serbian
+origin. Thence passing to the neighbourhood of the village of Lin and
+from there in a northwesterly direction, so as to include in Yugoslavia
+the Golo Brdo, the so-called Bald Mountains, whose thirty villages are
+inhabited by Islamized Serbs who only speak, with very rare exceptions,
+the Serbian language, one may say that not only would their inclusion in
+Yugoslavia be beneficial to these people, but that they would accept it
+with alacrity. No very deep impression has been made upon them by the
+religion to which, not long ago, they were converted. In the Golo Brdo
+it was in great measure due to the Greek Church which, about the middle
+of the nineteenth century, left the region without a single priest, so
+that children of the age of eight had not been christened, and the
+people in disgust went over to Islam. Near Ochrida, some of them were
+asked whether they frequented the mosque.
+
+"Never," they replied.
+
+"What is your religion?"
+
+"Well, it is very strange," they told us, "but we have none."
+
+"What religion did you formerly have?"
+
+"Well, we don't know."
+
+Their priest roams the mountains with his gun, and there has been a
+tendency, since a man in this position received his salary from the
+State, for many to persuade the mufti to appoint them, irrespective of
+whether they could read or write. The devout Moslem is, to the
+exclusion of everything else, a Moslem; but in these districts, where
+the faith was assumed in a moment of pique or as a protection, and where
+the Muhammedan clergy has been so negligent, the people are gladly
+cultivating their Christian relatives. In the district of Suva Rieka one
+hears of conversions to Christianity, and the functionaries bring no
+pressure to bear, unlike the misguided Montenegrin officials who in 1912
+rode into Pe['c], the old Patriarchate, and wanted in their delight to
+have everyone immediately to adopt the Orthodox faith. Now the
+authorities, with greater wisdom, do not interfere in these matters.
+They know that Yugoslavia will have no enemy in that house in the
+village of Brod, between Tetovo and Prizren, where two brothers are
+living together, of whom one went over to Islam. They know that the
+Muhammedan Krasnichi of Albania are proclaiming their kinship with the
+great Montenegrin clan of Vasojevi['c], that the Gashi are calling to
+the Piperi and the Berishi to the Ku[vc]i. The new cordiality will be
+impaired neither by the differences of religion nor by the similarity of
+costume. The average Albanian of Djakovica would not be any fonder of an
+Orthodox fellow-citizen if the latter continues to wear the Albanian
+dress which was generally adopted about a hundred years ago, and the
+Vasojevi['c] may please themselves as to the wearing of a costume which
+they once found so useful in the Middle Ages. They happened to be for
+ten days in the Hoti country for the purpose of wiping out a blood
+affair, and when they were about to fall into the Hoti's hands they
+shouted, "What do you want with us? We are Kastrati!" The Kastrati, to
+whom these Albanian-clad people were led, confirmed the statement, so
+that the Vasojevi['c] earned for themselves the nickname of
+Kastratovi['c].
+
+From the Golo Brdo the best frontier would pass north-eastwards to the
+Black Drin and along that river until it is joined by the White Drin.
+This is a poor country whose inhabitants are, for the most part,
+Moslemized Serbs. About a hundred men are now engaged in excavating the
+very finely decorated Serbian church at Pi[vs]kopalja on the Drin--much
+to the edification of the local Moslems. This church of their ancestors
+was covered in during the Middle Ages in order to conceal it from the
+Turks. Too often the natives' present occupation is brigandage; but from
+of old they have had economic relations with Prizren, to which old town
+of vine-arched, narrow, winding streets and picturesque bazaars these
+countryfolk have been accustomed to come every week. These Moslems (of
+whom there are some 100,000 in the department of Prizren, with 13,000
+Orthodox and 3000 Catholics) used to detest the Christians on account of
+their religion, although half of the Moslems could speak nothing but
+Serbian. The Serbs, it must be admitted, were not always blameless; in
+the early nineties, for example, they suspended a pig's head outside the
+mosque. And the amenities of Prizren were complicated by the hostility
+between Orthodox and Catholic. This was largely due to the fact that, by
+the intervention of the French Consul after the Crimean War, the
+Catholics--descendants of Ragusan emigrants of the Middle Ages--had
+secured the former Orthodox church of St. Demetrius, in which church, by
+the way, the services had come to be held in Albanian. When the Vatican,
+in the second half of the nineteenth century, sent a Serbian priest, the
+congregation had become so thoroughly Albanized that after a year he had
+to leave. The propaganda of Austria, Italy and Russia did nothing
+towards persuading the three religions of Prizren to regard each other
+in a more amicable fashion; while Italy and Austria gave exclusive
+assistance to the Catholics, whom they found in such distress that,
+forty years ago, most of them went barefoot, the presence of the Russian
+Consul was of such importance to the Orthodox that their position at
+Prizren was better than in their old patriarchal town of Pe['c].
+Nowadays, with Austrian and Russian propaganda deleted, there is only
+that of the Italians, whose proposal to create an independent Albania
+(under Italian protection) was at first applauded by some simple folk in
+1919. The Moslem took to accepting Italian money and then honourably
+informing the Yugoslav authorities that they had been appointed as
+agents of Italy; they offered to capture the Franciscan priests with
+whose help the Italians were trying to secure the Catholics; and as for
+the cash, it seems mostly to have been spent in a convivial fashion by
+the Moslems and the Serbs together. This friendship appears likely to
+continue, for the Serbian authorities, so far from countenancing such
+pranks as that of the pig's head, do not even propose to reconsecrate
+their ancient church of Petka. When this building was made into a
+mosque, the Moslem still permitted the Christian women to come and pray
+there, while if a Christian man was sick they let him leave a jar of
+water in the mosque all night, so that it might acquire certain
+medicinal properties. It is the intention of the Serbs not to restore
+the church to Christian worship, but to turn it into a museum.
+
+With the frontier then being drawn along the Drin, towards the Adriatic,
+the famous villages of Plav and Gusinje would definitely pass to
+Yugoslavia, in accordance with the wishes of a deputation sent by them
+to Belgrade in 1919. The well-meaning British champions of Gusinje, who
+maintain that this village is furiously antagonistic to the Slav and is
+ready to struggle to the uttermost rather than be incorporated in a Slav
+kingdom, these champions do not, I think, draw a sufficient distinction
+between Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Plav, with its mostly Christian
+population, and Gusinje, where the Moslem preponderates, refused at the
+time of the Berlin Congress to be given to Montenegro, with which they
+had certain local quarrels. Nicholas reported to the Powers which had
+awarded him these places that they were obdurate, for which reason he
+was given in their stead a much-desired strip of coast, down to
+Dulcigno, and nothing could have suited that astute monarch better.
+Nikita--to call him by his familiar name--imagined that the two villages
+would eventually fall to Montenegro, because of the formidable mountains
+which divide them from the rest of Albania; the road from Gusinje to
+Scutari is very long and very arduous. When Montenegro succeeded in
+capturing Plav in 1912, a certain Muhammedan priest of that place joined
+the Orthodox Church and was appointed a major in the Montenegrin army.
+He acted as the president of a court-martial, and in that capacity is
+reputed to have hanged or shot, some say, as many as five hundred of his
+former parishioners, because they declined to be baptized. He told them
+that their ancestors were all Serbs, and that therefore they should
+follow his example. Since the Montenegrins did not restrain this
+over-zealous man, the villagers were naturally not in favour of that
+country. Montenegro had a very small number of good officials, owing to
+Nikita's peculiar management which, in considering his favourites, did
+not regard illiteracy as a bar to the highest administrative or judicial
+post.... The people of Plav and Gusinje have, on the other hand, no
+hostility against Serbia. In November 1918 a detachment of thirty Serbs
+was stationed at Gusinje, what time certain Italian agents put it into
+the shallow minds of some Albanians that Albania desired to be
+independent under Italian protection. Nothing happened when a Serbian
+force came from Mitrovica, except that these agents and a few of their
+tools--be it noted that perhaps half the population is ignorant of the
+Albanian language--withdrew to the Rugovo district, where they tried to
+induce the people to fly with them, so that the world would hear how
+iniquitously the Serbs had acted. Those of Rugovo refused to accompany
+them; in consequence of which there was a fight, some houses were
+burned, some women and cattle were seized. And afterwards the men of
+Rugovo repaired to Gusinje and exacted a vengeance which, the most
+Serbophobe person will admit, had nothing to do with the Serbs. The
+luckless village of Gusinje was again laid waste in 1919 by the
+Montenegrins, but this came to pass as the result of the Montenegrin
+clan of Vasojevi['c] having their property ravaged by some Albanian
+marauders who were prompted by the same Great Power. The Vasojevi['c]
+believed that this evil deed was done by the men of Gusinje, so that
+they destroyed their houses. When the facts were explained to them, the
+Vasojevi['c] said that they were prepared to rebuild the village. And
+now Plav and Gusinje, who ask for Serbian and not Montenegrin officials,
+recognize that it is impossible for them to live except in union with
+Yugoslavia.... Miss Durham's wrath concerning an affair which happened
+during 1919 in this region shows to what lengths a partisan will go. She
+complained with great bitterness that the Serbs had actually arrested a
+British officer whose purpose it was to make investigations.
+
+The Serbs are human beings and are not immune from error; and Miss
+Durham is so determined to expose them that if all her charges were
+dealt with from Belgrade it would necessitate the appointment of one or
+two more officials. But in this particular case she is not the sole
+accuser. A Captain Willett Cunnington--who, according to the President
+of the Anglo-Albanian Society, the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., has
+several years' intimate experience of Albania--said in the _New
+Statesman_ that in consequence of what occurred to Captain Brodie the
+Serbian Government was compelled to apologize abjectly. Now I happen to
+be very well acquainted with the stalwart Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c], the
+Montenegrin who arrested Brodie. Albanians have told me that
+Pouni[vs]a's knowledge of the north and north-west of their country is
+not a matter of villages but of houses. And he has always observed the
+customs which prevail in those houses, so that when he is known to be
+approaching, the people who live at a distance of many hours will come
+to meet him, whether for the pure delight of discharging their firearms
+to his greater glory or for the purpose of seeking his advice. It is not
+because he has studied jurisprudence in Paris that they respect him in
+that bitter region, but because he does not disregard the laws that
+govern the wild hearts on both sides of the frontier. Yet I suppose
+Captain Brodie had never heard of him--poor Captain Brodie! unconscious
+of the great good luck which had brought him into the presence of this
+man who could have made his journey much more pleasant for himself and
+vastly more profitable for his superiors.
+
+This is what Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c] told me:
+
+"At the end of January and the beginning of February 1919, we were
+having a certain amount of trouble in the Gusinje and Plav district,
+where I was acting as delegate of the Belgrade Government. Travellers
+were being murdered, telephone wires were being cut, and so forth. In
+those parts, which I have known for so many years, it is a good deal
+easier to ascertain a criminal's name than to seize him, and I had not
+captured these malefactors when one day I had a message to say that a
+European Commission was approaching. Later on I was told that
+thirty-nine of its members were Albanians. I ordered my lieutenant to
+find out whether they were from our territory, in which case they were
+to be disarmed and brought to me; or from Albania, in which event they
+were to be received politely. A quarter of an hour after this I was told
+that they were all well-known brigands from our State, and there was one
+specially notorious person, Djer Doucha, who in 1912 was converted to
+Christianity and was made a gendarme at the court of King Nicholas; in
+1915, after the Austrian invasion, he was reconverted to Islam and
+became a sergeant of _gendarmerie_. In that position he killed fifty or
+sixty Serbs and Montenegrins, to say nothing of his other acts of
+violence. In 1918, for instance, he murdered seven school-children whom
+he met on the road.
+
+"I had some urgent business at Plav," continued Ra[vc]i['c], "and there
+all these people were brought before me. In addition to the thirty-nine
+Albanians there were three men in British uniforms. I was acquainted
+with one of them, a certain Perola, a Catholic of Pe['c], a former
+Austrian agent who had committed many crimes against the Serbs and had
+lately escaped from the prison at Pe['c]. One of the other two said that
+he was Captain Brodie, whom the London Government had sent as their
+delegate for Albania and Montenegro. I suppose the third man was his
+British orderly; I never heard him speak. But Brodie said many things.
+One of them (which was quite true) was that his Government had not yet
+recognized the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He demanded the
+instant release of his companions. 'Do you know who they are?' said I.
+'That is no concern of yours,' said he. 'Well,' said I, 'they are
+criminals, and it is for the judges to say whether or not they are to be
+liberated.' 'I protest,' he exclaimed, 'in the name of England, against
+their arrest!' 'And I thank you,' said I, 'in the name of the Serbian
+police, for having brought them here.' 'You are a savage, a barbarous
+nation!' said he, 'and you don't deserve to be free and independent.'
+'Sir,' said I, 'if you are an Englishman you should know that we are
+your allies, that you and we have shed our blood for the common cause.
+We love England very much, and I am very surprised to hear a British
+officer speak in this way.' Again he demanded to be set free, he and all
+his people, so that he could continue his mission; but I told him that
+after what I had heard from him and what I had seen of his escort, I
+could not permit him to go on to other villages unless he could show me
+an authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Belgrade. 'I do
+not recognize the Belgrade Government,' said he. 'Whom, then,' I asked,
+'do you regard as the legitimate ruler of this country?' 'King
+Nicholas,' said he, 'and the Government of Montenegro.' So I advised him
+to get a visa from King Nicholas and to come back to perform his
+mission, when that visa would be honoured. 'Anyhow,' said he, 'the
+people of these parts are against Serbia.' Thereupon I sent for the
+chief men and told them to say quite candidly in front of this
+Englishman what they wanted. There were five Moslems, including Islam
+and Abdi Beg Rejepagi['c] (the leading family) and Ismael Omeragi['c],
+also two Christians, of whom I remember Stani[vc]a Turkovi['c]. 'Long
+live Serbia!' they shouted. 'Death to Nicholas and the Albanians!' On
+hearing this Captain Brodie was discontented; he told me that I was a
+savage and did not know how to esteem an Englishman. 'I esteem you very
+much,' said I, 'and because he is wearing a British uniform I won't
+arrest this interpreter of yours.' (By the way, Perola was not acting as
+interpreter in our conversation, as the captain and I were talking
+French.) 'He used to be an Austrian agent,' said I. 'You are a liar!'
+cried Brodie; 'I know this man; he was nothing of the sort.' I remained
+calm, but I told him that he must not speak to me again in such a way. I
+asked him how long he had known Perola, who had got away from our prison
+a month ago. 'I have known him for a month,' said Brodie. 'And now,'
+said I, 'will you please show me your documents?' 'I have none,' said
+he, 'and I do not require any, as I am a British officer.' 'But I have
+read in the papers,' said I, 'that your people arrested and shot several
+persons who were wearing the uniform of a British officer. If you have
+no documents to prove that you are not a spy and that you are a British
+officer I shall have to arrest you.' Then he showed me one with some
+Italian words on it, I think a permission to go somewhere on the Piave
+front. 'From now,' said I, 'you are arrested; no one can come to you and
+you cannot leave this house. Prepare yourself to start to-morrow or the
+day after, if you are tired, for Pe['c], and perhaps Skoplje, so that
+you may prove your identity.' He protested, and declared that he must
+see the people in the neighbouring villages. 'If you are a real
+Englishman,' said I, 'I could not allow you to go by yourself, since
+there are many Moslems in these parts who have been excited against
+England by their hodjas, owing to your war with Turkey. They might kill
+you, and I would be held responsible; so that even if you had the
+necessary documents I could only let you go if precautions were taken to
+guard you. I am sorry,' said I, 'that you should have spoken as you have
+done against the Serbs; in fact, it seems to me that you are doing a
+disservice to England, and that here in this village I am serving her
+more truly.' 'I decline to go to Pe['c],' said Brodie; 'I want to go to
+Scutari.' 'You must go to Pe['c],' said I. He said that I could
+telephone concerning him either to the Belgrade Government or to the
+General at Cetinje. 'Unfortunately,' said I, 'it is these people who are
+with you who cut the telephone wires two days ago.' After this I
+appointed a guard for him. I gave him my room, with soldiers to serve
+him, to keep the room warm and bring him whatever food we had. [Observe
+that the above-mentioned Captain Willett Cunnington wrote in the _New
+Statesman_ that Brodie was treated with "gross indignity."] 'Three
+horses were got ready,' said Ra[vc]i['c] in conclusion, 'and on these
+they rode to Pe['c], accompanied by a guard, both to prevent them from
+escaping and from coming to harm.'"[87]
+
+In its old Albanian days the village of Gusinje was perhaps the most
+inaccessible spot in Europe--it was rarely possible for anyone to obtain
+permission to approach it. Even to Miss Durham, friend of the
+Albanians, this people sent a decided refusal. But now, under the
+guidance of the Yugoslav authorities, they have abandoned these boorish
+ways; Miss Durham could go there at any time, but maybe the village no
+longer attracts her.
+
+
+8. A DIGRESSION ON TWO RIVAL ALBANIAN AUTHORITIES
+
+[We have more than once alluded to the writings of Miss Durham, since
+very few British authors have dealt with Albania, and she has come to be
+regarded as a trustworthy expert. But the flagrant partiality of her
+latest book (_Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_; London, 1920), which,
+moreover, is written with great bitterness, will make the public turn, I
+hope, to Sir Charles Eliot, who is a vastly better cicerone. The present
+ambassador in Japan is, of course, one of the foremost men of this
+generation. His Balkan studies are as supremely competent as his
+monumental work on British Nudibranchiate Mollusca, published by the Ray
+Society when Sir Charles, having resigned the Governorship of East
+Africa, was Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University. Equally admired are
+his researches into Chinese linguistics and his monograph, the first in
+the language, on that most obscure subject, Finnish grammar.[88] Will it
+be believed that in her account of the Balkan tangle Miss Durham does
+not quote Sir Charles Eliot, but Mr. Horatio Bottomley? It seems that
+Mr. Bottomley has not devoted much attention to the Balkans, since in
+November 1920 he poured the vials of his wrath upon the Serbs, who,
+according to his "latest reports from Montenegro," had destroyed no less
+than 4000 Montenegrin houses in the district of Dibra, a place which
+lies some 75 miles by road from the land of the Black Mountain and
+probably does not possess more than two or three Montenegrin houses; but
+he flings hard words against the Serbs, and that is good enough for Miss
+Durham. On the other hand, Sir Charles Eliot, who has travelled largely
+in Albania, wrote the simple facts about that people and they are
+obnoxious to this lady. "It is not surprising to find that there is no
+history of Albania, for there is no union between North and South, or
+between the different northern tribes and the different southern Beys,"
+said he in 1900, and such a people does not undergo a fundamental change
+in twenty years. "Only two names," says Eliot, "those of Skanderbeg and
+Ali Pasha of Janina, emerge from the confusion of justly unrecorded
+tribal quarrels.... Albania presents nothing but oppositions--North
+against South, tribe against tribe, Bey against Bey." (According to Miss
+Durham they are all aflame with the desire to form a nation.) "Even
+family ties seem to be somewhat weak," says Sir Charles, "for since
+European influence has diminished the African slave-trade, Albanians
+have taken to selling their female children to supply the want of
+negroes." (The Albanians are "enterprising and industrious," says Miss
+Durham.) "In many ways," says Eliot, "they are in Europe what the Kurds
+are in Asia. Both are wild and lawless tribes who inflict much damage on
+decent Turks and Christians alike. Both might be easily brought to
+reason by the exhibition of a little firmness.... Albanian patriotism is
+not a home product--had they ever been ready to combine against the Turk
+there seems to be no reason why they should not have preserved the same
+kind of independence as Montenegro; but from the first some of the
+tribes and clans endeavoured to secure an advantage over the others by
+siding with the invaders--papers and books on the national movement are
+written at Bucharest, Brussels and various Italian towns, but they are
+not read at Scutari or Janina. The stock grievance of this literature is
+that the Turks will not allow Albanian to be taught in the schools, and
+endeavour to ignore the existence of the language; but though the
+complaint is well-founded, I doubt if the mass of the people have much
+feeling on the subject." ... Those who are rash enough to assert,
+because Miss Durham says so, that in the last two decades the Albanians
+have made a progress of several centuries may be recommended to the
+testimony of Brailsford[89] (1906), of Katarani (1913), and of the
+Italian Press which, after the retreat of their army to Valona,
+published in 1920 the most ghastly particulars of what befell the
+hapless officers and men who were captured by the Albanians.
+
+Let the British public henceforth go to Sir Charles Eliot and not to
+this emotional lady for its picture of the unchanged Shqyptar. She
+reveals to us that more than one person in the Balkans said that her
+knowledge of those countries is enormous; she has knocked about the
+western Balkans and picked up a good deal of material, but her knowledge
+has its limitations: for example, she makes the old howler of ascribing
+Macedonian origin to Pa[vs]i['c], though his grandfather came not from
+Tetovo in Macedonia but from near Teteven in what is now Bulgaria. Miss
+Durham plumes herself for having sent back to Belgrade the Order of St.
+Sava, and seeing that it is bestowed for learning she did well. But even
+if her acquaintance with Balkan affairs were more adequate--her
+diagnosis of the Macedonian racial problem is extremely rough and
+ready--all the writings of Miss Durham are so warped with hatred for the
+Slav that they must be very carefully approached. Because she thinks it
+will incline her readers towards the Albanians she says[90] that they
+were early converts to Christianity. She omits to mention that the
+Moslem, on arriving in the Balkans, was able to spread his religion much
+more easily in Albania than anywhere else; and again, in the seventeenth
+century, when Constantinople offered many lucrative posts to the Moslem
+there occurred in Albania a great wave of apostasy. Miss Durham speaks
+with pride of the Albanians who during the Great War fought in the
+French, Italian and American ranks. Would it not be more straightforward
+if she added that large numbers were enrolled in the Austro-Hungarian
+army and _gendarmerie_? The special task of the latter was to dislodge
+from their mountain fastnesses those Montenegrins who continued to carry
+on a desperate guerilla warfare against the invader. To pretend that the
+Albanian has earned the freedom of his country by his glorious exploits
+in the War is an absurdity. He is a mediaeval fellow, much more anxious
+to have a head to bash than to ascertain whom it belongs to. The Slavs
+have not always treated their raw neighbours with indulgence; in the
+Balkan War, when their army marched through Albania to the sea some very
+discreditable incidents occurred, whatever may have been the provocation
+they received from the sniping natives and however great be the excuse
+of their own state of nerves. Yet the first stone should be flung by
+that army of Western Europe which, in its passage through the territory
+of a treacherous and savage people, has done nothing which it would not
+willingly forget. And seriously to argue that the Slavs are of an almost
+undiluted blackness, while the Albanians are endearing creatures, is to
+take what anti-feminists would call a feminist view of history. Miss
+Durham tells us that some years ago she stood upon a height with an
+Albanian abbot and promised him that she would do all that lay in her
+power to bring a knowledge of Albania to the English. The worthy abbot
+may have glanced at her uneasily, but noticing her rapt expression
+reassured himself. And she appears to have believed that England,
+eagerly absorbing what she told them of this people, would in August
+1914 make her policy depend on their convenience. But to Miss Durham's
+horror and amazement, Great Britain turned aside from this clear and
+honourable duty. She entered the War as an ally of the Slav, bringing
+"shame and disgust" upon Miss Durham. "After that," says she, "I really
+did not care what happened. The cup of my humiliation was full."]
+
+
+9. WHAT FACES THE YUGOSLAVS
+
+It is not as if Serbia never made mistakes in dealing with the
+Albanians. The Sultan used to govern them by sending in one year an army
+against them, and in the next year asking for no recruits or taxes. The
+Montenegrins, of whom the older generation was bored when it had no man
+to shoot at, used to be on very neighbourly terms with them. Both these
+systems the Albanians could understand. But they did not know why the
+Belgrade Government in 1878--and it was a mistaken policy--should expel
+a number of Albanians from the newly-won zones, thrusting them across
+the frontier and putting in their place a number of Serbs who were
+settled in Old Serbia. The twofold folly of this plan was not grasped at
+the moment; but for several years the Serbian frontier districts were
+regularly invaded and plundered. The following years of Turkish misrule,
+and especially the young Turkish policy of treacherous force, which
+resulted in Albanian risings every year, may possibly have caused many
+Albanians to be honestly glad when the Balkan War brought the Serbs into
+their country. But of these Albanians not a few would rejoice because
+they hoped that with the help of the Serbian army it would be possible
+to slay the members of some adjacent tribe against whom they happened to
+have a feud. Perhaps the Serbs were so eager to bathe their horses in
+the Adriatic that they did not notice such trifles as the destruction of
+a ford, this having been done to prevent a visit from undesirable
+neighbours. One might have imagined that Serbia, being well known as a
+land of small peasant proprietors--where there is even a law which
+forbids a peasant's house from being sold over his head; he is, under
+any circumstances, assured of so much as will enable him to eke out a
+livelihood--one would have thought that the Albanian _[vc]if[vc]ija_,
+who is nothing more than a slave of the feudal chief, would have
+rejoiced at the arrival of a liberator; and indeed, while the Serbian
+troops were in Albania the peasant refused to give his lord the
+customary third or half of what the land produced, and after the
+departure of the Serbs he was unapproachable for tax-collectors. Who
+knows whether this social readjustment, so auspiciously begun, might not
+have made Albania wipe out her grievances against the Serbs and remember
+only that in the Imperial days of Du[vs]an, even if he was not of the
+most ancient Balkan race, there was prosperity and happiness where now
+is desolation; busy merchants in the seaport towns of Albania, which
+now are ruins; ships sailing in from Venice with the luxuries of all
+the world and taking back with them all those good things, a half of
+which Albania has forgotten how to make? And after that there had been
+times of friendship with the Serb--Dositej Obradovi['c], the philologist
+(one of those amiable persons who invented for the Albanians an
+alphabet), tells us, for instance, how in his travels through Albania he
+was assured by natives that they and the Serbs lived together as if they
+were members of one family, while the Ku['c]i in eastern Montenegro had,
+by a gradual process of assimilation, become transformed from Catholic
+Albanians into Orthodox Montenegrins. It is told that in the wondrous
+hours when the _[vc]if[vc]ija_ gloried in the soil he was about to win,
+even the notoriously wild Klementi, filled with hunger for the land, ran
+down from their fastnesses. But, most unfortunately, at that moment the
+Great Powers decided that Albania was to be an autonomous, hereditary
+State. This interrupted the movement towards reconciliation with Serbia;
+and even now the Serbs will be told by many encouraging people that in
+their efforts to win the regard of Albanians they have an impossible
+task, that if some of them take a step towards you one day they will
+rush back a dozen on the day after. These people will repeat the legend
+that the Albanians have an invincible hatred for the Slavs; but the
+Albanians have not forgotten how, in the course of the Middle Ages, they
+were willingly open to Slav penetration--the Serbian language reached to
+beyond Alessio, the small Albanian dynasties intermarried with Slav
+ruling families, so that they preferred to speak Serbian, and down to
+this day two-thirds of the place-names of northern Albania are of Slav
+origin. One of the most important documents in this connection is a
+letter from the town of Dubrovnik to the Emperor Sigismund in the year
+1434. They inform the Emperor that Andria Topia, lord of the Albanian
+coast, has secretaries who know nothing but the Serbian language and
+alphabet. Thus when the Emperor sends him letters in Latin he is obliged
+to have them translated elsewhere, and the contents of the Imperial
+letters are not kept secret. So the Emperor was forced to write to Topia
+in Serbian.... Long memories are not always inconvenient, and Albanian
+memories are long because, until recent years, all that they knew came
+from tradition--Austria and Italy had not yet become so concerned about
+Albanian education that (forgetting their own illiterates in Bosnia and
+Calabria) the two Allies waved into existence boys' and girls' schools
+up and down the country; so desirous were they that these founts of
+knowledge should be patronized that both Italians and Austrians were
+prepared to pay good money and eke a supply of garments and a
+gaily-coloured picture of King or Emperor, as the case might be; and
+with respect to the cash, not only was each willing to pay but to pay
+more than the other. Yet the Albanian is most mindful of tradition, and
+he is aware that his approach to the Slav in the Middle Ages was blocked
+by the inopportune arrival of the Turks; it is in the nature of man that
+the Albanian was more impressed by the brilliant young States of the
+early princes, with that barbarically sumptuous residence at Scutari
+(the Catholics of Scutari also being in the diocese of Antivari, which
+was under Serb domination) than, centuries later, when he found himself
+confronted with the pitiable population of Old Serbia.
+
+In the Sandjak the task of Yugoslavia will be relatively simple; the
+Albanians who live there are not autochthonous, but arrived at the
+beginning of the eighteenth century on the plateau of Pechter. These
+Klementi--then very numerous--cared nothing for their Serbian origin, so
+that the Patriarch of Pe['c] had to protect himself against them by
+means of a janissary guard--which the Sultan permitted him to maintain
+at his own expense--whereas they were attentive to the teachings of
+their religion, in so far as they obeyed the Catholic missionaries who
+dwelt among them and requested that in their forays they should confine
+themselves to Muhammedan and Orthodox booty. One of the places they
+attacked was Plav, from which they drove the population, and themselves
+henceforward took to living on the fertile fields in summer, while they
+spent the winter in some mountain caverns. But after seven years a large
+proportion of this tribe went back to its ancestral stronghold in the
+Brdo range, from which the Turks had transplanted them to the Sandjak.
+This wish of theirs to go to their old home was gratified after they
+had beaten off the Turks triumphantly in various engagements on the way,
+and even pursued them to their trenches.... The Klementi who had stayed
+on the Pechter were further depleted a few years later, when their
+kinsfolk, answering the appeal of the Archbishop of Antivari, rode up
+there and carried off fifty families who were on the eve of renouncing
+their religion. The final group which remained became Moslem, and with
+such ardour that when the Serbs of Kara George reached the Sandjak they
+found that these Klementi were completely Islamized; they resisted the
+Serbian army with the utmost resolution. Subsequently they attempted to
+convert the Serbian population round them, but with mediocre success,
+for the Klementi themselves were not too strong; moreover, they were
+isolated from the other Muhammedan Albanians.
+
+And yet certain incidents which occurred in the Sandjak during the Great
+War seem to show that even there the task of dealing with the population
+is a troublous one. They are conservative; one sees, for example, a
+woman who has got up very early holding aloft a vessel against the sun.
+This is done with the object of preventing the cows of a certain man
+from giving any milk. But the man is on the alert. He shoots the vessel
+out of her hand and proceeds, with an easy mind, about his business.
