Volume 2 — VI (continued 4)

HIS MISGUIDED SUBORDINATES AT ŠIBENIK

It is strange that this order should have been so scurvily treated in the town of Šibenik, where it was issued and where the Admiral resided until the beginning of June, after which he transferred the seat of government to Zadar. At Šibenik, by the way, the population comprises 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400 Italianists. On February 20, 1919, there arrived from Zadar, in consequence of an invitation from Admiral Millo, the Italian professor Domiakušić who, according to the sixth clause of the Armistice, was justified in assuming the functions of school-controller, but was not authorized to become the inspector or in any way to interfere in didactic matters. Two inspectors existed in Dalmatia, one for the elementary and one for the secondary school, but the chief school authority of the province and the two inspectors under him were not informed of Professor Domiakušić's nomination. If the Governor intended him to abide by the stipulations of the Armistice, he must have been astonished at the schools being shut on the day after his arrival. And they remained shut, both the modern school and the middle-class girls' school for months, because the Professor's quite illegal attempt to usurp the inspectorship was resented. The secondary school was closed and the teachers who had come to Šibenik with their families, but whose permanent domicile was elsewhere, received an order, delivered by carabinieri, that they would have to leave the town in four days. A few Italians were brought from Split and the school was reopened, but the attendance, which had been about 200, was now 24, and of these only two were the sons of Yugoslavs—but Yugoslavs who had taken office under the Italians, one as President of the Court of Justice and the other as prison inspector; these gentlemen took their boys by the hand and led them to school. Perhaps the Admiral was unaware of these transactions; but various Yugoslav officials, whose salaries had been withheld because they would not sign a paper asking to be made Italian officials, continued, notwithstanding, at their posts for two months; after which the Government perceived that by the clauses of the Armistice they were compelled to pay them. Each of them received exactly what was due, while some Italian teachers who had signed the paper were given a war bonus, extending over five months, of 80 per cent. Whether the Admiral knew of this or not, it does not harmonize with his exalted sentiments. And the town-commandant spoke very darkly[37] on various occasions to the leading citizens of what would come to pass if the Italians by any chance were told to leave the place. His brave fellows, the arditi, so he said, had plenty of machine guns and of ammunition. But this fair-haired German-looking officer was a rampageous sort of person who discharged, according to his lights, the Admiral's "truly lofty mission of civilization." It was not he, but another of the Admiral's subordinates at Šibenik, who, when approached by a certain Mr. Ivaša Zorić with the request that something might be done to release his son, a prisoner of war in Italy, replied: "Your son shall be released in eight days, provided that you declare, in writing, that you are content with the Italian occupation." On Mr. Zorić saying that he was unable to do this, "Very well," said the officer, "then your son will be one of the last to be set free."

THE ITALIANS WANT TO TAKE NO RISKS

Altogether one might say that the schoolmasters were being treated in a manner that was at variance with the Admiral's document. To give a few examples: Ivan Grbić, the schoolmaster at Sutomišcica, was arbitrarily imprisoned and was afterwards removed to another school at Privlaka. The Government school at the former place was closed, an Italian private institution being opened in the same building, with a teacher who was devoid of professional qualifications. The pupils of the school which had been dissolved were compelled by soldiers to attend the new Italian school. The elementary schools at Zemunik were likewise closed and the schoolmasters, after a period of imprisonment, taken to another village. If in the rather dreary little Zemunik, where there is not one Italian, the schoolmaster was very dangerous to the might of Italy, let us compare with this the conduct of the Slovene authorities who permitted more than one priest of the old régime to remain in office—one of them at a village four or five miles from Ljubljana—though they knew that these clergy were wont from the pulpit to utter disloyal sentiments. Maybe the Slovene Government was unwise, but they had scruples in removing a priest; and moreover, they had not given up the hope that these gentlemen would by and by change their opinions. On the island of Pag the schoolmaster Buratović and his wife, who was also a teacher, had to fly in order to escape imprisonment. The schoolmaster Grimani of the same place was obliged, with his wife, to follow the example of Buratović, so that the school was necessarily closed; and an Italian school was started in this island with its 0·31 per cent. of Italians. The same edifying scenes must have taken place as in so many Magyar schools where the pupils—Serbs, Slovaks, Roumanians and so forth—did not understand what the teacher was saying. The Government of the occupied part of Dalmatia appointed to the elementary schools at Rogoznica and Primošten two young Italian law-students from Zadar, who had no pedagogic qualifications; and whereas the legal annual salary was 1080 crowns, these lucky young men were in receipt of 625 crowns a month, which covered more than handsomely any depreciation in the currency. But now to another subject:

Per cent. Yugoslavs.Per cent. Italians.

1.Zadarwith 80·25with 18·61

2.Hvar (Lesina)" 92·94" 6·75

3.Korčula (Curzola)" 94·89" 5·08

4.Šibenik (Sebenico)" 95·66" 1·31

5.Starigrad (Cittavecchia)" 97·98" 1·91

6.Vis (Lissa)" 98·98" 0·92

7.Skradin (Scardona)" 99·36" 0·57

8.Knin" 99·48" 0·31

9.Drniš (Dernish)" 99·49" 0·41

10.Benkovac" 99·60" 0·30

11.Tijesno (Stretto)" 99·61" 0·35

12.Biograd (Zaravecchia)" 99·66" 0·23

13.Pag (Pago)" 99·67" 0·31

14.Obrovac (Obrovazzo)" 99·84" 0·12

15.Kistanje" 99·88" 0·12

16.Blato (Blatta)" 99·93" 0·05

The London Treaty had conferred on Italy the foregoing Judiciary Districts, whose population, according to the last Austrian census, was as given on page 147.

Italy was also to receive portions of the following Justiciary Districts:

Per cent. Yugoslavs.Per cent. Italians.

1.Trogir (Traù)with 99·12with 0·32

2.Sinj" 99·29" 0·24

3.Imotski" 99·84" 0·11

4.Vrlika" 99·95" 0·04

In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized by a delegation which the representatives of the occupied communes elected at Split on January 11. According to the census of 1900 the occupied territory contained 35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181 inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants, the census was prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated the results of the plebiscite in the commune of Obrovac.[38] The delegates were therefore successful in canvassing 95·07 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In 34 communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia was over 90 per cent., while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per cent. At Zadar (the town) out of 14,056 inhabitants 6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was 89·57 per cent. In the islands the majorities ranged from 96 per cent. to 100 per cent. And if any doubts were entertained as to these figures, the delegates were authorized to propose another plebiscite under the control of a disinterested Allied Power.

YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT

Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants, is not a wealthy province; and one would have supposed that if the Italians thought it necessary to occupy a country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably opposed to them, it would have been—to put it at the lowest—politic to hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood. Austria had established fourteen military fishing centres (besides others in Rieka, Istria, etc.), and these the Croats joined most willingly, as a means of avoiding service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets were worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with new ones. Owing to the conditions of the Triple Alliance, the Italians enjoyed the right to "high-sea" fishing, that is to say, the fishing up to three miles from the Dalmatian coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich fishing grounds among the northern islands. These dispossessed natives were originally more preoccupied with fish than with Italians. Is it strange that they refused to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral Millo, the friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line for the exploitation of its forests; during the War this line was continued to Prijedor, and with great difficulty it had served for the transport of food-stuff and passengers from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to Sissak normal gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there to Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or Šibenik narrow gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading between 30 per cent. and 50 per cent. of the goods were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the inhabitants of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor hundreds of waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to be forwarded, and with Italy blocking the road at Knin they simply perished.

ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS

The Italian administration of Dalmatia—economically, politically, scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)—was thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence; it is impossible to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention of Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogić, who was deported to Sardinia for political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to Šibenik and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the s.s. Almissa, bound for Ancona. Near Šibenik the boat collided with the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were stolen—at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars. His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence—being all the time attached to one another—it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogić was ill, but as he declined to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen. From Leghorn in the s.s. Derna he was shipped to Sardinia, where he had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania, where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received 2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000 Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line and—as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their release—letters some of which I read—they had very friendly recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "bestially maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered the doctor to dictate the whole affair and said that if nothing else could be done he would go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he struck the table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and "Wir sind doch die grössten Schuften!" he exclaimed ("After all, it is we who are the biggest scoundrels!").... When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian Government at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald man, made a speech to the prisoners from the balcony of the town hall. He armed two of the Italians and ten French prisoners, whom he told off to guard the magazine. The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli) vanished after a couple of days; the French remained for a week, and when a French destroyer arrived at Split they were taken there, not as prisoners but as soldiers, bearing arms. Dr. Bogić was a member of the National Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague at Drniš to ask him whether the Italian troops were coming up from Šibenik. This letter was his undoing. The reason he wrote it was because the population at Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective occupation and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He should have remembered, no doubt, that the Italians regarded this as enemy country and that to make inquiries with regard to the movement of troops was a crime. An officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he would kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the place which was indicated he found himself surrounded by carabinieri. Their captain, a certain Albano, said that he and two or three others must go to Šibenik to undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to take any money, clothes or linen. As a matter of fact the doctor had, on the previous day, been warned from Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but he laughed—he had done so much for them and he felt so innocent that it seemed absurd to run away. He could have gone, because he had a written permit issued to him on January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry regiment at Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever they wished, to Split.

SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS

During the winter and spring over seven hundred persons, chiefly belonging to the clerical, the legal and the medical professions, had been deported from Dalmatia. The leader of the Italian party at Zadar told me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra, saying that this, their place of interment, was a health resort and that they were getting fat. He scouted the idea that they were under any sort of compulsion when they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia, as were the vast majority. Those who managed to return from that island—among them Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar, through the intervention of Bissolati, on account of Mrs. Macchiedo being at death's door—said that they found in Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment. Many priests were deported, on account of crimes which varied in enormity. A very frequent cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One must say that the Italians exhibited no religious partiality, for they treated the Roman Catholic Church just the same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions were so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be due to a misunderstanding. To mention only one which came under my observation at Skradin, not far from Šibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his sumptuous vestments had led his congregation out of the old town in order to perform an annual ceremony in connection with the fertility of the fields. In what way was the Italian cause assisted when carabinieri broke up that procession and refused even to allow the people to walk back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest and the other church officials with the sacred emblems, were forced to go back to Skradin as best they could by wading through the marshes?

A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES

An allusion has been made to the Italian financial methods. More than one Italian officer, including Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the Austrian currency, which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had the Government stamp, and the Italians resolved that in the territories which they occupied the notes must have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But when some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation from Croatia or else landed somewhere in a boat the Italians were not making good propaganda for themselves when they seized the notes, tore them up and refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow whom I know of came with his mother along that wonderful road which the Austrians built over the mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious affection of the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar to consult an oculist. He took with him practically all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know what otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use of a bank. Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told him testily to go about his business. The same thing happened to the following persons:

Crowns.

1. March 22, 1919. Bogdan Babović, son of Radovan, of Montenegro, was robbed of 1,348

2. " 22, " Peter Lukšić, son of Stephen of Spić,"" 1,800

3. " 30, " Marijan Ševelj, of Tučepa," " 3,530

4. " 31, " Frano Frankić and Ivanica Petričević," " 12,000

5. April 8, " Stephen Vukušić, son of Peter, of Katuna," " 4,758

6. " 8, " Nikola Cikeš, son of Mate, of Žeževice," " 3,071

7. " 8, " Martinis Jozo, son of the late Nikola, of Komiža," " 6,332

8. " 8, " Jure Rubić, son of the late Peter, of Zadvarje" " 6,030

9. " 8, " Mato Škaričić, son of Stephen, of Podgrazza," " 500

10. " 8, " Mihovil Šarac, son of the late Crowns. Marko, of Split," " 300

11. " 11, " Ilika Kutljača, son of the late Peter, of Čista," " 600

12. " 13, " Marko Čaljkušić, son of the late Ante, of Šestanova," " 11,000

13. " 14, " Damjan Udovičić, son of Jakov, of Imotski," " 3,200

14. " 16, " Antun Radić, son of Peter, of Trogir," " 62,000

15. " 16, " Madalena Kugmić, widow of Nikola, of Split," " 1,000

16. " 17, " Pero Jurić, son of Abram, of Ostrozac," " 2,285

17. " 19, " Jakov Jurković, son of Miško" "｝

18. " 19, " Mate Rajić, son of Ilija," " 8,140

19. " 19, " Jerko Rejić, son of Luke," "

20. " 19, " Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko, of Livno," " 25,000

21. " 25, " Zorka Aljinović, of Split," " 600

22. " 28, " Ana Žižak, of Split," " 1,900

23. " 29, " Nikolina Rastor, of Split," " 1,800

24. " 30, " Antica Milić, of Split," " 5,000

25. " 24, " Tomislav Novak, son of Mate, of Hvar," " 3,000

26. " 24, " Gjuran Arif, of Livno," " 2,200

Total136,794

These were the complaints over a period of a month, which were received by the Provincial (Yugoslav) Government at Split. One has to take their word for it that the list is not fictitious. I did not investigate any of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the list said that they were persuaded I would find that in every case the person culpable was an officious, ignorant N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a fragment. At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from the people, who were searched both on landing and on leaving, 40,000 crowns had been confiscated, and at first they had been told that the money should be stamped. A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few hours I was at Metković told me that he had gone to the island of Korčula to his brother and, on landing, had been relieved of 34,000 crowns.

AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY

In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of the Allied policy of allowing a disputed zone to be occupied ad interim solely by the troops of one interested country. The chronic state of war which followed the landing of the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the charges and the counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was issued early in 1920 and was signed by an American Admiral and French, Italian and British Generals, laid the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher Command. The Commission considered that an inter-Allied occupation was necessary, because the Greeks, instead of maintaining order, had given their position all the characteristics of a permanent occupation, the Turkish authorities being powerless. They also considered that order should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other than Greek.... No such Commission visited Dalmatia, chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of endless provocations, displayed greater self-control than the Turks. But an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that the Italian régime had not the marks of a permanent occupation simply because such methods could never be permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat newspaper. On one island I found about fifteen gentlemen gathered round a table in a sort of dungeon, reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into their possession. This they had been doing for more than six months. Every letter was censored, all telegraphic and telephonic communication between the occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited. All flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed. Admiral Millo told us that this prohibition did not extend to the flags of France, Great Britain and the United States; considering that it is on record when and where the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians, ordered to be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence of Allied contingents, it seems scarcely worth saying that, as we were often told, the Admiral's permission, which was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded by his subordinates. Another thing that was very rigorously forbidden, especially on the islands, was for any Yugoslav to go down to the harbour, if a boat came in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on board. It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable and tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning of Yugoslav clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving them empty because they found they did not want them, the requisitioning of private houses, with no consideration for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of forests, the closing of law-courts, the demand that other courts should pronounce no judgment before first submitting it to them. But, above all, what the Yugoslav Government at Split complained of were the methods they employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, clothing and money:

I

Government of Dalmatia and of the Dalmatian Islands and of the Curzola Islands

Subject: Question of Food Supplies for the Civil Population. No. 43. March 18, 1919.

To all subject authorities:

I have heard that several commanding officers who have to distribute food to the civilian population have, by virtue of an authorization that they may save part of the entered amounts for the purpose of using that sum for propaganda, saved a conspicuous quantity without having the possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained that the only effective means of propaganda is the distribution of food supplies ... amounts which are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary for purposes of propaganda.

The Vice-Admiral The Governor, E. Millo.

II

Royal Government of Dalmatia and of the Dalmatian Islands and of the Curzola Islands

Staff. No. Prot. "P." Section of Propaganda, Sebenico, April 18, 1919.

The section of propaganda of the Government of Dalmatia, whose object is the rapid diffusion of Italianity in this noble region which gives at last to Italy the complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has set before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action ... it is therefore necessary to give these latter certain advantages ... it has been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ... that offices be opened for the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that presents be given to the indigent population, that fêtes and spectacles be organized.

[Signature illegible.]

These two documents give some indication of the plan of campaign. One might mention, by the bye, that during this period there was a great shortage of food-stuffs in Italy; large quantities were being sent from the United States. The Yugoslav Government at Split complained of the disastrous social and moral results of these proceedings. It gave rise to many abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had, for example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all they had to do was to go on board the Puglia, the Italian flagship, whether their parents allowed them or not, and there they were given both provisions and cash. As elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of idlers and scamps, who seized this opportunity; another class of person, who had erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.

THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR

To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer, Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing, attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc., gratuitously."

The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before the Austrian collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done—three boxes, presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived, principally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metković and Dubrovnik. In 1913 Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August 19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr. Trumbić, Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr. Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance. On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The attitude," he says, "of the Slav intelligentsia was quite passive. The Italian band waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called: 'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down with the Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury, how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians, he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the "Società del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina, wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that this has caused the Slav intelligentsia to be still more profoundly depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17, 1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had been driven out of Belgrade.

When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians—I believe six from Zadar and two from Split—went to serve in the Italian army. Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura," that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most assiduous in addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the Slav intelligentsia. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr. Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.

CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY

One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the collapse of Austria, regarded the Italian party, and especially Dr. Salvi, with some suspicion. Since they had always placed themselves at Austria's disposal, it would be most natural if they attempted by a coup d'état to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment when they joined the Slavs and helped to turn the Austrians out. There was no notion then that the Italian army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until Christmas that this army tried to enter Split. When they proposed to come ashore they were prevented by the French, Americans and British; thereupon they threatened to come overland—although the town was not included in the London Treaty—but again they were prevented. In February, on the occasion of a conference between the four Admirals, there was a demonstration against Italy, the commandant of the Puglia being struck and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was a widespread feeling of resentment at the way in which the Puglia was, as we have seen, availing herself of the baser elements in the town for the furtherance of her propaganda; but what put the match to the bonfire was the omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found that "officers belonging to an Allied nation have been molested." They announced that they would not tolerate a repetition of such acts, and that inter-Allied patrols, acting with Serbian troops and the local police force, would take measures to prevent them. On March 8, however, there was a renewal of the troubles; and again the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian member of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved of the findings and that he would present a special report.

ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY

"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths, sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian soldiers."

NEVERTHELESS THE TYRANNY CONTINUES

But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order, which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was not merely illegal—let alone inhumane—but was in contradiction with an earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword: "Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces, blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after night, and so on.... In the second half of February it was intended to conduct a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to Zadar, so that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced to be there, for the benefits which Italy had bestowed upon them. An officer who in this branch achieved particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread and Italian promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken fisherfolk and peasants; they refused to take part in the ridiculous demonstration, and in order to avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and even went to the length of sinking their boats. In the possession of a peasant at Preko, Šime Šarić Mazić, were found some banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them and a very small French flag; for these transgressions de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive a box on the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison, and there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors afterwards certified, inflicted serious injuries upon his hands, which they beat with chains. For the same reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate Lončar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet. On March 2 at Preko the Italians, enraged because the people had not come to their demonstration, dispersed with sticks all those who were assembled in front of the church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated. On March 29 the aforementioned Lončar was condemned to three years' imprisonment because 11,780 crowns, unstamped notes, had been found on him; the notes, of course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way, were given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a discount of 10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even the military used these forbidden notes, and compelled the peasants at the market to accept them. In the night of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of Zadar, who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their present misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested and deported to Italy; they included Mr. Joseph de Tončić, President of the Yugoslav Club and formerly the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two years of age and in precarious health. During this same night forty persons were deported from Knin, three from Drniš, three from Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine from Šibenik and four from Benkovac.... On the populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected with the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant; here the Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still, bare-headed, when they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba (Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of seventy-five, called Lovrović, were imprisoned. The latter had told his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin, highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If, he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto, which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said, was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and betrayed Italy—so many of those who now called themselves good Italians had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated, and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas; the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home." ... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the Rijeć S.H.S., that Dr. Boxich, on account of having—exceptionally, the paper said—spoken the truth to a passing foreigner, had been deported to Italy.

A VISIT TO SOME OF THE ISLANDS

It was impossible to be at Split without meeting people who had fled from the occupied islands. It was also, in consequence of what they told one, impossible to set out with an unprejudiced mind. But, after all, we have our preconceived ideas on Heaven and Hell, and that will be no reason for us not to go there. I had become acquainted at Split with Captain Pommerol, of the British Army, a Mauritian of imposing physique and, as I was to see, of a lofty sense of justice. He had recently been spending several months in Hungary on a mission from the War Office. They had now dispatched him to Dalmatia and Bosnia with a very comprehensive programme; and, as I secured a little steamer, he came with me to the islands. [We hesitated to embark on this expedition, since the islanders whose national desires had been choked for so many months would probably display their sentiments in such a way as to bring down grave penalties upon themselves. But the Yugoslavs, both on the mainland and on the islands, were anxious that we should go; they doubted whether Western Europe had any knowledge of the Italian methods of administration. And if the immediate result of our journey would be to call down upon themselves—as indeed it did—a savage wind, they were optimistic enough to feel that it would eventually produce a whirlwind for their oppressors.] ... The s.s. Porer, 130 tons, was flying at the stern the temporary flag of white, blue, white in horizontal stripes which had been invented for the ships of the former Austro-Hungarian mercantile marine; on the second mast they displayed the flag of one of the Allies, and the Porer happened to be sailing under the red ensign. She had a Dalmatian crew of eight, including the weather-beaten old captain and the still older and equally benevolent gentleman who combined the functions of cook and steward. In addition to Serbo-Croat, they had among them some knowledge of Italian, German and even English. The scholar was the mate who, having had his headquarters at Pola during the War, spoke Viennese-German. His wife had died at Split after an illness of several months, brought on by the idea that her husband had been killed at Pola in an air-raid.

