Chapter IX: Part 9

The Consiglio Nazionale Italiano of Rieka, that self-elected body which had so often told the world that Rieka was unshakeably determined to be joined to the Motherland, now took to its bosom the modern Rienzi, regardless of that which happened to the mediaeval one. The C.N.I. could now devote itself to serious executive work, for d'Annunzio--in spite of or because of his fever--relieved them of the rather exhausting task of issuing proclamations. In three months he sent out something like a thousand. He did a great many other things--he ruined, for instance, the economic life of the town. Everything had for a time gone swimmingly. The Chief of the Republic of San Marino was voicing the sentiments of numberless Italians when he saluted the poet as a great Italian patriot. Such was the feeling of the majority of the army and navy, so that the Government in Rome was made to look ridiculous. "Mark well what I am telling you," said the poet to the special correspondent of the _Gazzetta del Popolo_. "I have received a call from a superior hidden force, and though the fever burns within me I am consoled, because the War has made me a mystic and I feel I am inspired from on high in this mission." D'Annunzio and his cohorts refused to have anything to do with the Cabinet. Signor Nitti, supported by the Parliament and the more responsible people, was openly attacked by the Nationalists and secretly by the profiteers and the newly rich on account of his bold taxation programme, by which he hoped to bring 30 milliards of francs into the Exchequer. The Nationalists assisted d'Annunzio to win over the army; and in northern Italy there were many who realized that an army which can be moved by such an appeal can, on the next day, rally to Bol[vs]evism. No other troops remained in Rieka, the small French and British detachments having been withdrawn. Before this happened there occurred a repetition, on a larger scale than usual, of a few French soldiers being attacked by a body of Italian warriors who greatly outnumbered them. Some of the French were Annamites, than whom no more harmless persons can be imagined.[44] And it was in order to avoid such untoward incidents that the Franco-British troops were evacuated. D'Annunzio was left to do his worst. Rieka was one of the problems which the Peace Conference had failed to solve, and now they were in much the same inglorious position as the Great Powers who in 1913 warned Turkey not to mobilize, since they would not allow the Balkan Confederation to make an attack, and after the attack gave it out that the Balkan States would not be permitted to acquire any new territory. The Supreme Council in Paris was losing its prestige very rapidly. "A little patience," begged Tittoni, "and my Government will turn out d'Annunzio." "What we want," exclaimed Clemenceau, "is a Government in Italy!"--and the Italian delegates, with flushed faces, pointed out that it was not Italy which wanted Rieka, but Rieka which wanted Italy. They would do their best, although so many men in Italy were now convinced that Rieka would sooner die than give up d'Annunzio. Presently, under his administration, it began to die. But this was not altogether distasteful to certain intriguers who were interested in the future of Triest. There might also arise, to the satisfaction, of other intriguers, an armed conflict with the Yugoslavs. But nothing could be calmer than the Yugoslavs' attitude. Perhaps these barbarians--as they are often styled in Italy--were confident that justice would prevail. Perhaps they thought that they could bide their time, and certainly what happened at Trogir was not calculated to reassure the Italians.