+Frequently the Austrians disarmed these men, but it is their practice to
+have more rifles than shirts, although during the occupation a rifle
+cost twenty napoleons. It occurred to the Austrian Governor-General of
+Montenegro, Lieut. Field-Marshal von Weber, that these Albanians were
+children and, if treated well, would make useful volunteers. A party of
+them was thereupon sent to Graz, where they were told that they would be
+trained to fight on behalf of the Sultan. Their military education was a
+trifle agitated--for instance, on their second day at Graz they thrashed
+their officers--but when their training was considered adequate they
+were sent to the front, and there they immediately surrendered to the
+Italians. This was not the first time that a body of Albanians had gone
+to Austria. In 1912, for the Eucharistic Congress at Vienna, some two
+dozen of them, in their national costume and conducted by their
+priests, had taken part in the procession. It is said that the financier
+Rosenberg, of whom one has heard, bore a portion of the pretty large
+expenses of the deputation. His title of baron dates from this period.
+Austria's work among the school-children was no more successful than
+among the adults. Remembering that just outside Zadar lies Arbanasi, or
+Borgo Erizzo, a village of 2500 inhabitants, nearly all of whom are
+Albanians, it seemed good to the Austrian authorities to procure from
+that place a schoolmaster who would make suitable propaganda. There was
+at Arbanasi a teachers' institute, as also an Italian "Liga" school
+which was closed by the Austrians during the War, and when the
+schoolmaster arrived at Plav, where the people speak Serbian, he set
+about teaching the children Albanian and also making propaganda for
+Italy, as he was from the "Liga" school.... That fidelity of the five
+hundred men of Plav who clung, as we have related, to their religion,
+had its pendant when the Austrians were engaged in constructing a road.
+The custom was for a potentate of that district to procure for the
+Austrians a sufficient number of men, to whom three or four crowns a day
+would be paid. Any man who disregarded the potentate's summons was
+thrashed by him, and thrashed in such a way that for three days he was
+prostrate. The late Chief of Police at Sarajevo, Mr. Ljescovac, was
+(being a Bosnian subject) administering this district during the
+Austrian occupation. He tried frequently to get particulars from the men
+who had been so mercilessly flogged, with a view to opening an inquiry.
+Their invariable answer was: "I know nothing."
+
+In the days of Charles, another member of the Topia family, a copyist,
+who was in his service, was transcribing the Chronicle of George
+Hamartolos, and twice, thinking of his master, he inserts: "God, help
+Charles Topia." As we leave the Serb and the Albanian face to face,
+sensitive, imaginative, tenacious people, both with very ancient claims,
+we must hope that a happy solution will be found. After all Serbia,
+being in Yugoslavia, is now a Muhammedan and a Catholic Power. She has
+men at her disposal, such as Major Musakadi['c], a Bosnian Moslem who
+deserted from the Austrian army to the Serbs, fought with them on
+several fronts and received the highest decoration for valour, the Kara
+George; then, after the War, he was sent by the Government to command at
+Br['c]ko, a place in his native Bosnia where there is a Moslem majority.
+A few of the Orthodox protested energetically that they would not have a
+Moslem over them; they were received by the Minister of Justice in
+Belgrade. "Gentlemen," said he, "go back to Br['c]ko and when anyone of
+you has earned the Cross of Kara George I shall be glad to see him here
+again." ... As in the old days, the Serbian civilization is far
+superior, but this is not everything; that the Albanian is ready to meet
+it with peace or war he shows clearly as he glides along in his white
+skull-cap, his close-fitting white and black costume, with his
+panther-like tread and with several weapons and an umbrella.
+
+But for the various reasons to which we have alluded he is now much more
+inclined to live in peace with the Yugoslav. Very differently, except if
+they are charged with gifts, does he receive the Italians; even at the
+moment of accepting their gifts of military material and cash he regards
+them with a more or less concealed derision, for he is impressed, as we
+have pointed out, by nothing so much as by military prowess and the
+reverse, whereof the news is carried far and wide. At the end of
+September and beginning of October 1918 two weak Yugoslav battalions of
+about a thousand rifles accomplished at Tirana what the large Italian
+forces could not, at any rate did not, achieve. Ten thousand Austrians
+were in the town, and for three months the Italians had sat down outside
+it. Then the Serbs descended on the place from the mountains; their
+carts came by the ordinary road, and on arriving at the Italian lines
+the drivers asked for hay; but when they explained that the rest of
+their force was going round by the mountain trail the Italian commandant
+refused to give any supplies to such liars. (Later on, though, he gave
+them sufficient for five days.) When an Austrian officer who was
+stationed in a minaret saw the Serbs coming down from those terrible
+heights he was so astonished that he felt sure they must be robbers. And
+after they had captured the town and the Italians conducted themselves
+as if it were they who had conquered it, the Serbs took to thrashing
+their allies and ejecting them from the cafes. The Italians did not
+protest....
+
+
+10. DR. TRUMBI['C]'S PROPOSAL
+
+To sum up this part of our long and, I fear, rather tiring dissertation
+on the Yugoslav-Albanian frontier that is to be: the Yugoslav delegates
+at the Peace Conference invariably disclaimed any desire to have
+Albanian lands conferred on them against the wish of the inhabitants.
+According to Prince Sixte of Parma, the ex-Emperor Karl was disposed to
+offer to the Serbs as a basis of peace a Southern Slav kingdom
+consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and the whole of
+Albania. But this last item only made it clear that in his brief tenure
+of the throne the Emperor had grasped something of the grand generosity
+of European statesmen when they deal with the possessions of other
+people in the Near East. The Albanians are not Southern Slavs, and it is
+merely the voice of the thoughtless mob in Montenegro which has been
+claiming Scutari for the reason that they held it in the Middle
+Ages--several of their rulers are buried there--and because 20,000
+Montenegrins gave their lives to take it in the Balkan War. Responsible
+persons in Yugoslavia, such as Dr. Trumbi['c], the former Foreign
+Minister, do not believe that Scutari is a necessity for their
+State--whether Yugoslavia is a necessity for Scutari is another
+question--and they hold that it is quite possible to preserve the 1913
+frontier (perhaps with a minor rectification in Klementi) and live in
+friendship with their neighbours. This, of course, is under the
+assumption that these neighbours will "play the game"--and it is just
+this which the Albanians will be unable to do if they are left to their
+own slender resources. How could one expect so poor--or shall we say so
+unexploited?--a country to make any social progress without the help of
+others? It has become the habit of many Albanians to accept financial
+assistance from Italy; if an independent Albania is now established
+these subsidies will be increased--and he who pays the piper calls the
+tune. If, however, an arrangement could be made for helping the
+Albanians--and the country undertaking this would have to be devoid of
+Balkan ambitions on its own account--then the 1913 frontier would be
+possible. No doubt the cynics will say that the Yugoslavs are aware that
+this is an unlikely solution, and that failing a disinterested Power,
+whose supervision would cause the Albanians during the troublesome
+civilizing process to be moderately peaceable neighbours, failing such a
+Power the Yugoslavs would feel that they were justified in asking for
+the frontier of the Drin. But this frontier I have heard advocated less
+by Yugoslavs of any standing than by those Albanians who despair of the
+administrative capacities of their fellow-countrymen. The Yugoslavs have
+not the smallest wish to add to their commitments, and even if all the
+Albanians on the right bank of the Drin were anxious for Yugoslav
+overlordship--and this, naturally, is not the case--there would be
+serious hostility to be expected from some of those on the other bank.
+If no disinterested Power, such as Great Britain or Sweden, will take
+the matter in hand, then Dr. Trumbi['c] has an alternative proposal,
+which is for a free, independent Albania (with the 1913 frontier) which
+would exist on the Customs and on a loan made by the Great Powers, who
+would put in a Controller charged with seeing that the money were spent
+on roads, schools, etc. A police force, and not an army, would be
+maintained; while, if need be, the country could be neutralized; and Dr.
+Trumbi['c], within whose lifetime bandits and heiduks were roaming
+through Bosnia, believes that the Albanians would gradually discard
+their cherished system of feuds.... This would be the happiest solution,
+for it would leave the Balkans to the Balkan peoples, while it would aim
+at the development of whatever good qualities there are in the
+Albanians, and it would definitely recognize a Yugoslav-Albanian
+frontier which is acceptable to both countries.
+
+
+11. THE POSITION IN 1921: THE TIRANA GOVERNMENT AND THE MIRDITI
+
+While Europe in the year 1921 was either exhausted or belligerent, or
+both, she had a vague knowledge that hostilities were being carried on
+between the Serbs and the Albanians. Telegrams from Rome, Tirana and
+elsewhere appeared in the papers, saying that the Serbs continued to
+advance. Occasionally a Serbian statesman would declare that his
+Government desired the independence of Albania. Then some Albanian
+delegate in Geneva would make a protest and ask the League of Nations,
+of which Albania was now a member, to take this matter in hand. A
+Serbian delegate would also address the League. Again you would hear of
+the Serbian army pushing forward, that a good many soldiers had fallen.
+And no one seemed to know why the Serbs would want to shed their blood
+in order to add to their miscellaneous problems this very grave one of
+administering such a region inhabited by such a people. Why did they not
+content themselves with the frontier which the Powers temporarily
+assigned to them in 1918 and which, from the junction of the Black and
+White Drin, runs south along the rocky right bank of the river and then,
+crossing to the other side, passes along the top of a range of
+mountains? What more could they wish to have, presuming that it was not
+their intention to annex what lay between them and the Adriatic?
+
+Well, it appears that never once did they go beyond the aforementioned
+line to which they were legally entitled, except when for a short time
+they were in pursuit, towards Ljuria, of certain invaders. Not only were
+they legally entitled to take up their position on the mountains to the
+west of the Black Drin, but the Moslem tribes, the Malizi and the Ljuri,
+who dwell in that uninviting district, were most anxious that the Serbs
+should come and should remain. For this the tribes had two principal
+reasons: in the first place, they recognized that their compatriots in
+Djakovica and Prizren were immeasurably better off than before they came
+under Serbian rule; and secondly, they did not wish to be separated from
+these towns which are their markets. In fact, they had become so anxious
+to throw in their lot with the Slavs that they formed six battalions,
+which operated on both banks of the river, under the command of Bairam
+Ramadan, Mahmoud Rejeb and others. In opposition to these battalions
+were the troops of the so-called National Government, that of Tirana.
+This Government is repudiated by a great many Albanians on account of
+its reactionary methods, its subservience to the Italians, and its
+failure to do anything for the people. The battalions, then, were
+engaged in 1921, not against their immediate neighbours to the west, the
+Catholic Mirditi, of whom we shall speak anon, but against the more
+distant Government of Tirana. Thus the League of Nations beheld that the
+administration which they were about to confirm as the legitimate
+Government of Albania was violently opposed by compact masses of
+Catholics and Moslems. Perhaps some of the members of the League began
+to doubt whether they should have accepted the assurance of the
+Anglo-Albanian Society that the Tirana Government (containing Moslem,
+Catholic and Orthodox members) was really a national affair; perhaps
+they began to suspect that the two Christian elements were only there to
+throw a little dust in the eyes of Europe; and perhaps Lord Robert Cecil
+began to feel doubtful whether, at the urgent request of his friend Mr.
+Aubrey Herbert, President of the Anglo-Albanian Society, he had been
+well advised to bring about the admission into the League of a country
+which had two simultaneous Governments before it had a frontier. Perhaps
+one was beginning to recognize that there are Albanians but no Albania.
+
+The emissaries of Tirana might depict as of no importance the
+hostilities that were being waged against them by those Moslem tribes,
+they might tell the League of Nations that the Mirdite revolution was
+not worth considering. It is a fact that the Mirditi are not very
+numerous, but in close connection with their 18,000 people are the Shala
+with 500 houses and the Shoshi with 300. Tradition has it that they are
+descended from three brothers who set out from the arid village of
+Shiroka on Lake Scutari to seek their fortune. The most ancient, the
+most noble and important family of northern Albania is that of
+Gjomarkaj, whose seat is at Oroshi, the capital of the Mirditi. Despite
+enormous difficulties they succeeded in maintaining their own position
+and the prestige of the Mirditi. They refused to recognize the Turkish
+Government and clung so tenaciously to their own usages and laws, and
+were so famous for their courage that the Sultans were eager to grant
+them privileges and concessions. Thereafter they promised to assist the
+Sultan against external aggression, and always did so with great
+success. It was due to the Mirditi that the Albanian mountaineers
+preserved their nationality, their religion and their customs, for they
+were ever the leaders of the other Albanian tribes. The most prominent
+of the Mirditi in our time have been Prenk Bib Doda, who, after long
+years of exile, was assassinated in Albania; Mark Djoni, now the
+President of the Mirdite Republic; and, above all, the great Abbot
+Monsignor Primo Doci, a man of vast culture, who returned to his own
+country after serving the Vatican as a diplomat in various parts of the
+world. It is not surprising that the educational standard of his native
+land filled him with the determination to build schools and that, owing
+to his efforts, the Roman Catholic establishment of thirty native
+priests and of bishops who were nearly all foreigners has developed into
+a body of almost three hundred native priests with no foreign bishops. A
+poet himself, he founded the literary society, _Bashkimi l'unione_, in
+which all capable patriots were invited to collaborate. He constructed
+more than twenty strongholds in and around Oroshi, and when he died in
+February 1917 it was largely owing to the persecution which he suffered
+at the hands of the Austrians. What has latterly aroused his faithful
+people is the persecution levelled at them by the Moslem-Italian
+Government of Tirana.
+
+A certain amount of mystery envelopes the death of Bib Doda; an opinion
+widely held is that Italians were responsible, but Mr. H. E. Goad
+rebukes me in the _Fortnightly Review_ for not knowing that the Italians
+laid aside the crude methods of political murder centuries ago. Perhaps
+he doesn't regard the massacre of the helpless French soldiers at Rieka
+in 1919 as political murder, since they were only privates; perhaps he
+doesn't count that famous expedition of the five lieutenants to
+assassinate Zanella, because it was unsuccessful; but he may be right
+concerning Bib Doda. That personage had been to Durazzo to confer with
+the Italians; he had refused to accept an Italian protectorate in
+Albania, and on his return he was killed in his carriage before he could
+reach Scutari. The chief assailant was a Catholic of Klementi, believed
+to be an adherent of Essad Pasha and also an Italian "agent
+d'occasion." Yet as several Italian soldiers who accompanied Bib Doda
+were wounded it would seem that those, myself included, who believed
+that this affair had been arranged by the Italians were wrong.
+
+As for Bib Doda's fortune, Mr. Goad asserts that by Albanian law he did
+not have to leave it to his nearest kinsman, Marko Djoni. That is, I beg
+to say, precisely what he had to do according to the custom of their
+ancient family. Mr. Goad says that the cash went to the poor; I say that
+a good deal of it went into the pocket of a lady who was much younger
+than the dead man and was on excellent terms with an Italian major. If
+Mr. Goad had visited Albania at that time and had been interested in
+other things besides what he tells us of--the moonlight of Klisura and
+the splendid plane trees over the Vouissa and the sunrise reflected on
+the gleaming mountain-wall of the Nemorica--I would not have to tell him
+all this about Bib Doda's money. He says that Marko Djoni is a
+discredited, disgruntled person who became a tool of the Serbs and fled
+to Serbia. But he forgets that Bib Doda was killed in March 1919, and
+that until May 1921 Marko Djoni remained in Albania, enjoying the
+friendship of Italy rather than that of Serbia. In fact it was not easy
+for him to abandon this friendship, owing to various deals in connection
+with the Mirdite forests. No doubt he resented the loss of his heritage;
+but why in the name of goodness should not he and his followers fight
+for their liberty, and why should the Serbs not help them at a time when
+the frontiers of Albania had not been fixed nor the Government
+officially recognized? The Serbs were helping him to make war, says Mr.
+Goad, against his legitimate rulers. Yet we must be lenient with our Mr.
+Goad, for he himself admits that "few can write of Balkan politics
+without revealing symptoms of that partisan disease." He has made up his
+mind that the Serbs are the villains of the piece, and there, for him,
+is the end of it.
+
+A delegation from the Mirditi, consisting of the Rev. Professor Anthony
+Achikou and Captain Dod Lleche, came to Geneva in October 1921, and
+requested the League not to issue a confirmation of the Tirana
+Government. They showed that this Government had no other aim than to
+turn Albania into a small Turkey. No doubt the Moslems, as the most
+numerous element, had a right to have a majority in the Cabinet, but
+there was no justification in their appointment of pure Turks. (The
+Tirana Government proposed in the autumn of 1921 that any Albanian
+coming from Turkey, who has held a public office there, shall be refused
+admittance into the Albanian Administration until two years after his
+return. This is a proposal but not yet, I believe, an effective law.)
+The Minister of Justice has been old Hodja Kadri, and the Minister of
+War one Salah el Din Bey, an officer of Kemal Pasha, and neither of
+these was acquainted with the Albanian language. When the Mirditi
+started to show their dislike of this Government, the War Minister
+commanded his troops to slay without mercy anyone who dared to raise his
+voice. Thus it came about that the villages of Oroshi, Laci, Gomsice and
+Naraci were destroyed, while those of the inhabitants who could escape
+fled across the frontier to Serbia. As for particular cases of iniquity
+we may instance that of the Moslem officer, Chakir Nizami, who, as a
+manifestation of his hatred for the Christians, had violated at Scutari
+a girl of fourteen whose name was Chakya Hil Paloks. He was sentenced by
+the French military authorities and was liberated by the Minister of
+Justice as soon as the French had quitted Scutari. On the other hand,
+Kol Achikou, a brother of the delegate, had killed a Moslem in
+self-defence and been acquitted by the French court martial; after their
+departure he was taken to Tirana and sentenced to death. But apart from
+all such misdeeds the Mirditi complained that the Tirana Government,
+which could not openly wage war with Serbia, had organized the "Kossovo"
+Committee, whose object it was to foment trouble in Serbia and to send
+armed bands of marauders on to Serbian territory. At the very moment
+when the delegation was at Geneva, one of these bands (in the night
+between October 12 and 13) raided the village of Moji[vs]te, near
+Gostivar. Furnished with Italian machine guns and bombs they came over
+the mountains, set fire to the village and killed many of the people as
+they fled. They are accustomed on such expeditions to steal the children
+and hold them to ransom--a lucrative operation which d'Annunzio's
+arditi[91] may have copied from their Albanian colleagues. It would
+seem, then, according to the statement of the Mirditi, that in the
+conflict on the Black Drin, of which Europe had vaguely heard, the
+Tirana Government and not that of Serbia was the aggressor. Mr. Aubrey
+Herbert may write pathetic letters to the Press, Miss Durham may write
+letters of indignation, but how could their proteges of Tirana be said
+to be valiantly defending themselves against the wicked Serbs when the
+very villages which, said Mr. Herbert, were destroyed--Aras and Dardha
+and so forth--were situated in the district to which the Serbs were
+legally entitled?
+
+The Mirditi delegates had an interview in Geneva with Lord Robert Cecil.
+An attempt was made by the Tirana delegates to discredit Professor
+Achikou, by publishing a telegram from Monsignor Sereggi, the Archbishop
+of Scutari (but which the Professor accused the rival delegate, the
+bearded, bustling Father Fan Noli, of having composed himself),[92] and
+in that message it was stated that Achikou was expelled from Albania.
+This he did not deny; he was, he said, one of 4000 who had been driven
+out by an arbitrary Government and he hoped that they would soon be able
+to return. The message called Achikou a traitor; but that is a matter of
+opinion. It said that he was in the service of a foreign Power; he
+replied that the Mirditi had never concealed their wish to live in
+friendship with their neighbours, and the proof that they envisaged
+nothing more than friendship was that they were petitioning the League
+to recognize the Mirdite Republic. Among the other charges against
+Achikou was one which said that he was sailing under false colours. This
+was an absurd accusation, and one which enabled the reverend Father to
+mention that his opponent Monsignor, who was then being called Bishop,
+Fan Noli, was neither a bishop nor an Albanian, but a simple priest, a
+Greek from Adrianople, whose real name was Theophanus.[93] This clever
+man, who had decided to form an Orthodox Albanian Church and had
+apparently become its bishop without the formality of consecration, had
+enjoyed some success at Geneva owing to his knowledge of languages. He
+circulated a telegram from Tirana which purported to be a disavowal of
+the Mirditi delegation by a number of Mirditi notables; but a reply was
+sent by Mark Djoni, the President of the Mirdite Republic, an elderly
+man of great sagacity and experience, for in Turkish times he had been
+chief magistrate of the Mirditi. He pointed out that all the notables
+and all the tribal chieftains had gone, like himself, into exile, and
+that the names were those of insignificant persons who had acted under
+fear of death. Djoni did not in this telegram allude to the position of
+those Catholic priests and others in northern Albania who support the
+Tirana Government and its Italian paymasters; some of them may believe
+that they are acting in the interest of their country--to act otherwise
+would be perilous, and everyone seems to know the precise number of
+napoleons a month--ranging from the 150 of an ecclesiastical magnate
+down to 71/2 (the pay of a simple gendarme)--which they are alleged to
+receive. Do they ever think of the starving Italian peasants?
+
+On October 7 another telegram was sent from Oroshi (the capital of the
+Mirditi) to the Tirana Delegation which "protested energetically against
+the activities of a certain Anthony Achikou." Yet, on October 9, an
+individual called Notz Pistuli, who had travelled specially from
+Scutari, presented himself at the Mirdite delegates' hotel, and in the
+name of the Scutari National Council asked whether a reconciliation
+could not be made between the Mirditi and the Tirana Government.[94]
+Being told that the Mirditi would have nothing to do with the Turkish
+Government of Tirana, he held out hopes that another Government more
+representative of Albania would soon be constituted. It was remarkable
+that Tirana should have dispatched this envoy after giving out that the
+Mirditi were traitors and that their delegates represented nobody.
+
+Lord Robert Cecil did not at first seem to think that their desire for a
+republic independent of Tirana could be gratified, but on being
+initiated into the facts of the case and told that definitely to reject
+them would look as if he were a foe to Christianity, Lord Robert said
+that such was far from being the case. He would do whatever he could to
+help them. And on the next day it was decided that, in accordance with
+the Mirdite request, a Commission should proceed to Albania.
+
+The Italian delegate, Marquis Imperiali, submitted that there was no
+need to hurry this Commission and Monsieur Djoni explained in a
+telegram[95] that if the Commission went forthwith it would discover in
+Albania cannons, rifles and other war material from Italy, that it would
+find numerous Turkish officers of the Kemalist army who had been brought
+from Asia Minor in Italian ships, and that it would perceive that the
+cannons, the Turkish Government of Tirana, the rifles, the Turkish
+officers, certain Catholic ecclesiastics--in a word, the whole of
+Albania such as it is to-day is nothing else, said he, but a masked
+Italian instrument of war against Serbia--while all the bloody
+consequences of this perpetual struggle have to be endured by the border
+population.... One afternoon, at the beginning of November, 650 Tirana
+soldiers, pursued by the Mirditi, gave themselves up to the Serbian
+authorities on the Black Drin. They had with them a dozen officers of
+whom two were Italians, and these accounted for themselves by saying
+that they had come out to organize and to lead the Albanian army.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, would this be the best solution of the Albanian problem, that the
+Mirdite Republic and that of Tirana should both be recognized, since it
+is quite clear that it would be immoral--and very useless--for Europe to
+try to persuade the Mirditi to place themselves under the Tirana regime?
+But there appears to be no doubt that the Moslems of northern
+Albania--however much they may now sympathize with the Mirditi in their
+attitude towards Tirana--would just as strenuously resist their own
+incorporation in a Christian Republic.... Down at the bottom of their
+hearts all the Albanian delegates who came to Geneva must know that if
+an Albanian State is larger than one tribe it will go to pieces.
+Whatever good qualities may be latent in the Albanian, he is as
+yet--with rare exceptions--in that stage of culture which has no idea of
+duty on the part of the State or of duty towards the State. As an
+example of his views on the exercise of authority we may instance the
+case of the 82 Albanians, led by Islam Aga Batusha (of the village of
+Voksha), who stopped Pouni[vs]a Ra[vc]i['c] and his companions in the
+summer of 1921 while they were riding one day from Djakovica to Pe['c].
+Pouni[vs]a enjoys the fullest confidence of the border tribes because he
+has never been known to break his word; they are very conscious that
+even their vaunted "besa" is not nowadays observed as it was, say fifty
+years ago, for the Austrian and Italian propaganda schools have had an
+unfortunate effect. Well, as the 82 sat round Pouni[vs]a and his friends
+in the courtyard of a mosque, where they spent the whole day
+confabulating, they said they hoped that he, a just and wise man, would
+help them; and their principal grievance was that the Serbian police no
+longer allowed them to kill each other. Why should the police interfere
+in their private affairs? Recently the police had arrested a man whom
+one of these protesters wanted to kill, and therefore he thought he
+would have to kill one of the police. Even those who have spent their
+lives in Serbia are too often at this stage of development--a few years
+ago, in the village of Prokuplje, an Albanian assassinated his neighbour
+and was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. The judge asked the
+dead man's brother if he was satisfied. "No, I am not," he answered,
+"because now I shall have to wait twenty years to kill him." Their
+ancient custom of blood-vengeance continues to flourish, though in
+Serbia the police and public opinion are against it; thus, at Luka, in
+the department of Pe['c], one Alil Mahmoud was murdered by a Berisha to
+avenge his uncle, so that now the sons of this Mahmoud propose to kill a
+Berisha--not the murderer, but one equal in rank to their late father,
+and in consequence Ahmed Beg, son of Murtezza Pasha, of Djakovica, is
+afraid to leave his house, which the Serbian police, at his request, is
+guarding.
+
+How much the Albanian conceives that he owes a duty to the State may be
+instanced by the application of a smuggler that he be granted a permit
+to go to Zagreb in order to dispose of 6000 oka[96] of tobacco which he
+had brought over the frontier. He was talking to a Serb who has the
+confidence of the Albanians because he does not treat them as if they
+were Serbs; and when this father confessor advised him to get rid of the
+tobacco locally (which he succeeded in doing) the Albanian objected that
+the excise officers gave him constant anxiety, they were thieves who
+insisted on payment being made to them if they came across his
+merchandise. And if it be said that this is too humble a case, we may
+mention that of Ali Riza, one of the chief officers of the Tirana army
+which was last year operating against the Serbs. So indifferent is he as
+to the uniform he bears that the year before last, in Vienna, he begged
+an influential Serb to recommend him for a lieutenancy in the Serbian
+army. (His request was not granted because it was ascertained that,
+besides being unable to read and write, his work as an Austrian gendarme
+had been more zealous than creditable.)
+
+
+12. SERBIA'S GOOD INFLUENCE
+
+What, then, is Europe to do with these wild children of hers?... The
+tribes, Catholic and Moslem, who dwell between the Big Drin and the
+frontier allotted to Serbia in 1913, asked the aforesaid Pouni[vs]a in
+1919 to intervene in their quarrels; and the result was that a small
+number of Serbian soldiers were scattered about that country. They were
+placed at the disposal of the chief, whom they assisted in maintaining
+order. (Needless to say, they collected no taxes or recruits, and all
+their supplies came to them from Serbia.) The people were impressed not
+only by the uniform but by the men's conduct. Before going to these
+posts--where they were relieved every two or three months--the men were
+instructed with regard to Albanian customs, and no case occurred of any
+transgression. So rigidly did they enforce the precept that anyone who
+tried to violate or carry off a woman was, if he persisted, to be shot,
+that last year, at Tropolje in Gashi, when the girl in question was
+said to be not unwilling, they pursued the abductors, and in the
+subsequent battle there were fatalities on both sides. The Serbian
+soldiers, for whose safety the village was responsible, made themselves
+so popular that when the Tirana Government appointed one Niman Feriz to
+go to those parts as sub-prefect he was chased away by the people headed
+by the mayor of the Krasnichi, who is a nephew of Bairam Beg Zur, the
+illiterate ex-brigand and ex-Minister of War of the Tirana Government.
+
+Let this system of small Serbian posts be extended over the whole of
+northern Albania, that is to say, in those districts where the natives
+are willing to receive them. After all, the Serbs understand these
+neighbours of theirs. Telephones and roads will be built and eventually
+the railway along the Drin. The northern Albanians will then, for the
+first time, be on the high-road towards peace and prosperity; and if the
+rest of Albania has by then attained to anything like this condition
+everybody would be glad to see a free and independent Albania.
+
+Now what prospect is there of the rest of Albania taking any analogous
+steps? If the regions which at present submit to Tirana decline to
+modify their methods, it would seem that warfare between them and their
+kinsmen to the north and north-east must continue, and that the
+foundations of a united, free Albania will not yet be laid. One might
+presume, from their bellicose attitude, that the Tirana Government
+(extending to and including the town of Scutari) is all against a
+pacific solution; and if one argues that their attitude would be quite
+different without the support they receive from Italy, then the Italians
+would doubtless reply that they have as much right to assist the Tirana
+Albanians as Yugoslavia has to assist those of the north.
+
+But this is not the case. Between Italy and the Albanians there are no
+such ancient political and economic ties as between the Albanians and
+the Serbs. The mediaeval connection with Venice has left with many
+Albanians a dolorous memory, for apart from the fact that Venice, as in
+Dalmatia, was pursuing a merely selfish policy, it was directly due to
+her that the Turkish Sultan, in the fifteenth century, was able to
+establish himself in Albania. Thrice his troops had been repelled by
+those of Skanderbeg when the arrangement was made for them to enter the
+fortress of Rosafat in Venetian uniforms, and then four hundred years
+elapsed before the Sultan's standard was pulled down. In recent times
+the Government of Italy has been furnishing the Shqyptart with schools,
+and these were not its only acts of benevolence towards that wretched
+people. They have given schools and rifles and munitions and gold. The
+Albanians were willing to accept this largesse; but that it forged a
+link between patron and client, that it conferred on the Italians any
+rights to occupy the country, they denied, and enforced this denial in
+1920 at the point of the bayonet. Mr. H. Goad said in the _Fortnightly
+Review_ that this remark of mine is quite unhistorical, since Italy,
+says he, "was in course of withdrawal when certain Albanians, stirred up
+as usual by Jugo-Slavs, attacked her retreating troops." If the
+Albanians had only known that Italy, despite her having been, says Mr.
+Goad, "supremely useful to Albania," had resolved to quit, they would
+perhaps have let them go with dignity. But if Mr. Goad will read some of
+the contemporary Italian newspapers he will see that my allusion to the
+bayonet was much too mild. Utterly regardless of the fact that the
+Italian evacuation was "according to plan," the Shqyptart treated them
+abominably--it brought up memories of Abyssinia--or does Mr. Goad deny
+that even a general officer was outraged and blew out his brains? This
+Albanian onslaught was so far from being stirred up by the Yugoslavs
+that, as we have seen,[97] the Belgrade Government refused to furnish
+them with munitions. This is not to say that they did not approve of the
+Albanian push, for they maintain, in spite of Mr. Goad, the principle of
+"The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples." If Italy, as our strange publicist
+asserts, has a mandate--presumably a moral one--to defend Albania
+against aggression he will find, I think, that the Yugoslavs heartily
+agree with this thesis and that they are also quite determined to defend
+Albania from aggression.... When he asserts that various ties existed
+between Italy and the Albanians--the Albanian language, the feudal
+architecture, much that is characteristic in Albanian art and so
+forth--I would refer him to M. Justin Godart, with whom I am glad for
+once to be in agreement. "There is no traditional or actual link," says
+he, "between the two countries; if, on account of this geographical
+position, they propose to have commercial relations, then everything has
+yet to be established. If there is to be a friendship, we believe that
+Italy must do her best to wipe out many memories.... She has not
+profited from the large number of Albanians in her southern provinces in
+order to have an Albanian policy."