The large, rather waterless island of Brać, which is nearest to the mainland, seems to be chiefly remarkable on account of its chrysanthemums, from which an insect-powder is produced; and the number of changes, no less than twenty, that occurred in the ownership of the island from the beginning of the Middle Ages down to the Congress of Vienna. During that period it was sometimes under the Byzantines, sometimes the Venetians, the Holy Roman Empire, its own autonomous Government, the Hungarians, the Bosnians, the French, the Russians (one year, in 1806) and the Austrians. It was not occupied by Italy after the end of this War, and Baron Sonnino did not ask for it when he was negotiating, before the War, with Austria.

WHICH THE ITALIANS HAD TRIED TO OBTAIN BEFORE, BUT NOT DURING, THE WAR

The Italian Government put forward the question of the islands for the first time in April 11, 1915. There had been no previous discussion, passionate or otherwise, as in the case of the Trentino and Triest. But now they demanded various Dalmatian islands, the chief of which were Hvar, Korčula and Vis, with a total population (in 1910) of 57,954. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador reported (cf. Red Book, concerning April 14, p. 133) that a conversation between Baron Sonnino and Prince Bülow with respect to these islands had been extremely animated, and that Sonnino had pointed out that the Navy and the whole country expected of him that he would alter Italy's unfavourable position on the Adriatic, where from Venice to Taranto she had not one serviceable harbour, that is to say serviceable war-harbour. And Sonnino added that he thought this was an opportune moment in which to rectify that state of things. On April 28 the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, besides drawing the Italians' attention to the nationality of the islanders—1·62 per cent. calling themselves Italian—pointed out that not only would there no longer be any question of a strategic equilibrium in the Adriatic if Austria were to lose these islands, but that the adjacent coast would always be threatened. On May 4, the Ambassador asked whether an arrangement with Italy would be impossible if the Austrians agreed to every one of Italy's other conditions, showing thereby what the value of these islands was in Austrian eyes. When Sonnino did not reply to this question, the Ambassador understood that Italy's participation in the War had been determined. But on May 10, the Austrian Government made up its mind to give up Pelagosa "on account of its proximity to the Italian coast." As a matter of fact it lies 42 miles from Vis and 33 miles from the nearest point in Apulia. As a strategic base this group of rocks would have no value, since the water is too deep for the construction of a harbour, and the sirocco rages with such ferocity that it flings the foam over the top of the lighthouse, which is 360 feet in height. This inhospitable place, with its population of 13 human beings, some sheep and goats, was inhabited in prehistoric days; when the excavations were being made for the lighthouse a variety of implements from the Stone Age were discovered, including a stone arrow that was found between the ribs of a skeleton.... But the Austrian Ambassador let it be known at the same time that he would be prepared to make a further friendly examination of the Italian demands with reference to the other islands. His Government also on May 15 (Red Book, No. 185, p. 181) announced that they were quite disposed to reopen the discussion. However, on the 23rd of the month, Italy came into the War. The Italians had been explaining that if only Austria would give up these islands—which was as if you were to invite a person whose designs you suspected to come and camp in the hall of your house—then, said the Italians, there would be an excellent prospect of permanently amicable relations between the two States.

OUR WELCOME TO JELŠA

As soon as the War was over, Italy disembarked on the islands which she had obtained by the Treaty of London. Something has been said on previous pages of the way in which she introduced herself and made herself at home. As we were sailing towards the pretty town of Jelša (Gelsa) on the island of Hvar, we left Vrboška on our right. The Bishop of Split had told me of a grievance which the Italian troops at that place had lodged with his brother, the mayor. Some of them had visited, for the fêtes of carnival, both the Yugoslav Club, where they found many persons who could speak Italian, and the Italian Club, where they were annoyed to find that it was spoken by very few. As we came into the little port of Jelša, with the green shutters of its white houses harmonizing with the foliage of the cypresses and oleanders, we could see a crowd of people running round—and carabinieri running with them—to that part of the harbour where we were unexpectedly going to stop. There was some confusion, the carabinieri pushing the people back, evidently to prevent them shaking hands with us; and one small boy who did not hear or did not understand what they were shouting received a terrific blow in the back from the fist of a furious Italian. Some cries were raised in honour of Yugoslavia, Wilson, France and England, which may have been imprudent; but when a place in which there is not one single Italian has been held down for months, has been forbidden to show the slightest joy on account of the birth of Yugoslavia, has been savagely punished for having a copy of a Yugoslav newspaper, has repeatedly been cursed and cuffed and ordered, at the bayonet's point, to execute some wish of the carabinieri—one cannot be astonished if in the presence of some non-Italian foreigners they could no longer repress their feelings. Some of the people had brought flowers with them, and as Pommerol and I plunged into the whirlpool and made our way towards the Italian commander's office, we had many flowers either thrust into our hands while the carabinieri were looking the other way or else we had them thrown at us, in which case some of them would usually descend upon the shoulders or the three-cornered hats of the carabinieri. Whenever anybody uttered one of the forbidden exclamations one or more of the carabinieri would fling themselves into the crowd and attempt, with the help of vigorous kicking, to reach the culprit. Thus, in the midst of a series of scrimmages, we got to the captain's quarters. We found him a very pleasant young man, keenly conscious of the difficulties of his position; as we afterwards heard, he was such an improvement on his predecessor that the carabinieri were convinced he was a Yugoslav and had been heard to mutter threats against his life. He had apologized to the inhabitants, and had dismissed one of his men who had hauled down a Yugoslav flag and blown his nose on it. For these men an extenuating circumstance was that they had been very drunk on the night before our arrival, as they had heard—it was in the first half of June 1919—that the islands had been definitely given to Italy, and this they had been celebrating. We knew that after an American and an Englishman had visited Jelša, in the time of the other commandant, some of the people were interned; the young captain assured us that he would do no such thing. And one could see that he would never imitate the brutality of his predecessor, who had caused a frail old man of sixty-six, Professor Zarić, to be pulled out of his bed in the middle of a winter's night and taken across the hills on a donkey to Starigrad, afterwards on a destroyer to Split, from where—but for the intervention of the American Admiral—he would have been deported to Italy; and all on account of his having written, in English and French, a scientific ethnographical treatise on the islands.