THE GREAT INVASION OF TROGIR

The little, ancient town of Trogir lay some twelve miles to the south of the demarcation line. Its inhabitants, with the exception of five Italophil families, are Yugoslav; and in the month of September 1919 the Yugoslav army was represented by eight men. Truth compels us to mention that on a certain night these men, instead of doing patrol duty, were sleeping off the effects of a carouse; and when the townsfolk looked out of their windows in the morning they saw machine guns and Italian soldiers. At 4 a.m. they had crept into the town with the help of a certain Conte Nino di Fanfogna, who had assembled a National Guard of thirty peasants, the employees of those five families. Conte Nino was striding to and fro; he muttered threats of death. Some of the chief men, such as Dr. Marin Katalini['c], Dr. Peter Sentinella and others, came together and were at a loss for some effective means to chase out the Italians, since they had not even a revolver. An American boat appeared, but the captain, when appealed to, said that he was only cruising and could not come ashore. In the town hall Count Nino, labouring under some excitement, dismissed the mayor; and when Ferri, the mayor, told him to go about his business, he protested that he was the dictator and would, if necessary, use force. Outside in the square the Italians and the people stood face to face, and suddenly a few Yugoslav flags were fluttering, and then an old man, Dr. Sentinella's father, climbed up to the place in the town hall where the Italian flag had been hoisted. He tore it down. The soldiers were for shooting him, but the people began pulling the rifles out of their hands. Other soldiers, full of apprehension, dropped their rifles; the people picked them up, and those who were unacquainted with the mechanism cried out certain awe-inspiring sounds. Women and children--I fear this will not be believed; it is none the less true--women and children removed some of the men's helmets, and one group of children turned a helmet into a football. "I am a father of a family!" cried a soldier. "I am innocent, I have been deceived!" cried another. "O, Mama mia!" cried a third. They wept, they bolted into the courtyards, and the women showed them little mercy, for they tore off the men's belts and even struck them with their fists. A Mrs. Sunjara routed four men and went home with their machine gun on her back. In a few minutes the square was free of soldiers, and forty rifles were stacked in the town hall. Fifty soldiers on the quay were dealt with by a butcher who started firing at them; when they heard the shouts of the approaching crowd they threw down their weapons and fled. Two large motors escaped; the third was intercepted at the bridge, and although young Sentinella, who ordered them to stop, had forgotten his own rifle, they all--thirteen men and two officers--threw theirs away. It was suggested that the running soldiers should be pursued. "No," said an old man, "for we would kill them all. Let them rather go back without arms or helmets. It will frighten the others." ... Two hours later a party of Serbian soldiers arrived, but they were not needed, save for the protection of those who had thrown in their lot with the Italians. From Split, a few miles away, 1500 volunteers, who speedily assembled, came with knives or agricultural implements or any other weapon. "The Yugoslavs must realize," said Nitti, "that it is to their interest to maintain sincere relations of friendship with Italy."

THE SUCCESSION STATES AND THEIR MINORITIES

The Yugoslav Government--as if it had not sufficient problems to solve--was ordered now by the Peace Conference to accept sundry regulations as to the rights of minorities, the transit of goods, and an equitable regime for international commerce. The other States which had inherited the Habsburg Empire were, all of them, faced with the same demands; and they objected that to sign such Articles was inconsistent with their sovereignty. The most onerous item--relating to the racial and religious minorities--had been imposed--at America's instance, owing to the manner in which the Jews were treated in Roumania, despite King Charles' promises in 1878. The Yugoslavs, with a far smaller number of Jews and no Jewish outcry, were concerned only for the principle of independence. Not having persecuted the Jews they resented having to undertake that for the future they would act in a liberal spirit. "I will have nothing to do with tolerance," said the Orthodox Bishop of Ver[vs]ac to a deputation of Jews, when he made his formal entry into the town of Pan[vc]evo. And when they stared at him, "It is not tolerance that I will show," said he, "but love." Perhaps the Opposition in the Yugoslav Skup[vs]tina might have exhibited more kindliness in its attitude towards the Government and have refrained from rousing a storm against the signature of the obnoxious Articles. The Government and the Opposition being practically of equal strength, the Ministers, who in a calm atmosphere could have explained the realities of the situation, found themselves at a grave disadvantage. They could have shown that they would be assuming obligations which they had assumed already. In Macedonia, as any traveller could see, the time-honoured custom of persecuting him who happened to be the under-dog was abandoned; the authorities preferred to ignore the religious difference between themselves and the Bulgarian party, and as the difference consisted in praying for the Exarch instead of the Patriarch in the liturgy there was not the slightest persecution needed to persuade the Exarchists to become Patriarchists. Many who had been unaware of this new spirit which informed Yugoslavia and had fled with the Bulgarian army, afterwards came back to Macedonia. Nor did the Moslems complain: two Bosnian Moslems were expressly included in the Cabinet, and every consideration was shown to them--at Ghevgeli, for instance, where building material was, after the War, so scarce that many of the inhabitants had nothing but a hole in the ground, the prefect caused the two mosques which had been destroyed by shell-fire to be reconstructed.