+
+However, the magnanimous Italians came back, declaring that on this
+occasion they would not occupy the country (except the little island of
+Saseno); but that they really could not restrain themselves from
+bestowing the schools, the rifles, munitions and gold. Once more the
+Albanians agreed to accept them; they also accepted the Turkish officers
+and officials whom the Italian ships brought to them from Asia Minor,
+and when their Government became more and more Turkish and more
+intractable they found that they had excited the hostility of large
+numbers of their own compatriots. This developed during 1921 into
+violent conflicts; and the bountiful Italians provided the Tirana
+Government's army with expert tuition. Nevertheless, in the Albanians'
+opinion, there are no bonds between the two races, and if the Italians
+would retire from Albania, permitting the Balkans to be for the Balkan
+peoples, and if the fanatical Turks went back to Asia Minor, it would
+soon be seen that the present rage between northern and central Albania
+would peter out into the isolated murders which the Albanians have
+hitherto been unable to dispense with. Left to themselves the Albanians
+of Tirana would eventually ask for some such assistance from Serbia as
+the northern tribes have received; three months after the departure of
+the Italians from Scutari a plebiscite would show that this town, which
+has lately gone so far as to refuse--yes, even her Moslems have
+refused--to fill the depleted ranks of the Tirana forces, was anxious to
+come to a friendly settlement with her Albanian neighbours and the
+Yugoslavs. This would be a victory of Scutari's common sense over all
+those fanatics and intriguers whose activities involve her death; for
+she cannot possibly thrive if she persists in cutting herself off from
+the hinterland and from the benefits that will accrue from the
+canalization of the Bojana.
+
+However, the Italians--officially or unofficially--will not yet awhile
+leave Albania. And how will this retard or modify the reasonableness of
+those parts which acknowledge Tirana? As for the town of Scutari, it is
+probable that if she found herself permanently cut off by the Mirditi
+from direct communication with Tirana she would allow her incipient
+independence to come more to the surface. With Tirana less capable of
+enforcing her behests the Scutarenes would gradually venture to act in
+their own interests; they would aim at local autonomy within the sphere
+of Yugoslav influence and in the same sphere as their markets. It is to
+be hoped that Yugoslavia will be prepared for this, since she does not
+possess too many educated citizens who understand the Albanian
+mentality. A course of conduct which pays no attention to this would
+alienate even the Turks from Podgorica and Dulcigno, whose acquaintance
+with the very language of Albania is so limited. There seems, however,
+to be no reason why the mixed population of Albanian Moslems and
+Catholics, of Orthodox Serbs and of Moslems who declined to come under
+the all-too-patriarchal rule of Nicholas of Montenegro should not have
+the same happy experience as the inhabitants of Djakovica and Prizren.
+Later on the Scutarenes will be called upon to decide whether they
+prefer, like those other predominantly Albanian towns, to remain in
+Yugoslavia or whether they wish to throw in their lot with a free
+Albania, and in that case their town would become the capital of the
+country. Failing Scutari, the capital would most probably be Oroshi,
+which is now the capital of the Mirditi.
+
+And why, we may be asked, why should not Tirana be the capital? In the
+central parts of Albania, in the country round Tirana, where the natives
+are derisively called "llape" by the warriors of the north and by the
+cultured Albanians of the south, we believe that the assistance of Italy
+will be unable to prevent a collapse. (It must also be remembered that
+the people of the district of Tirana are, for the most part, in
+opposition to the present Tirana Government. This became clear when the
+partisans of Essad Pasha's policy[98] overthrew and imprisoned the
+Tirana Ministers.) Economically and morally Tirana will decline, until
+she is compelled to seek a union with the people of northern Albania,
+those of the south having meanwhile gravitated towards Greece. Then the
+moment will arrive when the north and the south, in their task of
+building up a free and united Albania, will admit the centre under
+various conditions. These will have to be of a rather stern character,
+or so at any rate they will seem to the folk of Tirana: taxes will have
+to be paid, military service or service in the _gendarmerie_ will have
+to be rendered, and schools will have to be established for both sexes.
+
+This, then, is the future country of Albania, which--if one is rash
+enough to prophesy--may exist in fifty years. But there is no risk
+whatever in asserting that a free, united Albania is in the immediate
+future quite impossible.
+
+
+13. EUROPEAN MEASURES AGAINST THE YUGOSLAVS AND THEIR FRIENDS
+
+Berati Beg, Tirana's delegate in Paris, said in an interview with a
+representative of the Belgrade _Pravda_, at the beginning of November
+1921, that he regretted that European diplomats should interfere in the
+Serbo-Albanian question. "Are we not all," said he, "one large Balkan
+family? And if the Powers intervene they will not act in our interests,
+but in their own." He said that it used to be Austria which grasped at
+Albania, now it was Italy. So the delegate showed that he was a
+clear-sighted man; he also showed that in Tirana they are not unanimous
+in loving the Italians. But alas! the Great Powers, urged by Italy, made
+a most disastrous plunge; they actually, at least Great Britain, charged
+the Serbs, their allies, on November 7, with being guilty of
+overstepping the frontier, and on November 9 informed them where this
+frontier was. It is a pity that Mr. Lloyd George should have launched
+such a thunderbolt, the French Government not being consulted.[99] But
+the most probable explanation of this lack of courtesy towards the
+Serbs, and lack of the most elementary justice, is that the Prime
+Minister, with his numerous preoccupations, allowed some incapable
+person to act in his name.[100] The world was told, however, that Mr.
+Lloyd George had sent a peremptory demand for the convocation of the
+Council of the League of Nations so that a sanction should be applied
+against the Yugoslavs. Mr. Lloyd George's substitute was so little
+versed in the business that he did not even know that the League of
+Nations is not a gendarme to carry out the decisions of the Ambassadors'
+Conference. He should have been aware of the fact that this was a
+problem for the Allied States, to be settled by diplomatic or other
+measures, and he should also have known that the League of Nations does
+not--except if invited to arbitrate--concern itself with the
+unliquidated problems left by the War, such as the Turkish question.
+Perhaps that dangerous confusion in the mind of this unknown official
+would not have occurred if Albania had not been illogically admitted to
+the League of Nations. But now, in November 1921, not an instant was to
+be lost in settling this frontier question, which--as the _Temps_
+pointed out--would have been settled months before if Italy had not
+prevented it. (She wished as a preliminary step to have certain claims
+of her own in regard to Albania conceded.) So the Council of the League
+was to be invited to apply Article 16, which could scarcely be invoked
+unless Article 15, which defines a procedure of conciliation, had been
+found of no avail.[101] Thus the misguided person who spoke in the name
+of Mr. Lloyd George was apparently too impetuous to read the texts. And
+then the Serbs were told that they must withdraw practically to the
+frontier which Austria, their late enemy, had laid down in 1913. Well
+might Berati Beg deplore that Italy should take the place of Austria.
+But such commands achieve so little. Very soon, when the troubles in
+Albania continue, as they certainly will, Mr. Lloyd George will see that
+he was misled.... But here it should be stated that while Italy
+persisted throughout in demanding the 1913 frontier (with the
+ludicrously inconsistent proviso that she herself should have the island
+of Saseno, which in 1913 she had demanded for independent Albania), and
+France raised no finger against her, the actual improvements of the
+frontier adopted were entirely due to Great Britain. No one is more
+qualified to speak on this matter than Mr. Harold Temperley of
+Cambridge, who was one of our experts. In his illuminating little book,
+_The Second Year of the League_, he has pointed out that the new
+Albanian frontiers are an improvement on the old--than which, indeed,
+they cannot be worse--because they conform more to natural features,
+they take into account an important tribal boundary (leaving the Gora
+tribe in Yugoslavia), and restore to both parties freedom of
+communication--the road between the Serb towns of Struga and Dibra being
+given to the Serbs, while to Albania is given the road from Elbasan to
+the Serb town of Lin. The rectifications in the Kastrati and the Prizren
+area involve the substitution of natural boundaries for unnatural ones
+in order to protect the cities of Podgorica and Prizren. They confer no
+offensive advantage on the Serbs, nor do they enable them to menace any
+Albanian city.
+
+To any impartial observer it is quite unjust that the Yugoslavs should
+have had to plead against the frontier of 1913. They have not the least
+desire to plant their flag on those undelectable mountains. If the
+frontier of 1913 could be held with moderate efforts against these
+people they would not wish to go an inch beyond it. But those who drew
+this frontier, namely the Austrians, were not much concerned as to
+whether it afforded adequate protection to the Serbs; what they had in
+view was to keep them away from the Adriatic (for which reason an
+arbitrary line cut through the proposed railway which was to link Pe['c]
+to Podgorica and the sea) and to compel the Serbs to station in those
+districts a goodly portion of their army, to which end--so that the
+frontier should be weak--the towns of Djakovica and Prizren were
+separated from their hinterland. The Austrian plan likewise prevented
+the towns of Struga and Prizren from being joined by a road or by a
+railway along the Drin; to go from one to the other it became necessary
+to make an enormous detour. With the rectifications to which we have
+referred, the Ambassadors' Conference decided to insist on them
+returning to this miserable line, instead of permitting them to take up
+their position where General Franchet d'Esperey perceived in 1918 that
+they could be fairly comfortable. Monsieur Albert Mousset, the shrewd
+Balkan expert of the _Journal des Debats_, has remarked that on too many
+parts of the 1913 frontier it is as if one forced an honest man to sleep
+with his door open among a horde of bandits.... The Albanian Government,
+admitted to the League of Nations in December 1920, claimed that the
+international statute of 1913, creating a German prince, the Dutch
+_gendarmerie_ and the International Financial Commission--which happened
+to be inconvenient--was no longer in force; but that the international
+decisions as to the frontiers of Albania--which happened to be
+convenient--were still valid. However, during the War the country had
+been plunged in anarchy, and the Great Powers decided that Albania was,
+in Mr. Temperley's words, a _tabula rasa_, a piece of white paper on
+which they could write what they wished. In November 1921 the
+Ambassadors' Conference finally decided on the frontiers. The gravest
+violation of the ethnic principle was in the Argyrocastro area, where
+many thousands of Greeks and Grecophils were handed over to Albania; as
+for the Serbs, it was only through the efforts of some British experts
+that they obtained any satisfaction at all.
+
+Why did the Ambassadors' Conference arrive at this peculiar decision?
+For a long time the European Press had been publishing telegrams which
+told how the Serbs were ruthlessly invading Albania. Had they advanced
+about half the number of miles with which they were credited, they would
+have found themselves near to the offices of those Italian Press
+agencies. They were held up to vituperation for their conduct towards a
+feeble neighbour. The Mirditi, we were told, had to fly before them;
+whereas the truth was that the friendly Mirditi were driving the troops
+of Tirana helter-skelter towards the Black Drin, where the Serbs--not
+advancing an inch from the boundary which the Allies had for the time
+being assigned to them--received their prisoners. Again we were told
+that the piratical Serbs had seized the town of Alessio. It must have
+annoyed the Mirditi to have this exploit of theirs ascribed to other
+people. And if the newspapers contained too many telegrams of this kind
+they were strangely reticent with regard to what was taking place in the
+shallow Albanian harbours; but the two Italian vessels which--as I
+mentioned in a telegram to the _Observer_--were unloading, without the
+least concealment, munitions and rifles for the dear Albanians at San
+Giovanni di Medua in September 1920, were probably not the only ones
+with such a cargo. Europe and the Ambassadors' Conference were simply
+told that the truculent Serbs were destroying a poor, defenceless,
+pastoral nation. Therefore these Serbs must be ordered back, and
+whatever might be the merits of a hostile Austrian frontier as compared
+with a well-informed French one, at any rate the first of these was
+farther back, so let the Serbs be ordered thither.
+
+It was noticeable that when, on November 17, the British Minister of
+Education, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher (representing Mr. Lloyd George),
+explained before the Council of the League of Nations why Great Britain
+had thought it necessary to act in this Serbo-Albanian affair, he
+founded his case not on Article 16 but on Article 12, which obliges two
+conflicting nations who are members of the League to have their case
+examined by the League. Evidently the suggested application of Article
+16 was now acknowledged to have been a mistake. The blundering official
+in Whitehall should have seen the dignified sorrow with which Yugoslavia
+heard of her great Ally's unjustifiable procedure. So much faith have
+the Southern Slavs always had in the Entente's sense of justice that
+from 1914 to 1918 they continued to give their all, without making any
+agreement or stipulation; more than once the Serbian Government had the
+offer of terms from the Central Powers, but on each occasion, as for
+example during the dark days at Ni[vs] in 1915, they declined to betray
+their Allies.
+
+Mr. Fisher announced that the British Government's action was in no way
+caused by feelings of hostility against the Southern Slavs. All
+Englishmen, in fact, remembered the heroism and fortitude of the Serbs;
+they cherished for Yugoslavia the warmest sympathy. In Mr. Fisher's own
+case it might conceivably have been a little warmer--he was not ashamed
+to repeat the reasons which had induced Great Britain to summon the
+Council of the League. Yet he must have known the comment that he would
+arouse among his audience when they heard him base his arguments
+exclusively upon reports of the Tirana Government, while those of
+Belgrade were ignored; and in their place the delegate thought fit to
+bring up various extracts which had been collected from the Belgrade
+Press. If every organ of this Press were filled with a permanent sense
+of high responsibility, and if Mr. Fisher had made inquiries as to the
+existence in Belgrade of humorous and ironic writers, one is still
+rather at a loss to understand why these miscellaneous cuttings were
+placed before the League, which could scarcely be expected to treat them
+as evidence. The delegate added that he did not think a single nation
+was animated by unfriendly sentiments towards the Southern Slavs--so
+that Italy's unflagging efforts to strengthen the Tirana Government's
+army were prompted purely by the deep love which the Italians--despite
+their having been flung out of Valona--bear for the Shqyptart. Mr.
+Fisher proceeded to say that no better proof was needed of the general
+friendship for the Southern Slavs than the decision of the Ambassadors'
+Conference which, instead of allotting to Albania the frontiers of 1913,
+a method that would have been simpler, had resolved on several
+rectifications in favour of Yugoslavia, in order to prevent disturbances
+on Albania's northern frontier. After what Mr. Fisher had already had
+the heart to say we cannot really be astonished that he, or the people
+on behalf of whom he spoke, should have thought the enemy-drawn frontier
+of 1913 as worthy of the slightest consideration. We are all, I think,
+unanimous, said Mr. Fisher in effect, we are unanimous in our esteem for
+the Yugoslavs and could do nothing which that nation would find hard to
+bear. But after stating that some rectifications had been made in favour
+of Yugoslavia he should have referred to the village of Lin on Lake
+Ochrida whose transference to the Albanians will probably give rise to a
+great deal of trouble, since it is the most important centre for the
+fishing industry. A few of the best Belgrade papers, careless of the
+more than Governmental authority which they enjoyed in the eyes of Mr.
+Fisher, went so far as to allege that Lin's change of sovereignty was
+due to the formation on Lake Ochrida of a British fishing company.... We
+have said that the frontier rectifications were inadequate; but under
+the circumstances they were the best that could be obtained. They were
+most bitterly contested by the Italians, who demanded, as we have said
+above, that Yugoslavia should be given the 1913 frontier. France did
+nothing to help the Yugoslavs in this hour of need, and had it not been
+for the absolutely determined support of Great Britain the pernicious
+frontier of 1913 would have been adopted intact.
+
+Coming to the Mirdite revolt, Mr. Fisher's description is hardly what
+you would call felicitous. Mark Djoni and the other members of the
+Mirdite Government were compelled last July to seek refuge at Prizren in
+Yugoslavia, and since then they have conducted their affairs from that
+place. These circumstances, in Mr. Fisher's opinion, go to prove the
+existence of a Yugoslav plot whose aim it is to separate northern
+Albania from the Tirana Government. Again Mr. Fisher points an accusing
+finger at the Yugoslav officers who, in August, were helping the
+Mirditi; but is it not more natural that these officers should give
+their services to the Christian tribes for whom, as Mr. Bo[vs]kovi['c],
+the chief Yugoslav delegate, said, the Southern Slavs do not conceal
+their sympathy[102] nor the hope that they will gain the necessary
+autonomy--is not this more natural and more deserving of Mr. Fisher's
+approbation than the fact (of which he says no word) that the Moslem
+Government of Tirana has had the active assistance of Italian officers,
+such, for example, as Captain Guisardi, who, in the sector of Kljesh,
+has been in command of the artillery? A further proof that the Mirdite
+movement has been engineered by the Southern Slavs is, in Mr. Fisher's
+opinion, the damning fact that the Republic's Proclamation was composed
+in Yugoslavia and dated there--how brazen some people are! And the
+official Yugoslav Press Bureau has actually circulated the announcements
+of the Mirdite Republic. The question is whether the Yugoslav Government
+was more than benevolently neutral in thus assisting their guests at a
+time when these had not yet got their machinery into working order. When
+the Mirdite Government had made suitable arrangements it spoke to the
+world through its representatives at Geneva or through direct
+communications to the British and French Press. Surely, in considering
+whether the Yugoslav Government allowed themselves to exceed the limits
+of neutrality, one must remember that the Mirdite authorities at Prizren
+were out of all touch with their own army, which was engaged in a
+guerilla warfare. In conclusion, according to Mr. Fisher, the British
+Foreign Office was persuaded that the Mirdite Republic was nothing but
+an instrument of the Yugoslav Government, and that desire for Albanian
+unity extended also to the Christians of that country. The Foreign
+Office had, no doubt, been told that the Tirana Government received the
+support, at last spring's elections, of some north Albanian deputies;
+and possibly they gave no credence to the rumour that these gentlemen
+were much indebted to Italian support. It may have been mere harmless
+curiosity which kept Captain Pericone, the Italian commander, during all
+that day at the Scutari polling-booths, but what is certain is that,
+owing to the influx of Italian money, the value of a hundred silver
+crowns in the morning was 92 lire, and in the afternoon had fallen to
+75. It is likewise a fact that numerous Malissori, finding themselves
+for the first time in possession of bundles of paper and feeling far
+from confident that this was money, hurried off to the bazaar and spent
+it all. Thus were the four friends of the Moslem-Italian[103] Government
+elected, the four deputies who were in favour of Albanian unity under
+that Government; three of them are Christians (Messrs. Fichta, Andreas
+Miedia and Luigi Gurakuqi); one, Riza Dani, is a Moslem. How the latter
+travelled to Tirana I do not know, but the three Christians found that
+the population was so incensed against them that they could not go by
+the direct road; they were forced to sail down the Bojana on the Italian
+ship _Mafalda_, and then along the coast. This, I presume, will be
+considered sufficiently strong evidence that these deputies did not
+represent the people, and that their independence was not exactly of the
+sort ascribed to Gurakuqi by a writer in the _Times_;[104] one need not
+labour the point by mentioning what happened to Father Vincent Prennushi
+whose candidature was vetoed in Rome, so that he was replaced by Father
+Fichta.
+
+This being the state of things one can scarcely argue that the people of
+the north are in favour of a united Albania, as it seemeth good to the
+Ambassadors' Conference, the League of Nations, etc. "We Germans,
+knowing Germany and France," said Treitschke in 1871, "know what is good
+for the Alsatians better than these unfortunates themselves.... Against
+their will we wish to restore them to themselves." The north Albanian
+deputies may join with those of the south and call themselves the group
+of "sacred union"; but they themselves are well aware that it is only in
+the south-central districts that the Government has a majority. That is
+one of the reasons why the seat of Government is Tirana in the central
+part of the country, for the Cabinet lives in apprehension of the
+followers of the late Essad Pasha, and by residing in that country they
+hope to be able to keep it quiet. How long will they be able to do so?
+Have they statesmanship enough to turn aside the animosity of their own
+countrymen? Does their Premier and Foreign Minister, Mr. Pandeli
+Evangheli, possess intellectual resources of a higher order than those
+which one commonly associates with the ownership of a small
+wine-shop?--that was his occupation till he came, some two years ago,
+from Bucharest. When this gentleman had a, perhaps temporary, fall from
+power, the _Times_ of December 16, 1921, wrote of him that "there is no
+Albanian public man with a better record for long disinterested service
+in his country's cause." Alas, poor Albania! We may surmise that Mr.
+Evangheli and his companions do not rely very greatly on their Western
+European patrons who, when it comes to the pinch, will do very little
+for them. I should be surprised to hear that they have caused the
+provisions of the Ambassadors' Conference to be traced in golden letters
+on a wall of their council chamber. And I doubt whether they take very
+great stock of a resolution signed in November 1921, by some twenty
+Members of Parliament and a few outside persons. These expressed their
+approval of Mr. Lloyd George's step in convoking the League of Nations
+for the settlement of the Serbo-Albanian question. If this resolution
+served no other purpose it showed, at any rate, that the signatories are
+such thoroughgoing friends of the Tirana Government that they rushed
+enthusiastically to their assistance, though their deep knowledge of
+affairs--without which, of course, they would never have signed--must
+have caused them to regard the Prime Minister's impulsive action with
+something more than misgiving. It is a minor point that the signatories
+sought to enlist the world's sympathy on the ground that a small
+"neutral State" had been wantonly attacked by the Serbs, because if this
+accusation were true it would not be worth objecting that the Albanians
+were scarcely a State (though some of them were trying to make one) and
+that their neutrality during the War consisted in the fact that they
+were to be found both in the armies of the Entente and--rather more of
+them, I believe--in those of Austria. But the accusation is untrue;
+there are, undoubtedly, a number of fire-eaters in Serbia, as everywhere
+else, yet the Government is not so childish as to wish to squander its
+resources in a region where there is so little to be gained. (The Tirana
+correspondent of _The Near East_ said on November 3, 1921, that the
+Serbian Government was reported to be committing unwarrantable acts,
+giving as an example that Commandant Martinovi['c] had had six million
+dinars placed at his disposal in order to recruit komitadjis and that he
+had himself promised 2500 dinars to each of his men if they succeeded in
+entering Scutari. But this gentleman, a retired officer, lives almost
+exclusively at Novi Sad, where his very beautiful daughter is married to
+M. Dunjarski, one of the wealthiest men in Yugoslavia. Yet neither his
+son-in-law nor the Serbian Government has ever given General
+Martinovi['c] the afore-mentioned sum or any sum at all for the
+afore-mentioned purpose. He goes at rare intervals to his old home in
+Montenegro, of which country he was once Prime Minister. It is natural
+that the numerous refugees from Albania should flock round him--in view
+of his own past prominence and of M. Dunjarski--begging for money and
+food.) The protesting British Members of Parliament registered their
+sorrow that the Serbs should have employed on their anti-Albanian
+enterprise "the strength and riches which they largely owed to the
+Allied and Associated Powers." I was under the impression that the Serbs
+had expended a far greater proportion of their strength and riches than
+any of the Allies,[105] that the Allies had, in 1915, left them in the
+lurch, and that the final success on the Macedonian front was due quite
+considerably to the genius of Marshal Mi[vs]i['c] and the valour of his
+veterans. As for the strength and riches which the Southern Slavs
+possessed in 1921, it surely would not need an expert to perceive what
+the Southern Slav children knew very well, namely, that they could be
+more profitably employed in many other directions. May better luck
+attend the future labours of these Members of Parliament.... A week or
+so before the publication of this foolish manifesto there had been
+issued an equally deplorable Memorandum by the Balkan Committee (of
+London), which, I am glad to say, caused Dr. Seton-Watson to resign from
+that body. This jejune and impudent Memorandum attempted to dictate the
+terms of the Constitution of the Triune Kingdom--an attempt very rightly
+reprobated by _The Near East_.[106] If the Yugoslav Government were to
+adopt the recommendations of the Balkan Committee they would, it seems,
+be in a fair way to solve the Albanian question. Likewise that of
+Macedonia--when will the Committee cease to trouble Macedonia? Their
+object, in the words of Mr. Noel Buxton, is to aim at allaying the
+unrest in the Balkans; it would--I say it in all kindliness--be a move
+in that direction if the other members were to follow Dr. Seton-Watson's
+example.
+
+
+14. THE REGION FROM WHICH THE YUGOSLAVS HAVE RETIRED
+
+What of the population which inhabits the zone between the two frontier
+lines? We have alluded to them as a horde of bandits, we have also
+spoken of the six battalions which they placed at the disposal of the
+Yugoslavs. If it is true that a poet has died in the bosom of most of
+us, it is equally true that in most of the Albanians a brigand survives.
+And if not a brigand, then a mediaeval person with characteristics which
+are more pleasant to read about than to encounter. Yet the Shqyptar, as
+he calls himself (which means the eagle's son) is not without his
+aspirations. Reference has been made to those northern tribes, such as
+the Merturi and the Gashi, who benefited from the small Serbian
+detachments which came in answer to their urgent wish. And on the Black
+Drin the six battalions have shown their fidelity. There would be no
+need to guard oneself against such people. But unfortunately the
+Albanian is so constituted that if, in a hamlet of ten houses, five of
+them are amicably disposed towards you, there is a strong tendency among
+the others to be hostile. When these torch-bearers of an ancient
+tradition come under the rule of an organized State, then they gradually
+feel inclined to discard some of their customs which the State frowns
+upon. This can be seen in the changes among the people of Kossovo since
+it came into Serbian hands. Were the country between the two frontier
+lines to remain under the Serbs it would not be long before some of the
+time-honoured sensitiveness of the Albanians towards each other and
+towards each others' friends would vanish--though it has been found that
+it takes a number of years before they cease observing or from desiring
+to observe the very deeply-rooted custom of blood-vengeance.
+
+A good many of the border Albanians have made it clear that they wish
+for some sort of association with their more cultured neighbours. But on
+this point they are by no means unanimous. The unregenerate part of the
+people will not be able to resist an occasional foray into Yugoslavia.
+And although the reputation which the Serbs have left behind them may
+induce the tribes to be, for the most part, good neighbours, yet they
+have not been long enough under the civilizing process, and the more
+advanced among them would agree with the Yugoslavs that it would have
+been better for that regime to have continued over them. You may object
+that the finest patriots of the Albanians would have preferred to remain
+outside Yugoslavia. But they know that there are many thousands of their
+contented countryfolk in the neighbouring Kossovo and, what is more,
+they know that the towns of Kossovo are their markets.
+
+The Yugoslavs have bowed to the decision of their Allies. And the
+official champions of the too-ambitious League of Nations--overjoyed,
+after various failures and after the Silesian award, to have really
+accomplished something, and something with whose merits the public was
+far less familiar than with the Silesian fiasco--performed a war-dance
+on the Yugoslavs. If that people had been as obstinate, say, as the
+Magyars in the case of Burgenland, no doubt it would have come to
+another Conference of Venice; and Yugoslavia would, like Hungary, have
+returned from there with something gained. But, of course, when it is an
+affair between Allies one scarcely likes to behave in that stubborn and
+unyielding manner which is apparently the right--at all events, the
+successful--conduct for a whilom foe. If the Yugoslavs, in simply
+accepting the judgment of their Allies, acted against their own ultimate
+advantage, they can, at any rate, believe that their complaisance, their
+extraordinary lack of chauvinism, will be recognized. It is true that
+when, on former occasions, such as during the prolonged d'Annunzio farce
+at Rieka, they displayed a similar and wonderful forbearance, they did
+not manage to free themselves from this foolish charge. There happen to
+be a good many people abroad who insist that the new States are, every
+one of them, chauvinist; they think it is the natural thing for a young
+country to be, and especially if part of it lies in the Balkans. But if
+Yugoslavia repeatedly acts in the most correct fashion the day may come
+when she will be able to put a lasting polish on to the reputation which
+her Allies have tarnished.
+
+
+15. THE PROSPECT
+
+We may look forward to seeing the majority of this frontier population
+resolved that the links between themselves and the Yugoslavs shall not
+be broken. Very little will they care for the edicts of European
+Ambassadors. It would not have been surprising to hear that on the
+withdrawal of the Yugoslavs to the prescribed frontier their resourceful
+friends beyond it had procured from Serbia a few volunteers to take the
+place of the official Serbs. And failing this, that rough-and-ready
+people might simply declare themselves to be in Yugoslavia. This time
+they will be unable to persuade the Yugoslav Government to move its
+excise posts more to the west. But if these tenacious men have made up
+their minds to join their brethren on the right bank of the Drin and
+enter Yugoslavia, the Ambassadors' Conference would preserve more of
+their dignity in accepting with a good grace that which they are
+powerless to hinder.... The minority of the border population will go
+raiding in Yugoslavia. If they had been consulted they would have drawn
+the frontier very much as it is. With large areas lying at their mercy
+they will keep the border villages in constant dread. And that is the
+other reason which should induce the Ambassadors' Conference to cancel
+their unwise decision.
+
+It is better when the politicians do not come with advice to the
+battlefield; and in those primitive regions, where part of the people
+cannot, as yet, be restrained from perpetual warfare, it would have been
+better if the politicians had done nothing but confirm the General's
+frontier. Franchet d'Esperey gave it to the Serbs "for the time being,"
+and that period should last until there is no longer any military need
+to hold it. "No General, however distinguished, could possibly have any
+authority whatever to give to any nation the territories of another,
+such as can only be transferred and delineated by treaties and
+international recognition." So says Mr. H. E. Goad, or Captain Goad as
+he has the right to call himself. But it is a pity that he does not
+appreciate the difference between that which is temporary and that which
+is not.
+
+Italy has been given against the Yugoslavs a purely strategic frontier,
+which places under her dominion over 500,000 unwilling Slovenes, whose
+culture is admittedly on a higher level than that of their Italian
+neighbours. And yet the Ambassadors' Conference (in which Italy plays a
+prominent part) has refused to give Yugoslavia a strategic frontier
+against a much more turbulent neighbour, which frontier, moreover, would
+include of alien subjects only a small fraction of the number which
+Italy has obtained. The Albanian frontier now imposed on Yugoslavia is
+very much like that which the treaties of 1815 gave to France, when the
+passage (_trouee_) of Couvin, often called erroneously the trouee of the
+Oise, at a short distance from Paris, was purposely opened. "Formerly,"
+says Professor Jean Brunhes,[107] "the sources of the Oise belonged to
+France, protected, far back, by the two enclaves of Philippeville and
+Marienbourg, both fortified by Vauban." And M. Gabriel Hanotaux[108]
+remarks that this opening of the trouee of Couvin was the reason why in
+1914 France lost the battle of Charleroi.