PROCEEDINGS AT STARIGRAD

At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts looked like the scene of an opera, with an opening chorus of carabinieri. They were posted at various tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to the office of the Commandant, a major who must have played a very modest part in the War, as I believe he only had three rows of ribbons.[39] He gave us some vermouth and informed us that the population was very quiet, very happy. When I said that I would like to see the mayor he sent an orderly, and in less than one minute his worship stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the major had said with regard to the population. In fact the picture which he drew brought back to memory the comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that she lived at a place called Knoxville or Coxville in the States, replied "How nice!" The good Italians, quoth the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives, and with the exception of the Croat intelligentsia they all wished for union with Italy. I asked him if he did not think that, looking at it from the economic point of view, there would be some difficulties when the island's exports—wine and oil and fish—would have to compete with the products of Italy. But he said that one must think of the other benefits—no longer would the island have to bear the hated Austrian. It was all the fault of Austria, he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad municipality had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their school and their orchestra. But now it would all be changed. He was clearly a product of the new dispensation; and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else did this gentleman tell me, which was a pity, as in a message, presumably sent by him, to an Italian newspaper, La Dalmazia,[40] of Zadar, it was stated that in this conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local questions.... Then we all stood up and the major said that he would accompany us down to the boat. I told him that I would join him there after I had seen some Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away with him while I went round the ancient little town—it even has some Cyclopæan walls—with certain Yugoslavs, two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently taken a less active form than that of his successor, for he had only been an Austrian subject, while the actual mayor—Dr. Tamašković—had served, until the end of the War, in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the events of 1885, they told me that this was the time when the Croatian national consciousness awoke, so that an insufficient number of people had remained either to support an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the number of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600), and might increase if ice-creams were handed round in all the schools. One of my companions happened to live in the house of Hektorović, the sixteenth-century poet, and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful garden with its palms and shady paths and bathing tank, like that one in the Alcazar at Seville. Then we went on to the harbour where a number of the people were collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of military and naval officers and civilians, these latter being partly visitors from Istria and Zadar. Suddenly a woman, standing near me, threw her head back and cried: "Viva Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled her efforts. I should say that about thirty people were gathered round the major, shouting for Italy, and he was obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of persons who had different sentiments began to shout for Wilson, Yugoslavia and so forth. The carabinieri rushed among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs. Politeo, who was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and trampled on. The lawyers and the doctor with whom I had been walking were all three struck over the head or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (La Dalmazia wrote that I had been filling their heads with idle tales.) Children were screaming. I saw another woman, hatless, being dragged off by a couple of carabinieri—and a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly ordered them to let her go—and they obeyed reluctantly. Four Dominican monks were next attacked—they had not taken part in the demonstration; it was enough for the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party. One of them, Father Rabadan—an elderly gentleman with gold spectacles—was thrown down, struck until his face was covered with blood, and then dragged off to prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers—one of these I saw in the act of loading his rifle—and the noise was tremendous. Here one would see a Yugoslav trying to tell one of the warriors that he had done nothing; then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey: one or two of the officers looked awkward—one or two actually looked exultant. As we steamed out of the harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were running along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over the stone walls—apparently it was a man-hunt. "There are places in Dalmatia," Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier, had been saying in the Temps,[41] "where Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that in those circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization should prevail. Italy in her relations with other races has continued the traditions of ancient Rome.... It is their palpitating desire [i.e. that of Fiume, Sebenico, Zara, Traù, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of Italy." And on the next day a telegram was sent to Split from the unoccupied island of Brać, giving the names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and the name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father Rabadan and continued: "The carabinieri are still looking for Yugoslavs. On the occasion of the arrestment of the clerk Nikola Pavičić, the musket of an ardito went off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavičić. Great terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later message, to the newspaper Jadran at Split, said that twenty-eight persons had been arrested and imprisoned in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated, and for the first day being given nothing to eat. Everyone felt surprise that among the arrested was a certain Mr. Vladimir Vranković, as he was one of those who had betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this clumsiness on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and, by command of Major Penatta, he was released. All those who could get away from Starigrad were taking refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking for the intervention of the Entente, as the people's life was being made intolerable, and for the reason that they would not trample under foot everything which they regard as holy. But, according to La Dalmazia, the indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference a vibrating telegram, which begged for immediate annexation to Italy, and protested against those who in an unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled at Zadar and condemned to terms that varied from four to eight months—seven of the accused, including Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving the severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian population dispatched, later on, a telegram of thanks to the Paris Conference for having ordered Yugoslavia to guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be left in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial interests in Dalmatia; while the half million Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to annex were not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It would be ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great, Liberal Power.

After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching Hvar, the capital of the island, that our further progress was impeded. The pale Commandant of sinister aspect, this time a naval officer, Lieut. Vincenzo Villa, showed us a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at Korčula, which said that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of the inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities, which he visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in the morning our cook, who went ashore to see what he could buy, was immediately arrested by the carabinieri, who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the citizens of Rome were at loggerheads with the Vatican, arrested and disarmed all those adherents of the Papacy who showed their noses outside the Vatican's portals. Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant, who allowed him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri. After that we returned to Split, and from there to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.

One would like to know what the Admiral would have said if this interview had taken place a few months later when, in alliance with Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in open, armed revolt against the Government of Italy. The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers and cheer the name of Wilson—in view of what these crimes entailed—we suggested that a small number, four or five of each party—those who desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy—should in succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.

THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR

The subordinate Admiral, from Korčula, had come across on a destroyer and was kind enough to tell us at considerable length what were his views on local and international affairs. He frankly appealed to us—and his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness—to survey the whole matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion. But we were less ambitious; we desired merely to be the mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first came on board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be considered unfair if I employ this word rather than "Italians" for a body of men, most of whom are admittedly devoid of any Italian blood and whose Italian sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers 9 per cent. of the population of the town. Their chief point seemed to be that the Church was opposed to them, because there was no room for clericalism in Italy (!); and the only other point worth mentioning was that Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had played havoc with their vines. Among the Yugoslavs who succeeded these gentlemen there was an elderly priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri—no doubt in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken herself free from clerical obscurantism—entered the church while the bishop was officiating, and hoisted on the roof an Italian flag. This canon, Dom Ivo Bojanić, could scarcely be blamed if the Italian innovations did not appeal to him. He chanced to be looking out of his window on a moonlit night and noticed that an agile policeman was climbing up to his balcony for the purpose of decorating it with an Italian flag. The old gentleman protested, and was thereupon taken to the barracks, where he remained for one day. The Yugoslavs told us that the state of things was worse than in Africa—but that was a figure of speech; the facts were that the different societies and clubs had been closed, that all persons going down to the harbour had been forbidden to speak their own language to their friends on board ship, that three Croat teachers had fled to escape being interned, while an Italian soldier who did not know a word of Croatian had been appointed in their place.