OBLIGATIONS IMPOSED ON THEM BECAUSE OF ROUMANIAN ANTISEMITISM

If the Serbs were to express their grievance against the Roumanian ruling class for having landed them in this position, the Roumanians would reply that the Serbs do not run the same risk as themselves of being swamped by the undesirable Galician Jew. The Roumanians argue that their peasants will go under if they are not shielded. "In our last great manoeuvres," said the late King Charles to M. de Laveleye,[45] "it was proposed to entrust the supply of food to Christians. On the first day the provisions came; on the second everything was late; on the third day the whole army was dying of hunger. I was forced to make a hasty appeal to the Jews. They have great qualities--they are intelligent, energetic, economical; but these very qualities make them dangerous to us on economic grounds." Roumanians acknowledge that the agrarian policy of a few vast landowners and a submerged peasantry did not admit of peasants being made more formidable by increased education, and they doubt whether their country-folk, so fond of music and dancing and drinking, have it in them to rival those Serbian non-commissioned officers who, early in 1919, became millionaires by skilful operations on the money market in the Banat. Yet the Serbs are as much addicted as anyone to the aforementioned delights, and it is probable that the Roumanian boyars do their own people an injustice. But while the people were favoured at the expense of the immigrants--not always very effectively: the Jews have been prohibited from owning land, yet a fifth of the whole of Moldavia belongs indirectly to a single Jew--one would suppose that some distinction might have been made between the more or less pernicious alien who is apt to get the village into his toils and that other Jew whose family has lived perhaps two hundred years in the country, who feels himself a Roumanian but is legally a foreigner. One Magder, a Jewish barrister, performed such exploits at the front during the Great War that he was mentioned in the communique, a distinction only conferred upon two other soldiers. For one and a half years the official publications insisted on Roumanizing his name into Magdeu, after which three Cabinet meetings occupied themselves with the subject and finally announced that the error was not intentional but typographical. A French officer wished the Roumanian Croix de Guerre to be given to him, but Headquarters refused the request on the ground that he was a Jew. One cannot blame the United States for taking the initiative in compelling the Roumanians to modify their legislation, since the clauses of the Treaty of Berlin were merely carried out to the extent of naturalizing a maximum of fifty Jews a year, each case having to undergo innumerable formalities, accompanied with payments to deputies and others that rose to 30,000 francs. Many Jews volunteered for the army in 1913 for the sake of thus obtaining the naturalization that was promised them as a reward; but these promises were frequently not kept. A good deal of injustice occurred during the Great War: the _Moniteur Officiel_, No. 261 (of February 2, 1918), printed a decree relating to one Kaufman, who together with two Christian soldiers had been away from his corps for twelve days in the previous September. Kaufman was condemned to death, and the others to five years' hard labour. When the King was asked to deal more equitably with the three men, Kaufman's sentence was commuted to "hard labour without limit," _i.e._ for life. It is superfluous to give many illustrations: at Falticeni seventy-two Jews were imprisoned without a trial for four months, though twelve of them were Roumanian citizens and veterans of 1877, while most of the others had sons at the front; at the village of Frumusica a major caused the Jews to come out of their synagogue in order to listen to a speech in which he advised the Christian soldiers to watch them well, as they were worse than the Germans. No doubt there were Jews in the Roumanian army whose patriotism was less than ardent--and who can blame them? In the 69th Regiment a special corps of Jews was clothed in the discarded, dark uniform that was more visible to the enemy. In the 65th Regiment Jon Dumitru was paid 14 francs a month for spying on his Jewish comrades. At the battle of Savarat, to cover the retreat of three battalions, a special corps of Jews was formed--one hundred and twenty-two men under a Jewish second lieutenant; all but three of them were killed or wounded. After this retreat the General, who lost his head, commanded that the survivors should be killed wholesale on account of self-inflicted wounds; but seeing that they were so numerous (and innocent) he pardoned them, and only executed two Jews, Lubis Strul and Hascal Simha, _pour encourager les autres_. A young doctor, 2nd Lieutenant Cohn, who came back from Paris, contracted typhus at the hospital where he was serving; afterwards he was sent to the 26th Regiment and kept under observation; it was most suspicious, said the authorities, that a Jew should return from France for his military service. A reward of 2000 francs was offered to anyone who could supply incriminating evidence against the doctor, but this was offered in vain. The Jews, by the way, were told that while they would be removed from menial positions in the hospitals they "would be tolerated" as doctors--and nearly a hundred of these doctors died on active service.