+
+The Ambassadors' Conference has committed a grave injustice. "Let us
+hope," says M. Justin Godart,[109] a French ex-Under Secretary of
+Hygiene, concerning whose very misguided mission to Albania we have
+written elsewhere,[110] "let us hope," says he--in my opinion one of the
+unjustest men towards Yugoslavia and Greece--"let us hope that
+Yugoslavia will understand that it is unworthy of her to contest the
+decision of the Ambassadors' Conference." It has given to the Yugoslavs
+a frontier that necessitates the presence of a considerable army, and
+this is precisely what suits the Italians. Seeing that in Italy there
+are men alive who can recall their struggles against the Austrian
+oppressor, it is sad that their own country should now be playing this
+very same role. The Ambassadors appear to have taken no notice of
+Italy's support of the Tirana Government, but to have been very drastic
+with respect to Yugoslavia's support of the Mirditi. They have punished
+the Yugoslavs by binding their hands in a district part of whose
+population long for the help of those hands in gaining some
+tranquillity, whereas the other part consists of persons against whom
+one must defend oneself.
+
+The politicians have acted as if all the border folk were as peaceful as
+they doubtless are themselves. In consequence, there will be panic and
+assassination till the politicians--unable to oppose the wishes of the
+majority of those who dwell in the frontier zone--proclaim that until
+further notice General Franchet d'Esperey's wise and prudent
+dispositions shall be honoured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That is the only method by which an Albania can be brought slowly into
+existence. At this moment the cartographers are printing the map of the
+Albanians' country in accordance with the Ambassadors' decision. They
+might spare themselves the trouble. The decision to recognize an
+Albania was as premature a project as, in Mr. Wells' opinion, is the
+League of Nations. A free, united Albania has been recognized, and in a
+little time the Ambassadors' Conference, perceiving that such a thing
+does not exist, will be relieved to see the North and the South taking
+the steps to which we have referred. It is wonderful that the
+Ambassadors' Conference and the League of Nations should imagine that a
+country, most of which is in the social state of the Gallic clans in the
+days of Vercingetorix, can suddenly become a modern nation by the simple
+contrivance of a parliament, which, as a matter of fact, has been the
+caricature of one. In the words of Lord Halsbury, when reversing a
+judgment of the Court of Appeal, I am bewildered by the absurdity of
+such a suggestion. Albania is in need of organizers, not of orators. A
+very competent French traveller,[111] one who believes that a future is
+reserved for this unquenchable people, warns the world against undue
+haste. After describing the deplorable state or the non-existence of
+Albanian schools, roads, ports, the monetary system and the organization
+of credit, he says that it is scarcely an exaggeration to assert that
+from the point of view of economic arrangement everything has to be
+created. This necessitates a Government which knows how to administer
+and which has funds at its command. But there is not the least
+likelihood of regular taxes being paid to a central Government until you
+have security of communication. And even then the native--except if
+force is used--will not pay before he sees the benefit which taxes
+produce. He who for the most part has never given obedience save to his
+village chief will require to see the local benefit. Therefore his whole
+outlook must be changed; slowly from being parochial it must become
+national.... There can be no greater folly than at this stage to aim at
+applying modern usages, equality of taxation, uniformity of judicial
+organization, and so forth. It must be a very slow advance, says M.
+Jaray, taking local traditions and the feudalism, both domestic and
+collective, into account. Even if a central Government had all the
+necessary qualifications, yet that would not cause the people to regard
+it with gratitude and loyalty. It is too remote. The clans have been
+accustomed to look no farther than their own chiefs. Only in serious
+circumstances and against an invasion have they united and chosen a
+common leader. To expect the Albanians rapidly to throw aside their
+clannishness is to prepare for oneself a disappointment. It is in the
+clan that they must be made fit for something more extensive. Let the
+country be recognized not as a nation, but as a collection of clans, and
+let these clans, with any outside assistance they themselves may choose,
+come gradually to understand the word "Albania." ... And what are the
+chances that this will come to pass? No country is more feudal; yet only
+the most thoroughgoing peasant reforms will lay a sure foundation for
+the State.
+
+
+(_b_) THE GREEK FRONTIER
+
+The frontier with Greece has undergone no alteration as a result of the
+War. It is inconvenient in certain details; it runs, for example, at
+such a very short distance to the south of the town of Ghevgeli that the
+prefect has little chance of frustrating those who actively object to
+the payment of import duties. Rather a large number of Slavs, some say
+300,000, live on the Greek side of the frontier, while a far smaller
+number of Greeks live in Monastir. Both the Slavs and the Greeks have
+made sundry complaints, which are more or less justified, against the
+alien authority which governs them. However, during 1919 and 1920, the
+two Governments resolved, in the furtherance of their good
+understanding, to raise none of these questions, neither the claims of
+the derelict Slavs, who are mostly Exarchists, nor of the Monastir
+Greeks, who are mostly hellenized Vlachs. The two countries, while
+Venizelos was in power, were acting on the principles of the Serbo-Greek
+friendship that used to be advocated by _L'Hellenisme_, the newspaper
+which Sir Anastasius Adossides, under Venizelos the enlightened
+Governor-General of Salonica, published for several years before the
+first Balkan War in Paris. Yugoslavia was to have every facility given
+her in Salonica, which course would naturally be the most beneficial to
+that place. And among the minor advantages of really amicable relations
+would be the impossibility of such a state of things as once prevailed
+at Doiran, where the masters of the Greek and Bulgarian schools were
+neither of them in a position to chastise their peccant pupils, who
+could always have the last word by threatening to transfer themselves to
+the rival establishment. It was, I believe, the custom of these young
+scoundrels to remain at one or other of the two schools on the
+understanding that the teacher gave them a retaining fee of so many
+chocolates.... One rather felt, during 1919 and 1920, that the
+Yugoslavs, in their willingness to take the hand of Greece, which had so
+shamefully refused to act upon its obligations in the first half of the
+War, were behaving as if Venizelos would henceforward be retained in
+power by his countrymen. Should the Serbs find themselves hampered in
+their use of the "Free Zone" at Salonica, a moment might arrive when
+they and the Bulgars would, to their mutual advantage, make an
+arrangement with regard to Salonica and her hinterland.
+
+
+(_c_) THE BULGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+There have been various modifications in the frontier line between
+Serbia and Bulgaria. The Bulgars acknowledge that in the case of the
+Struma salient, of the part near Vranja and of the villages on the bank
+of the Timok, it was clearly for the purpose of safeguarding the
+railways; and few people would be found to say that Serbia has been
+other than modest in her demands. Compare the Italian position on the
+Brenner with the Yugoslav frontier against Bulgaria and in the Baranja:
+against Bulgars and Magyars the Yugoslavs only secure a sound defensive
+frontier, whereas Italy obtains a capacity for the offensive against
+Austria.[112] It is rather different with regard to Tsaribrod, on the
+main line between Ni[vs] and Sofia. So good a friend of the Yugoslavs as
+Dr. Seton-Watson has deplored the cession of this small place, since it
+appears likely to imperil a future friendship between Serbia and
+Bulgaria. As a matter of fact the Yugoslav Peace Delegates requested,
+for strategic purposes, a still more southerly frontier on the Dragoman
+Pass, which was denied to them. But Tsaribrod, which is dominated by the
+heights of Dragoman, is anyhow a place of minor importance. It is much
+to be hoped that the inhabitants will not imitate those of the Pirot
+_intelligentsia_ who in 1878 shook off the dust of their town when it
+became Serbian and migrated to Sofia, where they never wearied of
+anti-Serbian agitation. One must do one's best not to retard the arrival
+of that day when it will be almost a matter of indifference as to
+whether a village is situated in Serbia or in Bulgaria. Mr.
+Stanojevi['c], the deputy for Zaje[vc]a, which is not far from the
+frontier, proposed in the Skup[vs]tina that Tsaribrod should be left to
+the Bulgars in exchange for a sum of money. This suggestion was opposed
+by the Radicals, and the far-seeing Yugoslav statesmen who would gladly
+have adopted it were left hoping that the Skup[vs]tina would some day
+decide in its favour.... This moderation on the part of the Serbs has
+been less in evidence at Bucharest and still less at Athens. The Peace
+Conference which felt itself unable to deprive its Ally of southern
+Dobrudja, and unable to resist the persuasive eloquence of M. Venizelos,
+does not seem to have contributed towards a lasting Balkan peace. A
+reviewer in the _Observer_, while approving of Mr. Leland Buxton's hope
+of a Serb-Bulgar reconciliation, asks why this should be effected to the
+exclusion and obvious detriment of Greece. "Why not a Balkan
+Federation?" he asks. In view of the very different races which inhabit
+the Balkans, he might just as well ask, "Why not a European Federation?"
+And the statesmen of the non-Slav Balkan countries do not seem to have
+made serious efforts to prevent the coming of a purely Slav Federation.
+It remains to be seen whether, when that comes to pass, the Greek and
+Roumanian people will have achieved such statesmanship as to make an
+equally small effort to keep under their control their large Slav
+territories.... "We should no longer think of Thrace," said M. Venizelos
+in the Greek Chamber in 1913, "for it is impossible to include in the
+Greek State all those parts where Greeks have lived; we ought to be
+modest and contented with what is most righteous and attainable; we
+ought not to let ourselves be carried away by our imagination."
+
+
+(_d_) THE ROUMANIAN FRONTIER
+
+THE STATE OF THE ROUMANIANS IN EASTERN SERBIA
+
+A new frontier between Yugoslavia and Roumania has been drawn by the
+Allied Powers in the Banat. But before we consider its merits and
+absurdities we must examine the Serbo-Roumanian question in the several
+departments of eastern Serbia. During 1919 one heard a good deal, in
+Bucharest and in Paris, of the pitiful Roumanians whom the Serbs had
+always deprived of their own national schools and churches. It was
+claimed, chiefly by a certain Dr. Athanasius Popovitch, that the
+Roumanians in Serbia were longing for the day of their redemption. On
+March 8, 1919, two deputations of Roumanians from the Timok and from
+Macedonia, who had lately arrived in Paris in order to plead before the
+Conference, presented themselves to the Roumanian colony at 114 Avenue
+des Champs-Elysees. We are told that in consequence of their moving
+narrative, and on account of the loud appeal made by them to all their
+free brothers, the Roumanian colony founded, with great enthusiasm, a
+national league for their delivery. The Vice-President of the league was
+announced to be Dr. Athanasius Popovici. In a pamphlet called _Les
+Roumains de Serbie_ (Paris, 1919), Dr. Draghicesco, a Roumanian Senator,
+denounces the Serb authorities for having obliged Dr. Athanasius, while
+he was a schoolboy, to change his surname into the purely Serbian one of
+Popovitch. "Not being able to endure this regime of violence," we are
+informed, "he expatriated himself and established himself in Roumania."
+But if Dr. Athanasius felt so strongly with regard to his name when he
+was a mere schoolboy, one is puzzled to understand why, being an adult
+and a pamphleteer in 1919, he should be hesitating between Popovitch,
+which is Serbian, and Popovici, which is Roumanian. The Senator does not
+seem to be well informed as to the early years of Dr. Athanasius, who so
+far from expatriating himself as an indignant schoolboy, remained in
+Serbia, where he went through five classes of the gymnasium in Belgrade,
+after which he studied theology in the same town, with a view to
+succeeding his father, who was a priest at Du[vs]anovac in eastern
+Serbia. Later on Athanasius performed his military service at Zaje[vc]a,
+where he married--so one of his sisters told me--one Mileva, the
+daughter of Yovan Stan[vc]evi['c], a merchant. After his marriage he
+went to Jena, in order to continue his studies, and there he became a
+Doctor of Letters. It may be that while he was at Jena he became
+conscious of the regime of violence to which the Roumanians in Serbia
+are subjected; at any rate he decided not to return to that country,
+where his wife and three sisters are well satisfied to live. He launched
+himself into a furious anti-Serbian propaganda in favour of those who,
+in the words of Dr. Draghicesco, are profoundly sad and full of grief at
+being neither Serbian nor Roumanian, who when they meet a Roumanian
+brother listen to him with pleasure and, with their eyes full of tears,
+murmur: "How happy we should be to be with you." ... When I travelled
+through those parts with a view to verifying Dr. Athanasius's
+assertions, I was invariably told by persons of Roumanian origin that
+they had no complaint whatever against the Serbs, and that the last
+thing they desired was to be politically united to the Roumanians of the
+kingdom. Dr. Athanasius might reply that his wretched compatriots were
+impelled by fear to give such answers. But what do they fear?--one finds
+that among these people are deputies, priests, army officers and so
+forth. "To-day," says Dr. Athanasius, "all the peoples who are reduced
+to slavery by other people secure the right to return to their
+fatherland." The Roumanians of Serbia would have to be a good deal more
+miserable before wishing to have anything to do with Roumania. Milan
+Soldatovi['c], ex-mayor of the great mining village of Bor and himself
+of Roumanian origin, said that he had never heard of any one who went to
+work in Roumania. No doubt the present generation of Roumanian
+landowners deeply deplore the misdeeds of their ancestors, who drove the
+ancestors of these peasants away from Roumania. "The peasant hovels were
+merely dark burrows, called _bordei_, holes dug in the ground and
+roofed with poles covered with earth, rising scarcely above the level of
+the plain.... The interior was indescribable. Neither furniture nor
+utensils, with the exception of the boards which served as beds or seats
+and the pot for cooking the _mamaliga_"[113]--his sole food, a paste
+consisting of maize meal cooked in water. And one cannot be astonished
+if the Roumanians in Serbia are chary of believing that their native
+land has changed for the better. "If," said a Roumanian peasant before
+an Agricultural Commission in 1848, "if the boyar could have laid hands
+upon the sun, he would have seized it and sold God's light and warmth to
+the peasant for money." Even in 1919 the peasant still had much reason
+to be dissatisfied, for where the owner parted with his land it was
+usually--no doubt as a stage in the transaction--made over to the
+village as a whole. And if the boyar no longer has the monopoly of the
+sale of alcohol, if he has so far improved that Vallachia is not now
+losing its inhabitants as it was after the Regulations of 1831, when we
+read that "in vain the rivers are assiduously watched, as if in a state
+of siege; the emigrants cross at the places which are clear of troops.
+Emigration is especially rife in winter, when the frozen Danube presents
+an ever-open bridge," yet among the Roumanians of Serbia it has been
+handed down from father to son what happened in the reign of Prince
+Milo[vs]. To take one case out of many such that are preserved in the
+National Archives at Belgrade, a dispatch was sent on February 11, 1831,
+by Vule Gligorievi['c], his representative in those parts, to Prince
+Milo[vs], who was at Kragujevac, enclosing a supplication from the
+priests and other inhabitants of the large Roumanian island called
+Veliko Ostrvo, in the middle of the Danube, praying that they might be
+allowed to cross to Serbia. "We are in great misery," they wrote, "and
+have boyars who are very bad, and we cannot bear the misery in which we
+find ourselves, and in the greatest grief we beg your Highness to let us
+come to Serbia with our wives and children." The Prince had a special
+sympathy for Roumania and was therefore most reluctant to intervene in
+her internal affairs. He adopted a very cautious attitude in this
+matter, but when Gligorievi['c] sent him petition after petition he was
+finally so touched by the recital of their woes that he permitted them
+to cross the river; and one night, with the help of the Serbian
+authorities, the whole island crossed over, to wit 57 families, with 186
+oxen, 70 horses, 694 sheep and 87 pigs. Milo[vs] made them a free grant
+of land for the building of a village, together with a vast stretch of
+territory for pasture and stock-raising; at his own expense he built
+them a church and extended to them all the liberties and advantages
+enjoyed in Serbia by the Serbs themselves. As a token of their gratitude
+these Roumanian emigrants called their village Mihailovac, after the
+name of Michael, the Prince's son. This village is the birthplace of our
+friend Dr. Athanasius, whose sentiments appear to have placed him in a
+minority of one. When his pamphlet came into the hands of Jorge
+Korni['c], the mayor of Mihailovac and a Roumanian by origin, he brought
+it to the prefect at Negotin saying that he wished to have nothing to do
+"with any devil's work."
+
+As Dr. Athanasius and his chauvinist friends give a pretty lurid picture
+of the Roumanian villager who lives in Serbia, I visited a few places
+where the population is wholly Roumanian or Serbo-Roumanian. The 766
+inhabitants of Ostralje are all of Roumanian descent, the mayor being
+one Velimir Mi[vs]kovi['c], a sergeant of reserves who has been
+transferred from the army in order to carry on his municipal duties. All
+the inhabitants speak Serbian and Vlach. "We were always Serbs," they
+said. "Nobody told us that we had migrated to this place." And amongst
+those who assembled to talk with us at the schoolmaster's house there
+was only one who, in the Roumanian fashion, had drawn his socks over his
+white trousers. The 2221 inhabitants of the village of Grljan are about
+two-thirds of Roumanian and one-third of Serbian origin. Formerly they
+each had their own part of the village, but now they are intermingled
+both in the village and in the cemetery. They intermarry freely; thus
+Jon Jonovi['c], the most notable person, who used to represent this
+district in the Skup[vs]tina at Belgrade, has three Serbian
+daughters-in-law. He was a member of the Opposition Liberal group of
+Ribarac. "And did you ever request that your fellow-countrymen should
+have their own Roumanian schools and churches?" we asked. This is one of
+the chief demands of Dr. Athanasius. "I was not the only Roumanian who
+was a deputy," said the old man of the furrowed face. "There was Novak
+Dobromirovi['c] of Zlot; there was Jorge Stankovi['c], for instance; but
+we never thought of asking for such a thing, since we had no need for
+it." The son of the wealthy Sima Yovanovi['c] at Bor observed with a
+smile that the first business of Roumanian schools would have to be the
+teaching of Roumanian. "My father sent me to be educated at Vienna," he
+said, "and when I met some boys from Bucharest we found that our
+language was so different that we had to talk to one another in German.
+And now when a commercial traveller comes here from Roumania I have to
+talk German to him, as I would otherwise have to converse with my hands
+and feet." The French mining officials, by the way, at Bor testified
+that they had never heard of any tension between men of Serbian and
+those of Roumanian origin; the Roumanians, who prefer agricultural work,
+are more attracted to the mines in winter, when over 40 per cent. of the
+1500 employes are Roumanians.
+
+Dr. Athanasius and his friends are agitated, as one would imagine, when
+they discuss with you the numbers of their countrymen. In _Le Temps_ of
+April 22, 1919, they declared that they could produce 500,000, for they
+realized that their previous claim of between 250,000 and 350,000 was
+not large enough to give the Roumanians in Serbia the benefit of the
+principle of nationality. But even this more modest figure will be
+found, on examination, to be exaggerated. In the four north-eastern
+counties of Serbia there were 159,510 Roumanians in 1895; 120,628 in
+1900, and in 1910 a little over 90,000. This diminution, say the
+chauvinists, is due to a falsifying of statistics, for those, they say,
+who have attended a Serbian school are inscribed as Serbs. The truth is
+that everyone is entered according to his mother-tongue. And history
+knows countless instances of a gradual decrease in the case of people
+placed in foreign surroundings and exposed to foreign influences. Like
+the Illyrians who people Dalmatia, the Thracians of ancient Dacia and
+the Serbs who emigrated to Russia in the seventeenth century, the
+Roumanians of Serbia are undergoing this process and are inevitably
+becoming Serbicized. Frequently we noticed that men possessing no
+Serbian blood did not care to admit their Roumanian origin, which,
+however, is no secret to their neighbours in spite of the Serbian
+termination "i['c]" that, in the course of years, has been affixed to
+their names. An allusion to their origin is clearly regarded as lacking
+in delicacy. "Well, my ancestors were Roumanian," is often as much as
+they will admit. And when some enterprising agitators came over from
+Roumania to the department of Po[vz]arevac in 1919, the Roumanians of
+those parts gave up to the authorities all those who did not manage to
+escape. For ten years Lieut.-Colonel Gjorge Markovi['c] commanded the
+9th Regiment, which is chiefly formed of Roumanians from that region.
+They used to tell him that they wanted to have nothing to do with the
+Roumanian boyars. "Here we are boyars ourselves," they said. All of them
+speak Serbian, many of them write it; and on winter evenings they have
+for years received instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic and
+singing, which compares favourably with Roumania's army, in which, as I
+was told at Bucharest, the plan of starting any education had to be
+postponed in consequence of the outbreak of the Great War. Together with
+the unwillingness of these people to acknowledge their origin, one
+observes a general vagueness as to the home of their forefathers.
+Apparently these came over from southern Hungary, whence the name
+Ungureani,[114] or from Tara Rumaneasca, _i.e._ the Roumanian land,
+whence the name Tarani. Others again are descended from Roumanized Serbs
+who came from Kossovo and other Serb regions of the south, lived in the
+Banat and Transylvania among the Roumanian villages, acquired the
+Roumanian language and then crossed over to Serbia. These three classes
+have all come to Serbia in recent times. Any attempt on the part of Dr.
+Athanasius and his friends to drag in the Romans can be answered by the
+undoubted fact that the ancient Roman colonists had completely
+disappeared from Serbia as far back as the fifteenth century, leaving no
+trace at all, and there is no connection between them and the present
+Roumanian population of Serbia. No memories remain of the old Roman
+colonists, save certain place-names which, as Professor Georgevi['c]
+remarks, strike one as surprising in the midst of a purely Serbian
+population. It is interesting to note that these ancient Roman
+place-names are very rare in the regions inhabited to-day by men of
+Roumanian origin.
+
+It would not have been worth whole devoting so much space to the
+activities of Dr. Athanasius and his adherents but for the fact that
+European public opinion, which has concerned itself extremely little
+with the Roumanians of Serbia, might possibly imagine that their
+advocate deserves to be taken seriously.
+
+
+2. THE BANAT
+
+Anyone who looks at an ethnological map of the Banat will recognize how
+difficult it is to partition that province among two or three claimants.
+No matter by whom the map is painted, it must have the appearance of
+mosaic, with few solid masses of colour. This fact was quickly used by
+the Roumanians, who argued that as the Banat had never been divided,
+neither politically nor economically, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Roumanian flag. The Magyars haughtily pointed
+out that as the Banat had never been divided, but had for a thousand
+years lived under the crown of St. Stephen, it should still remain one
+whole--of course under the Hungarian flag. The Roumanians contended that
+the indivisibility of the Banat was designed by Nature, since the
+mountainous eastern part could not exist if separated from the fertile
+west. The Magyars asserted that it was altogether wrong to think of the
+radical remodelling and complete dismemberment of a territory which
+Nature had predestined to be one. The Yugoslavs agreed with both parties
+that it was not easy to draw a satisfactory frontier, but they asked
+that, as far as possible, the predominantly Roumanian parts should be
+joined to Roumania, the Slav populations to them and the Magyars to
+Hungary. As a matter of fact the Paris Conference did attempt to make an
+ethnical division, between these three States, of the Banat. Roumania
+tried to demonstrate the impossibility of this by turning off the water
+in the Bega Canal when the Serbs evacuated Teme[vs]var and were taking
+their heavily-laden barges from that town. There will have to be a
+central, international organization to control the network of waterways.
+As soon as the Paris Conference had decided on this division it was told
+by the Magyars, the Roumanians and the Yugoslavs that all the numerous
+Germans of the Banat wished to belong to Hungary, to Roumania and to
+Yugoslavia. A great many of the Germans were indifferent, so long as
+they could peaceably carry on their prosperous agricultural operations.
+Not much political solidarity is apparent among the Germans of the
+Banat, and seeing that both Yugoslavia and Roumania, now the principal
+possessors of this land, have elsewhere within their boundaries large
+German populations, their respective Banat Germans will be able to ally
+themselves with these in the Parliaments of Belgrade and Bucharest. The
+Banat Germans who are discontented with the Paris decisions are firstly
+those, among the aristocratic and commercial classes, who were
+accustomed to enjoy under the Magyars a favoured position, and secondly
+those who, with more or less justification, say that Roumania has yet to
+show that she will treat her subject minorities in a truly liberal
+fashion. It is for this reason that the Germans of Ver[vs]ac and Bela
+Crkva--in which towns they are about as numerous as the total of
+Yugoslavs, Roumanians and Magyars--would give a majority in favour of
+Yugoslavia if they were asked to vote as to Yugoslav or Roumanian
+citizenship. _Adeverul_, which is one of the least chauvinist of
+Bucharest newspapers, claimed for Roumania at least the railway line:
+Teme[vs]var, Ver[vs]ac, Bela Crkva, Bazias--an argument thought to be
+conclusive being that the two central towns are neither Roumanian nor
+Serbian but German. This railway line was, as a matter of fact, bestowed
+by the Peace Conference on Roumania, and it required some strenuous
+work before this decision was modified. The French were suspected in
+Yugoslavia of leaning unduly towards the Roumanians, through sympathy
+with the Latin strain in their blood; yet it was the French who were for
+giving to Yugoslavia not only Bazias but the villages on the Danube down
+to Old Moldava, seeing that in those districts the Slavs are certainly
+in a majority. The Roumanian case was not assisted by Professor
+Candrea's ethnographical map, for in the debated country around Bela
+Crkva that gentleman, who told me that he had omitted every place whose
+population was less than a hundred, has unfortunately forgotten to
+include Zlatica, a village of 1346 inhabitants, which was founded at the
+gate of a monastery six hundred and sixty years ago. The population is
+according to the Hungarian census of 1910, at which time all the 1346
+were Serbs, with the exception of 220 Czechs and a few gipsies.
+Professor Candrea has forgotten Sokolavac, a nourishing place about two
+hundred and fifty years old with 1800 inhabitants and practically all of
+them Serbs, as the Transylvanian Minister of Education admitted. Palanka
+with 1400 inhabitants, most Serbs; Fabian with about 1000, mostly
+Czechs; Duplaja with 1204, all Serbs but for 10 Slovenes; Crvena Crkva
+with 1108 (1048 Serbs, 34 Slovaks, 17 Germans and 9 Magyars), are every
+one omitted. Lescovac, with 977 inhabitants, the Professor marks as
+Roumanian. When I was at this picturesquely situated place I was
+received in the mayor's office by half a dozen burly peasants in the
+Serbian national costume who asserted that, with the exception of the
+tailor (a Roumanian emigrant) and one or two other persons, the village
+was wholly Serb. But Lescovac was then within the Serbian sphere of
+occupation, and possibly if I were to go there now I would be told an
+appropriate story by other, or the same, peasants in Roumanian attire.
+One must try to find some surer indication of nationality, and Professor
+Candrea told me that twenty-five years ago he took down a pure Roumanian
+text at that place, where the Roumanian language is the most antique in
+the Banat. On the other hand, the village must have contained many
+Serbs, for when the late notary, a powerful Magyar with Roumanian
+sympathies, prevented the school being conducted, as it always had
+been, in the Serbian language, and installed a teacher--he stayed for
+eight years--who could only speak Magyar and Roumanian, the villagers at
+their own expense procured a Serbian school-mistress. She was expelled
+by the notary.... This illustrates the difficulties which the Peace
+Conference, in its desire to trace an ethnical frontier, was confronted
+with. And there was no map which did not make it obvious that Serbian
+villages would have to remain to the east and Roumanian villages to the
+west of any possible line. They did right, I think, to revise their
+decision as to the towns of Ver[vs]ac and Bela Crkva, for there the
+Yugoslavs and their German friends have a large and unquestioned
+preponderance. Bazias, with about three miles of the railway, was given
+to Roumania so that she should have, for the exportation of her wood and
+iron-ore, the only harbour in that region of the Danube which is capable
+of development. However, with no railway over Roumanian soil from Bazias
+to the mines, this port is perfectly useless, and it is to be hoped that
+Roumania will give it up, for compensation elsewhere, to the Yugoslavs.
+The latter would otherwise be compelled to build three or four miles of
+railway, from Bela Crkva to Palanka, which, unless a great deal of money
+be spent on it, will always be one of the worst ports on the river. With
+a little more difficulty than to Bazias the Roumanians could construct a
+railway to Moldava, which also is a very good port; and in return for
+this accommodation, whereby the wines of Bela Crkva could be shipped
+from Bazias, their natural port, the Yugoslavs would be ready to make
+over to Roumania one or two villages whose population far exceeds that
+of little Bazias. We may also hope that facilities will be given by the
+two Governments for the emigration of those who wish to cross the new
+frontier line. Formerly the people of the Banat had no strenuous
+objections to being moved, lock, stock and barrel, from one district to
+another and without the inducement of coming under the rule of their own
+race. Thus the village of Zsam, to the north of Ver[vs]ac, was, like
+many others, very sparsely inhabited when the Turks withdrew in 1716;
+some villages had only three or four occupied houses. So the Government
+in 1722 collected into one village the people of several others, and in
+this way Zsam, which had hitherto been Slav, became Roumanian, the Serbs
+being established in the neighbouring Sredi[vs]te. In 1809 the
+Roumanians were transplanted from Zsam to Petrovasela, between Ver[vs]ac
+and Pan[vc]evo, where they entered the Pan[vc]evo Frontier Regiment;
+their place at Zsam was taken by Germans, who, being more industrious,
+were preferred by the landowners.
+
+Some of the delineators of this frontier--French and British--have told
+me that they were guided throughout by the ethnical principle. But
+various unfortunate exceptions seem to have been made: for instance, at
+Ko[vc]a it runs through a certain house in such a way that the lavatory
+alone is in Roumania; and in another village there lives a man who,
+since his stables are situated in Roumania, would have had his horses
+requisitioned if he had not been able to bring them into the other part
+of the house. Another village has its cemetery in Roumania, so that the
+Yugoslavs carry their dead friends over during the night. Perhaps the
+Entente officials, perceiving that their ambitious resolution to divide
+the country on ethnic principles was not feasible--there would always be
+alien islands to the right and to the left of any line--perhaps they in
+despair drew an arbitrary line upon a map and hoped the poor inhabitants
+would make the best of it. But this was rendered more difficult by the
+Yugoslav and Roumanian authorities, for the people who desire to cross
+the line are put to endless trouble. Apart from the expense, it usually
+involves a delay of three weeks before permission can be obtained, so
+that the frontier is rarely traversed save by smugglers and by those
+who, like the afore-mentioned man of Ko[vc]a, have been driven into
+chronic lawlessness.
+
+The first line agreed upon after the War, which temporarily bestowed the
+eastern county on Roumania, the western on Yugoslavia and the chief
+parts of the central (or Teme[vs]var) county also on Yugoslavia--with
+French co-operation--did not find favour in Paris; whether or not this
+decision was influenced by the frequent journeys of the Queen of
+Roumania and her fascinating daughters to that town I do not know. At
+all events another boundary was made which included the large town of
+Teme[vs]var and all the northern part of that county in Roumania. It is
+true that there are Roumanian villages in the neighbourhood of this
+German-Magyar-Jewish town, which is by far the largest place in the
+Banat. And the Roumanians, who have already annexed enormous Magyar and
+German populations in Transylvania, do not boggle at another 80,000
+foreigners. One could, however, find very few Yugoslavs who want
+Teme[vs]var to be restored to them; they know that they and the
+Roumanians, whatever (as regards themselves) may have been the case in
+other days, form, each of them, only about one-thirtieth of the total
+population. But they are sorry that the Allies asked them to share in
+occupying the town, because the local Serbs, who are interested in
+politics, were so enthusiastic, that on the arrival of the Roumanians
+they were forced to leave their businesses and go to live in Yugoslavia.
