FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th Division.London, 1919.[2]Contemporary Review, February 1920.[3]Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at Washington.[4]Fortnightly Review, June 1919.[5]Cf.Manchester Guardian, December 13, 1918.[6]Land and Water, May 29, 1919.[7]Nineteenth Century and After, November 1920.[8]Au Secours des Enfants Serbes.Paris, 1916.[9]Several old wooden warships, such as theAurora, theSchwartzenbergand theVulcan, were lying for years in Šibenik 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.[10]Cf.Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters, by Dr. Constantin Jireček. Prague, 1879.[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 BoysPupils,342Elementary School for Girls"331Combined Elementary School"222Higher Elementary School for Girls"121Teachers' Training College"70Classical College"469Total of Yugoslav Pupils,1555Italian Schools.Elementary School for BoysPupils,250Elementary School for Girls"221Higher Elementary School"93Classical College"157Technical College"181Total of Italian Pupils,902I 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 ofLand 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 (Šibenik)—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 400Italianists.[12]This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless patriotism, said theTablet(January 1, 1921), he "had defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the Italians."[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.).[14]Pribičević 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. Pribičević 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.[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 theDaily 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.[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 theSecolo(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."[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.[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."[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.[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."[21]"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raroL'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.")[22]April 23, 1919.[23]Cf.La Slavisation de la Dalmatie.Paris, 1917.[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.[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 thePrimorske 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.[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.[27]We shall see that the subsequent history of this officer was less laudable.[28]Cf.Nineteenth Century and After, January 1921.[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.[30]Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.[31]Cf.The New Europe, March 27, 1919.[32]There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kovačiča) 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 theintelligentsiacalled 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 theirintelligentsiato have, as centre-half in the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish player.[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.[34]October 13, 1921.[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.[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.[37]The trouble arose at the end of May when a number of citizens of Šibenik, men and women, donned the American colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warshipMaddalena, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The Šibenik 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 theMaddalenato-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 Šibenik 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.[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 thatModern Italy(published in London) quoted with approval the following telegram which appeared, it said, in theTempoof 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."[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.[40]June 24, 1919.[41]May 15, 1919.[42]Mr. Leiper in theMorning 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 alreadyisSerbia," 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.[43]Cf.Morning Post, November 17, 1920.[44]A most vivid account of this affair was contributed to theChicago 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 destroyerTalbotwere 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 inA 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.[45]Cf.The Balkan Peninsula(English translation). London, 1887.

[1]The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th Division.London, 1919.

[2]Contemporary Review, February 1920.

[3]Afterwards Yugoslav Minister at Madrid and then at Washington.

[4]Fortnightly Review, June 1919.

[5]Cf.Manchester Guardian, December 13, 1918.

[6]Land and Water, May 29, 1919.

[7]Nineteenth Century and After, November 1920.

[8]Au Secours des Enfants Serbes.Paris, 1916.

[9]Several old wooden warships, such as theAurora, theSchwartzenbergand theVulcan, were lying for years in Šibenik 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.

[10]Cf.Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters, by Dr. Constantin Jireček. Prague, 1879.

[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 BoysPupils,342Elementary School for Girls"331Combined Elementary School"222Higher Elementary School for Girls"121Teachers' Training College"70Classical College"469Total of Yugoslav Pupils,1555Italian Schools.Elementary School for BoysPupils,250Elementary School for Girls"221Higher Elementary School"93Classical College"157Technical College"181Total of Italian Pupils,902I 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 ofLand 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 (Šibenik)—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 400Italianists.

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 ofLand 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 (Šibenik)—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 400Italianists.

[12]This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless patriotism, said theTablet(January 1, 1921), he "had defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the Italians."

[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.).

[14]Pribičević 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. Pribičević 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.

[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 theDaily 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.

[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 theSecolo(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."

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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."

[21]"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raroL'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.")

[21]

"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raroL'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.")

[22]April 23, 1919.

[23]Cf.La Slavisation de la Dalmatie.Paris, 1917.

[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.

[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 thePrimorske 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.

[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.

[27]We shall see that the subsequent history of this officer was less laudable.

[28]Cf.Nineteenth Century and After, January 1921.

[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.

[30]Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.

[31]Cf.The New Europe, March 27, 1919.

[32]There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kovačiča) 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 theintelligentsiacalled 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 theirintelligentsiato have, as centre-half in the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish player.

[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.

[34]October 13, 1921.

[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.

[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.

[37]The trouble arose at the end of May when a number of citizens of Šibenik, men and women, donned the American colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warshipMaddalena, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The Šibenik 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 theMaddalenato-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 Šibenik 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.

[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 thatModern Italy(published in London) quoted with approval the following telegram which appeared, it said, in theTempoof 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."

[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.

[40]June 24, 1919.

[41]May 15, 1919.

[42]Mr. Leiper in theMorning 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 alreadyisSerbia," 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.

[43]Cf.Morning Post, November 17, 1920.

[44]A most vivid account of this affair was contributed to theChicago 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 destroyerTalbotwere 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 inA 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.

[45]Cf.The Balkan Peninsula(English translation). London, 1887.

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 Pribićevič—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 salariedassistants 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 10per 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 acorpus separatum—and this was the chief point which made the proposals inacceptable to Italy. That Socialist group which is represented by theAvantiseemed 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 Šibenik; 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 organIl 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 theTemps,[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 wasvery 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. TheCorriere d'Italiatold 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 ceremonialoccasions 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 theTimes,[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 displayedthe 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 numberof 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 theMorning Postthat 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 numeroushostile 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 hislegionaries 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 rememberedthe 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 Čuprija 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 INYUGOSLAVIA

... 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 thepolling-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 andvery 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, theLabour 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 Democratblochad 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 anothergroup. 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. Pribičević, 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. Pribičević 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 Pribičević 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 hissupport to those Ministers who bend before him. And as Pribičević has hitherto insisted on being in every Cabinet, Protić has withdrawn and has started a newspaper, theRadical, 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 Pribičević, 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.

Back to Index Next