The better class of Roumanians, such as Take Jonescu, is opposed to such methods--he was therefore charged with being in the pay of the Jews, although he was a wealthy man (a very successful barrister) whom politics made poorer. It remains to be seen whether the Roumanians--whose position with regard to the Jews is, partly through their own fault, not without peril--will be willing to put into effect those reforms to which the Supreme Council compelled them to subscribe. The Article in question will probably become a moral weapon, since the Roumanians regard themselves as on a higher level than the Balkan peoples, and will not desire that continual complaints should be made against them. One does not expect their prejudices and their apprehensions to be suddenly renounced--instead of judging each case individually, the railway administration, after the Government had agreed that the Jews _en bloc_ could become citizens, barred them _en bloc_ from that particular service by requiring that candidates should present their certificates of baptism. The Agricultural Syndicates have also introduced a statute which limits their organizations to Roumanian citizens who profess the Christian religion. Gradually--one hopes, for the sake of their country--the Roumanians will bring themselves to adopt a less timorous spirit, and to acknowledge that it is more dangerous to the Fatherland if a Jew as such is prevented than if he is permitted to hold the office of street-sweeper. From such lowly public offices, or from that of University Professor, no citizen should be excluded on religious grounds or admitted to them "by exceptional concession." And if a Jewish cab-driver at Bucharest is so severely flogged by his passengers outside the chief railway-station that he succumbs in the hospital to his injuries--a fate that overtook one Mendel Blumenthal, a man fifty-three years of age, in September 1919--one trusts that a newspaper article asking for an inquiry will henceforward not be censored. "It is true," said Dr. Vaida-Voevod, then the Prime Minister, "that the Jews still evince some reluctance to assimilate intellectually with our people or to identify their interests with those of the Roumanian State. But goodwill should be shown on both sides, and the overtures should be reciprocal." Thanks very largely to the former Liberal Premier, M. Bratiano, whose party was responsible for much illiberal legislation--one of his powerful brothers was popularly said to eat a Jew at every meal--the Supreme Council acted in such a manner as to produce a particularly unwanted crisis in the Yugoslav political world. Neither Roumanian nor Yugoslav need, in the opinion of Take Jonescu, have considered that their dignity was being slighted, for the tendency of the League of Nations is to limit the free will of each of them. The cardinal doctrine of the League, as Lord Robert Cecil has pointed out, is that its members are _not_ masters in their own house, but must obey the decision of the majority. However, the Opposition in the Belgrade Skup[vs]tina could not resist from using the delicate situation for what many of the deputies thought was a patriotic course of conduct, and nearly all of them regarded as an admirable party cry.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _The Defeat of Austria, as seen by the 7th
Division._ London, 1919.]

[Footnote 2: _Contemporary Review_, February 1920.]

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

[Footnote 4: _Fortnightly Review_, June 1919.]

[Footnote 5: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, December 13, 1918.]

[Footnote 6: _Land and Water_, May 29, 1919.]

[Footnote 7: _Nineteenth Century and After_, November 1920.]

[Footnote 8: _Au Secours des Enfants Serbes._ Paris, 1916.]

[Footnote 9: Several old wooden warships, such as the _Aurora_,
the _Schwartzenberg_ and the _Vulcan_, were lying for years in
[vS]ibenik harbour, where they were used as repair-ships,
store-ships, etc. When the Italians evacuated Dalmatia they
took these vessels with them, but whether on account of their
contents or their history we do not know.]

[Footnote 10: Cf. _Die Handelsstrassen und Bergwerke von
Serbien und Bosnien wahrend des Mittelalters_, by Dr.
Constantin Jire[vc]ek. Prague, 1879.]

[Footnote 11: It is instructive to examine the attendance
figures at the schools of this the only Italian town of
Dalmatia, as the Italians call it. The figures are those of the
school year 1918-1919, and refer both to elementary and
secondary schools:

YUGOSLAV SCHOOLS.

Elementary School for Boys Pupils, 342
Elementary School for Girls " 331
Combined Elementary School " 222
Higher Elementary School for Girls " 121
Teachers' Training College " 70
Classical College " 469
----
Total of Yugoslav Pupils, 1555
----

ITALIAN SCHOOLS.

Elementary School for Boys Pupils, 250
Elementary School for Girls " 221
Higher Elementary School " 93
Classical College " 157
Technical College " 181
----
Total of Italian Pupils, 902
----

I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by
Mr. Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations,
to inform the readers of _Land and Water_ (June 5, 1919) that
"Zara is quite Italian." He added that "Sebenia is Italian
too." If this be so, how comes it that in 1919 the Italian
authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
([vS]ibenik)--which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers
to--with machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very
lurid threats of Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I
believe it is nearer the truth to say that the population of
this town consists of some 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400
_Italianists_.]

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

[Footnote 13: The population of Veprinac, according to the last
census, is: Yugoslavs, 2505 (83.7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0.8
per cent.); Germans, 422 (4.1 per cent.).]

[Footnote 14: Pribi[vc]evi['c] issued a statement to the effect
that the interviewer, Magrini, had put into his mouth the
precise opposite of what he had said with regard to Triest and
Pola. Pribi[vc]evi['c] had told him that the whole of Istria,
with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini that a
third person was present at the interview.]