+Since neither Serbs nor Roumanians have any ethnical claim to the town
+one would suppose that, as the spoil had fallen to Roumania, the Entente
+would have endeavoured to give the Yugoslavs some compensation: what
+they did was to take away from them a good deal of that which they
+had--a considerable slice of their western county--which also was
+presented to the Roumanians. Again, the delineators excused themselves
+by invoking their ethnical motives, but as a matter of fact in that part
+of Torontal the people are predominantly German and they should have
+been allotted to Yugoslavia, not merely because the Teme[vs]var Germans
+were given to Roumania but on account of their economic existence, which
+certainly in the case of the departments of Nagyszentmiklos, Perjamos
+and Csene (to retain the Magyar spelling) is bound up with Zsombolya,
+their market-town, and Kikinda. According to the census that was taken
+in 1919, the population of these three departments now allotted to
+Roumania consisted of 41,109 Germans, 13,638 Yugoslavs and 19,270
+Roumanians. Further, to the south-east of Torontal, in the departments
+of Pardany, Modos and Banlak, there is not so intimate a connection with
+the market-town; here the population consists of 12,209 Germans, 11,102
+Yugoslavs and 8808 Roumanians. But there seems to be little reason why
+the whole of Torontal, following the wishes of the majority of its
+inhabitants, should not be given to Yugoslavia; and this would also
+reduce to a minimum the inconveniences produced by any frontier. For
+many long years there has been a county frontier between Torontal and
+Teme[vs]var, each of which was under an official who looked direct to
+Buda-Pest. The adoption of this ancient county frontier as that of the
+two countries would put an end to the present absurd and unjust, not to
+say dangerous, situation. It should, therefore, be brought about as soon
+as possible.
+
+A similar rectification is needed in the country to the north and
+north-west. The three German villages of Komlo[vs], Mariafeld and St.
+Miklo[vs] have their fields near Velika Kikinda, in Yugoslavia, whereas
+they are themselves in Roumania. To bring home his maize from the land a
+farmer was obliged to pay, at the most favourable rate, up to 200 crowns
+a pound. Considering that this part of the country is an absolute plain
+with no river flowing through it, one would suppose that a rectification
+could easily be made. If these Germans had been consulted they would
+naturally have opted for Yugoslavia. The Peace Conference officials
+might, also have studied Velika Kikinda, a place with a very creditable
+past, which--as I was told by a Serb professional man of that town--will
+be completely ruined if she loses the custom of these German villages
+and has to depend upon the Serb peasants who make one embroidered suit
+and one pair of sandals last them for ten years.... It will be necessary
+for the Yugoslav authorities in the Banat not only to endeavour to raise
+their countrymen's standard of living but also in the southerly
+districts, where the standard is higher, to persuade them not to persist
+in limiting their families. The Serbs in the old kingdom have been one
+of the most prolific of European races--they would otherwise have been
+incapable of carrying on their twenty-six years of war during this last
+century--but in the south and south-east of the Banat, perhaps through
+mere love of comfort, perhaps through Magyar oppression, there has been
+a marked tendency not to increase. The Magyars and Germans have had
+normal families, the Roumanians have increased by assimilation (a woman
+marrying into a Serbian family will often cause them all to speak her
+easier language). The Serbs, however, will in their part of the Banat
+absorb the others if they show political understanding and a liberal
+spirit. "We will give the Germans," said Pribi[vc]evi['c] to one of them
+at Ver[vs]ac--"we will give them everything up to a university."
+
+The north-west corner of the Banat, which has a considerable Magyar
+population, has been ascribed to Hungary. Opposite the apex of this
+triangular tract of country lies Szeged, the second city of Hungary
+(118,328 inhabitants, of whom 113,380 are Magyars) and the chief centre
+of the grain trade of the rich southern plains. As was pointed out in
+_The New Europe_,[115] Szeged, which lies in flat country, would be even
+more defenceless than Belgrade if the lands on the other side of the
+river were under alien rule. If one draws a strategical frontier the
+nationality of the people is, of course, disregarded; it is, therefore,
+beside the point to mention that there seem to be far more Serbs in the
+angle opposite Szeged than there were Magyars in the lands opposite
+Belgrade. The Entente has simply made up its mind to be generous to
+Szeged, and let us hope that we have not left this region to Hungary on
+account of the activities of the extremely intelligent Baroness
+Gerliczy--a Roumanian lady married to a Magyar--who owns a large estate
+there and was much in Paris during the critical period.
+
+The other imperfections in the Paris arrangements, whether with regard
+to villages or fields, are not incapable of amendment. One presumes that
+the Roumanians, who have no lack of other international problems, will
+be wise enough to discard certain dicta of their Liberal party and of
+Bratiano, its self-satisfied leader, to whom all subjects seem great if
+they have passed through his mind. One particular dictum which the
+Roumanians ought to cast aside is that which insists upon the
+indivisibility of the Banat. Another Roumanian statesman, Take Jonescu,
+was more sagacious when he, during the War, drew up a memorandum whose
+object was that Greece, Serbia, Roumania and the Czecho-Slovak
+Governments should work in harmony. This idea of presenting a single
+diplomatic front was to the liking of Mr. Balfour, who observed to M.
+Jonescu that it would be better for these States and better for Europe.
+As regards an understanding between Roumania and Serbia in the Banat:
+"I," said Pa[vs]i['c]--"I speak for Serbia. Can you speak for Roumania?"
+
+And Jonescu unfortunately had to shake his head.
+
+In the fatuous policy of crying for the whole Banat--they even require
+the little island in the Danube between Semlin and Belgrade--Bratiano is
+assisted by the aged Marghiloman, who is the chief of a branch of the
+Conservative party. But the relations between these two do not seem
+destined to be cordial, since Bratiano is married to Marghiloman's
+divorced wife.
+
+May the Roumanian people become reconciled to Yugoslavia's righteous
+possession of part of the Banat. It would be a pity if these two
+neighbours were to live together on such terms as, in the eastern county
+of the Banat, Caras-Severin, do the Bufani and the other Roumanians. The
+Bufani came from Roumania some hundred and fifty or two hundred years
+ago, on account of the taxes which they found intolerable; and they have
+not been able to arrive at amicable relations with those countrymen of
+theirs who are the descendants of earlier emigrants. Very seldom do the
+Bufani and the others intermarry. These Bufani, so say the others, are
+like ivy. "They called out," complain the others, "they called out:
+'Little brother, be good to us!' and then they strangled us." The
+Bufani, who are easily recognizable by their dialect, frequent the same
+church and have one priest with the others, but they have a separate
+cemetery.
+
+
+(_e_) THE HUNGARIAN FRONTIER
+
+North of the town of Subotica the frontier between Yugoslavia and
+Hungary is almost a natural one, as it runs over vast hills of shifting
+sand which are still partly in motion. Neither on foot nor on horseback,
+still less with loaded carts, is it possible to travel through these
+hills. But to the east and to the west of them the frontier is no better
+than that which separates Yugoslavia from Roumania, and when it came to
+the delimitation the Magyars thought it would be preferable if this
+work were done with their assistance. Otherwise, so they urged, there
+would be no check upon the wicked intolerance of their neighbours. It is
+true that they themselves had in the past been in favour of
+centralization, but against this one must remember that the "subject
+nationalities" were inferior beings. The Yugoslavs, the Roumanians and
+the Slovaks could not claim a glorious descent from Attila, of whom a
+fresco decorates the House of Parliament at Buda-Pest, and thus the
+Magyars had always thought it seemly that, by various devices, a limit
+should be put to the number of Yugoslav, Roumanian and Slovak deputies.
+Count Apponyi and his colleagues told the Peace Conference very frankly
+at the beginning of 1920 that it really ought to take their word for it,
+and not persist in looking on the Yugoslavs, etc., as if they were as
+good as any Magyar. Surely it was obvious that Yugoslavia, Greater
+Roumania and Czecho-Slovakia would be "artificial and improvised
+creations, devoid of the traditions of political solidarity and
+incapable of producing any." But if the Supreme Council was resolved to
+allow certain Magyar territories to join themselves, if they desired, to
+these ephemeral States it would be necessary to ascertain by means of a
+plebiscite what were the real wishes of the people in these territories;
+and Count Apponyi was kind enough to tell the Council very definitely
+how this plebiscite should be conducted. The principal Allies were to
+arrange, in accordance with the Magyar Government, as to the districts
+in which a plebiscite was to be held, and the secret voting was to be
+controlled by neutral commissions and delegates of the interested
+Governments. This may sound rather rash on the part of the Magyars,
+since a plebiscite, no matter how it was arranged and controlled, would
+presumably detach a good many jewels from the crown of St. Stephen, and
+it was not astonishing that Count Apponyi and his friends proposed that
+the Magyars should be safeguarded by further Commissions which, if
+requisite, would override the results of the voting. These results would
+indeed, as between the Magyars and the Yugoslavs, have given our Allies
+a larger dominion than they have actually obtained. The triangle south
+of Szeged, to which we have alluded, would certainly, if there had been
+a plebiscite, have gone to Yugoslavia. In Baranja the Yugoslavs have
+claimed that the census of 1910, which indicated 36,000 Serbo-Croats,
+should have given them 70,000; but this does not take account of the
+large number of [vS]okci--Slavs whose ancestors were forcibly converted
+to Catholicism and who came to consider themselves as one with the
+Catholic Magyars. This widespread phenomenon of race being superseded by
+religion may be noticed, for example, at Janjevo in the district of Old
+Serbia; it is inhabited by the descendants of Dubrovnik colonists who,
+being Catholic, have come to look upon themselves as Albanians. In
+Hungary the dominant Magyar minority was wont to clasp the subject races
+to its bosom, not with bonds of love but of religion. Thus in 1914 at
+Marmoros-Sziget they charged 100 persons with high treason, because it
+was their wish to leave the Uniate Church, in communion with Rome, and
+return to the Orthodox faith. The same charge would have been preferred
+against certain Ruthenians who were just as unwilling to be members of
+the Uniate Church; but in the case of these humble, backward people the
+conversion had been effected by their priests, who would thereby procure
+for themselves a better situation, and the Ruthenians, who had not been
+told of this occurrence, were under the impression that they were still
+Orthodox. Professor Cviji['c] believes that, with the help of the
+Catholic religion, no less than 113,000 Serbo-Croats have in Baranja
+been lost by their Yugoslav brethren.... When the Yugoslavs were asked
+by the Supreme Council to evacuate most of Baranja they did so. A
+republic, under the presidency of one Dobrovi['c], a well-known cubist
+painter, a native of those parts, was formed by Yugoslavs and the
+Magyars whose freedom had been safeguarded under their rule. But as this
+republic was not assisted by the Yugoslav Government it only lasted for
+a week.
+
+Farther to the west is the Prekomurdje, that interesting Slovene
+district which extends for about 25 miles along the Mur. The rich plain
+that adjoins the river is mostly in the possession of large landowners,
+while the hilly country to the north sustains a scattered and poor
+population of Calvinists. There are in the whole Prekomurdje some
+120,000 Yugoslavs, who are descendants of the old Pannonian Slovenes.
+This healthy, honest people has indeed eighteen Catholic and eight
+Protestant priests, but is otherwise almost destitute of an
+_intelligentsia_. They speak nothing but Slovene, and yet the Magyars
+had for ten years previous to the War been so imperialist that only
+Magyar schools were tolerated. Thus it happened that the children, like
+so many others in the Magyar schools, were at a loss to understand what
+they were writing, and if their teacher chanced to learn the Slovene
+language he was there and then transferred to Transylvania or the Slovak
+country or some other province where he had to teach his pupils in the
+Magyar which they did not know. He was supposed to make the children
+feel the vast superiority of all things Magyar, so that they should be
+ashamed to walk with their own fathers in the streets and speak another
+tongue. We are told occasionally in the _Morning Post_ that
+consideration should be shown to the Magyars since they are a proud
+people, but would they not merit more consideration if they were a
+grateful people, grateful that the rest of Europe, overlooking their
+Mongolian origin, has accepted them as equals? The Magyars were so
+thoroughly persuaded of their own pre-eminence that when the devotees of
+Haydn founded in his honour a society at Eisenstadt, where he had
+worked, it was allowed on the condition that the statutes and the name
+of the society and so forth should be in the Magyar language, although
+Haydn was a German. Evidently the poor Slovenes of the Prekomurdje would
+be swamped unless they showed exceptional vigour. And when they managed
+to survive until after the War the Americans in Paris were for handing
+them to Hungary on the ground that the frontier would, if it included
+them in Yugoslavia, be an awkward one. Such is also the opinion of Mr.
+A. H. E. Taylor in his _The Future of the Southern Slavs_; this author
+advocates that Yugoslavia should be bounded by the Mur, albeit in
+another part of the same book he says that "a small river is not usually
+a good frontier, except on the map"; and the Mur is so narrow that when
+Dr. Gaston Reverdy, of the French army, and I arrived at Ljutomir we
+found that a crowd of these men and boys had waded across the stream in
+order to lay their cause before the doctor, who represented the Entente
+in that region. The Bol[vs]evik Magyars were just then threatening to
+set all Prekomurdje on fire, and the pleasant-looking, rather shy men
+who stood in rows before us begged the doctor to procure them
+weapons--they would be able to defend themselves. It is satisfactory to
+know that most of this portion of the Yugoslav lands has, after all, not
+been lost to the mother country.
+
+
+(_f_) THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER
+
+A considerable part of the frontier between Yugoslavia and Austria has
+been determined by a plebiscite which was held, under French, British
+and Italian control, in the autumn of 1920. The Slovenes during the
+previous year had pointed out that while they could no longer claim so
+wide a territory now that Austria had been drawn towards the Adriatic,
+yet the rural population of Carinthia had remained Slovene, thanks to
+the notable qualities of that people. The German-Austrians, on the other
+hand, maintained that country districts are the appanages of a town, so
+that the wishes of a rural population are of secondary importance. While
+these questions were being debated in 1919 by the two interested
+parties--and debated, very often, by their rifles--the Italians
+intervened. Sonnino's paper, the _Epoca_, made a great outcry over
+Klagenfurt (Celovec) which, if given to the Yugoslavs, would be an
+insurmountable barrier, it said, to the trade between Triest and Vienna,
+although it was clear that the railway connection through Tarvis
+remained in the hands of the Italians. (There is not a single Italian
+civilian in Tarvis--but no matter.) Meanwhile the French Press noted
+that the Italians--presumably not as traders but as benefactors--were
+seeing to it that the Austrians did not run short of arms and munitions.
+For many months a large area was in a condition of uncertainty and
+turmoil, till at last the Peace Conference ordered a plebiscite.
+
+Two zones in Carinthia--"A" to the south-east, with its centre at
+Velikovec (Voelkermarkt), and "B" to the north-west, with its centre at
+Klagenfurt (Celovec)--were mapped out, and it was agreed that if the
+voting in "A," the larger zone, were favourable to Austria, then the
+other zone would automatically fall to that country. For several months
+before the voting day this area--a region of beautiful and prosperous
+valleys watered by the broad Drave and surrounded by magnificent
+mountain ranges--for several months this area was the scene of great
+activity. German-Austrians and Yugoslavs no longer, as in 1919, attacked
+each other with the implements of war, but with pamphlet, broadsheet,
+with eloquence and bribery. Austrian and Yugoslav officials took up
+their headquarters at various places and saw to it that every voter
+should be posted as to the moral and material advantage he would reap by
+helping to make the land Austrian or Yugoslav, as the case might be. All
+those were entitled to vote who, being twenty years of age in January
+1919, had their habitual residence in this area; or, if not born in the
+district, had belonged to it or had their habitual residence there from,
+at least, January 1, 1912. The larger zone "A" was left under Yugoslav
+administration, while zone "B" was under the Austrian authorities; and
+the Inter-Allied officials exercised a very close supervision in order,
+for example, to protect the partisans of either side from undue
+repression at the hands of their opponents. Neither the Austrians nor
+the Yugoslavs lost any opportunities for saying in public that the
+Inter-Allied Commissions were honestly making every effort to be
+impartial. It was, however, unfortunate that Italy should have sent as
+her chief representative Prince Livio Borghese, who may have been as
+impartial as his colleagues, but whose reputation, whether merited or
+otherwise, could scarcely commend itself to the Yugoslavs. They believed
+that his activities in Buda-Pest, under the Bol[vs]evik regime, and
+afterwards in Vienna, had been very hostile to themselves. Each of the
+three allied commissioners had a staff of some fifty or sixty officials,
+whose upkeep and expenses were paid by the two interested countries.
+
+If an average person had been asked to foretell the result of the
+plebiscite I suppose he would have said that in zone "A" the Yugoslavs
+and in zone "B" the Austrians would be successful. We have seen how the
+Slovene renaissance of the nineteenth century was met by the central
+authorities in Vienna (particularly after the German victory of 1871),
+and how the local functionaries assisted them. They argued that Austria
+with her miscellaneous races could only survive if one of them was
+supreme. Therefore they looked askance on every one who regarded himself
+as a Slovene; if he rose to be an official it had to be in another part
+of the Monarchy, while for the maintenance of Austria (oblivious to the
+argument that Austria was a perfectly unnatural affair) they favoured
+all those who announced themselves to be on the side of the predominant
+race. From 1903 onwards the Slovene language was barred from the courts
+of Carinthia, and if a person did not understand the language of the
+German magistrates he had to use an interpreter. The land was invaded by
+the German _intelligentsia_: professors, masters in primary and
+secondary schools, doctors, lawyers and so forth, excise officials and
+railway officials--in 1912 Carinthia possessed about 5000 of these and
+only 11/2 per cent. were Slovenes. Those among the Slovenes who were
+capable of serving in such positions were dispatched to Carniola,
+Dalmatia or preferably to the German-speaking lands of the Empire. A
+provincial agricultural authority was set up in 1910 which was
+recognized by the State and which enjoyed a monopoly. Its object was to
+aid the progress of agriculture by establishing and supporting
+agricultural schools, sending experts to the farmer, distributing
+subsidies for the purchase of machinery, artificial manure and so on.
+The council consisted of twenty-one members, of whom only one was a
+Slovene; the subsidies were given to those who were recognized as
+Germanophils, while requests were not permitted in the Slovene tongue.
+As for the electoral districts, they were so manipulated that one deputy
+represented 120,000 Slovenes and another represented 27,000 Germans.
+Constituencies in which there was a German majority were allowed to send
+two members, while the others only sent one. The German railway
+employees worked so thoroughly for pan-Germanism that various Slovenes
+were arrested--among them the mayor of a large village who wanted to
+travel from Celovec--for asking in the Slovene language for a ticket.
+With regard to schools, there were throughout Carinthia in 1860 some 28
+Slovene and 56 Slovene-German foundations, whereas in 1914 there were 2
+Slovene, 30 German and 84 mixed schools, where the two languages were
+supposed to co-exist; they were indeed the home of two languages, for
+the children were nearly all Slovene, whereas the teacher and the
+language he used were German. Among 230 masters only 20 could read and
+write Slovene. Qualified teachers who could satisfy this test were, as
+we have mentioned, sent to other parts of the Empire. So far did the
+system go that Slovene peasants upon whom the Government had forced a
+German education speedily forgot the two hundred words which they had
+learned, but as they had been taught no other script than the German
+they were accustomed to write the Slovene language with German Gothic
+characters. These peasants were fairly impervious to Germanization;
+their strong sense of national consciousness was supported by the books,
+religious and otherwise, which they received every year from some such
+society as that of St. Hermagoras at Celovec, which distributed half a
+million books a year among its 90,000 members.
+
+But that which principally guided the peasant was the voice of his
+priest, and the vast majority of priests in zone "A" were Slovenes. This
+agricultural zone possesses no more than one or two small towns, where
+the priest is less regarded. The traders and artisans frequently look
+upon themselves as too highly cultured for the Church; they affect the
+"Los von Rom" and the Socialist movements. By holding these menaces over
+the Bishop's head a good deal of pressure could be brought to bear, and
+this was done by the Germans, who were of opinion that the Church
+unfairly encouraged the Slovenes. The Bishop of Celovec had both the
+zones in his diocese until some months before the plebiscite, when a
+temporary arrangement was made under which zone "A" was administered by
+a vicar. But in bygone years the Bishop, with these threats hanging over
+him, was wont to counsel prudence and to ask his clergy not to agitate
+their flock, whom they were merely telling of their rights. In zone
+"B," which mostly consists of the town of Celovec, the Church would
+naturally be more susceptible to German influence, apart from the fact
+that the Bishop himself is a Bavarian. For personal reasons--he is very
+imperfectly acquainted with the Slovene language--he wished even the
+clergy of zone "A" to correspond with him in German; but the priests
+pointed out that their faithful parishioners wanted to follow this
+correspondence and by far the greater number of them have no German....
+In fact the Church has in each zone brought its help to the more
+powerful party--the Slovene peasants in zone "A" and the German or
+Germanophil townsfolk in zone "B"; and it appeared probable before the
+plebiscite that in both cases she would be on the victorious side.
+
+In foretelling the result of the plebiscite one would not pay much
+attention to the census which the German-Austrian officials used to
+take. A person was inscribed according to the language he ordinarily
+employed, and this was, more often than not, considered to be German if
+his superior was a German. Before the census of 1910 the _Grazer
+Tagblatt_, which is the Germans' chief organ in those parts, proclaimed
+that the official census was a portion of the national propaganda. All
+the propagandist societies were entreated to do their utmost to induce
+the people to declare German as their usual language. Very humorous
+results were obtained. On December 18, 1910, the provincial council of
+public instruction gave out the number of German and Slovene children
+respectively in thirty Slovene parishes. Amongst them were the
+following:
+
+                                German Children.       Slovene Children.
+Borovlje (Ferlach)                31 per cent.            69 per cent.
+Grab[vs]tajn (Grafenstein)        10.6    "               89.4    "
+[vZ]relc (Ebenthal)               24.4    "               75.6    "
+Pokr[vc]e (Poggersdorf)            1.3    "               98.7    "
+Bistrica (Feistritz)              16.2    "               82.8    "
+
+And twelve days later the official census gave these results:
+
+                                      Germans.            Slovenes.
+Borovlje                            90 per cent.        10 per cent.
+Grab[vs]tajn                        50.1    "           49.9    "
+[vZ]relc                            49.2    "           50.8    "
+Pokr[vc]e                           41.1    "           58.9    "
+Bistrica                            44.4    "           55.6    "
+
+Far more trustworthy is the almanac issued every year by the Church,
+wherein a person's "usual language" is taken to be that in which he
+listens to the word of God. These ecclesiastical lists were published by
+German bishops, and according to them we find that the region we are
+considering held in 1910 some 40,000 Germans and 123,000 Slovenes.
+
+We have seen that Celovec, like the smaller towns in this area, leans
+more to the Austrians than to the Yugoslavs. This is partly the effect
+of the Austrian Government's policy and partly of the various pan-German
+societies (_e.g._ the "Kaerntner Bauernbund," the "Verein der
+Alldeutschen," the "Deutscher Volksverein," etc. etc.), which, as was
+admitted, drew their funds to a considerable extent from Germany
+herself.
+
+The German Republic was very lavish in assisting her smaller Austrian
+sister during the period before the plebiscite, pouring both goods and
+cash into the district; and after the opening of the demarcation line
+between the two zones at the beginning of August they were able to
+introduce their supplies quite openly into zone "A." Very few Germans of
+the north believe that the German-Austrian Republic will permanently
+remain separated from themselves.... Both Yugoslavs and Austrians
+circulated vast quantities of printed matter; for the Yugoslavs the most
+convincing argument lay in Austria's apparently hopeless economic
+position and the undesirability of belonging to a State which had to pay
+so huge a debt; the Austrian pamphlets denounced the Serbs as a military
+race, though even such a dealer in false evidence as the eminent
+Austrian historian, Dr. Friedjung, would find it difficult to sustain
+the thesis that the wars engaged in by the Serbs during the last hundred
+years were more of an offensive than of a defensive character. In
+several prettily prepared handbooks the voters were implored by the
+Austrians not to be so old-fashioned as to plump for a monarchy when
+they had such a chance of becoming republicans; one could almost see the
+writer of these scornful phrases stop to wipe his over-heated brow after
+having pushed back his old Imperial and Royal headgear. You might
+imagine that the Austrians in their deplorable economic condition would
+have avoided this topic; on the contrary, they proclaimed that several
+commodities which were lacking in Yugoslavia could be furnished by them
+in abundance. One of these, they said, was salt; and certainly the
+Yugoslavs purchased a good deal of it, but that was only when they did
+not know that it was German salt, which the Austrians bought in that
+country and on which they made an adequate profit. When the Yugoslavs
+wanted to get their supplies direct from Germany the Austrians
+introduced a transit tax of 1000 crowns--not the nearly worthless
+Austrian but Yugoslav crowns--per waggon. Later on when the Danube was
+thrown open and this tax could not be levied, salt was considerably
+cheaper in Yugoslavia than in Austria. So with plums--in 1919 Austria
+bought nearly the whole of the exports from Yugoslavia at six crowns per
+kilo and sold them to Germany at eleven to twelve crowns, the profit
+going, so the authorities said, to the poor.
+
+As the day of the plebiscite approached, the Yugoslavs seemed to be more
+confident than the Austrians. The staunch peasants of zone "A" were not
+greatly impressed by the numerous appeals to their heart and brain which
+were handed to them by the Austrians in the Slovene language. And they
+were not much alarmed at the idea of being joined to their countrymen of
+the south, those unmitigated Serbs who thrived, if one was to believe
+the Austrian propaganda, on atrocities. But this warning was ridiculed
+by the Austrians themselves--on a market day at Velikovec you could see
+the Austrophils wearing their colours, which they would scarcely have
+done if they had been afraid of possible reprisals--and zone "A" was
+generally presumed to have a Yugoslav majority. On such a market day one
+saw very few Yugoslav colours in the farmers' button-holes, for it was
+the wish of their leaders to avoid anything which might give rise to
+unnecessary conflict. The day drew near and the Austrians thought that
+they were making insufficient progress; for one thing, they were at a
+disadvantage owing to the very low value of their money. They hoped that
+Germany would come with more zeal than ever to the rescue, and they
+hoped that something fatal would occur to Yugoslavia. So they asked the
+Inter-Allied Commissions to put it to their Governments that it would
+be advisable if the plebiscite were to be postponed for several months,
+say until May 1921. But it was reported that the French and British
+representatives declined to countenance the scheme. They may also have
+feared that if the period of canvassing were to be so long drawn out,
+the same passions would come to the surface as in the plebiscite in east
+and west Prussia, where in many places the Poles could not display their
+sympathies except at great personal risk. But in that particular
+plebiscite it must be noted that the Allies were very imprudent in
+confiding the maintenance of order to the rebaptized German Security
+Police, a body which was entirely in the hands of the reactionary
+clique. Yet the military precautions of zone "A" in Carinthia were not
+what they should have been, for when the Yugoslavs had lost the
+plebiscite an unrestrained horde of Austrian sympathizers, some of them
+from that zone and some from outside it, some of them civilians and some
+of them soldiers in mufti who made for certain places where supplies of
+weapons had been hidden, swarmed across the land and terrorized the
+Yugoslavs in such a fashion that a Yugoslav military force had to come
+in to protect them. "But how barbaric are these Yugoslavs," sneered
+their enemies, "for they refuse to recognize the result of the
+plebiscite." More than one diplomat in Belgrade was ordered to present
+himself at the Foreign Office and demand an answer why, etc. But the
+Yugoslavs had no intention of imitating d'Annunzio.
+
+Those who were not in the zone at the time of the voting might well be
+astounded at the result, which was an Austrian victory by 22,025 votes
+against 15,278 for Yugoslavia. In view of the undoubted Yugoslav
+majority, it was felt that something more than active propaganda, before
+and during the election, had been brought to bear. For example, in the
+commune of Grab[vs]tajn (Grafenstein) the Germans are said to have
+inscribed on the electoral list 180 persons from Celovec and Styria who
+had no right to vote; they also asked that seventy strangers should be
+inscribed. On submitting these claims to the judgment of the district
+council the German leaders, even as the Yugoslavs, were required to
+initial each request; it is alleged that these initialled papers, which
+were attached to the claims, were left overnight in a room the key of
+which was in the keeping of the German secretary, Schwarz. He is charged
+with having removed the initialled papers from the Slovene claims and
+affixed them to the German claims. There was a large amount of more
+usual corruption. Thus it is known that twenty-eight Slovene servants at
+an important landowner's were unable to resist the material arguments
+and voted for the Germans. And if it is true that a number of people
+voted twice and even three times the Inter-Allied Commission fell short
+of its duties. It is said that the voting was so lax that if a stranger
+had been inscribed and did not turn up to vote, his legitimation was
+used by a native. Thus we are told of one Helena Rozenzoph, aged
+seventy-five, who was inscribed at Grab[vs]tajn. This woman had never
+existed; there had been a certain Barbara Rozenzoph who died in 1919,
+and her vote was used by Marjeta Hanzio, aged twenty-two years. The case
+was so flagrant that the Commission discovered it and the woman
+confessed to having acted on a note which she had received from the
+special Austrian _gendarmerie_ force, the Heimatsdienst. The Commission
+seems to have been reluctant to take any steps against these frauds and
+it is not astonishing that the commune of Grab[vs]tajn registered 1290
+votes for the Austrian Republic and only 380 for Yugoslavia, although in
+this commune of 3440 inhabitants there are no more than sixteen German
+families. A German majority was thus obtained in a province which Dr.