FOUR MEN OF KOMIŽA

When we departed from Hvar the Admiral sent his destroyer to accompany us on our tour. She had on board a Roman journalist, Signor Roberto Buonfiglio, who was travelling in Dalmatia and the islands on behalf of the clerical Corriere d'Italia. The situation at Vis, the historic palm-shaded capital of the island of the same name, has already been described. The Italian Commandant, Sportiello, was a tactful and popular person; moreover the Yugoslavs were on the best of terms with Dr. Doimi, the head of one of the very rare Italian families. At Komiža, the other little town on that island, the relations between Yugoslavs and Italianists were not so cordial. But the deputation which represented the latter party comprised one man whom the Austrians had put in gaol for several years for forgery; a father and son, of whom the one had sold himself for the sake of rice, while the other had also been imprisoned by the Austrians for uttering false documents; the fourth and most innocent member—his name happened to be Innocent Buliani—had nothing to conceal except his fickleness, for in a short period he had called himself an Austrian, a Yugoslav and an Italian. None of these four was a native of the place, whereas the Yugoslavs who came to see us were natives who had risen to be the chief doctor, lawyer, priest and merchant. One of the Italianists, Antonio Spadoni, told us that the people were afraid of expressing their real wishes for union with Italy. This hypothesis might seem to demand some elucidation, but Signor Spadoni insisted on passing on to the "Workers' Society," which the young Commandant had founded for the purpose, according to Spadoni, of helping the people to find work and of looking after their interests. We were subsequently told by the Yugoslavs that the Commandant himself called the members his "Rice Italians," for many of them did not speak the language and did not even sympathize with Italy. But on joining they had committed themselves to something that was printed at the top of the paper, which part had been turned over. It really doesn't sound very worthy of a Great Power. When some of the members, discovering to what they were committed, sent in their resignation, it was refused. At Komiža all the municipal officers had been discharged by the Italians, the reading-rooms and places of amusement had been closed, and the Food Administrator at Split was forbidden to send any food, lest he should interfere with the Italians' object in distributing rice, etc. Once he was permitted to forward some American flour, and the people had to pay forty crowns of duty on each hundredweight.

THE WOMEN OF BIŠEVO

From Komiža, the next morning, we steamed over on the destroyer to the wonderful blue grotto of Biševo (or Busi), which surpasses Capri. An Austrian Archduke, we were told, had once waited a week at Komiža, but had been compelled to leave without seeing the cave. We were more fortunate—the wind, the water and the sun were kind to us; we entered in a rowing-boat the little pearl-grey Gothic chapel which Nature has constructed underneath a hill, and as we gazed into the blue-green waters, through which from the rocks below a fountain of most brilliant blue was rising, every time an oar was dipped the waters painted it a silvery white. The population of Biševo consists of about 150 people, who mostly live around the little church of Saint Sylvester, two hundred feet above the sea. They occupy themselves with sheep and fruit and bees and fish, and with the vines that are even more famous than those of Vis. A good part of the population had assembled on a grassy platform high above the entrance to the cave, and as we climbed out of the rowing-boat on to the destroyer a much larger rowing-boat came round a promontory. Sixteen women formed the crew. They sang their national Croatian songs, and when they approached us some of them stood up and, while the wind played with their straw-coloured and golden hair, they laughingly threw flowers at us. As we left Biševo the men and women high above us and the women in the boat were waving their hands; some of them were singing, others were shouting a farewell. Here and there on the sunlit waters, rising and falling, were the flowers which had woven on the sea a gorgeous carpet. "Well," said the lieutenant-commander, "I admit that this is a Yugoslav island."

I forget whether Signor Buonfiglio made any remark, but a few hours later at Velaluka he was most incensed. As our boat—we had returned to the old Porer at Komiža—sailed into the harbour a huge Yugoslav flag was flying from the summit of a hill, with French, British and American flags around it. The destroyer had arrived before us and the burly journalist was striding up and down the quay. "I protest," he exclaimed, as he saw us, "and not as a journalist but as an Italian citizen! I protest!" Between us and the front row of houses, which included the town-major's office, there was a large empty space—the inhabitants could be descried up the side-streets and behind the windows. De Michaelis, the town-major, was evidently a superior young man; as he poured out the champagne he told us with perfect frankness that the educated people at Velaluka were Yugoslavs. Suddenly there was a terrific noise just underneath us. We hurried downstairs and found that the soldiers in their excitement had fired off a machine gun into the wall. Half an hour later the firing could be heard from the top of the hill, but we never ascertained whether anyone was wounded. In this place the Italianist party sent to us an ex-publican who had now joined the police, a small trader and a municipal clerk who had recently been imported from Zadar. The Yugoslavs were a large landowner, a doctor and a priest, who told us that the people for the most part were refusing to accept gratuitous food from the Italians.

ON THE WAY TO BLATO

We were anxious to visit Blato, an inland village of 8000 inhabitants. De Michaelis regretted very much that he had no carriage, but a Yugoslav had a quaint little car on which he was learning how to drive and he was kind enough to take us—for which he was afterwards deported to Italy. The good man made so much noise in changing his gears that our progress was advertised in the uttermost fields, and very few of those who bore down upon us came unprovided with flowers. Several of the bouquets hit Pommerol or myself in the eye, and the Dutch say that the best cause has need of a good pleader. But the people were so gay, waving their hats and running after us (they did not always have to run) and shouting for the various Allies and for President Wilson. I remember two small round-eyed boys who were not old enough to run; they were standing hand in hand by the side of the road, panting the magic word "Wilson! Wilson! Wilson!" There was a sudden contrast when we jerked into the village. People were not rushing towards us, but away from us—with furious carabinieri behind them. We got into the garden in front of the gendarmerie; one of the men was so enraged that he kept on muttering "Bestia! Bestia! Bestia!" In the Commandant's office we met Major Federico Verdinois, the town-major, who said that if he had only known of our coming this wretched scuffle would not have happened. Even as he spoke it started again; we leaned out of the window and saw two or three persons who were being prevented by soldiers from going down the street or from going anywhere. An officer was slashing with a riding-whip at a soldier who was particularly rough. "One can do nothing with the marines; they are brutal," said Major Verdinois. At last there was peace, and the major said that an Italian deputation would come to see us. It consisted of six individuals. The Austro-Hungarian census of 1910 said that the Blato district contained 13,147 Serbo-Croats, 3 Germans and 6 Italians; but these six were not all in the deputation, for two of its members had come from Hvar, one from Zadar, two were ex-Austrian spies and one was a Yugoslav, who hoped in this way to help his people. One gentleman deplored that he had not been told about our journey; had he known he would have told his peasants to appear. Another gentleman assured us that the peasants were afraid of declaring their real wishes. Of course a country whose friends call it the most liberal in the world could not allow such a state of things to continue, and a short time after this the following Order was issued by the staff of the 66th Division of Infantry:

No. 46. Confidential— Very Urgent. Personal. June 23, 1919.

To the Commanders at Benkovac, Obrovac, Novigrad, Ervenik, Kistanje, Skradin, Biograd, Nin, Gjeverske, Sukošan And Karin.

To the Command of the Royal Divisions.

It is necessary to bring about, with no delay and very discreetly, the dispatch of messages to the Prime Minister Nitti and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tittoni from the mayor, from societies, etc., of this garrison, expressing the people's keen desire to be annexed to Italy.

A copy of said telegram should be transmitted to me.

The Major: Foresi.The Major-General: Squillace.