[Footnote 15: The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in
Albania had been concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded
by Yugoslav troops, as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had
disappeared, and the Russian prisoners employed there--about
500 men--had also vanished. In order to keep off nocturnal
plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to fire a few shots
now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the two
Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their
injuries--is it not possible that they were out for plunder and
that this incident should not be used to illustrate what Mr.
Beaumont (of the _Daily Telegraph_) calls "the worst
characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the troops?
During the twenty days of the Yugoslav regime their authorities
sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these
warehouses to the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally
said in Rieka that the Italians in four days had given away six
million crowns' worth, that large quantities of flour were
removed until the British put a stop to this, and that the
robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a
mysterious manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any
rate have been as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some
investigation. Since they failed to do so, it is natural that
gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the Italian
population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the
stores of the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.]

[Footnote 16: Most people have assumed that this was done in
order that Rieka should be left to Austria-Hungary, although
they should have taken with some grains of salt this Italian
generosity which presented the Habsburgs with a good harbour
instead of one of those others in Croatia which the Italians of
to-day are never weary of extolling. The real reasons why Rieka
was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the _Secolo_
(January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the
right of the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this
case the same principle must be admitted for the people of
Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing majority. But this is
precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."]

[Footnote 17: The Italianist employes of the Rieka town council
who took the census in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they
were acquainted with the Italian language; those from whom they
received an affirmative reply were put down as Italians. Had
they, on the other hand, asked the people if they spoke
Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes, there
would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have
remained not one single Italian--certainly not the members of
the Italian National Council--as everyone, he says, speaks and
knows Croat. This is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes
of Rieka are bound up with those of its suburbs and the
hinterland.]

[Footnote 18: Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals,
General Grazioli claimed supreme command of all the Allied
troops, but this the French General refused, maintaining--much
to the disgust of the Italians--that he was under the orders of
Franchet d'Esperey, who was then in command of the Army of the
Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve in their
own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the
sole object of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to
General Grazioli should by chance be posted to the town. The
disrespectful Allies used to call Caneva "the man in the
cellar."]

[Footnote 19: The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's
collapse, was stirred the most profoundly by its postage stamps
was Zagreb. In order to commemorate the establishment of the
new State the Croatian Post Office published four stamps, which
were on sale on November 29. The whole edition consisted of
100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted to Zagreb, the
rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious that
there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that
they should be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that
each purchaser would only be allowed to buy a limited quantity.
At 8 a.m. the sale began, but at seven many hundreds of people
were waiting outside the chief post office, the post office at
the station and another in the Upper Town. The face value of
the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At first they
were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000
had been printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10
crowns for it, in order to complete their sets. At noon the
offices were all shut, as the rush was considered too
dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in the great hall at the
Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside. Nearly all
the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken. At
the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the
sentries. The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the
post offices had no stamps left (and citizens who had been
waiting all day to buy an ordinary stamp could not be served).
At 5 p.m. people who for the first time in their lives were
taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500 crowns from
collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one
thousand crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers
were willing to give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of
boots, others were asking for sugar, coffee or petrol. The
price which was ultimately established was 250 crowns.]

[Footnote 20: Out of the hundreds of available documents it
will suffice if I print one. It is the report, given in his
words, of a Dalmatian, a native of Sinj, who having been an
emigrant could write in English. "On July 1915 I came to the
Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the lines and
deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a
voluntary into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was
answered by Italian authorities in the negative. After the
Congress of Rome in 1918 I and some of my comrades who had
recently applied for admission were permitted to join the
Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away sent to the front
of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard bayonet
fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian
Commander for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own
request I was sent to the front, where I remained up to the
break-up of Austria or until we Yugoslav legion were disarmed
by Italians and as a reward for our participation in the war we
were interned as prisoners of war at Casale di Altamura in the
province of Bari. Four days after my internment I succeeded in
sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
Dalmatia. (Signed) JAKOV DELONGA."]

[Footnote 21:

"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro
L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,
Perche piangi, o fratello croato,
Il figiul che in Italia mori."

("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible
Habsburger has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother,
it weeps for the dear son who died in Italy.")]

[Footnote 22: April 23, 1919.]

[Footnote 23: Cf. _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie._ Paris,
1917.]

[Footnote 24: The Italians are very poorly served by some of
their advocates. For years they persisted in demanding the
execution of whatever in the Treaty or Pact of London was
obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded as obsolete another
clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and--if I rightly
understand the Italophil Mr. H. E. Goad--they were justified
because, forsooth, Bulgaria had entered the War on the other
side. To say that the idea of this small Albania, with
corresponding compensations to the Serbs and Greeks, was held
out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a very wise
remark. However, "ne croyez pas le pere Bonnet," said
Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-meme lorsque
je dis du mal du pere Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes
brouilles." Let the reader trust in nothing but the facts, and
I hope that those which I present are not an unfair selection.]