+Renner, the Austrian Chancellor, had acknowledged to be Slovene. It
+seems incredible that the Commission should have so completely broken
+down and the mystery may yet be cleared up, if as the Yugoslavia
+delegate requested, all the voting papers have been preserved.... But
+the _Hrvat_, the organ of the Narodny Club in Croatia (the
+decentralizing but strongly national party) blames Monsignor Koro[vs]ec,
+the leader of the Slovene clericals, for the disastrous plebiscite
+result. He would have been better employed, it says, in organizing his
+people than in gadding about Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia
+for the purpose of extending his party. He had boasted that the Slovenes
+were so well organized that they were perfectly confident as to the
+issue. It would seem, however, says the _Hrvat_, that an unexpectedly
+large proportion of them are partly or entirely Germanized. And this,
+more than the above-mentioned irregularities, may be chiefly responsible
+for Yugoslavia's loss. One must also remember that many a Slovene would
+shrink from garrison duty in Macedonia, while it would be very natural
+for the Carinthian farmer to look up at the mountains that separated him
+from Carniola and then to recollect that Celovec (Klagenfurt), the
+economic centre of the whole area, would be Austrian. Nevertheless if
+zone "A" had been smaller--and more completely Slav--it is probable that
+the population would have risen superior to the various doubts which
+assailed them. What we have said about the Slovenes who have become
+Germanized is borne out by the _Koroski Slovenec_, a newspaper which
+appears in Vienna and which, though since its formation has been
+essentially hostile to the Austrians, tells us that after the plebiscite
+the Slovenes have only suffered real oppression from their
+denationalized compatriots. Difficulties arose with regard to the
+closing of Slovene schools, but this was largely due to the fact that
+many of the Slovene schoolmasters fled to Yugoslavia.
+
+
+(_g_) THE ITALIAN FRONTIER
+
+A Yugoslav barrister from Pola had gone to a neighbouring village--this
+was in 1920--for the purpose of encouraging the natives, who were all
+Southern Slavs. He asked them, in the event of their part of Istria
+being allotted to the Italians, not to lose heart but to wait for the
+day when justice would come by her own. In the middle of his
+exhortations a jovial old farmer approached him and slapped him on the
+back. "Cheer up, young man!" he exclaimed. "What is it that you are
+afraid of?" ... The Slav population of Istria and Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca,
+even as that of Dalmatia, has endured a great many things and is
+prepared to endure a great many more. Kindness would have gone a long
+way towards disarming them. If the Italians on the eastern Adriatic had
+been exponents of the Mazzini spirit rather than--which too often has
+been the case--of the direst Nationalist, then the Yugoslavs would have
+accepted--mournfully, no doubt, but _faute de mieux_--the frontier from
+the river Ar[vs]a in Istria which President Wilson suggested. This would
+have been a compromise frontier, by which 400,000 Slovenes and Croats
+would fall to Italy and a very much smaller number of Italians would
+fall to Yugoslavia. It would have satisfied the great sensible mass of
+the Italian people, but unfortunately was rejected by Baron Sonnino and
+his myrmidons. Far more was claimed by him, and the succeeding Italian
+Governments have had to struggle with the passions he so recklessly
+aroused. They have been unable to persuade the country that with the
+Ar[vs]a frontier they would be getting by no means a bad bargain. By the
+Treaty of Rapallo the Italians have obtained much more: the whole of
+Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca, portions of Carniola, the whole of Istria and
+contiguity with Rieka (which is made a free town), the islands of
+Lussin, Cres and Unie, sovereignty over a strip of five miles which
+includes Zadar (and a few adjacent islands), finally the southern island
+of Lastovo and Pelagosa which lies in the middle of the Adriatic.
+
+In November 1920 all the outside world was congratulating the Italians
+and the Yugoslavs on having, after many fruitless efforts of their
+statesmen, come to this agreement. The opinion was expressed that both
+of the contracting parties would henceforth be satisfied, since each of
+them was conscious that the other had accepted something less than his
+desires. It was noted that the Yugoslavs exhibited more generosity, as
+they gave up some half a million of their countrymen, while the Italians
+yielded in Dalmatia that to which they had no right. The Yugoslavs had,
+in the past two years, shown so much more forbearance than was usually
+expected of a vigorous young nation that the commentators for the most
+part fancied they would not waste any time in grieving over these
+inevitable sacrifices. It is freely said that if a liberal spirit is
+displayed by the Italians at the various points where they and
+Yugoslavia are in contact, both people will settle down, with no
+afterthoughts, to friendly and neighbourly relations. But it would be
+foolish to close our eyes to the fact that the position at Rieka and
+Zadar, not to speak of any other places, bristles with difficulties. At
+Rieka one hopes that the largest and wisest party, the Autonomists, will
+now come into their rights; no doubt a good many of those opportunist
+citizens who, at the time of the Italian occupation, developed into
+Italianissimi, after having previously been known as more or less
+platonic lovers of Italy, Hungary, or Croatia with ambitions chiefly
+centred on their native town, will presently assure you that in the Free
+State they are convinced Free Staters; but the local politicians have
+been living for so long in such a thoroughly oppressive atmosphere that
+most of those who have been prominent should for a season now retire. It
+will be difficult enough for this harassed port to settle down to
+business. As for the Zadar enclave, it is not easy to understand why an
+Italian majority in this little town should bring it under the Italian
+flag while the overwhelming Slav majorities of central and eastern
+Istria have been ignored. And with all the goodwill in the world the
+existence of this minute colony encircled by Yugoslav lands will
+scarcely make more easy the conduct of relations between Yugoslavia and
+Italy. It is naturally to the interest of both countries that
+misunderstandings and suspicions should be swept away. And from this
+point of view it is very doubtful whether the Italians were well advised
+in taking Zadar into their possession. Presumably the Government was
+forced to do so by the state of public feeling. They withstood this
+feeling with regard to the magnificent harbour of Vis, which even
+President Wilson suggested they should have, and contented themselves
+with the smaller Yugoslav island of Lastovo (Lagosta). The pity is that
+the Nationalists should have forced into their hands anything which may
+turn and sting them.
+
+It may be thought that we are excessively pessimistic in pointing rather
+to the dangers which the Treaty places on the tapis than to the good
+sense of those who will deal with them. We do not say that the Italians
+would have permitted their Government to solve the Adriatic question in
+a safer and more philosophic manner; but we cannot look forward with
+that confidence we should have had if more sagacious counsels had
+prevailed.
+
+An arrangement most agreeable to the bulk of the interested population
+would have been effected if two Free States, instead of one, had been
+created: the small one of Rieka, and a larger one embracing Triest and
+the western part of Istria. There would be in each of these two States a
+mixed population, who would think with a shudder of the time when the
+grass was growing on their quays. Italians and Slavs, prosperous as of
+old, would very cordially agree that the experiment of being included in
+Italy had been at any rate a commercial disaster. [D'Annunzio's
+administration was, of course, a mere camouflage. Without the support of
+the Italian Government, which paid his troops though calling them
+rebels, the poet-adventurer could scarcely have lasted for a day; and
+the swarm of officers, many of them worse adventurers than himself,
+would have deserted him. Nor would the population of Rieka have listened
+to his glowing periods if the Italian Government had not, under cover of
+the Red Cross, sent an adequate supply of food into the town.] Both
+Rieka and Triest were, therefore, living under practically the same
+conditions, separated from their natural hinterland, and knowing very
+well that as Italian towns their prospects were lamentable. It was
+significant that the Italian Government should after a time have studied
+the scheme of constructing a canal from Triest to the Save. Before the
+War one-third of the urban population (and all the surrounding country)
+was Yugoslav; and now, when so many Yugoslavs have departed and so many
+Italians have arrived, even now it is certain that in a plebiscite not
+10 per cent. would vote for Italy--and this minority would be largely
+made up of those _leccapiatini_ (the "plate-lickers") who were the
+humbler servants of Austria during the War and are now begging for
+Italian plates. When the offices of the Socialist newspaper _Il
+Lavoratore_--the Socialists are by far the most important party in
+Triest--were taken by storm and gutted, the American Consul, Mr. Joseph
+Haven, and the Paris correspondent of the _New York Herald_, Mr. Eyre,
+happened to be in the building. They afterwards said that the attack by
+those ultra-nationalist bands, the fascisti--very young men,
+demobilized junior officers and so forth--was entirely unprovoked. The
+carabinieri gazed indifferently at the scene. Such is life in Triest,
+where the labour movement is gaining in strength every day. Its old
+prosperity has departed--there is hardly any trade or water or gas,
+since most of the coal was consumed, by order of the Italian
+authorities, in making electric light for illuminations. These were
+intended to show the city's irrepressible enthusiasm at being
+incorporated in the kingdom of Italy. But the inhabitants know very well
+that being one of Italy's many ports is worse than being the only port
+of Austria; they know that the most direct railways to Austria pass
+through Yugoslav territory, that henceforward the Danube will be much
+more largely used by Austria, Czecho-Slovakia and Hungary (none of whom
+had a seaboard) and that Rieka will now be a more formidable rival than
+of old.... So, too, at Pola we find that a majority of the population do
+not wish their town to be retained in Italy; a number of Italian workmen
+fled from the idle shipbuilding yards and actually came in 1919 and 1920
+with the Slovene refugees, their fellow-townsmen, to Ljubljana in search
+of employment. There are not sufficient orders to go round among such
+yards in Italy where, owing to the absence of coal and iron, this
+particular industry labours under great disadvantages. But if Rome
+considers that the retention of Pola is strategically essential, then in
+order to meet her wishes this town might be taken out of the
+Triest-Istrian Free State--maybe the Italians will be able to do
+something that will cause the citizens to cease regretting those good
+days of old when, as Austria's chief naval base, she flourished on the
+largesse of officers and men. But what can she do, and what could
+anybody do? Hundreds of houses are deserted; and for the year 1920 the
+owners of the theatre--which did not engage expensive actors but relied
+mainly on cinema--were faced with a deficit of 12,000 lire.
+
+The Triest-Istrian Free State would approximately contain, without Pola,
+some 300,000 inhabitants, half Italian and half Yugoslav. The formation
+of this State would be less advantageous to the Yugoslavs, for most of
+the big landowners and the shop-keepers are Italians who live on the
+Yugoslav peasants; but Yugoslavia, for the sake of peace, would be glad
+to see the State come into existence. Eastern and central Istria,
+forming a part of Yugoslavia and lying between the two Free States,
+should extend to Porto di Bado, which would cause it to possess about
+3,000 Italians and 280,000 Yugoslavs. If it were to be bounded by the
+Ar[vs]a it would make the Italians in the Triest-Istrian State become a
+minority.
+
+With respect to the indisputable Slav districts east of the Isonzo,
+_i.e._ the territory of Gorica-Gradi[vs]ca and an appreciable part of
+Carniola, which have been adjudged to Italy and which long to be joined
+to the Yugoslav State, there are two possible solutions. (In passing we
+may observe that there is no country where the national frontier is more
+clearly indicated. The linguistic frontier is so strictly defined that
+the peasant on one side of it does not speak Italian and his neighbour
+on the other side does not understand the Slovene tongue. Nevertheless,
+Signor Colajanni, the venerable leader of the Italian Republicans, took
+up an undemocratic point of view and declined to admit the argument of
+the superiority of numbers, when he alluded to this frontier in a speech
+to the Republican Congress at Naples. Waving numbers aside, he preferred
+to appeal to history and culture, though he should have known that the
+mass of the Slovene people is much better educated than the Italian
+peasant.) The true ethnographical boundary would be the Isonzo--not many
+Yugoslavs live to the west and not many Italians to the east of that
+river. Only in the town of Gorica do we find Italians. In 1910 at the
+census the Italian municipal authorities attempted to show that their
+town was almost entirely Italian; at a subsequent census the Austrians
+found that the returns had been largely falsified, and that in reality
+Gorica contained 14,000 Italians and 12,000 Slovenes, while it is common
+knowledge that if you go 500 yards from the town you meet nothing but
+Slovenes. The prosperity of Gorica was mostly based on the export of
+fruit and vegetables from the Slovene countryside. In 1898 the Slovenes
+awakened, formed societies, started in business on a large scale and
+boycotted the Italian merchants, who found themselves obliged to learn
+the Slovene language. Suppose that, for the sake of meeting the wishes
+of the Italian Nationalists, one half of the town were given to Italy,
+then that portion would be faced with ruin. It would, therefore, be
+advisable that the whole town should remain with its hinterland, and
+that Italy and Yugoslavia should be divided from each other by the
+Isonzo. But if this solution is impossible, then a large district east
+of the Isonzo should be entirely and permanently neutralized, which
+would not endanger the security of either State. Very different in
+character is the line Triglav-Idria-Sneznik, which the Italians hold
+ostensibly as a means of defence, but which is an offensive line against
+Yugoslavia, and primarily against Ljubljana and Karlovac.
+
+No doubt as the Italians in the eastern Adriatic have obtained a regular
+position by the Treaty of Rapallo they will henceforth do their best to
+win the love of their new subjects. They will disavow such officers as
+that one on the sandy isle of Unie who accused the Slav priest of
+propaganda, and in fact, as we have mentioned elsewhere, expelled him
+for the reason that inside his church, where they had been for many
+years, stood monuments of the two Slav apostles, SS. Cyril and Methodus.
+St. Methodus was the wise administrator of these two--but even if he
+takes the rulers of the eastern Adriatic under his particular protection
+one must be prepared for them to fail in smothering, by their
+enlightened rule, the discontent which in the last three years has grown
+among the Yugoslavs to such acute proportions. It began, as we have
+noted, under the aegis of Baron Sonnino; the old neighbour,
+Austria-Hungary, had been Italy's hereditary foe, and the Baron's school
+could not bring itself to regard the new neighbours in a friendly light,
+although their house was so much less populated than that of their
+predecessors, not to mention that of the Italians themselves.
+
+There have been times during the last three years when a war between
+Italy and Yugoslavia seemed scarcely avoidable--the natives of the
+districts most concerned were looking forward to it with eagerness. At a
+Yugoslav assembly held in Triest in the summer of 1919 the other
+delegates were electrified by two priests from Istria who declared that
+their people were straining at the leash, anxious for the word to snatch
+up their weapons. (Many of these weapons, by the way, were of Italian
+origin, as there had been no great difficulty in purchasing them from
+the more pacific or the more Socialistic Italian soldiers; the usual
+price was ten lire for a rifle and a hundred rounds.) If there should
+come about a war between Italy and Yugoslavia, then it is to be supposed
+that the Yugoslavs will afterwards take as their western frontier the
+old frontier of Austria (except for the Friuli district, south of
+Cormons, which they do not covet, since they look upon this ancient race
+as Italian.)
+
+By signing the Treaty of Rapallo the Yugoslav Government has shown that
+it is ready to go to very great lengths in order to establish, as
+securely as may be, an era of peace. It would be just as creditable on
+the part of the Italians if they will consent to Istria being
+partitioned in the way we have suggested, for they have been wrongly
+taught to think themselves entitled to this country, and to believe that
+the inhabitants, as a whole, are glad to be Italian subjects. "You may
+suppose we are unpatriotic," the Austrian railway officials of Italian
+nationality used to say, "but as Austria gives much better pay than we
+should receive from Italy, we prefer that this part of the world should
+be Austrian."
+
+The relations between Italy and Yugoslavia have been treated at some
+length, for it would require but little to bring a gathering of
+storm-clouds to the sky. One even hears of Roman Catholics in Istria and
+elsewhere abjuring their Church and--for the national cause--adopting
+the Serbian Orthodox faith. Twenty years ago it happened that two
+Istrian villages, Ricmanje and Log, went over to the Uniate and thence
+to the Orthodox Church. This was on account of a quarrel with the Bishop
+of Triest, who wanted, against the wishes of the people, to remove their
+priest, Dr. Pojar. But now we have priests in the provinces given to
+Italy who are openly calling on their flock to go over with them to
+their Orthodox brothers; and this is a movement which, it is thought,
+will merely be postponed by the introduction of the Slav liturgy. To
+take a single sermon out of many, we may mention one which in the summer
+of 1920 was preached in a church of the Vipava valley. The clergyman,
+after lamenting that the chief dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church
+are Italians, gave it as his opinion that there was nothing to choose in
+point of goodness between that particular Church and the Orthodox
+Church. "And," said an old peasant who came to Triest with the story of
+what had happened, "never in my life did I hear so fine a sermon and one
+that did me so much good."
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 72: The Italians had originally landed a "hygienic
+    mission" at Valona early in the European War, and this of
+    course developed into something else. That ingenuous
+    propagandist, Mr. H. E. Goad, tells us (in the _Fortnightly
+    Review_ of May 1922) that while Nature had made the innumerable
+    deep-water harbours on the eastern coast of the Adriatic
+    practically immune from Italy's attack, a landing or raid from
+    one of them at Ancona, Bari or Barletta would be a vital blow
+    at Italy, severing vital communications. He therefore justifies
+    Italy's landing at Valona in that it was a purely defensive
+    step, made to ensure that its harbour should not be used
+    against her. He may hold that the seizure of one town is better
+    than the seizure of none, but from the strategic and political
+    point of view it would seem that Mr. Goad is an injudicious
+    advocate.]
+
+    [Footnote 73: _Albaniens Zukunft._ Munich, 1916.]
+
+    [Footnote 74: _La Sera_, August 6, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 75: _Giornale delle Puglie_, September 6-7, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 76: The delegates of the League of Nations were told,
+    at the beginning of 1922, by the authorities in southern
+    Albania that it was iniquitous to believe that they would
+    employ this kind of punishment for political refugees. Did they
+    not advertise an amnesty to all those who returned within
+    forty-five days? And in what newspaper, they indignantly
+    asked--in what newspaper had they published the slightest
+    threat of arson?]
+
+    [Footnote 77: In the winter of 1921 this gentleman was expelled
+    from his country.]
+
+    [Footnote 78: _Albanesische Studien._ Jena, 1854.]
+
+    [Footnote 79: _Albanien und die Albanesen._]
+
+    [Footnote 80: But this is less rigorously upheld in the towns
+    if it is a question of their honour or of cash. When, to give
+    an example, Scutari was occupied by the Montenegrins at the
+    beginning of the Great War, a Catholic Albanian merchant came
+    to a Montenegrin lawyer and asked him to institute proceedings
+    against another merchant who had gravely and publicly insulted
+    him. The lawyer drew up the complaint, for which he charged the
+    small sum of 20 perpers (= francs), but although his client was
+    a wealthy man this fee appalled him; he resolved to take no
+    further steps. In general, the Scutarenes prefer to suffer
+    imprisonment rather than part with any money. And the
+    willingness of the Albanians not to look a gift-horse in the
+    mouth could often be observed at Podgorica between the years
+    1909 and 1912, when Nicholas of Montenegro would occasionally
+    appear in the market-place with a supply of caps and other
+    articles for the Albanians. These he would distribute, having
+    first exclaimed: "Ka[vc]ak Karadak Kralj Nikola barabar!" (that
+    is to say, "The Albanian and the Montenegrin are equal in the
+    eyes of King Nicholas!"). Ka[vc]ak is a word meaning a brigand,
+    an outlaw; the Montenegrins apply it to their neighbours, and
+    these latter, throwing their new caps in the air and cheering
+    for Nikita, did not mind what he called them.]
+
+    [Footnote 81: _Turkey in Europe._ London, 1900.]
+
+    [Footnote 82: _Ein Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen._
+    Vienna, 1905.]
+
+    [Footnote 83: _Italy in the Balkans at this Hour._ Naples,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 84: _L'Albanie Independente_, by Dukagjin-Zadeh Basri
+    Bey. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 85: Cf. the _New Statesman_, February 5, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 86: When the Serbian troops arrived at Pri[vs]tina in
+    the Balkan War they discovered among the inhabitants of that
+    place a man who had not left his house for some fourteen years.
+    We are told (in _The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
+    Ireland_, etc., vol. v. London, 1921) of my Lord Eyre of
+    Eyrescourt in County Galway "that not one of the windows of his
+    castle was made to open, but luckily he had no liking for fresh
+    air." Yet probably his lordship's countenance had not the
+    pallor of the man of Pri[vs]tina, because "from an early dinner
+    to the hour of rest he never left his chair, nor did the claret
+    ever quit the table."]
+
+    [Footnote 87: When this account of the incident was published
+    in my small book, _A Difficult Frontier_, it caused a reviewer,
+    one I. M., in _The Near East_ to observe, that I "can be
+    jubilant when a Montenegrin in Yugoslav pay insults a British
+    officer, Captain Brodie." Since the Editor permits such
+    hopeless nonsense to appear in his columns one may be excused,
+    I think, for not taking _The Near East_ very seriously. It is
+    not worth while informing them how General Phillips of Scutari
+    dealt with Captain Brodie.]
+
+    [Footnote 88: Referring in the _Nation and Athenaeum_ to Sir
+    Charles's latest work, _Hinduism and Buddhism_ (3 vols.), Mr.
+    Edwyn Bevan says that "for a lonely student, who had done
+    nothing in his life but study, the book would have been a
+    sufficiently remarkable achievement. That a man who has been an
+    active public servant and held high and responsible offices
+    should have found time for the studies which this book
+    presupposes is marvellous. It is a masterly survey.... There
+    can be few men who have Sir Charles's gift of linguistic
+    accomplishments, who can not only read Sanskrit and Pali, but
+    know enough of the Dravidian languages of Southern India to
+    check statements by reference to the original writings, and add
+    to this a knowledge of Chinese and Tibetan."]
+
+    [Footnote 89: Cf. pp. 72-73, Vol. I.]
+
+    [Footnote 90: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, February 28, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 91: Cf. _A Political Escapade: The Story of Fiume and
+    D'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. London, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 92: Cf. _Tribune de Geneve_, October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 93: Those who are curious as to the gentleman's
+    antecedents may like to refer to my book, _Under the
+    Acroceraunian Mountains_.]
+
+    [Footnote 94: Cf. _La Suisse_ (of Geneva), October 13, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 95: Cf. _Journal des Debats_, October 15, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 96: This would be about 18,000 lb. avoirdupois.]
+
+    [Footnote 97: Cf. p. 283, Vol. II.]
+
+    [Footnote 98: Cf. _Morning Post_ of December 14, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 99: Cf. _Le Temps_, November 11, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 100: "Who is this anonymous idiot?... He really ought
+    to have known better than that," says a reviewer in _The Near
+    East_. I quite agree. It is pleasant now and then to be able to
+    agree with a paper which is so one-sided as to admit pro-Nikita
+    and anti-Serbian diatribes by Mr. Devine, but which refuses to
+    insert a letter on the other side. "Let us not mix ourselves up
+    in their domestic affairs," said the Editor to me after an
+    hour's conversation. And though it is a matter of no
+    importance, I may mention that he employs a reviewer who,
+    referring to the map in my book, _A Difficult Frontier_
+    (Yugoslavs and Albanians)--a map which is most conspicuously
+    printed opposite the title-page--observes that it "is hidden in
+    one unostentatious page, which at first sight escapes the
+    reader's attention altogether."]
+
+    [Footnote 101: In the _Samouprava_ of November 12 the whole
+    case was discussed with his usual lucidity by Dr. Lazar
+    Markovi['c], one of the ablest and most philosophic men in
+    Yugoslavia. This ex-Professor of Law is now the Minister of
+    Justice, and it is to be hoped that he will eventually succeed
+    in the place of Pa[vs]i['c].]
+
+    [Footnote 102: Those who like to hold the Serbs up to contumely
+    have not a very strong case when they denounce them for now
+    being on friendly terms with the Christian Mirditi, whereas
+    they used to be the friends of Essad Pasha; this personage was
+    at that time the man whose national Albanian policy had the
+    greatest chance of success. He was the one man who then
+    appeared capable of establishing a State in which Christians
+    and Moslems would be fairly represented. But now too many of
+    the Moslem--and not only they--have adopted an Italophil
+    attitude which is sadly anti-national.]
+
+    [Footnote 103: A later phase was for the Government to
+    recognize that what Albania must have is the friendship of
+    Yugoslavia, so that the eyes of the most powerful Ministers
+    were turned from Rome to Belgrade. Thereupon the Italians, loth
+    to lose their footing in the country, gave their patronage to
+    the anti-Governmental parties. It was pleasant to hear in the
+    summer of 1922 that when the boundary commissioners had left a
+    lamentable neutral zone between the two countries the Albanian
+    Government suggested to the very willing Government of
+    Yugoslavia that they should co-operate in cleansing that zone
+    of its brigand population.]
+
+    [Footnote 104: December 16, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 105: According to the Geographical-Statistical Atlas
+    recently published by the German Professor Hickmann the average
+    loss among the belligerent countries, in killed, wounded and
+    through diminution of the birth-rate, was 6.5 per cent. At one
+    end of the list of suffering nations is the United States with
+    a percentage of 0.4, Great Britain with 3.7, and Belgium with
+    4.7. Roumania, Italy, Bulgaria and Turkey are all between 6 and
+    6.5 per cent. France has a percentage of 8.5, Russia has 9,
+    Germany 9.3 and Austria 11. Above them all comes Serbia with
+    the appalling percentage of 23.]
+
+    [Footnote 106: November 24, 1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 107: Cf. "Geographie Humaine de la France" in the
+    _Histoire de la Nation Francaise_. Paris, 1920.]
+
+    [Footnote 108: Cf. _L'histoire illustree de la guerre de
+    1914_.]
+
+    [Footnote 109: _L'Albanie en 1921._ Paris, 1922.]
+
+    [Footnote 110: _Under the Acroceraunian Mountains._]
+
+    [Footnote 111: M. Gabriel Louis Jaray. Cf. his _Les Albanais_
+    (Paris, 1920) and his other writings on the Albanians.]
+
+    [Footnote 112: Cf. _A History of the Peace Conference of
+    Paris_. Edited by H. W. V. Temperley, vols. iv. and v. London,
+    1921.]
+
+    [Footnote 113: Elias Regnault, _Histoire politique et sociale
+    des Principautes Danubiennes_. Paris, 1885.]
+
+    [Footnote 114: The more advanced Roumanians of the plain also
+    apply this term to their countrymen who live among the
+    Roumanian mountains or, in Serbia, amid the heights of
+    Po[vz]arevac and Kraina. It signifies a stupid fellow, one from
+    the wilderness.]
+
+    [Footnote 115: February 13, 1919.]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CONCLUSION: A FEW NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS--THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS--THE CROATS
+AND THE SERBS--SERB AND BULGAR.
+
+
+THE SLOVENES AND THE SERBS
+
+Those who, for some reason or other, do not love the Yugoslavs will have
+said to themselves, before taking up this book, that they would
+certainly supply that searching criticism of this people which the
+author would omit. They knew it was unlikely that a man would write at
+such excessive length about the Southern Slavs if he had not a weakness
+for them, and if he predicted for their State the virtue of cohesion or
+more than very moderate tranquillity, his prejudice would have to be
+discounted. "The Yugoslavs," said an Italian lady to me in London, and
+her beautiful lips looked as if they could scarcely bring themselves to
+pronounce the name, "the Yugoslavs," she said, "are very wild and
+black." If I have given the impression in this book that they are white,
+my fault will be much greater than the lady's, since I am not quite a
+stranger to them. Slovenes, Croats, Serbs and Bulgars--they have good
+and evil qualities so different that one must take them separately, and
+perhaps it will be more instructive to compare them with each other. The
+Slovenes need not detain us; they are a small people occupying a
+surprisingly large area; if they were less well organized they would
+have been long ago swallowed up. They shine as workers in the field and
+mine and forest much more than as military men. They have never been
+hereditary soldiers, like so many of the Croats, and it is perhaps this
+want of confidence in their own military prowess which has caused them
+to take measures that are sometimes too severe against the Austrians who
+are under them. The Bosnian Moslems assert that, as all their links with
+Turkey are now broken, they are the best Yugoslavs. But the Slovenes are
+also the best Yugoslavs, because they recognize that in Yugoslavia is
+their sole salvation. Some of us may regret that their tenacity so far
+outstrips their idealism. They are a careful people, as may be seen from
+Order No. 17024 which was issued, on December 4, 1920, by the Prefecture
+of Ljutomir. Referring to sequestered property, it enjoined that the
+Austrian owner should be allowed so much that he could live on it, but
+not so much as to enable him to be extravagant. They are also a
+relatively well-educated people; according to official statistics of
+1910, 85.34 per cent. of the Slovene population know how to read and
+write, while their neighbours to the east, the Magyars, can only reckon
+62 per cent. and the Italians of pre-war Italy, 62.4 per cent. The most
+backward part of the Slovene race, those of Istria, have 46.6 per cent.
+of illiterates, while there are Italian provinces where the illiterates
+amount even to 85 per cent. Rome itself counts 65 per cent.[116]
+
+
+THE MONTENEGRINS AND THE SERBS
+
+It will be profitable to compare the Montenegrins with the Serbs,
+because in our impatience with those persons who would keep them
+separate we may have seemed to imply that we believe them identical. The
+Serbs who maintained themselves in those mountains developed certain
+characteristics which differentiate them from their brothers. The Serb
+of the old kingdom walks, the Serb of the mountain struts. The
+magnificent Serbian warrior of the kingdom is so disciplined that
+although a Field-Marshal will sit down openly in a cafe and drink wine
+with some old comrade who is in the ranks, yet when the soldier is on
+duty his obedience is perfect. But if the Montenegrin private thinks
+that his officer has rebuked him unjustly, he will not hesitate to kill
+him. The Serb has a great respect for the national heroes, while every
+Montenegrin (for the sake of brevity we will use this term instead of
+"Serb of Montenegro," and imply, when using the word Serb, a Serb of the
+old kingdom)--as we have said, a Serb respects the national heroes,
+while every Montenegrin has a knowledge of his own ancestors for at
+least a hundred years. He is a chivalrous person who wishes to be
+treated as at least your equal. It was the Serbs' disregard of this
+sentiment which now and then gave umbrage to those Montenegrins who had
+expected that their union with the Serbs would cause an immediate return
+of the golden age. This was almost as offensive to the Montenegrins as
+the request that they would now contribute towards the support of the
+army. They had always left this to the Tzar--"We and the Russians," they
+used to say, "are 150 millions." Not all the Montenegrins have managed
+to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of the clan. An amusing
+example of this was a major at Pe['c] who belonged to the great
+Vasojevi['c] family. He gave two of us a large lorry, which was the only
+car he had, and advised us to start very early and to take no one with
+us, except a guard, as the road to Mitrovica was in a soft condition. We
+started off with about twenty passengers, but only one of them, a Turk,
+had any luggage to speak of; and after we had gone a good part of the
+way we were held up at a military post. A Montenegrin captain, also a
+member of the Vasojevi['c], had overslept himself and ordered us by
+telephone to return for him. The Serbian lieutenant--who had risen from
+the ranks--asked at once if that order would come in writing, and when
+he received a negative answer he cut off the communication and wished us
+a happy journey. The Montenegrins also differ from the Serbs in their
+cultivation of the arts. They have no liking for songs of love, but say
+that men should only listen to the guslar and to hero-songs. They are
+severer and more dignified than the Serbs, and it will be some time
+before the average Montenegrin throws back his head in a railway
+carriage and rolls out a joyous song, as I once heard a Serb do in the
+Banat, whereupon another Serb in the far corner--they obviously had
+never met--joined in the song with great heartiness. The Montenegrin
+says that the Serb chatters like a gipsy (though we must not forget
+that, as Miss Durham remarked,[117] he is hurt if things Serbian are
+criticized by an outsider); he has been told that the Englishman is
+grave, like himself, and therefore he appreciates him from afar. But not
+many Englishmen (or Serbs) would care to indulge, like the Montenegrins,
+in the ceaseless recapitulation of time-honoured exploits. The younger
+folk are not so faithful to these ancient stories, but it is in
+Montenegro that performers on the one-stringed, monotonous guslar can
+most easily find an audience. The Serbs of the kingdom have become more
+eclectic in musical matters, though even with them the popular taste is
+in favour of the man who snores, on the grounds that he is hearty and
+robust. In so far as foreign influence is concerned, the Montenegrin has
+been to some extent affected by Italian culture, while that of Greece
+and Germany has acted on the Serb. But the Great War had an equally
+unfortunate influence on both of them. One must, however, mention that
+long before the War, and owing partly to Albanian influence, partly to
+their own struggle for existence and partly to other causes, the
+Montenegrins had shown themselves defective in straightforwardness.