To return to the events at Blato—while we were waiting for the Yugoslavs a woman made her way as far as the corridor, flung herself down on her knees and entreated us to protect her. Major Verdinois gave us his word of honour that no Yugoslav with whom we spoke would, for that reason, be arrested. Perhaps he was overruled by his superior officers—at all events he arrested and deported to Italy, in the night of June 19, no less than ten persons, that is, all the Yugoslavs who spoke to us at Blato, with two exceptions. [We cabled this to the Paris Conference, and after some delay the unfortunate men were repatriated.]

WHAT THE MAJOR SAID

For what happened before our arrival I am indebted to the chemist Radimiri, from whose report the following is an extract: "At ten in the morning Major Verdinois had summoned to his office the communal doctor, Moretti, and the secretary, Dragunić, both of them Yugoslavs. He told them that two Englishmen who were cruising about in the Porer would very likely be coming up that afternoon to Blato and he would permit no sort of demonstration. The doctor, he said, would be held responsible for any disorder; and as Moretti was about to make this known to the people, who were just coming out of church, the Italian adjutant approached him with a paper and ordered him to read it to the Yugoslavs. This document—it has been preserved—is in the Serbo-Croat language and was given to the doctor because the adjutant, who did not know the language, mistook it for another one. It was an exhortation to the people, urging them to have nothing more to do with the Yugoslav intelligentsia, which had made a great deal of money during the War. 'And you have given your blood for four and a half years and what has been your benefit?' Dr. Moretti made a personal appeal for the maintenance of order, and the people, having called out 'Long live Wilson!' went their divers ways in peace. Nevertheless three platoons appeared, each with one officer and one N.C.O. The adjutant's platoon distinguished itself, for while the arditi attacked anyone they saw, including women and children, with the butt end of their muskets, Lieut. Giovanoni laid about him with a dog-whip. Several of the soldiers made for a group of four young fellows; three of them escaped and the fourth, Peter Kraljević, was struck with a rifle so severely across the face that he was bathed in blood. As he tried to defend himself he was shot at from a distance of three paces: one bullet went through his nose, another wounded him in the forehead. He fell to the ground, and a teacher, Mrs. Maria Grubisić, who had witnessed the whole incident, sank down unconscious at his side and was covered with his blood. Various other people were injured—three little girls received rifle shots in their bodies. All the main streets were shut off and eight machine guns were placed in readiness. But the people were not to be intimidated, and when the Englishmen arrived their national consciousness was displayed. As a result Peter Čarap was knocked unconscious with a mighty blow of a musket, the fourteen-year-old Joseph Suležić had a similar experience, and among many others who were assaulted we will only mention an ex-official, Anthony Pižtulić, a man of sixty, who was struck twice with a rifle on his stomach and then prevented from going home but chased out into the fields.... It seemed as if it would be impossible for our people to have a conversation with the Englishmen, but at last twenty men and twelve girls managed to reach that house...."

THE PROTEST OF AN ITALIAN JOURNALIST

I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from this island—it appeared in the Corriere d'Italia of June 16—but more than three-quarters of it is devoted to an account of some Dalmatian delegates who were received, during the War, by Francis Joseph and expressed their loyalty. The deputation was introduced by Dr. Ivčević, a Croat; and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from this how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will have to give some other explanation for the very loyal speeches of his countryman, Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But I presume that his editor did not send Signor Buonfiglio on this journey to the end that he should write of what official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for the incidents we witnessed and the islanders' aspirations, he merely says that their welcome to us was an artificial affair which the Yugoslav committees, with extreme effort, had organized—and I don't think that that is a very illuminating observation.

We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians dissolved the town council, on account of its incapacity to do the work. However, a military man to whom it was handed over gave his opinion that he had never seen a better administration.... Out of all that we were told, I will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were playing football, and when they kicked the ball into a maize-field and continued to play amid the maize, the farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and when finally the major commanded them to stop, they dragged them to the barracks and thrashed them so that the people in adjacent houses heard them all the night.

On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where the Porer was waiting for us, we had a repetition of the scenes enacted between Velaluka and Blato; and a number of young men, heedless of the risks they ran, rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts. In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as our escorting destroyer. We therefore had to leave without delay, lest the young patriots should come into contact with the carabinieri. So very hastily and in a very illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of Velaluka: "We Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka as the friends of Yugoslavia and of the Entente. We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such I ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together with that of Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent we will keep it there until the question of the general peace is definitely arranged, according to your and our ... according to the principles of ..." The two missing words are illegible.

INTERESTING DELEGATES

Lying off Korčula, that evening, we received the usual delegates. One of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a trembling, tearful voice that the Italians were far too good. And while we were hearing from one of his colleagues what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr. Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come! I wish I had not come!" He considered that it was outrageous of us to allude to plebiscites. The Yugoslavs did not tell us anything very thrilling; the Italian authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian, of which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity that this is not their most serious fault! A barrister called Dr. Pero Cviličević came, with a companion, to see us the next day, before breakfast. He said that they, like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was, he said, a righteous, though rather a small party, as the island had been gravely handicapped by the support which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he added—it seemed a trifle illogical—"the people are all very contented. Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered the information that the law was being administered in the name of the Entente and the United States. It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we asked him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets were being applied under the same sanction.... When we paid our formal visit to the Commandant at his office on the quay he did not ask if we would care to go to one of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made a speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken to a school at Korčula, how the mistress had allowed him to ask the children if they knew Italian, how they had raised their hands, and how this had convinced him that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that journalist had not been told that prior to the War this town of some 2000 inhabitants was provided with five schools in which not a single child spoke Italian, and with one school subsidized by the Liga Nazionale which—as in Albania—lured its pupils by gifts of clothing, books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not a word of Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of Italian. But not very much harm was done, as the population considered it shameful to attend this school, and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than thirty pupils, even when money was paid to the parents. This institution was reopened by the Italian army after the War, and presumably it is the one which the American visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress, forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat that a gentleman would come and say something in Italian, whereupon they would hold up their hands.