[Footnote 25: When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard
about the secret Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov.
The interview is said to have been stormy, for the Russian
Minister, according to the _Primorske Novine_ (April 23, 1919),
"had not the most elementary knowledge of the Slav nature of
Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said
to have been no better informed than Sazonov.]

[Footnote 26: And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's
Prime Minister, was the central figure of a reception given by
Lord Sydenham at the Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship
I must add that in an hour's conversation he impressed me with
the fact that he was even less acquainted with Plamenac's
antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs, which
he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords,
endeavouring there--until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him--to play
the part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.]

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

[Footnote 28: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
1921.]

[Footnote 29: This very able priest became Vice-President of
the Council of Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was
formed. When Cardinal Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of
1919 a Mass was celebrated by the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister,
the British Cardinal and a French priest who was an aviation
captain in the army. Monsignor Koro[vs]ec's position reminds
one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
was the Archbishop of Trnovo.]

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

[Footnote 31: Cf. _The New Europe_, March 27, 1919.]

[Footnote 32: There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic
Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kova[vc]i[vc]a) who,
having lost something between his house and the post office,
insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest papers. But the
Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three years
after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
Debelyacsa--where the _intelligentsia_ called the sympathetic
Serbian notary by his Christian name--not one of the
inhabitants proposed to remove to Hungary. No doubt the
goodness of the soil had something to do with this decision,
but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No military
service was as yet exacted--all that the Magyars had been asked
to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of
war. The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary
before the War still exercised their functions, and--in
contrast with what had previously been the case--both the
Magyar and the Serbian language were taught, the latter from
the third class upwards. Altogether there was perfect harmony
between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was there the only
racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was the
resolve of their _intelligentsia_ to have, as centre-half in
the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish
player.]

[Footnote 33: The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that
the Foreign Office was bound to behave to Italy, one of the
Great Powers, with a certain deference. They also recognize
that the Foreign Office is not actuated by malevolence if she
treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of the
strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir
Richard Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a
series of diplomatic automata. After all, these automata, who
have spent more or less laborious years in the service, have to
be deposited somewhere. But if one does not demand of the
Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending to the
Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man
as the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched
too late to Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be
maintained--it has happened before now that we have been
represented in a Balkan country by a Minister who, some time
after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing with those
people and of which Great Britain was one of the high
contracting parties; when taxed with this omission the
aforesaid Minister hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.]

[Footnote 34: October 13, 1921.]

[Footnote 35: This has been done, but to a much more limited
extent, in Hungary where several hundred men who distinguished
themselves in the European War have been granted the Gold Medal
for Bravery, which entitles each of them to a goodly portion of
land. This the recipient may not sell, but he need not leave it
to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested in
agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to
exhibit outside his house a notice which informs the world that
he possesses this most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our
eyes the strangest privilege the Medal carries with it is the
permission to write "Vitez" (which is the Hungarian for
"brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji Sandor is
decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not
only is the honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all
his sons and by their sons. We might imagine that a man would
shrink from permanently calling himself Brave John Smith,
especially if he has been very brave, but the average Magyar
will not feel excessively awkward, since he is not altogether
repelled by that which is garish.]

[Footnote 36: The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be
the work of a generation. They are beginning on the very large
estates, those which run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in
calculating the price to be paid, 40 per cent. is deducted for
the State on properties of this size. On those of between
20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so on
down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the
holdings of from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the
Government's intention in Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such
properties as are badly administered, and, by a wise proviso,
when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for example, that
the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State is
suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various
political parties, go down to investigate. If they find that
the accusation is not justified and that the place is
satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge is
obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.]

[Footnote 37: The trouble arose at the end of May when a number
of citizens of [vS]ibenik, men and women, donned the American
colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warship
_Maddalena_, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The
[vS]ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on the words of
Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed that
any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore
them off and explained that it was done by the General's order.
Italian officers did not interfere while ladies were being very
roughly handled. A certain Jakovljevi['c], a shopkeeper, who
had sold an American flag, was imprisoned. On the same evening
a number of prominent citizens were summoned before the town
commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows: "A Croat, a
Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye,
the ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't
go to the _Maddalena_ to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall
prevent it! You are the leaders who will be responsible for
anything that happens to-morrow." [This was the eve of the
Italian national celebration of June 1.] "Our arditi are
blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of yours
receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent
milliards and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr.
Mi[vs]e Ivanovi['c] remarked: "I beg your pardon, but the Paris
Conference has not yet decided the fate of these territories."
And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided! But even if we
had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we shall
destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and
40,000 men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by
the town commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was
testified by the signature of all those who were present....
When, in 1921, the Italians were leaving [vS]ibenik they
destroyed a large number of young trees in the park and
elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian
purpose.]