+Undoubtedly they had deteriorated under the example of Nikita, but this
+unfortunate trait can also be discerned between the lines of the great
+poem, the "Gorski Venac," written in the first half of the nineteenth
+century. There used to be a certain amount of what we call theft in
+Montenegro, but the natives of that country, as of Albania, cherished
+rather communistic ideas; it seemed to them that they had a sort of
+right to that which another possessed, particularly if he was a near
+relative. After the War the Montenegrin was so much impoverished that he
+stole more freely, and the Serb, whose hands had hitherto been
+remarkably clean, took to the same habits and often in a very amateur
+fashion. Thus in a Macedonian village where a British army store had
+been rifled, the officers turned to the local priest, who was indignant
+with his people and conducted the officers into every house. Nothing was
+discovered, and the priest proposed that his own house should be
+searched. He was told that this was unnecessary, but he insisted; and
+when his careless wife led the way up a ladder into the loft a British
+officer perceived at any rate one pair of khaki breeches. The patients
+of the Scottish Women's Hospital at Belgrade were so unpractised in the
+art of stealing that one of them--a typical case--returned one day to
+have her leg attended to, and in raising her skirt revealed on the
+petticoat, which had once been a tablecloth, a large "S.W.H." These
+felonious ways are in contrast with the usual Serb candour. One
+afternoon in Belgrade I was searching for a small street in a district
+which I had not visited before. When at last, after many inquiries, I
+came to within fifty yards of it I found a policeman--but it is only
+fair to say that the majority of the force consisted at this time of
+soldiers recently disbanded. When I asked him where the street might be,
+the good man thought a while and then, throwing back his open hand and
+giving up the problem in despair, said, "My God, I know not."
+
+The wave of crime has manifested itself differently among the Serbs and
+the Montenegrins, in that the latter have been more primitive and have
+consummated their plundering by assassination--and this in a country
+where between 1895 and 1913 only two men were murdered for their money.
+In Serbia the people, even in the terrible distress after the War, did
+not go to such lengths. During the first half-year, the only two cases
+of unnatural death in the whole district of [vC]a[vc]ak, where I spent a
+couple of months, were both of them suicides, an old man hanging himself
+on account of the death of his last remaining soldier son, and an
+officer's wife, who had been too friendly to an Austrian, throwing
+herself into a well on her husband's return. A certain village of the
+same district is an instance of the frequency of all those minor
+peccadilloes, such as drunkenness and rowdiness and so forth, which the
+Serbs permit themselves. There is a law which lays it down that the
+mayor must be a native and must be a man who never has been lodged in
+gaol. But that unhappy village in the [vC]a[vc]ak region is unable to
+produce a single adult man with such a record.... If the Serb of the old
+kingdom is a more easy-going individual than his brother of the
+mountains it is quite erroneous to think that they dislike each other or
+have not resolved to come together.
+
+
+THE CROATS AND THE SERBS
+
+Some of Yugoslavia's neighbours were anxious, during the months which
+followed the War, that we should learn how Serb and Croat were
+continually at each other's throat. The dissensions between the two
+branches of the Yugoslav family would have been much more serious and
+more prolonged if their neighbours had paid less attention to them. It
+is true that "our Serbian customs," in the words of Ja[vs]a Tomi['c],
+"come from the village, while those of the Croats come from the nobles."
+The humbler Croat, one may say, was an employee in a big store, while
+the Serb was a small trader. The Croat would naturally like to introduce
+the big-store system into Yugoslavia, but this the Serb does not
+understand. He has a greater sense of responsibility and is more careful
+with regard to the expenses. To the Croat, in the old Empire, it was
+immaterial whether the officials were more or less costly. The bill was
+paid by Austria, who was the foe. For some time the Croat found himself
+forgetting that he was in Yugoslavia. When Cardinal Bourne came to
+Zagreb in the spring of 1919 and the town-hall was decorated with the
+British, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene and the town flag, some one asked
+the mayor why the State flag had been omitted. He was horrified. "The
+State flag!" he cried. Then it dawned upon him.... Numbers of Croats
+have belonged to the governing class and--impelled by the Catholic
+religion--have displayed more devotion to the arts than to the freedom
+of their country. On the other hand the Serbs, a race of practical
+peasants, have a highly developed national consciousness. This they owe
+partly to their inborn political gifts and largely to their Church, for
+the Orthodox religion--one may say, I think, without injustice--has more
+frequently shown itself, so closely is it connected with the idea of the
+State, to be rather of this world than of another. One should say the
+Orthodox religion as it flourishes in the Balkans, for when the Russian
+General Bobrikoff, who was attached to the person of King Milan, came
+back with him to Belgrade after the Peace of San Stefano, he was
+scandalized to see that religion had no greater share in the national
+rejoicings. "Accustomed as I was in my own country," he said, "to see
+nothing done without prayers and the blessing of the Church, I was
+indeed astounded to observe that the priests played the part of
+officials even in the cathedral, and often were altogether absent." This
+reminds one of von Baernreiter, who wished to learn the Serbian
+language, so that he would be more eligible for the governorship of
+Bosnia. He asked his teacher at Vienna when one could hear sermons in
+the Serbian church, and was informed that these occurred but twice a
+year and that on those occasions everybody left the church. The Serb and
+the Bulgar have come to neglect our distinctions between that which is
+spiritual and that which is temporal; their religion is, in consequence
+of their history, so inherent a part of the nation's life that in losing
+it one would almost cease to be a Serb or a Bulgar. Their Church is as
+national as that of the Armenians.[118] This may not be an ideal state
+of things, but it prevailed in Spain under the Moorish oppression and in
+the France of Jeanne d'Arc. During the crisis of the Great War the
+churches in the West were everywhere national; and in Serbia it was
+calculated that 60 per cent. of the sermons had a pronounced national
+colouring....
+
+Now with these differences between the Croat and the Serb, does it not
+seem strange that the vast majority of them are for union, with a part
+of this majority in favour of a reasonable decentralization? But if we
+investigate the motives of the Serbs and Croats who would thwart this
+union, we will see that they have nothing of that faith which, after all
+these centuries, has moved the Yugoslav multitude. Some of the Serbs
+wish to keep aloof on the ground that Serbia in the last hundred years
+has borne the brunt of the battle--and this, whether they were or were
+not faced with a more difficult situation, is acknowledged by most of
+the Croats, who for that reason would never dream of wishing the more
+modern Zagreb to supplant Belgrade. Those few Croats who are not for
+Yugoslavia are moved by ecclesiastical prejudice or by their longing for
+the privileges which the Habsburgs granted them. But those who, for
+various reasons, criticize the central Government are by no means
+necessarily in favour of setting up a separate one. Whatever the
+impetuous Radi['c] may have said, he is out for Yugoslavia. Still one
+cannot be astonished that he was sometimes misunderstood. The Zagreb
+students who, towards the end of 1918, came to Svetozar Pribi[vc]evi['c]
+with the request that he would let them kill the demagogue, were for
+expressing in this way what Dr. Du[vs]an Popovi['c], the well-known
+deputy, expressed in another. It was at the Zagreb Provincial Parliament
+that he exclaimed, in the summer of 1918, that "This idea will be
+victorious and therefore I say publicly, in the presence of the whole
+people, that I am a Croat, a Serb and a Slovene, or, if you prefer it,
+none of them but merely a Yugoslav." In 1914 when Stambouluesky, the
+future Prime Minister of Bulgaria, was arrested and accused of
+Serbophilism, he declared: "I am neither Bulgar or Serb; I am a
+Yugoslav!" ... For at least a generation Zagreb will remain
+particularist, zealously preserving the differences--personal, social
+and religious--which distinguish her people from the dominant Serbs. The
+Croat officers who burned with shame at the Archduke's murder on Bosnian
+soil, the Croat regiments that in 1915 marched into Belgrade with bands
+playing and their colours flying, the Croat officials whose bread and
+salt came from the Habsburgs in administering Yugoslav countries during
+the War--all these will not forget a long, deep-rooted and honourable
+tradition. But Zagreb is now even as Munich was in 1866; after having
+been the Rome of the Yugoslav movement, the seat of its philosophy and
+the centre of its politics, the Croat capital has now an atmosphere of
+sad futility, for Belgrade is the beacon of the Yugoslav world. While
+comparing Zagreb with Rome one must add that she had also the misfortune
+to resemble Rome of the decadence--a good deal of outer polish was
+imparted by the Austrians, at the expense of their victims' backbone.
+The five centuries of Turkish domination had no such demoralizing
+influence upon the Serbs, especially not in the country places. In the
+opinion of a very close observer,[119] whom I quote, there is nothing
+that so thoroughly displays the dominance of Belgrade as the agrarian
+problem. The projected reforms, which have been based on the principle
+that no one should own more land than he can cultivate with the aid of
+his family, would dispossess large numbers of big landowners in Croatia
+and still larger numbers of men with moderate holdings, whose
+compensation would be "determined hereafter." The application of these
+reforms has been delayed for various reasons, but nowhere at any time
+has it been suggested that Croatia might reject them. In the old kingdom
+of Serbia, with much the greater part of the land in peasant possession,
+it may be said that there is no agrarian problem.... Those enemies of
+Yugoslavia, by the way, who have hoped that the particularism of Croatia
+would be something altogether different from what it is, should have
+mingled with the crowd at Zagreb on the evening of Prince Alexander's
+arrival in July 1920. The Prince interrupted his dinner, came out on to
+the balcony and made a speech. "Draga moja bratjo Hrvati," he
+said--"Croatians, my dear brothers." Not for a thousand years had a
+ruler of Croatia addressed his people in their own tongue. One immense
+roar of delight broke, as the _Morning Post's_ special correspondent
+tells us, from the assembled multitude; men fell on each other's necks,
+laughed, wept and kissed each other.... Such manifestations must not
+lead us to believe that all the internal problems of the young State are
+settled. Croatia (as also Slovenia) is jealous of her separate identity,
+suspicious to some extent of Serbia, her prestige and projects; she has
+no intention of allowing herself, after the hard fight against
+Magyarization, to be "Balkanized." But one thing was made clear by the
+Prince's visit: there can be no word or thought of separation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have spoken of the disaffection prevalent among the Croats, and on
+this the world has fixed its eyes, because of the large number of Croat
+deputies who have hitherto declined to come to Belgrade. Nevertheless
+there is a more general and more grievous discontent in Yugoslavia,
+since, after all, the Croats' attitude is of a temporary character--for
+it is probable that after the next general election their peculiar
+upbringing will not be so potent in determining their sentiments
+towards the State. More and more will they be ready to make common cause
+with Serbs and Slovenes; and their criticisms, which are now so
+negative, will be of a more useful kind. (They will recognize, for
+example, that if it costs 3000 dinars to open an inn in Serbia they were
+not justified in protesting when the fee in Croatia was raised from 5
+crowns to 5 dinars.) That Yugoslavia gives ground for criticism no one,
+least of all her well-wishers, deny. And those who pray that she will
+prosper do so for the reason that the scattered Southern Slavs have for
+the first time now been able--most of them at any rate--to link their
+arms together; and we hope that with high qualities outweighing their
+defects the Southern Slavs will permanently take their place among the
+nations. But this will not be brought about unless those ailments which
+they suffer from are now confronted. Serbs themselves are often saying
+that their little Serbia was better than this fine new country which is
+thrice as large. She had fewer problems, she had fewer parties, and if
+people were corrupt they were so on a smaller scale. Traditions which
+are deprecatingly called Balkan, but which were at that time suited to a
+Balkan country, should not be allowed to spread across a country which
+is so much more than Balkan. Merit does not everywhere in this imperfect
+world advance you automatically, but an effort is required in Yugoslavia
+to resist the calls of friendship in appointing men to offices. The army
+of officials is too numerous; yet many of them are so badly paid that
+even if a great reformer could reduce by half their numbers he would be
+inclined to lay no hand upon the total sum they now enjoy. But this
+necessity of cleansing the public services is not peculiar to
+Yugoslavia. The politicians must have courage to lay heavier taxes on
+the peasants: the strange phenomenon is seen of peasants who assert that
+they are quite prepared for this, and on the other hand of politicians
+who are frightened lest it lose them many votes. The peasants generally
+are so prosperous that some, for instance, whom I know of near
+Kragujevac, men occupied in growing cereals, find that the fowls which
+they keep rather as a hobby do not have to lay them golden eggs in order
+to pay all the taxes. In that region it is usual nowadays for peasants
+not to count their bank-notes, but to weigh them; recently a man
+disposed of certain fields for his own weight in notes of ten dinars.
+The peasants are not only dissatisfied with the two chief parties, the
+Radicals and the Democrats, for not taxing them sufficiently--so that at
+the next general election they may give a good deal more support than
+hitherto to their own Peasants' party--but they complain that their
+interests are neglected although, as we have seen, the lawyers and other
+townsfolk of the Radical and Democrat parties are so anxious with
+respect to peasants' votes.
+
+The difficult position of the Yugoslavs--observe how in the last year
+their exchange has fallen--is due in part to the deplorable activities
+of other peoples (vast amounts have had to be imported for
+reconstruction purposes, Rieka has been practically unavailable as a
+port, and conditions have been such that the Yugoslavs have had to keep
+a large army mobilized), partly their position is due to measures
+ill-advised but which they were compelled to take (such as their system
+of Agrarian Reform), partly to political inexperience and partly to
+their lack of organizing powers. Let us hope that from now onwards
+Yugoslavia will have to arm herself less heavily against the slings and
+arrows of the world, and that she will be able therefore to become a
+more proficient swimmer in this sea of troubles.
+
+
+SERB AND BULGAR
+
+A map of the Balkan migrations, with its curved lines leading almost
+everywhere, is a bewildering spectacle; but if we study the main
+clusters of lines we shall see that the people whose movements they
+chronicle have frequently preserved, in a remarkable fashion, certain
+common characteristics: thus a stream flowed from the south-west towards
+Valjevo in Serbia, and it is interesting to notice how the prominent men
+of that region, whose ancestors came from somewhere between Montenegro
+and the old frontiers of Serbia, have all of them certain
+characteristics--a talent for foreign languages, a subtlety of
+reasoning, originality but insufficient observation, and clever but
+fallacious minds. Similarly in the Bulgar there are qualities which even
+now can be ascribed to the Mongol blood. The Bulgar is more stolid than
+the Serb; he is less given to sympathy and on that account can be cruel.
+The Bulgar is benevolent because he is urged by kindliness, whereas the
+more impressionable Serb is under the influence both of sentiment,
+sentimentality and sympathy. These differences of temperament--and there
+are others, more or less distinguishable--do not seem to Balkan thinkers
+any reason why the two should keep apart. And a couple of months after
+the Great War, during which the Bulgars, as their best friends must
+acknowledge, were far from irreproachable in occupied Serbia--partly
+this was due to the vast number of new posts for which they had no
+suitable men--a few months afterwards a Bulgarian engineer was placidly
+working among the Serbs at [vC]a[vc]ak railway station, wearing his own
+uniform. And a Serbian butcher who emigrated to Bulgaria settled down at
+Ferdinand just before the War and has lived there unmolested up to this
+day, and that in spite of his not being very highly esteemed--for, as
+the police president told me, he had married a woman with more wealth
+than good fame; the president had been among her lovers.... One would
+not suppose that the contrasting public morality of the two countries
+will keep them apart. It is easy enough for us to argue that this
+morality is on a pretty low level, because a Bulgarian War Minister saw
+fit to sue, under a _nom de guerre_, a French armament firm which
+omitted to send him the stipulated commission; because another Minister,
+incarcerated on account of felony, could be liberated by the grace of
+Tzar Ferdinand and become Premier; because a Serbian Minister used to
+buy himself corner-houses, while his Bulgarian colleagues seem to own
+most of the houses in Sofia. There was a minor Serbian official over
+against whom I took my meals for about a month; one of his ways was to
+produce a pocket-knife and cut his bread with it. Certain other parts of
+his ritual did not appeal to me, but who knows whether I did not disgust
+him by breaking my bread with my fingers? And who knows what sentiments
+were awakened some years ago at the Orthodox monastery of Gromirija, in
+Croatia, when a foreign guest proposed to wash himself in water, though
+by the joyous custom of that house there was no other liquid on the
+premises but wine? If there is in both countries, in Serbia and
+Bulgaria, a movement against the cynicism which does not clothe its
+corruption with a decent Western drapery, that is something; if there is
+a further movement in the direction of probity, that is something more.
+And, whatever some Serbs may tell you, it is undeniable that honesty has
+made important strides in the public life of that kingdom, even without
+having added to the Statute Book those rigorous proposals of the
+newly-formed Peasants' party, one of which would punish a peculating
+official with death. It is, however, apparent that this party has not
+arrived at a sense of discretion, for it wants to terminate the practice
+of allowing pensions to officials, so that each man is obliged to make
+his own provision for old age. Bulgaria, the younger country, has made a
+proportionate progress; there is trustworthy German evidence to the
+effect that the corrupt Radoslavoff Government was despised by the
+people, not in the hour of disaster but in 1916, when the Bulgarian
+soldiers changed the words of an anti-Serb song and instead of "Our old
+allies are brigands" proclaimed that "the Liberals are brigands." This
+German, Dr. Helmut von den Steinen, the correspondent of the
+_Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ (in which he was bound to speak
+favourably of Radoslavoff) used to deliver propaganda lectures in the
+Bulgarian language at Sofia during the War. He was very well acquainted
+with Bulgarian affairs and being summoned to Berlin at the end of 1917
+he made a speech[120] _in camera_ to a committee of German savants and
+artists. In the course of this he lamented that his country had attached
+herself to Radoslavoff, who, said he, was hated and would at the next
+elections be swept away.
+
+As one must repeat _ad nauseam_, the gulf between Serb and Bulgar has
+not been caused by an extreme divergence of their private or their
+public morals, academically considered, but by the various incidents
+which in the eyes of each of them testified to the other's depravity.
+And at the bottom of it all was Macedonia--Macedonia which now, being
+wisely administered, will be the foundation-stone of Yugoslavia.
+
+At the end of his book, _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, Mr. Noel
+Buxton agrees that such a Yugoslav Federation has become a practical
+possibility. But his two alternative proposals with respect to what
+should meanwhile be the fate of Macedonia would indefinitely postpone
+that Federation. We have already dealt with the proposal of autonomy,
+put forward also by Mr. Leland Buxton. As for what Mr. Noel Buxton calls
+the ideal solution--"a plebiscite conducted by an impartial
+international commission over the whole of the historical province of
+Macedonia"--this is aiming no higher than at a perpetuation of the two
+distinct countries, Serbia and Bulgaria. We should probably have had
+more plebiscites in Europe if more Allied armies had been available, but
+the campaign of intimidation and every sort of ruthlessness which
+occurred in Upper Silesia and Schleswig make us look rather askance upon
+this method of registering the popular will. Mr. Buxton airily asks for
+a plebiscite over the whole of the historical province of Macedonia,
+ignoring altogether the special difficulty that "Macedonia" means
+something quite different to the Serb, the Bulgar and the Greek. He
+dismisses likewise the universal difficulty of plebiscites, which is to
+be just in laying down the limits of the various regions. But there is
+really no need for Mr. Buxton to take us on to those quagmires, since he
+knows, and is good enough to tell us, what the result of the plebiscite
+will be. "The Bulgarian sympathies," says he, "of the mass of the
+Macedonian population are apparent to every inquiring traveller." If Mr.
+Buxton were to encounter one of those pretty lawless Karaka[vc]an
+nomads, who from the Monastir district wander all over the Balkans, his
+recognition of the man's Roman and Thraco-Illyrian descent would be
+facilitated by the permanent cheesy odour which pervades his person.
+There is nothing so permanent about the Macedonian Slav. His
+sympathies, as is natural, have gone out to that Balkan country which
+cultivated him and since, as Dr. Milovanovi['c], the Serbian statesman,
+says, "the Serbs did not begin to think about Macedonia till 1885," it
+would indeed have been extraordinary if the Macedonian Slavs--whose
+ethnical position, as scientists agree, is such a vague one--had been
+generally drawn to Serbia. One cannot help feeling that in this book Mr.
+Buxton does a serious disservice to his reputation as a Balkan expert.
+He says that Serbia until the accession of King Peter was Austrophil;
+which is, to put it mildly, a very sweeping remark--only that party
+which called itself Progressive was identified with Milan's views. He
+praises the Bulgars for being devoted to their national Church, and
+praises them for producing a large number of Protestants, whose
+sincerity, etc., so that one presumes he would have praised them still
+more if the whole nation, as was once on the cards, had joined the
+Protestant Church. Save me from my friends! the Bulgars might say. What
+is perfectly sincere about them is their patriotism; and while some of
+those who now change their religion have doubtless no ulterior, personal
+motive, the entire country would probably have as little reluctance as
+Japan in adopting any religion which, like the Exarchist Church of
+to-day, would be an instrument of the national cause. Mr. Buxton's
+knowledge of the Balkan protagonists has its limitations; for example,
+prior to Bulgaria's entry into the War he was all for the removal of the
+British Minister on account of his pro-Serbian sympathies, but he says
+no word about M. Savinsky, the Russian Minister, who was left by his
+Entente colleagues to play the first violin. This capricious gentleman
+was no diplomat, but a courtier. He did not even protest when German
+munitions for Turkey passed through Roumania, and far too much of his
+time was spent in motoring with pretty girls in the neighbourhood of
+Sofia. Many good observers were of opinion that with a more competent
+Russian representative, such as M. Nekludoff, who in 1914 was
+transferred to Stockholm, the situation would have been saved. In their
+memorandum submitted in January 1915 to Lord (then Sir Edward) Grey,
+Messrs. N. and C. R. Buxton said that their experience of fifteen years
+convinced them that the Bulgarian sentiment of the Macedonians could
+not in a short time be made to give way to another national sentiment.
+If we rule out, as being slaves of circumstance, all the Macedonians who
+now tell you that from Bulgar they have changed to Serb, there is no
+reason why we should not credit those who are so weary of the rival
+activities of both parties that they wish for peace and nothing else.
+They would follow, not the Messrs. Buxton, but the priest of the
+Bulgarian village of Chuprenia, who told me that he held that one might
+pray to God for the success of the Bulgarian arms, without saying
+whether they were in the right or in the wrong. After the end of the war
+this priest sent a telegram, which was perhaps a little indiscreet,
+advocating that the Bulgarian people should join in Yugoslavia.
+
+To prevent the Southern Slavs being torn by internal strife, it is
+necessary between Serbia and Bulgaria that one of them should for a time
+be paramount. We may be confident that Serbia will not abuse her
+position. In fact it is the opinion of a Roumanian lady at Monastir that
+the Serbs were uncommonly rash in taking into their service so many who
+once had called themselves Bulgars and now maintain that they are Serbs.
+But Serbia has become relatively so strong that she can be indulgent.
+She will even satisfy that Bulgarian professor who is said to have
+discussed the Macedonian question with the British military attache.
+
+The attache suggested a division between Serbia and Bulgaria.
+
+"No," said the professor; "let the country remain a whole, like the
+child before Solomon."
+
+"Would you be satisfied?" asked the attache, "if this question were now
+decided once and for all?"
+
+"Yes," said the professor, "if the judge be another Solomon."
+
+Among the Bulgars who are looking forward to the day when their country
+will, in some form or other, join Yugoslavia, there are some who suggest
+that when comparative tranquillity has been assured upon the Macedonian
+frontiers (that is to say, between Macedonia and the Albanians) it would
+be as well to garrison the province with Croatian regiments, pending
+the employment in their own country of Macedonian troops. Gradually the
+time will come when, as one of the units of the Yugoslav State,
+Macedonia will enjoy the same amount of Home Rule as the other
+provinces. She will then, maybe, decide for herself such matters as the
+preservation of her dialects, local administration, police, etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Once on the banks of the Danube when I was going to sail from one of
+these countries to her neighbour with whom she had recently been at war,
+and some of the inhabitants had kindly come to see me off, I was
+presented, amongst other things, with an old gentleman's good wishes,
+which he had taken the trouble to express in French and in verse. I
+believe that he recited them, but there was a considerable tumult on the
+landing-stage. Then a very angry traveller appropriated one of my ears
+and began to tell me that they were for detaining him in this country;
+three or four natives of the country reported, simultaneously, into my
+other ear that he had been letting off his revolver and was altogether a
+dangerous man. I was to settle whether he should sail or not, and
+meanwhile his luggage had been put ashore. He waved his passport in my
+face. Both he and his opponents were gesticulating with great violence,
+and this they continued to do even after I filled their hands with most
+of the small and large bouquets which the friendly people had brought
+down for me. There was so much noise that the boat's whistle, which the
+captain started, was no more than a forest-tree soaring slightly over
+those around it. As I tried to disentangle myself from those who
+encircled me I caught sight of the old gentleman of the poem--in
+appearance he was a smaller edition of the late Dr. Butler of Trinity;
+he was clearly nervous lest I should depart without his lines, which he
+extended towards me, written on the back of one of his visiting-cards. I
+was just then being told by the agitated traveller that he had only been
+firing into the air because it was Easter, and that this was his
+invariable custom at midnight on Easter-Eve. The explanation was so
+satisfactory that everyone welcomed my suggestion that he should sail
+and that they should send his revolver on to him by parcel post. They
+all shook hands with him. The two nationalities were on excellent terms.
+And we may transfer the old gentleman's good wishes to them and the
+other Yugoslavs:
+
+    Oh! la belle journee de votre bonheur,
+    Souhaitons votre bon voyage tout-a-l'heure.
+    Couronne de grands succes du ciel je vous implore,
+    Allegresse, sante et prosperite je vous augure.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [Footnote 116: Cf. _Modern Italy_, by Giovanni Borghese. Paris,
+    1913.]
+
+    [Footnote 117: Cf. _Through the Lands of the Serb_.]
+
+    [Footnote 118: Cf. _The Children of the Illuminator_, by Bishop
+    Nicholai Velimirovi['c]. London, 1919.]
+
+    [Footnote 119: _Edinburgh Review_, July 1920 (anonymous).]
+
+    [Footnote 120: Subsequently printed as a pamphlet with the
+    title, _Die Ausgestaltung des deutschen Kultur-Einflusses in
+    Bulgarien_. This was printed by the Opposition parties in
+    Sofia, who to circumvent the censor gave out that it was
+    written by an Englishman against Bratiano.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF VOLUME II
+
+(_The Names of Books, Newspapers, and Ships are in Italics._)
+
+
+Abbazia, Conditions at, 72 _et seq._
+
+Achikou (Kol), brother of Anthony, 326.
+
+Achikou (Prof. Anthony), the Mirdite, 285, 327 _et seq._
+
+_Adeverul_, its claims, 363.
+
+Agrarian Reform in Czecho-Slovakia, 136.
+-- -- in Hungary, 135.
+-- -- in Yugoslavia, 132 _et seq._
+
+Ahmed Beg Mati, 282-3.
+
+_Albanais_, _Les_, quoted, 352.
+
+_Albanesische Studien_, quoted, 287.
+
+Albanians against Austrian army, 100.
+-- compared with Basques, 294.
+-- -- -- Kurds, 311.
+-- of Dalmatia, 38.
+-- and the land in Yugoslavia, 136-7.
+
+_Albanie Independente_, quoted, 292.
+
+_Albanien und die Albanesen_, quoted, 288.
+
+Alberti (Mario), his _L'Adriatico et il Mediterraneo_, 66.
+
+Alexander (King) and the Communists, 221.
+-- -- and the Croats, 400.
+-- -- on the Italians, 60, 120.
+
+Ambassadors' Conference, 273, 337 _et seq._, 349 _et seq._
+
+Ambris (A. di) and the British boots, 219.
+
+Anglo-Albanian Society, 296, 306, 323.
+
+Apponyi (Count), on Hungary's neighbours, 371.
+
+Asquith (H. H.) and Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Austrian activities in Albania, 277-8, 281, 286, 292, 303, 316-7, 320.
+
+Austrians in Montenegro, 97 _et seq._
+-- their hospitals, 97-8.
+
+Austrians, their parliamentary manners, 224.
+
+Autonomists, the old party, 29, 35-6, 45-6, 159 _et seq._
+--the Rieka party, 46, 54, 261.
+
+Avramovi['c] of the Peasants' party, 242.
+
+
+Badoglio (General) and the coal-supply, 215-6.
+
+Balkan Committee, 347.
+
+Banat, after the War, 124 _et seq._, 362 _et seq._
+
+Baro[vs], _see_ Rieka.
+
+Bartlett (C. A. H.) and Italy's rights, 139.
+
+Basri Bey, 292-3.
+
+Beaumont (A.), the correspondent, 47, 53, 55-6, 64.
+
+Belloc (H.), his curious ideas, 25-6, 35.
+
+_Bellum Gallicum_, quoted, 287.
+
+Bencivenga (General) and the Albanians, 280.
+
+Benelli (Sem), poet and warrior,
+140.
+
+Berati Bey, the delegate, 273.
+
+Berlin Congress and two villages, 304.
+
+_Bessa Shqyptare_, its existence, 285-6.
+
+Bib Doda, Prenk, 291, 324-5.
+
+Bissolati, the gallant Minister, 80 _et seq._, 85-6, 152.
+
+Blakeney, for Rieka, 268.
+
+Blood-vengeance, Monsignor Bumci on, 285.
+-- Miss Durham on, 287.
+-- how it may be washed out, 298.
+-- its high-water mark, 288.
+-- its prevalence, 293, 330.
+-- its relative decline, 283.
+
+Bobrikoff (General), on religion in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Bogi['c] (Dr.), the victim, 149 _et seq._
+
+Bojana, perilous for French boats, 96.
+
+Bojani['c] (Dom Ivo), his protest, 175.
+
+Borghese (Prince Livio), 375.
+
+Bosnia and Agrarian Reform, 132-3, 221.
+-- after the War, 106 _et seq._, 220-1.
+
+_Bosnische Post_, quoted, 95.
+
+Boxich (Dr.), the results of truthfulness, 164-5.
+
+Brodie (Captain), his exploit, 306 _et seq._
+
+Brunhes (Prof. Jean), cited, 350.