A DIGRESSION ON SIR ARTHUR EVANS

Seeing that the Adriatic problem, after all these months, had not been solved but on the contrary had been allowed to spread its poison more and more, one naturally wonders what was being done in Paris. The Conference was fortunate enough to have at its disposal, after the Armistice, the famous ethnologist and archæologist Sir Arthur Evans. This gentleman, whose distinctions are too numerous to mention (Fellow of Brasenose; twice President of the British Association; Keeper during twenty-four years of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; D.Litt.; LL.D.; F.R.S.; P.S.A., and so forth), has for many years devoted himself to the eastern Adriatic—the second edition of his Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot appeared in 1877, his Illyrian Letters in 1878, his Slavs and European Civilization in the same year. He never ceased from that time onward to study these matters. "I think," he says in a letter to me from Youlbury, near Oxford, of which he kindly permits me to make any use I like, "that in some ways I have more title to speak on the Adriatic Question than any other Englishman, as Dalmatia was my headquarters for some years. Neither did I approach the question with any anti-Italian prejudices. I was so far recognized as a competent and moderate authority that I was asked by the Royal Geographical Society to give them a paper on the subject.... Anxious, with others friendly to both sides, to secure an equitable agreement between the Italians and Yugoslavs, I took part in a series of private conferences in London which led to a preliminary Agreement forming the basis on which the Congress at Rome approached the question. There the Agreement was ratified and publicly approved by Orlando. How Sonnino proceeded to try to wreck it, you will know. Finally (just before the Armistice, as it happened) there was to have been a new Congress of Nationalities at Paris, which I was asked to attend. It was stopped by the big Allies, as matters were thought too critical, owing to the submission of Bulgaria. But I thought it would be useful if I went to Paris all the same, and I obtained from the Foreign Office, War Office, etc., a passport viséd 'British War Mission.' Shortly after I arrived in Paris the Armistice was declared. Soon afterwards, owing to the departure of Mr. Steed and Dr. Seton-Watson, there was left literally no one among our countrymen at Paris who knew the intricacies of the Adriatic Question and the relations of Italy with the Yugoslavs, and the Yugoslav-Roumanian difficulties, etc. That being the case, Lord Derby asked me to be his go-between, and I had an immense lot of work thrown on my shoulders. I had gone to the expense of taking a large salon at the Hotel Continental, where I had private Conferences—the Yugoslav and Roumanian leaders there, for instance, discussed the Banat frontier question, and the conciliatory proposals made no doubt furthered the final solution, with which they harmonized. When there was a serious danger of a clash between the Italian army and the Serbian forces at Ljubljana, knowing the imminence of the danger I made such strong representations to Lord D., which he forwarded to Balfour, that immediate pressure was exercised at Rome, and the Italians just drew back in time. I also was able to convey strong monitions to the other side. I used to let our Ambassador have a short précis almost daily of affairs connected with those regions.... With great trouble I prevailed on the Yugoslav representatives to agree to a scheme, which I drew up, for the neutralization of the East Adriatic coastal waters, and this was taken up by the Americans—Colonel House inviting me to an interview on the subject, in which he expressed his approval. A copy was also sent to the F.O., and for this and for several other bits of work useful to the F.O. I received Balfour's official thanks. I had also many friendly conversations with prominent Italians in Paris, and in every way ingeminated agreement between them and the Southern Slavs. But, meanwhile, I exposed the Nationalist Italian campaign, to which Sonnino was privy, in the Manchester Guardian. Finally I went, at the end of 1918, for a short holiday to England, Lord Derby (with whom I always had the friendliest relations) giving me a diplomatic pass. When, however, early in January 1919 I prepared to return to Paris, where I had kept on my expensive rooms, I found difficulties in my way. Italian intrigue had apparently been on foot. I was advised to write to Lord Hardinge, and I told him briefly the circumstances. This great man never answered or acknowledged my letter, and it was only by making urgent personal representations at the F.O. that I finally got the answer that they refused me a passport.... I gather that it was not only Italian intrigue but the feeling that they did not want 'damned experts.' And so they blundered on, and to this day"—the letter is dated July 17, 1920—"nothing is settled on the Adriatic but unsettlement."

THE DUPES OF NIKITA IN MONTENEGRO

Meanwhile at intervals during this year there had been troubles in Montenegro. On three occasions the Italians at Antivari had endeavoured to extend their sphere of influence, but the armed civilian population had been equal to these emergencies and had each time thrust them back to the coast. At Gaeta, between Rome and Naples, a very well-paid corps was stationed—almost every man was either a commissioned or a non-commissioned officer. The Italian Government was asked by Signor Lazari, the Socialist deputy, for what purpose it allocated 300,000 lire a month to support these peculiar troops. They were mostly Montenegrins—relatives of Nikita, members of the five favoured families, persons who were stranded and so forth; likewise at Gaeta were a number of other Yugoslavs who had been liberated from their Italian internment camps, but many of them, when they discovered what was expected of them, revolted. Thirty or forty of them managed to escape to France, and others to Montenegro, as for example the man who for twelve years had been Nikita's porter. He and three others reached Cetinje one day in August 1920 when I was there. They had with them a picture-card of the sixty-nine officers of the Gaeta army. Every one knows every one else in Montenegro and only two of these officers had held a previous commission. According to Nikita's Premier, Jovan Plamenac, the Italian Government considered this as the Montenegrin army and regarded (rather optimistically) as a loan the money it contributed to keep it up. In driblets the non-revolting part of this Gaeta army was taken to the eastern shores of the Adriatic, for the purpose of making "incidents" in Montenegro. There was a regular scale—so much in cash for the murder of a prefect, so much for a deputy. One day the father of Andrija Radović, a man of over seventy, was cut down; they waited until everyone had left the village to go to some fête in a neighbouring village, and the old man defended himself to the last.

These emissaries from Gaeta, misguided Montenegrins, other Southern Slavs and Italians, made considerable use of the mischievous speeches that were sometimes heard in the British Parliament. They would explain to some poor, ignorant mountain-dweller that such great people in England were still discussing Nikita's return, and if he did return and they had listened to the voice of Radović, woe be to them. Some of these wretched dupes would follow their seducers, who—I have no doubt—would not only have declined his decorations if they had been better informed, but would have placed the matter in the hands of their solicitor, as Gabriel Rossetti threatened to do if he were ever elected to the Royal Academy. And yet, after the character of the scoundrel King was fully exposed, his advocates, so far as I know, had not the grace to own their error. Of course there was in Montenegro a certain amount of uninstigated unrest; the wine of politics, which they were now for the first time freely quaffing, had gone to their heads—it was youth against age, the students were enthusiastic Democrats, the peasants were sturdy Radicals and they did not always restrict themselves to dialectical arguments. A certain number of people had gone to live "u shumi"—"in the woods." But the reasons that impelled them were not so much their devotion to the ex-King, as their own criminal past or their poverty. Others again had taken to this life for what may be called reasons of "honour."[42] Among the brigands was a man who was captured on the borders of Herzegovina, and before his execution—he had murdered seven people—he declared that he was a patriot and had done all this for the sake of King Nicholas, his victims being members of the domineering party. But when reminded that one of them was a baby, he hung his head and said no more.... There was discontent produced by the high cost of living—as the Italians not only held Antivari but even fired on French boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana, it was necessary to revictual all except the new parts of Montenegro from Kotor. The lack of petrol, from which even the American Red Cross units were suffering, compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons, which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it was the staff of another mission, calling itself the International Red Cross, which was to blame for adding to the country's troubles; after they had been installed for a month or two at Cetinje the people themselves, and not the authorities, turned them out, on the ground that they had used the Red Cross to conceal their machinations in Nikita's interest. The Yugoslav Government was held up to reprobation in the British Parliament and press for having hampered more than one British mission in the work of relieving the Montenegrins. The resources of these missions appeared to be moderate—the head of one of them had a meeting with Colonels Fairclough and Anderson of the American Red Cross and suggested that they should provide him with the wherewithal for carrying on. But even if their resources had been scantier their co-operation would have been very welcome if they had satisfied the authorities that they were as non-political as the Americans. It was curious that those who in the British press ventilated the grievances of these missions were the same people who championed Nikita.