[Footnote 38: In view of what the census said with regard to
this place it is superfluous to add that when an Italian
officer in my hearing asked one who was stationed there if
there was any social life, the other answered: "None at all;
the whole population is Slav." I find that _Modern Italy_
(published in London) quoted with approval the following
telegram which appeared, it said, in the _Tempo_ of May 9: "A
remarkably enthusiastic celebration took place at Obrovazzo.
Several thousands, including representatives of the
neighbouring villages, formed a procession and marched through
the town. In the principal piazza, the President of the
National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which
was enthusiastically applauded."]

[Footnote 39: It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but
one decoration, the highest among those to which they are
entitled. To illustrate this Serbian modesty regarding
honorifics, I might mention that one evening at the house of a
Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to whom he had
been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had won
the Obili['c] medal for bravery and several other decorations
which--and his case was typical--he had not troubled to
procure.]

[Footnote 40: June 24, 1919.]

[Footnote 41: May 15, 1919.]

[Footnote 42: Mr. Leiper in the _Morning Post_ (June 23, 1920)
scouts the idea of these malcontents being the supporters of
Nikita, who "were all laid by the heels or driven out of the
country long ago--largely by the inhabitants themselves." He
observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil--its
frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and
policies. The nations, he points out, are not two but one--one
in blood, in temperament, in habits, in tradition, in language;
round the fireside they tell their children the same stories,
sing them the same songs: the greatest poem in Serbian
literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian
State came into existence it has been, he says, the constant,
burning desire of the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may
well rub our eyes at a letter in the same newspaper from Lord
Sydenham, who makes the perfectly inane remark that this
constant, burning desire was never probable. "Montenegro
already _is_ Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set
himself up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro;
therefore he cannot countenance the Leiper articles, which give
him "pain and surprise." Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a
shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted with the language,
should disagree with him? "The great mass of the people," says
Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their determination that
Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham: "I am
afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been misled by
the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed
correspondent of his in Montenegro who says that the people
there are terrified of speaking. It is much to be desired that
a little of this terror might invade a gentleman who plunges
headlong into matters which he does not understand.]

[Footnote 43: Cf. _Morning Post_, November 17, 1920.]

[Footnote 44: A most vivid account of this affair was
contributed to the _Chicago Tribune_ (July 13, 1919) by its
correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan, one of the two neutral
eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that as Italy was an
interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in the
decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her
forces were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In
alliance with the city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian
soldiers attacked the French: "I can state emphatically," says
Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards did nothing whatever to
provoke the assault, some details of which would blot the
escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France
killed, after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could
scarcely believe my ears when Italian officers rapped out the
order to load. But they seemed to remember that Frenchmen can
fight." However, he also saw an Italian officer who "prevented
this murder and held back the civilians who were trying to
reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of this
officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game
little soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers
of Italy!' I wish I knew this officer's name." At another part
of the harbour, "A British naval officer, fearing that the
wounded Frenchman would be stabbed inside the court to which he
was dragged, followed the body and defied the captain of
carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the close "I was
no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness. The
British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken
part in the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The
British Admiral wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian
officer running and bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are
willing to explain all....' American naval officers of the
destroyer _Talbot_ were also among this post-mortem crowd. In a
French motor bearing two Italian officers who stood up to ward
off possible shots, came a French captain. He was of that calm,
splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard, a
knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep
down in that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer
tell him that the French had started the most regrettable
affair by firing on the Italian ships. The officer spoke this
falsehood under the glazed stare of the French dead and the
protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain nodded his
head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only pick up
the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside
her child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking
episode is contained in _A Political Escapade: The Story of
Fiume and d'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London,
1921). His narrative is extremely well documented--he appears
to have been a member of the British Mission. "It is
incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men could attack
the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover, they
were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French
garrison was small and had no intention of putting up a
defence." One of the lesser outrages described by Father
Macdonald, since it was not attended with fatal results, was
that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who from his window
saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver an
unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed
bayonets and they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard
tried to intervene and received a blow on the arm dealt with
the butt end of a rifle. At this juncture an Italian officer
appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come without further
delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside greeted
Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse
against France and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he
was brought into the presence of an Italian officer to whom he
was personally known. This gentleman, looking very uneasy,
refused to give the name of his brother-officer, but caused the
Frenchman to be released.]