+
+Bryce (Roland), his Montenegrin report, 253 _et seq._
+
+Bufani, of the Banat, 370.
+
+Bukvich (Captain), the Intelligence Officer, 158 _et seq._
+
+Bulgars, some characteristics, 403-4.
+-- and the future, 405 _et seq._
+
+Bumci (Monsignor), the mild Regent, 281, 283, 284, 285, 290-1.
+
+Buonfiglio (R.), the journalist, 176, 178, 182.
+
+Buri['c] (V.), 193-4.
+
+Burrows (the late Prof.) and the Albanians, 276.
+
+Buxton (Noel), 347, 405 _et seq._
+-- -- his _Balkan Problems and European Peace_, 405.
+
+
+Cagni (Admiral) at Pola, 23-4, 44.
+
+Candrea (Prof.), his map, 364.
+
+Cappone (Colonel) of [vS]ibenik, 35, 145.
+
+Carducci, quoted, 83.
+
+Carinthia, hostilities, 124, 128 _et seq._
+-- the plebiscite, 374 _et seq._
+
+Cecil (Lord Robert) and the Albanians, 323, 327, 328-9.
+
+[vC]ekoni['c] (Count) and the Dobrovoljci, 135.
+
+Centurione, the deputy, 78.
+
+Chauvinism, Serbian lack of, 348-9, 384.
+
+_Chicago Tribune_, quoted, 198-9.
+
+Chimigo (Prof.) and the Italians, 282.
+
+Church in Albania, 291.
+-- -- in Croatia, 242-3, 245.
+-- -- in Serbia, 397-8.
+
+Cicoli (Admiral) and Austria's collapse, 18-9.
+
+Clemenceau (G.), 23, 93, 199, 213 _et seq._, 284.
+
+[vC]okorilo and his undesirable newspaper, 109 _et seq._
+
+Colajanni and the Slovenes, 388.
+
+Communists in Yugoslavia, 221 _et seq._, 238, 254.
+
+_Contemporary Review_, quoted, 15, 247-8.
+
+_Corriere d'Italia_ (and _see_ Buonfiglio), 215.
+
+Costume, Absence of, 287-8.
+
+Cres, Italian measures at, 42, 56 _et seq._
+
+Croats and Agrarian Reform, 133 _et seq._, 221.
+-- -- and Magyars, 246.
+-- -- their relations to the Serbs, 111 _et seq._, 220, 240 _et seq._,
+                                    244 _et seq._, 251-2, 397 _et seq._
+
+Crosse (Rev. E. C.), his _The Defeat of Austria_, 14.
+
+Cunnington (Captain Willett), his accusation, 306, 309.
+
+Cviji['c] (Prof.), his views, 275.
+
+
+_Daily Telegraph_, quoted, 47.
+
+Dalmatia, why demanded by Italians, 87 _et seq._
+-- -- deportations from, 152.
+-- -- population, 148-9, 230-1.
+-- -- how treated by Italians, 148 _et seq._
+
+_Dalmazia_, a newspaper, 171 _et seq._
+
+D'Annunzio, his absurdity, 86.
+-- -- the Holy Entry, 196.
+-- -- various exploits at Rieka, 208 _et seq._
+-- -- his invective, 83.
+-- -- his munificence, 280-1.
+-- -- in temporary possession, 198 _et seq._
+-- -- his thousand proclamations, 197.
+-- -- disapproves of Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5.
+
+Darkovi['c], the respected deputy, 96.
+
+Davidovi['c], leader of Democrats, 225.
+
+Dell (Anthony) on the Italians, 15.
+
+Delonga (Jakov), his testimony, 76.
+
+Devine (A.) and his propaganda, 193-4, 227-8.
+
+Djakovica, 293, 298 _et seq._
+
+Djer Doucha, the villain, 307.
+
+Djoni (Mark), President of the Mirditi, 324, 325, 328, 342.
+
+Doci (Primo), the great Abbot, 324.
+
+Doday (Father Paul), 286.
+
+Doimi (Dr.) of Vis, 29.
+
+Domiaku[vs]i['c] (Prof.) at [vS]ibenik, 144.
+
+Donghi (Marchese), his assertions, 26-7.
+
+Draghicesco (Dr.), his _Les Roumains de Serbie_, 356.
+
+Dra[vs]kovi['c], his murder, 223-4.
+
+Drin, river, as a frontier, 279, 302, 304, 321.
+
+Durham (Edith), apologist, 289, 290.
+-- -- compared with Sir Charles Eliot, 310 _et seq._
+-- -- disgusted with Great Britain, 313.
+-- -- her _Through the Lands of the Serb_, 395.
+-- -- her _Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_, 310.
+-- -- her respect for Mr. Bottomley, 311.
+-- -- her wrath, 305.
+-- -- on Albanian medicine, 288.
+-- -- on the tyranny of Serbian schools, 297.
+
+
+_Echo de l'Adriatique_, its suppression, 62-3.
+
+_Edinburgh Review_, quoted, 230, 399.
+
+_Edinost_, quoted, 123.
+
+Eliot (Sir Charles), 274, 289, 310 _et seq._
+
+Entente, Little, 269 _et seq._
+
+_Epopea Shqyptare_, quoted, 284.
+
+Essad and Essadists, 292-3, 336, 342-3, 345.
+
+European War and the Albanians, 312-3, 317, 345-6.
+
+Evangheli (Pandeli), 345.
+
+Evans (Sir Arthur), 67, 184 _et seq._
+
+
+Fan Noli, the versatile, 327-8.
+
+Fascisti, 78, 217, 260 _et seq._
+
+Fichta (Father), 284, 293.
+
+Fisher (Rt. Hon. H. A. L.), 340 _et seq._
+
+Fiume, _see_ Rieka.
+
+Fodor (Prof. Dr.), on race, 8.
+
+_Fortnightly Review_, quoted, 20, 26, 269, 275, 280, 324, 333.
+
+Franchet d'Esperey (Marshal) and Albania, 274, 278-9, 350, 351.
+-- -- -- and Montenegro, 96, 103.
+
+Frank party in Croatia, 114.
+
+French, how they regarded the Italians, 63-4, 96, 199.
+-- how treated by the Italians, 42, 198-9.
+
+Freund (Leo), the secret agent, 281.
+
+Frontier, Yugoslav, with Albania, 273 _et seq._
+-- -- with Austria, 374 _et seq._
+-- -- with Bulgaria, 354-5.
+-- -- with Greece, 353-4.
+-- -- with Hungary, 370 _et seq._
+-- -- with Italy, 383 _et seq._
+-- -- with Roumania, 356 _et seq._
+
+
+Gaeta army, 187, 228.
+
+Gardner (E.), on Balkanic mentality, 236.
+
+Gauvain, the publicist, 90.
+
+Gavazzi (Dr. A.), on Rieka's population, 54.
+
+_Gazzetta del Popolo_, quoted, 197.
+
+"Geographie Humaine de la France," quoted, 350.
+
+Germans, in Banat, 363 _et seq._
+-- in Carinthia, 374 _et seq._
+
+Giglioli (Prof.), his claim, 79, 80.
+
+Giolitti, 78, 210, 219, 234.
+
+Giuratti, the patriot, 264-5.
+
+_Glasgow Herald_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Gloma[vz]i['c], the lame prefect, 105, 192.
+
+Goad (H. E.), his explanations, 90, 269, 275, 280, 325, 333.
+-- -- his wrath, 231, 324, 350.
+
+Godart (Justin), his work in Albania, 279, 334.
+-- -- his _L'Albanie en 1921_, 351.
+
+Gorica, its population, 388-9.
+
+Gothardi of Rieka, 46-7.
+
+_Grazer Tagblatt_, 378.
+
+Grazioli (General) at Rieka, 54, 62.
+
+Grossich (Dr.) of Rieka, 48, 140, 258-9.
+
+Grubi[vs]i['c] and his flag, 260.
+
+Gusinje, its past and future, 304 _et seq._
+
+
+Hahn (Consul), his labours, 287.
+
+Halim Beg Derala, 285, 298.
+
+Hanotaux (Gabriel), 294, 351.
+
+Haumant (E.), his _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie_, 89.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), 288.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 257.
+-- -- his propaganda, 327.
+
+Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), his request, 323.
+-- -- his testimony, 306.
+-- -- the 120 villages, 296.
+
+Hickmann (Prof.), cited, 346.
+
+_Histoire illustree de la guerre de 1914_, quoted, 351.
+
+Hla['c]a (Karlo) of Cres, 56 _et seq._
+
+Horthy (Admiral) at Pola, 17 _et seq._, 270.
+
+_Hrvat_, on the Carinthian plebiscite, 382-3.
+
+_Humanite_, 76.
+
+_Hungarian Nation_, quoted, 8.
+
+Hvar, its interesting names, 32-3.
+-- the Italians land on, 32 _et seq._
+
+
+Imperiali (Marquis), his submission, 329.
+
+Islamism, Fanatic, of some Albanians, 299.
+-- Superficial, of other, 281.
+-- Treatment of, by Greek Church, 301.
+-- Treatment of, by Montenegrins, 302.
+
+Islands of Adriatic, demanded by Italy, 166 _et seq._
+-- -- -- visited, 165 _et seq._
+
+Istria, its population, 121, 386 _et seq._
+
+Italianists of Dalmatia and Rieka, 35, 39, 40, 54, 137 _et seq._, 158, 175.
+
+Italians (and _see_ Dalmatia) and Allied flags, 145, 155, 178.
+-- reprimanded by their Allies, 161-2.
+-- loyalty to Austria in the War, 159 _et seq._
+-- system of bribery, 156 _et seq._, 163, 170, 176.
+-- land in Dalmatia, 29 _et seq._
+-- discouragement in 1917, 11.
+-- conduct towards the French, 42, 52, 198-9.
+-- what they thought of the French, 94.
+-- generosity in Albania, 282, 328, 333, 344.
+-- Good and bad, on the islands, 168 _et seq._
+-- incapacity, 275, 278, 319.
+-- intrigues, 274, 279, 280 _et seq._, 292, 303, 305, 329, 337-8, 351.
+
+Italians land in Istria, 42 _et seq._
+-- and the Dalmatians' money, 37-8, 147-8, 153-4, 163.
+-- in Montenegro, 94 _et seq._, 105, 187 _et seq._, 194-5.
+-- naval enterprise, 123-4.
+-- naval enterprise, lack of, 16 _et seq._, 27-8.
+-- measures at Rab, 59, 60.
+-- measures against Rieka, 262 _et seq._
+-- measures at Rieka, 48, 52, 195 _et seq._
+-- against the Serbo-Croat language, 57.
+-- retreat from Slovenia, 61.
+-- what they had to face in 1918, 12 _et seq._
+-- how they regard the Yugoslavs, 16, 84.
+-- how they are regarded by the Yugoslavs, 15-6, 27-8, 201, 236-7.
+-- relations with Yugoslavs, 383 _et seq._
+-- steps against Yugoslav churches and schools, 44, 57 _et seq._, 146-7,
+                                                152-3, 184.
+
+_Italy in the Balkans at this Hour_, quoted, 292.
+
+
+Jaray (Gabriel Louis), 352.
+
+Jire[vc]ek (Dr. C.), his _Die Handelsstrassen, etc._, 33.
+
+_Journal des Debats_, 76, 91, 329, 339.
+
+
+Kadri (Hodja), 283.
+
+Karl (ex-Emperor), his grand offer, 320.
+
+Karolyi (Count Michael), 125.
+
+Katarani (Prof.), 292.
+
+Klementi, 316 _et seq._
+
+Koch (Admiral), the active Slovene, 17 _et seq._
+
+Korac, the remarkable Socialist, 117-8.
+
+Kor[vc]ula, Italians land on, 31-2.
+
+Koro[vs]ec (Monsignor), 115, 117, 119, 382.
+
+_Koroski Slovenec_, 383.
+
+"Kossovo" Committee, 326.
+
+Kossovo in Yugoslavia, its condition, 287.
+
+Kova['c]s (A.), turns to the Croats, 8.
+
+Krk, the persecuted Bishop, 40 _et seq._
+-- Proceedings at, 39 _et seq._
+
+
+_Labour Monthly_ on the "White Terror," 224.
+
+_Land and Water_, quoted, 25, 35.
+
+Language of Bosnia, 89.
+
+Laveleye (M. de), his _The Balkan Peninsula_, 203.
+
+_Lavoratore_, quoted, 217, 386.
+
+Lazari, his question, 187.
+
+League of Nations, 323, 337 _et seq._
+
+Leiper (R.), the shrewd observer, 104, 188-9, 242.
+
+Lenac (Dr.) of Rieka, 45, 50, 52.
+
+_Leonidas_, the American ship, 31-2.
+
+Lesina, _see_ Hvar.
+
+Leyland (John), the naval authority, 25.
+
+Liga Nazionale, its schools, 59, 158, 184, 318.
+
+Lin, a village, 342.
+
+Lincoln, quoted, 209.
+
+Lissa, _see_ Vis.
+
+Ljocha (Alush) and his house, 283-4.
+
+Lloyd George (D.) and the Adriatic, 93, 213-4.
+-- -- and the Serbo-Albanian frontier, 284, 336 _et seq._
+
+Lovrana, 73-4.
+
+Luzzatti, compares two civilizations, 172.
+
+
+Macchiedo (Dr.), liberated from Sardinia, 152.
+
+Macdonald (J. N.), his _A Political Escapade_, 199, 258, 327.
+
+Macedonia, and the Communists, 222-3.
+-- its progress and future, 137, 202, 405 _et seq._
+
+Magnanimity of the Serbs, 124 _et seq._, 270.
+
+Magyar hopes, 270.
+
+Mahni['c] (Bishop), _see_ Krk.
+
+_Manchester Guardian_, quoted, 21, 186, 236, 313.
+
+Mandirazza (F.) and his two masters, 84.
+
+Markovi['c] (Dr. Lazar), 337.
+
+Markovi['c] (Sima), the Communist, 223-4, 238.
+
+Martini['c] (Count), his ruthlessness, 98-9.
+
+Martinovi['c] (General), 346.
+
+Massingham (H. W.), 192.
+
+_Mattino_, quoted, 75.
+
+Maximovi['c] (Colonel) at Rieka, 51-2.
+
+Mazzini, and Vis, 82.
+
+_Mercure de France_, quoted, 123.
+
+Mileti['c] (Captain), his murder, 195.
+
+Millo (Admiral), on Austrian currency, 153.
+-- -- on Dr. Boxich, 165.
+-- -- and d'Annunzio, 197, 209, 215.
+-- -- Homage to, 87.
+-- -- discourses on public order, 174.
+-- -- on the Slavs, 141 _et seq._
+
+Milovanovi['c] (Dr.), on Macedonia, 406.
+
+Minorities in Yugoslavia, 201 _et seq._
+
+Mirditi, 290, 323 _et seq._, 340 _et seq._
+
+M'Neill (Ronald, M.P.), champion of Montenegro, 95, 102, 191, 253 _et seq._
+
+Montaigne, quoted, 194.
+
+Montenegrins and Albanians, 136-7.
+-- and the Austrian army, 98 _et seq._
+-- their culture, 393 _et seq._
+-- their General Election, 253 _et seq._
+-- as migrants, 228.
+-- misled, 94, 187-8.
+
+Montesquieu, quoted, 90.
+
+Moretti (Dr.), his pacific efforts, 180-1.
+
+_Morning Post_, quoted, 88, 104, 188-9, 191, 218, 242, 257, 336, 400.
+
+Moslems in Bosnia, 119, 202-3, 220-1, 225, 393.
+
+Mousset (Albert), 339.
+
+Mueller (Dr. Max) and Albanian affairs, 276 _et seq._
+
+
+Narodna Uprava, 127.
+
+_Nation_, quoted, 192, 267, 310.
+
+_Nazione_, quoted, 261.
+
+_Near East_, quoted, 257, 309, 337, 346-7.
+
+_Neue Freie Presse_, quoted, 124.
+
+_New Europe_, quoted, 79, 80, 84-5, 123, 369.
+
+_New Statesman_, quoted, 296, 309.
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his lack of courage, 9.
+-- -- deposed, 100 _et seq._
+-- -- his downfall, 255 _et seq._
+
+Nicholas of Montenegro, his methods with Albanians, 289.
+-- -- his methods with Europe, 304.
+-- -- and the Skup[vs]tina, 106.
+
+Nikai (Dom Ndoc), 285.
+
+_Nineteenth Century and After_, quoted, 25, 95, 102, 256.
+
+Nitti and d'Annunzio, 196, 198, 201, 209, 210, 212-3, 215-6, 218.
+
+Nopsca (Baron), 274, 288.
+
+Novi Bazar, Sandjak, 108, 119, 316-7.
+
+
+Obradovi['c] (Dositej), 315.
+
+Obrovac, Divergent views concerning, 148.
+
+_Observer_, quoted, 340.
+
+_Obzor_, a newspaper, 115.
+
+Orlando, the Premier, 78, 80, 85-6, 91, 138, 185.
+
+
+Pact of Rome, 84 _et seq._, 185.
+
+Paolucci (Lieut.), and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Parkington (Sir R.), 194.
+
+Parties, Political, in Yugoslavia, 117 _et seq._
+
+Pa[vs]i['c], his astuteness, 85, 117, 240.
+-- his prudence, 133, 225.
+
+Patchou (Dr.), of the triumvirate, 225, 282.
+
+Paveli['c] (Dr. A.), dentist and politician, 114-5, 117, 119.
+
+Pe['c], 293, 298.
+
+Pelagosa, its amenities, 167.
+
+Pericone (Captain) of Scutari, 280, 343.
+
+Pistuli (Notz), his mission, 328.
+
+Pivko (Prof.), his exploit, 13.
+
+Plamenac (J.) and the Gaeta army 187.
+-- -- his unpopularity, 94-5.
+
+Plav, 304 _et seq._
+
+Podgorica Skup[vs]tina, 100 _et seq._
+
+Poggi (Lieut.), at Kor[vc]ula, 31, 183.
+
+Pojar (Dr.), his case, 390.
+
+Pola, 16 _et seq._, 42, 44, 387-8.
+
+Pombara (Captain Binnos de), his feat, 27-8.
+
+Pommerol (Captain), on the islands, 165 _et seq._
+
+Popovi['c] (Dr. Du[vs]an), 246-7, 399.
+
+Popovitch (Dr. A.), his curious
+career, 356 _et seq._
+
+_Posta e Shqypnis_, quoted, 284.
+
+_Pravda_, quoted, 336.
+
+_Pravi Dalmatinac_, 73.
+
+Prekomurdje, what happened there, 372 _et seq._
+
+Prennushi (Father Vincent), 286, 344.
+
+Prezzolini (G.), on Dalmatia and Tripoli, 82.
+-- -- and Vis, 82.
+
+Pribi[vc]evi['c] (Svetozar), the Minister, 44, 117-8, 225-6, 240-1,
+                                           245 _et seq._, 399.
+
+_Primorske Novine_, quoted, 92.
+
+Pri[vs]tina, Horrid conditions at, 298.
+
+Proti['c], the statesman, 113, 225-6.
+
+
+_Quarterly Review_, on Yugoslavia, 226, 247.
+
+
+Race before religion, 390-1.
+
+Ra[vc]i['c] (Pouni[vs]a), 278, 306 _et seq._, 330.
+
+Radi['c] (S.) of Croatia, 111 _et seq._, 119, 135-6, 238 _et seq._, 399.
+-- -- his _Dom_, 242-3.
+
+Rado[vs]evi['c] (Dr.), 118.
+
+Radovi['c] (Andrija), 187-8.
+
+Raineri (Admiral), 49 _et seq._
+
+Rapallo, Treaty of, 83, 211, 232 _et seq._, 260 _et seq._, 384.
+
+Rapp, his testimonial, 125.
+
+_Rassegna Italiana_, quoted, 63.
+
+Re-Bartlett (Mrs.), on Dalmatia, 230-1.
+
+Red Cross, American, 189.
+-- -- International, 189.
+-- -- Italian, 216.
+
+Regnault (E.), his _Histoire politique, etc._, 358.
+
+Religion before race, 372.
+
+Rieka, _see_ D'Annunzio and Vio.
+-- Americans at, 52.
+-- the Austrian stores, 216 _et seq._
+-- Baro[vs] harbour, 260, 268.
+-- the C.N.I., 45 _et seq._, 49, 54, 61-2, 140, 197, 212, 216 _et seq._,
+               258 _et seq._
+-- Croat mistakes, 48-9.
+-- Croat National Council, 45 _et seq._, 62-3.
+-- economic position, 66 _et seq._
+-- the frenzy, 137 _et seq._
+-- moribund under Italy, 259, 260.
+-- population analysed, 53 _et seq._
+-- a few scandals, 216 _et seq._
+
+Rieka and the Treaty of Rapallo, 234-5, 385 _et seq._
+
+_Rije['c]_, quoted, 64.
+
+Risti['c] (Colonel) and the komitadjis, 194-5.
+
+Rossetti (Major) and the _Viribus Unitis_, 16, 20 _et seq._
+
+Roth (Dr.), Lord of Teme[vs]var, 127-8.
+
+Roumanians in Banat, 9, 10, 362 _et seq._
+-- and their Jews, 203 _et seq._
+-- in Serbia, 356 _et seq._
+
+Rugovo, Reason for burning of, 305.
+
+Ryan (T. S.) of the _Chicago Tribune_, 198-9.
+
+
+Salis (Count de), his mission, 190-1.
+
+Salonica, and the Serbs, 353-4.
+
+Salvemini (Prof.), the anti-chauvinist, 87, 231-2, 234.
+
+Salvi (Dr.) of Split, 159 _et seq._
+
+_Samouprava_, quoted, 337.
+
+San Marzano (General di), 51-2, 54, 61.
+
+Sanctis (Lieut. de), his sanctions, 163.
+
+Saseno, 295.
+
+_Saturday Review_, 231.
+
+Savinsky, the Russian Minister, 406.
+
+Sazonov, and the Adriatic, 91-2.
+
+Schanzer (Signor), on Rieka, 264-5.
+
+Schools, _see_ Liga Nazionale.
+-- for Albanians, 300.
+-- in Carinthia, 377-8.
+-- at Cres, 57-8.
+-- in Dalmatia, 146-7.
+-- in Istria, 73-4.
+-- at Kor[vc]ula, 184.
+-- Militant, at Borgo Erizzo, 38.
+-- in Montenegro, 257.
+-- at Pola, 44.
+-- at Rieka, 53.
+-- at [vS]ibenik, 144-5.
+-- at Zadar, 35.
+
+_Scotsman_, on Treaty of Rapallo, 233.
+
+Scutari, its probable future, 296, 320, 335.
+
+Sebenico, _see_ [vS]ibenik.
+
+_Secolo_, on Montenegro, 257.
+-- on Treaty of London, 50.
+
+_Secours des Enfants Serbes_, _Au_, 27.
+
+Segre (General), his alleged request, 140.
+
+_Sera_, quoted, 280.
+
+Serbo-Croat Coalition, 245 _et seq._
+
+Serbs, in relation to Albanians, 295 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Croats (and _see_ Croats), 115 _et seq._, 397 _et seq._
+-- -- -- Montenegrins, 188-9, 192-3, 253 _et seq._, 393 _et seq._
+
+Sereggi (Archbishop), 281-4.
+
+Seton-Watson (Dr. R. W.), 236, 347, 354.
+
+Sforza (Count), his letter, 268.
+
+[vS]ibenik, 30, 33 _et seq._, 144-5.
+
+Siebertz, the traveller, 288, 291.
+
+[vS]imunovi['c] (M.) and the Italians, 32.
+
+Slovenes (_see_ Carinthia), their country, 120 _et seq._, 235-6, 245.
+-- their culture, 392-3.
+-- their political methods, 114-5, 374 _et seq._
+
+Socialists, Italian, and Rieka, 211-2.
+
+[vS]ojat (F.) and Dr. Vio, 69.
+
+Sonnino (Baron), 28, 75 _et seq._, 85-6, 93, 122, 138, 167, 185, 374, 384.
+
+_Spectator_, quoted, 230.
+
+Sportiello (Captain) at Vis, 30.
+
+Stadler (Lieut.-Colonel), the podesta, 74, 137.
+
+Stambouluesky as a Yugoslav, 399.
+
+Stamps, at Zagreb, 72.
+
+Star[vc]evi['c] party in Croatia, 117, 119, 248.
+
+Steed (H. Wickham), his letter, 77.
+
+Steinen (Dr. H. von den) and the Bulgars, 404.
+
+Steinmetz, the traveller, 290.
+
+[vS]tigli['c] and the poor officials, 63.
+
+Strossmayer, Radi['c] on, 239.
+
+_Suisse_, _La_, quoted, 328.
+
+Supilo, of Dalmatia, 92.
+
+Su[vs]ak, 54-5.
+
+Susmel (Edoardo), the writer, 62.
+
+[vS]vegel (Ivan), on Italian shipping policy, 123-4.
+
+Svibi['c] (Colonel) and the Italians, 61.
+
+Sydenham (Lord), his lack of discretion, 95, 188-9.
+
+Szeged, its position, 369.
+
+
+_Tablet_, quoted, 40.
+
+Tamaro (Dr. A.) and _Modern Italy_, 94.
+
+Tardieu, his suggestion concerning Rieka, 195.
+
+Taylor (A. H. E.), on Prekomurdje, 373.
+
+Teme[vs]var in transition, 126 _et seq._, 367.
+
+Temperley (Major H. W. V.), on Albania, 338-9.
+-- -- on Montenegro, 254-5.
+-- -- his _A History of the Peace Conference_, 354.
+-- -- his _The Second Year of the League_, 338.
+
+_Tempo_, on the Rieka deputations, 212.
+
+_Temps_, quoted, 213, 336.
+
+Tesli['c] (Colonel), 50-1.
+
+_Times_, quoted, 131, 344-5.
+
+Tittoni, and Rieka, 195, 199.
+
+Tomi['c] (Ja[vs]a), the old-fashioned, 116, 397.
+
+Treaty of London, 28-9, 33, 50, 60, 75 _et seq._, 80, 82, 90 _et seq._,
+                  120, 213, 278.
+-- -- Rapallo, _see_ Rapallo.
+
+Tre[vs]i['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] (Dr. A.), 19, 20.
+
+Trevelyan (G. M.), on the Italians in Dalmatia, 235.
+
+_Tribuna_, quoted, 75, 77.
+
+_Tribune de Geneve_, quoted, 327.
+
+Triest, what is desirable, 122.
+-- its future, 44, 386 _et seq._
+-- Italians and Slovenes, 123.
+-- its population, 121.
+
+Trogir, the great invasion, 200-1.
+
+Trumbi['c] (Dr. A.), 86, 252, 321.
+
+_Turkey in Europe_, quoted, 289.
+
+
+_Under the Acroceraunian Mountains_, 327, 351.
+
+_Unita_, quoted, 87.
+
+
+Veglia, _see_ Krk.
+
+Velika Kikinda, its necessities, 368.
+
+Velimirovi['c] (Bishop), his _The Children of the Illuminator_, 398.
+
+Venizelos and the Serbs, 353-4.
+-- and Thrace, 355.
+
+Veprinac, its population, 44.
+
+Verdinois (Major), his word, 179, 180.
+
+_Verrath bei Carzano_, _Der_, 13.
+
+Ver[vs]ac, the former Bishop's declaration, 202.
+
+Ver[vs]ac, scene of Roumanian activities, 10.
+
+Vesni['c] (Dr.) and the Italians, 233-4, 237.
+
+Ve[vs]ovi['c] (General), his enterprises, 98, 228-9.
+
+Vio (Dr.) of Rieka, 29, 45-6, 48, 54-5, 68 _et seq._
+
+Vis, Italians land on, 29, 30.
+-- concerning its possession, 82-3.
+
+Vivante (A.), his _L'irredentismo adriatico_, 122.
+
+Vivian (H.), his ferocity, 191.
+
+Volosca, 73-4.
+
+_Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen_, quoted, 290.
+
+Vukoti['c] (Voivoda), his answer, 103.
+
+Vukovi['c] (Admiral), his fate, 20 _et seq._
+
+
+Westlake (Prof.), his _International Law_, 139.
+
+Wied (Prince of), erstwhile Mpret, 276-7.
+-- (Princess of), her ladies criticized, 288.
+
+Wilson (President), 63, 92-3, 125, 138-9, 213-4.
+
+
+Xenia (Princess), 103.
+
+
+Yastrebow, the Russian authority, 287.
+
+Yugoslavia, conditions after the War, 226.
+-- her cohesion, 120, 229, 230, 249, 272.
+-- and the future, 236-7, 398-9.
+
+
+Zadar, reception of Italians, 35.
+-- Schools at, 35.
+-- and Treaty of Rapallo, 234, 236, 268-9, 385.
+-- Wild doings at, 37-8.
+
+Zagreb and the future, 398 _et seq._
+-- and the stamps, 72.
+
+_Zagreber Tagblatt_, 264-5.
+
+Zanella (Prof.), 69, 217, 261 _et seq._
+
+Zara, _see_ Zadar.
+
+Zari['c] (Bishop), and Wilson, 91-2.
+
+Zari['c] (Prof.), his removal, 169, 170.
+
+Zena Beg, 282-3, 285.
+
+Ziliotto (Dr.) of Zara, 36-7, 164-5.
+
+
+PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
+
+[Illustration: The Map of Yugoslavia]
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+Fixed Issues
+
+page 007--inserted a missing apostrophe after 'Italians'
+page 009--typo fixed: changed 'weapoms' to 'weapons'
+page 014--typo fixed: changed 'as' to 'a'
+page 048--typo fixed: changed 'thay' to 'they'
+page 054--typo fixed: changed 'hold' to 'held'
+page 077--typo fixed: changed 'Corriera' to 'Corriere'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'repression'
+page 094--typo fixed: changed a period to a comma after 'lend their men'
+page 146--typo fixed: changed 'aproached' to 'approached'
+page 147--typo fixed: changed 'permittep' to 'permitted'
+page 172--removed an extra opening bracket in front of 'There are places'
+page 181--typo fixed: changed 'If was' to 'It was'
+page 189--typo fixed: changed 'Montengrins' to 'Montenegrins'
+page 196--removed an extra opening quote in front of 'As for large'
+page 197--removed an extra closing bracket after '100 lire'
+page 209--typo fixed: inserted a missing period after 'per cent'
+page 222--typo fixed: 'YUGLOSLAVIA' changed to 'YUGOSLAVIA'
+page 317--typo fixed: changed 'irode' to 'rode'
+page 343--typo fixed: changed 'Yulgosav' to 'Yugoslav'
+page 371--typo fixed: changed 'persumably' to 'presumably'
+page 377--typo fixed: changed a comma to a period after 'less regarded'
+page 408--typo fixed: changed 'preservaiton' to 'preservation'
+page 411--inserted a missing comma after 'Books'
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, by
+Henry Baerlein
+
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