[Footnote 45: Cf. _The Balkan Peninsula_ (English translation).
London, 1887.]

VII

FURTHER MONTHS OF TRIAL

D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF--THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM--THEIR WISH FOR RIEKA, DEAD OR ALIVE--FRUITLESS EFFORTS OF ITALY'S ALLIES--SOME OF RIEKA'S SCANDALS--PROGRESS OF THE YUGOSLAV IDEA--DESPITE THE NEW PHENOMENON OF COMMUNISM--THE RISE AND FALL OF COMMUNISM IN YUGOSLAVIA--OTHER LIONS IN THE PATH--THE NADIR OF DEVINE AND NIKITA--A GENERAL--TWO COMIC PRO-ITALIANS IN OUR MIDST--THE BELATED TREATY OF RAPALLO--ITS PROBABLE FRUITS--NEW FORCES IN THE FIRST YUGOSLAV PARLIAMENT--(_a_) MARKOVI['C], THE COMMUNIST--(_b_) RADI['C], THE MUCH-DISCUSSED--THE SERBS AND THE CROATS--THE SAD CASE OF PRIBI['C]EVI['C]--LESSONS OF THE MONTENEGRIN ELECTIONS--WHICH ONE GENTLEMAN REFUSES TO TAKE--MEDIAEVAL DOINGS AT RIEKA--THE STRICKEN TOWN--HOPES IN THE LITTLE ENTENTE.

D'ANNUNZIO SPREADS HIMSELF

When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan War, into the historic town of Prilep a certain soldier sent his family an interesting letter, which was found a few years afterwards at Ni[vs] and printed in a book. One passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point of mediaeval history between the soldier and a chance acquaintance. "Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this town?" And the man of Prilep recognized at once that his catechist was not referring to the actual possessor but to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same question was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that Rieka was Italian then and for ever, and that he who proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a mutilated war-combatant. Most of the citizens, as time went on, began to think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's annexation to another land, which was the work of Nature. Those who did not entertain this view were the salaried assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who had bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as mistress of Rieka, would change them into lire, even if she did not give so good a rate as at Triest. The poet addressed himself to the France of Victor Hugo, the England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not to the business men of Rieka, who would have told him that 70 per cent. of the property, both movable and immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 per cent. was Italian and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand men, to Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and won him over. Whether he would have persuaded Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must gravely doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we may take as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the wilful trespass committed by Italians on the property and rights of the Yugoslavs and the oft-repeated guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the American Government against such invasion, it is passing strange that d'Annunzio should have appealed to Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for Admiral Millo, he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his fortunes with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the populace a very fiery speech. It is not known whether he communicated with the France of Clemenceau, the England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson, whose representative he apparently continued to be for the rest of Dalmatia, while relinquishing that post with regard to Zadar, his residence.

THE WAVE OF ITALIAN IMPERIALISM

If Admiral Millo's rebellion had been published in the press of November 16th, it is most likely that 250, instead of 160, Socialists would have been successful at the General Election--an election which Signor Nitti, that very able parliamentarian, had brought about for the purpose, amongst other things, of testing the forces and popularity of the Nationalist party. The old Chamber had--voicing the wishes of the people--voted for the open annexation of Rieka, without war or violence; the Nationalists, in order to gain their ends, would seemingly have stopped at nothing. Military adventures, the breaking of alliances, agrarian and industrial upheaval--it was all the same to them. They scoffed at the common sense of the imperturbable Nitti when he said that the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, must return to the plough. Furiously they harped upon the facts that bread was dearer now, that coal was nearly unprocurable. And Giolitti, who in 1915 had strenuously tried to keep the country neutral, said in a great speech before this 1919 election that the War had been waged between England and Germany for the supremacy of the survivor and that Italy should never have participated. He enlarged upon the fearful sufferings of his countrymen, and he compared the gains of Italy with those of her Allies. Nor was he deterred when Signor Salandra, the former Premier, called him Italy's evil spirit who, devoid of any patriotism, would have sold the Fatherland to the Central Powers for a mess of pottage. Giolitti, on whom 300 deputies had left their cards in the tragic hours before the declaration of war, had good reason to know that even if Giolittism had melted away, the House had secretly remained Giolittian.